WRG Astral Slide

For today’s article, I decided to re-visit an archetype I’ve already written about, using a different colour combination. For those not familiar with Astral Slide decks – they are incredibly fun. Why? They make use of a mechanic that is already good (Cycling) and combine it with total deck synergy to some pretty awesome results. I’ve decided to write about WGR Astral Slide because of how different the deck strategy is from WR (.. and because the WG version I was writing about just wasn’t as awesome).

Strategy. As I mentioned, the strategy for WRG Slide is very different from WR; for example, instead of using Blood Moon and Sol lands as a pseudo win condition, the deck focuses much more on control and generating card advantage. One of the main weaknesses of the WR version was the lack of card advantage engines, which this deck has plenty of. The addition of Green also adds some more creatures to the deck, whereas the WR version hardly plays any.

WRG. One of the main features of WR Astral Slide was that it wanted to create a slower tempo/controlled board state. Virtual card advantage was seen via Lightning Rift, but if you went into top deck mode then you couldn’t really see more than 1 card in your hand at a time. WRG Slide combines Wall of Blossoms and Astral Slide to not only slow the game down for you, but to also generate a lot of card drawing.  The deck also allows the addition of Cartographer and Tranquil Thicket, which have very nice synergy with Astral Slide. Thicket also adds four more 1-mana cycling lands, which are very relevant on their own.

Win conditions. One of the main reasons I decided to keep Red in the deck was because of Lightning Rift. The card is very good, and takes some pressure off of landing an Astral Slide for synergy with all of the cycling cards. I think most of the creatures are self-explanatory, but I do want to remind players that Hermit Druid can be bounced for tons of squirrel tokens.

Strategy Part 2. As I mentioned, the addition of Green means that you won’t be using Blood Moon, and thus there is no need for Sol lands. While the latter do help pump out Astral Slide itself (even as early as turn 1), they don’t help with a lot of the other cards. Admittedly, this is a play-style choice, and an argument can certainly be made to add the Sol lands. Just remember, if you decide to add them then some strategy of the deck changes too. Happy Brewing!

WRG Astral Slide

Land

4 Secludded Steppe

4 Tranquil Thicket

4 Forgotten Cave

2 Blasted Landscape

2 Savannah

2 Plateau

1 Plains

5 Fetch lands

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Wall of Blossoms

2 Exalted Angel

1 Mystic Enforcer

1 Deranged Hermit

1 Stoic Champion

4 Cartographer

Total: 13

Spells

4 Mox Diamond

4 Astral Slide

4 Lightning Rift

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Spark Spray

Total: 23

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant
2 Wrath of God

1 Slice and Dice
1 Eternal Dragon

3 Renewed Faith