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Koby
02-04-2014, 01:06 PM
Ever since Matt Elias (voltron00x) wrote about the concept (http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/18785-The-Long-Winding-Road-Introducing-Two-Card-Monte-A-Vintage-Primer.html) on SCG a number of years back, the idea of Workshop fueling artifact based combo has been brewing in my mind. The ability to use one of the most powerful unrestricted lands in Vintage to combo off as early as turn 1, and regularly on turn 2 is something not to be discounted.

The premise of the deck is to utilize a number of simple two-card combos that are compact and mana efficient. The deck uses:

Leyline of the Void (0) + Helm of Obedience (4) + activation (1)
Painter's Servant (2) + Grindstone (1) + activation (3)

To end the game quickly. A key feature is being able to use all colorless mana and at least 3 mana from Workshop to achieve this result. Additionally, but unreliablly, Time Vault and Voltaic Key can be included in the list; however at the expense of tutoring power.

To help fill the rest of the cards in the deck, Goblin Welder is introduced to provide protection against counterspells & removal, as well as help beat prison Workshop matches.

Additional support for the archetype has been printed in Return to Ravnica with the addition of Chromatic Lantern, allowing the deck to utilize its artifact focus and convert its lands to free-roll City of Brass. Adjusting some elements from Matt's initial posting, we arrive at this shell:


1 Myr Battlesphere
4 Goblin Welder
4 Painter's Servant

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Red Elemental Blast

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker

4 Leyline of the Void

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Chromatic Lantern
4 Grindstone
4 Helm of Obedience

1 Tolarian Academy
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
4 Mishra's Workshop

Additional tutors include: Entomb for filling up the graveyard with conjunction of Goblin Welder, Transmute Artifact for additional Tinker'ing ability, and Intuition which serves both to tutor a specific card, or the entire Grindstone combo with an active Goblin Welder. Entomb and Intuition rely heavily on an active Goblin Welder, so perhaps it is not the best.

Sundering Titan can also easily replace Myr Battlesphere, as it works great against Big Blue decks while not affecting this deck's mana base in the slightest. However, that approach seems discongruent with the goals of the deck, and perhaps Triskelion for a more controlling tertiary creature to interact with Welder.

I recommend an initial reading of Elias's article, and look forward to discussion about the archetype.

(Now off to find those City of Brass...)

nedleeds
02-04-2014, 03:22 PM
I might be tempted to wedge the following in:

Lotus Petal
Mox Opal

both get marginally better with Welder ... maybe Expedition Map also it's pretty solid.

m0@r Urborg ... to actually cast the Leyline you'll draw into.

Your list reminds me a bit of 'Drty South Shops' which was shops with 4 urborgs, dismembers, black spoiler cards and nether voids. This was pre-'Ridin on that Chrome Lantern'

Edit: Trike does a nice job of eliminating a few problem men, Revoker, Thalia and TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG.

alphastryk
02-07-2014, 12:48 PM
I really like the idea here. How much do you lose by cutting the Serum Powders from the original work in the article? It seems like those could boost consistency, but maybe it isn't worth it.

Is it worth playing other draw-7s besides Jar? Wheel / Timetwister are very powerful effects and I would think we can do more with the cards that the opponent most of the time.

I'll have to put this together since I think there's no new work to do on Monoblue Belcher anytime soon.

KIP_NZ
02-10-2014, 05:15 PM
Hey Koby,

I've been thinking about a 2 card monte workshop deck for a while, I like your addition of the blue / black splash for search. Are the REBs actually useful? I'm playing a 75 proxy event in a month and I think I'll sleeve this up for that.

Koby
02-10-2014, 06:09 PM
Hey Koby,

I've been thinking about a 2 card monte workshop deck for a while, I like your addition of the blue / black splash for search. Are the REBs actually useful? I'm playing a 75 proxy event in a month and I think I'll sleeve this up for that.

I haven't tested the list yet, just brewing around ideas. I also think that the REB's are a bit greedy when there could be many more tutors included (like Entomb and Transmute Artifact). I think at least one REB would be useful, but maybe not the second. Testing will tell for sure.

Likewise, I think the 4th Grindstone might also be one too many.

KIP_NZ
02-10-2014, 09:24 PM
The more I think about this the more I want to play it, I'm on Stax for our annual sanctioned vintage next weekend, I might switch it up to combo shops after that (or go back to doomsday)

After testing painter in legacy having only 3 grindstones was fine in that format with less search. I'd be inclined to add imperial seal.... I'm a sucker for that card.... unless they play JtMS when it makes me sad. Another option would be flicking across to a white shell and playing RiP / enlightened tutor.... could open up Ethersworn Canonist in the SB as well.

H
02-10-2014, 09:43 PM
If it was me, I would do +2 Mox Opal, -2 Lanterns. They are much more explosive and very little risk considering the amount of artifacts you run and the new Legend rules.

Hell, the two REDs could easily be 2 Pact of Negations as well, but in that case you could only use them to protect your win, not stop your opponent from winning.

kingtk3
02-11-2014, 08:41 AM
I haven't tested the list yet, just brewing around ideas. I also think that the REB's are a bit greedy when there could be many more tutors included (like Entomb and Transmute Artifact). I think at least one REB would be useful, but maybe not the second. Testing will tell for sure.

Likewise, I think the 4th Grindstone might also be one too many.

The two REBs can also be a voltaic key and a time vault, just to add another random win condition. At this point I would surely play an intuition or two.

JACO
02-11-2014, 01:38 PM
Koby, I've played a number of variants of this deck, and split the finals of a Waterbury Day 2 with it a couple years ago. Some additional cards that are very good in this deck/sideboard:
Blightsteel Colossus - if you Tinker up anything that's not an auto-win with the other stuff you have in play, it should be this rather than Myr Battlesphere.
Mox Opal, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Chromatic Lantern, and Serum Powder are all pretty mediocre in this deck. I like more disruption (Thoughtseize and REB) main. One thing to keep in mind about REB/Pyroblast is that it's a 1 mana Vindicate that can blow up Null Rod and other hate stuff if you have Painter in play already, so its value goes up tremendously.
4 Ancient Tombs - I consider this the best land in the deck, and I consider the full playset a must.
Toxic Deluge - out of the sideboard I used to play Virtue's Ruin to deal with the white-based hatebear decks, and now that aggro control is on the rise in Vintage again Toxic Deluge replaces it totally.
Defense Grid - this and City of Solitude are the best anti-blue cards the deck can play, and Defense Grid is much easier to cast (but much easier to remove as well).

Good luck with the deck. It's probably the 2nd most fun deck in Vintage right now (only behind Rector Omniscience).

Koby
02-11-2014, 04:02 PM
I've never been impressed with BSC in my Vintage enclave. We're almost entirely Big Blue around here, so having ways to fight Jace & bounce is almost always preferred to throwing it all in one basket.

The other bits I'll keep in consideration when I start testing. (just bought the last few pieces I need - Helm / City of Brasses)