Congrats on the win Gagooch!  I got to watch the finals match, that was a very nicely done will+tendrils the turn before you were gonna die.  And hey..where's Outlaw?

Counterspells ARE disruption in case you forgot.  If you can't get an Oath to resolve by turn 3 or 4 against a deck packing 4 Fow, 4 Drain, you don't stand too much of a chance.  Plus most decks like Gifts, Slaver, Confidant Combo, TPS, etc. have 1-2 maindeck bounce spells.  So that's 4 more decks right there that have 10+ disruption cards against Oath.

Yeah so I kinda missed that post there.  Oh well.  Anyways, I don't think that Tinker/DSC is the best idea in this deck.  He's not running Moxen, and there's really no need for another kill condition anyways.  Which brings me to the next point, that the manlands are a good idea, it's just that Factories are vastly superior to Conclaves.  No B2B means that running manlands are a fine idea as a win condition. 

Chalice for 1 isn't the most common number to set it to in this deck.  As a budget player, you need a way to compete against Moxen and Lotus, and dropping Chalice for 0 on the play is a much better solution than Null Rod, because you don't want to be tapping down to cast it. 

I completely agree with your comments about Sol Ring, Strip Mine, and Mystical Tutor.  Also, I play in New England, so there's a decent chance that I've never even seen a Chalice set at 2 before, because Workshops in New England are basically nonexistent.  It's a good observation, and I'd probably take +t's advice and throw a pair of Rushing Rivers into the deck, maybe in place of the second Truth and second Disenchant.

Sorry for the double post.

This deck REALLY, REALLY wants Mana Drains.  You don't want to be tapping out to cast an Ophidian on turn 3...Draining a spell on turn 2 lets you cast Ophidian on turn 3 and still have UU or 1U available to cast another Drain or Mana Leak.  If you don't have them/can't proxy them (I know you mentioned it was a no-proxy meta) I would suggest just playing UW Fish.  However, I've always been a huge fan of Blue-based "underpowered" control decks, and they seem to be the only decks I can get consistent good results with.  I do like your idea, and I have a few comments that I think could improve the deck significantly.  If you do want to stick with a more controllish build, as opposed to UW Fish, here's where I would go with it:

1)  Morphling needs to go.  Desperately.  Without Drains you have absolutely no way to accelerate her into play...and as a control deck you NEVER want to be tapping down 5 lands on your mainphase to play anything.  4 Ophidians and 4 Mishra's Factories (and yes you are correct that the Conclaves should become Factories) should provide an ample enough clock with all the control elements you have.  And now you get 2 more slots for utility cards.

2)  Meddling Mage belongs in more of a Fish-style UW deck.  Don't get me wrong, he's awesome, but again, you don't want to be tapping down on your mainphase.  4 Ophidians are already a bit of a stretch without Mana Drains, but they're necessary to the deck.  Mages, on the other hand, are not necessary, so I would cut them. 

3)  For the most part, the manabase looks pretty solid.  However, I think 2 basic Plains and 4 Tundra are overkill, especially if you cut the Mages.  I would add a Sol Ring to get to 23 mana sources (it makes Phid way easier to cast, and lets you keep counter mana up after playing it), and swap one Plains and one Tundra for 2x Polluted Delta.  This way, you have more shuffle effects for your Brainstorms, which can function as a decent draw engine.  And you can still find your white mana when you need it.  Also, there is absolutely no reason to be running 4 Wastelands and 0 Strip Mine.  I would add the Strip Mine as a 24th "mana source," but it should really be considered a utility slot, because you don't ever want to be playing it on turn 1 (unless you're on the draw and your opponent plays a turn 1 Bazaar or Workshop).

4)  I would recommend cutting the Chalices and going up to 4 Null Rods, but without Drain, Null Rod is just another spell you don't want to play on your mainphase.  So instead, I would recommend losing the 2 Null Rods.  Chalice does come down for free, after all.  Plus, with all the utility room you have available, you can find other spells that can cover most of the things Null Rod did, and that also have other applications.

5)  So, here are the changes we have so far:
-2 Morphling
-4 Meddling Mage
-2 Null Rod
-1 Plains
-1 Tundra
+2 Polluted Delta
+1 Strip Mine
+1 Sol Ring

So we've got 6 more slots to get some additional utility cards into your build.  Here's what I would recommend:
+3 Stifle: I think Stifle is SO underplayed in decks like this.  It has so many incredible uses that I just can't justify not running it in this deck when you have the room.  Stifling a Mindslaver activation, a Welder activation, an opposing Wasteland, or even the trigger on your opponent's Drain mana can set them back a turn and really mess with their long-term gameplan.  Not to mention, you're running 4 Chalice of the Void, 4 Wasteland, and 1 Strip Mine, so Stifling opponent's fetchlands can help with your mana denial plan.
+1 Mystical Tutor: DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, CUT BALANCE.  After taking this deck to a tournament or 2, I bet that not only will you be glad you didn't cut Balance, but you'll find that Balance, more than anything else in the deck, is what you're looking for with the Mystical Tutor.
+1 Disenchant, +1 Echoing Truth: These are both very good additions to the utility section of your deck, and will further help you improve your Oath matchup, which is starting to look pretty darn good, at least on paper.

Null Rod in mox-less Oath is WAY better than Chalice.  See how it runs if you swap the 4x Chalices for 4x Null Rods.

It's an instant, it only costs U, it cantrips so it's never really dead...I'm sure someone can come up with a way to abuse this card with all the game-winning sorceries out there.  It lets FlameVault win at Instant speed for an extra U, or you can Tinker out Colossus EOT so that you kept Drain mana up on their turn.  Not too shabby.

I also agree that any deck running blue should play Time Walk.  Even in Storm Combo decks, Time Walk wins RIGHT NOW when you have a Necro on the table (as opposed to a turn later without the Walk), a very valid reason to run it especially when the modern control decks have their own combo finishes, and you may never get that untap step you need to win.

You are 2/3 correct, and 1/3 completely wrong.  FlameVault is flat-out INCREDIBLE against fast aggro decks, and is just as amazing against combo, because it gives you the ability to race them.  However, FlameVault is by NO MEANS better against control decks.  In the mirror, against CS, against Mono-U, basically against any deck with Mana Drains (excluding the Oath variants that still run it) I would always prefer to have Belcher and Severence than FlameVault.  This has already been said a million times, but it doesn't seem like people have really paid attention.  You don't need to win all at once against control, which makes just hardcasting Belcher off Drain mana early in the game a great play.  The ability of Belcher Severence to "win small" against a control mirror is amazing because it has 2 cards that fit perfectly into that game plan.  Belching for 2-3 a turn is a relatively slow clock, but against another control deck, it's all you need.  And we've already been through the idea of randomly casting Severence to improve your topdecks, but until you've done it a few times in a tournament, you can't really know how well it works.  Plain and simple, it wins games against control by finding you Ancestral/Will/Gifts/whatever a turn or 2 earlier than your opponent.  So, in short, if you play against a lot of aggro, combo, stax, and oath, play FlameVault.  But, if you live in New England, or anywhere else where the meta is ALL control, Belcher Severence is just a better option.

I know this has been discussed to death in another post, but I figured I should mention it once here only because you kind of ignored it:



Actually, there are plenty of matchups (that are becoming VERY popular) where you want the FlameVault kill.  Against any aggro deck that can play an early, fast clock (i.e. FCG, Shop Aggro), against Stax, against any combo decks (TPS, GrimLong, 2-Land Belcher), and even against Oath, you want to have the FlameVault kill available to you; that way, you have the option of out-comboing them.  And, let's face it, you're not going to be able to build up a storm count of 10 for Tendrils of Agony against a deck where you are casting Brainstorm and your other draw spells on their turn to dig for answers.  Bottom line is, this is a 2-card combo that costs 6 mana (not that much for a Gifts deck) and wins RIGHT NOW.  Not 2 turns from now like Darksteel Colossus does.  Having the FlameVault combo in your deck lets you race a turn 1 lackey, turn 2 siege-gang + piledriver, turn 3 Warchief, and it lets you race a turn 1 Oath of Druids (which is a HUGE problem for this deck, as you mentioned).  Now, I'm not saying that you should absolutely run the FlameVault kill, but if those are the decks that you expect to play against, it should certainly be a consideration.

Who said anything about him having a Vamp tutor??  If he actually had had one, letting the Tinker resolve would clearly be the right play, but he didn't mention anywhere that he had a vamp in hand.

I know I already mentioned this earlier in the thread, but JigglyPuff just provided me with a perfect example of how important the fact that Severence is a blue card can be.  If he's playing FlameVault instead, he loses this game.


The problem with the 4 Gifts / 0 Thirst configuration is exactly as you pointed out: barring a draw with ridiculous mana acceleration, Thirst always comes online turn 2, as opposed to turn 3 for Gifts.  So when your Gifts list is casting Merchant Scroll or Brainstorm (both turn 1 plays) on turn 2, we are casting Thirst For Knowledge and looking at more cards, drawing us into more counterspells and gas for your next turn Gifts Ungiven.  This deck runs so many tutors, plus Brainstorm/Fetch, that you NEVER have a problem finding a Gifts when you need it.  The problem with running 4 Gifts is that you usually don't need to cast Gifts more than once, and you NEVER want to cast it more than twice.  One resolved Gifts is almost always going to give you enough of a lead in either the card advantage or card quality war that it will inevitably lead to a win. 

And to respond to Rakso, Dozer was right on with what he said about Flame Fusillade maindeck:

If Fusillade is in the sideboard, it takes away any advantage that the combo has over Belcher and Severence.  It is no longer faster, it requires RR (as opposed to simply U and colorless with Severence Belcher) to go off, and it probably needs to be stretched out over 3 turns, leaving the Time Vault in play VERY vulnerable to artifact destruction or bounce effects (the first obviously being much more detrimental than the second, because it forces you to find Will or Tinker to win).  However, this doesn't mean that you can't run both a Burning Wish and a Fusillade in the maindeck.  You'll lose one metagame slot, but it allows you to keep the ability to recur Time Walk 3 or 4 times.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking.  Are you wondering why the combo piece (Severence or Fusillade) is in the maindeck as opposed to the sideboard?

This is completely untrue.  In order to know whether or not FlameVault is worth running, it is necesary to analyze how the deck performs with the alternate combo.  To reiterate what Cross said, and was quoted on, the COMBO itself is cheaper than casting Severence, Casting / Tinkering for, and activating Belcher.  However, part of the beauty of the Belcher/Severence list was its ability to win by casting just one of the combo pieces after both players had expended all of their gas or had just fought a counter war over an important spell.  Let's face it: hardcasting Belcher is a fairly fast clock even without Severence, and forces the opponent to either waste time dealing with it while you build up a hand to combo them out, or it makes them race what is usually about a 3-5 turn clock.  Hardcasting Severence is also amazing when you are behind in a game and need to topdeck better, or in the mid-to-late game when you want to draw your gas before your opponent draws theirs. 

That said, FlameVault has its clear advantages.  Gifts decks run pretty much all of the broken acceleration in addition to Drains, and it is MUCH easier to go off on turn 2-3 if you draw both combo pieces and some acceleration, whereas having a Belcher and a Severence in your hand almost always equals a mulligan.  Fussilade isn't a blue card, and not being able to pitch it to FoW will matter sometimes.  If your hand is FoW, Severence, Gifts and your opponent casts a must-counter, you will almost always pitch the Severence (obviously there are certain cases where it is not the play, but the majority of the time it is correct).  However, if the Severence was a Fussilade, you will end up pitching the Gifts and be forced to enter topdeck mode. 



You are somewhat correct in saying that dead combo pieces doesn't necesarily mean that the combo is bad; what it does mean, however, is that you NEVER want to see the combo pieces on their own, which will increase your mulligans, and in effect reduces your hand size by one when you draw one of them, especially when neither one is Blue and therefore can't even pitch to Force like Illusions or Donate could.

To be honest, I'm still not sold as to either combo being better.  I actually think it highly depends on the metagame.  For example, our team was expecting a good amount of Workshop decks at Waterbury, and ran a list closer to SSB than GG Gifts to have Welders, which drastically improves our matchup against Stax or Shop Aggro.  With Welders, Belcher becomes a lot better than Vault because you can win small by playing a Welder, Thirsting a Belcher into the yard, and just activating it for 4-5 turns for the win.  If you are expecting a lot of Combo decks or fast aggro decks, you may want to run FlameVault because it can out-combo combo much more effectively than Severence Belcher can.  It is also worth noting that if you are running Severence Belcher and your opponent is running FlameVault, you can cast one of your "combo" pieces as a win condition or a pseudo-win condition and they cannot, which effectively gives your deck 2 more must-counter spells than your opponent's deck.  I mean, you're not too concerned if your opponent has a Time Vault on the table unless they have Fussilade in hand.  But they certainly have to be concerned if you have a Belcher in play, or if you aren't going to topdeck any more lands for the rest of the game.

Edits: Fixed quotes and gotta give mad props to my boy JigglyPuff.  Congrats on another excellent finish!

Yeah...it's awful hard to beat Off Twice.  Okay, sorry, I just couldn't help myself.  Props to JigglyPuff and the other Beanie guys for coming up with what's gotta be the best team name i've ever heard.

RAWR!!!  Taco Machine wins Beta Power!!!  Cross - awesome job yesterday and congrats on the excellent finish, and of course congrats to Travis for winning with another awful deck  (just kidding...but not really).  GGs can thank Outlaw for making another good metagame call, unfortunately Andy, Outlaw, and myself got paired up with too much random shit instead of the infinite Dragon, Stax, and FCG lists that were floating around.  Last but DEFINITELY not least, thanks to Ray for running yet another incredible tournament...and the free Mana Drain was pretty sweet too 

PS. I'm pretty sure Cross got the list right card-for-card, in case anyone cares.

Out of all the points that have been made in this thread, there has not been one that I disagree with more than this.  I won at least 3 games (during a 6-round tournament) as a direct result of having a Sundering Titan in my maindeck instead of Pentavus, and there was not one time throughout the whole tournament when I wished I had played Pentavus instead.  I will grant that Sundering Titan is not very good when you are facing Stax all day long, but against everything else Titan has been nothing short of incredible.  I won game 3 of a tournament match against Outlaw this past weekend because Titan, and not Pentavus, was in my maindeck.  By the way, he was playing Fish, a deck that is supposed to beat Control Slaver way more often than it loses.  However, Sundering Titan can completely swing this matchup in favor of CS.  One CIP effect of Titan, in certain situations, can be even better than a Mindslaver activation.

And as for long-term plans, the long term is certainly not something you should be worried about if you just Welded/Tinkered in a Titan.  You should be concerned with doing whatever you can to protect it for 2 or 3 turns until it can beat down for the win.  It doesn't matter if Titan is the only permanent you are left with on the board if you just Armageddoned your opponent's entire mana base.

While I agree with your take on Fish, I have to strongly disagree with what you say about Oath.  First of all, it is A LOT more common for Oath to just go Orchard, Mox, Oath with 2 counterspells in hand than it is for Slaver to play a turn 1 Tinker (or a turn 1 Welder, Mox turn 2 Thirst) and have both spells resolve.  If a turn 2 Akroma in a deck running 15 counterspells isn't broken, I don't know what is.  Plus, I don't think anyone will disagree that Oath is much simpler to play than Control Slaver. 



While all of these decks certainly have some bad matchups out there, there are several individual CARDS (as opposed to decks) that Slaver autoloses to WHEN it is being played by an inexperienced player.  Do you think a Slaver player with little to no experience will be able to play around a turn 1 Tormod's Crypt from Fish without having Tinker and FoW backup in their opening hand?  Most likely, the answer is no.  And they almost certainly lose to a turn 2 activation of Jester's Cap unless they happened to have a big creature in their opening grip.  Hell, even an early Gorilla Shaman or 2 Wastelands can be difficult for a new player to overcome. Being able to play around hate with Slaver is something that can only be learned through experience, and there is NO way an inexperienced player will go 2-2 or 3-2 if they have to play against Tormod's Crypt, Lava Darts, Gorilla Shaman, Rootwater Thieves, Wastelands, and Meddling Mages round after round.


This strategy is perfectly fine to relay to a new player if they are going to be facing Fish, Stax, and RG beats all day.  However, if they are paired up against a better player who is also packing Drains (Oath, Gifts, SSB, CS Mirror, Mono-U), they will get absolutely destroyed, and that is a fact.  Again, it takes a great deal of experience for a new player to learn to utilize Mana Drain with the same efficiency as someone who has been playing with and against it for a while.

NO.  If you are looking for a deck to take to your first T1 tournament, it should ABSOLUTELY not be Control Slaver.  While it is relatively easy to understand the basic concept of Control Slaver, it is one of, if not the the most difficult deck(s) in the format to play well.  I would suggest a deck such as Oath or Workshop Aggro to take to your first few tournaments until you have a better understanding of the metagame.  

That said, I will attempt to address some of your other questions.  First, there are 2 reasons why DSC is not run in this deck.  1) You cannot weld it in from your graveyard, so it does not have very good synergy with Welder or Thirst for Knowledge (you discard it and it is shuffled back in).  2) Opposing Welders will weld out your Colossus, giving you back whatever artifact you sacrificed to pay the additional cost of Tinker.  If you play somewhere where there is a lot of Fish but no decks running Welders, DSC could be added to the maindeck.  

I don't really know why this deck runs 1x Snow-Covered Island, but most Slaver decks should run one of them to support 1x Gifts Ungiven.  This can be one of the most game-breaking cards in the deck, and there is no reason not to run one copy of it.  It can also act as a double Entomb (search for only 2 cards and both go to your graveyard).  

I would agree with Pip that this deck has a slightly favorable matchup against Stax, because you run your own Goblin Welders.  Resolving one, and keeping theirs off the table, is a good way to win game one, and after boarding, a well-timed Rack and Ruin can wreck Stax as well.

I can understand why you don't like the Deep Analyses in the maindeck...and it's really simple.  There are better cards out there to run in their place.  1x Gifts Ungiven should be in the maindeck, and lately, lists with Gorilla Shamans maindeck have been performing very well.  They are great against almost every deck out there, but the matchup where they really shine (obviously besides the mirror match) is, believe it or not, Fish.  You can pay 3 to eat their Aether Vials, 1 to eat their Chalice for 0, or 5 to eat an Umezawa's Jitte...if you can keep these 3 artifacts off the table you will find that Fish becomes a VERY favorable matchup.

Without Deeps, Intuition becomes a card that's decent at best, and can't be used as reliable card draw, so I would cut them for 1 Fact or Fiction and 1 maindeck bounce spell, probably Echoing Truth.

I would also cut the Crucible of Worlds and the 2 lands that go with it (seat of the synod and strip mine).  It's always been a "win-more" card in my opinion, and as for the 2 lands, I would much rather have another Fetch and another Basic Island, so that you are less vulnerable to Wastelands.  Replace the Cruible with another Mindslaver.  I also personally find Duplicant to be sub-par, and I think Sundering Titan's CIP ability is just insane right now, but I'm sure there will be people who disagree with this and would rather have Duplicant.  Unless you see a lot of Oath around you, I would recommend swapping the Duplicant for a Titan.  

If you really want to play Control Slaver, test A LOT.  The more you play any deck the better you get at it, and the less play mistakes you will make.  This is especially true with Slaver.  And keep in mind that most T1 decks do broken things.  Against almost every deck, one or 2 activations of Mindslaver should be enough to win you the game.

Going X-1-1 and not making top 8 SUCKS...anyways congrats to John and Matt (who could be the best topdecker I've ever seen haha) and to teammates Outlaw and BrassMan for making T4 and T8.  And thanks to Hatch for running another awesome tourney and for the free cake!!

Actually, these do not in any way make painlands obsolete in T1.  The only decks that use painlands play with Sundering Titan, and these new dual lands still count as their respective basic land types, so they have the same terrible synergy with Titan as old duals do.  These lands from Ravnica should not in any way effect the number of painlands played in T1.

I think I completely agree with Kyle.  URphid has always given me good results around here (RI/Mass/Ct) because it has all the tools to beat Fish, Slaver, and anything with Workshops.  The combination of Fire/Ice, reusable draw, more counterspells, and (if you believe the metagame warrants running it) Gorilla Shaman, all contribute to give URphid the definite edge in this matchup.

I don't think he means that you shouldn't play a copy of Gifts in Tog, I think he was leaning more towards something along the lines of "why play Tog at all?"  If you want to cast Gifts Ungiven, there are just better decks to do it with, where casting a Gifts means GG.  Getting Lotus + Cunning Wish is hardly game over, especially since once they recognize that your Gifts is weaker than in, say, Meandeck's build or BrassMan's build, they could just allow your Gifts to resolve and counter the Wish to gain tempo. 

Hatch: despite the re-re-pairings and the sweltering heat, this was an awesome and very well run tournament.  I had a blast...bolting Juggernauts and Welders allll day long was fun, and your prizes were incredible.  I think I won the mintiest Bazaar of Baghdad I've ever seen.  I'm gonna do my best to be at your next one.  Seriously guys you should try to make it out to West Springfield for one of these.

P.S.  We be representin the GGS...3 people in T8...y'all betta recognize.

I believe that 15 proxies should become the standard for Vintage tournaments.  Once we start using 20+, it can become quite tedious.  Imagine playing against an opponent with 1/3 or even 1/2 of his or her deck comprised of proxies.  It would cause games to move much more slowly when one is required to ask their opponent "what card is that again?" and "how exactly is it worded?" every time theat opponent casts a spell, and (it seems) that it would cause an obscene amount of rounds to be drawn because game 3 could not be finished because of all the time wasted explaining a card's relevant text. 
15 seems to be the correct number because it allows a deckbuilder to use the full P9, a Library of Alexandria, and a set of Mana Drains/Bazaars of Baghdad/Mishra's Workshops/Illusionary Masks when constructing their deck.  If one wants to compete seriously in Type 1, I don't think it's too much to ask of them to buy 4 or 5 sets of dual lands, 3 sets of fetchlands, a set of Force of Wills, and a couple of T1 staples such as Demonic Tutor, Yawg's Will, etc. 

Well...I don't really want to rip off everyone else who posted on this thread so far, so I promise I won't say TO DAVE FEINSTEIN!!!....dammit.  Dave congrats on another excellent finish with G/R beatz and thanks for another hilarious tournament report.   See you at the next one!  Go-go lightning bolts!

did you know that Dave Feinstein invented team Meandeck while still in the womb, and, before leaving his own team to swing with Kird Apes, handed the reins over to his twin brother....Smmemnarch?!?!?!

The key word in Hippo's ability is "may".  Whenever possible, you don't want to give your opponent the choice of whether or not to take damage.  This guy is strictly worse than Skyfolk, as, for the same mana cost, he doesn't fly and he lets the opponent choose whether or not to take damage.

It seems like Tinker would be trash in this deck...you only have 4 artifacts to tinker out.  I would cut Tinker and Colossus, which would free up room for 2 more counterspells...maybe Misdirections.  Also, Daze is not very effective without Spiketail Hatchling. I would consider changing the 3 Daze to Stifles, as they are WAY more versatile (Stifle a slaver activation, Stifle Dragon's CIP ability, Stifle a Fetch/Wasteland, Stifle a Standstill trigger...the list goes on and on).  I would also take Greenebean's suggestion and replace Null Rods with Chalices.  They are more versatile than Null Rod and can be played on turn 1 for 0 or turn 2 for 1...you will never be setting the Chalice to more than 1 anyways, so the issue of casting it should not be a problem, because Chalice 1 costs the same as a Null Rod.  I would lean towards Brainstorm instead of Impulse because it is cheaper and has better synergy with your fetchlands.  It seems like you have way too many plains in the deck as well.  With 4 Tundras and 4 Strands, it shouldn't be a problem finding white mana when you need it, so I would go down to maybe 2 basic Plains and up to 8 or 9 Islands.

I wasn't surprised in the least when I saw this thread here.  About 2 weeks ago I mentioned to Mixing Mike that I was thinking it was a great time to bring Titan back, and I almost decided to take it to the Beanie Exchange, but didn't because I wasn't comfortable playing after such a long hiatus and no recent testing.  However, I think the deck absolutely needs another mana source, even if it means playing 61 cards.  24/61 is a much safer ratio than 23/60, and the 24'th source could be a second Underground Sea, meaning you could run D.T. over the 4th Intuition or Mystical Tutor.  I would also consider replacing an off-color mox with a Mana Vault, because it makes the deck a turn faster whenever you draw it, and can cast a turn 1 Crucible from a hand of land, vault, CoW, which would just add another way to draw one of the deck's "oops, I win" hands.  It is also better than a mox when you cast Y.Will and will usually allow you to cast one extra draw spell during your Will turn that you wouldn't have been able to cast if it had been, say, a mox pearl.  A Tolarian Academy is also a MUST, as it will always tap for at least 1, and is not affected by Titan's C.I.P. ability.  It's better than a basic island in every way except that it cannot be fetched out, Wastelands don't really matter either because you have Crucible.  If you run the second Sea you can also DT for the academy when you have a few artifacts in play. 

" Ground Seal > Crypt.
Ground seal has several huge advantages over Tcrypt. First, they can't try any sauce in response to you using the crypt, granted with the seal they can respond to you playing it, but that is the only opportunity. Additionally, decks like dragon can Bait the crypt, meaning they dump stuff in the yard and cast a reanimate intentionally so you will crypt. That cannot be done to ground seal. Secondly, Ground seal is an enchantment and thus more difficult for many decks to destroy that an artifact would be. Lastly ground seal cantrips, leaving you with the same hand size, that is just added sauce for the card. "

If Slaver is a match that you are worried about, I would definitely disagree that Ground Seal is better than Crypt.  Many of the top CS players (like Rich Shay) have said that they consider CS to be a Yawgmoth's Will-Based deck, and Seal does nothing to shut off a big Will the way Crypt can.  When combined with Chalice 0, to ensure that an early Mindslaver activation is very unlikely, Crypt is much better as a sideboard option against Control Slaver.  Plus, it costs 0, so it allows you to keep Drain mana up.

"Thirst for Knowledge.  2U.  INSTANT.  Draw three cards. Then discard two cards from your hand unless you discard an artifact card from your hand."

Ideas Unbound will never see competitive play because of Thirst for Knowledge.  Thirst is better in EVERY way possible than Ideas.  First, the casting cost of 2U is much easier than UU, especially with the abundance of off-color acceleration in type 1.  Second, Thirst gives you the option of discarding 1 or 2 cards (most of the time), and will at worst be a cantrip (cast thirst -1, draw 3 +2, discard 2 +0) and will never result in card disadvantage as will Ideas Unbound.  However, the most important reason that this will never be played is that it is a SORCERY that requires UU.  Any deck that produces UU consistently enough to support this card would much rather have the UU open to cast Mana Drain than it would to tap down on its own turn to cast a card that only causes card disadvantage in the first place, and then have the option of casting a draw spell EOT.