Natural Order?  It's expensive, there aren't enough creatures (even with GSZ) to make it reliable, and it doesn't win for two turns after it hits.  Come on.

Why not 4 crop rotation, and make it really Academy?  Lots of good unrestricted cards for Academy these days: Time Spiral, Frantic Search, Ideas Unbound, Candelabra of Tawnos, Mox Opal...

You can't cut black.  YawgWill is a game winner.  Also, the black tutors are of similar value (if not greater) to Gamble.  For instance, instead of casting Gush and then Gambling for a Fastbond, you can Imperial Seal/Vampiric Tutor for a Fastbond, then cast Gush, and wind up with the same card count while cutting out the 12.5 percentage chance of randomly discarding the Fastbond.  Demonic Tutor even better than Imperial and Vampiric, (in general, that is, with perhaps an exception for this single circumstance).  Demonic Consultation is probably not usable, as Fastbond and Yawg Will cannot be Consulted for reliably, as to do so could remove one or the other in the top 6, or leave so few remaining cards that a win isn't possible.

I agree with the inclusion of a sole Flashback card for the case in which you hold Gamble and no (or very few) other cards.  Deep Analysis is probably best.  I know that the deck already uses Recoup, but I still do not quite understand the function that this card (along with Regrowth, Reclaim, etc) plays in the deck.  While I did say that Yawg Will is a game winner, it's important to realize that Storm Elementals do this as well.  (If you've got a bunch of cards in your hand, it's safe to say that you can protect yourself long enough for a 7/7 haste to win the game.)  Recoup for Time Walk, a Draw 7, or Yawg Will is expensive and will often be dead.  Cut them all.

8 creatures is far too many.  Cut all of the Dryads.  The deck needs to be able to find Fastbond and go off as soon as possible, without having to slow down to cast a two-drop first.  Besides, there are other cards that this deck could use better in their places.  For starters, what happens if after Gushing, the Gamble or Fastbond is countered?  Since the Gush/Gamble move can't be played until turn two anyway, turn one should be spent productively.  And now that we're including black, I definitely recommend 3-4 Duress.  The only other way I can think of to protect the combo (assuming, as it will generally be, with only randomly-colored Moxen available) is Misdirection.  Daze wouldn't work in this specific scenario, but it does have synergy with Fastbond.  It's a question mark in my book.

WIN:
4 Storm Entity
1 Yawgmoth's Will

TUTORS:
4 Gamble
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal

DRAW:
4 Gush
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Deep Analysis

DISRUPTION:
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Misdirection
1 Chain of Vapor

MISC:
1 Fastbond
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Darksteel Collossus

MANA:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mana Crypt

I don't think that is list is 100 percent optimal, as it hasn't been tested, but I believe that it is a far better base to begin discussion.

If you're already playing red, I'd definitely remove the Dryads for Storm Elementals.  That way, you can start your engine without needing a Dryad in play, and then once you get going, you'll find the mana (and the Elemental itself) and be able to swing immediately, to boot.

An idea that could potentially work with this strategy is running 2/3 Intuitions and 4 Rite of Flame.  If you have Intuition with Rite of Flame, then you can cast Intuition at the end of your opponent's turn, search for a Recoup, a Wheel/YawgWill, and an additional Rite of Flame. Then next turn, you can really go off.  If you Intuition with Wheel (or a way of getting Wheel, such as Gamble,) you can Intuition for 3 Rites of Flame.

I was unaware Leyline foils Hulk from activating.  Would Crypt function equally well?  Either way, this decreases the value of the deck considerably in my mind.  Any combo deck that rolls over to graveyard hate (especially FREE graveyard hate) can't be thought of as amazing.

1) How does Leyline of the Void foil the Sliver plan?

2) Reread my above post.  You run TWO Heart Sliver to solve the problem of having one in hand, thus slowing the win down a turn.  (The odds of having both are extremely low.)

Hulk into the Sliver plan is better than Rector into the Bargain plan.  Here's why:

1) The deck no longer loses to graveyard hate.

While the ability to hardcast Rector (and then open up the possibility of Cabal Therapy) is strong, it does not justify the fact that Flash Rector is seriously jeopardized by Crypts and Leylines, sideboard cards that are EXTREMELY popular in light of Ichorid and other graveyard-based decks.

***

Hulk into the Sliver plan is better than Hulk into Guide/Feeder/Kiki/Snatcher plan.  Here's why:

1) The deck no longer loses to graveyard hate. (See above.)

2) You frequently find yourself unable to go off with Flash Hulk due to having a Kiki or other combo peice in hand at the time of casting Flash.  This problem can be thwarted by running 4 Virulent Sliver and 2 Heart Sliver.  That way, you can combo off even if you do have a combo peice in hand.

Finally, when attacking with Slivers, I've found that blockers are almost never a problem.  The combo is so quick that even the most creature-based deck in the format does not have time to set up a defense adequate to block THREE of the 5 attacking Slivers (as would be necessary to prevent 10 poison counters from passing through.)

***

Lastly, does anybody find that Pact of Negation and Misdirection aren't very helpful unless facing countermagic?  Other disruption (hand disruption, e.g. Duress/Therapy or artifact Stax peices, e.g. Chalice on Two) should be given more slots to combat in my opinion.

When you play Shahrazad, you draw 7 new cards to use for the subgame.

You have clearly not played burn in a very long time.

How do you compare potentially 10 damage to 4 or 5 damage that requires you to sacrifice a permanent you may or may not have access to?

Burn has been mocked for a long time, despite some very solid cards that have come out for it recently.  Genju of the Spires on a basic mountain is a strong clock for many decks.  Pyrostatic Pillar is going to deal a lot of damage over the course of the game.  As far as hate, there's Red Elemental Blast and artifact destruction cards such as Rack and Ruin and Shattering Spree (see Guildpact Spoiler) and obviously a wealth of Welder removal.  TMWA (The Mountains Win Again, a similar red/white deck) even maindecked Tormod's Crypts, so we see that they're not dead cards even if Shahrazad is countered or not drawn.

I think it's time for a decklist.

When used correctly, Shahrazad is a sorcery for WW that deals potentially 10 damage to the dome.  Graveyard hate isn't bad in this metagame, so a few maindeck Tormod's Crypts aren't necessarily dead cards.  But even with such a strong 4-of, can a burn deck be viable?

Shahrazad actually has potential with 2 or 3 maindeck Tormod's Crypts.  Gifts, Slaver, Storm Combo, and other decks will scoop the sub-game immediately as opposed to have their key cards removed from the main game.  (Oath may also, depending on the build and on whether or not the Shahrazad deck runs Swords to Plowshares.)

The problem with Shahrazad is that the 10 life hit is irrelevant in many matchups, so it only works if the other cards in the deck can do 10 damage relatively quickly.  Could it work in a deck like Fish, Zoo, or TMWA?

I think you mean reactive, not retroactive.

Unbelievable.  UNBELIEVABLE!

Read my original post.

"I see a lot of little kids playing stupid stuff like Sligh in my meta, and while they never top 8, they make it difficult for me to make it into a top 8 with an Aggro-Control deck.  How do you deal with that kind of stuff?"

I came with a genuine question of what to do against random Aggro decks like Sligh, and the answers I got were "Derf!  Sligh doesn't Top 8!"  and "U/W Fish beats Sligh - Null Rod and Stifle are sooo awesome!"

Goodbye, this thread.

The fact that you think Sligh is not a hard matchup shows me that you have never playtested against it.

And I never said to add enchantment removal maindeck.  I said that I run 4 Ray of Revelation in the sideboard and it makes Oath into a cakewalk.  Please read before posting, please.

I'm talking about the Sligh matchup, but thanks for reading the entire post.

P.S. I maindeck a Savannah and Tropical Island and run 4 Ray of Revelations in the sideboard.  Oath beats me about one in every sixteen matchups.

"The only problematic creatures are Iridescent Angel and Pristine Angel. The only option against them is to swarm your opponent with more creatures but even that isn't quit effective."

No, there's actually a much better option, and it's called enchantment kill.  And Icatian Javelineer is nothing compared to Fanatic or Lavamancer.  Swords to Plowshares sucks versus Lightning Bolt (in this particular matchup) and Stifle/Null Rod/Ninja/Meddling Mage are AWFUL against Aggro.  Running 4 Blue Elemental Blast in the board would help the matchup (though it would still be unfavorable) at the cost of the combo matchup or whatever you take out to make room for them.

Okay, I play a similar deck to yours and while I don't want to argue on specific card choices (I can't imagine how you handle the Oath matchup) I want to know how you do against random aggro.  I see a lot of little kids playing stupid stuff like Sligh in my meta, and while they never top 8, they make it difficult for me to make it into a top 8 with an Aggro-Control deck.  How do you deal with that kind of stuff?

Keep in mind that Sligh is an unwinnable matchup for U/W Aggro-Control.

EFace:

Can I see your decklist?  I also run W/U/G aggro-control, with 4 Swords, 2 Seal, 4 Meddling Mage, and 3 Ray of Revelation Sideboard.  (The Ray is also good against Sensei/Sight combo.)  Also I run 2 Elvish Scrapper and 2 Elvish Lyrist maindeck, mostly because I need one-drops to go along with my 4 Curiosity and 4 Standstill.

As far as sideboards go, Root Maze and Tormod's Crypt are ridiculously versatile.

Meddling Mage is SO much better than Cranial Extraction.  It's two mana cheaper and it beats for two per turn.  Also, it pitches to Force of Will.

Okay, so I've been trying out all the different combinations and permutations.  Here's what I've decided:

Ancestral Recall is the best card in Magic.  Therefore, I will play with five of them, even if it means having to use some slightly weaker cards that I'd like.

Playtesting has shown that with even the smallest amount of board control, Standstill turns into three cards for just a blue and a colorless.  The question becomes: how do you get that board control before dropping Standstill?

Two answers that I've found satisfactory are Skyshroud Cutter and Mishra's Factory.  This brings us back to the comment I made before, that I will play with weaker cards than I'd like in order to facilitate Standstill.  Besides, Cutter isn't terrible.  If your secondary card-advantage gainer is Ninja of the Deep Hours, (believe me, even five Ancestral Recalls isn't enough) then Cutter is a great card to send back.  Trust me, for an extra card per turn, donating ten life is a small price to pay.  If your secondary-card advantage gainer is Curiosity, then a turn one Curious Cutter with just a Tropical Island is a pretty nice play too.

As I mentioned before, Hidden Gibbons is really a great card.  Unfortunately, turn two Standstill after turn one Gibbons is much weaker than turn two Standstill after turn two anything else.  Gibbons and Standstill go against each other because with the latter, you're preventing them from activating the former.  In other words, an enchantment doing nothing is not a clock.  So I'm forced to look at other one-drops.  The best things to lay down before a Standstill seem to be Skyshroud Elite and Hidden Herd.  I haven't done enough testing to distinguish between which is stronger, but my instincts tell me that the 3/3 that becomes dead in the EXTREME late game is better than the 2/3.

Here's a decklist I've been using to a fair amount of success:

***

MANA: 25

4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus

CREATURES: 15

4 Hidden Herd
4 Meddling Mage
4 Skyshroud Cutter
3 Call of the Herd

DRAW: 10

4 Standstill
4 Curiosity
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

DISRUPTION: 10

4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Daze

SIDEBOARD: 15

4 Root Maze
4 Ray of Revelation
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Rushwood Legate

***

Some things to think about:

1.  I know I said that this deck is basically built around Standstill, but that doesn't mean that I'll use a card that sucks just because they work well together.  That pretty much explains the absence of Cloud Faeries, which aren't even free on turn one like Cutter is, as well as the absence of Faerie Conclave, because lands that come into play tapped slow you down way too much.

2.  Off-color Moxen don't work too well.  Turn one Standstill is only optimal if it's teamed with Skyshroud Cutter and followed by a Mishra's Factory.  The only thing off-color Moxen do seem to accelerate out is Call of the Herd, and that's just not enough to make them worthwhile.

3.  I use Curiosity over Ninja because Ninja works poorly with Hidden Herd as well as Call of the Herd, but this isn't locked in.  Feel free to test either or a combination of the two.

4.  The sideboard needs serious work.  The Rushwoods are mostly for when you're going second, as they become a free 2/1 against a lot of decks.  Tormod's Crypt and Root Maze are incredible versatile, and Ray of Revelation has one job but does it well: kill Oath, even if they have a counter.  Game one versus Oath needs help, but maindeck Seal of Cleansing is so much less versatile than maindeck Swords to Plowshares.

5.  Wastelands would be nice, but the deck is too color-intensive for it.  The eight fetch lands are necessary to ensure the possibility of turn one Tropical Island + Skyshroud Cutter.

What exactly do you mean when you say that people have learned to "play around Standstill?"  The only solution I know of is to wait until the opponent has seven cards in his hand and then pop it at the end of his turn, forcing him to discard down to seven again.  This may take quite a while.

Also, is Quirion Dryad really that good?  To be honest, I haven't played much with him, but I seem to remember it taking a long time to get him big.

I've found that creature removal (namely, Swords to Plowshares) is much better than artifact removal.  What non-creature artifacts are tough for this deck?  Tangle Wire, maybe?  I'd much rather have the option of being able to get rid of a Welder, Akroma, Werebear, Dragon, or whatever comes up then be able to get rid of the occasional prison artifact.  (By the way, with Swords to Plowshares maindecked, using Mogg Fanatic is sort of pointless.)

Null Rod and Root Maze are much better if you're going first than if you're going second.  That is, of course, assuming you're using them for mana denial.  Null Rod stops Slaver, which is cool, but that's a matchup you should be winning anyway.  Same with Belcher.  I'd really be hesitant to use them maindeck.

With Trinisphere gone, I think Aggro-Control can make a serious comeback.  Obviously this comeback has already begun, with decks like Bird Sh*t and Fish popping up again.  I don't want to spend time explaining why Aggro-Control is ideal for the post March 20 metagame - let's just say that its bad matchups are non-existant (straight Aggro such as Sligh or Stompy, or Trinisphere-based artifact lock decks) and its good matchups are all over the place (namely, Control and Combo).

So let's get right down to the meat of this post, which is creating the ideal Aggro-Control deck.  The components are as follows:

1) Card Advantage
2) Disruption
3) Creatures

***

1.  Card Advantage.

Bazaar of Baghdad is a potent card.  Combined with the right counterparts, it can read as a zero-casting cost outlet for things like Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm, Deep Analysis, the occasional Roar of the Wurm, and Welder removal (Lava Dart/Fiery Temper).  Squee, of course, goes along well with BoB.  

Another option is to go the Phid rout.  Ophidian itself is a bit slow for Aggro-Control, as it doesn't start gaining card advantage until turn four (or three, with a Mox).  But there's a newer, stronger Phid, called Ninja of the Deep Hours.  This guy gets beating and drawing as early as turn two, with the drawback of having to employ a variety of one-drops in order to use it.  If you're going to use one-drops, Curiosity isn't a bad way to start the card drawing on turn two either.  Note, however, that Ninja and Curiosity have poor synergy together, as a Curious one-drop will lose its Curiosity if it gets exchanged for a Ninja of the Deep Hours.  Nevertheless, both/either belong in a deck with an adequate supply of cheap creatures.  Another option is Mask of Memory, but it's slow and gets shut down by Null Rod (should you choose to use it).

Standstill has been used as the primary card advantage winner in Fish for a while, and rightfully so.  Like Bazaar of Baghdad, this card pretty much forces you to design the deck around it.  (Turn one Flying Men and turn two Standstill is mediocre, but turn one Flying Men and turn two Mishra's Factory and Standstill with another manland or Decree of Justice coming up is great.

An option that hasn't been utelized in the past (and most likely rightfully so, but I'm just throwing it out there for discussion) is Mystic Remora.  In a Stompy-type deck, with a bunch of fat one-drops, MR can be pretty hot.  Example: Turn one Skyshroud Elite, turn two Ghazban Ogre and Mystic Remora.  Now you can go another turn or two (or three, depending whether you draw more mana) with your opponent either forced to sit there and take the beats while you continue to overextend, or forced to give you back a card on every spell he plays.

2.  Disruption

The disruption really is crucial to the deck, as it's the reason aggro won't scoop to Control or Combo of any sort.  That being said, I think that Force of Will is so far above the other potential pieces of disruption that this "Ideal Aggro-Combo deck" MUST be somewhat blue.  At least sixteen cards would be nice to have consistent FoW fodder, 20 would be even better.  Fortunately, most of the card advantage engines are blue, as is Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, and Tinker (with a big artifact thrown into the deck like Darksteel Collossus.  As a side note, I find Tinker not to be worth it, as there is often not a Mox to sacrifice to it, and even if there is, Darksteel Collossus is a dead card sometimes.  And it's not like getting a DC out is game over anyway.)

Other (playable) free counters include Daze, Disrupting Shoal, and Foil.  Foil's terrible, it never gets cast, and when it does, you're losing three-for-one on it.  Disrupting Shoal is nice in theory, but it needs a deck built around it with a great big mana curve.  I've tried this type of deck, and it's pretty bad because of the limited choices in cards you can include.  For instance, as far as three-drops go, I like Phyrexian Negator and Call of the Herd.  But I had to use Serendib Efreet because it's blue.  I had to use Flying Men as my one-drop for the same reason.  Etc.  Daze, however, is pretty cool.  Not as a four-of, however, because it's good all of the time, but often Daze can counter a hot spell like a turn two Thirst for Knowledge or a bomb that was cast with just enough mana.

The next category of disruption are the creatures.  Meddling Mage is very hot, partially because it's blue, but more because it's (as I read in the Bird Sh*t thread elsewhere) an "all-purpose hoser."  In other words, if you're playing against Oath, you've just gotten rid of their biggest card.  If you're playing against Combo, you can throw a serious wrench into the plans by naming Tendrils, or Animate Dead, or whatever it is that may not mean game over, but may make it significantly more likely that you will win.  There is some merit to running a playset of these in the sideboard, as you don't always know what to name in the first game anyway, but I like them maindeck.  Even if you draw them in your opening hand, you may not be going first, and even if you are, you may not be able to cast them right away.  In Vintage, you can tell a lot about what deck a person's playing from their first turn.

Spiketail Hatchling is another possibility.  It lacks the surprise of Daze, and it costs more mana, but it swings and can be pumped up by Curiosity, Rancor, Bonesplitter, etc.  Again, it's blue, which is cool.

There's a whole score of one-drops which have very specialized abilities.  For instance, Grim Lavamancers and Icatian Javalineers are great for removing Welders.  Elvish Scrapper takes out artifacts, Elvish Lyrist takes out Oaths, etc.  The thing with these guys is that you're sacrificing variety for a dude.  Dudes are great, you need them for the kill (once you've got some card advantage and disruption up) and they can be pumped with the aforementioned creature enchantments.  However, you lose versatility with them.  Swords to Plowshares can take out any creature, be it a Platinum Angel or an Akroma or a Welder.  Lavamancer can only take out the latter.  Seal of Cleansing can take out an Oath or a big fat artifact, while with the creatures, its generally one or the other.  There's also the cheapness factor and  the power factor.  Viashino Heretic takes out any artifact while dealing damage to its controller, but it costs three times as much as Gorilla Shaman which can usually only take out Moxen.  Null Rod can stop Moxen along with Slaver, Belcher, Trike, and the like, but its not a beatstick.  Rack and Ruin takes out two artifacts, Naturalize gives you the choice.  Veridian Zealot is a creature but costs twice as much to blow stuff up as Seal of Cleansing does.

Choices, choices, choices.  These decisions are tough to make, which is why I've started a thread to get everybody talking about them.

I used to love Duress.  I've really reconsidered my position on discard, however.  A turn one Duress exchanges one card for one card, but it costs you your first turn.  Late game, Duress can be a dead card completely.  Hymn to Tourach and Mind Twist are even worse, by the way.

Red Elemental blast is really maindeck worthy, in my opinion, but only in the right deck.  There are so many blue cards worth countering or destroying (do I really need to list them?  Other than the rare-ish monobrown decks, nearly every deck is packing blue and lots of it) that I once ran a decent deck with 4 REB and 1 Pyroblast maindecked.  The reason that I frown on them now, however, is for the same reason I love Seal of Cleansing and hate Disenchant.  In an Aggro deck, you really can't afford to leave mana open and switch to the control role in the matchup.  With Seal, you tap out to play it once, and then never look back.  This is also the reason I like free spells such as Daze and Abolish.  Abolish really isn't a bad card, but the alternate casting cost just isn't necessary.  For instance, if my opponent casts an Oath, a Platinum Angel, or a whatever, I get to untap and react to it, so Seal of Cleansing is fine.  However, if he casts a Yawgmoth's Will or a spell that will cripple me, I need to counter it then and there, so the alternate casting cost to Daze and Force is much more applicable.

Before leaving the category of disruption, I just want to mention two cards specifically which I happen to think are powerful, versatile, and cheap as well: Root Maze and Tormod's Crypt.  Root Maze stops Dragon, Doomsday and slows TPS and Belcher.  Also, it can't be bounced via Rebuild, if that matters.  Tormod's Crypt is also good against Dragon, as well as anything with Welder, Bird Sh*t, and a bunch of random decks that inevitably require use of the graveyard (Rector, Hermit Druid, Tog, etc)  Whether either of these should be maindecked, boarded, or played at all is up for discussion, but I give them the thumbs up.  Chains of Mephistopheles seems to get a lot of play, and I do think it's good, but it hurts your own card advantage and it costs more than either of the two cards I just named.

3.  Creatures

This should more appropriately be entitled "damage."  This is because many of the best damage dealers aren't actually creatures.  Call of the Herd, for instance, is such a hot beatstick.  3/3 for three is okay, but obviously its flashback is what makes it so sexy.  If they can deal with the first, they generally can't deal with the second.

I love the Hidden creatures.  Hidden Herd is a 3/3 for G, which is great, but late game, they may simply refrain from playing non-basic lands in order to make your Herd useless.  Hidden Guerillas is a 5/3 for G, but against some decks it simply reads "Your opponent cannot cast the three on-color Moxes he uses in his deck."  The same problem applies to it as to Herd, because in the late game, that 6th colored mana source just isn't enough for your opponent to make him want to activate your 5/3.  Hidden Gibbons is my favorite.  It doesn't get activated all the time immediately, as many can hold off playing Brainstorm if they need to (which is a cool thing about Gibbons in itself) but your opponent can't hold of instants in the late game, so it'll always be a 4/4 for G.

I dislike Faerie Conclave and its friends.  Lands that come into play tapped really slow you down.  Mishra's Factory, on the other hand, is cool as long as you're not using too many spells that need all colored mana.  For instance, Factory with Spiketail Hatchling, Standstill, Call of the Herd, Negator, whatever, is cool, but its frustrating to look at a hand of an Underground Sea and Factory along with Meddling Mage, Hymn to Tourach, etc.  Factory does have great synergy with Standstill and/or Mask of Memory, though.  The decks that use Factory are generally the decks that can use off-color Moxen.

Speaking of cards that work well with Standstill, Skyshroud Cutter is a card I've come across recently.  If you're not going hardcore Fish, i.e. Flying Men followed by Factory, Cloud of Faeries, and Standstill, then Skyshroud Cutter can really be a nice thing to drop down with a turn one Mox and Standstill.  I know, I know, it takes you two and half turns to make up for the five life you're donating, but tempo is SO important when it comes to Standstill.  Having that extra 2/2 out can be the difference between letting the opponent waiting it out and forcing the opponent to break it and give you an Ancestral Recall.

Rancor and Bonesplitter really speed up the damage dealing.  Note that both can be constantly re-equipped to a Mishra's Factory each turn.  Also note Bonesplitter gets shut down by Null Rod.

Phyrexian Negator doesn't need any speeding up.  It's a 5/5 for just three mana.  I haven't seen too many Fire/Ice recently, but even so, they don't exactly cripple you if you're casting a Negator on turn three.  Who saves a Fire/Ice for Negator anyway, when it's coming after a Meddling Mage or a pair of Grim Lavamancers?  A potential problem with Negator is its inabilty to trade with artifact fat.  For instance, Call of the Herd and Serendib take out a Juggernaut, but Negator really shouldn't.

Black Vise, anyone?  I don't know what to make of this.  It doesn't do much against anything other than old-school control.  However, in the right matchup, it can do 3 damage a turn starting from when you cast it, as opposed to a creature which needs to wait a turn, or a Hidden Enchantment which must be activated.  Also, it can be played with an off-color Mox, and is great with Standstill.

What about Exalted Angel?  A little slow, possibly, but very good against Aggro.  I don't think there's enough of that to justify using him, unless you're packing Mana Drains.

***

Well, not to say that this covers it, but these are the cards that I've found to be useful.  Feel free to add in suggestions that I've either overlooked or things that you've come across and find to be useful.  

The critical question I'm asking here is as follows: in what combination can the best of these cards be used most effectively?  (Once you've decided on which colors offer the most, you can begin to get started on the mana base.)

Okay, I take it back.  Restrict Dark Ritual instead, then.

Here's my problem with the format:

The fundamental turn in Vintage has become turn one.  And I really dislike that.  Decks are winning with incredible consistency right off the bat.  I'm not just talking about Tendrils, Doomsday, or TPS, here, I'm also talking about Workshop decks that go turn one Trinisphere, good game.  So the way I see it, we're no longer playing against our opponents, we're playing against ourselves.  "How consistent can I be in winning or locking up the game before my opponent ever gets a turn?"  As a result, the winner of the game boils down to the winner of the die roll.

If the format were slowed down to an environment in which decks can all do their thing on turn two, I'd have no problem with that.  Because then, at least the guy going second gets a turn to lay down a Root Maze, or cast Duress, or even have the option of ignoring all disruption and try to combo off on his own.  Of course, if that were the case, the chances of him achieving this would have to be significantly lower or else that's what everybody would do.

So how to slow down the format a turn?  The most consistent turn one winner/game locker is our good friend Trinisphere.  Restricting Workshop wouldn't stop this too much, as there are plenty of replacements available.  So Trinisphere needs the axe.  This still leaves combo decks at blazing speed, and something from them needs to be restricted as well.  Tendrils of Agony is an option, which would force combo to find a slower win condition.  Dark Ritual is an option as well.  My feeling is that with Tendrils gone, decks like Dragon and Rector Trix will represent the new combo decks to play.  And those are the type that are healthy for the environment, because instead of just winning turn one as long as they win the coinflip, Dragon and Rector run ways to beat disruption, but move more slowly.  (Bazaar/Squee, Duress/Cabal Therapy, etc).  This brings back the interaction between players; now it's a game and not a goldfish.

Control Slaver is a great deck, but it doesn't win on turn one.  So I say we can leave it alone, and the metagame will adjust to add hate until it balances itself out.  Similarly, Crucible of Worlds doesn't bother me, because the metagame has responded by employing basic lands.  True, Strip Mine gets by this, but my opinion is that restricted cards are allowed to be broken.  And remember, Crucible + Strip Mine does not win the game.  You can lose your first land and then play Tormod's Crypt, or whatever.  Goblin Welder is ridiculously fast and power, but we're seeing one of the world's crappiest cards (Lava Dart) maindecked in the Top Eight decks.  So you see, broken decks get balanced out... as long as they DON'T CONSISTENTLY WIN ON TURN ONE.

In conclusion, restrict Trinisphere and Tendrils of Agony.

I tried Standstill with Ninja of the Deep Hours, but believe me, it doesn't work.  The end result is that you have more cards in your hand than you know what to do with, and your opponent cracks Standstill at the end of your turn forcing you to discard from 12 down to 7.  Curiosity is really bad with Ninja as well, because the enchantment dies when a creature is bounced back.  Skullclamp is honestly better than both.  Is Null Rod a good enough hoser to be worth sacrificing that for it?  Also, you don't have enough one-drops for the Ninja to come out consistently on turn two.

CSeraph: Daze would be nice, but what would you take out for it?  Right now, if I had to cut a card or two, it would be a Seal of Cleansing/Annul and a Meddling Mage.  I suppose a Skullclamp could come out if needed.  But the bottom line is that I think those cards would be better for the deck than Daze.  Also, what does Engineered Explosives really deal with?  One Goblin Welder?  A Trinisphere?  Those are things I need to deal with, but Engineered Explosives is too slow for (hence all the maindeck removal).  I'm finding that most decks just aren't using two many permanents nowadays, save for Workshop decks in which the permanents have converted costs of 4-8.  The only deck I can think of EE hurting is that new deck with the Ankh of Mishra and Pyrostatic Pillar.

So here's what I've come up with:

4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
5 Plains
1 Tundra
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

4 Savannah Lions
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Meddling Mage
4 Trinket Mage
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours

4 Skullclamp
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Annul

This is basically an aggro deck that doesn't burn out.  Lots of card advantage to get out some more creatures if you're running low.  I've been playing this deck for a while, now, and I find that the one-drops are better than Kobolds because, while they are generally sacrificed to Skullclamp, they are often needed to finish the job once card advantage and board control is established.

Skullclamp is only half of it, though.  Ninja of the Deep Hours comes out quickly all the time, is uncounterable, can allow you to name a different card under Meddling Mage, fetch another card with Trinket Mage, shoot another Welder with Javelineer, etc.  And once the Ninja is out, it racks up card advantage like mad.  Hard-casting it for four isn't too shabby either, by the way, with a full set of Moxes and Sol Ring.    

With all this card advantage, free spells are great.  Abolish would be nice, but it turns out that Seal of Cleansing and Annul are just better - Annul to stop things like Sundering Titan, Memory Jar, Mindslaver, and Seal of Cleansing so that you can play it early and then feel free to tap out.  For a while I tried Disrupting Shoal, but it just doesn't work.  It forced me to play either Back to Basics or Cunning Wish, because the top spells in Vintage have converted cost of three, and in today's Metagame, Back to Basics has lost efficiency, and Cunning Wish is far too slow to deal with threats like Goblin Welder, Trinisphere, etc.  

Trinket Mage is great.  Grabs a Mox or Black Lotus every once in a while, but obviously there for Skullclamp.  However, their 4x presence in the maindeck allows for great sideboard targets, namely Chalice of the Void (for zero against Kobold decks), Tormod's Crypt (for lots of different decks), and Aether Spellbomb (against Oath).

Thoughts on the sideboard?

Anyone have any other ideas?  How about Thran Turbine?

You know what occurs to me?  With 5 Moxen, 4 Skullclamp and 4 Standstill, the 0/1 Kobolds could be a great fit for this deck.  That way, instead of needing to waste a turn casting a 1/1 that will only end up getting bounced back anyway, turn one can be spent playing a Kobold + Skullclamp, or with a Mox, Kobold + Skullclamp and equip, or Kobold + Standstill (which is a particularly strong play because it allows for Ninjutsu tricks later on).  Dumping a Kobold into play to sacrifice to Skullclamp is also easier than dumping in a one-drop, a Cloud of Faries, a Faerie Conclave, etc.

Wasting something like Elvish Spirit Guide or Dark Ritual casting creature #1 is bad because of the following reasons:

1) The creature will just need to be recast.
2) The object is to gain card advantage, not lose it.
3) Dark Ritual/ESG becomes a dead card later, since its only function would be to power out a quick Bone Shredder/Uktabi Orangutan, so they should not be in the deck to begin with.
4) If you don't draw the acceleration, you fall behind a turn.
5) Bone Shredder or Uktabi Orangutan isn't even good on turn one.  What are you going to destroy?

You do not need something with a flash, all you need is something that can bounce back.  Honestly, Kobolds would be fine for this job, as they can be Skullclamped to death and they would leave a free mana open on turn one.  However, I think that a creature with a use (Welder, Shaman, etc) would be better since it is not dead later on in the game without a Skullclamp.  Sandbar Merfolk has some merit because it can be cycled or pitched to Force of Will.