I really, really like this card as a new sort of Keg.  It should be playable in any deck that isn't monocolored, and some monocolored decks may rethink running off-colored Moxen to help this along.  I think the ideal number of colors to run for this is probably going to be three, because then you have the option of hitting your opponent's fast mana (in a matchup like draw 7 or Rector this may be quite good), their Welders, Shamans, Lavamancers, and other such 1CC goodness, Dryad and Fish creatures, and then Tog in the 3CC.  4 may be used to kill off Su-Chis and Juggs, but 3 and under is probably the best use.

Definitely picking up a playset of Engineered Explosives, I am.

I think I've mentioned before that right now I attend high school at the IMSA in Aurora, and next year will be attending IIT, so hopefully I'll be able to add another body to the ranks of Chicao T1ers.

Our Regionals in the Midwest had something like 621 people there.  It was ridiculous.  I ended up placing 63th with a 7-4 record.  One of my teammates got 11th, so we were pretty happy for him.

As for deals, well, I may not have gotten quite as good of deals as some, but with my card pool being as it is (that is, not a lot of valuable chase cards) I'm happy with what I did get.  I ended up trading my playset of Negators, my CE Mox Jet, my shiny Nantuko Shade, and another Nantuko Shade away for a bunch of good stuff (dumping Suicide Black cards is secret tech).  I got a playset of Su-Chi, 2 Rectors, a playset of SotF, 2 DCI Kai, some beta lightning bolts that we figured out were fake afterwards (at least I have them now so no one else will get screwed), a playset of Deltas, my playset of Conclaves and Standstills, and a bunch of other goodness.  It was an awesome fun time I had.

This is exactly the reason my version runs the black for early disruption.  It's completely necessary to protect the Sneak / Rector early when you need to get them on the board.  The one plus is that most people won't have maindeck (or even sideboard) answers for a Sneak, seeing as most decks don't break enchantments, except for other Rector decks, which are easier to disrupt by hitting the Rector's graveyard ability with a Stifle or Coffin Purge or something.

I run the Empaths over the Wishes because the manabase is messed up enough as is.  I can't see dropping black, and white and red have to stay for obvious reasons, so the Wishes just don't fit.  I am considering attempting a four color build, but even then I like the Empaths more as they find what I need for a mana less (when snuck in).  Empaths are also reusable with Recurring Nightmare tricks, and can be sacrificed to Intent or Therapy.  Wish cannot.  

Duress is never dead against any deck.  The only reason for running Chant would be for forcing through a Rector or Sneak against a deck with Forces or Drains.  Thus, Chant is better in some matchups, but Duress is good in every matchup.  

Colossus is good, but until more decks start maindecking instant speed removal, Tyrant is better, as it evades, double strikes, tramples, and pumps.  DS Colossus can't hold a candle to that.

I also considered the Weatherseed, and if I were running green in my build I would certainly run them, but as is, the Shivan is found by the Empath, has evasion, and keeps coming back, even if it is a lowly 3/4.  

Pandemonium seems really good in theory, but then again, so does Recurring Nightmare, which makes all of my creatures do double duty (and not just in damage, either).  As for which is better, I'm not sure.  I plan to test it, though.

I don't have a whole lot of time at the moment to reply, but I wanted to point you in the direction of my thread in the open forum, where many different ideas have been discussed.  The build I decided on is more of a toolbox approach, and doesn't run the green, instead running more blac for Duress, Cabal Therapy, Dark Ritual, and tutors.  I chose the disruption base over the perhaps more consistent green base (more creature tutors in green is good) because of the point you already brought up.  You basically have to force a Sneak Attack to hit the table, and without blue for Force and his friends black seems the next bet option.

I also chose more disruptive creatures than you, choosing guys like Nicol Bolas and Crater Hellion (Dragon Tyrant's in there, too, though).  Of course, that's all present in the thread I'm linking to, so I won't ramble about it again.

Oh, and Diabolic Intent is quite good in this, as it allows you to do something with your soon to be dead guys, and gives the deck two more ways to get Rector on its way to the yard.  Anyway, here's my thread on Rectal Sneak Attack:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16412&start=0

One thing I hadn't considered before is running Pandemonium.  I don't know how I overlooked it, but I definitely plan to give it a look as a one-of to be found with extra Rectors.  I'm also going to look at Nether Void, although you can't afford to add too many utility enchantments if you plan to cast them only when you find them with Rector (which is my deck's plan most of the time).

Edited to add a few more thoughts.

Yeah, the simile does sound better than the metaphor, now that you mention it.  Good catch.  

Ain't grammar a hoot?

It depends on what direction you wish to go with this, grammatically speaking.  You could say "your rating" or "a player's rating," but your lack of a qualifier makes it sound like the verb 'rating.'  Alternately, you could say "ratings... are what stars in Kindergarten are:" which would also be correct.

And I believe Smmenen did mean refute.

Anyways, a well done article, and I always like to hear the big shots supporting proxies.

Keep in mind that everything they throw at Masticore Mk. 2 is another spell they're not using to deal with your Slaver recursion stuff, your Welder (in the case of StP or burn), Memnarch, and the other various game winners Slaver runs.

Chalice and Trinisphere are both solid against combo, but you may be able to get away with running one or the other.  It's partly a style call, and partly a metagame call.  Right now, I couldn't tell you which one I'd pick over the other because I've only ever had experience running combinations of both in Stax.  Sorry if that isn't exactly helpful; I'll look into it tomorrow or something and give you a better response.

None of those work, as they all require cards to be in hand.  Future Sight leaves the card on top of your library, but you may put it into play in the same manner as you would if it were in your hand (with mana and land restrictions applying, of course).

I think he's saying the judges there made some really bad calls, and that was one of them.

Because it fits the Prison theme of denying the opponent's expansion of the board whe used in conjuction of Wastes and Strips.  With Crucible and another lock piece, such as Tangle Wire or Smokestack, the strips become so much better than they were before, which is to say, frickin awesome.  Like I said before, I don't know if it will be as efective as the stuff already in Prison decks, but I plan on testing it as soon as I get myself a playset.

Exactly.  Trinisphere is not a lock with Chalice for 3, as Chalice still checks converted mana cost (the absolute value in the upper right hand corner of a card), so even if Trinisphere forces you to pay 3, Chalice still checks that top-right value.

Why would you get a draw step with your opponent having a Tog on the table?  I'm no expert with Tog, but I was under the impression that you were to play it only when you were ready to win.  I guess that gives you one draw step to ping away some of his hand or graveyard, but he'll also have that knowledge already calculated into his kill strike.  Of course, there's always Time Walk, which, if cast, means you never get to ping any of their Tog food away.  If I'm not looking at Tog in the right light, then I apologize, I've never been too good with it.

Your point about the Welder is valid in most situations, but it's still a concern.  There will be times when a Mox gets blown up by a Shaman or Karn or something, and then your Masticore takes a trip to the 'yard.  However, it's not as big a problem as I originally thought.

Null Rod not stopping the damage seems pretty key, now that you mention it.  That makes this new Masticore very good in my opinion, especially if you're prone to run decks like Fish and UG Mad in your metagame.  Creatures that aren't nullified in their usefulness by Null Rod and can still be reasonably hardcast are pretty good, I hear.

This guy does have some cons, though, like never being effective against enemy Welders (they give you a mox or something back) and Tog.  He will, however, make it difficult for your opponent to get a Welder active if he didn't have one active already.  

He also becomes kinda useless against other workshop decks once they drop their fat.  This guy has nothing on Sundering Titan when it comes to the red zone.  Considering the fact that workshop aggro seems to be arising as the new face of aggro in T1, this could be a considerable detriment.

Another good outlet for getting fat to the yard for Welder, creature kill, and a 5/5 first striker for 5 all come together to make this guy pretty frickin sweet.  It seems he'd be good in both TnT and the new 7/10 split deck, as another solid body with good abilities and little actual drawback.  

Methinks I will have to pick up a playset when FD comes out to try him in the aforementioned decks.

I think the real problem, even worse than the "one land drop a turn" thing (which isn't a problem if you use it to deny your opponent's mana, and thus board, development), is that Crucible is an artifact in a metagame that's learning to hate the crap out of artifacts.  There's the possibility that Crucible gets its ass kicked before it generates a definite card or board advantage.

Trying to utilize Crucible as an effective combo piece is the wrong way to implement it.  It's already been shown that any combos built around Crucible will undoubtedly suck, so why classify it as a bad combo piece...

...Especially when it could be classified as a good lock piece, which is what I see it as having the potential to be.  Like I said before, I plan on testing this in my build of U/R Trinistax, as Crucible has excellent synergy with the Strip effects, which in turn have good synergy with the whole concept of the lock.

IF there is a home for Crucible, it'll be in U/R Stax or one of the other Prisonish decks.  And even then, it's doubtful it will be any better than the other 2 billion lock components the deck runs (or doesn't, considering you can't run every good lock component ever).  It's something I plan to test, and I plan on getting a playset of Crucibles (for the testing and the ART, MAN), but this is my initial feeling.

Metagame decks are not decks you play in a specific metagame.  What I mean when I say metagame deck is a deck that preys on the decks that are played in that metagame.  These metagame decks change based on what's prevalent much more so than other more established decks because they focus on exploiting weaknesses in the popular decks of the area rather than on their own personal gameplan.

Perhaps that is clearer definition?

And please keep the insults to yourself.  You're not making me want to explain my arguments by insinuating I'm an IRC n00b who has no idea what's going on.  I'm no Phantom Tapeworm or Menendian, but neither are you, so don't go throwing that crap around,

My first instinct tells me that a deck whose plan is completely thwarted by Sacred Ground can't be that good.  Fortunately, Sacred Ground doesn't see that much play in T1.

Seems to me that this deck shouldn't perform that well, though.   It's not as explosive as other decks, and those explosive decks, like Slaver, should be able to stop this sort of crap long enough to set up for the win.  However, I haven't tested it, and it does seem quite interesting.

Once Crucible of Worlds comes out, this deck may become better, getting reusable strips and all.  And hey, in the end, who doesn't like recurring free LD that can't be countered?

The fundamental difference between changing, say, Smemnarch's MEandeck Slaver build versus changing Phantom Tapeworm's Gay/r build is that Meandeck Slaver is a deck that can be optimized theoretically, whereas Gay/r is a deck that can only be optimized for the metagame in which you plan to play it.  It's a metahate deck, and as such continual discussion on what does and doesn't work is in fact necessary, and things that worked well before may change depending on shifts in the metagame.  Meandeck Slaver, however, doesn't have much room for real solid improvement at this point, leaving the only real consideration to what to put in the sideboard or perhaps maindeck, depending on the extremity of the metagame you plan to play in.

In short, Gay/r revolves around hating the metagame, whereas Meandeck Slaver sees that as a secondary concern next to its powerful brokenness.

Dedication does seem to be a major factor.  Even the most competitive individuals may find they lack what it takes to maintain focus when trying out new ideas.  Simply put, they have playtesting ADD, jumping around from concept to concept without taking the time to fully understand the pros and cons of every decision made while testing.

I have more thoughts on this, but I also have class.  I'll edit this later to include those thoughts.

Dude, you're right.  The solution here is to run Mindslaver recursion, so you can force them to drop a land every turn, thus making your engine not suck!  :lol:

In regards to the Avatar, the evasion thing is really the issue.  She just runs into more random stuff than she's worth.  With the comparable creature in my build, that being Dragon Tyrant, you get a big beater with flying, trample, double strike, and firebreathing.  All that amounts to a beatstick that's just plain better at getting damage through than the Avatar.

Corpse Dance seems too mana intensive, especially compared to Recurring Nightmare, which buybacks itself, and can be found for free by extra Rectors.

The Cyclops is good, but he's only good if you have him and another fatty.  This pretty much means you need two Empaths in hand to use him effectively (or one Empath and the Cyclops).  Searching for him is almost never going to be as beneficial as searching for another beatstick.  I guess he's hardcastable, but by that time you should either have disrupted your opponent to the point where you've basically won, won outright, or lost.

Yeah, that whole resolving thing does tend to be an issue.  Alright, I see your point.

Isn't one-for-oneing cards in the graveyard for cards to hand beneficial to the Tog?  It doubles the damage those cards were worth, while refilling your hand with potentially awesome cards.  Seems to me that's not a bad trade at all.

I tried to make a deck based around the Panoptic Mirror, but once I had like 40 cards in it, I realized what I had constructed was Drain Slaver with a worse win condition (Slaver > Mirror in every way).

The Mirror also suffers from the random artifact hate flying around the metagame these days.  It seems a Mirror deck would most likely go the way of Mask decks unless something drastic happens in the metagame.