Wild Research - A New Approach to Workshop Aggro

[Molten]

Wild Research - A New Approach to Workshop Aggro

http://www.blackborder.com/q/node/2853

-> check it out

[madmanmike25]

Here is the list(which is always helpful in the opening post)

6 Mountain   
4 Mishra's Workshop 
4 Wasteland 
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus   
1 Mana Crypt   
1 Mox Sapphire   
1 Mox Emerald   
1 Mox Pearl   
1 Mox Ruby   
1 Mox Jet   
4 Goblin Welder   
4 Triskelion   
4 Solemn Simulacrum   
3 Gorilla Shaman   
2 Karn, Silver Golem   
4 Thorn of Amethyst   
4 Tangle Wire   
4 Chalice Of The Void   
2 Sensei's Divining Top   
2 Sword Of Fire And Ice   
1 Trinisphere

I'm curious as to why you don't run Magus of the Moon.  Most red builds capitalize on this card.  Disruption that beats seems too good to pass up. 

Also u mention Solemn/Welder ticks, but just how do you get anything in your GY other than it being countered?  Solemn always screamed utility to me, not beats.

However, I can't deny the fact that the deck is slower than traditional Shop Aggro with Juggernauts. To remedy this, I've included Sword of Fire and Ice to speed up the clock and provide another way to draw cards.

I think thats why most mono red builds run both.  Juggs can be all you need sometimes with Chalice and Tangles.  Sword is great at turning 1/1's into real threats too.

I can see why you run 4 Trikes, Confidants are everywhere.

Anyways, looks like a good take on Aggro.  I'm sure you will get some comments on why no Rod maindeck.


Good luck,
Mike

[d0rsal]

i think 4 triskelions is too many w/ null rods running rampant in type 1.  i run 3 + 1 razormane masticore & the masticore has been huge for me.

[Mantis]

I'd run 6 Triskelions if I could, it's such an insane clock with Welder and pings off every little dork in town.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

we were all sceptical at first too here in Switzerland, but when he beat us so often with those trikes (and there are null rods here), we came to believe that it's clearly a very strong card.
Nice to see you posting articles, patrick!
Looking forward to the next tourney.
Perhaps we will not draw the match for once... 
Till then - Jonas

[Bongo]

I'm curious as to why you don't run Magus of the Moon.  Most red builds capitalize on this card.  Disruption that beats seems too good to pass up. 

Also u mention Solemn/Welder ticks, but just how do you get anything in your GY other than it being countered?

Magus of the Moon just isn't strong enough if your opponent fetches for basics (which any competent player should against a deck packing Wasteland). The fact that you can't use Workshop Mana delays his arrival on the battlefield too much to have any meaningful impact. Switching off your own Shops & Wastes can also be detrimental. Simply put, he wasn't good enough in testing.

Getting artifacts in the graveyard is not a problem - used up Tangle Wires, Gorilla Shaman eating a Mox, Triskelion which pings itself and playing a Mox into your own Chalice for 0 are all ways to get artifacts in the graveyard. You should be winning most of the games where no artifact gets countered or destroyed anyway.

Also, big props to Guus de Ward, who was instrumental in developing this deck together with me!

[Bibendum]

Has the 2 Karns Proved as useful as you would like? I know with welder tricks its great but i would just hate to ever have a dead card at any point. Have you guys tested Gathan Raiders at all? if so what was the final thought on them

[Bongo]

Karn is one of the best cards in the deck. He stops Inkwell Leviathan completely, eats Moxen, accelerates your own clock and can destroy bigger artifacts together with Triskelion. Karn is almost never dead at any point.

Gathan Raiders has a similar problem like Magus of the Moon - it's a non-artifact spell that costs more than two mana, which is too slow. Like Juggernaut, Gathan Raiders is a pure beater that has no added utility, which is not good enough for the current metagame.

[BruiZar]

Karn is one of the best cards in the deck. He stops Inkwell Leviathan completely, eats Moxen, accelerates your own clock and can destroy bigger artifacts together with Triskelion. Karn is almost never dead at any point.

Gathan Raiders has a similar problem like Magus of the Moon - it's a non-artifact spell that costs more than two mana, which is too slow. Like Juggernaut, Gathan Raiders is a pure beater that has no added utility, which is not good enough for the current metagame.

Karn doesn't only stop Inkwell by blocking it, it stops Inkwell by eating tinker targets in the first place. The solemns really ought to go though. Solemn is not a threat. I rather cast a Karn or a Chalice for 2 instead of a Solemn. I would consider using Arcbound Ravager for the machine gun win.

[Mantis]

First of all a bit of history to explain why we chose to include Karn into the deck.

I started off finishing second in a 40 man tournament using a Shop list I found a few days before on deckcheck. This sparked my interest in the deck and when I saw  Ray Robillard Shop Aggro list I was sold. His list featured 4 Triskelions and abandoned Juggernaut. It also played Sensei's Divinning Top, Wheel of Fortune and Memory Jar but not Tangle Wire. I made a thread about this list and was soon PMed by Bongo, we started discussing the deck through numerous messages back and forth. We came to the conclusion that Magus of the Moon just didn't do enough as people fetch basics against us anyway and cut it, now we could add Tangle Wire to the deck. Our matchup percentages went through the roof, we both felt very comfortable with our decision. Tangle Wire partially solved the EOT Hurkyls Recall issue, but if we couldn't get Triskelion we were still too slow and were often caught by the EOT H Recall play. I suggested adding back in 4~5 REB effects to the sideboard and this improved our Drain and TPS matchup again. Then the printing of Inkwell Leviathan, how could we beat him? We had Welder to stop the Colossus but Inkwell was immune. The solution was Karn, Silver Golem, we were among the first to adopt this strategy to stop Inkwell but it did much more for the deck. All of a sudden we could just drop Spheres and Wires on the board, along comes Karn and all of a sudden the land go untill you can play Recall doesn't work anymore as Karn puts on a huge clock. Even if people stop playing Inkwell, there is no way we would cut Karn from the deck. The only thing preventing me from going to 4 is his legendary status, I actually went up to 3 in my list despite being legendary.
We further improved our Drain matchup through tactical discussion, we found that they had huge problems stopping a Chalice at 2. Unfortunately, this deck can not afford a Chalice set at 1, but we often keep Chalice in hand to wait for the perfect moment to lock out Mana Drain by setting it at 2. Knowing how to play Chalice is essential to doing well with the deck. The same goes for Null Rod decks, a Chalice at 0 here is just a waste of the card and you are much better off setting it at 2.

About Solemn: we too felt like it was often the weakest card in the deck, but it's a red manasource. With only 6 Mountains, Ruby and Lotus theres simply not enough red mana to rely on it, we could also add in a couple of extra mana sources but Solemn does the trick just fine. I agree that he's not that good against Drain decks, but against Fish and beatz decks he's basically an Ancestral Recall as he trades with one of their guys, gives us a Mountain and a card. He's insanely good with Goblin Welder, filtering the deck and drawing cards thus the draws become a lot more potent. His shuffle ability comes in handy with Sensei's Top. But all the cute tricks aside, the reason he is in here is that we need more red mana sources to support Goblin Welder, Shaman and the REBs. The other option is to play more Mountains but I doubt thats preferable to Solemn.

I have considered Arcbound Ravager but he seems kind of winmore. If you manage to resolve a bunch of artifacts + Triskelion you should be in a good position to win the game anyway. Ravager really is the danger of cool things.

[nineisnoone]

First of all a bit of history to explain why we chose to include Karn into the deck.

I started off finishing second in a 40 man tournament using a Shop list I found a few days before on deckcheck. This sparked my interest in the deck and when I saw  Ray Robillard Shop Aggro list I was sold. His list featured 4 Triskelions and abandoned Juggernaut. It also played Sensei's Divinning Top, Wheel of Fortune and Memory Jar but not Tangle Wire. I made a thread about this list and was soon PMed by Bongo, we started discussing the deck through numerous messages back and forth. We came to the conclusion that Magus of the Moon just didn't do enough as people fetch basics against us anyway and cut it, now we could add Tangle Wire to the deck. Our matchup percentages went through the roof, we both felt very comfortable with our decision. Tangle Wire partially solved the EOT Hurkyls Recall issue, but if we couldn't get Triskelion we were still too slow and were often caught by the EOT H Recall play. I suggested adding back in 4~5 REB effects to the sideboard and this improved our Drain and TPS matchup again. Then the printing of Inkwell Leviathan, how could we beat him? We had Welder to stop the Colossus but Inkwell was immune. The solution was Karn, Silver Golem, we were among the first to adopt this strategy to stop Inkwell but it did much more for the deck. All of a sudden we could just drop Spheres and Wires on the board, along comes Karn and all of a sudden the land go untill you can play Recall doesn't work anymore as Karn puts on a huge clock. Even if people stop playing Inkwell, there is no way we would cut Karn from the deck. The only thing preventing me from going to 4 is his legendary status, I actually went up to 3 in my list despite being legendary.

Have always agreed 100% with this.  Unless if there is some reason to not play him specifically, I'd run at least two in a stacks list and wouldn't even mind running him as a 4 of in certain builds (mainly if you run Bazaar).  He beats.  He blocks.  He disrupts.  If he wasn't Legendary, I think Stax would be better 10x fold.

[Bibendum]

Well i never even thought about the inkwell karn trade-off, makes 100% more sence now then ever. thanks a ton guys

[SJUD]

Tied for first running Mono Red Shop Aggro at a local tourney for a Beta Emerald. Here's the list I used...

4 Mishra's Workshop
6 Mountains
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

5 Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Trinisphere

4 Goblin Welder
4 Juggernaut
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Triskelion
3 Gorilla Shaman
2 Razormane Masticore
1 Karn

SB:
4 Blasts
3 Shattering Spree
2 Duplicant
1 Sphere of Resistance
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Tormod's Crypt

Round 1: Storm (1-0)- I lock him out with Spheres, Chalices and Wire
Round 2: Tezz (2-0)- Game 1 I win due to him forgetting about Chalice at 0.  Game 2 he turn 2 tinkers for robot. Game 3 he takes 12 from his own mana crypt and I win.
Round 3: Storm (3-0)- See round 1
Round 4: Tezz (3-0-1)- ID
Round 5: BUG Fish (3-0-2)- ID

Top 8: Mono U Control
Game 1: I have a double shop hand but he plays turn 2 Back to Basics and I have no answer. He is playing a deck with 4x Ancestral Visions, Jace, Remand, FoW, Vendilion Clique
Game 2: He lands a Energy flux but I had drained him of Counters and EOT Blast it.
Game 3: He gets mana screwed a little and but gets out an Energy Flux. I have Welder and Tangle Wire with Juggernaut so I Weld Wire in for his turn every time and bash him during mine.

Top 4: Noble Fish
Game 1: He gets Turn 1 Trygon Predator and then follows it up with another. I was able to get to him to 1 but couldn't finish it.
Game 2: Razormane Masticore beasts all his guys.
Game 3: I get turn 1 chalice for 2. Turn 2 chalice for 3 and he can't do anything. I just beat in with Juggernaut while I have Welder  and Thorn in play and he's mana screwed.

Top 2: Tezz I drew with in Round 4. We take cash over the cards and split.

While the deck is obviously viable I feel like luck had a large part to do with my wins and that it can be frustrating not playing some of the most powerful cards in the format. Can't complain much considering the results I've had with the deck though. Tangle Wire was the MVP by far locking people out of their early games with Welder or another Wire winning me the game. Razorman was not very good considering I played fish once but when I did go against it he was a house.

[nhk]

1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus   
1 Mana Crypt   
1 Mox Sapphire   
1 Mox Emerald   
1 Mox Pearl   
1 Mox Ruby   
1 Mox Jet   
4 Triskelion   
2 Karn, Silver Golem   
2 Sensei's Divining Top   
2 Sword Of Fire And Ice

All of these cards are hit by null rod... I'm surprised there is no artifact destruction MD especially since the deck is mono red, and artifact removal can also stop time vault.  I'm not counting the monkeys since they need to blow up a null rod.

I haven't played shops in a while, so I could be wrong, but I'm pretty skeptical of the fish matchup, especially since you only gain two answers to null rod post board.

But maybe fish just sucks so much against shops that it doesn't matter.

[Reckoner]

I know that it has beena while since this topic was posted in but with the worldwake spoilers I feel that it is appropriate to post here. I've been testing this deck recently and think that it is a perfect home for the recently spoiled Lodestone Golem. Hwever, I am having a little difficulty in chosing cards to remove for it though. I have currently gone:

-2 Triskelion
-1 Solemn Simulacrum
+3 Lodestone Golem

But I'm pretty sure that this is not ideal. I was also considering dropping Sword of Fire and Ice. Does anyone else have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?