(Article and updated Primer) How to play control slaver now.

[Metman]

Well, I gotta say congrats on doing so well in the tourny.  But I'm not sure what to think of the direction the deck has gone.  Your decklist looks all jumbled up with a TPS idea, and I don't think that is the right plan.  This deck doesn't look like it would do better than a bit more traditional version of Slaver or TPS.  Depending on what your first turn or two looks like would make you play the deck in that direction right?  Regardless of the direction you go for the other half of the deck are wasted draws trying to play the other style your have packed in the MD.  Plus by cutting the robots from your deck doesn't make the heart of the deck (Welders and TfKs) all that better.   I'm only counting 12 artifacts in the deck.  I run upwards of 15 artifacts and still occasionally find that I'm pitching a couple nonartifact cards to TfK.  TfK isn't the powerful draw spell that it could be consistatly not netting any cards with it.  The other great plus with it is that you are putting super easy to weld in bombs with it.  You have moved your bombs away from the TfK/Welder engine. 

[Smmenen]

All I gotta say is that I told you to run the second Gifts in Chicago!

[sean1i0]

Brian, I notice that you've completely taken out the Tendrils from your list.  So, then I assume that the goal is just to build a strong Yawgmoth's Will, take a few extra turns, draw a ton of cards, then put the opponent into an insta-slaver lock.  Except for post sideboard, I don't see a combo kill.  Is that basically what you're doing with the deck now?  Also, if there's nothing that I'm missing, then, so far, has the deck with an option for a tendrils kill or without that option performed better?

[forests failed you]

No I just forgot to include it in the list sorry.  The decklist has been modified.

[nataz]

I know that you are angry that this has been suggested, but could it be possible that you are working down similar lines that will eventually morph the deck into what is basically one of the many forms of SSB-esq type decks?

I think that once you add gifts, it fundamentally changes how a drain deck plays, and eventually if you keep pushing the deck to support the gifts, why not just make it into gifts?

taking cross's decklist from waterbury, and comparing it to yours we have a difference of the following.

1 frantic search
1 vampiric tutor
1 imperial seal
1 burning wish

vs.

1 severance
1 recoup
1 belcher
+ 1 mana source

-1 darkblast
+1 EE
-which i consider fairly comparable for what cross was trying to do that day. Not to mention that neither DB nor Imp Seal were legal that day.

I'm not saying that you don't have a good idea, or your deck doesn't play well, but I am saying to completely discount parallel evolution of decks just because you are proud of your creation is silly. If you follow up on your changes and do end up going down to only 2 welders (and then keeping them mainly for mana production) and switch to the DSC kill, you are blurring the lines even more. When you answer angry's statement of "CS is a dead deck, but gifts is pretty good" on the SCG forums with your decklist, I don't think you are proving much.

[pyr0ma5ta]

Hello everyone.  I'm new to posting on TMD, but I've been lurking as a Guest for some months now. 

I've recently (~6 months) gotten into Vintage, and have been collecting cards, working up to my first tourney, which will be after the new year.  I've put together both 5cc Stax and Slaver, and I've found in playtesting that Slaver beats the crap out of Stax every single time.  I think the matchup before boarding is like 85-15 or something in favor of the Drain deck.  Is this a result of my being unable to play Stax correctly, or is this actually the case?  Also, I have no idea what kind of sideboard to play for the Slaver deck.  Does DSC belong in the maindeck? 

Finally, since Gifts has proven to be busted and everyone's putting it in everything, what's the savage Gifts pile you go for in Slaver?

[forests failed you]

I don't like charbelcher as a kill.  It is clunky and it doesn't give you the versitility that burning wish gives you as far as searching for answers to problematic cards (Mage, Chalice, Crucible)

This deck with Welders and Tendr ils is actually faster and more stable than Gifts.  You have two win conditions, one is Slaver and the other is Tendrils.  Slaver enables you to Tendrils at will.

As for the Tutors, they are insane I wouldn't cut a one of them.

Actually I think that cutting Darkblast for Personal  is the right call right now.  Of course darkblast would be moved to the sideboard.  After additional testing I'm not sure that the second Gifts is even necessary, since there are infi ways to get it should you need to and you almost never want to draw a second one
or replay it under a Yawgmoth's Will.


To respond:  I could give a flying rat's ass cheeseburger about inventing new decks.  I actually only care about winning matches. 

I think that a Slaver shell protecting a Yawgmoth's Will combo deck is the way to go right now, and I am trying with the help of other adept Slaver players to develop this idea through to the next step.

Honestly, after testing I think that playing Belcher is not the right call for a Slaver deck.  however I think that it is an excellent win condition in a more conventional Gifts deck, its even better than DSC I believe.



The ideal busted gifts pile for this deck is four tutors.  If it resolves and you get them you actually just win the game on the spot.

Other than that after a Yawgwill where you don't actually kill with Tendrils you can often time walk, untap and Gifts for Slaver and Pentavus and lock your oppoenent with the slaver.

Also if you have Will in hand you will often gifts for lotus and three moxen.

I don't think that DSC should be MD, just because he is bad synergy with and against welders.  However he is a house in the aggro match ups because you actually have infi tutors for tinker which means fast DSC clock.

The reason I don't like Gifts as a deck is that it is way to mana intensive, and that it loses to Gorilla Shaman.  Four cost spells should not be four ofs in Vintage, it causes you to mulligan too much, and it is a huge Drain target in the mirror match.  The other advantage to this deck over gifts is that it isn't owned by REBs in the mirror match.  In fact it is very difficult for Gifts to beat this deck both pre and post board.

And yes you are correcct, Slaver in any incarnation walks all over shop decks.

[fatalist.remix]

And yes you are correcct, Slaver in any incarnation walks all over shop decks.

Properly built and metagamed Shop Aggro has a decent Slaver matchup.  Trike advantage and a near-comparable number of tutors along with Welders and a decent clock make Shop vs. Slaver something less of a nightmare than, say, Shop vs. Tog.

[pyr0ma5ta]

I agree that DSC has bad synergy with and against welders, but DSC has good synergy with TFK and Brainstorm.  I really like being able to pitch it to the Thirst.  Finally, I've been thinking about putting the Tendrils win in the deck since Yawg is retarded, but I can't seem to make the mana work.  Is 3 USea correct?  I've been running 4 Volcs, 2 Seas.

Also, if DSC goes to the sb, what's the I WIN card that you Tinker for?  Slaver is decent, but it doesn't do anything against unpowered/random decks and Pentavus is just a 5/5 that breaksd into a million pieces.  I like being able to just Tinker, cast Walk, and win.

[forests failed you]

Three and three is the way to go, for this deck at least.

you have six red spells and six black spells (if you count tendrils).

I am almost positive that Lotus Petal belongs in this deck somewhere.  Possibly over the Frantic Search.  It would also up the artifact count by one.

[MoxMonkey]

I disagree Shop Aggro rolls over a well placed drain which is mostly why some Workshop Pile has Meddling mages.  A welder and a few counters will make any workshop deck cry and if you get the Welder Shaman Tag on the board its all over.  I also think 3 Volcanic and 3 underground Seas is the way to go and trying to fit in the Lotus Petal As well.

[pyr0ma5ta]

All right, I've looked through this thread looking for complete lists, and not seeing too many, here's my pile.  From what I've heard so far, the DSC should get cut for another Monkey, and Burning Wish needs a spot.  I also have no sideboard right now, so perhaps people could give me some helpful pointers, or a link?

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt

1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
1 Darksteel Colossus

2 Mindslaver

4 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire/Ice
1 Mystical Tutor

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Island
1 Darksteel Citadel
4 Fetch
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy

Thanks

[forests failed you]

You actually NEED at least one Darksteel Citadel.  When you have a Welder in play and a Slaver in the Grave and you are looking at a bunch of tutors in your hand, up against an opponent witha G shaman in play; you will thank me!

[pyr0ma5ta]

No no I meant the big tramply 11/11 thing.  I really like the Citadel.

[God_Campbell]

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt

1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
1 Darksteel Colossus

2 Mindslaver

4 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire/Ice
1 Mystical Tutor

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Island
1 Darksteel Citadel
4 Fetch
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy

pyro, you list is okay but it needs a bit of an update, first I would start by cutting it down to 3 welders which opens up a slot for burning wish.
Also switch a Vol for a Sea, cut a island for a snowcovered island, an echoing truth for a gifts and if you are inclined cut the darksteel colossus for a imperial seal., but thats just a quick update to your list and as far as SB is concerned it is all dependant on your local metagame, but here is my SB:
1 Tendrils Of Agony
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Merchant scroll
1 Pyroclasm
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Echoing truth
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Darkblast
1 Arcane Lab
1 Gorrilla Shaman
So here is the List I am currently testing:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt

1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
1 Darksteel Colossus

1 Mindslaver

3 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Fire/Ice
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

2 Island
1 Snowcovered Island
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy

[Zomar]

Ya Minds eye is poweful but for right now since everyone has read this forum its no longer the savage under the rader power house that it once was.

....I'm sure people changed their decks or way of playing the game in order to deal with minds eye.... >_>

Also switch a Vol for a Sea, cut a island for a snowcovered island, an echoing truth for a gifts and if you are inclined cut the darksteel colossus for a imperial seal.

I really hope you mean Vampiric Tutor. It's that card that was considered bad in control slaver before it's sorcery speed brother was made.
--

Why are people cutting echoing truth? It has always been the perfect card for anything you didn't like. With the new lists it seems like that if something bad resolves your only answer is "win the game."

[God_Campbell]

well i also forgot to add in vampiric tutor but i feel that both the vtutor and i.seal are needed in slaver so it can set up a quicker win

[Zomar]

I figured as much. I just like to poke fun at people for creaming over imperial seal when they never even used vampiric tutor before.

I'll admit I don't know control slaver inside and out, so my opinions are going to be less informed. It's never been a deck I've liked, but it's been so popular and around for so long that I've got a good sense of it.

I disagree with turning slaver into a combo deck. I don't like how all of a sudden people are changing it into something drastically different than it has always been. By adding every tutor to the deck, the deck isn't able to play control cards it use to use. It is sacrificing control for speed. But is the speed necessary?  Was control slaver too slow to beat the decks in peoples meta? Was the control not good enough, so it CAN be sacrificed for speed? Was there something wrong with the deck, or is it just being made "better?" Why is slaver going "all in?"

[MoxMonkey]

No it controls better with these cards because you get to pick what cards you get.  With the added Tutor power the Tendrils kill is just easy to pull off and burning Wish has been Very solid.  I changed my Deep Anaysis for That new Sorcery speed Thirst from Ravinca the name escapes me right now.  You dont need DSC to win he just takes up a main board spot.  I understand him in the board hell I even have one in the board but Main hes not what you want, Id rather run Trik than him but if you like DSC run him.  Going all in is what every deck has to do now which is why Slaver now has to.  Gifts does its all In like 5 times during a game.  you cannot control what they can do so to out broken them you have to add some brokten to Slaver.  It can still play like old Slaver but with More tutors to find Bombs like Will Ancestral Black lotus Burning Wish and I still have Echoing truth although the more and more I test I see myself wishing it was something else but then again when I force and remove it its not a hard hit like if you remove Thirst or Brainstorm.  I think the deck is better and if you dont like the Tendrils kill cut the Burning Wish and maybe Imperial Seal add in the second Slaver and Echoing Truth and you have a more well built Slaver.  Then the SB can be tuned to your metagame and hate out other decks.  For right now my new list is

25 Mana Sources
3 Volcanic
3 Underground
3 Island
4 Fetch
1 LOA /  or Frantic Search
1 Tolarian Acedemy
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
 
Note: I miss Citadel but I really want Petal in the list and so far I havn't cryed to another Monkey yet. Also I went back to 25

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral
4 Thirst for Knowledge
0 Frantic Search  - I like this card but after my testing today and talking over with teammates its going to be Monkey 2
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Burning Wish
1 Gifts Ungiven

1 Pentavus
1 MindSlaver
3 Welders
1 Echoing truth
2 MoxMonkey - since I cut Frantic I put number 2 back here
1 Darkblast 
1 Time walk

 Seal was solid and Vamp won me a game, so they both staying. Frantic and LOA I belive are very strong but to fit both just maked me cut Monkey #2 who I have missed for a while.  I think since im in NE Id much rather have LOA than a Frantic search but only after this weekend will I pu my final work on Frantic.

My sideboard is in the working and I'm not sure whats staying or not staying its more or less like ForceFields list.

[pyr0ma5ta]

So the current criticism so far of my list is:

-1 Darksteel fatty
-1 Mindslaver
-1 Welder
-1 Trike
-1 FoF

+1 Gifts Ungiven
+1 Monkey
+1 Vamp Tutor
+1 Imp Seal
+1 Burning Wish

I can accept taking out a welder, the tramply big guy and 1 slaver, but how do you justify the Trike?  He's just too good at eating Welders, Fishies, and he swings too!  Finally, I can see FoF being Gifts, but not if I have to run 2 more tutors and a Wish...that's too many cards that go into the combo win that don't do much if I'm locked behind 3-ball.  I'd much rather have the 4th Welder against Stax, and the current ability to do stupid things with a Yawgwin is fine without the Burning Wish, so long as I can still Tinker up the big dude, tutor for Time Walk and just win that way.  I will consider adding V. Tutor over the 2nd Slaver, and find room for a 2nd Monkey, however.

Thanks for the input on the sb.  I think I'm going to run something that looks like:

1 Echoing Truth
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Pyroclasm
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Darkblast
2 Arcane Lab

[MoxMonkey]

In my testing the 1 Darkblast main which can be found within the first 3 turns is Triskelion on crack in the mirror.  Dredge makes it allows around and at times I wish I had FoF but if you really want to keep Triskelion I would look at my list and change Darkblast to Him and use your Sb.  Also Compulsive Research since I finally found the name is INSANE in the board.
Anyway for your list you should use the 3/3 Combination for your dual lands so -1 Volcanic +1 underground
- 1 MindSlaver        /  +1  burning Wish
- 1 Goblin Welder  / +1 Gorilla Shaman
- 1 fact or Fiction /  +1 Gifts
- 1 Island           / +1 Vampiric tutor
- 1 DSC            / +1 Lotus Petal

Than change the Sb to suit the Burning Wish utility and Tendrils Finish.  I would also test Darkblast instead of Fire/Ice if you see alot of Monkeys or welders or just random x/1's  Its a few changes but allows the deck to be alot more powerful and broken at times.  Imperial Seal while very good is not needed to the extreme and if you like the Triskelion leaving Imperial out makes the deck feel a lot less like straight combo which a lot of people hate.

[forests failed you]

Mox Monkey,

I've already moved complusive research into the board.  Isn't it savage?

[Zomar]

In my testing the 1 Darkblast main which can be found within the first 3 turns is Triskelion on crack in the mirror.  Dredge makes it allows around and at times I wish I had FoF but if you really want to keep Triskelion I would look at my list and change Darkblast to Him and use your Sb.  Also Compulsive Research since I finally found the name is INSANE in the board.
Anyway for your list you should use the 3/3 Combination for your dual lands so -1 Volcanic +1 underground
- 1 MindSlaver        /  +1  burning Wish
- 1 Goblin Welder  / +1 Gorilla Shaman
- 1 fact or Fiction /  +1 Gifts
- 1 Island           / +1 Vampiric tutor
- 1 DSC            / +1 Lotus Petal

Than change the Sb to suit the Burning Wish utility and Tendrils Finish.  I would also test Darkblast instead of Fire/Ice if you see alot of Monkeys or welders or just random x/1's  Its a few changes but allows the deck to be alot more powerful and broken at times.  Imperial Seal while very good is not needed to the extreme and if you like the Triskelion leaving Imperial out makes the deck feel a lot less like straight combo which a lot of people hate.

goodbye control slaver. hello gifts.dec.

(ignore this - I misunderstood the quoted information)

[forests failed you]

Not hardly.

These changes are not to the initial Burning Slavery deck I proposed, but rather to an older more traditional Slaver deck still playing two slavers, four welders FOF and one shaman.

Burning Slavery still Slavers into about 50-60% of its victories.  The key is that it is now able, because of the BUrning wish combo, to win out of other situations that would before have been impossible.

[pyr0ma5ta]

The reason I'm playing Fire/Ice over Darkblast is because it's blue.  However, the recurability and synergy with Will/Welder of Dredging cannot be denied, so I will try it.  I definitely like it.

Still, Burning Wish + tutors means that the deck has several more bad cards that don't do anything until I'm ready to set up a Will win.  What does Lotus Petal even do, other than get pitched to tfk and storm?  Triskelion is a win condition, and I like smashing face with him...

And why exactly is sorcery speed draw good?  I don't see how it is better than tfk, and having that many draw spells in the deck seems like too many.

[sean1i0]

While Fire/Ice is an awesome card, it was never supposed to take Triskelion's place in the deck, because Triskelion kills 2-3 x/1's on his first trip around the board and is recurrable with a Welder.  Darkblast can replace Triskelion because it is also reusable, because it has synergies with the deck, and because with a configuration of 1 mystical tutor, 1 demonic tutor, 1 vampiric tutor, 1 imperial seal, 1 tinker there are exactly the same number of ways to grap either card.  Plus darkblast has a converted mana cost of 1 where as triskelion has a converted mana cost of 6.

As far as I'm seeing it, Burning Wish may have a primary purpose of setting up the combo kill, but the sideboards also seem like they have been designed, at least partially, with the mindset of also giving Burning Wish a secondary purpose:  to be a general utility card used to get the deck out of tight situations.

Most of the time that I see Lotus Petal in a drain deck, it's there to up the percentage of the time that you have UU available on turn 1.  Yes, it does happen to also help out with storm and tfk pitches in this deck, too, but I believe that is just lagniappe.

Also, compulsive research isn't replacing tfk as far as I'm understanding it, but rather being put into the sideboard as something to burning wish for; it is one the cards that gives the burning wish its secondary purpose.

[pyr0ma5ta]

Ah, I like that tech of Burning Wish for draw.  That clears up a lot.  Also, the Wish can, at cost to tempo, go for utility like Merchant Scroll, Pyroclasm, or Compulsive Research, but almost always you'll want to go for the Tendrils.  That, in itself, while admirable, doesn't make sense to me.  Why not just play the Tendrils in the main, and add a few more copies of Gifts and call it Gifts.dec?  You're diluting and cutting your main threats (Welders, Robots, and general solid control play) for a faster kill, while I would argue that Willing into a Slaver activation and a 11/11 on the board should be enough for the win.  Of course the combo play is nice, but I just don't see the point.  Even if I can't go Will, play a million spells and Tendrils, I can still draw 10 cards, Tinker twice, Walk, activate a slaver, and attack for 11.  Doesn't that win just as nicely?

Darkblast doesn't attack for 4, and if you cut all the robots in the deck, why even play Welders?  Every robot you cut makes the welders that much weaker, so basically if we develop the deck in the way everyone has suggested, I might as well play Gifts.dec.

My problem with that is that frankly I don't have the playskill to play Gifts.  I just started playing Vintage and want a slightly easier deck to play before I move on to combo-control or Stax or whatever else there might be. 

Now, if everyone agrees that Gifts is the best deck out there, that's fine by me.  We can just agree that CS as a concept is outdated and too slow to compete with combo decks that also pack 8 counterspells.  If that's the case, I'll suck it up and make that deck.  Otherwise, I'm still interested in maximizing the effectiveness of a deck that abuses welder and thirst for knowledge.

[MoxMonkey]

Re: Pyro

Burning Wish is our utility Card its a draw/Kill/artifact removal or bounce all in 1.  It does at times cost tempo but when you do cast it your not in a great spot during the game as is.

Tendrils Main is terrible we don't run Dark Ritual to power it out and if you want to fit in 2-3 Dark Rituals and a couple of Duress go for it and you got a Slaver TPS Hybrid that would probably do very well.  The tendrils is an out during Will and is very useful at times.  The Tendrils is not there to replace what you do during Will but it's to give you another out when playing the mirror and or vs combo.  Being able to end the game or Infinite Lock going out of a will is very nice.  DSC doesn't belong in CS.  Everyone who has posted on this Thread has said it he is a win more card and he doesn't do anything with Welders.  If you want a big stupid beat stick main throw in Titan since he at least is good with Welders and helps the mirror match.

Darkblast is So good.  I don't need Triskelion to win me the game he never has and never will he was my Better than Fire/Ice cause I could tinker for him.  I haven't seen any Control slaver being played at a mox tournament exp by the regular Slaver players and I'm not to worried if I get paired against them because they are generally much better with the deck than me and I don't expect to beat them.

Gifts takes FAR less Playskill to play right than this Control Slaver list.  MY teammate uses Gifts and when I handed him my CS list he didn't no what to do.  They are similar but Gifts can be picked up goldfished a couple of times and then its common sense on what the play is.  Learning to play Gifts flawlessly is much easier than playing control Slaver flawlessly also.

CS is not outdated there just not enough people willing to learn to play the deck correctly and not many of us can take the time to teach them because its to hard.  I still think CS is better than Gifts no matter what numbers the decks are putting up.

Lotus petal has been awesome for me but I'm just waiting to get handed by a Gorilla Shaman so I can put Darksteel Citadel back.

[Hi-Val]

Tendrils Main is terrible we don't run Dark Ritual to power it out and if you want to fit in 2-3 Dark Rituals and a couple of Duress go for it and you got a Slaver TPS Hybrid that would probably do very well.  The tendrils is an out during Will and is very useful at times.  The Tendrils is not there to replace what you do during Will but it's to give you another out when playing the mirror and or vs combo.  Being able to end the game or Infinite Lock going out of a will is very nice.  DSC doesn't belong in CS.  Everyone who has posted on this Thread has said it he is a win more card and he doesn't do anything with Welders.  If you want a big stupid beat stick main throw in Titan since he at least is good with Welders and helps the mirror match.

You don't need Dark Rit at all in decks to fire off a maindeck Tendrils, as long as you have Gifts. I've been running one main in Gifts for as long as I can remember and as long as you can find Black Lotus, or in my case Rebuild as well, you can generate BB even if you don't have Seas up.

Also, Rich Shay had said that at one point, DSC was essential in the maindeck for Slaver. Why has this changed?

[MoxMonkey]

I never remember Rich Saying DSC was essential ever, if anything I remember him saying that if your running Welders DSC is really bad and garbage.  I have never liked DSC mainboard in any deck I've played and never found a spot that he would have won me the game if he was main.   I dont think a Tendrils main would be any good in this list since burning Wish can grab it when your ready to win anyway and if not just use the infinte lock and win via that..  If your running 2 Gifts I could see running if main instead of one of the other Sev/Belcher or Flame/Vault but other than that I dont see a valid reason to put it main.  I have tested almost everything in the deck including a Cabal Ritual in the main before to help set up a faster kill with Belcher/Sev during Waterbury 6 and only liked it cause it looked cool, foreign and such.  If Rich could give his thoughts that would be great although I'm not use if he looks over this that often but I'd like to hear what his thoughts are on the deck in the metagame right now.  This deck while looking like gifts is not Gifts just throwing that out and I guess testing a Tendrils Main wouldn't hurt.  Hopefully Rich sees this and can give us his thoughts and maybe a list he is running or a list he would run today.