The Color of Shop

[Prospero]

I. The History of Workshops
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
- Abraham Lincoln

When a player decided to play a Workshop deck they were immediately faced with a decision: what kind of Shop deck?  While blue pilots chose between Combo and Control, Shop pilots chose between Prison and Aggro.  

That question led to another one: just how flexible do I want to be?  The question was an important one.  Shop Aggro could offer you aggressive starts with powerful cards, but it was unable to support the mana base that would be required in order to reliably cast colored spells.  Colored spells weren't a part of its game plan – the deck sought to use the disruption that it possessed as a series of Time Walks, not as cards used to establish a hard lock.  

The two synergies were at war with one another.  Shop Prison wanted to establish board control and play a longer game.  The ideal game wasn't interactive, but it wasn't usually as fast as a Shop Aggro game.  The Shop Aggro deck was different.  It was a tempo deck, with Spheres, Wires and Wastelands meant to disrupt the opponent long enough to do 20 points of damage.  The deck couldn't establish a hard lock – if your game went long you almost assuredly had lost.  The strategy did have redemptive attributes though.  Still, there were costs associated with either Shop deck.  Both were strong, but did you prefer more power or more flexibility?  Did you want the ability to dodge an opponent's threats, or did you intend on trying to run through them?  How many lockpieces did you need and what was the opportunity cost of those lockpieces?  

II.  Printings Through the Years
“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
- Ronald Reagan

An important question that should be asked (by Wizards R&D at the very least) is how much mana a given effect is worth and where it fits in the color wheel.  With the printing of cards like The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale back in the early days of Magic the concept of zero cost associated with an effect was introduced.  To be fair, Tabernacle is a card that comes with a cost, in that it costs you your solitary land drop for a turn and it doesn’t make mana.  Still, the effect of Tabernacle – forcing players to spend mana in order to keep their creatures on the board, is an effect that could be colored.  Many years later it was, as Wizards printed Magus of the Tabernacle – a creature with the same effect as the original land from Legends – a creature that required a player to spend white mana in order to net the effect of the original Tabernacle.  Other cards introduced other effects – Library of Alexandria and Bazaar of Baghdad both introduced the idea of brown draw (once again with restrictions or downsides.)  Tormod's Crypt introduced free graveyard removal – an effect that would later be heavily identified with black mana.

Still, Wizards wasn't exactly prolific with these kinds of printings.  There were things that fit within the color wheel and the cards that had those effects would require spending the appropriate mana.  

III.  Dredge and Leylines
“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.”
- Winston Churchill

There are cards that we can look back on and call mistakes.  Psionic Blast wouldn't be printed nowadays, just as Gate to Phyrexia wouldn't see the light of day either.  They are cards that don't fit within their restrictions in the color wheel.

Ravnica block was wildly important to modern Vintage for many reasons.  Ravnica brought us Dredge and the advent of a very powerful Bazaar pillar.  Ravnica block brought us Dark Confidant – one of the modern draw engines of blue Vintage decks.  Ravnica block also brought us something else though, the ability to get a colored effect (for nothing, a brown cost of 0) with Leylines.  It wasn't the first time and it will not be the last.

Ravnica block necessitated graveyard hate in modern Shop lists, but it also gave Shops Leyline of the Void, the card that Dredge pilots (rightly) fear most.  The presence of black cards in the sideboard of a Workshop deck seems wrong at first, especially four mana enchantments.  Many of the Shop decks that use Leyline of the Void can't cast it reliably, or can't cast it at all.  The Sphere effects that most every Shop deck plays push Leyline of the Void out further on their curve and the presence of Mishra's Workshop (a card that cannot help in casting Leyline of the Void) has a cost as well in that it occupies a land slot that will not help the player achieve their goal of landing the Leyline.

Still, those Leylines aren't in the sideboard of Shop decks because the Shop pilot believes they'll need to cast them.  They're there because they believe that they're going to be free.  

Leylines were another example of Wizards making a colored effect, essentially, brown.  

IV. Design Space and New Cards
“If everybody is thinking alike then somebody isn’t thinking.”
- George S. Patton IV

M11 brought another set of Leylines.  For Shop pilots the one that was most exciting was Leyline of Sanctity.  With the errata of Oath of Druids changed to target players, it was now possible to stop a longtime enemy from successfully executing their game plan.  While the environments that I played in weren't heavy enough with Combo decks and Oath decks to warrant the inclusion of Leyline of Sanctity in my sideboard I still picked up a foil playset with the knowledge that they may one day be necessary.

Innistrad has taken this a step further in giving Workshop pilots Witchbane Orb.  While Standard players may wonder why they were so unlucky as to open a Witchbane Orb in their Innistrad pack, Shop pilots know the power of the Orb.  Orb takes yet another effect that had been colored (Ivory Mask) and it makes it brown and cast-able off a Workshop.  

Still, while Witchbane Orb is a card that I do like quite a bit, it doesn't compare to some of the cards that we were given with the printing of New Phyrexia.

V. New Phyrexia and New Weapons
“The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest.”
- Ludwig von Mises

Years go by and Wizards is presented with myriad problems.  How can you remain original in a game that has been in print for nearly 20 years?  New Phyrexia had many answers to this, but one of them was to take colored effect and permit brown mana and life to be spent in order to fulfill their cost.

Phyrexian Metamorph is a combination of Clone and Sculpting Steel, all for the low cost of three mana and two life.  Phyrexian Metamorph answers many problems that Shop pilots have had.  To name a few:

1.  How do I deal with my opponent's Bridge from Below?
2.  How do I deal with my opponent's (resolved) Tinker target?
3.  How do I tack on and break the back of my opponent in this game?

There are other ways to use Metamorph, obviously.  Still, those are three of the most powerful ways to use the card.  

The Clone effect has long been identified as blue.  We have seen many variations on the card throughout the years, but they're almost exclusively blue.    

Dismember is another supremely powerful card from New Phyrexia that can be cast with colorless mana and life.  While creature destruction exists within several colors (and brown), Dismember is potentially the most efficient removal spell that a Shop pilot could hope for.  

Workshop decks do certain things well.  There are other things that Workshop decks have never done terribly well.  You don't have to worry about a Workshop deck using hand destruction against you, or countering your spells (unless you play into a card like Chalice of the Void).  Creature destruction has historically been a problem for Workshop decks.  Duplicant is targeted creature removal, but it is at the upper end of a Shop player's curve.  When Sphere effects are considered it often costs more than six mana.  There are other cards that a Workshop pilot has available to them, but they didn’t guarantee removal of the threat or they generally proved too clunky.  

Dismember ends that.  A Shop Aggro player may need removal to push through their threats, a Shop Prison deck may need removal in order to stay in the game.  Still, both decks had a real need for the card, albeit for different roles.  The cost in life is worth the effect – a black effect has now entered into Shop sideboards and I'd imagine that it's going to stay there for a while.  It addresses one of the needs that Workshop decks have had for years.  Cards like Kataki, War’s Wage and Magus of the Moon are no longer as backbreaking as they have been in the past, so long as you have Dismember.

Mental Misstep was true to its name.  As things stand now, I'd think that the DCI agrees (as it's banned in every format, save Standard and Vintage.)  But what is Misstep, really?

Misstep is a hard counter, albeit one with limitations.  Only hitting one drops is a weakness.  Still, it's less a weakness in Vintage, where many of the most powerful cards ever printed live in the one mana slot.  

Misstep is tempo.  Shop decks suffer in that half their games are played on the draw.  What happens when an opponent is able to resolve a key spell early?  Usually it puts the Shop player behind.  While Misstep doesn't address all the problems that a Shop pilot faces for being on the draw, it does address a few of them.  

A list:

Ancestral Recall
Brainstorm
Chain of Vapor
Mystical Tutor
Ponder
Preordain
Dark Ritual
Duress
Imperial Seal
Thoughtseize
Vampiric Tutor
Lightning Bolt
Nature's Claim
Sol Ring
Mana Vault

If you've played Vintage then you've seen your opponent's play those spells.  In a match at Vintage Prelims at GenCon I countered an opponent’s Ancestral Recall in game three.  He had already used Force of Will on one of my spells – the card disadvantage was not something he could recover from.  In another game I countered a Preordain played by a gentleman looking to hit his land drops.  In another I countered a Dark Ritual from a Storm pilot looking to resolve a turn one Necropotence.

The card is powerful.  It addresses many of the needs of Shop pilots and while the effect is blue, the cost is brown.

VI.  Color and Flexibility
“All warfare is based on deception.”
- Sun Tzu

When we look back at Roland Chang's Vintage Championship 5CStax deck from 2005, we see the following mana base:

1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Barbarian Ring
3 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland

In addition, Roland ran the traditional complement of artifact acceleration.  

Modern Shop decks are hindered by necessity: Lodestone Golem is as close to an auto include as a Shop deck has had since Trinisphere has been printed.  Lodestone, in turn, demands more lands that produce more than one mana.  I strongly believe that a modern Shop deck requires at least three Ancient Tombs in order to be successful.  

This constricts the Shop players ability to play 'fair' lands.  But why did Roland play those lands?  
Gemstone Mine and City of Brass were in Roland's deck because there were powerful colored effects that he wanted to include in his Shop strategy.  Roland played several colored spells in his deck:

1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Crop Rotation

Swords to Plowshares served as straight up creature removal, with Balance also playing the same role on occasion.  

While Dismember is not necessarily as efficient as Swords to Plowshares it is capable of replacing the effect to a degree.  The only time that it won't give you precisely what you want is when you're fighting Tinker targets or Wurmcoil Engines.  Still, a modern Shop deck is capable of killing creatures and staying brown.

Tinker is one of the most powerful cards ever printed and as powerful as Phyrexian Metamorph is, it is not Tinker.  Still, it is capable of addressing many of the same problems that Tinker answered.  If an opponent has resolved their own Tinker then Metamorph is a solution for you.  If you are looking to tack on pressure, Metamorph is potentially an answer for you, as it gives you more of what you already have.  In being a different card (a Shop players crazy glue), Metamorph can also address different problems that Tinker, potentially, could not.  I recently played a game one against Dredge in which I opened with five of the following cards in my hand:

Mox Ruby
Goblin Welder
Mishra's Workshop
Phyrexian Metamorph
Lodestone Golem

It's a specific situation in which Tinker wouldn't help.  There are many situations in which Tinker would help, but the power of Metamorph is undeniable.  I drew a Wasteland in that game and took game one against Dredge, not something that happens frequently when you're a Shop pilot.

The tutor effects – Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor - are irreplaceable as well.  Cards that powerful will not be printed again.  Still, this comes back to deck construction.  The 5CStax decks of metagames past were built with many singletons.  There was a Triskelion, a Karn and a  Sundering Titan.  There was a Mox Monkey, a Swords to Plowshares and a Barbarian Ring.  There were more singletons in that deck than modern Vintage Shop decks in part because being flexible meant running fair mana to go with your tutors and broken effects.

But you can still have some tutoring.  One of the tutor effects that you can have is Expedition Map.  Expedition Map has proven itself to be a versatile card that recreates the effect of Crop Rotation.  Yes, there is the additional cost of two mana, but the strength of Expedition Map – in being brown and not requiring the sacrifice of a land, is an important one to note.  It solidifies your mana base.

You no longer have to run as much fair mana, if you choose to run any at all.  Shop decks have been redundant things since their inception.  Now the question is merely how redundant they're going to be.  By running multiples (3-4 copies) of a given card you increase the percentage chance as to seeing it.  You reduce the need for tutors.  Beyond that, drawing multiples of many of the cards that you’d previously have tutored for isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  

The real question is this: what effects could I potentially need, as a Shop pilot, that I am not able to mimic (or outright copy) with other cards or the manner in which I build my deck?

We may reach a point in the future when there is more than one answer to this question, but as things stand now, there's only one card that I could see myself missing should I choose to move to a MUD deck: Goblin Welder.  

Welder is an exceptionally powerful card that allows a Shop deck to make up for things like card advantage.  It's a card that I don't ever expect to see a brown version of.  

VII.  The Future
“A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Shop decks, through the years, have been the beneficiaries of many effects that had previously been printed as colored cards now being printed as brown ones.  There are some cards that we, most likely, will not see as cards that a MUD based Workshop deck can cast, chief among them being Goblin Welder.  While all Shop decks have been afforded some measure of flexibility with the recent printings (and while the concept of a flexible Shop deck is still powerful and relevant) I think that the manner in which we distinguish the Shop decks that aim to be truly flexible from the ones that merely take advantage of the gifts that have been offered is by searching for the Welders.

Does the Shop deck run Welder?  If so then I think we may be best served by defining that as the flexible Shop deck in the metagame.  Our past definitions are dead, because the lands that we used to cast the effects that we needed are no longer necessary.  Shop decks can be flexible while running 5 lands that are colored sources, as opposed to the Shop decks of metagames past, which had to run more fair lands and even then weren't always able to guarantee the pilot the ability to cast their colored spells.

Vintage is forever.  Unlike every other format we do not wait for rotations.  Mistakes, especially ones that don't break games in half (Necropotence vs. Dismember) will be around for the life of the game.  Dismember, Phyrexian Metamorph and friends will most likely not be placed on the Restricted List.  

When I wonder where Shop decks are headed, I see a future where it is possible to be a powerful, flexible Shop deck all while I run little color, or none at all.  As the colors fade and the future of Shop becomes less colored the future grows brighter.

[XxtSundaybxX]

This is excellent, nice read. I like the insight to all of the past present and future strategies on shop decks. Its interesting to think back on the timeline of shop decks and how they continue to evolve and adapt to compete.

[Meddling Mike]

Interesting observation about the ways Wizards has broken the color wheel in the past few years to give Shops more options.

[Samite Healer]

They definitely need to print this card:

Closing Bell      

Artifact

When Closing Bell comes into play, you and your opponent each choose a color.  Spells of the chosen colors cost   less to play.
All colorless mana added to the mana pool is reduced to zero.

When the market crashed, Detwiler wept - for he knew it was he for whom the bell tolled.

[madmanmike25]

While blue pilots chose between Combo and Control, Shop pilots chose between Prison and Aggro. 

You are forgetting about Shop Combo.  Metalworker is still most certainly a viable MUD card, and the fact that casting Staff of Domination on turn 2 can win the game should not be overlooked.  The printing of Kuldotha Forgemaster is the closest thing to Tinker MUD will most likely ever get.  Toss in Serum Powders for pseudo 'free' draw and you are off to a good start.  Just because it's underplayed doesn't mean that it's not potent and not up for consideration.

I do like that that MUD has more options with Phyrexian mana.  No one expects the MUD player to cast instants.

[Prospero]

While blue pilots chose between Combo and Control, Shop pilots chose between Prison and Aggro.  

You are forgetting about Shop Combo.  Metalworker is still most certainly a viable MUD card, and the fact that casting Staff of Domination on turn 2 can win the game should not be overlooked.  The printing of Kuldotha Forgemaster is the closest thing to Tinker MUD will most likely ever get.  Toss in Serum Powders for pseudo 'free' draw and you are off to a good start.  Just because it's underplayed doesn't mean that it's not potent and not up for consideration.

I do like that that MUD has more options with Phyrexian mana.  No one expects the MUD player to cast instants.

Metalworker is a powerful card, but the recent successful Metalworker builds have been Aggro builds, not combo builds.  I respect Worker/Staff as a combo, just as I respect Two Card Monte as a Shop Combo deck.  Still, while Shop Combo is a player, it's a minor player at best.  It's not something that you see at many tournaments.  In the last six months, I don't recall seeing a single one at an N.Y.S.E.  

Forgemaster has been popular, albeit mostly in Europe.  While the effect is Tinker, the cost associated with Forgemaster is steep - you have to sacrifice three artifacts, you have to wait for him to lose his summoning sickness, etc.  I know that Brad Granberry was toying around with a Forgemaster build a while ago, but I don't believe he had much success with it here.  Still, it is a  card and it may be exceptionally good in American metagames in the future.  It doesn't seem to be that way right now.

Serum Powder's effect is unique enough that I think trying to classify it as one given thing is difficult.  It's not really draw, as it's never a draw spell if you draw it in game.  Even when you mulligan with it, is it draw (in that you're getting the card back that you would have lost to mulliganing) or is it closer to a card trade?  Also, Serum Powder isn't the kind of card that fits in outside of a very specific kind of Shop deck.  It's not necessarily a tool that's available to a colored Shop build.

[Samite Healer]

The part about a blue player choosing between combo and control, which Mike quoted, is in the history section.  While Metalworker based shop decks may not be major contenders today, they have been in the past as early as 2000.

I am by no means an expert at Workshops, and I find your insight into this archetype quite insightful whenever I read your posts.  Two things of particular note that made me scratch my head first and say: "whoa, that's cool" in recent times are when I picked up your deck at Depot and saw the Serum Powders (German Foil, I might add) and reading the section on Mental Misstep.  

One of the reasons I didn't enjoy playing shops was because of the inconsistency in the draws years ago.  This was before Lodestone and a lot of the modern cards today, but after Trinisphere was restricted.  You could often get flooded with mana sources and it was difficult to apply pressure if you didn't have the right tools.  I think this may have actually led toward the development of the 5C variant.  The best part of playing with Workshops for me is it's explosiveness in the early game.  Blue allowed me to also do broken things, and provided me with less risk and more consistency at the time.  When I saw you include Serum Powder, I thought it was a great idea to essentially increase redundancy and strengthen your opening draws.  Since shop decks aren't drawing cards the strength of the opening hand is incredibly important, and this seems almost like a turn zero Brainstorm for them.

When you wrote this post, did you have any particular direction in which you thought the discussion would unfold?

As I see it, Workshop based decks have an inherent advantage over other archetypes in that they stand to gain more from the printing of new cards.  If you're trying to squeeze a new card or win condition into your Blue deck, you'll always have to compete with slots for other colored spells.  Ancestral, Demonic, Vamp, Walk, Tinker, Gifts and Force of Will aren't going anywhere soon.  Shop players have the luxury of being able to adapt and play with nearly any artifact that is printed and will only get better with time.  That being said, you can still make an argument that the blue based decks can benefit more or adapt, because their mana base affords them the opportunity to splash for almost any color spell.

Curious to see where the archetype ends up in 3 years.

[yespuhyren]

While blue pilots chose between Combo and Control, Shop pilots chose between Prison and Aggro. 

You are forgetting about Shop Combo.  Metalworker is still most certainly a viable MUD card, and the fact that casting Staff of Domination on turn 2 can win the game should not be overlooked.  The printing of Kuldotha Forgemaster is the closest thing to Tinker MUD will most likely ever get.  Toss in Serum Powders for pseudo 'free' draw and you are off to a good start.  Just because it's underplayed doesn't mean that it's not potent and not up for consideration.

I do like that that MUD has more options with Phyrexian mana.  No one expects the MUD player to cast instants.

In my opinion, the only issue is that Metalworker combo generally flat out loses to Null Rod (and now maybe stony silence) which will keep it from being strong good enough to be viable as top tier.

[madmanmike25]

Not to get off topic, but the only point I was trying to make is that Shop combo is still a viable option for decks containing Mishra's Workshop.  Is it top tier?  Is Belcher or Ad Nauseam top tier?  Were those just two rhetorical questions back to back?

While it clearly isn't played as much or arguably on the same powerlevel as a prison or aggro build, it still deserves at least a mention imho when discussing "The History of Workshops".

[Prospero]

Not to get off topic, but the only point I was trying to make is that Shop combo is still a viable option for decks containing Mishra's Workshop.  Is it top tier?  Is Belcher or Ad Nauseam top tier?  Were those just two rhetorical questions back to back?

While it clearly isn't played as much or arguably on the same powerlevel as a prison or aggro build, it still deserves at least a mention imho when discussing "The History of Workshops".

Fair point, though that clearly isn't meant as an exhaustive history of Workshops. 

[voltron00x]

I really like Shop Combo, and Metalworker, but whereas playing Shop Combo was a reasonable way to beat other Shop decks as recently as last year, things have changed this year.  Ancient Grudge’s popularity, Null Rod’s use in Cat Stax, and the popularity of Phyrexian Revoker in various Shop Aggro such as Cat Stax makes playing Worker / Staff a pretty risky gamble at the moment.

[madlucas]

Kuldotha MUD just placed first and second at Ovino 6 with more than 200 players...

[madmanmike25]

Would love to see the lists.  Would you mind posting links/lists in the tournament results forum?

[voltron00x]

I think its a good example of regional variance. Cat Stax seems more popular in the US, for whatever reason.

[diopter]

Morphling.de has the lists, can't remember which tournament it is but it is one of the last 3. Personally I would've explored lists with Lightning Greaves and Blightsteel Colossus, and just accept the autoloss to Rod.

[doggue]

Forgemaster has been popular, albeit mostly in Europe.  While the effect is Tinker, the cost associated with Forgemaster is steep - you have to sacrifice three artifacts, you have to wait for him to lose his summoning sickness, etc.  I know that Brad Granberry was toying around with a Forgemaster build a while ago, but I don't believe he had much success with it here.  Still, it is a  card and it may be exceptionally good in American metagames in the future.  It doesn't seem to be that way right now.

Forgemaster builds are successful here in europe. Why shouldnt forgemaster be good in the american metagame right now? I dont see too much of a difference to the european metagame. I'd even say in europe, there are more null rods.

[elementum]

morphling doesn't have the lists, the tournament was on sunday (2nd october) and the top8-lists aren't available now.

I don't know how the list of the tournament winner was looking like, but fabian (who ends up in second place) played his standard-list which can be found in nearly every german top8 ^^


Maindeck (60):
Spells (43):

1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Metalworker
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sol Ring
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Sundering Titan
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Wurmcoil Engine

Lands (17):

4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland


Sideboard (15):

2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Duplicant
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Platinum Angel
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Tormod's Crypt

[madlucas]

The first place list piloted by Juri should be one card different but I don't know which, maybe one of the bots.

[elementum]

The first place list piloted by Juri should be one card different but I don't know which, maybe one of the bots.

yea, I think he was playing Blightsteel Colossus in his maindeck

[Prospero]

Forgemaster has been popular, albeit mostly in Europe.  While the effect is Tinker, the cost associated with Forgemaster is steep - you have to sacrifice three artifacts, you have to wait for him to lose his summoning sickness, etc.  I know that Brad Granberry was toying around with a Forgemaster build a while ago, but I don't believe he had much success with it here. Still, it is a  card and it may be exceptionally good in American metagames in the future.  It doesn't seem to be that way right now.

Forgemaster builds are successful here in europe. Why shouldnt forgemaster be good in the american metagame right now? I dont see too much of a difference to the european metagame. I'd even say in europe, there are more null rods.

We are just now moving out of a metagame in which it felt like every blue deck in the field was running 2x Ancient Grudge, main.  It's interesting.  Maybe there's more hate, maybe the pilots choose to play something else.  Still, there have been efforts at making Forgemaster builds successful over here and none of them have taken just yet.  It doesn't necessarily mean that the card is bad, just that the players and the metagames in which they play are different.

[madmanmike25]

Personally I would've explored lists with Lightning Greaves and Blightsteel Colossus, and just accept the autoloss to Rod.

I have, and it can be quite devastating.  A crazy, and not too uncommon play involves equipping Metalworker and tapping for mana, casting Forgemaster, equipping and searching for BSC, then equipping BSC and swinging for the win all in the same turn.  BSC is a great way to win now in case you didn't have enough cards in hand for Staff.

I think one reason we don't see this type of deck too often in the U.S. is that many players are busy piloting Gush decks.  Then again, some people just don't play with Workshops.  I also don't think it's the hate, I think these types of decks just aren't as consistent (yet still fun as hell) and that steers people towards the 'safer' choices such as aggro and prison.

[Shax]

I toyed around with Combo MUD for a few months and was waiting it out for new cards that could improve the deck. One of the real strengths is having Vault-Key.

Forgemaster is good. Really good. So good that you most likely want BSC instead of anything else for targets. Finding a combo piece usually leaves you with a fried board, and since so many players have options to bounce/counter your spells now.. (Misstep on Key, Steel Sab.) It just seems like a lose lose unless you manage to stick the combo down turn 1 or 2 every game. Phyrexian Revoker is really good at mising MUD Combo too, so I suppose that is another strike against it.

To be honest, I test out the Bazaar of Moxen 3 list(Or 4?) That won two years ago when MUD was really riding a high in tourney success. Swap out the Triskelion for Steel Hellkite, swap extra copies of Karn for Slash Panther. The innovation this MUD deck had when it won the BoM? No Trinisphere. I am thinking that Trinisphere synergizes better with Slash Panther now, though. Since the extra turns your opponent give you could be spent swinging with Panther. Otherwise I usually use a Sword of Fire and Ice for that slot. Since the main engine is Metalworker you have a all artifact sideboard, and just hope to not get wrecked by anti-meta strategies.

[elementum]

It was the BoM4 list, also piloted by fabian.
To swap the Triskelions for Hellkites and SoF/I for sculpting steel (nowadays phyr. metamorph) was the logical evolution for this deck (which can be seen here: http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1372 ).

I wouldn't swap karns for panthers, because in this kind of deck every non-land-card must have any kind of disrupting factor or direct impact to the battlefield. Panther, which is pretty much like Char, doesn't fulfill that standard.

The reason why you have to play trinisphere in this (at least european) meta is gush. One or even two spheres aren't disrupting enough to stop gush's draw engine efficiently. To stop it you would need at least 3 sphere effects. Trinisphere solves this kind of problem in a single card.

I was playing hellkite-MUD at OvinoSex and I'm still confident of this deck. I've started 4:0, defeating 8-Null Rod GW, Kuldotha MUD, Anti-MUD-Fish (Uwg) and Bob-Gush, then lost against some kind of Ubr Jace/Drains/time Vault deck and finally dropped after losing to 1st round tinker with double FoW back-up and in the 2nd game double FoW, 1st turn tinker and steel sabotage back-up^^

[TheWhiteDragon]

It was the BoM4 list, also piloted by fabian.
To swap the Triskelions for Hellkites and SoF/I for sculpting steel (nowadays phyr. metamorph) was the logical evolution for this deck (which can be seen here: http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1372 ).

I was playing hellkite-MUD at OvinoSex and I'm still confident of this deck. I've started 4:0, defeating 8-Null Rod GW, Kuldotha MUD, Anti-MUD-Fish (Uwg) and Bob-Gush, then lost against some kind of Ubr Jace/Drains/time Vault deck and finally dropped after losing to 1st round tinker with double FoW back-up and in the 2nd game double FoW, 1st turn tinker and steel sabotage back-up^^

If you are losing to tinker with double FoW backup, then I think that points to a serious weakness in your deck.  I'd suggest starting with 4 steel sabotage, 4 hurkylls yourself and then also 4 leyline of anticipation so you can instant speed out your moxen, sphere, and a chalice @ 0 to block their tinker fodder.  Otherwise you are basically conceding to any deck with tinker-BSC with 2x Fow hands, and there's really no point in playing a deck that rolls to this line of play when tinker-BSC and 4x FoW are so popular in Vintage right now.

[madmanmike25]

Personally I prefer keeping Shop hands with 3 FoW, 1 Ancestral, 1 Time Walk, 1 Brainstorm and 1 Workshop.  I find this nicely counters his Tinker AND his two Force of Wills.

[elementum]

It was the BoM4 list, also piloted by fabian.
To swap the Triskelions for Hellkites and SoF/I for sculpting steel (nowadays phyr. metamorph) was the logical evolution for this deck (which can be seen here: http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1372 ).

I was playing hellkite-MUD at OvinoSex and I'm still confident of this deck. I've started 4:0, defeating 8-Null Rod GW, Kuldotha MUD, Anti-MUD-Fish (Uwg) and Bob-Gush, then lost against some kind of Ubr Jace/Drains/time Vault deck and finally dropped after losing to 1st round tinker with double FoW back-up and in the 2nd game double FoW, 1st turn tinker and steel sabotage back-up^^

If you are losing to tinker with double FoW backup, then I think that points to a serious weakness in your deck.  I'd suggest starting with 4 steel sabotage, 4 hurkylls yourself and then also 4 leyline of anticipation so you can instant speed out your moxen, sphere, and a chalice @ 0 to block their tinker fodder.  Otherwise you are basically conceding to any deck with tinker-BSC with 2x Fow hands, and there's really no point in playing a deck that rolls to this line of play when tinker-BSC and 4x FoW are so popular in Vintage right now.

I was obviously freaking out after this match and it's still annoying, so please pardon me not laughing =)

[yespuhyren]

There was a fun Drain-shop Archetype as well years back that worked off Draw 7's, Gilded Lotus, Drains, Library of Alex, etc.  That was one of the most fun variants I'd ever played.  Those were a long time ago, I doubt many people would remember that

[TheWhiteDragon]

Would that be 7-10 split with thirst, welder, wheel, twister, windfall, drains, shops, sundering titan, and gilded lotus?

[Bill Copes]

Would that be 7-10 split with thirst, welder, wheel, twister, windfall, drains, shops, sundering titan, and gilded lotus?

This game has become way too streamlined.  Type 1 was so much fun!

[Delha]

Would that be 7-10 split with thirst, welder, wheel, twister, windfall, drains, shops, sundering titan, and gilded lotus?

This game has become way too streamlined.  Type 1 was so much fun!

Yeah. Nature of the beast, I think. Doing anything competitively always seems to ends up limiting your options.