Intro

This past weekend was Team Serious’s annual invitational at “The Land,” a huge outdoor property an hour outside of Cleveland. The Romancing the Stones crew has gotten to know the Serious guys pretty well through our Middle School leagues, which has paid off in invites to The Land two years running. This won’t be a full report on The Land, as there’s just too much to say about it. What I’ll get into, though, is one of two main tournaments at The Land: the Middle School Intercontinental Championship. I’m coming hot off the Championship, which is a good spark to make me finally put down some thoughts on Sligh, which I’ve meant to do for a while now.

The 2023 Middle School Intercontinental Championship

I registered the same 75 cards I played in the most recent Dance Party league. I was happy with the list after finishing 3rd in the Dance Party, and didn’t see many obvious changes. I considered turning the singleton Pyrostatic Pillar into a third Phyrexian Furnace, but I like Pillar as a random hoser in an open field.

The Intercontinental Championship was Swiss + 1, which with 28 players meant 6 rounds of fun! I didn’t take notes during the event, so please forgive the barebones reporting.

Round 1: Stephen - RW Cycling Control: 2-0

  • My opponent was a really nice dude from Pittsburgh. Nothing particularly noteworthy happened in this match: in both games I led on 2 Mogg Fanatics that chipped in while I burned him out. Had I kept Jackal Pup hands, it might have been a different story.
  • In: 2 Overload, 2 Anarchy (should have been 2 Sulfuric Vortex, 2 Anarchy, but I assumed he had Fluctuator and forgot about the card Renewed Faith).
  • Out: 4 Jackal Pup

Round 2: Angelo - Geddon Elves: 2-0

  • The day before I’d played UG Madness at the welcome-to-town tournament, and Angelo absolutely crushed me with Elves in both the Swiss and Top 8. I felt much better going into the matchup with Burn spells than with Green creatures!
  • In both games he never got out from under Lavamancer, Scroll, etc. Game 2 was especially painful, as he was on a mull to 5.
  • Elves is a mixed bag for Sligh. It should be great, but Survival of the Fittest is devastating: you just can’t keep up with their card advantage, even if you have Scroll or Lavamancer online. The non-Survival versions are much more manageable. Armageddon itself is funny: people tend to board it out, though with my mana-hungry build, it can actually be pretty bad for me. And regardless of what version they’re on, always remember: kill the Symbiote!
  • In: 1 Pyrostatic Pillar (if this was Survival Elves, I’d also bring in 2 Furnace)
  • Out: 1 Orcish Librarian

Round 3: Patrick – UW Landstill: 1-2

  • Patrick and I have played this matchup infinite times over the past few years, and we both know it’s good for Sligh. Game 1 I took him down pretty quickly. In Game 2 I boarded out most of my creatures to blank his removal, content to do the slow burn plan and maybe even kick an Urza’s Rage. Unfortunately that took too long, and during turns he killed me with a big Decree of Justice swing. The Land doesn’t do draws, so we had to Game of Chaos for it, each starting with 20 life. I lost every roll, and Patrick took the win.
  • In: 3 Pyroblast, 2 Sulfuric Vortex, 2 Anarchy, 3 Ensnaring Bridge
  • Out: 4 Grim Lavamancer, 4 Jackal Pup, 2 Volcanic Hammer

Round 4: Steve – Pattern Rector: 2-0

  • Steve has played in a few of our leagues, typically on some type of Gx combo. I was nervous, but in both games he bricked on draws and had to make shitty defensive Saproling Bursts to stay alive. (Rector for Form Of The Dragon is pretty sketchy in this match; without it, his deck is a lot less scary). I controlled his mana and chipped his life total down before he could ever do anything meaningful.
  • In: 2 Anarchy, 2 Phyrexian Furnace
  • Out: 1 Orcish Librarian, 1 Volcanic Hammer, 2 Urza’s Rage

Round 5: Bob – GW Enchantress: 2-1

  • Enchantress is always a close match for this deck: they’re fast and scary, but I’m also fast and Ports go a long way if Earthcraft isn’t in play.
  • Unfortunately, in Game 1 Bob very quickly assembled Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest to shut down my mana denial plan and kill me. In Game 2 he quickly put together Worship + Enchantress lock, but Anarchy delt with that and I killed him. In Game 3 I got to go Jackal Pup into the singleton Pyrostatic Pillar. He didn’t have a Seal of Cleansing for it and couldn’t get a gameplan on line. He slowed me down with a CoP Red, but a timely Anarchy took care of it.
  • In: 1 Pyrostatic Pillar, 2 Anarchy
  • Out: 1 Orcish Librarian, 2 Urza’s Rage

Round 6: Tim – RW Sligh: 2-0

  • On the drive to The Land, Tim told us his MS deck sucked. When we got there I looked at the list, and agreed that it looked bad: it was Sligh without any mana denial and fewer burn spells, but with access to Savannah Lion, Goblin Legionnaire, and Disenchant. Then he went on an undefeated run through the first 5 rounds, and I became a believer.
  • However, this seems like an awful matchup for RW: I got to do the board control thing very effectively, as I had more Lavamancers, Scrolls, and burn spells than he did.
  • In: 1 Anarchy, 3 Ensnaring Bridge (Tim showed me his list earlier in the day, so I knew he didn’t have CoP Red, etc. In the blind I would have brought in 2nd Anarchy, 2 Overload for his Cursed Scrolls, and 2 Furnace to control Lavamancer)
  • Out: 4 Jackal Pup

Winning the Intercontinental Championship on Sligh felt great. My love of Jackal Pup goes back to adolescence, and I’ve been on Sligh almost exclusively in the 3 years we’ve been playing Middle School. My perception and experiences of this format is incredibly informed by this deck, I’ve been slowly getting the whole deck altered, and yet . . . I’ve never won a tournament with it! To finally break that streak in such a Serious setting was a great capstone on my career as a Lightning Bolter.

How I Play Sligh and Why I Play Sligh

I got back into Magic in 2014 via Legacy Burn. The deck was cheap, and I assumed it’d be a great match for me after loving Type 1 Sligh as a kid. Legacy Burn never clicked for me, though: the quality of the cards was higher than they’d been a decade prior, but the deck didn’t do anything interesting. While the players around me got to interact with their opponents in diverse, interesting ways, all I did was make Mountains and play variants of Lava Spike. I played Burn for a bit, but as I spent more on the hobby and built out my collection, I never really went back to it.

When we started playing Middle School, I knew I had to play Sligh for nostalgia’s sake, but I also knew that it’d get boring pretty fast if I took that undiluted Burn approach. I decided to play full playsets of both Wasteland and Rishadan Port. This suite of lands gives the deck a legitimate mana denial plan that brings a lot more depth to the play experience: every turn I have a Port or Wasteland, I get to make on-board decisions about limiting my opponent’s resources, as opposed to just tapping RRR for Ball Lightning.

Taking that approach has opened my mind about the deck and what all these cards do. Viewed and played one way, you can approach Sligh as being built of 45 non-Mountain cards that are all modular: they can either go to face or be used as board control. I say this both because it explains some of my design choices and strategy, but also because a common refrain from experienced players is that Sligh strategies don’t have enough dynamism for them – I’m always asked, “Doesn’t that get boring?” The level of interest and engagement we get from Magic is largely a conscious choice, and when I play Sligh and think about it in that way, I see that I’m making a hell of a lot of choices in every game.

Then, there’s also the drama and excitement that goes with that! You get some blow-out games, but most feature Sligh getting the opponent down to ~9 life and then starting to sweat: do you have the resources to close things out before your opponent executes their gameplan and overpowers you? Those situations are tense, and I get very enjoyably dialed in during them.

Though the curve is still very low, I treat my Sligh build as a Big Red deck – hence the 23 lands. Between Lavamancer, Librarian, Urza’s Rage, Fireblast, Cursed Scroll, and Port, the deck is very mana hungry, and so I don’t mind topdecking lands quite as much as more aggressive builds do. Doing this makes sideboard haymakers like Anarchy and Ensnaring Bridge more viable, and again makes the play experience more interesting for me. I frequently board out all my non-Fanatic creatures and play creatureless Aggro Control, sitting behind a Bridge and relying on card advantage engines like Cursed Scroll. That’s a very different experience than going face every turn.

Having said all that, let’s dive into my 75. A decent amount of the list is stock and doesn’t need much explanation. To my mind, that’s 4 Jackal Pup, 4 Mogg Fanatic, 4 Grim Lavamancer, 4 Lightning Bolt, 4 Incinerate, and 4 Fireblast. I don’t have much to say on these choices, and it’s almost objectively wrong not to play those cards. Now what about the rest?

  • 1 Orcish Librarian: this is the card I get the most questions about. It’s the one Fun-Of in my list, and its primary purpose is to remind me that I’m playing Middle School to enjoy myself! However, the card isn’t nearly as bad as it looks: in grindy games, being able to make sure all your draws are live really mitigates Sligh’s biggest weakness (running out of resources in the late game). Plus, it can always attack for 1. This is your most frequent cut in Game 2. I wouldn’t recommend anyone actually play this card if they’re serious about winning, but it’s important to me and I have yet to regret registering it.

  • 4 Seal of Fire: I prefer this to Firebolt. As noted, my deck is very mana hungry, so I like being able to get this out of my hand early in the game and save it for a rainy day. Plus, being pseudo instant-speed is nice. Firebolt’s cool, but with 4 Lavamancer and 4 Scroll, I don’t feel like I need more late-game card advantage.

  • 2 Volcanic Hammer: these take up part of my Ball Lightning slots. It’s the weakest Burn spell in the deck, but a lot of the time it’s functionally a Lightning Bolt, which is really what you need your spells to be. Unlike Ball Lightning, it’s reliable. These are frequently boarded out.
  • 2 Urza’s Rage: I first put these in the deck because I assumed MS would be Bluer than it is. Against Blue mages, the uncounterability rocks: you get lots of situations where your opponent’s at 5 or 6, you casually throw out an Incinerate, they don’t counter it cause they wanna save their Counterspell for the lethal Fireblast, and then you Rage them. However, even when you’re not battling through countermagic it’s still a fine card. As per Volcanic Hammer, it’s often functionally a Bolt (and instant speed is nice). The kicker is relevant against Landstill, though in full candor, I’ve only ever done it once.
  • 4 Cursed Scroll: I’ve recently seen a trend of only registering 2 or 3, and I just can’t get my head around it. Cursed Scroll is surely one of the most powerful cards in the deck, and so oppressive when it gets online. Drawing multiples isn’t that bad either: you can hold redundant as the card you name, or with our 23 lands, it’s reasonable to get 2 online!
  • 4 Wasteland & 4 Port: as per above, I want a full mana-denial plan. My feeling is you should either play all 8, 3 Wasteland, or 0. And I want 8. These have the great added benefit of tackling Man Lands, which can otherwise be a problem for the deck.
  • 3 Pyroblast: I used to play 4, but the format’s just not Blue enough to justify the sideboard slots. Pyroblast is still handy to have – catch a Chill or Standstill on its way down, protect your important Anarchy, disrupt a Stifle, etc.
  • 2 Overload: it’s the most efficient Shatter effect that doesn’t make me sacrifice a Mountain. I would love a third – there are a LOT of Scroll Racks around – but the sideboard spaces are at a premium.
  • 1 Pyrostatic Pillar: as noted, I like the 1 Pillar as a landmine in this wild west format. At least once per league/tournament I run into someone who gets hosed by this card.
  • 2 Sulfuric Vortex: I see this card in many Sligh maindecks. I guess that’s fine – it certainly puts the screws on your opponent. I don’t care for it because it has no flexibility and can’t kill creatures. Likewise, I’ve died to my own Vortexes many times: nothing feels worse than slamming one on Turn 3, only for your opponent to play a CoP Red. That said, it’s important to have to combat life gain plans.
  • 2 Anarchy: sideboard all start. MS is rife with hateful White cards, and this answers them all. Plus, you might get randomly paired against something like Rebels and ruin their day.
  • 2 Phyrexian Furnace: a third would be great, but I don’t have the slots. I prefer this to Tormod’s Crypt, as I don’t think we can take much advantage of the tempo from Crypt being free, and I like the ability to cash it in for a card.
  • 3 Ensnaring Bridge: not playing Ball Lightning frees me up to play Bridge. Sligh is week to anything toughness 4+, and Bridge does a good job stonewalling those fatties. It also frequently functions as Oath/Reanimator hate number 3-5, as those decks are just trying to get an Akroma, Nishoba, etc. You can’t sit behind it forever – most Middle School decks are able to answer a Bridge – but it often buys you the time to close the game out.

Strategically, Sligh has a few noteworthy strengths to consider:

  • In a format full of Duress and Cabal Therapy, the deck is incredibly redundant. We certainly still don’t like getting hit by discard – you need a density of cards to win the game! - but a bit of disruption is less likely to mess up a key part of your plan.
  • Mana in Middle School is terrible, and this deck punishes anyone who stumbles on mana. Porting someone who’s missing land drops while attacking with a Jackal Pup is really, really brutal.
  • You have pretty good matchups against most Tier 1 decks. This is a bigger deal in other formats; Middle School is so wide open that this point doesn’t guarantee tournament success, but it’s still nice!

On that note, I thought I’d map out some common matchups and how I think Sligh stacks up. Again, this is a difficult exercise in such a wide format, so take it with a grain of salt.

Favorable:

  • Goblins: they can run you over with Ringleader, but Cursed Scroll, Lavamancer, Fanatic, and Bridge do a really good job of keeping things under control.
  • Elves: per the tournament report, Survival is a big problem. If you draw reasonably, though, you’ve got all the tools. KILL THE SYMBIOTE!
  • Sligh: Burn mirrors are always coin-flippy, but this build is favored in the mirror. Their Ball Lightnings are usually dead cards, and we don’t take damage off our mana. That said, savvy opponents may Price of Progress you!
  • Landstill: postboard games are really annoying if they’re on CoP Red, but everything still needs to come together well for Landstill to take it down. I prefer the approach of running them out of win cons, but you’d probably do just as well by keeping your aggro hat on.
  • The Solution: their mana sucks and you can kill all their threats easily. Just kill Mom on sight, and be mindful of your own life total.
  • Enchantress: it’s close, but I generally win this matchup. Race, disrupt, and use sideboard tools to handle the worst of what they do.
  • Aluren: their mana’s pretty gnarly, and you’re good at removing their creatures pre-Aluren. If they get the combo assembled quickly you’re toast, but we’re decent at stopping them via the mana denial and burn route. You can’t keep slow hands here, though.

Unfavorable:

  • Parfait: if they get Tax + Tower online, you’re in huge trouble. You can’t really mana-denial them, and Oath does a good job shutting down the creature plan – especially if they’re on Nishoba and Ancestor’s Chosen. Ugh.
  • GB Nether Spirit: they’re very good at shredded your hand and clearing your board with Deed & Keg, and making threats you can’t really deal with.
  • Misc. Survival Piles: sometimes their mana is awful and you get them that way, and likewise, Bolting a Bird is a good way to not die to Shapeshifter. But they’re pretty good at blocking with Walls, and their lategame overpowers yours.
  • Stiflenaught: every time I look at my list I think I have all the tools to beat Stiflenaught, and then they just crush me. Their deck is very good at consistently making a 12/12, and our deck is very bad at getting rid of one. If you’re in a Dreadnaught-heavy meta, going up to 4 Pyroblast and 4 Overload might tip this more in your favor, but I don’t have the slots for that.

Closing Thoughts

My intention here wasn’t to put together a comprehensive primer on Sligh. Rather, I wanted to share how I think about the deck and how I’m still getting so much enjoyment out of it, tournament after tournament. And now, I’ll have a title to defend at the next Intercontinental Championship!

Stu

P.S. for those who are curious, the Wastelands are the next alters on the docket!