Transformational Sideboard for Control Slaver...

[Wolven]

Ok, well recently I've made a switch from Gifts over to Control Slaver and have been very happy with it. My list was based mostly of Shay's List from Day 1 of Richmond with a couple of changes:

// Lands
    3  Flooded Strand
    1  Strip Mine
    2  Polluted Delta
    2  Underground Sea
    1  Tolarian Academy
    4  Volcanic Island
    3  Island

// Creatures
    1  Gorilla Shaman (1)
    1  Darksteel Colossus
    3  Goblin Welder
    1  Duplicant

// Spells
    1  Echoing Truth
    1  Mystical Tutor
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    1  Demonic Tutor
    2  Mindslaver
    1  Fire/Ice
    1  Mox Sapphire
    4  Force of Will
    4  Mana Drain
    1  Mana Crypt
    1  Mana Vault
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Time Walk
    1  Ancestral Recall
    4  Brainstorm
    4  Thirst for Knowledge
    1  Tinker
    1  Mind Twist
    1  Fact or Fiction
    1  Merchant Scroll

Most notably, I'm playing Mind Twist. I am TOTALLY in love with Twist in this deck. It is insane at any point in the game, and, unless ur playing against MDG, Mis-D isn't around to ruin your day. I have yet to come to a point in a game where I was not happy to draw/have it.

The Second major differance is the Duplicant over Trisk. I really dislike losing to Oath and random Exhalted Angels... yes... my meta is strange at times. Machine-Gunning Trisk isn't needed as much as getting rid of individual threats. Simply a Meta-call, It's the kinda call I make on the day of the tourney.

Moving on, I hate losing to Fish and Goblins which are fairly big decks where I'm from. They make up 15-25% of the field here and it's something that has to be thought about. This is why I'm trying out a Transformational Sideboard. (Also as a means of dodging hate post-board). So what Sidboard am I talking about?... Oath. The deck already has a strong permission base with loads of draw power to find what you need. The engine for Oath fits into Slaver with ease, and it doesn't require much effort in boarding. My board look like this right now:

4 Oath of Druids
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Akroma
1 Razia
2 Duress
1 Darkblast
2 Open Slots

and when using the board, it generally looks like this:

+10 Oath/Orchard/Angels

-3 Welder
-2 Slaver
-1 Duplicant
-1 Gorilla Shaman
-2 Volcanic
-1 Island

It's a really surprize in Game 2. Artifact hate becomes mostly useless, and all of a sudden the deck has serious aggro starts. This can even exploit slow hands that would other wise be acceptible, giving you an insane advantage. Cons... Jesters Cap sucks.

I'm going to test out the idea more today, and I'll post how things go later or tomorrow sometime. Hopefully this is helpful. If it's been already tried, then I apoligise. If not, it'd be great to get some feedback on it.

[Methuselahn]

Control Slaver is really set up as the format's control deck, a deck that strives to reach the mid game (versus oath) and then win.  Throwing your sideboard away in favor of a transformational Oath sideboard goes against the grain of everything Control Slaver is designed to do.  Oath does not want to use it's permission to stall out the opponent long enough to blow up with Will.  Mindslaver decks really need their sideboard to complement the maindeck.  IMO, you weakening the CS strategy entirely just to be able to bring in a whole different (not nearly effective or optimized) gameplan.

Good luck with the idea, though.

[Vegeta2711]

The Oath board is pretty much awful. It doesn't actually solve any of your problem matches, you're using it purely to be cute and hoping the opponent doesn't have a clue.

[roberts91rom]

CS is a house. It's an amazing deck, and if I had the money it would be my second deck of choice to make (Gifts is fun . It has no need to transform, and I don't know why you decided to mess up it's gameplan with a crappy oath sb. So you lose CS, and you don't get everything you need for an amazing oath deck. Not good :/

[Metman]

When looking to build a sideboard, transformational or not, you need to find problem cards and problem matches.  I have, like you, found Fish and sometimes Goblins a pain in the ass.  Oath would help this out but you lose the power that Slaver is.  With fewer SB slots you can solve the Fish/Gobs problem that Slaver sometimes has.  The wrecking ball that transformational SB do in a Slaver build is not worth the surprise factor that you gain from it now being an Oath deck.

[RezDawg]

Let's pretend that this is a good idea(which it's not) the idea of oath is get oath into play asap against a creature deck and bring in a beat stick for "free".  With only four land that can produce green, you run the chance of having oath and no way of casting it.  Granted you have lotus and an emerald, so that 6 mana sources in the deck.  I dont like those odds.  your fetch lands wont be able to help you and you will be fighting an uphill battle without a green source opening hand game two.  Do you mull and hope for a green source?  you make to potency of oath severely dampered if you cant put an oath into play early.  pyroclasm is a better option and you wont have to transform your deck.

[Hi-Val]

It's a good line of thinking but the reason to tranform into Oath is to beat Stax as well (see Diceman's Gifts list for an example). Instead of spending nine sideboar slots, you can spend three on Old Man of the Sea if you feel like beating Fish around a bit.

[dicemanx]

I used the Oath SB conversion plan in Gifts to make two specific match-ups easier: Fish and Stax (while also having Orchards as anti-Oath tech). However, CS has arguably fewer issues with Stax, and can handle Null Rod better than Gifts can, so the idea behind the transformational SB would not be as strong.

Now that the format is shifting to more Gifts, CS, and combo, the Oath plan is weakened. I will likely return to a more conventional SB in Gifts. Like Veggies said, the Oath plan at this point in time is merely "cute" but doesn't effectively address the problem match-ups. You have to try to figure out how you want to handle Gifts, IT, and Grimlong first.