What's in a name anyway?

I'd like to open this article by saying that I was really unsure about putting the word Slide in the title of this article. Five Slide decks went to PTLA, and they averaged 11.4 points. Not a single one of them made day two. The archetype performed horribly and really seemed like a complete letdown from its showing at Worlds. The reason for this is that the Slide lists used in that tournament quite simply sucked. A lot. Big time. Like a Hoover that just came out of the BALCO lab arm in arm with Raffy Palmeiro.

The important question to ask here isn't why those lists were so bad, but rather, why were those lists so horribly atrociously universally not good? The answer is a fairly simple one: the players involved did not understand that Slide has changed to become the new generalized non-Blue control deck of extended. In other words, Slide is the new Rock. Remember when Ozzie got kicked out of Texas for peeing on the Alamo, then went back fifteen years later and rocked the place? Or, in an example more relevant to Magic (how can anything be more relevant than Ozzie?) remember how Life was horrible two years ago until someone finally figured out how to build it right? Think like that.

New Cards, New Theory, New Deck

When most people hear Astral Slide, they think back to Onslaught Block decks using Red, White, and Exalted Angel. Not so much now.

Slide first changed with the release of Fifth Dawn and the debut of Eternal Witness. This saw the deck change from R/W to W/G, and this was such an improvement that it went ahead to catapult Julien Nujiten to World Champion. Shortly after that, Kamigawa Block was released and Magic began a yearlong stint of sucking massively. During this time one or two people tried to port Slide into Extended. The deck lacked the disruption necessary to stop the blazing fast combo decks that were prevalent, and it also couldn't really deal with the large amounts of mana denial present in many decks. Those decks and cards (Wasteland, Rishadan Port) aren't around in Extended anymore.

To understand what this deck is and does, it is important to realize the deck’s role in the metagame. Creature-based aggro is covered by Rock, Boros, Affinity, Madness, and to a lesser extent, Goblins. Combo consists mainly of Heartbeat and CAL. Control can be summed up as a competition between 'Tog and Scepter. Both of those control decks, however are Blue-based. What if you want to play non-Blue based control, perhaps similar to the more controlling builds of the Rock from last season? Well, look no further, because Slide is your answer.

Adding Black to the G/W archetype that won Worlds is what really gives this deck the legs to compete in Extended. It's important to realize that this isn't Onslaught Slide, where cards would often be included simply because they cycle for one mana (Akroma's Blessing). Every card in the deck needs to be good on its own and worthy of inclusion based on its casting effects, not the fact that it cycles. The second thing to realize is that without eight cycling enchantments to support, you don't need quite so many cyclers in the deck as you did before.

This means there is a lot of free space in the deck, which in turn means it's very customizable. Being extremely customizable is another way of saying the deck works best in a known metagame and can be tuned to beat anything, but can have trouble if you take the wrong deck to the wrong field.

To help illustrate how this deck has changed to become more like the Rock of old (which is as misnamed as the "West Coast Offense" but that's a whole other story), I'm going to list some cards that used to be in Rock but are now in shiny new form in Slide.

The Evolution

Ravenous Baloth ====> Loxodon Hierarch
Recurring Nightmare ====> Astral Slide
Duress/Cabal Therapy/Cranial Extraction ====> Duress/Cabal Therapy/Cranial Extraction
Genesis ====> Genesis, Eternal Dragon, Life from the Loam
Vampiric Tutor ====> Entomb would work, but that’s banned.
Treetop Village ====> Nantuko Monastery, Nomad Stadium, Cabal Pit
Pernicious Deed ====> Wrath of God, Pernicious Deed
Smother, Diabolic Edict, Oxidize ====> Vindicate, Darkblast, Putrefy
Spiritmonger ===> Eternal Dragon

The loss of Vampiric is pretty big, but almost all of the other card changes are flat out upgrades, while the rest are more subtle changes that affect how the deck works and interacts with itself. So what does this deck look like after all of these changes have been made? Kind of like this.

Deck
Creatures (16) 3x Birds of Paradise 3x Sakura-Tribe Elder 4x Eternal Witness 3x Loxodon Hierarch 2x Eternal Dragon 1x Genesis Sorceries (10) 2x Life from the Loam 2x Vindicate 2x Cranial Extraction 4x Wrath of God Instants (6) 2x Fade from Memory 4x Gilded Light Enchantments (3) 3x Astral Slide	Basic Lands (5) 2x Forest 2x Plains 1x Swamp Other Lands (20) 3x Windswept Heath 1x Caves of Koilos 2x Temple Garden 2x Overgrown Tomb 4x Tranquil Thicket 4x Secluded Steppe 1x Nomad Stadium 1x Cabal Pit 2x Nantuko Monastery	Sideboard 1x Loxodon Hierarch 3x Withered Wretch 2x Cranial Extraction 4x Cabal Therapy 3x Smother 2x Pernicious Deed

Looks a bit different doesn't it? That’s mainly because it is different, very different than what you're used to seeing out of a Slide deck. For one thing, there are only three Slides in it rather than four. It only has 16 cyclers in it, when many decks from Onslaught Block had over 30. It doesn't have the following cards: Exalted Angel, Akroma's Vengeance, Renewed Faith, or Decree of Justice.

There are good reasons for all of these. Exalted Angel is flat-out beaten by Loxodon Hierarch. The elephant gains you eight life a turn and doesn't have to attack to do it. He costs four, once, instead of six once or seven over two turns. He has a useful secondary ability and can destroy himself if necessary. Akroma's Vengeance doesn't come online until turn six. It doesn't stop regeneration, and costs a very high three to cycle. Deed is just better; it comes online earlier, you can set it low to save your permanents, and it can be used at instant speed. Renewed Faith does nothing when faced with the raw power of Fade from Memory. On the one hand, you have a card that cycles for two and gives you life, then gives you more life if you hardcast it. In nearly every matchup where lifegain is good, you already have a large advantage, and in nearly every matchup where graveyard hate is good, you don't. So which card will win more games that would have otherwise been lost? It's not a hard call here; Faith is banished from the deck. Decree of Justice is what you try to do to control decks if you're playing some G/W mixture that’s trying to pretend like its still 2004 Standard. You have a lot of better things to do than not tap mana for a whole turn just so you can cast a bunch of 1/1 weenies that will be killed in very short order.

Rules are made to be broken

Extended is a very fast and brutal format. You can't spend valuable time and mana messing around with things that aren't broken. Basically, you need to cheat. Slide does an amazing job of cheating. As an example I'll list the spells played in a recent game with this deck vs. Affinity.

Affinity: Shrapnel Blast, Thoughtcast, Thoughtcast, Thoughtcast, Chrome Mox, Welding Jar, Welding Jar, Arcbound Worker, Arcbound Worker, Arcbound Ravager, Arcbound Ravager, Myr Enforcer, Cranial Plating, four lands.

Slide: Vindicate (targeted a land), Astral Slide, Eternal Witness (got back a land then died), Wrath of God, Life from the Loam, Life from the Loam.

The Affinity player conceded on turn 11 with four cards in hand, two lands, a Mox, Ravager, and Plating in play. Slide had six lands in hand, seven lands and a Slide in play. Guess who was in complete control at that point? That’s the kind of power you need to be competitive in Extended right now, and Slide can provide it.

That's a nice example and all, but you're probably wondering just how Slide goes about cheating. OK, I'll tell you.

1) The manabase. Slide has always cheated here, running somewhere between 25 and 27 lands but cycling/sacrificing most of those away. It really plays like it has the threat/answer density of a deck with 12 lands that somehow just doesn't get mana screwed.

2) Pre-sideboarding. Gilded Light and Fade from Memory are totally sideboard cards, but they're in the maindeck here because they just can be traded in for another card for just one or two mana. This again makes your deck smaller while still giving you abilities and options that, while rather blah in some cases, are spectacular in others.

3) Recursion. This version of the deck features four separate recursion engines (Genesis, Eternal Dragon, Life from the Loam, Eternal Witness + Astral Slide), meaning that your opponent can expect to see any card in your deck just as many times as you need them.

4) Draw power. This version of the deck has 29 cards in it that put other cards into your hand, seven that get you cards from the graveyard, and 22 that pull other cards from your library.

How to win, How to play, How to lose

This all sounds good, but many of you are probably wondering how the deck plays in various matchups, and how it can win for you. So put away the ski masks and power tools and grab some pen and paper 'cause I'm about to lay it out for you.

First, the Big Three: Boros, Affinity, and 'Tog.

Boros Deck Wins. This matchup is in your favor. They have little guys that try to kill you, you have spells that kill their little guys. They have burn spells to take away your life, you have lifegaining effects to get it back. They have land destruction to smash your mana, you have accelerators and Life from the Loam to give you more mana. The deciding factor in this match is tempo. Who gets it, and who keeps it. If they get off to an aggressive creature start and draw large amounts of LD, they can win. Otherwise, you'll bounce around four or five life for awhile before climbing back up to your starting total and winning. Mulligan any hand that doesn't include early mana acceleration or removal. I could try to go into a lot more detail here, but it’s pretty simple: they play guys and attack, you Wrath. You try to develop mana, they try to destroy it. They burn you down, you gain life. Just do your thing and make them work for their hits.

Sideboarding is a bit tricky here, since you'll be pulling out cards that were useful game one for cards that will be even more useful in game two. That’s a pretty common theme with this deck when sideboarding. Pull out the Vindicates, Fade from Memorys, and Cranial Extractions for two Deeds, the three Smothers, and the fourth Loxodon.

Affinity. This is the easiest of your matchups in the big three. If you untap on turn four and do something useful like Wrath (assuming you haven't already) then you've most likely won this game barring double Shrapnel catching you with your Gilded Lights down. Sideboarding is almost the same as against Boros, except here you'll want to leave the Vindicates in to hit a Plating or unanimated Nexus. Take out Extraction, Fade and one Loxodon for the Smothers and Deeds.

Psychatog. This is actually going to be divided into two segments, one on Gift/Life Tog, and one on Classic Tog. First, the easier match.

Gift/Life Tog. This one is actually in your favor. Gilded Light counters their only draw spell, while you can get rid of their annoying graveyard effects like Life from the Loam, Genesis, Wonder, and Coliseum using Fade from Memory. I'm hesitant to give out specific sideboarding advice on this matchup because all of the 'Tog decks show some degree of diversity. In general though, you want the full complement of Wretches and Cranials here, and Smother is also very strong as it kills 'Tog at instant speed for two mana. I recommend against taking out all the Wraths as that’s one of your few reliable methods for killing Meloku, the Clouded Mirror. Just remember that in this matchup you're playing the control deck. Monastery will kill them without you ever casting a spell, so they HAVE to go on the offensive. They're not good at it, so when they do, make them pay for it.

Classic Tog. This is the side of Psychatog you'd rather not see. Fact or Fiction isn't countered by Gilded Light, and they don't really care if you rip one card out of their graveyard because they've got plenty more to feed to the 'Tog. Again, in this match play control, try to Extract their Togs and beat with Monastery. You want Therapy and Extraction in this match to take apart their hand and library, Wrath and Vindicate can both be cut, but be aware that you won't be able to stop Meloku with this setup. There is another way to play this match, basically you take out the Slides, bring in the Therapys and Wretches and play an aggressive tempo based game against them. I'll be honest here, I'm not good enough (Historical note: this marks the first time in recorded history anyone writing something about Magic stated they weren't a good enough player to do anything) with Cabal Therapy to do it, so I cannot honestly state whether or not it works, but it definitely seems like it should be possible. The specific boarding for this is -4 Wrath of God, -3 Astral Slide, -1 Eternal Witness, -2 Fade from Memory, -3 Gilded Light, +4 Cabal Therapy, +1 Loxodon Heirarch, +3 Withered Wretch, +2 Cranial Extraction, +3 Smother.

Beyond the big three we have a second grouping of decks that are also very good, Scepter-Chant, CAL, Heartbeat, and MaceyRock.

CAL is just about a bye. When I had only played against CAL with Slide I was really confused by how this deck could win since the match was just so absolutely completely one sided. Since then I've played against CAL using a few other decks where CAL performed much better. In a lot of ways this is much like facing a Rock deck with Slide, you do a lot of the same things, you just happen to do all the ones that are relevant in the matchup better. The only exception is that unlike Rock they have a theoretical chance at killing you if you play sloppy. CAL cannot deal with a deck that doesn't care about Confinement, and can eliminate both its enchantment plan and its graveyard plan. Extract/Vindicate/Fade the Seismic Assaults in game one, try to keep the Confidants dead, but Assault is the only card that really matters. For sideboarding, bring in the Wretches, Extractions, and Deeds. Take out the Wraths, Fades, and one Slide. If the deck ends up getting better, which I imagine it will, you can increase the hate level by adding Therapys for some Loxodons and the other Slides.

MaceyRock is also a fairly good matchup. Kill Bob Maher at all costs. They'll usually get some kind of crazy start, then run out of steam while you stabilize, then win the long game. Confidant is their only shot at drawing enough cards to kill you before you take the game completely over. As an example of this, in a recent game against MaceyRock he opened with BoP, I replied with Plains, turn two he casts Duress, taking Smother, then casts Therapy, taking two Heirarchs, then casts Llanowar Elves and flashes back the Therapy hitting Vindicate. I now have a Plains in play, a Monastery, Swamp, and Gilded Light in hand. I play land, topdeck and play a Slide, while he drops a Wretch, then Therapys away my Gilded Light followed by then flashing it back to hit the Deed I was holding. I draw and play Forest, pass the turn, he unloads a Bob and a Pithing Needle naming Monastery. I cycle a Dragon to keep Bob from drawing a card, and watch the Wretch eat my yard. I draw more land while Bob and Wretch beat, eat, and draw cards. I go down to twelve life before I topdeck Wrath and sweep the board. At this point he's holding four cards to my none, but they're Needle, Duress, Therapy, and Putrefy. We both topdeck lands for a few turns, I draw a Dragon which is promptly Putrefy'd and Needled, then I draw into some cyclers, burn through about five cards, and find Life from the Loam, the game ends five turns later with a double Monastery + Loxodon attack for twelve. This is how you win this match, you survive (barely) the early game, then you suck the mana out of your deck, then start topdecking like a champ because most of your non bomb cards and excess lands cycle, your mana has all been pulled by Dragons, Heaths, and Elders and the only things left in your deck are gas.

Heartbeat. This is a bad one. You're trying to play interactive card advantage based defense. They want to play solitaire and go win. You have one, basic, simple plan. Play Cranial Extraction naming Cunning Wish, then let them go off and respond to Brain Freeze with Gilded Light. That’s all you're doing in this match game one. Don't try to beat them down, don't try to be cute, just do it like that and win. Games two and three if they win game one, which they most likely did, you'll have a shot at doing the same thing if they haven't seen it before. Once they have seen that trick, you’ll have to look closely at their deck when you Extract Wish and figure out how they can beat you besides Freeze, and go after that. Bring in the Wretches, Therapys, Deeds, and Cranials, take out the Wraths, Slides, Fades, and two Loxodons. Deed lets you kill Heartbeat at instant speed and also takes out all tokens created with Hunting Pack.

Scepter Chant, or NO Stick is another match that’s much less than spectacular for you. However this is a match that's bad by choice. It's mainly bad because the deck lacks instant speed artifact destruction. So taking out active Scepters is pretty tough. If you alter the deck to include instant speed artifact destruction, (the simples way to do so is to pull the Smothers in the board for Putrefys) the matchup gets much, much better. Without that, you have to rely on Gilded Light + Vindicate to break a chant lock in game one. Don't be overly concerned if they do get the lock though, simply build large amounts of mana and cycle into a perfect hand before you try to break out. Games two and three are much better as you have additional Extractions to try and hit their Isochron Scepters, while the Therapys mean more of your spells get through. Bring in Deeds, Therapys, and Extractions, take out Fades, Wraths, a Slide, and one Loxodon. Your number one target with Extraction is always going to be Scepter, without the reusability factor, it’s fairly easy to overwhelm their counters and removal. Much like with classic 'tog, if you are a longtime Rock player or just good with Therapy you can play this match without the Extractions but with extra creatures in a tempo based aggressive manner, but again, it's not something I'm personally capable of doing, so I cannot offer any firsthand expertise on it.

Finally, you have the "Other" section of deck designs. Basically, go by this rule of thumb: if it’s creature based, you have the advantage, if it’s not, not so much. This is the most general basic sideboarding advice I can give you if you face an unknown deck, aggressive, pull Extractions for Deeds, controllish, pull two Wraths for Extractions. 'Tings and Tooth and Nail are both horrifically bad matches for you, without major changes (more Vindicates, Plow Unders) the deck simply cannot beat them. Black discard weenie with lots of draw can also be pretty rough, but that one’s really draw dependant.

One final note: if anyone remembers how adding four Gilded Lights to Slide let it beat down on MBC back in the day, take that to about the Nth degree now. Seriously, if Slide and MBC were in prison together, Slide would be like T-Bag, the creepy redneck from Prison Break and MBC would be whatever kid he had roped up as his ho before Scofield set him free.

But Slide loses to discard and Counterspell and Fluffy Bunny and...

This was the first post put up about this article in the Writer's Forum of MTGS. I put it up here because it reflects the views most people have of Slide in Extended right now. I would argue that this is mainly due the very poor builds of Slide that have been played in Extended up to this point. Any Slide deck containing less than four Gilded Lights, or that includes things like Exalted Angel, Flametongue Kavu, Viridian Shaman, Nikko-Onna, or other such drek should be immediately dismissed from your mind as completely worthless.

This build, or previous very similar versions of it, have been entered four times in MTGO Extended Premier Events. The deck has finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd, and 12th. The 12th place was by someone piloting the deck for the first time, and due solely to new player errors on his part. You might not think very much of the Online meta due to the warping influence of IPA prices, and I'll be the first to admit Chant would most likely be addressed heavily if it wasn't for that influence, but this also shows how easy it is to tailor the deck to the meta you expect at your PTQ/GP/PT. Rock and 'Tog were both viewed as junk early last year until better builds were introduced late in the season that showed how strong the decks could really be.

When you start playing this you're going to lose, a lot. You need to get a feel for the matchups and how to play them. It's a very interactive deck that plays defense until it can just win. There are innumerable synergies in the deck and how it works with itself that you really have to play with to get a proper understanding of. It's also extremely customizable. Expect lots of Chant? Change the Smothers into Putrefys or Needles. Pull the Wretches for Boseijus. Expect a field of Heartbeat? Add Duress' to the board. Thinking it'll be all aggro all the time? Orim's Chant can shut them down pretty effectively or you can run extra copies of Deed. Actually, a Chant lock from a Slide deck is harder on many types of aggro than a Sceptered Chant because artifact destruction and Blinkmoth Well won't save them.

As of November 28th, several of the recent Online PE's have T8 games showing this deck doing its thing. I recommend watching them to see exactly how this deck goes about winning.