Workshop Aggro
aka: Shops, Ravager Shops, Mud
Overview
Mishra's Workshop is the most powerful unrestricted mana accelerant in the game, but it comes with a cost. Workshop Aggro decks take full advantage of the card by running almost entirely lands and artifacts. A mix of powerful accelerants lets the deck play expensive threats quickly and consistently.
To back them up, Workshop Aggro decks run highly disruptive lock pieces which attack their opponent's manabase and prevents them from playing anything to defend themselves. Vintage is a format that revolves around mana and cheap spells, and Workshop Aggro exploits that to fullest.
Why play Workshop Aggro?
Workshop Aggro has more chances to play a threatening 2+ drop on turn one than any other deck. With the right hand, a Workshop Aggro player going first can play enough disruption to win before her opponent ever casts their first spell. Creatures in a Workshop Aggro deck are numerous, large, and often have some kind of added utility.
Running almost entirely lands and artifacts means that any mana source can cast any of your spells. A Workshop Aggro deck can run all sorts of utility lands that other decks couldn't possibly support.
Why WOULDN'T you play Workshop Aggro?
As an entirely artifact-based deck, Workshop Aggro is very limited in the cards it can run. Cards and effects that are easily splashable in other decks are unrunnable here. This includes card draw and deck manipulation, which means a Workshop Aggro deck is often at the mercy of its draw step in a way that Blue-based decks aren't.
Another drawback of an artifact-based strategy is added vulnerability to anti-artifact cards. While Workshop Aggro has the tools to stop their opponents from casting powerful spells, a card like Energy Flux or Hurkyl's Recall can be devastating if it resolves.
Notable Cards
Lock Pieces
The key card in the Workshop Aggro mana denial plan is the "sphere effect". Sphere or Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, Trinisphere, and Lodestone Golem all make spells more expensive to cast for each player. This can make things difficult for any deck, but many Vintage decks are built around playing many spells quickly, and a sphere stops that right in its tracks. In contrast, a Workshop-based deck might only play one large threat each turn, and with its high mana count, it can operate much more effectively under sphere effects. Not all Workshop Aggro decks will run the full set of 10 spheres, but many do.
Tangle Wire is a powerful tempo card that can cut off mana or blockers for a few critical turns, though it doesn't appear in every list. The restricted Chalice of the Void can cut an opponent off of key spells that your other denial can't stop.
Threats
Threats in Workshop Aggro can range from two to six mana, and some scale in size.
Almost all lists will run 4 Phyrexian Revoker and the restricted Lodestone Golem, which act as extra lock pieces while attacking.
Arcbound Ravager and Walking Ballista, while both threatening on their own, are a deadly combo together. Arcbound Ravager can move +1/+1 counters onto the Ballista, which can then attack and throw those counters for huge damage out of nowhere. Many lists run 4 of each of these.
From there, Workshop Aggro pilots vary their threats based on the metagame they expect.
Phyrexian Metamorph can act as a redundant threat or lock piece, but also copy an opponent's Blightsteel Colossus or Marit Lage token.
Foundry Inspector can help you empty your hand quickly, and play through spheres.
Hangarback Walker and Wurmcoil Engine can power through blockers and resist artifact removal.
Precursor Golem is fast, and Steel Overseer can dominate a creature-stalled board ... the list goes on and on.
Mana
Because the entirety of Workshop Aggro consists of colorless cards, almost any mana source can be used to cast them. All lists start with the namesake Mishra's Workshop, and 4 Ancient Tomb is very common. Tolarian Academy can generate huge amounts of mana in the deck, for obvious reasons.
Workshop Aggro decks generally include "all the artifact mana", by which most people mean Black Lotus, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and all five Moxes.
Combined with the other mana disruption Workshop Aggro probably makes the best use of Wasteland and Strip Mine, and it's rare to see a deck without the full set.
From there most lists opt to run Mishra's Factory, besides just being an extra threat, a Factory conveniently hides from sorcery speed artifact removal, can't be stolen by Dack Fayden, doesn't trigger an Oath of Druids, and does a great job holding Arcbound Ravager's +1/+1 tokens in the event of a Serenity or Energy Flux.
Many lists stop there, but it isn't unheard of to see a specialized utility land like Karakas or Ghost Quarter. A Workshop Aggro deck has a lot of options here.
variants
Stax: Creature-light artifact deck that focuses entirely on mana disruption
Forgemaster Shops: Eschews cheaper threats for Kuldotha Forgemaster and expensive finishers to get with it
Tiny Robots: Affinty style list with fewer mana disruption, and more swarm potential
Click the banner above to find decklists, advanced guides, and additional discussion