Shops and Drains

[kalithrian]

I'm sure decks like this have come around before. This one is inspired by the time vault/voltaic key combo, and the transmute artifact card. Of course, I feel that Metamorph and Lodestone Golem make the strategy more reliable.

4 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Mana Drain
3 Transmute Artifact
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Trinisphere
1 Time Walk
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
12 Island
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Blightsteel Colossus

So far, I haven't goldfished the deck at all (I don't really believe in goldfishing too much), but I have played around 20 games on cockatrice against actual vintage decks (which some people probably believe in less than goldfishing). So far, it's won most of its matches, but this is most likely due to the rogue nature of the deck and the experience of some players on cockatrice (no offense meant, but there are some insanely good vintage players out there that probably lol at this deck). For an artifact deck, metamorph and transmute make the blue count phenomenal, and FoW is easily supported. Having a strictly-better-than-counterspell option on hand is also not something worth complaining about.

Besides winning games on the backs of lodestone golem and trinisphere, this deck wins matches on the synergy of simulacrum and transmute artifact, and on the reliability of turn 0 force/turn 1-2 drain mana. Essentially, most relevant plays occur in the first 3 turns for this deck, but transmute artifact into vault/key gives it some mid-game explosive power, aside from having tinker. Being able to play lodestone golem(s) on turn 1-2 and time walk on turn 2-3 is sometimes a little bit unfair. Moreover, its ability to dodge wasteland in the first couple of turns gives it a game-plan against fish and workshop decks, while setting up drain mana for a crucial play on turn 3 or 4.

At this point, I have not played against dredge (I think), but I have not lost against oath or fish. Previous incarnations included tangle wire and inkwell leviathan. Tangle wire was not spectacular, but inkwell was pretty amazing versus fish. I think a sideboard could easily include grafdigger's cage and tormod's crypt, in spite of the apparent lack of synergy with transmute artifact (primarily because there are non-creature choices in the deck), and also hurkyl's recall for the shops matchup - maybe even steel sabotage if there is a particular problem card, but there's nothing quite like a 1-sided 2 cc upheaval.

The biggest problem I have with the deck is the lack of wasteland/strip mine. Moreover, I don't think it could beat dredge without 8+ sideboard cards, turn 1 colossus, or very unlucky opponents.

Honestly, it's not the first deck I would bring to a tournament with an unknown metagame, but before judging this deck, I encourage you to play it against something in yours. I have no sense of a current meta since I'm at grad school in the UK, and just get occasional games in on cockatrice, but any input is welcome!

By the way, my personal opinion is that in certain variants, precursor golems and/or wurmcoil engines could have homes in this deck, but it's really a question of what is played! The biggest open slots are probably 4xSolemn Simulacrum (besides staving off confidants, he's really good against smokestack, and is a 3-for-2 with transmute artifact, which are the reasons I play him).

[BC]

Unfortunately, I think unless you spend a lot of time refining the list, the two strategies are not compatible with each other.  You basically combined a weak control deck with a weak Shops deck.  Your Lodestone Golems will not have the asymmetric effect that they usually do, and their power is also blunted by your lack of Wasteland effects.  To me it looks like your best strategy is Tinker or Transmute into Key/Vault.  You don't need Shops or Lodestone to do that.