My first game in the Meran

Decided to roll out the Meran in a quick online tournament (usually a KID devotee) for kicks and here's how I did: I won the game on move 34 because my opponent made a massive time trouble blunder and hung his queen but before that I thought it had been a really interesting game with chances for both sides.

I sure hope this isn't a trend!

I hate playing against the Meran, but luckily don't face it very often. 

Well I wouldn't worry about facing me in it - i'm guessing this wasnt textbook stuff... I kept thinking 11...c4 would be the "semi-slav" way of playing it, following it up with b4. 
If you hate the Meran, dare I suggest the Botvinnik system? I like the white side of that with 16.Rb1 and 19.Kxf1. 

My favorite line in the Semi-Slav is the Botvinnik Variation.

Here's my hero, Chucky, squashing Shirov, another amazingly talented attacking player.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1060750

this game is super famous. In fact I base my black side of the botvinnik against Sadler's analysis on this game