Days of Vintage Past: The Return of Control Slaver

[The Atog Lord]

This is going to be a tournament report about a real-life, live, sanctioned 12-person Vintage tournament at Mr Nice Guy Games in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Before I get there, however, I wanted to take a moment to talk about Magic Online. No, this won't be my continuing to grouse about its technical shortcomings -- I've made those clear elsewhere. Instead, I'd like to highlight one of the important social consequences of opening up Vintage on Magic Online: the return of long-retired Vintage wizards.

I had not initially planned to get involved in Magic Online. I have a thesis to work on, and I have enough other distractions in life. No need for an extra time-sink, I had thought. However, slowly but surely, I began to see more and more old-school Vintage players appear on Magic Online. There are the still-playing wizards like Shockwave and Smmenen and Klep. But there have also been wizards that I have not seen playing Vintage in a very long time, including Kowal and Zherbus. They seem never to have lost their spark for the game -- only their occasion to play. And as I saw more and more of the folks that made this game so enjoyable a decade ago re-emerging for Online Vintage, I realized that it would only be a matter of time before I bought in myself.

Well, maybe bought in is too strong. I traded in. I have invested few if any dollars in Magic Online; instead, I shifting extra paper cards into digital objects. At any rate, though, I've been playing more and more Online Vintage. And while Magic Online is a poor program, Vintage Magic is a stellar game.

Because of the old-school nature of many of the newly risen Vintage players, it should not be any surprise that a deck whose primer I first published on this website a decade ago has also returned with new life. That deck is Control Slaver. And if you want a historical background on the deck, and the most comprehensive account of it that has been written, I highly suggest browsing through the dusty, timeworn pages of my primer:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=15900.0

Control Slaver was a powerful deck until that fateful day that Wizards took a sledgehammer to Vintage, restricting all of the Blue draw and engine staples in the format at once. It would not be long after that massacre that Vintage itself started to wane in popularity, and I don't think the two are unrelated -- though, again, that is a matter for another post. The fact remains that Control Slaver relied on having access to full sets of Brainstorms and Thirsts for Knowledge, and Wizards yanked both away, leaving the deck unplayable.

When Dack Faden was previewed, I and a number of other Vintage players were excited. Surely, this Planeswalker would let us play with our Goblin Welders again, right? And we tried. I told those who asked that I was sure there was a good build involving Dack, but I hadn't found it yet. Others tried to build around Dack with some success, including Tom Dixon, who put up a solid result with Control Slaver featuring Strix and Gush. But none of the builds were quite where they needed to be.

Not until, that is, ancient Vintage wizard and occasional trashcan enthusiast Ben Kowal figured out how to take all of the disparate pieces available to Vintage players today and assemble them into one cohesive contraption: Night's Whisper Control Slaver. Using Night's Whisper in Control Slaver is not something new. I had made the first build of the deck, many years ago. However, I never managed to make the deck put up results. Demonic Attorney took down some tournaments with it, but I never did so. Until today, that is.

TMD Progenitor Zherbus and I had both been riffing on Kowal's build, having been fairly happy with it on Magic Online. Zherbus and I were up until around 3am last night working on the finer points of constructing the deck, and we both ended up very happy with the results. Here is the list that we came up with, heavily influenced by Kowal's work:

2 Goblin Welder
2 Baleful Strix

2 Dack Fayden

1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Mindslaver
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Mental Misstep
1 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Fire/Ice
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pyroblast

1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Night's Whisper
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring


SB:
3 Ingot Chewer
1 Flusterstorm
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pyroblast
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mountain
1 Shattering Spree
1 Pyroclasm
1 Toxic Deluge

The goal of this deck is to generate heaps of card advantage, while having a reasonably high threat count. The color requires are fairly intensive, and no one is claiming that this deck is the best thing in the format. It does have advantages over other blue decks when fighting against Workshop decks, however. Further, since the "shell" of the deck has a relatively small footprint, Control Slaver has a good bit of room for metagame adaption, and simply changing the deck based on personal preference. This is a deck that can be adapted to what you expect to face, and moreover, what sort of deck you enjoy playing.

Now, on to the tournament report. The tournament itself took place at Mr Nice Guy Games in Monroeville (near Pittsburgh), PA. The store owner, Ron, has done a lot for the Eternal Magic scene in Pittsburgh, hosting weekly Legacy tournaments, as well as larger Vintage and Legacy tournaments. His events are always a blast, and the store itself is clean and comfortable.


Round One: Steve Rubin with "cheeky red" Pro Tour Competitor Steve Rubin built a homebrew deck, and it was a powerful one. His deck Featured some conventional cards like Magus of the Moon and Lodestone Golem. He also ran Liquimetal Coating, which is best friends with Dack.

game 1: I open on Black Lotus into double Night's Whisper. Rubin has Ancestral Recall, while Dack arrives on my side. I Force his Magus of the Moon, and Dack feeds the Yawgmoth's Will that I cast next turn.

game 2: I start with a Mulligan, and Mental Misstep Rubin's Welder. I Brainstorm hoping to hit a second land drop, but Brainstorm-Lock myself as Lodestone and his friend Other Lodestone beat me to death.

game 3: Rubin mulligans this game, but he does have a first turn Magus of the Moon. Fortunately, Magus doesn't stop me from hard-casting a Myr Battlesphere, who wins me the game.


Round Two: Steve with Green White Hatebears. Steve is getting into Vintage, and only has a Pearl for power. In his previous round, he defeated the Eric, the other person to bring White Hatebars to the tournament, primarily because Steve ran Tarmogoyf.

game 1: I lead with Strip Mine, Jet, and Night's Whisper. Steve has Aether Vial, and I have Mana Crypt into Tinker for Myr. I Mental Misstep Steve's Path to Exile and we are on to game two.

game 2: Steve leads with Gaddok Teeg. I Merchant Scroll for Ancestral, but Steve has David Bowie on his side, no doubt upset that I opted not to play Dance Magic Dance this week. However, I Vampiric Tutor for Pyroclasm, and that's the end for everyone's favorite Glam Rock icon the Kithkin Advisor. From there, while Steve is casting Cats who Hate Library Searching, I'm assembling Jace and Strix and Welder. The game doesn't last much longer.


Round Three: Ron Kotwica, Mr Nice Guy Himself. Ron is playing an old-school Keeper deck, featuring gorgeous beta moxen. It's nice to see Kaervek's Torch teaming up with Balance and The Abyss again.

game 1: The thing to understand about Ron is that he hates going to Paris. I've seen him keep no-lander hands in Standard -- and win. So the fact that Ron went to six cards this game was shocking. He missed a bunch of land drops and I had plenty of time to set up Tinker.

game 2: Ron goes to five cards for the first time in his life, and I have Library. Ron wasn't really in this game, sadly.


Round Four: Cameron on Control Slaver. Apparently, Cameron decided to play Control Slaver because he read that I had been doing well with it on MODO. It worked out for him since, *spoiler*, he and I would meet in the finals.

game 1: Cameron has a first-turn Ancestral. I follow up that powerful spell of his with my own restricted power-house, Ponder. Cameron casts Brainstorm, but I have Time Walk (in Exploration mode) and Night's Whisper. Cameron Wastes a land of mine and then casts Jace. I have the Pyroblast for his Jace (which is what I put it in the deck to do), and after trading Forces the Planeswalker dies. Cameron stops my Ancestral, but I assemble Top and Dack. Cameron then has his own Dack and a Goblin Welder to go with it. I cast a desperation Yawgmoth's Will, but it does little beyond drawing me some cards and letting me Pyroblast his Dack. Cameron hardcasts Mindslaver on his turn, but doesn't have the mana to activate it. Nor does he have an artifact in his graveyard to Weld it out -- this is relevant as I dig into a Dack on my turn and steal his Mindslaver with Dack. I don't have the mana to activate the Mindslaver either, so I have to pass the turn. I Force Cameron's Yawgmoth Will, but his Hurkyl's Recall resolves, giving him the Mindslaver back. But (sensing a theme here?) he can't play and activate it that turn either. On my turn, I get my own Mindslaver and can activate it. Cameron concedes when I explain that I can use his Goblin Welder to perpetuate the Mindslaving.

game 2: After a very intense first game, we don't have much time for a second game. But, we do manage to finish it. I Mulligan, and Cameron has Brainstorm. Cameron Red Blasts my Tinker, and I Pyroblast a spell of his, possibly Dack. Eventually, I hardcast a Mindslaver and activate it. I make Cameron cast Yawgmoth's Will, use Izzet Charm to discard some important spells, Mental Misstep another of his own spells, and put garbage on top with Brainstorm. After that, it was easy for me to win the game.


Round 5: Scooping Scotty into the Top Four


Top Four: Scotty on Terra Nova. The Play-Draw rule does a lot in Vintage. The matchup of Blue against Workshops is very draw-dependent, and that was apparent here for certain.

game 1: I assemble a first-turn Jace. Not to be out done, Scotty has two Porcelain Legionnaires and a Chalice at one. I Tinker up a Myr Battlesphere and Fire both of the Legionnaires. Scotty has a Revoker and for Jace and a Lodestone Golem. The Great Thief in the Multiverse arrives and takes the Golem, and that's the game.

game 2: Scotty opens with a Thorn and a chalice at one. I use a Sea to cast a Mox, but Scotty Wastes the Sea. Scotty has a ratchet bomb. I'm hobbled mana-wise, but Scotty can't draw a threat to put the game away. After a lot of playing draw-go, I cast Jace. Basic Mountain was an all-star here. By the time Scotty finds a Lodestone golem, I have everyone's favorite Gambit-Cosplay Enthusiast to steal him once again.


Finals: Cameron, once again, still on Control Slaver.

game 1: I have a Ponder off Underground Sea. Cameron follows suite, though with a much nicer black-border Sea. I fail to bait a counter with Goblin Welder, but Cameron does Force my Ancestral. He has Strix, while I have Night's Whisper. I Mental Misstep his Goblin Welder, and he Drains my Strix. I resolve a Dack, and use Timewalk as a combined Exploration and Faithless Looting. I Force Cameron's Jace. I then Tinker into Lotus and resolve Yawgmoth's Will.

game 2: I'm surprised and unhappy with Cameron opens with a Leyline of the Void in this game. He also has Brainstorm, Mox, and a Sol Ring. I have a fetchland. Cameron plays and land and passes, while I have a Night's Whisper. I cast a Nihil Spellbomb, mentioning that his Leyline has shut the card off. Cameron Vamps for a Tezzeret, which I Pyroblast. Wasteland takes me to two land, but I can still Mental Misstep his Ancestral. I'm at seven, and Brainstorm into nothing. The next turn, I Ponder into a land, use Scroll to find Ancestral. I Force Cameron's Top, and he forces my Ancestral. Dack, however, does arrive on my side, and I steal a Sol Ring. I Force his Jace, and then Tinker into Battlesphere.


Conclusion

I was very happy with the deck, finishing 6-0 in played matches and 12-1 in games.

I ran Pyroblast over Red Element Blast in the hopes of using them with Dack's ultimate, but it never happened. On the bright side, Dack's thefts today included Sol Ring, two Golems, and even a Mindslaver.

Props to Tom Dixon for proving that Dack Slaver is viable, and for Kowal for making the first build of the deck that I actually felt happy with. Props to Zherbus for staying up late last night working on this build with me. Props to all of my opponents today, who were a blast to play with. And thanks to Ron for running this great event.

Rich Shay

[zeus-online]

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[Undomian]

Thanks again for the basis for the list I ended up running at this Rich! It was a blast trying to navigate the mirror, and I hope to improve for our future matches.

[Samoht]

I find your lack of Izzet Charm disturbing.

Otherwise I like a lot of the cards in the deck, especially the move from other draw engines (I had tried Gush and FoF recently) to Night's Whisper that Kowal made and how you ran with it. I'm skeptical of MD Pyroblast, Library of Alexandria (lack of refilling options), and the lack of Oath plan post SB. Those could all be meta-game conventions though.

Glad to see you doing well with a list so near to our hearts.

[Zherbus]

You don't need 'refilling options' to run LoA, but the deck does run 6 draw spells and a Jace, Welder/Strix, and Top/Key. That seems like a very odd nitpick. As does finding the lack of an Oath SB plan skeptical. The deck doesn't even support green anywhere and certainly doesn't need Oath to beat aggressive decks, especially when as a tinker/artifact recursion impression that it makes often leads to them bringing in cages.

[zeus-online]

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[Zherbus]

My apologies then!

Samoht is right that we are a bit softer to the Oath plan directly. Originally there was a third cage.

The Oath plan splits two ways:

Control Oath isn't a very resiliant control deck. The deck can't afford an efficient draw engine because of Oath. The idea is to keep Oath off the table, largely. The mox, Orchard, Oath with FoW back up (or us not having FoW) hands will make this plan a bit softer, but keep the amount of must-counters to a minimum throughout the longer games and not as prone to Abrupt Decay.

Burning Oath is a different, highly meta consideration. If it involves the Lab Maniac plan, then Oath just became a whole lot worse. If not, finding and protecting Cage became a bit harder when dropping from 3 to 2 cages.

Further, Samoht is right to question the Pyroblast. However in practice, it's just as potent as Mental Missteps in the matchups where Misstep is good. You still board it out against Workshops, but it's removal for Jace and an extra bullet in the gun for Delver. I've only been running it for a day and it's been good for me. I personally consider it one of those flex slots to adapt with the metagame.

[Samoht]

You don't need 'refilling options' to run LoA, but the deck does run 6 draw spells and a Jace, Welder/Strix, and Top/Key. That seems like a very odd nitpick. As does finding the lack of an Oath SB plan skeptical. The deck doesn't even support green anywhere and certainly doesn't need Oath to beat aggressive decks, especially when as a tinker/artifact recursion impression that it makes often leads to them bringing in cages.

I think he meant a plan against oath of druid decks. You know, nature's claim or whatever enchantment hate you prefer. I find it odd that it is missing too.

I meant that this is a deck that is inherently cold against Oath by wanting to play 4 nonexplosive creatures and the SB only features 2 Cages to combat that. Obviously Welder can ensure that the Cage is in once it's found but then comes the side effect of opening up to TV+K (with Welder tapped) and their back up Show and Tell plan (which was heavily defended). Getting cut off from one of your more powerful lines is something that needs to be taken into account. Now, if Rich's local store had a lack of Oath players and he made hedges based on that I won't comment further on the Oath match up for the list as presented. If I tried to play that here where Greg Fenton, Mike Ruggiero, and several others with similar lists are putting up solid results, I'd have a significantly harder time winning.

Regarding LoA: You don't need to have anything to play any card. That much is right. However, synergy is something that we all strive for with our decks and it's something that is a heavy handed in this deck particularly. I've played this deck with and without LoA. I've played it with and without Bob, Gush, and FoF, all of which are superior to the draw engine package below in terms of their pairing with LoA. Obviously they all had TfK and Ancestral. I frequently felt myself at the 3-4 card range and had an abysmal time getting back to 7 without Bob(active)/Gush/FoF - and even with them at times it was a struggle. Once I eschewed those draw engines I let Library go as well. It's my favorite card of all time, but I don't want to hold onto it for the off chance it's in my opener and ends the game if they aren't explosive. Strip Mine was used in this slot to great effect by JP Kohler. Another basic could even be stronger than LoA. I just said that I was skeptical of the cards inclusion, not that I was inherently against it. Perhaps I should have said more in the post, though I was fishing more for a defense of it than trying to attack it outright. I have often misunderstood a cards impact in a decks design and wanted to give Rich a chance to explain to me in case there was something I was missing. Perhaps that's still the case. In the meantime, I remain skeptical.

[conboy31]

I bought into vintage yesterday and built kowal's version.  Against oath, particularly when they resolve it (no way in the 75 to destroy it) I feel like I can defend my cage against claim but feel exposed vs. grudge and similar cards ie shattering spree.

Nice report.  I plan on building your version too, and hope to speed up my play.  These 30 minute modo rounds won't be around forever.

[The Atog Lord]

Hi folks. There is some great discussion on here!

First, on the matter of Library of Alexandria. The card has been extremely good for me. If you open with Library in your hand, you can often bury your opponents with it. I have found that it is generally correct, for example, not to Force an opponent's Ancestral Recall if that means missing out on Library. It's that good.

But what about Library in the latter stages of the game? In those cases, indeed, you often won't be able to use the Library to draw  more cards. But at that point, the Library is often no worse than another Basic Land, since you have all the colored mana you need anyway. Given that, the huge additional utility that Library provides in the early game is not actually that expensive in terms of opportunity cost should it be drawn in the late game.

Now, I do agree with the notion that the Oath matchup seems less than ideal. Sad to say, Grixis doesn't have any ideal solution to the Oath problem. Grafdigger's Cage is the best option, since it doubles as Dredge hate. However, I don't think maindecking the cage is feasible because of its poor synergy with our own cards -- Tinker, Yawgmoth's Will, and even Goblin Welder.

That said, I can see running more cages in the sideboard -- it might even be correct to go up to four copies if Oath is expected to be common. Unfortunately, after the set of Cages, our anti-Oath options are much worse. At least Cage has some ability to halt Burning Oath's Yawgmoth's Will. Other anti-Oath cards available to Grixis include Greater Gargadon and other narrow cards that don't even do much against other cards from the Oath deck. While one could splash another color in theory, I really don't think the manabase could support it. In short, going to a full set of Cages is fine, but it does too much against us to be maindeck-worthy, and beyond Cage all of our anti-Oath options are just bad.

As for the Pyroblast, that is entirely a metagame call. I wanted to have something in the deck that could handle a resolved Jace, and Pyroblast does the job well. However, if you expect other cards to be popular in your metagame, then by all means change that up.

[Samoht]

Hi folks. There is some great discussion on here!

First, on the matter of Library of Alexandria. The card has been extremely good for me. If you open with Library in your hand, you can often bury your opponents with it. I have found that it is generally correct, for example, not to Force an opponent's Ancestral Recall if that means missing out on Library. It's that good.

But what about Library in the latter stages of the game? In those cases, indeed, you often won't be able to use the Library to draw  more cards. But at that point, the Library is often no worse than another Basic Land, since you have all the colored mana you need anyway. Given that, the huge additional utility that Library provides in the early game is not actually that expensive in terms of opportunity cost should it be drawn in the late game.

Against non-mana denial strategies I'm with you 100%. However, against decks with mana denial themes like Shops and Rods it has huge downside because it doesn't provide a color and is non-basic. To me the question is does the potential power derived early against Blue by having a particular restricted card outweigh the draw back of having a dead card late game across all match ups or a very weak card against two other pillars. I could also extrapolate how I feel it is not very good against Storm or Dredge because of the tempo of those games. I just don't feel it fits.

Now, I do agree with the notion that the Oath matchup seems less than ideal. Sad to say, Grixis doesn't have any ideal solution to the Oath problem. Grafdigger's Cage is the best option, since it doubles as Dredge hate. However, I don't think maindecking the cage is feasible because of its poor synergy with our own cards -- Tinker, Yawgmoth's Will, and even Goblin Welder.

That said, I can see running more cages in the sideboard -- it might even be correct to go up to four copies if Oath is expected to be common. Unfortunately, after the set of Cages, our anti-Oath options are much worse. At least Cage has some ability to halt Burning Oath's Yawgmoth's Will. Other anti-Oath cards available to Grixis include Greater Gargadon and other narrow cards that don't even do much against other cards from the Oath deck. While one could splash another color in theory, I really don't think the manabase could support it. In short, going to a full set of Cages is fine, but it does too much against us to be maindeck-worthy, and beyond Cage all of our anti-Oath options are just bad.

100% agreed on not MD'ing cage. Chaos Warp is underused and provides an answer to several problematic things that can be presented to us aside from also solving Oath. Goblin Bombardment or Greater Gargadon are sufficiently weaker but also provide some utility, though I'd only suggest either if the meta was heavy on Oath. I've also stretched to 4c at times and find it to be awkward.

[The Atog Lord]

Good points, Tom. I will point out, of course, that Chaos Warp has hilarious potential to go wrong against Oath.

[Samoht]

Good points, Tom. I will point out, of course, that Chaos Warp has hilarious potential to go wrong against Oath.

I mean, it can speed them up half a turn cycle, sure. However most Oath decks are very light on cards that will hit off Chaos Warp.

Edit: It also can save our Time Vault from being Exiled during a Will turn or set up a future Tinker in response to an Abrupt Decay.

[zeus-online]

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[The Atog Lord]

The plan against combo is to have nine counters and graveyard removal in the maindeck, with more in the sideboard. Oath is rough. Against other combo decks, however, we can quite a few tools. So far, testing against Ritual and Gush combo has been very favorable.

[zeus-online]

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[Will]

I wonder if something like Witchbane Orb wouldn't be useful in the sideboard of a deck like this? I love Witchbane Orbs in the sideboard of my Workshop decks as it shuts off Oath of Druids, Jace's Fatesealing, Tendrils of Agony and also discard (not that it's terribly relevant). I understand that as a 4cc card it isn't the best answer, but with Welder it could cost less and it also dodges Abrupt Decay which is extremely important.

If I were playing a deck like this I would want a Mountain maindeck instead of the Library personally. Strip Mine could be useful too, but I think I would want a Mountain more. If your strategy is truly to out card advantage people through Night's Whisper and Welder then why not limit the times when you get blown out by a Wasteland in the early game because you want to play Turn 1 Welder or the like but don't want to fetch a dual? A Mountain maindeck would also free up a sideboard slot which could go towards shoring up the Oath matchup.

Overall, I like the looks of this deck a lot. Rich and I talked about it a fair bit and came pretty close to this list. I am interested in seeing how this deck changes and adapts to the different metagames, specifically to a heavier Oath meta like the Northeast is currently.

[A.-1.]

The next turn, I Ponder into a land, use Scroll to find Mindslaver.

What happened here?

I feel like I can defend my cage against claim

It's not Nature's Claim that you should be worried about. It's Abrupt Decay, which is why I like Will's idea of testing Witchbane Orb. I also like the idea of swapping LoA for the Mountain to free up a sideboard slot.

[The Atog Lord]

Ah, good catch. That should read that I used Merchant Scroll to find Ancestral Recall. I've edited my above post.

Witchbane Orb is interesting if the expected metagame is Oath-heavy. It is narrow, and it is a  bit unwieldily. But, if the metagame calls for a fifth anti-Oath card, this is likely it.

There are excellent arguments in favor of running the Basic Mountain over Library. I hope that, if you are doing so, you will at least run an Arabian Mountain in honor of the Library. In my games, however, Library has been too good not to run, even if it will be useless on some occasions.

[Kowal]

Failure to run Library is an inexcusable mistake.  It's shocking to me the argument to cut it even came up.

[portland]

LoA seems to have a place in the deck in a big way. Lack of basics with the presence of a strip is another possible discussion. We do have two tutors, but if you can't cast the tutors...

[Jeb Springfield]

Grats on the finish, it is sad to see only 1 mana drain in the decklist, but i understand why.

Could I ask that someone please explain why only one Mana Drain is found in this list, whereas Kowal's initial list had three? Is it because most of the spells in the list have high or higher colour requirements in their casting cost (example Dack Fayden costing 1RU but Tezzeret the Seeker costs 3UU)?

(I am new to Vintage so I apologise if this seems like a foolish question).

[portland]

Grats on the finish, it is sad to see only 1 mana drain in the decklist, but i understand why.

Could I ask that someone please explain why only one Mana Drain is found in this list, whereas Kowal's initial list had three? Is it because most of the spells in the list have high or higher colour requirements in their casting cost (example Dack Fayden costing 1RU but Tezzeret the Seeker costs 3UU)?

(I am new to Vintage so I apologise if this seems like a foolish question).

7 of the 9 counters don't require mana, and against many threats (Jace in particular) pyro can be considered a counter after the fact. Just a case of room more than anything. You also have a lot of sorcery speed tutors, critters, walkers and draw spells, so keeping UU open early doors often won't be practical. You don't want to spend turn 2 holding 2 non basics open to drain, only to discover they waste a land, declare combat, then cast afterwards - you're skipping a turn. Very different sort of deck to landstill or similar.

<edit> to expand, the original list had more instant card draw, and this is reflected in the number of counters that can only be cast with mana open.

[zeus-online]

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[Samoht]

Failure to run Library is an inexcusable mistake.  It's shocking to me the argument to cut it even came up.

I'd like for a bit more elaboration than merely a declarative statement with no supporting ideas behind it. I've tried the deck with and without Library. I've had more success without the card in it. I outlined some of my reasoning above but would be willing to drill down deeper if you'd like. As I stated earlier, the card is my favorite card of all time. I have put it to good use in many a deck. However, this deck in particular is very light in ways to get back to the magic 7 after being pushed off it and that makes me at least question how strong LoA is here specifically. In my extensive testing of Strixis (or Control Slaver or Slaverless Slaver) I've found that LoA was untenable without Gush/FoF/Bob pushing us back up to 7 faster. As Tempo decks push the format faster and faster, cards like LoA are being pushed out.

[Will]

Failure to run Library is an inexcusable mistake.  It's shocking to me the argument to cut it even came up.

I'd like for a bit more elaboration than merely a declarative statement with no supporting ideas behind it. I've tried the deck with and without Library. I've had more success without the card in it. I outlined some of my reasoning above but would be willing to drill down deeper if you'd like. As I stated earlier, the card is my favorite card of all time. I have put it to good use in many a deck. However, this deck in particular is very light in ways to get back to the magic 7 after being pushed off it and that makes me at least question how strong LoA is here specifically. In my extensive testing of Strixis (or Control Slaver or Slaverless Slaver) I've found that LoA was untenable without Gush/FoF/Bob pushing us back up to 7 faster. As Tempo decks push the format faster and faster, cards like LoA are being pushed out.

I could be mistaken or off base, but I think that Kowal's opinion is based off the Vintage Online metagame as well as his experience from years past. Just looking at Morphling.de, Kowal's last Top8 IRL was in 2009, at which time cards such as Lodestone Golem, Phyrexian Revoker, Dismember, Kuldotha Forgemaster, and Phyrexian Metamorph all had not yet been printed. These cards have helped to shape and advance the Workshop pillar dramatically, in ways which have not yet been adopted on Magic Online.

For instance, a lot of the Workshop lists which I saw doing well on Magic Online were not playing Phyrexian Revoker at all. Without Revoker the matchup against Shops would be significantly easier for CS, making the inclusion of a Mountain over Library unnecessary. As time passes, the Magic Online metagame will undoubtedly mature and players will broaden their horizons and adapt their deck choices to the metagame. When that happens and Workshop players begin to play cards such as Phyrexian Revoker, the margin for error that CS pilots have will drop and the scale may tip so that a basic Mountain is better than Library in this deck.

Part of this decision comes down to what matchups you are worried about as well as the metagame you expect. In the Northeast Mishra's Workshop as well as Fish decks are a real concern. This would drive me to play more basic lands, likely at the cost of Library.

I think your critiques of the draw engine in this specific deck are very accurate as well, Tom. Library almost seems like a Leyline in this deck. Sure, you can draw into it and have it be relevant but if it's not in your opener chances are you won't be using it. If you get Library in your opener and your opponent doesn't either kill you before it matters, or hit it with a Waste, you should win.

[Jeb Springfield]

@zeus-online and portland: Thanks for the reply. I had neglected to consider the quantity of Sorcery speed v Instant speed card draw in each list.

[portland]

np

[Smmenen]

from years past. Just looking at Morphling.de, Kowal's last Top8 IRL was in 2009, at which time cards such as Lodestone Golem, Phyrexian Revoker, Dismember, Kuldotha Forgemaster, and Phyrexian Metamorph all had not yet been printed. These cards have helped to shape and advance the Workshop pillar dramatically, in ways which have not yet been adopted on Magic Online.

For instance, a lot of the Workshop lists which I saw doing well on Magic Online were not playing Phyrexian Revoker at all. 

That's simply not true.  I've seen tons of Revokers in Workshop decks on Magic Online.

Look at the first place deck posted yesterday: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/vintage-daily-2014-07-21#decklists

3 Revokers maindeck.

[Will]

from years past. Just looking at Morphling.de, Kowal's last Top8 IRL was in 2009, at which time cards such as Lodestone Golem, Phyrexian Revoker, Dismember, Kuldotha Forgemaster, and Phyrexian Metamorph all had not yet been printed. These cards have helped to shape and advance the Workshop pillar dramatically, in ways which have not yet been adopted on Magic Online.

For instance, a lot of the Workshop lists which I saw doing well on Magic Online were not playing Phyrexian Revoker at all.  

That's simply not true.  I've seen tons of Revokers in Workshop decks on Magic Online.

Look at the first place deck posted yesterday: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/vintage-daily-2014-07-21#decklists

3 Revokers maindeck.

I did not say that no one was playing Revoker, simply that, "a lot of the Workshop lists which I saw doing well on Magic Online were not playing Phyrexian Revoker at all."

My apologies for not being completely up to date on daily results, my work blocks Wizards.com and thus the dailies results. I believe that as recently as last week I looked up the results and remember seeing that the lion's share of the lists did not play Revokers. I specifically remember Montolio playing a list which excluded Revoker altogether in favor of maxing out on Spheres/Thorns as well as adding 2 Staff of Nin.

My point was that Phyrexian Revoker has seen less play in Magic Online Workshop decks than in real life based upon the Daily Event results.