Well Xman your list is UB TPS and the deck is really made to go off fast
but it wants to control and then win not just go all out on winnning turn 1 or 2.
I have done a fair amount of testing against very good TPS players with me using MUD and this deck unlike previous incarnations is able to withstand an onslaught of lock parts especially if it forces the trinisphere:  I can throw pretty much anything at it and it will resist barring decent hand and topdecks.
So in the end what i can tell is that some of the players here play 1 more basic land either 3 ISLAND 1 Swamp or 2-2 ; on a side note some are right now testing red in the deck by removing 1 basic and 1 Sea for a volcanic and a badlands just to play wheel of fortune and have better SB options.

If I may Expose my theory in this argument concerning the phantomatical gap between Us and European Metagames, I as an Italian can only explain the actual metagame in Norther italy(in the south there isn't much going on)relying on numerical data to reinforce my statements.

Well, to answer The M.E.T.H.O.D.'s question #1 the metagame between the US and Europe doesn't exist in the sense that considering that if for example you take Geramany,Italy and The Netherlands you will notice that
the metagame is highly powered and that Mr.Menedian's consideration are, with all respect, a little too concise.
To confirm this I have first hand Data; the Italian metagame is heavily fractioned and can be divided in local city metagames, but talking in a general perspective: even if in the most part of the country there aren't tournament held on a weekly basis the stats indicated that normally at a T1 event there are over 70 players, that 60% are powered and combo 20% Control and Aggro are at 40% each(answering the method's second post, at least in Italy there is a lot of aggro).
As a Side note to Mr.Menedian's post i would like to explicit the fact that conisdeing only the last 5 major Italian tournaments here are the results,that speak for them selves:
Turin 07/11/04                    
65 players  
1 Welder MUD                              
2 Hulk Smash                      
3 Madness
4 TPS
5 TPS
6 dragon
7 Hulk Smash
8 dragon

Massa 07/18/04
153 plaayers
1 Metagame deck
2 MUD
3 Ws Slavery
4Ws Slavery
5 Fish U/R
6 TPS
7 Welder MUd
8 TPS

Piacenza 07/25/04
89 players
1 hulk smash
2 TPS
3 MUD
4 Dragon
5 MUD
6 Metagame Deck
7 TPS
8 Madness URG

Genova 08/29/04
91 players
1 keeper
2 TPS
3 Ws Slaver
4 $t4cks
5 MUD
6 MUD
7 TPS
8 TPS

Turin 09/05/04
114 players
1 Welder MUD
2 Keeper
3 TPS
4 Control Slaver
5 Welder MUd
6 Madness URG
7 $t4cks
8 MUD

so that makes a total of 10 different archetypes (albeit counting MUD and Welder MUD different) a little more complicated than a simple TPS metagame.

to reply to qs#2 i think that with more and more people using the web a resource more people will play streamline decks and even if there will never be a common metagame.

I think that the US and the European Metagame have started differntly and will always be very different(e.g. Event like the StarcityGames one will never in italy at least be held because here we play only sanctioned tournaments) and thus they have take a different direction. The US is leaning more torwards is double facet tournamet scene were there are weekly local tournament decks and then (some of them 5-proxy) Big events  whereas European metagame is divided most in to city tourmnamets that aren't really local because all the good players always attend (Duelmen, Castricum, Genova,Milan for example).

Well on the issue of the mana base: it's true null rod is a hoser but guess what when i played against fish,the only mainstream deck that has Null
Rod maindeck, i always won because my creatures were bigger.
The only time when i didn't win was when a flying creature was enchanted with sigil of sleep.
To answer Ender questions: dark rituals are fine for me and guess what first tun vault +ritualk is 3 mana on the first turn which allows me to drop clamp +ravager or plating+worker etc. i think it's pretty good at filling the spot of mishra's workshop.
On the Duress issue i think it's a good idea but defenetely not maindeck they should go into the Sideboard.

So in any case i was expecting to be criticized for dark ritual and now i am here trying to explain why you should play ancient tombs:
Well i you test a lot with the deck or even i you grab the deck and continously draw 7 cards just to see how usually your starting hands would look you immdiately notice that unless you draw the academy some hands are just TOO SLOW.
To fill this gap anciemnt tombs were chosen because i own no Mishra's workshop--> to turn Slow starts into good starts thus avoiding the -1 card disadvantage of mulliganing. On the fact that is colorless mana i have to say that colored mana is very important but it's more important to play a creature   turn 1 take this for example:
Vault,Tomb,Frog,Clamp,Ravager,Sol ring, Enforcer : Ancient tmob give you the chance to power out more cards...
On the issue of the mana base i would like to hear some suggestions, but sterile criticism like: i don't see how you tuned your mana base against Null Rod and Pernicious Deed is a waste of time, since if you bothered to read the whole introduction you would see how i tried to change the mana base.The first deck had 8 artifact lands + 4 Glimmervoid and so much more succeptible to null rod and pernicious deed that 6 artifact lands + 2 ancient tomb + 4 underground sea.

AFFINITY:

This deck archetipe is an emergent type of aggro-combo artifact based deck.
Please note that this is my version of the deck that is directly a result of my testing, I don’t by any means want to elevate this as The Affinity Deck.

Part I. The Prologue to the deck:
A most of you know this deck type first emerged in T2 about 7 months ago.
This deck underwent many changes but when Darksteel came out the japenese trasformed a decent deck into a gamebreaking monstruosity.

The card that made affinity(nicked Raffinty lol)so powerful were some changes that turned the deck from aggro/aggro-control(sarnia affinty) to a combo-aggro deck.
here is a sample decklist :
T2 deck
Ravager Affinity Tobias Henke    
  2004 Grand Prix Brussels
There were 734 players at this event.  Format: Type II - Darksteel    

4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
2 Atog
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Frogmite

4 Chrome Mox
2 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Skullclamp
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Thoughtcast
2 Welding Jar

3 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
3 Vault of Whispers

Part II. Building for T1

The cards that made this deck the so powerful were 3: Arcbound Ravager,Disciple of the Vault and Skullclamp.

Now when i first tried in march to transport this deck to T1 I obviously looked to the T2 deck for reference.
so at that time the deck looked something like this:
RAVAGER.dec (circa march ’04)
Mana:25
5 mox
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 mana vault
1 tolarian academy
4 Seat of the synod
2 Vault of whispers
4 Glimmervoid
4 Ancient Tomb
Creatures:18
4 Ravager
4 Worker
3 Disciple
4 Frogmite
3 Enforcer
Spells:17
1 Demonic Tuor
1 Ancestral
1 Time walk
3 Genesis chamber
4 Skullclamp
4 Thoughtcast
1 Cunning wish
1 Rushing river
1 TimeTwister

This the deck was rather good but not good enough for me at least and after a decent amount of testing I decided that something wasn't working right for me.
Too many times i'd get stuck with multiple chamber and not enough creatures to take full advantage, I also noted the fact that i was playing too mach for skullclamp and the chamber.
What I mean is that is was concentrating too much on drawing card with the combo than actually playing the deck aggressively.
-Achilles’ heel:
In my mind what I wanted from this deck was a fast aggro deck that could also win in a comboish fashion but i found out very soon that the disciple was too fragile to be relied on especially with all the fire/ices running around.
Another thing i noticed was that I needed a more solid mana base that could fight off pernicious  deed and null rod.

Part III. The Mana Base:
So it was clear that the T2 mana base wasn’t gonna cut it so I had 2 choices either go for a total workshop style mana base something along the lines of this: 4x Workshop 4x Ancient Tomb 2x City of Traitors 1 Tolarian Academy + the artifact acceleration and this kind of setting would be null rod and pernicious deed proof but would also take me to a more modular based type of deck.
The other choice I had was to try and optimise the mana base, the problem were many but in the end I decide that for now I shoud try something like this:

4x City of brass/underground sea(choice that I should discuss later)
2x Ancient tomb
3x Vault of whispers
3x Seat of the synod
1xTolarian Academy
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
4x Mox(Ruby,Sapphire,Jet,Emerald)
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Vault
4x Dark Ritual
Now the choice of using Dark Ritual may seem a little awkward to most of you at first but I noticed that by taking out a mox pearl for a lotus petal I made a huge difference to me( in my testing at least) since the black mana sources count is now up to( excluding Rituals) 10 which comforts me to an extent.
The important part here I think is the number of mana sources that are not artifact and so can fight off  Null Rod and to a lesser extent Pernicious Deed. The choices here is since I don’t own nor want to own Mishra’s workshop is Ancient Tomb, I consider 2 to be the bare minimum and 3 to be the max because is speeds you up but you don’t wanna draw it all the time and in numbers more than 2, but I consider them necessary to give you additional gas in the first 2 turns were is crucial that you drop off your hand quick. On the issue between City of brass and Underground Sea
the choice exquisitely depends if you want to play with Red in your sideboard or no.
To answer this question you first need to ask your self if your metagame is composed by decks that cannnot be handled by and exclusively black/blue sideboard. So if you think that you will need Rack and Ruin and REB then city of brass is your friend other wise then just play underground seas.

Part IV. The Treats
Now the Threats are a simple choice for this type of deck and must I say that I rarely have been upset with this setup:
4x Ravager
4x Arcbound Worker
4x Frogmite
4x Myr Enforcer
and being  only 16 seem a little low at first but this deck runs a lot of search for an aggro deck,so I see a lot of creatures in most of the matches.
The Card Choices:
-Arcbound Ravager: this card is obviously the core of the deck, since with a handful of artifact this little 1/1 become pretty huge and also speeds up your kill. Monster
-Arcbound Worker: it has modular and a thougness of 1 and it cost 1. Nothing more is just there to be used with Skullclamp. Effective
-Frogmite: the standard beater, it comes down for 1 or less and it’s a 2/2, usually does his job well( to be annoying little bugger that is). Relentless
-Myr Enforcer:are you in trouble, does you opponent have a swarm of little pesky creatures and your are almost overwhelmed? No Problemo Grigo here come the enforcer to save your butt. There have been several times when especially against fish I had been put into a corner and thanks to that stupid 2cc artifact my creatures when roll ver and die to grim lavancer and similars needlees to say that when I got the enforcer down I had not way out is too big for a lot of decks and they have no way of dealing with it except chump blocking in 3-for-1’s or scoop. Crucial

Now the tools to make our treats lethal:
4x Skullclamp: mills through your library finding what you need, sometimes I gives finds you those moxes that you really need to get a hell of a start and gets on the good track. Combined with the ravager make thing ridiculous.
3x Cranial Plating: if the has been one card in the whole deck that can turn a bad day into a good one this is the one. This card is sooo good that can turn a measly 1/1 sucjh as arcbound worker into a clock!1!1?!?!(wtf)
Just being able to equip this put you on a favourable position to win.

Part V. The Other Spells
The rest of the deck is :
4x Thoughtcast:this card is included for the fact that since in this deck it’s easy to get to 4 artifact on the table on a timely matter, thoughtcast smooths your draws reaching deeper into your library too get more Bombs and/or mana(!).
1x Tinker: This card can tu tor for pretty much anything in your deck but most of the times it will get either Memory Jar to draw you a fresh hand of 7 or a Cranial Plating to win fast and easy.
1x Memory Jar: A draw 7 of which you only get the best use of it.Drawing into lotsa artifact mana is go^o^d.
1x Demonic Tutor: Gets you what you want and gets it now.
1x Yawgmoth’s Will: It’s one of those cards ...need i say anything else?
1x Ancestral Recall: Test card , i mean it only draws 3 cards at instant speed for one mana o_0
1x Time walk: Necessity, makes me win whenn i shouldn’t , an extra attack with a plated creature =gg
1x Timetwister: gets gas in your hand and gives you the boost to  overwhelm the opponent
1x Hurkil’s Recall: One main deck solution to a lot of problems, but still setting aside jokes this spot is in testing because i loath having 61 cards.

The final Deckslist
4x Underground Sea
3x Seat of the Synod
3x Vault of Whispers
2x Ancient Tomb
1x Tolarian Academy
7x Solomoxen(Lotus Petal instead of mox pearl
1x mana crypt
1x mana vault
4x Dark Ritual
4x Ravager
4x Worker
4x Frogmite
4x Enforcer
4x Thoughtcast
1x Tinker
1x Memory Jar
1x Demonic Tuor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x time Walk
1x Timetwister
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Hurkill's Recall


Now tomorrow I will post up the Sideboard Tech and the some little advise on playing this deck, thanks for looking... Any feedback and comments are appreciated.
/Frankie/

ok, so i will cut a mountain for a fetchland and try to fit an undeground sea or 2 and yawg's will but still that version of the deck , the one Atog Lord suggests, is the one i have been having problems with: not draw enough cards,mana flood,or getting stuck with slavers pentavus angel and not having mana to cast them.

hi y'all!
i recently have been testing with control slaver, both U/R/b and U/R w/4strips and found it a little too inconsistent since i have been getting either mana screw in both version or mana flood in the U/R version.
In this respect i decided to change something to the main deck.
My testing is based on few selected archetipes
Hulk smash: favorable pre-board ,split post board
Rector tendril: 30/70 pre, 45/55 post

so i for this reason, i thus decided to change the main deck and Sb to this, considering also that here in italy Hulk and artifact prison are costant presences and there is some aggro:

Mana:
8 SoLoCrmoxen
1 mana vault
1 Mountain
1 bloodstained mire
4 Delta
5 Islands
4 Volcanic Islands
3 Ancient Tomb*testing
Creatures:
4 Welders
1 Shaman
1 Pentavus
1 Plat Angel
Spells:
2 Cunning Wish
1 Time Wal
1 Ancestral Recall
4 FOW
4 Mana Drain
2 Mindslaver
1 Tinker
1Memory Jar
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Future Sight
1 Fact or Fiction
SB:
3 REB
2 BEB
2 Fire/Ice
1 Echoing Truth
2 Rack and Ruin
3Trinisphere/Chalice of the Void*still undecided
2 Blood Moon

Sme of the not streamline card choices:Future Sight,FOF,Ancient Tomb all deserve testing because the first 2 spell doom for opponert unless i'm very unlucky.
Ancient tombs speed me up consistently since plenty of times i found myself with 4 or 5 lands and slavers or fatties in hand not being able to be cast.

so i would like some feedback from all those people who are a little open minded and would like to help me out!
Thx in advance.