all your report are belong to us

This week's deck: WelderMUD.

Thank you, TMDers, for all the suggestions on the main deck. From the
suggestions, I made the following changes: -1 Petrified Field, -1 Time Vault, +2
Null Brooch.

[flashback]

Afterwards, I stuck around to play a couple casual games. Egg'cademy is fun! I
like to play it in casual games, for fun! I do not care what anyone else says.
However, I will not play with it in the tourney, so please stop asking me to...


Well, that is still true... for me. However, Riz shows up last minute to the
tourney without a deck. Do you see where this is going? heh.
[/flashback]

[flashforward]
Hmm... Riz, for some unexplainable reason, goes 0-2 and drops. All I hear for
the next couple hours, either directly in my ear or from across the room, is how
the deck sucks. I should have never made the deck. Sleeves are a waste for such
a pile, on and on... I'm paraphrasing to keep it PG. heh.

In all fairness, I offered Ankh Sligh, Stompy, and White Weenie in addition to
the Egg.

Oh, after the tourney I pick up my Egg pile to go up versus Riz... 3-0 baby!
Hmm... Deck? Player? I dunno... I do know 3-0 baby!
[/flashforward]

WelderMUD
//Artifact
2 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Metalworker
1 Triskelion

1 Black Lotus
4 Grafted Skullcap
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Null Brooch
3 Powder Keg
4 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Sol Ring
4 Tangle Wire
2 Winter Orb

//Red
4 Goblin Welder

//Land
4 Mishra's Workshop
6 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland

SB: 2 Bottle Gnomes
SB: 2 Jester's Cap
SB: 2 Masticore
SB: 2 Serrated Arrows
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 3 Rack and Ruin


Brief match summary:

Round 1: David, TMD Webster (U/r Fish)

C'mon, I play Web every week?

Game 1: I resolve an early game Smokestack and Welder. Smokestack grinds under
his entire board and I start doing Welder tricks...

In: 2 Rack and Ruin
Out: 2 Winter Orb

Game 2: Web top decks Wasteland to take out my Academy. If he had not, good
game. I was prepared to drop my whole hand next turn to lock the game...

Game 3: n00bx10 shows his ugly head, again. Sigh. I think my opening hand is
strong including: Workshop, Mox Ruby, Null Brooch, Smokestack x3, and Goblin
Welder. The only problem: The Workshop is really a Strip Mine. Sigh. I play the
"Workshop" and Mox Ruby, then attempt to tap the Strip Mine for three colorless
mana. Hmm...

0-1, 1-2

Round 2: Raiyaan (U/g 'Phid)

C'mon, I play Raiyaan every week?

Game 1: General wMUD Brokenness.

In: 2 Rack and Ruin
Out: 1 Triskelion, 1 Mana Crypt

Game 2: General wMUD Brokenness.

1-1, 3-2

Round 3: Dustin (U/b/g Control)

C'mon, I play Dustin every week?

Game 1: In past matchups with Dustin, he has played either mono-B or mono-U with
main deck Disk. I'm thinking this week should be no different.

General wMUD Brokenness.

He did play a couple swamps. I'm thinking, okay mono-B. He's going for Dark
Ritual, Duress, Hymn, or early Ritual into Disk after sideboarding...

In: 3 Rack and Ruin
Out: 1 Triskelion, 2 Winter Orb

Game 2: Dustin opens with Flood Strand!? Hmm... I open with

General wMUD Brokenness.

Dustin fetches Underground Sea and drops Tropical Island turn two. However, my
double Sphere, Metalworker, and Welder allow me to play tricks. He's never able
to cast Deed nor Disk, both were in his opening hand.

2-1, 5-2

Round 4: Christiaan, TMD Zhalfirin (Long.dec)

Positive: I did not play Zhalfirin last week.
Negative: Zhalfirin. He is really good.

Game 1: Zhalfirin has been playing long.dec the past couple weeks, and I am
reminded of UnstableCornBreads words of dropping Sphere over Metalworker...

I do not like my opening hand and mull... Draw six. No sphere, but not totally
bad if Zhalfirin is not playing Long. Zhalfirin opens with Gemstone Mine (Great,
long.dec) and follows with Duress taking my Tangle Wire. Sigh. My turn, draw.
Topdeck Sphere, whoohoo! Workshop, Sphere, and then Mox with the floating
colorless. Zhalfirin plays through. However, the Sphere buys me enough time to
find and drop a second Sphere...

Whew! If I was drawing seven, the Sphere would have been in my hand for his
opening Duress. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

In: 2 Jester's Cap, 1 Tormod's Crypt
Out: 1 Triskelion, 2 Winter Orb

Game 2: Zhalfirin calculates his opening hand. He is just short of going off
first turn. Instead he plays out his artifact accel, Academy, and Burning Wish
into Balance with one card in hand. I keep Welder and discard a bunch of
artifacts. He loses only the Academy. I topdeck Academy and play it. We are in
topdeck mode for a couple draws and then Zhalfirin takes his chance. He taps out
to Wheel and gives me...

General wMUD Brokenness.

3-1, 7-2

Final Standings Top 8: (Tiebreakers determined 2-4)
1. Webster (Congrats!)
2. Ron
3. KiL0
4. LegendOfMagic
5. Andrej
6. Zhalfirin
7. John
8. Raziel (Glad you made it to play!)

My second tourney with WelderMUD concluded with near identical results as the
first: Losing first round because of a play mistake and then not dropping a game
the rest of the night. Maybe I need Magic Calisthenics before the tourney? Or
perhaps some friggin' glasses...

WelderMUD is a strong deck. Thank you, Captain Obvious. It can wreck house in
competent hands (read: not me, n00bx10). However, wMUD seems to get bent over by
Null Rod. U/r Fish has been tough with Grims to shock Welder and main deck Null
Rod to shut off my mana accel, artifact d00ds, and answer in Keg. Currently,
thinking about dropping Masticore and opening two slots to address Null Rod.