[Report] Control Slaver in NH 5/16

[MadRhetoric]

This is my first tourney report, so here goes nothing...

Maybe a quick introduction will do. First of all, I'm just returning to magic. This will be my first time playing with control slaver not on apprentice. I'm not really going on experience, more on the sheer power of the deck. I've got Zherbus to thank for bringing me back to T1 and for posting this tourney.

Control Slaver:
4x Goblin Welder
4x Mana Drain
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Force of Will
3x Brainstorm
2x Fire/Ice
2x Cunning Wish
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Platinum Angel
1x Pentavus
2x Mindslaver
1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Tinker
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Memory Jar
7x SoloMoxen
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
4x Volcanic Island
2x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
6x Island
1x Library of Alexandria

SB:
3x Red Elemental Blast
1x Blue Elemental Blast
3x Flametongue Kavu
2x Tormod's Crypt
2x Rack and Ruin
2x Blood Moon
1x Echoing Truth
1x Shattering Pulse


Round 1 - Goblins
Game 1
He overwhelms me. He sees many threats as I attempt to churn through my deck. I don't find an answer, so he wins.

Game 2
Again, he starts throwing out threats while I churn through my deck. I eventually get a Platinum Angel out and stablize at 1 life. I get a slaver and start taking his turns. I clear his board and finish him off.

Game 3
I believe I get a turn 2 Platinum Angel off tinker. My hand was filled with some other good stuff, so I just win.

Round 2 - Germbus
Game 1
We go back and forth counter and removing each others threats. He cycles for 4 soldier tokens, but after attacking once with them, I eot Cunning Wish for Echoing Truth to get rid of them all. He has a lone gorilla shaman when I tap out to play Pentavus and Welder. He topdecks Will to fire the Welder and Disenchant the Pentavus. Exalted finished me off.

Game 2
I keep a rather nice hand... which gets owned by wasteland. I'm stuck on an island and an off-color moxen. I concede when he Scry's for 3 with him having a wasteland on the board and plenty of mana. My hand had 3 Welders, a REB, and some other nice stuff.

Quick side note: This was my first time meeting Zherbus and he was a great guy. Friendly and cool through the whole match. I hope to play him more there.

Round 3 - U/B Terrible
Game 1
He's able to get a third turn Arcanis off a lotus. I didn't have a counter, but he attacks with him next turn(???). I get a Platinum Angel in play, and he figures if you can't attack with the beatstick that is Arcanis, might as well draw 3 cards. Next turn, I let him Malice my Angel with a Welder in play. He falls for the bait and attacks with Arcanis. I weld Angel back and block.

Game 2
I have control the whole game. I mean, I had control the last game, but I just win a lot faster.

Another side note: In his deck, he used Visara, Arcanis, Avatar of Woe, Salt Marsh, and Spite/Malice. My friend I was with commented on how his 12-Land Stompy deck could have beaten him. And just when you think 12-Land Stompy is dead!

After this round, my friend and I decide to get some food from Dunkin Donuts down the street. We heard it was about a mile, and without a car, we haul ass down the road. We found this shady pizza place/bar on the way. We each order subs to go and head back. I get back to find I was less than 1 minute away from a game loss. I was pleased.

Round 4 - Dragon
Game 1
He eventually gets Bazaar/Triple Squee going. I have mana to Force and Blue Elemental Blast. He duresses me, which gets forced. then animates the dragon. I BEB it with it's CIP ability on the stack, but he Misdirects it to my Welder. If I didn't have a welder in play, I would have won next turn.

Game 2
I slaver him with an Platinum Angel in play. He has 5 mana sources out and draws a land with a dragon in hand. I play his dragon, thinking with angel out and him minus 6 lands, I should be good. I slaver him later in oredr to attack with his Dragon so I may attack with my Angel. I get him down to 4. I make a huge mistake. I weld out my dragon to slaver him. For some reason, I think I'll still have another artifact to weld. So I'm stuck with 1 turn left and no artifacts. My hand is full of stuff, but a Blood Moon I played is hindering me. I topdeck an Echoing Truth, bounce my Moon, play Will, then go broken and win. My deck loves me.

Game 3
The first two games took a while, and with me being 9 minutes late, time is called early on. He plays a Squee under blood moon to pick away at my life. I get a Pentavus out, but he blocks so when the turns are up, he's ahead in like (I belive 19 to 17). He said that's his win, and me being tourney inexperienced, just assume he's right. I ask the TO, and he says the game is a draw, so since we were 1-1 at that point, the match is a draw.

Round 5 - RectorTrix
Game 1
He does the whole combo thing.

Game 2
His hand is nuts. He gets a third turn kill.

Overall, I'm glad I went and had a good time. My opponents were all nice people and it was fun just to play magic again.

Props:
-Myriad Games for having a great tourney. The owner (unfortunately I didn't get his name), was a very nice guy and had good prices for a store.
-My deck for loving me, even though I rush and make terrible play mistakes.
-Chicken Finger pizza for being so delicious.
-Echoing Turth for bouncing every soldier token.
-Zherbus for having this great site and for being a great guy.

Slops:
-Rack and Ruin for never being used.
-Me having to rip myself off to finish my deck and my friend's deck, even though he didn't play his.
-Having to walk a mile to get a sub.
-Having to get up early for the first two days being home from school.


Some comments about the deck:

I don't understand why people would take Platinum Angel out of the deck. People add Flametongue to help against aggro, but the Angel is the best plan. If you can get her into play and protect her, then you're golden. I'm considering a lightning greaves in the sideboard for aggro-heavy metagames. I really enjoy the deck and I hope to have some good performances at future tournies.

[Sytupal]

Were the Fire/Ice's as useful as you had planned on?    I cut them in my build because i found them useless in some situations.  in place of them i run brainstorm #4 and slaver #3   and these are just a necessity to me now.

[MadRhetoric]

Were the Fire/Ice's as useful as you had planned on?    I cut them in my build because i found them useless in some situations.  in place of them i run brainstorm #4 and slaver #3   and these are just a necessity to me now.

I just feel like they are too versatile to cut right now. I really don't feel like I'd want a 4th brainstorm becayse brainstorm isn't extremely useful without a fetch. I like being able to deal with problematic creatures asap. Grim Lavamancer, a Curiositied-creature, opposing welders, Gorilla Shaman, Goblin Lackey, and everything else. At worst it stalls and cycles. Like I said before though, I'm not experienced with the deck. Right now, I'd consider more fat over another mindslaver. I've been thinking of Sundering Titan and Memnarch, but those are ideas to be tested. If your configuration is working for you, go with it.

[Garth One Eye]

Congrats on having a blast with Control Slaver!  

I'm a huge fan of Richard Shay's build and I've been playing with Lightning Greaves for about a week now.    In addition to protecting your Platinum Angel, I've kept quite a few welders alive who otherwise would have been plowed/fired/pinged etc.  

At the very least, the Greaves are one more artifact to weld, and you can swing with your Pentavus/Angel or even Memnarch (if you're playing him) right out of the gate.

[Zherbus]

Great report. It was good meeting you, I hope to see you around at more New England events.

[Mixing Mike]

If you ask me, Fire/Ice is what really allows you to win then NullRod aggro matchups (Fish, Big O), and help a lot vs. FCG.  FTK is good here no doubt, but the Fire/Ice is what really will be the differing factor if you ask me.

I don't see how you can play 2 Wishes without any big draw spells in the board.  Since you play FoF in the maindeck, I'd play Scrying in it's place for sure.  You really do need draw to justify them.

I'm going to agree with your comments on Angel.  Rich Shay and I were talking on AIM how crazy people are for cutting it.  It's a gameplan in-and-of itself that just wins games.

[JDawg13]

I have first hand experience as to how powerful Fire/Ice is in the first game.  I played against Mixing Mike in RI with U/R Fish, and Fire/Ice consistently destroyed my board every time it resolved.  Considering the fact it also kills Welders, I definitely can see the argument for 3 MD.

[The Atog Lord]

I know that some people have cut the Angel and Fire/Ice from the deck. The argument, it seems, is that the cards do not help the deck combo out. While this is true, and some good people have in fact removed those cards, I still play them in my version of the deck.

As has been said, the Angel provides an entire gameplan by herself. The "counter angel" plan, while not what the deck has been built to do, still proves itself useful enough to justify her inclusion, at least in the games that I have played. As for Fire/Ice, while it sometimes just cycles, it is useful enough in enough matchups that I still run it.

I agree with Mike. I believe that Fact of Fiction should be in the main deck. However, having two Wishes means that you should have some sort of Wishable draw.