Big Blue

[MTGFan]

Something fun to play if you like Workshop aggro but also want to play Force of Will and Ancestral Recall:


4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Seat of the Synod
5 Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
1 Trinisphere
1 Crucible of Worlds

4 Esperzoa
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Faerie Mechanist
3 Master of Etherium

4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

SB:
4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Serrated Arrows
4 Steel Sabotage
3 Mindlock Orb
1 Crucible of Worlds

Other options:

Play Tinker+Bot (Inkwell or Darksteel Colossus) in place of two of the creatures or creature + Crucible
Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale (vs. Creature decks; good but might hurt you too)
Tsabo's Web (vs. Landstill decks; Bounce with Esperzoa for draw engine)
Mindlock Orb (vs. decks that rely heavily on tutors and fetchlands. Great vs Tinker, Vampiric, Demonic, also Intuition/Gifts etc)
Spell Pierce (good vs any kind of combo or control)
Blue Elemental Blast / Hydroblast (if you are really having problems with red decks, i.e. UR Landstill, which owns this deck)


Esperzoa is an amazing creature in the right deck. I used to try to make it work in Legacy, but it really only shines in Vintage where there are so many cheap artifacts.

If you don't have anything of note to bounce early in the game, just replay Moxen or Seat of the Synod for the Zoa. However, the real fun starts when you play stuff like:
- Tangle Wire. Remove a counter from Wire during upkeep, then tap down three of your stuff (easy for shops decks usually), THEN use Esperzoa trigger to bounce Tangle Wire back to your hand. In your main phase, you can replay Tangle Wire for a fresh four counters and keep your opponent locked down this way. Phyrexian Metamorph can then copy the Wire and strengthen the lock even more.
- Chalice of the Void. You can play a Chalice @ 0 on your first turn and prevent your opponent from playing artifact mana. Then, bounce your Chalice with Zoa during your upkeep and play out any Moxen/Lotus that you drew, then replay the Chalice @ 0 or even at other settings.
- Faerie Mechanist. This guy is actually a Ponder on a 2/2 flying body for Shop decks. Play him once, find an artifact that you like, then bounce him with Zoa during your upkeep and play him again, and you have yourself a draw engine, which is something that Shops decks usually don't have.
- Phyrexian Metamorph. Play him early to, say, copy a Mox if you need the mana, or copy an opponent's Crucible of Worlds or Dark Confidant. When you no longer need that particular effect later in the game, bounce him back and copy something more aggressive, like the Esperzoa itself or a newly played Lodestone Golem.
- Mana Vault (if you play it - my latest list doesn't). This card is supposed to have a drawback, but with Esperzoa in play, Mana Vault just becomes "Free Mana Vault". If you bounce it during your upkeep with Zoa, you take no damage from Vault, and you just replay it for one mana during your main phase to get two free mana every turn for as long as you want. Awesome.
- Serrated Arrows. You basically get nearly infinite -1/-1 counters vs. aggro decks.


Master of Etherium is a true beast in this deck. For 2U, you basically get a anywhere from a 4/4 - 8/8 typically. On average, he is around a 5/5 once you get past the first few turns and your opponent hasn't Hurkyl's Recalled you. And he happens to give any other creatures you have in play +1/+1. Lodestone Golem hits for 6 damage with Master in play. It would be nice if he had evasion of some kind, but you can't argue with the raw power of this guy in a typical Shop deck. He ends the game FAST if your opponent can't deal with him.

Lonestone Golem and Phyrexian Metamorph need no explanation and should be automatic 4-ofs in every Shop deck made after their printings. Metamorph is particularly nice because it pitches to Force of Will in addition to being a very useful card.

Force of Will is great, obviously, but you need blue cards to support it. Sixteen blue creatures (4 Zoa, 4 Master, 4 Metamorph, 4 Mechanist) plus the four Force themselves is usually enough to cast it consistently. The great thing about the creatures in this deck is that they not only pitch to Force of Will, but they also happen to be artifacts as well, which means they pump Tolarian Academy, get drawn by Mechanist, and pump Master of Etherium. Lots of synergy here.

Ancestral Recall is the best blue card ever and you can cast it pretty regularly with the four Seat of the Synod, two Island, one Academy, one Mox Sapphire, and one Black Lotus. Time walk is maybe the second best blue card printed for its raw efficiency. In this deck it lets you draw an extra card, play twice as much stuff, and attack twice. It's obviously an auto-include, even if it can be tricky to cast sometimes if you only have Workshop and a Mox in play.

The two Island / two Ancient Tomb split seems to work best, but if you're worried about not being able to cast the blue stuff because of the slim number of blue sources, then I'd cut the Tombs for two more Islands.

I don't think you need Tinker, because you want to maximize the number of stuff you can cast with Mishra's Workshop and draw with Mechanist and bounce with Zoa. Recall makes the cut because it's only one mana and it's the best blue card ever, and the same goes for Time Walk. Tinker this deck has no use for, because it's a bunch of 4-of cheap, redundant threats, and 2U non-artifact can become tough to cast with Lodestone in play or say, only Workshop plus a Seat/Island.

If you were to play Tinker, however, you would just need to cut two cards and add Tinker and Blightsteel, or Tinker and Inkwell Leviathan. Easy enough to do.

I also don't think you need to play any Spheres. I tried testing Spheres out, and even just 4 Thorn of Amethyst was often clunky in this deck. Thorn will often just be a road-bump for decks that are supposed to be heavily affected by it, and sometimes will even hurt you badly when you need to cast a Force of Will or a Mox or a Recall. I'd rather just play Chalice and Tangle Wire, because they give you hard card advantage (in the case of Chalice) and big tempo gains (in the case of Tangle Wire) instead of just a minor annoyance of a tax (if you play Spheres), AND you will basically never be hurt by Chalice or Tangle Wire yourself, especially when Esperzoa can bounce both back to your hand to make it even more asymmetrical. Spheres are useful, but more so in a controlling build of a Shop deck that can afford to play 4 Sphere of Resistance alongside 4 Thorn of Amethyst, and then use Crucible and Smokestack alongside those. Spheres do not belong in Workshop aggro, in my opinion, and definitely not in Workshop aggro build that plays Force of Will.

This deck is a lot of fun to play and is surprisingly competitive. It plays a little bit faster than traditional shop aggro decks, and has the benefit of playing Force and Recall, and a psuedo-Ponder / draw engine, which most shop decks simply do not have access to. Try this deck out!

[StanleyAugust]

Ah, the legendary Workshop FoW deck. Have you considered Vedalken Certarch? I've always had him in mind when I've been wondering whether a Workshop FoW deck is possible. Certarch combos nicely with Winter Orb as well.

[Samoht]

Master Transmuter?

Memnarch?


Why are we playing Esperzoa and Faerie Machinist?

[MTGFan]

Master Transmuter?

Memnarch?


Why are we playing Esperzoa and Faerie Machinist?

Master Transmuter seems better in a deck that plays expensive bombs. In this type of aggro deck, most of the artifacts are cheap, redundant threats. You can't really take advantage of the Transmuter's Elvish Piper ability unless you play expensive bombs worth cheating into play intsead of just casting them straight-up. I'd rather play Mechanist instead of Transmuter in this deck, because Mechanist gives me card filtration and draw instead of just a cheating-into-play effect that would be useless in a deck filled with 3-cmc and 4-cmc cards.

Memnarch is a bit too expensive for a Shop aggro deck that is trying to exploit tempo and win quickly. Seems like more of a control card to me.  And it doesn't pitch to Force of Will like the other creatures (minus Lodestone Golem) do.

Esperzoa is a 4/3 beater with evasion for only 3 mana that has amazing synergy with a bunch of stuff in the deck and basically zero drawback in this deck as well. And it fullfills the requirements of Blue Shop deck: it pitches to Force of Will AND turns on Workshop, Tolarian Academy, etc. Did you read my original post about all of the different things you can bounce with Esperzoa to create tempo or card advantage? Esperzoa + Tangle Wire alone is almost a hard lock in many situations, and you are attacking for 4 damage while you are locking them down as well.

Faerie Mechanist is a Ponder with a 2/2 flying body for 3U. Yes, 3U is alot of mana for that effect, but Triskelion is 6 mana and only playable in Shop decks, but in Shop decks it is quite good. Mechanist gives a Shop deck card filtration and a repeatable draw engine with Esperzoa in play. It also pitches to Force and turns on Workshop, Academy, etc.

That having been said, it is technically the weakest creature in the deck, probably, and I have tried cutting 1-2 Mechanists for stuff like Time Walk or Sol Ring, with varied success. It remains to be seen if that is the better way to go or not.

[Bill Copes]

I don't see why you're not running Time Walk when you're trying to win by turning dudes sideways.  It's almost always an extra attack step.

[MTGFan]

I don't see why you're not running Time Walk when you're trying to win by turning dudes sideways.  It's almost always an extra attack step.

No doubt that Time Walk is a great card and probably belongs in this deck. The only problem for me is that I want to absolutely maximize the utility of Mishra's Workshop. I can't play Time Walk off a Workshop at all, whereas I can play something like Faerie Mechanist.

However, I am testing the following configuration right now: -1 Faerie Mechanist, +1 Time Walk.

If you really hate Faerie Mechanist, you can always play some combination of Time Walk, Thirst for Knowledge, or Tinker.  But none of these spells can be played with Workshop mana, and none of them boost the effectiveness of Tolarian Academy, and none of them boost the power & toughness of Master of Etherium, and none of them evade the Lodestone Golem tax, and none of them can be drawn by a Mechanist.

[MTGFan]

Yeah, you definitely need to play Time Walk whenever you have the ability to do so.

+1 Time Walk
-1 Faerie Mechanist

and also, Sol Ring is better than Mana Vault when Esperzoa isn't in play, so:

+1 Sol Ring
-1 Mana Vault

 I don't know if Mana Vault is worth running in this deck when it's only a one-shot mana source if Esperzoa doesn't hit play. But I might still fit it in somewhere.

[Bill Copes]

Yeah, you definitely need to play Time Walk whenever you have the ability to do so.

+1 Time Walk
-1 Faerie Mechanist

and also, Sol Ring is better than Mana Vault when Esperzoa isn't in play, so:

+1 Sol Ring
-1 Mana Vault

 I don't know if Mana Vault is worth running in this deck when it's only a one-shot mana source if Esperzoa doesn't hit play. But I might still fit it in somewhere.

I only run mana vault in decks that need it as an artifact permanent:  you have smokestack, forgemaster or tinker.

[MTGFan]

Hmm. I'm liking Tinker in this deck because it just provides that "Oops, I win" element that this type of deck lacks.

Right now I have +1 Tinker +1 Inkwell Leviathan and -2 Phyrexian Metamorph.

I'm not sold on Darksteel as the Tinker target because Leviathan is immune to Jace and Swords, and also pitches nicely to Force of Will, and can be hard-cast more easiliy than Darksteel.

[Random Noob]

This was what i build last. I had the feeling to need Null Rod against all the brokeness, on the otherside, it makes opposing Wasties much stronger, when hitting a Shop. I have the feeling that blue Shop is very playable, but there are somewhere the last tweeks missing.


//Mana
4 Mishra's Workshop
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
//Beatz
3 Esperzoa
4 Master of Etherium
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Myr Battlesphere
4 Lodestone Golem
//Locking
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Null Rod
4 Tangle Wire
4 Force of Will
//oops!
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Trinisphere
SB: 3 Dismember
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Mindbreak Trap

[Bill Copes]

Drop the Null Rods for Phyrexian Revokers, perhaps?

[xouman]

I miss revoker as Bill says, but also Thoughtcast. Chalice is not so important those days with caverns (imho), and if you are playing blue you can play spell pierce.

I also have indulgency for master transmuter, but I haven't been able to fit it in a successful deck, and much less with null rods

I the sideboard I'll play flusters over mindbreak trap (most of the time when you want a trap, fluster is just better) and probably bouncers (Echoing truth answers a lot of threats).

I don't like dismember in this deck, there are lots of alternatives if you are playing blue. Against what cards is aimed? Wurmcoil, steel hellkite, duplicant... are better. If mana cost is key here, Echoing truth is ok for me (for flipped delvers, oath critters and proper oath , tinker robots, dredge zombies, ETW goblins, attack past a tarmo, return jaces)...  this is an aggresive deck, so a bouncer could mean winning in the spot.

[MTGFan]

When you start packing in more blue non-artifact spells, you begin to lose the benefits of Mishra's Workshop. I try to stick to only the really broken stuff MD that's non-artifact and non-land: Recall. Time Walk, and maybe Tinker.

Looking at the comments and lists, I see that the first instinct is to remove Faerie Mechanist. At first glance, it looks terrible : 2/2 for 3U. But think about how often Workshop decks struggle with drawing the right cards... It is a deck that is overly dependent on its topdeck. Faerie Mechanist is Impulse for Shop decks that can also attack, and be replayed when bounced with Esperzoa or copied with Metamorph. It invalidates 1-for-1 removal like Ingot Chewer, because if your opponent is casting Ingot Chewer on Mechanist, you gained card advantage.

Also, when you need a single card, in a deck of answers like Chalice, Trinisphere, Metamorph... Mechanist can mean the difference between getting what you want and having to wait a few extra turns for it. Would you rather have that Chalice or that Grafdiggers Cage in your hand on Turn 1 after casting Mechanist? Or wait 2 turns to draw it?

[Bill Copes]

This might be nuts, but how about leaning more on the fliers (Esperzoas and F. Machinists) and popping in a few Cranial Plating?  The clock could be much more signifiant than Master of Etherium.

[MTGFan]

This might be nuts, but how about leaning more on the fliers (Esperzoas and F. Machinists) and popping in a few Cranial Plating?  The clock could be much more signifiant than Master of Etherium.

This is a very interesting idea.

With Faerie Mechanist as a 4-of, you could dig through your deck for those Cranial Platings more easily. And if you play Mechanist, say, turn 2, find a Plating in your Top 3, and then equip another creature that turn or simply attack with it next turn, that's a pretty quick strike.

And again, Faerie Mechanist invalidates 1-for-1 removal because it almost always cantrips into the best artifact in the top three cards of your library. If I grab Plating with Mechanist's Impulse ability, and then try to attack with an 8/2 Mechanist next turn, and my opponent casts Lightning Bolt, or Ingot Chewer on the creature itself, then I have gained card advantage. My Plating sits on the field waiting to be strapped to another creature. If he destroys Plating, then I have again gained card advantage because Plating was a "free" draw. Of course, spot removal still hurts your tempo, but I find that card disadvantage is often the #1 issue with Shop decks.

Definitely an interesting way to go for maybe a more aggressive variant.