[Free Article] The Forbidden Art of Slaver

[Womba]

Looking to the past for inspiration, I present what I believe to be one of the best positioned decks for the current metagame....

Enjoy!!!

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/23093_The_Forbidden_Art_Of_Slaver.html

[Joblin Velder]

Great article! That deck looks like it could be a lot of fun to play. I really like Forbidden Alchemy.

[Onslaught]

Did you consider Frantic Search over Careful Study, especially in build with Mana Drain?

[Troy_Costisick]

Man, I would LOVE for Slaver to come back.  I hated playing against that card, but I respected the deck.

[Smmenen]

I PLAYED Michael Pennigar AT THAT PTQ.   We were both playing for Top 8 in the final round, and I almost knocked him out.  

I was playing UW Intuition-Accumulated Knowledge Mind's Desire.  I was 4-1-1, and a win would put me into the top 8.   I smashed him game 1, and in game 2, he played Cabal Therapy naming WHITE WALL.   The judge said that this was acceptable, after a big argument, and I had two Sunscape Familiar's in hand.   I went on tilt, and lost this game due to play mistakes, and had to mulligan to 5 in game 3.

That was the last PTQ I ever played in. 

[Cruel Ultimatum]

I PLAYED Michael Pennigar AT THAT PTQ.   We were both playing for Top 8 in the final round, and I almost knocked him out.  

I was playing UW Intuition-Accumulated Knowledge Mind's Desire.  I was 4-1-1, and a win would put me into the top 8.   I smashed him game 1, and in game 2, he played Cabal Therapy naming WHITE WALL.   The judge said that this was acceptable, after a big argument, and I had two Sunscape Familiar's in hand.   I went on tilt, and lost this game due to play mistakes, and had to mulligan to 5 in game 3.

That was the last PTQ I ever played in. 

Despite you not describing everything that happened involving the judge, I can pretty much assume what he said, and the judge made the correct ruling.

[Womba]

Did you consider Frantic Search over Careful Study, especially in build with Mana Drain?

I tested with Search but ultimately found Forbidden Alchemy to be better. In most circumstances Search is competing with Alchemy IMO and the ability to essentially look at four cards compared to two I found to be big enough of a difference to stick with Alchemy. What I like about Careful Study is that it is way easier to flashback via Snapcaster Mage. The deck also needed early tempo and development plays; Careful Study fits that billing the best IMO.

I PLAYED Michael Pennigar AT THAT PTQ.   We were both playing for Top 8 in the final round, and I almost knocked him out.   

I was playing UW Intuition-Accumulated Knowledge Mind's Desire.  I was 4-1-1, and a win would put me into the top 8.   I smashed him game 1, and in game 2, he played Cabal Therapy naming WHITE WALL.   The judge said that this was acceptable, after a big argument, and I had two Sunscape Familiar's in hand.   I went on tilt, and lost this game due to play mistakes, and had to mulligan to 5 in game 3.

That was the last PTQ I ever played in. 

Rough Beats....I usually don't PTQ much anymore myself. Although with the current format I have.....

[Phele]

Enjoyable read, thanks a lot!

Some questions:

- How do you compensate the lack of a real draw engine?

As far as I see it, this deck is a midgame oriented control-combo deck. You play lots of cheap counters to survive the first turns to get your combos (Welder/Snap/Vault-Key ...) going. You can't bet on early wins, as you don't play black tutors to get your combo pieces together quick enought. To control the game in the midgame to successfuly use your combos you need card advantage. But you just play Ancestral, Thirst and Jar to genarate real card advantage. The rest of your draw spells are "just" filtering or even card disadvantage (careful study). Don't you find yourself too often in the topdeck mode?

- How do you reliably fight through grave hate?

Your deck is grave centered, but is far away from having dredges explosiveness. Any form of grave hate can keep you away from using your main engines. You described in your article, that Tinker/Bot and Vault/Key are your main alternative win routes, but you don't play enough tutor effects (not even Mystical) to get these tools together consistantly. I would say this deck needs another consistant win route.

- Why Blood Moon in the board?

Your deck is straight UR but you hide one of the most powerful effects for this combination as an untutorable two-of in the board. IMO this meta is totally ripe to have serious issues with Moon effects. Dredge, Shops, Gush, ConfiControl, Oath, Landstill: There is almost no top deck that is not pretty vulnerable to Blood Moon. So why not use the whole four copies in the maindeck? It seem to fit to your deck concept.

- Why so much randomness?

There are many single copies of spells in your list. Especially Ligthning Bolt caught my eye. Your only way to find these copies is to storm/filter throuth your deck. I see that your list is very good in this, but is it enought to find the Bolt when you really need it?

[DubDub]

This is an interesting deck list.  I had been revisiting Forbidden Alchemy myself but couldn't find a compelling way to make it work.  I like the Snapcaster + Careful Study synergy for filling the grave, because Snapcaster-ing Alchemy or Thirst can be pretty expensive for not great gain.  I have two questions:

1. Did you consider Fact or Fiction supplementing or replacing Alchemy/Thirst?

2. What is your plan facing Mystic Remora?  Goblin Welder beats?  I ask because I saw a lot of Remora (from you, in part) at TMD Open 15 due to the prevalence of Combo and I can't bear to cast Forbidden Alchemy into an active Remora.  Would you Snapcaster without a target just to apply pressure?

[Ravager Sam]

I had no idea Mindslaver was legendary until I read your article.

That was just...so incredibly insightful.

[Womba]

Thanks for the great response to the article!!!



- How do you compensate the lack of a real draw engine?

To answer the last part of the question, I usually don’t find myself in top deck mode as often as it seems you are making it out to be. The addition of Snapcaster Mage was added to essentially become the “draw engine” given the cards you are running (Careful Study, Alchemy, etc.). The deck is definitely very grinding at times, especially with the spells you are playing, but I feel the addition of Snapcaster Mage really compensates for the lack of a traditional draw engine

- How do you reliably fight through grave hate?

The funny thing about most graveyard hate I have found is that only Extirpate proves to be a problem. Traditional Dredge cards such as Leyline of the Void and Yixlid Jailer are simply just not effective given the fact how late they actually come down (You’re not going to mulligan to a Leyline against this deck). Crypts and such while effective somewhat can just help turn my Welder into a great defender against the deck mostly. I look to combat the effectiveness of Extirpate via the density of threats you can use, which is why I added the other combos of Tinker and Vault/Key.

- Why Blood Moon in the board?

Simply put game one the card is not synergistic with the deck enough to warrant main deck inclusion.

- Why so much randomness?

Regarding Bolt, I usually have found as you touched upon that cycling through the deck I hit it when I need it. In most cases it is usually a card you don’t “need” at any specific moment but great in a lot of situations.


1.   Did you consider Fact or Fiction supplementing or replacing Alchemy/Thirst?

The idea of the deck originally stemmed from the unrestricting of FoF. I wanted to cram them in the deck but ultimately found them to be cumbersome. For the most part I wanted to keep a lean curve topping at 3-4 and try to make Snapcaster as effective as possible. While great against gush and other non-Landstill control decks I found it “slow” for the metagame. Standstill hits the board far too quickly and it’s a nightmare to resolve a FoF against shops. In certain circumstances I can see FoF be included but as it stands currently I have excluded it.

2. What is your plan facing Mystic Remora?  Goblin Welder beats?  I ask because I saw a lot of Remora (from you, in part) at TMD Open 15 due to the prevalence of Combo and I can't bear to cast Forbidden Alchemy into an active Remora.  Would you Snapcaster without a target just to apply pressure?

For the most part against an active Remora you can usually play draw-go. Once you start discarding your artifacts Welder obviously becomes incredibly better. I could also see in some instances playing a Snapcaster just to apply pressure; I won some games against Landstill by playing him in response to a Standstill…



Any more questions let me know. I think it could only improve the deck...