Workshopless Workshop Aggro

[Solaran_X]

Since the announced unbanning of Metalworker effective October 1st, 2009...there has been a lot of talk about Mono Brown Stax. While this was also an idea that popped into my head, I tend to hate playing with Stax and instead am pursuing the Mono Brown Aggro plan.

7th Place at Vintage Worlds in GenCon this year was taken by this Mono Brown Aggro deck.

4x Ancient Tomb
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Mishra's Workshop
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy
4x Wasteland

2x Arcbound Ravager
3x Karn, Silver Golem
4x Metalworker
3x Triskelion

1x Black Lotus
4x Chalice of the Void
2x Crucible of Worlds
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
4x Smokestack
1x Sol Ring
4x Sphere of Resistance
3x Staff of Domination
3x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Trinisphere

1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Gaea's Blessing
3x Jester's Cap
4x Relic of Progenitus
1x Sculpting Steel
4x Tangle Wire
1x Triskelion

Look at this deck, it should be a rather straight forward port to Legacy as a base for our own Mono Brown Aggro.

4x Ancient Tomb
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Wasteland
6x Open

2x Arcbound Ravager
3x Karn, Silver Golem
4x Metalworker
3x Triskelion

4x Chalice of the Void
2x Crucible of Worlds
4x Smokestack
4x Sphere of Resistance
3x Staff of Domination
3x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Trinisphere
9x Open

For the Lands, we obviously want to add in 4 City of Traitors, with an extra two slots open. For the 9 open slots in the main deck, obvious choices include 4 Mox Diamond for acceleration, and 3 more Trinispheres (and maybe 1 more Thorn of Amethyst for a 12 Sphere Plan).

Some questions for the community though.

1) Is Triskelion worthwhile in Legacy? Perhaps this should be Goblin Welder with a modified mana base, or maybe even a Darksteel Colossus we can power out fast with Metalworker?

2) Is Arcbound Ravager good in this deck in Legacy? Ravager is a house, but is he a house in this deck? Once again, would we be better off with Welders or even a Magus of the Moon?

3) If we would run Welders, with Metalworkers supplying stupid amounts of mana...is Mindslaver a good idea for main deck?

Before I go, this is what I propose as a base deck to work from:

4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Wasteland
2x Open Slots

3x Karn, Silver Golem
4x Metalworker
5x Open Slots

4x Chalice of the Void
2x Crucible of Worlds
4x Mox Diamond
4x Smokestack
4x Sphere of Resistance
3x Staff of Domination
4x Thorn of Amethyst
4x Trinisphere
1x Open Slots

[ClearSkies]

Well, in Legacy, people have more ways to deal with creatures then the Vintage decks.

There needs to be a way to get more mana besides Metalworkers through.
Hard to think of any.

[Esper3k]

Ravager is also there I believe because of its synergy with Triskelion. Eat some moxes, eat itself, move counters over to Triskelion.

I'm not sure Triskelion is that great in Legacy, so without it, Ravager loses a lot of its use in the deck.

[Jeff Kruchkow]

this seems like it could be really really good. people are seriously underestimating the fact that this deck can win turn 2. that backed up with tons of disruption is a big big deal

[Wargoos]

Hey, in the other thread we were also discussing monobrown aggro.
Can we somehow merge the two existing?

Anyways, here's the list I've worked out so far:

List:
Lands [25]
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra'S Factory
2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Crystal Vein
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Gargoyle Castle
2 Rishadan Port

Creatures [5]
4 Metalworker
1 Karn, Silver GOlem

Artefact [30]

1 Staff of Domination
2 Bottled Cloister
3 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Diamond
3 Trinisphere
2 Powder Keg
4 Crucible of Worlds

[Jeff Kruchkow]

Hey, in the other thread we were also discussing monobrown aggro.
Can we somehow merge the two existing?

Anyways, here's the list I've worked out so far:

List:
Lands [25]
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra'S Factory
2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Crystal Vein
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Gargoyle Castle
2 Rishadan Port

Creatures [5]
4 Metalworker
1 Karn, Silver GOlem

Artefact [30]

1 Staff of Domination
2 Bottled Cloister
3 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Diamond
3 Trinisphere
2 Powder Keg
4 Crucible of Worlds

more staff. Flat out winning is kinda cool.

[Solaran_X]

Well, in Legacy, people have more ways to deal with creatures then the Vintage decks.

There needs to be a way to get more mana besides Metalworkers through.
Hard to think of any.
The fact that creatures are so easily dealt with in Legacy is why I included a full 12 Spheres in the deck. Sure, they CAN deal with Metalworker...but when Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile cost 3W or more, and Force of Will is costing 1 life, 1 blue card, and 3+ mana for the "free" cast...he gains more than a bit of resilience and survivability.


Hey, in the other thread we were also discussing monobrown aggro.
Can we somehow merge the two existing?
That thread is about Mono Brown Stax, which is an entirely different style of deck. The threads should remain separate, with all Mono Brown Aggro discussion here and all Mono Brown Stax discussion there.

On another note, I never thought about Bottled Cloister and Ensnaring Bridge. That's a great idea in aggro-heavy areas.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

I'm going to agree; I think this deck needs more ways to cheat on mana than just Metalworker... Either that, or it needs a lower curve.

[wmagzoo7]

Hate to rain on the parade here guys but Solaran X you are almost totally wrong about this deck. Maybe you do play Vintage, but more than likely you don't. This deck is a Stax Deck! The deck is called MUD not Mono Brown Workshop Aggro, and it doesn't play like an aggro deck either. You play Arcbound Ravager and Triskelion as a win condition so that you can go infinite with Metalworker + Staff, and then play Trisk and Ravager. You sacrifice 20ish permanents to Ravager and then sac. Ravager to itself moving all of the counters to Trisk. From there you remove all of your counters and ping them to death. Sure Ravager and Triskelion are passable when you aren't trying to combo out but they are in the deck for a combo kill primarily. The deck itself really does play as a Metalworker Stax deck that needs all of the artifacts it can get to make Metalworker worthwhile. If it were an aggro deck don't you think it would run Juggernaut somewhere or more than 12 creatures, 8 of which can actually attack for reasonable damage. You could probably port the deck over, and retooling it would simply involve switching the lock pieces to address the different format and its workings. 4 Trinisphere is a must, and from there choices have to be made with the format in mind especially compared to Vintage which is not creature based at all as most of you know. If anyone would like, I can post a real Workshop aggro deck that does not run Metalworker, but as far as Metalworker goes in Vintage, MuD (This deck) is the only deck that plays him so you are semi-limited unless a new archetype is created.

[boltking]

If i were to find 1 card to deal with the deck is null rod. I for 1 am gonna run null rod as a 4 of in my sideboard. I predict a few will make an appearance and i will not be caught with my pants down peeps need to be prepared.

But again if i were to run a version of the deck it be something like this

Mana sources (24)

4x Ancient tomb
4x glimmervoid
4x wasteland
4x city of traitors
4x lotus petal
4x chrome mox


Creatures (16)

4x metalworker
4x Juggernaut
3x Master of etherium
1x Karn silver Golem
3x goblin welder
1x sundering titan
Spells/disruption/lock pieces (20)

4x trinisphere
4x crucible of worlds
4x dark ritual
4x staff of domination
4x thirst for knowledge

The way i see it is dark ritual gives you the extra acceleration you need to pump out a first turn trinisphere metalworker or staff if need be. Aggro would me my choice of the way to play it but there are alot of answers. Like i said before i predict a few will pop up but it certainly wont be a format breaking deck. It may take a few unprepared metagames. I dont think it will be a breakout deck of the next set of big events but it will show up.

As for disruption i think 4 trin and cruciable/waste is enough to slow your opponent down to plow the way to either win aggro wise or combo out with staff.

I realise that chrome mox may not look that good with only 10 spells in the deck to imprint on it but it could also act as mana from your hand with metalworker in play or a weld target with goblin welder. in any case the 4x chrome mox is an open mana slot and was the first thing i could think of.

[Clark Kant]

I wouldn't play both Chrome Mox + Lotus Petal + Dark Ritual. I don't think the Chrome Mox or even the Dark Ritual (you usually won't have the B mana to cast it) is neccesary. That build looks way too inconsistent imo.

But at the same time, I'm not sure that Mox Diamond is a wise choice for this deck either.

IMO, Mox Diamond requires a deck to run atleast 23 lands to support. Otherwise, you'll be mana screwing yourself quite a few games that you opt to discard your second land to lay down a Mox Diamond turn one.

Then once you include Metalworker into the mix, you'll be devoting atleast 31 slots to just mana in a deck.

Over half the deck is mana. I don't think it's a wise move honestly.

The main function of Mox Diamond is to occasionally enable a turn one Metalworker. But really, just how important is turn one Metalworker. Would it be so wrong to lay down a Chalice of the Void or maybe a Goblin Welder etc turn one and have Metalworker be a turn two play?

Perhaps we should just play 4 Lotus Petal, or maybe none of the 0 cc artifacts are needed.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Sphere of Resistance and Trinisphere don't stack.

The list running 25 lands is closer to the mana you need. You don't have jewelry, although you should run Mox Diamond, and you don't have Workshop.

Lightning Greaves should be in here, too.

And Masticore is a good anti-tribal/survival card that comboes pretty well with Goblin Welder.

[Clark Kant]

Been trying out a few of these lists. And I think the earlier concerns about Mox Diamond may infact hold some water, especially in the more aggressive versions of this deck. Lotus Petal just might be a better option here to Mox Diamond since...

a.) A topdecked/unneccesary Lotus Petal atleast provides you fodder to abuse Goblin Welder. Mox Diamond requires you to also topdeck a land, and two for one yourself to be used with Welder.

b.) Lotus Petal lets us play 20 lands max freeing up a lot more slots for creatures like Juggernaut/Suchi/Goblin Welder, and next turn, you could just play the land that would have been discarded to Mox Diamond to provide you with a more permanent source of mana.

c.) Lists playing Mox Diamond are forced into running 24 lands + 4 Mox Diamond + 4 Metalworker = 32/60 cards being mana sources. It makes for a lot of mana flood and LOTs of horrible topdecks. Having to rely on Mishra's Factory to do the bulk of the beatdown is just so much slower than using these freed slots to greatly amp up the number of threats this deck plays.

Just one perspective to consider. But it could just be me being sick of getting horrible top decks and getting mana flooded damn near every game in the past few hours.

[Clark Kant]

Of all the various Workshop Aggro builds out there, I think this thread's build is the most on the correct track.

I'm running this...

4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Wasteland
4x Rishidan Port
3x Crystal Vein

4x Metalworker
4x Su-Chi
3x Razormane Masticore
3x Karn, Silver Golem
3x Umezawe's Jitte

4x Mox Diamond
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Sphere of Resistance
4x Trinisphere
4x Crucible of Worlds

// Sideboard
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 Pithing Needle
SB: 4 Powder Keg
SB: 3 Defense Grid

Edit: I was unhappy with Staff of Domination. They're mostly garbage when you don't have a Metalworker in play.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Why not SB Trini?

This is supposed to be sorta Brown Stompy, sorta like blue/red stompy just drop Chalice, equip and attack aye. I usually see trini in more control builds, a lot of times built around stax and such which makes more sense.

I see no sense in going Crucible with aggro... it's like, your trying to go aggro but slowing to drop crucible and Stax, sorta odd. Maybe cut back some of those... Thran Dynamo & Duplicant seem good, both pretty badass with Karn too.

~~~~~~~

On a totally different note. I always thought it'd be pretty Rad if you added Urborg+Cabal Coffers with metal worker, go sorta hybrid Trainwreck to just drop your hand.. Masticore would be godly and you could go infinite fairly quick ;)

[Kangaxx]

Splash black for The Abyss.