Gush as wish target in Control Slaver

[Meddling Mike]

Ever since Control Slaver first ran cunning wish, I have always tried to keep my list so there exists a strong draw spell in the board when no specific target is necessary, or when drawing more cards is of paramount importance.

Initially the draw spell was Fact or Fiction, but time has shown that in control slaver Fact of Fiction is far better in the main deck. Traditional targets like skeletal scrying have proven to be too detrimental to control slaver's strategy, as a substitute, I have been using Gush with some measure of success. The Atog Lord recently won a waterbury tournament running no sideboard draw spells to speak of.

I wanted to discuss new possibilities for a wishable draw spell in the board, or to discuss whether a draw spell in the sideboard is warranted anymore, or if this matter is entirely dependent upon the number of cunning wishes MD.

I have enjoyed using Gush as a wish target as it can function to reactivate an inactive Library of Alexandria quicker than any of Gush's contemporaries. I've also found it to be an excellent means of combating an aggressive land destruction strategy, by making your opponent use a strip/wasteland, and ensuring that you can make your next two land drops, which can often be crucial with decks featuring 4 wasteland 1 strip mine and Crucible of Worlds comprising an ever growing portion of the metagame.(of course if CoW is on the table artifact destruction would most likely be preferable to a draw spell)

[Nameless]

Well I'd say right off that you don't need to bother with SB draw unless you are playing 2-3 Wishes.  When I look at builds with just 1 Wish I wouldn't expect the SB to be altered in the slightest to accomidate it.  Basically 1 Wish just means you want a generic answer of some sort in the main deck so you don't get shut-out by something quick and lame.

On the other hand, with 2-3 Wishes Gush does look pretty good, since you can basically get it for the 3 mana of the Wish.  This just leaves you with more mana for countering and sometimes that's why you're trying to draw cards anyway...  Just to snag a counterspell.  To this end Gush seems to work very well, but it all depends on what your desired outcome is.

Personally I think that 2 Wishes in Control Slaver, along with a Stifle and a Gush in the SB, are pretty darn good ideas, because it just opens up the flexibility of the deck a little.  But, to get back more on the topic, I can't really think of anything else that you really might be wanting that's cheap enough to work here.  Gush works because of the mana investment required...  I don't think anything else will fit your bill, unless you're opening yourself up for more costly spells, and if so what casting cost range are you looking at?

[Meddling Mike]

The Atog Lord's list, which I consider optimized outside of maybe the sideboard, currently runs only 1 Cunning Wish. So perhaps no more draw spell is necessary in the board, that's really an issue I'd like to discuss. I think any draw spell in the board just needs to be efficient and somewhat reasonably costed, obviously something like opportunity is far too expensive, It also must be kept in mind that the cost for cunning wish has just been paid, if you plan to cast this spell as well as the wish EOT it should be relatively cheap.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about stifle, I do enjoy the utility (It actually deals with a mindslaver if they have activation mana, nothing else in the board does this, as well as the millions of other things only stifle can do), but often I like to have wish targets that I can also see myself sideboarding in in some matchups, thereby maximizing the sideboard slot. Gush comes in quite rarely, against a really aggressive Land Destruction deck I would seriously consider bringing it in, but not much else (I pray for the day somebody stacks two wastelands when I have Gush in hand). If I really didn't want a draw spell to wish for so badly I probably wouldn't run it. Stifle I can't really see any matchup in which I would bring it in.

[Mixing Mike]

I've had far to many games that ended with me holding my lone Wish, both winning and losing.  More often than not, I find the wish when I'm in a draw-go situation.  It is because of this reason why I run a Lim-dul's Vault in my board.  The -1 card hasn't been a problem, as I'm guranteed to get back on drawing cards again within two turns.  I base most of my playing it on Mystical Tutor.  It turns my Wish into another way to find Tinker (albiet harder to cast, and slower, yet still another way).  If I've played my Tinker, then it helps me set up something like a TFK pitching something good.

I know Vamp is better, but it doesn't set up the draw.  I find this to be the deciding factor in winning those draw-go situations.  I can't see putting in such an investment such as Wish->Vamp->Card X.  Then all of a sudden, Card X is countered, and we're back to the same game state as before I played my Wish.  Tha Vault let's me use the same investment, but let allows me to have Card X be countered, then follow up again on the next turn, and possibly even the turn after that.

[Rico Suave]

I've been experimenting with this, and I almost never Wish for Vamp.  I don't think I'd ever Wish for Lim-Dul's Vault either because it's even more clumsy than Vamp.

I have wanted Gush on a number of occassions though, and I only use 1 Wish too.  I'm not going to repeat what's already been said about it, but I'll just say it is very nice to have it.

[IvoryGargoyle]

I run two Cunning Wish myself and run the sideboard Gush. Whenever I find myself lacking a way to draw into more cards, I've never been unhappy to Wish for Gush. I do like being able to Wish for something to manipulate my land as well.

One problem that I have encountered however is having the damn thing Mana Drained. Which leads me to believe that this is a card drawing spell that you can't afford to cast with out being able to force it through. This is most common in the mirror match I've found.

I'm been happy with it against 4CC. In fact, against 4CC, I've never had trouble casting Gush.