[Deck] Historic Sligh

[scaryrawr]

Ok... so there's already a Sligh thread, but it hasn't been updated in recent times.

What is Sligh?
Sligh is an aggressive red deck that plays cheap creatures to quickly finish off opponents. Burn spells are also used for added reach and keeping creatures getting through. A common feature of Sligh that's been forgotten in recent years is also playing land destruction. Burn and various other aggressive decks forked off of Sligh, and Sligh has somewhat disappeared as an archetype to the point where kids these days don't even know what Sligh is!



Why play Sligh over Burn?
It's easier to turn creatures sideways than sequence spells...

Ah, on a more serious note, the issue is that decks these days are very good at battling on the stack. We have combo decks like Storm, Show and Tell, Reanimator, etc. Cards good against Storm these combo decks, also tend to be good against Burn (for the most part). By going with a creature centered strategy, we end up being able to commit a couple threats to the board, sit back, and just say "Can you deal with these?" and once they do, add some more to the board. We can go all in and try to close quickly, or sit back and try to be a little more midrange. Also... Wasteland just wins games on its own.

What makes it historic?
Sligh is an old archetype- OK SO WE'RE PLAYING The Flame of Keld and some Legendary stuff! Which are Historic spells...

List
Currently, a work in progress, below is what I plan to test with next...

Main

21 Creatures
4 Goblin Guide
2 Zurgo Bellstriker
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Ash Zealot
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Goblin Chainwhirler
1 Rampaging Ferocidon

14 Inst/Sorc.
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Fireblast
2 Price of Progress

3 Art/Enchantment
2 The Flame of Keld
1 Hammer of Purphoros

22 Lands
4 Wasteland
9 Mountain
1 Ghitu Encampment
2 Arid Mesa
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills


Side

2 Meekstone
3 Abrade
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Scab-Clan Berserker
3 Pyroblast
1 Phyrexian Revoker


Other creatures cards considered:
Grenzo, Havoc Raiser - Grenzo is fun, can build value off of playing your opponents spells.
Dire Fleet Daredevil - Can build value off of playing your opponents spells, but big thing is first strike
Monastery Swiftspear - Doesn't generate as much value since we're more creature heavy
Ball Lightning - Swing for 6 seems good, but dies to most everything.
Legion Loyalist - Text seems sweet, 1/1 is too small.

Hammer of Purphoros!?!?
So, I threw it in there kind of as a fun of... then it turns out it's pretty sweet having a late game Grim Lavamancer with haste... also turns out that being able to make back to back 3/3's is pretty challenging for most decks to deal with if they don't have a way to remove hammer. Also, the Golem's being colorless are oddly relevant at times... Even though you "take a turn off" to play it, it doesn't tend to feel that way so far in testing.

Do you need Ghitu Encampment?
No. It's interesting though because it dodges a lot of removal in the format Abrupt Decay, Unexpectedly Absent, Supreme Verdict, Marsh Casualties, etc... It gets hit by most everything else though.

Matches



ANT - Surprisingly not too bad. Turns out having 8 hatebears (Eidolon and Zealot) are really good. Revoker can name LED cutting off the discard outlet.
Miracles - Surprisingly not too bad either. You'd think they'd handle a creature strategy better, but with varying CMCs Counterbalance struggles, and really their only out is an early mentor or Entreat. Wasteland their Tundras is surprisingly effective. Revoker on Jace can help stop them from digging and being able to set up entreats/terminus.
Czech Pile - Weird. I think that Ash Zealot is the best beater in this matchup since it has First Strike. Leovold can make things awkward since it's a 3/3. DRS makes Wasteland not as good, but Bolt the Bird into Wasteland can be pretty devistating.
Maverick - "Look at me, I'm the Wasteland deck now." Turns out Maverick's susceptible to wasteland, with bolts pointed at color fixing creatures, you can cut them off of their color needs, I think mom makes things difficult if you can't clear it in time.
Infect - So... If you thought having bolts and lavamancer made this match up pretty good, wait until you throw in wastelands too.
Eldrazi - Having first strike creatures is extremely relevant, it's not exactly favorable (a lot of draw-go at times), but it's not exactly unfavorable either from testing so far Wasteland is really good against them, so is Price of Progress.

I haven't play tested that many matchups yet (only so many weeklies in a week).

[Hanni]

I still play Sligh, but I roll with a blue splash. I realize the hyper-aggressive direction of my variation is quite a bit different from what you are doing, but there may be value in showing it to you.

The thread itself can be accessed through my signature, but this is my current list:

R/u Sligh

Lands (18)
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Volcanic Island
2 Mountain
2 Barbarian Ring

Creatures (14)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer

Spells (28)
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Forked Bolt
2 Price of Progress
2 Fireblast

Sideboard (15)
4 Smash to Smithereens
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
2 Seal of Removal
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle