The Thief Is Cautious

Playing Chop Shop is an exercise in patience when playing vs other Blue decks. This is almost in opposition to the hurried quality that I need to execute when playing other creature decks; if I cannot get something online and rolling, I am in big trouble against Red or Green, for example.

But against Blue, I have to pick my battles wisely. In the photo, I've achieved a stalemate in that game because I managed to resolve a Veldaken Shackles whilst Noah was tapped out. I later had a second Shackles countered and soon after, I lost the game.

To my credit, I knew there was countermagic and I tried (and succeeded) in baiting it out with other cards. However, in the end Noah had more counters than I did and was able to save one last to keep a card that presented huge problems for him off the board.

Commandeer also continued to prove itself; in one game taking over a Ponder that allowed me to set my deck up while denying Noah the same and in a three player game, retargeting a critical spell that would have been bad for me to something that made it bad for someone else.

What's odd about Chop Shop is that I don't really feel like there are cards I should abandon. I haven't been terribly disappointed by the cards I've had in hand and unlike many decks I've been working with, I don't know that there have been qualitatively better cards printed for me to use than the ones I have. It's all about using the tools I have to make the best of it. I do that, I have a chance. It's just weird to play a deck and not want to make a whole bunch of changes.

Thieves Like Us

I know that I said that I wasn't sure about Commandeer because it kept showing up against decks running creatures and for the most part, that card doesn't help me there. But against Fuz last night, playing a UW Runeflare deck, it was very useful.
Why? Because on my turn 1 Extract, I looked at his deck and realized that he wanted to fill my hand with cards, then use Sudden Impact or Runeflare Trap so I would take a ton of damage based on the number of cards in hand. Stealing his artifacts wouldn't help me, because the effects of those are global (card draw) and there were only four creatures in the deck: Shah of Naar Isle.

I set about removing the Runeflare Traps because they could do the most amount of damage to me for the least amount of mana. I tried to bounce or steal Mizzium Transreliquants wherever I could, again because recasting and using its ability cost Fuz more mana than simply bouncing the Font of Mythos. But most importantly, by game 3 I had realized that I should save my Commandeers for the Sudden Impact or Runeflare Trap. If I take control of that spell; I win. If I can't, then I am able to compel Fuz to use up his countermagic, which means landing a Veldaken Shackles or Keiga becomes much easier and I can ride those cards to victory.

Keeping 2 Commandeers in seems worth it for these odd situations.

Also, I noted the new Rules Changes today, including the one that says that you won't get a game loss for not doing a one-for-one swap between your main deck and your sideboard.

I was just ahead of the curve.

That's Mine Now

I managed to get in a couple games with Chop Shop and I have to say; it's a lot of fun to play. Very hit and miss but still entertaining and maintaining enough deliberate choices that if I get wrong, can cost me.

I got in a match against stonethorn, who had mocked up a GRW Allies build (perhaps preparing for new Slivers?) because after the Modern event, this was his response: screw it, I'm having fun and making Allies to mess with you.

So yeah. In the photo, you can see how that's working out for him, as I've used Sphinx Ambassador to steal, among other things, his Sun Titan. This was game three which had him starting off slow and was probably won the moment I went all in on the dick move by Confiscating his (at the time) one source of white mana.

I don't always steal your lands, but when I do, it's because you're fucked.

I don't want to give the impression that it was all sunshine and roses though; Allies is a tough build and I lost game one to a beatdown that felt inevitable. My third game was won due to the fortune of mana screw, but I'll take it.

I played one more game against Noah, who was running an aggro version of Scapeshift. I was able to Bribery out his Primeval Titan, putting me one turn away from the win...and then he cast Scapeshift and was able to kill me off. Happens.

I have found only one glaring weaknesses in this deck yet. I mean yes, of course there could be 'stronger' card selections but that's almost always the case. That said, I've had multiple games with Commandeer in my hand and lacked a target for it. Creatures are just so critical these days that this spell often lacks targets so I'm wondering if this might be a better fit for a Commander deck. It's been years since I've updated the cards in Chop Shop so there is bound to be something that takes your stuff and is pleasantly effective. 

Chop Shop

So if I don't want to play B/W, G/B, or G/R, what does this leave me with?

Mono-Blue.

2 Desertion
2 Inspiration
2 Commandeer
4 Rescind
4 Impulse
4 Counterspell
2 Boomerang

1 Acquire
2 Mimeofacture

3 Vedalken Shackles

2 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Sphinx Ambassador

4 Extract

1 Bribery
1 Treachery
2 Confiscate

23 Island

I think the theme of this will be pretty obvious to anyone who's played long enough, or to those who recognize who Chop Shop is. However, for everyone else; I want to make your stuff, my stuff.

I don't think I have much against combo decks beyond countermagic but against anything else I should have an interesting tension between taking my opponent's stuff and not dying to said stuff. The key card is likely Impulse, which is probably the most efficient card in the deck and one that will get me out of a whole lot of messes. Should be fun though and a nice way to get away from all the grinding of the past couple months.