[Report]Winner Melbourne, Australia with Meandeck Slaver

[the Luke]

[Mods: I know this is a small tourney, but I went into detail on most of the matchups.  If it's not worthy of open, ship it to Newbie or whatever.]

12 players, and two extra rounds, so 6 rounds!  Note that there were
rather less players this time because of people travelling to GP
Brisbane.

I played a version of Meandeck Slaver, and walked in a fair bit grumpy
from having to rush and pay extra for parking.

My deck:
// Creatures (4)
3 Goblin Welder
1 Platinum Angel

// Control (10)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Cunning Wish

// Draw/Search (17)
4 Thirst of Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker

// Broken (5)
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
1 Crucible of the Worlds
2 Mindslaver

// Mana (24)
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Strip Mine
1 Underground Sea
1 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
4 Island

// Sideboard (15)
2 Bloodmoon
2 AEther Spellbomb
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Lava Dart
1 Echoing Truth
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Sundering Titan


Round 1: Diana (U/W fish)

Game 1: She beat me down to 12 with Mishra's Factory under Standstill.
Luckily I had resolved a Goblin Welder, and when I had enough cards in
hand, I discarded a Mindslaver, then played Darksteel Citadel, welded
it for Slaver, then Slaved her, wrecking her hand (her Factory got
very Curious, but failed to attack...)  while drawing three from
Standstill.  One of those cards was Crucible, so she scooped to the
Mindslaver lock.  For those who don't know, the lock works by using
Crucible to repeatedly play Darksteel Citadel, welding it for Slaver
each turn.

Sideboard: -2 Cunning Wish -1 Thirst for Knowledge -1 Intuition
           +2 Blood Moon +2 Red Elemental Blast

Game 2: She led with turn 1 Library of Alexandria, turn 2 Faerie
Conclave.  She couldn't deal with my turn 2 Blood Moon followed by
Tinker for Platinum Angel a bit later.  I got bolted a few times by my
Mana Crypt.

Round 2: Jackie (Mono Brown Trinistax)

Game 1: After Slaving, I locked him under his own Trinisphere by using
his own Wasteland on his Mishra's Workshop.  This is the only game I
actually used Cunning Wish (it was for Shattering Pulse).

Sideboard: -2 Cunning Wish -1 Thirst for Knowledge -1 Intuition
           +2 Rack and Ruin +1 Shattering Pulse +1 Echoing Truth.

Game 2: He sided into aggro Workshop, I got beaten down by Juggernaut
and Arcbound Crusher.  I think this was my only game loss.

Game 3: We both made play errors.  I had enough mana to hardcast
either Platinum Angel or Mindslaver.  I Thirsted, and discarded the
Slaver, when I should have ditched the Angel.  So I cast the Angel,
and he responded by Smokestack, which should have killed me.  Luckily
he later resolved and activated a Memory Jar, which found me the
Shattering Pulse I sideboarded in, enabling me to remove the
Smokestack before it removed the Angel.  I won on -16 life.

Round 3: Bill (Rector/Tendrils)

Game 1:
After a few turns of disruption on his end and casting draw spells on
mine, he hardcasts Yawgmoth's Bargain off a ritual.  I respond by
Intuitioning for three Mana Drains, then sacrificing Black Lotus to
Drain the Bargain.  I only had one card in hand after that play:
Yawgmoth's Will, of course, with a Time Walk in the yard.  He was no
longer in the game, and scooped not too long after.  Bill started
muttering about how I'm always lucky against him, because me winning
can't have anything to do with my playskill, of course!  I admit I
topdecked well, but I believe he knew I had Intuition in hand when he
went for Bargain.

Sideboard: -2 Wish -1 Intuition -1 Thirst for Knowledge
       +2 Tormod's Crypt +2 Blood Moon

Game 2: Bill was really irritating this match, he kept on thumping his
deck really hard before drawing each card.  His first turn Underground
Sea was met by my first turn Strip Mine plus Tormod's Crypt.  It turns
out he'd kept a one land hand.  He played a Tolarian Academy a few
turns later, and I Tinkered for Crucible, letting me simultaneously
lock down his lands while developing my own manabase.  I also Mana
Drained a Mox Sapphire to keep with the land denial theme.

Round 4: Charles (Meandeck Oath)

Game 1: First turn Crucible with a fetchland let me develop my
manabase enough to maintain control of the game (I fetched four or
five times!), then lock him down with Slaver.  My deck basically went
broken again.  He scooped when I Intuitioned on his (Slavered) turn
for Yawgmoth's Will, Time Walk, and something else.  Intuition is
REALLY good when you get to choose which card you keep.

Sideboard: +2 AEther Spellbomb +1 Echoing Truth
      -2 Cunning Wish -1 Intuition (I think)

Game 2: I dominated the first game, so I completely forgot that it was
an AK mirror.  I think he sided his out though, for the very
suboptimal Energy Flux.  This game was a classical control battle,
neither of us could resolve anything of note.  However, I forced him
to tap his Orchards two more times than he really wanted to, so he had
to hardcast Akroma off a Lotus to stop from dying to my three Spirits.
I shrugged and cast and activated AEther Spellbomb.  This game, not a
single Welder or Oath resolved. Very strange!

Round 5: Dre (Keeper)

Dre has the mocker on me in tournaments, but I think him having an
obsolete, threat-light deck helped me out (I hope he doesn't read
this!!).  What I mean by this, is he has a very vulnerable manabase,
and expects to win with a massive play like a huge Decree of Justice
(no he doesn't play Exalted Angel) or a Time Walk, Will, Time Walk
broken turn, which generally happens too late in the game to be
threatening to other control oriented decks.  I think this match and
his loss to Meandeck Oath previously, show this up.  Anyway:

Game 1: After a few counter wars, I managed to hardcast Mindslaver.
The next turn I activated it, leaving Thirst for Knowledge in hand.
He had had two turns to prepare for the Slaver.  He'd Demonic Tutored
on his turn, and at the end of mine, Brainstormed.  His hand looked
something like: City of Brass, Mana Drain, Mana Drain, Misdirection,
Force of Will, Decree of Justice.  He only had three land in play.  I
played the City for him, then cast my Thirst for Knowledge.  I made
him Mana Drain my Thirst, then Drain his Drain, and responding to that
by Forcing his original Mana Drain.  I guess his Brainstorm plan
backfired!  He scooped when I got a Slaver lock.

Sideboard: -1 Platinum Angel -2 Cunning Wish -1 Thirst -1 Intuition
      +1 Sundering Titan +2 Blood Moon +2 Red Elemental Blast

Game 2: This was an epic battle.  He tutored no less than 5 times from
his deck: Cunning Wish for Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor and Mystical
Tutor, followed by a somewhat defensive Yawgmoth's Will casting VT and
DT again.  By defensive, I mean, it didn't automatically win him the
game.  After this he resolved his (rather weak) hate card: Planar
Void.  Because the Void's effect is a triggered ability, I can dodge
it by playing things when the trigger is on the stack.  He'd have been
better served by Damping Matrix I think.  Also, I had a rather full
graveyard (including Lotus, Ancestral, Sundering Titan and Darksteel
Citadel) at the time.

Anyway, he let me resolve Goblin Welder, because it was matched by his
Gorilla Shaman which had nuked a few Moxen and my Crucible.  I sat
patiently waiting to topdeck Yawgmoth's Will, and when it came it
resolved without a fuss.  I played the Citadel out of the graveyard,
made a minor mistake with Tinker before welding in Sundering Titan.
Amusingly, Dre tried to eat the indestructable Citadel with his
Shaman.  My Titan took out four of Dre's lands, and probably would
have gone the distance, but time was called and I settled for the game
2 draw.

What was odd about this game is that though we both dug deep in our
decks, neither of us played our Time Walks.

Round 6: Chris (Kobold-clamp)

Chris was at 5-1, so if he beat me, I might not have been able to come
first (poor tie-breakers).

Game 1: He mulliganed to five, and his first turn Skullclamp (the
key draw engine in his deck) was met by my Force of Will.  He scooped
to the Slaver lock a bit later.

Sideboard: -2 Cunning Wish -1 Thirst -1 Intuition
      +2 Rack and Ruin +1 Shattering Pulse +1 Lava Dart

Game 2: I figured that losing one of my artifacts to Rack and Ruin was
worth shutting down his draw/win engine.  I mulliganned down to 5 this
time; the first hand had no good plays, the second had no land.  I
kept a hand that had Force, Thirst, Mana Crypt, Intuition, random
other blue card.  He got out some irrelevant combo parts (Carnival of
Souls doesn't bother me without Skullclamp!) first turn, and I
topdecked an Island, how lucky!  I played my Island and Mana Crypt,
then Thirsted into more mana and draw and got control of the game.  I
Slaved him a few times and beat him up with Platinum Angel, while his
0/1 Kobold dorks looked on from below.

After going 6-0, I took the massive (sarcasm) $40 prize (I was hoping
for $60, but I think $50 would be more fair) and got two Blinkmoth
Nexii and some new sleeves for my deck (it earned them).  I have two
suggestions for next tournament: I'd like the prize split to be worked
out no later than the end of round 1, because before the tournament, I
don't think anyone would have agreed on the split (40/30/20/15/15 for
twelve people).  Also, I'd prefer no more than one extra round of
swiss.  The two extra rounds was too much.

-Luke

[tpiro]

Enjoyed the report....sounded like a good tournament even though it was small.

Given that you sideboarded out 2 Wishes every round, are you thinking of altering the deck list in the future?

[Grand Inquisitor]

Congrats, but I didn't catch why there were only three welders in there.

[Jawman16]

I recently played something closely resembling this deck at Lakewood and made T8.  I got rolled on by Oath in the tourney though.  The deck was responsible for my 2 match losses of the tournament.  I did not have the spellbomb tech (had Goblin Bombardment and Spawning Pit) in the board but none the less, how does this deck beat Oath??  This is a very important question because Cruci-slaver is very strong against the rest of the field, but it just dies to Oath.  

Are the spellbombs enough to take games 2 and 3?  Barring the nuts game 1, you will lose to Oath.  So that puts this deck in a huge hole.   Oath can out counter you, out-tempo you and beat you before you even get a foot in the door.  I noticed you said that he never found Oath in round 4.  Is  this the best plan for us Control Slaver players.  Luck of the draw?  What other plans of attack are out there?

[Razvan]

Congrats, but I didn't catch why there were only three welders in there.

I was wondering this myself. I mean, decks like 5/3 sometimes use Welders as bait before casting their bigger threats, but in CS, Welders are the bomb. You would even be well served in Intuition-ing for 3 of them at some point, which is made harder if you have exactly 3 in your deck...

Anyhow, nice report. Nothing wrong with small tourneys.

[Zherbus]

Excellent report. Is there anything about the deck you'd change the next time you run it?

[Smmenen]

Congrats, but I didn't catch why there were only three welders in there.

The Slaver list in my article that the rest of my team played at SCG III only used three Welders.  I talk about it in my report.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=8410

[Toad]

This is a very important question because Cruci-slaver is very strong against the rest of the field, but it just dies to Oath.

This is a question of adapting your way of playing and understanding the matchup. I'd advice you to playtest the matchup and analyse your losses, then you'll end up winning far more, since the matchup usually turns out to be even.

Are the spellbombs enough to take games 2 and 3?

Aether Spellbombs are really strong against Oath since they need to get Brainstorm to get rid of their creatures in hand. It also doubles as a cute anti Dragon tech, and has a good synergy with Goblin Welder, Tinker (yes, I've already Tinkered for Aether Spellbomb!) and Thirst for Knowledge.

@The Luke

Your decklist is really interesting. In testings, I've never been happy with Cunning Wish since they are really slow. How did they were for you?

The Underground Sea could probably become a Swamp.

[Jawman16]

I think some of my results at the tourney were due to the fact that my Oath opponents got ridiculous draws.  Every game, they had Oath either turn one/two with Forbidden Orchard.  But when I did have the answers, they out countered me.  Maybe I am missing the real threats they have, but when they drop Oath with double counter back up to my single Mana Drain or FOW this deck really cannot do too much, (Game one that is.)

Having the Aether Spellbombs should help out.  With the spellbombs in the board are the anti-spirit cards (ie. Bombardment, Spawning Pit) necesary?  Boarding in 2 of REBs, Spellbombs, and anti-spirit tech should go a long ways to improving the post-board matches.  Is there anything else I am missing to improve my play against the deck?

Oh and I forgot to say, congrats on a solid finish.

[Cpkrug]

I have been playing this deck a lot lately and I have found Platinum Angel to be extremely effective against oath, in addition to the spellbomb.  I agree with Toad that overall the matchup is about even.

[Tainted_Wood]

This is a question of adapting your way of playing and understanding the matchup. I'd advice you to playtest the matchup and analyse your losses, then you'll end up winning far more, since the matchup usually turns out to be even.

I'm curious; in what ways should one adapt the way they play?  I must admit to being mostly clueless about how this match goes down.  I've tried goldfishing against myself (I don't have a real playtest partner) but in the control-control matchup especailly when I'm inexperienced with oath, I doubt it's really helping much.

I've also had the experience that in playing against oath they just ALWAYS seem to do either turn 1 or 2 orchard oath with at least 1 force backup.

The Underground Sea could probably become a Swamp.

Why would you do that?  There's only 1 black card in the deck.  Again, not bickering, just trying to figure out the reasoning there.

[Ihumpuswumpus]

Ohh God Luke get over your win.
Verbal warning. This is spam.
-Jacob

[Anders Noer]

...how does this deck beat Oath??  This is a very important question because Cruci-slaver is very strong against the rest of the field, but it just dies to Oath.

I've played 2 maindeck Annuls, since Oath started spreading. They've been good to me so far in Cunning Wish's slots.

Oath's sideboarded Ground Seal can be a real pain, so I'm boarding a pair of Engineered Explosives to handle both these enchantments.

Also, Duplicant and Platinum Angel are amazing against Oath. As is your maindec Blood Moons, that sometimes just win game 1.

I'd say it's a toss up, if you come prepared.

[Toad]

The Underground Sea could probably become a Swamp.

Why would you do that?  There's only 1 black card in the deck.  Again, not bickering, just trying to figure out the reasoning there.

[card]Wasteland[/card]

You don't need black in early game so you'll never fetch the Underground Sea for blue mana anyways.

[M.Solymossy]

ah toad... that's great....  



I play Slaver and Cunning wish was always WAY too slow.. if you play the sideboard well enough against Oath you should come out victorious.

my sideboard is this:

2 spawning pit (tinker + weldable)
2 blood moon
1 duplicant


against oath you want to get a pit to force them to hardcast their creatures straight into your counterspells or a duplicant.

pit + active welder = good game oath...


platinum angel + 3 basic lands is game too... because if they don't side in a crucible, you just say "okay, i'll pay 2 on energy flux and then you can strip away"

oath games are perty easy now, and the only sideboard card i have that's not a multi-purpose card is spawning pit...

[Tainted_Wood]

So it's pretty clear that about 5 cards are necessary for this match, what have you guys been siding out?

I'm been mixing thing around with a strange mix usually involving timewalk, and a Thirst or Fact or Fiction, Pentavus, an AK and 1 other card, but I really don't have a firm grasp on what exactly to take out.  (Just as reference, I'm playing a list almost exactly like the final list in Cinamon's article here: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=8410  I have 23 land (which should probably go up by 1) and 1 extra welder and pentavus.

Or should I be playing the AK game?  I guess I could take out 4 ak and an intuition and be done with it (especailly as the pentavus will probably become a land in the near future).  Does anyone take out like 2 AK?

What do you guys think?

[the Luke]

Wow!  Thanks for all the comments.

Essentially there were two main questions, the Cunning Wishes and the Oath matchup.  Also, there are only three Welders because I had to cut something for Yawgmoth's Will.  I trusted Meandeck's testing enough to consider it.

Cunning Wishes:

I think I implied that these weren't really good, I only Wished once all day, when I drew them they got pitched to Force or maybe Thirst.  The reason I played them was to shore up the first game, then sideboard them out for matchup specific cards.  Essentially I don't think they're good enough.  They're not strong enough game 1 to make up for how much they weaken the sideboard.  I'd like room for some Chalices in the board for my particular metagame (Belcher and that silly Kobold deck).  The deck would likely be better if I DID maindeck the Blood Moons, or went -2 Wish +1 Island +1 Fact or Fiction.  Maindeck Annul is another option in my Combo-heavy environment.

Oath:

I don't have that much experience with this matchup.  I think I was helped by the fact that the Oath player seemed scared of my deck, and that he didn't have a very aggressive hand.  Remember that they can't ALWAYS have first/second turn Orchard/Oath, just like Shop decks don't ALWAYS go first turn Trinisphere.  Though it didn't end up mattering this game, Platinum Angel is something that is hard for the Oath player to remove.

Also, I think some people (myself included) just underestimate how broken Slaver's effect is.  It's not just there to lock the opponent, it's there to be an uber Mind Twist+Time Walk.  It can easily just make the Oath player lose, if they're holding Intuition (Intuition for all creatures plus Blessing, make them cast Blessing, they have no win conditions).

[Sean Ryan]

I've been testing a "Goth Slaver" build and I have a few questions.

1)  Is there any concensus on the best combination of Welders/Artifacts?  Currently I've been trying this out:
3 Welders
2 Slavers
1 Pentavus
1 Platz
1 Dup
1 Crucible

I'm still unsure on running 3 Welders, what about going down to a single Slaver?

2)  I have been considered dropping the 2nd Citadel for a basic Mountain to enable REB as a more serious sideboard threat.  This would greatly improve control matches games 2 and 3 where you are lighter on counters than most opponents.  What are you opinions.  

3)  To those of you who are experienced with both builds of Control Slaver (ie, the black splash and no Intuition/AK)(Toad's Goth slaver)  what do you think are the positives and negatives of each build for the current meta?

On a side note, I agree with those who cut Cunning Wish from "Goth Slaver" I liked a single copy in the classic Slaver but it doesn't fit in the newer more robust builds.

Thanks
Sean

[the Luke]

How do you fit in all those artifacts?

Anyway, two Mindslaver is a must, because it guarantees a Slaver in the yard when you Intuition for them.  Slaver is the card you should almost always be trying to play.

I play the Intuition build because Intuition is busted in this deck.  It adds a very scary density of draw to the deck, tutors Slaver into the yard, and can even assemble a Crucible lock if you have Welder out.  It also tutors for Welder if necessary.  I tried the Black splash for Will because Will wins long, drawn out, close control matches.

[Tainted_Wood]

I'm going to echo everything the Luke said.

I can't imagine playing pent, dup, and platz.  I know most people have been playing only platz, but I managed to squeeze in a pentavus as well.  But I can't see that the 4th welder wouldn't be better than the 3rd of that set.  (And realistically, I'm probalby going to drop the pentavus if my metagame gets better.  Pentavus > scrubs, but not the best choice in a totally streamlined metagame.)

2 Slavers is a must.

The black splash is interesting.  I was formerly of the opinion that you either ran both will and demonic, or neither.  This was because of the need to add enough black mana to support them.  But then I realized the error of my ways (through looking at the mean-deck list) and a single sea + will is really enough.  Toad seems to think it might be better as a single swamp, but I'm not sure.  It's a question of whether drawing that as your second land (no mana drain) is better than risking it being wastelanded and thus never casting yawgmoth's will.  I think the first is MUCH worse, but that's my metagame.  I think that turn 2 drain is key.  Though in most cases, you won't draw that specific land, and can fetch at your leisure, thusly making the issue mostly non-important.


A basic mountain is pretty worthless as you can't fetch it.  (unless you are playing with red fetches which would be a HUGE mistake, as blue is by far the most important color.  Though I must admit, some fish decks switched to 1 red fetch and 1 mountain for a while, so that's like 2 possible chances to get it.)

I'm actually quite interested in peoples thoughts on running a Seat of the Synod instead of (or maybe in addition to) the darksteel citadel. I don't think I would run 2 citadel, but maybe 1 and 1.  Everything is just so much easier when you don't have to include the land in your intuition. You can intuition for slaver, slaver, crucible, as opposed to either slaver, crucible, land, or not having infinite slaving within reach.


Again, what are people taking out to sideboard in 5 cards vs oath.  I'm just not sure what's happening here.


And thank you to everyone who has commented on the thread.  It's been really quite helpfull.

[Jawman16]

Tainted Wood wrote:

I'm actually quite interested in peoples thoughts on running a Seat of the Synod instead of (or maybe in addition to) the darksteel citadel. I don't think I would run 2 citadel, but maybe 1 and 1.

I am trying this mana configuration (1 seat, 1 D. Citadel) right now and I have not had any problems against wastelands or shamans.  It adds more color consistency since I run a swamp in place of the Sea.  So I recomend using the Seat only if you use the Swamp to keep the number of un-wastelandable lands even.  I guess it might sometimes come back and bite you in the ass but further testing will tell.  

In regards to the SB against Oath, I usually board out a TFK, Brainstorm, Time Walk, Intuition and Slaver (In 2 E. Explosives, 2 Aether Spellbomb, 1 Duplicant) but I am considering boarding out the AK's and Time Walk instead as you usually do not need to draw that much and want to use Intuition to fuel Welder fun.  It comes down to whether of not you can resolve one of the Sb cards which should, in theory, win the game.

[Toad]

I'm going to echo everything the Luke said.
I'm actually quite interested in peoples thoughts on running a Seat of the Synod instead of (or maybe in addition to) the darksteel citadel.

I don't run Darksteel Citadel anymore, they are worthless in Toadislaver. This is the reason I can afford to run a basic Swamp. Seats of the Synod are good, but don't run more than 2.

In regards to the SB against Oath, I usually board out a TFK, Brainstorm, Time Walk, Intuition and Slaver (In 2 E. Explosives, 2 Aether Spellbomb, 1 Duplicant) but I am considering boarding out the AK's and Time Walk instead as you usually do not need to draw that much and want to use Intuition to fuel Welder fun.

Cutting Time Walk is a mistake. Time Walk gives your Welders haste, which is awesome if they resolve Oath of Druids but fail to draw Forbidden Orchard. You should cut stuff like Platinum Angel and Pentavus before Mindslavers and such, because Oath has built in loss conditions (Intuition for Gaea's Blessings, then decking with Oath). Don't board in Duplicant. It's rather worthless if they can deal with your Welders because hasty creatures always beat Duplicant at the damage race. It's even worse if they bring in Pristine Angel. And keep the AK since that will prevent them from using theirs while you still have Thirst for Knowledge for card advantage.

[Tainted_Wood]

Ok, lets keep this moving.  What does everyone think is the correct number of manasources to be running?  I've heard everything from 22 (good god) to 25.  I've been running 23 but have been mulliganing a bit too much for my tastes as well.

So assuming we are running 24 for the moment, that seems to be
8 SoLoMoxenCrypt
4 Delta
1 Strand
4 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea/Basic Swamp
4 Basic Islands
2 Seat of the Synod
1 Strip Mine

-1 of the above as I'm at 25 total.

Which do I cut?  Is a second Seat going to be better than the 4th volcanic?  Has the Strip Mine been that good for people?  I've been moderately dissapointed with it, but it's also never all that bad.  Do I really need to cram in another basic island?  I know that the meandeck list on starcity (in the doomsday article) ran 5 basic islands but only 1 artifact land.


Regardless, this discussion is has been extremely productive in my opinion.  Thank you all for your responses.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Matt, I've been winning alot with this deck lately, and I really think meandeck's manabase is perfect. Seat of the synod really sucks because of wastelands and such, and DC is insurance vs. mox monkey. Intuition for slaver, crucible and DC with welder out is basically game. Strip mine is really solid as well. I basically have a netdeck of Goth Slaver, only with pentavus in place of fact or fiction. My big question about the deck is Yawgmoth's will. I don't think I have EVER cast a will in a losing position. I really think that the will could be the 4th welder, and the sea could become a Loa or basic. Thats just me though, leaving in will also has it's obvious pro's.

-Bob

[Mixing Mike]

I've always played 24 sources.  I like having 5 Islands, so from what you listed, I'd cut the Strip Mine.  I don't bother playing it since I can just Intuition for the slave lock.  I also run a Citadel and 1 Seat.  It's obv gold against Shaman.

I agree with Will being un-necessary.  If you're winning it'll resolve, if you're not, then it probably won't.