Bazaar of Baghdad in anything other than dredge

[LennoxLewis86]

I'm currently busy trying to trade for Bazaars so naturally I'm currently in love with it. I've searched the internet for all the information about Bazaar I could find, simply because I'm so excited I'm finally getting them!

Most of the information about Bazaar is the general kind. It's the card that makes Dredge work, it's a card you can mull down to as the only card in your hand and still win. But besides being a graveyard engine, it's also a draw engine.

The first powerful combination with Bazaar was Squee, Goblin Nabob. Then it was Worldgorger Dragon, and now it's the dredge mechanic. Bazaar has been used in Workshop decks. There was even a time when Bazaar was used in a Tendrils deck. This really intrigued me.

The time of multiple archetypes utilizing Bazaar are long gone. Why is this? I get that Dredge is more powerful then the above decks, but it's much more linear. Is there any merit in trying to use Bazaar of Baghdad as a card to filter your draws and look for game-ending bombs? Has it been tried in recent years?

[Smmenen]

Yes, Bazaar comes up frequently in my History of Vintage series.  http://www.eternalcentral.com/?tag=history-of-vintage. It's used, for example, in the MRB deck with Library of Leng as pseudo Senseis Top.   

It was also used in Type 1 and Type 1.5 Reanimator (see my chapter 1994 & 1997). 

[Samoht]

It's only non dredge use in the modern age is in Marinara Stax to "combo" with Goblin Welder. It is a 1 of tutor-able with Expedition Map. It is fine there, but really only because it has minimal impact if you happen to draw it when you don't need it.

Yes, it used to be in the Intuition/Squee engine for drawing 2 extra cards a turn, but that has faded out. The problem is that the games are generally pushed at a faster tempo and so you don't have the time to put together a 3 card combo that is only card advantage. You'd rather just win the game for three cards. The shift in the TV errata coupled with better Oath targets has forced Blue look to play faster games. The total control decks can't afford the card disadvantage that Bazaar entails, so they also skip it.

It's other major that you pointed out was in Worldgorger Dragon based decks, but due to the prevalence of Dredge hate in most sideboards Dragon is all but gone, if not just gone. You pretty have much have to expect to board into Tezz for g2 and g3, unless you play a faster deck and then you just race with all three combos.

[vaughnbros]

I'm sure there is merit to running bazaar to filter through your library, but bazaar's real power lies in its ability to put cards into your graveyard while digging.  Due to dredge being such a big deck though there is generally a large amount of graveyard hate running around making people avoid other graveyard based decks.  

As for other decks recently that played bazaar I know there was the Minus Six deck that would transform from Worldgorger combo to a Time Vault deck.  Here's a link for that deck http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38969.0.  There were also a couple lists that I saw in the past year that utilized Squee although I'm not sure where to find a deck lists for them.  One was a madness list playing Basking Rootwalla, Life from the Loam and Circular Logic.  The other was in some of the 3 decks 1 box builds by Vishnu Harris that had a re-animator package and accumulated knowledge in them.

I hope this helps and good luck on finding a way to use your bazaar's in a non traditional manner!

[LennoxLewis86]

Thanks for the replies! Bazaar in a vintage madness deck, that's awesome. I'm sure that could be viable and totally unexpected in some metagames.

Since more and more vintage decks tend to be creature or permanent-based, madness could be something worth looking into.

I'll also mess around with a new age version of the Bazaar Storm deck, because it's just awesome. Infernal Tutor, then activate Bazaar in response to get hellbent, I love it.

[Cthulhu1975]

I've also seen Bazaar of Baghdad being used together with Goblin Welder in Two-Card Monte lists, such as in the following link:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44689.msg613351#msg613351

Two-Card Monte is a very interesting deck in my opinion and there are many times I've wanted to sleeve it up for a tournament, but never really got to it.

[tribet]

This guy and list finished 3rd at BOM4 (2011?)

3-Michael Lellouche - Madness

4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Grim Lavamancer
1 Darksteel Colossus
4 Force of Will
4 Circular Logic
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Intuition
1 Tinker
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Life from the Loam
1 Crop Rotation
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
1 Riftsone Portal
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Island
1 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
1 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Bazaar of Bagdad

SB:

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Spell Pierce
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
4 Nature's Claim

[RenatoAmado]

Uba Mask + Bazaar is another combination that you can explore - Uba Mask negates the discard drawback of Bazaar.

Xavier Hurtado made T4 last month with Uba Mask in a 48 players Event (LCV). He wrote a report in Catalán (if you can read spanish is very easy to understand). Here is the link: http://www.eternalcatala.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2283

The list, compiled by PeAch is:

Top 4 - Xavier Hurtado - Uba MUD

4 Ancient Tomb
3 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Buried Ruin
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Smokestack
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
2 Uba Mask

Sideboard:

3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Null Rod
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Relic of Progenitus

[Cruel Ultimatum]

I'll also mess around with a new age version of the Bazaar Storm deck, because it's just awesome. Infernal Tutor, then activate Bazaar in response to get hellbent, I love it.

People used to play sideboard bazaars in storm for the shop matchup as a way to filter past dead draws like moxen with a chalice 0 in play.

[Adan]

The Squeezaar-Engine is noteworthy as well. An example for that would be Oshawa Stompy or Cerebral Assassin

Cerebral Assassin: http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=247&highlight=1#place1

Oshawa Stompy: http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=291&highlight=2#place2

There has also been a Replenish.dec:

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=263&highlight=5#place5

...and Reanimator!

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=87&highlight=5#place5

Well, it's a bit dated, but it's pretty cool to see. Vintage wasn't near as broken as it is nowadays.