Uba Stax

[meadbert]

4 Barbarian Ring
3 Mountain
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
4 Serum Powder
1 Sol Ring
3 Null Brooch
4 Smokestack
3 Uba Mask
4 Crucible Of Worlds
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Trinisphere
4 Chalice Of The Void
4 Goblin Welder
sideboard
1 Null Brooch
4 Ratchet Bomb
4 Sphere Of Resistance
2 Thorn Of Amethyst
4 Leyline Of The Void


So I have had lists either identical or similar to this lying around for years and from time to time Uba Stax has done well.
In particular Uba Stax was testing as the best Shop deck for me during the GAT era despite the nerf on Uba Lock at that time.
Since the GAT era it has been unable to reclaim its former glory.  It reliably finishes in the top 2/3 and sometimes the top half but did not seem great.

Recently (the past few months) Uba Stax has been testing much better for me.

Mud:
Uba Stax has an edge against Mud.  Basically most Mud decks use a combination of beatsticks, Mana Denial and Permanent Advantage to win a game.
Uba Stax fights beatsticks with Ensnaring Bridge.  Uba Stax has a mana base as solid as most Mud decks.  Metalworker can get ahead of you, but Uba Mask cuts that off.
You have Crucible of Worlds and essentially 5 Strip Mines vs Mud to hurt their mana worse than yours.  Many of the other lock pieces are symmetrical.
Goblin Welder and Crucible of Worlds become powerful once Smokestack is out and if a Tanglewire ever hits the yard you can Weld out the best cards on your turn for Wire and hurt them.
Finally if the game goes long you have Crucible of Worlds, Uba/Bazaar and Null Brooch to massively outdraw and gain card and permanent advantage.
The key to this whole strategy are the Ensnaring Bridges.  Bridges and Crucibles should be in mind when making mulliganing decisions.
Basically Karn, Lodestone Golem, Juggernaught, Hellkite and most other creatures mud runs are shut off.
One Bridge hits Mud is in a tough spot to remove it.  In theory they can do stuff like animate it with Karn and then Duplicant it, but since most decks run maybe 2 Karn and 2 Duplicant the odds of having both are slim.
Also you might have Welder to dodge this or another Bridge by then.

Oath:
I am not saying Uba Stax's Oath matchup is great, but it is basically better than other Shop decks.  Uba Stax has the strongest Chalice@2 of all shop decks since the only card you cut of is Chalice@1.
From there you have Null Brooch to counter Oath.  Also Ensnaring Bridge can buy time.  They need to flip Terrastodon or Tyrant to remove Bridge.  With Welder out you can easily dodge Terastodon.
Tyrants are frequently run in conjunction with Gush and Uba Mask can really hose the Gush engine.
Post board you can add the Ratchet Bombs to remove Oath.  This card by itself makes a huge difference in the Oath matchup.

Trygon Predator.dec:
This is the biggest problem.  You do have Bridge to cut off Predator if you can get your hand size low enough.  Also Welder can essentially trade with Predators.
Still, the lack of mana denial makes delaying Predator difficult.  Turn 2 Predators can really wreck your day since even if you have Bridge you still might have a hand size that is too large.
Tutored up Predators in the late game are far less threatening because you might be able to counter the tutor with Null Brooch and you are more likely to have answers out in the form of Welder and Bridge.
If they top deck Predator with Uba Mask + Welder out you can always RFG it before it is played.

Dredge:
Preboard is decent.  You can random turn 1 Uba Mask I wins.  Then Ensnaring Bridge can be a problem.  It delays till they Dredge removal.  Null Brooch can counter Dredge Return even if they clear the way with 4 Therapies.  You have 5 Wastes to slow things.
Post board it gets much better.  Basically you Powder mulligan to Leyline of the Void and then start dropping Resistors/Thorns/Chalice@1 in the hopes of cutting of removal.  You also have Wastes to hit either mana or Bazaar.  If Bridge gets out that is one more permanent that must be removed.

Dark Ritual Combo:
This is slightly bad.  Basically you do not have the maindeck Resistors and Thorns to cut off Storm.  Uba Mask can prevent them from assembling a hand and Null Brooch can counter the key bomb, but both are slighly slow.  Brooch is rarely activated till turn 3 which is sometimes too late.  Also, combo has plenty of Shop hate in the board these days so although you have 6 Resistors to bring in, they are bringing their hate as well post board.

Jace/Bob Control
Both cards are potentially bombs against Uba Stax, but each has their weaknesses as well.  Jace is the biggest bomb with the biggest weakness.  Basically with Uba Mask out Jace means your opponent reveals 4 cards a turn which is terrible.  They are randomly messed sometimes.  They might reveal their last Tendrils when they are not ready to cast it or they might reveal Vault + Key but only have mana for 1.  Also Tinker targets are gone forever once revealed.  Jace is frequently pitched to Force in the early game and by the late game Null Brooch might be ready to counter it.  You might have Barbarian Ring ready or you might be able to Weld out your Uba Mask.  You of course always have the option of discarding Uba Mask to Bazaar if Jace is already out.  For these reasons, that your opponent has a few Jaces in their deck is not a nightmare at all.
It is not nearly as bad as Trygon Predator, but you need to be careful about what you do with Uba Mask.
Dark Confidant is more problematic.  Basically Dark Confidant is a "draw" engine that dodges Uba Mask.  It also can keep up with a ramping smokey.  Both maks a Dark Confidant dangerous if it sits out there for too long.
Ensnaring Bridge can prevent you from being attacked, but it does nothing to answer the cards that Bob is drawing.  Brooch does nothing against Bob.

Gush.dec
Gush is hit hard by both Null Brooch and Uba Mask.  Furthermore GAT is hurt by Ensnaring Bridge and Chalice@1 or Chalice@2.
Then you have Painter.  Painter is hit hard by Chalice again and Uba Stax has some goofiness where it can dodge a Grindstone win.
Basically, with Welder out you can eot Weld in Uba to not die when you would draw.  Then Weld in Crucible and play Factory.  Now for the rest of the game instead of a "draw" you just tutor up whatever artifact you want in the yard.

[madmanmike25]

Somehow this just feels a little slow if you dont see a Shop in your opening hand.  Barring Cotv@0, i think the lack of low cc disruption is going to hurt this deck.  I'm really surprised to see no Tangles since they are great with Welder.  Not to be too critical, but Welder beats or B-ring recursion seems really slow.

If Null Brooch didn't say 'noncreature', you would be on to something.  I think it would be better with Sphere effects so they couldn't easily bait you into using it.

I do like E.Bridge though, very beastly vs Shop aggro as they cannot deal with it unless they maindeck Ratchet Bombs.

Since you run 4 Crucibles why not play with an Expedition Map or two?  The targets are obvious.

When it comes to Gush, I think Lodestones, Spheres, and Thorns just do a better job than Uba Mask these days.

Out of curiosity, what are the odds again of finding LL with Serum Powder?

[Wagner]

From there you have Jester's Cap to counter Oath.

Did you change the list last minute, I can't find any Jester in there.

[Gambit]

This deck plays all my favorite cards, I really hope it's good. I too am a little concerned about the lack of turn 1 action, but maybe serum powder helps with that as you shouild have some action. I'll test this as I am always looking for a reason to play brooch & mask. But there may be just too many Jaces in my meta to make this a reality.

[Prospero]

I have a few questions for you:

1.  Why do you believe that Uba Stax is a good metagame call in an environment that features Oath, Shop Prison, Shop Aggro and Bob Tendrils?  I don't believe that Uba has a good match against MUD Prison decks, primarily because Uba is not built to fight Smokestack, and whatever advantage that you seek to gain off Uba is partially negated in that the opposing Shop Prison deck is also a permanent based deck.  Do you say this because your deck runs Welders?  I'd caution you that Welders alone aren't enough to get it done, but I'd love the opportunity to test with you and expound further upon my points.

2.  In an era when the best blue draw spells are restricted, and when blue decks have become decks that traditionally give Shops trouble (Oath, combo with a heavy bounce suite post board), why do you believe that Uba is a good call?  The value in Uba Mask was mostly in nuking efficient draw spells like Brainstorm.  Given that Brainstorm is no longer a real threat to Shop decks, why have you chosen Uba?

3.  You mention that you believe that Uba has a mana base that is nearly as tight as MUD's.  Why do you say this?  MUD decks all run four Ancient Tombs, which serve as a poor mans Workshop.  Uba replaces them with Bazaars, which are great with a Mask on the board, and not very good without one.  

[punki]

How is a turn 1 uba a win against dredge? I 've always been sure it does not prevent them from dredging

[Commandant]

-

[madmanmike25]

Uba Mask really isn't that great an answer to Dredge.  You would have to be on the play, cast Uba and hope they don't have any Dredgers in hand and then you would be sitting pretty.  They can still lay lands and hardcast low cc creatures though, but it shouldn't be to hard to sneak a win.

When two replacement effects apply the player get's to choose.  Basically if you cast Uba, then they would activate Bazaar exiling the top two cards of their library and then discard 3 cards from their hand, most likely Dredgers if available.  After that they will just keep replacing the 'draw' with 'dredge' making Uba Mask null and void.

419.9a If two or more replacement or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply.

If any of that is incorrect, feel free to speak up.

[punki]

419.9a If two or more replacement or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply.

That's how I've been playing the card for years now, 2 replacement effects so the dredge player can just choose to dredge in stead of drawing.

I really like the ensnaring bridges against MUD. I'm playing 5c Ubastax at the moment and i always lose to too many big hitters lke golems and especially dragons. I'm trying the bridge now too

@ Prospero: I too was sceptical about ubamask un til I tested it in my 5 c list. I ran 2 uba, 1 bazaar and 2 croprotation to try the engine out and I was very pleased with it.
Against blue decks it is true they do not run enough real drawspells to make Uba shine like it did when brainstorm was a 4-off. Decks with dark confidant as drawengine just laugh at uba, but everybody knows confidant is good anti stax tech. On the other hand an early uba still gives blue decks and combo trouble especially combined with spheres, chalice or wires to prevent them from playing the card they removed. Removing will or their  bouncespell or a powerfull big mana spell they can not or do not want to cast at that moment is a powerfull effect. And don't forget it neutralizes all countermagic accept the ones already in their hand.

Against shops You need uba and a welder and you can prevent them from playing anything. Last tournament I Put a Mud player on zero permanents and with uba and welder never let him play another land by welding out uba everytime he revealed a land. It can also be used to take care of topdecked dragons, sculpting steels, duplicants and triskellions, ...

And Uba + bazaar is still the best draweninge you can have in stax in my opinion. It also makes you less dependant on your graveyard to get cardadvantage. Mud will bring in relics against decks with welder and relic is really anoying. So crucible and welder do not get you full value and then it's very nice to have something that generates cardadvantage

[meadbert]

When I said Jester's Cap counters Oath I meant Null Brooch of course.

While the actual wins (Bring recursion, Welder  + Factor beats) are slow, the locks come quickly.
I have never brought this to a tournament, so there may be issues with practicality, but playing casually games are fairly quick
when your opponent scoops after being locked out.

Regarding slow starts when you do not have Shop:
You should basically always mulligan to either Workshop or Welder + Bazaar + Red source.
There are a few other hands that get solid consideration like Academy or Sol Ring or Strip Mine, but the previous line lists the general rule of thumb.
Therefore you basically Dredge style oblivion mulligan and auto-lose about 10% of the time.  About 10% of the time you open with Welder with Bazaar following.
The final 80% you open with Shop and a devestating turn 1 play.

Regarding baiting Brooch.  This happens much less now than in the Gifts era.  In the Gifts era they could EOT Gifts and then you counter and then they Tinker next turn or something like that.
The key was the EOT part because having mana for 2 bombs without an untap phase in between is tough.
Baiting certainly shows up.  A common example is they have Vault out.  They go for Tinker which you counter and then they play Key so you lose anyway.

Brooch + Uba nerfs the baiting since they can only reveal 1 card for the turn and you know what it is.

Expedition Map is a good idea.  The reason why it does not fit in this deck is that this deck is less about mana denial and more about spell denial.  Basically the idea is to use Chalice of the Void, Uba Mask, Null Brooch and Ensnaring Bridge to cut of your opponent's useful spells.  For this reason I rarely drop Chalice@0.  I look for 1 and 2 first depending on the matchup.  Three is actually very solid now in the late game as it cuts off Tinker, Yawg and Predator.  For this reason if I wanted Map it would be to tutor up something like Maze of Ith more than even Strip Mine.

I am not sure what LL refered to so I cannot answer that question.

Why is this a good deck in an Oath/Mud/Tendrils metagame?  First one must answer the question "Why is Mud a good deck in an Oath/Mud/Tendrils metagame?
This deck has a better Oath matchup thanks to Ensnaring Bridge, Null Brooch and more frequence Chalice@2s.  The Mud matchup is significantly in Uba Stax's favor because 4 Crucibles + 4 Welders + 4 Ensnaring Bridge are just so strong while their Smokestacks, Tangle Wires, Resistors and Thorns are nearly symmetrical.  (Wire is probably the best of these since it basically taps down 10 of your permanents over time and only 3 of theirs!)
Where you are most hurt is Bob Tendrils.  Mud has the better Bob Tendrils matchup.  If you are in a metagame where Rituals are more common than Shops then this is the wrong call, but if your meta is very Shop/Dredge heavy then this deck can make a lot of sense.

Is Uba Mask better than running Resitors/Thorns/Lodestone against Gush?  Well it is probably worse than Lodestone against Gush, but it is better than Resistor or Thorn.
With Uba Mask out it almost never makes sense to Gush (unless they are going for the win this turn and are doing something like Vamp->Yawg, Gush, Yawg etc.
 
Uba Stax's mana base is similar in how solid it is to most mud lists.  The Ancient Tombs were not replaced with Bazaars.  They were replaced with Mountains.
Overall the deck has 29 mana sources.  Then it has Welders which sort of function like a mana souce and Crucibles to protect and replay mana sources.
Uba Stax was originally designed by Vroman in a Shop heavy era and having a robust manabase to fight through Shop mirrors was a priority.
It turns out that the similar mana base  I use now works well in the mirror for the same reasons.

Regarding Uba Maks vs Dredge:
You get random auto wins when you open with Uba Mask and they have no Dredger in hand.
Basically they will never get a Dredge in hand since they will never draw "Unless they remove Uba" and thus they can never discard a dredger.
This is not some great strategy against Dredge or anything, but it is an example of how this deck gets random wins in game one vs Dredge in a way that Mud lists do not.
Lodestone Golem can try to race dredge game 1, but using Ensnaring Bridge and Uba Mask are more likely to steal you wins.

[TheShop]

I always felt that the real benefit of playing this deck was finding, playing, and protecting a null rod.  The original Vroman lists packed 8+ cards to destroy lands and 7+ cards to destroy artifact mana(many of which prevent their initial use).  The blue matchup will probably be okay as the blue mana bases are comparable to previous eras...with rod+ chalice and GAT running 14 lands...you should win here as you are the stax build most likely to make rod stick.  This deck wins by resolving and keeping a smokestack/crucible and a rod/chalice  in play.
Choke them the hell out!

The problem is that the other workshop builds have a more stable land base than you, so nearly all of your disruption (in the traditional-better versus blue matchup)...rod/chalice/wire...suck royally versus MUD.   They will out land you.  Even worse, a single beater can spell doom while you look for answers(played this out the other day). 

If your meta is blue GAT-run rod and this deck
I think you beat MUD out of the sideboard if at all...because I would just not be willing to lower from vroman's 24 lock components so that blue still gets it's proper attention.

[madmanmike25]

LL was me being lazy and not typing out Leyline.  Was it like 94% to find one?

I really wish they didn't print Terrastodon;  E.Bridge would do extremely well vs. Oath g1 otherwise.

[RisingWater]

LL was me being lazy and not typing out Leyline.  Was it like 94% to find one?

I really wish they didn't print Terrastodon;  E.Bridge would do extremely well vs. Oath g1 otherwise.

Or Angel of Despair?

[meadbert]

LL was me being lazy and not typing out Leyline.  Was it like 94% to find one?

I really wish they didn't print Terrastodon;  E.Bridge would do extremely well vs. Oath g1 otherwise.

There is a 94% chance of finding Leyline but what is more important is that you have about 90% of finding Leyline and having a hand of 5.

Before Terastodon there was Ancient  Grudge and Tidespout Tyrant which are worse.  They still have to hit their Teraston which might take till their third activation.
Welder brings Bridge back or you might have an extra one in hand. Ensnaring Bridge is still usually a speed bump even if it is not awesome hate.
I would rather have Bridge against Iona/Terastodon/Sphinx rather than Tyrants.

[Magnus76]

Hi!
I loved UbaStax and I still want to play UbaStax if it is a good deck. I have been following different threads and have myself been playing MonoU-Stax in different forms from 2006 until today.

I have read your list and your comments on the weaknesses it has and have come to the following opinion:

The best cards in the MonoR build (in my opinion) cost 2 or 3 mana. Tangle Wire is my no.1 since it answers most problems that may arise and always gives valuable time. 2Sphere is my no.2, good in multiples and easy to get out T1. Null Rod I am really missing (playing Trike in my resent build). Sure the 4cc cards are great but they are also slower and too many of these will often make too mana demanding hands. Chalice is very sweet too, stops permanents and scary answers.

With these thoughts in mind I have made the following list:
22 Lands
4 Barbarian Ring
2 Mountain
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad

38 spells
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Null Rod
4 Smokestack
2 Uba Mask
3 Crucible Of Worlds
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice Of The Void
4 Goblin Welder
2 Duplicant

Explanations:
Why Mana Vault instead of Mana Crypt? Answer: Less damage, less anti-synnergy with Chalice and better Welder target. I more often see a board which includes Chalice@0 than Chalice@1. The 3 damage hurts a lot. It has become an opponent win con. With Welder it gets you three mana instead of two. Why any of Mana V /Mana C instead of another land? I think it is helpful in the early game.

Null Rod, Tangle Wire and 2Sphere instead of EBridge, Null Brooch and Serum Powder? Answer: The first three have the following advantages:
1) Less mana cost.
2) More general effects (EBridge is worthless against several decks, Serum Powder you only want to see in your starting hand).
3) Active cards that have immediate impact on the game (EBridge require Bazaar, Serum does nothing).

Why Rishadan Port? Answer: I love Ancient Tomb, but the damage hurts too much and I want to use my BRings. MonoR is not playing spells that inflict damage to the enemy and thus it is likely that we will get more damage than we inflict. Better is Factory, but it is for defense only. It does not help the game plan of the deck which Port does very well. If I want a blocker, I'd run somethings that at least flies (since Trygdon is the largest threat). Port actively helps against basically every deck you will meet. Yes it is nice that Factory is weldable, but I like locks since MonoR, and especially Uba, is the ultimate lock deck. Rishadan Port is an excellent soft lock that fit with the game plan.

Why no Trini? Answer: I have lately been slightly less impressed by Trini because of these plays:
Early game:
Me: Workshop -> Trini (no moxen in hand)
Enemy: Waste

Or Mid Game:
Me: One or Two 2sphere in play, draws Trini

Sure, an uncountered T1-Trini with not facing Wasteland will most likely win you the game but in other cases it is much more random.

What is the benefit of this deck? It does not hurt itself with its locks because of the low mana cost. Only six spells at 4cc and 2 at 6cc makes the spells easy to cast. There is a flow in the deck that makes it wonderful to play. There are hardly no cards you do do not want to see in the frequency they appear. I would love Crucible#4 though, but I can not find the room for it.

I like Serum Powder most of the cards I have cut from your list, but has chosen 2sphere instead since it actually hinders big threats like Trygdon.

With the changes above I think you will get a deck that is better against any of those that you have on your list of weaknesses. I have not cut the obvious good cards (Smokestack, Chalice and Uba) but added more flexibility and consistency. I have also added what this deck needs in a fast meta: time.

The board (totally depending on the meta) looks as follows:
4 REB
4 EBridge
3 Tormod
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Duplicant

The main concern for this deck I think is Oath, Dredge, Bob and Trygdon, which is why I have REB, Dup and EBridge. My meta has more than 20 % Workshop which is why I include artifact hate.

On 5/3-sphere:
5/3 beater for 4 is better in MUD. Why? - Ancient Tomb. To cancel out their 5/3 with my own I must be faster than them which, with 6+ single red mana lands, I am not. 5/3 beater which makes four cards in my deck worse but zero cards in enemy's deck worse is not optimal. But the awesome sphere effect against other decks? Yes, but also a sphere for 4 mana is not optimal. I have tried it, liked it but am now confident that he belongs in another deck with more focus on damage.

[punki]

I used to play Ubastax in the flash/gush era and did pretty well with it, saw this thread and also played a list with null rods and tangle wires, but with maindeck bridges.

The (aggro) MUD matchup was great as expected
Fish is almost impossible, especially without chalice
combo and blue decks are 50/50
Ichorid is not that great either

Even with the filtering power of bazaar, I found that I could only get soft locks and my opponent could usually get out of it.

T 0 leyline of the void often completely wrecks the deck, it turns of crucible and welder, makes bazaar pure carddisadvantage, makes it more difficult to maintain smokestack.

[meadbert]

Leyline of the Void is definitely good against Uba Stax!

It makes Welder and Crucible worse and it is a free permanent if nothing else.

Bazaar is still really good with Leyline out since you can discard Crucibles and Welders.
Also, Uba/Bazaar is still a great draw engine for keep Stack online.

Fish comes down to how many Predators they run.
Fish with 3 maindeck Predators is pretty nasty.

[TheShop]

@punki
Even with the filtering power of bazaar, I found that I could only get soft locks and my opponent could usually get out of it.

How???  With a chalice/rod and them at no permanents they must find a way to get out of it with the mana from a single land before smoke eats it.  Claim didn't exist then...Do you have to have a sphere to win??? Others haven't before...

I think this deck is solid, and if you remove uba mask and add lodestones, you get the single sphere to more easily create a true hard lock...and creating a much needed clock.

[Magnus76]

I have not lost because of Leyline of the Void. Sure, it takes away many synnergies, but I would not say that it wrecks the deck. However, it gets worse if you are on the draw and enemy starts with Leyline and Land + 2 x mox. Eventually you probably must get rid of Leyline, and the only way to do that is Smokestack. But that is true with Inkwell and other permanents as well and emptying enemy permanents to win is nothing new to the Stax mechanism. With a strong opening and a Leyline that slows you down you might be in trouble, but if I am on the play with Chalice@0 I usually do not care about Leyline. The focus shifts more towards Smokestack than Crucible/Welder but

What I loose to are these cards/situations:
1) Predator
2) Hurkyl's Recall
3) Bob
4) Broken starting hands
5) Dredge pre-board

@TheShop
How many Lodestones do you run? I have been running LOdestone as a four-of since he came and always thought of him as an auto include, but now I think differently. Often I find my hands overcosted, I am a turn behind my enemy, regardless of what he is playing. Also I find that the beating is done by Lodestone alone. Nothing else in the deck have the main target of inflicting damage on my enemy. Lodestone becomes a loner with a separate purpose. Also, with Oath being a solid contender in my meta, lone creatures that comes without friends are often not fast enough.
The only REALLY good play I get with Lodestone is T1: Mox, Chalice@0, Workshop, Lodestone. These starts are awsome, but happens more seldom than the starts where I find a hand full of awsome +4cc and not enough solid mana to rely on. The hand must survive enemy Wastelands. A hand described above with T1 Chalice + Lodestone does that but many other hands does not.

@punki
Have you considered Uba again after the return of Gush? If so: what are your choises? What are your thoughts of Jace?

[TheShop]

The list I like is vromans 2005 list -4 uba, +4 lodestone.   Bazaar is good without mask because it is good with crucible or welder...lodestone is still synergistic because it only negatively effects 4 cards....the welders.

Once again, the goal here is to resolve and protect 1 card that stops artifact mana( you run 7 or 8), 1 card to stop lands(again...7 or8), and maybe 1 sphere (the deck now runs 5).

Instead of spheres, you drop diverse locks...the deck beats blue decks, but may struggle with aggro MUD.  I think it has a decent matchup against Expresso...and it's red sideboard options vs artifact are superior to more brown cards.

[punki]

I didn't run chalice, it probably should be in this deck I just didn't find the room for it yet.
My reasoning for excluding it atm: I run null rod which takes out artifact mana even on the draw and I usually do not want to play chalice@1 or 2 because of welders and spheres and rod

Reason I didn't get a decent lock is propably because I often couldn't find a sphere in time. Golem could solve this but I really like the maindeck ensnaring bridges. It gives you a chance g1 against ichorid if they relie on zombies getting in the red zone and it wrecks aggro mud (especially combined with null rod)

I have to re-addapt to the monored playstyle, I miss the tutors I've been running for the last weeks. I 'm experiencing the same frustrations I had before: too much mulligans because of hands that are too slow, topdecking 3 irrelevant cards in a row without a bazaar to filter, desperately waiting for the needed card to seal the game and drawing x blancs in a row and mostly: lack of (targetted) (creature-)removal or a way to come back from a losing board position by topdecking something broken. I would also love some big beaters because sometimes you just lose game 1 and your opponent will not scoop the second game because even if you have them in a lock you have limited amount of time to fire barbarian rings at them

[TheShop]

The lock discussion is a chicken vs egg issue.  Running spheres adds that 1 mana, keeping moxen off the board prevents that 1 mana.  The red strategy is that 1 mana from their only working land will not be enough to win the game regardless of opponent.

I don't think you can play rod/chalice with spheres without ancient tomb with any consistent chance of not imploding.  That is why red never ran the spheres to start with.(besides some argument about them being a temporary solution and redundant)

[BruiZar]

Instead of spheres, you drop diverse locks...the deck beats blue decks, but may struggle with aggro MUD.  I think it has a decent matchup against Expresso...and it's red sideboard options vs artifact are superior to more brown cards.

The answer to that is Ensnaring Bridge. Just board out your Golems in exchange for Bridges and kill them with Smokestack.

[TheShop]

Ugh...my bridges are white bordered...

[Shax]

Running bridges mainboard is all smiles against the aggro. But what about other strategies that don't use creatures? MUD Prison doesn't really need creatures to kill you.. as much as it needs lots and lots of time with a Smokestack and a single card to kill you/smother you.