[Discussion] Dry Slaver

[Sam Best]

*My attempt at writing a primer for Dry Slaver. I will edit according to the imput people tell me about the matchups*

I.                    The Creation of Dry Slaver

II.                  The Deck

III.                Debatable Cards Currently in Deck

IV.               Debatable Cards Not in the Deck

V.                 Match-ups

 

I. The Creation of Dry Slaver

Dry Slaver is a different version of Control Slaver that is based upon Gifts Ungiven getting cards into your graveyard rather then the typical Thirst for Knowledge, hence why the deck was named Dry Slaver. Dry Slaver evolved from the origional builds of Control Slaver where four  Thirst for Knowledge was standard and was one of the main components of the deck. The deck now does not need Thirst for Knowledge to get the artifacts in the graveyard and now making the deck not rely on the luck of the draw as much as it use to.

 
II. The Deck

3 Goblin Welder
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Mindslaver
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Underground Sea
3 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Triskelion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Flooded Strand
1 Mana Vault
1 Recoup
3 Gifts Ungiven
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Echoing Truth
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Tolarian Academy

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

 

III. Debatable Cards Currently in Deck


Thirst for Knowledge: The reason behind cutting Thirst for Knowledge down to only two in the deck is because Thirst for Knowledge is not always reliable. Numerous times through playing Control Slaver Thirst for Knowledge has failed. Thirst for Knowledge really only helps when you know that you will drain an artifact, or else it just acts as a Brainstorm that you discard to.

Gifts Ungiven: Why run three Gifts Ungiven? This is because they are taking the place of Thirst for Knowledge. These guarantee that the cards that you want to be in the graveyard get to the graveyard when you want them to. Unlike Thirst for Knowledge you have to do it continually to find the artifacts to go to the graveyard. Gifts Ungiven also helps more in the late game. In addition Gifts Ungiven makes the deck more versatile with the sideboard. The sideboard consists with the typical cards that you would find in the deck Gifts. 


Merchant Scroll: Merchant Scroll is in the deck to search for any of the blue instants in the deck that you might need to help in different situations. For example, if you have Sundering Titan in your hand and Merchant Scroll. You would end up casting Merchant Scroll, getting a Thirst for Knowledge, and discarding Sundering Titan to Thirst for Knowledge.


Recoup: Why is this in the deck when you use Gifts Ungiven to just get artifacts into the graveyard? This is because certain situations you need to get different cards with Gifts Ungiven.


Red Elemental Blast: Shouldn’t Red Elemental Blast be in the sideboard? The answer to this is simple. While the card is a good sideboard card it is also very good in the main deck. This is simply because of blue being the most used color. In a control game, main decked Red Elemental Blast helps extremely much. In counter wars you only need to tap one mana and you can still keep two open to use a Mana Drain if Red Elemental Blast is trying to be countered. This is only assuming that you have at least one red source in plan and at least two blue mana sources.


Tormod’s Crypt: This card right now is good enough to take up a spot in the main deck. Ichorid and Gifts are two decks that rely a lot of the graveyard and with a Tormod’s Crypt this can ruin the two decks, or at least slow them down for you to set yourself up.


Triskelion: This card does not have the same use as it use to when Fish was dominating and very popular in the vintage format. For the most part now if you run into fish you can easily will second and third game due to Empty the Warrens. I personally think that Triskelion is still a good card choice in the deck for the reasons that you have main deck hate on small creatures and that it can be used as a win condition.


Shattering Spree: Why did I choose Shattering Spree over Rack and Ruin? This is because even though Rack and Ruin is an instant, Shattering Spree in the deck has ability to produce multiple copies of itself that have to each be individually countered.

 
IV. Debatable Cards Not in Deck


Pentavus: Why is Pentavus not in the deck for the Mindslaver lock? Pentavus is great and everything, but it just isn’t necessary to run anymore. Usually when you use Mindslaver once on someone, you can usually control the game from there on, if you do have the case where they might become a threat again you can always use a Goblin Welder to weld a mox out for Mindslaver again.

 
Vampiric Tutor: Why am I not running Vampiric Tutor in the deck? This is because I find it unnecessary to have even more tutors in the deck when Gifts Ungiven can get me cards that I might need. Everything in the deck can reoccur because of Yawgmoth’s Will. The original Control Slaver builds did not all run Vampiric Tutor and those decks did fine with only the Mystical Tutor and Demonic Tutors in the deck. Yes Vampiric Tutor can help me get a Goblin Welder on the board faster, but I personally don’t think that a Goblin Welder is worth loosing two life over and in addition to that a card from your hand.


Gorilla Shaman: This card was very debatable in my eyes. I think the card is very good because it can deal with those Chalice of the Voids for zero. I decided not to use it because of the fact that the card itself doesn’t do much except for destroying moxen and Chalice of the Voids, so I found it unnecessary to add.


Deep Analysis: This card was also very debatable whether or not to be put in the deck. Deep Analysis works great with Gifts Ungiven. I decided to cut the card because of Misdirection being played in a lot of decks in the format. In addition to that it is also a huge target for Mana Drains due to its mana cost.

Tendrils of Agony: I origionally had Tendrils in the sideboard, but took it out because it really didn't help that much. When I played with Tendrils origionally in the board it was sometimes hard to rack up the 10 storm count that you needed to cast tendrils at the right times. Yes you could tendrils for smaller amounts but really the two black mana is a lot harder in the deck to get then it is in the traditional Gifts decks because unlike Gifts Dry Slaver does not run Dark Ritual. More or less it was just a waste of a sideboard slot which I changed to adding a Red Elemental Blast for the Fish match.

Duress: I don't run Duress at all in the deck or in the sideboard. Even though the card is very useful in situations I would rather just not have to get black mana just to cast duress. I would rather just get black mana when I need it at the last moment to cast yawgmoth's will or to cast Demonic Tutor. If I was to add duress I would want to add another Underground Sea into the deck and thus either a volcanic island or a basic Island would have to be cut
 
V. The Match-ups

 

Gifts: The Gifts match-up you will play very similarly to the mirror match, except you will want to focus on countering mainly Gifts Ungiven rather then other cards. In my experience playing this matchup it is best to get a threat on the board as soon as possible or have a strong enough hand where you are able to counter most of everything. In the cases where you run up against Gifts running Darksteel Colossus then you will want to have an active Goblin Welder in play to handle it rather then using a counter to stop Tinker. In the second and third games assuming you get to the third you will want to board in Trickbinds and Red Elemental Blasts.

 

Ichorid: This match-up is usually very hard in the first game. The first game will really depend on what your opponent mulligans down to and what you have in your hand. If you are able to get Tormod's Crypt in play  first or second turn your should be all set with game one. After game one though this is what I typically board out:  -4 Mana Drain, -1 Sundering Titan, -1 Red Elemental Blast, -1 Goblin Welder. I board in these: +4 Leyline of the Void, +2 Empty the Warren, +1 Hurkyl's Recall.. Okay heres the explinations of why these get boarded out. First of all, Mana Drain is good, but what is there really to counter in Ichorid. Dread Returns and Cabal Theorpy at least in the manaless version. Why would I not sideboard out Force of Will as well in this case. Force of Will I still find use for. You can Merchant Scroll for them as you need to. There is still stuff to counter in Ichorid, but really there isn't enough to leave eight counter spells in the deck. Red Elemental Blast is just plain useless in the deck verse Ichorid. They play no blue spells. Mindslaver is another card I board out. Mindslaver is typically too slow and as a result is worth cutting to fit in other cards. Sundering Titan hurts yourself more then it would hurt Ichorid because they play no lands that you can destory. Instead you would be destroying your own mana base. The final card that I board out is Goblin Welder. I board out Goblin Welder because all that is left in the deck to weld back into play is Triskelion, which is useful against the Ichorids and Nether Shadows. The Leyline of the Void are key against this deck. If you are playing against the manaless version mulliganing to get one of the Leyline of the Void in your opening hand isn't the worst thing to do. Even if you don't get one into play because you don't want to mulligan your hand you should still try to get one into play as soon as possible. I board in Empty the Warren because they can handle attacking Ichorids and Nether Shadows in addition to being your win condition. Hurkyl's Recall can help in multiple different situations. For example if you are playing against the Ichorid deck that runs a small mana base and they cast Pithing Needle nameing Goblin Welder or they have Chalice of the Void for zero in game you can bounce those back to their hand. In addition you can use it for your storm count either winning with Tendrils of Agony or upping the amount of goblin tokens you get into play from Empty the Warrens. Boarding in Tendrils of Agony is because you want to be able to get a fast win against Ichorid before they can do anything against you. This is the entire reasoning behind boarding in the storm combo.

 

Bomberman: This matchup is somewhat a difficult one if you don't know exactly what to counter and at what times. Depending on your current situation you may want to counter a Trinket Mage using a Mana Drain. If you have all your win conditions in the graveyard however, then you will want to not let  that into play what so ever. Yes the card they get does go their hand and not directly into play but if they were to resolve a salvagors then they can get the artifact that you may have countered. Always try to counter Auriok Salvagers. The main thing that you are going to use here for the win condition is Sundering Titan. Sundering Titan is a three turn clock which makes bomberman have to speed up its combo. -1 Triskelion, -1 Gifts Ungiven, -1Goblin Welder, -1Merchant Scroll +2 Red Elemental Blast, +2 Trickbind. The Trickbinds get sided in to handle the combo of bomberman and to use against tormods crypts that your opponent gets in play. You play the game as you did in the first game more or less countering anything that is a threat.

 

U/W or U/W/B Fish: When playing against either of these deck you typically play the same as you always would against either one. Game one you should be able to win, but after game one and you are sideboarding you should not loose. Yes there are chances that you may just get terrible draws and loose because of that but if you play it right then you should win. The typical cards that get boarded out verses either of these two builds of Fish are: -3 Mana Drain, -1 Mindslaver, -1 Tormod's Crypt, -1 Echoing Truth, -1 Gifts Ungiven. You replace the maindecked cards with these: +1 Red Elemental Blast, +3 Empty the Warren, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +2 Lava Dart. You board out Mana Drains because of the fact that Fish plays on the principle that naming Mana Drain with Meddling Mage will slow down anyother control deck due to the fact that Fish does not run Mana Drain, so even if they don't know if you sideboarded them out they will more then likely name Mana Drain. Mindslaver is just slightly not that great against the deck . For one it is too slow and another reason taht they really don't have much that you can do when you  slave them. Tormod's Crypt comes out because they are not a graveyard based deck and that makes Tormod's Crypt just a waste of space. Depending on how you feel about the card Gifts Ungiven you board one out. Personally I believe that this is the right move to do. Once you resolve one Gifts Ungiven that should give you such an advantage that you should win the game. Red Elemental Blast goes into the deck because it counters any of the counter spells they might have. Daze usually isn't a problem. Force of Will is, so you typically use the Red Elemental Blast to counter Force of Wills when you are trying to resolve a spell, for example like Gifts Ungiven. Empty the Warrens will win you the game typically when you get eight or more goblins into play. Fish can't handle all those creatures that easily. Pretty much you are just going to overwhelm them. Hurkyl's Recall is pretty much just to help the storm count for when you cast Empty the Warrens. Lava Dart gets boarded in because it handles Dark Confidants and other small little fishy creatures that get played against you.

 

The Mountains Win Again: Game one against this deck is a bit harder then games two and three. This is because of the small creatures the deck runs. All you can really do is counter their Hide/Seeks and then counter any threats the put into play and in addition to getting Sundering Titan on the board to wreak their mana base. The second and third games are much more in your favor. +3 Empty the Warren, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, -1 Red Elemental Blast, -1 Tormod's Crypt, -1 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Mindslaver. Mindslaver is pretty useless against this deck for the fact that there really isnt much that you can do when you slave them. How you play against this deck now is you will want to storm and get as many goblins out into play as you can having counter back up for when they cast Engineered Explosives for zero.

 

Long: [I don't know much about this match up so if anyone else has any input about this match please message me.]


The Mirror: [I don't know much about this match up so if anyone else has any input about this match please message me.]


 

Stax: Stax is a good matchup for the deck. Just counter threats like Chalice of the Void and Crucible of worlds. Trinishphere isn't that much of a problem dependign on how far along in the game you are. Against stax gettign an early triskelion is always a very good move. It handles their Goblin Welders. For games two and three you will want to board out -1Red Elemental Blast, -1 Sundering Titan, -1 Gifts Ungiven. -1 Thirst for Knowledge, -1 Merchant Scroll. Board in +3 Empty the Warren, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Shattering Spree. Play the game pretty much like you do in your first, but try to get an early Empty the Warrens making around six Goblins and then the game should be under your control because Smoke Stack and Tangle Wire won't affect you

[Metman]

Thank you for writing a primer, it is much appreciated.  Dry Slaver is the new fad in the evolution of Slaver, a deck that has been around for a while now.  I am skeptical though as many others are, which isn't a bad thing.  It forces you and others to objectively argue a point with critcism. 

I would like to ask a few questions of you in your testing. 

First, did you test Burning Wish?  You didn't add it to your debatable sections.  You mention that you side in EtW in several occasions.  BW would give you access to it and Shattering Spree in game one as well as Duress which sees SB play frequently, Deep Analysis, Tendrils, and Massacre/Pyroclasm.  I think most importantly it give you a maindeck "win now" card.  It also goes well with Recoup. 

Second, this deck has what appears to be about three metagame slots.  You have, from what I assume, two Merchant Scrolls and the RedBlast in those spots (I think that Echoing Truth and Tormod's Crypt are pretty much essential in Slaver now considering the metagame).  What are your most common targets, are they counters, draws, or board solutions?  From your build it appears to most often grab a draw spell or counter depending on where the gamestate is.  My testing has shown that MS is a great way to grab a solution to anything.  You don't have many (only the Echoing Truth) to find a solution to the board.  Have you tested Hurkyl's Recall or Fire//Ice in the MD?

Finally, the curve of this deck is up from original CS builds.  You've added the expensive Recoup and the additional Gifts over Thirst.  This leads me to conclude that Merchant Scroll more often than not grabs Force of Will to keep you in the game.  Is the increase in the curve noticable; does it make the deck play differently.  It seems that it would increase the big turn for Slaver one longer.  I always felt like traditional CS builds have the problem of getting buried early because of its expensive spells sitting like ducks in your hand.  Granted, mulliganing properly is as important in Slaver as anywhere else but how often do you sit there with an opening grip and wish you had cheaper spells to play sooner? 

[Sam Best]

First, did you test Burning Wish?  You didn't add it to your debatable sections.  You mention that you side in EtW in several occasions.  BW would give you access to it and Shattering Spree in game one as well as Duress which sees SB play frequently, Deep Analysis, Tendrils, and Massacre/Pyroclasm.  I think most importantly it give you a maindeck "win now" card.  It also goes well with Recoup.

I never did test out Burning Wish in the deck. Getting Shattering Spree game one would really only help against Stax, but I really don't need to do that because Slaver still has a good match up with Stax and plus Stax runs wasteland and I really would not want to have to get Volcanic Islands until I really needed them. I don't use duress in the board because it causes me to get all three colored mana out of the deck rather then just getting Volcanic Islands and Islands untill I need the black source. With Misdirection being played a lot I decided that it was way too risky to run Deep Analysis in the deck at all and because of the fact that it is a pretty nice drain target. I added to the debatable card section about Tendrils of Agony and why I don't run it in the sideboard anymore. Massacre and Pyroclasm are two very nice cards in situations, but they can kill my goblin welders and Tokens if I needed to use Massacre or Pyroclasm at that time.

Second, this deck has what appears to be about three metagame slots.  You have, from what I assume, two Merchant Scrolls and the RedBlast in those spots (I think that Echoing Truth and Tormod's Crypt are pretty much essential in Slaver now considering the metagame).  What are your most common targets, are they counters, draws, or board solutions?  From your build it appears to most often grab a draw spell or counter depending on where the gamestate is.  My testing has shown that MS is a great way to grab a solution to anything.  You don't have many (only the Echoing Truth) to find a solution to the board.  Have you tested Hurkyl's Recall or Fire//Ice in the MD?

Merchant Scrolls are for getting things I need in certian situations and the Red Elemental Blast is just because in New England decks with blue are everywhere. Yes Echoing Truth and Tormod's Crypt are very useful with all the Gifts being played right now. The most common targets for Merchant Scroll are Thirst for Knowledge (If I have Sundering Titan, Triskelion, or Mindslaver in hand), Ancestral Recall, Gifts Ungiven (If I have an active Goblin Welder in play), Force of Will or Mana Drain. Sometimes I get Echoing Truth if I am in a bad situation with things on the board that I can't handle. Triskelion to me is pretty much a Fire/Ice that can be used over again. With the deck running Gifts Ungiven it is really not too hard to get a Triskelion into play. I see no point in maindecking Hurkyl's Recall. If anything I would maindeck Rebuild because it cycles. Hurkyl's Recall can just be useless in some matches like if I was to play against fish or The mountians win again. If I did maindeck Empty the Warrens then I would consider running a Hurkyl's Recall in the maindeck.

Finally, the curve of this deck is up from original CS builds.  You've added the expensive Recoup and the additional Gifts over Thirst.  This leads me to conclude that Merchant Scroll more often than not grabs Force of Will to keep you in the game.  Is the increase in the curve noticable; does it make the deck play differently.  It seems that it would increase the big turn for Slaver one longer.  I always felt like traditional CS builds have the problem of getting buried early because of its expensive spells sitting like ducks in your hand.  Granted, mulliganing properly is as important in Slaver as anywhere else but how often do you sit there with an opening grip and wish you had cheaper spells to play sooner? 

With Merchant Scroll I often grab Ancestral Recall (1st Choice) or as you said Force of Will (2nd Choice). Refering to what you said about sitting there with a handful of expencive spells early game I have to say this. The deck usually doesn't have mana problems. In my testing I can cast Gifts Ungiven second turn often, but more often third turn. This also depends if I get drain mana early. If I can drain a spell that is a threat and get three colorless then I will typically cast something relivant at the time. If I have the mana early on and I cast Gifts Ungiven my usual hand will consist of: Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Tinker, and either Recoup or Yawgmoth's Will depending on my mana situation.

[without]

If slaver is all about ditching big artifacts into the yard, than why doesn't the deck run 4 copies of Goblin Welder? I think it would be more important to get a Welder in play fast than putz around and scroll for stuff.  Also, Vintage is a format full of tutors and Vampiric Tutor should definitely belong in here because its another card that gets you whatever you want and it can make you win out of a lost position. (Gifts does alot in this deck I understand, I play Gifts) Personally, I think fish is the only deck in type one that doesn't run all of the tutors demonic, vampiric, mystic.  Every other slaver lists I've seen have Tolarian Academy, isn't that swaped with your fourth Polluted Delta? All I'm saying is cut the Scrolls for another Welder and Vampiric tutor  and the land for a land otherwise the Primer is well informative. Nice Job!

[Sam Best]

Yeah I missed Tolarian Academy when I typed the list so that is my bad I added it. No one helped me edit the primer when I asked for help so there are mistakes so sorry about that.

[Kowal]

Not to poop on anybody's parade, but...

TheManaDrain.com has a really strong history of writing solid educational primers.  These pieces explain the subtle nuances of what's being played, how to pilot it, explanation in depth of card choices inside and out, and detailed methods of attack for the major archetypes.  Each of these is written based on many hours of testing and tournament performance.

This piece is a nice contribution to the website, but it is not a primer.  It is neither backed by testing nor tournament experience, and is really much more of a discussion starter.  As such I'm moving this to the Vintage Improvement Forum and altering the name slightly.  Please don't take offense; with some more work on the written detail and some serious and dedicated testing time/tournament experience you may well write a primer well within the real range of quality we seek for this type of article on TMD.[/color]

[Sam Best]

Would it help if I put my tournament report from TMD Open X day 2 in it kowal?

[Hydra]

Would it help if I put my tournament report from TMD Open X day 2 in it kowal?

What he means is that there needs to be a lot more data than just one report.  Check the Primers forum on here in the archives for what is expected.

[Moxlotus]

Would it help if I put my tournament report from TMD Open X day 2 in it kowal?

Here's a few examples

A Sideboarding primer for Oath by me:
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11409.html

Primer on B/R Stax by JDizzle:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=31402.0

Dragon primer by DicemanX (and this is amazing):
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=11757.0

[Vegeta2711]

My own FCG primer
http://www.themanadrain.com/primers/fcg.htm

Tips on writing an actual primer.
1. Include the history of the deck, if the deck is an off-shoot or variant of something, include the original designs (or if it's huge) at least the one or two most recent predecessors of the deck so people have a clear idea of the differences.

2. Explain early on why people should actually care about the deck and read the entirety of the primer, even if they don't want to necessarily play the deck.

3. Go over the various Gifts stacks in detail, saying when and why to go for certain cards.

4. Complete testing against a number of the major decks in the metagame.

5. Match-up reports that actually give some amount of insight.

All you can really do is counter their Hide/Seeks and then counter any threats the put into play and in addition to getting Sundering Titan on the board to wreak their mana base.

This doesn't really tell me jack about the match or how it should play out.

6. Proper formatting, spelling and grammar is a must. It doesn't need to be 100% perfect, but I had three people (one of which does editing for a living) go over the various forms of my draft for better clarity and brevity.