WelderZoa (Ur)

[Leeb]

WelderZoa is an Aggro-Combo deck.

It runs quite unlike any other deck I know, and it is a bit tricky to pilot, but it is such a blast :)

GAMEPLAN
The gameplan is to power out hasted Esperzoas and Master of Etheriums, basically.
But not just on turn 2, mind you, but every turn. And it draws a shitload of cards to do just that.

WELDERZOA

Mana
4x City of Traitors
4x Island
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Great Furnace
4x Mox opal

Artifacts
4x AEther Vial
4x Chromatic Star
4x Elsewhere Flask
4x Ichor Wellspring
4x Lightning Greaves

Creatures
4x Goblin Welder
4x Vedalken Certarch
4x Etherium Sculptor
4x Master of Etherium
4x Esperzoa

Sideboard
3x Tormod's Crypt
4x Pithing Needle
4x Pyroblast
4x Hydroblast

The list is pretty tight, although splashing black for Baleful Strix (main) and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (side) seems pretty sweet.

Cards & Synergies

CREATURES
Master of Etherium: Makes an Esperzoa duo a 2-turn clock, makes Etherium Sculptors actual men, but mostly it's the beef itself. Nice in multiples, easily hits 10+.
Esperzoa: Highly efficient beatstick, with bonus instead of drawback. It comes down quick (turn 2/3) and it draws you a card every turn, bouncing Flask/Wellspring (or Baleful Strix). If needed you can bounce a Mox/Crypt, or reset a Pithing Needle ;). And if it comes down on turn 4/5, it is usually a hasted 5+ flying Bob for {U}.
Etherium Sculptor: Needed for explosive starts. Real good with City + Star. With two Sculptors everything is free and you can cantrip into the one mana beatsticks. Or you cantrip into lands..grr..
Goblin Welder: Used primarily for drawing cards, flipping cantrip artifacts to draw 2 extra per turn, recurring Esperzoa's/Masters is just a bonus.
Goblin Welder gives the deck a lot of resilience versus attrition. The deck doesn't have discard outlets, so you need Flask/Star, or double Mox to get the party at the Ichor Wellspring started. Unless your opponent helps you out ;). Boarded graveyard hate only foils Goblin Welder, it doesn't really shut the deck down, and Deathrite Shaman doesn't remove artifacts, thank god.
Vedalken Certarch: Yup, the only disruption is this little guy, and it is quite efficient at that. Used to tap down lands on turn 2/3 and tap down creatures turn 4/5 clearing the way for the beatsticks. It slows down, sometimes hoses, the opponent (and saves ur ass) just enough to go off.

ARTIFACTS
Lightning Greaves: Essential for protection and acceleration. But it really shines in chaining freshly drawn Welder/Certarch activations into Master/Zoa attacks.
A ful set, as you do want a 2nd when you spew out a couple of Zoas/Masters. Yet 3 might be the right number.
Ichor Wellspring: Nice with Esperzoa, insane with Goblin Welder. The deck needs cantrip artifacts to get going, and to keep going.
Elsewhere Flask: Again, nice with Esperzoa and Goblin Welder, but especially good with City of Traitors.
Chromatic Star: Often needed to get Goblin Welder started, and real good with City if there are Sculptors out.
AEther Vial: Vial allows the deck to get away with playing just 16 lands, keeping one-landers all day long, and it foils countermagic.
Mox Opal: Upped it to 4 after the rules changes, hah. Insanely good, although early metalcraft can be a awkward when you got City/Islands. Suddenly extra nice with Welder.

LANDS
City of Traitors: This deck doesn't need a lot of lands mid-lategame, it needs a kickstart. City coupled with Sculptor does this best. + It can be kept in play with Flask/Welder.
Island: It's nice to have a Wasteland-proof land now and again.
Seat of the Synod & Great Furnace: Artilands are essential for metalcraft and beefy Masters.

SIDEBOARD
Tormod's Crypt: The most synergetic graveyard-hate. Recurring with Welder, bounce-target for Esperzoa and early metalcraft.
Pithing Needle: Very versatile. Usually comes in game 2.
Hydroblast: So cheap, so good.
Pyroblast:If you play red, this is in the board.

The sideboard is very cheap, I'm experimenting with the rules changes. Post-board I play 62 cards.
Usually -1 Mox for 3 Crypts or -1 Certarch and -1 Greaves/Wellspring for a full set of hate.

MATCHUPS:
The deck, as yet, is still proxied up. So it hasn't seen any sanctioned play :(.
I've tested it exensively though. Vs. Combo and Control you're mostly screwed.
Yet vs. the wide range of lineair Aggro and Aggro-Control this deck's performance is pretty impressive.
It races the lineair aggro strategies and it has enough eventuality to fight through a bunch of one-for-ones and overwhelm opposing hordes.
But most of all, the games are fun and the deck holds up admirably vs. established decks.

WEAKNESS:
It is artifact-based, so it is easy to hate. Even though it is quite resilient, hosers be hosers.
No filtering. Quite boring, to spend most of the game watching your opponent shuffle, but alas that luxury is not ours.
Even though raw card draw gotta be better than filtering, you risk being screwed if there is not enough action in, say, the top half of your deck.
Hence the low land count, with the risk of not getting started at all :(.

If you like it, try it. You'll like it.

[frogger42]

Shame shame shame - no Thoughtcast? That's pretty essential.

You run 16 blue guys right now, and I don't know if you own them, but you could go 4 Force of Will in here. That would protect you from hosers, untimely Stoneforge Mystics, Terminus-es, and Combo. Also, Master of Etherium is awesome, but so is Cranial Plating. I see that you're trying to cantrip a lot, but generally you're better off trying to finish the game, and Cranial helps you do that. I think you're better off spending your mana doing that as soon as you can, rather than investing 1-2 in basically cycling a card. You mentioned Baleful, and I definitely think you should do that as it plays towards your gameplan of attacking your opponent much better than Ichor Wellspring.

Cranial also equips to all your little men, and is basically Master #5-8. For your manabase, I think you should consider cutting Chr. Star, and just run Volcanics or City of Brass instead of Islands if you get Baleful in there, too.


Hosers really aren't as bit a problem as Abrupt Decay, as that tends to be more prevalent. I don't think you want to do this with your deck:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?24165-Balls-of-Steel-The-200-Solution

But here's my take on Affinity. I've been building it the past year, and there might be something you can take from there. I like Welder tricks a lot, and the deck looks like a blast to run. And last thing: have you considered Transmute Artifact? It works really really well with Welder if you have the budget. Good luck with the deck!

[monovfox]

Goblin Welder + Baleful Strix anyone :D ?

[theillest]

Shame shame shame - no Thoughtcast? That's pretty essential.

You run 16 blue guys right now, and I don't know if you own them, but you could go 4 Force of Will in here. That would protect you from hosers, untimely Stoneforge Mystics, Terminus-es, and Combo. Also, Master of Etherium is awesome, but so is Cranial Plating. I see that you're trying to cantrip a lot, but generally you're better off trying to finish the game, and Cranial helps you do that. I think you're better off spending your mana doing that as soon as you can, rather than investing 1-2 in basically cycling a card. You mentioned Baleful, and I definitely think you should do that as it plays towards your gameplan of attacking your opponent much better than Ichor Wellspring.

Cranial also equips to all your little men, and is basically Master #5-8. For your manabase, I think you should consider cutting Chr. Star, and just run Volcanics or City of Brass instead of Islands if you get Baleful in there, too.


Hosers really aren't as bit a problem as Abrupt Decay, as that tends to be more prevalent. I don't think you want to do this with your deck:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?24165-Balls-of-Steel-The-200-Solution

But here's my take on Affinity. I've been building it the past year, and there might be something you can take from there. I like Welder tricks a lot, and the deck looks like a blast to run. And last thing: have you considered Transmute Artifact? It works really really well with Welder if you have the budget. Good luck with the deck!
Glimmervoid > city of brass

[frogger42]

Glimmervoid > city of brass

Not really, and especially if you consider a mulligan or two. Glimmervoid gives your opponent the chance to put you back hard with a Spell Pierce/Decay and Wasteland early on (to the point where you can't recover), whereas City doesn't allow that option. Most Aff run a split, but I think the damage from City is generally nominal, plus this list doesn't run all the 0-drop guys anyway.

EDIT: I just noticed this, but I don't think you run a dense-enough creature base to consider doing Aether Vial. You're probably better off running more gas.

[AndyTron]

EDIT: I just noticed this, but I don't think you run a dense-enough creature base to consider doing Aether Vial. You're probably better off running more gas.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

What about something like this:

Mana
4x City of Traitors
4x Island
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Great Furnace
4x Mox opal

Artifacts
4x Cranial Plating
4x Elsewhere Flask
4x Ichor Wellspring
4x Lightning Greaves

Creatures
4x Goblin Welder
4x Vedalken Certarch
4x Etherium Sculptor
4x Master of Etherium
4x Esperzoa

Sorceries
4x Thoughtcast

[thefreakaccident]

I would really like to see bloodclock in here, although its most certainly bad.