Trinisphere in Slavery

[BreathWeapon]

After reading Smmenen's latest article on Trinisphere and its place in  the new Stax, such a good deck, I decided to throw together a Slavery.dec list with the Trinisphere included instead of Blood Moon. 20 Gold Fishes and 6 games later, I have a working list i'd like to get some feed back on.

Trinity.Dec

Combo (8)
4xMindslaver
4xGoblin Welder

Lock (8)
4xTrinisphere
4xChalice of the Void

Disruption (4)
4xForce of Will

Draw (11)
1xFact or Fiction
4xThirst for Knowledge
1xTimetwister
1xWindfall
1xWheel of Fortune
1xTinker
1xTime Walk
1xAncestral Recall

Misc (2)
1xKarn, Silver Golemn
1xMemory Jar

Mana (27)
1xTolarian Academy
4xMishra's Workshop
1xStrip Mine
4xWasteland
4xVolcanic Islands
4xShivan Reef
7xSoLoMoxen
1xMana Vault
1xMana Crypt

The basic premise of the deck is almost identical to Toad's Slavery list, with a few notable exceptions. Instead of trying to lay down a MD Bomb with Blood Moon, the deck has been adapted to support Trinisphere instead. The Ancient Tombs and Guilded Lotus were cut for Wastelands in order to strengthen your Trinisphere lock and retard Mana Drain for as long as possible. The absence of Blood Moon makes Hard Casting the Mindslaver a little easier, now that you gain the full benefit of your Mishra's Workshop under all of your lock pieces. The MD seems to feel much stronger with the limited testing i've done. Trinisphere has a greater synergy with Mishra's Workshop than Blood Moon and helps feed Thirst for Knowledge. The deck plays like a combination of Krazi-Stax, Trini-Stax and Slavery all in one. Normaly. FoW greatly helps over come the stop gaps in Workshop soo nicely. Let me know how it works for you ... or how much you hate it.

[JuJu]

I think you should Cut the 4th Mindslaver for a Pentavus, it creates infinite tokens if really wanted, and more importantly it creates tokens for Welder+Slaver tricks. Also, playing Slavery, I'd rather have a 2nd win condition, I first ran only Pentavus, now I'm running Karn and Pentavus, together, it's very strong. Also, I've been playing with Future sights in my build, they look a lil clunky but they work like a dream, I goldfished yesterday just to see how effective it was, it usually drew me about 10-15 cards, of course the shuffle effects are helpful for this and of course running Mystical/Vampiric Tutor in the sb can make it even better, but it's really a card you should at least try. The other thing I've been toying with is the inclusion of black, I'm only running D-Tutor and the 3rd "Win" Card but both are very good in the deck, pulling you out of times where you should just drop dead. Oh, for reference, I cut the 4 Shivan Reefs for 4 CoB, GlimmerVoid wasn't pulling its weight compared to the Brass City

I'd like to know other people's opinions of Trinisphere in Slavery.

Oh, P.S; BW I was ShadowSpawn on the last TmD, you might know me from there

[Toad]

Trinisphere won't help you much against Ground Seal and Null Rod, and will prevent you from using Force of Will.

Wastelands are bad here because your control engine is the Mindslaver. You need to settle one ASAP. You can't afford to waste time to kill lands. Killing lands is good in a mana denial strategy. That's not what you are aiming at. If you want to soft lock your opponent, just play Welder MUD. Gilded Lotuses are really important in the deck.

You need at least 2 Cunning Wishes to deal with random game 1 annoyances (Ground Seal, Null Rod, Damping Matrix).

[The Atog Lord]

A few thoughts:
As Toad pointed out, Force of Will is not a very good combo with Sphere.
The deck's mana base is dependent on the Gilded Lotuses; adding Sphere should only increase that dependency.
Finally, one of the reasons to play this deck is that Slaving an opponent often ends the game. However, with a Sphere out, you are actually diminishing the power of your own Slaver. By increasing the cost of their spells, you are making it less likely that you'll be able to devastate them by taking their turn for them.

[BreathWeapon]

I don't agree with you on those points Atog Lord. Force of Will is what pushes Trinisphere through. I am not looking to support FoW in the Mid-Game like the typical Slavery.dec. Trinisphere doesn't harm your ability to destroy the opponent on his own turn, it just slows the game down. This is the BIG difference between Trinisphere and Blood Moon. Trinisphere doesn't slow the deck down much at all, with the exception of the Goblin Welders and Acceleration nothing changes. Yes, the deck is lacking in Mana Acceleration with out Gilded Lotus, but it is making up for it in buying time with Trinisphere in my limited playtesting. Whether or not this will hold is the question i'm still tyring to figure out. If nothing else, its an exercise in deck building.

[Toad]

Trinisphere shuts down your ability to use Force of Will and that's really what matters here. If you are going second, for example, against Oshawa Stompy, your opponent can still drop a Forest and use an Elvish Spirit Guide to drop Null Rod or Ground Seal. That will give you headaches. And Trinisphere can slow down your game too, if your first Mishra's Workshop gets Wasted.

Furthermore, in testings, I found that Gilded Lotus was often needed to get to 4 non Workshop mana in early game or to get your draw engine going, which means i'm really reluctant to cut them. I was even considering adding the 4th one some while ago. It's just really strong in the deck, and I often find myself getting a Lotus over Memory Jar with Tinker.

Oh, and you need a Pentavus here.

[Bigboned]

I dont think Fact or Fiction belongs, especially if you are not running Gilded Lotus, which i definitely think should belong as well.

Four mana is a lot, and when you already have a full set of Draw 7's + Four Thirst of Knowledge + Ancestral, I think that Fact might be overkill. You should have a lot of cards in hand which you would rather spend your mana on.

Also, is Trinisphere really that much better than Blood Moon? Trinisphere only locks out your opponents early plays, mostly relevant against Aggro. Yes, Control has some early plays as well, but the difference is that they can actually afford to pay three mana for a Force, where you can't.

Blood Moon seals the game when it comes down, they are completely helpless until they get that Island, if theyre even playing it. Note that this happens regardless of when you play it (Assuming fairly powered metagame) I would much rather keep Sphere in sideboard for those Aggro matchups, where it will be more relevant.

[BreathWeapon]

The deck starts to fall apart without the coin toss a little too often than i'd like. I think i'm going to put Trinisphere in the SB and call it a day with this idea, I just can't generate the mana I need to hard cast or activate the Slaver when I need to.