Two-Card Monte 2011

[voltron00x]

A year ago, I sat down with Steve Nowakowski and we decided to build a balls-out combo deck with Mishra's Workshops and Serum Powders, ultimately resulting in the development of Two-Card Monte.  While I was really worried that Nature's Claim would invalidate the deck, various builds of it are still putting up results in events all over the world. 

For those that aren't familiar with the deck, the initial primer I wrote for SCG can be found here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/18785_The_Long_Winding_Road_Introducing_Two_Card_Monte_A_Vintage_Primer.html

As the primer itself is now almost a year old, and the format has gone through massive changes, the deck needs some updating.  This is what I would run, today.  Key updates include moving Dark Confidant main, moving REBs to the board, and adding Mox Opal.  While not true everywhere, it seems as if in many parts of the Vintage world, Null Rod is almost completely absent from the metagame, again making Monte an interesting choice for those looking to play combo and still beat MUD and/or people who want a very good G1 match-up against Dredge.

Two-Card Monte 2011

4 Serum Powder
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Helm of Obedience
3 Dark Confidant
3 Painter’s Servant
3 Grindstone
4 Goblin Welder
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Intuition
3 Mox Opal
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt 
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

SB

4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Dark Confidant
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Nature's Claim
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan

[madmanmike25]

With so many 3 and 4-of's for win conditions I think it's a mistake to omit Demonic Consultation.  Do you have a solid reason for not running it?

Why only 3 confidants?

With 4 Welders, you would think Thirst for Knowledge would be a perfect fit.  Didn't go that way in testing?

No Ancestral Recall?!?!  Clearly this is a mistake in a u/b/r deck, how can you not run one of the best cards in Vintage in a deck that can support it?

I dig the 3 Opals, seems like they really help this deck out.

[voltron00x]

You're pretty much right on all points.  I wouldn't really be fostering discussion if the lists I posted were all perfect from the get-go.  (The sideboard listed has only 14 cards, by the way  )

The only one I'd debate is Consult.  I used to like it a lot, but after playing a lot of games with Serum Powder, I found that a lot of times, it was either riskier than I wanted, or resulted in me losing, which is obviously not good.  It also is really bad at finding sideboard cards; this deck also really likes to dig for Black Lotus, which Consult can do, but...  I guess I've just soured on it.  If anything, I might suggest Enlightened Tutor since it finds all the combo cards and Black Lotus.

This is probably what I'd suggest playing, taking into account TFK - I had not thought of including it before, but it does make sense.  I'd probably play either that or Enlightened Tutor.

Two-Card Monte 2011

4 Serum Powder
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Helm of Obedience
3 Painter’s Servant
3 Grindstone
4 Goblin Welder
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Intuition
3 Mox Opal
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Enlightened Tutor / TFK

SB: 4 Dark Confidant
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 Nature's Claim
SB: 1 Sundering Titan
SB: 1 Balance
SB: 1 Pyroblast

[Bill Copes]

I've been messing around with builds that don't run Serum Powder, and instead replaces them with some Sensei's Tops and Kuldotha Forgemasters.  I still have confidants in the main deck, so the tops help optimize your draws and of course have awesome synergy with welder.  Forgemasters have been a beating, since you run infinite artifacts and they help you grab every combo piece, sans Leyline.  I think they'd also help improve the shop matches, since your primary goals there are probably to disrupt them with welder and destruction, then finish up with a tinker-bot.  I think it helps to have Tinkers with legs.

As another "digging for stuff" card, what are your thoughts on Ancient Stirrings in a deck such as this?

[Commandant]

Bill,
Have you tried running Serum Powder?

I believe GI made a good point that multiple tops are just bad/slow. Granted you could use them with Welder/Forgemaster as you stated; why do that when you can just powder into a Shop/Helm/Leyline win.

I haven't spent much time with this deck however it's combo at heart and you lack the disruption of typical shop decks to play the control/combo control route.

[Bill Copes]

Powders have been unkind to me in goldfishing, but I'm willing to put them back in and try again.