Updated cerebral assasin for 2006

[Juggernaut GO]

Well I have been fooling around with CA for a few weeks since I started playing minds desire in every deck.  The workshop deck I made had some entertaining results such as minds desire for 14 every other game by turn 3, but I got hammered by gifts no matter what.  Even though it started out primarily as a joke deck, I decided to move it into another direction.

What beats every deck in type 1? 

1 card, Mindslaver.  The problem is, whats the absolute fastest way possible to activate one.  Using a welder with 4 mana available.

So, you want to avoid hardcasting the slaver because you don't want the shady gifts player your up against to drain it so he can win the game next turn, so how about Bazaar?

Ok, so now how do you get so lucky to get 4 mana fast enough to activate that mindslaver?  My answer to that question:SU CHI

I think when they invented mindslaver the guy that designed it loved SU CHI and wanted someone to make him naughty.

On another hand I wanted to give the deck a potential combo finish, and the ability to abuse yawgmoths will as good as the original list designed by Mr. Lawrence.

I understand many of the concerns of people that say CA is a dead deck, and that it cannot compete today because sundering titan stopped becoming a relevant card.  I agree with the 2nd part.  Too many people are focusing on a stable mana base with basics and fetches, welding in a titan to kill 1 land becomes less glamorous, but it still beats for 7.  I decided to concentrate the deck on slavering my opponent ASAP.

Bazaar makes this fantasy become reality much more easily then any workshop or mana drain ever could.  The deck is all about constant pressure and relevant threats.


mana:
4 gemstone mine
4 city of brass
4 tendo ice bridge
2 seat of the synod
1 tolarian academy
1 mox emerald
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 mox pearl
1 mox jet
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
1 lotus petal
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt

       25 mana

creatures:
4 goblin welder
1 sundering titan
1 memnarch
1 triskelion
4 su chi
1 duplicant
3 squee goblin nabob

     15 creatures

drawer/tutor stuff:
4 bazaar of baghdad
4 thirst for knowledge
1 tinker
1 crop rotation
1 mystical tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 ancestral recall

13 stuff

other good stuff:
1 yawgmoths will
3 mindslaver
1 minds desire
1 echoing truth
1 time walk

7 other good stuff

What is the best answer to the deck:  Pithing needle on goblin welder.  We have all seen it before.  Against gifts. the only real deck that actually uses pithing needle, there is nothing wrong with playing the combo game.  No one main decks a stifle for minds desire.  Ripping out a desire for even 5 with this deck can be more then lethal and that can be done on turn 1.

Enter this into MWS, play some games, Have the most fun ever.  Show all the unoriginal bastards running 4x chalice how bad their decks really are.  I don't need to say how devastating a mindslaver activation against stax is, and what can the do to stop you, maybe drop a null rod early. 

This deck can change gears like no other, you can be the beatdown.  A 4/4 su chi does not exactly suck.  You can be the control: slaver by turn 3.  You can be the combo deck:desire for 10 on turn 2.

All of these things are a reality, enjoy the deck.

[Vertigo]

Well I like the look of that..I just wanted to drop by and ask whether there could be room for a single shaman or two? seems like you may need something beyond the truth, to remove pesky needle.

[Harlequin]

As is the mana base might not support it, but perhapse a few Transmute Artifacts would be good.

Play Su Chi
Transmute: Sac Su Chi ->  Sundering titan or Platinum angel ... Not bad for UU

[Juggernaut GO]

I've done that before in a different deck.  Transmute just sucks so hard when it gets countered.  I ran it at waterbury 6 and finished 4th, losing 3 matches all day, 1 to gifts in swiss, 1 to zheng in top 4 and another to.....GIFTS for the 3/4th playoff

[oldbsturgeon]

wow that thing looks insane. now im goning to definitely have to try something like that out. the only thing that really worries me is tendo. obviously you played them at waterbury and so you know their limits but what concerns me of course is that they come out too early in multiples and you have to break them for color but have no other source and are stuck. i realize with moxen and cities and mines that probably isnt an issue but something i would wonder about.
with my sqee spots right now i have made them darkblast and life from the loam. in this case im not sure what you would want more, but they would allow you to dig super deep getting that slaver in the yard fast and help protect the bazaars from getting wasted. just a thought.

[Gabethebabe]

Interesting deck.... I don´t think it will be good though, because you want to do too many things.

But on to some of my comments, just by looking at the decklist:
- Vamp Tutor and not Demonic? That seems weird.
- 3 Mindslaver is a lot. Wouldn´t an intuition be able to replace one of those?

I like Japanese food, but I fail to see the amazingness of Sushi in this deck. I mean, if you´re casting Sushi, you already have the 4 mana available. If you don´t have 4 mana available you need 2 Welder activations. One to bring Sushi on the table and one to replace it with a Slaver. If you pay CS you know that being able to get Welder active on the table takes some effort, so twice is even more difficult.

[Harlequin]

Su chi is a way to convert Workshop mana into real colorless mana.
Colored land -> welder, go
Workshop -> suchi go
Bazaar -> chuck slaver -> weld suchi for slaver

Thats all unrestricted combo-liciousness

[Juggernaut GO]

the reason I prefer vamp over demonic in this deck is because of the mana.  Generally, you will not be able to demonic for something, other then a bazaar and play it in the same turn.  In a deck that offers no protection:brainstorm, force, mana drain.  I don't like leaving my hand open for a full turn until I can untap then cast what I got, most often Y will or thirst.    You can get away with running demonic in stax because your most common tutor target is strip mine, in which case you really dont care if anything gets it out of your hand.  I prefer the mirage tutors simply because I can surprise at the end step with them.

I do like the idea of adding darkblast and life of the loam in place of 2 squee.  Squee always seemed like too much of a placeholder, but loam and D blast offer you some extra protection, considering the deck only runs 15 mana lands.  My only concern here is dredging will into the graveyard with no way to return it.

I choose tendo over glimmervoid all day, simply because glimmervoid can fuck you in the ass constantly.  Tendo has  a minor drawback, but it still sticks around for colorless which doesn't suck.  Not to often are you stuck with only tendo ice bridge for your mana source.

A card I always love in welder decks continues to be fact or fiction and I would like to play it in CA simply because of how broken this deck makes welder.

[MoxMonkey]

TFK is for gaining card advantage Intuition is for setting up the fast win.  When looking at your list I see your trying to set up the quick win.  Intuition sets up a crazy Yawgmoth's Will or sets up Welder Tricks.  I would run 3 Intuition and 1 Life over the 4 TFK.

Darkblast is amazing even if you lose Yawgmoth's will killing there Welders and Shamans is just huge.  With Intuition you could drop Mindslaver to 2 and put a Darkblast over the 3rd. 
 
2-3 Workshops might also be worth testing unless needing colors comes up to much.

Just some thoughts

[Harlequin]

Not to mention that cards like Intuition, FOF, and Gifts can be insanely abused by Mindslaver... It ensures that even if you dont have a recurring slaver .. you still are going to win the game fo'sho.

[dicemanx]

This deck is decidedly light on threats, and doesn't have any disruption to contain the opposing deck. You are going all-in with your Welder plan, and god forbid that they counter it/Needle it/Darkblast it etc., and that is *if* you manage to see one early enough for it to matter. Because there are no shops, the aggro plan of Su-Chi beatdown would take a minor miracle to actually work with any degree of consistency.

By comparison, CA runs 4 additional threats (4 Animate effects), and it runs some additional disruption to ensure that it can at least slow down the opposition long enough for its threats to matter.

I'm also of the opinion that Squee has lost much of its potency, both because its a really slow way of accumulating card advantage with Bazaar, and because Bazaar is so vulnerable to destruction (you have no CoW or LftL) or to Needle. Since you also don't run Intuition, Squee makes even less sense. You'd probably be much better off using Deep Analysis for an immediate card burst. DA is also better with TfK than Squee. I'd go so far as to extend this suggestion to CA itself, and to WGD decks that run Squee-Bazaar engines. They are going the way of the dinosaur.

I'm all for exploring new ideas, but this looks like a serious downdrade of CA, a deck that should probably look towards beefing up its threats by gong for hybridization with WGD just to be able to keep up with the faster decks out there.

[Jank Golem]

I will say that this looks interesting, however I don't see the point of Sui-Chi. Seeing as you play no workshops you are just spending 4 mana to get... 4 mana.

Just as a possible idea to solve this problem, Dark Ritual? While it only works once, as you said once is all you really need for mindslaver. Running Dark Ritual also allows this deck to be more combo oriented, allowing the possibility of running an alternate tendrils kill. Just a thought.

[nataz]

I understand many of the concerns of people that say CA is a dead deck, and that it cannot compete today because sundering titan stopped becoming a relevant card.  I agree with the 2nd part.

There is a second reason why CA stopped being a great deck choice. The control decks that it used to pray on, 3-4cC and CS, are either non-existant or at an all time low. It was those match-ups that the bazaar squee engine really shined, and now with gifts sharing the spot light, bazaar squee is a pretty terrible choice.

It's slow, open to common disruption (i.e., pithing needle, crypt, wasteland), and takes up a fuck-ton of slots. You can re-make the deck to mitigate those factors, but it doesn't change the fact that CA lost two advantages, not just one.

What you are left with is a shell that has the bazaar-welder/animate interaction, with holes in the Draw/Discard and Kill department.

[Purple Hat]

your list is also missing the possessed portal aspect of CA.  I've admittedly been out of the scene for a while so CA may have stopped playing it for some reason, but at least in my mind possessed portal was one of the best reasons to play CA, the versitility of being able to win with titan beats, combo finish or a powerful lock was one of the deck's biggest strengths, I wouldn't want to give up any of that if I was trying to resurect it.

[Lunar]

hmm....Id comment a lot more but that would be a waste of time,.....instead please refer to Dicemanx, Nataz and Purple Hat on this one...although I dont really agree with Nataz on CA doing poorly vs Gifts, I actually find soem of the newer CA ideas to work quite well vs Gifts, mana denial is tech. But the points on Squee/Bazaar still stand (Im runnin a whoping 2...cant seem to let go of those last 2 spots quite yet)

Vampiric and no Demonic due to mana reasons, yet recurring Su-Chi to activate Mindslaver is np for mana....

@ moxlotus...

Card Advantage was very important in early CA lists...so much so that the original lists used 4 TFK (like JG's) and no intuition at all...it took quite a while for people to start using 1 then 2 and then 3 was the number for a long time, and 4 is starting to be the right number (+ LftL in addition even) I still run a Deep Analysis in there to toss into intuition piles to give me a one card boost which wins me games at times...DA should be an option for this slaver list...

@ Juggernaught...

Have you tried out a single CoW in there? seems like a reasonable choice for a deck that needs to both protect lands and likes to set up locks via mindslaver...its been a once in a while option for regular CA, so maybe here? This also makes a lone Strip Mine pretty juicy as well (strip...well, strip+2xWaste has been very very good for me in CA lately, and a buddy just got a 3rd in a tourney with a full set in CA ((4xwaste+strip)))

you know its funny though...I had just added FoF into my CA list for like the first time the other night...seems to be pretty juicy in testing so far, even with the mana concerns I used to have for assasin.

[Juggernaut GO]

Ok I took into account many suggestions here, which is what posting on TMD is all about.  I reworked  a bunch of the cards in the deck.  I can understand how no one besides myself would ever play minds desire in the deck since its not commonly accepted by the community, however that has never stopped me from winning with bad cards. 

Possessed portal completely slipped my mind, and it has been added

Su-chi may suck in the eyes of alot of people so he has been replaced by his little cousin, Cathodion which accomplishes the same thing su-chi set out to do.  3 mana is not as difficult to come by as 4 and it 3/3 body still blocks stupid aggro creatures and beats down.  Cathodion also teams with welder to make an extremely successful yawgmoths will.

Removal of squee, addition of dredge cards.  Squee is on vacation, darkblast and Life from the Loam are back, to help against fish and to fill the grave.

As much as I dislike intuition personally, it is a community card and it fits into the general concept of C A, intuition for portal, titan, trike is too good with a welder in play.

Animation spells:  2x reanimate added to the maindeck.  I want to address the addition of worldgorger dragon to the deck, which I think is a terrible idea.  This is not 2003, worldgorger dragon combo does not compete with todays decks, everyone knows how to beat it, and if you ever actually win a game off dragon then consider yourself lucky, or a person with extremely favorable pairings.  The only deck dragon gives you a favorable matchup is something janky like mono Red goblins, which you already smash.  Why open yourself up to a loss to run a win condition that was obsolete years ago.  reanimate does everything you need it to do, at 1 less mana and some lost life.  Your most common target will be welder anyway, and if the life issue does come up you can always just have platinum angel in play instead.

4 gemstone mine
4 city of brass
4 tendo ice bridge
2 seat of the synod
1 tolarian academy
4 bazaar of baghdad
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
1 mox pearl
1 mox emerald
1 mox sapphire
1 mana crypt
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
1 lotus petal

4 goblin welder
1 duplicant
1 sundering titan
1 platinum angel
4 cathodion
1 trikelion

1 tinker
1 crop rotation
1 yawgmoths will
3 thirst for knowledge
1 vampiric tutor
2 mindslaver
1 minds desire
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
1 mystical tutor
1 life from the loam
1 darkblast
1 demonic tutor
1 possessed portal
2 reanimate

[nataz]

I know you mentioned adding it, but I dont see any intuitions in your final list. Also, is there any way you could fit in some ancient tombs? They power out intuitions and cath while helping to pay for mindslaver.

BTW, another nice part of the dredge mech in the deck is the ability to dump cards in GY even when Pithing Needle is namming Bazaar.

[W2431]

I dont know about you, but the ability to randomly win as early as turn 1 seems really good to me.  All you need is the dragon in the yard and to get a trike there and you win with 2 reanimate spells.  When i was running CA i was using 5 reanimate spells in addition to the other threats.  I played 2 necromancy and 3 animate deads to give myself some chalise survivablity as well as the ability to win in response to an opponents win condition, or in response to their eot blue draw nonsense.  Trisk + Dragon = GG.  Try it out, you may find you like it a lot especially if your playing intuition.

[vroman]

Laplante lists are like puzzles: "this is good, figure out why."
Ive been experimenting w assassin builds, your second deck is very cool, and much better than first list in this thread. I really like cathodian + mindslaver combo. ability to withstand early aggro is a plus. squee sucks, will never play it or any other 'enabler' thats independently useless.

I would take above and:
-2 gemstone (worst rainbow land)
-2 reanimate (one shot threats that cant be pitched to bazaar)
-1 plat angel (worst robot win condition, no board control)
-1 seat synod
-3 thirst (this deck can use more efficient draw, below)
-1 minds desire (doesnt make sense to me, but I will test it)
+1 tree of tales (you need repeatable green mana to run lifeloam, this lets you weld out off-color(less) artifact mana for green)
+1 stripmine (strip/waste lock is very powerful in any lifeloam deck, basicaly uncounterable)
+1 wasteland
+2 life loam
+1 fact fiction (fact is your tech, probably worth running)
+1 pentavus (gives slaver lock and keeps p-portal alive sans dredge/welder, plus is just dominant combat creature)
+1 imperial seal (find strip recursion)
+2 sensei divining top (awesome synergy w bazaar. EOT look at top 3; set up [dead, dead, bomb]; activate bazaar w empty hand in upkeep, mill 2; draw step, get bomb; have fresh 3 on top of library to peek at. plus free on-board draw effect for emergency dredge. finding ways to activate bazaar w little to no cards in hand, is the key to abusing best draw engine in format)

every stax player wishes they could get possessed portal effect on the cheap. assassin has always been attractive to me. I will test this with my alterations, and try desire as well.

[cryolyte]

Having just come off a control slaver kick, and being a teammate of Nicolae Antes, who has created Dawn of the Dead, I tooo have falling under CA's spell. Mindslaver is a great suggestion, as is fact or fiction, and I will be adding them to my testing card pool. Here is my current list:

1x God's Eye, Gate to the Reikai (I'm split between this and citadel though but I do like this card)
1x Strip Mine
3x Wasteland
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
1x Tolarian Academy
5x Moxen
4x Sol ring, Lotus, Crypt, Vault

Engine:
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob
2x Life from the Loam

Low-Cost Threats:
3x Animate Dead
1x Necromancy
2x Gorilla Shaman
4x Goblin Welder

High CC Threats:
1x Sundering Titan
1x Triskelion
1x Karn, Silver Golem
1x Platinum Angel
1x Duplicant
1x Possessed Portal

Broken cards:
1x Tinker
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Balance
1x Crop Rotation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk

Metagame cards to help with my bad matchups:
2x Crucible of Worlds
1x Echoing Truth

Some other lists I've seen ran:

Intuition: No doubt, the card is hands down the bomb in this deck. Especially with an active welder. But it costs 3 to cast (trying to keep the curve low) and it's kind of an IF card. IF welder is out it's gold.

Dragon combo - this deck is unfocused enough without throwing a combo into it. If you run dragon you have to run junk like hellkite or laquatus, and one dragon is too random. I realize sometimes it just wins, but alot of other things in this deck do that too, and I'd rather have those slots for other things.

Null Rod - Maybe. I think my combo matchup is probably pretty poor, and Null Rod is such a hoser. If it bothered me I could always weld it out. It also shuts down my nemesis, Tormod's Crypt.

Wheel of fortune - I guess this was ran in case of pithing needle on bazaar in order to have another discard outlet. I have never liked the prospect of handing my opponents seven new cards, though. Frantic Search would be better.

Entomb - I think it's pretty good and have tested it out, but it got cut for balance.

Sideboard as of now:
3x Tormod's crypt
2x OxidiZe
3x Ray of Revelation
3x Xantid Swarm
1x Echoing Truth
1x Shattering Spree
1x Swords to plowshares
1x Jester's Cap

I ditched Rack and ruin because I can never seem to get enough mana to use it against stax. I despise the thought of trading one for one, but oxidize will have to do for now. Shattering Spree could be golden, since I'm running a five-color manabase I should have no problem getting a couple of red mana around to blow some shit up.

the focus of my deck is to animate a big dude. It doesn't have to necessarily be titan. Nowadays, Titan is less useful than he was in cerebral lists of the past because manabases are more stable (fetchlands etc.) and it does jack against decks like stax that are pronounced in the metagame and run few duals or basics. I would much rather just run a toolbox of big artifacts than multiple titans.

Life from the loam isn't really "the plan" but it helps me keep bazaar around, and puts even more stuff into my graveyard. To this end, I kind of think nostalgic dreams would be a good fit in the deck. Allowing me to pitch crap and grab theat ancestral recall and animate dead that I just dredged away (or will even). The thing I like most about the deck is that it has so many must counter spells. Welder, the animates, shaman (for a lot of decks), and of course broken stuff. And if they counter all that stuff and we go to the late game I can probably just hardcast a big man at that point.

I really dislike the force of will plan because you're either pitching it to itself or you have to pitch something like tinker or ancestral to it. If I ran careful study that would be something, but I think that card is weaker than the other ones in the list. Duress sucks against stax, but is gold against control. Same with Xantid Swarm. Crucible is good against everything because it keeps bazaar online, and makes strip, waste, and gemstone recursion possible. Echoing Truth is also good against everything, and could serve to get rid of bad stuff like first turn colossus, pithing needle, and oath creatures. And lock components.

Shattering spree also serves to deal with a chalice for one, opening the door for me to use oxidize. Besides crypt, I think my biggest problem (as it was with CS) was dealing with darkblast. I really need my welders. Tinker for trike hurts too, since you can't get rid of him.

[vroman]

in my testing, I found welder removal problematic as well. I solved this in one version by cutting to 3 colors, running fetches + duals, concentrating on red mana; and adding Anger. hasted welder doesnt care if enemy has removal primed, and lives just long enough to get off that one crucial game winning weld. null rod is a strong addition for main deck disruption. requires cutting artifact lands/utility. Bazaar+null rod is the most cost effective draw+disruption package in the format.

[Vandel]

You may want to add Frantic search since its free and has good synergy with ur sui-chis and ur welders and ur tolarian academy.

Also cut possed portal maybe for a slaver or 2 or add more of the better artifact targets to make it less random.(add darksteel coloosus )

THe way you have it metal workers may also be worth testing :S. (lightning greeves for ur welder and metal workers would be great acel as well as good for protecting ur triskelion, platinum angel etc vs evil stps etc.

[Purple Hat]

there are better artifact targets than possessed portal?  since when?  possessed portal is like an entire stax deck in one card.

I don't really see how metalworker could be good in a deck that plays bazaar instead of shop, and come to speak of it it's not all that good in shop decks.  the whole idea of this deck is to be dumping your threats to your yard and bringing them in with a welder or animate to avoid serving up jucy drain targets, metalworker seems entirely counter to this plan as it 1) encourages you to cast high casting cost spells and 2) encourages you to hold artifacts in your hand rather than dumping them to your yard.