Congratulations! Your deck was solid and (as far as I could see) you played it flawlessly (I was round one). I sided in a lot of problems for you game two, drew some, and succeeded in misplaying them (Goblin Welder and Artifact Mutation). I need a lot of practice again Welder decks.

Aside from Welder, the card the really messed me up was Duplicant. He was more of a problem than Sundering Titan (who is no small problem).

FWIW, I agree with Zeylon on having more fetches than fetchables. Unless you expect to play most your deck each game, it's unlikely you'll see more than half of the fetches or fetchables. The few cases you do, one more mana won't help.

I like the deck. The mana curve seems a little weird, but Mana Drain leads to that. A few questions.

I agree with Freelancer. It seems with the amount of Fetchlands, Brainstorm would be just better.

In SB, why Capsize? I understand with a Drain it could be a two for one. Maybe rushing river instead?

You may want to try Dismantling Blow instead of on Disenchant too.

You probably want one or two bounce maindeck too. Otherwise you are too dependent on Cunning Wish to survive/recover. Maybe replace one StoP with a Chain of Vapor.

One last thought - I think you might have difficulty with Aggro unless you get some decree tokens pronto. Possibly Cursed Totem to stop some of the tricks or something like a cheaper Wrath or Moat (with some mana, Wing Shards can be devastating). Possibly Propaganda or Ghostly Prison or Tabernacle at Pendrell's Vale.

These are just tweaks though. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

My criticism is similar to warbles. Mid game, unless Prodigy is on the table or you draw into FoW, breaking Standstill at the end of your turn will have little if any impact on your opponent. You are most likely to draw into creatures or creature modifiers that you can't play until the next turn. You need more cheap disruption maindeck like Chain of Vapor or Stifle or Orim's Chant or something to ruin your opponents turn. None of them are biggies but most of the time they can at least make you opponent's life a little miserable and force him/her to play more cautiously. If your creatures had more utility, Aether Vial could help with this.

Vial set to two and untapped, opponent breaks standstill. You draw Prodigy or Meddling Mage, or True Believer, or Samurai of the Pale curtain, or Whirlpool Rider or whatever. His turn now sucks because even Duress won't necessarily help him.

FWIW

I've been playing around a lot with Affinity/Skullclamp decks recently. I haven't played with Artificer's Intuition yet so I can't comment on that card.

What I am finding is that Skullclamp is an AMAZING card in a lot of deck styles. By itself, it merits building decks around. All different styles of decks.

I think the first question you need to settle is where in the Aggro/Control/Combo wheel do you want to fall. Pure combo? Kobolds/Clamp/Glimpse is a solid starting point. Control? Utility creatures with come into play/leave play effects.

From the original decklist, it seems you want to be Aggro/Combo. You start with getting some fast beats on the table, then combo out with either Disciple or Cranial Plating. I'm putting Cranial Plating in the combo category because much of the time it wins the game the turn it comes into play.

Assuming you want to combo out with Disciple, you need more ways to get rid of your creatures or more small creature. I love Ornithopters and Frogmites, but it sucks if you get Skullclamp and Ornithopter.

What are some good ways to get rid of your creatures? Ravager, Diabolic Intent, Victimize, Ashnod's Altar, Grafted Wargear, Artifact Mutation. You probably need 8 creature sacrifice outlets if you keeping more than 4 creatures with 2+ toughness.

If you're going the small creature route, try to keep them one casting cost because they are most card draw/Disciple life loss fuel. I personally like Myr Moonvessel because he converts Workshop mana into general purpose mana. Servitors and Archbound Workers each have their place. I think even Clockwork Beetle could be good (he can essentially sac himself). Some exceptions to this rule are Genesis Chamber since it make appropriately sized beasties and Myr Retriever because he's usually a two for one.

The next question I'd ask is how important is Skullclamp to the deck? If it's an integral part of the kill, you need to increase the likelihood of getting it. In black, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Diabolic Intent are probably your best choices (Demonic Consultation may also work). In Blue, Intuition, Artificer's Intuition, Thirsty for Knowledge, Impulse, and Brainstorm have possibilities. White has Steelshaper's Gift and Enlightened Tutor. For just artifacts, Scroll Rack and Sensei's top work if you have sufficient shuffle effects.

The last question I'd also is how many color can you support? Again this is based on my testing, but two is achievable if only one color is early. For example, if you are only running black for the Disciples, black is a late color (turn 3+) and you could support blue or white for tutoring. In order to support two early colors, you must significantly reduces the number of colorless mana source reducing the gain from affinity and Disciple. YMMV

If I were you, I'd probably push the beats approach and passively get the Skullclamp. Possibly

(Free/Affinity)
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
4 Ornithopter
2 Phyrexian Walker or other 0 CC artifacts (Welding Jar, Chalice of the Void)
4 Frogmite

(Fodder)
4 Myr Workers

(Sacrifice)
4 Ravager
4 Grafted Wargear

(Combo)
4 Disciples of the Vault
2-3 Cranial Plating or Genesis Chamber

(Draw/Tutor)
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation (iffy)
4 Skullclamp

(Mana)
To taste, including artifact lands and Blinkmoth Nexii (better synergy than Factories and evasion).

Without any draw, I don't think this deck can effectively deal with Control-Combo or pure Combo. It would seem this deck would scoop to Oath and still have problems with TPS. I know from experience that a Root Maze on the table is not game over for the deck.

I'm also surprised Keeper lost to it. Balance or Moat should have provided the time to stabilize.

I like the deck. The combination of Root Maze, River Boa, Rancor, and Grim Lavamancer is solid. River Boa+Rancor is an incredible mini-combo. Kird Apes are nice bodies. Gorilla Shaman isn't bad, but could also reasonably be Goblin Tinker or Goblin Vandals.

Good luck.

I think it looks pretty good. A few observations.

The deck depends on getting either Clamp or Artificer's Intuition to stay around. AI mostly justifies itself for getting either Servitor or Clamp. Meddling Mage naming Clamp would be the best way to slow it down. This isn't a significant weakness because it only reduces it to a suboptimal aggro deck which still isn't a walk in the park.

At least one Echoing Truth should be a Aether Spellbomb because it's AI-able.

If you creature casting costs were more consistent, Aether Vial would be a bomb. It's AI-able, fixes mana issues, and makes your creature uncounterable. Just an observation, not a suggestion to change.

If you can get the manabase to work, Goblin Welder would be unbelievable. It supercharges Genesis Chamber, uncounters Skullclamp, and at instant speed creates a monster with Cranial Plating (attack with tiny, unblocked, weld in Plating, equip at instant speed).

Suggestions aside, it's looking really good.

For 5 proxy, I would suggest:
Black Lotus
Time Walk
Ancestral Recall
Mox Sapphire
Mox Jet
Some minor mana adjustments

Still need to nail the SB. Tormod's Crypt and Chalice of the Void at least. Maybe edicts or Cranial Extraction.

Want more testing results Good luck

I'm not an expert, but looking at his deck and SB, I don't think Oath should be that big of a problem. There is fair amount of library manipulation and any of the following will delay or stop Oath: StoP, Meddling Mage, Stifle, butt load of counters. Since it is primarily a tempo deck, he doesn't need a permanent solution, just to delay his opponent an few turns.

The only cards that seems weak are Mental Note and Old Man of the Sea. Old Man because he's not useful the turn he comes into play. I would think Gilded Drake, Waterfront Bouncer, or even Man-O-War would be better. It seems Mental note is just to get threshold. There should be a better cantrip to use. How about Shadow Rift? Although not as good for filling the graveyard. It will allow you to get the last damage through.

Even though it limits Werebear, have you considered Cursed Totem in the SB? It fixes a lot of problems like Welder, Ancient Hydra, Psychatog, Sliver Queen, Ambassador Laquatus, etc.

Great article. I'm looking forward to seeing how Aggro-Control decks will do now that Trinisphere is gone.

If Root Maze is on the board, Dragon can't combo out.

I created a similar UGR deck (see Clamp Aggro-Control thread a couple weeks ago). I used Skullclamp as a draw engine. Since you don't run Null Rod, You might want to try it.

I think 4 Lavamancer's is definitely too much. It'd replace at least 1 with a Rootwalla or Hidden Gibbon
 
Given you have no draw (maybe Browbeat?) I think you have too many lands. Possibly replace 2 mountains and a forest with 3 Land Grants.

Good luck. I'm curious about your results again more powered decks.

I think we're talking about different cards. I'm suggesting Karn Silver Golem because Tinkering him in allows you to eat your opponents jewelry pretty cheaply. He's also a good size beat.

If you're keeping Tinker (which is a very hard one to justify removing even if it is card disadvantage), I would replace Memory Jar with Darksteel Colossus (if there are no Welders) or Karn. Karn can often act as uber gorilla shaman. It can also help you go off by making Sol Ring and extra clamps into creatures to clamp.

Wheel of Fortune is tougher. Do you feel you just need more draw? Vedalken Archmage? If you expect to empty your hand fast, try Windfall. If you're comfortable with getting enough mana, then maybe Skeletal Scrying. Mid-game, Yawgwill can easy be better.

Oh, and though I love LEDs, do you think it's a good card in this deck? I think Gaea's Cradle, which you were considering, is usually far better.

I like Skullclamp based decks. A few things the consider.

If your open resolves a null rod it's pretty much game over.

At least in your SB you need removal. Platinum Angel ends you game and it appears in various competitive decks.

You need a lot of sideboard against Combo.

Wheel of Fortune and Memory Jar seem out of place. You have very little control and it seems they would either be win more or increase you likelihood of losing. I would much rather see Ancestral Recall and Timewalk.

Is Artificer Intuition fast enough? How does it compare to regular Intuition?

Good luck. Please post some results again major decks

Well, thank you all for the open-minded discussion. I was a little disappointed this was moved to the misc forum.

I liked Recoup/Yawgwill selection that HiVal mentioned. That approach never crossed my mind. A heckuva lot better than my Myr Servitor idea

I also didn't know Stax was one of the first decks to effectively use it. From what I remember of Stax pre-Mirrodin it makes sense. It can either get draw via AK or multiples of Welder, Smokestack or Tanglewire. Was that the correct time period?

For me, it feels like in the right deck it should have to power that Cunning Wish has in Tog. It would also seem like the right deck would be an hybrid deck or one with a transformational sideboard. Along the lines of Cerebral Assassin. A simple engine that can quickly drop to the graveyard various partial combos with Intuition getting the final piece or providing disruption.

Please excuse my ignorance but why did FoF get restricted but Intuition remains unscathed? Although different, they seem on the same power level.

The reason I think Boseiju is the only card that could currently push Intuition to the point of restriction is that you can setup, without worrying about being countered, something devastating on your opponents turn, and cast it, without worrying about being countered, on your turn. That makes Intuition a LOT more powerful.

However I haven't seen anything that could really exploit that yet. It would have to be a pretty powerful non-restricted sorcery or instant, though. Probably a graveyard deck like reanimator, Welder (using Trash for Treasure), or Replenish.

Thanks for the responses.

I guess the simplest way to view it is that it's part of many 2 card combos (Mana Drain, AK, Oath, Cunning Wish, 3 restricted cards, etc) none of which immediately win the game. The only card that might push the scales in favor or restriction is Boseiju.

It makes me think someone should design Intuition.dec  

Moderators: Feel free to move this to Newbie if you feel it merits.

From numerous past posts, there are vastly different views about restricting or unrestricting cards in Type 1. It seems, for the most part, TMD is hesitant to have any card restricted.

Setting aside the near religious opinions for a moment and instead looking at past restrictions, I would like to pose the question: Why isn't Intuition restricted? There are some reasons to justify it.

In the past, the DCI has repeated restricted low cost tutors. By low cost I am not merely counting casting cost, but other costs associated with playing the card (life loss, card loss, etc). Given that Intuition will give you a copy, at instead speed, of any non-restricted card in your deck, it seems to fit into this category.

In the past, the DCI has also restricted low cost card draw. One could debate that the Intuition/AK engine is low cost (I personally think it's absurd, but I'm not a control player), but it's cost can be distributed between two turns and draws at least 3 cards.

The third major categories of restrictions are mana accelerators. I don't know of any decks that uses Intuition for mana acceleration, although it is used for cheating the mana curve (putting cards in the graveyard for welding or reanimation).

The major reason that I see for it not to be restricted is that it hasn't yet been the integral part of some meta-game distorting deck. It is interesting that most control decks play it, along with many combo decks. Does any deck with Mana Drain not play it?

Am I missing something or is this card a sacred cow like Mana Drain and possibly Dark Ritual?

Ravager/Affinity really feels like a deck begging for a transformational sideboard. Pre-SB standard aggro. Post-SB combo hosing.

The good Ravager decks I've played against are as fast as Sligh or ArtiFat and seem more resilient. It's seems the get a lot of god hands.

FWIW, I think the starting point should include:
Mishra's Workshop
Ravager
Frogmite
My Enforcer
Skullclamp
Disciple of the Vault
Jewelry
Some combination of Myr Retriever, Myr Moonvessel, Archbound Worker
Glimpse of Nature
Demonic Tutor
Yawgwill
Cabal Therapy (this gives you another outlet for activating Skullclamp)
Bounce or Naturalize (Platinum Angel, Null Rod, etc)

SB includes:
white disciple (lifegain is good against TPS and Belcher)
Tormod's Crypt
Duress
Stifle or Bind
Tsabo's Web

I think curiosity is at least as bad. He doesn't have enough creatures for that either and the creatures aren't evasive enough. It also becomes a 2 for 1.

I personally don't like Rootwater thief. It's only good against combo if you already have control (otherwise you're using up the mana you need for reacting/countering). And it's awful against control or aggro. I think any of the following are better: Extract, Meddling Mage, Spiketail Hatchling, Abeyance, Orim's Chant.

Assuming Jushi is non-negotiable and essential, I would probably go Ophidian or Thieving Magpies or the card draw Ninja to get him online faster. I think we're already assuming a successful Mana Drain to get the deck going.

My solution for draw: Skullclamp and a few more creatures. Clamp is amazing.

I've thought about it a little. For Fish it works because of the multi-directional mana denial. It's useful for more than a few turns. Without the Wastelands and Null Rods, I think it'll end up being only overcosted clamp fodder if I get it after my opening hand.

I have the Dazes maindeck mostly to give me a chance against combo and casting it the first game makes my opponent play slower (or at least adds to their stress). Aside from combo or REALLY tight mana aggro, it always gets sided out, usually for Stifle.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Right now, I'm looking for 1-2 cc creature, preferably blue, with either a useful ability, evasion, or a big body. Sounds like a personal ad. Some creatures I'm considering are

Werebear
Xantid Swarm
Quiron Ranger
Bloodfire Dwarf (for weanie or Goblins)
Orcish Spy
Pygmy Hippo
Waterfront Bouncer

Nimble Mongoose
Kird Ape
Skyshroud Ridgeback
Gaea's Skyfolk
Elvish Lyrist
Aquamoeba
Brown Ouphe
Gilded Drake
Riptide Mangler
Seton's Scout
Goblin Vandal

Haven't figured out what I need to strengthen in the deck. The first 7 seem to have the most potential.

How do you do against Fish? It seems this deck would roll over. They have better creatures, about the same quantity of disruption, and more draw. If you catch them with a Mana Drain, you'll only get one or two. Null Rod and Wastelands will cripple your development badly.

It would also seem that you'd have no game against Sligh (especially one running Tangle Wire).

I'm no expert but it feels like a deck that would have problem with the crappy aggro decks that lurk at the bottom of the tournaments.

The Lotus isn't amazing, but it is pretty good. If I cut it, I'd probably add another land.

I've fiddled with the deck some more and I think I'd have to drop a color to get Wastelands, and even then it feels a bit shaky.

I think the following is the core of the deck:
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Basking Rootwalla
2 Cloud of Faeries
2 Serendib Efreet
4 Force of Will
4 Skullclamp
4 Brainstorm
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Daze or Stifle
2 Fire/Ice
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
2 Aether Vial
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
15 Lands

The remaining 7 are up for grabs. Where I am currently (and this is constantly changing) is

2 Artifact Mutation - Worse case it blows up a mox. At least SB this
1 Werebears - Mongrel 5
1 River Boa - Mongrel 6
1 Goblin Welder - 1cc utility creature that can bring back Skullclamp
1 Spire Owl - I want more digging
1 Sensei's Divining Top - Again more digging for solutions

Aside from the 2 slots for library manipulation, the rest feels very metagamey.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

I tried this deck again at another small tournament (Headgames, 14 people). The SB was the same but I changed the maindeck as follows:

+2 Aether Vial
+1 Tinker
+1 Darksteel Colossus
+2 Goblin Welder
+1 Black Lotus
+1 Cloud of Faeries
+4 Fetchlands
-2 Mishra's Factory
-4 Kird Apes
-2 Basking Rootwalla
-4 Land Grant

Basically I replace Land Grants with more fetches, added the mini-combo Tinker/Welder, and tried a slightly different creature blend.

Round 1 - TPS - 0-2

Lost first game reasonably quickly. Sided in at least Stifle and Root Maze. It was very close. I made the mistake of not clamping as much as possibly, leaving me with a weak hand on his turn. I think I sided out too many creatures.

Round 2 - Type 2 beast deck - 2-0

Round 3 -Aluren - 2-0

His deck failed him. Aside from a FoW and a Chain of Vapor, not much disruption was required.

Semifinals - Dragon sans Bazaar - 2-1

Lost first game on turn two (he had Force backup for my Chain of Vapor). Sided out most big creatures and sided in Stifle, Root Maze, Welders, and Naturalize. First turn Root Maze. It took a while, but I was able to put on some pressure and maintain control. Third game went similar. However at the end of the game, I noticed I had accidently shuffled half my SB into my maindeck, so I told my opponent and took a game loss.

Afterwards I played a 2 land Belcher for fun. First game I was rolled. Second game (no sideboarding) I Tinker/Colossus and beat him to one life. Welder really helped. I was playing sloppy because if I had clamped the Colossus I would have won.

I learned several things today.
- For this deck, Tinker/Colossus sucks. It seemed like a good idea, but really didn't work. Without tutors, it's mostly a waste.
- I don't need the Land Grants. Although I didn't quite get the balance right, I think the fetchlands should be sufficient.
- Root Maze is INCREDIBLE. It slows combo down REALLY well.
- Aether Vial is pretty good. I think I need at least 1 more copy for it to work.  It allowed me to more effectively be aggressive and controlling. It plays differently, though, and I need to get used to the style difference.
- Cloud of Faeries worked pretty well. I need to play with it more to figure out the balance.
- I miss the manlands and wastelands from Fish.
- I need better disruption for TPS.

I think my next experiment will be something close to:
4 Mongrels
3 Dibs
3 Rootwallas
3 Cloud of Faeries
2 Welders
2 Grim Lavamancer

Das_Boot -

There is nothing wrong with Cloud of Faeries. It's great. It's a balancing act, and for me, for the current deck, it doesn't feel like it adds much. I have enough small creatures I can clamp for cards. Rootwalla's cool because it can survive a double clamp initially. In the mid-game I usually had two or three clamps. Paying 1 to draw 2 cards is very good. Paying 1 for a 1/1 flyer that if it dies, will draw 2 cards is better. Playing 2 to draw 4 cards is great.

The only problem with Ornithopter is that I can't pitch it to Force. Otherwise it's perfect.

LeGrow -

It does seem to be converging on a Madness build. I know Arrogant Wurm wouldn't work with the current mana. I really like Circular Logic, but adding another 2cc creature will probably force other changes to maintain the pressure. Probably adding Aether Vial, which I'm on the border of including anyway. Uncounterable creatures rock. It also gets me to the required number of artifacts for the Tinker/Colossus combo.

E Face -

Man, that's a cool approach. Different direction, but really good. If I could suggest a few changes,

-4 Mana Leak (I don't think you need the colorless)
-1 Dib
-1 Mana Crypt
-1 Lotus Petal
+2 Daze
+2 Chain of Vapor
+3 Glimpse of Nature (This may improve some otherwise weak hands and make it less imperative that you get a clamp)

How well did it work?

[/quote]

I too love Parfait. In the pre-proxy era, it was my one of my two favorite type one decks (second being Enchantress).

I agree that Land Tax isn't the asset it used to be. I'd probably have it in the SB though for game two against control.

I love Ivory Mask, but probably wouldn't use it these days. It's too slow for when you need it. I would probably use True Believers and Gilded Light instead. It will be a road bump against combo one or two turns earlier.

Two of the cheapest disruptors of many decks are Root Maze and Null Rod. Root Maze can be amazing in slowing the game down

If you define Parfait as a prison/control style deck using Land Tax/Scroll Rack as a draw engine, then I have to agree that Parfait is dead. I think white prisons decks could still be playable, but you definitely need another draw engine.

One card I'm really liking is Sensei's Divining Top, but I have found any way to make it card advantage.

Good luck and have fun.

LeGrow -
I sided in the Welders, but game two was such a dud that I didn't see anything.

I don't think GAT would be a problem. I wouldn't play out all threats, clamp madly to get a second clamp in hand, and side in stifle and Boas. Also, I think Chain might have been a godsend for bouncing my stuff.

It's funny how with Brainstorm, shuffle effects, and drawing 4-6 cards per turn, you tend to find solutions

Glimpse is interesting. If I wanted to add it, I would have to adjust the manabase. What usually stopped me from clamping was running out of mana. However, yesterday I started thinking about a non-combo version of Kobolds. Maybe Ornithopters, Cloud of Faeries, Glimpse, Skullclamp, Frogmites as the basis.

The 2 Dibs were perfect. Being the only 3cc spells, they weren't harsh to cast, and I really needed the evasion. The life lose really had no effect except against Greg with his (expletive deleted) Maze.

The Aquamoebas are really tempting, more because it gives me Circular Logic.  My first turn would be a little weaker, though. Definitely would want to add Sol Ring and Black Lotus (I probably should have had those anyway). Really good suggestion. Maybe Clamp Madness is the sweet spot.

jazzykat-
I think that's a good direction too. Setting myself up as a target, I think Skullclamp might be the best card drawing engine in T1. There are a lot of great one and two drop creatures that you can clamp if you don't need them immediately. I definitely think it's better than Standstill or Curiosity.

I like Cloud of Faeries if you just want to use it as a weak Ancestral (cost U, draw 2 cards). The only minor downside is it can't survive clamping. It's strange to say it would be a better match if it was a 0/2 (basically a blue ornithopter).

It also feels like it could move the deck into a different feel (more control) which may not be bad.

This week, I attended a 10 proxy T1 tournament at a local cardshop. As usual, I wanted to play something different, so I chose the following deck I've been tinkering with. It's sort of Fish with Skullclamp as the  drawing engine.

Cheap Clamp Control

4 Skullclamp
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush

4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Kird Ape
2 Seredib Efrets
2 Grim Lavamancers

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Fire/Ice
2 Artifact Mutation
1 Time Walk

4 Land Grant
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
2 Tropical Island
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Taiga
1 Volcanic Island
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire

SB
3 Chill
3 Root Maze
2 Stifle
2 Goblin Welder
2 River Boa
2 Naturalize
1 Magus of the Unseen

The approach was to build a deck that used Skullclamp as a draw engine,  but didn't depend heavily on Skullclamp. I initially chose UGr because  green has great creatures, blue has great cheap disruption, and red gives me two powerful and versatile cards: Fire/Ice and Artifact Mutation.

For creatures, Mongrel and Rootwalla were obvious choices because they  are solid on their own, and get better with skullclamp. Grim Lavamancer was  also very attractive because it is one of the most powerful 1cc creatures. Initially I tried Gorilla Shaman and Goblin Welder maindeck. With the  light manabase, Gorilla Shaman really didn't work well. I chose Kird Ape  instead because he was a reasonable body. I also wanted a few finisher  creatures. Initially I looked at Horned Kavu, but I didn't want more multicolor  spells and he didn't have evasion. I settled on Dibs because they flew and  pitched to Force.

For spells, Force was obvious. From playing Fish, I am very fond of  Daze maindeck (mostly sided out game 2 and 3). The threat of Daze is better  than Daze itself. Initially I was running Obsessive Search for the  Mongrels. However with the shuffling effect from the fetchlands, and having only  4 discard outlets, Brainstorm became the obvious choice. Since I have  limited maindeck removal, Chain of Vapor seemed like a good choice for delaying  my opponent.

For the sideboard, I wanted utility but I also wanted to deal with two deck I  hate to lose to: Sligh and artifacts. Chill seem the obvious anti-tempo choice.Root Maze was cheap and slowed down most other decks. Stifle is seldom  wasted (especially with fetchlands and wastelands). I thought Welder might help me  mess with artifact decks, and it's a good clamp target. River Boa is a great creature. If he was 2/2 he'd definitely be maindeck. Naturalize for  random problems. Magus because he's just sooo cool.

Out of 16 people, I came in 2nd, losing in the finals to a modified control slaver deck. I had the following matchups.

Round 1 - Meandeck Oath variant - 1-2

The night before, I helped my friend test this deck. He had wanted to  play something new too, but work and life got the best of him. The major differences I remember from the standard build was main deck Maze of  Ith, 2 Gaea's Blessings, and the following creatures: Akroma, Phantom Nishoba,  and Plated Slagworm. The Slagworm was a late night mistake - he thought it  had trample. The Phantom Nishoba was to help against red and swarm decks.

This was the most exciting deck to play against. If I resolved a clamp, before he he got an Oath to stick, I had a very good chance of winning.  My approach was to clamp madly to get either a lot of threats or a lot of disruption. On my side, the Dibs and Mongrels were golden. He was very hesitant to run Akroma up against a double clamped Dib to give me 4  cards. On his side, the Maze and Nishoba were amazing. It made it torturously difficult to lower has life total.

Round 2 - Ravager - 2-1

Ravager can be like Sligh - sometimes it just wins. Unless you have  global removal, it can have explosive starts that are hard to recover from.  His build had very little removal or disruption aside from Defense Grid. I  won the first game, lost the second to amazing beats, and won the third  game. Root Maze and Goblin Welders made his life miserable in the third game.

Round 3 - Old School Academy - 2-0

He wisely countered the clamps whenever possible, but I had so many creatures and enough counter magic to slow him down

Round 4 - 4CC - 2-0

This felt very much like when I played 4cc at Richmond with UGw fish. I  had more early threats, enough card drawing, and enough disruption to get through.  Having my first 3 lands stripped the second game did make  things interesting, though.

Semifinals - Meandeck Oath variant - 2-1

Once again, the games were long and interesting. During the third game  my friend gained a total of 23 life from the Nishoba.

Finals - Control Slaver variant - 0-2

I honestly don't know how to play against this deck. First game I made  some good headway only to suddenly lose (I think it was Mindslaver then Sundering Titan). Second game was the only game I had mana problems. Mulliganed to 4 cards - 2 lands, 2 Force of Will and had no hope of recovering. I'm looking forward to playing this deck more.

Conclusions

I was very pleased with the deck. It's a relatively busy deck to play  which I like, and really fun. For the most part the creature base works  great. The only weak creature, I feel, might be the Kird Ape, only because they  hard to clamp out. In this deck, it would be better as a conditional 2/2 for 1.  I might replace at least some of the Land Grants, since I am playing at  least a partial control game and I think revealing my hand hurt me sometimes.  I enjoyed the sideboard, especially the Root Mazes, Stifles, and Welders.  I think it could still use some work, though.

I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or any other matches you  think might be problematic.

Reckless Embermage

Daze works on the first turn. Spiketail is sitting in your hand waiting to be pitched to FoW. Spiketail is only mana denial when in play. Once you play Daze, it's a threat whenever you have a card in your hand.