A real man's Rod Aggro

[Negator13]

Well with all the current hype about Null Rod, and the advent of decks such as UW Rod Lions and Rod Oath, I figured I mise well make a Workshop Rod Aggro deck.

Here it is:

Cards that let you play other cards (28)

4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
8 SoLoMoxCrypt

Cards that beat (12)

4 Goblin Welder
4 Juggernaut
2 Razormane Masticore
2 Sundering Titan

Cards that lock (7)

3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Null Rod
1 Trinisphere

Cards that find cards that beat or lock (13)

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Intuition
1 Tinker

Cards that you cant use Game 1 (15...)

2 Duplicant
2 REB
2 Pyroblast
3 Rack and Ruin
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Idunno



As you can see the deck is built to make full use of Null Rod without being hurt by it. Besides the 8 artifact accelerators, nothing gets touched by Rod. Razormane and Titan complement Juggernaut, instead of the usual Trisk/Karn configuration, and can be cheated into play with Welder via Thirst or Intuition. Speaking of Intuition, it's amazing. The big beaters come in 2's so you can search for 2 of them with Welder out and gaurantee one in the yard. Also, if you have CoW out, you can go for Academy, Strip, Ring and commence winning.

I shoved DSC in cuz I was already running BS, TFK, and Tinker, so why not. He can easily be cut for just about anything... another land/Mana Vault, the 4th Rod, Shaman, Trisk, whatever.

Lotsa people are gonna be quick to say "there ain't no basic lands" but this is Workshop Aggro. The most basics I've ever seen in a good list are 1 Island, and what is that gonna do? I'm running Ring over it and its much better. You have Crucible and a quick clock, nonbasic hate shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The board is kinda thrown together but you can sub in the Dupes for Razormanes against big guys, you have your basic REBs and R+R's, Chalice comes in on the play or against combo, and there's 2 metagame slots.... Shaman, Crypt, Pillar, Hurkyl's, BEB, I dunno. Something.



I think this is better than conventional Chalice WS Aggro because A. Null Rod is better than Chalice when your on the draw or dont have it in your opener and B. because Rod doesnt touch you at all, whereas Chalice often strands stuff in your hand.

Discuss?

EDIT: I cut DSC for an Island. Much better.

[MoxMonkey]

Is the combination of Fetchs + Brainstorms better than a 5 Color Mana base and Balance, Crop Rotation, Black Tutors Yawg will?  Have you tested the 5 Color Version?

[Negator13]

Well its the same scenario between Gruba Stax and 5c Stax... 5c Stax can't use Rod nearly as effectively as Mono Red or GR Stax because it depends way more on the colored moxen to cast its cards. Going 5c here would make Rod way more harmful to yourself.

BTW I think cutting the DSC for an Island is the way to go in my list because blue can be quite hard to come by and DSC really isnt much of a better Tinker target than Titan, and cant be Welded in.

[mr_rogers]

Hey, I'm a big fan of MWS decks in genral, but love Workshop-Aggro the best.  I have to say I like your list a lot, it seems very strong especially with the Null Rods MD.  I was wondering if you have tested SoR in the deck?  I really like it in 'shop-aggro as another sort of lock piece.  I'm not sure what to cut to run 4 of them besides DSC and maybe one Titan.

[Negator13]

I haven't tested SoR, but it seems like it would really fuck up your own curve because the deck needs 3 non WS mana to cast alot of its spells.

Also dont make the mistake of cutting 1 Titan becuase that means you cant Entomb it with Intuition.

[freakish777]

The 5 Color version also offers you Chains of Mephistopheles along with other enchantment lock pieces such as Choke, In the Eye of Chaos,Suppression Field and some others I'm probably forgetting.  Rod + Chains shuts a lot of stuff down, and suppression field should cripple your opponents mana base even further.

[nataz]

I have never been happy with blue draw in a WS aggro deck besides Brainstorm because of the 3cc non-workshop cost. I think this gets worse if you play null rod.

I think for a draw engine I would much rather have something based around bazaar of baghdad + tutors and 5 color, or if you insist on running fetchlands maybe use top (akin to the dreidel deck that Jacob had a while back)

taking out your blue draw (4TFK, 2 Intuition, 4 brainstorm and obv. adding 5 color lands in place of fetch + volc) would give you 10 free spots.

you could add:

3 bazaar
1 vamp
1 imp
1 demonic tutor
1 Consultation

1 balance
1 Will (maybe)
and 1x something else (crop rotation, fastbond, more mana, mox monkey, sensei's tops etc)

edit:can't count

[Buttons]

The 5 Color version also offers you Chains of Mephistopheles along with other enchantment lock pieces such as Choke, In the Eye of Chaos,Suppression Field and some others I'm probably forgetting.  Rod + Chains shuts a lot of stuff down, and suppression field should cripple your opponents mana base even further.

Enchantments are hard to deal with, too.

Chains + Rod is a house, and no one's done it yet.  *wink*

[49 Cents]

Some Black Fish lists did it?

Of course, that deck never performed, but still