So I wanted to write a post and get feedback from the Shop players on TMD as to where they think Shops are as an archetype. Most of this is going to come from the perspective of the East Coast meta since that is where I play. I am going to look at decks outside of the East Coast meta and see how I would think they would fare here. I will address which decks I believe to be viable, or not, based on my perspective of the East Coast meta. I am well aware that the Bazaar of Moxen decks, or decks from the West Coast that I talk about, are not meant for our meta. I will, however, discuss what changes I think could be made to the decks to adapt them for the East Coast.
I think we need to look at the kinds of Shop lists there are, what they each excel at, and what the particular weakness of each archetype is. I believe the best way to do this is go through the past few months and look at the style of Shop decks that have emerged, analyzing what each brings to the table. I'll pull a sample or two for each archetype and discuss the list and my thoughts. If I omit a particular style you are fond of, it is not an intentional jab. Feel free to list it, as there have been a lot more decks that have sprung up lately and I'm sure I won't hit on everything.
So, let’s begin:
MUD Prison Espresso The last Espresso list to put up results in a big setting belongs to Tom Dixon. I believe Rob Edwards was on Espresso as well, but the top 16 was not all listed and Tom did a report for 12th.
Let’s take a look at his 75 and see what we can gather:
Tom Dixon
Neo-Espresso:
Non-Mana Artifacts: 34
4 Smokestack
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Null Rod
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Duplicant
1 Trinisphere
Mana Artifacts: 7
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
Lands: 19
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Traitors
Sideboard: 15
4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Pithing Needle
1 Duplicant
2 Triskelion
OK, so this list is brutal. It punishes mana bases harder than most lists, as it has Null Rods in the main. Karn, which was a staple in most Espresso lists of past, is gone for a lower curve and a much more compact approach. Anyone who has dealt with a Chalice on one, Sphere effects and a Null Rod knows how difficult this list can be to fight through. And that’s before it lands a game changer like Tangle Wire or Smokestack. In Toms Report ( seen here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=45426.0) he mentions that he cut a Metamorph/Revoker for two Thorns. Going back before the event when meta-gaming a lot of people expected Bomberman, Standstill, Burning Long/Oath and BuG Fish to be Shops primary concerns. In my opinion cutting the two cards for two Thorns in this field comes down to one thing, do you fear Burning Long/Oath more then you fear BuG Fish. Thorns are awful against BuG fish but are very strong in the Burning match-up. Outside of the loss Tom mentions to BuG fish it seems Tom accurately predicted what he would play against. Null Rods and extra Sphere effects are all amazing choices in a field full of Bomberman, Burning and Standstill. Not counting lists with Welders this is probably my personal favorite archetype of shops. Absolutely punishing, this lists strengths rely in the amazing synergy between all the cards. When this deck builds properly there are very few ways to deal with it. So what gives? Why isn't this list nearly as prevalent recently after its great showing at the NYSE. A few reasons come to mind:
Null Rod is not as good as it was only a few weeks ago. The amount of fish decks in the East coast area has exponentially increased in recent times. In most cases null rod is a dead card against the Fish decks and Thorn is not an applicable fix to this situation since it is equally dead . Espresso is threat light, drawing dead for a few turns is murder and this list has no fix to that. Espresso can lock the board down stronger then most other lists but anyone who has ever played it has felt the pain of drawing multiple spheres and wires with no stack or golem. Slowing down the opponent to only get blown out by a few lands off the top as they build and land a bomb. This problem has gotten worse with decks adding more and more threats. Bolt and Path are now more common and if you can't get a smokestack online to hard lock your opponents out, every threat you have in a deck that does not run many, gets killed by bolt.
What are the answers? We play chalice, everyone knows chalice 1 has become a crucial play in shops but what else can we do. In this particular instance I'd like to start exploring buried ruin and Expedition Map as possible answers. I am aware that Map is a 1 drop and chalice 1 is a strong play in our lists but Map is a great tool to find shops/strip/academy or whatever else you are looking for. It thins your deck and It allows you to run some sort of utility lands like Buried ruin or even tabernacle/maze out of the board, with an ability to consistently find them. Buried ruin is an undervalued card in my opinion. Recurring threats can be a huge way to combat grudge/ingot chewer. I think Ratchet Bomb is a card that has made its way in and out of shop lists and could be one of the stronger choices right now. With people playing more and more creatures at 1-2 CC bomb can be massive. I'm sure there are other options but these are probably the first 3 that come to mind.
Martello Martlello was a deck that gave Shops a toolbox they hadn't seen since 5c's tricks of old. Martello uses Forgemaster to find individual answers or straight game winners based on board state. There were a lot of variants of Forgemaster decks, Last year around this time I had a streak of 4-5 top 8s on a list that had come out of Europe using Forgemaster and Metalworker but in most cases those lists have died down in popularity. In Europe they are still popular but over here the much more consistent Martello has won out. Martello has been on the decline in in the states in recent months but here is a list from April that top 8'd an event.
Sam Savage
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Sundering Titan
1 Trinisphere
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Duplicant
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Traitors
4 Mishra’s Factory
SB
3 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Crucible of Worlds
2 Duplicant
3 Tormod’s Crypt
Looking at this list you see that Forgemaster provides you the outlets to find silver bullets to a lot of decks out there. The main targets were usually Hellkite, Sundering Titan and Duplicant. Cases can be made for almost every card in the deck depending on the situation. While the Toolbox situation is solid, why does a deck like this get pushed out of the meta game? Well first off, Null Rod/ Stony Silence are being played more and they are pretty devastating to this deck. Shutting off Forgemaster/Moxen turns this into a less explosive and consistent Espresso list which some vanilla 3/5's. Spot removal has also hurt this deck immensely. Eating 3 artifacts to have a Hellkite or Titan taken out by swords or chewer you can really set yourself back tempo wise. Also with this being the primary shop deck that ran things for a few months, I think it was hated out pretty hard by today's current meta. I'm not 100% sure to be honest what the fix to this would be. I think multiple blue decks running Welder main is also a bit of a nail in a coffin in a list that wants to abuse Forgemaster tricks. I don't really have a fix for this one and its one of the lists I would suggest staying away from.
Also, there will be another Forgemaster list discussed in the Metalworker section, as it is very functionally different from Martello and needs to be noted as such.
Shop Agro Speed and raw power shop aggro's goal is to use wire's or spheres as virtual time walks as you do 20 points of damage as quickly as possible. The elements of Shop decks are there in most cases, Chalices, Wires, Sphere effects and Strip effects but instead of the power of Smokestack you are just looking to run right over the opponents. The three Agro lists I'd like to discuss are Terra-Nova, Batterskull Agro and Genesis Chamber. Ill touch on Terra-Nova first.
Terra-Nova Will Magrann
Quarterfinalist
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Dismember
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Sculpting Steel
1 Trinisphere
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
SB:
4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Null Rod
3 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ghost Quarter
This list is meant to do one very simple thing. Abuse standstill and Bomberman. The decks design ( all credit heads towards the Forino's, I think, on this one) was simple but powerful. Sphere them out of the game while manlands abused them and Dismembers took care of any road blocks there might have been. In a meta game where very few creatures were this deck was an amazing game plan. With more and more Fish decks starting to pop up the less effective this deck is. 4 Dismembers is a good answer but when decks start packing more creatures your 2/2's and 3/3's start to trade less effectively especially when they are lands. Losing a body and Sinkholing yourself is rough. With the Meta where it is, one thing I would like to see in this deck would be Ratchet Bomb/ Porcelain Legionnaire. One reason I like these two cards is Legionnaire trades positively with almost every fish creature out there while still trading with Lodestones in the mirror. I feel it is very solid in an aggro shell and for 2 mana can be quite devastating when coupled with a sphere effect turn one. Ratchet bomb is a cheap efficient way to clear 1-2 blockers off the board allowing you to go lethal. A bomb at 1 can take care of Hierarch's, Death Rite Shaman, Goblin Welders among others. While a bomb at two can be damaging to your game plan with so many Sphere effects, it can also again take care of a wall of creatures that might be sitting in front of you. Bob, Goyf, Thalia, Stoneforge, Snapcaster and the increasingly popular Baleful Strix. I think with a few slight modifications this deck can compete in todays meta just based on raw tempo alone.
Batterskull Shops Well the first thing this shop list is missing is a catchy name. Rob Edwards I'm looking at you to fix that ASAP. Besides that this deck takes raw power another way. It maxed out the high end of the shop curve with 4x Batterskull and says Ancient Tomb and Dismember, your damage means nothing to me. This is deck isn't looking for cute tricks as much as its looking to ram 2 Batterskulls and a Lodestone Golem down your throat on turn 2 ( thanks Rob).
Second – Rob Edwards
“Deck list Withheld"
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Trinisphere
1 Duplicant
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Dismember
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Batterskull
SB:
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Duplicant
Well the pro's of this deck are pretty straight forward. Abuse you as hard as possible as quick as possible. My lands tap for 3 and I am going to make you know that fact pretty clearly. One thing that came up in a match I played against Rob and I think is a huge boon right now, Batterskull dodges Lightning Bolt. With a lot of decks using that as the primary form of spot removal I think Batterskull is an amazing choice. Even though it has only been a few events this has been the shop list to show up the most recently. If I had to argue the cons of it, I feel most of it would fall on with such a top heavy curve and 0 crucibles meeting a ill-timed waste effect can ruin your day as bad if not worse then Espresso. 4 Metamorphs beefs up the consistency of the list but can sometimes lead to awkward openers with 2 Metamorphs and no real threats. If you are going to stay with an Agro list this is probably the best suited for the meta. If you can stop a few crucial pieces of removal Batterskull just beats the Fish decks out in the field right now.
Genesis Chamber Ill say this off the bat, this might be the most fun shop list I have piloted in a while, your ability to do silly things is through the roof and Genesis Chamber compliments the brokenness so well. If I remember correctly this list went undefeated in rounds and lost in round one of top eight to the eventual winner of the largest event to be held in the states this year, the NYSE Open. In a field full of Bomberman and Standstill, card draw and free creatures seems pretty solid and this deck has both.
TH – Adrian Becker
Affinity Robots
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Gaea’s Cradle
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Opal
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Tangle Wire
4 Genesis Chamber
4 Skullclamp
4 Memnite
4 Signal Pest
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Frogmite
2 Steel Overseer
4 Arcbound Ravager
1 Memory Jar
SB:
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Witchbane Orb
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Dismember
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Thorn of Amethyst
Looking at this list we see how this deck fires off. Eat a few dudes with Skullclamp to refill your hand and do busted things with a genesis chamber. Turn 3ing people is a very possible thing with a few Memnines, Signal Pests and a Genesis Chamber on board. The speed this deck functions at is unmatched in any of the Agro decks but what the deck sacrifices for speed is a bit of consistency and a very weak manabase. An early Null Rod/ Stony Silence can just stop this deck from firing off. 13 non artifact producing mana sources can also put you in a sticky situation vs Wasteland, while not nearly as bad as some other decks it can still hurt. Board wipes are becoming more and more common. Volcanic Fallout/Pyroclasm are Vintage cards these days and both of those cards give this deck a fit. Even despite all that, this deck does not have enough lock pieces to stop blue and isn't consistent enough to race Burning Oath, so even if you get to a field without Fish decks packing Stony Silence or Rod you are still not well poised against the current meta. I think this was a very unique take on shops and while it stormed a few events in a row it is an inconsistent list and probably not a contender for days to come. I hope I'm wrong on that one, I can't state enough how fun this deck is to play.
Metalworker Metalworker is a power house. The card itself opens you up to some of the most busted plays possible in shops. One or Two activations should outright win you a game in most cases. While I said I was going to stick to the East Coast Meta, I feel I can not write this without touching on the B.O.M Metalworker list and then some of the more straight forward lists designed to just power out big dudes. The B.O.M list never really took off in the states, it had some showings but for whatever reason like a lot of other lists out of Europe it didn't click here. So here is the first Metalworker list:
Antonio Musarra
2nd B.O.M. 2013
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Expedition Map
2 Karn Liberated
2 Karn, Silver Golem
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
4 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Staff of Nin
1 Trinisphere
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
Lands (16):
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
Sideboard
3 Batterskull
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Jester's Cap
2 Pithing Needle
3 Tormod's Crypt
Looking at this list we see a few things that are very uncommon for shops. Karn Liberated and Staff of Nin are the two that jump out right away. Karn Liberated is generally not a card shops play because of its inability to be cast off a workshop. With Metalworker and 6 lands that produce 2 colorless mana it becomes a legitimate threat in this deck. 2 artifacts in hand with a tomb and a moxen in play is not a very difficult board state to achieve at all and Karn's impact is unreal. His + ability negates card advantage and his -3 deals with tons of problematic cards for shops, Jayce being the biggest threat that It instantly handles. Staff of Nins ability to kill Welders, Revokers, Confidants, Strix, and a host of other problematic X/1's is amazing. Then adding in card advantage makes Staff at 6 being something worth casting. With all these positives what is the problem? Why isn't Karn or Staff a mainstay in the US? Karn crutches on hitting a Metalworker which means if there is no Worker present in the opener or he dies before activating you are stuck sitting on Karn. Dead cards in hand while playing a deck that has 0 library manipulation is a killer. Drains are continuing to be more and more prevalent in the east coast by the day so playing a deck with a lot less lock pieces falls into the trap of an all in turn on Karn that you cant tie up enough of the opponents resources to stop it from getting Drained. Thus not only do you give them 7 mana but you have less lock pieces to hinder the brokenness that the free mana will cause and have basically time walked them. Drains are a card that we need to play around as Shop pilots but there will be times where threats have to be forced through an that is a huge blowout. Staffs ability to remove X/1's is not very strong against Bomberman, Landstill, Dredge and Burning Long. That will most likely make up about 50% of a field at any given event. I don't think this deck can fight through a field of Blue control decks consistently enough even if it has a positive matchup against some of the Fish decks traditional shop decks are weaker against. If I were to play this I would probably cut the two Karn Liberated and 1 Staff, to fit 3 Steel Hellkite into the main. Hellkite is a beating on its own, has evasion and can be powered out via Metalworker as well. If the Grixis control deck continues to rise in popularity Staff's value could continue to rise.
Next up we have another Metalworker deck that came in third at B.O.M. This list happens to run Forgemaster as well as Metalworker but with nothing like Blightsteel or Sundering Titan and a lot more castable threats, this lists engine seemed to be much more in the domain of Metalworker then it did a traditional Forgemaster list. This deck brings the explosive power of metalworker with the consistency of Forgemasters toolbox. It can power out all its broken plays with a worker while Digging for responses with Forgemaster. It can be very flexible in its approach thus it can be a lot less linear then most shop decks.
B.O.M 3rd Place
Alexis Catelain
Maindeck (61 cards):
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Mana Crypt
4 Metalworker
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Steel Hellkite
4 Tangle Wire
3 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Triskelion
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
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
1 Duplicant
4 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Triskelion
1 Wurmcoil Engine
This is a list I have not played myself but attacking it from the standpoint of the East Coast meta I think this falls under the same issues I named earlier. Null Rod/Stony Silence kill this deck, the emergence of Goblin Welder makes your life much harder even with Revokers. I mentioned this before but in fields full of spot removal Metalworker feels worse and worse. If I were to adapt this I would cut 3 Thorns and 1 Karn for 1 Steel HellKite and 2 Ratchet Bombs, bringing the list down to 60 cards. It won't help the Null Rod/ Stony Silence situation but it will help dealing with Welders/Baleful Strix/Deathrite Shaman and some of the more problematic low curve creatures out there. I still think Forgemaster is more of a liability then a threat in these current days but will make a comeback when the meta starts to shift away from blue decks grinding out games and back to blue decks trying to do degenerate things.
Goblin Welder So I am biased, I will admit it now. Goblin Welder is my favorite card ever printed hands down. Welder offers shops the ability to recur threats, re-use Tangle Wires and do tons of other tricks to generate virtual card advantage. Welder pretty much does everything a shop deck is missing and has some of the best synergy with cards that fit very well into a Workshop shell, Bazaar and Welder have amazing synergy together and offer you filtering while filling your yard to offer up welder tricks. Expedition Map is great with Welder as it offers constant deck thinning and the ability to hit Bazaar constantly. The two predominant lists Welder will be a part of while talking about Shops are 5c and Mono red. The first list I will touch on is 5c or 5 Color Stax.
5 Color 5c generally plays a lot of silver bullets and hopes to grind out games by abusing Goblin Welders recursion of Tangle Wires and other lock pieces while having the ability to search up threats whenever the opportunity presents itself. The colored shell centers around Black for tutors, Blue for Tinker and Recall, Red for Welders plus artifact removal post board, White makes an appearance for Balance in most cases and Green shows up as well. Green used to be for Fastbond and Ancient Grudge recursion but ever since Mirrodin 2.0 5c got a printing that was deceptively strong. Sylvok Replica. This card is amazing in the right meta game and its synergy with Welder is undeniable. 5c shows up very rarely but it has shown up but has put up good showings most of the time it is played.
Finalist – Joe Brown
4 Goblin Welder
1 Duplicant
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Smokestack
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Balance
1 Crop Rotation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Trinisphere
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Opal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 City of Brass
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Sylvok Replica
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Duplicant
1 Pithing Needle
1 The Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Triskelion
This list exemplifies all the strengths of 5c. Everything mentioned above and more, Chains is a great card that can't fit into most shells. Being able to run multiple 1 of's and find them as a shop player is a rarity but the tutors let you reliably see them. The biggest issue with 5c is the deck has a very hard time beating a diverse meta game. When the field is open like it is right now, you do not have enough slots for answers and end up falling into a trap where you aren't as consistent as other shop decks and you don't have the ability to reactively answer all of your opponents threats. Spot removal is huge in this format and you don't have the ability to protect Welder like blue decks do and this deck crutches on Welder immensely. Before Revoker was printed 5c's game against MUD was through the roof. While 5c still has an advantage over MUD I don't think it is the domination it used too be. With tools like Revoker and Dismember Goblin Welder can't even be protected vs non-blue decks as well. The inability to play Chalice of the Void is also a negative to 5c. If I were to make a few alterations to fit in the meta I see today Firespout would make its way into the 60 as i think board wipes are immensely strong right now. While this seems counter productive to your Welder plans if you know you have the board wipe you are able to play around it properly. Baleful Strix is a card that 5c could run, the deck has always had a hard time playing a card with multiple colors in the cost but Strix's synergy with Welder is phenomenal as some of the blue decks have shown recently and frankly why should they have all the fun? If I were to try and make some space I think I would cut 1 Crucible, the Metamorph and the Mana Vault for a Strix, a Firespout and a Fastbond. I would cut the extra Trike for a Darkblast in the board. Seal of Primordium is a possibility to replace one Replica since it wouldn't die to any of the board wipes and its cost is much more suited to be cast without a Workshop in play.
Mono-Red Mono Red shops while the utility of 5c is not as strong here, you gain an immense amount of consistency. You can play a more prison oriented build that can use welder for amazing tricks but does not have to crutch on the card the same way 5c does. One thing you will see in Mono-Red and no where else is Uba Mask. Uba Mask is a card that has not seen play in years and recently I played a Mono-Red list on it but BC or Blaine had a list come together that I will discuss that I think abuses the synergy of Welder, Bazaar and Uba mask to its fullest potential. For anyone unfamiliar with Uba mask's interactions with the two previously mentioned cards its simple. With multiple Welders and a mask in play, with an artifact in the yard, you are able to Prevent your opponent from casting a non instant spell for the rest of the game by welding Uba Mask out during your opponents draw phase, the card that was set aside by Uba Mask is permanently removed from the game. So if this card is anything but something that can be played at instant speed, it is RFG'd for the remainder of the game. This can also be achieved with a single Welder and an Uba mask in play with another Uba Mask in the yard. Bazaar's interaction with Welder is easy, Dump cards in your yard and then you can cheat them in and out of play with Welder. Uba Mask and Bazaar are an interesting mix as well. When you have no cards in your hand You can activate bazaar to remove 2 cards from the game with Uba mask and not have to pitch anything. While that seems like anti-synergy with Welder you can draw 3 cards a turn while locking your opponents draws down. While it was a small event, Blaine still split the finals and I really like this lists overall feel.
1st/2nd Blaine Christiansen
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Barbarian Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Goblin Welder
4 Lodestone Golem
2 Duplicant
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Null Rod
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Smokestack
4 Tangle Wire
2 Uba Mask
1 Trinisphere
Sideboard
3 Triskelion
2 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Grafdiger's Cage
1 Null Rod
3 Sphere of Resistance
So Welder and Chalice of the Void never played well together but with the printing of Cavern of Souls, the two cards that used to fight for inclusion in most of these decks have finally found a home together. With everything positive about this deck there are a few things that I would change around. I don't like 4x Bazaar. While the synergy of Bazaar in this deck stronger then in most lists any time I open double Bazaar I feel like I would want to ship the hand back outside of a few extreme cases. I never got a chance to ask BC and maybe if he checks this out he could answer this, 3 Barbarian Rings with no other way to activate them besides a Mox and a Lotus which both get shut off by null rod seems very hard to activate consistently and I would like to know how often he had the red mana online to do that. If I were to play a Welder deck right now a variation of this would be it 100%. Chalice is the best protection you can offer your own Welders and still has all its normal applications elsewhere. I would try to figure out a way to add in another red source so Barbarian Ring could be active more often and probably switch the Spheres to the main for the Null Rods. I think this list Is a lot of fun to play and it has a ton of hidden synergies while still being able to play the typical abusive shop game.
So where does this leave us as shop players? I think a lot of questions were posed without a lot of answers. I don't think shops have been this wide open in years. If I were to pick a style of shops I would say Espresso with Ratchet Bomb is the way to go. I think almost every shop list presented can be tweaked to be competitive but to take down an event with the way Blue has evolved in the past few months, that is something that I and most other shop pilots have not been able to crack since Tom Dixon took down a MVP event a few months ago and even that was before the shift to Strix Control and BuG fish becoming more prevalent. If anything I hope this will force innovation back into the Workshop archetype. Outside of a few threads the shop forum is slowly decreasing in activity. Hopefully even if you are a shop master who knew everything that I wrote at reading this will bring some traffic back to our little corner of the forum and pump some life back into the Workshop discussions.
