The Curious Case of Mishra's Workshop

[Nedleeds]

With 5 out of 8 spots consumed by shop decks I thought I'd post some thoughts that I've been boiling for a year of so now, since the Chalice restriction.

If you objectively looked at Champs this year and we're unencumbered by budget or cardboard loyalty concerns and had to choose a deck of the 'known' options Mishra's Workshop aggro was a great choice. Shops is always a good choice when ~50%+ of the format is on 3.8 Missteps, 1.2 Flusterstorms and half a Pyroblast game one. But how did we get to where we are and how can we destroy the current dichotomy.

The current duality (plus Dredge) of the format is miserable and was largely unchanged by the restrictions. It's decks with Misstep and the deck that ignores it, Shops. On MTGO you have 31% of the field, 40% of top 8s as Shop Decks but Mental Misstep being played at north of 85% of its apex (about 3.2) in *all* not taxing decks (with Dredge now even caving to the incestuous nature of Misstep). If you lump in Pyroblast you are north of 90%.

A common retort is that Force of Will is played (slightly) more than Misstep. And no sane person is advocating a Force of Will restriction. This is an inaccurate comparison. A quick look at building a deck from scratch reveals this. Nobody discards a card from contention in a list because it gets countered by Force of Will. Nobody omits a card from a deck because it can be Force of Willed or Mana Drained or Spell Pierced or Spell Snared or even Flusterstormed. Mental Misstep alone wears that crown of shit. Go listen to or read any Vintage focused set review. They are littered with sighs, 'oh wells' and qualifications about what a waste of time a 1 mana sorcery speed spell in the face of a hail of Missteps? So why does this even matter? What has been left on the scrap heap of deck building due to being a massive tempo blowout when a +1 mana, 2 life instant gets exchanged for your actual mana.

Misstep oppresses many cards that can tactically fight Shops and Mentor/Blue Stew especially post-Thorn. Those cards either aren't worth sinking mana into or you are sucked into the same endless vortex that got it banned everywhere else: Misstepping the Misstep that Misstepped the Misstep. Unlike Force of Will, more Force doesn't beget more Force. But the best way to fight Misstep is Misstep because in Magic nothing beats free. Remember Goblin Welder? Thoughtseizing the Mentor or lock piece? Pithing Needle? Deathrite Shaman?Noble Hierarch? Man Fatal Push seems great against these aggro shops builds. Illness in the Ranks in your board? Hate Delve ... RIP Dryad Militant! None of these cards are earth shattering but they litter the growing graveyard of interesting cards that get cattle bolted on the drawing board (or can't be played because you have no room after stuffing your deck full of the ubiquitous piece of crap Misstep).

Along the way we've had several pariahs cast out and burned, cards like Gush, Chalice of the Void, Golem and Gitaxian Probe. They may have in fact needed to go but it's tough to understand which were the real offenders because of some of the irreparable 'mistakes' that WotC has made like Delve and Phyrexian mana.

So how did it come to this? New Phyrexia was around for years before Misstep reached almost 4. In my opinion Delve / Dack / Tokens was the lever that when pulled opened the dam and really got the blue stew boiling. It also made Gush the dominant tactic and made Mental Misstep and Probes usage skyrocket. When free was just free it was pretty good and people played some Missteps along with their Sabotages and Pierces. But When free nets you +1 mana for your delve spell and a Monastery Swiftspear then free becomes too good. Once the usage went up there is a 'stickyness' to Misstep because of its incestuous nature. In the period before Khans in some of the largest events ever where Gush, Thorn, Chalice and Golem were legal, and we're talking about massive ~250+ person events like Bazaar of Moxen, Gush was barely a footnote and shops was far from dominant. The winning blue decks largely centered around Dark Confidant (both BUG Rod Fish, Bolas control), or Tinker and Time Vault. Even a notoriously busted card like Gush was a bit player in these events circa Spring 2012, and 2013.

2013 (294 players, 3 MUD, as the blue decks begin playing 3 MM + Fluster)

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=10855

2012 (326 players, 2 MUD, Zero Gush, 4 other very different blue decks)

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=8323

Let's go way back to the first major Vintage event post New Phyrexia, Bazaar of Moxen 2011. This was a 483 person event, to this day one of the largest Type 1 events ever. Shops with 4 x LSG and 4 x Chalice of the Void put only ONE deck in the top 8 in a paper event the size of Vintage Champs.

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=6153

Why? Because those blue decks aren't mired in 4 Missteps, X Flusters and other dead cards. Look at the winning deck. 4 Thoughtseize, a Steel Sabotage and 2 Hurkyl's. Cards with actual text against Shops. We had 2 big Tezzeret decks, 2 Gush storm decks, 1 shop deck, 2 dredge decks and a Painter deck. So why didn't those decks run 4 Missteps? It's because the ancillary benefits of filling your yard for delve didn't exist and if nobody is playing Misstep its benefit wanes.

The format is Misstep and taxing and has been since Delve 'RoonedMagic4Ever'. The confluence of Phyrexian Mana, Delve, Dack, Tokens mechanic has done such irreparable damage it's nearly impossible to untangle the impact and craft a solution. Mentor was miserable but it didn't change much as a 1 of, it's still Shops vs. Missteps. I predicted those 3 spots will become a couple of Pyromancers and a random shitty creature or a Null Rod / Stony since you may cut moxes and these decks were all over champs.

Now we have mumbling about restricting Workshop. It's bizarre how some people want their cake and want to eat it. When you propose some maindeck hate against this supposed predator of the format you are typically told it's a blue format, and that blue decks can't give an inch in the blue stew mirror. Why not? Why is there an inalienable right to build decks with 6-8 cards that are text-less against 1/3 of the field?

If you believe in forcing a "blue player" to have spells with text against a deck that's a 1/3 of the field (which I'm not necessarily defending) then Misstep needs to go. It will also open up space (which may not be claimed because people don't like changing decks) for the natural shop predators to re-emerge. Decks like BUG fish, who can actually resolve a DRS or Thoughtseize without a Misstep war. Other creature based Null Rod decks have a shot to establish their creature base without spinning their wheels wasting main phase mana against a wall of Phyrexian idiocy.

The argument that some aggregate combo deck like Ritual storm will slaughter us all if we have only 1 misstep are unfounded. Taxing / Rod is the natural predator for these decks. In addition to Fluster and Trap there have also been 1/2 a dozen hate bears that completely stone storm. Compounding the fear are new comers, especially MTGO only players might not even remember Vintage deck construction before the 4 Misstep era.

It just sucks. I remember flying to Europe in 2013 so excited to play Vintage. The floor was littered with tons of different decks. Noble Fish, Stoneblade, BUG Fish, Bomberman, Gushbond Storm, Doomsday, Rod Shops, Metalworker Shops, Dredge, Oath, Bolas Control, Welders, Standstill, Budget Junk and Merfolk decks littered these events. Get rid of Misstep and free the dozens of interesting cards on the cutting room floor, open up deck design space for players to innovate. Free vintage from the mistake of Phyrexian mana.

[Nedleeds]

This draft is so old in fact the links on TC Decks have expired ... 2011,12 and 13 respectively

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=6153

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=8323

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=10855