I get to the Grand Prix and am shocked to see that Kevin is in the finals of an 8 man side event. Evidently the interest in Type One was so high that this was the second even to the GP thus far. I buy some foils at the dealers to further pimp out my deck and chat with some people.
7 rolls around and we play.
ROUND ONE:
I sit down against Roland Chiang (sp?).
Roland lent out his Workshops to Doug Linn
http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/articlefinder.php?keyword=Doug%20Linn who was forgoing his blue babies to play with some Smemnarch.
So I was a little curious what Roland was playing. My opening hand was something like this:
Anceitn Tomb, Mox Jet, Mana Crypt, Volcanic Island, Memory Jar, Chalice of the Void, and something else I can't recall.
I won the roll so I was playing first. I had no idea what he was playing so I dropped Volc, Jet, Crypt, Chalice 2 so that if he wasted my Volc, I could cast jar next turn. He stripped my Volc (which was interesting when I soon discovered he was playing Hulk).
I played my tomb and dropped Jar but he Forced it. He was stuck with a one mox and one Underground Sea for about 3 more turns (while I was stuck to) and then I drew Giilded Lotus and it resolved. From that point I started playing quite a few draw spells and soon Slaver. I slaved him twice but couldn't get much out of it because he didn't have any lands! I saw plenty of good cards: Deep Anal, Intuitions, Togs, and Wishes but could do nothing. He had Brainstormed several times and found nothing. Soon Memnarch joined the table and stole all of Rolands permanents.
Game two was much more interesting but basically involved the fact that Roland simply couldn't muster enough steam to kill me. I played Memnarch. He bersekred at 7/8 Tog when I was at 17 life and I could have Forced it, but didn't - he had to go for it becuase I was going to steal his Tog - so he had to let it die. I won shortly thereafter.
ROUND TWO:
Anthony from New Jersey.
Anthony was also playing Tog! I did come out broken and quickly Slaved him. When I slaved him I intutioned into: Will, Lotus, Tog and set myself up for a broken Will next turn. I cast Will and cast Ancestral on me Twice using his ancestral in his yard and wish to find it again. I also removed all his gy and hand from game.
At that point he was done.
Game two:
Game two was insane.
He goes Fetch, Sea, Braisntorm, Mox go.
I go: Mox Mox Workshop Jar with Force backup. On turn two I jar. But guess what? I don't see a fucking land in 14 cards. I am very pissed off and I draw go for like 6 turns and finally he gets back in the game and finishes me off.
Game Three:
This game involved me keeping a hand with Tolarian, Mana Vault, Chalice, and spells. I thought about it but decided to keep. On my first turn I played Chalice 0, Tolarian, Mana vault. On my second turn, I tapped Tolarian and Vault for 5 and played Thirst, which got me a Volc. I dropped the volc and played Blood Moon with the two mana floating. When I jarred away his only island about 5 turns later he was ready to concede. Recall, I had Chalice 0 in play as well as Blood Moon so that was his only source of blue. He stayed in the game until I tinkered up Memnarch though (after drawing Gildeds).
ROUND THREE:
Ryan Austin (Top 8 at Vintage Champs)
With, guess what, Trinistax.
Ryan asks what the favorable matchup is and I explain that Slavery is highly favorable for two reasons: Gilded Lotus and Force of Will. If either is used, it generally is huge for stax.
I win the roll and my opening hand is:
Chalice of the Void, Mishra's Workshop, Mishra's Workshop, Mox Pearl, Gilded Lotus, Timetwister, and a Volcanic Island.
Ryan mulls to 6. Its rough becuase m y first turn Chalice after Pearl robs him off all his explosiveness. I drop giled on turn two and another on turn three. He is way out of this game and then I play Twister. This was the worst twister ever. I draw 4 brainstorms and 3 Force of Wills over the next 3-5 turns as I dig but fail to see anything good. Soon both of us have Chalice 0, 1, 3, 4, 5 in play. It was insane. I stopped him from playing Karn. Eventually I see Memnarch and steal all his perms. My slavers helped slow him down - as did my FOWs and Chalices
I SB in Rack and Ruins and Shamans. But it doesn't matter. Ryan Mulls to 5 and has all manaa as I unloaded a 1st or 2nd turn Gilded Again and do sick stuff. This game is over much more quickly.
2-0, 3-0 in matches
ROUND FOUR:
Unpowered Dargon I loaned out. This guy borrowed my Dragon deck using 4 Compulsions, 4 FOW, 4 Intuition - we took out the accelleration and added Dark Rituals, 4 Duress, etc.
I win the roll.
I drop Shop and pass the turn.
He goes Bazaar. He uses it and dumps DARGON in the yard.
I drop another shop, tap them for Gilded, which resolves, then I tap gilded and use last floating for Chalice 2. It resolves. I have fact and Thirst in hand.
He goes: Sea, Dark Ritual, Necromancy Win.
W/e
The next two games involve me playing 2nd turn blood Moon and resolving. They are long in some cases and Trinisphere is important as well as intermittent slaving.
ROUND 5:
Jonathan Patch has already dispatched of my compatriot Kevin Cron playing a nearly identical deck and Doug Linn playing Meandeck Slavery as well.
I figured that I had an unfavorable matchup to his EBA with 2 Matrix maindeck, 4 Angels, 4 Duress, 4 Drain, 4 FoW, and Meddling Mages with more Matrix in the board. We agree to ID (after some coaxing) simply becuase this assures us the most product.
But we decide to play it out for fun.
My opening hand is something like this:
Ancient Tomb, Volcanic Island, Thirst for Knowledge, Tinker, Force of Will, Wheel of Fortune, and Gilded Lotus.
I lose the roll and he goes Mana Crypt, land, Morph (angel, go). I let it reoslve.
I go:
Tomb, Go
He wastelands it and i drop volc welder. It resolves. He wastelands my Volc. !! At this point I draw and think. I pass the turn. He goes land go. I draw and then discard Gilded for a cool next turn play. He goes: Matrix: I go FoW and stop it. On my turn I play chalice 0 and weld in Gilded Lotus. I play Wheel off it and I get a sick play. I play another gilded with shops, and I play Time Walk and have three floating to thirst the last card in my hand. I draw: Emerald, Ruby, Welder. How laucky! I discard Emerald and play ruby, welder and then i have the lock. At this piont I was at 5 life. I slave him twice and on the second one I see Ancestral and play it on me. He scoops before it even resolves (I had many artifacts and 2 welders in play). I looked my top three and Pentavus was there.
GAME TWO:
Knowing his incredible amount of hate, but also that he was now running black, I knew i needed to add Blood Moons and Rack and Ruins is a no brainer. But i needed to figure out threats. I decided to cut Mindslavers becuase he had so much hate. I assumed he had stifles too and he commented that he was going to SB out restricted cards so that made slavers less good. I sbed them out and I sbed out Pentavus (since that's the first card he names with mage after welders.). I then SBed in Trike and Plat Angel with the racks and the moons. I can't remember what all I SBed out.
I mulliganed a hand with 3 UR lands and 2 gildeds, a mox, and a Welder into:
Mox Jet, Volcanic Island, 1 Memory jar, 1 Gilded Lotus, Thirst, and something else broken.
He plays turn one duress and nabs the Thirst.
I topdeck (like a lucksack) Workshop.
I play Volc Jet letting him think i'm mana screwed.
He wastes my volc. I topdeck SOL RING and play the shop and the ring off the jet and drop gilded. For some reason he thinks he's in mana denial mode and wastes my shop. This causes him to miss his 2nd mana towards Matrix, however, it make my next turn less explosive becuase I could only drop Jar AND welder instead of doing more. I gave him the turn. He didn't do anything with it and then I started using Jar over and over and draw7s. Soon Mennarch joined the fun and the game ended with scooping when i started to steal his lands.
So I only lost 2 games in five rounds. Here is what i played:
(bold indicates changes or awesomeness)
4 Mishras Workshop
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island
2 Shivan Reef2 Polluted Delta
1 Library of Alexandria5 Moxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Goblin Welder
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Brainstorm4 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Force of Will
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Windfall1 Pentavus
1 Memory jar
1 Smemnarch
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Mindslaver
SB:
2 Platinum Angel
2 Triskelion
(those guys are the large man plan for Oshawa and Fish)
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Blood Moon
3 Trinisphere
All those things are sooo good.
2 Gorilla Shaman
Now that I have tested Control Slavery, WTF, and other interesting matchups in great detail I feel very confident with this deck. I expect the SB to change moderately, but I probably won't be touching a thing in the maindeck. I'll most likely be playing this this weekend, although I won't like, I miss Bargain and Mind's Desire
Stephen Menendian
