[Free article]The Vintage Advantage: Mishra's Rainbow

[thecrav]

http://legitmtg.com/competitive/the-vintage-advantage-mishras-rainbow

Nat, start pimping your stuff on here! I miss some of these articles because they don't get posted in the couple of places that I look for stuff!

This week Grandpa Belcher wants you to taste the rainbow of Workshop decks in Vintage

In this article, Nat explores each color of Magic and what they have to offer a Workshop-based deck.

Whatever the reason, bringing colors back to Workshops would be a refreshing change for Vintage. I’m going to do some experimenting over the next few months, and I hope others will too.

What do you think it would take for a non-MUD shops deck to reach the top tables?

[Islandswamp]

I just read this, a few minutes ago. I really enjoyed it. I just started playing a Mishra's Workshop deck, and I liked reading about colored versions of the deck.

[gribdogs]

Nice. I almost brought that genesis chamber list last year to one of the Columbus Serious opens, but in testing I was getting such terrible hands I went back to burning oath.

[GrandpaBelcher]

Thanks for posting this, Sam. I'm glad people are getting some use, enjoyment and inspiration out of it.

[thecrav]

What do you think it would take for a non-MUD shops deck to reach the top tables?

So does anyone have any ideas on this question?

Personally, I think outside of a stellar printing, the only way colored 'shops is likely to make a comeback is with a major banning. What that might be, I'm not sure and I won't go into since this isn't the vintage issues forum.

[GrandpaBelcher]

What do you think it would take for a non-MUD shops deck to reach the top tables?

So does anyone have any ideas on this question?

Personally, I think outside of a stellar printing, the only way colored 'shops is likely to make a comeback is with a major banning. What that might be, I'm not sure and I won't go into since this isn't the vintage issues forum.

It turns out the answer is "be played by Roland Chang."

Really, I think colored shops can be a contender if the player is willing to cut one or more Lodestone Golems from the deck. This isn't such a crazy proposition. Many "answers" to Shops are really answers to Lodestone, e.g. Lightning Bolt, so by decreasing reliance on Golem you change the playing field that opponents interact with you on. You also open yourself up to potential colored cards. This seems to be exactly what Chang did in his list at GPAC. I had a 5C list shortly after Worldwake was printed that varied between 0 and 2 Lodestone Golems, and that seemed good. Lodestone was a frequent Tinker/Tutor target as a finisher, but it didn't stop me from casting my other important spells. I did play thorn over Sphere to help resolve Welders, though. I'm not sure if the Thorn plan is good enough versus Delver and Mentor.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of starting a list with 4 Cavern of Souls. The trick would be finding colored creatures that are either worth having without sharing a creature type or a tribe that has a lot of good options. I know Twaun007 really wants to try Dark Confidant and Spirit of the Labyrinth.

[thecrav]

I'm also intrigued by the idea of starting a list with 4 Cavern of Souls. The trick would be finding colored creatures that are either worth having without sharing a creature type or a tribe that has a lot of good options. I know Twaun007 really wants to try Dark Confidant and Spirit of the Labyrinth.

Along those lines, perhaps some sort of mashup of Humans and Shops? It should be a pretty simple switch to replace control elements with lock-you-out-of-the-game elements.

[Islandswamp]

What do you think it would take for a non-MUD shops deck to reach the top tables?

So does anyone have any ideas on this question?

Personally, I think outside of a stellar printing, the only way colored 'shops is likely to make a comeback is with a major banning. What that might be, I'm not sure and I won't go into since this isn't the vintage issues forum.

It turns out the answer is "be played by Roland Chang."


Really, I think colored shops can be a contender if the player is willing to cut one or more Lodestone Golems from the deck. This isn't such a crazy proposition. Many "answers" to Shops are really answers to Lodestone, e.g. Lightning Bolt, so by decreasing reliance on Golem you change the playing field that opponents interact with you on. You also open yourself up to potential colored cards. This seems to be exactly what Chang did in his list at GPAC. I had a 5C list shortly after Worldwake was printed that varied between 0 and 2 Lodestone Golems, and that seemed good. Lodestone was a frequent Tinker/Tutor target as a finisher, but it didn't stop me from casting my other important spells. I did play thorn over Sphere to help resolve Welders, though. I'm not sure if the Thorn plan is good enough versus Delver and Mentor.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of starting a list with 4 Cavern of Souls. The trick would be finding colored creatures that are either worth having without sharing a creature type or a tribe that has a lot of good options. I know Twaun007 really wants to try Dark Confidant and Spirit of the Labyrinth.

It's funny that you mention Spirit of the Labyrinth, I was playing what I thought was a Shops mirror the other day, and my opponent plays Cavern, drops Spirit, and I was a little surprised. Had I been on a different deck, any deck with card-drawing, and Spirit's ability is highly relevant. Also, it's 3 power for 2 mana, so I could see something good happening.

I faced that 5color stax deck you mentioned. I was also surprised by it, largely because I'd only read about decks like it. I wasn't playing Magic at all when those decks were popular. I lost to a Smokestack rather quickly, too.