Once again, congrats on the win


Well, I'm completely sure that Meloku is the suck compared to Triskelevus - in this matchup; but I didn't draw my Triskelavus. Meloku earned his keep throughout the day by creating guys and saving lands from waste effects.

@Twaun007: You're 0-2 against me now - first belcher, now CS. Shall I bring fish next time? To tell the truth, I was pretty worried going into the T8 against you - after talking smack before the tournament I was sure I was going to have to eat my words! Alas, my deck smiled upon me and gave me good cards!

@Nat: always a pleasure

@Mr. Type 4: congrats on the win

I have been playing around with the top-counterbalance combo, and I would suggest that 4 tops are too many. 3 is the upper limit and even that may be too many. Also, I have found impulse to be very good at clearing away crap from the top of your library when a fetchland or other shuffle effect is not on hand.

I have been toying recently with the "extra" non-basic slot in CS. Academy is a given, but I have found library to be really sub-par in certain metagames. So, I play Library in control metas, citadel in stax metas, and mishra's factories in fish metagames. I really like factory in slaver, because it's another win condition and has come in handy. I should mention that I run crucible.... that's pretty relevant here. Anyway, I really like factory, but 4 factory's in the board is overkill. You are better off using those slots for diabolic edict if oath is such a problem. I apologize beforehand if your post was meant to be sarcastic. I thought it might be, but there was a glint of usefulness about it that made me give pause.

I've actually been running 2 Ensnaring Bridge and 2 Diabolic Edict in my sideboard. While they are not useful in a LOT of matchups, I have had success with ensnaring bridge against random aggro, welderless stax, and weird stuff like Gro. I killed a hard-cast colossus at the RIW tourney in a confidant-masknought deck with diabolic edict, which can come in against fish, even though it is slightly bad because it forces you to rely on black too much (I play lotus petal as well btw). The diabolic edicts replaced pyroclasm in my sideboard because I wanted something useful against Fish AND Oath.  Gilded Drake is useful against oath because they can't grab it with their duresses. I'm not a fan of platz because it's too difficult to protect her from all of oath's bounce/artifact destruction.

I haven't tried Goblin Bombardment, but it looks promising. Since oath checks for conditions at the beginning of upkeep AND on resolution, is their any way for an oath player to get around you sacking all of the spirit tokens and oathing anyway (stack stuff a ceratin way, etc)?

Duress may just be the way to go, because it hurts so many other decks. I will be trying jester's cap again, though I think it's too slow.

Umm.... While it's no less unflattering, here's a more accurate portrayal of what happened: Game one you had  tinker which got countered, then lotus into will which didn't and got you titan, which blew up most of my lands. And all this before turn three. Off the will, you mystical-ed for drain. I also have a savage hand, with the option to tinker or cast yawgmoth's will, but you are holding that silly drain and I decide that I'll bait it with my yawgmoth's will, so that I can tinker up titan and wreck your board, leaving you with no cards in hand and no land, and me with four cards and a couple of land. Problem is, my titan was already in my graveyard from an earlier thirst. Bummer. Menendian and Demars both commented that had I reversed the order in which I baited, I probably could have won, and to some extent I agree, but I had nothing in the yard with which to deal with the almighty titan, so meh.

Yeah, game two was actually a little bit worse than you described, because I flat-out just panicked. I had an early thirst with slaver in the yard, and the LOA going. With shaman out, my hand was filling up fast with good stuff I was going to have to discard, and with you sitting on a tormod's crypt I didn't want to just throw my moxen out to be eaten up. The longer the crypt sat there, the more devastating it was going to be, so yeah, I blew my load on a welder and went aggressive when I had no business doing so. I switched roles WAY too soon. I figured that if I got the shaman out of action, then I would be able to drop my acceleration and draw some cards, bringing me back to seven. The plan did not go so well.

Congrats on your finish, though.

You see, then thing about America is that we citizens have always been able to have guns. It was partially our citizens weaponry that allowed us to rebel and become our own country, free from British rule (whether or not they really helped all that much is another argument). Because of this perception that our militia helped us gain our independence, it was put into our constitution that our citizens could (and should) own firearms, in case the newly formed government should ever get out of hand and need to be overthrown again.

So what we have here in the states is A LOT of guns. You can't take away the guns, because then only people who have no problem breaking the law (most importantly, criminals) would have them.

Should anything ever go awry in this country, leading to lawlessness or something like it, the people with the guns will be running the show. Some people, it seems, have taken this realization to an extreme and stockpile them. Personally, I don't own a gun and do not hunt, but I have thought about getting some guns and ammo to protect myself should something disasterous happen. 

You would bow down to tyranny and oppression before fighting against it? If Hitler invaded your country you would help him round up the Jews in your neighborhood? Maybe I am reading that the wrong way, but to me, living on your knees means being subservient to someone. This sentence blew me away when I read it - it's near-unfathomable.

Good job, Pac! As Revvik's teammate, I must apologize for his gayness. Anyways, what, in your opinion, was the metagame like? Increase in combo, decrease in Oath, or what?

While I don't play burning slaver, my solution for IT has been to change the maindeck to include one Jester's cap and one tormod's crypt. Maindecking those two cards has made my IT matchup favorable. I will be testing leyline of the void, as it seems to have more of an impact to other graveyard-abusing decks in the meta (dragon/dawn of the dead/ichorid/gifts/togless tog/and even control slaver). Sphere of resistance used to be played in CS when TPS was pretty big, but honestly, it's the card I fear most when playing against stax. It makes it harder to sandbag a land and some moxen to cast that rack and ruin. Chalice for zero notwithstanding, of course.

@FFY: what would be the advantages of running gelectrode over Goblin Sharpshooter?

Well, if the gifts goes through unopposed, leaving you still with force backup, I might gifts for: Mindslaver, Thirst, brainstorm, and mystical. If they do give you the mindslaver, you'll be able to hardcast and activate in short order, and if they choose for the slaver to go into the yard, you'll have two draw spells to try and find a welder for it. I do tend to play the deck too aggressively sometimes, though. It also depends on what kind of land they played first turn and what kind of information you could gleam from it. If they waste your land, I would gifts for a more permanent heavy set of cards: 2 on-color moxen, other cards depending on what the other blue cards was.

I'm tired so forgive me if this sounds retarded, but wouldn't this be a decent card for sideboard use as a burning wish target? I mean, if it's late game and you're in topdeck mode you could wish for this tutor, search up will, and end the game. That's a lot of if's, but it could prove useful in that capacity.

When FFY first posted this decklist, I tried and tried to play it unsuccessfully. I concluded that it was either junk, or required much more madskillz than I had. I have played more traditional Control Slaver builds, to some success, for the past 8 months to a year. Anyway, at the last RIW Sapphire event, I played FFY in the first round while I was playing my traditional Control Slaver build and he playing this monstrosity. Basically I got my ass handed to me. With impunity, even.

My question is, how does one's playstyle need to differ from playing traditional CS in order to pilot this deck successfully?


EDIT: I can attest to him dealing lethal damage with a Rolling Earthquake.....

Having just come off a control slaver kick, and being a teammate of Nicolae Antes, who has created Dawn of the Dead, I tooo have falling under CA's spell. Mindslaver is a great suggestion, as is fact or fiction, and I will be adding them to my testing card pool. Here is my current list:

1x God's Eye, Gate to the Reikai (I'm split between this and citadel though but I do like this card)
1x Strip Mine
3x Wasteland
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
1x Tolarian Academy
5x Moxen
4x Sol ring, Lotus, Crypt, Vault

Engine:
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob
2x Life from the Loam

Low-Cost Threats:
3x Animate Dead
1x Necromancy
2x Gorilla Shaman
4x Goblin Welder

High CC Threats:
1x Sundering Titan
1x Triskelion
1x Karn, Silver Golem
1x Platinum Angel
1x Duplicant
1x Possessed Portal

Broken cards:
1x Tinker
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Balance
1x Crop Rotation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk

Metagame cards to help with my bad matchups:
2x Crucible of Worlds
1x Echoing Truth

Some other lists I've seen ran:

Intuition: No doubt, the card is hands down the bomb in this deck. Especially with an active welder. But it costs 3 to cast (trying to keep the curve low) and it's kind of an IF card. IF welder is out it's gold.

Dragon combo - this deck is unfocused enough without throwing a combo into it. If you run dragon you have to run junk like hellkite or laquatus, and one dragon is too random. I realize sometimes it just wins, but alot of other things in this deck do that too, and I'd rather have those slots for other things.

Null Rod - Maybe. I think my combo matchup is probably pretty poor, and Null Rod is such a hoser. If it bothered me I could always weld it out. It also shuts down my nemesis, Tormod's Crypt.

Wheel of fortune - I guess this was ran in case of pithing needle on bazaar in order to have another discard outlet. I have never liked the prospect of handing my opponents seven new cards, though. Frantic Search would be better.

Entomb - I think it's pretty good and have tested it out, but it got cut for balance.

Sideboard as of now:
3x Tormod's crypt
2x OxidiZe
3x Ray of Revelation
3x Xantid Swarm
1x Echoing Truth
1x Shattering Spree
1x Swords to plowshares
1x Jester's Cap

I ditched Rack and ruin because I can never seem to get enough mana to use it against stax. I despise the thought of trading one for one, but oxidize will have to do for now. Shattering Spree could be golden, since I'm running a five-color manabase I should have no problem getting a couple of red mana around to blow some shit up.

the focus of my deck is to animate a big dude. It doesn't have to necessarily be titan. Nowadays, Titan is less useful than he was in cerebral lists of the past because manabases are more stable (fetchlands etc.) and it does jack against decks like stax that are pronounced in the metagame and run few duals or basics. I would much rather just run a toolbox of big artifacts than multiple titans.

Life from the loam isn't really "the plan" but it helps me keep bazaar around, and puts even more stuff into my graveyard. To this end, I kind of think nostalgic dreams would be a good fit in the deck. Allowing me to pitch crap and grab theat ancestral recall and animate dead that I just dredged away (or will even). The thing I like most about the deck is that it has so many must counter spells. Welder, the animates, shaman (for a lot of decks), and of course broken stuff. And if they counter all that stuff and we go to the late game I can probably just hardcast a big man at that point.

I really dislike the force of will plan because you're either pitching it to itself or you have to pitch something like tinker or ancestral to it. If I ran careful study that would be something, but I think that card is weaker than the other ones in the list. Duress sucks against stax, but is gold against control. Same with Xantid Swarm. Crucible is good against everything because it keeps bazaar online, and makes strip, waste, and gemstone recursion possible. Echoing Truth is also good against everything, and could serve to get rid of bad stuff like first turn colossus, pithing needle, and oath creatures. And lock components.

Shattering spree also serves to deal with a chalice for one, opening the door for me to use oxidize. Besides crypt, I think my biggest problem (as it was with CS) was dealing with darkblast. I really need my welders. Tinker for trike hurts too, since you can't get rid of him.

I was the round one casualty of the savageness that is Brian Demars. As Revvik said, I was completely stunned by the Sundering Titan, and then devastated by a rolling earthquake. It was like being shot in the stomach and then pistol-whipped. I don't remember hearing anything about penguins, but it was probably because I was so distraught. After splitting the lotus last time, I never expected to go 0-5 at this tourney. Sorry I couldn't help your tie-breakers, Brian, but it's not like you needed it anyway. Congratulations on your finish!

cryolyte

Team BC for the win AGAIN! W00t!

Congrats again Revvik!

Okay, regarding mana leak: In today's metagame, there are so many threats that can be played that make it VERY difficult for slaver to win. Trinisphere (depending on what comes down next), Dark Confidant, Xantid Swarm, Null Rod, and Sphere of Resistance can all ruin your day. Sure, you have mana drain and force of will, but that's only eight counters. So, you can either go the 4cc direction and pack "answers" or you can pack more counters. I don't know which way is correct; they both have merit. All I am saying is that I appreciate having more counterspells at my disposal. I found that having mana leaks in the early game allowed me to hold my force of wills to force MY things through, as opposed to stopping my opponents threats. Having the early leaks also allowed me to keep brainstorms and other blue cards instead of being faced with a decision of what to pitch to force. Also, mana leak in the late game allows me to stall out my opponent a little bit. I won a game because of it just last week, where I made my opponent play 3 more mana for his topdecked yawgmoth's will (I had no other counters in hand, obv) and the result was that he was one mana short of comboing out with tendrils.  Now, with that example I'm not suggesting that it's awesome late game, but it's better than counterspell because it's easier getting mana for on turn one.

Okay Eandori. I played your deck last night in my stax infested meta and got 4 out of 9 people. Sure it's not a big tourney but it is good for playtesting and it does qualify me to comment on the deck. I was going to just netdeck your list card for card and use it, but I couldn't bear some of the cardchoices you made. It could very well be that I was wrong. It was a 3 round tourney for store credit, and the only deck I lost a game to was 5cStax. Game one being a grinder that he finally pulled off, and game two he drew god (him on the draw, 1st turn land, mana vault, black lotus, 3sphere tinker vault for sundering titan).

But anyways, the card changes I made were:

MD:
-1 Platz, +1 Triskelion completely a meta call since there is no combo and I do see opposing welders and shamans

SB: now here is where I went a different way, completely.
-1 Burnout for +1 REB (sure a card is nice, but less mana is better I think)
-1 Disenchant for +1 Rack and Ruin (stax infested, I said - left one disenchant in though)
-1 Stifle for +1 Rack and Ruin (stax)
-1 Gifts Ungiven for +1 Echoing Truth (I don't really think I needed more CA in the board, even to wish for. CS does pretty well in this department, so I dropped it for more protection)
-3 Wasteland for +1 Tormod's Crypt, +2 Gilded Drake - I wanted some graveyard hate and gilded drake is my pet project.

About the wastelands. I can see where they would be useful is you have down a crucible and the game is long. However, I contend that since CS is so mana intensive (sometimes I want 7 to cast that bus, etc.) losing a land drop (even if you are taking one away from them) is not a good thing. This could have been more of a metagame choice, since I don't have any gifts in the meta. Pertaining to gifts, is your strategy to keep them lower on mana so they can't pull the big gifts combos?

EDIT: Oh, and I REALLY missed the shamans maindeck.

@Everyone Else: Do any of you have an opinion on the gilded drakes? He pitches to force in a pinch, only costs U1, and cannot be taken by duress. He grabs oath creatures and colossus. On the other hand, he's not an instant, so if they bring down the colossus and time walk a couple of times you're screwed. Of course, if you let the game get that out of hand you deserve to lose anyway.

@Eandori: I will playtest that gifts list. I wonder about the missing Shamans (cause he is hotness with a welder out), but who knows. By the way, your post was entertaining to read because it read like an infomercial. BUT WAIT.. THERE'S MORE! It slices, it dices, it loves the graveyard!

Heh

cryolyte

Do you find that you are ever using darkblast's dredge effect? It seems to me that you would not want to risk losing yawgmoth's will to the dredge, since it's very important to CS. I realize that it's not "necessary" to will to win with the deck, but is will so easily cast aside? Or do you just use it once and then only dredge after you brainstorm to decrease the odds of hitting the will (or tinker to a certain extent)

I can see Rich's reasoning for replacing the bus with the colossus. Bus is really good against stax and aggro. Colossus shares these properties, but to a lesser extent against stax, since the stax player can force a sacrifice with a ramped smokey. My first thought was that you're losing the infinite slaver lock, but it seems to me that you probably don't need that very often. Yes, the hard lock is game-over, but sometimes (I hesitate to say usually) one slaver activation is enough to put an opponent far enough behind that they might as well have already lost. And usually you have a few moxen so you can repeat the process if necessary. Of course, this is vintage, where people can win out of nowhere, and giving them that next turn could be fatal, but like so much in this format, it's about the percentages, and those are low enough to make the risk worth it.

A card I have been looking at again is intuition (without the AK engine, and as a one or two-of). If there's an active welder on the table, an intuition spells game over, provided that you have 2 mindslavers in your deck. Did this method fall out of favor because of graveyard hate? It seems like it would be really good. I just wanted to know what other people thought before wasting my time testing something that obviously wasn't accepted as an integral part of the deck.

cryolyte

It was a minor alteration if Ugo's build. I never claimed to have invented it, I just said "here's the decklist". If I remember correctly, here is what I did to Ugo's build before the tournament:

-1 Seat of the Synod
-1 Platinum Angel

+1 Darksteel Citadel
+1 Pentavus

I had heard that those crazy stax players were coming from St. Louis (they didn't though) so I thought that the citadel would be a better card choice. Also, while I appreciate the benefits of Platz, I just can't concieve cutting the bus for her. The reasons for the citadel choice play into this one as well. The bus gives stax major headaches.

My match results are as follows; forgive me for not taking notes:

Round 1 - Draw with Landstill (we had 6 45 minute rounds)
Round 2 - Defeated Shaun Bauer with 5cStax 2-0 (guy who got 2nd at SCG Chicago last)
Round 3 - 2-0 against Workshop Aggro with white
Round 4 - 2-0 against Dragon
Round 5 - 2-1 (I think) against an Oath build with Muddle the Mixture.
Round 6 - ID

Quarterfinals - defeated belcher combo in 3 games. I ate his belcher with my mox monkey turn 3 in one game. In another I slaved him 3 or 4 times in a row to no avail. He never drew any mana, though. His opinion was that tinkering out the mindslaver was a poor play, but had he drawn any mana source whatsoever I would have wrecked everything he had. I had never played against belcher with control slaver so I don't know what the correct call was.

Semifinals - Defeated Stax player in 3 games. Game 3 was lots of fun. I strip locked him game one, and he tinkered up a turn two sundering titan to win game two. Game three, I tinkered up the bus, and the following turn he plays heretic. He nails my bus next turn (ouch) but I make some guys and start eating his permanents with the monkey. Then I weld in his tangle wire to lock him down after he exhausts his gemstone mines to play spells into my wall of drains, leaks and forces.

Me and Bob (rapalaman on here) split the finals.

The game against stax really sold me on the benefit of having mana leak. Now, everyone has their own playstyle, but I really like sitting there and not letting my opponent do anything. (Ah... Turbo Stasis of yore) Not the extent that I would switch to MUC or prison, but it's fun nonetheless. Before I started using the leaks, I often found myself overwhelmed by my opponent and losing control, which led to many (many) game and match losses. I just really like the leaks for that reason.   

@PacmanXSA: Thanks. The only guys I remember meeting with familiar names were everythingitouchdies (for the second time) and Josh Franklin, who helped me figure out what to do to beat Belcher (mad props cause I was so nervous). I swear we all should wear nametags with real names and mana drain aliases on them. Or not. Everyone I talked to was great and the judge was insanely friendly.

As an aside, I suspect the Michigan meta may be the most balanced in the country. The northeast is mostly drains, and the midwest is mostly workshops. This is the sweet spot, where all archtypes are evenly represented; even combo. 

I'm Charly from Team BC (Battle Creek) who split with Bob in the finals. Here is the list I played:

1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Mana Leak
3 Goblin Welder
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Trike
1 Pentavus
1 Mindslaver
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Fact or Fiction

SB:
2 Gilded Drake
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Arcane Laboratory
2 Stifle
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Pyroclasm
1 Echoing Truth

Gilded Drake was for Oath and decks that only pack the colossus as a win condition. It pitches to force and is untouchable by duress so I thought I'd try it. It was boarded in but was never drawn.

The quarterfinals match against belcher was insane. I definitely made some questionable plays, but it all worked out in the end. Yes, I ate his belcher on the second or third turn, and slavered him about 4 times to no avail (as he never drew mana so I could wreck his hand). Meh, it was a learning experience, as I had never played the matchup before. In the semifinals I played a stax decks featuring Tangle Wire. I strip locked him game one, lost game two, and won game 3 despite him heretic-ing my bus (ouch). But in the end pantavite tokens prevailed against the might tangle wire, his gemstones went away and I welded in his own Tangle Wire to lock him down. Bob and I decided to split because there was no second place prize, and playing a game of cards for $600 (or so) is a little too rich for my blood. FYI, in testing the tuesday before the Livonia tourney I owned him with my gilded drakes, but we played each other round one in the Fanfare tournament the tuesday following our split and he totally owned me.

Other decks I faced that day:

Round 1 - draw with landstill (45 minute rounds here people...)
Round 2 - won 2-0 against teammate Bauer
Round 3 - won ??? against Workshop aggro with white
Round 4 - won against dragon
Round 5 - beat Oath (built with muddle the mixture, which got stifled)
Round 6 - ID

Last week at RIW Hobbies in Livonia, Michigan, I split for first (a Black Lotus) with a good friend of mine with this decklist:

1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Mana Leak
3 Goblin Welder
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Trike
1 Pentavus
1 Mindslaver
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Fact or Fiction

SB:
2 Gilded Drake
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Arcane Laboratory
2 Stifle
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Pyroclasm
1 Echoing Truth

The gilded drake was for Oath. It cannot be duressed and it's blue so I thought I'd give it a try. It also could come in for Gifts deck or decks with only the colossus as a win condition. I brought it in in a few matches, but never drew it. For the haters out there, I beat Oath in round 5 allowing me to draw into the top eight. I beat 2-land belcher and stax on my way to the finals. This build was metagamed against a mostly control/combo metagame, with a splash of stax. The leaks were worth their weight in gold, as almost no one expected them, and they allowed me to take a more controllish playstyle. I was concerned about going down to 3 Volcanic Islands, but it was never a problem.

cryolyte

I am. The changes I have made were: -4 Chalice of the Void, +1 Zuran Orb, +1 Fastbond, +1 Crucible of Worlds, +1 Entomb. I haven't actually played a person with it yet, though, but it goldfishes nicely. Of course, these cards serve as an alternate kill. The only entirely dead card on its own is the Zuran orb, and I'm still struggling to make effective gifts piles. If you have one or more of these in your hand or in play, then the piles are savage: fastbond in play, gifts for will, tinker, crucible, zorb. But when you have nothing going on in that department then it would be difficult to choose which route to take. The crucible has pretty good synergy with lftl, and you siggested fastbond would also work (and it is sweet), so I thought, hey, why not throw in one more card in and make it an alternate kill condition? My teammates say it makes the deck lose focus, but I'll test it out anyway. With fastbond out, it takes a good measure of self-control to keep enough lands in yoiur hand to effectively abuse lftl. That's because I'm still a control newb, having played FCG for most of my vintage career. I'm still learning the patience required to play control and I think my tendancy to want to go balls-to-the-wall like I do with FCG is contributing to this. That said, it may also be why I cut the chalices for a combo engine. Time will tell.

@P_f They don't play the food chain in legacy because recruiter is banned. Therefore it's not as explosive.

Why are no fish players playing with gilded drake? I hear that takes care of colossus/oath angels pretty well. Especially if you have an aether vial with two counters on it, but that's a dead deck methinks.

A question I have is: Is it worth running null rod over aether vial/jitte/chalice?

I sleeved this up and played around with it last night, and I like it. You can just play it as you would a regular gifts deck, of course, OR if things start to go badly you can use the lftl engine to build card advantage.

@FFY: From my meager testing, I would say that Tormod's crypt would suck pretty badly. However, no decks that I know of play it maindeck, so you don't need to worry about it game one. Game Two, you have pithing needles from the board, and there's always the mighty shaman.

I'm not sure I like the chalices. Sure they are tinkerbait, and can slow down opponents if you are on the play, but I just think the 4 slots they take up may be better served as something else. Also, they make for easy sideboarding game two if you are on the draw. And I don't like Frantic Search either, because it is too situational. If you dod decide to run the 4x Chalice, I think thirst for knowledge would be alot better here. I'm going to work very hard on cutting something for an entomb. That card belongs in this deck.

@kirdape3: You have some interesting points. I have 2 questions for you:

If you did cut the food chains out of FCG, what do you think about adding white for serenity, orim's chant, and swords from the board?

Do you think that adding aether vial would be good, considering that:
          a) it makes you drop null rod
          b) it would make chalice for one that much more painful (lackey and vial now)

Thanks

I don't think so but I could be wrong.

Orim's Chant:
Kicker W (You may pay an additional W as you play this spell.) Target player can't play spells this turn. If you paid the kicker cost creatures can't attack this turn. 

Abeyance:
Until end of turn, target player cannot play instants, interrupts, or abilities requiring an activation cost. Draw a card. 

With Abeyance they could still play sorceries. Theoretically, they could still combo out on you (or at least do a bit of damage) via draw-7s and tendrils. Sure you get to draw a card, but that's not worth the risk I think. Plus it costs one more mana.

Why did you think Abeyance would be better? Maybe I'm missing some aspect since I don't play combo?