Hi Team,
I'm trying to brew some ideas now that Lodestone is on the list. I guess the first question is, can shops compete without Lodestone? I think yes, but that's really just a working assumption, if I'm wrong then that's that. Second, assuming the answer to number one, what does that competitive deck look like.
I think we have four pathways: Forgemaster, Ravager, Uba Stax or Terra Nova.
I played this Forgemaster at a recent 25 man event ending ninth:
Lands
Mishra's Workshop X4
Ancient Tomb X4
Wasteland X4
Mishra's Factory X4
City of Traitors X2
Tolarian Academy X1
Stripmine X1
SoLolMoxCrypt X8
Disruption:
Tanglewire X4
Sphere of Resistance X4
Thorn of Amethyst X4
Chalice of the Void X1
Trinisphere X1
Creatures
Phyrexian Revoker X4
Kuldotha Forgemaster X4
Phyrexian Metamorph X3
Wurmcoil Engine X2
Steel Hellkite X2
Lodestone Golem X1 (soaked in tears from all the sad)
Duplicant X1
Sundering Titan X1
It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. I saw another version win a small event recently that had a 3/3 split of Caverns and Factories without any City of Traitors that looked about the same. The creature suite is quite diversified, but being able to guarantee the resolution of high impact spells isn't to be discounted. I've played with Caverns before and liked them, but may want a simpler creature suite to make that work. Without the additional sphere and clock components of lodestone more counterspells will come online against us, Cavern may be significant there. Shops is always at risk fo making Mana Drain a better card, so Cavern may be something that requires more investigation. Currently of the three most likely types: Golem, Construct, Juggernaut, Construct is the closest, but there isn't enough density to really commit to a tribal robots deck.
Next up is Ravager:
This is the current list I am testing:
Lands
Mishra's Workshop X4
Ancient Tomb X4
Wasteland X4
Mishra's Factory X4
City of Traitors X2
Tolarian Academy X1
Stripmine X1
SoLolMoxCrypt X8
Disruption:
Tanglewire X4
Sphere of Resistance X4
Thorn of Amethyst X4
Chalice of the Void X1
Trinisphere X1
Creatures
Phyrexian Revoker X4
Arcbound Ravager X4
Hangarback Walker X4
Triskellion X4
Lodestone Golem X1
Artifact Equipment:
Sword of Fire and Ice X3
This has played OK so far, but its not incredible. I can't say that its better or worse than the Forgemaster list. The lower curve is nice, and it doesn't durdle as much or stumble like the Forgemaster shells do, but also no real haymakers. It can close out games well and Sword of Fire and Ice makes all your low impact creatures dangerous, which is nice. I'm going to explore this more.
I don't have a lot of experience with Terra Nova or Uba Stax builds, and I want to convince myself that the agro shells are dead before really dedicating myself to a long, grindy control deck. Anyway, these are my initial thoughts in the new restricted world. Let me know if you've found something interesting or see improvements to either of these design lines.
cheers,
defector