Sligh/Geeba, Chapter I: Origins - Jun '96
| Introdution The Sligh Deck, so named after the person that popularized it, Paul Sligh, first made a splash at the Atlanta Pro-tourney Qualifier by ending up in the final four. In the end it lost to a Necro deck (but had beaten several to get there). The Sligh deck, originally created by Jay Schneider, is an odd looking deck that utilizes many scoffed at cards - for good reason usually - but is illustrative of how a well designed mono-color deck can get by with slightly substandard cards by utilizing its color’s strengths (and a good sideboard). It is also instructive to see how the concepts of selective mana-denial and card advantage can be integrated successfully with a fast, offensive-overload, theory of deck construction. In many ways I think this mirrors the successfulness of the Necro deck, which strives to do much the same. In essence, the Sligh deck is a mono-red weenie control deck, just as many versions of the Necro deck are mono-black weenie control decks. It also illustrates how a deck that begins with an good overall strategy can be competitive without a major expenditure of money (less than $60 w/sideboard). It is also important to note that the Sligh decks' popularity is partly due to its status as a "meta-game" deck, as it is well equiped to beat the standard NecroDeck of its time quite handily. Principles of Construction The Sligh deck is somewhat unique in that it uses six base deck construction guidelines. These guidelines, when observed, will create an efficient and deadly deck. The guidelines, in order of importance, are: 1. The Mana Curve. A true Sligh deck (and any good active deck) is optimized to use the mana curve that comes from playing one land per turn, and using ALL of it's mana on every turn. This is done using a "tiered" system. When you look at a Sligh deck you should see “slots”, not specific cards. Taking this approach Sligh looks like this: 1 mana slot: 9-13 2 mana slot: 6-8 3 mana slot: 3-5 4 mana slot: 1-3 X spell (fireball, etc.): 1-3 One-shot Artifact/LD: 2-5 One-shot Direct Damage (Bolts, Incinerates, etc.): 8-10 Utility land (Mishra, Strip, etc.) 4-8 Red Mana Land 15-18 In a deck designed to use it, it is highly effective to use all of your mana each turn. The tiered progression makes it fairly certain that you will be casting your spells quickly and steadily. The Sligh deck’s 1 casting cost critters, while often maligned, usually do 5 - 10 points of damage before they are neutralized or dealt with, bringing the opponent into bolt or fireball range. 2. Card Advantage. It doesn't look like it but Sligh is built on card advantage. The key is selective card advantage. All of the cards in Sligh are effective by themselves. Sligh is very effective at killing all of an opponents creatures, thereby rendering creature support cards useless. The Orcish Artillery represent the culmination of this principle, i.e. a useful card in and of itself that also gains card advantage if it’s special ability is used just once. The card advantage is on the table. By the time you hand begins to be depleted, you're casting persistent direct damage dealing creatures such as the Orcish Artillery/Cannoneers and Brothers of Fire. You may have few cards in hand but you'll still be doing damage! The newer additions of Thawing Glaciers, Gorilla Shaman's and Dwarven Miner's represent another way to gain card advantage. 3. Offensive overload. An average 24-26 creatures (more than most tournament decks) and a large dose of Direct Damage. Six or so of the creatures have reusable direct damage, so the average Sligh deck will have 15 sources of Direct Damage. 4. Environment control. The Sligh deck has effective ways to remove creature, land, and artifact threats, and has built in counters to enchantment threats. 5. Combination free deck. There are no combo’s in the Sligh deck. Each card is a good stand-alone card, and any combinations that are inherent in the interactions between the cards do not detract from the general usefulness of the card by itself. 6. Consistent mana-development. The Sligh deck is a mono-color deck. With the correct percentage of land, the Sligh deck is less susceptible to bad mana draws. The tiered system of casting costs ensures that worthwhile spells can be cast from the beginning through end-game. The overall low casting cost of the deck makes it relatively fast and quick to develop. Other Sligh concepts: Artifact Damage, i.e., the Brass Men and Mishra’s, provide a colorless source of damage, thus circumventing the COP: Red problem to some degree. With the current heavy use of mass creature destruction Mishra’s Factories provide a hedge. The use of Thawing Glaciers also give you card advantage, thus strengthening guideline #2, and further protects against bad mana draws. Pillage works well, a stone rain and shatter rolled into one, which makes it the red counterpart to a Disenchant. The Pillage’s, combined with a Dwarven Miner or two, can suddenly make a good portion of your opponents land go away. Using exactly two Orcish Librarians came about through trial and error. The Librarian is an excellent card in this deck, it is the red equivalent of a Browse! Many people do not realize the power of this little creature until he is used once or twice, then they try to kill him quickly. One criticism of the deck is that it is hosed by COP:Red. Besides the use of Artifact damage sources and Manabarbs, another common solution to the COP is the siege. Attack with waves every turn, don't let them use their mana and eventually draw more critters than they have mana. Another effective solution is the use of Winter Orbs. The manabarbs in the sideboard are the answer to COP:Red and 100 other questions. ("What do you do against ...." "Play a ManaBarb"). Specifically, they also work against Millstones, pump-knights, Nev's Disk, Wrath of God, StormBind, Jayemdae Tomes, Jalum Tomes, Conversion, Justice, Infernal Darkness, Disrupting Scepters, etc. - anything that requires continuos mana expenditure. They are massively disruptive. Lack of Combos plus mono-color equals VERY consistent performance in tournaments. Lack of Combos also means that the deck has good resistance to early Hymns and Stupors. Yes, 2 or 3 of them early will hurt, but they'll hurt this deck less than many other decks. It's still a fight, not a rout. Most of this deck can function with 3 mana or less in play. Being able to get your game going and to disrupt the opponents game even during a bad mana draw allows you to save game after game that more mana-intensive decks lose. One of the more interesting aspects of the Sligh deck is that it is constructed with a large amount of common cards, and even the cards that are not common are relatively cheap. In addition, most of the cards are fourth edition cards, making it even easier to find the cards to construct. It also has the advantage that the diversity of the Sligh deck’s threats guarantee that it cannot be capped or countered into oblivion. The Sligh deck, in and of itself, is more of a deck concept than a specific deck. It is a deck that emphasizes creature combat, and requires a good grasp of the basic concepts of Magic to utilize the strengths of the deck to its full capacity. One of the more entertaining aspects of Sligh is the looks on opponents faces as they die to a Orc or a Dwarf. Many opponents only realize what this deck does after the second game. Most opponents do not take it seriously, and figure anybody playing it is a newbie (after all, who plays with Orcish Artillery and Ironclaw Orcs?). In many of my games with the Sligh deck people look at it and give me advise on how to improve it. (Adding white, bigger creatures etc.) Also, don’t expect to get much respect with this deck (the first time around). Comments such as “I shouldn't have lost to this, My deck always beats this deck...” etc., will abound. Make no mistake though, the Sligh deck is a strong deck, and will get stronger with the addition of Visions... the Goblin Recruiters and Lightning Cloud alone will make up for the loss of the Librarian! The Orcish Librarian Deck Here is the deck that started it all at the Atlanta Pro-Tourney Qualifier - Note: This deck was constructed under the “5 of all current expansions” rule used in the pro-tourney. As such it is not optimized for Standard Type II play. (e.g., note Goblins of the Flarg plus Dwarves, not a good combo to play on yourself.)
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