Viability of Slaver in FS meta

[McBain]

Will the new meta of FS phase out control slaver and mana drain?
I think cs will hold true and can and will be altered to meet this new meta.
Some questions to consider?
1. Whats to slow or unneeded?
-Cow and strip mine?
-Titan-dup
-burning wish?
Mostly cards from burning slaver builds built to fight blue mages.
Cards to consider, all most likely have been tried before, but in regards to this upcoming meta
-2 tormods crypt MD
-gifts or tfk
-big robots- platz, trisk, triskbus, dsc?
-ETW?
-trickbind, stifle, extripate (sb as well)
-duress MD
-merchant scroll
-repeal
-memory jar

Sideboard
-sudden shock, or any other split second card
-E. bridge
-leyline
-crypt
-chalice
-eng. Explosives

Can Control Slaver adapt and survive to the 3-4 turn? or is the recent combo trend pushing slaver to the side?

[Tin_Mox5831]

I think the biggest problem facing Control Slaver right now is the impact of Narcomoeba in Ichorid. Turn 1 Cabal Therapies are possible and the number of Turn 2 Therapies will increase drastically as well, reducing the 1-2 turn cushion that Slaver uses to exploit to establish themselves. Control Slaver is, without doubt, the most dominant deck in the format once it's position is established. Ichorid, however, forces Slaver to interact at least a full turn before it would like to. As with any conflict, the side that is more prepared usually dominates, and Ichorid's new pace of play sets fire to Slaver's camp while it's still asleep in the tent.

Later,
Dave

[Xman]

One possibility is the inclusion of Mana Leak in the build so Slaver can have a turn 1 counter aside from Force.  It will adapt and speed up.  It appears the meta will have a larger portion of combo decks.  This means quicker answers.

As for some of the options you added, Duress maindecked was a staple in Slaver about 3 years ago if I remember correctly.  Back in the days when there wrere 2 Slaver decks.  Drain Slaver & Shop Slaver.  Now, with only CS, it might be time to put that back.

But I think the biggest problem for Slaver is it is just going to be to slow with the meta speeding up as fast as it is.  I hate to say that, but I think it is true.  At least for a while.  I sincerely doubt it will end up dead, but it will be wounded.  And you know what they say about wounded animals.

[Ufactor]

Gifts is a great idea in the way of tutoring for cards on the spot and putting artifacts in the hole, but it is too slow for a card that does not end the game by itself.  Instead, I've been impressed with Wheel of Fortune, Frantic Search [and to a lesser extent, Fact or Fiction as Tfk #4, 5 & 6(I believe it was Kyle Leith who I saw using these cards)].  They cost less and force the deck to rely more on redundancy.  All of these are good things!

[The Demon]

Will the new meta of FS phase out control slaver and mana drain?
I think cs will hold true and can and will be altered to meet this new meta.
Some questions to consider?
1. Whats to slow or unneeded?
-Cow and strip mine?
-Titan-dup
-burning wish?
Mostly cards from burning slaver builds built to fight blue mages.
Cards to consider, all most likely have been tried before, but in regards to this upcoming meta
-2 tormods crypt MD
-gifts or tfk
-big robots- platz, trisk, triskbus, dsc?
-ETW?
-trickbind, stifle, extripate (sb as well)
-duress MD
-merchant scroll
-repeal
-memory jar

Sideboard
-sudden shock, or any other split second card
-E. bridge
-leyline
-crypt
-chalice
-eng. Explosives

Can Control Slaver adapt and survive to the 3-4 turn? or is the recent combo trend pushing slaver to the side?

I think as far as the sideboard goes Slaver can be can and will be ok.  Since it already runs black, you could easily fit in Yixlid Jailers along with Leyling of the Void and be probably be alright since I presume that Slaver runs at least one T. Crypt main. .  Ensnaring Bridge sounds good, but when I used to play Slaver I usually had a full grip, so  I am not so sure how effective it would be.

Here is a link to a tournament report that I find very useful right now.  I personally think that this is the direction that Slaver will be heading (at least for the next few months).http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=31627.0

As far as cards that could be replaced/removed, I think that Crucible of Worlds and Strip Mine could very well be on their way out.  When you look at beaters and win conditions, the whole gifts ungiven for a slaver and a bot seems pretty good to me.If I had to choose two creatures that I would use primarily for a win condition they would be Sundering Titan and Triskelion.Since ETW came out, the value of Duplicant has plummeted in my view because quite honestly there are very few targets that really matter, and to top it all off Oath is not a highly played deck, at least not where I play.  I also am starting to become a fan of the ETW kill option for games two and three. 

[hitman]

@ McBain - I think if you're going to play silver bullets like Trickbind and Extirpate, you have to ask yourself if it's good enough against a large enough portion of the field you're playing in.  I like the idea of Mana Leak for the early game but I think it will require more mana denial slots in the maindeck like two Gorilla Shaman to make sure it's effective into the mid-late game.  Because of that, I think cutting Crucible is wrong.  I don't believe Crucible is too slow because you play Drain and plenty of mana accelerants.  If you're going to play Trickbind, I'd recommend Stifle in its place.  Trickbind costs too much to be able to Stifle fetches and random triggered and activated abilities.  Trickbinding storm is rare because most combo plays Duress.  Even Gifts plays Duress, now. 

I like Duress but not in Slaver's mainboard.  You're on the play and pop a fetchland for Underground Sea to play Duress and find out you're playing against Fish or Stax and they're holding the Wasteland.  Both decks should be played more in the future because they're good against combo.  Merchant Scroll is too narrow because all it usually tutors for is Force and Recall.  While Scroll for Force isn't bad, having the Force or Leak in the first place is better.  Between 4 Forces and 3 Leaks you have a high likelihood of having it in your opening hand. 

Between Thirst and Gifts, I think Thirst is clearly the better card, especially against a faster field.  How many times will you be able to cast the card in the first few turns that you're worried about?  If you get past the initial counterwar, how will you restock your hand if you're holding a four casting cost card?  If you cast it to refill and they win because you're tapped out, then what? 

Sudden Shock will be too hard to cast early.  You can side in 3 Duress and 2 Extirpate in addition to the 4 Force and 3 Mana Leak you have mainboard.  You could even bring in Leyline, instead.  Slaver's a deck that can just counter the bounce and ride a Leyline all the way, especially with 3 additional counters.
 
I don't think Slaver's going anywhere.  It's control elements just need to change a little.

[Bubbydan]

   In todays metagame you defanitly need three or four t crypts. It works much better in this deck than leyline of the void. Slaver is not a deck that you want to mulligan itself to oblivion looking for that leyline. Later in the game it is a dead draw. 
   Against storm decks I like to bring in spheres of resistance. It slows them down just enough to give you time to set yourself up. Tormod's Crypt also helps out here.
   Gifts in this deck is just like in Gifts. It resolves and you win. It puts you so far ahead that your opponent has a tough time catching up. You can use it to dump artifacts in your yard, or you grab y will/tinker with it. I also use 1 or 2 thirst for knowledge and 2 or 3 merchant scrolls. That really depends on what I feel like at the time.
   I have been tossing around Yixlid Jailers and extripates in my head, but I havent tried either one just yet. I have tried Street Wraith and honestly I'm not sold on it just yet. It is a great card, but for the loss of life I don't know if it does enough to spped Slaver up enough.

Dan