[Deck] Goblin's Bazaar - Need Suggestions

[VGB]

If you have ever wanted to play a deck with super-secret-squirrel tech (and the steepest pricetag in T1), then I have the deck for you; VGB's Goblin's Bazaar.

What I am asking for is suggestions as to what would best fit the 4 x Tangle Wire slot, as I have been dissatisfied with them lately, especially against aggro.  I am open to any and all suggestions, but I would like the slot to remain artifact and costing 3 or less, unless sombody finds something simply amazing for the slot.

//NAME: Goblin's Bazaar
//NAME: Goblin's Bazaar
// CREATOR: V.G.B.
// CREATED: 10/5/2004 3:30:00 PM
// FORMAT: Classic
// Lands
        2 Mountain
        4 Bazaar of Baghdad
        2 Bloodstained Mire
        2 City of Brass
        4 Mishra's Workshop
        1 Strip Mine
        3 Volcanic Island
        3 Wasteland
// Creatures
        1 Platinum Angel
        3 Sundering Titan
        1 Triskelion
        3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
        4 Goblin Welder
// Spells
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Timetwister
        1 Tinker
        1 Wheel of Fortune
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
// Artifacts
        3 Crucible of Worlds
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Mana Vault
        1 Memory Jar
        1 Sol Ring
        4 Tangle Wire
        4 Trinisphere
        1 Lightning Greaves
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Sapphire
// Sideboard
SB:  1 Duplicant
SB:  1 Mindslaver
SB:  4 Null Rod
SB:  2 Razormane Masticore
SB:  4 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  3 Tormod's Crypt //metagame slots

Explanation of deck strategy/card selection:

To sum up this deck in one sentence: Goblin's Bazaar is strong against opposing Null Rod, weak to graveyard hate, and abuses Goblin Welder like nobody's business.  To this end, it plays as follows:

Turn 1:  Drop artifact acceleration and Goblin Welder.
Turn 2:  Lock down the board with Trinisphere, Play Bazaar, discard brokenness, Weld said brokenness into play, win.

Trinisphere is crucial in that it locks out opposing spells the hardest and with the most immediacy turn 1.  Hands down, it is the premier T1 disruption spell as of the current card pool and metagame.  Other lock components have the benefit of always being good draws, however the drawback of 3Sphere not being good in multiples is compensated by it being Welder exchange fodder and Bazaar discard bait.

Draw Sevens - this deck plays nothing but threats and acceleration, thus maximizing the draw per-mana-invested is the general rule of thumb.  Timetwister may seem antithetic to the Welder inherent strategy of the deck, and also asynergistic to playing Bazaar + Squee, but it is crucial for 2 main reasons: dead Welder recursion, and anti-decking (which can be an issue with multiple Bazaars/discard D7's in a drawn-out game).  The potential loss of Squees is counterbalanced by the fact that Bazaars and draw sevens love each other quite emphatically.  It is also an excellent defensive card against Tog and versus other graveyard dependent decks such as Dragon and other Welder decks.

Crucible of Worlds - bringing back lands that tap for 3 mana, draw cards, and destroy other lands is quite nice.

Sundering Titan is the beatdown.  Remember, you are the beatdown.

The last issue to address is simply the lack of FoW.  Well, play experience has shown that it simply doesn't work in this deck.  The hand decimation hurts too much what with Bazaar discards already biting huge chunks out of your hand; there isn't nearly enough room for the blue card contigent to support the pitch cost, and see Sundering Titan.  Plus, the decks and cards this deck worries about are addressed in other ways (see Trinisphere, Crucible, etc.).

Also, gentle reader, if you care to view a small sliver of deck history, you can venture here.

Explanation of sideboarding strategy and cards:

vs. 4CC:

This is one of the most difficult matchups, and is generally in their favor post sideboard - what makes the matchup winnable, though, is this deck's ability to get broken starts.  After game 1 they are bound to bring in BEB to combat REB and kill Welders, as well as Rack and Ruin and potentially graveyard hate as well.  Their strips and Shaman play hell with your manabase, so it would be a viable strategy to side as follows:

out -  Mana Crypt, 1 to 3 Bazaar, 1 or 2 Squee, 0 or 4 Trinisphere (depends on whether you are playing or drawing, respectively).
in -  Razormane, Duplicant, and REB to increase the threat density.

If you expect a predominantly control meta, I would consider sideboarding/maindecking additional Crucible of Worlds, as it is gold against 4CC, Fish, and Landstill.

vs. Dragon

God, this matchup is terrible, but thankfully the dreaded Dragon has been rather quiescent lately.  Post sideboard, the fact that this deck can quickly and consistently find Tormod's Crypt is a huge saving grace, though.  CoW + Strips is also a huge headache for the Dragon player.  Titan + 3Sphere can also help keep the Dragon player from ramping to the mana to cast an animate effect.

out - 0 or 4 Trinisphere (again, depends whether you are playing or drawing, and whether your Power Aura is turned on), 1-4 x Wire
in - Tormod's Crypt, Duplicant

vs. Fish

Fish is generally a decent matchup, as their only real threat is Grim Lavamancer, and maindecked Null Rod gives them dead slots.  CoW sticking to the table is a major blow to Fish, and is what has really improved this matchup.

out - Triskelion (count on them getting Null Rod), Mana Crypt
in -  Razormane, REB

vs. Hulk/GaT

This deck plays like 7/10-Split against Tog, and performs quite well.  They have no answer for an early Welder or Trinisphere except Force (and a later Deed or Cunning Wish), and apply enough threats early and something devastating is bound to eventually break through.  Ph33r the almighty Artifact Mutation, however - except that Tog decks seem to be dropping Red in the current metagame cycle.

out - Mana Crypt, 4 x Wire (doesn't really hurt Tog, what with all the instants), 1 x Fetch (no Strip/Wasteland pressure)
in - REB, and possibly Tormod's Crypt versus Tog to combat Will, Intuition->AK/Deep Anal, and Tog itself.

vs. Slaver

Slaver used to be a terrible matchup against this deck, due to its greater explosiveness and the fact that an activated Mindslaver spelled game over (and still does).  Sideboarded Null Rod is of great help if you can keep their Welders off the table.  This is still the most difficult matchup, however.

out - Trinisphere, Wire, Triskelion, Mana Crypt, and whatever else that can stop you from hurting yourself.  Trinisphere might stay maindecked versus Drain Slaver, however, especially if you are going first.
in - virtually everything, but save REB for Drain Slaver :/

vs. Brown Aggro (7/10, TnT, Man Show, Crusher, etc.)

This deck can simply go broken much faster than these other decks, due to the fact that they have very little in terms to answers to a resolved Welder, and this deck can abuse Welder more than any other deck in existance.

out - Trinisphere can come out, as opposing Workshop makes it kinda bleh.  Squee is awful due to speed considerations in these matchup.  Duplicant and Titan can often suck, too, due to lack of good assassination targets - but this deck needs win conditions.  Needless to say, sideboarding for these matchups is tricky.
in - Crypt for opposing Welders (if any), Razormane Masticore if opposing Juggernauts.

Stax/MUD

These are generally very favorable matchups for the Goblin's Bazaar player, as their Welders aren't nearly as broken as ours.  Nontheless, this is a matchup that can often be determined by the coin flip - but hey, this is T1, broken shiite happens.

out - varies
in - varies

RuG Madness

This is generally a favorable matchup, as they don't have strip effects to deal with your lands, they have very little creature hate, and all their artifact hate is sideboarded.  Mulligan aggressively for Trinisphere and Welder, and you should be kewl.  Watch out for occasional Gilded Drake tricks, though :/

out - Tangle Wire (OMGWTF - actually, Wire really sucks in this matchup, due to most of their spells being so damn cheap - Bazaar usually let's them dig for a land and a mox, which generally let's them cast or madness out most things in their deck)
in - Razormane, Duplicant, and possibly Crypt for Squee

Potential maindeck cards:

1) Shivan Reef/Ancient Tomb

Trinisphere makes Ancient Tomb really shine, and with maindecked tomb, the need for extra permanent U/R sources is stressed.

2) Darksteel Colossus

The colossus simply wins games - I eschew it currently for more maindeck utility and discard/welder synergy.  I don't think it really has a place in the deck, but I may be wrong.  Usually I Tinker for Titan, and rarely would I rather it be a Colossus.

3) Fire/Ice

Decks without maindeck answers just don't exist anymore, and what this deck fears most is opposing Welders.  Fire/Ice is often a 2 for 1 or a Time Walk, and would fit nicely into the deck.

4) Sphere of Resistance/Smokestack/Chalice of the Void

This deck currently eschews the above lock components due to the fact that this is less a prison deck and more a Welder combo deck.  The only lock components left is the strictly best one for this deck's strategy, Trinisphere and possibly Tangle Wire - but Tangle Wire has been sucking sweaty balls, so give me some ideas, people.

5) Powder Keg

Keg was dropped due to the philosophy of "playing threats is better than playing answers", and this deck plays threats that are also answers (Duplicant, Titan, Crucible).  Keg is great against cheap aggro and powered decks, but the prevalence of Null Rod has made it suck terribly lately.

6) Tolarian Academy

Combined with mucho artifacts and CoW tricks, this card can be quite disgusting.

Potential sideboard cards:

1) Blue Elemental Blast

This is a very strong card against Welder decks and Dragon, two of this deck's toughest matchups.

2)

[VGB]

After extensive playtesting, I have a few quick changes to the above list, with some brief explanations:

-1 Duplicant/+1 Platinum Angel (Duplicant moved to side, and Angel moved main)
Angel has just been better overrall; Duplicant sucks hard against the omnipresent Fish, and Angel is just a much better answer versus quick aggro, which can be a problem if this deck doesn't get the quick Trinisphere.  Duplicant serves much better as a sideboard card, as I have been taking it out for the majority of mathchups.

-1 Mox Pearl/+1 Lotus Petal
This deck has been suffering from an excess of mana - and Pearl, Emerald, and Jet are the weakest nonland sources in the deck.  The ability to sac petal comes in useful in some rare instances when the graveyard is empty and I want to bring Welder online.

-1 Wasteland/+1 Crucible of Worlds
This deck is extraordinarily tight, and 28 mana sources was repeatedly giving me way more than I needed, so cutting a mana slot for another threat was elementary.  Crucible is simply nuts in this deck and something I really want to see quickly and consistently, and the drop in strip effects has not been an issue whatsoever.

Other observations:

3 Sundering Titan seems slightly excessive at times, but it is pulling its weight - so I'm not really inclined to mess with its numbers just yet.

The lack of lock components has made this deck very vulnerable to broken starts by other decks - more might be necessary.

Gamble is strictly insane - if I could find room for more, I would.  That is the biggest problem with this deck - the utter lack of breathing room (barring strictly superior tech surfacing).

I am going to test Ancient Tomb and Academy in the deck by swapping them with miscellaneous mana slots.  The inclusion of Platinum Angel has made this especially attractive.

I have also been tossing around the idea of experimenting with a lone Anger, possibly in place of the 3'rd Titan slot.

-----

To fit in Ancient Tomb, I made the following modifications:

-1 Mana Vault
-1 Bloodstained Mire/Wooded Foothills

I am currently also trying Tolarian Academy in one of the Volcanic Island slots.  That makes the following my current list:

//NAME: Goblin's Bazaar
// CREATOR: V.G.B.
// CREATED: 8/23/2004 3:26:00 PM
// FORMAT: Classic
// Lands
        2 Mountain
        2 Ancient Tomb
        4 Bazaar of Baghdad
        3 Bloodstained Mire
        4 Mishra's Workshop
        1 Strip Mine
        3 Volcanic Island
        3 Wasteland
        1 Tolarian Academy
// Creatures
        1 Platinum Angel
        3 Sundering Titan
        1 Triskelion
        3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
        4 Goblin Welder
// Spells
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Death Spark
        2 Gamble
        1 Time Walk
        1 Timetwister
        1 Tinker
        1 Wheel of Fortune
// Artifacts
        3 Crucible of Worlds
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Memory Jar
        1 Sol Ring
        4 Trinisphere
        1 Mindslaver
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Sapphire
// Sideboard
SB:  1 Death Spark
SB:  1 Duplicant
SB:  3 Null Rod
SB:  2 Rack and Ruin
SB:  2 Razormane Masticore
SB:  3 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  3 Tormod's Crypt

The Academy has been working pretty well, but I have not been able to make a solid determination just yet what land best fits the slot - the number of red sources (including fetches and artifacts) must absolutely not drop below 8 to ensure castability of Welder early.

[SpikeyMikey]

Why the 2 basic mountains?  Why not 2 Great Furnaces?  They're not giving you resiliancy to wastelands, and honestly, with 3 Crucibles plus 4 Bazaars to dig for them, I wouldn't think you're going to have much of a problem dealing with LD.  So Great Furnace, as a welding target and a boon to Academy is strictly superior, unless there's something I haven't taken into consideration?

How well does the deck do when your Welders are taken offline?  Just about anything out there that can be called competitive can kill a Welder out of hand before he gets active, otherwise, it wouldn't be a competitive deck.  With no metalworkers for additional acceleration, it would seem like more traditional workshop decks would be a problematic matchup for you.

No Chalice in main or board?  I realize you've got a great reusable burn spell in Death Spark, since you can just about ensure you're keeping a creature on top of it between welder and bazaar, but do you ever have problems with Fish?  Null Rod can still slow you down, and until you get a spark online with Squee/Bazaar, you're not going to get an active Welder.  In fact, without the lock elements, I would think it'd be hard to get through the permission.

While I realize that most of your creatures are unaffected by Null Rod(Triscuit being the exception), don't you find it hurting your mana base?  I would think that it's often kind of dead, since you're locking down your artifact mana.  Speaking of which, how's the Ancient Tomb for Mana Vault trade working out?  I would think there are few situations in which tomb is better than vault, the most notable coming to mind being the presence of Null Rod.  Still, 2 damage every time you use it is steep, especially for a deck that can't lock an opponent down with Wires and Stacks.

Edit:  Oh, and you don't want to Gamble for Death Spark, if you end up pitching it to the Gamble, it'll be in the grave with a Gamble directly on top of it, and there ain't shit you can do about it.  That nerfs your spot removal pretty hard core.

[VGB]

Why the 2 basic mountains?  Why not 2 Great Furnaces?  They're not giving you resiliancy to wastelands, and honestly, with 3 Crucibles plus 4 Bazaars to dig for them, I wouldn't think you're going to have much of a problem dealing with LD.  So Great Furnace, as a welding target and a boon to Academy is strictly superior, unless there's something I haven't taken into consideration?

I sometimes waffle between playing Academy and putting a Volc in that slot, but basic mountains are an absolute necessity to ensure the ability to cast Welders.  Great Furnace just makes the deck more susceptible to Null Rod, Shaman, and keg, while Mountains provide Wasteland immunity and guarantee the ability of the deck to ramp mana.  The additional Welding targets is a nice touch, but the benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks in this deck.

If I ever see Tolarian all I really ever need it to reach is 2 or 3 mana, and that is hardly an issue as it is.

How well does the deck do when your Welders are taken offline?  Just about anything out there that can be called competitive can kill a Welder out of hand before he gets active, otherwise, it wouldn't be a competitive deck.  With no metalworkers for additional acceleration, it would seem like more traditional workshop decks would be a problematic matchup for you.

This deck performs reasonably well without Welder as long as it has Bazaar+Squee or a reasonable board position with Trinisphere or Crucible (or some combination thereof).  The most consistent openings for this deck are still first turn Trinisphere followed by second turn Waste+Crucible, which has much more inherent protection than first turn Welder followed by second turn Bazaar.

Metalworker just craps to Null Rod, and this deck is more focused on just cheating artifacts into play anyways.

The only other Workshop decks that are an issue are ones with Mindslaver, which accounts for the sideboarded Null Rod.  Mostly these matches boil down to 1 thing, though - who goes first.  As a former MUD and Stax player, my observation is that this deck has a lot more ability to consistently garner early momentum, which is crucial to the success of a Workshop/Welder deck.

No Chalice in main or board?  I realize you've got a great reusable burn spell in Death Spark, since you can just about ensure you're keeping a creature on top of it between welder and bazaar, but do you ever have problems with Fish?  Null Rod can still slow you down, and until you get a spark online with Squee/Bazaar, you're not going to get an active Welder.  In fact, without the lock elements, I would think it'd be hard to get through the permission.

Chalice at 1 is often the strongest play against the most decks when piloting this one, but as reliant as this deck is on Welder, I find it has been absolutely horrid.  Chalice just isn't as strong as it used to be, either, what with current decks having their threats spread across multiple CMCs.

This deck doesn't really have issues when it face Null Rod, either, due to the dearth of accelerated land mana and utility of Crucible.  Fish used to be tough with prior builds, but the printing of Crucible has given this deck a very strong edge versus decks that utilize a lot of nonbasics and little artifact mana.

Tangle Wire is perhaps the card I miss the most, even more than Sphere of Resistance and Smokestack.  This deck is geared to going straight for the throat, and Tangle Wire has an immediate and very potent effect, and interacts extraordinarily well with 3Sphere and Crucible.  It may have to find its way back into the deck as a 3-of.

While I realize that most of your creatures are unaffected by Null Rod(Triscuit being the exception), don't you find it hurting your mana base?  I would think that it's often kind of dead, since you're locking down your artifact mana.  Speaking of which, how's the Ancient Tomb for Mana Vault trade working out?  I would think there are few situations in which tomb is better than vault, the most notable coming to mind being the presence of Null Rod.  Still, 2 damage every time you use it is steep, especially for a deck that can't lock an opponent down with Wires and Stacks.

Ever since I have put in the 2 Ancient Tomb, I have not looked back.  Their synergy with 3Sphere has been absolutely phenomenal.  Hardcasting threats was something this deck used to be terrible at, especially with your opponent dropping Wastes and Rods, but the ability to hit 3 mana in this deck is key to its success, and Tomb greatly facilitates that.  As you noted, the damage is very risky, but the resulting leap in deck consistency and versatility has been more than worth it.

Mana in this deck is much better off if it can perform any of 3 main functions:

1) Provide reusable mana.
2) Provide colored mana and enable Welder.
3) Operate under Null Rod.

Temporary colorless mana boosters have been strictly terrible in this deck, such as Vault and Monolith.  I have absolutely not missed Vault at all, and the deck now runs 6 Workshops for all intents and purposes, two of which often let me cast Welder a turn faster than I normally would after Workshop->3Sphere.

Edit:  Oh, and you don't want to Gamble for Death Spark, if you end up pitching it to the Gamble, it'll be in the grave with a Gamble directly on top of it, and there ain't shit you can do about it.  That nerfs your spot removal pretty hard core.

What I meant was that if Spark is still in your hand after the Gamble - of course discarding it to Gamble sucks fat monkey.  The only thing that can recover it at that point is Timetwister.  Gamble for Death Spark is definitely a risky play, but the payoff is tremendous if it works, as you can now nuke every single creature in Fish except Factory.

Thanks for the input - your commentary is very apt and thought-provoking.

[Moridar]

A year and a half ago I was using Workshops and Bazaars in a mask deck here in Ontario, Canada...  I think this is a better choice due to the Null Rod issues in the meta game.

It is nice to see 2 broken cards being used in deck and be competitive...

Wayne

[VGB]

A year and a half ago I was using Workshops and Bazaars in a mask deck here in Ontario, Canada...  I think this is a better choice due to the Null Rod issues in the meta game.

It is nice to see 2 broken cards being used in deck and be competitive...

Wayne

I first built the deck almost exaclty a year ago after I played a guy on apprentice who was using Bazaar + Squee in Welder MUD, and was really impressed with how well the deck played.  Andreas Klaes is the only person I can cite as to having had tournament success with a Workshop deck utilizing Bazaars, though, and his build is more the traditional MUD.

Crucible of Worlds really has made it an entirely different deck, though, and is why I decided to take it off the shelf - I previously abandoned it due to the fact I was sick and tired of losing miserably to Slaver decks, but the ability to replay Wastes, Bazaars, and Shop via Crucible has made the deck tasty again, at least in my opinion.

On a different note, I am thinking of experimenting with Intuition in the Gamble slot.  Although Crucible has made Gamble a lot less situational, I have noticed that it ends up costing 3 a lot due to Trinisphere - and I have found that Gamble is not usually optimal early in the game.  When it works, though - mostly when used to fetch Lotus or complete a minicombo - it's been pretty sick.

[policehq]

Here is my version of the deck after a lot of testing on Magic Workstation. I found the Goblin Welders to be far too vulnerable, so I added extra tutoring power, Regrowth, Yawgmoth's Will, and Lightning Greaves.

// Lands
    4  Bazaar of Baghdad
    4  City of Brass
    4  Gemstone Mine
    4  Mishra's Workshop
    1  Strip Mine
    4  Wasteland

// Creatures
    4  Goblin Welder
    4  Squee, Goblin Nabob
    3  Sundering Titan

// Spells
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Black Lotus
    2  Crucible of Worlds
    2  Fire/Ice
    4  Gamble
    1  Grim Monolith
    1  Lightning Greaves
    1  Mana Crypt
    1  Mana Vault
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Regrowth
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Tinker
    4  Trinisphere
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Yawgmoth's Will

Barry

[VGB]

That looks very interesting.  I like the manabase, as it is completely Titan-proof, although I might like a Tolarian, Fetch, Mountain, and Tomb or two in there in myself instead of a couple of Cities/Mines.

I like the addition of Will and Greaves a lot.  That is creativity at its best - I completely forgot about some people using Greaves with Welder.  It also happens to work well with Angel and Titan, too.  I'm only worried about it's susceptibility to Null Rod, but it's definitely worth a shot.

I am probably going to completely move away from Gamble in the deck, though, as I am liking Intuition a lot better - I believe it just has more overrall synergy with the deck's gameplan.  The only other edge Gamble has over Intuition, though (besides cost outside of Trinisphere), is that Gamble isn't countered nearly as often - especially when it is played early.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Woot for simultaneous innovation.

Perhaps this isn't entirely pertinent, but us Hadley boys have been working on something rather similar.

I've actually been having a lot less success, but some of the ideas here have given me some new directions to go in.

For reference, here is the list I was working with:

Engine(11):
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Squee Goblin Nabob
3x Intuition
Lock(11):
4x Trinisphere
4x Crucible of Worlds
3x Possessed Portal*****
Utility (8):
4x Goblin Welder
1x Sundering Titan
1x Triskelion
1x Pentavus
1x Memory Jar
Broken (3):
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
Mana (27):
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Volcanic Island
4x Flooded Strand
5x Moxen
3x SoLoCrypt
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Academy
1x Seat of Synod
1x Island


This deck was very similar to other decks in this thread in its use of the amazing synergy between crucible, bazaar of baghdad, goblin welder.  Intuition can do sick things with either an active welder (pentavus, titan, jar) or crucible (academy, strip mine, bazaar).

The wrinkle here, is my attempt to abuse the newly printed possessed portal.  I have to say that this may be a complete win more card, but there were very few occasions where this hit play, and my opponent didn't scoop up their cards.  Since it costs your opponent two cards every cycle (and usually nothing for you thanks to squee/crucible), even when brought in against a losing situation, you can often weather the storm until you completely lock them out.  Although Squee is a fine win condition under this thing, you always have the option of sacking portal to itself, and starting over (usually with a bazaar engine going) while your opponent starts off with 0 permanents and 0 cards in hand.

However, I made the mistake here of over-use of crucible of worlds, and underuse of actual threats.  The engine is fairly efficient, but the deck as it stands is too slow and, imagine, too redundant for T1.

Opponents can single out components of the deck and isolate them while carrying on with their gameplan.



Since most recent winning strategies are hybrid (combo-control, aggro-control), I thought I'd bring this to the table in the hopes of arriving at something quite savage using a aggro/prison mix.

I'm going to stew on this, but can anyone see this working out?

[policehq]

That's an interesting addition. My newest build includes 1 Mycosynth Lattice and 1 Null Rod to lock the game in its current state once a titan hits the board, but perhaps one card alone would be better. Fortunately, though, there is a lot of synnergy between Mycosynth Lattice and Goblin Welder, and Null Rod complements Strip/Crucible locks.

Barry

[VGB]

The wrinkle here, is my attempt to abuse the newly printed possessed portal.  I have to say that this may be a complete win more card, but there were very few occasions where this hit play, and my opponent didn't scoop up their cards.  Since it costs your opponent two cards every cycle (and usually nothing for you thanks to squee/crucible), even when brought in against a losing situation, you can often weather the storm until you completely lock them out.  Although Squee is a fine win condition under this thing, you always have the option of sacking portal to itself, and starting over (usually with a bazaar engine going) while your opponent starts off with 0 permanents and 0 cards in hand.

In a Welder combo deck, you have to place a premium on the number of cards you expect to cheat into play versus those you expect to hardcast the majority of the time - and the optimal number of Welder-only targets seems to be around 4-5 (in a deck such as this with a limited amount of draw/manipulation outside of Bazaar, and very tight deckspace).  Any more than this and you often end up holding an excess of expensive artifacts with no means to cast them, especially with Bazaar eating land drops.

Possessed Portal seems unplayable in this deck due to the fact that it puts an excess of stress on Welder, and it doesn't even win the game in and of itself.  In the following circumstance is when it actually achieves the win:

1) Welder is active.
2) Squee is in graveyard/hand.
3) Your opponent's current board and hand position cannot deal.

From that perspective, it seems you would be better off playing an artifact in that slot that a) is easily hard-cast and b) is less dependent on the 3 criteria that make Possessed Portal good, such as Chalice of the Void, Tangle Wire, and Smokestack.

P.P. is an interesting idea, but I beleive the best route is to not place complete dependence on Welder in order to achieve victory.

I also have a new decklist to display:

//NAME: Goblin's Bazaar
// CREATOR: V.G.B.
// CREATED: 9/8/2004 2:45:00 PM
// FORMAT: Classic
// Lands
        2 Mountain
        4 Bazaar of Baghdad
        3 Bloodstained Mire
        2 City of Brass
        4 Mishra's Workshop
        1 Strip Mine
        3 Volcanic Island
        3 Wasteland
// Creatures
        1 Platinum Angel
        3 Sundering Titan
        1 Triskelion
        3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
        4 Goblin Welder
// Spells
        1 Ancestral Recall
        2 Intuition
        2 Gamble
        1 Timetwister
        1 Tinker
        1 Wheel of Fortune
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
// Artifacts
        3 Crucible of Worlds
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Memory Jar
        1 Sol Ring
        4 Trinisphere
        1 Lightning Greaves
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Sapphire
// Sideboard
SB:  1 Duplicant
SB:  1 Mindslaver
SB:  3 Null Rod
SB:  2 Rack and Ruin
SB:  2 Razormane Masticore
SB:  3 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  3 Tormod's Crypt

Here are some more general observations:

As much as I liked Ancient Tomb, in a two-color build it was simply too much colorless mana.  I will revise my earlier statement to "never drop below 10 colored sources"; 8 was forcing me to mulligan an inordinate number of times, and I would still often experience excessive colored-mana hunger.  I swapped these slots for Citites instead, to support my recent addition of Will as well as up the colored mana count.  Were this build to lack Will, then Shivan Reef would be adequate.

Maindeck Mindslaver has been foregone for Will.  Not much to explain there.

I cut Death Spark as it has not been consistent enough to warrant a slot, and it is strictly stupid (in a bad way) in multiples.

I dropped Time Walk for Lightning Greaves; it allows you to do some really abusive things that this deck yearns for, such as attacking immediately with 7/10s, using Welders as soon as they hit the table, and making Platinum Angel very hard to kill.  Time Walk seems to be less than stellar in this deck; it theoretically lets you make Welders active immediately, but this never happens; the only thing it is really good for is providing an extra land drop and cycling.

I am currently experimenting with Gamble and Intution to see how they work in conjunction.

Your Crucible and Titan counts are largely meta dependent (as in how much Wasteland and Titan susceptible decks you expect to see), and can easily vary from 2 to 3.  Any card in this deck that exists as a 3-of will consistenty crop up early and often, but any less than that and you will only see it in the first few turns about 50% of your games (this is a pretty rough estimate, so don't take it too literally).

[wuaffiliate]

Andreas Klaes is the only person I can cite as to having had tournament success with a Workshop deck utilizing Bazaars, though, and his build is more the traditional MUD.

Moridar(Wayne) placed 2nd in a 60+ man tourney here in Ontario with his bazaar+mask+shop deck. So now you can cite someone who has had sucess with it.

[VGB]

Moridar(Wayne) placed 2nd in a 60+ man tourney here in Ontario with his bazaar+mask+shop deck. So now you can cite someone who has had sucess with it.

Now why'd you go and get my hopes up?  If this is what you are referring to, he won a Bazaar, but did not have Bazaars in his build.

[VGB]

First post has been edited to reflect my most up-to-date build and strategies.

[Dr_Tongue]

Check out the thread in the Vintage Forum.A deck that boasts Bazaar +Squee+ Workshop+Welder. And to think for awhile I remember a handfull of people testing these types of decs.
I run 2 CoW in my build now but I'll never give up the Shaman as he kicks some serious *** against fast mana and mirror artifact denial.Just my $.02 even if I'm a penny short.

[VGB]

Check out the thread in the Vintage Forum.A deck that boasts Bazaar +Squee+ Workshop+Welder. And to think for awhile I remember a handfull of people testing these types of decs.
I run 2 CoW in my build now but I'll never give up the Shaman as he kicks some serious *** against fast mana and mirror artifact denial.Just my $.02 even if I'm a penny short.

Actually, it don't pack Workshop.

I also remember a Bazaar+Welder deck back in the day that ran animate effects (including Unearth, I think), but Eastman's deck is very elegant.  I may try to go tri-color and alter my manabase to run animate effects in the Tangle slot - but I think he may already be going the best route reanimator-wise (plus he can abuse opposing Welder Deck/Reanimator/Dragon discarded fat).  Otherwise I like this deck's ability to cast its threats from hand with Shop, and playing with Crucible ensures Bazaars stick the table (quite handy).

If Crucible ever gets restricted, though, you can bet your pantaloons that I will slap together Eastman's deck ASAP.

[VGB]

After a couple more weeks playtesting, I have settled on a list that has performed consistently well.  Yawgmoth's Will was utterly useless, and I swapped it for Mystical Tutor, which invariably serves up Tinker, the most powerful card in the deck.  Dropping Cities also lets me run the full 5 strip effects again.  I really can't see much room for improvement in the deck - except the sideboard, which can be tweaked for different metas.  Chalice could easily replace Null Rod in areas without Slaver, for example.

Changes are in bold.

//NAME: Goblin's Bazaar
// CREATOR: V.G.B.
// CREATED: 10/27/2004 2:17:00 PM
// FORMAT: Classic
// Lands
        2 Mountain
        4 Bazaar of Baghdad
        2 Bloodstained Mire
        4 Mishra's Workshop
        1 Strip Mine
        4 Volcanic Island
        4 Wasteland
// Creatures
        1 Darksteel Colossus
        1 Duplicant
        1 Platinum Angel
        2 Razormane Masticore
        3 Sundering Titan
        1 Triskelion
        3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
        4 Goblin Welder
// Spells
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Mystical Tutor
        1 Timetwister
        1 Tinker
        1 Wheel of Fortune
// Artifacts
        3 Crucible of Worlds
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Mana Vault
        1 Memory Jar
        1 Sol Ring
        4 Trinisphere
        1 Lightning Greaves
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Sapphire
// Sideboard
SB:  2 Lava Dart
SB:  1 Jester's Cap
SB:  1 Mindslaver
SB:  4 Null Rod
SB:  4 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  3 Tormod's Crypt

-11/5/04 edit

As an aside, I have played this deck against the emergent Oath decks with Forbidden Orchard, and have the following observations:

1) If they don't have first turn Force of Will or Oath, odds are they will lose that game.

2) Mana flow of Meandeck Oath is not nearly as consistent as Goblin's Bazaar, so they can often struggle for mana, especially under Trinisphere.

3) The new focus of Goblin's Bazaar on Tinker and maindeck Platinum Angel has had the bonus of making the deck even stronger against Oath.

Thus, I would generally rate the matchup favorable pre-sideboard, and I haven't had much difficulty post-sideboard, either.

As for additional thoughts on the deck, here are some possible ideas, which are mostly metagame considerations:

1) In metas with a high occurrence of Workshop+Trinisphere, Ancient Tomb would be a strong addition to the deck.

2) In heavy control metas, Juggernauts/Regular Masticores might be nice in the deck.

3) Wherever there is a lot of graveyard hate, play something else

If there is one thing this deck has taught me, though, do not underestimate the ability of Trinisphere or Crucible to just steal wins for you.