MTG Salvation

Astral Slide

Seems like something should/can be done with this card. Have there ever been decklists in Peasant involving this card? If not, what cards/colours would you pair with this?

It's not a Peasant staple to my knowledge, but the basic shell of the extended astral slide decks could possibly be ported to peasant.

You could either pair it with Lightning Rift, the land cyclers and various other red and white cyclers and a few morphers and ETB dudes.

Or, perhaps more interestingly, you could pair it with Eternal Witness. Astral Slide + Eternal Witness + cycling land gives you card draw for one mana/card and an invincible blocker, plus the cards are good on their own and protect each other. Commune with the Gods and Krosan Tusker seem given too, and in that shell I wouldn't rule out Heliod's Pilgrim and possibly the Midnight/Presence combo either (perhaps as a surprise in the SB?). OMG, the 12 soul sisters would be nuts in this deck!

You know, I'm really glad I asked, because you brought up some things I never would have thought of. Thank you!

I was initially imagining a W/R deck with Slice and Dice or Flametongue Kavu, or possibly Lightning Rift, as you mentioned.

Green has a lot of good cyclers, too, it seems. Even a ton of cycling lands + Tilling Treefolk would make for one heck of a base. Soul Sisters is a very cool idea, too, as it will really take advantage of creatures coming into play.

I feel like there's something competitive to be done with this card. Now, with all these ideas, I'm not sure where to start!

I just had an idea: Multiple copies of Astral Slide is only so-so, as you could just cycle another card to trigger it again. Hence, what about a mono-white control deck à la Polar Express using Enlightened Tutor?

Uncommon package:

• 2 Astral Slide
  
• 2 Enlightened Tutor
  
• 1 Ghostly Prison

Rather than Eternal Witness, you can use Auramancer and Custodi Squire, with Sigil of the Nayan Guards as your main cycler and Heliod's Pilgrim to fetch it and various hostile auras such as Weight of Conscience. It's a bit like a mono-white Peasant enchantress, only it uses Sigil + Auramancer + Astral Slide as its draw engine instead. Custodi Squire could be both win con and engine piece. Rune of Protection in various colors fit right in the ETutor/Slide shell and will be extremely problematic for so many decks, especially paired with a Ghostly Prison. I really think we have something here. Of course, all those soul sisters are still very much on the menu, as are synergistic white staples like Kor Skyfisher.

Do you think this direction is worth exploring, perhaps you can post a tentative list if you're interested?

Astral Slide could work with morph creatures too. Playing a morphed Titanic Bulvox and flipping it by cycling a land seems pretty efficient. And a serious clock. And maybe Khans will get us new morphing toys to Astral Slide.

So many options...

It seems we have five distinct archetypes stemming from one single card: Mono-White Slide, Soul Sisters Slide, GW Slide abusing Eternal Witness, WR Slide with Flametongue Kavu and/or Lightning Rift, and a morph-oriented slide. I'm certain Khans will give us a nice common fatty with more reasonable stats (Bulvox is flame slash material), so the latter could be something to look into in the coming weeks. For now, however, I'm tending more towards the amazing amount of card advantage to be gained from Sliding a Witness. We unfortunately don't have access to the Solitary Confinement lock that was so typical of the deck, but we might still be able to do something with it.



Other interesting options for this deck are Centaur Healer, Kor Hookmaster, Nest Invader, Phantom Nomad and Walker of the Grove. I'm not sold on playing Attended Knight, and I'm thinking either Hookmaster or Centaur Healer would be better choices. Or I could go for the obvious Aven Rifwatcher again. That card seems to find its way into every white deck imaginable.

I like the idea of Sliding Stonehorn Dignitary to forcefully put the opponent on the defensive for several turns (possibly forever). Any creatures I cycle will eventually find their way back into my hand with Eternal Witness, giving me a powerful end game. 24 cyclers should give me plenty of fodder (maybe too much), and Tilling Treefolk does what he does best, but better

not sure you need that many ramp creatures,even if it is just for cycling. It really seems you need some sort of bomb as a finisher. or is the plan to exhaust the foe's hand till you can swing in with your 1/1s and 2/2s?

I wonder if Tablet of the Guilds can help stall out.

Krosan Tusker and Pale Recluse are the bombs, actually. They happen to work very well. I'm not afraid to cycle them, either, as I can get them back with a Witness eventually or draw into more. Repeated Witness into Krosan Tusker is insane card advantage.

I've also been working on a Peasant version of Rifter:


Both decks seem fairly solid, but quite similar.

@kcd111: Those are pretty good card choices! Do you have a working list for that?

Every time I check back on this thread, there are new and interesting ways of building around this card.

I don't quite understand Baleful Eidolon. What's up with that card? Do you find Lone Missionary too easy to disrupt? I found the life to be rather insignificant when he was dealt with quickly, and the 1-toughness didn't really make him much of a fighter. The deck looks like a real card advantage machine. Seems like that's almost all it does. I'll have to take it for a spin. Running three colours really deters me, though.

I felt this archetype never got the development I think it deserved, so I thought we should revisit it. I mentioned a mono-white variant before and it's taken me some time to brew something together in my head. Here's what I've got so far:



The SB is incomplete - just gathering a few ideas there. The main deck runs 18 cyclers and 13 humans (for Weight). It has early removal and lock pieces against aggro, and a few wrenches to throw at combo too (Gilded Light and Flagbearer). Astral Slide is mainly used to form a draw engine with Sigil (tutored by Pilgrim) and Auramancer, on Pilgrim to fish out more removal, to flip Ponyback Brigade or (last and least) to reload Javelineers. Flagbearer is hilarious with Slide - everything must target it, but if it's anything bad, it just winks out It's also a human for Weight! Winning is by token swarm (Brigade) and/or Marshaling Cry. The concept is a mono white control deck that can handle just about anything. The Ghostly Prison is a meta-dependent slot. It should probably be whatever uncommon enchantment/artifact seems most powerful as a lock piece for your meta. Suggestions are VERY welcome!