Sideboard: Control Slaver vs TPS

[aTn]

I'm new at playing Control Slaver.
As the subject of this post suggests, I'm looking for sideboard ideas for Control Slaver to help while playing against TPS (and combo in general).

Here is the build of CS I'm presently playing. Keep in mind this build was designed for an environment with FCG, WW, Fish and random-aggro.dec (this is why there are 2 Triskelion MD and 3 Pyroclasm SB).

Main Deck

Creatures 7
4 Goblin Welder
2 Triskelion
1 Platinum angel

Counter 8
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

Draw 17
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact of Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Utility 4
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Mindslaver
1 Lightning Greaves

Mana (24)
8 Lotus/Moxen/Crypt/Sol Ring
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
2 Island

Sideboard

3 Pyroclasm
2 Cranial Extraction
2 Blood Moon (Yes, I run blood moon even if I have 2 Underground Sea. It just scews up decks with bad mana bases.)
1 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Rack and Ruin
2 Arcane Laboratory

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[warble]

First off, with this sideboard you're going to lose the matchup post-board pretty bad.

When I playtest against TPS I put 4 Chalice, 2 Arcane Lab and 1 Duress.  But that's cheating because my board doesn't normally have those cards.  If you know you'll face TPS have this in your board and you'll do quite well.  Note that quite well is in actuality around 60%.  It's just a bad matchup for CS on the whole.

Strategically what you want is a really early slave, because TPS kills itself the easiest of the decks that CS plays against(okay Doomsday too, but with the added disruption it's a whole different ballgame).  Getting a Lab down with counters in your hand will work well also, and if you're a cheater(playing Chalice) chalice for 1 hoses most tutors/brainstorm and chalice for 0 on top is brutality.  You usually drop the chalice for 0 if you can't drop for 1 on turn 1 just because TPS can go semi-broken and if the TPS player keeps a hand of 7 it's bad news not to play chalice (draw7 makes it a waste)

Also, I tested with duress instead of Cranial Extraction, do you actually find yourself able to resolve Cranial against TPS often?  It's hella slow when you're trying to get it off by turn 2...

[StarOrc]

Here is the build of CS I'm presently playing. Keep in mind this build was designed for an environment with FCG, WW, Fish and random-aggro.dec (this is why there are 2 Triskelion MD and 3 Pyroclasm SB).

Creatures 7
4 Goblin Welder
2 Triskelion
1 Platinum angel

Two things I would like to Mention about your choices here.
1: Everydeck in the format has answers to Plats and some are uncounterable (Gempalm Incinterator) and Plats is a fairly slow clock.
2: Pentavus is a HOUSE agaisnt all aggro provided you have a little mana and is a turn faster than Plats.
3: Sundering Titan is very good against Fish and is a turn faster than Pentavus an isn't affected by Null Rod.

I'm sure that you can surmise that I would suggest cutting Plats and a Trike for a Titan and Pents if you are going to continue playing Slaver (more on this later).

Draw 17
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact of Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

I see that you are running Gifts. SSB or similar decks are built to better abuse Gifts and typically have better match-ups against aggro deck and combo deck. Also I prefer Mystical to Vampiric because Vamp doesn't pitch to Force and the Black can be difficult against Waste heavy decks and sometimes the 2 life may matter against aggro deck.

Utility 4
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Mindslaver
1 Lightning Greaves

Lightning Greaves doesn't seems very good to me. Although I might be wrong, but most budget aggro decks I've seen run Null Rod making this a dead card. Also against aggro my plan is to typically Tinker for the win rather than use Welders because they are vunerable.

Mana (24)
8 Lotus/Moxen/Crypt/Sol Ring
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
2 Island

Again this is more personal preference but I like 3 Basics, cutting the Academy and I like Citadel instead of Seat because of Mox Monkey. I also prefer 25 mana sources but if this has been working for you then great.

Sideboard

3 Pyroclasm
2 Cranial Extraction
2 Blood Moon (Yes, I run blood moon even if I have 2 Underground Sea. It just scews up decks with bad mana bases.)
1 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Rack and Ruin
2 Arcane Laboratory

Now for the actual question. The real question is what to cut from this board, however without knowing your complete Meta thats tough. I'm not a fan of Extraction at all so if this was my board I would cut those first. Something that I've been playing with recently is 3 Disrupt and 2 REB in the board. Typically the reason combo fizzles is because it runs out of mana, this is where disrupt shines, not only does it slow your opponent down but it also draws you a card which can make a very big difference in a match where you're opponent could win at any moment. Personally I would -1 REB (instead of Pyro because of Gifts) -2 Extraction +3 Disrupt from this board. Against TPS I would -2 Trike -1 Plats -1 Greaves -1 Crucible +3 Disrupt +2 Arcane Lab.

I would definately recomend trying out SSB or another Gifts Belcher variant over Slaver right now because it has better combo and aggro match-ups and should help you in your current meta.

Star