Solving Null Rod and inconsistency with White Splash MUD

[ivanpei]

I wrote this for my local forum, here goes:

MUD has always intrigued me as a deck. It seems to not follow the rules of Magic by cheating so many big unfair creatures into play. Going nuts into big robots has been something I’ve found really cool. When Michael Bomholt placed 2nd at a Starcitygames Open, I was extremely impressed with the synergy of the list and the new tech, Kuldotha Forgemaster. For reference, his report here:

http://www.quietspeculation.com/2011...e-at-scg-indy/

I noticed some things while reading through his report. It seemed like he boarded in the Chalice of the Void + Revoker plan almost every match. Also, 16 lands is really greedy, especially with 3 Mox Diamonds. I acknowledge the power of Goblin Welder and loved how it simply destroys Merfolk and Counterspell heavy decks. However, times have changed, the meta has caught up and Mental Misstep was printed.

Ali Aintrazi then played this to 5th at Starcitygames Charlotte.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=38176

This deck forgoes Red and Welders for Blue and Thoughtcast. It’s an interesting list as it can afford to play Chalice in the MD since it has less 1 drops. He only plays 2 MD though and in my opinion this is a step in the right direction. Ali argues that it is only good on the play or against combo but I have to disagree with him. One of the worst matchups for this deck is Zoo with its Pridemages and infinite removal. Chalice is necessary to shut down the deck’s removal for MUD to have a chance. Chalice is also one of the best cards in legacy right now after the printing of Mental Misstep. Blue decks have shifted away from Daze and Spell Pierce to Mental Misstep and if built properly, MUD can blank Misstep and destroy blue’s 1 cc cards with Chalice.

Another problem MUD faces is artifact hosers. The most devastating and prolific ones are the dreaded Null Rod and Energy Flux. These 2 cards are seeing more and more play due to the popularity of artifact based decks like Affinity and Painter’s Servant. It is a sad thing that MUD gets caught in the crossfire. I set out to build a MUD list which can do 2 things:

1. Able to support and abuse Chalice of the Void fully.
2. Able to fight Null Rod and Energy Flux.

There are already plenty of Mono Brown lists floating around on the forums that abuse Chalice well. No Welders, no Sensei’s Divining Tops, just lots of good 2cc and above artifacts with only Voltaic Key as a 1 drop. Solving Null Rod and Energy Flux however, was still a problem. I saw Spine of Ish Sah suggested, but it is extremely unlikely you can actually cast the card without artifacts. Some lists run Karn, Liberated, but again it is unlikely you can cast him without artifact support. Most lists just ignore the hate and try to win before it comes down.

I don’t think that’s wise as the SB should always try to address the most dangerous cards against your deck. My suggestion is to run this list:

White splash MUD

Main Deck (60 cards)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Den
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Crystal Vein
3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal
3 Voltaic Key
3 Lightning Greaves
4 Grim Monolith
4 Metalworker
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Sideboard (15 cards)
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Horizon Canopy
4 Seal of Cleasing
4 Trinisphere
1 Duplicant

I depart from the norm by running 18 lands instead of 16. I hate mulling and I try to decrease my mulligan rate by playing more lands. I believe 18 is the correct number of lands to run. There are no white cards in the MD so the white sources are solely for the SB tech. Basically this is a standard Mono Brown Chalice list which swaps the 4 splash cards (Welder or Thoughtcast) with Phyrexian Revoker* and the 1cc cards (Sensei’s Divining Tops and the 4th Voltaic key) for Chalice of the Void. I’ve found that trying to cast your splash card consistently is not ideal with 9 coloured sources (Ali’s list plays 5 Moxes and just 4 Seat of the Synod). This increases inconsistency greatly. Take into account opposing Wastelands and that becomes an even bigger problem.

Going mono brown in the MD is just more consistent and Revoker is an extremely powerful disruptive card that is highly underrated. It shuts down so many cards in Legacy that I believe it deserves a spot in the MD. The same goes for Chalice, that card is busted if you can stick it. This MUD list only has three 1cc cards which are Voltaic Keys, so Chalice @ 1 is pretty much a one sided affair. Sensei’s top is also quite inefficient in this deck in my opinion as there are no fetchlands and Kuldotha Forgemaster is the only shuffle effect.

Sensei’s Top + Voltaic Key is cute but not necessarily game winning. A Revoker on your opponent’s Equipment/Vial is a huge play in the early game and shutting down Walkers/Shackles later in the game is also amazing. I don’t play the 1 random Karn, Liberated because he is exactly that, a random 1-off. He isn’t an artifact that I can tutor for with Forgemaster and he doesn’t reveal to Metalworker. I’m a fan of consistency, so I’ll pass on running him.

Now I will finally come to the white splash tech from the board. Seal of Cleansing is the only effective answer to both Null Rod and Energy Field because it is preemptive. It is quite easy to drop a Seal on turn 2 on the play before Null Rod or Energy Field comes down. Having Horizon Canopy also allows you to drop the Seal even after Null Rod hits play. Post board you have 13 white sources to cast Seal with since you bring in 3 Canopies from the board. One may argue that the Canopies are a huge waste of space in the board for just trying to deal with Null Rod/Energy Flux. However, you will be surprised how many times you’ll want more land from the board.

MUD is also sometimes soft to mana screw centered decks like Team America, Junk or BW Aggro. A discard spell on a Grim/ Metalworker followed up by a Wasteland/Vindicate spells big trouble for the MUD player. In these situations you can board out your explosive cards like Mox Diamond and Voltaic Key for Crucible of the Worlds and Horizon Canopy. Not only does this make your deck more resilient to disruption, Crucible + Horizon Canopy also forms a good draw engine for the deck, ala Stax. Since you are already MD-ing the Revokers and Chalice, there aren’t really that many cards you want to fit into the board. The Duplicant is there as another good robot against Aggro decks or as a tutorable out to Peacekeeper.

So is the white splash worth it? Some may argue that it opens you up to Wasteland while Darksteel Citadel doesn’t. Truthfully though, would your opponent rather target an Ancient Den or an Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors? In my testing against Wastelands, I’ve found that the Wastelands always target my double lands. Some greedy fellow would shoot my Den to put me off white, but then that’s great, because I run zero white cards in the MD anyway and that actually saved my double land.

MUD is an extremely strong deck from my testing and I believe this is the most consistent and resilient list I’ve tried. Opinions might differ, but if you are looking for a super cool, powerful deck that is designed to be as consistent as possible, give it a shot (MUD decks will never be THAT consistent, we can’t run Brainstorm and Fetches).* I’ve sacrificed a fair bit of power for consistency and resilience but I believe it’s worth it. In reality, MUD’s biggest problem has always been losing to itself from inconsistencies (actually this applies to all double land based stompy decks). Mulling to oblivion is common so I aim to reduce this as much as possible. The best analog would be Dredge. So would you play Lion’s Eye Diamond Dredge or non-LED Dredge? Same thing applies to MUD. I hope you have enjoyed this article as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Thank you for reading and I look forward to your thoughts.

-Ivan Pei

[tsabo_tavoc]

Really nice article, Ivan!

Seal of Cleansing is a really nice find! It also kills Serenity, at a mana cost no more than the hates and without the need to leave mana open!
Horizon Canopy is an even cooler idea, how about putting a few more in the MD, in the place of Crystal Vein and maybe even Ancient Den?

Finally, I am tempted to try MUD in real life, thanks man!

[ivanpei]

Good catch, the singleton Crystal Vein was because I wanted some extra oomph from the mana base for the "nuts turn". However by replacing it with a Horizon Canopy, you get an extra board slot to play with.

Seal of Cleasing is currently the most effective solution I've found for the hate. It is also an all around useful board card against troublesome permanents like Moat, Ensnaring Bridge and the sorts. What I really like about this list is that it can board into something robust with the extra lands and Crucible. Even if you get Hymmed to pieces, you can still recover with Crucibles and the extra lands.

Unfortunately the Dens can't be cut because you need them to feed Forgemaster and to power up Opal. I have 2 MUD builds. One is this Forgemaster based combo-ish deck and the other is just old school Stompy with Steel Hellkites and more lands instead of Forgemaster and Bullets. Forgemaster is faster and more explosive but softer to hate and mulls more. Legacy is a quick meta so I currently favor this build.

[kkoie]

Great list! I have been playing MUD for some months and within the last few weeks have been disillusioned with the increase in hate that everyone is using. This ver. feels like the natural evolution of the deck. I will definately be sleeving this ver. up and giving it a try.

[moug]

Building mud is quite difficult. Building my version i quit using with artifact lands:
My manabase today look like
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Montain

This way, I do not fear null rod as much as i did before.
Karn can still be casted to destroy null rod / Energy Flux (thanks to crucible).
Any other hate (moat, esnaring bridge) will be solved thanks to Spine of Ish Sah.

Sure, my build doesn't go as fast as those playing 8 artifact lands manabase. But the deck is still quite effective. Rishadan port shines like gold to me helping me to mana screw my opponent waiting for an answer. Jace and humility will need WW or UU so rishadan port helps a lot. Rishadan port is also very good with golem or thorn.

On more thing, I do play a single ravager in my list. This card is clearly sub optimal. But this cards helps a lot against hate. If an opponent cast null rod / Energy Flux, he will have to face a very big robot. It helps to sacrifice a robot against a sword to be able to weld it again.

[ivanpei]

Interesting, have a list? I have a less explosive version that does not play Moxes or Kudoltha Forgemaster. It plays more lands and stuff like Thran Dynamo + All is dust/Karn. Looks similar. But this deck is much slower. Nothing really gets going till turns 3-4 and by then aggro can actually clock you first before you do anything relevant. Cheers.

[moug]

This is the list i am testing.
Great inspiration from the Mud thread.

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Mountain
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland

win conditions
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
3 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Batterskull // good against humility and all control deck.
1 Arcbound Ravager // good to use in response of hate (null rodd)
2 Duplicant // too many kotr in my meta.
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Sundering Titan

2 Karn Liberated // very good in all my testing.

utils / mana / speed
4 Metalworker
4 Grim Monolith
4 Mox Diamond
3 Goblin Welder
3 Thousand-Year Elixir // one of the best card. if the opponent has got a sword, he won't care about Lightning Greaves but will care about Thousand-Year Elixir. This card changed completely the way i play mud. most of times, i can wait this card before playing welder, metal worker or forgemaster. I need a place to put a 4th one in MD.

1 Voltaic Key
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Spine of Ish Sah

[ivanpei]

I can definitely see how thousand year elixir is better in a less explosive MUD version. I have some hot new tech when my friend, andrew suggested green. Green has seal of primordium... Which led to me thinking: why not Birthing Pod! The creature curve fits that card perfectly! I'm thinking of switching dens to tree of tales, cleansing to primordium and -1 blighsteel (not a must have) and -1 key (card needs something else to be good) for 2 birthing pods. This levels up our creatures from revoker>metalworker>lodestone> forgemaster>wurmcoil>battlesphere> Titan

This is very exciting! Birthing pod might have some seriously busted potential. I'm going to test -1 blightsteel, -3 greaves, -3 key, + 3 birthing pod, +3 cathedral membrane (look it up, yeah it's awesome as a blocker early, then birthing pod food into metalworker) and 1 more battlesphere (in case I drew the battlesphere).

[Gambit]

This is very exciting! Birthing pod might have some seriously busted potential. I'm going to test -1 blightsteel, -3 greaves, -3 key, + 3 birthing pod, +3 cathedral membrane (look it up, yeah it's awesome as a blocker early, then birthing pod food into metalworker) and 1 more battlesphere (in case I drew the battlesphere).

Key + B. Pod seems pretty good. May want to cut something else.

[ivanpei]

Agreed, list is pretty tight though, what else couldd be cut? Maybe trim some robots? Could go with 1 less wurmcoil and 2 less lodestones. Btw what's the ruling on sacrificing cathedral membrane during the block step. Like I declare blocks and then sac it to pod/ forgemaster. Do I still do 6 damage? If it still does, that's a sick interaction.

[Gambit]

Pod is only sorcery speed

[ivanpei]

You are right, pod suddenly looks much less attractive. I was imagining chumping/saccing everyturn until you reach something big.

[(nameless one)]

But you can still sacrifice tapped creatures right? I was thinking after Metalworker has been tapped for mana, use BPod to fetch Lodestone Golem.

But from there, after Lodestone Golem attacks, look for Forgemaster? I'm pretty sure when you get to use Forgemaster, you either got what you need or you already have sacrificed Forgemaster to itself.

Besides, Lodestone Golems are better being in the field since they disrupt than be used as a fodder to get Forgemaster (unless theres a better 5CC MUD beater out there)

I do like the idea of the green splash. I am currently building a R/U version (with Goblin Welders and Thirst for Knowledge) I'm only running 3 Great Furnaces and my build depends on the Moxes to cast both Welders and TfK)

[tsabo_tavoc]

Speaking of G, does MUD need some Choke?

[(nameless one)]

Speaking of G, does MUD need some Choke?

I think it would be an great sideboard addition. Usually, Welder does a great job in combating permission and removal decks. Yes there's still Daze and Force of Will but at least those decks will have a hard time developing their side of the board.

[ivanpei]

I am playing a green splash MUD now. It is extremely stable and consistent. I've also upped the land count to 20. No wastelands. Has anyone noticed that we never use wasteland? I usually keep them around because the deck is so land light that I need the lands to cast my stuff. I'm playing Darksteel citadel instead because I need more cheap fodder for opal/forgemaster. Never missed wasteland.

And finally I think I've finally solved the Gas/Card quality problem. It's not welder, it's not thoughtcast, it's:

Sylvan library.

Card is busted. Seriously.

[Gui]

And finally I think I've finally solved the Gas/Card quality problem. It's not welder, it's not thoughtcast, it's:

Sylvan library.

Card is busted. Seriously.

Next step is Uba Mask and Words of Wilding... oh, good times...

Kidding, but Sylvan is really strong.

[GGoober]

Gui where is the Berserk in your avatar?? You downgraded to Rancor?! :P

Nice list Ivan! (although core is essentially just Bomholtz). I think if you are primarily playing white for Seal of Cleansing, opting for green is strong with Seal of Primordium, and possbility of playing Sylvan Library maindeck, and some Chokes in the SB (it's GG blue basically). If consistency is an issue for you, you can't help that too much because Bomholtz sacrifices consistency for raw power (with some synergies from the deck to account for the inconsistency). I think you need to think of whether you want to play a Stompy deck that is tending more towards raw power (i.e. powering threats with the condition you draw accelerants i.e. consistency is sacrificed by the condition you need to draw specific cards in hands), or a Stompy deck that has a lower curve (primarily 2cmc, and playing lots of Mox/Sol-lands to ensure you always have something to play on turn 1).

The conclusion is simple though: Stompy decks will always be inconsistent, no matter what you do (Steel Stompy is a fairly consistent Stompy deck but since it's Stompy, you will always have inconsistency). The issue really really isn't because you can't draw cards or filter your draws. It's mainly because of the manabase that Stompy runs, and the limitation of which 'quality' creatures you can play with that manabase that makes the archetype inconsistent. An easy example is: If you don't have a sol-land in your opening, you are simply going to have subpar games even if you have Diamond/Chrome (since these involve card disadvantage).

[ivanpei]

Agreed, however, trying to maximize consistency isn't a bad thing, though it will never be that consistent. There will be times when you have the nuts draws and just win. At times you will have hands with no grim, double lands or metalworker. My aim is to play more good cards that try to address the deck's interdependence.

What I hate is how the whole deck is like a pile of lego. If you draw the right pieces at the right time, they fit together perfectly and blow your opponent out. If you are missing one of the lego pieces, or have a critical lego piece blown up, the deck just craps out. Playing Sylvan library MD and having Chokes/Seal in the side is huge. Sylvan is the best card I've splashed for so far. It's not fragile like Welder, it's not slow and clunky like Thoughtcast (this is not affinity, I usually have to play 2-3 mana for Thoughtcast). Most importantly it's 2cc, which gets around Chalice and you can cast it off 2 lands/ mox + land, without any board presence and boom, next turn Ancestral recall into the nuts.

Some sacrifices had to be made though. I've finally cut Keys to Zero, card needs stuff to stick in order to work, and I've not been that lucky. In goldfishing/uninteractive MUs, keys are insane but if anyone has done any real testing you'll find keys subpar. Usually you have a hand with a key and a worker/forgemaster/grim but then you'll get that particular thing blown up/countered and key just ends up being a dead card. This happens to me way to often. In my opinion if your forgemaster/worker actually gets to tap once, you should be wining that game. Key is win more, it doesn't help you get to the point where you actually get to tap your bomb.

Here's my list after all is said and done. It's rock solid, mulls very little and can just shrug at disruption and drop stuff slower. Though it's not as explosive, it can still be very very fast. However it loses to itself less and still grinds people out. I feel like this list has sacrificed very little explosiveness for much needed consistency:

Green splash MUD

Main Deck (60 cards)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Tree of Tales
4 Forest

3 Mox Diamond
2 Mox Opal
3 Sylvan Library
3 Lightning Greaves
4 Grim Monolith
4 Metalworker
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sundering Titan

Sideboard (15 cards)
3 Choke
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Veteran Explorer (On the draw Vs Goblins/Vial decks/Decks with not alot of 1cc, Chalice sucks, so Veteran Explorer is a useful 1 drop to smooth the curve and ramp)
4 Seal of Primordium
4 Trinisphere
1 Duplicant

Sylvan library is so good. It smoothes your draws early and it is TRUE card advantage. You don't need fancy tricks like top-key which costs mana and 2 cards. Also it allows you to run the mighty Chalice. So many decks just crap out and die to Chalice @ 1 and almost every deck is affected by Chalice. Card is just too good. This deck can beat light counters, it can also beat decks with light removal. This deck can't beat something with both Counters and Removal like UW control or Bant. Sylvan helps you grab gas when they mess you up big time with very little investment. Library is not fragile like welder and it lets you run Chalice. Also it is much bombier that Thoughtcast and comes down for the same cost (Have you ever actually thought cast for 1 mana early in this deck? That only really happens turns 3-4, which is pretty slow). Thoughtcast also doesn't help you when you are in the shit with 1-2 lands and not much of a board presence. Library bails you out big time in that situation.

[tsabo_tavoc]

Sylvan library.

Card is busted with fetchlands. Seriously.

Fixed.

I tried Library in G stompy and failed. I don't see how it should work here.

As for Wasteland, it still wins games if you have MD Crucible.