aether flash is terrible. Since it costs 2RR, by the time you would realistically drop it, their weenies would already be owning you. Further this by the fact that mana drain doesn't speed it up at all, and you've got a terrible card. Slice and Dice is good tech, though.

Yeah, I don't have any interesting pre-tournament stories/anecdotes, so without further ado, Stacker.thng:

4 Goblin Welder
1 Mindslaver
1 Pentavus
3 Triskelion
3 Su-Chi
4 Juggernaut
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Mana Crypt
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Shivan Reef
4 Volcanic Island
4 Mishra's Workshop

Sb:
1 Sundering Titan
2 Shattering Pulse
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Stifle
3 ReB
4 Lightning Bolt

Round 1: Tim with Lions Eye Diamond and a Swamp
   Game 1 - I mull to 6, then open with a wasteland for his salt marsh (wah??). Then I lay a Juggz, who takes it the whole way in spite of my opponent's lions eye diamond. and sol ring.
IN: 3 ReB 1 Sundering Titan   OUT: 4 Trinisphere
    Game 2 - I mull to 6, drop a volcanic island pass, with workshop, ruby, juggz, and reb in hand. I drop Juggz, ReB his response (Frantic search, i believe), and a few turns later his life total is 0, in spite of my opponent's lions eye diamond. and sol ring.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2: G/B LD
   I recognized this guy from one of myriad's recent type two tournaments, so we talked a bit. He told me this was his first attempt at t1, so of course I was super happy and underestimated him. He had deeds and sinkholes and stuff, and the matches were actually a challenge. I'm sure theres a lesson in there...
   Game 1 - I mull to 6, waste his turn 1 bayou, then drop a turn 2 su-chi followed up with a turn 3 trinisphere. He gets the deed, but doesn't hit the 4 mana to pop it. Incidently, if it weren't for the waste/manascrew, I might have lost that one.
IN: 1 Titan 3 Stifle   OUT: 4 Chalice
   Game 2 - I mull to 5, he sinkholes my random land and deeds my artifact mana, and a few Argothian Wurm beats later... I don't want to talk about it.
   Game 3 - I mull to a decent 5 card hand, containing Welder, Ruby, Chalice, Tinker, and Volcanic. I play out the volcanic and the ruby and lay welder. He lays a land and passes. I pray for a land off the top, and I get a timewalk instead. I cycle it, but he friggin' REBs. I did not see that coming at all, and wince as my scribbled on Nim Shrieker goes to the grave. He untaps and sinkholes my volcanic, and I'm stuck on a welder and a ruby, fearing the wrath of Argothian Wurm. Luckily, I top wasteland and then shivan reef while he's stalled on mana. I drop chalice for 0, and then tinker it away for a Triskelion. I have no idea why I didn't get Sundering Titan, but I believe my logic involved chainers and diabolic edicts, and other randomness... ignore the fact that I had welder and titan would have killed all his lands. Regardless of my awesome playing, trike and welder tricks take the game.

2-0, 4-1

Round 3: Psychatog, piloted by one of Zherbus' friends (TJWhoopy)
This guy was hilarious, and an all-around great opponent. I don't exactly remember what we talked about, but I think 99% of it was mocking some kid with sui black that wouldn't shut up.
    Game 1 - I mull to 6, then open with a turn 1 Juggz off Grim Monolith. He doesn't have the force or the waste, and a chalice on 2 followed by welder, trinisphere, and triskelion seals the deal.
IN: 3 ReB 1 Titan    OUT: 4 Chalice
Before you say, "omg you boarded out chalice!!11," realize that I am going second and ReB is clearly superior. Also, Sundering Titan is a 7/10.
    Game 2 - No mulligan, because my hand is... uhhh... mediocre? I can't help but grin as I see Lotus, 2 Workshops, Trike, Juggz, Welder, and Volcanic Island. He drops a delta, and on my draw step I top ReB. I choose to wait to drop a threat, so I lay a workshop. He duresses the ReB, so I just go for the turn 2 Trike, since he can't mana drain with his underground sea tapped and no sapphire. Some juggs later, I win.

3-0, 6-1

Round 4: Brian Phelon (hulk3rules) w/ Hulk - the berserk (tEcH)
   Game 1 - He doesn't have the force, so my turn 1 Juggz and turn 2 trinisphere are enough. Incidently, he would have pulled out if he hadn't missed a land drop, as he dropped a mana crypt on his turn 1.
I don't board, because all I saw was mana crypt, underground sea, and intuition for 3 AK, and being the mental giant that I am I couldn't figure out it was psychatog.
   Game 2 - He duresses my recall. I draw and lay workshop, ruby, mana vault, triskelion. He lays a land, and so expecting mana drain, I draw and lay welder. When he doesn't counter, I drop monolith and Su-Chi. A turn or so later, he wishes for vampiric tutor at 7 life, when my board has Triskelion, random artifacts, and welder. I shrug, untap, and proceed to drop chalice on 2, realizing he can't vamp tutor. I'd like to think that I saw time walk --> deed coming, but the fact is that I knew chalice on 1 wouldn't do anything and I didn't have the mana for chalice on 3, so chalice on 2 was the only other option. He untaps, realizes he made a mistake, and concedes. My draws were incredible.

4-0, 8-1

Round 5: Dan Richardson (Pern) w/ a cool fish variant
This match was very intense, so I failed to take accurate notes. Game 1 involved us both stalling on 1 land for the better part of 10 turns, until I finally topped a workshop (And later another) and began pumping out more threats than he could force/spiketail. Game 2 involved me getting wasted/mana screwed out of the game after mulling to 6. Game 3 was absolutely the best game of magic I played all day. It went back and forth, and I eventually won after time on turn 4. All I remember was an early null rod on his side and an early chalice for 2 on mine, and a slow and steady attrition war. I believe the final blow was when he stabilized at 7 or some low number, and dropped a mox monkey and a grim lavamancer. I proceeded to top a Su-Chi, and with my life total at 5 I was able to began attacking, forcing him to block. He topped the Viashino Heretic 1 turn too late, whereas I topped the Su-Chi just in time.

5-0, 10-2

Round 6: Guy w/ Dragon
We ID into top 8, and sit around and talk/mock sui black. He was a cool guy, and we trade a bit while we wait for top 8.

Top 8: John R. w/ RectalAgony
   Game 1 - We wasteland back and forth, and when he forces my fatty and duresses trinisphere, I begin to get worried. After we both top and lay mana source after mana source, he brainstorms, and since I had nothing in hand but a shivan reef and a timetwister, I decided to risk him comboing me out and drew 7. I am sort of mildly happy as I draw 2 Thirsts, Juggz, Academy, Time Walk, Sapphire, and Lotus. Surprise, I won.
  Game 2 - In his first two turns, he double duresses and lays a rector. In my first turn, I dropped a juggz. In the juggz vs. rector battle, I lose.
  Game 3 - I mull to 4, finally keeping Wasteland, Workshop, Juggz, and Grim Monolith. I drop the workshop and the monolith, turn them sideways, and drop juggz. He begins looking at his hand very carefully, so I assume he is deciding what to pitch to force of will. A few jedi mind tricks (and a wasteland) later, I'm looking at top 4.

Top 4: Steve (Grand Inquisitor) w/ HadleyTech/urwelderthing
   Game 1 - Sword of Fire and Ice.
   Game 2 - 2 Sword of Fire and Ice.

Apparently I was too busy losing to draft cards to write down this guys name. Sorry. He was a nice guy, aside from the fact that he played sword of fire and ice. and then equipped it. and then overload!? what!!?!11 I need to get the hadley tech newsletter.
  Since hulk3rules forgot to put berserk in his sideboard, by the time my opponent for the 3rd-4th match shows up, its past 11 and I'm tired, so we draw; we each get our choice of 1 dual and 10 bucks store credit. I take my underground sea, metalworker, and foreign fire/ice. He takes his taiga and fork. I go home and sleep.
  As a side not, the reason I mulliganed so much throughout the tournament was not because my deck was producing terrible draws, but rather because I was aggessively mulliganing for either a fast start or sufficient hate. And by sufficient hate I mean wasteland. Why don't more people play that card? It wins games on its own, or so I hear.
  All in all, the tournament went great. There was plenty of space, food, and cards. I believe someone asked if anyone else there was local, and I believe there were a total of 11 local players, including myself. Most of them didn't do too well because they either don't have the money or time to invest in t1, or it was there first attempt at it. Hopefully they will continue playing, as they are all cool people and there decks aren't entirely bad. Hopefully with time the NH meta will improve and the crowd and the prizes will grow. For a first tournament though, what an incredible turnout. I had a great time, as did everyone I talked to.

El Props:
-Dan, the storeowner, for holding this shindig, and being a cool person in general
-Chicken Finger pizza... it is THAT good
-Zherbus, for endorsing and playing in the tournament
-Matt, for the free McDonalds and representing the local crowd
-The Rest of the Local crowd (Aaron, Tim, Rob, etc), for being the local crowd

El Slops:
-Sword of Fire and Ice
-Sword of Fire and Ice
-Sword of Fire and Ice
-Sword of Fire and Ice
-That other Sword

I myself have never played slavery due to budget constraints, but I have played an astronomical amount of matches against it in tournaments (its being played by EVERYONE). In every single match, I have never seen the LoA used very well. First off, alot of decks are currently running 5 strip effects, making LoA a prime target. Obviously, this isn't really a sufficient argument against LoA, but it is a small piece of it. The first goal of slavery, or so I understand it to be, is to develop its extensive mana base. Ie, casting gilded lotus, moxen, accelerants, and then drawing 7 to do it again. In doing this, the deck rarely has a full hand. Furthermore, it likes discarding cards to weld in, welding out accelerants (ie, moxen). Thats 2 cards out of the hand already (card getting welded in, card getting welded out). Add to this the fact that it likes to pump out a fast chalice, and then consider that draw-go is a very suboptimal strategy these days (even for a turn or so), and I cannot see LoA fitting readily into slavery.

People refer to "All the drawing power" that slavery has. It is my understanding that this drawing power is all very cheap in order for the cards drawn off them to be cast in the same turn. It only runs 4 counters (I do think LoA belongs in the 4 mana drain versions of slavery, but I don't think thats the subject here), and therefore sitting back and drawing off LoA is not something the deck does...

Although I can't readily say what land to replace the LoA with given I have no experience actually playing the deck, from what I've seen Ancient Tomb is notsohot. I have won several games off decklists running multiple tombs, as the pressure from fast aggro decks makes them dangerous. Furthermore, in a deck with so much drawing capacity and mana acceleration, the extra 1 mana for 2 damage is not really necessary.

In the quote you put I am advocating putting Time Walk in the deck... I don't have anything directly against Time Walk. I can see why it would be good. My argument there was just to cut something else... I fully recognize that Time Walk is good in the deck, I just haven't found the correct card to cut for it as of yet...

Why not cut the second Karn for the Slaver and the Wheel for the Walk... I can't see the logic in cutting Timetwister. It messes with Squees, other welders, and gives you a chance to go crazy laying workshops and moxes etc etc.  Also, if you're worried about combo or control using the cards better, drawing a lock component of the twister sort of negates that, barring they draw a FoW.

UNRESTRICT MOX EMERALD!!!!11111

sorry, couldn't help making fun of stok

I think he wrote an article about that

somebody should link it ...

  uhh just so I don't get flamed for having an unsightful post, unrestrict chrome mox. negative card advantage is bad?

   Umm, you are playing no draw-7s because...? I have found 1 mindslaver nearly sufficient, and am currently testing 2, but I really don't think the number should be any higher. I can't really see dropping a draw-7 for a Time Walk, as Time Walk is more of a win-more card in this deck, whereas the draw-7s function as come-from-behind, recovery cards after having your threats and welders dealt with (countered, removed, etc.) Also, recurring Memory Jar is insane, and I'm hoping when you say that you play it without the draw sevens, you don't mean you cut the Memory Jar. Exactly what did you take out for what? So far, the consensus seems to be Shivan Reef > Fetch land, but has anyone tried ancient tomb? I'll get around to it...

uhh no thanks on the ravager idea... a 1/1 that I would have to sacrifice 4+ power creatures to in order for it to be at least a 2/2 sounds... uhm...

I think you are mistaking the list I ran at cape cod for the optimal list. Ideally, the deck is not unpowered. Surprise surprise, moxen are good for first turn threats and then welding out when the threats get removed.

But anyways, any thoughts on cutting the second karn for another slaver/trike/tubby ? I've recently been having problems with Karn in testing because of the increase in mox monkeys, which make great karn blockers. I'm just not sure he's worth the 5 mana in this deck...

Then I guess I'll try it with just reefs then. Although without fetches, aren't the thirsts a bit worse? Idk, but I really can't see what to cut for the Timewalk. Maybe it is better left out? Is there any reason to sb it? For reference, this is the list I ran at cape cod (from RoadTrippin's 5th place report)

Dom Minicucci w/ WorseThanTNT.dec
4 Goblin Welder
4 Juggernaut
4 Su Chi
2 Triskelion
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Mindslaver
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Tinker
1 Timetwister
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Grim Monolith
1 Black Lotus
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Mana Crypt
1 Darksteel Citadel
SB:
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Stifle
3 Shattering Pulse
3 Scrabbling Claws
4 Lightning Bolt

   The big problem here was that it was 5 proxy, and I don't own workshops, only the emerald, ruby, and twister. I opted for speed, running the lotus as my 5th proxy, so I had to substitute. Darksteel Citadel = weak subsititute for mox. I even had to borrow my mana crypt from someone (thnks btw)... For these reasons, I didn't really get to test Mindslaver all that well, but I'll try some combination of shivan reefs and ancient tombs (maybe 4 and 0?) in place of the fetches if I make it to maine, plus I'll be able to proxy more power.  Also, I ran scrabbling claws because I couldn't dig up my crypts, but I began thinking they were obviously slightly worse in the dragon matchup, but perhaps better in others? For example, against opposing welder decks? Maybe I'm crazy, but wouldn't it be plausible to keep a graveyard empty if it isn't being fueled by bazaar? I think I may end up testing them, as I can't find any other posts here about scrabbling claws... My guess is that they are bad because of null rod, but the decks that you would board them in against would not have null rod. However once I figure out a sb they will probaby end up going due to space constraints. Any thoughts?

 Oh yeah, and I did get pwned by his mono-black dragon. Didn't see trinisphere or chalice, just juggz. And stifle doesn't do much against hardcast dragon.

Myself + 2 Others will be there

Just how many people would it take to drop the price to the normal 15? 25 seems a bit ridiculous... (cape cod is 15 with free pizza, just for reference)

Can't wait to see what kind of a meta unlimited proxies produces...

Finally, some input from someone who has tested it. I also cut the 2nd karn for a mindslaver as soon as it was suggested, and so far it has been mediocre... but only because having the 4 nonworkshop mana was difficult. Replacing the fetches with Shivan Reef would definitely help solve this problem, but doesn't that lead to mana flood? I have been toying with Ancient Tomb (after seeing it in Slavery) but I'm guessing that with the addition of 4 x shivan reef it is unnecessary. As far as going up to 61 cards for timewalk... I'm not sure about that. It will obviously need testing, but I can see why its worth the extra slot (even though, as someone else put it, cutting Time Walk is the vogue thing to do... or something like that). Although, what about replacing the fetches with 3 x Shivan Reef 1 x Ancient Tomb or some other combination? Or is ancient tomb entirely unnecessary with shivan reefs and only 1 slaver? I don't want to end up turning this into slavery...

because of the way the survival engine works, you play alot of situational/utility creatures. Therefore, you will usually need to survival to get the correct threat to lay (hence you need to play survival first). With 12 fatties, however, this deck will not need to thirst to find one. Yes/no?

As to the first part, sorry, I misinterpreted what you meant by "I mean more in addition too." As far as how Survival of the Fittest is worse with root maze... The idea between Survival of the Fittest is to lay it fairly early and use it to search out the correct threat to play. This means that you need to spend green mana to find the creature, and then mana to play it, early on. Root Maze stunts early development, thus making this difficult. Thirst, on the other hand, is more of a mid-to-late-game spell to refill your hand and keep your welder going. It is in no way meant to search out threats to lay, as playing 12 fatties should be plenty. This is pretty obvious, as hitting 3 non-workshop mana and 4 artifact mana (to thirst and lay a threat) is impossible early game. To sum it up, survival is worse under root maze because you need to activate and lay your threats early on, whereas thirst isn't used until after the threat is on the board.

BTW, I have no idea where you're playing, but all-to-frequently I have seen Ground Seal boarded in to prevent welder from making the removal that is also boarded in useless. Granted Ground Seal doesn't stop squee, I'm just saying that other graveyard hate isn't out of the question...

uhm I'm not sure TnT has a "superior" engine... Although you didn't elaborate, I'm guessing your referring to survival. If you are, I don't believe that engine is superior, but rather different (read: worse?). Its green mana intensive, and makes the deck more susceptible to the graveyard hate already boarded in against welder/workshop decks. Thirst for Knowledge, while it is slow and doesn't necessarily draw you the threats you need, is still at the very least an exceptible draw spell. Also, with Root Maze around, Survival of the Fittest is even worse; and, given the presence of big-o, madness, and other green decks running root maze, perhaps thirst is better than the survival engine. Also, I believe Chalice and Trinisphere are much better disruption cards than Blood Moon and Pyrostatic Pillar (I'm not up-to-date with TnT, but I'm pretty sure this and trinisphere make up its "disruption"), as Blood Moon messes with your own Workshops and Pyrostatic Pillar isn't... well, that good. All in all, I guess it would help if you could elaborate on how TnT has a superior engine?

Although I voted for 10 proxies, looking back I'm pretty sure 5 is the right number. The problem with 10 proxies is that people can proxy the p10 (ok, thats pretty obvious). This means that there is no longer any desire to get power, other than the ever-present need to pimp out a deck. If I could proxy ten cards, I definitely wouldn't bother spending infinite hours trading exalted angels for arcbound ravagers and then ravagers for drains and then... (random example of slowly trading up to get power). And why would I, when I can proxy them? The desire to aquire power is what drives the t1 community, hence the turnout at tournaments for power. Having only a ruby an emerald and a timetwister (which its taken me about 5 months to get), it is difficult to make decks under 5 proxies. However, its this difficulty that keeps me attending power tournaments. Power --> better deck --> win more power --> even better deck and so forth (granted there are exceptions... I think Worse Than Fish was mentioned earlier up).

if you have a problem completely trusting your opponent, then cut extensively? I don't think theres really a right or wrong answer here, but I'm not necessarily offended when someone shuffles my deck; generally I just cringe because I think back to how many hours of bitchwork I had to do to get power. But aside from the cost of t1 cards, I don't think shuffling your opponents deck is really disrespectful...

did that make any sense?

Timewalk is not included because... ok, I don't know why. What would you cut to put it in? Also I'm thinking of dropping the second Karn for a Mindslaver... Or should I cut something else? In playtesting the platinum angel against dragon was not exactly the tech I was hoping it to be, as skilled players can do a number of things to get around it (stifling the welder activation, animating your platinum angel themselves, stealing one of your welders and welding it out, etc).

I made this deck at about 1am the morning of the dual lotus because I had been watching sanchez and spike playtest for the past 2 hours or so while doing bitchwork to finish paying for the ruby, and given that the deck was essentially aggro, I was impressed to see it go about 50/50. After putting the deck together, I decided to playtest against tog, feeling I had seen enough of that 7/7 flying whore. After wrecking both hulkish decks and groatog, I decided to play the following deck:

stakker?.dec

Beats
4 x Juggz
4 x Su-Chi
2 x Triskelion
2 x Karn, Silver Golem

Stuff
4 x Chalice of the Void
4 x Trinisphere

More Stuff
4 x Goblin Welder
4 x Thirst for Knowledge
1 x Ancestral Recall
1 x Tinker
1 x Timetwister
1 x Wheel of Fortune
1 x Memory Jar

Mana Stuff
7 SoloMoxen
1 x Mana Vault
1 x Mana Crypt
1 x Tolarian Academy
4 x Mishras Workshop
4 x Wasteland
1 x Strip Mine
3 x Wooded Foothills
1 x Bloodstained Mire
4 x Volcanic Island

SB:
3 x Stifle
4 x Rack and Ruin
4 x ReB
4 x Lightning Bolt
  (sb needs work, obviously)

Explanations:

        First off, just to clarify, I did indeed run 3 foothills and 1 mire. For one, they can trick the opponent into thinking your playing madness. Also, I'm poor and didnt feel like springing for a set of deltas... I'm pretty sure thats all the explaining I have to do. The chalices and trinispheres are self-explanatory, although I have noticed some people wavering from playsets of both. I can maybe see running only 3 chalice, but less than 4 trinisphere? Trinisphere is absolutely necessary early, and I have won so many games on the back of a turn-1 trinisphere that I would not have otherwise won. Madness and big-o like explosive openings? Groatog likes to cast dryad and multiple 1-cc spells? Trinisphere prevents this. The other thing that might be questionable about this deck is 2 x Karn. I know I originally didn't like this, and I tried such jank as platinum angel and even sword of fire and ice (don't flame, I had a foil one). The truth is, although the only beater is trinisphere, karn's role as an overcosted gorilla shaman is surprisingly good (especially when combined with other mana denial and trinispheres). Also, a number of times I've needed to destroy my own chalice.

4-1-2 is the suck...
       
Round 1, Groatog
  Game 1: He draws 4 mana drains and 3 FoWs. I shit myself.
  Game 2: Juggs and friends beat.
  Game 3: Turn 1 Trinisphere followed by beats

Round 2, smemmen and his slavery.dec
  Game 1: He plays poorly and my beats beat.
  Game 2: I didn't know how to board, he played smarter, I lost.
  Game 3: He gets double welder, its all I can do to draw.
     Heres what he said:
     

 

Round Three, slaver.dec
  Game One: I get lucky and one wasteland ends it.
  Game Two: Todays my lucky day. He goes turn 1 slaver, I counter with rack and ruin. He goes triskelion welder, I go rack and ruin and stifle his welded in slaver. GG.

Round Four, Madness
  Game One: Quadruple Welder and the beats do him in.
  Game Two: I play poorly.
  Game Three: Null Rod owns me.

Round Five, Madness
  Game One: chalice on 2, gg
  Game Two: Null Rod owns me.
  Game Three: Its late, I make playmistakes, oh well.


Conclusions:
     v.s. madness
          In my opinion, this matchup is about fairly even. Arrogant wurm and squee and null rod are bitches, but trinisphere and chalice own them. Also, recurring threats is good? With correct playtesting and few playmistakes, this matchup should be able to go in your favor. Does anyone have any suggestions for sb tech here?
    v.s. slavery
          Its hard to come to any conclusions here because the two matchups were so drastically different, but they key is obviously knowing welder tricks and getting an aggressive start. Trinisphere and chalice don't help much here, so mulliganing into hands with either draw-7s or sufficient beats. Given the threat density, this shouldn't be hard. Since I've started testing the matchup, its about even, with slavery having the upper hand. Pentavus owns this deck. My current board plan is -4 trinisphere -3 Chalice +3 Stifle +4 Rack and Ruin, and this has been working wonderfully, although I'm still not sure how to combat pentavus further.
    v.s. keeper, tog, control-decks
          I'm lumping these together because, granted it sounds ridiculous, this deck owns them. Chalice and trinisphere coupled with fast threats and recursion... I can't describe it. Go out and playtest these matchups yourself, its great.

  These are the only matchups I've tested, and I haven't exactly tested thoroughly. The deck is in its early stages, but so far it is looking promising. Please comment and playtest this, especially against the decks I did not (big-o, fish, landstill, tnt, etc) and let me know how it goes.