[Shop] The MUD Box

[Solaran_X]

In honor of our newest Vintage forum, I have constructed this following post after many hours of work.

As we know, MUD is typically one of the top performing decks in the format. However, MUD itself is not a single deck. It is one of the five central pillars of Vintage (Blue, Dark Ritual, Mishra's Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad, and Null Rod are typically considered the five pillars of Vintage). The MUD archetype contains, typically, two types of decks - a prison/control deck and an aggro deck. There is also a combo deck in MUD, but it does not seem heavily played.

I have compiled the following list by taking all Top 8 appearances as posted on http://www.tcdecks.net in their MUD group for 2012 to date (139 decks as of this post), merged their sideboards into main decks to get an accurate count of individual cards used in each deck, and then merged all of those into one piece of raw data. I then sorted by name and number, removed all entries of each name except the one with the most copies (exceptions being the deck lists that claimed 6 Phyrexian Metamorphs and 5 Maze of Ith).

I hereby present "The MUD Box." This list contains every card you would need to build any of the Top 8 MUD lists that have appeared to date in 2012. With this list, you can theoretically build any MUD list for any metagame and an appropriate sideboard. There are 321 cards in this list. The first number (only number before the name of the card) is the most number of copies of that card that appeared in any given deck. The second number (first number after the name of the card) is how many copies of that card were in the 139 decks I evaluated for this list. And the third number (second number after the name of the card) is how many of the 139 decks I evaluated used this card. Using the first entry as an example, 4 copies of Mishra's Workshop was the maximum copies of card any of the decks used, a total of 556 copies of Mishra's Workshop were spread across the 139 decks I evaluated, and Mishra's Workshop was used in 139 decks of the 139 decks I evaluated.

Sorry for the bad formating. Excel to forums doesn't work too well.

4 Mishra's Workshop 556 139
1 Strip Mine 139 139
1 Tolarian Academy 139 139
1 Sol Ring 138 138
4 Wasteland 548 138
1 Mana Crypt 137 137
4 Ancient Tomb 512 136
4 Lodestone Golem 544 136
4 Phyrexian Metamorph 475 136
4 Tangle Wire 522 135
1 Mox Jet 131 131
1 Mox Pearl 131 131
1 Mox Ruby 131 131
1 Mox Sapphire 131 131
4 Sphere of Resistance 479 131
4 Thorn of Amethyst 431 128
4 Chalice of the Void 507 127
1 Black Lotus 126 126
1 Mox Emerald 123 123
1 Trinisphere 120 120
4 Crucible of Worlds 282 115
4 Duplicant 276 114
4 Grafdigger's Cage 362 99
3 Karn, Silver Golem 167 87
4 Mishra's Factory 256 82
4 City of Traitors 168 79
4 Phyrexian Revoker 225 70
4 Relic of Progenitus 216 70
4 Wurmcoil Engine 139 66
4 Tormod's Crypt 186 62
4 Steel Hellkite 94 58
1 Mana Vault 54 54
4 Smokestack 170 46
4 Metalworker 172 44
2 Sundering Titan 49 42
3 Ghost Quarter 63 41
4 Pithing Needle 100 41
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster 151 39
4 Dismember 97 38
4 Null Rod 100 36
4 Slash Panther 130 34
3 Rishadan Port 52 26
4 Precursor Golem 65 23
3 Razormane Masticore 47 23
1 Myr Battlesphere 22 22
3 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 48 22
3 Triskelion 33 17
3 Jester's Cap 24 15
3 Ratchet Bomb 31 14
4 Buried Ruin 16 12
3 Sword of Fire and Ice 17 12
4 Ensnaring Bridge 24 10
4 Witchbane Orb 23 10
3 Batterskull 14 9
1 Blightsteel Colossus 9 9
4 Goblin Welder 34 9
4 Maze of Ith 25 9
5 Mountain 33 9
1 Platinum Angel 9 9
4 Leyline of the Void 32 8
4 Nihil Spellbomb 18 8
4 Surgical Extraction 25 8
3 Lightning Greaves 16 7
1 Memory Jar 7 7
1 Mox Opal 7 7
2 Spine of Ish Sah 9 7
4 Magus of the Moon 24 6
2 Sculpting Steel 10 6
2 Sensei's Divining Top 12 6
3 Solemn Simulacrum 18 6
1 Sword of Light and Shadow 6 6
4 Viashino Heretic 14 6
4 Cavern of Souls 15 5
4 Bazaar of Baghdad 14 4
3 Defense Grid 10 4
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth 4 4
2 Shattering Spree 7 4
4 Expedition Map 6 3
3 Porcelain Legionnaire 9 3
4 Serum Powder 12 3
2 Silent Arbiter 5 3
1 Sword of Feast and Famine 3 3
3 Uba Mask 8 3
4 Arcbound Ravager 6 2
4 Barbarian Ring 8 2
3 Ichor Wellspring 6 2
4 Juggernaut 8 2
3 Staff of Domination 4 2
3 Arcbound Crusher 3 1
3 Bojuka Bog 3 1
3 Eon Hub 3 1
2 Gorilla Shaman 2 1
2 Hex Parasite 2 1
3 Lightning Bolt 3 1
1 Mutavault 1 1
4 Myr Retriever 4 1
3 Myr Servitor 3 1
4 Orb of Dreams 4 1
5 Plains 5 1
2 Powder Keg 2 1
4 Skullclamp 4 1
2 Spawning Pit 2 1
4 Stoneforge Mystic 4 1
4 Su-Chi 4 1
1 Torpor Orb 1 1
3 Trading Post 3 1
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 1
3 Winter Orb 3 1


If the reception is positive for this list, I will begin work on other "boxes" for other archetypes (such as a "The Bazaar Box" with a merged and itemized list of cards you would need to build any variant of Dredge or Dragon based on 2012 Top 8 results) or particular decks (such as a "The Oath Box" with a merged and itemized list of cards you would need to build any variant of Oath based on 2012 Top 8 results).

If anyone notices any double entries in this list, please let me know. And if anyone is interested in the Excel spreadsheet I used to create this list, feel free to PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send it out - after all, the Excel sheet does have 139 different Top 8 MUD deck lists from 2012 (although some are not legal as they are listed due to, I hope, errors on the part of whoever entered the decks - such as the 6 Phyrexian Metamorphs and 5 Maze of Iths that occured in two deck lists).

[Koby]

I like the approach, and think it could serve as good references. Looking briefly at the list I see a few unorthodox choices like Hex Parasite and Ichor Wellspring that really pop out as minor role-players. If you still have access to the data, can you calculate a weighted score of their play? It might help to weed out the odd and uncommon choices from most lists so we can see a basic shell for MUD.

[Solaran_X]

I like the approach, and think it could serve as good references. Looking briefly at the list I see a few unorthodox choices like Hex Parasite and Ichor Wellspring that really pop out as minor role-players. If you still have access to the data, can you calculate a weighted score of their play? It might help to weed out the odd and uncommon choices from most lists so we can see a basic shell for MUD.
Only data I have access to is the deck lists from TCDecks. If I remember correctly, the Wellsprings and Hex Parasites were both played in only a handful of the 139 decks I used to make this list. The Parasites I assume are there as an answer to Jace, and the Wellsprings were used in a Welder list for card drawing, since it draws a card each time it enters or leaves play.

As for a basic shell for MUD...it's not quite that simple. You have at least commonly played MUD decks, all distinctly different. You have the traditional MUD Stax and Aggro MUD. You have three variants of Kuldotha MUD - a prison variant, an aggro variant, and the combo variant. You also have Mono-Red Shops, or Welder MUD, that contains both a prison and an aggro version. And in my research for this post, I noticed even a white MUD that used Stoneforge in the main with a Batterskull and Sword of Fire and Ice.

However, I can go back through the data and see what the most heavily played (IE - in almost every one of the 139 decks I evaluated) in the archetype to generate a very generic common shell that the real MUD decks can be built off of.

[Bill Copes]

3 Arcbound Crusher
2 Arcbound Ravager
3 Eon Hub
2 Hex Parasite
3 Ichor Wellspring
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
4 Myr Retriever
3 Myr Servitor
1 Platinum Angel
2 Silent Arbiter
4 Su-Chi
1 Torpor Orb


I'd chop these from the list - they're somewhat weak for optimal workshop strategies or have been outmoded by newer printings. Other entries that might not belong are the stoneforge package and the swords -- I have seen them played, but in super-fringe cases.

Steve Menendian puts out a vintage checklist a few times a year - I think it could be a great resource to aid in what you're trying to achieve. If anything, you'd just have to parse one list.

Thanks for putting this together -- it's a great piece for peeps that are new to the format.

[Solaran_X]

I'd chop these from the list - they're somewhat weak for optimal workshop strategies or have been outmoded by newer printings. Other entries that might not belong are the stoneforge package and the swords -- I have seen them played, but in super-fringe cases.

Steve Menendian puts out a vintage checklist a few times a year - I think it could be a great resource to aid in what you're trying to achieve. If anything, you'd just have to parse one list.

Thanks for putting this together -- it's a great piece for peeps that are new to the format.
I avoided truncating any data from the list, despite some of the questionable inclusions of various MUD decks that got Top 8s. And I know about Menendian's list, and have an agreement with him at the moment (if he remembers come RTR time) for him to ship me a copy of his list a few days early and I'll format it into an Excel Spreadsheet as an actual functional checklist for him to include with the package.

To make this a bit better of a source, I am going to go back and weight each card based on how many decks out of the 139 I used used that particular card. So we can see what is essential to MUD, what differentiates the decks, and what is fringe

[Jenni]

Really useful list, I put together a rough MUD-Stax list to build recently, since I'm trying to break into vintage and I use to love playing Geddon-Stax in legacy (might rebuild my old stax deck, tbh), and I used this list as a reference for cards to use.
Thanks for all the work it must have taken for this!

Looking through, I can't help but smile at some of the cards that have fallen out of favour. Juggernaut just seems so out of place nowadays.