Wherein Nat Makes a New Goal

I’ve been in the lab lately.

See, sometimes my job gets kind of boring, so I read Magic strategy articles online and do some random thinking about possible format-breaking deck ideas. Today, I was especially inspired because I had an interesting conversation with my friend Justin about some sweet tech ideas.

Those, I won’t be sharing with you because they’re too cool right now.

Maybe give that a couple of weeks.

What I did come up with that I will share with you is something I’ve been thinking about for the past few weeks and finally got around to putting on paper and finally into Apprentice for some goldfishing.

For those of you who don’t know, goldfishing is the act of playing a deck solitaire against an imaginary opponent who does nothing to stop you. It’s as though you were playing against a goldfish packing, say, White Weenie. Normally, I like goldfishing with actual cards, especially to get myself warmed up for a tournament, but Apprentice is good when you’d have to tear another deck down to build the new creation.

So, anyway, I was goldfishing this beast on Apprentice:

Control
3x Duress

Draw
3x Night's Whisper
1x Memory Jar
1x Timetwister
1x Windfall
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Burning Wish

Combo Engine
2x Mossfire Egg
4x Shadowblood Egg
4x Skycloud Egg
4x Darkwater Egg
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Helm of Awakening

Mana
4x Dark Ritual
1x Grim Monolith
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Jet
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Black Lotus
4x City of Brass

Win Condition
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Tendrils of Agony

Why My Deck is Better?

4x Mishra's Workshop

Did you see it? Four Mishra’s Workshop, baby. Oh, that’s hot. In ten games, this killed first turn in half of them.

Mishra’s Workshop plays Helm of Awakening plays more mana plays eggs until your opponent dies from cholesterol poisoning and a lethal Tendrils for 80 or so.

I have definitely played—that is, hardcast—Memory Jar multiple times on first turn after Yawgmoth’s Will. I don’t lose those games.

Of course, I have also savagely peeled Tendrils from the top to win at the last possible card draw opportunity too, so that’s not all that great. I’m still tinkering.

When I first put this together, it had all of the great restricted cards in it: Mind’s Desire, Time Spiral, Tinker, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, all of them. Unfortunately, I never got the mana together to play it. Then I went with nothing but cheap draw and Eggs, but I would often run out of draw. I decided the best balance was the cheap Draw 7s and Memory Jar, which is easy to cast off of Mishra’s Workshop and a Dark Ritual.

Here’s the problem with these kinds of decks: I always want to do more. That last paragraph made me think I should add Frantic Search so I would be able to untap the Workshop and do everything again. Then because I thought of Frantic Search, I thought I should add Crop Rotation and Tolarian Academy so I could Rotate out the Workshop for a whole bunch of blue mana. And when I get a whole bunch of blue mana, I can add back in Mind’s Desire and Time Spiral because I’ll be able to use them, especially if I have a Helm of Awakening in play. Now I look at it and I want to take out some Cities of Brass because they don’t do anything once I’m going off.

Like I said, it’s still in the tinkering stages.

Doesn’t it just make you all tingly, though? It does me.

I’m sure it has its flaws. I mean, it probably rolls right over to a well-placed Force of Will, likewise a Chalice of the Void for zero or one. And you’d better win the turn you go off, because refilling your opponent’s hand with a Draw 7 other than Memory Jar is just a terrible idea.

Also, I have no idea what to put into the sideboard other than a second Tendrils and a Duress. I’d probably start off with some Hurkyll’s Recalls and Elvish Spirit Guides, so that I could go off against Stax. After that, really, no clue. I’ll probably do something stupid, like a wishboard with sorceries. I hear Balance is pretty good.

Personally, I like this deck, and I’m going to keep working with it for a little while.

That’s a good lesson, I think. If you have an idea that shows promise, don’t give up on it. You might be able to make it work, especially if your idea is based on an already fairly solid foundation. Though mine is based most closely on my eggs deck, that deck was based on other engine-based storm decks like Death Long and Grim Long. That encourages me.

And if it doesn’t work, at least it will be rogue as all get-out.

And if it does work, I bet Mishra’s Workshop gets restricted at last, because Wizards hates it when combo wins too fast. Really, I don’t have a problem with Workshop, but it would be cool to be single-handedly responsible for getting something restricted in Vintage.

I’m doing it.

That’s my goal.

Look out, world. I’ma Workshop Tendrils you for 80.