Hi, I've actually toy with similar ideas my self. You didn't mention this is your post, but I just wanted to make sure you were aware that you can hard cast a dreadnought, then weld one in with the trigger on the stack to sac to the other and keep the 1st. In the same way you can also vial in a second nought.
Cool. It's always a good sign when other people are independently heading in the same direction.
Thanks for the tip! I hadn't thought of that.
How is your list going? I had originally also planned on cramming a Bazaar Engine into it.... but yeah the deck is pretty packed as is. Are you using Intuition or Thirst? If you're using Intuition are you using DA or AK? While AK for 1 is horrible, it's something. Whereas on a mana light hand DA's might sit there for awhile. If I felt more confident about doing relevant things in the early game, I'd probably go for DA. But as of the moment I'd like to have something to do when I'm at 2 mana.
Of course, being a Drain deck doing nothing on two is a quasi-justifiable event. And cantripping isn't that much of an advantage.
Things look okay so far, but I think you are overlooking some more optimal cards to use.
(1) Illusionary mask seems like it would be better here than stifle. In addition to masking dreadnaught into play you could also mask welder into play. Also, once welder is in play mask can always be welded back in should it be countered. The mask is also an artifact that goes great with your TFK draw engine. Stifle goes better in decks that put pressure on the mana with 5x wastes and life from the loam or crucible. You seem to be going for more aggro here and would benefit from more interaction with welder/TFK.
(2) To further the aggro bent to this deck you might consider fling as a one of, but that needs to be tested since fling is theoretically a weak card.
(3) Also, time walk seems like an auto-include in a deck with big fatties. And what about mystical tutor for grabbing intuition, or ancestral, or tinker, or fling, or TFK?
(4) Also, trinket mage works well with what you got so far, so you should throw some copies of him in here as a tutor for dreadnaught, top, lotus, or the tormod's crypt you should add.
Just some things to consider. Good luck with the deck.
(1)
Mask - I had never been a fan of Mask-Nought, but the synergies you mention (being an artifact and a Weldable target) are important.
At the moment though, what I like about Stifle is it's utility. It 1) stops Wasteland 2) acts like a Wasteland (on fetches) 3) stops storm Triggers 4) can stop a Bazaar/Oath/Welder activation (buying you a valuable turn) 5) pitches to FOW 6) works with Dreadnought. So I like it in the way that it is a pretty versatile card. True, the deck doesn't touch the mana denial element at all, but a 1 mana Sinkhole can't hurt and can randomly win games. Plus, their presence makes opposing players have to play around it.
I do like the idea of Mask though and may inevitably include it either in conjunction with or replacing Stifle. The main advantage I see is that you can just blindly play a Mask when you draw it, since the following Dreadnought (whether immediate or many turns down the lines) would be uncounterable. However, the versatility of Stifle wins me over.
(2)
Fling would be a very good choice actually, though I'd likely only incorporate it as part of a Wish board, not main deck.
Drain -> Wish -> Fling -> Dreadnought for 12 to the face. At 5 mana to do so (6 if you're doing it in response to the trigger) you don't even need to Drain for much. Of course, this leads me to....
(3)
Mystical and Time Walk were both originally in the deck (as was Scroll and Ponder). Preferentially the first cards go in would be 1) Time Walk 2) Mystical 3) 4) Ponder. The question is really what do I want to cut. Running Intuition and Thirst I ran all the 0 Mana sources, and I'm not even running the full 4 Intuition/Thirst's yet.
At the moment the first cut would be the 2nd Top or the 3rd Intuition for a Time Walk and Mystical.
I have this irrational love for Top so that 2nd top is really difficult to let go of. The Intuitions have been a bit clunky, and going down to 2 would justify switching from AK to DA which I'm sort of leaning towards.
The more I think about it the more I think that's the right call.
(4)
Going with Trinket imo pushes me towards a more Fish-style deck. Of course, I am looking to build a deck using Dark Confidant (draw), Welder (power), and Trinket Mage (toolbox). But that's a different deck. Crypts will probably be in there eventually (possibly cutting land), but at the moment I can live with Game 1 loss to Ichorid. However, I'll probably play some bounce before Crypts, at least as far as maindeck goes.
