Brian, congratulations. Extirpate is a card I wouldn't normally think to include in Control Slaver, but I am very interested in hearing your thoughts. Was Extirpate better than Tormod's Crypt?
Exactly my thoughts...was it better then T. Crypt?
Although i must admit that Extirpate is probably one of the best answers to the intu/AK engine.
/Zeus
Critically speaking I think that Tormod's Crypt is a 'better' card than Extripate; but that isn't to say that Extripate isn't extremely powerful in it's own rite. Extripate and Crypt are very different cards and have been in my list for different reasons.
When Crypt is on the board it becomes known information that, well, there is a Crypt on the board. Your opponent can adjust his game plan and try to find alternate routes to victory. But, Extripate is a whole different monster. You can completely ambush and opponent right in the middle of a counter war and essentially win the game on the spot. My new favorite thing to do is wait until my opponent initiates a counterwar over one of his or her own spells and then snatch all of his Drains in response to a Gifts, or other key spell. Resove my Drain, and win the game.
Its also good at just randomly removing annoying cards from an opponents deck, it disrupts a Yawgmoth's Will, is AWESOME against Recoup, and a straight up bomb in a Slaver mirror.
Its rather narrow, but it fits into the game plan of my particular build. With the Duplicant, Tormod's Crypt and Welder recursion it becomes very easy with Extripate to simply run your opponent out of viable ways to actually win the game.
