Sligh - V

Sligh/Geeba, Chapter V: Jan '97 - Apr '97

With the loss of Ice Age and Fallen Empires from TII play, Sligh loses the Orcish Librarian, Anarchy and Cannoneer from Ice Age, and the Dwarven Ruins/Soldiers/Lt.'s from Fallen Empires. While these losses hurt the Sligh deck, it loses much less than other pre-1/1/97 decks. The Vise and Strip Mine are finally banned, although this is just a side note. The biggest loss to the Sligh deck is, oddly enough, Necropotence. Without the fear of Necro, many other decks that are strong against Sligh will become more viable. A typical Sligh deck now looked like:

Sligh Deck, Jan - Feb '97
4 Goblin Ballon Brigade 1 Gorilla Shaman 4 Ironclaw Orc 2 Dwarven Miner 1 Goblin Tinker 1 Brothers of Fire 4 Orcish Artillery 2 Dragon Whelps 1 Wildfire Emmisary	4 Lightning Bolt 4 Incinerate 1 Guerilla Tactics 1 Death Spark 4 Pillage	4 Brass Man
4 Mishra's Factory 1 Thawing Glaciers 18 Mountain	Sideboard: 3 Manabarbs 2 Wildfire Emmisary 3 Red Elemental Blast	Sideboard (cont): 2 Winter Orb 2 Meekstone 3 Nevinyrral's Disk

The Sligh deck managed to keep its fundamental shape. The biggest change came in the sideboard, where four Manabarbs was no longer standard, because of the change in how damage was dealt with under 5th Edition rules (and the implications for COP:Red). Because of this, Nevinyrral's Disks became standard, a trick borrowed from the NecroDeck The above deck managed to go undefeated in a small (26 ppl) 5-round swiss tournament, but was defeated in the finals by a new style of deck, the Counter-Hammer.

April '97

The Sligh deck, by this time, has become a standard tournament deck. Visions brought some interesting cards into the mix like Keepers of Kookus and Fireblast, while the loss of Homelands was barely felt (nothing except the Serrated Arrows). The arrival of 5th Edition, however, has severely shaken up the card mix, with Sligh standards such as Lightning Bolt, Goblin Ballon Brigade, Dragon Whelp and Mishra's Factory bowing out of Type II play. For most Sligh decks, this means the replacement of about 25% of the cards. Many quite original attempts have been made to make the Sligh deck a two or even three color deck. While this was not possible before (because of inconsistent mana-production), the re-introduction of the IA painlands makes this a viable option at this time. 4 Painlands, 4 City of Brass, and 4 Undiscovered Paradise, with perhaps a couple Sheltered Valleys (to alleviate the pain), will make a very consistent deck... the question now, is the red creature and damage base the best to work with, and what color should it be coupled with. Green and White offer Enchantment removal, so they are obvious first choices, the splash of a third color is left as an exercise for the reader.

Having said that, a mono-red deck should still be viable, and can still be built on the original Sligh principles looking something like:

5th Edition Sligh , Apr '97

4 Keeper of Kookus
3 Goblin Digging Team
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Orcish Captain
4 Ironclaw Orc
2 Dwarven Miner
1 Goblin Tinkerer
4 Orcish Artillery
1 Reckless Embermage
2 Wildfire Emmissary
1 Spitting Drake 4 Incinerate
2 Guerilla Tactics
3 Death Spark
1 Fireball
1 Fireblast
4 Pillage

2 Quicksand
1 Thawing Glaciers
2 Sheltered Valleys
1 Undiscovered Paradise
16 Mountain
Sideboard:
3 Manabarbs
4 Pyroblast
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
Sideboard (cont):
2 Winter Orb
2 Meekstone