Preface
If you haven't read the"Five Axis Metagame" yet, we highly recommend you check it out first because it is one of the most comprehensive, yet clear and concise explanations of the current Type One metagame. The discussion of Slavery in this article will add to that analysis. The purpose of this article is to present the gold standard for Workshop decks in Vintage to compete with Blue Based Control's Tog, and Tendrils' Draw7.
Introduction
Every once in a while, Wizards prints a card that is completely unlike any card ever printed before - or, even if there is a similar card, the scope of the new variant is so sweeping that it is a stretch of the imagination to call the similar effect"precedent." Such is the case with Mindslaver. From the outset, the prohibitive mana cost and strange effect might cause one to preliminarily dismiss the card as a"Johnny" effect, or possibly even a Timmy card. Such was the case with Donate. I won't dwell on this point to belabor the obvious, but state instead that Spike has a real interest in this effect.
The important thing to recognize is how fully transformative this card is. For almost a year now, Mishra's Workshop Artifact Prison has been fully developed into a mature archetype - an archetype which worked hard to prevent the opponent from playing spells by jumping right out of the opponent's hand and shutting the opponent down. The side constraint of executing such a plan was that it shut out possible inclusions such as Force of Will and a larger Blue base. Further, it meant that the lock deck needed a key coterie of lock spells to impact the board immediately, or else face the consequences of a failed lock - something that is deadly in a format as fast as Type One.
Mindslaver, more so than any other card, has created a schism in the old definitions and blurred the lines between archetypes. In a single card, it has the effect of doing, in conjunction with as few as one other card, what it took a highly experienced and skilled Workshop Prison player many mulligans, tuning, and thoughtful plays to accomplish before. The results? Workshop Prison is a strictly inferior concept. Workshop Prison has to impact the board immediately - while a Mindslaver deck can luxuriously idle until the moment that it springs forth and takes control of every turn in the game thereafter.
The effect of such a dramatic shift is that such a deck can take the form that is most effective at fulfilling that purpose. It just so happens that a heavy Blue base - mimicking, if not existing in fact as a Blue-based control deck, appears to be the most effective and brutal home for the Mindslaver Prison. Instead of using Mishra's Workshop as the base to accelerate lock components, this deck uses Mishra's Workshop to power out key broken plays, but are not nearly as central to a winning game plan as they were to Prison.
If that were the full extent of Mindslaver's impact, it would merely be unprecedented. Instead, Slaver is revolutionary. Not only is this deck a hybrid Prison-Control deck (in the strict sense of prison and control), but it also is a combo deck - a hybridization trait of the best decks in the format. Take Tog for example. Tog is undoubtedly a control deck, but it also just combo's out with its inevitability of Cunning Wish -> Berserk, an effect which gives it unrivaled power in the control world to deal with aggro decks, no matter how efficient or well constructed. The combo element comes from the fact that first, this is deck that mimics control by drawing cards and countering spells up until about turn 3 or 4, at which point it unleashes the fury of Mindslaver and essentially"combo's" out, either using Memnarch, Memory Jar, or more likely, infinite Mindslaver with Goblin Welder (and Pentavus). The combo element is all the more real when you realize that many decks are the instruments of their own demise. Most decks have a way to either completely kill themselves: Necro, Tog, Demonic Consultation, or at the least ways to harm themselves.
Team Meandeck worked in late November on a build that came to fruition in an article written by Matthieu. The build presented in the article was the following one:
ImASlaveForYou.dec, by Team Mean Deck - Slavery 1.0
// Mana Sources - 29
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Seat of the Synod
4 Volcanic Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Grim Monolith
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
3 Gilded Lotus
// Keys to the Kingdom - 19
3 Blood Moon
4 Force of Will
4 Goblin Welder
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mindslaver
// Draw engine and tutors - 11
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Windfall
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Thirst for Knowledge
// Win condition (like you'll need it) - 1
1 Karn, Silver Golem
Meandeck worked hard to develop that build into a finely tuned machine. But there was more to be done. Matthieu worked tirelessly to perfect the deck and soon Cunning Wishes were added to the mix as maindeck answers to hate. The Seats of the Synod, which had initially been included to the build for their nice synergy with Thirst for Knowledge and Goblin Welder, were removed, because more and more decks starting to pack Null Rods as an answer to Mindslaver (the emergence of Oshawa Stompy provided the death blow to the Seats). A new mana base with Polluted Deltas instead was tested, but finally Shivan Reefs made the cut in order to add resiliency to Wastelands and to one of the new Type One bombs, Stifle. Furthermore, the Blood Moons were thrown in the sideboard, because the metagame was slightly leaning towards deck which are way less vulnerable to Blood Moon than the Top Tier decks used to be, like Oshawa Stompy, Back to Basics Psychatog or Tools and Tubbies (making a comeback).
However, intensive testing in response to the five-axis metagame with Tog at the center resulted in a better understanding of Slavery, and more potent build:
Meandeck Slavery 3.0
// The Backbone - 11
4 Volcanic Island
4 Shivan Reef
3 Gilded Lotus
// Acceleration - 16
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
// Protection/Consistency - 12
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
// The Prison Components - 11
3 Mindslaver
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Goblin Welder
// Insane Type One Draw - 7
1 Memory Jar
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Windfall
1 Time Walk
// Alternate Victory Conditions / Utility - 3
1 Memnarch
2 Pentavus
Part 1: Card-By-Card Analysis
The Lock
Mindslaver
The first key to understanding the construction of this deck is the realization that this deck is not about focus. In Type One, focus can have several consequences. One is that your game plan is more consistent and easier to execute. However, focus also increases your vulnerabilities. Strategies designed to counter a very specific win condition can lead to game and match losses. That is why this deck only has three Mindslavers. With the fourteen draw spells, these boys come up whenever you want them. Playing four is perfectly legitimate, but as the deck is currently built, there is no reason to cut any other card for a fourth Mindslaver.
No effect such as Mindslaver has previously graced the pages of Magic history. The closest equivalent is Word of Command - but it doesn't have Goblin Welder to infinitely recur it. The sheer magnitude of the Mindslaver effect is truly unprecedented. Taking control of every aspect of the opponent's game is not merely groundbreaking, it is game breaking. In many ways, this card is like Yawgmoth's Will - its abusiveness is a function of the power and strength of the cards it has access to. On that basis alone, keeping in mind that Type One has, by far, the most broken card pool, this is far more than just a Time Walk, and is most powerful in the Vintage format. Keeping in mind how broken Mindslaver was in Extended, it's potential is vast in Vintage.
At the very least, a one-shot Slaver will buy you far more time than the one turn you steal, it will more likely mean at least card advantage that you recoup with your savage topdecks over the next few turns that you have bought, by temporarily harming their board position by Wastelanding their own land, playing a Fetchland and failing to find anything, Brainstorming away their good cards, or playing a Lightning Bolt on themselves. If you get lucky, you'll be able to tutor up Ancestral Recall and play it on yourself, or Standstill. You'll be able to stop your opponent from attacking as well, or you can purposely attack into one of your large men. If you are playing against a combo deck, you have the chance to combo them out. Use Dragon's combo to kill itself, or if playing against Draw7, find Necro or Bargain and just draw them to zero life.
If you are fortunate to be playing against a Welder mirror, you will use their own Welders to keep your Mindslaver lock going, even in the absence of a Welder of your own.
Goblin Welder
As abusive as this card is with Mindslaver, it is far more than simply a way to keep the"Slaver" lock going. In the first place, you need to recognize that Goblin Welder is an enormous threat against Control. The concept of control relies upon the notion that they can counter your threats and secure the board. If Welder resolves, no matter what else they counter, even Mox becomes your most potent threat. This dramatically increases the number of threats in your deck - a potent advantage when you have threats as broken as Memory Jar, Mindslaver, and Memnarch. The games against Control can tend to go long, and Welding in cards like Memnarch will be critical to steal their permanents. Goblin Welder also is incredible versus other Workshop decks such as or TNT - a card by which you manipulate their board to your advantage.
If that were all Goblin Welder were good for, he would still be amazing. But as everyone knows, Thirst for Knowledge creates more broken synergies. A turn 2 Thirst can lead, with Goblin Welder, to an uncounterable (outside of Stifle) turn 3 Mindslaver activation.
Chalice of the Void
One of the key plays this deck will make is Chalice for two. This will happen on turn 1 or 2 rather consistently when you draw Chalice, and hopefully will occur with Force of Will backup. A resolved Chalice for two will stop most of your problems (Mana Drain, Naturalize, Null Rod, Artifact Mutation, Ground Seal) and take out a significant portion of any opposing deck, while only negating one spell of your own: Time Walk. The amount of mana this deck generates makes Chalice of the Void particularly abusable.
Against a UBg Tog deck, Chalice for three should induce scoopage of the cards from your opponent, as they have no way to win because Chalice stops Tog, Pernicious Deed, and answers via Cunning Wish.
Against a deck running Null Rod or Damping Matrix, like Keeper, Chalice for one is often a key play, as resolving one should protect your large men from Swords to Plowshares for example. Your goal then is to seal up holes in the mana curve with more Chalices while you beat down and they sit there helpless. This enlightens the second aspect of the deck: the Beatdown role. We will cover this later in the article.
If you are playing against or the mirror and going first, Chalice for zero on turn 1 can be a key play. It can create such a huge tempo advantage that you get to do your broken stuff before they do. Against , it will completely cut off their ability to function, while it gives you one more permanent.
If you sideboard in Blood Moons, then Chalice for zero could also be a key play against Control matchups, so that you can deny them Moxen that they may otherwise need in order to play around Blood Moon.
The important thing to keep in mind is that if you play a Chalice for two first, you will be unable to play Chalice for one. This can be a good and a bad thing. If you have multiple Welders in a mirror match, you may want to play Chalice for two to prevent your opponent from playing Chalice for one.
Something that you need to know is that you can play Chalice for three and still resolve your own Tinker because you sacrifice the Chalice before it triggers. This is a key play in the mid/late game mirror and will usually stall the game out until you draw Tinker.
Force of Will
There are seventeen Blue spells in the maindeck, the number at which you can reliably cast multiple Force of Wills during the court of a game. Force of Will is not only the"glue," it is a necessity for most good Type One decks.
Force of Will will protect you from any hate that you might have to face, but it will also ensure that your spells resolve.
Blood Moon
Blood Moon is certainly maindeckable if you feel that it would be solid in your environment. It spells doom for many decks, and this deck has only the minimal drawbacks, since it runs cards like Gilded Lotus. However, this card is probably best left in the sideboard.
The Stock
Thirst For Knowledge
In the first place, draw is already a premium in Type One, and any decent draw spell is playable - even Deep Analysis has found a home in Type One. Thirst for Knowledge is an instant speed optimizer with a drawback that is actually a benefit in many cases. Thirst for Knowledge is the card that makes the deck work, surprisingly far more than Mishra's Workshop or even the Mindslaver itself.
This deck often wants to achieve both the Beatdown and the Control roles in any given matchup. One way in which it can become the Control role is by virtue of it having so many draw spells.
Brainstorm/Ancestral Recall
With Brainstorms, Ancestral Recall, and Thirst for Knowledge, you have a serious concentration of efficient optimizers. These cards help smooth over the decks inconsistent design, and also play into the reactive nature of the deck - the deck's game plan is very much determinative upon the choices that the player makes. The deck is very reactive to actual game states - but it is well equipped to take advantage of any game scenario and carry away the victory. What makes the draw spells so important is that you don't have to fight over each spell, but you can actually outdraw the Control decks. In most cases, you want to play the draw spell either on your opponent's first main phase, or during his combat phase, for Mana Drain issues. What will happen is that they will go:"Draw, go," and you will say,"On your first main phase, I'd like to play Thirst for Knowledge." (Kevin Cron has already discussed this issue in an enlightening article). Brainstorm became one of the most important cards in this deck - enabling it to fix its mana, dig deep, and save spells while in a Memory Jar or for a new hand with a Draw7.
Fact or Fiction
Fact or Fiction shines most against control decks. It can be difficult to cast, but the synergy is undeniable with Goblin Welder and the like. If you use Cunning Wishes, you can throw Fact or Fiction in the sideboard as a strong wish target.
Time Walk
Time Walk is often quite underpowered in this deck. Most of the times you drop Chalice of the Void, it will be for two, and so Time Walk will end up as a dead draw. Nonetheless, getting a Welder to go"live" or Time Walking out of a Memory Jar can be a game breaking play. A first turn Time Walk for a turn 2 Mishra's Workshop and Gilded Lotus is also extremely solid.
Tinker/Memory Jar/Wheel of Fortune/Timetwister
This deck is a lot like a Tinker deck. Not running Tinker would be sacrilege. Memory Jar is the most important Draw7 and the most abusable. It is also the most frequent Tinker target, followed by Memnarch, Mindslaver, Pentavus, and sometimes Gilded Lotus.
Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister are both auto-inclusions because they are ridiculous card drawing. Don't forget to weld in that Mindslaver before you cast Timetwister.
Fire / Ice
This card was in the deck for some time and has many advantages. In the first place, it is excellent way to deal with opposing Welders. It has proven worthy against Control in the early game by tapping down lands to draw cards and it pitches to Force of Will. However, Brainstorm essentially replaced this card, and we haven't looked back.
Windfall
Another Draw7.
Cunning Wish
Cunning Wish is a very useful card and its removal from this maindeck is a close judgment call. Playing with Cunning Wish ensures that you don't lose to random hate in game one (Null Rod) and also has some nifty sideboard targets. If you want to run this, cut Fact or Fiction and Triskelion, or Fact or Fiction and Time Walk, for two Cunning Wishes. The usual sideboard target is Chain of Vapor (which is basically a one-sided Upheaval and Armageddon under Mindslaver) followed by Red Elemental Blast, Fire/Ice, Rack and Ruin, Shattering Pulse, and other potential goodies like Stroke of Genius, Fact or Fiction, or Mystical Tutor.
Burning Wish
Not unlike Cunning Wish, you can find some helpful answers to random hate such as Upheaval, but you will also have broken possibilities such as Yawgmoth's Will and Mind Twist (relying on Gilded Lotuses to cast them). This card is a real possibility, but the reason it didn't make the cut in our build is that it is too random, and - probably equally important - it isn't Blue.
Intuition
This is one possibility that we never got around to testing, but it certainly is worth looking at. Turn 1 Welder, turn 2 Intuition for Slavers is pretty busted, no matter how you look at it. You could also find almost any other goody you wanted.
Three Smoking Barrels
Memnarch (a.k.a."Smemnarch")
This guy is by far the most effective creature you have. He will win games in ways that other men can't even dream of. He is highly thematic with the deck (stealing turns and perms) and he is also very large. The five toughness is very nice. He shines against both Control ("My lands!") and Aggro ("My dudes!"), making the Mindslaver recursion less needed in this last matchup, as long as you have time to steal enough critters. He is most effective where Pentavus is not: against decks like Tog, where you need to steal the Tog immediately in order to not lose.
Pentavus
Pentavus is probably the second best creature in the deck. Like Memnarch, it's a strong 5/5 body that is even harder to remove via Swords to Plowshares or artifact removal, as long as you keep enough mana available to split him into 5 flying Pentavites. Against Aggro, Pentavus provides an unlimited amount of blockers, buying you time to dig into a Mindslaver or a Memnarch backed up with Gilded Lotuses. Pentavus really shines with Goblin Welder, because the Pentavites are artifact creatures. Basically, this allows you at least five Mindslaver activations, or any other kind of recursion you need. Even if you'll almost never need to do that, getting a Pentavus out along with a few Goblin Welders is the key for an infinite Mindslaver recursion. The role of Pentavus in our build has been dramatically lessened since the inclusion of Memnarch, but it's still a nice utility critter that perfectly fits in the Beatdown plan. A turn 2 Pentavus is an awesome threat against most Aggro decks.
In many ways Pentavus is the new Morphling. You can create a pentavite, block, and move it back onto Pentavus before damage is even on the stack - thus avoiding life gain via Exalted Angel or other tricks. Pentavus versatility as a critter is not to be underestimated. While Memnarch is just a brutally demoralizing card, Pentavus is more central to the deck's execution and normal game plan. Do not underestimate the power of a 5/5 beater.
Triskelion
Triskelion is our second utility creature. Thanks to Mishra's Workshop, Slavery is able to pulled an early Triskelion to deal with troublesome creatures, such as Gorilla Shaman or opposite Goblin Welders. Our early builds were maindecking some (one or two) Fire/Ice for that purposes, but Triskelion is definitely a better call, because it doubles as a strong 4/4 body when you want to play the Beatdown role. As a side note, using Triskelion to kill opposite Welders is not always a good play. This obviously has to be done as soon as the Welders become game breakers, but as long as they are just a minor annoyance, keeping them in play in order to abuse them with future Mindslavers is the right move.
Platinum Angel
The Angel has always been a consideration since our early builds, as it perfectly fits in Slavery's early game plan: surviving. Even if it is pretty weak against Control, it can often steal games against Aggro or Combo. In these matchups, sometimes you just want to drop an Angel and use Chalice of the Void and Force of Will to back it up. Nevertheless, we did not choose to include Platinum Angel in our build because we consider Memnarch, Pentavus and Triskelion as better creatures to use, but it's definitely a potential inclusion in some metagames.
Karn, Silver Golem
The Silver Golem was the first win condition we used in Slavery. Even if It fits well into our old Slavery mana denial plan (that build had three maindeck Blood Moons) by eating Moxen, Karn turned out to be a dead body way too often. Basically, it's just good if you want to stick to Slavery's Control plan, with multiple Mindslaver activations and a final alpha-strike with animated Gilded Lotuses and friends. Unfortunately, this will not always work like that. There are some matchups where Slavery just wants to turn into a Beatdown machine, and 0/8 walls are bad in this situation. Even Mons's Goblin Raiders laugh at Karn.
Mana
We won't dwell on why Mox Sapphire is on this deck, nor will we discuss the merits of the Mishra's Workshop build over the Mana Drain build. There are several possible alterations to the mana base than what we have proposed here. One is the omission of a few Shivan Reefs for a basic Island and a couple of fetchlands (Deltas or Flooded Strands). This would allow you to find an Island before dropping Blood Moon. It would also add a shuffle effect to complement the Brainstorms. The reason we haven't done that here is because of our fear of Stifle. The one constraint on this deck is the Blue mana - which is why we term the Volcanic Islands, Shivan Reefs, and Gilded Lotuses as the backbone of the deck. Furthermore, keeping a high land count is crucial against Keeper or other heavy land destruction decks.
Some of our teammates have expressed concern about the amount of damage this deck inflicts upon itself. For this reason, you may want to cut an Ancient Tomb for a City of Traitors - or, possibly, the Library of Alexandria! This is surprising, but Library can be extremely powerful in this deck thanks to the strong draw engine. One other possibility is the addition of Grim Monolith, which is currently not in this build. Grim Monolith is a very powerful mana accelerant, and it is arguable that it deserves a slot, although accommodating it is a trick.
So, How The Heck Do I Play This Deck?
Something that should be clear by this point is that this deck is not singularly concentrated on achieving one goal. The deck is multi-faceted and full of potential threats. It has threats in the form of large men, permanent counterspells in the form of Goblin Welder ("countering your counterspells"), Mindslavers which control turns and win games, Chalices which lock down the opponent, and the rest is just draw spells which draw into more of these cards and cards which protect the spells such as Force of Will.
This is one of the harder decks to play because it is not about achieving a particular objective unless the deck you are facing is equally single minded - such as a combo deck. The deck is, by and large, very reactive. Your game plan is extremely fluid - it is highly dependent upon not only what your opponent is trying to achieve, but what you draw. This is one of the reasons that the deck is skill intensive - because it requires decision making at every stage of the process.
Nonetheless, despite this flexibility, there is the outline of what appears to be a game plan. Under normal circumstances it usually begins with either:
1) Turn 1 Chalice for Two; Or
2) Turn 1 Brainstorm, which generally leads into
a) Turn 2 Gilded Lotus.
b) Turn 2 Chalice for Two; Or
3) Turn 2 Thirst/Draw7.
An alternative to this formula is Turn 1 Goblin Welder, and Turn 2 Thirst For Knowledge with the capacity to Weld in something more broken (Gilded Lotus, Memory Jar or Mindslaver, for example).
For the most part, the outlines we've just described are at the rather less broken end of Slavery's potential draws. Sometimes you'll find something far more broken and you can just go nuts. For example, you draw Memory Jar, Memnarch, or Tinker. Or you go"Mishra's Workshop, Mox, Mox, Gilded Lotus" and cast a Draw7 out of the fresh Lotus.
One thing to keep in mind is that since we have made the decision to use Workshops, you should try and abuse them as much as possible. To this end, we recommend that you play carefully when Thirsting and dumping away Slavers or Gilded Lotuses. You will often want to keep the Slaver in hand, preferring to hardcast it off Workshops, and Weld it back if your opponent counters it - then activate it. A similar plan should be followed with Memnarch, Pentavus, or Triskelion.
Perhaps the most important way to understand the deck is as a Control deck that can go broken. The deck in many ways is not much different from its control cousin that uses Mana Drain: Thirsts, Brainstorms, Force of Wills, Library of Alexandria, Goblin Welder, and even Fact or Fiction. The difference is that while you might play a Turn 1 Welder, Turn 2 Thirst, you can play Turn 3 Workshop, Slaver and activate it in a way that Control Slaver cannot do, or you can play Workshop, Mana Crypt, Memory Jar with Force of Will backup - which Control Slavery cannot do. You retain all of the control elements except Mana Drain, but you gain in a few other key areas.
First you have more Mindslavers, which means you have more access to it. Second, you can play very large men to avoid hate in a way that Control Slaver simply is unable to do. This makes you a much stronger deck against hate and aggro decks such as Oshawa. Control Slaver cannot sideboard in Platinum Angels like they are just another sideboard card, but our deck can.
Chalice of the Void for two is the default play, but you basically only have a window of turn 1 or 2 to play it before your opponent Mana Drains go online. Once they get UU up, unless you have Force of Will, and even in that case there are probably superior plays.
Mulliganing
In Type One, decks range from very inconsistent to highly consistent. One must be careful to keep in mind the distinction between redundancy and consistency. A highly redundant deck is often very consistent, but highly non-redundant decks, such as this, are also very consistent. Why? Well one measure of consistency is the frequency of necessary mulligan.
On one end, you have extremely consistent decks such as 'Tog. Tog is one of the most consistent decks in the format, needing to mulligan at about once every two matches, if that. Slavery mulligans in that range. Some decks require more mulligans. mulligans, on average, about once a game - because for every game it doesn't have to mulligan, it mulligans twice in another game. The reason is that a deck like will lose if it doesn't get its lock down almost immediately. Slavery is amazing because it does everything wants to do without having to do it immediately. Decks like Death Long and Draw7 also have to mulligan about the same number of times. The difference for Draw7 is that it recovers very admirably from mulligans because the core of the deck is Draw7 spells.
One of the important elements to understanding any given deck is recognizing what the constraints on its consistency are. For the most part, you cannot keep a hand without a Blue mana source. Even if you have Chalice for two and Force of Will backup, unless you have a Blue mana source, or a way to draw into one, the hand is probably not good enough to win the game. Quantity of mana usually isn't a problem, because if you have a Brainstorm or a Thirst for Knowledge along with a Blue mana source and a few accelerants, you will usually be able to find more mana.
One thing to be mindful of is what you are likely to need in any given matchup to win the match. That is a key factor in determining whether to mulligan - and it will become more clear after the matchup analysis section.
Matchup Analysis
is another deck that benefited a lot from Mirrodin and Darksteel, thanks to Thirst for Knowledge, Chalice of the Void, and Trinisphere. While this is an advantage in many matchups, most of the lock components is currently packing are pretty weak against Slavery. Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere can hurt Slavery's tempo if is playing them on its first turn, but after that, they become more and more useless, due to Slavery's Mishra's Workshops and Gilded Lotuses. Add to that the fact that Slavery is more consistent thanks to Brainstorms, has Force of Will to deal with annoying cards, and has access to Rack and Ruin and Fire/Ice game 1 thanks to Cunning Wish (if used), and you'll understand why this is a favorable matchup for Slavery.
Basically, one can sum up the games that way: starts dropping lock components but fails to settle a hard lock due to Slavery's Force of Will, Goblin Welders, and large amount of permanents, then Slavery eventually drops Mindslaver and wins, using lock components and Goblin Welders to its own advantage. In this matchup, Slavery has to play the Control role, even if an early Pentavus can also easily steal the game, by providing a big amount of permanents to tap or sacrifice.
Oshawa Stompy
Big 'O's most potent threats in this matchup are Null Rod and Wasteland. In order to win the game, O'Stompy must take the mana denial route, and Null Rod is crucial here. Playing against a deck that runs three or four maindeck Null Rods along with five Strip effects may seem fearsome, but the good news is coming: O'Stompy has little to no way to deal with Goblin Welders, which is a great advantage for Slavery. Mindslaver is not weak in this matchup, but getting a Goblin Welder and a fat body out (preferably Pentavus, if Null Rod is not on the board) is probably the best play.
Pentavus or Memnarch are bigger than Stompy's Basking Rootwallas and Arrogant Wurms, and will only be destroyed by a Mongrel if it is pumped at least three times. Chalice of the Void for two in early game is a really strong play, as it will shut down Stompy's best cards: Wild Mongrel, Survival of the Fittest, and Null Rod. Post board, Oxidize makes Chalice less potent, but Slavery's men are very large, and Welders are the real problem.
D4GR0N
The Old Dragon build had quite serious problems with our first Slavery build. Blood Moon was a great way to negate Bazaar of Baghdad, and Platinum Angel was hard to deal with once Slavery had a Welder on the board (Welder tricks own Ambassador Laquatus). Now, the deal has changed. Slavery has no solution to an active Bazaar of Baghdad, and Dragon is often maindecking a Sliver Queen or a Caller of the Claw, along with some Pernicious Deeds, making Platinum Angel far less potent. In this matchup, Chalice of the Void and Force of Will are crucial. An early Chalice of the Void for two will generally buy you enough time to deal with Dragon, especially if you have Force of Will for their Necromancies. A single Mindslaver activation is often game, as you can turn Dragon's Ambassador Laquatus or Lim Dul's Vaults against himself. Timetwister is a strong graveyard recursion tool, but be careful when using Wheel of Fortune or Memory Jar, because Dragon can often abuse them more than you. If Dragon is well represented in your metagame, add some Tormod's Crypts to your sideboard and, possibly, a Duplicant.
Tools N' Tubbies
A lot of different TNT builds can be found on the Internet. Some are using Pyrostatic Pillar or Blood Moon as maindeck disruption, others are using Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, or Tangle Wire. Nevertheless, the game against TNT does not really depend on the disruption they maindeck because, except for Pyrostatic Pillar, their hate does not really harm you. TNT's best chance at winning the game is to pull out a first turn Juggernaut, because even if you are controlling their turns, Juggies must attack. The good point is that you have the tools to deal with that opening. Force of Will and Goblin Welder are the most obvious ones, Pentavus and Memnarch being others. Memnarch shines in this matchup because most of TNT's threats are already artifact, so try to protect it at all costs and beware of Duplicant. Finally, Mindslaver is almost always game, as you can use their own Welders to your advantage while rushing them with your Pentavite tokens or pinging them to death with their Triskelions.
Psychatog
This matchup is not really hard, as long as you understand Slavery's role against Psychatog. A common play would be to force a Chalice for three mana into play. While that sounds interesting, this is clearly a bad play. There are several reasons why this is the case. The first and obvious reason is that it might have Gorilla Shaman in the deck. Another good reason is that they can play Cunning Wish in response. Finally - if they do either of these - then you are going to be prevented from playing your own spells. Slavery wants to play the Control role here, not the Beatdown or the Combo ones.
A wrong game plan and a mis-assignment of Slavery's role will always result in a loss of the match. Why? Because instead of playing temporary hosers, Slavery could have played more eot bombs, drawn real threats, and eventually won the game because of the intrinsic power of its cards. Mindslaver also turns most of Psychatog's cards to Slavery's advantage, from Deep Analysis to Ancestral Recall, including the all-mighty Psychatog itself, a built-in Tormod's Crypt and Mind Twist.
Fish and Gay/R
From the Fish or Gay/R side, the game will be all about Null Rods and mana denial, in the form of Wastelands and Gorilla Shaman. Fish's basic plan is to get out three power in creatures, then to"Time Walk" Slavery, thanks to his mana denial and Spiketail Hatchling (if used). Quite frankly, after testing this matchup, you'll understand why Shivan Reef is far better than Polluted Deltas in the deck.
Fish / Gay/R game plan often includes casting a Grim Lavamancer, one of their most important cards in this matchup, to shut down Slavery's recursion engine, a.k.a. Goblin Welder. Chalice of the Void for two is important in the matchup, but is not always a key play, as even if they resolve a Null Rod, you can still win the damage race thanks to your fat. Indeed, Fish and Gay/R are not well-equipped to deal with an early Pentavus or Memnarch, as the five-toughness is too much for their men (Mishra's Factory + Grim Lavamancer is troublesome though). Taking the Beatdown route is definitely the way to go in this matchup.
Keeper
Keeper is a tough matchup that is pretty much 50/50 overall. Keeper packs all the cards a deck needs to deal with Slavery. Indeed, it has both mana denial (Wastelands, Stifle, Gorilla Shaman) and creature removal. Keeper's early game plan is to stall Slavery's mana development, so resolving an early Gilded Lotus is a strong play and clears the path to the victory. Chalice for two is nice to shut down Mana Drain, but an early Chalice for one is definitely the better play, even if it prevents you from playing your Welders. This protects your fat from Swords to Plowshares, and Keeper will need time to find his Cunning Wishes or Balance without Mystical Tutor and Brainstorms, time Slavery will use to improve his hand thanks to Thirst for Knowledge and, possibly, drop another Chalice for two or a Mindslaver. As against Psychatog, Memnarch is a bomb in this matchup if you can settle a nice mana base. Depending on your opening hand, Slavery will play either the Beatdown role, or the Control one here. A good knowledge of the matchup is important to make that decision.
The Future Of Slavery
Slavery has already popped up on a blue based control form, and it has been found to be extremely powerful. In many ways, the control build is a superior deck. What the deck demonstrates is that if, and this is a big if, Slaver comes to distort the Type One metagame, looking at Workshop is misplaced. The control build has potential consistency benefits and the advantage of being more resilient to hate in that it is casting Mana Drain on turn 2 instead of Gilded Lotus. The disadvantage of the Control build is that it has weaknesses against decks like Oshawa Stompy. But fortunately for control players, Aggro is the easiest match to solve. Flametongue Kavu shores up many of those problems.
Hopefully more decks like Slavery will continue to emerge in the next few months, continuing the streak of innovation in Vintage that has kept the format interesting over the last year. Slavery will provide a true threat to Tog, but in the process it will provide an incentive to build the next big thing.
Until next time,
Stephen Menendian and Matthieu Durand
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