Mono-Brown Masknought: Psuedo-Stax Workshop build

[Charles Manson]

I've played against this somewhat rogue build at a local tourney a few months back and lost horribly to it. The deck was a Workshop build and was very similiar to Stax. The only difference from Stax and this build was the kill condition, 4 Illusionary Mask and 4 Phyrexian Dreadnought. This deck established control with all of the Stax components then went on to play a Phyrexian Dreadnought and smashed face with it. The deck was amazing and placed first in the local tourney with over 30 people. Here's the decklist.

Mono-Brown Masknought v.1.0

Lands/Mana:26
7 Solomoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 City of Traitors
3 Quicksand

Creatures/Kill Cards:12
4 Metalworker
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Illusionary Mask

Stax Components:15
4 Tangle Wire
4 Sphere of Resistence
3 Trinisphere
4 Smokestacks

Draw Engine:5
4 Mind's Eye
1 Memory Jar

Secret Tech Card:2
2 Crucible of Worlds

Sideboard:15
4 Razormane Masticore
1 Quicksand
1 Trinisphere
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Tormod's Crypt

The only difference between my deck and the person who first invented the deck was that I chose to run Mind's Eye over Grafted Skullcap. I playtested a bit with Grafted Skullcap and found myself discarding needed cards at the end of turn. I then chose to replace the Skullcaps with Mind's Eye and it's been working wonders for me ever since.

Another difference this deck has is the inclusion of Crucible of Worlds. Crucible of Worlds works great in the deck. I find myself recurring Wasteland/Strip Mine, recurring Quicksand, which is another tech card, all the way to replaying sacrificed City of Traitors.

Another tech card, which was originally in the deck were the Ensnaring Bridge in the sideboard. This card single handedly won my opponent the game the second match I played against him. He had a Bridge in play which prevented me from attacking then simply sacrificed it when I was low on permanents due to Smokestack. He then played a Dreadnought then proceeded to smash face with it.

This deck has all the control elements of Stax with an excellent kill card. I usually find myself playing a Phyrexian Dreadnought early in the game with all the Stax components already in play. I've made several improvements already from its original version such as running Mind's Eye instead of Grafted Skullcap, etc. I think this Psuedo-Stax Workshop build could perform quite well in the current metagame. Feel free to post comments and suggestions. Peace.

EDIT:-3 Chalice of the Void, +3 Trinsphere (maindeck). -1 Chalice of the Void, -3 Trinsphere, +4 Razormane Masticore (sideboard).

[Sammy]

Ahhh that's so awesome, but mostly because I <3 Mask/Nought.

It seems very solid, but you may want to include Staff of Domination, because it is the sexy synergy in that deck. Although it may be more of a 'win more' thing, but I'm not sure.

[AngryPheldagrif]

I'll just give you a nice innocent warning from Team Drunken Dreadnought: The first and foremost thing that we discovered during our original testing was that a deck without fairly extensive draw or tutoring cannot support the MaskNought combo. There's just no way you're going to pull it off with any degree of consistency, as you lack even the basic tutors. Also, Chalice of the Void and Illusionary Mask are terrible synergy since Chalice for 2 is often the most powerful choice.

-Dan

[Charles Manson]

I'll just give you a nice innocent warning from Team Drunken Dreadnought: The first and foremost thing that we discovered during our original testing was that a deck without fairly extensive draw or tutoring cannot support the MaskNought combo. There's just no way you're going to pull it off with any degree of consistency, as you lack even the basic tutors. Also, Chalice of the Void and Illusionary Mask are terrible synergy since Chalice for 2 is often the most powerful choice.

-Dan

Have you personally playtested this build? The 4 Mind's Eye in the deck are sufficient enough draw for the deck to work properly. Mind's Eye to say the least works as a one way Howling Mine if not better. I've goldfished with this deck numerous times and I've found no problem getting the combo into play. From my knowledge this deck is very consistent and viable to say the least and worked well establishing control before setting up the combo.

As for the Chalice interacting with the combo pieces? I can easily make a few adjustments to the deck and replace them with Trinisphere which seems like a better choice.

[Smmenen]

Do you really like Masknaught? Becuase, personally, I think the cards are terrible in the current environment.

I have found both Ravager and Titan to be about 30x better.

[Charles Manson]

Do you really like Masknaught? Becuase, personally, I think the cards are terrible in the current environment.

I have found both Ravager and Titan to be about 30x better.

This isn't just any masknought deck. This is Stax with a superior kill condition. The Ensnaring Bridge in the sideboard pushes this deck over the edge against Ravager and Titan. Plus the maindecked and sideboard Quicksand is secret tech against Fish, Gay/R, WTF.DEC and Landstill.

[Jacob Orlove]

Moved to newbie. There's some basic stuff here that needs to be sorted out.

[AngryPheldagrif]

Do you really like Masknaught? Becuase, personally, I think the cards are terrible in the current environment.

I have found both Ravager and Titan to be about 30x better.

This isn't just any masknought deck. This is Stax with a superior kill condition. The Ensnaring Bridge in the sideboard pushes this deck over the edge against Ravager and Titan. Plus the maindecked and sideboard Quicksand is secret tech against Fish, Gay/R, WTF.DEC and Landstill.

Ensnaring Bridge is cute, but it is not a good card. It's got terrible synergy with Mind's Eye, your single draw spell, and it means you need 2 Dreadnoughts to win. All that this does is kill aggro stuff. Not exactly a noble goal in a Tog and Combo filled format.

As for your other points, mono-brown MaskNought (well to be fair, ours had Welders) was the first thing we tested. And it was awful. It just sat there and pooped out prison stuff, before eventually winning around turn 20, the few times in won at all. It just isn't an optimal win condition, nor is mono-brown really that optimal of a deck. It has a high tendency of playing a couple Tangle Wires, then crapping out and sitting there while your opponent goes off and wins. Trinisphere is vital, at very least.

-Dan

[Sammy]

I've found with playing Ninja Mask, that Noughts totally hose 7/10's. I do not fear them at all.

[Charles Manson]

Ensnaring Bridge is cute, but it is not a good card. It's got terrible synergy with Mind's Eye, your single draw spell, and it means you need 2 Dreadnoughts to win. All that this does is kill aggro stuff. Not exactly a noble goal in a Tog and Combo filled format.

Ensnaring Bridge doesn't interact with Mind's Eye as much as you think. Taking into consideration that drawing a card is totally optional makes the two cards worth playing with each other. I also find myself drawing cards but playing my entire hand which keeps the interaction with Ensnaring Bridge to a minimum.

As for your other points, mono-brown MaskNought (well to be fair, ours had Welders) was the first thing we tested. And it was awful. It just sat there and pooped out prison stuff, before eventually winning around turn 20, the few times in won at all. It just isn't an optimal win condition, nor is mono-brown really that optimal of a deck. It has a high tendency of playing a couple Tangle Wires, then crapping out and sitting there while your opponent goes off and wins. Trinisphere is vital, at very least.

I found myself playing a Dreadnought by the 4th or 5th turn and smashed face with it way before the 20th turn. I don't know what kind of build you were playing because I never had that problem. As for Trinisphere, very true, I will replace the Chalices with them. How many do you think I should run 3 or 4?