[SCD]Myr Welder

[Infinitium]

Myr Welder.

Down to business, I'm going to stipulate that this card, along with other inclusions from Mirrodin 2.0 fixes some of the threat density and consistency problems that have traditionally plagued combo MUD decks (Metalworker + Staff of Domination combo for the uninitiated), and misght elevate it to tier status. Consider the following draft:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Crystal Vein
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Academy Ruins
2 Island
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Darksteel Citadel

4 Metalworker
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Myr Welder
1 Blightsteel Colossus

4 Staff of Domination
4 Thousand-Year Elixir
4 Intuition

4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Trinisphere

Basically a bunch of one and 2-card combos along with Intuition, acceleration and artifact protection pieces. Since the entire argument boils down to it I'm just gonna list the cards that Welder interacts with for fun and profit:

Metalworker: Wins the game by cheating when it taps down. Welder improves survivability against decks packing counters and/or burn spells as well as artifact hate. Having an ass of 4 further helps it survive burn spells should the opponent pack them.

Forgemaster: Wins the game in short by Infectious 11/11 when it taps down. Again Welder acts as #5-8 when the opponent actually tries to stop you from doing what you're doing. In addition, a Welder in play when activating forgemaster can sometimes cement the win by going for the safer Metalworker/Staff combo (sack one piece to Forgemaster, bring it back with Welder and fetch the other one).

Staff of Domination: Welder can copy this too! This is particulary intriguing in that it can also untap Welder for 1, meaning that a Welder imprinting both Staff an Metalworker only needs one artifact card on hand to go infinite as opposed to 3.

Thousand-Year Elixir: Better than Lightning Greaves for a number of reasons despite being slower with Colossus. Doesn't interfere with Staff, allows you to make more mana off Metalworker, allows you to activate Myr twice per turn (which is absolutely huge) and completely circumvents removal in response to equip. Fringe use when Welded in that it allows you to get another activation out of Metalworker/Forgemaster for the win-more inclined.

Intuition: With an unsick Myr in play, EOT Intuition fetching 1xStaff and 2xMetalworker allows you to win the next turn with 1 artifact on hand assuming your opponent doesn't hold removal or counters (and it only gets harder to disrupt the more combo pieces were originally in your graveyard). And that's besides being a demonic tutor in a 1-2 card combo deck.

Artifact Lands: Somewhat cute, but Myr can also imprint artifact lands pitched to Diamond and/or opposing Wastelands. This sometimes helps to ramp mana for Forgemaster.

Anyways the archetype seem more sturdy in testing thanks to Welder, and there's even nothing keeping it from being played alongside its Goblin namesake except space and mana stability issues. Thoughts?

[GGoober]

You raise quite an important point. And I think it pans out much favorably for Worker/Staff decks to be more viable than they were before thanks to Myr Welder. I believe that Myr Welder was a temporal interest in Vintage MUDstaff decks at one point but was dismissed because better cards could be run. I think in Legacy, this might be a big improvement to regular MUDStaff decks. They will counter/answer Metalworker and its pieces, but this card brings it back all together again. Any chance if packing Painterstone combo creates better win condition than Blightsteel? Blightsteel is significantly weaker in Legacy than Vintage (the opposite scenario) without haste.

I'm not sure what's the right ratio of Painter:Stone, but Forgemaster can facilitate either route if either card is drawn, not to mention some synergy with Myr Welder again.

I personally think that Grim Monolith is more powerful than Mox Diamond for your list (you have 12 Sol-lands with the 4 Veins). If you want 3 mana turn 1, Grim Monolith + Sol land is less situational than Sol land + Mox Diamond + Land, and Grim Monolith on turn 2 is much less situational than Mox Diamond on turn 2 requiring a total of 3 lands (turn 1, turn 2, turn 2 pitch). Same goes for Opal = Monolith > Mox Diamond. Monolith has huge potential with Welder, and I think Keys should be played in this list (great with Forgemaster/Worker/Welder/everything). Not sure if the defensive Chalice approach beats the aggressive Voltaic Key + bomb-centric (Bomholtz) approach, so you need to test that I guess.

Question remains: Is the new MUDworkerstaff build going to be viable in the meta? I would say yes, and no, but at this point, the meta is pretty varied and awesome that you can't have a deck that beats everything.

[Infinitium]

No idea. This is at it's core an idea I wanted to pursue when MB was released but never got around to (courtesy of real life). With only 8 Artifact lands and no free creatures to support them Opal looks weak (since it doesn't facilitate turn 1 plays). Monolith is an idea, but that would necessitate dropping at least Caverns and Ruins for additional blue sources (and even then having just 8 is hairy with Intuition, and Intuition is the best tutor this deck has access to by far). I'm going to keep chalice until I've tested it more thoutoughly; slowing everyone else down should make up for having slightly less turn 2 wins, and it's probably a necessity with StP in the format.

Blighsteel seem like the best giant robot the deck could ask for game 1 what with it usually winning the quickest and getting around infinite life, albeit I can see having access to less vulnerable ones (Leviathan, Battlesphere etc) could be a sideboard asset.

[Zork]

I had actually drafted up a version of this deck with Grim Monolith - worth mentioning is that Monolith + Staff copied by welder = infinite staff - and Transmute Artifact. I eventually abandoned it for having aggro matchup problems, but I must admit I did not test forgemaster.

[Jason]

It's unfortunate Myr Welder has to tap in order to imprint. Most of the powerful cards you want to imprint also require tapping (read: Metalworker/other artifact mana and Kuldotha Forgemaster). This means you have to untap twice with the guy; one removal spell after you imprint is going to make you really sad and turn off your ability to weld them back at a later date. I know a powerful play would be eot imprint Staff of Domination, pay 1 to untap, imprint Metalworker, pay 1 to untap, activate the Metalworker ability, win the game. How often is that exact situation going to come up? Metalworker + Staff isn't the primary win condition for most MUD decks. Could it be Goblin Welder number 4 and 5? Possibly... but it is anti-synergistic with the Goblin (exiling stuff you'd want to bring back), which is kind of sad.

[rufus]

I'm a little surprised that Thoughtcast and Thirst for Knowledge aren't being discussed. Perhaps it's possible to get past the critical threshold for Chrome Mox with some of those.

There are some other untap artifacts...
Grim Monolith,Bassalt Monolith,Pili-Pala,Soliton, and Voltaic Construct. (Clock of Omens and Filigree Sages probably aren't good enough.)

Of those, Voltaic Construct seems to be one of the more interesting since it has good interaction with Metalworker.

I do find myself wondering about the potential of a welder deck like this using cards along the lines of Burning Inquiry, Gamble, Conflagrate,Control of the Court/Goblin Lore, Devastating Dreams,and Book Burning.

[Zork]

Oh, one other reason I wanted to plug the use of Transmute Artifact is that it basically reads: win the game if you have grim monolith/staff + welder since you can opt not to pay for the transmuted artifact.

Another potential path would be to use some of those cheap charge counter artifacts with Magistrate's Scepter

[rufus]

Oh, one other reason I wanted to plug the use of Transmute Artifact is that it basically reads: win the game if you have grim monolith/staff + welder since you can opt not to pay for the transmuted artifact.

Another potential path would be to use some of those cheap charge counter artifacts with Magistrate's Scepter

Jinxed Choker,Gemstone Array, Spawning Pit,or Ventifact Bottle...charge counters don't really really look that great.

[Zork]

Yeah, on second thought scratch that. I was getting some of the +1/+1 counter creatures mixed up with charge counter artifacts.

[(nameless one)]

It's unfortunate Myr Welder has to tap in order to imprint. Most of the powerful cards you want to imprint also require tapping (read: Metalworker/other artifact mana and Kuldotha Forgemaster). This means you have to untap twice with the guy; one removal spell after you imprint is going to make you really sad and turn off your ability to weld them back at a later date. I know a powerful play would be eot imprint Staff of Domination, pay 1 to untap, imprint Metalworker, pay 1 to untap, activate the Metalworker ability, win the game. How often is that exact situation going to come up? Metalworker + Staff isn't the primary win condition for most MUD decks. Could it be Goblin Welder number 4 and 5? Possibly... but it is anti-synergistic with the Goblin (exiling stuff you'd want to bring back), which is kind of sad.

What about using this with Chalice decks. Naturally, Chalice decks don't run Goblin Welders because of its cost. Would Myr Welder be enough to run on that spot?

[sco0ter]

I'd rather run Scarecrone than this...