The History of Mishra's Workshop

[doublej20]

I am currently in the process of writing a piece about Mishra's Workshop, and it's history in different decks throughout the past, and would like some help.

I have some information already, but what I would like is an open discussion to attempt to create a timeline of what Workshop-based decks were created and by who. More specifically, for each deck named, I would like to know:
1. The deck name
2. The deck's creator(s)
3. The approximate date(s) of creation
4. The theme of the deck (i.e. what it consists of, whether it is based on Survival and Workshop like TnT, or Mana Drain and Workshop like Weismann's old TOGADIA deck, etc.).

I need your help, so let's start the discussion! If you know of any relevant links (for historical purposes), feel free to post those ones as well. And JPMeyer, I know you have a bunch of this stuff in your archives, so hook a brother upz0rz!

[bebe]

a brief history

this might help ...
,\n\n

[jpmeyer]

I have no idea if Workshop was ever played prior to its unrestriction, but generally the order goes with Andrew Cuneo's U/B Teletubbies (which Dave Price played at the Kuala Lampur Invitational,) followed by Stacker 2, followed by TnT.

[doublej20]

Quote (jpmeyer @ Oct. 01 2003,15:25)I have no idea if Workshop was ever played prior to its unrestriction, but generally the order goes with Andrew Cuneo's U/B Teletubbies (which Dave Price played at the Kuala Lampur Invitational,) followed by Stacker 2, followed by TnT.

@JP: Thanks for that info. I don't really need to know if it was played before it was restricted. Do you happen to have any old decklists of the 'Teletubbies' deck? I am mainly interested in the things you are talking about, post-restriction.

A few follow-up questions for you.
1. When was Teletubbies created (month/year?), and was this based on fast mana from Mana Drains, Tolarian Academy, and Workshops?
2. Is there a Stacker 1, and if so, who invented it, and when? Also, what is the difference between this and Stacker 2?
3. Who invented Stacker 2, and when?
4. Who invented Mexican Christmas, and when? I believe this was the main precursor to TnT, wasn't it?
5. Was TnT created by Benjaminn Rott? When was it initially formed and played?

Thanks in advance to everybody for their help!

[Dante]

Quote (jpmeyer @ Oct. 01 2003,17:25)I have no idea if Workshop was ever played prior to its unrestriction, but generally the order goes with Andrew Cuneo's U/B Teletubbies (which Dave Price played at the Kuala Lampur Invitational,) followed by Stacker 2, followed by TnT.

yes, some decks used it quite successfully, but being restricted, it was just kind of there....

Chris Cade's "Better Lucky than Good" Deck

4 Disenchant
3 Armageddon
1 Balance

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Regrowth
3 Arcane Denial
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister

4 Icy Manipulator
4 Jalume Tome
1 Mirror Universe
4 Mana Crypt
4 Fellwar Stone
3 Sol Grail
4 Black Vise
4 Ankh of Mishra
1 Black Lotus
5 Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Mishra's Workshop
4 City of Brass
4 Strip Mine
            
Sideboard:
3 Atog
1 Arcane Denial
4 Disrupting Scepter
2 Moat
3 COP: Red
2 Jayemdae Tome

This deck was VERY strong, but noticable environment changes were mana crypt ruling (if it was tapped during upkeep, you didn't flip) and Black Vice was unrestricted.

and a variation on "The Deck" using Titania's Song and Abyss instead of Moat/Serra

Blue:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brain Geyser
1 Time Walk
1 TimeTwister
3 Counter Spell
4 Mana Drain
1 Merchant Scroll

White:
1 Balance
1 CoP Red
4 Disenchant

Black:
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Abyss

Green:
1 Regrowth
2 Titania's Song

Artifacts: (non-mana)
1 Ivory Tower
1 Mirror Universe
1 Cyclopean Tomb
2 Disrupting Scepter
3 Icy Manipulator
2 Jayemdae Tome

Mana Suppliers:
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mishra's Workshop
7 5 Mox/Lotus/Sol Ring
2 City of Brass
3 Island
1 Mishra's Factory
2 Plains
2 Strip Mines
1 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Underground Sea

Sideboard:
2 Divine Offering
2 Strip Mine
2 Transmute Artifact
2 Cop Red
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Jester's Cap
1 Millstone
1 Counter Spell
1 CoP White

I won a lot of tournaments and ante play with a deck similar to this last one...

Dante

[Tindemans]

Mud and WelderMud were created by Koen van der Hulst and me, Arthur Tindemans. this was two months and a year ago. actually I just send an article to Starcity two days ago I call the Reference work about Mud. It's about 35 pages lettersize 10 in Wird long, and it contains everything to be said about Mud or WelderMud.

[jpmeyer]

Quote (doublej20 @ Oct. 01 2003,18:43)

Quote (jpmeyer @ Oct. 01 2003,15:25)I have no idea if Workshop was ever played prior to its unrestriction, but generally the order goes with Andrew Cuneo's U/B Teletubbies (which Dave Price played at the Kuala Lampur Invitational,) followed by Stacker 2, followed by TnT.

@JP: Thanks for that info. I don't really need to know if it was played before it was restricted. Do you happen to have any old decklists of the 'Teletubbies' deck? I am mainly interested in the things you are talking about, post-restriction.

A few follow-up questions for you.
1. When was Teletubbies created (month/year?), and was this based on fast mana from Mana Drains, Tolarian Academy, and Workshops?
2. Is there a Stacker 1, and if so, who invented it, and when? Also, what is the difference between this and Stacker 2?
3. Who invented Stacker 2, and when?
4. Who invented Mexican Christmas, and when? I believe this was the main precursor to TnT, wasn't it?
5. Was TnT created by Benjaminn Rott? When was it initially formed and played?

Thanks in advance to everybody for their help!

The March 2000 Teletubbies (built by Cuneo, played by Price):

1 Tolarian Academy
4 Underground Sea
4 Underground River
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Workshop
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring

4 Juggernaut
4 Su-Chi
3 Icy Manipulator
1 Memory Jar

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor

4 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

SIDEBOARD
4 Annul
3 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Windfall
1 Timetwister
1 Black Vise
1 Crumbling Sanctuary
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Triskelion
1 The Abyss

1) See above
2) No.  Stacker 2 is called Stacker 2 because "chicks go wack for the Stack."
3) Me, Spring 2001
4) I have no idea what this is, but in my personal testing anyway prior to the printing of the incarnations Survival-based Workshop beatdown decks were about a turn and a half slower than Stacker 2 so I discarded it.
5) Yes, and after the release of Judgment

[Jacob Orlove]

Quote 4) I have no idea what this is, but in my personal testing anyway prior to the printing of the incarnations Survival-based Workshop beatdown decks were about a turn and a half slower than Stacker 2 so I discarded it.

I think this was actually called "Christmas Tubbies". YOu can find an old deck discussion (in german, but the card names are english), discussing this on morphling.de somewhere. I think benny rott was playing it.

Incidentally, he did pretty well with 4x brainstorm TnT recently.

[TracerBullet]

Mexican Christmas was the original title.  It was created by a guy on BD called "Manic" (I don't remember his real name; I think it was Jeff something).  He named it that (as far as I remember) because it-

A: Had the Presents (Jugs)
B: Had the Mexican National Colors (R/G)
C: Had the Tree (Survival), and
D: Had the migrant workers (the Welders)


As I remember it, a huge number of people got on his case, calling him a racist, until he told them that he was actually married to a Mexican.

It was basically Stacker2 with Survival and Squee.  It was ok, but much slower than modern TnT because of the lack of Anger.

If I had to put a timeframe on it, it was Nov 2000 or 2001, I'm really having a hard time remembering.  I can distinctly remember playing him (Manic) with the deck in February, but I think that would have been Feb 2001.

PM DAT, he might still have an original decklist.  It still had Bolts and Blood Moon maindeck, in addition to the fat dudes.

I always Stacker2 was named as such because it's "The world's strongest fat burner", alluding to the burn and the quick fat.\n\n

[bebe]

The trisk copy decks were the first decks to really abuse Workshops. These go back before Stacker was invented. If you peruse the hitory, it ia actually a time frame with the earliest decks first ( right after the unrestrictioin). That is why some of the decks look pretty inferior as some of the newer cards were not out yet.

[Rico Suave]

Quote (TracerBullet @ Oct. 02 2003,04:33)I always Stacker2 was named as such because it's "The world's strongest fat burner", alluding to the burn and the quick fat.

Yea, and "chicks for wack for the stack" was a common slogan for the  Stacker commercials at the time, which is much more appealing than "the world's strongest fat burner."

I'm not saying that line doesn't work.  In fact, all the different catch phrases is what makes it such a great name.  

Quote The trisk copy decks were the first decks to really abuse Workshops. These go back before Stacker was invented.

Were they really the first to abuse it?  Even if the Trisk-Copy decks were before Stacker, that doesn't mean they before in existence before the Invitational teletubbies deck--which inspired Stacker.  How does it fit on the overall timeline?

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

Quote 5) Yes, and after the release of Judgment

Nope, TNT was first created by Benjamin for Dülmen December 23rd 2001.
In addition MonoU Tubbies and Ur Tubbies (splashing red for welder) were created here before that time (in parts by Benjamin, too) while 4 FoF where legal and kept Legend Blue from dominating here as it did in the US.
Benjamin also created something similar to Stacker2 himself (probably compareable to what Mexican Christmas was for TnT, an untuned independent version).
Decklists of those t3 can be found at www.trader-online.de.

I think Benjamin might clarify, correct or add some of this when he's seen this thread.

[teletubby]

After winning with U/B (2000 Oct 1st, the David Price version), Mono-U (2001, June 10th), Mono-R (2001 June 24th) and U/R-Tubbies (2001 August 26th) at Dülmen, I continued to experiment (R/B went horribly, believe me )

At December 2001 I tried a R/G-Tubbies version and I named it "TnT - Tools 'n Tubbies". At that time something with 4 FoF won the tournament, but I got 6th with that built.

Next month (year), after fixing little mana problems by removing one Wasteland for a forest and without that pesky FoF I won another Dülmen tournament:

Quote
BENJAMIN ROTT (12.01.2002)
"TnT - Tools 'n Tubbies"
1 Regrowth
4 Survival of the Fittest
2 Sylvan Library
1 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Urza's Rage
1 Black Lotus
1 Grim Monolith
4 Juggernaut
1 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Masticore
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Su-Chi
3 Triskelion
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
4 Taiga
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Wasteland
3 Forest

Sideboard
3 Compost
1 Druid Lyrist
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Keldon Vandals
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Bottle Gnomes
2 Tormod's Crypt

Judgment gave the deck another boost and especially the people from Minden (Benjamin Ribbeck, Swen Weinhold, etc) who did not only add Anger, but also Ancestral, Time Walk and Tinker (with the help of Land Grants) had high finishes with the deck that time.\n\n

[carl]

Some friends of mine played U/W workshops decks with some success.
See this report where I play them round 5 and 6.

I believe some French players from Paris played a blue based workshop deck just after it was unrestricted, but I can't find the decklist anymore. I'll edit this post if I can find the decklist again.

[bebe]

Here is an early trisk/copy list. I remember playing against a number of trisk/copy decks and testing the archtype ...

;B/U Artifiact 1.5
;Cernunnos Morrigu
;cmorrigu@hotmail.com
;June 03, 1998
;1
;4th Edition
;

.538 4 Triskelion
.534 4 Tetravus
.514 2 Ornithopter
.512 4 Onulet
.511 1 Obelisk of Undoing
.318 1 Fellwar Stone
.495 1 Feldon's Cane
.492 1 Dragon Engine
.931 1 Dancing Scimitar
.510 4 Mishra's Workshop
.508 4 Mishra's Factory
.47 4 Copy Artifact
.39 4 Clone
.3 3 Animate Dead
.258 4 Underground Sea
.541 1 Urza's Mine
.543 1 Urza's Power Plant
.544 1 Urza's Tower
.126 4 Island
.239 2 Swamp
.48 4 Counterspell
.423 1 Guardian Beast
.117 1 Hypnotic Specter
.179 1 Paralyze
.549 1 Priest of Yawgmoth
.286 1 Will-O'-The-Wisp




here is an interesting bit of history from Azhrei's files ...


azhrei\n\n

[Azhrei]

Oh yeah, feel free to republish my Star City article in its entirety on a different website without permission. Bebe, replace that cut and paste with a link to the appropriate page if you would be so kind. It's not my problem, but the Star City folk dislike having things lifted from their site like that.

[bebe]

My sincere apologies. It is edited.

[rozetta]

It seems a lot of old decks put Copy Artifact to good use. Given that we now have a workshop-castable, weldable copy artifact available in Mirrodin and a few new interesting artifacts coming out, I wonder if it might be possible to re-use this old tech? Off-hand, I'm not sure what card would be optimal to copy, but it's certainly an interesting thought...