[Deck]Workshop Aggro (Mono Red)

[Mantis]

EDIT: I updated the matchups a little bit. /EDIT.

So for the past few months I've basically been playing a ton of Legacy but whenever I got the chance to play Vintage it was always with Shop Aggro. The reason: this is the only truly powerful deck that you can build with 10 proxies.
Unfortunately I don't have the chance to compete in many tournaments due to work and school, but the tournament in which I did play I ended up finishing second (around 40 peeps).

In the light of the recent strong finish by Ray Robillard in the last Myriad tournament, I updated my list a lot. His list for referance can be found here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37215.0

Here is my current list at the moment:

    4  Mishra's Workshop
    6  Mountain
    2  Ancient Tomb
    4  Wasteland
    1  Strip Mine
    1  Tolarian Academy
    9  SolMoxLotusVaultCrypt

    4  Goblin Welder
    3  Solemn Simulacrum
    4  Triskelion
    4  Magus of the Moon
    3  Gorilla Shaman

    4  Thorn of Amethyst
    4  Chalice of the Void
    1  Trinisphere
    2  Sword of Fire and Ice
    1  Memory Jar
    3  Sensei's Divining Top

// Sideboard
SB: 4  Viashino Heretic
SB: 3  Sphere of Resistance
SB: 4  Flametongue Kavu
SB: 4  Tormod's Crypt

Decktheory:
The goal of this deck is quite simple: deny your opponent of mana and give him a short window of time to recover with your aggressive threats. This approach requires you to have a nice mixture of disruption, threats and mana. With my old version (without Tops and Trisk #3 and 4, Shaman #3 but with 4 Spheres and 4 Juggernauts), I often had problems getting the correct mixture. The new version is much better at doing this and results have proven this to me as my matchup percentages have skyrocketed.

As said before I took my inspiration from Ray Robillards decklist. What he did was take out the Juggernauts AND the Sphere of Resistance. I was very skeptic at first but due to my test rates dropping with the deck I tried the changes out anyway. I personally thought Magus of the Moon was just less good, boy was I wrong.  I started of playing his list and quickly noticed how much smoother the deck flowed. No longer was I locked under my own Sphere of Resistance.
I still can't explain why Juggernaut isn't good right now, but I have never missed him one bit. Triskelion in his slot is just awesome right now as he's not only a total beating against anything aggro, he is also a pain in the ass for the two premier control decks out there: Tez and Painter. Reasoning: Triskelion beats up Tezzeret the Seeker and can ping Painter's Servant. Generally speaking Triskelion is roughly the same clock as Juggernaut but instead of the drawback he has an awesome ability. I like that trade.

Sensei's Divinning Top is another very important inclusion. The problem with Workshop Aggro is that it relies on having the right mixture between mana, threats and disruption. Sensei's Top provides exactly what you need. It also let's you dig deep and find whatever you are looking for. The Welder tricks are just icing on the cake. The Tops were what my deck was lacking and now it flows awesome, I am very happy about this switch.

Gorilla Shaman is terrific right now, I don't think there has ever been a better metagame for this fellow. He disrupts your opponents manabase while putting up a clock at the same time. Ray had 2, I decided that I really wanted 3 and cut the Wheel of Fortune for an extra Shaman. Wheel was kinda meh as I really didn't want my opponent to have 7 fresh cards most of the time. Still I'm not decided on Wheel, as it's pretty awesome to open with Mox, Sol Ring, Mountain --> Wheel on the play. But again, the danger of cool things comes in and decided Gorilla Shaman was the better pick.

The only thing I really wanted to change was the sideboard. Basically, the maindeck is built to try to take care of Drain based control. The sideboard is more to shore up the Aggro/Fish, Ichorid, Storm and Workshop matchups. I found REB effects to be clunky, Gaea's Blessing to be unneccesary and Tormod's Crypt better than Leyline against Ichorid especially with the Sensei's Tops. Flametongue Kavu is my very own piece of technology and he is there to stop the huge amount of random aggro and Fish that usually can be found at T1 tourneys in Holland.

Test results:
Now, I have a hard time telling if my testing results are really accurate as much of my testing has been performed at MWS. The quality of opponents there is really inconsistent, but so far I have a very positive record against, well all of the decks.

The problems I've encountered are first and foremost: Tinker. Tinker is a huge pain for this deck as the only outs are really preventing it from getting played with Chalice, mana disruption or Shaman away all their artifacts OR Goblin Welder. The next problem is Oath of Druids, basically if this comes down quickly enough there's not much you can do, Chalice and Magus are great solutions to prevent Oath from ever hiting play. But in the Oath matchup you need your fair share of luck as there's really nothing you can do if they just draw solid. Another classic problem is Trygon Predator, but the sideboard greatly helps in this respect as postboard you have Trisk, Kavu and Welder to neuter the Predator. Magus of the Moon can also often prevent it from hitting play.

The deck strengths are that it really punishes sloppy play from your opponent. If an opponent doesn't play his best game, he will stand very little chance as the mana/spell denial gives a very short window for casting the correct spells. This might be a good explanation for the deck's success at MWS though, as people are generally less focussed when they play MWS than when they play at a tournament (and yeah the quality argument).

Good matchups include Dredge (just about any card in your deck is a threat to them), Shaymora and Fish decks. Tezzeret is another matchup that I think is good but really depends on how much and which hate they have and bring in.

Opposing Shop can go either way, it really depends on the version but 5C Stax is a good matchup and mono Brown seems to be slightly unfavorable.

Oath is a poor matchup just as TPS, which could be improved.

I'm interested to see what other people think of this deck and it's place in the current metagame.

Thanks for reading,
Mantis.

[beder]

Hi mantis,

One remark on that build that I like (I have always liked the red shop builds) :
I am not so sure about the 4 welders in a build that :
- does not have a mechanism in order to discard artifact,
- does not have super big robot (sundering, ...)
- does not have artifacts that really like being removed from board and then returned (tangle, smokestack or even uba's mask...)

In this build, welder mainly helps you nullifying opponent's counter and sometimes dealing with tinker. But given that part of your key cards - gorilla shaman, magus - are not even artifact, I am not so sure it is sufficent to justify the use of 4 welders. Of course, there are the tricks with triskell, sensei and solemn, but again, is this sufficent to decide using 4 slots?

Just my two cents

Nicolas

EDIT : ok, i thought a little bit more about the use of welders in this build and I precise my position : given that all the threats of the current top deck "Tez" are artifacts, welder is a very efficent defense against it (combined with shaman). So it is perhaps a good call in such a meta.

[Kotch]

I'm currently testing a similar list :

    4  Mishra's Workshop
    6  Mountain
    2  Ancient Tomb
    4  Wasteland
    1  Strip Mine
    1  Tolarian Academy
    9  SolMoxLotusVaultCrypt

    4  Goblin Welder
    4  Solemn Simulacrum
    4  Juggernaut
    3  Magus of the Moon
    3  Gorilla Shaman
    3  Razormane Masticore

    4  Thorn of Amethyst
    4  Sphere of Resistance
    1  Trinisphere
    3  Tangle Wire

SB: 3  Null Rod
SB: 4  Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1  Magus of the Moon
SB: 3  Lava Dart
SB: 2  Red Elemental Blast or 2 Viashino Heretic
SB: 2  Pyroblast or 2 Umezawa's Jitte

Some comments :

I totally agree with you about the 3 Shamans/4Welders inclusion, in a Painter/Tezzeret/combo metagame. My idea was to increase these matchups by including Null Rod in the sideboard, which seems to be a very good choice such as Shamans+Welders strategy. Null Rod is also very good in mirror, nullifying Trikes, Metalworker, and hosing mana bases with Magus. I strongly recommend you to test this approach.

3 Shamans also allows you to destroy one of your own Mox, to trick with Simulacrum and get a draw engine.

Sword of Fire and Ice? I really dislike this card, as its purpose is to deal with Aggro matchups, which run Null Rod. Its casting + activation cost takes you one turn, and the condition to "touch" opponent to be efficient is awful. I agree that SoFaI puts a bigger clock on opponent's head, but this deck runs enough dudes in that purpose! I definitely prefer Tangle Wire which is a good lock component, combining well with Welder too.

I agree that playing Sphere of Resistance AND Magus of the Moon Maindeck can be problematic with 6CC spells like Triskelion. That's why I cut them and play Razormane instead. It comboes well with Welder, Null Rod, deals with Painter/Heretic/Trygon, is bigger than Tarmogoyf with his first strike ability, and beats harder than Triskelion without getting smaller as his ability resolves... And costs 1 less to play, allowing you to play the full 9 Spheres to maximise mana denial effects. His discarding effect is ridiculous compared to the benefits.

That's also why I choose to run 4 Simulacrums, to get quickly many lands on board especially with Magus, and to have the possibility to play Razormane. Playing "only" 8 red mana sources (6 mountains + 2 artifacts) MUST be compensated by the 4 Simulacrums, as the amount of red spells maindeck + sideboard is important.

Tangle Wire is far too good in my opinion to be unplayed. It is a huge lock component combining with Spheres/Shamans/Wastelands, buying so much time, retarding Tinker/Oath of Druids/Trygon/Energy Flux and every sorcery-speed spell, knocking down Mana Drain and often Force of Will with a Sphere... all these things that SoFaI can't do.

I only play 3 Magus maindeck because you can rarely play it on turn 1, and because it can be useless in some matchups, especially Aggro. Even sometimes, you will prefer to Waste/Strip rather than play your Magus. The 4th is in sideboard.

About the sideboad options :
Null Rod : incredible in the current powerized metagame! and a very good surprise effect especially vs Workshop.decks! The best sideboard card in my opinion!
Tormod's Crypt : with Welder, it seems to be the best slot vs Ichorid.
Magus : the 4th, no need to comment.
Lava Dart : I wanted to get a good answer vs Control Slaver AND aggro options like Kataki, Dark Confidant... Since Pyroclasm is painful for me too, Lava Dart is really good especially with Magus, it is also very good in mirror, dealing with Welders/Shamans and even Metalworker. A very suprising and efficient sideboard option.
Pyroblast/REB : best option vs opponent's sideboard options : Hurkyl's Recall, Rebuild, Chain of Vapor, Echoing Truth, Trygon Predator, Energy Flux... and still very good vs Tinker, Tral, counters...
Viashino Heretic : not played in my current version as 3 Null Rods, 3 Shamans, 4 Welders, 4 Magus, and 3 Lava Darts are enough in mirror matchups. But, Chalice of the Void at 1 can be very problematic...
Umezawa's Jitte : far better than Sword of Fire and Ice in dealing with creatures, as you don't have to touch opponent! Not played in my current version, hoping that Razormane and Lava Dart can be enough...

About Sensei Divining Top and Chalice of the Void :
I find Sensei D-Top interesting, but with so few shuffling/drawing effects...... Anyway, as Null Rod is my best postboard card I wouldn't play them. For the same reason, I wouldn't play CotV with sooo many 1CC cards, prefering Null Rod to deal with Jewelry.

Very nice deck and interesting approach anyway! 

[waywreth]

Another version of the deck I saw ran Gathan Raiders, which serves a few purposes... it's easy to put into play with the off color moxen, and can become very large when you dump your entire hand (which I saw happens quite a bit).  It also helps to put an artifact in the graveyard if you have a welder in play (due to the morph cost being discard a card).

The Oath matchup is bad, but if you have cards like Spawning Pit or Greater Gargadon in the sideboard and/or Mishra's Factory in the main, it helps immensely.

[Mantis]

@Beder:
Goblin Welder is awesome. I'll go over some of the matchups to show you why it's so awesome.
Let's start with Stax, this matchup often just comes down to whoever wins the Welder war. Shaman + Welder just spells gg, as you can destroy a Mox and Weld the mox back in at the expense of an artifact, eat the Mox etc.
Random Aggro/Fish: probably going to be a war of attrition, having Welder means in the long game you can re-use your Solemns and Trisks at the expense of Moxen or Thorns. It also neuters Trygon Predator.
Tez/Painter; serves to stop Tinker/Colossus and get into play countered artifacts. Stopping Tinker/Colossus is essential here, as it's their only easy way around your lockpieces and Shamans. Their other kill mechanism require a lot more investment.

@Kotch:
Lots to respond to here.
A case can be made for many of your choices, for example I can see your point about the 4th Magus, SoFaIs and the Razormanes. But remember, my version doesn't play Sphere of Resistance, which means I'm having a much easier time casting these spells. When I ran 4 Spheres, the Magus and the SoFaI's were on the chopping block as well, together with the Trike. Now, it's not all that hard to cast them. I think I like Triskelion better than Razormane, mainly due to the Trikes effect being at instant speed. It also doesn't have such a major drawback, I mean discarding a card every turn with no draw is just a big pain in the ass. I'm still not 100% sure about the Sword of Fire and Ice though, and they may be cut in the end, for now I like them and they have been serving me well. They are mainly there to just put up a huge clock.

You miss Chalice of the Void, I can not understand why you would not want to run that card. Please note that I almost never set my Chalice at 1, usually I either set them at 0 if I have a Thorn, don't have a Shaman or if I'm playing against Storm combo OR I set them at 2 against almost everything. I only run 4 Thorns that are CMC 2 and they really cripple a lot of decks. In the lategame I set it at 3 to make sure my opponent stays under my lock and can't Tinker or Will himself out. I've had a ton of games where I had like 2 or 3 Chalices on the board and my opponent just could not cast spells anymore. Set at 1 I hurt myself a lot as with 3 Tops, 4 Welders and 3 Shamans I probably run more 1 CMC spells than any other deck out there. Chalice is also my mainplan against Oath and is even good against random aggro at 1 or 2. I really think Chalice is just strictly better than Wire in this deck. Note the synergy with Top as you can just elect to not draw the cards Chalice is set to.

Other than that please try out Memory Jar. I missed the card at first but it's downright impressive. I have even decked Ichorid twice with Jar haha.

I tried out Null Rod but found that it hurt myself alot. Basically my list omits cards that hurt myself as much as my opponent, like Sphere and Rod (because I have tried it). Doing that enables me to break the symmetry, cards like Magus, Thorn and Chalice (especially with Top), hardly hurt me. Top also allows me to cut the 4th Solemn as I can search for a red source, I mean Solemn is probably the weakest card in the deck but you just need it to get the clock ticking.

I have tried a similair approach to yours as can be seen here: http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=968 but this approach to be much, much better.

I do have a question for you though; how are the REBs and Pyroblasts working out for you and what do you board out for them?

[nineisnoone]

Have you tested Bazaar + Crucible of Worlds?

Crucible helps your mana denial strategy with Waste/Strip.

Bazaar can pitch excess lands and artifacts to be Crucibled/Welded back into play.  Sure it becomes a Mountain post-magus, but that's a play call.  Mostly it just seems like the better play call because it's a lot faster to dig than with Sensei, which you don't even have fetchlands to synergize with.

3  Razormane Masticore

Is there a reason you prefer Razormane Masticore over Masticore?  I'm testing a completely different deck, but I ended up prefering Masticore for it's ability to regenerate.  Very relevant as far as Ancient Grudge, Seal of Primordium, Rack and Ruin, etc etc.  It's also even cheaper than Razormane.  It's a bit expensive to hit a 3 toughness creature, but that's rarely relevant I find.  Razormane has the advantage of likely killing Tarmogoyf on the block, but Masticore can still block it and regenerate. 

[Mantis]

Bazaar + Crucible would require 8 slots, to free that up a ton of components have to be taken out. That probably mean taking out creatures. This way you give your opponent way more time to excecute his gameplan. To make up for the time you give your opponent, you will in turn have to add more lock components. Thus you are just shifting towards a Stax approach. Not that Stax is bad or anything, but I prefer the aggressive approach.

[nineisnoone]

I was thinking my 5 Sensei/Swords + 5 Bazzar/Crucible (3/2).

The loss of swords hurts your aggrssiveness but bazaar just seems to be the more aggressive draw card

[zeus-online]

Have you tried boarding REB's in against tezzeret? And if so, how did it work?

I like the deck list though, might even test it out.

How is the combo match-up? I.E. TPS, Long and ad nauseam?

You mentioned TPS, but it didn't seem like you've tested against it.

/Zeus

[Mantis]

Did test the REBs and I did not like them, reason is that I just don't want to keep red mana open also they can become quite tricky to play with multiple Spheres out. I guess I should give them another shot as the deck has changed signifficantly and my plan of dropping Chalice @ 1 against decks is non existent. I usually set Chalice at either 0 or 2 against Tez. I also don't run the Sphere of Resistance maindeck anymore. So that probably warrants the testing of REB again. I really don't know what to take out though, I guess you could take out the Flametongue Kavus or the Heretics depending if Shop and Aggro decks show up in your meta.

I'm currently 4-1 in games against TPS, but that's too little results against players I don't know the names of to claim it's a good matchup. A play I made two times in the game was to start with Shop + Mox + Chalice for 0, tap Shop for Top, peek with Mox, reorder and draw into Thorn (or Sphere postboard), play off 2 mana floating.

That also pretty much explains my love for Top, being able to make plays like that is just awesome. The plan of this deck is basically to just play out your hand ASAP and get the beats on. Bazaar slows you down by a ton and doesn't allow you to do this. Crucible is pretty much a dead draw without Bazaar or Strip Mine and even with Bazaar it's often not that good. Crucible really needs Smokestack to be busted. Bazaar is pretty awful with Magus as well. I just don't think that engine fits the decks gameplan, but it is very good in RG Stax however because of Smokestack.

[suffocation2157]

So i finally decided to take 5 minutes a sign up here...i check this site out EVERYDAY and never took the time to sign up *lol* (FYI- my name is jason whealtey i'm 22, a chef and i live in vancouver canada)

I've been playing every possible combination of workshop aggro & Stax you can think of over the last 8 months. Even though i like the idea of Stax better i find that workshop aggro just does the job better. I am going to try and quickly sum up a lot of the things that I've discovered/thought about over the last little while

Starting off, these are the decks that i am expecting to see more than any others 1. Tez 2. Fish 3. CS 4. TPS 5. Dredge and of coarse my most hated match up 6. OATH. I can't remember a time when oath didn't run over shops. Basically i will eather devote a lot of my SB to it or...just pray that i get a god hand and they get mana flooded. With so many solid decks, and oath not being very popular, i think i will go with the second choice.

Now i know that a lot of you that play mono red workshop aggro do it because it is 1 of the best choices to play with a 10 proxy limit. 1 lotus, 5 mox & 4 workshop = 10. This is also how i stated out, as i continued to play i discovered that 1. I loved the theory behind stalling/disrupting your opponent just long enough to slip in a win. and 2. that workshop aggro like stax starts to run out of steam in the mid/long game. Now with this in mind i started thinking, what if i splashed a colour to try and get some card draw. My first thought was splash blue. It would give you master of etherium, ancestral & timewalk in the MD. I could add augury adept for card draw/ life gain which would help vs TPS and random aggro. but i didn't like the  on augury which meant i would have to replace off colour moxen with mox diamonds. it ended up being to hard to get  when needed to make it worth while. My second choice was black giving me dark confidant and possible vamp/demonic tutors. This idea i liked. Through a lot of testing i decided that the tutors just weren't worth while. In my original build i ran 3 dark confidant and 2 S. top. After coming 9th in a tourney *just short of top 8* and gaining a lot of valuable info i changed my deck slightly. I upped to 4 dark confidant and have never looked back!

There are several little things that i am not 100% sure about within the deck.
1. I would love to run null rods MD to battle Tez. but this shuts down my trikes and Tops. Now i have come to the conclusion that with as many creatures as i am running i do not NEED the tops. I have only once had my life total worry me with confidants. This also shuts down my swords, this sort of worries me. Without having the ability to make my creatures bigger goyfs pose a bigger problem. It all depends on if U/b/white or U/b/green becomes more main stream. Without swords my nearly impossible oath match up now becomes even harder.
2. gorilla shamen  //  viashino heretic. I continue to go back and forth between these. I love that gorilla shamen only costs  to cast VS.  . But blowing up anything bigger than a mox/key/time vault/null rod becomes way more realistic when using a heretic. There's no way you could blow up a robot with a shamen.

As of right now this is the list that i use
-mana-
4 workshop
4 wasteland
1 Stripmine
1 Mox p       *i took out 1 mox and replaced it with a mountain so null rod hurts me less and to round out my mana base*
1 Mox s
1 Mox r
1 Mox j
1 Lotus
1 Sol ring
1 Mana crypt     * i never liked mana vault so i replaced with with a badlands to help round out my mana base*
4 Badlands
3 Mountian
1 Swamp
1Tolarian academy

-stall-
1 Trinisphere
4 Thorn of amythist    * i also found that i was being locked under my own sphere to often*
4 Chalice of the void
4 Sword of fire & ice

-creatures-
4 Dark confidant
3 Goblin welder
4 Juggernaut
3 Magus of the moon
2 Triskelion
3 Gorilla shamen / Viashino heretic
3 Solemn simulacrum

I have been trying to figure out an ideal SB. So far it looks like this
2 Pithing needle  (fish/tez)
2 Duplicant  (oath/tinker->colossus)
3 ReB  (oath/fish/tez/TPS)
3 Extipate  (fish/dredge/tez/oath)
4 Leyline of the void  (dredge/tez/tps)
1 Gaea's blessing  (grindstone)

other cards i have been thinking about
Rack and ruin (stax/tez)
Ingot chewer (stax/tez)
Tormods Crypt (dredge/tez/TPS)
Diabolic edict (oath)
Yixlid jailer (dredge)

What do you guyz think? I really like the black splash and think it adds a lot of consistancy to the deck.

[beder]

The pb I had when testing such a splash is the following : in order to be able to access regularly to black mana you have to play a solemn. As a consequence, in very best scenario, dark conf starts drawing card on turn 3 and only becomes card advantage on turn 4.
Given that solemn is already slow, I feel like it slows the deck even more. And given that red aggro is not control, I feel that you won't get a huge return on investment from dark confi.

In my opinion, not considering null rod, sofi provides generally the same or a better draw effect, with almost the same drawback in early game but with many more advantages.

[Mantis]

So i finally decided to take 5 minutes a sign up here...i check this site out EVERYDAY and never took the time to sign up *lol* (FYI- my name is jason whealtey i'm 22, a chef and i live in vancouver canada)

Welcome to TMD Jason!

of coarse my most hated match up 6. OATH. I can't remember a time when oath didn't run over shops. Basically i will eather devote a lot of my SB to it or...just pray that i get a god hand and they get mana flooded. With so many solid decks, and oath not being very popular, i think i will go with the second choice.

You actually do have a fighting chance against Oath. I mean you will not be able to beat the turn one Oath play, but there are 3 ways to beat Oath. First one is to lay Magus + Chalice for 0. This means they won't have access to green mana and as a consequence can not play Oath. Second way is to lay a Chalice at 2. Third way is just to screw them over with Thorns and a fast clock. I have also won games where I could simply race them with Trikes and Welders, Trike shoots 2 points on the opponent Weld him back, attack some more, shoot some more, you get the point. Now, Oath is in fact a bad matchup but not undoable by any means.

My second choice was black giving me dark confidant and possible vamp/demonic tutors. This idea i liked. Through a lot of testing i decided that the tutors just weren't worth while. In my original build i ran 3 dark confidant and 2 S. top. After coming 9th in a tourney *just short of top 8* and gaining a lot of valuable info i changed my deck slightly. I upped to 4 dark confidant and have never looked back!

How does Confidant improve any matchup? Bascially Welder, Trike and Gorilla Shaman are there to win wars of attrition and gain card advantage.  Dark Confidant is juts really slow and is going to deal you a ton of damage with the wrong flips, especially given that you already have the Ancient Tombs and the Mana Crypt. Magus shuts him down and don't even get me started about the postboard games. The opponent will side in his Pyroclasms and Fire/Ice and you will just get 2 for 1-ed way too much. I just rather put my opponent on a good clock or tie his mana up then spend my turns casting little dudes while my opponent just excecutes his superior game plan of casting Tinker for robot or Tendrills you out.

There are several little things that i am not 100% sure about within the deck.
1. I would love to run null rods MD to battle Tez. but this shuts down my trikes and Tops. Now i have come to the conclusion that with as many creatures as i am running i do not NEED the tops. I have only once had my life total worry me with confidants. This also shuts down my swords, this sort of worries me. Without having the ability to make my creatures bigger goyfs pose a bigger problem. It all depends on if U/b/white or U/b/green becomes more main stream. Without swords my nearly impossible oath match up now becomes even harder.
2. gorilla shamen  //  viashino heretic. I continue to go back and forth between these. I love that gorilla shamen only costs  to cast VS.  . But blowing up anything bigger than a mox/key/time vault/null rod becomes way more realistic when using a heretic. There's no way you could blow up a robot with a shamen.

Null Rod is really good but it just cripples you way too much. It's actually one of the cards I most hate seeing against me right after Tinker, Oath and Trygon Predator. I just don't think it's worth it although it might be good if you cut the Tops and the Trikes or something.

Gorilla Shaman is superior, I can assure you that. It's leagues better, it's easier to cast and it's just so good in the format right now. Heretic is good, but sideboard material, it just doesn't do enough against Drain and TPS decks.

One thing I want to make everyone aware of is how utterly insane Memory Jar is. It should be an automatic one of in this deck as it pulls out games you have no buisiness winning otherwise.

Basically I just recommend playing the version the way I posted earlier with tweaks to the sideboard according to the metagame although I am really happy about the Flametongue Kavus and the Tormod's Crypts. The Tormod's Crypts are superior to Leyline against Ichorid because you have so much game against them outside your GY removal. Trikes, Spheres, Magus, Wasteland and the Crypts all do something against them, so mulliganing for Leyline is an inferior plan to just keeping a strong opening 7 with turn 1 sphere turn two Wasteland or something like that. With Sensei's Divinning Top this effect becomes even more potentiated as you are now able to dig for Tormods Crypt. What I'm trying to say is that this deck does not have to mulligan for Crypt against Ichorid as you have so many good cards for that matchup. Crypt obviously is a better topdeck than Leyline so I strongly advise to run Tormod's Crypt.

I already explained how I think Goblin Welder should be a 4 of as it's just so darn good. Gorilla Shaman + Welder (against Workshop), Welder + Trike, Welder against Tinker, Welder in attrition wars and Welder versus counters. I mean that little fellow does so much it's insane. He and Workshop are the backbone of this deck and the reasons it can compete in this format.

[yespuhyren]

If you aren't running Razormane Masticore you're making a mistake in my opinion.  He has never been questioned in my list, and I've been playing mono red shop aggro for longer than most if not anyone.  I also stopped playing Magus of the Moon because I haven't had to hate lands since GAT.  Not heavily at least.  I was also the first/biggest proprioter of the 4x SOFI, but I've now stopped using that TEMPORARILY so I can MD Null Rods to play more prisonlike and use it as a little extra hate against tops/tezz/MUD/etc.  The last list I ran was this:

4x Mishra's Factory
4x Wasteland
6x Mountain
4x Mishra's Workshop
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy

5x Moxes
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault

4x Juggernaut
4x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Razormane Masticore
4x Gathan Raiders
4x Goblin Welder

1x Trinisphere
2x Sphere of Resistance
4x Thorn of Amethyst
3x Null Rod
2x Crucible of Worlds

SB:

4x REB
4x Viashino Heretic
4x Tormod's Crypt
3x Mogg Fanatic

I've been taking a long break due to being super busy, so when I have time to get back in I'll figure out if it needs any changes.  Last 3 tourneys were T8, a T4 and split lotus

[Bongo]

The best approach I've found is to include as many game-winning cards as possible. While this may sound obvious, it's not easy to put this into practice.
I started by including the cards that were the most powerful in testing and arrived at this core:

4 Goblin Welder
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Null Rod
4 Tangle Wire
2 Gorilla Shaman
1 Trinisphere

I also tried out Top and Trike, and they were good. However, Null Rod often just won games upon resolving, which Top/Trike can do rarely. I also think that there hasn't been a metagame where Null Rod is stronger than today. Rod is simply amazing against every archetype other than Fish. This has a profound impact on deck construction.
Tangle Wire is a card I feel is hugely underrated at the moment. It has great synergy with all the other cards in your deck and helps a lot against Drain-based decks. Multiple Time Walks are huge, especially when backed up by a clock. Speaking of a clock, Razormane Masticore has been the best beatstick that is unaffected by Null Rod and Juggernaut supplies sufficient pressure:

3 Razormane Masticore
3 Juggernaut

Combining that with the "standard" manabase, we get exactly 60 cards:

4  Mishra's Workshop
7  Mountain
2  Ancient Tomb
4  Wasteland
1  Strip Mine
1  Tolarian Academy
8  SolMoxLotusCrypt

The only change I made is -1 Mana Vault, +1 Mountain, since you are more dependent on red sources without Simulacrum. Simulacrum has always been the weakest card for me, and was downright horrible without a Welder. I think your time is better spent beating down than doing cute Welder-tricks with Simulacrum.

Let me know what you think of this approach.

[Mith]

Once you start bringing in lock piece like Tangle Wire...you're moving towards a different goal.

I've always seen mono-red shop aggro as disruption with a fast clock of aggro creatures.

Null Rod shuts down so much of what you need...and keeps you from using Sword of F/I, Top, Trike, etc...if you're going that direction, just play UbaStax.

While I agree that Solemn is a bit weak, he smooths out so much in the deck. I've had good success with him + a more aggressive creature. The question for me is always what to play in the "aggressive" spot. Jugg is nice, fast, but lacks any further utility. Trike is AMAZING...unless you're facing a field of Null Rods...which in today's meta, you often are. Razormane is a good replacement...I'll have to test him out some more.

Shaman is sooo good right now...if you can run three, do so.

Top is important to smooth out the deck. While this sucks when facing so many Null Rods, it's a necessary evil. Having the three Shaman helps a lot.

[yespuhyren]

Once you start bringing in lock piece like Tangle Wire...you're moving towards a different goal.

I've always seen mono-red shop aggro as disruption with a fast clock of aggro creatures.

Null Rod shuts down so much of what you need...and keeps you from using Sword of F/I, Top, Trike, etc...if you're going that direction, just play UbaStax.

While I agree that Solemn is a bit weak, he smooths out so much in the deck. I've had good success with him + a more aggressive creature. The question for me is always what to play in the "aggressive" spot. Jugg is nice, fast, but lacks any further utility. Trike is AMAZING...unless you're facing a field of Null Rods...which in today's meta, you often are. Razormane is a good replacement...I'll have to test him out some more.

Shaman is sooo good right now...if you can run three, do so.

Top is important to smooth out the deck. While this sucks when facing so many Null Rods, it's a necessary evil. Having the three Shaman helps a lot.

While it does stop you from using SOFI, Top, Trike, 2/3 of those are new additions to the deck that I honestly don't believe are generally necessary.  I've been using the majority of the same list for years, and I have no reason to change.  The only thing that Null Rod hurts of my own is SOFI, and as much as I REALLY love SOFI, Null Rod has been better at stopping Tezz, MUD, and more.  It aside from my brown mana, it doesn't affect a single card in my deck.  Gorilla shaman isn't as crucial as Rod hits what shaman would nuke. 

[Diakonov]

Simulacrum has always been the weakest card for me, and was downright horrible without a Welder. I think your time is better spent beating down than doing cute Welder-tricks with Simulacrum.

I never really play with shops, but objectively I would have to agree strongly with this.  For four mana you get a 2/2, and a Mountain.  That could really be better spent on a number of other things.  Also, as bongo already mentioned, even if you do land a welder, you're going to tap him every turn to either draw a card or get another Mountain?  I could maybe see this as a neat little trick with a Smokestack out or something, but Juggernaut looks much more appropriate here.

[yespuhyren]

Juggernaut > Solemn.  No question.  With spheres though, the extra mana IS nice from solemn. 

[Sean Ryan]

Null Rod should definitely be here, perhaps more so than any other Shop deck since UBA Stax. 

What do people think the minimum ration of threats to disruption is?  From my perspective, it seems like you could lower the number of beat sticks to something like 4 Juggs, 3 Razormane, and cut the non-essentials like simulacrum to leave more room for more disruption.  I'm thinking something like a hybrid between the lists posted here and TK's last winning shop list.

Thoughts?

[Mantis]

Solemn is necessary to hit the red mana. I mean you could also play a couple of Mountains in that spot but I like having an extra body. If you play Juggernaut instead, you will often be stuck without red mana and Shaman, Welder and Magus are some of the strongest cards in the deck. I just think Juggernaut is a bit win more, while Solemn gives access to red mana and allows us to lock the opponent down even further. That said, yes Solemn feels a bit weak at times, but being cut off red is just horrible. We need red mana otherwise this is just a very bad Mono Brown list. So if I were to cut Solemn for Juggernaut, how would I fix my manabase? Especially if we put in Null Rod the manabase just gets downright terrible.

But maybe I'm a bit too narrow minded as the deck has just been performing downright excellent for me and my buddy Duncan who piloted my list to a 7-1 (or maybe 7-1-1 not sure) finish at a side event at GP Chi, dispatching legends such as Ray Robillard, Robert Vroman and Smmenen (although I'm not sure that was in the tournament).

Also, Solemn is great with Welder and is like a 2 or 3 for 1 against Fish decks.

[Diakonov]

I feel like if hitting red mana is the issue, there must be a better way.  Adding Mountains might not be the best answer though, if the curve is already accurate.  Is this really something that's a problem?  First of all, there seems to be a lot of variation on people's choices for mana bases.  In the last three lists (correct me if I counted incorrectly), I see 27 sources, 29 sources, and 25 sources.  I know that people's decks have different curves, but the differences here seem pretty extreme.  Here's the intersection of the last three mana bases:

20 sources first

4 Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Moxes
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
3 Mountain

Then,

Bongo: + 1 Mox, 4 Mountain, 2 Ancient Tomb
yespuhyren: + 1 Mox, 3 Mountain, 4 Mishra's Factory, 1 Mana Vault
suffocation: + 4 Badlands, 1 Swamp

Again, I don't usually play shops, so I don't know for certain what makes the most sense.  My first reaction would be, "make sure we can hit red."  Each person here has at least 3 additional red sources, so let's say without Simulacrum we'll use 4 to be safe.  From here I suppose it would come down to preference, but personally I could never take out a Mox.  I like Bongo's arrangement the most, except I might use a Mana Vault.  This leaves us with 9 red sources, which should definitely be enough.

If there are still issues with red at this point for some reason, I would cut an Ancient Tomb for another Mountain before using Simulacrums.  To me, Simulacrums are basically really expensive Mountains.  I know that it's also expansion, but I still don't think it's worth it.  By playing another disruption piece in its place, you should gain even more tempo than putting a land into play.  He's certainly good against Fish, but isn't Fish already an awesome match up for this deck?

If you add Null Rod, then you should be able to cut Gorilla Shaman, reducing some of your dependency on red.

[Mith]

Look closely at the mono R aggro decks that top 8...red mana sources are important. Null rod is interesting, but I'd much rather not shut down my own mana, and keep tempo with Monkeys. I don't think some of you quite understand the importance of Solemn...he's not a Jugg, he's tempo and mana smoothing...Top provides a similar role. Without them, you may get more explosive starts, but you lose a lot of consistency. Without them, this is just a worse mono-brown deck.

[Mantis]

Solemn is indeed the weakest card in the deck but is basically a concession that allows you to run some very powerful cards with very different requirments in the same deck (think Magus of the Moon and Triskelion here). I'd love to replace it with a more powerful card, but there currently is no card that fills the niche of both beater and manafixer as well as Solemn does.

@Mith:
I agree with most (if not all) what you say, you really have a good understanding of how the deck works.
What are your changes to my list by the way?

[Mith]

@Mantis I play the same list as you, with one less Top and one more mountain

[Mantis]

Yeah, that's my configuration too right now, though I do play a slightly different SB right now. Put in 2 Rack and Ruin instead of 2 Viashino Heretic since it's better against Smokestack and Tangle Wire. I do want to keep 2 Heretics though, to nuke Null Rods and sit around and block.

[suffocation2157]

so i have been fooling around with several different builds of aggro shops trying to figure out what works best. then the other day i check some new tourney results only to find that...it would appear that people are 1. starting to get board of tez and less people are playing it  2.people are realising that shops just pack to many threats for most tez build to deal with  3. it's just a coincident that this is happening all over...      If it is true that workshops are being played more there were a few things i wanted to change in my deck. so this is what I'm currently thinking

4 workshop
4 wasteland
1 stripmine
1 tolarian academy
*6  mountain
1 lotus
5 mox
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 sol ring

4 juggernaut
4 goblin welder
3 gorilla shamen
3 solemn
*3 magus of the moon
2 triskelion
*1 duplicant

4 chalice
4 thorn
1 trinisphere
4 sword of f/i
1 memory jar
*1 wheel of fortune

SB
3 rack and ruin
2 duplicant
3 ReB
1 gaea's blessing
2-3 pithing needle
4-3 tormod's crypt

so obviously the * are the cards that I'm not 100% on right now. starting off with
*mountain-  most people would remove 2 for ancient tombs, but as we all know finding that initial red is huge. if i were to take a few red cards out i would feel better about switching in the tombs

*magus of the moon-  i found when i splashed other colours this was the first creature i wanted to replace and never missed. I'm wondering if there might be another card that could work better here...*hopefully colourless so i don't need red so much*  maybe magus is the best choice though...it's good against tez, fish, stax if workshops become big again and landstill. maybe this is enough to give it the spot.

*duplicant-  is 1 duplicant MD to random? not sure if this should be another trike or maybe sum cheap trick. i figured it would help my oath game and is usefull vs random tinker -> DC or inky

*wheel of fortune-  i always have a hard time with this card, i love drawing more cards while my opponent is under chalices and thorns/3ball but this sometimes backfires. dumping random artifacts into the grave for welding is a nice back up plan..but would this also be better as a cheap trick like S. top? I've been playing S. top in aggro workshop for a long time and sometimes i feel i would rather just drop another stall card or creature. this card does help mid/late game and helps with consistency

overall I've been enjoying how smoothly it has been running and i hope that stax becomes more powerfull as it is a favourable match. <-- if stax does become commonly played do you think that crucible would be worth running SB or is this just over kill?

[Mith]

@Mantis I forgot to mention my board, which is a 4x Crypt/sphere, 3x REB, 2x shattering spree, 2x Heretic.

I've never run Flametongues before...never felt the need for additional creature hate with 4x Trike. REB's have been pure gold.

[Mantis]

Why Spree over Rack n Ruin? I'm open for debate on this slot, perhaps Spree is better, Rack and Ruin hits at instant speed which can be golden when facing Smokestack/Tangle Wire.

FTK is a metagame call, lots of aggro decks here especially in the early rounds. It's also decent in the mirror/semi mirror to take out Welders and other creatures.

EDIT: I have given Juggernaut some more thought and I'm really starting to think it's a bit of a metagame call. Against Fish/Aggro/Ichorid/Workshops, Solemn seems like the better call. On the other hand against TPS and Drain decks Juggernaut could very well be better. That said, Solemn does provide more consistency and as Drain is not as popular here as it seems to be in USA, I think Solemn is the right call here.

[yespuhyren]

@ Mantis

I'm sorta confused at what you're saying.  If there is a debate about Juggernaut, you're probably thinking something more Stax like.  i don't think there is such thing as workshop aggro without Juggernaut.  It's virtually a must.  After actually pulling out my deck, it turned out my list was slightly off, and was actually the following:

-1 Crypt
-1 Vault
+2 Sphere of Resistance

As far as lists with Maggy Moon go, just check my old forum on SCG called Blitzkrieg, which was from september '07 or so, when Magus/Thorn were first being incorporated.  The list has been amazing with and without, so honestly it doesn't really matter.  My only issue, is that anyone who plays shop aggro knows you are either tapping out or passing a turn.  The Mishra's Factories, further strengthened by Crucible, are a great use for lands that you're not using.  They are also blockers against Fish, creatures that don't trigger Oath, and all around amazing.  Let's not forget that Crucible can probably even be a 3 of in the deck, as you use the following:

4 Gathan Raiders
3 Razormane Masticore
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory

I don't think I would change that list except for the SOLE possibility of being in a "shitty aggro" meta so to call it, and in that case feel free to SB the Null Rods and 2-3 SOFI.  The main thing with Gathan Raiders is that weenies suck compared to it anyways.  Honestly, just look at the efficiency of the deck, and I'll repost it for reference and go over the reasons that this list has been so successful for me over the last 5 or so years of playing shop aggro

Lands:

6x Mountain - This just IS the right number.  I don't know why.  5 just isn't enough, 7 is too much.  6 is perfect
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Mishra's Factory - These are absolutely amazing.  There is no question any list NOT running 4x Magus Moon should be running these.  On top of that, I don't even see a reason to use Magus Moon right now.  When I started the mono red shops with Magus in 2007, it was solely to combat Gat/Flash/Oath.  What with 2/3 of those being gone, it really doesn't seem overly necessary.

Artifact Mana:
5x Moxes
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus
0x Mana Crypt - Between decks that can hold you off and locking yourself under spheres and Null Rods, Crypt is just too often suicide.  Go ahead and disagree, I've tested that theory consistently since 2003/4, and I keep trying it again and again and hating it

Lock Pieces:
4x Thorn of Amethyst - Same as SOR except it doesn't affect your many creatures.  Some people say what about decks like Fish that it doesn't affect.  I say if you're losing to Fish you're doing something wrong...
3x Sphere of Resistance
3x Null Rod - This card is amazing.  It hits 7 cards in your deck.  That's it. 7.  All are mana artifacts.  It's gonna hurt your opponent a hell of a lot more than that.  Shuts down Tezzeret, MUD, sensei's top, and a lot more. 
1x Trinisphere
3x Crucible of Worlds - This deck plays 7 self-discard effects, to which you can discard and reuse the lands you pitch.  It runs 5 wastes which you can reuse over and over again to lock opponent under spheres/null rod, all of which STAY STRIPS because there is no magus of the moon.  4x Mishra's factory become recurring attackers/blockers/welding fodder, as factory can animate itself, get welded out, and replayed

Creatures:
4x Goblin Welder - Best creature in T1
4x Juggernaut - The gold standard of shop aggro
4x Solemn Simulacrum - Gets you red mana, 2/2 body, cantrips on death, weldable, and helps you get out from under spheres.  Amazing
4x Gathan Raiders - Massive body.  Affordable cost.  Unaffected by artifact destruction that decks will bring in to wreck your face. 
3x Razormane Masticore - 5/5...First Strike....Shoots for 3...unaffected by null rod....amazing.  Wrecks fish, gobbos, and the like, as well in the odd case you're actually racing Oath, shooting Akroma, Hellkite Overlord and then attacking means you will trade with Akroma and kill overlord.  Rare, but useful when it comes up. 

SB:

Not relisting my sideboard.  Like I've said a million times, people who copy sideboards are idiots.  Sideboards are 100% metagame.  If your area is 99% workshops, you'll build it differently from if it is aggro or drain.  I'll leave you to figure that part out