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So I have a few pages in my binders filled with cards that are odds and ends and the guts for some deck concepts.
But I haven't played Vintage in awhile and have since forgotten what I want to do with them.
Hoping someone can give me some ideas so I can build some more fun decks.
As I am not at home currently, I know that I have a play set of Goblin Welders floating around.
What does that pair up nicely with these days?
Well built a concept Stax deck, been testing it out before I dig up most of the cards from my collection.
http://deckbox.org/sets/150570
Creatures
4 Goblin Welder
4 Metalworker
2 Lodestone Golem
1 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Precursor Golem
2 Steel HellkiteArtifacts
1 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
2 Grim Monolith
2 Sphere of Resistance
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
1 Panoptic MirrorInstance
2 Hoodwink
2 Meditate
2 Thirst for KnowledgeSorcery
1 TinkerLand
3 Crystal Vein
2 Great Furnace
2 Seat of the Synod
2 Steam Vents
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Urza's Mine
3 Urza's Power Plant
3 Urza's Tower
Still tweaking it, anyone got some input?
What do you play mostly?
Standard / Modern?
Legacy is close. 
Well, yeah, tinker/stax isn't a foreign concept to me but I don't know the vintage meta-game at all.
From a deck perspective, I really think a few Wurmcoil Engines could be good as they play very nicely with Goblin Welder and Smokestack. That's about all I see other than maybe a Power Artifact and Voltaic Key.
Here is a legacy deck with Goblin Welders in it. 
As much as I'd like to run a Power Artifact, I can't justify it.
The whole cheesefest of Grim Monolith+Power Artifact on turn two is .... yeah.
Got enough cheese in my G/U Squirrel Opposition.
While that deck matures, next concept/target.
Got a page in my binder with;
Sporogenesis
Elvish Farmer
Verdant Force
Forget the rest...
Casual play at the moment, not a lot of tournaments today around here that aren't drafts.
I see, so "vintage" means casual decks using the vintage banned and restricted list, not competitive play. Well, with that in mind it's a whole new ballgame for me. I know lots about casual decks except my playgroup uses legacy rules (except for EDH) to weed out some of the "cheese" as you put it.
There is not a lot of synergy between the cards you just mentioned aside from the ability to gain a few life each turn and there are decks that are significantly better at gaining life 
It would help to know a general goal you wish to achieve. It would be helpful to break posts for new concepts out into separate topics for organization. Keep posting and I'll keep offering suggestions when I can!
I have been playing mainly vintage workshops for nearly a decade now and will throw in my 2 cents-
Vintage most played workshop cards-
1 trinisphere
4 sphere of resistance
2 thorn of amethyst
4 chalice of the void
4 tangle wire
4 lodestone golem
3 phyrexian metamorph
4 mishra's workshop
4 ancient tomb
4 wasteland
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
5 moxen
1 lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
(most are omitting vault because of mental misstep)
Past that, it varies. Vintage has a lot of gush, snapcaster, dark confidant...and surprisingly tarmogoyf right now...stax decks are topping tournaments with smokestack again after being more or less aggro since worldwake and 5 color(circa 2005) prior to that. Long story short- playing mud is where the winning is. Metalworker sees infrequent play in the US right now..welder comes and goes. To play metalworkers...try-
+4 metalworker
+4 kuldotha forgemaster
+ juicy targets- myr battlesphere, steel hellkite, sundering Titan, duplicant.
To play to beat blue(with mud that isn't prison)
+4 slash panther(although I still think it is gimmicky)
+2 null rod
+x phyrexian revoker(time vault)
To play prison(what I nearly always suggest)-
+4 smokestack
+3 crucible of worlds
+3 Karn, silver golem
+1 metamorph
No matter what, shoot for 25-27 mana sources(18 are land in vintage)...
Legacy- I also play nothing but stax in legacy! And it is just as fun here.
The mana base is the most integral part. It is-
4 ancient tomb
4 city of traitors
4 wasteland
10 other land, normally up to 4 are utility
4 mox diamond
Meandeck mud ran a completely different manabase than this one...just to be fair, it was-
4 tomb
4 city
4 wasteland
4 great furnace
3 mox diamond
3 mox opal
4 grim monolith
4 voltaic key
4 metalworker
This is a different type of deck than past stax decks...which seek to lock out the opponent...it basically seeks to use metalworker/monolith/forgemaster to power down a bad beastie to wreck other player. The deck made 2nd at a grand prix...but I really like the previous prison builds better personally.
The locks(should you choose to play prison)-
3-4 trinisphere
4 chalice of the void
4 crucible of worlds(must play...fixes mana base)
4 smokestack
4 ensnaring bridge/propaganda/ghostly prison(most legacy builds are still colored)
4 Armageddon/other land destroy effect
7 magus of the tabernacle/other creature destroy effects(oblivion ring/firespout/pendrell mists...)
3 creature to win/block with
All prison legacy builds are VERY similar to this.
For fun- my favorite of all the types and builds of stax is vintage 5 color. Here is a basic list(based on the most recent, though dated, winning lists produced in new York) with a few minor changes-
4 workshop
4 wasteland
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
4 city of brass
3 gemstone mine
1 barbarian ring
1 bazaar of Baghdad
8 mana artifacts(5 mox, 1 lotus, 1 sol ring, 1 mana crypt)
1 trinisphere
4 sphere of resistance
4 tangle wire
4 smokestack
3 crucible of worlds
4 destroy moxen effect(2 gorilla shaman, 2 ratchet bomb...etc)
1 karn
1 duplicant
1 sundering Titan
1 triskelion
1 tinker
1 demonic tutor
1 Vampiric tutor
1 ancestral recall
1 balance
4 goblin welder
If you are just playing with friends...I suggest something more power-down-a-dude(forgemaster/worker)...but I just really enjoy the explosiveness of 5 color prison. I play it every year on my birthday!
Ps- I have a stack of old stax tournament reports by the greats - Robert vroman, Roland Chang, and kevin cron...as well as articles, historical articles, and then recent stax innovations by the NYSE crowd as well if anyone wants them. They are all on my favorites bar...but I will dig them out on request.
And remember- you control upkeep triggers created by your permanents- so punish opponents, but on your turn "fade, tap, sac, soot.". You beat matchups are anything blue that doesn't play permanent cards and runs less than 17 land(old school Gush...1 basic land...lol). Choke them out!
I have had the immense joy of winning more games by opponent scoop than life totals being reduced to zero because of these decks. May trinisphere be forever unrestricted and trygon predator be banned.
Last edited by TheShop (2012-03-27 03:32:30)
Fantastic post! Thanks for the info.
It would appear I have much playing around to see what I enjoy best.
Though as of late this is becoming one of the decks that sees limited play due to people not liking it!
Try 5 color. You don't need to have all the perfect mana sources to play casually- it let's you run-
4 ancient tomb
2 city of traitors
4 city of brass
4 gemstone mine
4 wasteland
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
1 barbarian ring
1 lotus petal
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
3 more mana artifacts- could be as bad as coalition relic(actually decent here) or thran dynamo.
This manabase works for casual, and is about $5000 cheaper than the real vintage one. In budget builds of stax, colors are better because they cover up a lot of sins in your manabase. The colored spells you run are only the most efficient spells (by mana usage) ever made-
Balance
Tinker
Crop rotation(academy, strip mine)
Demonic tutor
Vampiric tutor
4 goblin welder
I have even run demonic consultation here...it is the nutz
36 cards so far...
1 3sphere
4 2sphere
4 smoke
4 wire
3 crucible
These bring us to 52!
The remaining slots are normally composed of two categories-cards that kill moxen(which you likely don't have to deal with) and fat artifact creatures with cool abilities...you get to be really cool and run more beef in those slots-
1 sundering Titan(to help make friends with people who own dual land)
1 duplicant(to not lose to random fat)
1 karn
1 trike
1 steel hellkite
1 wurmcoil engine
1 city of traitors(you will need better mana to hit 6 consistently, or you can run discar outlets and get a welder active...bazaar is more expensive than mana...)
1 utility spell- try jester's cap, seal of cleansing, ancient grudge, choke, swords to plowshares, sylvan replica, ratchet bomb, power keg, null rod, ensnaring bridge, perish, virtue's ruin, firespout, in the eye of chaos, whatever you want it to be. Trike could be cut for similar fun.
This is the beauty of 5 color- it is the most adaptive deck possible- runs the best manabase ever created, as many tutors as possible, and can run every hate card ever printed.
If you don't want to lock them down(understandable in casual), try meandeck mud...just drops fat wurmcoils and beats face every game(with welder shennanigans for backup)
Last edited by TheShop (2012-03-27 13:52:14)
1 sundering Titan(to help make friends with people who own dual land)
THAT! is funny.
I linked a deck before (http://deckbox.org/sets/81089) and I play it with my casual group from time to time. I think the Smokestacks are likely what is bothering the casual deck folks and this this build is less likely to cause a fuss. Although, turn 1 Lodestone Golems and turn 2 Wurmcoil Engines still make people pretty angry but at least you aren't also working the control angle.
It's just a thought. The Stax information provided by TheShop is very thorough and it's a really fun deck to play if you don't have to worry about the same group of people recognizing the deck and killing you immediately for playing it.
Making turn 2 wurmcoils and turn 1 lodestones are much more interactive(overused magic term) than a turn 1 spheres and turn 2 crucible/strip or smoke...but neither scenario is altogether unfair-the following are normally why-
Hurkyl's recall
Trygon predator
Ancient grudge
Ingot chewer
Island
Force of will
Nature's claim
Swords to plowshares
Those are pretty much in order of goodness, although I think ingot might be above grudge. It is so good to see interest in this deck.
@ Tawnos- do you I've to mulligan alot with the 16 land 6 moxen manabase above? I cant get past it after having played with the bases I suggested above for so many years. It looks very explosive, but the variance looks high. Also, I have a fundamental problem with metalworker- legacy may be slow enough to drop that guy and not do anything else for a turn...but I think stax fundamentals dictate that everything you cast disrupt the opponent nearly immediately. Worker soaks up a turn, then drops locks/creatures that often require an additional turn to do anything...same with forgemaster. Plus both are susceptible to removal. I would rather drop a crucible and waste them, or drop smoke and nuke a permanent nearly always than give opponents an uninterrupted turn. Most opponents will do more with their free turn than you will with yours IMHO.
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