When I was new to the game, Goblin Welder was one of the most exciting cards. It saw play in every format from Extended to Vintage and did some of the most absurdly powerful things, like cheating in Sundering Titans or Mindslavers. In recent years, we’ve seen a drastic reduction in the number of Goblin Welders seeing play in any format. In large part, it’s because Welder is just too slow in the current formats. It’s vulnerable to all kinds of spot removal, graveyard hate, and artifact destruction while also wanting to be active for multiple turns to really start generating value. That said, IamActuallyLvL1 has put together a really exciting Goblin Welder deck that I can’t wait to explore:

Welder Reanimator - Vintage | IamActuallyLvL1

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Sharuum the Hegemon
• 2 Inkwell Leviathan
• 2 Myr Battlesphere
• 4 Goblin Welder
• 4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

• Instants (4)
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 3 Mental Misstep

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 2 Duress
• 2 Night's Whisper
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 4 Faithless Looting

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Animate Dead

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Chrome Mox
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Sol Ring
• 2 Possessed Portal

• Lands (14)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Tolarian Academy
• 3 Badlands
• 4 Bazaar of Baghdad
• 4 Bloodstained Mire

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Ingot Chewer
• 2 Mindbreak Trap
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 2 Pyroblast
• 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
• 4 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Toxic Deluge

Buy This Deck

As far as Welder shenanigans, this deck has a number of enormous monsters to buy back. Ideally, you’d like to rebuy Sharuum the Hegemon and something else, but more often than not something like Inkwell Leviathan will get the job done. This deck increases the consistency of its ability to cheat giant monsters into play by playing Animate Dead in addition to Goblin Welder. This gives you the opportunity to combo off on the first turn rather than having to wait until you can untap with a Goblin Welder.

Perhaps the most interesting card in the maindeck is Possessed Portal. This card effectively prevents other decks from progressing their gameplans, since they can’t draw new cards. While you can just discard Squee and use your Goblin Welders to generate more value turn after turn, Possessed Portal will eat away at your opponent’s hand and board until they have nothing left.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about this deck to me is the ease with which you could build a transformational sideboard if you were inclined to do so. You’re already playing Bazaar of Baghdad and Animate dead, which means you’re only a couple cards off of playing the Worldgorger Dragon combo.

If, like me, you long for the days of Goblin Welder dominating formats, then this is one of the better takes I’ve seen in recent years. I’ll just be over here hoping that this is Goblin Welder’s chance to return to the spotlight.