[Report] UbaStax splits a Pearl in STL

[Polynomial P]

This is one of my first tournament reports, and it should be noted that I do not take notes at all. I also do not have a very good memory, so sorry I cant be more specific in the matches. I played the new Mega lock uba stax plan and have been playing uba stax for a few months now. On to the decklist:


Mega-Lock Uba Stax

4 Smokestack
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Uba Mask
3 Sphere of Resistance
3 Null Rod
1 Trinisphere

4 Welder
2 Duplicant
2 Gorilla Shaman

5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana crypt
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland
3 Mountain
4 B-ring
1 Tolarian academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Bazaar of Baghdad

Sideboard:
3 Pyroblast
2 Duplicant
3 Maze of Ith
1 Sphere of resistance
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Jesters Cap
3 Viashino Heretic

Thoughts: Fitting in Sphere of resistance into the UbaStax shell is a great idea. I have wanted to put null rod and sphere into the same deck for a long time, but my experiments with UR or BR stax decks had failed. The strain put on your opponents mana base should be enough to win a lot of matches.

After experimenting with 4 spheres main I decided that I was unwilling to lose the second duplicant or second gorilla shaman. This is the cause for 3 resistors main. Putting the 4th in the side is fine for combo or control matchups.

To the tournament: 13 people, 4 rounds, cut to top 4.

Round 1: Justin playing FCG

Game 1: I play an early smokestack and gorilla shaman and follow it up with enough Chalices and Spheres that he scoops at 17 life
Game 2: I keep a good hand with 1st turn smokestack, second turn welder. Too bad he gets to play first. He drops a vandal, cycles incinerator to kill my welder/blocker and I never develop a board. By the time I get a Duplicant out there he has dubs piledrivers and I die a horrible and painful death.
Game 3: I have a decent hand again, with Gorilla shaman, welder, and a early smokestack. He drops an early vandal again, followed by a mogg fanatic to kill my blocker. He kills my smokestack with his vandal and incinerates my welder.

Lose 1-2 (0-1 overall)

Now I have to win out to have a chance at making the top 4. Not the position I wanted to be in, but its clobberin' time.

Round 2: Leo Human, aka PucktheCat playing Gifts

I get paired up as there are an odd number of people. Leo is a good friend and is borrowing a bunch of my cards for his gifts deck. I jokingly ask for my mana drains back.

Game 1: I get an early Uba mask and follow it with lots of lock pieces, including chalice at 1. He eventually plays ancestral recall and brainstorm into a bunch of broken plays. On my turn I figure out that he couldnt ancestral, or brainstorm. Oof! He gets a game loss, i get a warning for losing track of the game state.
Game 2: I take 5 hits from mana crypt, draw nothing but lands and Leo counters my important threats. He then tinkers out the iron giant and I scoop.
Game 3: I get some early lock pieces, like Chalice @2, null rod, and uba mask. I also have Bazaar of baghdad out along with welder and Tormod's crypt. Leo plays pithing needles on my bazaar and then another on tormod's crypt. He should have played it on the welder. Next turn he gifts into mana vault, lotus petal, black lotus and tolarian academy. I give him the lotus petal and mana vault.

His board at this point is 2 pithing needles and 5 lands. He has tinker and rebuild in the grave and I figure he has Will in hand. After he draws his card for the turn I weld sphere of resistance into play for my uba mask. He ends up being 1 mana short for his will/rebuild plan. I win....barely.

Win 2-0 (1-1 overall)

Round 3: Blaine, playing Control Slaver

Blaine is another one of my friends and is borrowing one of my drains. He is just starting to learn how to play control slaver.

I dont remember much from these matches, but they are over really quick. I set up fast locks, had null rods and smokestacks when I needed them.

Win 2-0 (2-1 overall)

Round 4

James, playing Birdpoopy type of deck.

Game 1: He swords 2 welders, but my lock pieces overwhelm him. He scoops early. EDIT: I debated whether or not to drop Chalice @0 on my first turn or wait to drop Chalice @1 on my next turn. I had two welders in my hand, so I decided to drop it at 0, even though I know James does not run too many moxes. This turned out to be a huge play, as James had a mox emerald in his hand. He never found another green sources that game. End EDIT
Game 2: He gets out an early nimble mongoose and starts the beats. I get turn 1 sphere of resistance, turn 2 welder, which gets STPed, turn 3 sphere of resistance, turn 4 sphere of resistance, wasteland. He doenst get to cast any spells again and I pay 9 mana for a 2/4 blocker. Once I stopped bleeding, i get a smokestack and start b-ringing him to death.

Win 2-0 (3-1 overall)


Cut to top 4: I make it into the Top 4 on tiebreakers and Jesus Roxas (sp?) is the only 3-1 to not make it. That sucks.

I play Justin again....gobbo guy from round 1.
Game 1: I see lots of lock pieces, including smokestack. I stop bleeding at 13 life and finally get 3 sphere to seal the deal (Where have you been trinisphere?)
Game 2: He gets a bunch of guys, including dubs vandals, but i get dubs duplicants and sacrifice a chalice @1 to a vandal so i can have a sol ring to cast my dups. I also have 2x maze of ith, but one gets wasted.
I take a bunch of damage 2 points at a time down to 7 life. Finally I get smokestack out and ramp to 2. At 2 life his last goblins get soot all over them and I manage to topdeck crucible! I B-ring him to death over the next 10 or 12 turns as I put out Chalice at 1 and 2.

YES! Finals time! Just to findout who I play....I walk over I see Leo playing Eric Becker from GWS. Leo is at 4 life, has DSC out and Eric casts tendrils with a with a storm count of 2. Leo drains 2 of the copies and will have 8 mana in his pool next turn....He topdecks mindtwist for the win! WOW go Leo!

Leo and I split the top prizes. I take the Mox Pearl, and he gets some store credit and some cash and cards from me. This is my first piece of power that I've won.


The new Mega-lock uba stax is pretty good. I never had any auto wins, like first turn 3sphere or chalice 0, chalice 1 while going first, but the deck is solid and consistent. I will continue to play UbaStax until it is hated out by Shattering Spree. Pyroblast in the SB was useless.

Props:
-Leo for splitting. I really wanted that Pearl. Thanks.
-UbaStax for being incredibly consistent
-All my opponents, I had a really fun day
-James and the best rapper in the world, Dylan, for making some trades. Mmmmm Wild Zombies, here I come

Slops:
-Pyroblast. I didn't even side you in for control slaver. You suck.
-Goblin vandal. More specifically 1st turn goblin vandal.

[ErkBek]

Congrats on your first win. I was really looking forward to duking it out with you in the finals, however Leo's savage topdecks kept me out. GWS will be back next month to take team orge's power.
Eric

[Polynomial P]

Ha. Thanks Eric. That was an amazing draw by Leo for the win. I look forward to our next meeting....I would definetly like a rematch. And congrats on winning your pearl last week.

[w00t3n4t0r]

While I was not playing I definitely came out to watch a good time. Sorry Jesus aka REB that sucks hardcore bout tiebreakers, regardless it seems as though it was a good tournament. Hopefully next time I can actually make it out to play. Congrats to Leo and Jacob. Team Ogre yet again represents. Eric I await your challenge to steal some power. Later guys,

-Elliot

[PucktheCat]

I'm gonna post my own report (maybe), but I realized later that even after misplaying the Needle for Tormod's Crypt I probably could have won if I had just played out the mana you gave me on Gifts and passed the turn.  Next turn I would have had enough to Will and Rebuild.  You would have been topdecking for Chalice or Shaman.

[Pselus]

I think you should reiterate the fact that you had TRIPLE Sphere of Resistence against me game 2...TRIPLE!

seriously though...you play that deck incredibly well and it should start winning you even more power.

[Polynomial P]

Yeah, triple sphere and a wasteland is really good against a 3-colored fish deck. Also in the first game I think I dropped a chalice at 0 after some internal debate. It turned out to be the right play as you had a mox emerald in hand and were unable to find another green source until i had the game controlled.

And thanks for the compliment on my playskill. I am still far from Vromanesque with that deck and almost lost a game to goblins due to some mistakes. I hope you and Joe are able to make some future power tourneys....and it was a lot of fun to play against you.

[Pselus]

yeah the first turn Chalice @ 0 was a huge play that pretty much neutered the rest of my game since I couldn't see a green source.

[Evenpence]

I've come to the conclusion that Pyroblasts do not warrant inclusion in my SB.  I took them out about a week ago, and have been fiddling around with a bunch of stuff.

I'm pretty well decided on lightning bolt for heretics, although I might up the number of Caps or Crypts.

Vroman won't reply to me on the subject, I think he likes the pblasts. 

Lightning Bolt is so tempting, you wouldn't believe it.  It takes care of heretic like none other.  Welders die to it as well.  I might end up going with 4 Lightning Bolt.

Right now, my sideboard is:

3 Heretic
2 Crypt
2 Cap
2 Maze
2 Duplicant
4 SOMETHING  (either Crypt/Heretic/Cap/Random Jank)

or 4 Lightning Bolt.

Fiery Temper has been POO in my testing against slaver/the mirror.

PM me if you want to get some MWS mirror match action going on.  I need the practice for Richmond.

[Polynomial P]

Evenpence, I think vroman has been mostly MIA. He has just moved his store and has been busy with his personal life. I believe that he is also rethinking the pyroblast plan. I agree that the SB needs to be reworked, especially to deal with aggro. The previous incarnations of Ubastax were much better against aggro because of Solemn and additional duplicants (I ran 3 dups the week before this tournament) and finished in 3rd/4th place.

That being said, my most difficult opponent was Justin, playing goblins. If i had to pick a sideboard today I would use this:

3 Maze of Ith
2 Duplicants
1 Sphere of resistance
2-3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Viashino Heretic
3-4 Fiery Temper/Lightning bolt

I believe the problem with lightning bolt is that I want to drop chalice @1 in nearly every match that I would bring in lightning bolt. Therefore I feel that Fiery Temper is superior, even if you need a bazaar to make it amazing. I will be doing some more testing if I have time and would like to try out that SB in a tournament. I am also not certain about the random 1-2 jesters cap. It would help in the Oath matchup, which I would be siding out null rod, but consistantly playing and activating it could be a problem.

I will PM you if I have some extra time, but I think I am going to be fairly busy this week. I would love to do some playtesting though.

[M.Solymossy]

non-workshop Aggro dies to Caltrops... as funny as that card is in sideboards.

[Nuthing]

yea congrats on the split, I wish i could have done better but it was my first vintage tourney and I was piloting belcher. I will probably start going to more stuff once my job gives me more hours during the week. Glad you could beat FCG cause he got the god draws against me.

[Komatteru]

Congrats!! Next time, I'll have to come and give you some competition. 

[Evenpence]

Evenpence, I think vroman has been mostly MIA. He has just moved his store and has been busy with his personal life. I believe that he is also rethinking the pyroblast plan. I agree that the SB needs to be reworked, especially to deal with aggro. The previous incarnations of Ubastax were much better against aggro because of Solemn and additional duplicants (I ran 3 dups the week before this tournament) and finished in 3rd/4th place.

That being said, my most difficult opponent was Justin, playing goblins. If i had to pick a sideboard today I would use this:

3 Maze of Ith
2 Duplicants
1 Sphere of resistance
2-3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Viashino Heretic
3-4 Fiery Temper/Lightning bolt

I believe the problem with lightning bolt is that I want to drop chalice @1 in nearly every match that I would bring in lightning bolt. Therefore I feel that Fiery Temper is superior, even if you need a bazaar to make it amazing. I will be doing some more testing if I have time and would like to try out that SB in a tournament. I am also not certain about the random 1-2 jesters cap. It would help in the Oath matchup, which I would be siding out null rod, but consistantly playing and activating it could be a problem.

I will PM you if I have some extra time, but I think I am going to be fairly busy this week. I would love to do some playtesting though.

I think you're spot on.  Fiery Temper is logically, statistically, strategically, etc better than lightning bolt.  In fact, it's so superior just on paper, that it should be a no brainer to add into the SB.  However, my testing has shown lightning bolt to be much better.  Let me explain:

What matchups am I going to have both Chalice for 1 AND Lightning Bolts/Fiery Tempers in?  Only one.  Slaver.

Stax if I'm on the play.  (I side out Chalice on the draw against Ubastax, and consider it against 5c.)

That's it.

Okay, when do I want to use Chalice at 1?  When I have more welders than my opponent.

When do I want to use Lightning Bolt?  When my opponent has more welders than I do.

Those two are never conflicting.  I never have a chalice for 1 out, welder advantage, and draw the lightning bolt and am like, 'oh, darn it.'  Sure, fiery temper would be better if I can discard it with bazaar, as I take out their welders if they even have any, but I'm already winning.

That's why I think, in my testing at least, lightning bolt has been superior.

Anyway, Vroman answered me, and he is rethinking the pyroblast plan (which is actually phenominal, because it seems like he's listening to all the ubastax players out there that are really having problems with the card recently with the spheres), but I don't know if he'll change for good.

Right now, getting rid of pyroblast is def. just an experiment for me, just like the Caps.  I'm pretty much sold on the Caps, because they just are AMAZING when they're activated.  No.  They're GAMEBREAKING.  But they're not really locks in as much as other stuff we have, plus they have an activation cost which is no good with Null Rod.

I don't expect pyroblast to stay out of the sideboard forever, or even all that long, but it might.  That's why we experiment.

Can I ask:  What did you side in against Slaver/Take out?  I literally have ZERO slaver in my area, and I almost never face it overline, and I need the experience.  I've asked Vroman about the same thing, and he's still going to respond to me, because he is a class act guy who deserves every ounce of respect that he's gotten so far and more.

I could really use the knowledge when it comes to Slaver.  I just know to kill heretics/welders, and get Null Rod out, heh.  I've played about 20 games total against Slaver.  Really, I'm quite unknowledgable in that matchup, but who would expect me to be?

Great job with the tournament report, I really enjoyed reading your matchup analysis.  BTW, what was the other splitter piloting?

[Polynomial P]

Chalice at 1 when i would bring in firery temper/lightning bolt: Goblins, UW fish/UG fish/OFM, 5c stax, slaver, mirror. Thats just off the top of my head. If lightning bolt is working well for you use it. I am going to play Temper for a while and see how it works.

Let me think about the slaver SB plan. I am having trouble siding for this as well since I went with the 3 sphere main. Ill make a post about this tomorrow.

[Evenpence]

I don't expect to see alot of U/W Fish or Goblins at major tournaments, but then again, Ubastax should be prepared for random jank I suppose.    You're right though, that is more than I was thinking.  5c Stax puts up a good argument for Fiery Temper as well.  Everytime I get Lightning Bolt in my hand (or nearly every) I'm like:  "Wow.  Glad this isn't a Fiery Temper, heh."  I actually chuckled a few times, because a Fiery Temper would have been a dead card, but Bolt won me the game.  Then again, there have been a few times where I wished it was a Temper as well, to be fair.

Thanks for the Slaver advice.  There needs to be a better way for people over TMD to play on MWS together.

[Polynomial P]

I really dont think we need to agree on 100% of the card choices. I like and will continue to test fiery temper. It is obvious that you like lightning bolt. In my matches agaisnt the gobbo guy, justin, i would have killed for either one.

Cards I can take out in the slaver match:

1 Crucible
2 Gorilla shaman
3 Sphere of resistance --Although I do not want to take these out, they could go.
2 Duplicant  --Although If they do get a trike or pentavus into play you will need these...so they probably stay

Cards to side in, in order of priority:
Any welder kill cards...probably not duplicant
Any graveyard hate
Jesters Cap

So, I would not side out duplicants. If going first I would probalby leave in the spheres as extra mana denial and making rack and ruin, tinker, will cost 4 is pretty good. If going second I might take out the spehres and bring in the graveyard hate and any extra welder kill I have.

I am still not happy with my sideboard plan against slaver, and will talk to vroman about it if I get a chance.

[nataz]

1 Crucible
2 Gorilla shaman
3 Sphere of resistance --Although I do not want to take these out, they could go.
2 Duplicant  --Although If they do get a trike or pentavus into play you will need these...so they probably stay

I'm actualy surprised that you take out Shaman and SOR, which for me have been amazing for me in the control/CS matchup.

Cards to side in, in order of priority:
Any welder kill cards...probably not duplicant
Any graveyard hate
Jesters Cap

I'll agree that anti-welder cards are hott (and to a certain extent anti-shaman cards), but your other two choices seem odd. Useable GY hate seems like either crypt or furnace, both of which are shut down by null rod and common Chalice settings. Am I missing a GY hate cards, or are those the options you are looking at? Cap seems off also, because it will take at least two activatons to get rid of all the welders, and thats if they stay in the deck. You can remove the RObots, but again, the welders seem like the main threat, and a pair on the board basicly spells game.
 

[Polynomial P]

I am still not happy with my sideboard plan against slaver...

Thanks for your input nataz. I do not really want to take out the spheres. G-shaman is good, but if they dont have welder and you have chalice @0 and null rod enemy moxes are less dangerous. Welder kill is more important to me than mox kill. The graveyard hate is Tormod's crypts, which is disappointing since it is shut down by null rod. Jesters caps are not as good against slaver as many people believe and that is why they are low on the priority list.

What do you take out against slaver?

[nataz]

Well, basicly my list is pretty similar to what VROman is running with SOR with the major exception that I run 1 less SOR and 1 more mountain. I have a couple of other pretty minor differences, and of course my own SB with a bit of (OMG!) sekret SB tec (that I reaaly want to share but I didnt come up with, so I cant *frownz* )

But yea, the SOR Mountain thing is pretty important because I go something like this:

SB OUT:

-1 crucible (agree with you there, no doubt)
-1 Mountain! (I run 1 extra, and I'm not scared of wasteland or stripmine)
-1 Trini (Rack & Ruin costs three, and you can expect it every game, sometimes even pre-board. Ditto w/TFK,  I'd rather have another SOR in instead for consistancy reasons against Drain.dec)
-2 Shattering Spree (I have them as a test place holder in the mox monkey slot)
-1 Dupe (if they get a robot out AND I have lost the welder war, gg dupe or no dupe)
-1 Uba Mask (I hate getting screwed by welders, and I needed another slot)

The Dupe and the Mask are the result of shaving to fit in more hate, the rest im pretty solid on.

SB IN:

3x Temper
(die welder, die. Also has been known to hit shamans that make it pre-chalice.)

*Aside on temper v. bolt*

Chalice at 1 when i would bring in firery temper/lightning bolt: Goblins, UW fish/UG fish/OFM, 5c stax, slaver, mirror. Thats just off the top of my head. If lightning bolt is working well for you use it. I am going to play Temper for a while and see how it works.

I play temper and love it. I don't think I will ever go back, but to be fair I am not hampered by playing REB. In the CS match, what cards are you the most worried about? For me its Rack and RUin and Welder, neither of which are hit by REB. I think you need to take care of those threats first before you consider the draw/drain. I don't like my SB cards to conflict with one of my main goals to victory (i.e., chalice @1) and SB in 3-4 REB and X lightning bolts seems like an unwarrented danger to me.   

*/aside*   

3x Super Skret tec
1x SOR

[PucktheCat]

I wonder if you couldn't take out a mountain even with the 26 mana plan.  They aren't going to Strip you.  On the other hand you hate to cut mana in a deck running Null Rod, Sphere of Resistance and all that.

It does seem to me that if 26 mana is correct in the metagame at large (which includes Fish, other Stax and so on) 25 mana might be correct in a matchup where your opponent has no mana denial.

[nataz]

On the other hand you hate to cut mana in a deck running Null Rod, Sphere of Resistance and all that.

True, but you control when Null Rod/Chalice/SOR hits the table, and can play around it acordingly. Besides the singleton welder and Rack and Ruin, you control the amount of mana you have on the table. Added to the fact that you know for sure that your MWS isnt going to be just a black lotus, I feel comfortable going down to 26, even with 4 SOR in the deck post board.

Going down to 25 with 4 SOR may be pushing it, though in a version w/out I would certainly give it a try. 

[vroman]

my board:
4 maze
4 ftemper
3 heretic
3 tormod
1 dup

boarding v slaver is dificult. nearly everything in the maindeck is effective against slaver, both on the draw and play. my usual strategy depends on what I suspect they are boarding. if they have a large amount of boarded (or maindeck!) welder hate (multiple dblast, beb, lava dart, pithing needle, etc) its worth it to board welder out to leave them w dead cards. if they concentrate more on artifact hate (3-4 rackruin/heretics, 2+ hurkyl/rebuild) then uba mask is my priority de-board. uba is a risk in a welder matchup, esp after they bring in artifact destruction. duplicant is not very effective in this match, unless they are playing plat-angel or dsteel. duplicant v p-bus leaves you w dead 0/0 dup, and them w a board full of tokens. dup v trike, they still ping your dup. and its a 6 mana answer to a 1 mana threat v welder/monkey. boarding in tempers is much more efficient, since it can kill trike minus one bullet, and pbus minus two +1s(when they tap out), and welder or monkey for one mana.
if on the draw, Id consider cutting resistor. if on the play, Id consider cutting moxmonkey. resistor, like chalice, is much better before they tak a turn. however chalice @ 1 is good any time before they get a welder, while resistor definitely loses value the more spells theyve already played for cheap.
monkey Ive found to not be a very good turn 1 play going first. its better to let them play out their free mana wo fear and slowroll monkey to eat it out from them; than to drop monkey first and then they carefully use moxes only when its worth losing them, or just brainstorm them away. I would much rather see mtn + some moxen + monkey in a draw hand than a play hand, esp v slaver.
I would not board out any crucibles, since b-ring is vital here, and crucible fuels recursion, and threshold w bazaar.

so depending on play/draw I can afford to lose
-2 dup
-2 monkey/-3 or 4 resistor
which is 4 to 6 cards. w the board I have now, the only thing I want to bring in is temper and tormod, 7 total.
so depending if they have welder/artifact hate
-1 to 3 welder/uba to get up to 7

+4 temper
+3 tormod (this assumes of course they are playing URB w yawgwill, and not obsolete UR)

Ive seen some ppl board in heretic vs slaver, since it does put the hurt on their win conditions, and is fairly dificult for slaver to deal w. they have to either spend all 3 trike bullets on it, or duplicant, or get a slaver on the table w 4 immediately available mana.

[Polynomial P]

Thanks for the sideboarding advice Nataz and Vroman. I spent like 5 minutes trying to figure out how to SB against Blaine, going from 10 cards out, down to 1, then finally 4.

Also I forgot to add Vroman to the Props List: Thanks for teaching me how to play the deck and for ridiculous amounts of playtesting and advice.

[Outlaw]

my board:
4 maze
4 ftemper
3 heretic
3 tormod
1 dup

boarding v slaver is dificult. nearly everything in the maindeck is effective against slaver, both on the draw and play. my usual strategy depends on what I suspect they are boarding. if they have a large amount of boarded (or maindeck!) welder hate (multiple dblast, beb, lava dart, pithing needle, etc) its worth it to board welder out to leave them w dead cards. if they concentrate more on artifact hate (3-4 rackruin/heretics, 2+ hurkyl/rebuild) then uba mask is my priority de-board. uba is a risk in a welder matchup, esp after they bring in artifact destruction. duplicant is not very effective in this match, unless they are playing plat-angel or dsteel. duplicant v p-bus leaves you w dead 0/0 dup, and them w a board full of tokens. dup v trike, they still ping your dup. and its a 6 mana answer to a 1 mana threat v welder/monkey. boarding in tempers is much more efficient, since it can kill trike minus one bullet, and pbus minus two +1s(when they tap out), and welder or monkey for one mana.
if on the draw, Id consider cutting resistor. if on the play, Id consider cutting moxmonkey. resistor, like chalice, is much better before they tak a turn. however chalice @ 1 is good any time before they get a welder, while resistor definitely loses value the more spells theyve already played for cheap.
monkey Ive found to not be a very good turn 1 play going first. its better to let them play out their free mana wo fear and slowroll monkey to eat it out from them; than to drop monkey first and then they carefully use moxes only when its worth losing them, or just brainstorm them away. I would much rather see mtn + some moxen + monkey in a draw hand than a play hand, esp v slaver.
I would not board out any crucibles, since b-ring is vital here, and crucible fuels recursion, and threshold w bazaar.

so depending on play/draw I can afford to lose
-2 dup
-2 monkey/-3 or 4 resistor
which is 4 to 6 cards. w the board I have now, the only thing I want to bring in is temper and tormod, 7 total.
so depending if they have welder/artifact hate
-1 to 3 welder/uba to get up to 7

+4 temper
+3 tormod (this assumes of course they are playing URB w yawgwill, and not obsolete UR)

Ive seen some ppl board in heretic vs slaver, since it does put the hurt on their win conditions, and is fairly dificult for slaver to deal w. they have to either spend all 3 trike bullets on it, or duplicant, or get a slaver on the table w 4 immediately available mana.

Isnt Lava Dart marginially better than fiery temper?  If your aiming to kill welders then dart is just way better in a deck that has basic mountains?

[Polynomial P]

Lava dart does not kill viashino heretic. A resolved and active heretic is nearly impossible to overcome for ubastax. Even if you duplicant it, you are taking a double lightning bolt to your face.

Additionally there is the Chalice@1 dilemma. Finally, with the dropping of Solemn it is less likely that you will be able to flashback dart.

[Evenpence]

I've been boarding in Heretics, and they've been golden for me in the Slaver Matchup.  Of course, I also board in Cap and take out robots, leaving them without a win condition.

My sideboarding seems very different.  If I can activate a Cap, I pretty much win unless they've already discarded a robot guy, but then I just take a welder, and activate it later on down the line too.  Cap is nice as well, because it makes their topdecking worse, and it's recurrable.  It's been really, really good for me.

I usually board out Ubas (all 3) (I've gotten opposing welder locked before, not good), Shamans (2), Resistors (3), a Trini (1), and a Duplicant (1) for:

2 Crypt / 1 Cap / 4 Lightning Bolt / 3 Heretic,

Although it obv. depends on whether I'm on the draw or not, as Vroman's noted.  I side out Welders (3 of them at least) when I know they're packing 3x Darkblast as well.  Although, with this sideboarding plan, I haven't had a ton of success against Slaver at all.

I'm actually 1-3 against them in tournaments, but it's the same guy, and he always beats me (sick slaver player).  He uses whatever DeMars latest spin on slavery is, which is currently burning slaver (obvious).

[Akuma]

The Slaver vs. Uba Stax matchup is all about Welder superiority and controlling mana (this includes - AVOID getting Drained for more than 2). So basically, board in something to remove welders and don't walk into a drain