Having long eschewed netdecks in virtually any form, it would be no surprise to most to find me hard at work on a Saturday night preparing and perfecting my latest rogue creation for a power tournament. Having played a build that ran 4 Trinispheres for the last few months, the new banned/restricted announcement caught me by complete surprise. After a bit of testing, I concluded that my current deck was wholly inadequate without the power of a consistent Mishra's Workshop, Trinisphere opening. After dabbling with various builds of Salvagers, MaskNought, and Parfait Slaver, I settled on a list I had made for a friend who lacked in the deckbuilding department. The list was an aggressive 5-color Workshop build that utilized Transmute Artifact and Gilded Lotus to power out oodles of artifact goodness. He piloted it in a single tournament to an unimpressive 2-1-2. Still, even without Trinisphere, I wanted to make the deck into something more viable. Several problems lay in the way.

Problem #1: Trinisphere is restricted.
Well, duh, but what can we replace it with? For initial testing purposes, I simply swapped in a trio of Chalices of the Void. Not exactly the same, but similar enough in purpose to make do. To my surprise, I actually found the 1/3 setup to be very competitive. Chalice won me a lot of games that I probably shouldn't have, and the single Trinisphere showed up just often enough to make life miserable for my opponents. The four slots of hosing served well enough that I even vetoed cramming in a fourth Chalice.

Problem #2: Transmute Artifact randomly getting countered
The tempo swing from getting a Transmute or Tinker countered, especially if I'd sacrificed a Su-Chi, was devastating. The easiest answer? Force of Will. Force lasted all of perhaps two days in this deck. For starters it forced us to up the Blue count. Even then, getting three Blue cards in hand (Transmute Artifact, Force of Will, Blue card) to pull it off was rather difficult. Additionally, the only stuff we did have to pitch were things like other Transmutes, Intuitions, Thirsts for Knowledge, and other vital business spells that were much better off being, you know, cast instead of removed from the game. With the easiest answer out of the way, I went with good old Occam's Razor. The simplest answer is usually the correct one. What was the simplest answer? Just cut the bloody Transmutes. Replacing them with more threats and business spells meant that my opponent would just use their counters on those instead, but this way I trade one card for one or two cards, and playing a deck with a hell of a lot more threats than the average deck has answers, I could keep the tempo on my side and just keep throwing things out until something sticks.

Once I had those small issues out of the way, it was time to throw the deck together for myself, unproxy it, and start some more in-depth playtesting. The original idea was to have it tested out, perfected, and ready for StarCityGames Chicago in April. When the random opportunity arose to trek 200 miles west to play in a 5-proxy tournament for a Mox Pearl, I decided that this would be a perfect time for a test run. The version was still a bit rough around the edges, but solid as a rock. Of course, the obligatory wrench in the machinery was when, 15 minutes before our ride arrives, my brother mentions to me that Trinisphere is still legal for another two weeks. Following several minutes of frantic card-swapping, I removed the Chalices from the maindeck in exchange for the obligatory Trinispheres, and moved the Chalices and a fourth one to the sideboard over the set of Spheres of Resistance I had sitting there. To make a long story short, I ended up splitting for first place in a fully powered, highly competitive metagame, netting me a cool $160 in cash. The official list for that day was:

1st-2nd Place

Dan Carp with Jesussaves (on long distance).dec
1 Memory Jar
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Memnarch
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Sundering Titan
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Gilded Lotus
1 Pentavus
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Mana Vault
1 Gemstone Mine
3 City of Brass
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Time Walk
4 Goblin Welder
4 Su-Chi
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant
2 Intuition
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Trinisphere

Sideboard:
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Triskelion
3 Jester's Cap
3 Duplicant
2 Mindslaver

Looking at the list, you'll probably notice a lot of seemingly random 1-ofs and a lot of odd choices. Explanations aside, the deck is painfully simple. Drop mana like mad and crap out threats until something sticks. The main strength of the deck lies in the sheer quantity and quality of threats. Force of Will my Memnarch, will you? Very well, eat Crucible of Worlds, Wasteland, sucker! You get the idea. Now you may say that the tournament is irrelevant, since I had 4 Trinispheres and it was just some scrubby little tournament as opposed to, say, StarCity or Waterbury. However, piloting the deck in the intensely stressful (my last match ended at 3 AM, and I didn't even play out the finals) environment against a gauntlet of fully powered decks, I rarely needed or found the broken Trinisphere openings the card is famous for. Instead I tore apart deck after deck with a consistence and persistence reminiscent of Sligh and Stompy decks of ages past. My threats, however, are a lot better than a first-turn Ghazban Ogre or Jackal Pup.

With a rather entertaining victory under my belt and cash in my pocket, I set to work finishing my deck. Other than swapping out a few slots and tinkering with the sideboard, it was pretty much done. A few days later I had completed it. Without further ado, Dan Carp Deck Designs, a subsidiary of Team ICBM, presents:

The Gilded Claw:
Mana (27):
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 City of Brass
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Darksteel Ingot
3 Gilded Lotus

Major threats:
2 Sundering Titan
1 Pentavus
2 Memnarch

Moderate threats:
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Trinisphere

Minor/utility threats:
4 Su-Chi
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Goblin Welder

Business:
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Intuition

Card-by-Card Analysis (sans the obvious):
Gemstone Mine (1)
I toyed with setups ranging from 4 Cities and 2 Gemstones, to 4 of one or the other, and was set on going with 4 Cities for their reliability. I eventually decided on a single Gemstone for partly because of the random utility with Crucible, and mostly because I was concerned with taking so much damage from Cities in the long, drawn-out games.

Wasteland (4)
With so much acceleration, Gilded Claw operates with a land count low enough to preclude the need for addition mana lands like City of Traitors or Ancient Tomb, thus Wastelands and a Strip Mine become the logical choice. These are good in almost every match, and rather synergistic with the Crucibles, I might add.

Darksteel Ingot (1)
One of the techy pieces. Having an Indestructible rainbow mana source is pretty useful. The main reason, as proven through a million rounds of testing, is that having a single copy of this lets you randomly keep hands with Workshop and no colored source. Unlike, say, a City of Brass, you don't have to worry about Wasteland hitting the Ingot, and unlike a Mox, you don't have to worry about Karn, Gorilla Shaman, or even Rack and Ruin upsetting your mana. Opening with Mishra's Workshop, Darksteel Ingot, Goblin Welder is honestly one of the strongest plays this deck can make, barring the insanely broken hands that Gilded Claw seems to get fairly often.

Gilded Lotus (3)
Okay, I'll admit it, I'm blatantly stealing 7/10 tech here, but this is seriously one of the most underutilized mana sources in T1. It's like a Workshop, only it taps for any color and lets you play anything. Like Ingot, it's 100% Wasteland proof, if not quite so resilient. While Gilded Lotuses can clog up your hand in multiples and are occasionally uncastable, the acceleration inherent in the combination of Mishra's Workshop and Gilded Lotus is what makes this deck work. I like to say that with this deck everything is bigger. This goes for the mana, too. One of the strengths of this deck is that if pushed to late-game topdecking mode, it often wins simply because it can cast anything. It isn't all that uncommon to find yourself with literally 15 or 20 mana late game, which makes cards like Memory Jar, Yawgmoth's Will, and Memnarch all that more disgustingly powerful.

Sundering Titan (2)
A one-sided Armageddon on the way in and on the way out, all in a neat little 7/10 face-smashing package. The historical win condition of a series of decks designed specifically to put it into play, the Titan fits right at home here. In fact, it's even more devastating in this deck than usual. Welding Sundering Titan into play is game over in a lot of matches, and a deck that can consistently hardcast it by turn 3 or 4 is just brutal. Sundering Titan is my #1 beatstick and Tinker target extraordinaire.

Pentavus (1)
In a deck that doesn't use it to go infinite with Mindslaver, a lone Pentavus seems an odd choice. Pentavus is here for those inevitable times when Sundering Titan just won't cut it. In regular matches, people are too quick to dismiss the Bus as a clunky 5/5 beatstick. The reason I run Pentavus is because it saves me in a lot of situations and it's a huge pain for my opponent to deal with. Swords to Plowshares? Sorry, tokens instead. Smokestack or Tangle Wire? Plenty of permanents here. Out of Welder food? Just make some more! The list goes on and on. Whether that's enough to justify a spot in the maindeck is up for debate, but after testing, all signs point to yes.

Memnarch (2)
Let's just say this guy is a machine god for a reason. If dropping Sundering Titan is like hitting the board with a sledgehammer, Memnarch is like setting up a vacuum right on top of your opponent's board. When Memnarch hits play, it pretty much screams "Kill me now or forever lose all your permanents and die." In a deck that can easily put out double digit mana, activating Memnarch is rarely difficult. Memnarch is the real reason that I run a trio of Gilded Lotuses. Untapping with Memnarch and mana usually means game over. The ability to steal any permanent is the universal answer. Memnarch is good against every single deck ever, bar none. It stops Dragon, it stops Tog, it stops Colossus, it creates Welder food, it steals mana to accelerate the process, there is very little this card doesn't do once it gets active. Not to say that it is always best to cast Memnarch, but I put it in the major threats category for a reason.

Triskelion, Duplicant (1 each)
These two, along with Titan and Pentavus to a lesser extent, are Gilded Claw's toolbox. They're my Tinker and Intuition targets, because they let me deal with Goblin Welder, Darksteel Colossus, Exalted Angel, and other random annoyances that get in my way.

Chalice of the Void (3)
There's been quite a bit of debate as to whether the restriction of Trinisphere will lead to a resurgence in storm-based combo. Whether or not this will come to pass, I'm happy to just play it safe and pack a solid four combo-hating cards. It's really no argument that Chalice is overall inferior to Trinisphere when it comes to beating Combo, but it's still a powerful choice that can be deadly in a lot of matchups.

Trinisphere (1)
The debate over this card is not whether it's good, but whether having just a single copy is worth it since the card is just as likely to show up late game, where it's rarely all that useful, as the early game. Even with that point, the raw power of randomly pulling off the legendary Mishra's Workshop, Trinisphere opening warrants inclusion. And being able to tutor it up and Weld it gives added power to the Wastelands and Crucibles.

Su-Chi (4)
A staple of the earliest build that featured Transmute Artifacts, Su-Chi is still my mid-level beatstick. While it can't kill as fast as Juggernaut, everything else about Su-Chi is just better. As a consistent first turn drop, Su-Chi is both an attacker and a blocker, at a respectable cost. The "drawback" of manaburn is rarely an issue, and cards like Tinker and Goblin Welder can exploit this, while it can also be used to feed Thirst or Intuitions. Overall, Su-Chi is a solid card that's right at home in Gilded Claw.

Crucible of Worlds (2)
In a deck featuring five strip effects and a lot of mana acceleration, Crucible is deadly against pretty much anything that runs nonbasic lands, while severely weakening an opponent's own Wastelands. Filling in the much-neglected artifact three-drop, Crucible presents a wildcard that most decks would rather spend a counter on than risk getting their mana torn to shreds. This is fine, because that's one less counter for the other 20+ threats in the deck.

Goblin Welder (4)
This shouldn't need a ton of explanation, but putting it in the "minor/utility threats" column does. To put it simply, like Eric Miller's The Man Show, Gilded Claw doesn't need Welders. In fact, were they not so powerful once resolved and active, I'd be tempted just to cut them for another set of threats. However, Welders are extremely powerful, so in the end I just couldn't cut them. Having another must-counter first-turn drop forces opponents to waste their valuable Forces of Will, waste their even more valuable removal spells, or else face an endless sea of threats that are now virtually impossible to kill or counter.

Yawgmoth's Will (1)
To be honest, I never liked this card in Gilded Claw. It always seemed like a play that either won you the game slightly faster than you'd normally win, or just sat in your hand taking up space. Basically, Yawgmoth's Will was a "win-more" card. Still, in a deck that can easily generate double-digit mana, Yawgmoth's Will presents a wild card late in the control matchup that, if resolved, is almost always game over. In addition, being able to Intuition for Will, Tinker, and Memory Jar once your opponent is out of counters is rather amusing.

Memory Jar (1)
As with Yawgmoth's Will, this was not a card I originally wanted to be in the deck. Still, after just a few rounds of testing, the strength of getting a fairly one-sided Draw-7 in a deck so full of mana is rather appreciable.

Intuition (2)
In a deck with Welders, and lots of 4-ofs and miscellaneous brokenness, Intuition is just beautiful. Whether grabbing threats or just tutoring up that last Workshop you need to smash face, Intuition is a card I'm always glad to see.

Card-by-Card Analysis of what didn't make the cut:
In a deck that pumps out a ton of mana of pretty much any color on demand, the reject pile is bound to be deep and full of good cards. This is definitely the hardest stuff to explain. I'll just go through some of the basic stuff that we had experimented with.

Transmute Artifact
As explained earlier, it is better to just beat down. I'd rather not give them something this juicy to counter.

Mindslaver
A strong choice that I enjoyed in previous builds, I just don't think it makes the cut in here. Activating Slaver costs a lot of mana, can't be used with Workshop, and only works once. I'd just rather stick a couple of these on the board and call it a day.

Karn, Silver Golem
Another strong choice, but again it just doesn't fit well enough into the deck. It's chumpable, and the utility removal/beatdown isn't good enough to make the cut.

Razormane Masticore
As with the above two, its strength doesn't justify the cost. I'd rather dump my hand into play than into my graveyard, and I'd rather rely on Triskelion to handle Welders.

Sphere of Resistance
I'd want these in my sideboard in any combo-heavy metagame, but I just can't justify these in my maindeck. They're marginal at best in most matchups, and I'd rather just have a Chalice to seal the deal. Unlike Trinisphere, these are a lot more double-edged.

Matchup Analysis:
In all likelihood, your metagame is vastly different than mine. I can't cover every deck and I won't try. I'm a big fan of the individual matchup rather than just analyzing in general. I can safely say, though I won't go in-depth about it, that this deck is more than capable of handling pretty much anything random aggro-wise, and does surprisingly well against hate.dec. I'd like to give a special thanks to both my fellow team members and my internet acquaintances for sitting through literally hundreds of test games, and not always screaming profanity at me while I smashed their faces in.

3 or 4-color Control:
Control has always been the barometer of decks like The Gilded Claw, which hover somewhere between aggro and the other archetypes. With a build such as this, you rarely have a lot of trouble dealing with standard control. Pre-sideboard, they have a lengthy but limited number of solutions to your beatdown. The standard eight counters, plus whatever combination of Swords to Plowshares, Cunning Wish, Balance, etc. that they pack. You have a lot more threats. Your goal should be to make them Force something on the first turn to maximize the card advantage. Resolving things like Welders and Crucible put them on a limited clock and you should have no trouble turning sideways a few times to put them in the negative.

Should they draw you out long enough, which is likely to happen more often than I'd probably like, try to hurt their board position as much as possible with Waste effects, while throwing enough onto the board that they can never keep cards in their hand. The longer the game draws out, the more topdecking something like Titan or Memnarch means that just hitting it with a Swords doesn't work, and they'll run out of hard counters awful fast. Last fatty wins. Post-board you're going to have to run the gauntlet of powerful sweepers such as Serenity and Energy Flux. Your best bet is to draw out the early counters with Welders and quick beatsticks, and then throw them a curveball with Jester's Cap. Capping them is probably the last thing they'll expect, and you have the possibility to take every one of their win conditions if they don't have one in hand. Otherwise, you can often strip out most of the boarded hate in one shot, since they usually have a good chunk of their board devoted to Wish targets.

Slightly favorable first game, slightly favorable post-sideboard, overall slightly favorable.

5/3:
This deck, in its many forms, is probably the closest thing you're going to have to a mirror match. While the restriction of Trinisphere puts a lot of builds of this deck into question, enough will survive through Sphere of Resistance to keep it viable. Bearing that in mind, this is one of the least difficult matchups to play. Their strategy is simple. Pump out threats and turn sideways. Yours is just as simple. Win through attrition. You have a lot of advantages. You've got Welder, which they may or may not have, you've got enough cheap beatsticks to be able to trade for at least a few turns, and you've got game-breaking two-for-one answers like Triskelion and Duplicant. As long as your creature count stays within one of theirs, you can survive long enough to get out the powerhouses like Memnarch and Sundering Titan to seal the game. Once these hit the board, you can play out your strategy at relative ease. Post-board gives you additional copies of Triskelion and/or Duplicant, which are your key wrecking balls for winning this. Even with the likelihood of them having some sort of artifact hate, especially in the 5-color versions, you should be well able to gain control of the board long before your life total hits zero.

Slightly favorable first game, slightly favorable post-sideboard, overall slightly favorable.

7/10 Split
While this isn't too common a deck in most metagames, expect to see it rise in popularity as least somewhat, due to being the Workshop deck that relies least on Trinisphere. Still, it really isn't all that hard of a matchup. You both share many of the same tools, expect you've got a lot more of them. Their only real advantage is the Forces of Will, which will result in them randomly stealing games, but overall you should be able to dominate them. Post-sideboard all they're likely to add are a few Rack and Ruins, while you've got Duplicant, which is just game over against them. The fact that you're completely immune to Sundering Titan doesn't hurt either.

Favorable first game, strongly favorable post-sideboard, overall strongly favorable.

Belcher
Expect to see this deck return with the restriction of Trinisphere. I'll make no bones about it - I don't like this matchup. There's little strategy involved, just try to crap out as many Chalices as you can (Chalice for one first turn is an incredibly strong play) and hope to survive long enough to get them locked down. If you can set up a Chalice faster than they can win, Waste their land and try to either tutor up Trinisphere for the lock, or Memnarch if you can afford it. Post-board, your Spheres of Resistance can help if you included them, and Jester's Cap can at least slow them down significantly. Make sure you leave in a copy of Triskelion to deal with Welders.

Unfavorable first game, slightly favorable post-sideboard, overall slightly unfavorable.

Control Slaver
I've always loved this deck, not because it's so good, but because everyone is so afraid of it. For this matchup, it's fairly similar to the 3/4-color Control matchup except faster. They've got the same counters, but instead of board answers they have Welders. It's important to play the beatdown like other control matches, but save something to deal with Welders. Letting them spend their counters on Su-Chis and such just to stay alive is your optimal plan. This isn't the best match, since them getting Welder online first is pretty bad. Still, you've got plenty of outs and in a fairly competitive game you're likely to come out on top. Post-sideboard, they add some artifact destruction, while you add a lot more Welder answers. Barring some extremely bad misfortune, this should be yours. Chalice for one is your secret weapon, as that shuts down not only Welders, but also Brainstorms and some of their board tools.

Favorable first game, strongly favorable post-sideboard, overall favorable.

Dragon
Now here's a toughie. With no counters and no instant-speed removal, game one is a nightmare. You possess several powerful tools against Dragon, but they take time and mana to set up. Your best bet is to get an active Welder going ASAP, and ideally get Duplicant into the graveyard to prevent them from going off. Other things you want are Memnarch, which can similarly prevent them from going off (albeit at a huge cost) or Titan, which can nuke their mana to at least slow them down. Wastelands targeting Bazaars of Baghdad are a must, since they lose a land drop and a kill condition. Another random thing you can pull is Memory Jar, which means that against standard Dragon you've got a sizeable chance of decking them when they try to win (I.E. their win condition is in their last 7 cards). Post-board you want Mindslavers, Jester's Caps, Duplicants (for a better chance of getting one in the yard to Weld), and possibly even Sphere's of Resistance, since slowing them down is a must.

Unfavorable first game, slightly unfavorable post-sideboard, overall slightly unfavorable.

Oath
Ah yes, the inevitable Oath. Tons of counters, quick win, and a solid draw engine. Terrible matchup, right? Wrong. You have so many ways to shut them down it's not even funny. Between Wastelands, Duplicant, Titan beats, Chalice (for two), Memnarch, and Crucible lock, this becomes a rather even matchup. While sometimes one side or the other is just going to randomly win because of Mox, Forbidden Orchard, Oath of Druids, or conversely Mox, Workshop, Chalice for two, most of the time it's just going to be both sides hammering away at each other for a while, trading card for card. Much of the time, it's going to come down to who can resolve their big card first. In the case of Oath, that's pretty obviously Oath of Druids. For this deck, it's Goblin Welder. Since Oath usually has no maindeck removal, Goblin Welder usually is game, since Welding lets you take down whatever they Oath out, and pretty much play your spells with impunity. Post-sideboard, both add in a number of devastating cards. Oath's Energy Fluxes and other choices can be devastating, and likewise our Jester's Caps and Duplicants came be virtual auto-wins. Definitely a close match.

Even first game, even post-sideboard, overall even.

Tog
While fast and full of draw, pre-board Tog lacks the necessary answers to survive without a very strong start. With only Cunning Wishes to deal with resolved threats, it isn't all that difficult to push through win conditions by attacking their mana base and playing relentlessly. Post-sideboard, most of what they can add in are just utility Wish targets, while you've got Duplicants and Jester's Caps, which are just savage must-counters in this matchup. Mindslavers, if you choose to put them in, which I would usually advise, can also single-handedly win you the game since they not only let you tear up your opponents answers, but let you resolve your other brokenness with impunity.

Favorable first game, favorable post-sideboard, overall favorable.

Stax
Another deck whose existence is put into question by the restriction of Trinisphere. It is my personal belief that if not Stax, then some sort of competitive Workshop Prison variant will arise, thus making this a worthwhile matchup to test. As a prison deck, Stax is optimal when your opponent plays slowly and doesn't play a lot of permanents. Well, Gilded Claw would be the polar opposite of that. Strong openings, throwing powerful first turn threats are very effective, and not at all uncommon, leaving the Stax player at a fast disadvantage, especially if they're at the losing end of the die roll. Strong mana from your multitude of artifact sources; especially Darksteel Ingot and Gilded Lotus solidify your advantage and make you more or less resistant to the Wastelands of Stax.

With so much permanent acceleration, Tangle Wire is usually useless and Smokestack is easy to deal with if you keep a tight leash on how you spend your hand. Their main win condition, Sundering Titan, is more likely to hurt their mana, since yours is immune, and you have numerous ways to deal with it. They're too slow to kill you fast enough, and if you avoid hefty Smokestack counts and losing to many cards, it's your game to win. Don't forget that Tinkering out Pentavus utterly nullifies their main prison cards. Post-sideboard, you've got addition ways to keep Goblin Welder and their win conditions away, and Mindslaver is your secret tech, absolutely wrecking their board position with their own Smokestacks and other effects. As long as you don't play too conservatively or walk into something broken, this match should be yours.

Favorable first game, favorable post-sideboard, overall favorable.

U/G Madness
Depending on your metagame, this may or may not be a fairly common sight at tournaments. At virtually any power level, Madness is a powerful and consistent aggro-control deck. Unfortunately, The Gilded Claw just smashes Madness to pieces. Your threats are more numerous, much bigger, as fast or faster, and more resilient to their answers. Even hate cards like Null Rod barely swing the advantage. A quick Goblin Welder is usually more than they can handle unless they have Force of Will, and Sundering Titan hitting the board at any time is pretty much auto-game. Post-sideboard, all they're going to get are generic hate like Energy Flux and Naturalize, and you can just tear them apart with extra Triskelions and Duplicants. Since their hate only affects things that are already on the board, getting enough threats to reduce you to zero life is next to impossible for them.

Strongly favorable first game, strongly favorable post-sideboard, overall strongly favorable.

Food Chain Goblins
Like Madness, most games are decided by your significantly larger threats and explosiveness. Unlike Madness, FCG is faster, and though their creatures are still relatively small, can be a lot more deadly through the utility of things like Goblin Lackey and Siege-Gang Commander, and the threat of comboing out. The speed comes at a relative cost, since their only control comes in the form of Gempalm Incinerators, which aren't good for much more than picking off Goblin Welders, since most games will be decided in the first few turns. Their ideal threat is a first turn Lackey, and it is well worth it to trade a Goblin Welder for a Lackey, even if the Welder may be more useful over time.

Once you establish a board presence, getting a couple of sizable blockers is important to buy you the turns needed to lock in your advantage. Attacking their mana base to keep the business spells such as Food Chain and Goblin Ringleader off the table is important, as comboing out is usually the only way they can beat you once you've stabilized against their early beatdown. Post-sideboard you want all the Triskelions you can legally fit, and Sphere of Resistance is a cute little way to prevent them from comboing out without at least a Warchief or two. They add the extremely potent threat of Artifact Mutation, so be wary of overextending with high mana permanents like Gilded Lotus, and try to neutralize every green source they get as fast as you can.

Favorable first game, favorable post-sideboard, overall favorable.

Sideboard analysis:
You'll notice that I referenced my sideboard numerous times in my matchup analysis, yet didn't provide one with the decklist. Sideboards are heavily dependent on the metagame, and I guarantee that my metagame is a lot different than yours (unless you happen to live and play in the Chicago/Milwaukee area). For the sake of testing, I went with the rather generic sideboard that I used when I brought the deck to the tournament.

4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Triskelion
3 Jester's Cap
3 Duplicant
2 Mindslaver

The obvious difference is that this has Spheres of Resistance over Chalice because of the restriction thing. This gives you a range of options to shore up the deck's considerable strengths in most matchups instead of introducing new options entirely. While narrower than traditional boards, the look on your opponent's face when you wipe out their Welders and start attacking with your fourth Triskelion is just priceless.

With a 5-color mana base including Gilded Lotuses, your sideboard choices are virtually unlimited. If you've got a metagame that includes a lot of Dragon then you might look at Seal of Cleansing or Swords to Plowshares, which would also help against Oath. A lot of budget like Fish would probably warrant a fourth Chalice of the Void and possibly Old Man of the Sea, while a ton of Control Slaver might call for Phyrexian Furnace or Tormod's Crypt. Traditional artifact hosers like Rack and Ruin, Viashino Heretic, and Hurkyl's Recall are also possibilities.

For some slightly trickier but no less effective sideboard cards, you can even go with odd choices like Choke against heavy control (thanks Eric Miller), Chains of Mephistopheles against Tog and draw-based combo, or even Major Teroh, who's an absolute bomb against Suicide Black. [I'm sorry, did he just say Major Teroh? - Knut, confused he's reading a Limited article]

In conclusion, there are a lot of things you can do with Workshop decks in the post-Trinisphere environment, but being aggressive is a sure bet to success when you can no longer count on a triple-Time Walk off of Mishra's Workshop. Take this deck out for a test drive some time, you'll quickly discover it's a blast to play with, easy to learn, and not all that unfun to play against.

Dan Carp
a.k.a. the AngryPheldagrif
Team ICBM
IP banned from TheManaDrain.com