Dry Slaver: Deck Discussion and Myriad 4-Way-Split Tournament Report

[The Atog Lord]

On Dry Slaver


The Motivation

While recent success in Drain decks has been the exclusive domain of Gifts decks, with Salvager decks adding a token degree of Canadian diversity, Control Slaver has been largely absent from top eight lists. With the exception of my friend and teammate Demonic Attorney, who did well recently with Night’s Whisper Slaver, Control Slaver has been struggling to do well. Partially because I love the archetype and partially because I believe that it has unique strengths over alternative control builds in Vintage, I have long made it my objective to keep Control Slaver viable and competitive. Night’s Whisper Slaver, discussed elsewhere, was one such attempt, a deck that I have for the moment put aside. While using Repeal in a Drain deck was a clever idea of mine, Brass Man has shown that the concept is better applied in the context of a storm-based Drain deck such as Gifts. What follows is the design and discussion of my latest Control Slaver build, and then a tournament report from the January Seven Myriad Games tournament in which I split fourth place out of forty six people.


Why Control Slaver

Before proceeding any further, let me address the matter which many of you may be pondering: why play Control Slaver at all? My answer is that Control Slaver, while less explosive than a Gifts deck, is yet less volatile. Gifts seldom climbs back into the game after a Jester’s Cap or even a Seek; Control Slaver can still win afterward. Gifts seems more fragile against Stax. Control Slaver is much better against Ichorid as well, with something of an even first game. Further, as I’ve often said, Control Slaver is far better at winning small than Gifts. Gifts tends to stall the opponent for a few turns before erupting in a gigantic explosive win. Control Slaver, while capable of doing so, is far better at developing incremental advantage and leveraging small gains in card advantage.

The function of Goblin Welder is in many ways that of mana substitute. In the most obvious scenario, a Welder can circumvent the mana cost of an artifact, bringing it into play for no mana. Yet, beyond this, Goblin Welder allows Control Slaver to “go off” with far less mana than a Gifts deck can. A Gifts Ungiven, leaving open no mana, enables a Goblin Welder to bring in something such as a Memory Jar or a Sundering Titan; with only four mana, Gifts has a difficult time making full use of its resources. Yawgmoth’s Will, too, is helped along by Goblin Welder’s ability to weld a Mox out for a Black Lotus; this generates an additional three mana from the Lotus, plus the mana of the recast Mox.

Thus, being less fragile and more able to function with little mana gives Control Slaver a valid argument for seeing play. Add to this the fact that Tinker is much better in Control Slaver than it is in Gifts. Control Slaver is able to win off a Tinker through Mindslaver directly. In Gifts, Tinker is a fairly weak card, putting a large creature on the table but doing nothing to end the game right away. In fact, this is one of the biggest arguments in favor of a Control Slaver build. Mindslaver gives the deck two end-the-game cards, rather than Gifts’ single Yawgmoth’s Will. And once Mindslaver is in the deck, Goblin Welder seems difficult to exclude.

One final item to note is the Control Slaver vs Gifts match. I have been told by numerous people that Gifts is especially strong against Control Slaver. I have tested this match countless times, and in my rigorous testing, I have found that so long as Control Slaver is well built and includes Tormod’s Crypt, the matchup is no worse than even for Control Slaver. I say this only after testing the match extensively.


The Flaw in Control Slaver: A Drinking Problem

Despite all of Control Slaver’s strengths, it is not without its weaknesses. It seems to flow rather poorly; its use of mana is often inefficient. It contains a high number of cards which would clog up the hand, waiting for Thirst for Knowledge to dump them into the graveyard. Above all, while Control Slaver was casting Thirst for Knowledge and hoping to draw something good, Gifts was casting its namesake spell and finding exactly what it wanted.

The easy culprit in Control Slaver is Goblin Welder. This poor fellow has constantly been accused of being Control Slaver’s weak link. He sits on the board as a fragile body and, without support, does nothing more than attack for one damage per turn. However, the revelation leading to this build of Control Slaver is that our red friend is not the actual problem. No, the real weak link in Control Slaver is Thirst for Knowledge. Thirst for Knowledge costs three mana, quite a lot in Vintage. It is at best a singular increase in handsize, but oftentimes an overcosted Brainstorm. It has synergy with Goblin Welder, but every Control Slaver player knows that sometimes a Thirst goes badly. Sometimes you shake your head as Brainstorm and Island find their way into the graveyard. And with a large pile of mana on the table, Gifts Ungiven is much better at ending the game.

My current thinking is that Gifts Ungiven is a much better card than Thirst for Knowledge. Even in a Control Slaver deck. Thirst sometimes interacts well with Goblin Welder, sometimes generates an increased handsize, and sometimes takes three mana to mill you. Gifts Ungiven interacts well with Goblin Welder at all times. Gifts Ungiven always increases your hand size, unless it wins you the game through Welder. Gifts Ungiven can set up a game-ending turn all by itself, but can also generate solid card advantage. In other words, for the price of one more mana, Gifts Ungiven does a lot more than Thirst for Knowledge, and moreover does so in a predictable manner.


Combining the Pieces

Using this theory, I put together a new Control Slaver list. The name, Dry Slaver, reflects its lack of the iconic quadruple Thirsts. However, I could not have put this together alone; I want to thank my excellent teammates for helping me tinker with the numbers until it worked. Jeff, Josh, Chris, and Jesus have spent a good amount of time discussing this build with me, and helped me get it to the point where it is now.

Here is the deck list I played at Myriad Games:

Mana Base (25):
    3 Flooded Strand
    3 Island
    1 Library of Alexandria
    2 Polluted Delta
    1 Tolarian Academy
    2 Underground Sea
    4 Volcanic Island
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mana Crypt   
    1 Mana Vault
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Sol Ring

Control Package (12):
    4 Force of Will
    4 Mana Drain
    1 Red Elemental Blast
    2 Tormod's Crypt
    1 Echoing Truth

Draw and Search (15):
    4 Brainstorm
    1 Ancestral Recall
    3 Gifts Ungiven
    1 Thirst for Knowledge
    2 Merchant Scroll
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Demonic Tutor
    1 Recoup

Design Mistakes (3):
    1 Time Walk
    1 Tinker
    1 Yawgmoth's Will

Control Slaver Engine (5):
    2 Goblin Welder
    1 Sundering Titan
    1 Triskelion
    1 Mindslaver

Sideboard (15):
   1 Red Elemental Blast
   3 Empty the Warrens
   1 Tendrils of Agony
   1 Hurkyl's Recall   
   2 Lava Dart   
   4 Leyline of the Void
   1 Shattering Spree
   2 Trickbind

The sideboard, while itself worth discussing, is not my subject in this post. As with any sideboard, it is essential to suit the sideboard to the local metagame. This means that Gifts, Fish, Ichorid, and MountainsWinAgain were on my mind as my teammates and I put this sideboard together. The Tendrils was an idea that I wanted to try; it was never needed. In addition, although I created over one hundred Goblins in a single turn with Empty the Warrens, it never won me a game I would not have otherwise won. I never faced Ichorid so the Leylines sat in my sideboard, but I think their inclusion was correct. Trickbind, however, was great. As much as I hate proxying cards, I’m glad I proxied those two.

Now, to discuss the maindeck. The mana is noteworthy only for its inclusion of a full set of Volcanic Islands. The maindeck and sideboard both heavily use red mana; therefore, it is better to include a full set of Volcanic Islands. Is it easier to keep an Island on the table? Of course. But oftentimes in testing with fewer I found myself unable to cast spells due to the lack of red. If I am going to face issues of a color being lacking, I’d rather it be because my opponent Wasted my land rather than because I only included two of the land I need in the first place. Further, more Volcanic Islands means that it is easier to find some red mana after one or two Volcanics have already been Wastelanded. Four Volcanic Islands is without question the right number for this deck.

The Control packages lately have shown an interesting debate among deck builders. The first eight cards in a Drain deck are firmly establish, and it is no secret that eight contrl cards alone are not enough to compete in today’s stack-abusing metagame. There is currently no consensus on which control card is optimal beyond Drain and Force. My testing has shown me that against Gifts, Tormod’s Crypt is the best spell to run. It has proven itself better than Duress or Mana Leak or Misdirection at halting the progress of a Gifts player. In fact, it is at the core of how Control Slaver beats Gifts. The Red Blast was a metagame call for Myriad’s many Gifts decks. If you play this deck, change around these cards to suit your local metagame.

Among the draw and search spells, the presence of three Gifts has already been discussed. However, there are times when you really want a Thirst for Knowledge, too. Perhaps you want to draw cards but the opponent might have a Misdirection for Ancestral Recall. Perhaps you are holding Mindslaver and want to discard it. For these reasons, and to give the deck another draw spell, a single Thirst is included. Merchant Scroll is in the deck to compensate for the fact that the deck has only a single Echoing Truth as removal. Those familiar with my typical lists know that I believe in a solid set of board control cards in a standard Control Slaver build; however, given the number of Gifts decks at Myriad, I wanted as few such spells as possible. Scroll allows you to find a single removal spell when needed, while giving Control Slaver the two drop its mana curve needs. Scroll proved itself quite useful during the tournament. The Scrolls are of course not fundamental to the deck’s design, but they were good enough that I plan to retain them for now. The Recoup was added after testing the deck with and without it; it makes the three Gifts sufficiently more powerful to justify its inclusion.

One final but crucial note is that Dry Slaver makes Gifts Ungiven piles slightly differently from those of a standard Gifts deck. There are of course those two-card instant win piles when a Goblin Welder is present. Further, instead of always using Yawgmoth’s Will, keep in mind that a Tinker is often capable of winning the game. If the graveyard is not well developed, a Yawgmoth-Free set of four cards, involving Tinker and Recoup, may prove quite powerful.


Myriad Games Four-Way-Split Report

I worked on this deck in person the night before the tournament. I played with Demonic Attorney, and my old friends Scott and Dave. Then, after they took off, I talked with my fellow Reflectionites online to tune the list. I caught four hours of sleep, and then drove myself up to New Hampshire. This was my last day in New England before flying back into the Midwest, and my first Vintage event since GenCon. I was really excited to see everyone and play again.

Round One: Derek   Technogeek5000   Drain Fish
   Game One: Derek starts us off. I have an early Thirst discarding Sundering Titan. Derek Time Walks and sighs as he can’t get beyond his second land. On the other hand, I’m making land drops and find a Gifts Ungiven with Merchant Scroll. Derek plays a Meddling Mage naming Gifts. He then casts Thirst for Knowledge, to which I respond by casting my Ancestral. We then have a counter war over his Thirst, which he wins. A few turns later, I Truth his Mage which resolves after we both Drain and he Thirsts. I Mystical Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will, play a Welder, Time Walk, and then Gifts for the win.
   Game Two: Derek gets a Tinker for Colossus, which he Forces past my Force. My Thirst gives me no answers. Then, facing death next turn, I cast Gifts Ungiven for Yawgmoth’s Will, Recoup, Time Walk, and Goblin Welder. Derek gives me the latter two which I cast. In my Time Walk turn, I attempt to Weld out the Colossus. Derek Trickbinds the welding. Then, using all my mana, I flashback Recoup on Time Walk and get a third time. Derek does not have a second Trickbind, and his Colossus becomes a Mox. We both play DrawGo for a while, but I find another Gifts and get Mindslaver and Titan.
1-0

Round Two: Charles   Bomberman   Magus888
   Game One: Charles is a friendly student of Music at Berkeley. I start the first game well with a Merchant Scroll for Gifts Ungiven. I show Charles Yawgmoth’s Will, Lotus, Recoup, and Time Walk, getting the latter two. Charles soon manages to Wish for a Misdirection for my Ancestral. A few turns later, with Charles in good shape, with four mana open, I cast Tinker. Holding Force, Charles decides against countering my Tinker because he had the win next turn and was not concerned with a Colossus. He did not know I was playing Control Slaver. I get the Mindslaver, Charles looks very unhappy, and then I make him deck himself with Salvagers.
   Games Two and Three: I won’t bore you with the details of this game. In the second game, I stare at a handful of uncastable red cards wishing a Volcanic Island would appear atop my deck. Recoup and Goblin Welder and Red Elemental Blast took turns mocking me from my hand, with Mindslaver cheering them on. The second game I mulligan, and miss land drops, never seeing a second land. After Charles finishes with me, I start to wonder if there are some deep issues with Control Slaver which the new build has not yet solved. The deck is still mana hungry; perhaps less so than Gifts, but far more than something like Bomberman. Further, Control Slaver builds run plenty of cards that are dead and useless in some situations. While I have tried to make this build use fewer situational cards, their presence in some number is required for Control Slaver to work as intended. The fact that the deck worked as intended for the rest of the event after this does make me feel better about what happened here.
1-1

Round Three: Ren with Fish
   Game One: We both Mulligan. Ren Wastelands my Underground Sea. I grab Ancestral Recall with my land and my Sol Ring powering out a Merchant Scroll. Ren has a Kataki and a Demonic Tutor for me. On the next turn he Wastes a land and Time Walks. Then he Seeks me for my Titan. After all of this, however, Ren does not have a counter for my Gifts Ungiven on his endstep. Yawgmoth finishes him.
   Game Two: I use Merchant Scroll to find a Force of Will. Ren applies no pressure while I apply a Gifts Ungiven. That’s the game.
2-1

Round Four: Pat with ELD’s Gifts deck
   Game One: Pat is an excellent player, and I can always count on him for an intense and well-played match. He leads with Library of Alexandria. I have Ancestral Recall. I know that Pat plays Misdirection, but I decide to play Ancestral anyways. If I wait long enough to defend my Ancestral against Misdirection, I’ll be buried under Library. So, thinking that the long game would favor Pat, I went for the Ancestral on Pat’s end step. It resolved. I untapped and Tinkered for a Lotus and cast Yawgmoth’s Will. A single Misdirection or Force of Will would have won Pat the game, but he did not draw any on three Library activations.
   Game Two: Since Library did not get Pat the first game, Pat opens with Sapphire, Ancestral, Library on his opening turn in the second game. I try to stay in the game, and manage to dump my hand to get a Mindslaver into play. Pat then Mystical Tutors for Rebuild, casts Rebuild, Brainstorms, and hits me with a lethal Tendrils.
   Game Three: Now I start with a Library and Pat has the Ancestral Recall. I get out Goblin Welder. Pat casts a few spells on my turn, and I have a small Yawgmoth’s Will which gets me back up in cards after a counter war but does not end the game. Both Pat and I have Tormod’s Crypt in play, and Pat Tinkers for a Colossus. So, Pat has a Crypt in play, a large Colossus, and an artifact in the yard. I have out a Crypt, a Welder, and a hand which contains among other cards a Trickbind. I don’t see it. I don’t see the answer to Colossus, and Pat hits me for eleven. I go to my turn, and then it all makes sense. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before the large man kicked me in the head. I Weld the Colossus, and Pat Crypts himself in response. I Trickbind the Crypt, and the Colossus becomes a Mox. I wish I had seen that before getting hit. We both draw cards for a couple of turns, until I get a Gifts for the win via Welder. As always, Pat and I had a good, close match. I won the third game at one life.
3-1

Round Five: Craig Dupre with Mountains Win Again
   Game One: This is the round to see who makes top eight. It’s nice to feel that adrenaline-inducing stress again after being away for so many months. I spend much of this game not knowing what my opponent is playing. Craig Mulligans and casts Enlightened Tutor for Null Rod. He casts that off Scrubland and Badland. I Mana Drain a Jotun Grunt, and use the mana to cast Thirst. Craig applies no pressure for the rest of the game, which lasted several turns longer. I manage to race the lone Mishra’s Factory that attacked me.
   Game Two: Craig opens with a Grim Lavamancer. He Seeks me, but Seek isn’t quite so good against Control Slaver. He takes Mind Slaver. He then Red Blasts my Brainstorm. I resolve a Thirst for Knowledge on my main phase. Craig has a Jotun Grunt. I have a Gifts Ungiven for Will, Black Lotus, Mox Sapphire, and Demonic Tutor. I win the game with 102 Goblin Tokens in play.
4-1

Draw into Top Eight

Top Eight: Brass Man with Repeal Gifts
   Game One: Brass Man beat me the last time we played, so I am hoping to avenge my loss today. As formidable as Brassy usually is, his Mulligan to five this game did little to help him. He Mystical Tutors for Ancestral, which I Force. From there, Brass Man does nothing as I use Scrolls to find Force and Gifts, and then Gifts for the win.
   Game Two: We both spend the early turns developing. On my mainphase, a few turns in, I cast Time Walk. Brass Man responds with a Gifts Ungiven. We both throw counters. Brass Man attempts to crack a Fetchland for the red for a Blast, but I Trickbind the fetchland and the Gifts is countered. I use Scroll to find Ancestral, but draw nothing worthwhile. Brass Man then gets an Ancestral Recall of his own. I get out a Sundering Titan to hit some of Brass Man’s land, but the Titan is returned to my hand. Brass Man then resolves Gifts Ungiven. He shows me Timetwister, Black Lotus, Skeletal Scrying, and Yawgmoth’s Will. Brass Man has no Black mana on the table, and so I give him the black cards. To do otherwise would have been certain defeat; this was defeat only if Brass Man recovered from Titan and found Black mana. Fortunately, he does not have the mana in hand. I then Gifts for Time Walk, Brainstorm, Ruby, and Mana Drain. Brass Man eventually finds Black mana, and Duresses me. I have the counter for it, and Brass Man has no follow-up. On the next turn, I Recoup Tinker and Mindslave him for the win.

Top Four: We Split.

So ends the story of my first Vintage event since Gen Con. I had a great time. I fly into Indiana tomorrow, and so I’m very glad to have had the chance to play today. This is something I really miss. I wrote this report to thank everyone I hung out with and worked with, and also to presnt Dry Slaver to the Vintage Community. I have discussed the deck’s theory and have given an account of its tournament performance. I am by no means saying that it is the optimal Drain deck, or even the optimal Control Slaver build. However, I thought that it was interestng enough to discuss, and hope to do so here. Any comments or insights are welcomed.


Props:
Dan for working so hard to provide us with a positive atmosphere and a comfortable place to play. And for giving me a foil Atog.
Sara for making delicious Mana Cookies.
Scott, Dave, Chris, Jeff, Jesus, and Josh for comments and advice for the build.
Derek, Charles, Ren, Pat, Craig, and Brass Man for being sporting opponents.
Pat Broderick again for giving me his Mana Cookie.
Everyone else I got to see in my few weeks here before returning to Indiana – Mike Lydon, ELD, Dave Feinstein, Cross, Outlaw, Sam Best, The Future, T00L, and anyone else who escapes my memory.
Team Shortbus, whose influence is clearly visible in my list.
Master Tap, for being the American Badass.

Rich Shay
The Atog Lord
Team Reflection

[ErkBek]

Congrats on the finish Rich. I'm not sure if Roxas ever mentioned something to you, but I had a list that was a lot like this a few months back (created by 13Nova). It was at most, 5 cards different from your maindeck. I tested about a 6-7 games with Jesus the night before a tournament, having never played drains in a tournament, I decided to go with the much more comfortable URBana fish.

Maybe its the combo player in me, but I really liked the tendrils kill in the maindeck. I though it was necessary for the games that you don't have welder out when playing a gifts. If you don't have a welder out, do you just try to set up a slaver activation in place of a tendrils kill? With tendrils in the deck, I found turn 3 kills common and turn 2's quite possible.
 
Another card which I was surprised to see you not running is Memory Jar. You briefly mentioned it, but why was it excluded from your list? I wasn't completely sold on it, but I here lots of players rave about how good jar is in slaver.

 

[Liam-K]

My gut instinct reading the list is that the deck wants to ride marginal advantage like CS, but doesn't do it quite as well.  Gifts piles really, really want to have a specific purpose, and I feel like it would be hard to set up rock/hard place situations for your opponent that aren't tutor/tutor/tutor/lotus with a gassed yard or Tinker based (and recoup->tinker->slaver is not a small amount of mana).

Do you find yourself really needing chances to outplay your opponent to make your deck shine?  Or is it capable of moving with the focus that demands your opponent interact with you?

Also, I've been toying with the theory that the key way for CS to control the match's tempo vs Gifts actually centers around use of pitch spells, and your list doesn't run the misdirections... do you find yourself on the defensive a lot against gifts?

[BoOBaZ]

I have always liked fresh D-Slaver list, so thx thanks for this one Rich.
The only 2 welders configuration is fine for me, I've been playing with only 2 Welders for a long time now.

But 2 Tormod's Crypts MD ... wow! This was certainly meant to counter Ichorid, but it seams too much for me.

Only 1 Thirst - I looked at your arguments and can agree. I'll test further more.

What I don't really understand is why not playing Burning wish in such a list with such a sideboard full of rituals Sorceries (Tendrils, EtW and S.Spree)?
I mean Recoup is ok, but with only 2 main target (Time Walk + Tinker) wouldn't a Burning Wish for Tendrils/EtW have won you some more games ?

Something else I don't understand for the moment is why so many copies (3) of EtW in side boards. You want to be able to cast many copy of the cards in a row? You don't want to have to use a tutor for it?

Last question: Why H.Recall and not Rebuild in the side board? Stax-like players always try to play a Chalice @ 2 against any Drain Deck. Rebuild clears the opponent Null Rod + Chalice + SoR etc and gives you many storm counts at the same time. Bread and butter, as you say.

[Godder]

Gifts piles really, really want to have a specific purpose, and I feel like it would be hard to set up rock/hard place situations for your opponent that aren't tutor/tutor/tutor/lotus with a gassed yard or Tinker based (and recoup->tinker->slaver is not a small amount of mana).

Something to consider is that if Goblin Welder is active, Gifts for Mindslaver, with or without another artifact (such as Black Lotus), is likely to be very unpleasant for the opponent, because Mindslaver is guaranteed to hit the graveyard. The presence of Welder magnifies the power of Gifts for mana artifacts as well, because in addition to the obvious mana boost, they become bait for Welder tricks.

I mean Recoup is ok, but with only 2 main targets (Time Walk + Tinker)

I think you missed Demonic Tutor and Yawgmoth's Will, which makes four solid targets, as well as Merchant Scroll and any Sorceries sided in after game one.

[Vegeta2711]

Something else I don't understand for the moment is why so many copies (3) of EtW in side boards. You want to be able to cast many copy of the cards in a row? You don't want to have to use a tutor for it?

Why would you want to waste time actually tutoring for ETW? Half the point of even having it is so you only have to fetch one non-basic to use it against aggro of all sorts while at the same time requiring minimum board commitment until you actually go for it.

[Methuselahn]

Congrats on the finish Rich. I'm not sure if Roxas ever mentioned something to you, but I had a list that was a lot like this a few months back (created by 13Nova). It was at most, 5 cards different from your maindeck. I tested about a 6-7 games with Jesus the night before a tournament, having never played drains in a tournament, I decided to go with the much more comfortable URBana fish.

Maybe its the combo player in me, but I really liked the tendrils kill in the maindeck. I though it was necessary for the games that you don't have welder out when playing a gifts. If you don't have a welder out, do you just try to set up a slaver activation in place of a tendrils kill? With tendrils in the deck, I found turn 3 kills common and turn 2's quite possible.
 
Another card which I was surprised to see you not running is Memory Jar. You briefly mentioned it, but why was it excluded from your list? I wasn't completely sold on it, but I here lots of players rave about how good jar is in slaver.

 

Perhaps all of your questions can be answered by calling the board transformational.  Which it is.  The plan here is that the maindeck is CS which transforms into a storm deck.  Look at the cards that come in with Warrens/Tendrils:
3 Warrens
1 Tendrils
2 Lava Dart
1 Hurkyll's
The maindeck cannot cut a card for a single Tendrils because we strongly believed that maindeck cannot support any reasonable storm plan.  It doesn't have the tools or resources for it.   The deck was meant to be able to xform into a mini storm deck of sorts, using EtW.  Tendrils is in the side as the only way for the deck to win. right. now.  I'm guessing those 5 or so cards that you were off are much more combo orientated than the ones in Dry Slaver.

Yea, we invented the last wave of putting Jar in Slaver.  Not having it maindeck fits with the whole XFORMER sideboard strategy.

quote from LiamK

My gut instinct reading the list is that the deck wants to ride marginal advantage like CS, but doesn't do it quite as well.  Gifts piles really, really want to have a specific purpose, and I feel like it would be hard to set up rock/hard place situations for your opponent that aren't tutor/tutor/tutor/lotus with a gassed yard or Tinker based (and recoup->tinker->slaver is not a small amount of mana).

You may be right about the deck not gaining marginal advantages as well.   But as Rich said in his piece, the Gift piles are Tinker based.  Tinker is far, far more powerful in CS than in anything else.  Tinker piles are the specific purpose.

Last question: Why H.Recall and not Rebuild in the side board? Stax-like players always try to play a Chalice @ 2 against any Drain Deck. Rebuild clears the opponent Null Rod + Chalice + SoR etc and gives you many storm counts at the same time. Bread and butter, as you say.

Stax was ignored because it is played very little at Myriad.  Look at the last 2 months of tournament results that Dan types up  (thanks Dan).  Barely a handful of stax between both tournaments.  Hurkyll's is also better at making storm in Slaver.

[orgcandman]

How strong is goblin welder here? I ask because one possible synnergistic change would be to replace the welders with trash for treasure, allowing you to really setup devastating control slaver piles by using recoup. Its bonus synnergy is with all of your tutors (including mystical), and the fact that it won't be hit by opposing darts or creature removal.

Basically, I guess my question boils down to one of options. Is the option of setting up a redundant tinker pile better than having a 1/1 body which welds?

-Aaron

[+t]

I'm really curious about the use of Leyline.  I understand that you predicted lots of Ichorid at Myriad, but would you play these at a larger event with a (potentially) more diverse field?  Of course, you absolutely wreck Ichorid with these, and these seem decent versus Dragon, but these do require four sideboard slots. 

[BreathWeapon]

Is Intuition better than Gifts Ungiven in this deck? If the purpose of Gifts Ungiven is to serve as a tutor and an outlet, Intuition is one less mana, it can tutor for 3x Force of Will, it can tutor for 2x Deep Analysis, it can tutor for reasonable Recoup piles like: Tinker, Recoup and Black Lotus or Empty the Warrens, Recoup and Black Lotus or Yawgmoth's Will, Recoup and Tendrils of Agony etc.

[LotusHead]

Is Intuition better than Gifts Ungiven in this deck?

I played against this deck last night and the Gift's options, given the build, gave a Gift's outlet of brokeness (ie: winning).

As everyone knows, but does not say, if you have a broken card in your hand (Time Walk, Lotus, Tendrils, Tinker), then the Gift's Pile can be misleading.  There is no optimal choice for soon to be dead opponent.

I got killed like 6 different ways with this deck.

Intuition doesn't offer Teh Win like Gifts does in this build (in my limited ass kicking from it.).

I didn't even realize that it was "Control Slaver" until I resolved Hide/Seek and gained 8 life, and not 11 like traditional Gifts builds. This was maybe 2nd/3rd game.

This build does seem a tad like the (uh...) Brassman Gifts of long ago with 2 Welders main. 

[The Atog Lord]

Maybe its the combo player in me, but I really liked the tendrils kill in the maindeck.

Control Slaver faces a unique problem among modern Vintage decks: it has a high number of inert cards. That is, Control Slaver has more cards that you don't care to see in your opening hand than most other decks. In designing this build, I made every effort to reduce the number of such cards, and while I had considered and even sideboarded Tendrils, in the end I decided against maindecking the card. My primary motivation for its exclusion is that there has yet to be a game which I lost with this build but would have won if Tendrils were included in the deck. Perhaps this is because I am more of a control player in the first place, and tend to play these sorts of decks less aggressively than a combo player might. Even so, if you had strong results with Tendrils, perhaps I should give it a try. Did your build have Dark Ritual as well?

Another card which I was surprised to see you not running is Memory Jar.

Memory Jar is an excellent card in Control Slaver, and it was in the final 64 cards which I considered for the deck. It enables a Tinker to be potent with no added mana, it allows the deck to have a very aggressive draw spell, and it works well with the Tormod's Crypts. I cut Jar for lack of space, but in a slightly different metagame, I could easily see the Red Elemental Blast or another card becoming Memory Jar. If I took your suggestion of Tendrils, the case for Memory Jar becomes even stronger.

My gut instinct reading the list is that the deck wants to ride marginal advantage like CS, but doesn't do it quite as well.

I understand what you are saying. I have long said that Control Slaver strives for incremental advantage, whereas Gifts tends to simply end the game. However, consider that ending the game is always strictly better than achieving incremental advantage. If the game would be ended by a spell, then it makes little sense to obtain a slight advantage. On the other hand, for those many situations in which the game would not be ended by a Gifts, Gifts still provides as much card advantage as Thirst possibly can. A Gifts for Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, Mana Drain, and Force of Will is fairly strong, as is one for Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, Thirst, and another Gifts. In this way, while Gifts can end a game, it can also add incremental advantage.

Do you find yourself really needing chances to outplay your opponent to make your deck shine? Or is it capable of moving with the focus that demands your opponent interact with you?

I'm not sure how to answer this because I don't quite understand your question.

Also, I've been toying with the theory that the key way for CS to control the match's tempo vs Gifts actually centers around use of pitch spells, and your list doesn't run the misdirections

Misdirection is not great in Control Slaver. It may be a fine single card to catch opponents off guard, but in general it does little to help the Gifts match. Gifts uses its Misdirection to power out broken spells such as Gifts. If you try to follow this plan yourself, you will find that you are simply playing a game you don't want to be playing. With more Merchant Scrolls and more blue cards, Meandeck Gifts is far better at using Misdirection than Control Slaver. If you take nothing else away from this post, bear in mind that you beat a deck by making it play a game it doesn't want to play, not letting it play the game it wants to play. That means that getting into a pitch counter war with Meandeck Gifts is a losing battle. Instead, REB and Crypt are good options. REB often lets you do for one mana what MDG for one card, and your manabase is better able to cast it than Gifts'. Tormod's Crypt preemptively makes Gifts itself a much weaker card and makes their primary plan not work. Those are much better tools to combat Gifts than Misdirection.

But 2 Tormod's Crypts MD ... wow! This was certainly meant to counter Ichorid, but it seams too much for me.

As I wrote above, they are in the deck to beat Gifts. The fact that they work against Ichorid is just a nice bonus.

Perhaps all of your questions can be answered by calling the board transformational.  Which it is.  The plan here is that the maindeck is CS which transforms into a storm deck.

Exactly.

one possible synnergistic change would be to replace the welders with trash for treasure

The question, to me, is one of mana. A first turn Goblin Welder is very easy to get into play, and he makes many of your subsequent spells much stronger. Trash for Treasure, on the other hand, does little outside of a lot of setup. Would it enable some good Gifts piles? Yes, it would. However, it is my hope that Gifts will be strong enough without needing the added power of a Trash for Treasure to make it even more powerful. Tinker does this job much better anyway.

I'm really curious about the use of Leyline.  I understand that you predicted lots of Ichorid at Myriad, but would you play these at a larger event with a (potentially) more diverse field?

It's entirely a question of the metagame. The is no correct sideboard outside a specific context.

Is Intuition better than Gifts Ungiven in this deck?

No. I've done extensive research into Intuition-Based Control Slaver decks, and have even written two articles on the subject. Gifts Ungiven is far and away stronger than Intuition. You get two cards instead of one, you can be guaranteed to get your single Mindslaver in the graveyard, and you can set up much more powerful game-ending piles with Gifts. The one added mana is very much worth paying.

This build does seem a tad like the (uh...) Brassman Gifts of long ago with 2 Welders main.

Agreed. See the props section -- one of my teammates even suggestion trying Severance and Belcher.

[Metman]

It's great to see some innovation in the Slaver builds.  It's a pet deck to so many, for that reason it gets as much thought put into it as any other deck, but on the other hand people get stuck in a rut assuming that certain cards are required to be maindeck.  So, for your willingness to try new things, I thank you.  I have a few questions though about your testing and the tourny gameplay.

First, the role of Gifts and TfK serve relatively the same role in this list yes?  I know the pros and cons to both so I was hoping you would elaborate on how often you missed TfK when you had the big artifacts in your hand?  Another thing along the same lines, how often would you have liked to have a Gifts be TfK so that you could cast it a turn earlier considering the casting cost? 

Second, would you have changed the number of Gifts/Thirst count after playing in the tourny?  You briefly mentioned you had a lot of help from buddies to get you to right number, what was some of the thought process going on there. 

Third, with only two Goblin Welders in the deck how often did you find yourself wishing you had one earlier to enable the Gifts?  I have tinkered with anywhere from 2-4 and find that the more Gifts and Thirsts I cast the more I want to see more Goblin Welders.  I also see enough xW/x fish decks to make me a little gunshy about Swords to Plowshares.  What was your reasoning to run only 2 Goblin Welders as opposed to 3? 

Finally, in my recent testing I have become increasingly frustrated with Null Rod hitting the table with the surge of Fish and in some areas Oath (Daze is a SOB when fighting in the counterwars).  Without Gorilla Shaman, Burning Wish, Rack and Ruin, or Hurkyl's Recall I have to ask if you tested against it.  I see the lone (but with tutor support) Echoing Truth, was it enough to ward the Null Rod off? 

I would like to add that I very much appreciate you sharing your information with us.  I like many of us really look to a few Slaver players for innovation and discussion. 

[warble]

Misdirection is not great in Control Slaver. It may be a fine single card to catch opponents off guard, but in general it does little to help the Gifts match. Gifts uses its Misdirection to power out broken spells such as Gifts. If you try to follow this plan yourself, you will find that you are simply playing a game you don't want to be playing.  Tormod's Crypt preemptively makes Gifts itself a much weaker card and makes their primary plan not work.

Yes, but without the crypts, the misdirections are key.  I do feel like tormod's crypt is only becoming a stronger card in CS in this metagame, so I may have to run a tormod's crypt and misD.  Still, I'm glad you have come around to seeing Gifts for what it is in every deck...broken.

[Liam-K]

Thanks for your response Rich... I'll clarify as best I can.

My gut instinct reading the list is that the deck wants to ride marginal advantage like CS, but doesn't do it quite as well.

I understand what you are saying. I have long said that Control Slaver strives for incremental advantage, whereas Gifts tends to simply end the game. However, consider that ending the game is always strictly better than achieving incremental advantage. If the game would be ended by a spell, then it makes little sense to obtain a slight advantage. On the other hand, for those many situations in which the game would not be ended by a Gifts, Gifts still provides as much card advantage as Thirst possibly can. A Gifts for Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, Mana Drain, and Force of Will is fairly strong, as is one for Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, Thirst, and another Gifts. In this way, while Gifts can end a game, it can also add incremental advantage.

Honestly, brainstorm/thirst/gifts/scroll type piles are exactly the issue I am raising.  While you are sure to net yourself two solid cards with such a spread, you're using WAY too many resources to gain +1 brainstorm.  The problem with such stacks is they never do something broken on their own, and in addition reveal a great deal of information to your opponent.  A huge strength of Thirst which you don't mention is your opponent sees up to three "mystery cards" in your hand after you cast it.  This is intimidating, especially if your opponent wants to wrest control of the game by trying to resolve a large spell.  As a longtime scroll gifts player, I have repeatedly found such stacks to be very weak... in retrospect I too often discover a stronger play would be to simply hold my Gifts Ungiven and do something stupid with it just a little later.

Using a Gifts to recreate the effects of a mediocre thirst, without the possibility to rip something insane, intimidate your opponent with mystery cards, the possibility of welder shenanigans, AND spending more mana to do it is not strong.  This is a stack that seeks marginal advantage rather than attempting to end the game, as I said in my original post, and I will say with certainty that using Gifts to do that is inefficient.  I will mention that if your position is comparatively weak enough that you would make such a play, you may find yourself dissapointed to recieve the gifts in the stack... it's happened to me a lot.  (I'm aware this appears to contradict an earlier statement I made.  It requires an excellent read by my opponent to know when this is a serious error... but in short, if it was correct for me to try to trade out my gifts for bread-and-butter, forcing me to spend 4 mana AGAIN to get my bread and butter sucks)

Do you find yourself really needing chances to outplay your opponent to make your deck shine? Or is it capable of moving with the focus that demands your opponent interact with you?

I'm not sure how to answer this because I don't quite understand your question.

I'm still sort of working with the above point.  A great strength of Gifts in Steve's list is every one is such a game-ending threat that it's very difficult not to play on the Gifts' players terms.  Again, I haven't actually playtested your list, but on gut reactions I feel like as your opponent I would have a lot more leeway to let you goldfish, so to speak, and that you would have to work much harder to stay in control of the game.  Having your opponent on the defensive, even through forcing them to sacrfice tempo in order to defend against the possibility you will explode, is a big advantage that I don't see this deck applying well.  And, as a control deck that appears even clunkier than CS, this looks like it could be a problem.

Also, I've been toying with the theory that the key way for CS to control the match's tempo vs Gifts actually centers around use of pitch spells, and your list doesn't run the misdirections

Misdirection is not great in Control Slaver. It may be a fine single card to catch opponents off guard, but in general it does little to help the Gifts match. Gifts uses its Misdirection to power out broken spells such as Gifts. If you try to follow this plan yourself, you will find that you are simply playing a game you don't want to be playing. With more Merchant Scrolls and more blue cards, Meandeck Gifts is far better at using Misdirection than Control Slaver. If you take nothing else away from this post, bear in mind that you beat a deck by making it play a game it doesn't want to play, not letting it play the game it wants to play. That means that getting into a pitch counter war with Meandeck Gifts is a losing battle. Instead, REB and Crypt are good options. REB often lets you do for one mana what MDG for one card, and your manabase is better able to cast it than Gifts'. Tormod's Crypt preemptively makes Gifts itself a much weaker card and makes their primary plan not work. Those are much better tools to combat Gifts than Misdirection.

We're in agreement.  What I actually meant was using Gifts' pitch spells against them... allowing them to resolve just for the 2 for 1.  Gifts has a hard time recovering from a decimated hand, and forcing them to pitch without countering back and saving your forces for their (more dangerous) spells seems like it can buy CS time and position.  We all know CS comes into it's own in the mid-late, and it doesn't seem at all unhappy to get there with both sides of the table pretty much gassed.



I do know that gifts + welder = tinker, by the way.  I tested a list with 3 gifts 3 welders quite a bit... I ran thirsts rather than scrolls, which was probably a mistake.  I still found I wanted my gifts to do gifts-deck things more and went back to a gifts-focused list.

[The Atog Lord]

I know the pros and cons to both so I was hoping you would elaborate on how often you missed TfK when you had the big artifacts in your hand?

I didn't miss the three Thirsts at all. When I started testing this list, I missed having any Thirsts. So, with one added, and Scrolls to fetch it, I found that was all I needed.

Another thing along the same lines, how often would you have liked to have a Gifts be TfK so that you could cast it a turn earlier considering the casting cost?

It never happened that I missed Thirst. I was very happy with the three Gifts / one Thirst configuration.

Third, with only two Goblin Welders in the deck how often did you find yourself wishing you had one earlier to enable the Gifts?

An excellent question. My objective in these numbers was having as few inert cards as possible -- as few cards which did nothing to get me deeper into the deck or counter the opponent. As such, with Welder doing neither of these things directly, I reduced him to two copies. The Welders I used were very powerful, and yet the deck can function perfectly well without them. This is another strength of Gifts over Thirst. I believe two was a good number, but three would not be incorrect either.

I see the lone (but with tutor support) Echoing Truth, was it enough to ward the Null Rod off?

Ah, Null Rod. I hate facing that card. It was played against me exactly one time, and I did find the bounce for it. The single removal spell was my first time doing so in this deck, but the Scrolls helped to make it viable. If you expect a considerable number of Null Rods, adding another removal spell would be a perfectly fine idea.

While you are sure to net yourself two solid cards with such a spread, you're using WAY too many resources to gain +1 brainstorm.

I am not saying that a Bad Gifts is better than a Thirst. However, the comparison is not a fair one. It is comparing a Shovel to a Spoon in their ability to move dirt around, and then declaring that a Shovel is better than a Spoon since the Spoon is worse at moving dirt. The key point is that Gifts Ungiven is not designed to give incremental card advantage; it is designed to bury the opponent. The fact that it can if needed generate some advantage is nice, but not the true objective of the card.

The problem with such stacks is they never do something broken on their own, and in addition reveal a great deal of information to your opponent.

If you get Brainstorm, your opponent doesn't know what cards you've kept. But, more than that, I don't necessarily view it as a bad thing if my opponent knows a few cards in my hand. It's amazing how incomplete information can lead to more misplays than no information at all.

As a longtime scroll gifts player, I have repeatedly found such stacks to be very weak... in retrospect I too often discover a stronger play would be to simply hold my Gifts Ungiven and do something stupid with it just a little later.

Exactly. Again, the fact that Thirst might be better at giving you card advantage means little if Gifts is better at ending the game. I made a lot of non-traditional Gifts piles at Myriad, but oftentimes they gave my opponent no hope of climbing back into the game.

Having your opponent on the defensive, even through forcing them to sacrfice tempo in order to defend against the possibility you will explode, is a big advantage that I don't see this deck applying well.

I tend to prefer being the control and not the beatdown. I'm not convinced that either role is correct, or even that most decks can assume either of the roles against every deck. I may tend to design my decks as though I'm on the defensive, but that's because I tend to be a control player. Steve is a much more aggressive player than I am, and so his builds tend to reflect his playstyle.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I appreciate the feedback.

[Smmenen]

Having your opponent on the defensive, even through forcing them to sacrfice tempo in order to defend against the possibility you will explode, is a big advantage that I don't see this deck applying well.

I tend to prefer being the control and not the beatdown. I'm not convinced that either role is correct, or even that most decks can assume either of the roles against every deck. I may tend to design my decks as though I'm on the defensive, but that's because I tend to be a control player. Steve is a much more aggressive player than I am, and so his builds tend to reflect his playstyle.

This comment is very interesting.

The one thing that I find most frightening about Control Slaver is the speed with which good Slaver players combo out.   When people ask me why Slaver is viable, I just think about how quickly people like you Rich and Brian DeMars execute their wins by playing combo.   It seems like every other game you win on turn 2 or 3.   

Also: do you still feel that this has a horrible Pitch Long matchup?

[madmanmike25]

Why not make this a totally 'Dry Slaver' and take out the lone TfK and replace it with Fact or Fiction?  If ever there was a deck to abuse FoF(besides Tog) Slaver can.  Was it tested, or would that one extra mana bump up the curve too much?   I would try it.

[49 Cents]

Why not make this a totally 'Dry Slaver' and take out the lone TfK and replace it with Fact or Fiction?  If ever there was a deck to abuse FoF(besides Tog) Slaver can.  Was it tested, or would that one extra mana bump up the curve too much?   I would try it.

The Thirst is there so he can Scroll for it if needed (when you are stuck with a Slaver in hand an a Welder, etc).

[Methuselahn]

Why not make this a totally 'Dry Slaver' and take out the lone TfK and replace it with Fact or Fiction?  If ever there was a deck to abuse FoF(besides Tog) Slaver can.  Was it tested, or would that one extra mana bump up the curve too much?   I would try it.

See, FoF is actually garbage.  Four mana for a spell that gives you random cards, especially in a build with very few Robots and only two Welders is bad.  I'm sure that a fourth Gifts would be better than FoF.  Tutoring > Randomness.

To answer Steve's question, the PitchLong matchup is rough.  Fortunately, only 1/46th of the field played any type of Long combo, which is slightly less than predicted.

[The Atog Lord]

The one thing that I find most frightening about Control Slaver is the speed with which good Slaver players combo out.

There is a difference between designing your deck to be aggressive and taking advantage of the opportunity when it arises. Control Slaver, by virtue of its broken cards, often finds itself able to quickly combo off. However, it has cards that do nothing to help with this process. Consider that every single card in Meandeck Gifts contributes to the deck's ability to combo out the opponent. The bounce spells add to Storm, and the Drains and other counters can defend its threats. On the other hand, Control Slaver has cards such as Echoing Truth and Tormod's Crypt which cannot function aggressively at all, and are in the deck only as answers. It isn't that I don't take the chance to win when I see it; but I build the deck with cards that function outside of an aggressive role as well.

Also: do you still feel that this has a horrible Pitch Long matchup?

Honestly, I haven't tested that match with this list at all.

The Thirst is there so he can Scroll for it if needed (when you are stuck with a Slaver in hand an a Welder, etc).

This is very true. This very situation arising in playtesting is why I added Thirst to the deck. The fact that Fact or Fiction does not help in this situation helps to explain that card's exclusion.

[Smmenen]

The one thing that I find most frightening about Control Slaver is the speed with which good Slaver players combo out.

There is a difference between designing your deck to be aggressive and taking advantage of the opportunity when it arises. Control Slaver, by virtue of its broken cards, often finds itself able to quickly combo off. However, it has cards that do nothing to help with this process. Consider that every single card in Meandeck Gifts contributes to the deck's ability to combo out the opponent. The bounce spells add to Storm, and the Drains and other counters can defend its threats. On the other hand, Control Slaver has cards such as Echoing Truth and Tormod's Crypt which cannot function aggressively at all, and are in the deck only as answers. It isn't that I don't take the chance to win when I see it; but I build the deck with cards that function outside of an aggressive role as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I also have the distinct recollection of you telling me that Control Slaver is a combo deck.  It was either explicit or implicit, but you also said that you assume the aggro role alot if not most of the time.   This was either at SCG Rochester or at the hotel at Origins or possibly in the parking lot in front of North Market mid-summer. 

[EnialisLiadon]

How often is Gifts cast finding 2 artifacts to send to the bin?  That seems like a solid way to start slavering with a welder out and/or get a solid beatstick.

[The Atog Lord]

Steve,

While some decks such as Storm Ten have no choice but to assume either the beatdown or the control role, many modern Vintage decks are capable of doing either. Control Slaver is capable of being the beatdown or the control against many decks. I do not recall calling Control Slaver a combo deck. Rather, Control Slaver may find itself in a position during a match in which it can act as a beatdown deck; yet there are other times in which Control Slaver is forced to play a control role. Its need to be able to control the opponent is reflected in the inclusion of cards such as Tormod's Crypt which unlike Force of Will can serve only to slow the opponent and not to push forward its own spells. The ability of Control Slaver to be either control or beatdown is one of its primary strengths, but at the same time is one of the reasons the deck is so difficult to play. In many ways, a Gifts deck is more straightforward. I suppose that Control Slaver is a Gemini.

EnialisLiadon,

This happened several times during the day. Quite a few games ended with a Goblin Welder followed up by a Gifts. Gifts enables a broken Welder if an artifact is in the deck, whereas Thirst requires that the artifact be in hand. This distinction, while perhaps not obvious, allows for a lower number of large artifacts to be in the deck. No longer must such an artifact be drawn in order for the blue draw spell to put it into the graveyard. This lower number of large artifacts enables the deck to run fewer inert cards, one of my goals for this list.

[Dakkon]

What is an example gifts pile if you want to get artifacts in the yard for welder? cant they just put the fat artifacts in your hand and have you try and discard them anyway? (barring the cases in which your able to cast them with Tolarian academy)

[Roxas]

If you have Welder on the table, you just cast gifts for two artifacts. The way Gifts is worded, if you search for only two cards and fail to find two others, both cards end up in the graveyard.

[Dakkon]

If you have Welder on the table, you just cast gifts for two artifacts. The way Gifts is worded, if you search for only two cards and fail to find two others, both cards end up in the graveyard.

Holy crap! you can do that? I guess you learn something new everyday.

In the case I love Gifts in Slaver.

This doesn't add to the discussion.
-Godder

[Gekoratel]

Yeah I thought the Gifts for two cards was a pretty savage play when I saw Frank Karsten do it in the Top 8 of a PT.  I believe it was last years Worlds.

This doesn't add to the discussion.
-Godder

[desolutionist]

One of the major problems with this build, as I'm sure you're aware, is that it dangerously resembles the many forms of Gifts to the point that this can be defined as nothing more than Tinker-based Gifts.  If you're resolving costly end-of-turn bombs and using a critical mass of mana to initiate your dominance in a single turn, why not simply win with Tendrils of Agony?  In other words, this isn't exactly a successful Slaver evolution because it eliminates some of the inherent fundamentals of it or the distinct differences it once had from Gifts.  

The function of Goblin Welder is in many ways that of mana substitute. In the most obvious scenario, a Welder can circumvent the mana cost of an artifact, bringing it into play for no mana. Yet, beyond this, Goblin Welder allows Control Slaver to “go off” with far less mana than a Gifts deck can.

This quote emphasizes my point.  This is the biggest reason to ever play Slaver over Gifts and I believe you're diluting this ability significantly with your proposed list by forcing it to win through expensive Gifts piles.

[dicemanx]

That advantage that CS has over Gifts that you emphasize comes at a cost, which TAL has already spoken about - certain individual components are dead or weak without certain enablers - TfK to discard robots, or Welders to retrieve them. The question then is whether its possible to minimize the costs but at the same time retain the flexibility that Slaver has in terms of the diversity of game plans, but decrease the number of dead or weak draws.

This idea was already examined in SSB (which was very similar to this deck, except it had more TfK and less Gifts), but as far as I remember it was never really established as being a weaker approach or that the current crop of Gifts decks are superior or more evolved forms. It is becoming increasingly difficult in vintage to discern between "best" and "popular/trendy"; for all we know a hybrid of Gifts and CS might be just as powerful as the respective CS and Gifts archetypes.

In fact, to generalize a bit more, perhaps the next step in the evolution of this format is to begin exhausting all combinations of "units" - draw engines, kill conditions, mana bases, and disruption packages, which are also encompassed by various hybrid strategies. These steps were apparent in decks like IT, Drain Tendrils,  B/R Stax, or ICBM Oath, to name a few, which consisted of putting together certain individual units to create highly synergistic combinations. Gifts offers a significant synergistic effect when coupled with Welder, so its no surprise that such a hybrid approach would get (re)visited at some point and that it has some measure of viability.