[Report] Team GRO's Intution Slaver takes 2nd at Waterbury

[Ultima]

This Waterbury started off a little different than last Waterbury.  Instead of the usual trek in the morning me, and the guys went on Friday night to teammate and good friend Steve's (GI's) house for testing and a good start in the morning.  We get there about at about 10:00 PM and don't really make it to sleep until about 4:45 AM.  I was hoping to sleep until about 10:15 but somebody wakes me up around 8:30.  We get there around 9 and the buffet was too expensive for me so I tuff it out for a while.

The list.

1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Mindslaver
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Goblin Welder
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
2 Deep Analysis
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
5 Moxen
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Stripmine

SB
1 Lava Dart
1 Firestorm
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Arcane Laboratory
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Spawning Pit

This list was what I planned to play because our expectations of Waterbury were nothing but control and combo.  If you play alot in New England, then you meet alot of different and cool guys of whom you know what their going to play before they show up and from our past experience there was always a great level of control and combo.  Additionally, judging from the metagame, it looked like the only real control matches that you would face in the US meta today would be control slaver therefore, we designed this control slaver especially for the mirror match.  Deep Analysis was the key in this match-up because it meant that you could still effectively use intuition against ak mirrors while most intuition slaver builds couldn’t.  And since there were no wishes, Trike was the best choice over pentavus for utility and removal because crucible does exactly what pentavus did already only better not to mention that putting DA in the MD freed up a lot of sb space.  Our testing also indicated that the deck still maintained a great game against Workshop so we weren't worried if we ran into that anyway.

Round 1- Madness

Game 1- He gets a slow start and I have drain up before he drops his first mongrel and I have plenty of draw eot .  I get the slaver lock pretty fast and we move on.

Game 2- I get mana screwed and 2 rootwallas finish me off.

Game 3- I drain his first rootwalla and force his null rod.  One slaver activation is good enough because he has another mongrel in hand.  Trike goes the rest of the distance here.

1-0

Round 2- URW Control with Meddling Mages and Scepters

Game 1- He doesn't have any threats for me early and I outdraw him into a slaver lock.

Game 2- He tries to come out the door with 2 mages but I manage force his first and drain the second.  I recall into another counter and stop his scepters.  An intuition for slaver and crucible combined with an active welder ends this game.

2-0

Round 3- 5/3

Game 1-  My starting hand is 4 forces, a drain and 2 moxs(U and W).  I say to myself, that's the first time that has ever happened.  He goes for the 3sphere but i force.  He goes for a COW and I force. He gets out a juggernaut and starts the beats.  I mystical into a tinker and platinum angel goes the distance.

Game 2- He resolves an early 3sphere and jug but rack and ruin comes up.  Instead of playing a slaver, i decide to play the trike and angel and beat right in.  He doesn't topdeck an answer.

3-0

Round 4- 5/3

Game 1- I get a great hand with drain, lotus, 2 moxs, mystical, brainstorm, flooded strand. I drop the accel and pass.  He plays a welder which i let resolve and then a 3sphere which i drain.  I use the extra U for a brainstorm then fetch and mystical up tinker.  I tinker for the trike and take out his welder then his jug the following turn.  I resolve alot of draw and get the slaver lock soon after.

Game 2- This game he doesn't see alot of threats and i'm holding multiple racks.  I nuke his only welder with a firestorm and soon get a slaver lock again.

4-0

Round 5- Outlaw with Control Slaver

Game 1- I find out early from his manabase that this fella is playing Rich Shay's style of control slaver.  I resolve an early crucible and welder then draw into a stripmine to lock him down.

Game 2- He resolves an early pentavus and beats me to death.

Game 3- I outdraw him early but can't draw into more hard counters only REBs.  I feel he'll topdeck yawg will soon and scramble to find a hard counter while he looks for the will.  He gets out a pentavus while I resolve a platz.  I start beating him while he beats with tokens.  We're almost out of time and i scramble to find an answer to his chump blockers.  I attempt to use my welders to weld out his pentavus but there aren't enough artifacts in his yard to get the job done before time is called and he's at one with no blockers left.  Rough beats.

4-0-1

Round 6- TPS

Game 1- He goes very crazy early on but to avail as he cannot draw into a tendrils while i get the counters up and he concedes.

Game 2- I have to mulligan and he duresses my only counter.  He proceeds to play necro and win.

Game 3- I mulligan to five here from no land and he just duresses then vamps for a bargain and wins.

4-1-1

Round 7- Stax

Game 1- I get alot of accel and and let his late trinisphere resolve because it just doesn't matter.  The slaver lock comes soon after.

Game 2- He plays the first turn 3sphere and I can't topdeck the rack when i need to.  I get a few turns and when i finally do, i wastes my volcanic and i can't topdeck another.  He resolves multiple stacks and i concede for time.

Game 3- I get out a crucible and he resolves a 3sphere.  He can't seem to find a stack though while i'm building a manabase.  He finally does but its really too late.  When he tries to play another, I drain it and then use the drain mana to hardcast and activate slaver.  On his (my) turn, I make him sac his only stack and welder and then proceed to resolve another welder and a trike on my following turn for the win.

5-1-1

Round 8- Friend Matt Snow with TPS

Game 1- He duresses away my counters and resolves a bargain.  He draws down to 1 and sill can't make the kill in the same turn.  He says he'll concede because his vault will kill him but i remind him that he can pay so he doesn't have to die.  Others tell me that i shouldn't have said anything and won the game but I not about to win that way against a friend.  He manages to win with the will in his hand and brainsfreezes me for the win.

Game 2- I counter his early stuff then tinker for platinum angel and beat for the win.

Game 3- I get out alot of acceleration and resolve arcane lab.  We're called to time and i brainstorm into a slaver on the 2nd of the final turns.  My final plan to win his to REB my lab on his turn then hardcast and activate slaver and try to make him go off on himself for the win.  At the end of his turn though he conceded to me saying he can't win and shows me a hand of nothing.  I tell him what my plan was and we look at his top card because the slaver would have activated and he would have topdecked time spiral on his slaver turn, so neither of us feel bad.

6-1-1

Top 16

GAT

Game 1- I congratulate this guy for making this far with GAT since I felt that GAT couldn't have a chance in this metagame mainly because of the combination of Oath and Workshop which GAT has serious issues with.  I get a great starting hand of welder, intuition, lotus, crypt, volcanic, thirst, ak.  I play the welder then pop the lotus for intuition holding back the crypt.  With intution, i get COW, strip, and trike.  I gives me the crucible and i play it on my next turn.  Crucible/strip along with trike in the yard ends this game easily.

Game 2- I draw recall, citadel, 2 forces, tinker, 2 moxes, and decide to keep it because i have 3 turns to draw a blue source.  He resolves an early dryad and starts the beats.  I let it resolve because i have tinker for platz.  He beats me down to 12 ands tries to berserk for the win but force and doesn't have the counter do i go to 3 instead.  I finally topdeck the island and play tinker for the platz.  He plays an energy flux and topdeck another land for drain and use the 2 moxs to pay for the angel.  He plays another flux and i drain.  Platz ends up going the distance as he can't draw an answer.

Top 8

Outlaw with Control Slaver again

Game 1- I resolve intuition and draw alot of cards and let him counter my thirsts so my aks can resolve.  A salver lock and trike finish it up i believe.

Game 2- I resolve an early recall and strip one of his islands.  He can't find more mana and i proceed to capitalize and win with slaver and platz.

Top 4

Saucemaster with Meandeck 3 land Tendrils

Game 1- I force his recall and he goes nuts anyway but spoils himself to death looking for a ritual.

Game 2- I resolve a first turn arcane lab and he concedes.

Finals-

Good Friend Jeff with Intuition Slaver

Game 1- My hand explodes with thirst, lotus, crypt, intution, walk.  I still don't find a single counter though and play a welder but he forces.  I find another welder but he darts it.  I start to take damage from crypt and he resolves his own welder.  I scramble to find another welder and outdraw him down to five cards in my library because the crypt put me down to 3.  I topdeck another land holding about 5 counters and no more draw.  I look at my remaining library and both welders are last 2 cards.  That sucked.

Game 2- I mulligan to 5 and still don't have a land.  I keep a hand of force, DA, emerald, thirst, and intuition.  I topdeck an island and but not another land for another 5 turns.  He gets a slaver activation on me and nukes my hand then beats me to death with a pentavus and welder.  It was the suck.

Final thoughts.

I still feel i could have won if my deck didn't crap out on me but it gives me some comfort knowing that my friend won the lotus and one way or another it came to jersey.

On a more general scale, after Waterbury i have many thoughts about the metagame and Intuition Slaver.  I talked with many different T1 personalities about what's coming for 2005 and what's to be expected.  I have to say that if dark ritual and trinisphere are restricted then intuition had better go as well.  Simply put, Intuition Slaver is perhaps the most powerful and broken control combo deck i have ever seen and played. That along with a lot of testing within the actual metagame leads me to the conclusion that Intuition Slaver is very over-powered.  Therefore, I concede that if ritual and 3sphere have to go, then intuition does also.  Its simply too ridiculous in this deck.  
   
On a brighter note, the tourney was alot of fun and I met alot more great people.  I hope anyone who didn't make this time will try to next time because it was great and I guarantee that you will have a blast.  

- John

[Saucemaster]

Congratulations on the finish, and kudos on the performance!  Sorry I didn't give you more of a run for your money in the semis--that Ritual was going to power out the lethal Tendrils --but what can I say, if you live by the Spoils, you die by the Spoils.  Very nice build, and the Big Three selection (Trike, Platz, Slaver) was PERFECT for Waterbury.  That was a nicely metagamed list, and I'm glad it paid off.

[Ultima]

Thanks Justin.  In the same token, I give you credit for playing that you deck so well. Your definitely the master of the sauce.

[Smmenen]

John, Congratulations on your high finish.  A few notes about Goth Slaver.

Sometime in the early summer, I noticed a Swede or two had put up a Slaver list with Intutition AK in the top 8 of some European tournament.  The tournament was Gothenburg, so we code named the deck Goth Slaver.  The deck they had posted had a bizaare mana base and no Brainstorms.  

I talked about it with Kevin and we felt like this: this deck is crazy - it felt like if Tog had had two  draw engines - i.e. AKs and 4 Facts.  The two draw engines thing just felt broken.  

In our testing we tuned it to be as monsterous as possible and then after we felt we had a strong, optimized list for the summer, we put it up against Tog and were very surprised.  The Tog list managed to take plenty of games using 4 Red Elemental Blast and 1 Pyroblast.  The rest of us went with Tog and got Smashed at SCG I for that reason - becuase Fish beats us.  Doug Linn took the list we had tuned and put Sundering Titans in the slot of one Slaver and one other card.  

Out of respect for the people who first came up with adding Intuition to the deck we kept the name Goth Slaver (so that Kenny Oberg gets his due credit).  

The point I"m making is that while Intuition Slaver is broken, Tog can compete with it quite fine.  


In other words, the matchup is an AK mirror that goes like this: neither player can play AKs early - as a result, both sides devolve into two draw engines: Tog plays DAs and Slaver players Thirst. The primary objective of the Tog player has to do is stop the Thirsts from resolving. If this occurs, one of a few things happens: 1) The Slaver player has to try to force through AKS and stop the opponent's f rom resolving, or 2) Inuition for the broken artifacts and use them with Welder.  The problem is that in the AK mirror in which neither deck can use AKs, the only assymetry is expensive artifacts and Deep Analysis v. Thirst.  Strangely, Deep Anal proved more potent.  

I want to give you props for adding Deep Analysis to the deck to give it game in that regard.  you have probably built the strongest control deck by giving it two primary draw engines and a secondary as well - functionally three different engines.  I also think your creature base was perfect: Trike, Platz (faaar too good in this metagame not to use), and Crucible.  The only thing I don't agree with is making room for one Underground Sea to run yawg Will.  Again, good job.

[Outlaw]

Like I said Ultima, your so uber lucky I let you win.  Congrats on the finish, at least I split for 5th right?  I am actually very interested in the build that you run and would like to rock out somethin with it but wanna include either the single cunning wish or yawg's win.  Get back to me pm style or somethin, congrats again.

[Zherbus]

2 Deep Analysis
1 Triskelion
 

There's the biggest differences between what you had maindeck and Toads. Without Will and Fact of Fiction (god that card is awful in this deck), I think 2 Deep Anal or two Cunning Wish is the way to go. I personally dropped Crucible a while ago, but it looks like you destroyed the place with it. Trisk was a perfect metagame call. You get big props for that.

The sideboard is a bit different. What did Spawning Pit ever do? I'm willing to bet you have a good game against Oath without it. Not that you have any regrets for such a great finish, but did you wish they were extra explosives/labs?

Congrats on a great showing!

[Machinus]

Congratulations on the high finish, and great report.

4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
2 Deep Analysis
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor

I am not sure, but I don't think Tog ever had this much draw in it. Over 1/3 of this deck is draw and tutoring. Isn't this some kind of precedent?

[Smmenen]

Cunning Wish can find Fact or Gush for Tog and is a versatile tutor.  But, yes, the addition of DA makes this list unprecedented.

[BigChuck]

Nice job on the finish man. I'm glad you won round 8 after I talked you out of drawing

[Ultima]

I did actually test the black for Yawg Will with DAs for a little while and in the end, decided that its was about the metagame really.  If you know that your gonna run into alot workshops and aggro, then 2 color seemed more consistent but in a very control based meta, the black was a little better.  I played our 2 color-version even though I expected alot of control and combo because after alot of testing, the 2-color seemed like the best overall and consistent version whether it be control or workshop.

Honestly, the DA's were amazing.  In testing, they were just riduculous against control and made the deck more consistent.

@Spawning pits and Explosives

I put the pits in there because I found in testing that after one hit against oath it was like an auto-win.  Oath was one of the only matchs i felt that was questionable because they can have crazy openings and win before you know it.  I can surely say though at the same time that Oath is like on a clock against this deck.  If you reach 5 mana, Oath has a very small chance of winning after that.

I actually only sided explosives once or twice all day.  I think the only thing that explosives is used for is ground seal but I didn't play against that all day.  So they never got used really. On the other hand, more labs probably would have been good, but i felt that the oath matchup was more unstable than the combo matchup which is why i put in more pits than labs.

@Crucible

COW is amazing in this deck IMO.  There was at least 2 matchs where I won just because I was able to resolve an intuition for COW, Strip, trike with an active welder.  Its also like another win condition against wasteland decks like 5/3 and Stax because you can win the permanent advantage or make smokestacks irrelevant.    

@ everybody

thank you.

-John

[Negator13]

Hey John, great report and congrats on the finish. I hoped to see you again in T2, but my deck wasn't very nice to me against Jeff. Ah well.

Anyway, I had thought I won the first game against you in round 6, but thinking about it now I think you're right. I'll update my report to accurately reflect our match.

[rvs]

Congrats Ultima, and nice job in the DA maindecking. We had been playing around with it as a sideboard plan for control mirrors, but it's great that you made the choice in maindecking it and it paid off. Also, nice report.

[illuzion]

Is not including Pentavus some sort of new tech?  I can imagine that with large amounts of card drawing, you drop enough moxen to provide plenty of Welder-food, but I wonder if you ever missed having it?

[Moxlotus]

You get recursion with Crucible/ Darksteel and there are better creatures to be played than Pentavus.

[the Luke]

Is not including Pentavus some sort of new tech?  I can imagine that with large amounts of card drawing, you drop enough moxen to provide plenty of Welder-food, but I wonder if you ever missed having it?

It is old tech.  You replace the Pentavus with Crucible of the Worlds and get an infinite Slaver lock by welding out Darksteel Citadel for Mindslaver then replaying the Citadel.  In some ways it is better than Pentavus because Pentavus requires two Welders, and it's generally preferrable to topdeck Crucible than Pentavus.  Of course Pentavus is a handy beater, as well.

---
Ultima, well done.  Did you contemplate cutting a Welder for Will?  Did your teammate who came first play Intuition Slaver or Shay Slaver?

-Luke

[tehmajickguy]

Good job on the high finish John! It was great seeing you again and you were my pick to win the whole thing. You definitely deserved to finish so well.

[Toad]

Congratulations !

2 Deep Analysis
1 Triskelion
 

There's the biggest differences between what you had maindeck and Toads. Without Will and Fact of Fiction (god that card is awful in this deck), I think 2 Deep Anal or two Cunning Wish is the way to go. I personally dropped Crucible a while ago, but it looks like you destroyed the place with it. Trisk was a perfect metagame call. You get big props for that.

I've actually been running Triskelion for more than a month and a half now, since It is pretty savage in most of your matchups (Stax, Drain Slaver, Intuition Slaver)

My current decklist is pretty close to Ultima's one, that is

-2 Deep Analysis
+1 Yawgmoth's Will
+1 Underground Sea or Swamp
-1 Darksteel Citadel (If I go for Swamp)
+1 Seat of theSynod (If I go for Swamp, to keep a high count).

I have never really played with maindeck Deep Analysis because I've never really liked the card itself, even when It was golden in Tog. It's something you definitly hate drawing and hardcasting. I had some in the SB for AK mirrors, but they are wasted SB slots. Nevertheless, with the AK-mirrors being more common now and with the Thirsts for Knowledge as discard outlets, It's definitly a strong addition to the deck, big props for using them, I'll give them a shot.

Spawning Pit is interesting, but I've usually been leaning towards Aether Spellbombs since It's more versatile. I bring them against Dragon and sometimes against Workshop Aggro to bounce that stupid Juggernaut. Aether Spellbomb is quite useless If they bring in Pristine Angel, but the Angel puts you on a 5-turns clock, so that's not a big deal anyways to find Mindslaver or Tinker.

And Arcane Laboratory is indeed billions of times better than Sphere of Resistance and such.

The Firestorm is surprising though. For mass and cheap removal, I usually go for Pyroclasm.

Crucible of Worlds is such a bomb there

[Andreas]

May I inquire why you used Spawning Pit over Claws of Gix as anti-Oath card?

[Philatio]

May I inquire why you used Spawning Pit over Claws of Gix as anti-Oath card?

Claws of Gix requires mana to activate, so you might be tapping that mana you want to use for EOT Thirst or something.  Most decks that have Gix in the board are combo decks since it's a 0 CC artifact and ups the stormage.

[Andreas]

May I inquire why you used Spawning Pit over Claws of Gix as anti-Oath card?

Claws of Gix requires mana to activate, so you might be tapping that mana you want to use for EOT Thirst or something.  Most decks that have Gix in the board are combo decks since it's a 0 CC artifact and ups the stormage.

On the other hand Spawning Pit requires mana to be cast, which (considering Oath decks usually run 12+ counters) might make it a little harder to get it into play.

[Diakonov]

Great report, John.  Round 8 was quite embarrassing for me, as I made multiple ridiculous errors in Game 1 (i.e. forgetting I could untap Vault--hopefully they edit that part out in the video   ).  On the other hand, I'm glad that my one match loss all day was against someone who would end up in the finals.  

Definitely one of the most intense matches I've ever played.  Hope to see you again at the next big tourney.

BTW, congrats on the awesome finish.

[Ultima]

Thanks again everybody.

@Will

I did test Yawg Will for a little while but in the end, I just decided that the 2-color was more consistent and there seemed to be so little times that I needed to use it.  If I was expecting heavy control and mirrors without any workshop, then black would be the better call but since it was an unknown metagame, i decided the 2-color was a no-lose choice.

@anti-oath SB

I found in testing that spawning pit was like an auto-win against Oath and it tested a little better than aether spellbomb because if you got out one pit, it doesn't matter what creaturebase they're using, they can't win anymore.  Its definitely better than claws of gix because you don't have to keep tapping mana and if your opponent keeps drawing orchards, they can keep you locked for a few turns by forcing you to tap out for the claws.

@firestorm

I used firestorm as mass removal for either Fish or 5/3.  Pyroclasm is a great card but I prefered the firestorm because it means you can nuke the other guy's team without touching your own welders.  Plus firestorm was sometimes a decent finisher in conjuction with the Trike.

[TheFram]

Congrats, John.

I like this deck a lot.

-Avi

[Cafe_Cafe]

Very nice report and excellent metagaming options.
I was surprised by the Firestorm option. Amazing.

[Zeke]

Any particular reason why Titan isn't found in the maindeck nor the board?  While I admit that triskelion is a powerhouse (i've been advocating his use since he was the MVP of a tourney I played THe Roscoe at) there are times when a single titan can ends games in certain matchups

I do like all the draw, though, so I'm not sure what could be cut to use it.

[cosineme]

Great job on the finish.  You have really been putting in some great performances.  A couple of points, your mana count seems very low for a Slaver deck.  I know most slaver decks run upwards of 26-27 mana counts.  In your case, you are only running 23! I assume that a large reason is because you are only running two colors, however did this ever force you to mulligan once too many? Or did this ever hurt you when BS and not finding a land?

Good job again.

edit: One additional question.

I know that you played smash extensively, as well as CS slaver.  Why do you think slaver can run no MB answers (cunning wish) and get away with all that draw, and smash cannot and must run wishes for answers (aside for the berserk of course.)

great job again

[Ultima]

@Zeke

There was a time when one of our team was advocating a titan in the board for polychromatic control but it became irrelevant soon because we realized the only real control matches left was the mirror.

@Cosineme

I didn't mulligan that often, but i felt confident playing 23 manasources because after having tested 25, i felt the deck got mana flooded too often and found 23 to be perfect number.  Its just enough to not mulligan often and still get broken hands without getting mana flooded at the same time.

[Metanoia]

Round 8- Friend Matt Snow with TPS

Game 1- He duresses away my counters and resolves a bargain.  He draws down to 1 and sill can't make the kill in the same turn.  He says he'll concede because his vault will kill him but i remind him that he can pay so he doesn't have to die.  

It's a bit of a nitpick but, Bargain makes you skip your draw step which means the damage from Mana Vault will never happen.

On a different note: great list. I play a list quite similar to yours but with 24 mana sources and 2 Slavers. I'll cut one of both to fit in the DA's which I think are a brilliant addition. Who would have thought the deck with the best 2 draw engines in the game would actually benefit from even more draw?

[DavidHernandez]

@Smmenen:

The point I"m making is that while Intuition Slaver is broken, Tog can compete with it quite fine.

...yawgwill...

Tony Soto and I played the Team Gro list (for the Dear Mr. Fantazy Mox Ruby tournament on Feb. 5th) with modifications as follows:

+1 Underground Sea
+1 Yawgmoth's Will
+1 Darksteel Colossus

- 1 Tolarian Academy
- 2 Deep Analysis

DS Colossus was amazing for me all day, but I still took 2 losses (to Fish!? and to Dragon).

Yawgwill really belongs in the deck, and was awesome the whole day.

Tony lost to TPS and to Tog.  Tog just topdecks like it's cheating (when it isn't...) and is amazingly strong. The version we saw was 4-color and used only 2 Togs in it. I'm in total agreement with you that Tog can compete with Intuition Slaver, especially after watching the matchup.  It came down to Tog topdecking a D.Tutor for Lotus, and then playing Yawgwill, with Tony about one turn from winning the match.

Dave.

[Sare]

Congratz Ultima!

I played a budget version with maindeck Phid, the rest was the same as yours, last sunday in Castricum T1.
Ended 3th! And that without lotus/walk/ruby/emerald.
I also had 3 Mana Leaks sb, and that turned out to be great!

The deck really draws crazy!!

It's a bit of a nitpick but, Bargain makes you skip your draw step which means the damage from Mana Vault will never happen.

Vault triggers in your upkeep, not drawfase, just a nitpick..