Workshop Aggro, Devastating Dreams ala Juggernaut

The lowdown: This weekend's buzz on Day 2 was to watch out for the Greater Gargadon deck with Devastating Dreams...rumor said it ended games with Greater Gargadon and Trinisphere in play after a VERY Devastating Dreams. So I decided to let the cat out of the hat, for some Show and Tell.

I think looking into other formats is extremely important to be successful in Vintage, I always do it. So this weekend the Empty The Warrens buzz was about. I looked at Ugo Rivard's Suicide Workshop from the Quebec Vintage Championships and it looked impressive. I am not sure if it is actually better then Stax but it is quite possible that it could be.

For reference this is the list I initially looked at...

Top4 Ugo Rivard @ Suicide Workshop

Maindeck (60 cards)

4x Dark Confidant
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
2x Goblin Welder
1x Gorilla Shaman
1x Red Elemental Blast
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
1x Balance
1x Choke
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Null Rod
3x Crucible of Worlds
1x Trinisphere
3x Juggernaut
1x Sundering Titan
1x Duplicant
1x Razormane Masticore
1x Triskelion
4x Mishra's Workstop
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault

Sideboard (15 cards)

1x In the Eye of Chaos
1x Red Elemental Blast
1x Pyroblast
2x Sphere of Resistance
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Ancient Grudge
3x Seal of Cleansing
1x Duplicant

He had a few metagame slots in his deck that I didn't think would be good in the Stratford meta. I brainstormed through quite a few cards and decided to put Devastating Dreams in the deck. The card looks like jank, but I think it was the perfect lategame board hoser. Everytime the card *resolved* I did win the game. The core of the card might have not belonged in the deck. But having a Juggernaut backed up with a Dreams was very solid for me. Here is the Vaisberg solution...

Maindeck (60 cards)

4x Dark Confidant
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x In The Eye Of Chaos
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
1x Balance
2x Devastating Dreams
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Null Rod
3x Crucible of Worlds
1x Trinisphere
4x Juggernaut
1x Sundering Titan
1x Duplicant
2x Jotun Grunt
1x Triskelion
4x Mishra's Workstop
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
1x Barbarian Ring
4x Wasteland
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt

Sideboard (15 cards)

1x In the Eye of Chaos
2x Red Elemental Blast
1x Pyroblast
2x Sphere of Resistance
3x Ancient Grudge
1x DarkBlast
1x Swords To Plowshares
2x Goblin Welder
2x Greater Gargadon (Please don't hit the back button)

Main changes

Goblin Welder was complete trash for me. I don't think I ever activated it vs. anything. Gorilla Shaman was bad as well. The real problem with initial deck occured when I never had guys. I couldn't draw big boys for my life.

Welder becomes JOTUN GRUNT. Grunt is great in this deck. He laughs at Kataki, and disrupts. I played Welder this weekend and he was the worst card ever 75% of the time, he usually just teamed up with Dark Confidant to bring the beats for three.

See you later Razormane, Razormane Masticore did nothing for this deck besides swing. I never was able to keep him around to win and he made my Devastating Dreams bad, I dropped the hammer on this guy quickly.

The fourth Juggernaut was added over the Reb, because the need for early game pressure was extremely important. Otherwise I turned into a bad Stax deck that didn't quite have the lockdown. I was the confused Workshop deck sometimes that didn't know how to sling it's threats correctly.

Choke became In The Eye Of Chaos... This was just a personal preference mostly because my team is a huge fan of the card, it also grew on me eventually.

Mana Changes

Mishra's Factory, the card is great. Mana Vault made me frown so much. The card was just terrible all day for me. I wasn't playing any Factories but they let me cast some non shop guys much easier. Same goes for Barbarian Ring. I cut the Gorilla Shaman just for this card. Shaman sucked, especially with 3x Rod and 4x Chalice, he was actually the worst card ever next to the Welders.

Sideboard

I think this is where the Welder's belong. They belong to hang out in the passenger seat and drive for the Shop mirrrors and Control Slaver possibly as well. The format isn't in it's prime for them ATM.

Now the WTF: Greater Gargadon. Yeah, it suspends for ten, and it can be countered. It's risky as hell too with Bob. But the tricks between Balance and Devastating Dreams makes the card work. When that Kataki or Energy Flux is staring you down, you know exactly how to drop the hammer on them. It can lose you the game for sure, but I bet you that the game would be over if Kataki or Flux stayed around either way. You get the chance to take the Proactive role and smash face. Suspending my Gargadon and then facing down a Kataki with a slew of creatures was common for me. Dumping my whole hand, playing Balance then proceeding to sac my whole board won me games too. Believe it or not.

The Greater Gargadon, is probably not optimal at all, I think it is the fact one is way too unsure on how to face a suspended Gargadon is what makes it good. People are usually unfamiliar with what is coming at them, usually they think that at least ten turns are around for them until he comes out, but in no time they have no permanents and are taking nine to the face.

Criticisms

Elias you are a noob, why would you ever play a card that is a potential 3 for 1 on your opponents side like Devastating Dreams. I actually think it is ok if it gets countered. You try to play the card when you draw those last two dead cards in your hand like the mana sources that always clutter up late game. Every Workshop player knows that. As soon as the game starts to play out and you haven't auto won it, the mana sources start piling up in your hand. Throw them at your opponent, mini Armageddon, blow all of those pesky Empty The Warrens tokens away. Devastating Dreams even takes out Fetchlands, Wastelands number one enemy.

Why is this better then Stax? I like the four Chalice, Rod configuration actually better then Smokestacks. Tangle Wire I still love probably because I played it in the old Extended like a hound. I think Smokestack might be losing it's edge at the moment, and Null Rod is very acceptable on the draw to nuke those Moxes. You can also very safely Chalice for one with this deck.

But is it a more solid choice over Stax? I am really not sure. The fact I can draw cards and not rely on top decks is nice. But I don't think this deck can have the broken potential Stax does in the early game, the whole Smokestack, Sphere, go shindig. But I feel the deck is much more consistent. I didn't mulligan that much at all.

All in all they are just completely different decks. I think tapping 5/3's can be better against dork creatures as opposed to Smokestack being everything you need vs Control.
I would love to respond to comments, and I felt it was time I posted something new and different as I failed to write about my 5C Gro deck from Roanoke.

For those interested I lost to Seth Levy in round five of the day two in a feature match event after starting 3-0. I hit some badluck against him with bad Bob flips. But it was a good time had by all.

P.S. If you decide to play Gargadon, board out some of your Dark Confidants.