So, the Other Combo in SHA (Metalworker + Mantle)

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I'm experimenting with another combo for my MUD deck.  It involves Metalworker and Umbral Mantle.  It seems like a natural pairing.  I don't have too much experience playing MUD, so let me ask some veterans.  Is there a place for this in the deck?  With a Shop in play, is this a viable turn 2 kill for MUD?  Or other Shop decks?

Peace,

-Troy

[Xyre]

Well, part of the problem is that you really don't have anything to cut for Mantle. While it's nice to gain infinite mana and get an infinite/infinite creature, the odds that you'll assemble that combo in a deck with zero card draw are tremendously low. And in a format like this one, I don't think MUD can afford the cost of going "Workshop, Metalworker, Mantle, go." You're just asking to get steamrolled by a faster deck, blocked by a Colossus, etc. etc.

In order to compete, MUD decks need to play 9spheres on turn 1, not set up a janky combo.

[wiley]

The question to ask is why would you want this over staff of domination (which some builders of MUD don't even like).  With mantle you get infinite mana and an infinite/infinite creature, with staff you get infinite mana, infinite life and you get to draw as many cards as you want.  I would say the latter is the better choice as staff isn't totally worthless without worker, while mantle is.

[madmanmike25]

So Metalworker+Umbral Mantle can generate infinite mana with only 2 artifacts in hand... interesting.  At first I thought Lodestone Mry might come in handy, but there are better uses for infinite mana I imagine.  Keep looking.