Sligh for all seasons: Or, why Sligh no longer exists

[Onslaught]

Reading over some VERY old primers, it seems like Sligh was popular back when Keeper was still "the best" deck in type one. I suppose this is since it was in essence Fish without the card advantage- play multiple low CC threats and work from there. In Fish, you apply early pressure and then drop Standstills backed up with free permission. In Sligh, the early pressure was applied in the same manner and then by the time the opponent coat stabilize the board (Balance, Moat, other old stuff) you could burn out.

When you approach Sligh with the mentality that it is a proactive version of Fish, it becomes apparent why the deck basically does not exist anymore. Combo doesn't care if you get some damage in the first few turns, Workshop can drop a Trinisphere, and the Oath matchup should be fairly obvious. Fish has fallen out of the current metagame and it has FoW to attempt to answer a few of the above problems (stopping a combo, keeping a Trinisphere out of play, keeping an Oath from resolving), making it seem like Sligh is just a terrible choice.

However, the greatest strength of Sligh has always been its sideboard. All of the above problems stem from removal, so the immediate thing that comes to mind is the faintest and cleanest possible splash of Green. This differs from the heavily discussed "RG Tempo" thread in the way that this is less focused on efficiency and more focused on the old characteristics that made Sligh what it was.

The next thing to consider is why you would even play an outdated deck that needs to bastardize its mana base to even have the slightest hope against the most popular decks. The burn aspect becomes twice as valuable in a format where Goblin Welder is the most important creature, and you should almost always be able to answer one before it activates. I think the Control Slaver matchup can become favorable with some minor modifications, and that is seemingly the "best"/most played deck in the format.

To be honest, the most appealing card of the entire deck is Artifact Mutation. If you can resolve this against Stax it should be a big enough tempo swing to steal the match. This is the first answer to consider for Trinisphere. To pop things off under the Trinisphere, Elvish Spirit Guide seems like an attractive option. The problem with ESG is that every green spell in the deck only needs G, which is already easily accesible. Combo answers include Root Maze and Pyrostatic Pillar. Finally, REBs/Pyroblasts can be very effective in multiples and should definetely have a presence in the board.

An interesting concept I picked up from the R/G tempo thread was a Slighish list with Quirion Dryad. I tested him and hes really hit or miss. Against other "aggro" (I don't even know if you can really classify such decks in Vintage anymore, FCG is the closest thing and even they can combo out) he was amazing, since your burn was used as spot removal and the Dryad would grow large enough to swing by himself. For now I'm going to leave him to take advantage of the Green in the mana base, but I can easily see people hating his inclusion.

The Creatures:
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Jackal Pup
4 Quirion Dryad

Fanatic is clearly outdated but he removes Welder so he gets the nod. Lavamancer would be in either way, but he also shines in keeping Welders off the board.

The Burn:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Incinerate
2 Fireblast

Fireblast is too good late game to not use, hence the somewhat quirky setup of the lands.

Next:

4 Null Rod

I don't even know if they are worth running anymore, so far in testing they are hit or miss.

Mana:

4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
8 Mountain
4 Taiga
1 Forest
4 Wasteland
1 Strip
1 Mox Ruby

That is probably too many mana sources for a sligh deck...meh. The strips are necessary, the Mountain count is needed, and the Fetches smooth/work with Lavamancer.

Sideboard (tentative):
4 REB
4 Artifact Mutation (basically the point of making this thread)
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Root Maze/Oxidize/more REBs/Naturalize/Rack and Ruin/etc.

That looks horrendus on paper, but hopefully my 3 AM rambling was able to convey the purpose of the deck. You could probably have skipped everything I wrote above and got to the meat of it by reading the following. In essence I am thinking:

-Sligh like creature base
-Burn spells
-Agressive tempo swinging removal
-Elegant splash of Green

Why is this appealing or terrible in the current affairs of type one? Hopefully I can expand on any confusion, but the main points of such a deck and the existence of Sligh as a whole are there.

[Ape]

I must say, I like the deck, more than every other RG/Tempo/Beats deck. Maybe 'cause I have affinity for Quirion Dryads, but mostly the classic style style of the deck. Back to the days of 4 Lightning Bolt and 4 Jackal Pup!  

With already 18 one-mana burn spells who will at least deal 1 damage (Grim, Fanatic, Bolt, Chain, Blast) maindeck, I don't think you will need the Incinerate's. Maybe you can play Blood Moon instead? Although most players fear Wastelands, Blood Moon is still a bomb.

The three open sideboard slots; play Naturalize. They double as artifact and Oath removal.

As for the Jackal Pups, why not Kird Ape? Assuming that most of the times you will have a Forest, 2/3 is just better than 2/1. Also, would Gorilla Shaman work? Maybe even instead of Null Rod? A bit controversial, but hey, we are talking about Sligh

$0.02

Ape.

[the boogie man]

you do seem  to clog at the 1 mana spot, what do you do against chalice for 1?

     And with the side, Im think that a couple of rack and ruins are needed, as they are card advantage/tempo all in 1.

[Onslaught]

I understand that Sligh will always be a "scrub" deck, but I don't see any reason why this was moved to the Newbie Forum over some of the other stuff in the Open Forum. The concept certainly isn't weak and there's no real lack of content. Anyways...


Ape: I'd like it if there was something else to play besides Incinerate, but there really are no other 3 damage instants for creature/player. I doubt the "can't be regenerated" would ever matter at this point in the metagame, but it can't hurt. As far as Naturalize goes, I'm working on a very streamlined and agressive sideboard, and Naturalize may or may not make the cut.

Pup over Kird Ape since you only have 5 Forests. 4 of them can be Wasted and you will never fetch out the Basic Forest unless you're dropping  a Quirion Dryad/are afraid of non-basic hate. You want to have a Mountain in play turn one every game, and the Pup takes advantage of this better than the Kird Ape.

In this preliminary build with too much mana, Gorilla Shaman is actually sort of interesting over Null Rod. Once you run out of steam you could still play topdecked spells and have mana left over to use his ability on Moxes. Now that I think about it, when the mana base is fixed Null Rods might be coming out and 2 or so Shamans will probably find a spot.

Willow: The board I've been testing has Artifact Mutations and Oxidizes, so you can sometimes juggle around the Chalices. Also, after they know you are playing Artifact Mutation the Stax player will often set it at 2 to avoid huge swings in your favor.

Rack and ruin seems extremely powerful, since it gives card advantage to a deck that has almost none. Ultimately due to lack of space it will probably come down to Rack and Ruin vs. Artifact Mutation. Both give you 2 effects for 1 card, but it remains to be seen which side effect is more important (extra artifact vs. token creation). Perhaps a lighter mana base and one of the sideboard cards maindeck (Artifact Mutation, Oxidize, something like that) to make more room for the board.

If you can't tell, I really really like Artifact Mutation.

[Robert the Swordsman]

I'm not sure why you're not playing the Artifact Mutations maindeck.

As you yourself said, that card is basically the reason you're bringing this deck back, and I can't think of any situation it'd really be lousy in (except perhaps against 'Tog, but even zapping a Mox or a Lotus isn't too awful).

JP recently wrote something regarding maindecked creature removal, questioning why four Swords to Plowshares were viable and four Naturalizes were not, even though nowadays people run many more artifacts than creatures. This is really an excellent point.

I'd personally like to see four Mutations in the maindeck.

Good luck.

[Onslaught]

Funny that you should mention that. In taking a break from my ever so joyful Saturday paper, I moved Artifact Mutation to the maindeck to fit all sorts of goodness in the board.


4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Jackal Pup
4 Quirion Dryad
2 Gorilla Shaman

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Incinerate
4 Artifact Mutation
3 Fireblast

4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
8 Mountain
1 Forest
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Ruby

Board:
3 Rack and Ruin
4 Naturalize
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
4 Pyroblast

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

I seriously suggest cutting Dryad's in reality he is no better then a River Boa in this deck. Dryad cannot do the same thing in this deck as he can in GAT for example and that is become ridiculously large ridiculously fast. The deck lacks the ability to play multiple spells consistently to bring him to lets say a 6/6 rather quickly. At best he will become a 3/3 or if lucky a 4/4 and in that situation you definetly have already won the Dryad has become irrelevant or he is about to be taken care of.

It may make more sense to test River Boa.

[Onslaught]

I beg to differ on all accounts of that.

The Dryad immediately becomes almost as good as the River Boa on the first spell you play due to the fact that you will rarely need or want to pump mana into regeneration.

Just because the Dryad doesn't get as big as he does in GAT as fast as he does in GAT does not mean he shouldn't be in the deck. I can see arguements for cutting his creature slot completely, but not for changing River Boa.

Consider the following opening hand:
Mogg Fanatic
Chain Lightning
Mountain
Wooded Foothills
Quirion Dryad
Taiga
Incinerate

1: Mountain, Fanatic
2: Foothills, Taiga, Dryad
3: At the minmum Lightning/Incinerate, high chance of drawing other creatures by now

By the time the 1G is able to swing, the Dryad will on average be a 3/3 or larger and the Boa will be a 2/1. The regeneration of Boa is almost irrelevant when the point of this deck is for a highly competitive metagame, and his use in the aggro matchup is probably unnecessary due to the burn spells being used as removal.

[TheLoneGnman]

Before Mirrodin came out I won so many T1 tournys with my sligh. Couple of red men, then some bolts, and finish'em with Price of Progess and a Fireblast. Ah, those were some good times.

But alas those days are gone.

Recently i've been working on a deck that is kinda the same deal. here it is.

4 Scavanger Folk
2 Elvish Scrapper
4 River Boa
4 Kird Ape
2 Grim Lavamancer

4 Naturalize
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fire/Ice
3 Isochron Scepter
3 Rancor

3 Mishra's Factory
3 Treetop Village
4 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Wastelands
1 Strip Mine
1 Lotus Petal

Sideboard: Some Combination of this stuff
Artifact Mutation
REB/Pyroblast
Pyrostatic Pillar
Maze of Ith

That's kinda the basic idea, i'm still playin around with stuff.

My deck is more control based then sligh because sligh kills on turn 3 or 4 if it's good and that's just way too slow, so imo the disruption really should be the focus.

Isochron Scepter should help over load the disruption. Putting a Naturalize on it is really strong. Fire/Ice on it gives the deck some card drawing ability too. Bolts and Artifact Mutation are great.

Scavanger Folk/Elvish Scrapper are good if put out first turn to waste trinisphere's and other bombs that budget decks have trouble dealing with. Late in the game with a bunch of rancors he can bite too.

The Man Lands are good when you find yourself in a spot where you can't cast spells. ie trinisphere/chalice, hundreds of counterspells, or standstill. They're also great late in the game when you've got lot's of land your doing nothing with, but they make running blood moon bad.

everything else is pretty standard.

let me know your thoughts.

TheLoneGunman