So here’s the plan – I want you to glance at today’s deck
list and tell me; does it look even remotely strong? The answer is probably no.
The crazy thing is, that’s essentially the same reaction people had back in the
earliest days of Magic. You see, when the deck was introduced to the tournament
scene, it looked like a ragtag assortment of cards. When people played against
it however, they quickly learned just how fast and consistent it was. And so, as
this deck should require no introduction, let’s talk about one of the game’s
earliest Red decks – Sligh.
The main concept behind Sligh is pretty simple: get the
opponent down to zero using a mix of efficient creatures and spells. Wait, did
I just say a mix that includes several creatures
in an Ancient mono Red deck? Sure
did! In fact, one of the main differences between Sligh and Burn is that Sligh
decks tend to be more creature-focused. This is actually pretty ironic when one
considers how aggressive the old creatures were vs. the spells. So let’s look
into the how and why the Sligh deck works.
While Red is known for its aggressive damage spells, many
people forget it also has a pretty sweet creature history as well. Since the
days of
K̶i̶r̶d̶ ̶A̶p̶e̶ Ball
Lightning, mono Red decks have been capable of combining creatures and spells
for some serious damage. Another pretty famous example of an aggressive Red
creature is Jackal Pup. Seriously. A Savannah Lions with a drawback can be
awesome when the drawback rarely matters. I also included another Red 1-drop
that may seem pretty obscure to some people – Brand Brawlers. So why did I
include it (and as a 4-of!)? The fact is, Sligh decks are meant to out tempo
their opponent, which is exactly what a turn 1 Brawlers can do. How? They can
either deal some fast damage to the enemy or they can stall the opponent by
making them stall on spell-casting.While the creatures are abundant and
sweet, we simply can’t ignore Red’s spells. The usual Lightning spells are
included of course, but the deck also contains a couple of Red’s other famous
damage dealing spells – Price of Progress and Fireblast. Perhaps most
surprising to people however, is the inclusion of the artifact in the room:
Cursed Scroll. This thing is an amazing source of control and card advantage.
If you’ve never played the Scroll before, then I strongly recommend you do so.Well everyone, I hope you
enjoyed today’s deck. I think it’s important that we.. wait, what? The
inclusion of Branded Brawlers continues to haunt you? Well, perhaps it might
interest you to know that a couple of the old Sligh decks actually used
Branded’s older brother: Veteran Brawlers. I chose to use the little guys
instead because of the implications they can bring to turn 1 decision-making
however. If you decide to try out both, I do recommend the inclusion of 4
Rishadan Ports and other such changes. But perhaps that’s another deck for
another time.. Happy Brewing!
Sligh
Land
7 Mountain
8 Fetch lands
4 Wasteland
1 Rishadan Port
Total: 20
Creatures
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Jackal Pup
4 Ball Lightning
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Viashino Sandstalker
4 Branded Brawlers
Total: 23
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
3 Cursed Scroll
3 Fireblast
2 Price of Progress
1 Shock
Total: 17
Sideboard
4 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Pyroclasm
1 Ironclaw Orcs
3 Bottle Gnomes
