all your report are belong to us

This Waterbury started off a little different than last Waterbury. Instead of
the usual trek in the morning me, and the guys went on Friday night to teammate
and good friend Steve's (GI's) house for testing and a good start in the
morning. We get there about at about 10:00 PM and don't really make it to sleep
until about 4:45 AM. I was hoping to sleep until about 10:15 but somebody wakes
me up around 8:30. We get there around 9 and the buffet was too expensive for me
so I tuff it out for a while.

The list.

1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Mindslaver
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Goblin Welder
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
2 Deep Analysis
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
5 Moxen
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Stripmine

SB
1 Lava Dart
1 Firestorm
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Arcane Laboratory
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Spawning Pit

This list was what I planned to play because our expectations of Waterbury were
nothing but control and combo. If you play alot in New England, then you meet
alot of different and cool guys of whom you know what they are going to play
before they show up and from our past experience there was always a great level
of control and combo. Additionally, judging from the metagame, it looked like
the only real control matches that you would face in the US meta today would be
control slaver therefore, we designed this control slaver especially for the
mirror match. Deep Analysis was the key in this match-up because it meant that
you could still effectively use intuition against ak mirrors while most
intuition slaver builds couldn't. And since there were no wishes, Trike was the
best choice over pentavus for utility and removal because crucible does exactly
what pentavus did already only better not to mention that putting DA in the MD
freed up a lot of sb space. Our testing also indicated that the deck still
maintained a great game against Workshop so we weren't worried if we ran into
that anyway.

Round 1- Madness

Game 1- He gets a slow start and I have drain up before he drops his first
mongrel and I have plenty of draw eot. I get the slaver lock pretty fast and we
move on.

Game 2- I get mana screwed and 2 rootwallas finish me off.

Game 3- I drain his first rootwalla and force his null rod. One slaver
activation is good enough because he has another mongrel in hand. Trike goes the
rest of the distance here.

1-0

Round 2- URW Control with Meddling Mages and Scepters

Game 1- He doesn't have any threats for me early and I outdraw him into a slaver
lock.

Game 2- He tries to come out the door with 2 mages but I manage force his first
and drain the second. I recall into another counter and stop his scepters. An
intuition for slaver and crucible combined with an active welder ends this game.

2-0

Round 3- 5/3

Game 1- My starting hand is 4 forces, a drain and 2 moxs (U and W). I say to
myself, that's the first time that has ever happened. He goes for the 3sphere
but I force. He goes for a CoW and I force. He gets out a juggernaut and starts
the beats. I mystical into a tinker and platinum angel goes the distance.

Game 2- He resolves an early 3sphere and jug but rack and ruin comes up. Instead
of playing a slaver, I decide to play the trike and angel and beat right in. He
doesn't topdeck an answer.

3-0

Round 4- 5/3

Game 1- I get a great hand with drain, lotus, 2 moxs, mystical, brainstorm,
flooded strand. I drop the accel and pass. He plays a welder which I let resolve
and then a 3sphere which I drain. I use the extra U for a brainstorm then fetch
and mystical up tinker. I tinker for the trike and take out his welder then his
jug the following turn. I resolve alot of draw and get the slaver lock soon
after.

Game 2- This game he doesn't see alot of threats and I'm holding multiple racks.
I nuke his only welder with a firestorm and soon get a slaver lock again.

4-0

Round 5- Outlaw with Control Slaver

Game 1- I find out early from his manabase that this fella is playing Rich
Shay's style of control slaver. I resolve an early crucible and welder then draw
into a strip mine to lock him down.

Game 2- He resolves an early pentavus and beats me to death.

Game 3- I outdraw him early but can't draw into more hard counters only REBs. I
feel he'll topdeck yawg will soon and scramble to find a hard counter while he
looks for the will. He gets out a pentavus while I resolve a platz. I start
beating him while he beats with tokens. We're almost out of time and I scramble
to find an answer to his chump blockers. I attempt to use my welders to weld out
his pentavus but there aren't enough artifacts in his yard to get the job done
before time is called and he's at one with no blockers left. Rough beats.

4-0-1

Round 6- TPS

Game 1- He goes very crazy early on but to avail as he cannot draw into a
tendrils while I get the counters up and he concedes.

Game 2- I have to mulligan and he duresses my only counter. He proceeds to play
necro and win.

Game 3- I mulligan to five here from no land and he just duresses then vamps for
a bargain and wins.

4-1-1

Round 7- Stax

Game 1- I get alot of accel and and let his late trinisphere resolve because it
just doesn't matter. The slaver lock comes soon after.

Game 2- He plays the first turn 3sphere and I can't topdeck the rack when I need
to. I get a few turns and when I finally do, I wastes my volcanic and I can't
topdeck another. He resolves multiple stacks and I concede for time.

Game 3- I get out a crucible and he resolves a 3sphere. He can't seem to find a
stack though while I'm building a manabase. He finally does but it's really too
late. When he tries to play another, I drain it and then use the drain mana to
hardcast and activate slaver. On his (my) turn, I make him sac his only stack
and welder and then proceed to resolve another welder and a trike on my
following turn for the win.

5-1-1

Round 8- Friend Matt Snow with TPS

Game 1- He duresses away my counters and resolves a bargain. He draws down to 1
and still can't make the kill in the same turn. He says he'll concede because
his vault will kill him but I remind him that he can pay so he doesn't have to
die. Others tell me that I shouldn't have said anything and won the game but I
am not about to win that way against a friend. He manages to win with the will
in his hand and brainsfreezes me for the win.

Game 2- I counter his early stuff then tinker for platinum angel and beat for
the win.

Game 3- I get out alot of acceleration and resolve arcane lab. We're called to
time and I brainstorm into a slaver on the 2nd of the final turns. My final plan
to win his to REB my lab on his turn then hardcast and activate slaver and try
to make him go off on himself for the win. At the end of his turn though he
conceded to me saying he can't win and shows me a hand of nothing. I tell him
what my plan was and we look at his top card because the slaver would have
activated and he would have topdecked time spiral on his slaver turn, so neither
of us feel bad.

6-1-1

Top 16

GAT

Game 1- I congratulate this guy for making this far with GAT since I felt that
GAT couldn't have a chance in this metagame mainly because of the combination of
Oath and Workshop which GAT has serious issues with. I get a great starting hand
of welder, intuition, lotus, crypt, volcanic, thirst, ak. I play the welder then
pop the lotus for intuition holding back the crypt. With intution, I get CoW,
strip, and trike. He gives me the crucible and I play it on my next turn.
Crucible/strip along with trike in the yard ends this game easily.

Game 2- I draw recall, citadel, 2 forces, tinker, 2 moxes, and decide to keep it
because I have 3 turns to draw a blue source. He resolves an early dryad and
starts the beats. I let it resolve because I have tinker for platz. He beats me
down to 12 ands tries to berserk for the win but force and doesn't have the
counter do I go to 3 instead. I finally topdeck the island and play tinker for
the platz. He plays an energy flux and topdeck another land for drain and use
the 2 moxs to pay for the angel. He plays another flux and I drain. Platz ends
up going the distance as he can't draw an answer.

Top 8

Outlaw with Control Slaver again

Game 1- I resolve intuition and draw alot of cards and let him counter my
thirsts so my aks can resolve. A slaver lock and trike finish it up I believe.

Game 2- I resolve an early recall and strip one of his islands. He can't find
more mana and I proceed to capitalize and win with slaver and platz.

Top 4

Saucemaster with Meandeck 3 land Tendrils

Game 1- I force his recall and he goes nuts anyway but spoils himself to death
looking for a ritual.

Game 2- I resolve a first turn arcane lab and he concedes.

Finals-

Good Friend Jeff with Intuition Slaver

Game 1- My hand explodes with thirst, lotus, crypt, intution, walk. I still
don't find a single counter though and play a welder but he forces. I find
another welder but he darts it. I start to take damage from crypt and he
resolves his own welder. I scramble to find another welder and outdraw him down
to five cards in my library because the crypt put me down to 3. I topdeck
another land holding about 5 counters and no more draw. I look at my remaining
library and both welders are last 2 cards. That sucked.

Game 2- I mulligan to 5 and still don't have a land. I keep a hand of force, DA,
emerald, thirst, and intuition. I topdeck an island and but not another land for
another 5 turns. He gets a slaver activation on me and nukes my hand then beats
me to death with a pentavus and welder. It was the suck.

Final thoughts.

I still feel I could have won if my deck didn't crap out on me but it gives me
some comfort knowing that my friend won the lotus and one way or another it came
to jersey.

On a more general scale, after Waterbury I have many thoughts about the metagame
and Intuition Slaver. I talked with many different T1 personalities about what's
coming for 2005 and what's to be expected. I have to say that if dark ritual and
trinisphere are restricted then intuition had better go as well. Simply put,
Intuition Slaver is perhaps the most powerful and broken control combo deck I
have ever seen and played. That along with a lot of testing within the actual
metagame leads me to the conclusion that Intuition Slaver is very over-powered.
Therefore, I concede that if ritual and 3sphere have to go, then intuition does
also. Its simply too ridiculous in this deck.

On a brighter note, the tourney was alot of fun and I met alot more great
people. I hope anyone who didn't make this time will try to next time because it
was great and I guarantee that you will have a blast.

- John