5-Proxy Welder-Intuition

[Ifflejink]

The idea for the following deck, although very Slaver-based, was originally an alteration of one of the Green/Red Survival-Welder decks here a few months ago. However, the Survival-Welder builds had problems- without Survival in play, you lost. Against combo, you lost. Against counters, you lost. But there were a few advantages: for one, the deck was very, very cheap to build. Also, once it got it's engine going, it just won. Looking at recent Goth and Workshop Slaver lists, I realized that running blue instead of green shored up most all of the deck's problems, and still allowed it to retain a budget price tag. Without further ado, the decklist:

Welder-Intuition (Or budget Quasi-Slaver)
//Mana
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
1 Island
2 Ancient Tomb
3 Seat of the Synod
3 Great Furnace
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus (Proxy)
//Disruption
4 Mana Leak
4 Force of Will
//Weldable Fat
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
2 Sundering Titan
1 Mindslaver
//Search/Draw/Discard
4 Bazaar of Baghdad (Proxy)
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Gamble
1 Tinker
4 Intuition
//The winner
4 Goblin Welder

Card choices (Besides the obvious):
Mana Leak: Due to the fact that you need to resolve Welder in order to win, the deck needed more disruption than just FOW. For now, Mana Leak seems to be the best disruption here, considering it's cost and it's effectiveness.
Seat of the Synod/Great Furnace: The deck needed low cc artifacts besides Lotus, Sol Ring and Mana Crypt, and these seemed to work best. As a small bonus, they're immune to Titan.
Ancient Tomb: It's simply an effective way to speed up the deck slightly, usually for Intuition and Thirst for Knowledge.
Bazaar of Baghdad: This is mainly used as another discard outlet, but I'm close to cutting it considering all of the discard outlets already in the deck.
Gamble: A cheap, effective way to get whatever card you may need. However, the random discard can be a blessing or a curse. I was using Gifts Ungiven in this spot, but I decided that it was to slow in the end.
Intuition: It's the main method for getting fat into the graveyard. Usually cast by turn 2 or 3, it's gamebreaking,

Thank you for your help.

[garlick]

Very good idea, I was interested in that survival-welder deck too.

I have not obviously tested your list, but I will post to you the first questions which came into my mind:

My meta is plenty of Fish decks, how this deck work with a Null Rod in play and wastelands?

You said that you would cut Bazaars, what card do you think to use to replace them? Have you ever tried Lightning Greaves?

Thanks for posting this deck, bye

[Ifflejink]

Against Fish. this deck could have problems. However, Fish is hardly as prevalent as it used to be, and getting a Titan, Platinum Angel, or Pentavus in play would probably be game.

As for the Bazaars, I was possibly thinking of replacing them with more disruption; Cunning Wish, most likely. However, Lightning Greaves could work. The noly problem with it is that it's dead until you Weld something into play, but that's usually game anyway.

[garlick]

yeah, you're right about the graves. What card would you put maindeck against fish decks?

[Covetous]

I don't think it's worth it to waste 4 proxies on Bazaars, especially when you don't have any moxen in the deck for acceleration.  I'd suggest:
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
2 Duress
4 Goblin Welder
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sundering Titan / Duplicant (Titan if you face multi-color control, Dupes if you face Oath or fat aggro)
1 Mindslaver
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Tinker
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Intuition
1 Ancestral Recall (Proxy)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
4 Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Ancient Tomb (or WG moxen if >5 proxies)
2 Seat of the Synod / Darksteel Citadel
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus (Proxy)
1 Mox Sapphire (Proxy)
1 Mox Ruby (Proxy)
1 Mox Jet (Proxy)

[Ifflejink]

Covetous: I like your list. You bring up a lot of good ideas, like replacing the Bazaars with moxen. However, I'm a little skeptical about the black splash. Black adds only four cards to the maindeck and, although those cards are incredibly powerful, they force you to cut Gamble, which I have found to be very important to the deck. This deck is more of a combo deck than anything else, focusing on getting a Welder in play and welding in some gamebreaking artifact. Your build seems to be more focused on a control aspect.

[garlick]

Besides that, splashing black would weak the manabase, which is my principal concern because it seems to me very fragile

[Ifflejink]

Cutting the Bazaars take care of that, since the use of moxen allows for the cutting of artifact lands. Regardless, I agree with you that adding black would strain the fragile mana base.

[Anusien]

I like the first list better.
I'd cut the Pentabus (frowny face, because I have a foil buf) for a Crucible of Worlds, and then add a Strip Mine.  This lets you randomly Strip Lock and kill people, as well as going truly infinite with just one Welder.  Then add the Darksteel Citadel you should have anyway.  I would also run a basic Mountain to complement the Island, to avoid being Waste-locked.  Then I'd cut the Bazaar for Accumulated Knowledge.  You have 4 proxy slots.  You can then do the following:
-4 Gamble:
+1 Ancestral Recall, +1 Time Walk, +1 Mox Sapphire, +1 Mox Ruby
I'd also try -1 Sundering Titan, +1 Mindslaver to make sure you can find it when you need to go lock.

[Ifflejink]

Although you do bring up some good ideas, such as replacing Bazaars with AKs (I'll test this later to see how it works), running the single mountain wouldn't do much good, considering that I use blue fetches. The Crucible/Strip Mine lock could work, and could make Intuition even more game breaking. However, I don't much like the idea of replacing one Titan with a Mindslaver, primarily because the lower artifact count of this deck prevents from re-using Mindslaver to it's full potential. By the way, what would you plan on cutting for Strip Mine? And what do you mean "add the Darksteel Citadel"? I don't see much of a benefit in running just one. Furthermore, I still don't like the idea of cutting Gamble; the deck just looses consistency without it.

[Anusien]

Although you do bring up some good ideas, such as replacing Bazaars with AKs (I'll test this later to see how it works), running the single mountain wouldn't do much good, considering that I use blue fetches. The Crucible/Strip Mine lock could work, and could make Intuition even more game breaking. However, I don't much like the idea of replacing one Titan with a Mindslaver, primarily because the lower artifact count of this deck prevents from re-using Mindslaver to it's full potential. By the way, what would you plan on cutting for Strip Mine? And what do you mean "add the Darksteel Citadel"? I don't see much of a benefit in running just one. Furthermore, I still don't like the idea of cutting Gamble; the deck just looses consistency without it.

You're right, the single mountain was an overlook on my part.    However, you want the Mindslaver lock primarily.  You say you don't have enough artifacts to weld, and that's why I suggest the Darksteel Citadel + Crucible.  It gives you a free drop to weld, and to go infinite without needing 7 to cast Bus.  If you don't see the benefit of Darksteel Citadel, you need to test it.  Undestructable Welder bait, comboes with the Crucible.
And you want to cut Gamble because you're primarly a control deck.  4 Brainstorm, 4 Thirst, 4 Intuition, 4 AK and you say Gamble is key to consistency?!

[Covetous]

Bazaar is terrible in this deck.  It is more importantly a waste of proxies which would be SO MUCH BETTER as power.  Using black is not a necessity but access to more disruption, demonic tutor and most importantly yawgmoth's will is VERY powerful.  Adding 1-2 Underground seas doesn't really weaken the manabase in a deck with 4 basic lands.  It's not like the deck has no basics or needs any color other than blue more than once or twice.  If you are afraid of Black, that's not a problem, but in that case I would recommend:
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Goblin Welder
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Mindslaver
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Tinker
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Accumulated Knowledge (or 2 Titan/Dupes/Slaver + 2 Disrupting Shoals)
4 Intuition
1 Ancestral Recall (Proxy)
1 Mystical Tutor (still very powerful even if not as good as Demonic)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
5 Island
2 Ancient Tomb (or WG moxen if >5 proxies)
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Lotus Petal / artifact land
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus (Proxy)
1 Mox Sapphire (Proxy)
1 Mox Ruby (Proxy)
1 Mox Jet (Proxy, any random mox will do)
1 Strip Mine

Gamble is certainly an interesting idea, but I do not like losing cards from my hand for any reason.  It's simply not worth it in most situations.  This list is basically a really good IntuiSlaver list -1 time walk, -2 moxen, -2 deep analysis -4 mana drain, +2 ancient tomb, +1 intuition, +1 pentavus, +1 lotus petal, +4 counterspell.

[garlick]

Where i live, no proxy are allowed, and this sucks. However, what are your suggestions for a deck without proxies? In particular I have concerns regarding the manabase, I'm afraid of using artifact land because they weak the manabase.

[Ifflejink]

Covetous: I like your list. Disrupting Shoal hadn't occured to me. Also, you're right about Bazaar; it was mainly in the list as another discard outlet, and that's not really necessary.

Garlick: If you live in an area where proxies aren't alowed, this is not the deck for you. The artifact count would be too low to support the rest of the deck.