Little Workshop of Horrors.

Well folks, I had planned on writing about what decks I played in last weekend's 9:30pm EST Vintage Daily Events, but things did not go very well. Friday, I was unable to play. Saturday, I wasted too much time looking for some new tech, or anything really to stir the pot, and decided just to play my current Martello Shops deck list. The deck is based on Roland Chang's list from the last Vintage Champs, with a few minor tweaks I had made. By the time I went to enter the event, I was a few minutes too late. I decided that I'd try to get more sleep than usual, and play the Sunday evening daily with a non-zombified brain for once.

Sunday night rolled around, and I entered with plenty of time to spare. I ran the same Martello Shops list, as it had been doing well in testing. Round one, I was paired against a Survival of the Fittest deck, and won in three games. Round two, I was paired against Delver, played by none other than Olle Rade, hall-of-famer and MOCS competitor. I didn't really expect to win, as I know he's a great player, but I hoped to fair a little better than I ended up.

That round two, was an exercise in all that can go wrong while playing a Workshop deck. I mulliganed into a hand with plenty of mana, and only one lock piece. Then I just kept drawing moxes or lands, while my opponent hit all of their land-drops. I drew one Phyrexian Revoker, and right before I was dead to a ton of Elemental tokens, I hit a Chalice and a Sphere. I suppose I should have just tried to go down to five cards, but I felt that on the draw, the odds of picking up at least one more lock piece by turn one or two was high enough I should keep. Game two, essentially the same thing happened. I had a six card hand with one lock piece, and a Kuldotha Forgemaster, and the other guy had all the mana he needed to do anything, including Force of Willing the Forgemaster. When he resolved a Dack Fayden I scooped. I had no way to attack it, and I figured my time would be better spent doing anything else. Rule number one of beating a Shops deck, hit your land drops, preferably with basic lands. That's a rule I have a hard time following, for some reason.

Round three consisted of me being disconnected, and timed out/dropped from the tournament. I was pretty disappointed, I wait literally all week, and then all day until the evenings for some free time. When it ends in such an anticlimactic fashion, it's beyond frustrating. I was finally well-rested and playing well, but it wasn't in the cards, I suppose.

Here's what I played:

The only difference in what I played, and the deck list that I built this from, is a Cavern of Souls in the main deck. Also, I went up to three Ghost Quarter in the sideboard, so that in a mirror-match, I could lean heavily on the Crucible of Worlds/Strip Mine recursion, which is very important in that matchup. Listening to Yawgmoth's Soap Opera the other day, I have to mention, that even before ever playing a game with this type of deck, I knew how important Crucible would be in the matchup. Otherwise, you're just smashing Golems at each other. While that Golem joke is intended as a comedic oversimplification, it's pretty obvious that recurring land-destruction is going to be quite strong against a deck that leans so heavily on it's Mishra's Workshops and Sol-Lands.

I also did not choose to run Blightsteel Colossus. I was tempted to try it, as a few people had gone undefeated with that card in their decks. I did try it in a few practice matches, but it never mattered. By the time I was using a Kuldotha Forgemaster, my opponent was as good as dead anyway. I agree with Zach and Josh, that it appears to be a little win-more. I've had some serious issues with mulligans, but hard-casting a Sundering Titan is not out of the question, at eight mana. I don't think I remember getting up to twelve mana, and if I did, I likely had at least one Sphere of Resistance, and would have needed thirteen mana at least. When a blue deck runs the Blightsteel/Tinker package, you can at least hope to Brainstorm a Colossus back into your deck, or something. In Martello Shops, if you draw it, that's it. It's likely just another dead card, and I'm not a fan of drawing those. I've been testing out a Metalworker combo version of Shops, and Colossus is awesome in that deck. For starters, you can hard-cast it with a Metalworker, and secondly, it's deadly with Lightning Greaves, which the deck also plays. As far as Martello Shops goes, I think Sundering Titan is enough.

One of the people who did well with a Martello Shops list, with Blightsteel Colossus, had four Ghost Quarters in their sideboard. With the ever-increasing amount of these decks being played, maxing out on Ghost Quarter seemed like a decent idea. That's why I tried three Ghost Quarter in my list, although I'll probably change that to only two plus one more Crucible of Worlds. Being able to sideboard up to seven Strip Mines seems pretty good, and hitting that Crucible as well seems even better.

I've been playing with four Revokers, and three Phyrexian Metamorphs. Dack Fayden is everywhere, and Revoker is a decent answer. Usually, the worst that Phyrexian Revoker ends up being is a two-mana Stone Rain on a 2/1 body, when it's used to lock down a Mox.

Metamorph is super important, because the deck absolutely needs to hit a critical mass of lock pieces, and Metamorph can be that lock piece. It also helps to copy other people's cards sometimes as well. Equally important, is the fact that both Revoker and Metamorph are artifacts AND creatures, meaning that they play well with both Lodestone Golem, and Thorn of Amethyst.

The downside to running three Phyrexian Metamorphs, is that they aren't very good if you haven't hit an important lock piece. Although, if you haven't hit an important lock-piece, you're probably losing anyway, so I don't feel that playing three Metamorphs too great of a liability. I've won many games by attacking with a Revoker or Lodestone, and copying my one Tangle Wire every few turns as it fades away. There's also the off chance that you'll stalemate an opposing creature, like copying a Trygon Predator, or maybe a Blightsteel Colossus if you're feeling lucky.

One last thing I like about the list I played, is the split of four Thorn of Amethyst and three Sphere of Resistance, with one extra Sphere in the sideboard. Most of the time, this has worked out great, as Thorn doesn't impede Martello Shops much. The deck runs around 18 creatures, so it's possible to put a strain on your own development if you draw too many copies of Sphere of Resistance. With the fourth Sphere in the sideboard, I can easily add it, or rearrange the configuration as needed. I did question this deck-building decision last Sunday night, when I failed to draw enough lock-pieces in the Daily, but I decided that's more attributable to variance. In the majority of games I've played, I've drawn enough of the lock-pieces I needed.

Winning, Losing, and Mishra's Workshop.

One of the reasons that I started playing Martello Shops, was to learn about how the deck worked, and perhaps learn how to increase my win-percentage against the deck when I'm facing it with one of my other decks. I've been thinking a lot about my non-Workshop lists, and I've tried to imagine what changes I could make to deck construction and my game-play to accomplish this goal of conquering the matchup.

I've tried to be aware of what exactly caused my losses when piloting shops, with a focus on things that relate to my opponent's play, and the cards I draw. Those are two things I can't control when I'm playing the deck, errors that I've made aren't relevant to beating Shops, because your strategy can't be, "hope the other dude screws up".

The games I lose while playing shops, occur in a couple of different ways. One sure way to lose, is to fail to inhibit the opponent's board/mana development. If my opponent can hit their land-drops every turn, things get a little more difficult. If they are playing lands each turn, and the lands are basic lands, it's even worse.

Playing this type of deck, your "defensive" cards are proactive, instead of countering a spell as it is being cast, lock effects are essentially countering a spell before it's cast. Since you can't protect your non-lock threats with Counterspells, you must rely on having enough of your inhibitive cards to protect the deck's win-conditions. This idea can be a disadvantage, because it's possible for an opponent to simply draw enough mana to overpower a mediocre amount of "inhibitors".

It's technically possible to activate a Kuldotha Forgemaster or cast a Wurmcoil Engine when the opposition isn't locked out of casting spells, but it's actually very unlikely to win from that position, in my experience. Several times, I've cast a turn two or turn three Wurmcoil Engine only to have it stolen the following turn, because my opponent had Black Lotus mana to pay the extra cost on a Dack Fayden. At that point, you're going to die unless you miraculously resolve the singleton Duplicant that some lists run main-deck.

The other major way I've lost with Martello Shops, is to timely and effective hate cards. It's important to note that not all hate cards are created equal. Some cards people bring in do far too little to warrant inclusion in any sideboard, and some, while powerful, cost so much that they can be difficult to resolve in time. I've decided that playing a mix of sideboard cards, and playing the right ones, is absolutely critical to success against the Workshop archetype.

Different Flavors of Hate-o-rade.

Leaning too heavily on one type of sideboard card can be an immense problem. If all of your anti-shops cards are sorcery-speed (like Ingot Chewer), then you'll lose to Tangle Wires. If all of your hate cards are instants, like Ancient Grudge, then they're taxed by things like Thorn of Amethyst. Cards like Shattering Spree can be really effective, and can play through Chalice of the Void to a degree, but Spree can be hard to play when there is a Chalice plus a Sphere of Resistance. If all of your mana is being eaten up by Strip Mines, none of the hate cards are easy to play.

I'm going to list some cards that I've had played against me while running my Martello Shops deck, and rate how effective against me I feel they have been. If you're deciding which cards to include in your sideboard (or main deck, if applicable), then this list should be helpful. My initial ideas of which cards would have the most impact against shops have been proven ill-informed. Some cards that seemed like they wouldn't be good enough have ended up being much more impactful than I ever imagined.

Kataki is not a card I'm worried about. Yes, the one-mana tax is a nuisance, and it will slow the progression of a shops player. The upkeep is just not that hard to play, and Kataki is far easier to kill than most forms of permanent-based artifact hate. Please note, that one Tolarian Academy can pay the entire upkeep cost generated by Kataki. So, the little white Samurai ends up being a Stone Rain if there's an Academy across the table from him. Sure, you can't pay the tax with Shops mana, and Ancient Tomb makes for a painful upkeep, but overall, I don't worry much about Kataki.

Energy Flux seems a lot like Kataki, War's Wage, so at first glance that might seem like it also wouldn't do enough. Well, I checked the math, and it turns out two is twice as much as one. At twice the cost, the upkeep feels infinitely harder to pay, although in practice, it is almost possible to pay for a few artifacts. With Energy Flux, one Tolarian Academy can't possibly pay for everything, and one Ancient Tomb can cover only one upkeep cost. The end result is that you will not be able to pay for your artifacts, and there isn't one artifact in the deck that is likely to win the game on its own. Perhaps Blightsteel Colossus is up to the task, but good luck locking out that Swords to Plowshares or Chain of Vapor with no lock-pieces on the table.

The downside to Energy Flux is, at three mana, it can be very hard to play when you're under pressure from Sphere of Resistance and its brethren. I've had several games however, including one in a Daily Event, where my opponent cast a turn-one Energy Flux using a Black Lotus. If you can pull that off, you should pat yourself on the back, because you've just won the game right there. I tried actually playing those games out, to see if there was a way I could stage a comeback, and I couldn't find any reasonable method for doing so.

Ingot Chewer is probably the most widely-played sideboard card I see I'm playing Shops. It's decent, and it isn't affected by Chalice of the Void or Thorn of Amethyst, both cards that are automatic four-ofs in Shops. The downsides are that it's sorcery-speed, and it's a one-for-one trade.

Keeping parity is fine for the most part, but with only so many sideboard slots available, I suggest using only four one-for-one hate cards in your sideboard. Martello Shops plays sixteen lock pieces minimum, and more if you count Revokers and Metamorphs. And then there are all the other bombs you may want to destroy. Having so many dangerous artifacts tends to overwork people's sideboards, so having a few sweeper-like hate cards is crucial.

One-for-one trades are decent, especially considering that Shops decks have no real draw-engines. Unfortunately, the impact of Steel Sabotage isn't that high, and as a one-mana instant, is both taxed by every taxing effect that Workshops plays, and easily locked out with Chalice of the Void. Sol Ring is the only one-drop that Shops decks play, with very few exceptions, so setting the first Chalice of the Void to one is very common. This comes up quite often, and is a good reason not to play Steel Sabotage. Personally, I would always prefer to play sideboard cards that are better than this one. Many better options are available in blue anyway. I'd also file Annul in this category.

Null Rod is an interesting card, it's good against Martello Shops and Metalworker builds, but it isn't that good against decks like Terra Nova or Smokestack decks. The reason is that shutting off a Kuldotha Forgemaster or Metalworker is a big deal, the other types of Shops decks don't lean as hard on artifacts with activated abilities. If I'm playing Martello, I do not want to see Null Rod at all, but I can still win with Lodestone Golems if I need to.

Like Energy Flux, Pulverize will kill all the artifacts in play, with the added bonus of doing so immediately. This is a one-time effect, so in that regard it's inferior to Flux, but by and large Pulverize is the best answer you can play against a Mishra's Workshop deck.

The alternate casting-cost on Pulverize makes it a bit easier to cast, as lands can be tapped to pay any tax effects, and then (if they're Mountains) sacrificed to pay the alternate cost. Keep this in mind if you're playing Shops, because you may want to be more aggressive when Strip Mine-ing your opponent's Mountain-based dual-lands. Even with the "free" cost on Pulverize, it's possible to be unable to cast the card in time to avoid losing.

Serenity serves the same essential function as Pulverize, Energy Flux, and even Hurkyl's Recall - it sweeps all of the troublesome artifacts off the table, and opens up a window. Like Pulverize, it opens that window permanently (effectively, at least). At two mana, this card can be tricky to play if a lot of lock-pieces are present on the battlefield.

I think the best thing Serenity has going for it, is that it's white. If you're in need of a white artifact-hate card, then Serenity is the most powerful. Overall, I think it's weaker than Pulverize, and I'd lean towards picking something else if color wasn't an issue.

Dack is a great planeswalker to be playing right now. The "Steal Artifact" ability is insane most of the time, and three mana isn't that high of a casting cost.

The downside, three mana is a ton if you're being crushed by Spheres and Thorns. I've had Dack resolved against me while playing Martello Shops, but I've never managed to cast my own copy. If things are going to plan, the Martello player won't have to worry about Dack much.

Dack is good enough to be played in the main deck of a lot of decks, and that's where I'd suggest keeping him. Save sideboard space for easier-to-cast options. If your deck wants more Dack Fayden, then it wants it in the main.

Much like Dack Fayden, Trygon Predator is often played in a player's starting sixty. It's a much narrower card, so it makes sense as a sideboard card than Dack does.

I'm lumping Rebuild in with Hurkyl's, because played against Shops, they are both accomplishing the same thing. Bouncing all of a Shops players artifacts is very good, It's only a temporary solution, but it provides a window that's big enough to drive a truck through. That is to say, one turn without anything stopping them is enough for your opponent to get out a few threats, as well as turning on all of their reactive cards.

The turn after all artifacts have been bounced will have to be spent replaying all of those cards, and nothing will stop them from being countered. It's entirely possible for decks to win before the shops player even gets another turn to replay everything. So, even though Hurkyl's Recall and Rebuild are temporary, both cards can be enough to break the stranglehold of the Workshops player. Both cards can be used to build storm counts, or to create Monk tokens with Monastery Mentor, so playing them in the main deck is a feasible option.

Reactive Versus Proactive.

Having to rely on sideboard cards in an unfortunate, but necessary evil. The problem comes when you don't draw the right ones, or you don't draw enough, or perhaps you get an abundance of hate-cards, but your mana situation is abysmal. Many decks in the format have a mediocre-at-best game one win-percentage against Shops, so sideboard space ends up being even more important than normal. Placing all your hope in a reactive strategy can be a dangerous proposition, modern decks tend to use cheap cantrips to find the right mix of lands and or sideboarded cards. It's hard to justify mulliganing a hand with ample mana but zero sideboard cards, because hitting land-drops is so important. Conversely, keeping a hand with sideboard cards but not quite enough mana is a painful choice to make. You might not pick up that next land on time, and be buried before you can make any impactful plays.

I think that having a proactive strategy against Mishra's Workshop decks is far more important than people understand. The best things you can be doing, in a proactive fashion, are playing cheap threats (and playing them early), and hitting your land-drops. Doing those two things, especially when you're on the play, will likely lead to a win. Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but in general, this is a proactive key to victory.

When I look at most decks people play today, it seems to me that people are planning a reactive strategy to try to beat Shops. That is to say, they're concentrating on their sideboards to do all the heavy-lifting, and all but conceding that first game to the die-roll. I don't think that planning on losing one-third of all games against an archetype is a great idea. Think about this, everyone is putting six or more cards into their sideboard to beat just one archetype, and they're mentally preparing for that matchup by admitting they're entering the match at 0-1?

That's kind of a recipe for disaster, considering how prevalent Mishra's Workshop has become on Magic Online. The million-dollar question is, in my opinion, how do we increase our game-one win percentage against Shops without sacrificing so much ground against the rest of the field that our overall win-percentage drops? Just cramming three more basic lands into your deck would probably help a lot, but it's also going to mean you draw more dead cards against the other half of the decks in the format.

It's the land-light configuration of Delver, and most Mentor lists that is largely responsible for those deck's power. Being able to run less lands creates virtual card advantage. This concept has driven many different decks in Vintage, and it's existed since way before I was around. Most of the time, this way of building a deck will yield positive results. It just so happens that against one very popular archetype, it becomes a hindrance.

I don't know for sure what proactive changes I would make to my various Mentor decks to shore up the Shops matchup. Having the best threat in the deck cost three mana is a major strike against it. The last Mentor list that I was playing used a pretty skimpy mana-base, so I'll likely add a land or two, or another artifact mana source the next time I'm tuning the deck.

I feel like out of all the popular decks in Vintage, Delver probably has the best shot at defeating Shops, simply because of the cheap and powerful threats. If I start playing my Delver lists again, I'm going to make sure there are four Delvers, instead of the three that I (and many others) have played in the past. I wouldn't mind sneaking in another copy of Dack Fayden somewhere as well, and possibly a Snapcaster Mage. Snapcaster Mage has been very good for me when I was playing against Shops, and it's been good against me when I was playing with the deck. Remember, Martello Shops is a Workshop Aggro deck, it plays more creatures than Espresso Stax. Creature cards are a little easier to cast, on average, against a Shops deck, because of Martello Shops' reliance on Thorn of Amethyst.

Ultimately, it's up to everyone, myself included, to make some adjustments to our decks if we want to be better in the Shops matchup. The deck isn't going anywhere, but I'd rather have more variety than there is currently. It's true that I've enjoyed playing my Martello Shops deck a lot more than I thought I would, but I still love my Force of Wills. Part of the reason I love Vintage is the dual lands, and how easy it is to play decks of three or more colors. I'm also not a fan of jumping on band-wagons, and with all the brown decks in the winner's circle lately, it really feels like I've done just that.

Last week, I included a couple of variations on Mishra's Workshop decks. There was a five-color Stax list, and a Metalworker combo deck. I wanted something new to play this week, and I needed to find some inspiration for this week's article as well. I've noticed random grumblings about the homogeneous nature of the Magic Online metagame, in regards to the Mishra's Workshop pillar. That is to say, every "Stax" list being played online is the same. That's basically true, they're all pretty much Martello Shops lists.

Martello Shops, is basically a Kuldotha Forgemaster build of Workshop Aggro. This is the deck that you're either playing, or playing against (or both). Terra Nova is a different deck, although it's very similar. If you see Mutavault in a Shops deck, it's likely Terra Nova. Eight man-lands, and main deck Dismembers and possibly Null Rod in the main deck or sideboard are the hallmarks of Terra Nova. If anyone happened to notice the Shops list played by The Atog Lord (Vintage mastermind Dr. Rich Shay), the list he played was likely based on Terra Nova lists.



The types of Shops lists that aren't seeing much play, are Metalworker builds, and true Espresso Stax lists. Such decks are undeniably powerful, but since Magic Online players tend to copy each other's successes, Martello Shops has become the de facto "Stax" deck played online. As I mentioned last week, colored Stax decks like the five-color Stax deck I shared see virtually no play.

In the interest of experimentation and variety, I decided to build and practice with both the Dack/Stax list, and the Metalworker Combo deck from lasts week's piece. Both of the decks looked fun to play, and seemed like they could be powerful. In the case of the Dack/Stax deck, I'd even seen it in action, and it looked like it had some game.

Metalworker Combo is a deck that I'd feel comfortable with playing in a tournament. For the most part, it plays out just like a Martello Shops deck. There are, however, a few key differences. These differences are what gives the deck it's explosive power.

Metalworker Combo plays a few less lock-pieces, in order to make room for the combo enablers. Tangle Wire, an amazing card, gets the axe. The list I'm using is running most of the rest of the tools that Martello runs, Thorns, Spheres, Trinisphere, Chalice, and Lodestone. Besides Tangle Wire, Phyrexian Revoker and Metamorph are notable cards that aren't found in the deck.

Cutting those cards does weaken the deck's ability to lock-down an opponent. Luckily for us, we get to play the following cards, and win out of nowhere because of it:

I've seen Lightning Greaves in Workshop decks before. In all honesty, my first impression was that the card was kind of a joke. Auras and Equipment have usually been only mildly tournament-viable, and the card just didn't seem that impactful. I now know that my opinion was completely wrong, and Lightning Greaves is completely bonkers in this deck.

One of the problems with Kuldotha Forgemaster is that it has summoning sickness, and might die before it gets activated for the first time. Metalworker also has the same problem. Lightning Greaves is cheap, protects any creature, and can allow you to activate Metalworker or Forgemaster before the opponent can react. Tapping out becomes a dangerous proposition for the Metalworker deck's opponents.

The other hidden gem is that the equip cost of Lightning Greaves is a whopping ZERO mana. This allows the following play: Turn one or two, play Lightning Greaves. Turn two or three, cast Metalworker, equip Greaves, tap Metalworker to pay for Kuldotha Forgemaster, equip Forgemaster with magic boots. Activate Forgemaster, sacrificing three artifacts other than Lightning Greaves to tutor up Blightsteel Colossus, equip Blightsteel, dance like a kid on Christmas.

There are plenty of tricks you can do, like going infinite with Staff of Domination plus Metalworker, but mostly it's Lightning Greaves that makes this deck a combo deck in my opinion. The interaction with Lightning Greaves, Metalworker, and Kuldotha Forgemaster feels a lot like the Birthing Pod chains I used to perform back when I was obsessed with Kiki Pod.

Staff of Domination has several useful modes, and has been good for me even when I didn't have the ability to make infinite mana. If you haven't figured it out by reading the card, infinite mana is made by revealing at least three artifacts with Metalworker to make six mana, then untap the Metalworker with the Staff for three mana, and untap Staff itself for one mana, leaving two colorless mana floating. Besides making mana, I have also used Staff of Domination to tap down my opponent's Insectile Aberration when we were in a damage race, and I've drawn an extra card or two with it as well. If you do have the infinite mana combo going, you can use it to draw as many cards as you'd like with the Staff, and find the proper win-condition. I've been thinking about my sideboarding strategy with Metalworker Combo, as I'm still working out the fine details, but I think that you can safely cut the one Staff of Domination and still get the other combos online quickly and consistently.

The deck still has enough lock-pieces to shut opponents out, although this strategy is stronger in other Shops builds. The other Shops decks aren't as explosive though, and in my experience, this deck is better at pulling out a win when things aren't going perfectly. It's always possible to top-deck yourself into a combo play with Metalworker or Forgemaster, especially with the three Cavern of Souls. If you have a Lightning Greaves in play, it's possible to draw one of your bombs, make sure that it resolves with Cavern, and make a broken play.

I wouldn't be against trying to find room for some number of Tangle Wires somewhere in the main deck, I think it's one of the strongest cards the deck can play, especially since the extra mana from Metalworker means this deck is barely affected by tapping down its own permanents. Once you start shaving cards for more lock pieces, though, this list starts to look more and more like a Martello Shops deck. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as both decks are strong contenders in the format.

The sideboard isn't completely worked out yet, it's a mix of cards that were in the original deck list, with some changes I made. I didn't have Batterskulls for the sideboard, and I didn't want them anyway. If I wanted more of that effect, I'd likely run more Wurmcoil Engines. There are some odd-looking choices present, so I'll do my best to explain all of the card choices.

This is a golden oldie; I remember owning these when I first started playing Magic. This card is pretty strong against Young Pyromancer, so strong in fact that it has to be answered or it completely Moats the shaman and all of the elemental tokens. If Monastery Mentor hadn't been invented, Caltrops would be even better. Unfortunately, Caltrops won't stop Mentor decks at all, so including the card may not be a great choice.

This is an idea that I stole from the five-color Stax deck. It's almost as narrow as Caltrops, and I haven't actually been able to use it yet, so I haven't decided if I want to keep it in the sideboard at all. It does get back all of the cards that Dack Fayden steals, and it can't be countered. Plus, you can activate it an unlimited number of times. Since this deck has less lock-pieces, I reasoned that the number of games where a Dack gets resolved against me might be enough to give up a spot to counter his -2 ability.

Anti-Oath and anti-Dredge hate card. Also, Cage makes our Kuldotha Forgemasters somewhat useless. Just remember, if a window opens up where you could safely combo off, and you've already played a Cage, you can always sacrifice any Cages you have out to pay for the Forgemaster activation. Nothing would be stopping your Blightsteel Colossus from entering the battlefield at that point.

Orb shuts down Oath of Druids) and Tendrils of Agony, along with Gifts Ungiven, so it's worth one spot at least.

I added these cards in so that I could be better in mirror matches, and also to be able to sideboard into a more controlling deck if need be. Against creature-heavy decks, I can switch out a Thorn of Amethyst for a Sphere of Resistance if the situation calls for it.

I love needles, they have so many uses. Since there are no Phyrexian Revokers anywhere in my 75, I figured having one Pithing Needle in the sideboard as a catch-all answer card would be a good idea. I can't list all of the relevant cards that could be named, but some good choices include Dack Fayden, Bazaar of Baghdad, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, just to name a few.

I've seen this card in other people's sideboards, so I decided to try it. It's great at killing Young Pyromancers and Delvers, plus it blocks a Batterskulled germ token and lives to tell about it. In mirror matches, this beast can mow down opposing Lodestone Golems, which is just fantastic. Thanks to Cavern of Souls, it's much easier to resolve against a Delver or Mentor deck. The more I think about it, I realize that it might make sense to run more than one. The upkeep cost can be a drag, but one card per turn is a small price to pay for winning a match.

All things considered, I think that Metalworker Combo is a great deck choice. I can't say for sure if it's better positioned in the metagame than Martello Shops, but I think that in a near-mirror Metalworker can offer its pilot a large advantage. Playing your cards through Spheres is easy with an active Metalworker, and the extra mana is also a slight hedge against Wasteland. Cavern of Souls and Lightning Greaves are two good reasons to pick this deck up as well. Cavern is especially useful in many of today's matchups, because the pillar of Mana Drain still takes up around half of the Vintage metagame.

I wanted to discuss the five-color Dack/Stax deck this week, but this article is already gone on a lot longer than I had anticipated. Five-color Stax is a powerful and storied archetype, it wouldn't do the deck justice to write a short and quick deck tech.

The archetype of five-color Stax is all but extinct in the modern Vintage era, but it once was the de facto best Mishra's Workshop deck in existence. As a matter-of-fact, the creator of the list I'm playing is Roland Chang, who used a five-color Stax deck to win the 2005 Vintage World championship. I think it's interesting to see the evolution of the deck over the last ten years, and to speculate about its current viability.

I will mention, before I move on, that Goblin Welder is absolutely bonkers in this deck. I've found so many tricks that a Welder can pull, it's hard to pick just one to write about. My favorite tactic with Welder that I've done so far, was to keep swapping a Tangle Wire in my graveyard for a Tangle Wire that's currently in play. This causes the opposing player to be forced into tapping four permanents each turn indefinitely.

I'd suggest this Dack/Stax deck to anyone who wanted to play something fun, that is also full of degenerate interactions. It's not cheap to build, but casting an Ancestral Recall and Trinisphere in the same turn is pretty awesome!

Closing Thoughts...

What makes a deck difficult to pilot? It all boils down to choices. There are different kinds of choices, and some decks require less than others. Some decks have choices that are blatantly obvious, and other decks require making decisions that are very different in different game-states. One thing is clear, it's very possible to make the wrong plays, even when you're piloting a relatively simple deck.

Some decks have a lot of redundancy, which can reduce the amount of decisions a player needs to make, as well as reduce the overall variance of outcomes. Modern Burn is such a deck. It's pretty simple to point seven Lightning Bolts at someone's face and say "good game". Still, if the pilot forgets to leave up Skullcrack mana for one turn, victory can slip through their fingers.

I've been playing with my Mishra's Workshops for a few weeks now. I've played basically every variation on that deck, except Terra Nova. I've had plenty of games against good players (people who regularly cash Daily Events) piloting good decks, where I drew so well that I completely dominated the match. I'm sure that in at least some of those games, I failed to play out my hand flawlessly. I've noticed alternate lines that I could have taken that would have been better, and if my opponents had drawn a little better, perhaps I would have lost. This is all part of learning the deck.

Personally, I think anyone who plays Magic can improve their game. I've written about this before, when Magic players are winning games, we tend to feel as though we played flawlessly. Winning games, especially with control decks, makes a person feel smart. What we don't always consider, however, is how much tighter of a game we could have played.

Beyond the fact that we all have room to grow. lies the dilemma of the Vintage format. Vintage is the smallest format in all of Magic, due to factors like expense, the Reserve List, and a lack of premier-level play. I love Vintage, it's been the only format that I've played in months. I want to see it grow, so that every time I jump into a game, the seat opposite of me gets filled immediately. I want new players to be excited to try this format, and I want them to find decks they feel comfortable playing.

For a lot of newer players, a Mishra's Workshop deck might be the deck they first play Vintage with. It's one of the cheaper decks on Magic Online, and it's relatively easy to play it well enough to achieve a decent win-percentage.

If someone can enter their first Vintage Daily, and win some packs with their Stax deck, good for them. They'll have a good time, and hopefully come back next week. This is a benefit to all of us, even if occasionally, we're on the losing-end of some bad-beats at the hands of a lesser-skilled player. Besides, without Shops around, there is no penalty for running a deck with barely any lands, and a million copies of Gush, Dig Through Time, and the rest of the blue card-drawing suite. We need something to counter all of the Delver and Mentor decks running rampant, Shops seems to keep them in check somewhat. Just as The Joker needed Batman, Mana Drain needs Mishra's Workshop.

I'm not sure what deck I'll pick up next, so I'd like to leave that up to my readers. Click on the image below to be linked to my Twitter page, and Tweet me a deck or two that you'd like to read about. I'll build the deck, play it in a Daily Event, and write about it (even if I get destroyed). If you don't have a Twitter account, you can also leave suggestions in the comments, I check them regularly. I'm hoping something cool like Steel City Vault or a Storm deck gets chosen, but I'll honor my pledge and play whichever deck gets the most votes.