All Things Salvagers (For Noobs!) PLUS mini-reports

[LotusHead]

This is now the official thread for All Things Salvagers.  For those following the drama, my build of Auriok Salvager Combo/Control deck has been doing well enough in the local meta, but has yet to find a home thread on TMD.  The Noobie Forum should be the place.

The goal: Make Auriok Salvager decks better than mine (or at least to improve my build and the Auriok Salvagers concept)

My build, as can be seen on many Noob and Open T1 threads is currently this:

Mana: 22/23
4 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Flooden Strain
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus (Combo Card)
1 Lion's Eye Diamond (Combo Card)
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Island
1 Plains (would be an Island, but I won a DCI plains...)

Combo Critters: 8
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage

CounterStuff: 9
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
2 Ertai's Meddling (pretend they are 2 Drains...)
1 Misdirection

Draw/Search: 11
2 Intuition (maybe should be 4)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Time Twister
2 Cunning Wish

Utility/Kill: 8
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 AEther Spellbomb
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Chromatic Sphere
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Engineered Explosives

Sideboard: 15
Echoing Truth
1 Orim's Thunder (could be Disenchant)
1 Sacred Grove (Wastelands/Crucibles in my meta)
1 Misdirection (well?)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 REB
1 Ebony Charm (token Graveyard Hate)
1 Shallow Grave (Salvagers trick)
1 Chain of Vapors (combo needs this, yes?)
1 Entomb (Combo trick for win)
1 Rebuild (My artifacts are cheap!)
1 Brain Freeze (alternate win condition if all else fails)
1 Stifle (well?)
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Intuition (just got a 3rd. Put it here for now. Should be MD)

The combo works like this: IF I resolve an Auriok Salvager, I can generate Infinite Mana with a Black Lotus or Lion's Eye Diamond.  If ALSO I have a Spellbomb/Sphere or Cunning Wish handy, I can get a Pyrite Spellbomb for the kill.

If the Auriok Salvager is resolved and ready to go, there are  about 16 different Top Decks for the win.  That is this deck's stregth.

In testing, this deck's weakness can be summed up in 8 letters: NULLROD

In ALL of my real world (tournament) testing, Null Rod is the common factor in games that I have lost. Null Rod affects my Combo, Null Rod affects my Mana Base. Plain and Simple.

My 2 Main Deck Seal of Cleansings and 2 Cunning Wish for Null Rod answers have not been enough to survive Null Rod.  Especially when Null Rod is accompanied by Wastelands and/or Crucible of Worlds.

Null Rod does not just affect my build, it affects all Salvager Builds.  The combo piece is Black Lotus. Null Rod in play means No Black Lotus.

Fish plays Null Rod and Fish/WTF/r/LandStill/CrazyCrucibleDecks(including TurboLandThingies) infect my Meta.  My build has done fine against just about anything without Null Rod.

About this build (This post is in Newbie...I am doing my best for now...):

The deck is centered around a resolved Auriok Salvager.  The Force of Wills and Mana Drains (or Ertai's as my build has) is geared toward resolving Salvagers.  Resolved Salvagers happen MOST of the time. (Null Rods being a big chunk of the other parts of the time...damn mox-based mana base.).  For now, trust me on this. Check out earlier "SlapJack" threads/reports. The problem is Null Rods. (dear Mods: It may sound like I am repeating this over and over...and I am, but ALL Salvager builds need to deal with this. Please bear with me.)

The question is, what can be done to improve this deck's chances agains Main Deck Null Rod and Sideboarded Null Rod?

Some suggestions by persons familiar with this deck are:

 A) Cut black. I only have 2 black tutors and have enough other tutors.  Put in more Islands or something. Sound choice, first on my list so far.

B) Keep black, go up to 4 Intuitions ( I am running Combo) and maindeck Yawgmoth's Will and Echoing Truth, possibly Mystical Tutor. (no Will yet due to lack of Ancestral Recall and Timewalk from personal collection.

C) Replace Auriok Salvagers with Psychatog (you can take a long walk off a short pier! (to past naysayers. )

In short, although Salvager decks are the Underdog New Deck Archetype, easily hated upon by well, Fish Decks and TMD experts (not a slam...simply the facts), Salvager decks ARE potent against anything without Force Of Will (ie, most bad decks) and anything with Null Rod.

What can be done about Null Rod, Salvager's ArchNemesis?

Promised Mini-Report: (See previous threads on previous "Tourney Reports)

At the local C&J's Unsanctioned No-Proxy T1 Thursday Night Tournament, my build "SlapJack" went 3-2.

Round 1: Christian playing Turboland.
Game 1: He wins the die roll (as usualy) and plays Land, Mox, Time Walk, new turn, Workshop, Crucible, maybe Brainstorm.  Basically, I was under a Crucible/Waste lock early on, and I Brainstormed into Excrement TWICE.  I conceded before even knowing WHAT he was playing (although it DID have Tropical Islands in it...)
Game 2: We played a game of Magic here.  I did not panic at his Null Rod, but it was bizaar seeing come from a Workshop complete with Mana Burn.  Later, I was looking at 2 Null Rods.  Then a Xantid Swarm.  Eventually, not even a top decked Sacred Ground could save me.  Basically, I conceeded after his Crucible resolved (I forced one a while back).

Round 2: Dennis playing his build of TNT.

Dennis got the full vengence of SlapJack (my build) after I was beat soundly by Christian's deck.

Game 1: SlapJack looses die roll. Combos off turn 1 anyways.  For those that are interested, this deck CAN go off Turn 1 many ways, some with FoW backup.  THis time is was Tundra, Crypt, Emeral, Salvagers, topdecked LED, Spellbomb in hand.  On to games 2 and 3.

Game 2 he beat me fair and square.  Game 3 I beat him fair and square.

Round 3: Brent? Devon? The one who is NOT UnstableCornBread playing Food Chains Goblins.

We had played a few games pre-tourney, no sideboard and my build went 50/50 against FCG.  Duck (or Jay or someone) piloted my deck while I took a break.  Still about 50/50.  

Game 1: I go 2nd, following his Mountain Go turn with Land, Mox, Mox, Mox, Topdeck Mox, Timetwister Go.

He attacked me for 111 points of damage on his turn 3.  I Twistered into 3 Land, 1 Spellbom, a Force and no Blue. I made him go through the motions as I had only seen FCG combo out once before.  Beautiful.  On to game 2.

His Bloodmoons are Useless.  I already got a Plains or Island into play, and waited to topdeck a win.  As stated before, there are 10+ cool topdecks when I am in TopDeck for a Win Mode.  He is a little dissabpointed in his Bloodmoons.

Game 3.  I don't fully remember what happens, but a Resolved Trinket Mage for Explosives mean I don't have to worry about his stuff (or Lackey).  We mostly draw go (Or I re-explode stuff with Salvager) untill I get a top-decked Trinket Mage for the win. (I think I actually used Toad's Fake Salvagers thread for the Trinket for AEther Spellbomb=>Bounce Trinket Mage=> Replay Trinket Mage for Lotus and Win whild FCG was tapped out.  Thanks, Toad!

The FCG player will probably Sideboard Null Rods in the future as his Petal/Moxes/maybe Lotus weren't as cool as completely shutting down Combo decks like mine.

Round 4: Adam playing WTF/r.

Games 1 and 2: He stomps me, ok?  Null Rod.  Fish stuff.  Null Rod.

Adam stomps me again in the "just for fun" games too, unlike my experiences with Joe (see other SpapJack threads).

SlapJack gets stomped out of the 2 games that count, and at least 3 that didn't, ok?  

Salvagers gets stomped by Null Rod!  That is the problem I wish to have under discussion.

Adam is very cool during the friendly "just for fun/testing" matches, giving me insight as to what Fish/WTF people think about.  He still whomps on me.

Round 5: Timmy (Joshua) with Zombies.  Yes, the same Timmy with Zombies from the last post.

SLAPJACK WHOOPS IT ASS!!!!!!!

Ok, there is not a whole lot of "props to good ol' SlapJack" on this matchup.  Joshua is like, a kid, and doesn't understand that Zombies are not Broken.  I do not have the cold heart to tell him so, to his face, but I really did feel like "I don't know what I would cut, but I would definiately cut Zombies" was the only good advice I could have given him.  I instead gave him a Withered Wretch to combat GraveYard manipulation, while keeping with the Zombie theme.  He already had 1 Wretch MD from my suggestion last week.

(For Hilarity's sake, here is........)
\
Zombies Veruse Gay Welders (A LotusHead Creation)

Timmy's Zombies had a hard time dealing with Gay Welders, but after my multiple Mesmeric Orbs cut his deck down to 2-5 cards or so, he had to think carefully about whether or not to Whithered Wretch my Gay Welder targets (including Platinum Angel, Though Prison, Memory Jar, Memnarch, and other goodies).  His top deck answer (well, bottom deck answer, because he only had one card left in his Libary) was a SWAMP!  Consuming Spirit for 12 leaves me at ZERO!!!

Later, my Mirroden Block Deck "Grow A Thopt" has to face Gay Welders piloted by Scott who is an Ex-Magic Player.  We draw, as his Welded platinum Angel and my Sculpted Steel Platinum Angel are too much for either bad deck to handle.

Come on, after all of this, you got to read about GAY WELDER DECK!  Was that worth it, or not?

To keep things in focus:  This Auriok Salvager deck can handle almost ANYTHING but Null Rods.  What to do?

[goober]

If you are going to make a "primer" for this pretend you own a playset of magic cards.  Built the optimal version and the post it for critique.  I don't care that you personally own 2 Drains not 4. I want to see what this deck can be at its best, then see if it is viable.  Despite the fact that I think this deck can never do well in anything competitive, it shouldn't be constrained by one person's budget.

[LotusHead]

I did mention that the 2 Ertai's Meddling should be viewed at 2 Drains.  I would obviously include Ancestral Recall (especially if proxies were allowed).  I want Insight, not criticism of my collection!.

If I have Ancestral, it would probably take the place of a Trinket Mage of Chromatic Sphere.

This deck has been viable, in just about every real world "test/tourney matchup" except ones involving Null Rod.  That is what I am looking for.  What to do about Null Rod.

As for this being a mini-primer about Salvagers: It is not.  It is a jumpstart to discussion about Salvager decks.  So far, I am the only one posting tourney result (however small) and I am completely open to new approaches to Salvager deck.  I just post my build as a point of discussion.  Any other decklist/approach is appreciated.  This is Newbie, and I did try to articulate my thoughts as best I could.

Any other suggestions?

[Bulls on Parade]

Mana (23)
4 Tundra
2 Plains
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 LED
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Library of Alexandria
Bad Cards (8)
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage (I assure you that when an optimal build is revealed, these will be Fabricates. But for now, I can't find anything worthwhile over 1cc)
Good cards (16)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
3 Intuition
1 Enlightened Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Time Twister
3 Cunning Wish
Counters (8)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
"Utility" (6)
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Chromatic Sphere
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Disenchant
SB: 1 Stifle
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Stroke of Genius
SB: 1 Accumulated Knowledge (unless you decide to use the AK engine yourself, which wouldn't be bad since Hulk is in a steady decline and there doesn't seem to be any in your meta anyway)
SB: 9 slots for whatever bad cards you like, I'd want to try a janky transformational sideboard with Exalteds and Meddling Mages.

I wanted to make room for even more bad cards like Ancient Tomb, but decided not to until I figure out what juicy targets Fabricate can have.

The cards in bold are those that effectively mean "GG" once you have the mana engine rolling. I have also given the deck more (and faster) outs in the case of a resolved Null Rod.

Did I answer your challege of presenting a better list?

In testing, this deck's weakness can be summed up in 8 letters: NULLROD

[LotusHead]

This last list is about what I had in mind.  It has 14 actual land/fetches, up from 13 in my build. (EDIT: I would remove a Time Walk for the Pyrite Spellbomb kill.)

This build also cut black and red for a Tinker/Colossus.

Nice work, and yes, this IS what I was looking for.

The cards in bold (the game winners with the mana engine running) should also include topdecked Trinket Mages.

For those who don't know it, an Salvager/Lotus/Explosives is a weird situation where the Salvager player has complete board control over permanents that cost 0,1,2,3,or 5 mana. (Salvagers cost 4, and my own moxen are still Salvagable).

Without Lotus backup, the Explosives in this build can only be set for 2, barring off color Moxen, and are still useless in the face of Null Rod. Explosives do deal with weenies and Chalices quite well, however.

Thanks for the input/suggestions. I am this close to trying a WUG build with Birds of Paradise and the like, purely for Null Rod reasons.

[LotusHead]

Salvagers has been laying low for the last week or so as I try to digest all the criticism (suggestions) of the deck's strengths and weeknesses.

After the previous report, Salvagers went through a tiny readjustment.  If Fish is my dreaded matchup, is it possible to maindeck answers to Fish, and side in my normal weapons against non-Null Rod decks?

I sided out all Misdirections and an Ertai's Meddling for maindeck Sacred Ground and Intuition #3.  To the board, I added Tinker and Darksteel Colossus as defense against decks that can deal with Salvagers.

As for pre-game fun, I met Marion from Slovakia.  He is here on vacation.  I played my newest deck, "Gay Welders" featuring Mesmeric Orb, Gaea's Blessing and Goblin Welders against his black deck featuring Staff of Dominion and Cabal Coffers.  Gay Welders is T1 lite, with Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, FORK, and Recall! (The BLUE Regrowth!).  This deck mills both opponents, and if my Welders live, make life hell for the opponent. He lost the first 3 games against it, then won the fourth with a huge ass Promise of Power.

Later, I busted out my Sliver Deck. against him.  He never saw any slivers, as he Hymmed one of my duals early on.  I did manage to cast SQUIRELL FARM from Unglued to his astonishment.  He never saw that card before! OK, neither have most people, but  I toss it into Slivers to have a bit of fun. (For those unfamiliar with Squirrel Farm, for 1G, Target Player has to name the artist of a card in my hand.  I would have to show the card, covering up the artist's name.  If said player doesn't know, I get a 1/1 Squirrel Token.

HE DURESSED ME AND WROTE DOWN ALL THE ARTISTS IN MY HAND!!! I fell on the floor laughing.  Then the tournament started, and who KNOWS if my squirrels would have overcome his blackdeckness.

At C&J's on Thursday the 12th, there were 16 players. Dragon, TurboLand, some TnT thing with SmokeStacks/Suchi/Juggs, Fish, Sligh, 2 Black Decks, TurboLand and Keeper (probably 4CC) were there.  Plus, ov course SlapJack!

Round 1: Opie with Red Deck (Bolts, Pups, etc). Opie is one of the store's mascots and game 1 I combo out at leasure turn 2 or 3.
Game 2: I combo out with Intuition offering Black Lotus, Pyrite Spellbomb and Sphere of Reason (Whatever the anti-red damage enchantment was.  I am thinking of putting a Sleight of Mind in the board, you know.  For now, it is just an anti-red deck experiment. I lost twice, recently, to a good Sligh player).

Round 2: I play Paul who plays a black deck with a green splash.  He later showed me Nether Voids as his "power".

I combo off turn 2 on poor Paul, who has never seen this deck in action.
I combo off turn 4 game 2 vs Paul.  Well.  My deck didn't fail me yet today, although in casual games, SlapJack has not been performing right.  Dennis, another patron of C&J's, told me that if you play a deck long enough, it will start to have bad weeks.  

Round 3: Dennis playing the Fastest Sligh in the West.

Round 1: He goes first. Sorry for the lost details of the rest of this game.  He had me on a quick clock, and I lost.

Round 2: I keep a hand with Land, Mox, Mox, Tinker! Two turns later, he was dead of Colossus up the yin-yang.

Round 3: He goes first.  Sorry for the lost details of the rest of this game, as well.  I will take written notes from now on.

Round 4: Brian Woo (TheLegendOfMagic) playing Dragon.

Game 1: He comboed off early when I had no answers.  No problem.  I enjoy the Combo on Combo action, but I respect Dragon more and more for being able to combo off when it has FoW back up or even a second save your ass backup.

Game 2: I combo off relatively early on. (Maybe turn 4 or so). He knows my deck and he only has so many anwers for it, other than winning first.

Game 3: I keep a no-land hand consisting of Jet, Vampiric, Force of Will, Salvagers, Intuition, Wish and an AEther Spellbomb.  I figure, I WILL resolve a Salvager, and he can do nothing definitive about it.  Also, with an AEther Spellbomb on the board, he won't combo off too soon.  The trick is to topdeck a source of white mana for the win.

He Bazaars away, and at one point, Intuitions for 2 Squee and 1 Worldgorger Dragon.  I let him keep the dragon and Ebony Charm away the Squees. (I had AEther Spellbomb on the table, and probably still had Force of Will + blue in hand.

After I belive, 12 turns, I only saw one other land. Underground Sea (to activate Spellbomb). I even had a Brainstorm in hand to speed things up, but with Jet and Underground as my only mana source, I had to sit on it.

When Brian decided to go off (IE, he was at 1 life due to Salvager Beats), he had a STIFLE waiting for my AEther Spellbomb.  I was sure I had him beat, but my deck just did NOT produce more land.  Sigh. Such is life.

Round 5: Marion from Slovakia playing a Black Deck.

I combo off on 1 of the 3 games, but he does beat me on the other two games.  My deck failed me and/or I just got impatient. Game three was lost because I failed to read his Scrabbling Claws fully.  He can remove 1 card from the graveyard by tapping it, and another by paying 1 mana and sacking it.  I thought it was Sac: Draw a card. I was wrong. I died.

SlapJack 3-2.

Brian went on to win 5-0, beating Sligh, SlapJack, Turboland, Fish, and something else for the win.  Congrats to Brian for the win.  He is still unapologetic for his online behavior.

SlapJack faced 0 Null Rods and 0 Wastelands during the tournament. Weird.  Ok, maybe a couple of wastelands, but still. Weird.

I have learned that 3 Intuitions may be too much for this build of SlapJack.  It "crowded me".  In Dragon, I don't need to resolve the chosen Intuitioned card.  I care more about what is in the yard.  With Intuition, if I have to Intuition for 3 Salvagers, I then have to resolve it.  That is 7 mana of investment time.  I am not sure if 3 Intuitions is neccessary or "optimal".  However, if I HAVE a Salvager in play, Intuition becomes a Kill Card and not just a tutor.

[Bulls on Parade]

You didn't play against fish in this tournament, but Darksteel Colossus + Tinker is enough to win an otherwise unwinnable game against that deck, as well as many other decks. I strongly suggest maindecking the "combo," and maybe even working in a Memory Jar.

[AngryPheldagrif]

Salvagers 4.0
        1 Pyrite Spellbomb
        2 Trinket Mage
        1 Tinker
        1 Darksteel Colossus
        4 Brainstorm
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Enlightened Tutor
        3 Intuition
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        1 Demonic Tutor
        4 Accumulated Knowledge
        4 Auriok Salvagers
        2 Cunning Wish
        1 Seal of Cleansing
        4 Mana Drain
        4 Force of Will
        2 Underground Sea
        1 Volcanic Island
        3 Tundra
        1 Island
        2 Polluted Delta
        2 Flooded Strand
        4 City of Brass
        1 Lion's Eye Diamond
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Time Walk
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Emerald
SB:  2 Seal of Cleansing
SB:  1 Coffin Purge (I threw this in here because of Crucible's gain in popularity)
SB:  1 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  1 Rack and Ruin
SB:  1 Misdirection
SB:  2 Fire/Ice
SB:  2 Disenchant
SB:  1 Swords to Plowshares
SB:  1 Brain Freeze
SB:  1 Intuition
SB:  1 Stifle
SB:  1 Shallow Grave

I just noticed this thread existed, so I figured I may as well post the last version we developed before we abandoned this to work on Draw-7. The only testing we got in was against Tog, Landstill, Dragon, and Kaeper. Tog is fairly irrelevant now, but we fairly wrecked it. Landstill wasn't terrible difficult if you could keep Disk off the board. Dragon was horrifically one-sided for us, but then again our Dragon player wasn't as quite an expert with the deck (He could never figure out what to do if we resolved a Seal of Cleansing and he didn't have his 1 Stifle). Kaeper was fairly lopsided against us, but we still pulled to about 40-60 by the end, simply because of speed.

Fish, we still lack sufficient testing to say conclusively. I can say with certainty that the recent shift over to WTF pleases me greatly, as green is utterly useless against Salvagers, and I can still race them just fine. Now that they play less counters, I can win that much easier. Null Rod has never really been that bad of a problem seeing as our build can just fetch Mr. SoC and vape it. And racing fish has never been hard. Having Tinker->Collossus just makes it that much sweeter.

-Dan

[LotusHead]

I now have 3 of the Foil DCI Accumulated Knowledges, and when I get a 4th, I'll test out the AK/Intition engine myself.  I will now try to actually fix my mana base, so that a resolved Null Rod doesn't screw with half the mana base.

The Tinker/Darksteel Colossus combo was just plain stupid. (in a good for me, bad for my opponent way). Only a couple of random decks can deal with it.  I put it in the sideboard especially for Fish, but got to practice with it only against Sligh/Burn decks.  (As a side note, at that tourney, Dennis, playing The Fastest Sligh in the West, sideboarded perfectly against the Meta there, boarding in 10-15 cards against Crucible decks and Keeper.  He beat Turboland and drew to 4CC, losing only to Dragon. He came in 2nd place despite seeing 3 Darksteel Colossi turn 1 or 2!)

Maindecking that combo (at the very least, for a Null Rod backup plan) is sounding better and better.  Is Salvagers to have more and more tricks up it's sleave in the future? I have a nice Alpha Berzerk sitting in my trade binder waiting to be wished for!

And to AngryPheldagrif: Your list is welcome here.  This thread is for All Things Salvagers.

The dude from Europe that did the Salvagers thing in that tourney recently used the Myr Servitor/SkullClamp/AI engine (like in the Budget Salvagers thread, but with power) and got lucky against WTF.

Anyone else that is playing a Salvager deck is welcome to post a report on their own build.

[Toad]

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18797

[LotusHead]

Thanks to the Mods for unlocking this thread. PM me if you have any concerns. We have Newbie work to do here!

As has been rumored, I am actually thinking of taking a WUG approach to Salvagers to work in a more stable mana base, and a new line of tutorage: Living Wish.

The whole point of this build is to not get screwed as easily by Null Rod, comboing off happily as usual and having 2 backup plans if the Pyrite kill won' work out.

The Lands: 27
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strain
2 Island
1 Plains
3 Wasteland
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
2 Wall of Roots

Combo Critters: 6
3 Auriok Salvagers
3 Trinket Mages

Control: 8
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
2 Disenchant
1 Engineered Explosives

Tutorage: 7
3 Intuition
3 Living Wish
1 Enlightened Tutor

Knowledge: 7
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Thirst for Knowledge
1 TimeTwister

Kill!: 2
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 AEther Spellbomb

Smarts? 3
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus (backup plan)
1 Crucible of Worlds

Sideboard: 15 eventually
1 Maze of Ith
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Auriok Salvager
1 Trinket Mage
1 Sliver Queen (desparate backup plan)
1 Rubinia Soulsinger
1 Tracker
1 Strip Mine
4 Blue Elemental Blasts
1 Sex Monkey
other cards

Now for the explanation of card choices:

The Mana base has a lot more actual lands than my earlier build.  The addition of green is mostly for Living Wish, but the Wall of Roots is another great source of mana/blockage. I cut the off color Moxen to reduce my reliance on Null Rod-able mana. I still wanna go broken, but I don't want to die to Fish every time I see it.

Intuition/AK Engine + 2 Thirst for Knowledge: This deck now has a draw engine, prompted by AngryPheldagrif and others. The 4 AKs and 2 Thirst have replaced Brainstorms (although I DO love Brainstorm).

4 Force/2 Drains: If I must have 4 Drains, then replace a Plains and Trinket #3 for them. I can only test this in No Proxy Sanction Stuff. Apologies.  However, many combo decks rely on just 4 Force of Will plus maybe something else (Duress/Xantid). My deck loves Drain Mana, so the two I have go in.  Where are the Ertai's? Who knows.

Wastelands: I love having Mana, and this deck can use colorless mana well enough. However, I hate Workshops, Libraries and overly active Factories.  Oh, and Glacial Chasm if it comes up. But isn't it time Salvagers got in on the whole Waste thing? 3 seems fine (plus a Strip in the board as a Living Wish target)

Crucible of Worlds.  I have Strips, I have Fetches, AND I'm Rogue.  Oh, and I have Enlightened Tutor.

Tinker/Darksteel Colosus: Hey, I wanna win too.  The Tinker/Darksteel Colossus rocks agains most decks, and gets around Null Rod. I may even fit Mystical Tutor back in as Tinker #2.  

3 of each Salvager and Trinket Mage: This list sports 3 Living Wishes, and 1 each of Salvager and Trinket is in the sideboard (as are other goodies).

2 Disenchant: Who doesn't need Disenchant? I may change back to Seal of Cleansing.

1 Pyrite/2 AEther Spellbombs: The Pyrite is still the Main Kill Card.  Salvagers CAN deal with graveyard hate, but it's tricky.  If I lose the Pyrite from said hate, then the AEther Spellbomb can let my cycle through my deck for Living Wish for either Sliver Queen or something. AEther Spellbomb #2 just may turn into SunBeam Spellbomb (If I have arbitrarily large life, then you must either deck me or lose.)


Anyways, this WUG build of Salvagers has been goldfishing happily for 2 weeks now, but real live testing has not been done.  

Any critiques on this build are welcome, as is any critique on any previous builds.

For the record, sometimes people play my Salvagers deck against me (and I play some other deck).  I HATE playing against Salvagers. It can go off any time. It sucks to be on the opposing side. But still, my other decks kinda suck as far as T1 goes. (Gay Welders?)

[LotusHead]

To the Mods: Sorry for posting in this thread after a week and a half of deadness.  I had no internet access, and much still to discuss with Salvagers.

Last week, August 17th, SlapJack took first place at C&J's for the third time in 6 weeks.  Not bad, eh? And to make it juicy sweet, I beat a Fish Deck (well, WTF), a Control Slaver deck, a TNT/Stacks deck (R/G w/Survival and Prison components.) Want to know details? Of course you do!

The tourny had about 20 or so players in a no-proxy environment.

The Maindeck Changes to my previous build were to move Intuition #3 to the sideboard (3 was too much...) and maindecking Tinker/Colossus for it's resiliency to Null Rod and it's random wins. I also managed to squeeze in a second Basic Island and a Scrubland (don't ask...it is now Underground Sea).

Round 1: Dennis playing a Rogue Mono-Green Crucible deck (with Sylvan Libraries and Berzerks n stuff).

Game 1: Dennis opens with land, Lotus, Elf, Sylvan Library, Mox. Turn 2, he pays eight live to keep his two extra Sylvan cards, and busts out with an Argothian Wurm. Turn 3 he does something involving Predator's Strike and Berzerk. I die.

Game 2: I Tinker out a Colossus turn 1. He dies 2-3 turns later (Zuran Orb, you know.)

Game 3: I combo out like a madman early on.  He had a Glacial Chasm in play (with Crucible), so I had to Do That Salvagers Thang with the Black Lotus, and draw cards with a Spellbomb, until I hit Cunning Wish for Brainfreeze.  Otherwize, his Chasm could stop the Pyrite Kill condition. This deck can deal with ANY cush situation when comboing off. Yay!

Round 2: Christian (Zhalfirin) playing ??? I can't always scout out the opposition folks.

Game 1: He plays a few Volcanic Islands and does the draw/go thing for a while. Eventually he Intuitioned.  I had no idea what he was playing, but I was sure it wasn't another Salvager deck.  I figured that I could counter whatever he tutored for, but at least I would have a clue what he was playing. Intuitions resolved, and I was presented with 3 AK's.  Ok...still have no idea what he is playing. I Forced his AK, but he played another topdecked AK, or simply sandbagged one.  

At one point, I decide that my combo was unlikely to succeed, as Christian had a fat hand and confident demeanor.  I decided to try and resolve a Salvager or something, which he drained, as well as Force of Will of his Mana Drain. Ha! Let HIM see what he can do with 9 mana. BURN!

Actually, he dropped and popped a Mindslaver, Goblin Welder and Time Walk. On to game 2!

Game 2 & 3: I sided out the Tinker/Colossus thing and sided in the Ertai's and Misdirections. My notes are non-existent on the two final games, but I did win both.  Game three, I topdecked a Pyrite for the win.  Control Slaver has a hard time dealing with a resolved Salvager without Mindslaver backup. Yay! I beat Christian finally!  I liked the AK/Intuition engine in a Control Slaver deck (as I had never seen that angle), but as the days went on, I wondered how it would do agains random decks.  Who knows.

Round 3: Raymond playing WTF.

Game 1: He Fished me, wasting my land, dazing my stuff. I died.

Game 2: I resolve a turn 1/2 Salvager and wait to topdeck a win. I do. I Force a Null Rod in the meantime.

Game 3: Early on, I BAIT a Tinker on the Emerald (it gets Brainstorm into Forced), and then resolve a Trinket Mage=> get AEther Spellbomb  => Bounce Trinket Mage => Get Lotus => Resolve 1 of two Salvagers in my hand.  (This took two turns, but it worked.) Cool, huh? Salvagers finally beat FISH! (OK, WTF).  I would like to thank my more stable mana base for this happening.

Round 4: Jeff #2 playing Rogue Turboland (I am Jeff #4. Jeff #1 is the owner, Jeff #3 is some other Jeff how has been there longer than me.)

Game 1: I see lots and lots and lots of mana. I die.

Game 2: I combo out like a Champ. Jeff has FoW's plus something else for "control" but I just slip through the cracks.

Game 3: I take 15 points of damage from my own Mana Crypt in 6 turns. Had I won the last flip, I would have topdecked a kill card as I had Salvagers and Lotus all ready to go. Sigh.

Round 5: Brian Morgan (AKA FishHead, not Dr. B or TheLegendOfMagic) Playing TnT/Stacks.

Game 1: I go Land, Crypt, Mox, Mox, Salvagers.  Oh Boy! I wait to topdeck a win and I do.  Brian has been a patron of C&J's for a while and has been out of the scene here for about 6 weeks.  Namely, as long as I have been a part of it.  He has followed the developement of SlapJack and other Salvager builds on TMD as all good TMDrs should, but this is the first time he has had to face it.  He knows that Combo is not his best matchup, but now is the chance to test agains this newfangled tech.

Round 2: Game 2, Brian resolves a Survival of the Fittest and has GGG plus Workshop availiable.  He is unsure of the clock he is under, but he had Tormod's Crypt out to deal with my Lotus in the yard and resolved Salvagers. (My notes are sketchy here as well, but I did win under a LED/Spellbomb after the Lotus was Crypted away.

Brian is a cool guy and was very interested in testing agains Salvagers.  I beat him plenty of times, and he did eventually beat me (but then again, this deck does very well agains anyone without Force of Wills or Null Rods).

SlapJack won First Place as the top 4 players all had a match loss against someone, wading through 5 decks with full strip effects and/or Crucibles. Yay!

The elite of C&J's took a look at my deck after the tourney, and while they don't all like it (they have Workshops and stuff!), they gave me feedback on individual choices.  

I took their feedback to heart, squeezed in one more basic land, TOOK OUT MY MOX MONKEY and replaced Volcanic Island with UnderGround Sea for the next week's Tourney. I placed 3/2 there and felt the loss of Volcanic Island by not being able to Pyrite some annoying weenie. The Mox Monkey may not be the bestest choice for the deck, but fetch for Volcanic needs to be there.

Any comments on play, build or new takes on Salvagers is welcome.  I may later edit in the current Salvagers list.

Key Developements:
1) Mo Mana. I may have 1 too many lands right now (I could feel the flooding), but things are more stable now and I am a tiny bit more confident against the Fish Matchup.
2) Tinker/Colossus Maindeck: Great random win and tech agains Null Rods etc. I side them out agains Welders and 4CC and other heavy control decks for more control of my own.
3) Sacred Ground Maindeck: I like it. I side it out against the rare decks that do not pack wastes/Titans.

For those who haven't seen it, someone posted an Aggro Salvagers list on Newbie a while back, and it is completely different from my build. It's got Workshops and Metalworkers and stuff and can be crazy broken (unless they get Null Rod out right away. Check it out if you wanna see Salvagers in a new light.

[LotusHead]

At the SF World's TI Side Event (the only one that really mattered to TMD), SlapJack Scrubbed out.

Well, than is not entirely true, but a 3-3-1 standing is not terribly great. Expecially when two of my 3 victories were due to the opponent's not shorwing up (aw come on! SlapJack needs results, not lucky-ass byes!).

The three matchups that SlapJack lost to were FISH, FISH, and 4CC! My WORST matchups!

I drew to Frank playing Control Slaver because he sucks at Magic (his words, not mine.) I never really believed it, because in the past, his decks were better than mine. But DAMN! I got a DRAW game 3 when he had me beat!!! (I don't know if I have the heart to tell the tale of why Frank sucked so bad that he said "GO on round 5 (his round) when I had 5 life left, he a fully loaded (but tapped) Triskellion and an active Welder on the board.  I would have scooped, but there was power on the line.

I flat out beat a Mask/TNT?/Phyrexian Dreadnought deck with NO ANGER IN THE DECK! Granted, I don't know that deck all that well, but...SLAPJACK!

You heard it here First, Brian Woo IS the Legend of Magic (4CC) due to his taking home a BLACK LOTUS, beating out RANDOM-MISER (Texas) (ICT: Invincible Counter Troll UBR, minus the Trolls (in come Memnarch, Midslaver and Pentavus)...) who took home a sucky ass ANCESTRAL RECALL!!! Talk about Battle of the Banned!  C&J's Louis (something with Workshops, I believe) took home the 3rd prize Pearl, and TracerBullet  (SoCal) (I completely don't remember what he played. Get official/accurate coverage elsewhere soon) took home a mint Library.  Congrats.

I don't think I saw or heard of a single deck playing with Mr. Teeth. (makes me wonder if Tog is indeed dead. Not a criticism of Tog. I'm just filling in details of the Tourney Meta)

There was lots of juicy drama at the top 8, but I will not discuss it here (but it exists! The DRAMA!). The final round involved Brian Wu's 4CC outmising Roy's ICT deck. I'm telling you, drama!!!

Anyways, SlapJack, my Auriok Salvager Combo/Control deck lost 3 games out of 3 to my bad matchups, so it's back to the drawing board. (keeping Salvagers, but not including my new tech/strategies).  I have been playing Magic since forever, but only "competitively for the last 2-3 months.

I don't know if Roy's ICT deck faced any Null Rods this evening, maybe they were all sent SlapJack's way. But congrats to Roy for his ICT deck.

I hovered behind him, watching in the final round (an playing against it for fun, piloted by one of his buddies).  Brian simply out played Roy, wasting key lands (round 1), topdecking like a mutha FoW/Drain/etc, making Roy have like 6 sucky turns in a row.

SlapJack will be laying low for the next few days, reorganizing, thinking, plotting, SlapJacking. But to those who browse the Newbie Threads, you got a little insight into Worlds's T1 (ahem...) Vintage Championships FIRST!

(to Mods: Come on, we finally have a big (almost 100) tourney on the West Coast. I gots to say SOMETHING about it!)

[AngryPheldagrif]

To the PM cave!

Anyways, post or PM me the deck list you used. I have been butchering what little Fishies that have been popping their heads up around here.

-Dan

[LotusHead]

SlapJack: An Auriok Salvagers Combo/Control deck by LotusHead

Mana Base
4 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strain
1 Island
1 Plains
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lion'e Eye Diamond

Combo Critters:
4 Auriok Salvagers
3 Trinket Mage (we miss you #4!)

Solutions Dept:
1 Tinker
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Sacred Ground

Draw/Search/Party:
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
3 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall (borrowed. Was Brainstorm #4)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Cunning Wish
1 Timetwister (I'm stubborn like that.)

Counters:
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain

Sideboard:
1 Intuition
1 Stifle
1 Brain Freeze
1 Shallow Grave
1 Ebony Charm
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Disenchant
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire/Ice
1 Rebuild
1 Entomb
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Ertai's Meddling
1 Misdirection
1 Tempest of Light

San Francisco: Worlds T1 Side Event: 47 Tables, 94 Players (I believe). Wow!

Round 1: I get paired with Andrew, who says "I'll be back", and then doesn't come back!!! I waste 10-20 test draws into awesomeness on an opponent who isn't there! That SUCKS.  But, with a match "win", I'm in it for the Lotus. I'll accept this.

Round 2: Thomas Gimmel (who eventually top 8'd).

Game 1: He goes first playing Polluted Delta. I keep a hand with Volcanic, 2 Moxes and some juicy spells. I lay Volcanic, and hold back on the moxes. He wastes it and busts out with Lavamancers, Factories, Null Rods and all the other goodies.  The only good thing is, going into game 2, he does not know what I am playing.
Game 2: I suck against Fish, ok?  
Game 3: For fun. I still suck against Fish, ok?

Round 3: Frank! I haven't played against Frank since I built this deck.  He lurks on The Mana Drain, but does not post, so knows exactly what my deck is.

Game 1: I cast TimeTwister after his Waste/Crucible lock starts to include Strip Mine.  Unfortunately, he gets a Trisk with his new hand and does this: Ping Salvagers twice, ping it self once, Weld in dead Trisk, ping Salvagers two more times. I would have comboed off next turn, but such is life.

Game 2: Trinket Beats for the win! Neither of us combo off, but my Trinket Mages are bigger than his mana and Welders.

Game 3: We both make amazingly bad plays. Mine was due to inexperience against way good Top decks. Eventually, time is called, and I somehow hold off against his lock components with an explosive (but non-game winning) start. Two Salvagers on the field, with many land and moxen, facing an active Welder and Tangle Wire/Smokestacks. Frank gets Turn 1. He does stuff, I do stuff, and on Frank's Turn 5, I am at 9 Life with a bunch of tapped permanents.  He attacks with his fully loaded Triskellion for 4, leaving me at 5 life. He thinks about the situation for a bit, then says..."Go". Draw game 3? He had me beat! All he had to do was what he did game 1 to kill my Salvagers.  Ping me twice, Ping itself once, weld it back in, ping ping ping and I'm Dead. Anyways, a Lotus is on the line and I've made worse play errors.

Round 4: Ryan Playing Fish.
 Game 1: I Tinker out a Colossus, with counter backup, extra daze mana, etc. He dies 2 turns later. Yay Me!

Game 2: Null rod stops me cold.

Game 3: He mulls to 5, even though his first 7 were great, and his next six were great. His last 5 had Null Rod. He let me in on that tactic after the match slips were complete.  Bastard! I mean, good play, sir. Are you listening U/G Madness people? Mull till you get a Null Rod against SlapJack.

Round 5: Peter, playing something without Null Rods or Force of Will.

He loses 2 out of three games.  His deck was a Survival/Mask/Naught deck.

Round 6: Jason playing Keeper.

His deck is completely pimped out, as he has been playing forever.  I mulled to 5 to see my first land, Tolarian Academy with no moxen.

Peter is hella cool, and knew an old opponent of mine from back in the day: Kamikazi Kelly. Old times (sniff.) Peter casts 7 Brainstorms game 2. Way cool.

So far, out of 6 matchups, SlapJack faced 2 Fish and 1 4CC, my worst matchups (although, I feel I can fight the good fight against keeper).

Round 7: ANOTHER FRIKKIN NO SHOW!!!

Final Standings, 3-3-1, with 2 wins due to no shows.  How lame.

My build went through several changes in the last 2 weeks, which I did not really make public until now, and I'm still a little unhappy with them.

On the Plus Side, I met a lot of TMD'rs, including Robert the Swordsman, Dave Hernandez, Tracerbullet, and many others.  Also, I got to see those cool 3d Magic cards by that Asian artist dude.  I'm trying out his techniques on some spare Chimney Imps as we speak! Lastly, the top 8 matchups were truly amazing to watch. Christian piloting Smemmen's Monoblue versus Random-Miser's Invincible Counter Troll was crazy. (This is where the real drama was, although I won't spill the beans in the open Needless to say, I watched the Random-Miser's side of all the following matches to see was happened. TheLegendOfMagic disrupted all the key resorces of Random-Miser's mana base and TheLegendOfMagic is known for some insane TopDecking skills (well, 4cc DOES have a lot of great cards in there, you know?)

As the final matchup wound down, it is 4:30 AM and the great hall is filled with only Vintage Players who just HAVE TO KNOW...Who will be left?

Anyways, I have a ton of great pictures of the Top 8,4,2 matchups on my digital camera, but have no idea how to post them here. (I don't know about URL's or whatnot.) If anyone who DOES know how to post pictures, PM me your non-TMD email address and I will send you whatever came out).


Props to Annie for fronting me some cash to make it to the event
Props to Kevin for sporting me a few bucks so I could enter the event
Props to some random guy outside for buying some cards off me so I could get home.

Slops SlapJack for getting 3 horrible matchups in my 5 games, and for sucking so bad against them. I will figure this Fish Thing out.

Note: This thread welcomes any comments on Salvager Decks. Mine is out there for critique, and I am willing to change things up a bit (and can now sometimes borrow Power to round things out).  But other builds/directions are welcome.

[Methuselahn]

Mana Base
4 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strain
1 Island
1 Plains
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lion'e Eye Diamond

Seat of the Synod is tech.  

[raziel]

On the Plus Side, I met a lot of TMD'rs, including Robert the Swordsman, Dave Hernandez, Tracerbullet, and many others. Also, I got to see those cool 3d Magic cards by that Asian artist dude. I'm trying out his techniques on some spare Chimney Imps as we speak! Lastly, the top 8 matchups were truly amazing to watch. Christian piloting Smemmen's Monoblue versus Random-Miser's Invincible Counter Troll was crazy. (This is where the real drama was, although I won't spill the beans in the open Needless to say, I watched the Random-Miser's side of all the following matches to see was happened. TheLegendOfMagic disrupted all the key resorces of Random-Miser's mana base and TheLegendOfMagic is known for some insane TopDecking skills (well, 4cc DOES have a lot of great cards in there, you know?)

Jeff - Unless one of the top 8 guys asked you not to post because there going to, go ahead and fill us in on all the details. It was a great week for sure, I know the Socal guys (great guys) went close to 36 hours without sleep if they drove straight back. Hopefully they stayed over. Events of this size should start at 10:00a.m. 98 players!

[LotusHead]

Dear Mods, feel free to close this thread if you absolutely must.  I'd be glad to PM a MOD to reopen it when I have any other breakthroughs etc.  Just posting what I've learned about Salvager decks in the last 2 weeks.  I would like it to remain open, of course. Newbie!

Bolstered by actual tourney reports of other budding Salvagers decks, I rebuild SlapJack with Cities of Brass and an Ass ton of Draw. Two weeks ago, I did 3-1 but forgot all the details (this was just after the Worlds Vintage Side Event thing...) but I did beat a Fish Deck (yay!).

Thursday, however, I ran this build:

Mana- 25

4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
4 City of Brass
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strain
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt

Combo Critters 8
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage

Control 8
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain

Draw/Search/Tutor 16
4 BrainStorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Cunning Wish
3 Intuition
1 Timetwister
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor

Solutions Department 5

2 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Tinker


Sideboard 15
1 Disenchant
1 Sacred Ground
2 Orim's Thunder
1 Dust to Dust
2 Ertai's Meddling
2 AEther Spellbomb
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Stifle
1 Rebuild
1 Fire/Ice
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Brain Freeze

Mind you, I ripped this deck apart right before the tourney, cut black completely out and said over and over and over to myself: I will not lose to Fish, I will not lose to Fish. The list may not be completely accurate, but I think I ran 61 cards. The order of the matchups may not be accurate either.

Round 1: Justin with CounterBurn

Game 1: I Trinket out an early Pyrite Spellbomb to chump is 2/2 Slith Firewalker and waste his 7/1 Trample Morph thing. Then I combo off with Salvagers and FoW backup.

Game 2: Tinker for Colossus turn 1 or 2. Yes! The Tinker/Colossus thing belongs in any deck that has Tinker in it.

Round 2: Trever with a UG Fish deck with Rancor and Gaea's Skyfolk. He wins 2/3 games. He sided out his 3 Null Rods just to mess with me, and his Rancors up his clock. Sigh. These were intense games, but I don't got all the details anymore.

Round 3: Rod with random Reanimator.

I combo off way early game 1 and 2. I had really good hands, and he may or may not have Force of Wills in the deck.

Round 4: John (I think) with R/G Beats.

I die both games to City of Brass, Fetchlands and Force of Wills.  Yes, I lost to R/G beats.  All I could do was draw lots of cards and take damage for doing it.  After these two games, I realized that I put in the Cities for one reason, and then this week cut down to 2 colors.  Oh what a fool I am.  I felt comfortable without the black tutorage, but the Cities lost me the game (ok, his beats 'n bolts lost me the game too...).  The Cities are out FOREVER!

Round 5: Dennis playing the Fastest Sligh in the West. (I have lost all tourney matches to this deck so far...)

Game 1: I win the Die Roll, get Lotus, Land, Crypt, Time Twister into Tinker -=>Colossus.

Game 2: Denis plays a land, and passes the turn.  I Tinker out my Colossus Again!   We play fun games after that.

My build now features 4 basic Islands, 1 basic Plains, maindeck Engineered Explosives and lost the Merchant Scroll (it apparently is NOT Tinker #2)

I am still not sure about the Viashino Heretic, but I want at least ONE maindeck answer to Null Rod.

Any comments are appreciated.

[LotusHead]

This week I unveiled my new secret tech in Salvagers...

As you know, Fish is the Achilles' Heel to Salvagers mondo-cool combo (and mana developement, and maindeck removal, and so forth).  I have been testing my new build (MINUS THE STUPID CITIES OF ASS) and have tried to play smarter, and fight the good fight against my weaker matchups.

My latest tech: Islands.  Five of them. And a lucky plains.  No joke.  Northern California is riddled with Waste effects and Crucibles and the all mighty Fish deck.  Yes, Islands is my answer to them. Islands.

Island Backed Mana Base: 26
5 Islands
1 Plains
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strain
1 Tolarian Academy
8 SoLoMoxenCrypt
1 Lion's Eye Diamond

Old Favorites: 9
4 Trinket Mage
4 Auriok Salvager
1 Darksteel Colossus

Counter Stuff 6 (Main Deck)
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain (So sue me...I only have 2 and play largely Sanctioned...)

Wacky Draw/Tutor 16
4 Brain Storm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
2 Cunning Wish
1 TimeTwister
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tinker

Kill Etc 2
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives

Random Bad Card/Kill Card 1
1 Conjurer's Bauble

Sideboard: 15
Fact or Fiction
Sacred Ground
Rebuild
Brain Freeze
Echoing Truth
Intuition
Chain of Vapor
Fire/Ice
Shattering Pulse x2
AEther Spellbomb x2
Orim's Thunder
Ertai's Meddling
Stifle

See previous posts for explanations of particular card choices.  Some cards in the board were maindeck cards in the past (AEther Spellbomb, Ertai's, etc).  Or, ask about particular card choices.

Armed with my 6 Basic Island Offensive Position, I waltzed into the local Sactioned tourney and went 3-1, losing in the final matchup to a lucky topdecked Trinisphere (with Strip Mine/Crucible following shortly. It happens.)

The point is, my deck has a new take on life, a new focus, and way more basic lands.

Round 1: Weak Ass Landstill (I think). Give him a break, he's a kid.  But the Darksteel Colossus is a completely valid and threatening win condition in the face of many decks. Nothin to report here.

Round 2: Gary with Tog (someone said it was Extended Tog with Dual Lands and Berzerk). I don't know Tog history enough for the details, but that's what I overheard.

Game 1: I keep an good hand of ISLAND, Crypt, Intuition, AK, 3 other cards. I Intuition for 3 AK's, he give me one of them.  Turn 2, I cast AK and get something or other.  He casts and resolves IsoChron Scepter imprinting AK. Sucks.  I Force/Drain a few of his draws, but he smacks me with Mr. Teeth eventually.

Game 2: I side out all of my AKs and side in AEther Spellbomb x2, Ertai's Meddling and Fact or Fiction. Game 2 goes much better. I Combo off with Salvagers, Lotus and Conjurer's Bauble (which initially topdecked me a Force at a key time. Good times.

Game 3: I Force through a Colossus. Good times. Actually, on one of these two games, he wished for Mind Games, so I tinkered for Lotus instead of Mr. Big. I just don't remember which game.  

Round 3: Trevor with U/Gly Fish (with Rancors and Treetops and Spirit Guides and stuff).

Games 1, 2 and 3: I go aggro on his ass with my Trinket Mages. Turn after turn. His Wastelands were pretty pathetic contribution only 1 colorless mana to the game in the face of my mighty Islands. He does win one game, however. The Basic Islands (Plural) pulled me through hard times.

Round 4: Cherie playing here daddies Stacks deck.

She wins game one, locking me down with a "I win the die roll, WorkShop, Trinisphere thing".

Game 2, I win with Tinker for Colussus and Force of Will Backup.

She still has no idea even what I am playing.

Game 3: I beat her ass down to -6 with Colossus, but have to wait to cast Rebuild here fortunes (and Platinum Angel) away.  She topdecked a Strip Mine or Trinisphere or something.  The details get a little fuzzy here, cuz I did kinda help her remember what's up with her cards (like she can't lose, I can't win with Angel in play, etc). I'm a softy.  If she were two years older, NO MERCY!!!

Well, the prize at this tourney are DCI Basic Lands and some promo foil (recenly Serum Visions), and I really did want those prizes, won in combat and everything.

The point is, my 6 Basic Lands secret tech pulled it's weight that night, and in the previous week of testing. More on this as news developes. Lastly, my deck is now almost Mono-Blue, except for Salvagers, a few spells and some red in the board.  Pretty comfy.

Till next time...