I figure it's been a long enough time since I posted a list. I'm tossing it here in Vintage Improvement because Shops are not really the "in thing" right now (despite that recent 3/8 shop top 8 tourney!)
As some of you recall (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=36457.0), I threw together a Leyline/Shop/Helm of Obedience deck and made Top 4 (37 man tourney), and my meta dried up after that (no IRL tournies since like August. maybe Sept 1ish)
I've been tinkering with it since on MWS since that's all I have.
Mucho tech stolen from Carp & Co for last few years, plus the novel Leyline/Helm thing. Behold:
// Lands
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Wasteland
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 City of Brass
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Ghost Quarter
// Creatures
4 Goblin Welder
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant
// Spells
1 Black Lotus
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Tinker
1 Trinisphere
3 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Memory Jar
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Mana Crypt
2 Gilded Lotus
2 Intuition
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Triskelion
SB: 1 Duplicant
SB: 1 Helm of Obedience
SB: 2 Platinum Angel
SB: 1 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Gaea's Blessing
Some notes:
List is pretty much +2 Intuition, -2 Other Cards MD from what I played at the Lotus tourney
Every Gilded Claw variant LOVES having Goblin Welders in play, preferably active with targets. That's why Intuition is still in the deck. Welder + I
Intuition is almost always fun times.
Leyline Maindeck (with or without Helm of Obedience in the picture) has put a damper on many an opponent's game plan. From the unwinnable Ichorid matchup to the "no turn 1 win for you" combo matchup.
Sure, 1st turn leyline give many pilots the idea of just Tinkering for DSC for the win, and I accept that (I have Duplicant mainboard, +1 post board, plus 2 Platz. Not solid game, but game none-the-less)
Smokestack: With Chalice, Spheres, and Wastes, some decks just can't deal with Smokestack ramping up. Some just bounce it and win. Just because you have Smokestack in hand doen't mean you have to play it. But I like it. I haven't tested a whole lot with this build without it (ie, none) but 3 fatties/techy cards can easily replace them.
On the Leyline of the Void/Helm of Obedience combo. Leyline is verymuch usefull by itself for those nasty Yawg Will/Ichorid matchups, but an unmolested Helm of Obedience (with or without Welder in play) can often throw off an opponents game plan (mostly from topdeck tutors or simply flipping over frikken huge creatures to it). As a singleton maindeck, I am very happy with it. DT and Intuition X2 (plus Jar/Bazaar/Lucksackery) can make it come into play at the right time to immidiately end the game. It is often the only way I could manage to beat a faster deck (having the possiblity of a quick combo is new to me in shop.dec technology)
Things I wish were still in the deck: Karn, Silver Golem. He's a pimp. But you can only fit so much into a shop deck, you know?
VTutor, Time Walk: Chalice for 1 is awesome in almost any metagame, and I don't own Time Walk (ie, takes up proxy slots for the "guy with cards" on a "team"). They aren't auto-includes like I think Welder #4, Chalice #4 and Sphere #5 are.
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Triskelion
SB: 1 Duplicant
SB: 1 Helm of Obedience
SB: 2 Platinum Angel
SB: 1 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Gaea's Blessing
Helm #2 in the board is for decks that already really hate leyline anyways, and I figure doubles your chances of just ending the game/match quickly.
Platz in the side are for decks that might not be able to immediately handle a resolved Platz, or for simply being a 4/4 fatty blocker for the aggro types.
Gaea's Blessing is there primarily for Painter/Grindstone which can circumvent my grave hate (and much of my hate if they go first) and possibly give me an out. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition, you know?
Grudges, Needle, Seals and REBs are to give me flexibility to deal with real or percieved hate for Oath, Webster, Painter, LSV, FIsh, and JeffTheFob.
Thorn in the side is a holdover from hasty SB construction, but I do like the all in against combo decks if I go first game 3. But it's the first SB card to get fixed.
I haven't tinkered my SB to deal with the Klemic matchup only because the only determining factor in that matchup (as near as I can tell) is whether Klemic's deck hates him that day or not. Seriously, out of say, 12 matches, we only ever had maybe 2 real "games". The rest were total blowouts one way or the other.
Vs the Campee/Brainiac7/TeamScrubbyBubbles/TeamTahoe/TroopersFromOrangeCounty matchups, I have to simply hope I win die roll and/or just get god-hands to their keepable hands.
What I am looking for: How to fit Karn into the deck. I miss him.
Criticism over cutting Vamp/Walk and/or not including some other awesome Staxy Card like Balance, CrapRotation or improved draw engines like Thirst for Knowledge (it's not like my deck can't crank out mana).
Also: I just wanted newer viewers to understand just how we TMD'rs really tweak our decks. Out here (Northern California), we have ZERO TMWA decks, and no Affinity decks (well, except that one Crushing Chamber deck team vacaville busts out with every now and then).
Yes, some of us really do try to deal with the best (Web/LSV/FOB/KLEMIK/ECAMPEE/etc), and hope that's good enough to deal with whoever brings tweaker goblins/ichorid/doomsday to the field).
Discuss!
This deck has been very effective (and fun!) vs those MWS players who don't suck (they're out there!).
