New Card: Rod of Nin

[TheWhiteDragon]

As you said, the only real reason to play this is for card draw - the pinging for 1 is just a gravy ability.  What are these better options you speak of?  Sofi is the only one I know of and it doesn't work with bridge.  There is staff of dom which costs 5 non-shop mana each card.  What else is there?  Bazaar is card disadvantage when you don't have welder out.  Given the aggro meta nowadays, I'm thinking bridge shops is a really strong play now.  Add in the uncounterable caverns over mountain/barb ring to push welders through counters or chalice@1, and you've got a stupidly strong approach.  This card gives you the CA and the ping effect of barb ring, while working under bridge as your main lock.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Bottled cloister is better... it won't ping for one, but you can still run b ring if you want, or a revoker/trike.

[TheWhiteDragon]

Bottled cloister

You must have missed my first post where I pointed out WHY cloister is unplayable (hurkyll's in response to your rfg trigger, now your whole board + hand is gone forever/artifact destruction spell in the same spot and now your hand is gone, though you keep your board.)

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Bottled cloister

You must have missed my first post where I pointed out WHY cloister is unplayable (hurkyll's in response to your rfg trigger, now your whole board + hand is gone forever/artifact destruction spell in the same spot and now your hand is gone, though you keep your board.)

Some times people run silver bullets for shop, its hard out there champ. I'd say mana drain on blueprintrod is pretty brutal was well.
If you want a couple  more options, I've top 8'd with top+bazaar (that's up to 5 cards of filtering for the best one), ton of people have run dark confidant in shop as well.

Something tells me if you were learning hard a bridge, hurks means you are dead anyways.

[credmond]

How exactly is mana drain brutal against welder + bazaar?

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

How exactly is mana drain brutal against welder + bazaar?

I have no idea. When I say "blueprintrod" I'm referring to this 6 cc card drawing pinger. Note how contextually we are comparing Bottled Cloister and Rod of Nin in the section you are asking about. At no point am I against null rod or bazaar.

[credmond]

How exactly is mana drain brutal against welder + bazaar?

I have no idea. When I say "blueprintrod" I'm referring to this 6 cc card drawing pinger. Note how contextually we are comparing Bottled Cloister and Rod of Nin in the section you are asking about. At no point am I against null rod or bazaar.

When bazaar dumps Rod of Nin into the yard and welder welds the Rod into play, I am pretty sure I would not characterize mana drain as brutal here . . .

[nataz]

If someone could make a viable welder bazaar shop deck I'd love to see it. I've been trying for months and honestly I could never make it competitive with the modern meta game.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

How exactly is mana drain brutal against welder + bazaar?

I have no idea. When I say "blueprintrod" I'm referring to this 6 cc card drawing pinger. Note how contextually we are comparing Bottled Cloister and Rod of Nin in the section you are asking about. At no point am I against null rod or bazaar.

When bazaar dumps Rod of Nin into the yard and welder welds the Rod into play, I am pretty sure I would not characterize mana drain as brutal here . . .

When bazaar dumps anything weldable into your yard with active welder mana drain isn't brutal.... what's your point?  In addition, at this point I'd much rather have 7/10 or stack.

[Tha Gunslinga]

When bazaar dumps Sundering Titan into the yard and welder welds the 7/10 into play, typically you win the game.

[Blue Lotus]

When bazaar dumps Sundering Titan into the yard and welder welds the 7/10 into play, typically you win the game.

but then you don't get to draw a card and play your REAL threats. Duh.

[credmond]

Sundering Titan is a silly suggestion for the variation of stax in question. Titan does go into a welder bomb or TNT version of stax but that's not the variation we are talking about.

Triskellion however is a card that would compete with Rod of Nin in welder bridge stax and good ole trikey may simply outclass rod of nin in overall utility.

But, that would depend on how much the deck wants to rely on cards like cage, which is good these days, and tabernacle, which is good these days.

Like I said, Rod of Nin is very niche, like Null Brooch. Some of its characteristics, like it not being a creature and double hit by artifact and creature kill, could give it the edge over other cards in a particular construction of Stax.

And, like I said before, this card is useless for most versions of Shop decks, like Null Brooch.

[Meddling Mike]

From Demars' M13 set review

I remember back in the days of the SCG Power Nine series Mark Biller constantly building Mishra's Workshop decks and always complaining: "Shops can't draw cards!" As a result, his efforts constantly led him to explore alternate and fringe options such as Mindstorm Crown and Grafted Skullcap as a means of not fizzling out through the mid- and late-game.

Man, would he have been all over this card!

I can't even begin to fathom how much better this card is than cards like Triskelion which provide a similar function at picking off small creatures and controlling the board. Staff of Nin also provides a unique and desirable effect that has always been at a premium in Workshop decks: it draws extra cards while it controls the board.

I think that the Staff is particularly well positioned at fighting Workshop's newest and biggest predator: Strix Control, which packs Goblin Welders, Baleful Strix, and Dark Confidants / Snapcaster Mages. Literally every creature in that deck dies to a tap of the Staff as the Staff simultaneously grinds card advantage. The card is literally a nightmare for Baleful Strix decks.

The other thing is that the Staff gets much, much better in multiples as you can deal more damage, kill bigger monsters, and draw more cards.

I remember that back in the day the best Workshop deck that I built at the end of the Trinisphere era before it got restricted played only Ticking Gnomes, Goblin Welders, and Gorilla Shamans as victory conditions (Ticking Gnomes to kill Control Slavers Goblin Welders which were a big, big problem). The Staff of Nin is so much better at doing what it does than other alternatives that I almost assuredly would have played four copies back in the day.

In particular, I believe that Staff of Nin will find a home in Mishra's Workshop decks that focus more on a prison game plan than straight 'disrupt and beat down,' as the extra cards and ability to control the board are particularly well suited for grinding out opponents in the mid- and late-game.

I think this card is a few years too late. I think before Lodestone Golem was printed and Shops decks were often on hardcore prison strategies this card would have fit right in as a slow win condition much like Barbarian Ring/Crucible used to be. It also would have been more relevant when Goblin Welders were everywhere with Control Slaver and this would be a really elegant answer to that problem. As it stands now, I think new printings like Wurmcoil Engine and Steel Hellkite will just make more sense most of the time as even the more controlling builds of shops are trying to play an aggro game with Lodestone Golem. I could certainly be wrong and the metagame could shift from what I understand it to be to where a 1 toughness creature like Welder/Confidant is very important again, but right now it just seems really underwhelming for 6+ mana invested.

[gkraigher]

Isn't stryx control's kryptonite Triskelion?  I mean they can just weld away the Rod the turn it comes into play and potentially keep control of the board.  Triskelion kills multiple threats immediately.

[Worldslayer]

Card is completely playable even without Welder, in Smokestacks MUD variants. It's an artifact, puts you ahead in resources, and most likely reduces your opponents resources. Definitely run 1-2 whenever I play robots next.

Then again, I think if you're not playing the prison variant of STAX you're not playing the best STAX available, so your mileage may vary and all that.

[MaximumCDawg]

Yeah, I think the people ragging on this card are making the Jace Mistake: valuing each ability on its own merits and deeming it unplayable.  A one-sided howling mine for 6 is probably unplayable, sure.  (See the blue Honden).  However, when it also doubles as removal, then things get interesting.  You can up your card advantage using the same slots in your deck you use for removal. 

Now, that said, I feel like this card costs 1 mana too much to be really good.  At 5, you could reliably play it turn 2, or curve out after a Lodestone Golem.  6 requires factory+tomb+mox or something to play it early.  Then again, you might not want to roll this out early; maybe it's just a late game play to pick up gas. 

[Worldslayer]

Yeah, I think the people ragging on this card are making the Jace Mistake: valuing each ability on its own merits and deeming it unplayable.  A one-sided howling mine for 6 is probably unplayable, sure.  (See the blue Honden).  However, when it also doubles as removal, then things get interesting.  You can up your card advantage using the same slots in your deck you use for removal. 

Now, that said, I feel like this card costs 1 mana too much to be really good.  At 5, you could reliably play it turn 2, or curve out after a Lodestone Golem.  6 requires factory+tomb+mox or something to play it early.  Then again, you might not want to roll this out early; maybe it's just a late game play to pick up gas. 

Absolutely a later-game play. Your first 2-3 turns you just want to be interrupting and setting up smokestack (mishra's motto, never give them an uninterrupted turn, bladdablah). T3+, when your board position is fairly established and/or you're running low on gas, rod is excellent - especially at keeping you ahead of your own soot counters. The fact that it isn't really easy to cast turn 2 is less relevant when you don't really want to be casting it turn 2.