Welder Mud NOW.

[Mykeatog]

After spending about a year playing, developting, and innovating swamps I have decided to move on to something that used just a bit more of the power that I have come to own. After much contemplation and consideration I turned to Welder Mud. A Stax build played by Hulk3rules had been having alot of success in my metagame, and I realized that I could be having the same success piloting any of the massively successful workshop based prison decks. Although currently considering a run with Smmenen's 'Crazy Stax', I feel that Welder Mud is the best prison deck in the format now.

A month into my new deck of choice I have made what I consider to be leaps and bounds in improving the power of the deck itself. Through a simple change in the draw engine, and a slight increase in the amount of the mana production, I have tuned the deck to perform to the best that I believe it be possible. The place to start is the list, and then from there I will get into what exactly caused me to make the choices I did. I have left out reference to the sideboard for the time being simply because there are so many options, and it can be very metagame dependant. I want to focus mainly on the construction of the deck, with an emphasis on the draw engine and lock components. I would first like to give credit to Jacob Orlove for providing me with enough informational backround, his decklist, and constant help in incresing my understanding of the deck and it's archtype.

Welder Mud November 2003
as played by Mike "Mykeatog" Broughton

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Grim Monolith
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishras Workshop
7 Mountain
4 Metalworker

1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune
3 Mind's Eye

4 Goblin welder
2 Karn Silver Golem
2 Gorilla Shaman

4 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void

To try and cover all of my bases I am going to try and divide this up into sections based on what I feel are the most important themes going on in the deck. Hopefully this will help me in developting arguments that are clear and concise, and aid anyone who disagrees. The analysis starts here.

The Draw Engine (Feature: Grafted Skullcap replaced by Mind's Eye)

I felt that this was the segment of the article that was going to cause the most commotion. I was originally playing with the skullcap, and like many others, did not even consider Mind's Eye as a possible alternative. After a few match ups against chalice keeper featuring H. Recall, I knew that there was something very wrong with the skullcap. It was fundamentally flawed in that it did provide a sufficient card drawing mechanism, but it had the deadly drawback of causing you to lose games that you simply had no business losing. A great example of this is during a match with KerzKid even though I had two skull caps, a Metalworker, a smokestack (2 counters), 3 Sphere of Resistances, and an active welder he simply proclaimed 'you lose' and went ahead and ended the game for the low cost of U1 (+3).

At about this time I started playing matches against Chalice Keeper, and The Chronic (Scepter Control), versus Eastman on a daily basis. Here two different things became obvious; I did not have a great match up against keeper, and Skullcap was never shining through to put me back into the game from a losing position. After reviewing comments made by Rozetta, and a short conversation with hulk3rules, I decided to test out Mind's Eye in the Skullcap spot. This card single handedly changes the face of the match up against any blue based control, as it turns even a brainstorm into a deadly tool. It didn't take me very long to fall in love with the card, and quote Eastman "Yes, Mind's Eye is much better than that horrible Skullcap."

The mana cost of 5 isn't much of a concern, There are 8 cards in the deck that can generate 3 mana on the first turn, and a whole host of moxen, and metalworkers to get to five no problem. Obviously the plan is to play the card after you have the lock in place in most cases, but it is a must counter in any game versus blue based control. There have even been times when I have used it to force my opponent to use his counter magic, opening the gate for the rest of my hand. Paying mana every turn could be considered the worst downfall, but it isn't at all unreasonable. Consider that this card also forces your opponent to stop drawing cards althogether. When Ancestral Recall turns into a symmetrical effect, your opponent will think twice about putting it on the stack. Many arguements lead me to the conclusion that this card is an absolute powerhouse against control.

Grafted Skullcap's drawback forces you to discard your hand, which is fine. The worst case scenario has already been outlined, but the 'benefit' of discarding any artifacts that you haven't had the chance to cast has not been mentioned. I am a firm believer that if you are in a position where you have a skullcap, and an active welder on the board, then you are either winning, or you have a shit-ton of mana. Considering that the skullcap is supposed to be the last card you play, after any lock components, then your opponent has breached wasteland and now you are in the grove to be getting your goods on the table as soon as you get them into your hand. The Skullcap will at most get you one card that you can use on one turn plus welder tricks. The Mind's Eye will get you at least one card, with potential to draw more. With either card you should be able to cast the first two cards that are in your hand, but with Mind's Eye you don't 'get to' throw them away. What I am trying to say here is simple, if you are in a position where you need to discard the cards to the cap to get them into play, you are likely in a losing position. I am simply trying to dispel the fact that this could ever be considered a drawback of Mind's Eye; not having the discard text.

In match ups where your opponent isn't playing control it works out that the Eye can be a slightly worse cap. However, any and all aggro match ups should be a cake walk anyway. The prison was created to stomp them, and as a former aggro player myself, I can tell you that a Workshop causes trouble regardless of what is coming into play with it. The lock components win these match ups long before Mind's Eye would come into effect.

In match ups against combo of the long, or dragon kind, Mind's Eye is a relatively weak card. However, it is no weaker than the cap, when you already have 4 chalice, and 4 sphere, there isn't much else you can do in this beast.

I have done my best to explain the many reasons why we here at Hadley feel this is the best decision for the future of Welder Mud, and I am open to critism, and I know there is still more to be discussed.

The Win Condition (Karn over Angel, Charbelcher, Trisk)

Charbelcher is often a win condition that can take three to four turns to win. Granted there is a lock in effect, and it is assumed that the game is over, this time frame is too long for comfort. It seems as though there would be no difference between this and juggernaught as far as time goes. The Angel is a wonderful option, and maybe considerable in a metagame completely full of Sligh, but even then she still only has a toughness of 4. Her ability seems great, but she is very murderable, and that isn't something that we want out of a 5 turn clock. Triskelian is a house. He lives in the sideboard of any Welder Mud that is expecting to see creatures. I mean, I love the guy but he can be completely useless in some curcumstances.

Karn is a one turn clock at most. More often than not, he is a zero turn clock. With a welder out, he is an uncounterable, unstopable, win condition. When he brings all your artifact shit to walking into action, there really is nothing that compares. I have been a little wary about using 2 of him as my only win condition, but it doesn't matter, he always shows up to win the game. I have never had problems with that much.

Utility? (Mox Monkeys find a home, Winter Orb doesn't)

Once Mind's Eye was in the deck, the edge over control was enough that winter orb just turned into an annoyance. Without a Welder it doesn't work right, and with one, it causes you to waste time you would be spending welding other important items making sure you don't have to keep yoru world tapped. It was a good option, but it wasn't the best thing in the deck, and was often the weakest lock piece, or part of the weakest lock combo, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Mox Monkeys are so good that I even tried finding room for more of them. With a smokestack on the board, this 1/1 body can ruin your opponents moxes, which ruins there permanent count, and then he sac's to keep your business alive. He also provides as an excellent blocker against Goblin Lackey, which although may not be the biggest thing on your list of worries, it sure as hell causes you to lose games. This is something that me and Jacob Orlove completely agree upon, there needs to be room for Monkeys, they are so good.

The Next Step. (My feelings on where to go from here)

The more I play with the deck, the more I find that the lock is tight but that sometimes tangle wire just isn't needed. It is most effective against aggro, aggro-control, and aggro-combo; Masknaught aside though, It feels like a smokestack and a chalice is enough to deal with any of these match ups that are trying to race guys across at you early game. For the time being I will continue to use the wire, as it is never horrible, but it certainly does resolve a whole lot more than any of the other cards in my deck. After talking with other Welder Mud players it is a noticeable trend that the wire gets sided out just as often as I thought; more often than any other card.

For comparison, Keeper stopped running Abyss months ago, and there is now a movement to stop running balance. The reason this is something worth mentioning is that other high quality decks are opting to not use cards that help in a small percentage of matchups in favor of cards that will help in the later rounds of a tournament. Is this an evolution that Welder Mud needs to make as well? Perhaps soon enough the time will come that Tangle Wire leaves the deck. That time isn't now, for now it will continue to help win games.

Wrap Up. (Call for help)

So usually I am a pretty big critic around here, I like to let people know what I find to be the flaw in there logic, and what-not. Well now I am asking that of all of you. Anyone who is currently taping for three special-brown mana, please feel free to comment, or if you are worried that the forums will only get you flamed, then PM me. I am working very hard to maximize the potential of the deck. A very special thanks to everyone who was involved in the thought process that went into this article, and a very special thanks to Eastman for working by my side in developing these new evolutions.

Mike Broughton\n\n

[specialk]

I like the idea of mind's eye over caps since it does have some broken potential with wheel.  I think that Winter orb is still too good in control match ups since some decks can run a crazy amount of removal for artifacts since the current meta is moving towards decks that use lots of artifacts such as scpter keeper long and workshop.dec.  In short what I am trying to say as a cntrol player I have lost to a winter orbs and tangle wires or even just winter orb since it slows me down to the point where the game is no longer in my control.

[PucktheCat]

I like all these changes.  I have played a fair amount of MUD, if only to test other decks, and these all seem to be positive changes to the deck.  Winter Orb -> Shaman is probably somewhat metagame dependent, but I think Mind's Eye is a solid choice.  In addition to the nasty interaction with Hurkyl's Recall I find the discard effect of Skullcap costs you more often than you would expect.  Little things happen when the deck is not working quite right that make you want to drop your draw engine with cards in your hand.  For example, your only red source gets destroyed and you have two Welders in hand, or control taps out and you want to drop your draw spell even though you have a Wasteland you can't use.  These things add up.

I will definatly test this deck.

Good article/post, by the way.

Leo

[SummenSaugen]

Very well written, Mike.

I noticed the Grafted Skullcap being a huge pain in the ass mainly at Stok's tournament in Worcester, when Samite Healer became Sodomite Healer ramming a Hurkyl's Recall you know where both games we played.  The Mind's Eye is clearly superior in these circumstances.

One thing I'm concerned with however is that you haven't explained why you feel Welder MUD is a stronger deck than that of Stax.  I know it's been discussed to death, but I think it may be re-evaluable like everything else, which seems to be the brunt of the purpose of this thread.

[VideoGameBoy]

Quote (SummenSaugen @ Nov. 18 2003,15:12)One thing I'm concerned with however is that you haven't explained why you feel Welder MUD is a stronger deck than that of Stax.  I know it's been discussed to death, but I think it may be re-evaluable like everything else, which seems to be the brunt of the purpose of this thread.

Welder MUD is more explosive in that an active Metalworker can have your opponent locked out on the second turn, but Stax is a lot more consistent with it's greater complement of broken draw and search.  Stax also tends to rule the Stax/MUD mirror, since it has better draw and Goblin Welders.

Once you figure out how to give wMUD a solid draw engine, though, then not only do you have an explosive deck, but a more consistent one that isn't as crippled by hate as Stax tends to be, since MUD has more answers.\n\n

[Kerzkid11]

Me and myke talked over the weekend at Waterbury, and we both agreed that any card that makes you AUTOMATICALLY LOSE to a hate card cannot be that great. Mind's eye is ok, but the draw engine is still lacking, as stated by VGB. There is something else out there that needs to be found that doesn't have the "auto-lose clause", but also lacks Mind's Eye's slowness ( I know its not THAT slow.) and lack of sheer explosiveness.

[walking dude]

I think the rise of long might make stax a better deck. A turn 2 lock is often too slow. You really really want to drop chalice on turn one. Having more draw increases the chances of that happening. If you play first you can drop moxen and draw 7 into a chalice hand even if you didn’t have one to start with.

[Ultima]

Actually, in point to fact, stax is more expolsive than mud while Mud is more consistent.

Stax tends to try to dump everything out first turn at least, while Mud usually takes the first turn to lay the metalworker and explode turn 2.  Additionally, Stax has a less consistent build relying on 0 CC artifacts and its lock components more heavily because some still don't play with workers and meditates are very conditional without the lock in place.

This is primarily what I have seen in testing against both of these decks, but its just my opinion.

[David Hernandez]

@Walking Dude and Ultima:
regarding your comments that Stax might be the stronger deck..., i agree.  I've been a Stax player since before it's rise to fame, and i think that it's biggest (only?) weakness right now is vs. Strip Mine/Wasteland.  I've always felt that Stax runs better than wMUD, and that Stax is more resilient overall.

Both decks are hurt by cards like Null Rod and Hurkyl's Recall, but at least with Stax you don't auto-lose.  The inclusion of CotV in Stax can be an added advantage against the field (including Long), barring some 1st-turn ridiculousness.

I think Mind's Eye has potential, although it's casting cost makes me very cautious towards it (yes, even in a Workshop based deck...)

5cc is a lot, and then you must use non-workshop mana to power it. I think this is why Mykeatog uses only 3 of them, and includes Wheel of Fortune.  The only possible problem that i see with this strategy is that wMUD is designed to give you card advantage while giving your opponent nothing.  Mind's Eye is dependent on your opponent's ability to draw cards (and for you to have available mana).  Wheel also defeats the wMud card-advantage strategy by giving the opponent a new hand.

Mike's inclusion of Shaman's is interesting, and will work well for denial of the opponents artifact mana (and CotV), though I still like the Viashino Heretic best in wMud because of it's strength against my Null Rod heavy environment (see postings in EVF: http://www.themanadrain.com/cgi-bin....3;st=60 ).

@Mykeatog:
With CotV in the deck, i also sometimes wonder if 4 Tangle Wire are necessary.  Still, it's casting cost is good against CotV.  Since Tangle Wire is one of the (classic) core lock components, I'm reluctant to pull them out, but it's possible that one could be dropped in favor of something else.

With Metalworker and Karn as the explosive-factor and win condition (respectively), i think wMud and your build are too suceptible to Null Rod.  How have you been dealing with it (outside of the obvious CotV with 2 counters on it)?

--Dave.