I wrote this primer way back in the day, and seeing that there are not much primers here, I wanted to post this hoping someone else would write a better primer than mine. Enjoy vintage Sligh!
Type One Sligh Primer
Introduction:
Sligh. What the hell is it? Well, Sligh is in fact one of the best-designed deck concepts ever made. What makes Sligh so good is because of its cheapness. When I say cheap, I mean it both ways. It’s cheap because of the numerous common cards in it. It’s cheap because of the direct damage spells. Basically, Sligh is made up of fast, aggressive creatures and backed up by direct damage.
The creator of Sligh is Jay Schneider. Actually, Sligh’s original name was Geeba. Sligh’s origin was in fact accidental. He was testing one of his decks on this deck he created from scrap. It was made up of stupid red creatures and backed up by burn. Suddenly, the little red deck kept on winning. Jay started adding better cards and soon, it was unstoppable.
Jay’s friend, Paul Sligh, used the deck in the Atlanta Pro Tour Qualifier, June ’96. He made it to the top 4. This was the prototype deck.
2 Dwarven Trader 2 Goblins of the Fliarg 4 Ironclaw Orc 3 Dwarven Lieutenant 2 Orcish Librarian 2 Brothers of Fire 2 Orcish Artillery 2 Orcish Cannoneer 2 Dragon Whelps 4 Brass Man
Ah, the good old days when 4 Strip Mines were allowed. But the deck was actually flawed. Notice the Goblins of the Flarg and the Dwarves?? As soon as you cast a Dwarf, you kill your own goblin. But of course, it was just a new concept then.
Then there was Deadguy Red. This was the time when Sligh became a pure offensive machine. The strategy changed. Instead of controlling the board, Deadguy Red was all out offense from the start. However, better creatures and better burn was included in the deck.
4 Shock (This deck was Type 2 back then) 4 Incinerate 3 Hammer of Bogardan 4 Fireblast
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Wasteland 18 Mountain
The Current Decklist:
Through the years, Sligh has evolved a lot. It has been tweaked over and over again. These days, Sligh is always a force to be reckoned with. Here’s what a modern type one Sligh looks like:
Sligh is now built to stand up against Keeper, since it is the most dominant deck in Type One. Sligh uses very efficient cards to combat any kind of deck. Gorilla Shaman is excellent against powered decks. Price of Progress and Wasteland punishes multicolored decks. Cursed Scroll along with the burn can easily deal with pesky weenie decks. However there are some other variations of Sligh.
Other Variations:
Land Grant Sligh
Kird Ape R Summon Ape While controller has forests in play, Kird Ape gains +1/+2 1/1
Land Grant 1G Sorcery If you have no land cards in hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying Land Grant’s mana cost. Search your library for a forest card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
Land Grant Sligh uses Kird Ape for a better creature assault. But personally, I think this deck is slower and more prone to disruption. One of Sligh’s main weapons is simplicity therefore combos are not used.
Lackey Sligh
Goblin Lackey R Summon Goblin Whenever Goblin Lackey successfully deals damage to a player, you may choose a Goblin card in you hand and put that Goblin into play. 1/1
Lackey Sligh is very creature oriented. Speed is important for this deck. Basically, there is no real strategy to play this deck. Anybody can play this deck. However, since this deck’s main offense is based on its creatures, it can easily be disrupted by a simple Powder Keg. I don’t suggest players looking for experience to use this deck.
Invasion Sligh
Invasion Plans 2R Enchantment Each creature blocks whenever able. Attacking player chooses how each creature blocks. (All blocking assignments must still be legal.)
Jay Schneider made this deck as a Type 2 deck around April ’98. This was a very strong deck during that time. However, it wasn’t quite famous.
This deck uses Invasion Plans as its secret tech. It was mentioned by Jay that this was one of the strongest Sligh decks made at that time. Too bad nobody else knew it.
Some basic Sligh deckbuilding facts:
Use a mana curve. In theory, you should include 9 to 13 one casting cost spells, 6 to 8 two casting cost spells, 3 to 5 three casting cost spells and 1 to 3 four casting cost spells. But that is only in theory. You can tweak your mana curve so that it shallows. You can up the one casting cost spells and lessen the three casting cost spells. It’s just a matter of balancing. Remember: the mana curve’s purpose is for you to use all the mana that can be used during the first few turns. This makes the deck very efficient.
Card-by-Card Analysis:
Creatures:
Jackal Pup R Summon Hound For each 1 damage dealt to Jackal Pup, it deals 1 damage to you. 2/1
Jackal Pup is Sligh’s MVP in the creature category. The drawback of receiving damage does not really affect you. With burn clearing the way, Jackal Pup usually does the job.
Goblin Cadet R Summon Goblins Whenever Goblin Cadets blocks or becomes blocked, target opponent gains control of it. (This removes Goblin Cadets from combat.) 2/1
Just like Mr. Pup, this creature’s drawback is ignored.
Gorilla Shaman R Summon Gorilla XX1, T: Destroy target non-creature artifact with casting cost equal to X. 1/1
A.K.A. the Mox Monkey, this creature is a power player’s nightmare.
Burn:
Lightning Bolt R Instant Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
The best damn burn ever printed. ‘Nuff said.
Incinerate 1R Instant Incinerate deals 3 damage to target creature or player. No creature damaged by Incinerate can regenerate this turn.
Lightning Bolt’s little brother.
Chain Lightning R
Sorcery
Chain Lightning does 3 damage to one target. Each time Chain Lightning does damage, the target or target's controller may then pay RR to have Chain Lightning do 3 damage to any target of that player's choice.
Almost the same as Lightning Bolt but one major difference: it’s Sorcery speed only. Still, it’s good enough for 4 in a deck.
Fireblast 4RR Instant You may sacrifice two mountains instead of paying Fireblast’s casting cost. Fireblast deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
Fireblast is one of the best finishers in the game. I always love to see my opponent’s reaction when I start putting mountains in my graveyard.
Price of Progress 1R Instant Deal 2 damage to each player for each nonbasic land he or she controls.
This card is very good against multicolored decks. PoP is usually sideboarded when against mono colored decks. D’oh!
Tricks:
Wheel of Fortune 2R Sorcery All players must discard their hands and draw seven new cards.
Wheel is a very broken card. I already mentioned how to use this above. This card is a must for every Sligh deck.
Cursed Scroll 1 Artifact 3, T : Name a card, target opponent chooses a card at random from your hand. If he or she chooses the named card, Cursed Scroll deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
This is also called the reusable burn. It has excellent synergy for Sligh since you always empty your hand early on. Say goodbye to those protected white creatures!
Lands:
Strip Mine Land T : Add one colorless mana o your mana pool. T : Sacrifice Strip Mine to destroy target land.
There’s a reason to why they restricted this card. It’s too damn good. Every deck should have this. Well, almost every deck.
Wasteland Land T : Add one colorless mana o your mana pool. T : Sacrifice Wasteland to destroy target nonbasic land.
This is really a much toned down Strip Mine. Really screws up multicolored decks real bad.
Other Cards:
Mogg Fanatic R Summon Goblin Sacrifice Mogg Fanatic: Mogg Fanatic deals 1 damage to target creature or player. 1/1
I personally use this guy in my deck instead of Gorilla Shaman. My meta doesn’t have any power. This creature is really good.
Grim Lavamancer R Creature – Wizard R,T, Remove two cards in your graveyard from the game: Grim Lavamancer deals 2 damage to target creature or player. 1/1
Although this creature can deal around 4-6 damage in its lifetime, it isn’t needed much in a regular Sligh deck. You already have Cursed Scroll. Also, this creature cannot be used as an early one drop. Sligh needs creatures that can do damage early in the game. Late in the game, burn is much more important.
Ball Lightning RRR Summon Ball Lightning Trample Ball Lightning is unaffected by summoning sickness. At the end of turn, bury Ball Lightning. 6/1
This is a very strong creature. It packs quite a punch. However other decks can easily counter this creature. This creature hardly gets through in type one. A few years back, this was a prime Sligh creature.
Seal of Fire R Enchantment Sacrifice Seal of Fire: Seal deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
A better Shock, this is what I use instead of Price of Progress. Again, my metagame doesn’t have a lot of multicolored decks.
Fork RR Interrupt Any one sorcery or instant spell just cast is duplicated. Treat Fork as an exact copy of target spell except that Fork remains red. Caster of Fork chooses the copy’s target.
There are hundreds of errata on this card. I still use this card in my deck because I have space. Still love the Fireblast, Fireblast, Fork finish.
Sligh Card Selection in a Nutshell:
When you’re going to be choosing cards to put in your Sligh deck, always remember these things. First, your creatures must be very efficient, meaning the cost/power ratio is good, and they must be fast enough to deal early beatdown. Don’t even think of putting four casting cost creatures in there. Second, your direct damage spells must be as much as possible similar to Lightning Bolt. It is only logical to use spells that are as powerful and efficient as the best burn there is.
Sideboarding Choices and Strategy:
Red Elemental Blast R Instant Counter a blue spell being cast or destroy a blue card in play.
Pyroblast R Instant Counter a blue spell being cast or destroy a blue card in play.
Blood Moon 2R Enchantment Treat all non-basic lands as mountains.
Basically, almost all the sideboard cards you might use will be blue hate. Blue is the only color that can counter your burn.
When choosing Sideboard Cards, you must take into account your metagame. What kind of decks do you see most? Which cards give you the most trouble? Once you have figured those things out, you can now prepare your Sideboard. There is no specific Sideboard list for any deck. All Sideboard choices depend on one’s metagame.
General Strategy for playing the deck:
Using Sligh isn’t as simple as it first looks. A beginner might see it easy to use since they would just play all the cards in their hands and target the life of the opponent. Even though this strategy works, it does not work all the time. Sometimes, you must kill creatures with burn in order for you creatures to pull through. Remember, your direct damage spells can be used only once. Your creatures, you can use them again and again. For example, if you attack Jackal Pup, and only a White Knight is in play, and you have a bolt in your hand, bolt the knight for the Pup to go through even though the damage is less. The reason is because you can attack the Pup again next turn and that’s a total of 4 life instead of only 3. But late in the game, you can just burn your opponent to the ground.
Early on, you must lay down creatures to do some beatdown. But when your opponent’s life is down to single digits, target all your burn at his life.
Also, you must know when to cast Wheel of Fortune. It is essential that Wheel is cast to your advantage, and not to your opponent’s. Never cast Wheel early in the game unless you have a terrible draw and things are not going as planned. Never cast Wheel when you’re against a control deck until you are sure you can deal the finishing blow. Another tip for Wheel is cast Fireblast in response to Wheel. You’ll be drawing more mountains with Wheel therefore sacrificing two is okay.
Key Match-ups:
Suicide Black and Butterknives– There’s an 80% chance you will win against Sui or Knives. It’s Sligh’s favorite matchup. Those Phyrexian Negators don’t stand a chance.
Keeper – The odds are 60-40 against you. Keeper is just too powerful. There’s always an answer for anything. After Sideboard, your chances will go up as all the Keeper hate come in.
Stompy – Surprisingly, Sligh has a hard time against Stompy. There’s simply too much creatures to kill. You spend a lot of burn killing those weenies. In the end, you won’t have enough to finish him off.
White Weenie – Four words, Circle of Protection: Red. Too much protection is a problem for Sligh. However, Sligh has a good chance of winning against WW. Sligh’s much faster therefore you must outrun WW. Cast those creatures early and deal enough to bring his life down to single digits. Then finish him off with burn. Just pray Worship isn’t in play! I’d say 50-50 when up against WW.
Match-ups in a Nutshell – Sligh is a versatile deck that can go up against agro or control. Most decks are prepared for Sligh therefore its effectiveness has gone down. Still, Sligh is a very tough match-up for most decks. That is why Sligh is my favorite deck.
Conclusion:
With each expansion that comes out, Sligh’s arsenal grows. One distinct advantage of red is that most of its direct damage is common and fair enough not to be restricted.
However, other colors have also gotten stronger. The rate of their improvement is much faster than red’s. Wizards of the Coast have greatly toned down the power of red cards since the creation of Sligh. From Lightning Bolt to Shock to those one is to one cost/damage ratio.
But who’s complaining? As long as Lightning Bolt is unrestricted, Sligh will continue to be a dominant force in type one.
In my opinion, Sligh is the best deck ever made in terms of build and cost. If you compare Sligh to Keeper, they’re not that far off in terms of power. But when you look at the card prices, you’ll see why Sligh is so good.
Of course, this is only from my point of view. It’s up to you if you believe me or not.
This primer has not in anyway copied another primer’s content. No Goblin was harmed in the process of writing this primer.
" I came to them in a flock of ravens that filled a northern sky at dawn...
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
Suicide Black and Butterknives– There’s an 80% chance you will win against Sui or Knives. It’s Sligh’s favorite matchup. Those Phyrexian Negators don’t stand a chance.
Keeper – The odds are 60-40 against you. Keeper is just too powerful. There’s always an answer for anything. After Sideboard, your chances will go up as all the Keeper hate come in.
Stompy – Surprisingly, Sligh has a hard time against Stompy. There’s simply too much creatures to kill. You spend a lot of burn killing those weenies. In the end, you won’t have enough to finish him off.
White Weenie – Four words, Circle of Protection: Red. Too much protection is a problem for Sligh. However, Sligh has a good chance of winning against WW. Sligh’s much faster therefore you must outrun WW. Cast those creatures early and deal enough to bring his life down to single digits. Then finish him off with burn. Just pray Worship isn’t in play! I’d say 50-50 when up against WW.
Nobody actually plays these in Type I. The only deck here that sees any play at all is Keeper and it is so substantially different from what it was a couple of years ago that it doesn't even go by that name anymore.
More relevant matchups for today's meta would include:
Combo (Doomsday, TPS)
Tog
Workshop prison & workshop Aggro
Control Slaver
Gifts Belcher
Fish (which could potentially be a favorable matchup)
Funny thing is that at SCG Chicago, this deck was at like table 6 in round 6, paired against Doomsday, and beat it.
Sligh dies to many of todays decks, and is simply too slow. A few months ago it was even completely unplayable thanks to Trinisphere. Today, its _slightly_ more viable, because trinisphere is restricted and cards like pyrostatic pillar prevent an autowin from combo (sometimes).
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I wrote this primer way back in the day, and seeing that there are not much primers here, I wanted to post this hoping someone else would write a better primer than mine.
i did say i wrote this way back didn't i? i quit playing magic a long time ago. the last expansion i remember is mercadian masques. lol.
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Type One Sligh Primer
Introduction:
Sligh. What the hell is it? Well, Sligh is in fact one of the best-designed deck concepts ever made. What makes Sligh so good is because of its cheapness. When I say cheap, I mean it both ways. It’s cheap because of the numerous common cards in it. It’s cheap because of the direct damage spells. Basically, Sligh is made up of fast, aggressive creatures and backed up by direct damage.
The creator of Sligh is Jay Schneider. Actually, Sligh’s original name was Geeba. Sligh’s origin was in fact accidental. He was testing one of his decks on this deck he created from scrap. It was made up of stupid red creatures and backed up by burn. Suddenly, the little red deck kept on winning. Jay started adding better cards and soon, it was unstoppable.
Jay’s friend, Paul Sligh, used the deck in the Atlanta Pro Tour Qualifier, June ’96. He made it to the top 4. This was the prototype deck.
2 Dwarven Trader
2 Goblins of the Fliarg
4 Ironclaw Orc
3 Dwarven Lieutenant
2 Orcish Librarian
2 Brothers of Fire
2 Orcish Artillery
2 Orcish Cannoneer
2 Dragon Whelps
4 Brass Man
1 Black Vise
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
1 Fireball
1 Shatter
1 Detonate
4 Strip Mine
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 Dwarven Ruins
13 Mountain
Ah, the good old days when 4 Strip Mines were allowed. But the deck was actually flawed. Notice the Goblins of the Flarg and the Dwarves?? As soon as you cast a Dwarf, you kill your own goblin. But of course, it was just a new concept then.
Then there was Deadguy Red. This was the time when Sligh became a pure offensive machine. The strategy changed. Instead of controlling the board, Deadguy Red was all out offense from the start. However, better creatures and better burn was included in the deck.
Here’s a sample Deadguy Red decklist:
4 Jackal Pup
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Ironclaw Orcs
3 Fireslinger
4 Ball Lightning
4 Shock (This deck was Type 2 back then)
4 Incinerate
3 Hammer of Bogardan
4 Fireblast
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Wasteland
18 Mountain
The Current Decklist:
Through the years, Sligh has evolved a lot. It has been tweaked over and over again. These days, Sligh is always a force to be reckoned with. Here’s what a modern type one Sligh looks like:
Type One Sligh
4 Jackal Pup
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Gorilla Shaman
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Chain Lightning
4 Fireblast
4 Price of Progress
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Cursed Scroll
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
18 Mountain
Sligh is now built to stand up against Keeper, since it is the most dominant deck in Type One. Sligh uses very efficient cards to combat any kind of deck. Gorilla Shaman is excellent against powered decks. Price of Progress and Wasteland punishes multicolored decks. Cursed Scroll along with the burn can easily deal with pesky weenie decks. However there are some other variations of Sligh.
Other Variations:
Land Grant Sligh
Kird Ape R
Summon Ape
While controller has forests in play, Kird Ape gains +1/+2
1/1
Land Grant 1G
Sorcery
If you have no land cards in hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying Land Grant’s mana cost. Search your library for a forest card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
4 Kird Ape
4 Jackal Pup
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Gorilla Shaman
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Chain Lightning
1 Wheel Of Fortune
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Land Grant
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Taiga
14 Mountain
Land Grant Sligh uses Kird Ape for a better creature assault. But personally, I think this deck is slower and more prone to disruption. One of Sligh’s main weapons is simplicity therefore combos are not used.
Lackey Sligh
Goblin Lackey R
Summon Goblin
Whenever Goblin Lackey successfully deals damage to a player, you may choose a Goblin card in you hand and put that Goblin into play.
1/1
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Flunkie
4 Goblin Mutant
2 Goblin King
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Fireblast
3 Reckless Charge
1 Strip Mine
18 Mountain
Lackey Sligh is very creature oriented. Speed is important for this deck. Basically, there is no real strategy to play this deck. Anybody can play this deck. However, since this deck’s main offense is based on its creatures, it can easily be disrupted by a simple Powder Keg. I don’t suggest players looking for experience to use this deck.
Invasion Sligh
Invasion Plans 2R
Enchantment
Each creature blocks whenever able. Attacking player chooses how each creature blocks. (All blocking assignments must still be legal.)
Jay Schneider made this deck as a Type 2 deck around April ’98. This was a very strong deck during that time. However, it wasn’t quite famous.
4 Goblin Vandal
3 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Flunkie
4 Suq’Ata Lancer
3 Viashino Sandstalker
4 Ball Lightning
3 Shock
4 Incinerate
4 Fireblast
1 Goblin Bombardment
2 Invasion Plans
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Wasteland
17 Mountain
This deck uses Invasion Plans as its secret tech. It was mentioned by Jay that this was one of the strongest Sligh decks made at that time. Too bad nobody else knew it.
Some basic Sligh deckbuilding facts:
Use a mana curve. In theory, you should include 9 to 13 one casting cost spells, 6 to 8 two casting cost spells, 3 to 5 three casting cost spells and 1 to 3 four casting cost spells. But that is only in theory. You can tweak your mana curve so that it shallows. You can up the one casting cost spells and lessen the three casting cost spells. It’s just a matter of balancing. Remember: the mana curve’s purpose is for you to use all the mana that can be used during the first few turns. This makes the deck very efficient.
Card-by-Card Analysis:
Creatures:
Jackal Pup R
Summon Hound
For each 1 damage dealt to Jackal Pup, it deals 1 damage to you.
2/1
Jackal Pup is Sligh’s MVP in the creature category. The drawback of receiving damage does not really affect you. With burn clearing the way, Jackal Pup usually does the job.
Goblin Cadet R
Summon Goblins
Whenever Goblin Cadets blocks or becomes blocked, target opponent gains control of it. (This removes Goblin Cadets from combat.)
2/1
Just like Mr. Pup, this creature’s drawback is ignored.
Gorilla Shaman R
Summon Gorilla
XX1, T: Destroy target non-creature artifact with casting cost equal to X.
1/1
A.K.A. the Mox Monkey, this creature is a power player’s nightmare.
Burn:
Lightning Bolt R
Instant
Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
The best damn burn ever printed. ‘Nuff said.
Incinerate 1R
Instant
Incinerate deals 3 damage to target creature or player. No creature damaged by Incinerate can regenerate this turn.
Lightning Bolt’s little brother.
Chain Lightning R
Sorcery
Chain Lightning does 3 damage to one target. Each time Chain Lightning does damage, the target or target's controller may then pay RR to have Chain Lightning do 3 damage to any target of that player's choice.
Almost the same as Lightning Bolt but one major difference: it’s Sorcery speed only. Still, it’s good enough for 4 in a deck.
Fireblast 4RR
Instant
You may sacrifice two mountains instead of paying Fireblast’s casting cost. Fireblast deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
Fireblast is one of the best finishers in the game. I always love to see my opponent’s reaction when I start putting mountains in my graveyard.
Price of Progress 1R
Instant
Deal 2 damage to each player for each nonbasic land he or she controls.
This card is very good against multicolored decks. PoP is usually sideboarded when against mono colored decks. D’oh!
Tricks:
Wheel of Fortune 2R
Sorcery
All players must discard their hands and draw seven new cards.
Wheel is a very broken card. I already mentioned how to use this above. This card is a must for every Sligh deck.
Cursed Scroll 1
Artifact
3, T : Name a card, target opponent chooses a card at random from your hand. If he or she chooses the named card, Cursed Scroll deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
This is also called the reusable burn. It has excellent synergy for Sligh since you always empty your hand early on. Say goodbye to those protected white creatures!
Lands:
Strip Mine
Land
T : Add one colorless mana o your mana pool.
T : Sacrifice Strip Mine to destroy target land.
There’s a reason to why they restricted this card. It’s too damn good. Every deck should have this. Well, almost every deck.
Wasteland
Land
T : Add one colorless mana o your mana pool.
T : Sacrifice Wasteland to destroy target nonbasic land.
This is really a much toned down Strip Mine. Really screws up multicolored decks real bad.
Other Cards:
Mogg Fanatic R
Summon Goblin
Sacrifice Mogg Fanatic: Mogg Fanatic deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
I personally use this guy in my deck instead of Gorilla Shaman. My meta doesn’t have any power. This creature is really good.
Grim Lavamancer R
Creature – Wizard
R,T, Remove two cards in your graveyard from the game: Grim Lavamancer deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
Although this creature can deal around 4-6 damage in its lifetime, it isn’t needed much in a regular Sligh deck. You already have Cursed Scroll. Also, this creature cannot be used as an early one drop. Sligh needs creatures that can do damage early in the game. Late in the game, burn is much more important.
Ball Lightning RRR
Summon Ball Lightning
Trample
Ball Lightning is unaffected by summoning sickness. At the end of turn, bury Ball Lightning.
6/1
This is a very strong creature. It packs quite a punch. However other decks can easily counter this creature. This creature hardly gets through in type one. A few years back, this was a prime Sligh creature.
Seal of Fire R
Enchantment
Sacrifice Seal of Fire: Seal deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
A better Shock, this is what I use instead of Price of Progress. Again, my metagame doesn’t have a lot of multicolored decks.
Fork RR
Interrupt
Any one sorcery or instant spell just cast is duplicated. Treat Fork as an exact copy of target spell except that Fork remains red. Caster of Fork chooses the copy’s target.
There are hundreds of errata on this card. I still use this card in my deck because I have space. Still love the Fireblast, Fireblast, Fork finish.
Sligh Card Selection in a Nutshell:
When you’re going to be choosing cards to put in your Sligh deck, always remember these things. First, your creatures must be very efficient, meaning the cost/power ratio is good, and they must be fast enough to deal early beatdown. Don’t even think of putting four casting cost creatures in there. Second, your direct damage spells must be as much as possible similar to Lightning Bolt. It is only logical to use spells that are as powerful and efficient as the best burn there is.
Sideboarding Choices and Strategy:
Red Elemental Blast R
Instant
Counter a blue spell being cast or destroy a blue card in play.
Pyroblast R
Instant
Counter a blue spell being cast or destroy a blue card in play.
Blood Moon 2R
Enchantment
Treat all non-basic lands as mountains.
Basically, almost all the sideboard cards you might use will be blue hate. Blue is the only color that can counter your burn.
When choosing Sideboard Cards, you must take into account your metagame. What kind of decks do you see most? Which cards give you the most trouble? Once you have figured those things out, you can now prepare your Sideboard. There is no specific Sideboard list for any deck. All Sideboard choices depend on one’s metagame.
General Strategy for playing the deck:
Using Sligh isn’t as simple as it first looks. A beginner might see it easy to use since they would just play all the cards in their hands and target the life of the opponent. Even though this strategy works, it does not work all the time. Sometimes, you must kill creatures with burn in order for you creatures to pull through. Remember, your direct damage spells can be used only once. Your creatures, you can use them again and again. For example, if you attack Jackal Pup, and only a White Knight is in play, and you have a bolt in your hand, bolt the knight for the Pup to go through even though the damage is less. The reason is because you can attack the Pup again next turn and that’s a total of 4 life instead of only 3. But late in the game, you can just burn your opponent to the ground.
Early on, you must lay down creatures to do some beatdown. But when your opponent’s life is down to single digits, target all your burn at his life.
Also, you must know when to cast Wheel of Fortune. It is essential that Wheel is cast to your advantage, and not to your opponent’s. Never cast Wheel early in the game unless you have a terrible draw and things are not going as planned. Never cast Wheel when you’re against a control deck until you are sure you can deal the finishing blow. Another tip for Wheel is cast Fireblast in response to Wheel. You’ll be drawing more mountains with Wheel therefore sacrificing two is okay.
Key Match-ups:
Suicide Black and Butterknives– There’s an 80% chance you will win against Sui or Knives. It’s Sligh’s favorite matchup. Those Phyrexian Negators don’t stand a chance.
Keeper – The odds are 60-40 against you. Keeper is just too powerful. There’s always an answer for anything. After Sideboard, your chances will go up as all the Keeper hate come in.
Stompy – Surprisingly, Sligh has a hard time against Stompy. There’s simply too much creatures to kill. You spend a lot of burn killing those weenies. In the end, you won’t have enough to finish him off.
White Weenie – Four words, Circle of Protection: Red. Too much protection is a problem for Sligh. However, Sligh has a good chance of winning against WW. Sligh’s much faster therefore you must outrun WW. Cast those creatures early and deal enough to bring his life down to single digits. Then finish him off with burn. Just pray Worship isn’t in play! I’d say 50-50 when up against WW.
Match-ups in a Nutshell – Sligh is a versatile deck that can go up against agro or control. Most decks are prepared for Sligh therefore its effectiveness has gone down. Still, Sligh is a very tough match-up for most decks. That is why Sligh is my favorite deck.
Conclusion:
With each expansion that comes out, Sligh’s arsenal grows. One distinct advantage of red is that most of its direct damage is common and fair enough not to be restricted.
However, other colors have also gotten stronger. The rate of their improvement is much faster than red’s. Wizards of the Coast have greatly toned down the power of red cards since the creation of Sligh. From Lightning Bolt to Shock to those one is to one cost/damage ratio.
But who’s complaining? As long as Lightning Bolt is unrestricted, Sligh will continue to be a dominant force in type one.
In my opinion, Sligh is the best deck ever made in terms of build and cost. If you compare Sligh to Keeper, they’re not that far off in terms of power. But when you look at the card prices, you’ll see why Sligh is so good.
Of course, this is only from my point of view. It’s up to you if you believe me or not.
This primer has not in anyway copied another primer’s content. No Goblin was harmed in the process of writing this primer.
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
COLOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
Nobody actually plays these in Type I. The only deck here that sees any play at all is Keeper and it is so substantially different from what it was a couple of years ago that it doesn't even go by that name anymore.
More relevant matchups for today's meta would include:
Combo (Doomsday, TPS)
Tog
Workshop prison & workshop Aggro
Control Slaver
Gifts Belcher
Fish (which could potentially be a favorable matchup)
Funny thing is that at SCG Chicago, this deck was at like table 6 in round 6, paired against Doomsday, and beat it.
Sligh dies to many of todays decks, and is simply too slow. A few months ago it was even completely unplayable thanks to Trinisphere. Today, its _slightly_ more viable, because trinisphere is restricted and cards like pyrostatic pillar prevent an autowin from combo (sometimes).
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
i did say i wrote this way back didn't i? i quit playing magic a long time ago. the last expansion i remember is mercadian masques. lol.
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
COLOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
-Lance
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