It wasn't that long ago that Goblin Welder was a Vintage staple, used to reset Tangle Wires and other prison pieces. There were also Extended decks which used Careful Study and artifact lands to quickly turbo out the likes of Sundering Titan and other giant artifact monsters. Unfortunately, Legacy exists in a weird place where the removal and interaction is strong enough that cheating in giant artifact monsters isn't good enough, but the density of fast mana and prison pieces isn't good enough to support a Goblin Welder lock down strategy. But what about a combo deck instead?
Mono-Red Artifacts - Legacy | Frogmite, 5-0 Legacy League
- Creatures (19)
- 1 Combustible Gearhulk
- 2 Myr Battlesphere
- 2 Sundering Titan
- 2 Wurmcoil Engine
- 4 Goblin Welder
- 4 Painter's Servant
- 4 Simian Spirit Guide
- Planeswalkers (4)
- 4 Daretti, Scrap Savant
- Sorceries (4)
- 4 Faithless Looting
- Enchantments (4)
- 4 Blood Moon
- Artifacts (12)
- 2 Mox Opal
- 2 Trinisphere
- 4 Grindstone
- 4 Lotus Petal
- Lands (17)
- 8 Mountain
- 1 City of Traitors
- 4 Ancient Tomb
- 4 Great Furnace
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Ensnaring Bridge
- 2 Pithing Needle
- 3 Pyroblast
- 2 Pyroclasm
- 1 Spine of Ish Sah
- 4 Tormod's Crypt
- 1 Trinisphere
This deck has a lot of things going for it. There's quite a bit of fast mana and a number of busted synergies. It all starts with the Ancient Tomb and Mox Opal mana base, which let you get off the ground quickly and force your opponent to have free interaction or allow you to resolve some of your haymakers. Your primary gameplan is just to leverage Faithless Looting and fast mana to assemble the Painter's Servant plus Grindstone combo as quickly as possible; potentially on the second turn of the game.
The backup plan is to leverage Goblin Welder and Daretti, Scrap Savant to help sculpt your hand, rebuy combo pieces that have been countered or Abrupt Decayed, or just cheat in a giant monster like Sundering Titan or Myr Battlesphere. Whether this reanimation plan is good or which targets are worth welding in is highly dependent on the matchup. Sundering Titan, for example, can either be a triple stone rain that threatens to lock your Miracles or Delver opponents out of the game if they interact with it. It can also just be a 7/10 body if your opponent is on something like Lands or another Ancient Tomb deck. Wurmcoil Engine is absurd against any deck that doesn't have access to Swords to Plowshares, and Myr Battlesphere is great at stabilizing the board. You could even try threats like Inkwell Leviathan and Sphinx of the Steel Wind if you are looking for further alternatives to solve specific matchups.
If you're looking for an explosive combo deck with a touch of resiliency and a fun backup plan, this seems like a fun place to start. There's a surprising amount of flexibility to this shell so that you can customize depending on what you're trying to beat. Chalice of the Void doesn't make the cut because this deck is reliant on Goblin Welder and Grindstone, but you could certainly trim the combo plan in favor of the reanimator plan and lean a little more on Chalice of the Void or Blood Moon. You could also add Leyline of the Void and Helm of Obedience to give yourself another fast combo option to put even more pressure on opposing counterspells. This shell is packing a lot of power and just enough flexibility and ambiguity to keep your opponents off kilter until you combo them out.