Kowal Slaver

[forests failed you]

Ben,

You might want to Tinker around with Triskelavus in your main or side.  Since last spring I have had that guy in pretty much every incarnation of Slaver that I've played.  He allows you to Slaver lock infinate.  (Yes, you only play one Welder... Yet, I have only been playing two Goblins and I've found it handy.)  Not to mention he is such a tremendous beating against any of the Fish style decks.  Platnium Angel seems like a risky gambit, since if he ever gets swords it seems likely that you are in a heap of trouble.

The 4 Duress package + Nights' Whisper seems interesting  --Though to me Future Sight seems like a tremendous dud.  I can see lots of situations where a. You don't live long enough to cast Future Sight, b. You are put into a positon where your only action is to tap out for Future Sight and get killed before you untap.  Why not just play Minds' Eye if you want a card that does that?  At least you could Tinker for it if you need action, pitch it to Thirst, or Goblin Welder it into play.  Something perhaps worth considering.  I'm not sure that the format is slow enough to warrant the inclusion of these 'long game' style cards in a control deck.

You seem a bit soft against Workshop/Prison style decks --though I can understand why that would be okay at this point in time.  My Slaver decks have had worse Stax match ups, just because there are fewer prison decks floating around.  Not to mention a solid Drain player will beat up on a weak Stax player pretty much any day of the week.  However, your list doesn't even have a Triskelavus or a robot that is good against Prison...  And only 1 Welder.

You might want to keep in mind that the new set has another Sphere of Resistence in it..  And that is likely to inspire some Workshop fans to play 9sphere style decks.  They are pretty nasty against U decks.

You have come up with an interesting deck idea.  Best of luck.

[Two Fingas]

Have you ever tried merchant scroll over night's whisper? I have been messing around with it and I like it more than night's whisper. There are powerful cards that you can scroll for like Fact or Fiction or Gifts Ungiven after you have drained something.

Here is the list I've been using.

4 Duress
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fire/Ice......(Could be replaced with Thirst for Knowledge)
1 Echoing Truth
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Brainstorm
1 Mindslaver
1 Platinum Angel
1 Triskelion
1 Goblin Welder

8 SoLoMoxenCrypt
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand


I play Fire/Ice as something to scroll for because I see pesky Welders and Bobs in my area, I thought about replacing it for Thirst for Knowledge in case I have a big artifact in my hand and a welder on the table, but that all seemed too situational.

Here is the board.
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Goblin Welder
2 Rack and Ruin
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Fire/Ice
3 Flametongue Kavu
1 ????? This slot has changed a lot. I've used more bounce, another REB, or Tormod's Crypt. It just depends on what I think the meta is going to be ever week.

With Merchant Scroll I feel like I have more control over the game because I can tutor for broken cards or for protection, and then just force through some game breaking spell, or I can go find an answer for cards by bouncing them with Echoing Truth or Fire/Ice (if it is a small dude). In my opinion I think Merchant Scroll gives the deck more power. Just something to consider.

[GUnit]

I could be wrong on this, but I think that whisper is in the deck over scroll because it's so strong early in the game, as it makes the deck more consistent and improves the starting hands of a deck that notoriously draws some pretty funky looking hands. In comparison to scroll->recall, it is much less likely to be countered, it can't be misdirected, and it can easily happen on turn 1.

I recently had misdirections in the deck, but then I realized that CS isn't the aggressor in most situations. You don't need to force spells through, you simply need to protect yourself and pick your spots and you'll win eventually. Most other control decks in recent times play more like hybrids whereas CS is a more pure control deck, especially builds like this.

EDIT: stupidity removed

[someone_unimportan]

Scroll->Ancestral is +2 cards (Scroll breaks even, Ancestral nets 2. 0+2=2). The real reason Scrolling for Ancestral is miles worse than naturally drawing Ancestral is that it's a tempo black hole. 1UU is a lot of mana, even splitting it over 2 turns is annoying. Night's whisper gives one less card, but the important thing is that it costs one less. And yes, it does help smooth out draws since it is faster than scroll, and less duressable.

[GUnit]

Yeah, true, I was tired when I wrote that. But like you said, scroll->ancestral still ain't great.

[forests failed you]

Yes, but Scroll also does things like fine Echoing Truth when your opponent goes 'all in' on Empty the Warrens.  Finds Force of Will on the first turn against Storm Combo.  And, can also find Mystical Tutor to Yawgmoth's Will for the win.

I haven't tested Night's Whisper in Slaver;  However, I have been playing between 2-4 Merchant Scrolls in all of my CS decks.  I can vouch for Merch being quite good.  But honestly, when isn't Merchant Scroll good?

[GUnit]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's bad. I have scrolls in the slaver list I'm playing right now. I just think that they fill a very different niche in this deck compared to what you want whisper to do. Scroll is a card that should have been restricted years ago.

[forests failed you]

I would just like to voice a quick opinion.  If you are going to play with a Triskellion in your Slaver deck, I think that it should be Triskellavus.  He is SOOOO good in every single way, at least 100x better than regular Trike.  For one mana more you get:  Ability to kill three Bridge from belows.  Three flying Mogg Fanatics (its going to be good game for the Fish Mage), ability to generate multiple permenents a turn against Stax while picking off pesky Shamans and Welders, is "The Moat" against any sort of beatdown stratagy, Gives you the ability to make an infinite number of Mindslaver activations, Can fight 10 Empty the Warrens tokens by himself.