[report] Mol (BE): second with Mindslaver

[carl]

Hello,

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to attend the Mol power tournament.
I managed to bring with me my brother (playing goblins) and a colleague (playing
keeper style with 2 Planar Void and 2 Magus of the Unseen main deck).

After testing Vengeur Masqué vs Mindslaver, I decide I can't play VM.
So, I switch to Mindslaver :)

I start with team Mean's list, and end with this one:

4 Goblin Welder
1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Merchant Scroll
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker

4 Chalice of the Void
1 Duplicant
3 Gilded Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memnarch
1 Memory Jar
3 Mindslaver
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Pentavus
1 Sol Ring

1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mountain
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Fire/Ice
1 Platinum Angel
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Trinisphere
1 Triskelion


We arrive on time, I manage to find the cards I am missing easily after asking a
few buddies. There are a lot of Dutchmen and a few Frenchmen (from Lille).
60 players, 7 rounds.

Round 1: Hugues Devos - Goblins

Things are starting the way I didn't want: I have to play my brother.
We played a few games before the tourney starts, it looks like it's 50/50,
depending on opening hands. That's because not only is my brother running Goblin
Lackey, which is always bad turn 1, but he also has 4 Goblin Vandal and 1
Tinkerer main deck.
I win the toss and start with a Welder, while my brother plops a Vandal.
I scroll for Ancestral turn 2, my brother bolts the Welder, which I force.
I drop a turn 3 pentavus. I manage to slave him after timetwister and kill him
with 2 pentavites and a Welder.
Game 2 looks similar, I force an early goblin, hold off his creatures, take
control and kill him after slaving him.
2-0, 3 points.

Round 2: Gordian Berger (DE) - Madness

He opens with a Taiga and asks for a great turn 1 from me. I comply by dropping
a turn 1 Mindslaver and activate it turn 2. Turn 3 Timetwister and another
slaver, and he concedes.
In the second game he has a strong start with land, Mox, Wild Mongrel, pitches
Anger and 2 Squees, hitting me for 5. I open with Library of Alexandria. He hits
me again and drops Survival. I summon a turn 3 Duplicant to get rid of the hound
and play a turn 4 Mindslaver. I dig with Ancestral and Brainstorm to rip a
Tormod's Crypt which buys me enough time (no more Anger in the graveyard,
otherwise I would have probably lost) to install myself with Welder + Mindslaver
+ Pentavus. He concedes again.
2-0, 6 points.

Round 3: Bas Bronsgeest (NL) - G/R beats
Bas seems not to follow what's happening in T1 but he enjoys playing.
He wins the toss and opens with Skyshround Elite while I have to mulligan. He
hits me several times with it, drops a Kird Ape and gets me down to 10. I slave
him, he bolts me down to 6, then I have to sac Memory Jar to get going. He has
double bolt but I force the 2nd one, down to 2. He concedes when he sees I am in
control.
He drops another turn 1 Skyshroud Elite, followed by a Mox Monkey which eats my
Emerald. I drop and activate a turn 3 Mindslaver, he has nothing. I topdeck
Platinum Angel and we race. He dies when I am at -6, unable to deal with the
angel (he sideboarded Null Rod, REB and Blood Moon).
2-0, 9 points.

Round 4: Koen van der Hulst (NL) - Draw7.dec

It's the third time we meet, so far we are 1-1.
He wins the toss and goes turn 1 timetwister after mulliganing, I can't stop it.
I drop a Chalice at 1, he forces, I force back. He drops necro, does some stuff,
then cast Y's Will a bit later, I force he forces back (he drew his 4 Force of
Will) and pulls the combo.
Game 2, I mulligan into a turn 1 Trinisphere which gets forced (he also went to
6 cards). T2 Welder to get back Trinisphere in play. He stalls at one land, has
to discard several times. He casts Hurkyl's Recall at the end of my turn (2
lands and Elvish Spirit Guide), but I crypt his 2 Tendrils away, so he has no
way to win. He concedes after I cast Mindslaver.
In the decider, I drop Mindslaver (turn 3 or 4), he is apparently looking for
some card and rips a Bargain the turn before I can activate the Slaver. He goes
off, obviously.
1-2, 9 points.

Round 5: Wouter Dhondt - Mindslaver
Wouter is playing with Drains.
Game 1 is stupid, he drops 2 Welders and they go all the way (beatdown!).
Game 2 starts the same, he drops me to 6, but I manage to slave him and his
Welders recurse my Mindslaver. He concedes.
He has to mulligan down to five and does nothing turn 1. I have a slow start,
but he can't come back and I slave him to death.
2-1, 12 points.

Round 6: Roland Rosezin (DE) - Keeper style
Game 1 I take control with a Chalice at 2 and a Duplicant on his morphed Angel,
but he grabs Rack and Ruin from his sideboard and get rid of both artifacts. I
topdeck a Pentavus he can't cope with.
He double mulligans, I open with Library :) He casts Matrix and counter Rack and
Ruin (I had anticipated Matrix). He cycles a Decree, dropping 4 tokens. I play
Pentavus. He casts Plow on Pentavus. I Rack and Ruin Matrix and Pentavus soon
vanishes while 5 Pentavites rule the sky. My Welder is now active and soon dies.
2-0, 15 points.

Round 7: David Third (UK) - U/w prison
David managed a good finish the week before in Eindhoven with Hulk Smash.
We had tested Slaver the evening before and he wasn't convinced at all and was
wondering how I was doing so well.
He won the toss and mulligans twice then concedes to my slaver activation.
Game 2, he is in control with Trinisphere, Smokestack and Sphere of Resistance,
along with Well of Knowledge (nice touch, BTW). I see I will probably lose that
one and ask him to play faster, so we can play game 3 (13 minutes left in the
round). I Rack and Ruin Smokestack and Trinisphere. He welds back the latter and
cycles 2 Decree of Justice. I am at 4 facing 19 1/1 soldiers. Time is called. I
slaver him twice in the extra turns so can't attack me and the game ends
unfinished. I believe he could have pulled that one if he had played a bit
faster.
1-0-1, 18 points.

I finish 2nd on tie-breakers behind Marco Kiwiet (playing Nether Void) who is
the only other one with one loss.
Some will say top 8 is better, but even after that I don't think so.
Too bad there weren't log(2) n + 2 rounds of swiss (that would be 8 rounds), I
would have had the occasion to meet Marco in a kind of final.

A word on my card choices. I am quite happy about my mana base, the only thing I
would probably change is Merchant Scroll, but I don't know into what. I am not
convinced by Cunning Wish as the deck becomes too dependent on Gilded Lotus for
my taste. I often sideboarded out Memnarch (5 times) and Triskelion was often
sideboarded in. Pentavus was better than I thought.

[Smmenen]

Fact or Fiction is very very good - becuase of the synergy with Goblin Welder and becuase it is more draw.  

Matthieu and my own article on the deck is finally going up tonight on SCG - so look out for it for some ideas.

Stephen Menendian

[carl]

Fact or Fiction is very very good - becuase of the synergy with Goblin Welder and becuase it is more draw.

I didn't play it because I found that without Gilded Lotus out it's hard to play.

I am looking for a replacement for Merchant Scroll. First candidate is Gorilla Shaman.

[Grand Inquisitor]

I've been testing with a similar mana-base, also to good results.  About the creature base, how was Duplicant.  I haven't seen it except in TnT, where it obviously makes sense, but it seems redundant with Memnarch.  Also, you said Memnarch came out often.  I found he wins games I have no business winning.

For those who haven't played him, picture the following scenario:

I'm playing against control, and am facing a gorilla shaman, a scepter->swords to plowshares, but he's tapped out.  I draw into Memnarch, and I have the mana to cast, take the scepter, and destroy his shaman.

These types of game swings are not uncommon in my experience.

[Smmenen]

If you take their Shaman, you can take the shaman and turn their lands into moxen and then kill them

Steve

[Grand Inquisitor]

If you take their Shaman, you can take the shaman and turn their lands into moxen and then kill them

Steve

An 8 cc stone rain.  Savage.

[Smmenen]

If they have no permanents in play, so what.  Btw, it only costs 5.

Steve

[Thug]

It's the third time we meet, so far we are 1-1.
He wins the toss and goes turn 1 timetwister after mulliganing, I can't stop it.
I drop a Chalice at 1, he forces, I force back. He drops necro, does some stuff,
then cast Y's Will a bit later, I force he forces back (he drew his 4 Force of
Will) and pulls the combo.

You also dropped a Chalice with zero counters somewhere, which made it a lot marder for me to combo you out.

Game 2, I mulligan into a turn 1 Trinisphere which gets forced (he also went to
6 cards). T2 Welder to get back Trinisphere in play. He stalls at one land, has
to discard several times. He casts Hurkyl's Recall at the end of my turn (2
lands and Elvish Spirit Guide), but I crypt his 2 Tendrils away, so he has no
way to win. He concedes after I cast Mindslaver.

I made a horrible mistake here, because I didn't expect you would side in Crypts. Actually I was almost ready to for the kill when you dropped the crypt and ruined my changes. I played on a little longer to see if I could get some ESG beatdown, but no such luck.

In the decider, I drop Mindslaver (turn 3 or 4), he is apparently looking for
some card and rips a Bargain the turn before I can activate the Slaver. He goes
off, obviously.
1-2, 9 points.

I kept a hand with Academy, 2 moxes, mana crypt and 2 FoW. I thought that with first and second turn FoW possibilty I would be able to draw into a card drawer, but I kept drawing mana producers. You tricked me with a Thirst to resolve a Slaver but lucky me ripped a Bargain of the top, mise!

Koen

[Rico Suave]

If they have no permanents in play, so what.  Btw, it only costs 5.

Steve

Doesn't it only cost 4?

[Grand Inquisitor]

I'm not sure what you guys were talking about, but I was thinking:
3: turn shaman into an artifact
4: control shaman
1: eat land

but then I remember you still have to convert the land (3), so its actually 11.

[Rico Suave]

I was thinking if you already have control of Shaman, it's 3 to turn into an artifact, then 1 to nuke it.

Because each land isn't going to require you to resteal Shaman, so it's an intial investment of 7 to steal Shaman, and 4 for each land.

[carl]

I've been testing with a similar mana-base, also to good results.  About the creature base, how was Duplicant.

I didn't see it often. It's supposed to be good vs the mirror and Tog via Welder recursion.

I haven't seen it except in TnT, where it obviously makes sense, but it seems redundant with Memnarch.  Also, you said Memnarch came out often.  I found he wins games I have no business winning.

Most of the time when I could have played it, I was already going to win. Seems I didn't test enough.

For those who haven't played him, picture the following scenario:

I'm playing against control, and am facing a gorilla shaman, a scepter->swords to plowshares, but he's tapped out.  I draw into Memnarch, and I have the mana to cast, take the scepter, and destroy his shaman.

These types of game swings are not uncommon in my experience.

Sure, but you need an insane amount of mana (especially if you need to steel something which is not an artifact). In your example, it's 7 + 4 + 2 = 13 mana.

Also, in the mirror, my opponent cast his before me and stopped my welders. I couldn't do much with mine. Duplicant would have been good here.