I playtested a few games with Control Slaver Vs. Crusher and only won the games in which Crusher got a slow or poor start. Sphere of Resistance was huge and I was almost always dead before I could even attempt to Slave them.

I had just picked up the deck however and perhaps I spent to much time attempting to set up the ideal situation to Slave, unsure.

Still, Crusher is a really fast aggro deck that is able to place enough presser on Slaver that Slaver either needs to "go off" or lose IMO.

Its a really interesting card functionally and I love seeing cards like this that bend the rules.

Unfortunately, its really way to expensive for Vintage.    I don't think even Cunning Wish for it is viable since that costs 6UUU. Even with Sapphire Medalions, I don't see this being a viable Vintage card.

In Standard however, I could see running 1-2 as a late game uber counterspell.

Exactly. Metalworker and Skullclamp were preemptive bans in Extended to deal with Affinity being absolutely broken! And with Skullclamp banned in the new 1.5 (which I don't agree with), there's only one format you can play with four of this card. Thank god that 1.x gets a rotation in 2005. Only one more PTQ season with TE, Urza's Block and MBC. Then the madness will end.

I'm really happy to see a seperation of the lists myself. However, I think WotC should have done a better job regarding what to ban in the new 1.5. Aside from what was already banned, they simply added the 1.x banned list. Personally, I don't think that Oath of Druids, Hermit Druid, Worldgorger Dragon, Mana Drain (though I see why they did), Metalworker, Skullclamp and Vampiric Tutor need to be banned. I thought that Land Tax didn't at first either, but I understand why. Likewise, Doomsday should be on that banned list along with some of the fast mana (i.e. LED). Otherwise, I'm extremely happy with how this turned out. We have a brand new format to discover on our hands! Ultimately, good job WotC!

And with the seperation of lists of course, Vintage gets some long lost cards. Wow. I have only owned one Fork since I opened it in a booster! Interesting to see if this will see more play. Doomsday I question and I wonder why Regrowth didn't get unrestricted since you can play 8 Regrowth's in "1.5" (Eternal Witness), 4 in Extended and 4 in Standard. Oh well. Still happy to see that some innocent cards were released.

There are MtG store all over the place! Also, depending on the store, there is a vibrant Type 1 base especially away from Boston. Hadley is in Massachusetts afterall.  

So let's see, there's Your Move Games in Sommerville, MA (http://www.yourmovegames.com); Academy Games in Ayer, MA (http://www.magicsingles.com or http://www.themagicacademy.com); TJ Collectibles in Milford, MA (http://www.tjcollect.com); Scholars in Bridgewater, MA; That's Entertainment in Worcester, MA; Gameboro in Worcester, MA; The Beanie Exchange in Springfield, MA... God, I know I'm missing a lot of store's here. There's a few in Salem, MA as well as more on the North Shore. There's a store in Gardner, MA. There's just a lot. You've got plenty of options. Enjoy.

I agree. I cut the 2 Daze a long time ago and have opted for the 2 Oxidize instead. Now I'm thinking of running 2 Fire/Ice instead in order to be able to clear a path for my men in need be, actually have some main deck removal other than Lavamancer and the extra blue card. The Ice part also fits the tempo plan of the deck.

I was testing against a fairly standard version of Stax with no CoW's of their own.

Essentually, the Wastelands and Null Rods are what really did them in. I have main deck Oxidize myself and was never unhappy to draw it against them, but it may be to much.

I also have River Boa over Dryad. I really find that I simply am not explosive enough to grow the Dryad quickly and the perpetual blocker has been invaluable. I just don't think this deck keeps the cards coming fast enough nor does it have enough cantrips, etc. to make it really ugly really quickly like Gro can. And I haven't found myself in a situation (except against Goblins, which is a terrible match up) where I want or even need a big guy.

This is my current build + sideboard:

3 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
1 LoA
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
=24
(I'd really like to fit another dual land or preferably a random Island.)
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Serendib Efreet
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 River Boa
=15
4 Force of Will
1 MisD.
1 Stifle
1 Time Walk
2 Oxidize
3 Null Rod
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Curiosity

Board:
3 Artifact Mutation
3 REB
2 BEB
2 Fire/Ice
2 Maze of Ith
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 MisD.
1 Stifle

First, I haven't been disappointed with Serendib Efreet. I really like having the four in the butt and the fact that he's blue. The one point of damage per turn hasn't really effected any match ups negatively except the Goblin match up and even then, I'm usually dead the turn after I cast him anyway.

I'm thinking that I'd really like to turn those Oxidize's into Fire/Ice. More blue spells to feed Force of Will (I find I have no blue cards in hand a lot with this deck) and a way other than Lavamancer to cut a path for my men to hit. It may be metagame dependant, but worth trying.

I tested this version of Fish against workshop.dec heavily and had absolutely no trouble against them with out CoW main. I sideboard one instead. However, whenever I cast it, I was never unimpressed or wished it was something else.

I'm actually beginning to think that it may be important to have on main deck in this version (especially with out a random Island) not only to abuse the hell out of the deck's disruption, but to attempt to counter your opponent's own disruption. This version of Fish really doesn't want to see a lot of strip effects coming from the other side of the table.

Wow, I'm impressed with all the wonderful information. It is actually easier currently to find useful information regarding almost every Type 1 deck imaginable than either Block or Standard. Mostly involving actually discussing a deck.

That said and being new to TMD, I'm still rather confused on to what this deck's plan is in any particular match up. How does this deck actually manage to win? Especially since comparativly its power level is lower than almost every other deck out there.

Even when you compare WTF's cards to decks like $tax, Slaver, 4cc, etc., WTF comes up really short in power level. Even the creatures themselves aren't very intimidating compared to 7/10's, 11/11's, smiling 1/2's, and little green monsters that have a habit of getting bigger. This deck doesn't do anything particularly broken and really only has four hard counters with out Voidmage. Isn't Spiketail and Daze easy to play around in a format with Moxen, Lotus, Workshops, etc? Even with Null Rod in play, isn't it easy to play around?

Instead, why isn't there a deck like CounterSliver that has the same basic premise, yet with obviously better creatures?