[Deck] Goyf Sligh

[Peter_Rotten]

I've found my Dreadstill experience to be quite the opposite. In fact, I say it is rare to win a game against that deck. Even if Dreadz hits the table on turn 3 or 4, it is still BIG trouble for us. A turn 2 Standstill while we have little pressure on the table is also bad news. Combine both of those situations with CounterTop and I'd consider Dreadstill one of our worst matches.

[Albplayer]

I played almost the same deck in Hadley mass about a month ago and split in the finals. 40ish person tourney. So then I played in and won TMLO4 (58 person tourney), this was the deck I used, this is my report.

creature [19]
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
instant [16]
3 Fireblast
1 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Price of Progress
sorcery [4]
4 Chain Lightning
land [21]
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Bloodstained Mire
8 Mountain
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
60 cards
Sideboard:
4 Krosan Grip
4 Pyroblast
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Tormod's Crypt
15 cards

I played against goblins, counter top x, team america, and survival, no specific order. I drew the last 2 matches making top 8. In top 8 I played against team america, Ugr Dreadstill, and finals another team america...

1) Goblins / most of my creatures are better IMHO (except mogg fanatic) and I have burn spells, I win. I didn't side anything in. 2-0
2) counter top x / The cards that let me win the games , FoD "MVP", Krosan Grip ,Price of Progress, and fireblast Tied for second. The one game he did win he had out 2 Meddling Mage which caused me to have 5 dead cards in my hand and 2 PoP with him having like 2 lands. and I think one was basic. I drew like 2 creature the whole game and I think both were countered. I believe goyf sligh is faster and can usually bate counter topping. 2-1
3)team america / they have no real answers for early games creatures that hit the board, (except snuff out which I love) and they only have 8 creatures goyf and tombstalker. The first games it came down to one turn and I drew the needed burn spell and he didn't have to force. But he did have 2 tombstalkers in play. goyfs just bounce and I can usually kill his with just about any other of my spells. My favorite play is when my opponent goes sac land and then Thoughtseize. If you minimize there grave yard with crypt not allowing them to get a early tombstalker the game is really easy for goyf sligh. I sided in blast and crypts. 2-0
4)survival / he mulled like 4 times and I believe in two games he cast 1 bird, 1 late game survival, 2 Thoughtseize, 1 cabal therapy, and a big game hunter. nothing else, I felt bad for him, nice guy though. I sided in grips and crypts. 2-0

Top 8 round one same as above team america, one differnece he got out an early 5/5 tombstalker once but then next turn I crypted the rest of his graveyard making my goyfs 5/6 with the artifact now in the GY. 2-0
round 2 Ugr Dreadstill — Rich Shay, most fun match of the day. FoD is awesome It felt like I was playing team america that included counter top. I never saw a standstill. tied 1-1 a late game K grip on a Phyrexian Dreadnought allowed me to win.... 2-1

finals team america see above 2-0

I didn't play against combo which is what I hoped for. If i do hopefully I can get down a Pyrostatic Pillar before they go off....

My thoughts on the deck...
4 Figure of Destiny, he will almost never become a 8/8 but almost every game he became a 4/4. a lot of people had to read him. But he is that good. One of the reason for having no non red producing mana sources.
4 Grim Lavamancer, kills bouncing goyfs,
3 Keldon Marauders, why not four, up to you , I like having more burn sources. even with only 19 creatures I found my self with no burn and just creatures in my hand.
4 Mogg Fanatic/ self explanatory
4 Tarmogoyf / self explanatory
instant [16]
3 Fireblast / not enough mountains to run 4
1 Incinerate / It was this or another Marauders or Sudden Shock
4 Lightning Bolt / self explanatory
4 Magma Jet / small search engine
4 Price of Progress / I have done no less that 4 and up to 14 damage.
sorcery [4]
4 Chain Lightning / goyf and well its still that good.
land [21]
1 Barbarian Ring / instead of forest, uncounterable damage and red source
4 Bloodstained Mire
8 Mountain
4 Taiga / grip and goyf and hopefully the only damage you will take from PoP
4 Wooded Foothills
60 cards
Sideboard:
4 Krosan Grip / for just about every deck
4 Pyroblast / or Red Elemental Blast
4 Pyrostatic Pillar / combo
3 Tormod's Crypt / yep you know and many other possibilities
15 cards

Not much I would change.

I had very few mulligans, and it was a good choice for the field that day IMHO, great judges, great players, TO was nice, I wish there was better food places near by, or at least better pizza to buy at the store. The want to be Mc / BK , is the worst fast food I have ever had, I think it was called dutches or something like that... never go there.

My friend lost his wallet with 500 buck in it and some of the yugioh players turned it in and took none of the money , My friend gave them 20 bucks and said thanks.. that was unexpected.

I know I made some bad plays but the deck still managed to get me there.

gratz to DJ for coming in 3rd or 4th. and to bushy for winning the duel land side event.. both were from the car I was in.

any q's LMK

[Sims]

Hey Farrell, I was just wondering if you like the Incinerate how it is or would you change that to a Marauder if you had the choice to do it over again. I really have nothing against it, just seemed very out of place to have the 1-of instead of rounding out your playset of Marauders. Was this simply to have more burn for reach and removal?

Also, congrats on the finish. Glad to see both you and DJ did well.

[Albplayer]

1 Incinerate / It was this or another Marauders or Sudden Shock

3 Keldon Marauders, why not four, up to you , I like having more burn sources. even with only 19 creatures I found my self with no burn and just creatures in my hand.

I only saw the incinerate a couple of times and when I did, I never said "wow I wish this was a marauders". And since I won I would say the list is fine lol. But I'm going to try it with different numbers of marauders and incinerates to see what happens. Having FoD and grim mana usage and other EoT effects is nice!

But might want to change the sideboard 4 Pyrostatic Pillar to 4 chalice of the void, to stop: artifacts mox diamond Chrome Mox Lion's Eye Diamond Lotus Petal, chalice of the void, Engineered Explosives! pacts, koblads, A. vison, lotus bloom, I have no idea, or maybe just leave it alone?

[Hoojo]

But might want to change the sideboard 4 Pyrostatic Pillar to 4 chalice of the void, to stop: artifacts mox diamond Chrome Mox Lion's Eye Diamond Lotus Petal, chalice of the void, Engineered Explosives! pacts, koblads, A. vison, lotus bloom, I have no idea, or maybe just leave it alone?

I seems most people agree that Chalice of the Void is better because of speed. Two mana might as well be ten against most of the Ad Nauseum decks.

[Illissius]

Anyone have some data on how much Chalice, splash for Chant, or whatever other sideboard options actually improves the TES/ANT matchups? I.e. your game win percentage goes from what to what? (What I'm trying to ascertain is whether it's worth bothering, given that most of the time you'll have to win both games two and three -- one of those on the draw.)

[bigbear102]

Game one is the dice roll. If they win, it's about 75-25 in their favor, if you win, it's about 60-40 in their favor.

Post board if you bring in something that you can use turn 1, it goes to about 50/50 if not better for you. Just getting to turn 2 and being able to use Fireblast gives you a huge boost in the match, as it makes them draw less off of AdN.

If I were to actually play this in a tournament of over 20 or so, I wouldn't even bother with combo hate in the board. It does not bring your percentages up to where they should be anyway, so you will still lose most of the time. Focusing on other matches is probably the way to go, because odds are you will face maybe 1 storm combo deck, not worth it for 4 board slots to me. In that case Pyrostatic Pillar might make the deck because it is useful in a few other matches.

If you do expect heavy combo, then definitely board for it.

Without a splash for Chant, Chalice is definitely the way to go. Pillar will win some games, but after turn 2-3 you should be able to win regardless. If you do splash for chant make sure to run Lightning Helix to make up for the additional life loss that PoP will cause you.

Personally, with so much Canadian Thresh, Team America, Goblins and Landstill going around, I want to stick with the fewest non-basics possible. Usually that means 2-3 Taiga and 1-2 Barbarian Ring. Chant is too much of a liability because it causes you to screw with your land so much.

[Illissius]

So according to math, if you average your unsideboarded win% to 32.5% and sideboarded games are 50-50* (assume this is also the average of when you go first and second?), that gives you a match win% of 41%. Without any hate to bring in, it's 25%. Does that sound accurate? It actually sounds like a fairly decent improvement -- better than I expected.

* Huge distinction: is it 50-50 if you just bring in 4 pieces of turn 1 hate, or only 50-50 if you actually draw one of them? I went with the former, as that's what your words literally said.

[Wargoos]

And for some reasons bigbear spoke of, i think that a white splash is subpar and just a hype appearance.

I mean, what does w offer?
All lists i've seen haven't played more than Wild Nacatl, Lightning Helix and Chants.

The addition of chants are pretty much for the birds.
Combo is such a bad mu that it's not even worth running solutions for it.
We just have chances if we can get up to 2 mana and keep a fireblast in hand - that increases the fizzlepercentage of ad nauseam.
To go with canonist or gaddock teeg or something is ridicilous as well.
Either they bounce it or just go off faster then we get the guys online.
Plus, Pillar would cause more damage than the both creatures, dealing minimum 4dmg to the comboplayer if he wants to get rid of it.

Lightning Helix isn't good as well.
We need w and r for being able to cast it, which isn't that optimal as well, since our pop's start to be worse for us.
It increases or aggro mu, but here as well, it's just not worth running.
We could play incinerate in that slot as well.

So Nacatl.
Of course 3/3 for one sounds soo good.
But we have to fetch for an early plateau and taiga to get the full damage potential out of this critter, which makes us more fragile to wasteland-and stifle effects.
Besides: nacatl is a great drop t1 but becomes a decent topdeck after t3 and just isn't worth the splash.

For that reasons i would stay at rg since it is obviously the best color configuration.
What do you think?

[Ghoulax]

This is the decklist I've been playing latelly:

creatures:

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf

instants:

3 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Magma Jet
4 Price of Progress

sorceries:

4 Chain Lightning
3 Rift Bolt

lands:

2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
8 Mountain
4 Taiga
1 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:

3 Vexing Shusher
3 Krosan Grip
3 Shattering Spree
3 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Tormod's Crypt


Like I said a friend of mine won our Nats Legacy Open this year with this list. I think I'll do some changes to the sideboard since it was tweaked according to that tournament meta (lots of affinity; lots of MonoU control and Faeries)

Now that the new meta is heavilly inclined towards Team america and Ad Nauseaum combo, I will include Chalice of the void and the fourth tormod's crypt.

Congrats to Michael for winning the TMLO 08 with this incredible deck.

Greets, bye.

[bigbear102]

I still can't justify Keldon Marauders in this deck. Sure, he's possibly 5 damage, but more likely to be 2.

I would much rather see your list add the 4th Magma Jet, the same 2 damage plus a useful ability, the 4th Fireblast... best card in the deck possibly?, and probably like 2 Incenerates, as they are a guaranteed 3 rather than a possible 5.

[Albplayer]

Please NO 4th Fireblast. I would advise against it, too many times you only have 2 to 3 lands in play and the possibility of drawing 2 fireblast is bad.

Keldon Marauders are good some times and I did find myself sideing them out . so I'm still 50/50

Incinerate is awesome but as I said earlier I right now only play one and this slot could be a 4th marauders or a sudden shock, depending on how the format goes all four in this slot might become any of these or split between the 3.

Magma Jet, post sideboard, its the only search engine you got (SAC lands don't count). Oh wait, pre side board it is also. Think of it as a little top after a sac land usage. I love me some magma jets.

AND I Would also advise against the one forest. you want to get to the third red mana for the FoD and if you do fireblast, then only have a Forrest in play you can't do much then..
four cards take green, post sideboard maybe 8, 35 cards plus B. ring take red mana....

[bigbear102]

I have to disagree with 3 Fireblasts. Having played straight burn for so long, and then adding Goyfs and Figures, I have to say that the 4th Fireblast fits better into Sligh than Burn. You have a more stable game plan that allows you to stretc the game to turn 4 or 5 much more safely. Also, with more creatures you are able to rely less on the burn in your hand, meaning drawing 2 fireblasts is not the end of the world.

On the other hand, fireblast is so pivotol to many matchups that it is more dangerous to not have any than to have 2. So many games end up with the opponent saying "I hope that card isn't fireblast." I stated earlier in this thread that Fireblast is a card you need to see to beat combo, which is becoming much more popular these days.

I do agree that 4 Jets are a must, and help a lot in the Fireblast department also, both digging for and getting rid of.

[Valarne]

I have a couple of questions for you Sligh-people:

How does Barbarian Ring work for you? Isn't it sometimes prohibitive when wanting to Fireblast, and isn't it simply a lightning rod for Wasteland (perhaps actually a good thing, saving a Taiga maybe)?

Have you tested one or two Sulfuric Vortex main? I have to some extent, and I generally like to see it, as it presents a tough-to-prevent clock in matches going close to topdeckmode. Or is the tested and winning philosophy, that it would be better to just include instant speed burn? Either way I wouldn't consider it main, unless you're in a The Rock-Finks-Hierarch meta (to some extent I am).

And how about a single Seismic Assault main. I have found it oftenly to be a mustcounter, because we generally can sit tight on 2/3 or maybe 4 lands at the max, and store lands in hand from there. A midgame resolved Seismic can easily send 2-3 lands their way, and makes the rest of the deck a threat basically. Or again, is it too expensive and/or conditional?

Thanks
-Tue

[bigbear102]

Vortex would be a better idea main deck over Seismic Assault. Vortex is not able to be abused in burn. You would need Loam to make it playable, and it would be a different deck. Vortex at least plays a role in stopping life gain and will deal a couple of points regardless.

[Gibbie_X]

I'm curious, why not Jackal Pup. From what I have traditionally thought of Sligh, one more and you can play Ball Lightning over Marauders. I'm not saying play Ball, but I think Pup would lay a beating more than Marauders. A first turn Pup will do more damage more than a third or fourth turn Marauder.
The land count seems high in some of those decks.

[Valarne]

I'm curious, why not Jackal Pup. From what I have traditionally thought of Sligh, one more and you can play Ball Lightning over Marauders. I'm not saying play Ball, but I think Pup would lay a beating more than Marauders. A first turn Pup will do more damage more than a third or fourth turn Marauder.
The land count seems high in some of those decks.

Well the Pup isn't sure to do any damage, whilst the Marauders are, thereby also making them a better topdeck for the most part. Besides, they would fit different places in the deck due to different cmc's. So if the Pup should be considered, it should be in relation to the other 1-drops.

[acidhead]

I've added a white-splash though we can play IMHO more aggro in this pile. This is my actual list im toying around with:

Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf - big beatstick
4 Wild Nacatl - nice beatstick, likes to show his fangs round 2
3 Tin Street Hooligan - helps a lot against crucial MUs, eating Chalice, Shackles, Dreadnoughts (just kidding ;) )...
4 Watchwolf - nice beatstick to keep the pressure up
4 Figure of Destiny - big beatstick, i like this one!

Creature-Enhancement
4 Rancor - nice to max the pain round 2, also helps against opposing Goyfs and other Creatures

Burn
4 Rift Bolt
4 Fireblast
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt

Lands
4 Wooded Foothills - we want fetchies to find the duals and basics we need
2 Forest - some basics are never wrong
1 Mountain
3 Windswept Heath - we need more fetchies!
3 Savannah
4 Plateau
4 Taiga

Sideboard:
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Krosan Grip
4 Pithing Needle

As you can see it's playing a lot of big beatsticks to constantly hold the pressure up. Sure, on paper it's weak against Stifle and Wasteland/other LD, but in my Testgames I haven't much Problems with that. Because it's running lot lands for an Aggro-Pile and the high Threat-Density we could recover the pressure quickly.

But if this splash is better then Price of Progress (a card which can simply win against most of our Meta here in Dülmen and Iserlohn) I didn't know. And i'm too much in Love with Control, to try it out ;)

What did you think about it?


acid

[Illissius]

I'm curious, why not Jackal Pup. From what I have traditionally thought of Sligh, one more and you can play Ball Lightning over Marauders. I'm not saying play Ball, but I think Pup would lay a beating more than Marauders. A first turn Pup will do more damage more than a third or fourth turn Marauder.

opponent: land, cantrip, go
you: land, pup, go
opponent: land, goyf, go
you: frown.

Marauders at least gets in for two.

[Brehn]

What did you think about it?

You're playing 3 Savannah, 2 Forest, 4 Fireblast. There just have to be issues with that. Also, I don't think Rancor is playable at all. Too much opening yourself to two for ones for a too little effect.