Introduction
In this week’s installment of “Vintage Avant-Garde” I’m going to discuss how the Workshop on Workshop head-to-head works, which is no small feat, considering that it’s possibly the most complex, intricate, skill-intensive, and often misunderstood matchups in all of Vintage.
Players and deckbuilders have spent a lot of effort and energy understanding how to make various blue decks beat Workshop decks, or how to make Workshop decks beat opposing blue decks; but for all of the effort that has been spent figuring out how to make the field beat Shops, or vice versa, the intricacies of the Shop on Shop matchup have been criminally under-tested and uncharted. Traditionally, I’d tend to fall into the category of player who rarely plays a Workshop deck in a tournament, unless I’m expecting to not play against other Workshop decks with a high frequency; it seems clear that Mishra’s Workshop decks are very good in the current metagame (and with Gush unrestricted, they’re possibly even the “best” deck choice), and thus understanding how to build and play with the Shop mirror in mind is now a valuable Vintage skill-set.
Part I: Testing
For this article I sleeved up three separate Workshop variants I felt to be representative of Workshop sub-archetypes that people might select to play at Vintage events, then played the decks in full, three-game matches against one another. The three decks I selected for this experiment:
1. Brass Stax
2. Agro Mud
3. Metal Worker “Monster” Mud
Here are the complete deck lists that I used during my testing:
Creatures (8)
Lands (22)
Spells (30)
Creatures (8)
Lands (20)
Spells (32)
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 4 Null Rod
- 4 Sphere of Resistance
- 1 Trinisphere
- 2 Sculpting Steel
- 1 Serum Powder
- 1 Black Lotus
- 4 Tangle Wire
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- 4 Thorn of Amethyst
Sideboard
Creatures (16)
Lands (18)
Spells (24)
These lists are all very interesting because they share many commonalities—yet, for all of the ways they’re similar they also have drastic tactical differences. The first thing I’d like to draw your attention to is that all three of these lists share a majority of core cards in common. After noticing this trend, I consulted online forums for Mishra’s Workshop decklists that have recently performed well in tournaments and noticed that many of the top performing Shop decks play with most of these cards.
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Crucible of Worlds
All three of these Workshop archetypes share 37 cards the same in the maindeck. If one were to build a Workshop deck, these are the core cards I’d suggest starting with. It’s, however, in the divergent strategies that these decks become different and unique; such differences drastically affect how these decks will match up against one another.
Brass Stax vs. Metalworker Mud
Matches (2-1) in favor of Brass Stax.
In this matchup, my initial presumption was that Brass Stax would pulverize the Monster Mud deck. I believed that Goblin Welder would be a dominant game-changer and that Brass Stax’s multiple copies of Null Rod would easily handle Mud’s plethora of artifact activated abilities.
Points of Interest in the Matchup:
Strategic Advantages of Brass Stax:
1. Goblin Welder was a tremendous advantage. Once active, Welder simply had the ability to take over and dominate games.
2. More Crucibles of Worlds: Crucible is an important card in the Workshop mirror. Even the aggressive non-prison decks utilize mana denial—so, not getting locked out of playing spells is always important. The ability to recur Wasteland, Strip Mine, and Ghost Quarter is obviously very strong—but also as strong is the ability to recur copies of Workshop that have been downed by opposing Wastelands. It’s also worth noting that replaying dead lands with Crucible is the
only
way any of these particular decks have to directly generate extra cards.
3. Null Rod: The ability to shut off many of the Monster deck’s powerful abilities is invaluable and is essentially a “Wrath of Rod,” as it virtually neuters Mud’s Steel Hellkites, Triskelions, and Metalworkers.
4. Shattering Spree (sideboard): Brass Stax was the only list with access to a pure removal spell in Shattering Spree, whereas the Mud decks do not.
Strategic Advantages of Metalworker Mud:
1. Threat Heavy: Steel Hellkite and Triskelion give this deck a fast clock if unanswered. However, these cards get much worse if the Stax deck has drawn a Null Rod. The tempo generated by getting these powerful monsters online quickly is paramount to victory.
2. Metalworker: On the first turn, if unanswered immediately by a Null Rod or Shattering Spree, Worker has the ability to win the game on his own. “Worker, go wild…” is perhaps the strongest nut draw in the matchup.
3. Triskelion: If the Stax deck doesn’t have a Null Rod in play then this beast gives Metalworker Mud three realistic maindeck ways to dispose of an opposing Welder.
While I was correct that the Stax deck was favored, my assumption that it wouldn’t be close was overstated. Brass Stax defeated Monster Mud in two of the three matches, but all three matches required a third game to be decided, and many of the games were very close.
An example of one such close (and fascinating) game between Brass Stax and Metalworker Mud was the first game of the first set that I played.
Mud wins the die role and elects to play first.
Both players decide to keep their initial seven cards, which are as follows:
(Player A) MUD:
Mishra’s Workshop
Wasteland
Ancient Tomb
Pearl
Lodestone Golem
Triskelion
Crucible of Worlds
(Player B) Brass Stax:
Chalice of the Void
Mishra’s Workshop
Smokestack
Mox Pearl
Bazaar of Baghdad
Null Rod
Mox Ruby
*Cards in parenthesis are what each player drew during their draw step.
Turn 1A:
Pearl
Mishra’s Workshop
Lodestone Golem.
Turn 1B:
Draws: (Trinisphere)
Mishra’s Workshop
Mox Ruby
Mox Pearl
Chalice of the Void for 0
Smokestack.
Board after 1 Turn:
A: Lodestone Golem (tapped), Mishra’s Workshop (tapped), Mox Pearl (tapped)
B: Mox Ruby (tapped), Mox Pearl (untapped), Mishra’s Workshop (tapped), Chalice of the Void (0), Smokestack (0 soot counters)
Life: A-20, B-20
Turn 2A:
Draws: (Thorn of Amethyst)
Plays Wasteland and sacrifices it to destroy Mishra’s Workshop.
Taps Workshop to cast Crucible of Worlds.
Attacks with Lodestone Golem.
A-20, B-15.
Turn 2B:
Adds Soot Counter to Smokestack
Draws: (Chalice of the Void).
Plays Bazaar of Baghdad and tap it to draw two and discard three.
Draw: (Goblin Welder, Tangle Wire) and discards: Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, and Tangle Wire.
Casts Goblin Welder tapping Mox Ruby and Mox Pearl.
Board after Turn 2:
A: Lodestone Golem (tapped), Mox Pearl (untapped), Crucible of Worlds (untapped). Mishra’s Workshop (tapped) Cards in hand: Ancient Tomb, Triskelion, Thorn of Amethyst)
B: Goblin Welder (untapped, summoning sick), Mox Ruby (tapped), Mox Pearl (tapped), Bazaar of Baghdad (tapped), and Smokestack (1 Soot Counter). Cards in hand: Null Rod.
A-20, B-15
3A:
Sacrifices Lodestone Golem to Smokestack.
Draws: (Karn, Silver Golem)
Plays Ancient Tomb.
Casts Triskelion, tapping Ancient Tomb (takes 2 damage), Mox Pearl, and Mishra’s Workshop; then removes a counter from Triskelion to kill Goblin Welder.
A-18, B-15
3B:
Sacrifices Bazaar of Baghdad to Smokestack.
Adds a Soot Counter to Smokestack (2).
Draws: (Wasteland).
Plays Wasteland and sacrifice it to destroy Mishra’s Workshop.
Board after third turn:
A: Triskelion (2x +1/+1 Counters), Mox Pearl (tapped), Ancient Tomb (tapped), Crucible of Worlds. Cards in hand: Thorn of Amethyst, Karn, Silver Golem.
B: Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Smokestack (2 Soot Counters), and Chalice of the Void (0). Cards in hand: Null Rod.
A-18, B-15
4A:
Removes two counters from Triskelion to deal two damage to Player B.
Sacrifices Triskelion and Mox Pearl to Smokestack.
Draws (Mox Jet)
Replays Mishra’s Workshop from graveyard (Crucible’s ability).
Cast Karn, Silver Golem. (Taking two from Ancient Tomb).
A-16, B-13
4B:
Sacrifices Chalice of the Void and Mox Pearl to Smokestack.
Adds third Soot Counter to Smokestack.
Draws: (Wasteland!)
Plays Wasteland and Sacrifice it to destroy Mishra’s Workshop.
Board after fourth turn:
A: Karn, Silver Golem, Ancient Tomb, and Crucible of Worlds. Cards in hand: Thorn of Amethyst, Mox Jet
B: Smokestack (3 Soot Counters), Mox Ruby. Cards in hand: Null Rod.
A-16, B-13
5A:
Sacrifices all permanents: Karn, Crucible, and Ancient Tomb.
Draws: (Metalworker)
Play Mox Jet.
5B:
Sacrifices all permanents: Ruby, Smokestack.
Draws: (Mountain)
Plays Mountain.
Board after fifth turn:
A: Mox Jet. Cards in hand: Thorn of Amethyst, Metalworker
B: Mountain. Cards in hand: Null Rod
A-16, B-13
After five turns of play both players have one mana source apiece, one seemingly irrelevant card in hand, and are in a topdeck war…
6A:
Draws: (Ghost Quarter)
Plays Ghost Quarter.
6B:
Draws: (Null Rod)
No plays
After sixth turn:
A: Mox Jet. Hand: Thorn of Amethyst, Metalworker
B: Mountain. Hand: Null Rod, Null Rod
7A:
Draws: (Chalice of the Void)
Plays Chalice of the Void set for 1.
7B:
Draws: (Mox Sapphire)
Plays Mox Sapphire.
Casts Null Rod.
After seventh turn:
A: Mox Jet, Ghost Quarter, Chalice of the Void (1). HAND: Thorn of Amethyst, Metalworker.
B: Mox Sapphire, Mountain, Null Rod. CARDS: Null Rod.
8A:
Draws: (Mox Emerald)
Plays Mox Emerald
8B:
Draws (Mishra’s Workshop)
No plays.
After eighth turn:
A: Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Ghost Quarter, Chalice of the Void (1). HAND: Thorn of Amethyst, Metalworker.
B: Mox Sapphire, Mountain, Null Rod. HAND: Null Rod, Mishra’s Workshop
9A.
Draws: (City of Traitors)
Plays City of Traitors
Casts Metalworker
9B.
Draws: (Mox Jet)
Plays Mox Jet
After ninth turn.
A: Ghost Quarter, City of Traitors, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Chalice of the Void (1) Hand: Thorn of Amethyst.
B: Mountain, Mox Sapphire, Null Rod, Mox Jet. HAND: Mishra’s Workshop, Null Rod.
A-16, B-13
10A:
Draws: (Trinisphere)
Casts Trinisphere.
Attack for 1 with Metalworker. A-16, B-12)
10B:
Draws (Crucible of Worlds)
Plays Mishra’s Workshop.
Cast Crucible of Worlds.
The Crucible seals the game up and leaves the MUD player locked under his own Trinisphere hoping that the Metalworker will be able to attack ten times before the Stax player can answer it. Mud’s only relevant draw steps become trying to chain Workshop into Metalworker, simply to get another one-power beatstick into play to halve the slow clock.
Unfortunately for the Mud player, the Stax deck is able to play Bazaar of Baghdad and dig for a Barbarian Ring to seal up the game.
The sideboard plan that I decided to deploy in this matchup was as follows:
Monster Mud:
-4 Sphere of Resistance, +2 Ghost Quarter, +1 Crucible, +1 Triskelion
Brass Stax:
-4 Sphere, -1 Thorns, -3 Chalice, +2 Maze of Ith, +2 Ghost Quarter, +1 Crucible; +3 Shattering Spree.
I didn’t really feel that either side wanted to keep Sphere of Resistance in—as it didn’t provide a lot of strategic advantage to either side. I chose to bring in Ghost Quarters from the Mud deck, even though the Stax deck had several basic lands, simply because I felt the big Mana Monster deck wanted to make land drops deeper into the game in order to combat Stax’s Mana denial strategy. Also, notice that Stax’s sideboard allows it to improve by eight cards out of the board, whereas Mud only gets marginally better by four; a distinct advantage to Stax.
I clearly felt that Stax gained the most via using its sideboard—as it brought in more powerful spells: Shattering Sprees in particular. Shattering Spree, because there are not a ton of red sources in the deck, was usually only able to destroy one opposing artifact—but, hitting the opponent’s best card was almost always good enough.
Points of interest and trends in this matchup:
1. Of the five games where Metalworker won—all five games were instances where Metalworker was on the play.
2. In the games Metalworker won the Stax deck did not draw a Null Rod.
3. In the games Metalworker won it produced a relevant threat on the first turn, i.e. Metalworker, Steel Hellkite, or Lodestone Golem.
It is possible that when playing this matchup that the Brass Stax deck needs to mulligan aggressively into a Null Rod.
Brass Stax vs. Agro Mud
Matches (2-1) in favor of Brass Stax.
My expectation for this matchup was that the Stax deck should be favored; however, I felt that the Meandeck Mud deck, because of how aggressive it can start, should be a more difficult matchup for Stax than Monster Mud.
Strategic Advantages of Brass Stax:
1. Crucible, Welder, and Shattering Spree were as good against Agro Mud as they were against Monster Mud. The key difference between Brass Stax’s advantages in this matchup as compared to the last was that Null Rod was no longer a powerhouse.
2. Shattering Spree was the absolute blade in the sideboard games. It was able to remove whatever threat Agro Mud put onto the board, and was terrific at answering Precursor Golem—which, was Mud’s best card pre-sideboard.
Strategic Advantages of Agro Mud:
1. Largely immune to Stax’s Null Rods.
2. Precursor Golem was extremely problematic for the Stax deck pre-sideboard.
3. Lots of cheap efficient beaters allow Agro Mud to take advantage of Stax’s lack of blockers in the combat step.
Points of interest and trends in this matchup:
1. Agro Mud won all three of the pre-sideboard games; largely on the back of the card Precursor Golem. Without Shattering Spree, the Brass Stax deck simply couldn’t handle so many attackers entering the battlefield on the first or second turn.
2. After sideboard the Brass Stax deck had a very impressive 5-1 record against Agro Mud. Shattering Spree was able to easily answer Precursor Golem, and allowed Goblin Welder to simply take over and dominate games.
Metalworker Mud vs. Agro Mud
Matches (2-1) in favor of Monster Mud.
My expectation was that this matchup felt like it should be pretty even, and for the most part my testing confirmed this inclination. The two most important cards in this matchup were Null Rod and Steel Hellkite. If the Metalworker deck’s Steel Hellkite ever connected and was able to use its ability the game quickly became a blow out.
Strategic advantages of Metalworker Mud:
1. Metalworker, when unanswered by Null Rod this card was able to pump out too much pressure for the Agro Mud deck to hold off.
2. Steel Hellkite – once again, if unanswered this card could simply take over a game and win all on its own.
Strategic advantages of Agro Mud:
1. Null Rod – all of Metalworker Mud’s best threats are severely hindered when they cannot be activated. Simply by virtue of having this card in play puts Agro Mud at a tremendous advantage.
2. Sculpting Steel and Duplicant – Both of these cards were very good at answering Metalworker Mud’s big expensive monsters for value.
Points of interest and trends in the matchup:
1. The key battle line drawn in this matchup was between Steel Hellkite and Null Rod. Hellkite’s ability almost always spelled out certain death for Agro Mud.
2. Aside from Null Rod, Sculpting Steel and the sideboard Duplicants were Agro Mud’s best weapons against Monster Mud. Copying a Steel Hellkite for three mana and playing another threat in the same turn was often a game winning line of play.
3. A turn 1 Metalworker was often able to take over and win games early when not answered immediately by a Null Rod. Both decks sideboarded Ghost Quarter, and the Mana advantage of the Worker could often break through disruptive Mana stalemates.
4. Crucible of Worlds – The Agro Mud didn’t have Crucible of Worlds which I felt ended up putting it at a disadvantage. Crucible + Wasteland was often disruptive enough to soft lock Agro Mud from playing its spells.
Part II: Analysis
The testing that I conducted for this article has been fruitful and I believe that I’ve learned a great deal about how Workshop decks square off against one another. After taking a day to sit back and think about my experiences watching and playing these decks against each other, I believe several generalizations about the Shop vs. Shop matchup to be true.
1. In the current Vintage most competitive Workshop decks share a common shell. In short, I’d predict that most competitive Workshop decks are likely to share between 30 and 40 main deck cards in common.
2. Of these 30-40 maindeck similarities that almost all Workshop decks play (and excluding lands and mana), most of the cards these decks share are
not
particularly exciting against other Workshop decks. My educated speculation for why this trend appears to be true is that these 30-40 cards at the core of the Workshop experience are good against
everything
else within the context of being in a Workshop deck, i.e. Sphere effects, Chalice of the Void, Tangle Wire, Lodestone Golem, etc. In short, the core Workshop cards are effects that allow artifact decks to leverage the advantage of Mishra’s Workshop over decks that do not play with shop—therefore, these effects are not nearly as good against opponent’s who also play Mishra’s Workshop.
3. The twenty or so cards that are in flux, and differentiate Workshop decks into sub-archetypes, (Stax, Agro Mud, Metalworker, etc.), are the cards that most directly determine how Workshop decks will perform against opposing Workshop decks. Obviously, if forty cards are the same, the twenty that are different will be the determining factor for the matchup—but, unlike other matchups, the twenty cards that are different are also most likely to be a player’s
best
cards in the matchup. For instance, when two blue decks play (let’s assume Snake City Vault vs. Trygon Tezz), the cards that make the decks different (one plays Cobras and the other Trygons) are not the most important cards in the matchup—yes, the differences shape the percentages each has against the other, but Ancestral Recall, Tinker, Yawgmoth’s Will, Time Vault and Jace are still the most important and impactful cards. In the Workshop on Workshop match, not only are percentages shaped by the different cards—but, the cards that are different are usually the BEST cards—not simply because they are different, but because they are the most useful and game changing.
4. Two articles ago I discussed a phenomenon I defined as “Tempo Warp,” where the power level of Vintage cards allows a player to generate an arbitrarily large amount of tempo from which an opponent simply cannot recover. The nature of the Workshop deck—plodding and disruptive with regard to the opponent’s Mana development—means that in the mirror there are bound to be very few ways to achieve Tempo Warp. What I’m specifically not talking about here are hands that on the play burp out three Moxes, Chalice of the Void, Mishra’s Workshop, Lodestone Golem, and Sphere of Resistance. This is an example of a synergistic hand that creates an arbitrarily large amount of Tempo—not of a specific card that simply enters the battlefield and dominates the game. In the games I played the two cards that most directly correlated to an effect I’d consider “Tempo Warp” were Goblin Welder and Metalworker. An unanswered Welder or Metalworker were able to quickly take over and dominate games, and didn’t directly require an elaborate synergistic context in order to do so; whereas, a seven card hand of Moxen, Lodestone, Workshop, Chalice and Sphere on the play is very strong—Chalice on the draw, Sphere in general, Lodestone Golem, etc. are not always good, or only sometimes good—whereas, active Metalworker or Welder always appeared to inflict immediate and exponentially compounding impact upon the game.
The most practical way I can think of to categorize Workshop Mirrors is to break Shop decks down into sub-archetypes. I believe that from the perspective of playing Shop on Shop the most relevant way to categorize decks would be to see one’s deck as one of the following.
1. Welder
2. Welder, Metalworker
3. Welder, Null Rod
4. Metalworker
5. Null Rod
6. Other (decks that don’t play Welder, Worker, or Null Rod).
Basically, if you are playing Workshop against other Workshop decks it would be helpful to think of your deck as being one of these five categories and identify your opponent’s deck as one of the following as well. Since, Null Rod answers Metalworker (as well as the other good stuff in non-Null Rod strategies) I’d also consider Null Rod as a definitive attribute of the Workshop sub-archetype.
It also seems relevant to me that all three of the decks I tested can be directly attributed to a sub-archetype: Brass Stax (Welder/Null Rod), Monster Mud (Metalworker), and Agro Mud (Null Rod). Also, one should notice that the deck with a tempo warping card (Welder) and the foil to the other tempo-warping card (Metalworker) was easily the best performing deck in the mini-gauntlet.
More than just having Welder to press advantage, and Rod to “Nullify” opposing bombs, that Brass Stax also has other safeguards built into it that make it very strong in other mirror variants I did not test against. Instead of playing more Thorns like the Mud deck, it instead has additional Crucible of Worlds which is a very strong card in the mirror. It also seems that playing a color provides ample advantage, as innocuously enough, Basic Mountain was a stellar foil to the Ghost Quarter’s that Mud decks are currently packing for opposing Mud decks. Red also gives Stax access to Shattering Spree and being the only archetype capable of playing efficient targeted removal in the mirror seemed pretty advantageous. Another built in tool for the mirror—which wasn’t relevant in this gauntlet, was that Brass Stax also included four copies of Barbarian Ring which allows the deck to answer opposing Goblin Welder’s in the head to head.
Knowing what I know now, I believe that Workshop players should consider the following when the build their deck: have a plan for each archetype, as the Brass Stax list does. It seems problematic to me that the Metalworker deck did not have a single way to deal with the best card against it, Null Rod. However, aside from splashing a color there are not very many options available to remove a two casting cost artifact.
At the very least Mono-brown Mud lists should consider playing with Contagion Clasps out of the sideboard to deal with opposing Welders. Null Rod Mud decks especially can take advantage of the fact that Clasping Welder to death is not an activated ability. Clasp also has the added synergy to proliferate cards like Tangle Wire, Triskelion, and Smokestack. In addition, Clasp is pretty useful against Lotus Cobra and Dark Confidant—it seems correct to me that Mud decks might experiment with two copies of Clasp in the board.
Part III. Applied Theory
Based on the data and analysis that I’ve done it was very obvious to me that there is room for a Goblin Welder/Metalworker deck to exist. Here is how I’d build it:
First, I’d directly deploy the 38-card shell I discussed earlier, and add to that 4 Metalworker and 4 Goblin Welder. That makes for 46 cards. From here the deck ends up with 14 main deck slots that should synergize with the Welders and Workers. I also want to play the fifth Mox, so here is what I ended up with as a draft list:
Creatures (15)
Lands (20)
Spells (25)
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 4 Sphere of Resistance
- 2 Crucible of Worlds
- 1 Trinisphere
- 1 Black Lotus
- 3 Tangle Wire
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- 2 Ancient Grudge
- 1 Mox Opal
Sideboard
It’s also possible that depending upon the metagame that it could be correct to maindeck Thorn of Amethyst and sideboard Spheres of Resistance—it would largely depend upon how many creature decks you are expecting to face.
Hope you guys enjoyed the article.
Cheers.