Jeff!! Wonderful report and congratulations!!

Sorry about the Drains...  But hey, you've got extra power!  Time to trade up for a Time Walk or Ancestral!  

Thank you and curse you for getting me hooked on this damn game!  

I really like the concepts you've put forth.  Up until now, I've been using Misdirections with limited success.  Another reason I like the idea of running Shoals is the "WTF!?" factor.  You know, the look on your opponets face when they see a card that they totally didn't expect to see.  

Although there was a lot of debate and a few well written articles about Chalice of the Void, I noticed that it was conspicuously absent from the list.

It seems to me that these arch types (Control, Fish, Slaver, etc) tend to gain prominence and dominate for a while and until we, the beloved Type 1 Magic community innovate and adapt (which is a hell of a lot of fun) by trying to topple the current "king of the hill" (or hills as the case may be)  

Unless there's an obvious flaw in the format (Remember the Summer of Necro?) I don't think there's any cause for alarm, and the DCI doesn't need to act.  We as Type 1 players simply need to do our homework and playtest, playtest, playtest.

I believe that Lotushead was referring to his Lotus being denied by stifling the Salvagers ability (no Salvagers no Lotus...)  

Great report Lotus Head!!

Null Rod's are evil   , so we just have to deal with them.  

Congratulations on your win!!  It's always refreshing to hear a rogue deck do well.  It sounds like you had a really good field for testing (during and after tourney play).  

I know you've worked hard on this deck, and it's paying off.  Keep up the good work!  

I've personally faced this deck numerous times recently, and yes it definitely needs tweaking, but it can and has gone off for turn 2 kills.

You guys should try being a little more positive and lay off the caffeine.  

You're too humble Lotushead, for you neglected to mention you took 4 out of 5 games against my control slaver build (on Father's day too!!  )  

Now I'm scrambling to get the cards for this deck.  Thanks for posting the deck list.  

I know you're not adding land yet, but right away I thought of my favorite card (and my favorite artist)

http://www.wizards.com/magic/autocard.asp?name=sorrow's%20path

It's way too cool looking to be so crappy...  

I demand a reprint w/ errata!!!   :lol:

Great article!  

I've found that rogue decks usually show up in under-powered metas and some well built ones are hard to beat.  I have to tip my hat to anyone who not only brings a truly unique deck to a tourney but also pilots it well enough to make some noise.  

Wizards IMHO made a huge mistake by dropping their policy of letting DCI Judges playtest cards and send in their feedback.  A lot of broken cards make it to print because of this, thus shifting the entire meta as a whole.  This makes Rogue decks that much harder to create IMO.

Congrats on having a blast with Control Slaver!  

I'm a huge fan of Richard Shay's build and I've been playing with Lightning Greaves for about a week now.    In addition to protecting your Platinum Angel, I've kept quite a few welders alive who otherwise would have been plowed/fired/pinged etc.  

At the very least, the Greaves are one more artifact to weld, and you can swing with your Pentavus/Angel or even Memnarch (if you're playing him) right out of the gate.

There are two valid schools of thought regarding the Academy; I tend agree with Keith's take due to the fact that with the Pentavus it can create sick amounts of mana and break open a lot of games.  Plus it prevents your opponet from playing theirs, and it is another target for Strip/Waste (so you have a better chance of keeping LOA on the board).  

I want to give props to both Francisco and Keith.  Even though I was owned by both decks, I had a blast.  I had my two young kids with me at the tourney (7 yr old Kyra and 4 yr old Alex) and you guys were really supportive and a heck of a lot of fun to play   .  Francisco didn't even dog me out for carrying my little girl's Care Bear stuffed animal for most of the night.     My only two losses were to you guys, and it was nice to win a pack of Mirrodin for my troubles...  

BTW speaking of Props, MAJOR PROPS to the staff at GameMasters.  They showed a lot of class and were excellent with my kids!!  One cute girl staff member in particular spent a LOT of time with my son Alex.

Definitely looking forward to the next one with you guys.  

The only feasible change I have utilized in Rich's build is dropping one Island for a Mystical Tutor.  The land/mana base has been solid enough to absorb it; and I'm able to set up Demonic, Ancestral, Walk, Will, Wish, etc.

I tried Entomb for a while, and it wasn't working like I'd hoped.  Needing a Welder in play made it worthless sometimes.

I've also been siding in Memnarch in some matchups, but I'm still in the testing stage.

I've used Gaea'a Avenger a LOT:

For only GG1 you get a creature whose power and toughness are equal to everyone else's artifacts in play PLUS one!!

With Mirrodin and Darksteel, he's almost always huge when I bring him out.  

As far as I can tell, only Welder decks can abuse it.  The trick is to load the deck with as much broken stuff as possible.  

Tutors come to mind at first, but I'm taking a good hard look at the restricted list to come up with additional cards.  I just want to make sure it's not a one trick pony.  Aside from your staple cards like Mana Drain and Demonic Tutor, Time walk out right wins for you.  I might even be able to try playing Fork again.  

I mean, even welding in a Mirror and imprinting Swords to Plowshares is pretty scary.  

Hello!

My name is Adam de la Torre and I've been playing since revised (when you could still trade for Power).  I am married with kids and play as much as I can.  I've won a few local Type I tourneys but nothing spectacular. I Love trading, playing, and tweaking my deck.

I've been e-mailed by a few people who want to play, but all are welcome.  Anyone in the Phoenix area please get in touch with me.  

Welcome back!  

I too came back after a long hiatus  

One thing to be very careful of:  The price of Power has gone up considerably, so please make sure that you hang on to your deck at these tourneys and don't let it leave your sight!!  

While I have met so many fine upstanding people at most of the tourneys, there is always that scummy element waiting to take your cards.  

BTW, I'm 32, married w/ two small kids and I'm finding more and more older players every week.  

Great to hear about another Type I player back in action!  

I've been reading the tourney reports and the primer for the Control Slaver build, and it looks like a blast to play.  

I'm almost done with getting all of the cards for it, but wouldn't you know it, I can't locate any Fire/Ice!?  

Are Shrapnel Blasts (1R- Instant -"As an additional cost to play Shrapnel Blast, sacrifice an artifact. Shrapnel Blast deals 5 damage to target creature or player") a feasible alternative until I can find some Fire/Ice?

Also, I've been subbing in Cities of Brass and Gemstone Mines in for the Volcanic Islands, and would appreciate any budget alternatives (other than getting Volcanic Islands)...  Thanks!  

I haven't seen any Mod prejudice against Mirrodin:

Control Slaver decks are quite popular right now.  

I was fortunate to find a broker who actually took the time to look on eBay for the card values.  When I picked them up yesterday, he seemed upset that I came back.  Guess he figured he could keep 'em for $1000.  Not a bad investment.  

Don't sell your Power!  Pawn them instead.  

I was laid off a few months ago, and money was REALLY tight.     I really didn't want to part with my Power, but the mortgage was due...  I must have called about 15 pawn shops, and the usual response was "Power What!?  A card game!?  Nah, we don't loan on those..."  Finally, I spoke to one guy who not only heard of Magic, but used to play back in the day.  He looked up the current cost of Power on eBay, and promptly loaned me $1000 on the spot.  

Well, I'm working again, and my buddy Jeff spotted me a good portion of the buy back price to get my Power back.  In the past three months, these cards have gone up quite a bit, and I'm thrilled to have them back.

So some food for thought, if you're in a bind, consider pawning rather than selling.  

The restricted list should be treated like government: a neccessary evil.  It absolutely has a very important purpose, but when it grows out of control, it hurts everyone and becomes counter-productive.

Overall, Wizards has done a good job with it, but players need to realize that adapting to their meta with better deck building/playing is far more prudent than needlessly increasing the restricted list.

I've taught my six year old daughter how to play, and in addition to basic cards, I've thrown in cards that seem really cool to a new player.  For example, I put in fun cards like Glasses of Urza, and she lights up and gets a kick out of looking at my cards.  

Another cards she really likes (and is really careful with )    is my Chaos Orb.  It's the card that got me hooked back in the day!   :lol:

I started her off with creature friendly green at first, and I've kept her away from Blue all together (for now   .)

I was playing in a Tourney a few weeks ago, and my opponet tried to Stifle my Ali from Cairo.  I said Ali has an inherant ability that can not be Stifled.  He agreed and I was just trying to get further clarification.  Thanks.

It's refreshing to hear an honest to goodness tourney report without all of the usual self-glorification and chest thumping I've seen on this site and others.

From the first time my buddy dropped a Chaos Orb on my cards to more recently when I got worked by Long.dec, I will always applaud good play.

I live in a part of AZ where there's a lot of Type I haters, and it's sad really.

Keep up the great reports!