He already mentioned that Thoughtseize will replace Duress. 

The thing that sux about Oxidize is, it's green.  Dryads get nothing out of Oxidize.  Obviously the Gro factor doesn't control every situation, but it's the most reliable way to win.  If something else (ie not a green card) can effectively replace Oxidize, then you should -Oxidize.  In theory. 

If a blue card would work, that's the safest thing, since 1 - you can Scroll it, 2 - Misdirection + Force mean its unlikely to be dead, and 3 - versus Stax, you may need to fetch basic Island(s) to stabilize.  The only blue cards I can think of, though, are Annul and Chain of Vapor atm.  I can't imagine Hurkyl's or Rebuild competing for the same slot as Oxidize, but Chain could work maybe.  Annul might be awesome but I'd really need to test it to have an opinion.

If Grudge would work, that's the ideal scenario, since 1 - Flashback --> card advantage and more Gro, and 2 - it's better than Rack and Ruin assuming RG1 is available since double Grudge will Gro more.  But it's easy to imagine Grudge being too slow in critical situations like the one you mentioned (unless you could somehow discard it). 

In the situation you described, would Chain of Vapor work? 

Yeah, I'm w/ u on that one.  I was just thinking, Annul could be a good replacement for Oxidize if tests showed that a 1c anti-artifact card is necessary.  It has to be played differently, but it Gros, it's Scroll-able, it's pitch-able, and it's inherently more flexible - it counters Moat and Humility, LOL!! 

Not to mention, like, Necro + Bargain.  Oh yeah!  And Fastbond!  And In the Eye of Chaos, and Chains of Mephistopheles, because I mean, vomit on those cards... ;p

Seriously, Ancient Grudge is soo good... 2x Gro, card advantage, sick!1   If I thought I could get away w/ it I'd run 0 Oxidize and 2 Grudge along w/ 1 Rack + Ruin, but I'd have to test that out first...

Street Wraith is included in GAT for the cycling/cantrip. 

Reasons to include Street Wraith over Opt, Sleight of Hand, or w/e else:
1.  It costs no mana
     a.  The more you need speed, the more you prefer Wraiths
     b.  The more you need to leave mana open to cast Mana Drain, or w/e, on their turn, the more you prefer Wraiths
2.  It's not a spell
     a.  They can't counter it w/ Chalice, or any other kind of counter (except Stifle, lol awesome move - or they can 'Needle it, for even more awesomeness)
     b.  Spheres don't do anything to it
3.  You might summon it in some situation for some reason

Reasons to include Opt over Sleight of Hand, Street Wraith, or w/e else:
1.  It digs more than Street Wraith, so it's better @ the control role
2.  You can cast it whenever and you think options > seeing 1 more card
3.  You don't pay life, which matters or doesn't, depending on the match
4.  You don't anticipate needing a 3/4 swampwalking wraith @ BB3 for any reason. 

The only reason to use Sleight over Opt is that you see 1 more card. 

Plus, like, if you're expecting more Fish + Stax + weaksauce w/ Wasteland than GAT + Bomberman then you could put Library in the board and use like 3 Strand/Delta/Sea, 2 Tropical, 2 Island, and 1 Volcanic main. 

Mindcensor huh ... interesting.  I'd be curious to know more re: what you were up to w/ that.  

Anyway, my observation wasn't based on much experience playing GAT mirrors, so generally, I'd defer to someone who has it.  But 'Blasts increase your base of disruption by ~1/3 (vs blue cards), which (at 1c) should give you a slight theoretical edge over 3-color variants.  It also seems like it would be useful to bait/bluff your opponent by fetching Volcanic, under some circumstances...

'Blasts are probably more critical vs Flash than they are in the GAT mirror, though ...


I'd be curious which instants you'd typically find in 3-color NE variants...  I played around some in NE 2 years ago, when I lived in NYC, I'm familiar with the style, generally...  And I wouldn't be surprised at all if Flash was very rare, in that meta...

Since you don't plan to win all at once, I'd think cards like Ancient Grudge and Rack/Ruin + Needles > 1-2 bounce + Flux (+ Needles?).  Another problem I see w/ Flux is, Staxless Stax can just run Eon Hub and -Tangle Wires.  They can also just pay the 2 upkeep to keep their critical stuff, so ... there's that.  The only real advantage Flux has that I can see is, you can Scroll for it...  Overall, though, regardless of whether you +/- red, in Stax-heavy metas I'd say, consider running 3-4 Mana Drains...

I don't mean to overemphasize the strategic importance of instants in the sideboard of a deck that runs a single Cunning Wish... I'm not saying, "Run 15 instants in the board, guyz!"  But you could always just run Berserk main and - Wish, right?  So, the usefulness of Wish *is* important. 

@ Midknight - I didn't assume you run red or don't run red... You were debating over it, if I'm not mistaken.  So I thought I'd hazard a few observations.  I wasn't trying to "refute" you or w/e.

Stephen's board @ Gencon had (for artifact answers) Oxidize, Ancient Grudge, and Rack and Ruin, along w/ Rushing River, to combat (I'm guessing?) a number of different Chalice configurations etc.  Grudge and Rack also net cards, so... I like the idea.

Yeah, I know this was addressed to Steve, it probably looks really bad to respond, but WTH.

GAT is prevalent.  Checking recent tournament result threadz, GAT appears more prevalent than Stax across metas, and *substantially* more prevalent than Stax in tournament top 8s.  So, you should plan on mirror matches, amirite? 

So let's assume you're playing a GAT mirror vs someone running red, and you don't.  My guess is, you probably lost any odds of a favorable matchup post-board, on the strength of a four 'Blast plan alone.  Maybe if you expect tons and tons of Stax, you could toy around with the idea of cutting red, but uh, IDK.  I'd defer to anyone else's speculation on that one...


GI gave a very sound reason not to opt for Energy Flux, see his previous post.  His argument is that, Flux devalues Cunning Wish (given that 6-8 sideboard slots already go to non-instant stuff like Needle, Leyline/Jailer, and an extra land card).  The assumption (a valid one, I would think) is that Cunning Wish is a valuable card, potentially enabling more plays than just "Um, get Berserk?!!!1" 

I see your point (correct me if I'm wrong): I'm thinking that infinite sideboard cards "apply" to Slaver and "disrupt" Slaver, but you're saying that none of these cards really "answer" Slaver or "hose" Slaver.  There's lots of random hate but no absolute bomb hate, or something. 

But I'm fairly confident that I'm just talking my way around what you've been seeing in tests - there's no strategic advantage over GAT.  Hence my post - I thought I'd toss out another reason that might be the case.  It's not just GAT's edge in power.  For example, GAT can (almost) totally ignore Null Rod, Needle for Psychatog is uh, underwhelming ... nothing really, seriously bombs it out hate-wise.   Blood Moon dudes are the only thing I can think of that hurt GAT > Slaver...  See what I'm aiming at with this?  I'm probably missing something, regardless

That's why I was looking at Tainted Pact.  I'm not sure it's worth it @  {B}1 though.

2 random nitpicks:

1.  Let's assume you don't have Tolarian Academy in play.  Why is Frantic such a bomb, esp. on turn 1 or 2?  Keep in mind I have no idea what I'm talking about, when I ask this question.  I ask, merely because the last combo list I've seen include Frantic Search is an old TPS build w/ Time Spiral, Windfall, etc. 
2.  You mention in the original post that, you don't use potentially dead cards like FoW, Mana Drain, and Echoing Truth .... but you run 1 Chain of Vapor.  Why Chain over Echoing Truth, esp. when trying to combat Chalice @ 1? 

@ the OP:
I'm curious whether you've looked at Tainted Pact or tested it vs. Spoils of the Vault.   My guess is that Tainted Pact could be slow @  {B}1, and you always risk removing doubles to get nothing, but it has 2 things going for it:
1 - You don't have to name anything, so you can use it to "look" for 1-ofs you'd never get w/ Spoils.  It keeps your options open, or something. 
2 - You run enough single cards to be concerned about the randomness of Spoils' life cost if you're already on, like, 12 life. 

Hi, I'm a new poster. 

The problem I see w/ Cslaver atm is, it's vulnerable to every kind of hate that people use.  Removal targeting Welders, Leylines, Null Rod, Red Blasts, Pithing Needles, etc.  What sideboard cards don't work against this deck, anyway?  I guess it can use more Islands, or something?