You are probably right when you say it's become less powerfull than it was before, but it can still rip up decks. But it won't be winning any major tournaments if that's what you mean 

Why run Mana Leak over Counterspell if you aren't playing Moxen?

Maybe a decklist with an explanation of the choices would be a good start. Just a thought.

But what I don't understand is why you would want to play Morphling on turn two? You aren't trying to race your opponent. You are trying to counter whatever strategy he has. How does tapping out to cast a mana-intensive creature early on in the game fit into that strategy?

It gets tinker and ancestral. Depending on your build, that could be a good enough reason to deal with the disadvantage.

As far as creature control, Vedalken Shackles is such a good card.  Too bad 'random aggro decks' tend to run things like Null Rod and artifact hate.  Your best bet is not to waste maindeck slots on cards that control creatures, and instead try a strategy that trumps aggro strategies altogether.

Props for playing Force Spike.  It's excellent.

But what's all this talk about Control Magic and Old Man?  For the same price, I hear that Vedalken Shackles is pretty freaking awesome.

I would consider cutting the Morphlings as well, since you're not playing Drains, but offhand I couldn't tell you what to replace them with.

Brainstorm is superior to Impusle because of the second mana requirement. In a format where the crucial turn is on average 1.5, the Impulse puts you behind on the race for virtual card advantage/card quality even though it digs one card deeper. I don't think the trade off one card deeper for one turn later is justifiable. I've tried playing Impulse for a while, but every time I draw it, I'd rather have drawn a brainstorm.

As for Brainstorm, I simply have to disagree that it is better than Impulse for this particular deck, for reasons greater than Chalice for 1. Brainstorm is problematic when your opponent has a threat on the table, and you Brainstorm and see nothing but counters and land... cause guess what? Without that reshuffle you don't have an answer now and you're still not going to have an answer two turns from now. This isn't as much of a problem when your Brainstorm is likely to show you three cards that actually do three different things, all of which you may need to do over the next couple of turns.

If the environment is unpowered, why are you building Mono-U in the first place?

What sort of meta are you working for?  If you're working on Mono-U, I'd start with Ben Kowal's last list from the dailiest.  If you're working on Mono-U, I'd start with Ben Kowal's last list from the dailiest.  http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/10435.html.

I mean if you are not running Mana Drains I would definately cut atleast 1 morphling, run something like Masticore instead =).  Personally, I prefer Daze over Force Spike for later counterbattles, where they are going to tap out trying to counter your counters, or maybe even try to go broken and combo out on you. It definately comes in handy when all you gotta do is return a tapped Island to your hand . I definately think Impulses too should be added, nothing like digging through your deck at an extremely cheap cc.  I mean if you are playing maindeck B2B...maybe Null Rod would compliment it? Ofcourse the Kegs would get dropped maybe for Control Magic or even Echoing Truths or 2 truths + 1 capsize?

DeMarki: even though you run Back to Basics, I would still try to splash a color. White gives you a great kill in Decree of Justice and you can use Flooded Strand to get a basic Plains if necessary. White also gives you Balance, a card that can still randomly win you the game.
Also, you should definitely try and play Control Magic maindeck. Oath is a terrible matchup, but with Control Magic you at least get a 50/50 chance of still winning the game (depending if Akroma shows up first or not). It's not a great answer, but I can't think of anything else that would be good maindeck.

Because there are any of a number of other spells that can also be pitched to FoW and Misdirection which don't become lame after Turn 2 in today's environment.

Heck, in today's Gifts-happy environment I'd play Dissipate before I played Force Spike.

And while Force Spike may be a good first-turn counter, it's typically a bad counter on just about every other turn in the game. I have historically had enough problems getting Mana Leak to work after about turn 3, let alone Force Spike. (This is especially true when your opponent is tapping lands like Mishra's Workshop or Tolarian Academy to play spells.) Every time your opponent resolves a threat they didn't have to tap out for, you're going to wish that Force Spike was something else.

If you're unpowered and have to stay mono-U...

-4 Force Spike
-4 Brainstorm
+4 Chalice of the Void
+4 Impulse
+2 Some bounce spell (I'm thinking Echoing Truth)

Force Spike is lame if your mana denial strategy isn't working perfectly, and Impulse is better than Brainstorm in this deck because you have so many functionally redundant cards, and therefore can afford to see three of them go to the bottom of your deck.

Chalice is awesome for sure.

And you really want some way to deal with a problem permanent once it's actually in play, that doesn't require you to wait forever for Powder Keg.

Hammer is definitely bad. My original list was all about speed, and Hammer neither improves on that play style nor makes the newer control aspects of the deck better. Scroll as well is usually much, much worse than Lavamancer, despite the fact that it was always run in red Sligh from like, the beginning of time or something. The first decklist's whole MO was outrunning CoP:Red. The new deck just Needles it.

Ball lightning was great and all, as a six-damage one-card spell. I used to run it, too. I also used to run Fling. The bad thing about Lightning, though, is that Black Lotus is restricted.

Keg doesn't kill Enchantments actually.

Why you don't splash white is beyond me, with a few changes you could be running 4 STP and 2-4 Exalted Angel which improves just about every issue you are going to face up until a powered deck comes along and plays with you like your nothing.

2. MBC is a really consistant deck, meaning there are alot of 3 and 4 of's and not alot of bombs. Even Yawgs Will isn't a bomb in this deck like it is in say Gifts or Long. So instead of wasting a turn in this slot, people tend to just put more business in this slot.

I was using the following decklist for quite a while, even winning 1st at my local tournament scene. However, after a certain point, the pile started doing terribly, especially when Oath decks starting showing up. The metagame around here is different each week, depending on who shows up, but I am wondering what I can do in order to stay competitive with my version of Sleigh.

It's a bit more explosive and risky than traditional Sleigh, but I've found that it wrecks the mirror match because of that on almost every occasion. However, goblins can be a problem sometimes, especially goon.

4 Pyrostatic Pilliar
3 Price of Progress
4 Ankh of Mishra
4 Fireblast
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Mogg Fanatic
1 Wheel of Fortune
2 Fork
1 Black Vise
3 Incinerate
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Seal of Fire

3 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
6 Mountain

Side:
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 REB
1 Price of Progress
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Null Rod

I know that fetches are very damaging to me when I have ankh in play, but it's more of a compromise. I need deck-thinning in here in order to top-deck kill spells, and I usually must count on the fact that my opponent is nowhere near as aggro as I usually am. That's one reason why I drop Pilliar before Ankh, against just about every opponent.

As far as why I have so many burn spells: Well, I often find that I can race almost any deck as long as I aim straight for the dome, rather than killing weenies with my spells. The exceptions are decks that use Goblin Lackey, which needs to die immediately if I have no blocker, and otherwise only cards like an early Exalted Angel or CoP: Red have ruined this strategy.

Yes, I do realize that my matchup is pretty hopeless against Stax, but there are plenty of nights when Stax is absent from my metagame. It only started showing up when the proxy limit was set to 10, rather than 5, anyhow.

My explanation of cards:
Fireblast! Yes, it rocks the mirror match and any other aggro, and is awesome forked. It must get saved for last, though, because of the risk inherent in losing all of one's mountains. This deck rarely gets three mana, but can often get two mountains in play, so Fireblast often works quite well. On the other hand, what mirror match? I haven't faced Sleigh at the local tourney in almost a year.

Grim Lavamancer: I detest this card when I'm playing against a player who resolves it. It's great against opposing weenies, and has lots of fuel due to fetches, fanatic, and fireblasts, and even opposing removal. Basically a tad slow, but cheap and can beat if I'm still casting bolts etc.

Mogg Fanatic: It trades with weenies in combat and gets thrown directly at my opponent's dome in response. At best, its effect can deal the final point of damage. At worst, it becomes a one damage spell for R. Still, it's always been a good addition for me.

Seal of Fire: Mostly an anti-aggro card, meant to kill opposing creatures like Goblin Piledriver and Warchief, as well as Lackey. I have also used it to kill my own spirit tokens when facing Oath, and it always comes down all surrepticiously, innocent as an enchantment that only does two damage, but deadly as a finisher.

Fork: Great with Fireblast, and sometimes can do cool things like copy Demonic Tutor and Ancestral Recall. It's mostly good late-game to copy a PoP for the win, if my opponent tries to counter it.

WoF: Well, this is often a finisher when it resolves, especially with Fireblast and Mox/Lotus. Sure, my opponent will have a full hand after my turn, but late-game, most decks begin to run out of FoW, and aren't as likely to draw into them. Against other aggro decks, I will wait till my hand is gone before casting it, unless I only need a little bit of damage to win.

Ensnaring Bridge: Well, its mostly for boarding against Oath and Colossus, but it hasn't worked out that well. One shining moment saw me facing Oath, with no removal in sight for several turns, though, so it's always a consideration.

I have since altered the deck as follows:

-3 Incinerate
-1 Fork
-1 PoP
+2 Shrapnel Blast
+3 Pithing Needle

SB:
-4 E. Bridge
-3 Null Rod
+2 Rack and Ruin
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Tormod's Crypt
+1 PoP

I decided that I needed some tech against Welder and even CoP, and I hope that Pithing Needle will help out, it being the cheapest method to nuke abilites, if a bit reactive. I added the Shraps because of the added artifact volume, and to replace Incinerate, which just didn't seem economic enough to me.

Also, I finally found R+R, which I am considering adding more of. 3CC is a bit high, but it's still useful.

Ensnaring Bridge never resolved after the last time It became useful, and it was too high CC anyhow.


This makes my games against Oath harder, but I am hoping to race it the same way I race Colossus, with lots and lots of burn.

Anyway, the point of this post is to ask the question: Is Sligh dead? Are there cards that would help it out against the changing metagame? I heard somewhere that Sleigh decks are  using more utility than before, and don't necessarily want to drop their hands either.

I've found no new lists so far ol, so I'm willing to accept that Sleigh is dead and go on, but the deck has been quite rewarding and fun to play in the past, and there is truth to the axiom, "Sometimes Sligh just wins."

Anyone have any suggestions or lists to post, especially with regard to how to kill Oath of Druids and other problem enchantments? Is pithing needle optimal, rather than Null rod?

Help would be greatly appreciated.

DeMarki:

Yawgs Will is good. I would run it over the vamp. On a side note though, you are correct about the Void/Will interaction. Could you consider replacing the Voids with Withered Wretch? They will basically do the same thing, but it comes with a 2/2 body and it doesn't screw your Will. Otherwise good deck.

Oh, and on the edicts, I would run a couple. DSC and Oath'd creatures run rampant (at least in my meta). Good Luck.

I politely suggest that you do some online research in the field of black based Vintage decks.

*Seriously, Powder Kegs?