The MUD Primer

[Prospero]

“Future wars may begin in the air, but they will end in the mud.”
-   George Smith Patton IV

I.  Ad Initium
Shop Theory

     Each of the five pillars of Vintage has strengths and weaknesses.  Mishra’s Workshop grants you the ability to drop a multitude of lockpieces on the board with ease.  The strength of Workshop – the ability to stop an opponent dead in their tracks before they have a chance to control the game, comes with a cost; while you may be able to control the board, your strategy is permanent based.  You are not able to respond to your opponents threats at instant speed – you can’t be reactive, you must be proactive.  
     To take that a step further, one of the pratfalls of playing Workshops is in the lack of a draw engine.  Mishra’s Workshop does not naturally lend itself to playing many colored spells (like, say, the Mana Drain pillar does.)  Player’s natural inclinations (especially if they’re former blue mages) may be to try and fight this, to fit a draw engine into the deck.  
     The cost of that draw engine is pressure.  Those cards occupy slots in your deck that should be devoted to locking your opponent out, or providing you with the mana to do so.  While many Shop decks look basic (in that they run so many playsets of cards), don’t let yourself be fooled.  The necessity of playsets of given cards does not permit wasted space.  Remember – draw spells are not actually threats, they merely represent the potentiality for threats.  You will not achieve a lock because you have drawn cards, in fact, by allowing your opponent time (because you spent time and resources in casting that draw spell), you may permit your opponent to seize the initiative, and the control of the game or the match.  5CStax pilots from years back knew of the Ancestral Recall trap – keeping a hand that had a turn one Recall, with no real pressure.  You’d lose games with those hands.  Don’t let yourself become a victim of good intentions with poor understanding.

II.  Divide et Impera
Shades of Workshops

     For most of its time in Vintage, Mishra’s Workshop has lent itself to two different kinds of strategies – Shop Prison and Shop Aggro.  With the rise of Two Card Monte, and various Metalworker/Staff builds, we can now say that there is a Shop Combo subset as well.
     Still, the two most common iterations of Workshop decks are Shop Prison and Shop Aggro.  These strategies differ in important, yet subtle ways.  First off though: know your goal.
     A Shop Prison deck is a deck that seeks to create a hard lock – a board state from which the opponent cannot recover.  There are various ways to achieve this, no given card is needed, but some of the cards that you see in Shop Prison decks include:

Chalice of the Void
Sphere of Resistance
Thorn of Amethyst
Crucible of Worlds
Tangle Wire
Lodestone Golem
Smokestack
Karn, Silver Golem
Duplicant

     If you look at that list, you may remark that many of the cards on that list are cards that you commonly see in Shop Aggro decks.  There is a fair amount of translation between the two builds, but the goals are different and it’s important to keep that in mind when building your Shop deck.
     A Shop Aggro deck may run the full complement of Sphere effects – 4x Sphere of Resistance, 4x Thorn of Amethyst, 1x Trinisphere and 4x Lodestone Golem, whereas the various Shop Prison builds may run one or two less.  The Shop Aggro deck seeks to use the various Sphere effects as a series of Time Walks, which, when combined with aggressive creatures, will do the requisite 20 points of damage before an opponent is able to establish a mana base and adequately handle your threats.  
     Both decks run Tangle Wire – though both do it for different reasons.  While Tangle Wire will tie up an opponent’s resource for both Shop Aggro and Shop Prison, the Shop Prison deck generally is better at hating an opponent’s resources, as it will run cards like Smokestack, which the Shop Aggro deck will not.  Tangle Wire serves the same role as the myriad Sphere effects of the Shop Aggro deck does – it serves as a Time Walk (or several Time Walks) which allow the Shop Aggro deck’s creature’s time to kill the opposing player.  The Shop Prison deck is far more concerned with the opponent’s ability to cast spells – thus, they are more concerned with the amount of mana that the opponent has available to them at any given point in time.  
     Finally, while there are Shop Aggro decks that run Karn, Silver Golem, Karn is generally better suited to the Shop Prison strategies.  First off, an early Karn is able to control an opponent’s mana from their Moxen.  Second up, Karn can serve as a fast kill – letting you turn your Tangle Wires, Spheres and Smokestacks into cards that both denied your opponent the mana needed to break the lock as well as beaters that threaten to do 20 damage.  When Karn hits the table for a Shop Aggro player, the Shop Aggro player may have already landed their first threat – a creature that will attack.  The Shop Prison pilot has spent their mana ensuring that the opponent has been unable to use the resources that they have (their lands may have been targeted with Wasteland, Strip Mine, or Rishadan Port; their spells may be sitting in their hand due to Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, or Tangle Wire; they may not be able to build their mana because of an active Smokestack, etc.)  Karn allows the cards that the Shop Prison pilot runs to serve two functions – to deny the opponent the ability to use their resources and the ability to turn all of those cards into independent threats that can end the game.  While Karn may see play in Shop Aggro builds, he’s better suited to the Shop Prison deck.  He gains far more utility there, as he allows many cards to serve two roles well, in lieu of just one well.

III.  The Rise of Metalworker
Aggro Theory
 
     One of the most popular builds of Workshops right now is the Metalworker Aggro build.  Last weekend I ran the Grudge Match II, and Sam Berse’s ‘Elysian Fields’ (great name Sam, I’m a fan) won the event.  
     Here’s his list:
 
Sam Berse
Elysian Fields

4 Lodestone Golem
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Metalworker
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Steel Hellkite
1 Trinisphere
1 Memory Jar
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Duplicant
2 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Mishra’s Factory
2 Rishadan Port
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland

SB:
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Eon Hub
 
     Fabian Moyschewitz recently top 8’d a major German Vintage tournament running MUD.  Fabian’s list looked like this:

Fabian Moyschewitz
Worker MUD

4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Mishra’s Factory
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
4 Metalworker
4 Steel Hellkite
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Triskelion
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Sculpting Steel
2 Karn, Silver Golem

     Historically a Shop Aggro deck used creatures like Juggernaut to kill opponents.  One of the most important printings for Shop Aggro lately was Steel Hellkite.  The Hellkite allows a Shop Aggro pilot to play two roles – aggressively attack an opponent’s life total while also controlling an opponent’s permanents.  Hellkite, unlike Juggernaut, has evasion.  The opponent is less likely to be able to handle an attacking Hellkite than they are an attacking Juggernaut, especially due to the proliferation of Dark Confidant as the draw engine of choice of blue pilots.  There are very, very few flying creatures that are playable in Vintage, and because of this, there are very few answers to a resolved Hellkite beyond destroy and bounce effects.  
     Sam’s list is close to what I think the ideal version of an American Metalworker MUD deck would look like, though there are a few things that I would change.  Fabian’s list is more prepared for the slightly more aggressive European metagame.  If I was going to play a Metalworker MUD build, I’d run something like this:

R&D Metalworker MUD

4 Lodestone Golem
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Metalworker
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Steel Hellkite
1 Trinisphere
3 Duplicant
2 Razormane Masticore
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Rishadan Port
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
1 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland

     The focus of a Metalworker MUD deck is to drop one big threat, either preceded or followed by a series of Sphere/Wire/Waste effects that all, effectively serve as Time Walks.  This may sound as though it’s easily disrupt-able; what happens if the opponent handles the one major threat that you drop?  Still, it’s more resilient than you’d imagine, if only because the propensity of hate that the deck is capable of dropping, and the speed with which it drops it, is reminiscent of a blitzkrieg style of play.  The games are over before you know it.  
     I am an advocate of Espresso Stax, but there is no debate that Metalworker MUD is the hottest deck in American Vintage right now.  The sheer brutality of an unmolested Metalworker is worthy of serious consideration when building your Vintage deck.  Blue decks must pack Nature’s Claim, Hurkyl’s Recall and more (potentially Rebuild) in order to stand a chance.  
     A good Shop Prison pilot knows that any keep-able hand must be capable of ‘double threat-ing’ the opponent – dropping at least two threats on the board, preferably by turn one, that will prevent your opponent from developing their mana base.   Metalworker MUD has access to such a wealth of mana that it is, at times, able to do more than what Shop Prison pilots seek to do in ‘double threat-ing’ the opponent in the early turns of the game – the Metalworker MUD pilot may be able to ‘triple threat’ the opponent.  Follow that up with any more business – a well timed Wasteland or Strip Mine, a Tangle Wire that keeps them off the mana that they need for one or two turns, or a Sphere that pushes the opponent’s Hurkyl’s Recall’s out of reach, and Metalworker can’t help but win.  And it does.
     Metalworker MUD is a Shop deck that is so brutal at times that it doesn’t even really feel like a game.  The rise of Metalworker MUD has had another serious effect on Vintage – it has, paradoxically, pushed Trygon Predator out of the metagame to a degree.
     There are Trygon Predators in the metagame, but nowhere near as many as there were over the summer of 2010.  The logic behind this is simple enough – your opponent may have difficulty pushing his Trygon Predator in for damage when the MUD deck is capable of dropping a Steel Hellkite, or Duplicant, on the board by the second turn.  Given the choice of trying to resolve a three mana creature, or trying to resolve a one or two mana destroy or bounce spell, blue pilots have been choosing the cheaper, instant speed, response lately.
     Metalworker MUD is a major player in the metagame right now, having travelled across the Atlantic, and made its way to the U.S.  If you were considering picking up a Workshop based deck, this is a strong choice.

IV.  Corpora Lente Augescent Cito Extinguuntur
Prison Theory

     The basics of playing Shop Prison are widely known, but there are subtleties, especially to Shop Prison decks.  knowing the subtleties is what separates the neophytes from the masters.
     The first order or business for any Shop Prison pilot (and the central tenet of the deck) is to cut your opponent off from as much mana as possible on any given turn.  This is an oversimplification, there are nigh on infinite board states that you can be presented with, all of which demand different responses, but it retains its truth.  An opponent with access to their mana is an opponent who can kill you.  If you can stop them from using their mana, do so, and stop them from using as much as possible at all times.
     Do not be afraid to cast your Tangle Wires aggressively.  There is no such thing as “full value” out of a Wire when gaining such “value” permits your opponent to bounce you.  A side point: while even successful Workshop pilots get bounced, they are bounced on their terms.  An opponent will bounce them to save their lands from being sacrificed to a Smokestack, or save them from dying to a Lodestone Golem.  You can win after being bounced if you ensure that they are not setting up their kill – and bouncing your proactively, and not reactively.
     Furthermore, if you’re running Espresso Stax, do not forget to use your Rishadan Ports in conjunction with your Tangle Wires in order to gain an extra tap out of your opponent.  You are able to respond to the trigger of the Wire by tapping an opponent’s land with your Port, and this may necessitate an opponent tapping a Mox, or something that they would have otherwise left untapped (because they needed it.)  
     Experienced Workshop pilots, please bear with me as I address some of the basics to playing Workshops:

1.  Know the stack, and know how to use the stack.  Knowing the stack is one of the two most important things to know when playing a Shop Prison deck.  Improper use of the stack can grant the opponent an opportunity to break through the lock that you’re looking to create.  
    
     To address this point specifically, let’s imagine a given board state.  On your end of the board you have a Smokestack with one soot counter and a Tangle Wire with three remaining fade counters.  Your opponent has an Island, Underground Sea, Tropical Island and Mox Jet on the board.  If you announce “Smokestack on the stack, Tangle Wire on the stack” your opponent will then be able to tap three permanents, sacrifice a tapped permanent, and have an untapped mana source.  If you stack this correctly, “Tangle Wire on the stack, Smokestack on the stack” then your opponent will effectively be denied all their mana, as they will be forced to sacrifice a permanent, and then tap three permanents.  When thinking about the stack, remember; first in, last out.

2.  The second rule when playing Shop Prison is to know your order.  There is a right play, and a wrong play, and while much of the game comes down to feel (am I running my spell into their Force of Will, or other counter, does my opponent have Nature’s Claim in hand, etc.) there is a proper order to your threats – and it almost always comes down to what cuts off the most amount of mana possible on any given turn.  For example, when given the option of playing a Tangle Wire against an opponent with two untapped lands, or playing a Sphere effect, it is almost always correct to play the Wire.  If you spend your turns casting the spells that cut off the greatest amount of your opponent’s resources, you will be more successful than those who don’t.

3.  Shop neophytes, remember this acronym: APNAP.  It stands for Active Player, Non Active Player.  It’s the order that effects go on the stack on any given turn.  Your opponent’s effects (a flip off a Dark Confidant for example with an active Smokestack on the board) do not resolve first because it is their turn.  Your effects do.  Furthermore, just to reiterate some aforementioned points – you control your effects.  Your opponent does not get to choose the order in which your effects go on the stack, or the order in which your effects resolve.  They are your cards, and one of the benefits of playing Workshops is in playing a deck that abuses the stack in this fashion.  (To finish the example with the Dark Confidant, your Smokestack would resolve, resulting in their sacrifice of their Confidant followed by the resolution of their reveal trigger.)

     You have a proactive game plan.  If you execute your game plan, your opponent will not be able to execute theirs.  You will win.

V.  A Nativitate
A Year in Prison

     The first iterations of Espresso Stax were played with the release of Worldwake, nearly a year ago.  The Forino brothers and I were avidly awaiting the release of Lodestone Golem.  N.Y.S.E. 5CStax, which had performed exceptionally well for both Raffaele Forino and I over the course of the early spring to late summer of 2009, was officially dead.  5CStax is best when responding to a concentrated metagame.  Come the fall of 2009 we had Dredge, Oath, Storm Combo and the new Tezzeret builds to respond to.  It was too much for 5C, as there were too many directions in which we had to take the deck.  It may sound absurd, but it is true; the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge did more to hurt Workshop decks than any other restriction in recent memory.  Blue pilots were forced to play Dark Confidant, a much more efficient draw engine against Workshops that was far more difficult to handle.  
     On March 20th of 2010, Raf played the following list to a top 4 finish at one of my N.Y.S.E. events:

3rd – Raffaele Forino
Espresso Stax

4 Chalice of the Void
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Serum Powder
4 Tangle Wire
1 Trinisphere
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Smokestack
3 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
3 Null Rod
2 Duplicant

     There are important differences between the list then and the list now:

1.  While we had tested with Rishadan Ports we believed Ghost Quarters to be the better call.  While there certainly is a metagame in which Ghost Quarters are the better call, I would not recommend them now (they’re far better suited to coming out of the sideboard, where they can attack Dredge, various Shop decks and Oath’s Forbidden Orchards far more effectively.)  

2.  Raf didn’t bring up the idea of Maze of Ith, which was originally brewed by Shop Master Robert Vroman, until a few days after the event when we spoke.  Trygon Predator had become a thorn in our side, as it avoided all but three of our Sphere effects.

3.  Additionally, Duplicant had not yet made the maindeck, an important difference between the early Espresso builds and the more recent ones.

     Every card in the deck is either an outright threat, or the mana to cast it.  With the exception of one: Serum Powder.  There has been an exceptional amount of debate and argument on TheManaDrain.com about the nature of Serum Powder in Workshops.  This card has been terribly misunderstood.  
     As was mentioned earlier, there is no effective way to run a draw engine in a Shop Prison deck without sacrificing space needed for lockpieces that you must run in multiples.  A Shop Prison deck with insufficient lockpieces is a Shop Prison deck that will not be at the upper tables towards the end of a tournament.  
     A Shop pilot who draws an opening hand with a sufficient mana and threats is far more likely to win the game than a Shop pilot who has drawn a preponderance of one, and a lack of the other.  Crutching on one or two threats, or one or two lands, will lead to disastrous results.  When a Shop pilot draws a hand that has both mana and hate they are far more likely to win the game.
     You cannot run an effective draw engine in this style of deck.  But what if you could reduce the variance, and search for hands that had all that you required?  Players have mentioned that Serum Powder is “an awful topdeck”, and to a degree, they’re correct.  But it’s not about what you’re topdecking when you keep a Powder hand.  When you keep a hand, it should be because you believe that you have what you require in order to achieve victory – more than adequate threat density.  If you kept the hand without the proper tools to win, it’s irrelevant that Serum Powder is a bad topdeck.  And if you kept a hand that had all the pieces that you needed, then Serum Powder is, once again, an irrelevant topdeck.
     Workshop decks have suffered through the variance of not having Workshop in their opening hands for many, many years.  The point of Serum Powder is to reduce the variance and find a hand that is capable of doing what you need it to do.  This is the sole role and function of Serum Powder.  It does serve other roles when you need it to – as a mana source (albeit an expensive one), as a permanent to sacrifice to a Smokestack, as a 3/3 beater with a Karn on the board, but the primary role of this card is to reduce variance and help you find the tools that you need in order to win the game.  MUD is about brutality, it is not about art.  

VI.  Faber est Quisque Fortunae Suae
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends…”

     Here is the list that I ran at Waterbury on 9/11/2010:

6th - Nick Detwiler
Espresso Stax
 
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Tangle Wire
4 Serum Powder
1 Trinisphere
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Smokestack
3 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Duplicant
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Rishadan Port
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Pithing Needle
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Maze of Ith

     While there are many factors that go into deciding what the proper list is for any event, I believe that the list from Waterbury was pretty tight, and would use that as a foundation going forward.
     The most flexible part of the deck is the sideboard.  Your sideboard should be a reflection of the metagame that you play in, and it should reflect the changes in that metagame (don't be afraid to change the sideboard if you feel that there are certain decks in the environment that have risen, and warrant more attention.)
     As a rule, I would suggest keeping your Dredge hate count high.  Because the deck is relatively inflexible (you can only ever run more artifacts, lands or Leylines to help your matchups) finding sideboard cards that are multifunctional is important.  Cards like Pithing Needle can come in against a heavy Jace blue deck, an opposing Shop deck with Welders and Dredge.  Whatever marginal utility you're able to derive from your sideboard, you must.  
     Shop decks have had a tough time beating Dredge decks for a while, and while decks like 5CStax granted you some flexibility (because you had a few tutor effects), there is no search or draw with MUD.  As such, you are forced to rely on threat redundancy.  I wouldn't cut the hate count below 9 when fighting Dredge (though, as aforementioned, much of that hate can be comprised of multifunctional hate cards.)

VII.  Animis Opibusque Parati
“I didn’t invent the rainy day, I just own the best umbrella”

     In addition to having Espresso Stax built, I believe in having a stock of staples that I may need again in the future.  If you’re interested, this is some of what I currently have pulled off to the side in my “Shop binder”:

1x Balance
2x Ray of Revelation
3x Seal of Cleansing
4x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Ancestral Recall
4x Blue Elemental Blast
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
4x Goblin Welder
3x Gorilla Shaman
4x Red Elemental Blast
3x Ancient Grudge
3x Pyroclasm
3x Greater Gargadon
1x Crop Rotation
3x Choke
3x Firespout
1x Black Lotus
4x Tormod’s Crypt
4x Relic of Progenitus
3x Ratchet Bomb
3x Spawning Pit
1x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Silent Arbiter
3x Razormane Masticore
3x Steel Hellkite
4x Triskelion
1x Platinum Angel
1x Sundering Titan
1x Barbarian Ring
3x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Bojuka Bog
4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Maze of Ith

VIII.  Ad Finem
Brothers in Arms

     The most important thing that you can do is test.  If you test under game conditions (which include sideboarded games against quality opponents) you will better prepare yourself for the surprises that will be thrown at you on the day of an event.  
     The results from events in the Mid Atlantic corridor show that a Shop pilot should be ready to fight Tyrant Oath, Bob Tendrils, Dredge, Metalworker MUD and the occasional Noble Fish deck.  Prepare for events, proxy out the decks, and get some games in.  Find the best players around you, and play as many games as possible with them.  Keep your eyes open and don’t be afraid to test things, even if they seem crazy.
     It’s a great time to be playing Vintage, I hope that you join us, pick up a deck, and come down to a tournament.  

“L’audace, l’audace,  toujours l’audace”
-   Frederick the Great

[Prospero]

Could one of the Mods please sticky this thread?

One a side note, the judge for my events (Brian Paskoff) runs a Long Island MtG website (www.islandhomemtg.com) and is looking for more content.  I'm not going to do weekly writing, but I have agreed to write content for him when I feel like there's something worth writing about.

Much of the content that I'm going to write is going to be Workshop related.  I'm going to link to all the content on TMD.  Two things in particular that I wanted to write about were Blightsteel Colossus, and how to handle it as a Shop player, and the Metalworker/Meandeck Drains matchup.  I'm open to suggestions.

[vassago]

Great article Nick! I enjoyed reading it very much!

[xDanELx]

Hi. Thanks for the great article! Have been trying to find a more recent one on MUD Stax, and here you are! You sir are a life saver.

As a family man, I'm having a hard time to get out and test so I have to rely on other's experiences. Would there be any chance to follow up this article with a matchups report? For example, what would be recommended to side in and out for particular decks?

Also, I am looking at Sam Berse's list. I was wondering about some of the sideboard choices.
- Wurmcoil Engine - Increased creature threat, any particular match up this would be better than the other creatures?
- Tabernacle - In another post, Sam mentioned it is used for Dredge, but doesn't Dredge simply attack with haste if that show up? It seems to me a very narrow answer to Dredge decks.

[Tha Gunslinga]

- Tabernacle - In another post, Sam mentioned it is used for Dredge, but doesn't Dredge simply attack with haste if that show up? It seems to me a very narrow answer to Dredge decks.

In theory, but in order for Dredge to attack with haste, all these things need to happen:

They need to run Flame-Kin Zealot
They need to have it in their graveyard
They need to have lethal damage available
They need to have Dread Return in their graveyard
They need to be able to cast Dread Return

The last one is the difficult one, seeing as MUD plays many more Sphere effects than Dredge plays lands.  When I play Dredge, I wreck it with MUD, because I just Sphere out everything, and Strip every land they play.  It's a pretty good matchup for MUD.

[Prospero]

I'm not a big fan of Tabernacle, mostly because it's not the kind of hard hate that can win you a game.  One of the cards that you're going to have trouble with is Ichorid.  Tabernacle doesn't really handle that.  It doesn't handle the Flamekin kill, which is a real threat.  Don't forget that the cost of playing Tabernacle might have been dropping a Shop that would have put a real threat on the board. 

Tabernacle isn't really multifunctional either, as it doesn't handle Oath decks, or even Fish decks, all that well.  Fish has Wastes and Oath will just wait till end of turn to give you a spirit token. 

I think that the demands that are made on the sideboard push the entry barrier higher than Tabernacle is capable of going, but if people are running it, and winning with it, more power to them.

Ben mentioned hating their mana base, and that's generally just a better plan.  With Wastelands and Ghost Quarter's, you're generally able to put them off their Bazaars and their colored sources.  Crucible is an important card in the match.  You can run the 'protect the Leyline' plan, or you can supplement that with Relic of Progenitus.  I've been kind of wishy washy on Needles lately, if only because I've had a few random losses to Dredge where, in game three, they pop my Leyline on the play, and I don't have enough fast pressure. 

Still, a lot of the sideboard talk here is going to be moot in a couple of weeks, as the threat of Blightsteel Colossus killing you in one turn must be answered.  It's going to eat up spots in the main and board that might have been better used had Wizards not decided to print a one hit kill Tinker target.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Yeah, I personally don't run Tabernacle, but I have in the past.  It's better in metagames full of random aggro like Goblins.

As far as Blightsteel, well, no one can ever get enough mana to resolve Tinker against me, so I'm not really worried about it.  Chalice 0 pretty much locks it out too.

[Shax]

Ok, my opinon on sideboard issues will be gotten to. Well, I'm currently running a MUD Prison list that looks like this. Any feedback is helpful.

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy

1 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Lodestone Golem

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Trinisphere
1 Mana Vault
3 Sculpting Steel
4 Smokestack
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Crucible of Worlds

Sideboard:
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Maze of Ith
2 The Tabernacle at Pendril Vale
2 Ensnaring Bridge

Card Choices: Well, the maindeck looks pretty standard with the exception of Rishadan Ports in place of something like City of Traitors or a Manland. Ports are really good at staying on the battlefield, so if I don't have crucible I can atleast stay in the game with my lands not being destroyed almost to randomly. 1 Karn is there for a finisher/mox eater. I think running multiples of cards that get destroyed when you play another in MUD(!*Very Important) is very bad. MUD wants to control the board and drag the games out till you bury the opponent with a lock component/beats. In Big Blue, your three Jaces that you are running are just more Force of Will fodder incase you have a hand clogged up with them. Or, they are there for when your first Jace goes out. But those are Planeswalkers.. No Null Rod in this list, even though I'm not running any Metalworker. Chalice is Chalice. The three Sculpting Steel are amazing. I will never take them out, unless we get something more spectacular for a prison deck. I was thinking about the new 2/1 critter, but like Pithing Needle, these do not contribute to the Prison plan enough. I'm going to be able to hit Time Vault, sure. But thats not really what I'm worried about this time around. Hell, I've been lucky enough to have 7 mana open, and use two sculpting steels to win with my own homemade time vault combo.

 In the Sideboard, Three Relic are enough to stop their graveyard long enough, while atleast letting my Crucibles do their job. Leyline of the Void is the number one option for Dredge. Maze of Ith is for the aggro like Fish, Trygon, Tinkerbot. The Tabernacle.. I said earlier about legendaryness in MUD. Tabernacle is a bit different seeing as how it is a land. We can recur it, and lands are arguably more easily destroyed thanks to Waste&Strip..etc. Against aggro MUD Tabernacle is alot better at hosing them than you are going to be hosing yourself with it. Ensnaring Bridge is the backup, which doesn't seem that bad at all. Having multiple hate cards as lands helps MUD out more in the long run for games two and three. When they board in all this artifact hate, like Ingot Chewer and Trygon, lands get the job done. Against instant drawn hate coming at you, well the best plan for that is stick to the maindeck cards.. Atleast theirs enough disruption to stop most of the time the instants they are going to play. But hell, when you get lucky and drop a first turn Golem, and then they drop Black Lotus and are balls deep in mana, there isn't much to do but keep sticking to the prison slow play.

On Blightsteel, this card is like any other robot. Except now Darksteel Colossus is going to be lonely not being played as much. I've already won a bunch of games with him. But he's just like DSC only meaner. Good thing they can be killed by each other in a non boosted fight.

[Leooooh]

@Shax:

Good list man!!
I love MUD prison decks....Not a big fan of Aggro stuff!

I noted that your list lacks creature removal except for Smokestack. I think you should add at least 2 Steel Hellkites or 2 Dupes in it. Sometimes Smokestack will be too slow to get rid of problematic creatures, such as Trygons and Hellkites. Another thing that I noted when playing MUD lists, is that you only want to see crucibles all the time against Mirror matches, and even against those decks, drawing multiple Crucibles sucks, cause then you will lack action.

What do you think of doing this change?

- 1 Karn
- 1 Crucible
+ 2 Steel Hellkite

Steel Hellkite not only provides a good clock with evasion, but it does the control role too, by destroying moxes and oposing problems, such as welders, crucibles chalices and all kind of things!

If the new Colossus becomes the new tinker bot of choice then I would add Dupes instead of Hellkites. What do you think of it?

[Prospero]

While Duplicant and Hellkite might fight over the six mana slot, it should probably just be a reflection of the decks - Hellkite, for the moment, seems better suited to the Aggro variant, while Duplicant seems better suited to the Prison variant.

Aggro decks can certainly run Dupes to great effect, but I'd caution that Duplicant shouldn't be taking the spot of the truly aggressive creatures.  Putting him in there in lieu of Karn is fine in an Aggro build.  Especially with the printing of BSC.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Shax, you definitely need more win conditions in the main.  1 Karn, 4 Lodestones is way too few.   I would add either Steel Hellkites or Duplicants.  I personally run 3 Hellkite, 4 Lodestone, 2 Karn, 2 Mishra's Factory, and more guys in the SB.

[TheShop]

Shax, you definitely need more win conditions in the main.  1 Karn, 4 Lodestones is way too few.   I would add either Steel Hellkites or Duplicants.  I personally run 3 Hellkite, 4 Lodestone, 2 Karn, 2 Mishra's Factory, and more guys in the SB.

-3 sculpting steel
+ Aggro...

I like running multiple dups over most everything else

[Shax]

I like the idea of minusing the Sculpting Steel, but the idea of MUD Prison is to lock the opponent out of the game. If I have a Lodestone on the table, well doesn't it make more sense for me to have the potential to drop two sculpting steels naming Lodestone Golem rather than be able to drop one Duplicant? I know Duplicants uses very well, and it gives you a sense of protection against all the creatures in the format minus Inkwell Leviathan. Sculpting Steel gets around that, too. I might leave one sculpting steel in main just for that factor and make a split over my creatures.

[Will]

Shax the point that I think you are missing is that Sculpting Steel is not a threat unless you already have others in your opener.  In my opinion Sculpting Steel is a win more card because it only has value if the cards in play for you are good already.  For the most part, Workshop decks either need a lock piece/win condition or an opening game play to bait a counterspell so that they can succeed, Sculpting Steel does neither of these things and therefore does not seem optimal in most Workshop decks. 

[BruiZar]

Shax the point that I think you are missing is that Sculpting Steel is not a threat unless you already have others in your opener.  In my opinion Sculpting Steel is a win more card because it only has value if the cards in play for you are good already.  For the most part, Workshop decks either need a lock piece/win condition or an opening game play to bait a counterspell so that they can succeed, Sculpting Steel does neither of these things and therefore does not seem optimal in most Workshop decks. 

You don't play with 40 sculpting steels. Sculpting Steel is not win more, It's slot 5-8.

If lodestone golem was allowed to be played 40 times, It wouldn't be win more to run more than 4, it would be common sense.

[BruiZar]

@Shax
Start by changing this:
+2 Karn, Silver Golem
+4 Phyrexian Revoker
+2 Other slots, could be Wurmcoils, Dragons, or Duplicants. I'd go with Dragons or Wurmcoils, you have Sculpting Steel for BSC. Even Myr Enforcer would be good enough. You just need to apply a lot of pressure quickly.
-4 Smokestack
-4 Chalice of the Void


Your creature package will be:
3 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Sculpting Steel
+2 x

Your sphere package will be:
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Trinisphere
3 Sculpting Steel

Your mana denial package will be
4 Crucible 4 Wasteland

[Tha Gunslinga]

If lodestone golem was allowed to be played 40 times, It wouldn't be win more to run more than 4, it would be common sense.

I would run at least 15-20. You can't compare it to Sculpting Steel.  The reason I cut Steel from MUD was that I was having trouble casting it through both Thorns AND Spheres, and unlike Duplicant, it doesn't remove the creature, unless that creature is a Duplicant.

[Will]

Shax the point that I think you are missing is that Sculpting Steel is not a threat unless you already have others in your opener.  In my opinion Sculpting Steel is a win more card because it only has value if the cards in play for you are good already.  For the most part, Workshop decks either need a lock piece/win condition or an opening game play to bait a counterspell so that they can succeed, Sculpting Steel does neither of these things and therefore does not seem optimal in most Workshop decks. 

You don't play with 40 sculpting steels. Sculpting Steel is not win more, It's slot 5-8.

If lodestone golem was allowed to be played 40 times, It wouldn't be win more to run more than 4, it would be common sense.

Pretty sure you missed the entire point of my post Bruizar.  With Workshops or at least with Stax you do not want to have multiples of every lock piece except for Tangle Wire and Lodestone Golem.  Outside of those 2 situations I would almost certainly rather have a Duplicant which provides more versatility than a duplicate of a card I already have in play.  Sculpting Steel is win more because it is only valuable when you already have resolved your threats. 

Look at a hand like this: Workshop, Mox, Waste, Chalice, Sphere, Lodestone, Sculpting Steel.  I would say that is a pretty potent hand at first glance and you can't really ask for much more but in reality it simple rolls over and dies to any hand with a Force of Will because Lodestone must be played before the Sculpting Steel unless you want to get another Sphere in play which could be good but does not seem optimal. 

In short, Sculpting Steel cuts down on your ability to play through the counters that you will play against because Sculpting Steel must be played after one of your important cards is resolved.  Therefore, it dictates the order in which you play out your hand which makes hands play out linearly and reduces the power of the deck. 

[BruiZar]

Since I cut Chalice of the Void and replaced it with Phyrexian Revoker, the hand would be:


Workshop, Mox, Waste, Revoker, Sphere, Lodestone, Sculpting Steel.

Unmolested on the play: Open with Workshop, Mox, Revoker on Time Vault, Sphere, go. (On the draw: Name a mox)
Turn 2 Lodestone Golem
Turn 3 Sculpting Steel

In case Revoker gets a Force of Will, continue as planned.

In case Lodestone Golem gets countered, copy Revoker and pick a mana source or Jace.

[Rico Suave]

Chalice of the Void is the second strongest artifact in any MUD deck right now, behind Lodestone Golem.  If you are cutting Chalice from your deck, you should reconsider why you are in a position to give someone else advice on how to construct MUD. 

[BruiZar]

Chalice of the Void is the second strongest artifact in any MUD deck right now, behind Lodestone Golem.  If you are cutting Chalice from your deck, you should reconsider why you are in a position to give someone else advice on how to construct MUD.  

Chalice is strong, it is definitely not the second strongest artifact in any mud deck. Lodestone Golems and Spheres are the strongest cards. The power of Chalice diminishes when you are on the draw. Revoker can fill the spot of chalice and deal damage as well.

Yes, you will trade 1 revoker for 1 mox, instead of 1 chalice for all moxen, but revoker is a better topdeck and serves the overall strategy of the deck much better than chalice of the void does. This deck doesn´t want to counter cards, it wants to make every card your opponent plays become unpayable. Chalice simply does not help that game plan except when you drop it turn 1 on the play. Null Rod does do that, but, speaking about Null Rod and Mud (Mud with its archetypical use of Metalworker) don´t go together well. The only reason why chalice of the void is good is because you can put it on 2 to prevent hurkylls recall and time vault, but this also means that you are preventing your entire deck from being played.

What you need is revoker

[Bibendum]

Chalice on 0 is not impressive on the play but with chalice on one being a strong play it still makes chalice fine on the draw. I think your missing the fact that the revoker does nothing to stop natures claim. Look at a list and tell me how many cards chalice on one shuts off. Compared to the spot utility of revoker

[voltron00x]

Chalice 1 is currently one of the best plays in Vintage, except against Oath perhaps, where Chalice 2 is obviously tremendous.  Chalice is better than Revoker, against Oath, Storm, and post-board it is better against basically any hate.  Honestly I'd rather have Chalice against blue decks also, again because its so strong set on 1.

[TheShop]

@Bruzar

-4 chalice
-4 smokestack
+x sculpting steel

This suggestion flies in the face of all top lock decks of the last 5-6 months.  Even aggro runs 4 chalice, and winning lock variants of all kinds have won on the back of smokestack for the last 7 years...why are we even discussing this?

Secondly,  dup is superior to sculpting steel because it better answers tinker+BSC, oath, and opposing mud aggro.  It is irrelevant that steel could be a lock early if you are removing the most relevant locks from your deck.

Lastly, if I could run 40 lodestones I wouldn't...because you can't reliably play 3+ lodestone golems in the first two turns.  Opponents would counter 1, play through a second and you would die to combo before you deal 20.  Not scary.  I also wouldn't run a crappy lodestone that only works if one is already in play.  Instead, I would run cards that actually repel the opponent when used alone.

Edit:  new pithing needle guy(who doesn't hit land): the most damning piece of evidence that he isn't the answer is that pithing needle has been out there for years and hasn't seen maindeck play in winning workshop decks.

[BruiZar]

@Bruzar

-4 chalice
-4 smokestack
+x sculpting steel

This suggestion flies in the face of all top lock decks of the last 5-6 months.  Even aggro runs 4 chalice, and winning lock variants of all kinds have won on the back of smokestack for the last 7 years...why are we even discussing this?

Secondly,  dup is superior to sculpting steel because it better answers tinker+BSC, oath, and opposing mud aggro.  It is irrelevant that steel could be a lock early if you are removing the most relevant locks from your deck.

Lastly, if I could run 40 lodestones I wouldn't...because you can't reliably play 3+ lodestone golems in the first two turns.  Opponents would counter 1, play through a second and you would die to combo before you deal 20.  Not scary.  I also wouldn't run a crappy lodestone that only works if one is already in play.  Instead, I would run cards that actually repel the opponent when used alone.

Edit:  new pithing needle guy(who doesn't hit land): the most damning piece of evidence that he isn't the answer is that pithing needle has been out there for years and hasn't seen maindeck play in winning workshop decks.

So what happens when I Sculpting Steel a BSC?
I pass the turn with an 11/11 infect. My opponent has a BSC with no summoning sickness anymore. I now force my opponent to attack or he risks having me draw another sculpting steel. Let's say he doesn't attack me (I can always  block and both would die).

If he attacks, and I block with anything that has at least 2 toughness (Mishra's Factory), I will not die from infect. After my opponent passing the turn I can strike him for lethal. So, he can't attack anymore. He passes the turn.

I can attack with everything I have got, let's say, a Revoker, a Lodestone Golem and a BSC. If he blocks anything other than BSC, he is dead. This means I garantuee 7 damage will get through, and his BSC dies to -1/-1 counters as well as mine.

Sculpting Steel costs  , Duplicant costs mana. They are both not instant answers to BSC and they are both in practice going to be costing more than   and   respectively due to the very real chance of you actually dropping some spheres. It would require 3 Thorn of Amethysts to make Duplicant better. Consider this scenario:

My opponent Tinkers for BSC. I have a Mox, Workshop and Wasteland. I don't draw a mana source. My Duplicant is stuck in hand and I have to pass the turn. I die the following turn.

Wouldn't you rather have Sculpting Steel in this scenario? Sure, if I can consistently play Duplicant on BSC I will have an 11/11 beat stick. The thing is, I don't NEED an 11/11 beat stick because I play an aggro deck that already has the output to do massive damage. Obviously, in scenario's where you can play Duplicant and have the mana for it even under Sphere of Resistence, Duplicant is better. Now consider the games where you don't have the mana to play Duplicant and simply die to an alpha strike because of an early Tinker.


EDIT: Perhaps the omission of chalice isn't good, because revoker is actually synergistic with chalice. That said, I don't like Smokestack at all in a deck like this.

[BruiZar]

Chalice of the Void is the second strongest artifact in any MUD deck right now, behind Lodestone Golem.  If you are cutting Chalice from your deck, you should reconsider why you are in a position to give someone else advice on how to construct MUD. 

The list from Shax wasn't a MUD list. It doesn't have Metalworkers, nor does it have any artifacts besides mana accelerants  with an activated ability.

If I were to take Shax's list and change it, this is what I would do.

4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Rishadan Port (Can also change for Mishra's Factories, Blinkmoth/Inkmoth Nexus if too much Trygon Predator, or Maze of Ith)
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

  Karn, Silver Golem
4 Lodestone Golem
  Phyrexian Revoker

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Trinisphere
3 Sculpting Steel
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Smokestack
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Crucible of Worlds

[TheShop]

The original list was not an aggro list...so half of your reasons for steel over dup are dependent on taking his deck and changing it from a lock subtype to an aggro one.

I would rather cast dup on BSC than steel- dup permanently eliminates him and doesn't risk Chain of vapor losing you the game.

Legitimate arguments exist both ways on aggro vs lock...but that was not the subject of the thread, original post, or his decklist.  It is hard to discuss a moving topic.

[Prospero]

Sculpting Steel is a very reasonable card in the right metagame.  It's a solid enough answer out of a Shop Aggro deck to an opposing Shop deck, but it's just not enough to get the job done.

The issue with BSC is that he's a lethal threat the moment that he hits the board.  The Shop player has a few options available to him:

Maze of Ith
Sculpting Steel
Duplicant

Of those three, only Duplicant will remove the threat of a game loss outright.  Maze of Ith will get around Nature's Claims and the blue bounce suite.  Steel is vulnerable.  

If I was going to run Steel, it would be because of the preponderance of Shop decks that I wanted to answer with the Shop deck that I was running.  Steel isn't a threat in and of itself, merely a response to a threat.  It only gives you what you already have.  If you were going to fight BSC aggressively, it would be better to remove the threat, outright, than to chance that your opponent has the artifact bounce that would still make him lethal.

Cutting Chalices, in virtually any Shop deck, seems like a big mistake.  Even a Shop Aggro deck needs a soft lock, and while Steel may have been good in a few games, stopping their mana base is better/more important.

[Gambit]

Agreed, Chalices really need to be in MUD. It's a fricken tempo deck, you aren't trying to lock them out you just want to play a beater then proceed to wasteland or sphere or tangle wire from that point out, chalice of the void at zero or one is huge at slowing your opponents plan down enough to kill them. Same reason Null Rod is good right now in Mud decks that don't run Metalworker, which I prefer.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Ensnaring Bridge is also an option against the BSC, and Sculpting Steel on BSC is immune to Nature's Claim.