That is what I thought they meant.  But I checked and I believe the current rules are that it is in effect regardless of whether tapped or not.

Kotch what does tap winter orb with no drawback mean?

Has anyone ever tried static orb?

I have tried static and orb of dreams and found they do just as much damage to me.  Trouble is if you can't follow it up u r dead.  It's not like the old stablemates of tanglewire and chalice and some sphere that can hit your opponent with more effect.

Mtg fan, never thought about it before but in legacy it does sound fun.  Ever tried it?

I played a red/blue workshop deck in the UK nationals.  

Welder was extremely strong along with Bazaar for the reasons stated above.  I also found Esperzoa to be very good.  I used it to replay challice (sometimes with a different number of charge counters), Tangle Wire repeatedly on 4 counters and Triskellion.  You could also replay Duplicant and Powder Keg (to reset counters).  And it blocks and kills Trygon Predator.  

Out of the SB I also found Ensnaring Bridge (which can also be bounced by Esperzoa for you to attack and then replay), Gorilla Shamen and Powder Keg good.

Report is here http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=41027.0.

Regards

The winning deck deck was;

4 Chalice of the Void
I Trinisphere
4 Tangle Wire
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Powder Keg
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
2 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Volcanic Island
1 Ancient Tomb
3 Shivan Reef
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishras Workshop
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
4 Goblin Welder
4 Esperzoa
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
2 Triskellion
1 Duplicant
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
Sideboard
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tormods Crypt
1 Powder Keg
3 Smokestack
1 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Null Rod

I have been playing a version of a red/blue workshop deck for the last 4 years.  The deck centered around Mishara’s Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad and goblin welder with utility artifacts like Karn, Sundering Titan, Memory Jar, Duplicant, Triskellion and Memnarch etc.  Originally there was a heavy blue element for Force of Will.  I then went down the Metal Worker route with draw 7’s to find Staff of Domination.  More recently I have been down the aggro route with Juggernaut with a splash of blue for Ancestral Recall, Tinker and Master of Etherium along with staples such as Tangle Wire, Chalice of the Void, Sphere of resistance and Trinisphere. 

This year I wanted to pay MUD with Smokestack but thought that there would be a lot of fish type decks packing Null Rod, Trygon Predator, Kataki and Qasali Pridemage.  I didn’t like City of Traitors (seemed to have to sacrifice too often) or Ancient Tomb (too much damage) so tried Metal Worker.  This just died against Null Rod/swords so splashed back in red for Welder, which didn’t really help.  I also thought there would be a lot of graveyard hate so dropped the Bazaars.   I tried red/blue with Master of Etherium and Esperzoa.  This was good sometimes with the Master getting very big, but quite a few times it was just a dumb critter.

I thought I had  settled on 5 Color Stax using Vampiric Tutor,  Demonic Tutor, Tinker (and Ancestral Recall) to find one of’s like Null Rod, Crucible of Worlds, Pithing Needle.  This also gave me cards like REB and Natures Claim out of the sideboard.  However, I felt I was taking too much damage from City of Brass and kept losing the Gemstone Mines.  So, right at the last minute I was back to the red/blue deck, but I took out the Masters for Bazaars and put back in utilities like Sundering Titan.  As it happened, this turned out rather well.

Card choices:

Chalice and Tangle Wire seem strong at the moment, and good with Esperzoa (see below).

Trinisphere and Sphere of Resistance to slow people down.  The same with Lodestone Golem, and he beats.

Powder Keg as general utility; zombie tokens, moxes, Time Vault, creatures etc.

Welder to ignore counter spells, replay Tangle Wire, Smokestack etc.

Bazaar for draw and to feed Welder.

Razormane against creatures, especially MUD.

Triskellion against creatures.

Duplicant against creatures, especially Oath.

Sundering Titan because he wins me so many games (so many people like their duel lands).

Esperzoa.  A special word for this; it was great to be able to replay Chalice, Tangle Wire and Triskellion (and presumably Duplicant had I had both at the same time).  Also, he kills and survives Trygon.

Gorilla Shaman against moxes, Time Vault etc.

Pithing Needle against Bazaar (Dredge), Qasali Pridemage, Jace etc.

Relic and Tormods against Dredge.

Powder Keg for utility.

Smokestack against Oath and possibly MUD.

Null Rod against Time Vault, Painters Servant etc.

I made some last minute changes which had I have thought about I wouldn’t have done.  I went to 61 cards to add Platinum Angel as a kind of catch all.  As there was a lot of Natures Claim around, this was not a good idea.  I also replaced 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Blasting Station and 1 Sculpting Steel for 3 Smokestacks in board.  Difficult to tell whether this was good or not but the Smokestacks were to be against Oath.

To the matches, which I cannot really recall much about unfortunately:

I had an easy start with a bye which is annoying as I prefer to play. 

Following that my opponent, Rob, had a first game loss because of a deck registration error.  Second game he played a forest and an elf.  I didn’t know the deck but had read something a while back that chalice for 1 is good.  And it was, he scooped as it stopped his whole deck. 2-0.

Next was MUD against Tom or Tim (sorry, can’t recall).  I won 2-0 and seem to recall an early Welder and Tangle Wire helped here.

Fourth was against Martin with Terrestedon Oath with Time Vault.  Win 2-0 again.  I seem to recall Tangle Wire, Trinisphere and Sundering Titan helping here.

Fifth was against Jim playing Two Card Monte.  An absolutely splendid deck with foils and black bordered power.  2-1.  Null rod and Pithing Needle, along with Tangle Wire and Chalice with Esperzoa helped here.

Sixth round was ID.

So, I was top going into the final 8.

First was against Luke playing MUD.  2-1, see his report above.  This was a close game but again Welder seems to be very good in this match up.

Semi was against Nathan playing Trygon Time Vault.  Again a close match at 2-1.  I don’t remember much apart from having 3 Null rods at one time but he had Trygon and I could not find blue to play my Esperzoa’s.

Final was against Martin again with Oath.  I lost the die roll but got a first turn Chalice on 2, which I think must have won that game.  Next game was very close with Terrestedon hitting the table but was removed by Duplicant into play by Welder via the graveyard from Bazaar.  Duplicant was Natures Claimed followed by Show and Tell with another Terrestedon.  Unfortunately for Martin, my Lodestone, Elephants and Orchard tokens just pipped through for the win.

It was a great and friendly tournament.  I hope to have made more friends and see them in Europe for other tournies.

I was very pleased with the deck in the end.  Tangle Wire and Chalice along with Esperzoa seemed to be very strong.  Bazaar and Welder were as always strong.  Sundering Titan helped me out again.  I did get color screwed once; not sure whether changing the Ancient Tomb for another Shivan Reef or substituting something else for the Shivan Reef is required or not at the moment.  Platinum Angel is definitely coming out, not sure about substituting the Powder Keg.  I also need more Duplicants in the board.
Hope you enjoyed the summary.

Jim

Great article.

Do you not think that Ethersworn Cannonist has a home in a 5c stax deck?  Seems to be good synergy with artifact based decks against storm and a creature to combat aggro...