need help with sligh control

[Anonymous]

the metagame is, for the most part, mixed with a side order of heavy blue.  so please keep that in mind before you release the hounds on my card choices.  the deck is currently as followed:

3x fireblast
1x wheel of fortune
1x fork
4x incinerate
4x lightning bolt
4x chain lightning
3x cursed scroll
4x pyroblast
3x gorilla shaman
4x mogg fanatic
4x jakal pup
4x grim lavamancer
2x dwarven miner
14x mountains
4x wasteland
1x stripmine

sideboard still up in the air but this is what i have so far:

4x masticore/phyrexian warbeast (havent decided yet)
3x anarchy
4x price of progress
4x pyrokinesis

the most greef i get on the deck list is that im playing main deck pyroblast. let me explain.

the metagame as i said is heavy blue in my area, aside from that, blue is also the most popular colour in type 1, mainly for the control and/or the card drawing.  if i go up against keeper, mono u, 'phidian style decks and the likes, i have an advantage over other red decks first game.  while on the other hand if i were to be paired up against decks that have no blue in the build, im at a disadvantage of four cars first game.  these four cards are easy sideboard fodder that i can easily take out without wishing i hadnt when they board in some crazy tech.

the other card that causes a stir is the lavamancers, yes i know that they're not as good as cursed scroll, yes i know that mogg fanatic potentially deals the same damage.  ive pretty much heard them all.  still they seem to be quite usefull in times of moat or other sligh.  a shock on a stick? ya gatta love the little guy.  he's been proven usefull but i'd be willing to give him up for something better.  and no goblin cadets are not better.  i will refuse any suggestions of adding them in, for the simple fact that i absolutly hate them.

i encourage all coments and and complaints as long as they have a strong argument behind them.  im trying to keep this along the original consept of control sligh as possable.

[Anonymous]

I don't play T1 sligh so take my advice with a grain of salt. I just had a few comments. 1.) Do you need 5 strip mine effects and dwarven miner? 2.) have you considered the new fetch lands, I don't know exactly the best way to fit them in sligh, but they seem to make your draws much better by thining your deck of land. I'll leave the rest to the experts, but just a note, always fork a fireblast when you can  

[Anonymous]

I agree with Plainswalker, you are running a whole lot of non-basic land kill. Price of Progress might be a nice substitute for the miners, and Goblin Cadets could be a reasonable addition if you're playing mostly against control/creatureless decks.

[Anonymous]

ive been toying with barbarian ring, instead of wasteland , but im still undesided.  and as i stated before, goblin cadets will never be added to the deck.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I missed the part about the cadets before

[Anonymous]

what do you think if i ran three barbarian rings and another miner in place of the wastelands and replace the lavamancers with flame lightnings?  just an idea.

[dandan]

I hate it when people do this but please read the Sligh primer.

General Sligh points

Sligh runs all 8 2/1 creatures for R, Pups and Cadets are poor in combat but if you don't run them you are too slow and Sligh needs fast threats. Control Sligh still needs fast threats as most control elements 'start' on turn 2 at best (Miners, Strips/Wastelands, Cursed Scroll). Hating Cadets is not a reason for not running them. (note that they improve a lot if you have enough mana to Scroll blockers out of their way)

Almost all Sligh builds should run 1 Stripmine and 4 Wastelands. Only the most aggressive 'need for speed' builds don't run them and that is usually so they can run Ball Lightning (usually a mistake) or to ensure they have enough Mountains to Fireblast twice on turn 4 as these aggro-Sligh decks pretty much lose any games that go to turn 5. Quite simply you cannot try to play control by mana disruption without playing all 5 0cc uncounterable land destruction cards that are also able to give you mana if you desire.

Mana - You have 19 mana sources, of which 5 you plan to destroy as soon as possible. You have 12 maindeck cards with activation costs and a 3cc Wheel of Fortune. You are very very very very lucky if you have 4 mana on turn 4 to cast something + Cursed Scroll. In short you have an aggro mana base but want to play control. You need more mana - obviously a Mox wouldn't hurt, Barbarian Rings are not bad, fetchlands could be used to up your landcount without increasing your chances of seeing mid-lategame land or, my personal favourite you could add Mishras Factories. Since you have a mixed metagame with a fair amount of blue I would expect an uncounterable creature that can kill Ophideans and Juggernauts would be a reasonable way of increasing your mana count without diluting your threat density. Note that you want to destroy their land so your opponent stripping your Mishras isn't a bad thing.

On your choice of creatures - all are reasonable enough although Fanatics usually find their way into more aggro versions as they are far better in creature combat than most Sligh creatures but suck vs control and combo. If you see Powder Keg a lot, consider Goblin Vandal. Try to fit in Cadets.

Misc-
Most Sligh builds have adopted Black Vise as a cheap, colourless damage source. Aggro use it as it is strong early and there is no lategame, control uses it as it compliments mana denial. As you see a lot of blue it is reasonable to say that you often see opponents with a lot of cards in hand. Its combo with Wheel of Fortune is just gravy.
You need to find room for things like Cadets, land, Vise so something has to go. All of your cards are reasonable so something reasonable has to go to make room for better things. I'd cut 2-3 Fireblasts (an aggro card), some Fanatics and Pyroblasts (they should be REBs anyway so they can't be Misdirected away from blue permanents). Console yourself with the fact that you have added solid cards vs blue in their place and cards which are a lot better in all other matchups.

[Anonymous]

thank you for clearing that up, for some reason my brain has been put on hold so i didnt even think of the fetch lands!  although i would be tickled pink to add a ruby, sadly i cant.  ive also found that the cadets become a thorn in my side more often then not, so i just cut them altogether, but your point is a valid one.

[dandan]

To be honest the Cadets downside has probably been evident because of your inability to Scroll properly.

Please note that if you use fetchlands and Fireblast, then Barbarian Rings and Lavamancer are both more effective while your ability to use either Cursed Scroll or Dwarven Miner goes down dramatically (unless you add the fetchies to your existing mana base rather than just change your mana base). To be honest it sounds like you are leaning towards making your control Sligh into a more aggro-minded Sligh so this is not necessarily a bad thing. If you go down this route then I'd cut the Miners and Scrolls and consider aggro choices for Sligh like Reckless Charge.
I'd be very interested to know what sort of blockers have resulted in your lack of Cadets.

[Anonymous]

okay taking dandan's advice, ive revamped the deck more suited to utilizing the scrolls and making use of potential 2nd turn control.  along with the ability to use the deck properly i have (with much delay) added cadets.  they seem to be working, but only when i sit under my bone head of the month trophy.  but the deck now looks like this:

1x fork
1x wheel of fortune
3x gorilla shaman
3x red elemental blast (yup, still in!)
2x dwarven miners
1x black vice
2x fireblast
4x cursed scroll
4x lightning bolt
4x chain lightning
4x incinerate
4x jackal pup
4x goblin cadet
1x strip mine
4x wasteland
4x mishra's factory
14x mountain

but now i still need a proper sideboard, if anyone can offer any advice, it would be helpful

[dandan]

I think the sideboard depends a lot on your metagame. Since you are expecting to see a lot of blue it makes sense to add the 4th REB and 4 Pyroblasts. Other than that it depends on what you need to beat. Some reasonable options are:

Price of Progress - multicolour decks
Blood Moon - multicolour decks  
(don't think your Miners and Wastelands will kill all opposing non-basic lands!)

Anarchy - Do you see ant Parfait, COP Red?
Flaring Pain - Alternative solution to COP Red
Shatterstorm - Any Stacker or TnT near you?
Overload, Detonate, Meltdown, Shattering Pulse, Rack and Ruin - all help but either not enough or too slowly
Hearth Charm - at least it is flexible
(to be honest they all don't really appeal to me but you are limited in options here)

Obstinate Familiar - anti-Dragon combo
(another card that doesn't appeal to me at all but Tormod's Crypt seems evem less appealling)
Goblin Vandal - Help vs opposing kegs, can help vs TnT
Goblin Tinkerer - I've seen these as 'tech' vs artifact decks, look a bit slow to me
Viashino Heretic - very slow but effective
Phyrexian Warbeast - a reasonable sideboard card vs other aggro decks

Pyrokinesis
Earthquake
Pyroclasm
Anti-aggro cards as you are slower than many other aggro decks. Note that Kegs are not good as
1. You generally want to Keg for 1 vs aggro and that hurts you a lot too
2. Many aggro decks side in Null Rod to shut down your scrolls

An interesting alternative way of dealing with aggro is Browbeat which is cheap card drawing or reasonable damage vs decks that don't run Misdirection or Mana Drain.

Anti-black (black is NOT an autowin for you)
Dodecapod
Guerrilla Tactics

Heavy Sligh turnout
Fire(/Ice)
Death Spark (old-school tech)

I'm sure I've missed some and many will disagree with some of the above but I think at least you have a list of options. Your first sideboard didn't look that bad to be honest.