Subject: Tempest Sligh
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 05:00:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: GrandAjax@aol.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Apparently WotC decided to make sligh an even more popular deck type than
before.  How else can you explain then absolutely incredible cards in the set
that practically filled every major weakness of sligh.  Let's look shall
we....

1cc
4 Mogg Conscripts:  Fast, make better blockers than pups, harder to kill, and
their disadvantage is minimized in a creature heavy deck.  Cornorstone for
the new sligh.
4 Mogg Fanatics:  Great, great, great, great 1cc creatures.  One damage often
means the difference between winning and loosing in this game, and these guys
and provide it without mana or tapping.  Assists bolts, kill
elves/birds/pumpknights/pups/ball lightnigs, and they never die without
having the last word.  Another super sligh card
2 Goblin Vandals:  One of the few good 1cc 1/1 from the previous sets.

2cc
4 Ironclaw Orcs:  Hey, it just wouldn't be sligh without em now would it.
4 Canyon Wildcats:  2 casting with 2 power is hard to come by in red (look at
the use of dwarven soldiers), but one with an abillity that might come in
handy is unheard of.
2 Fireslingers:  AKA "Mini-Gunners"  Even though red's allied guildmages
could ping, red never had an effective tim.... untill now.  Fireslinger is a
good card for bolt assists, and creature killing.  Its also good for knocking
down you weakened opponet, with less detriment to yourself artillieries.

3cc
4 Bloodrock Cyclopses:  Substitute with lancers if you like, but I prefer the
increased power of the bloodrocks.  Even is they go tearing down into the maw
of a larger blocker, you can use fanatics, burn, or mini-gunners to make sure
they throw their weight around properly.
2 Sandstalkers:  Needless to say these are great.  Add the fact that they can
help your conscripts turn after turn and they are a shoe in.

4cc
2 Rathi Dragons:  AKA Fatti Dragons.  Possibly as good (or better) than a
Juzam (naw).  The flavor text on this should of said "Put me in a sligh deck
stupid!"  And everyone complained when they took out dragon whelps.  Ha!

Spells:
4 Incenerates:  No suprises
4 Kindels:  Nicely balanced card.  Between two burn decks they can blast up
to 9 points!  Even at two points they often do the job against smaller
creatures.
2 Lightning Blasts:  Considering that the Dragons are already eating up our
mountains, and that by the time you're ready to sac lands you have 4 already
(or you're going to die anyway) then these are better than fireblasts (at
least for this deck).  Instant and more economical than x spells (and when do
you really need to burn for more than four anyway?)  And with slinger and
fanatic help they can take down mega-fats like Rathis and Maros.
2 Aftershocks:  Ok.. this is one of the most important cards for new sligh.
 Why?  Because red has always had trouble dealing with big creatures, and
these creatures have chipped away at the sligh offence.  Now it can take down
anything (short of pro-reds) that stand in its way.  Add a bonus land and
artifact removal and this bad boy has the markings of a tourney regular.

Lands:
3 Quicksands:  not 4, just personal prefernce really.
2 Stalking Sands:  True, its no Mishra's Factory.  True it cost a hell of a
lot to activate.  But in a mono-color deck its just too easy to throw in a
few colorless lands if they can help you in certin situations.  A bonus 3/3
is not a bad deal at all.
15 Mountains.

Notice the 10/10/6/2 mana curve.  I did this mostly because of the
conscripts.  The lower the costs, the more chance there is of getting them to
attack.  I also wanted to be able to cast a 4th turn dragon and not be stuck
with too many uncastable cards if its a long time comeing for another land.
 The speed of the conscripts, and the awesomeness of the Dragon make up for
the downshift.