First, let me start off by saying that my last two articles weren't the best of the best. I realized my weaknesses when my first trip to a local Extended GPT gave me a rude awakening. I was playing the Goblin Marshal deck I talked about in my last article. My record was 1-4 that day, and the match that I won was a local newbie who came"for the excitement." I dropped out about mid-way through, and spent the next two hours just looking at what the top 16 were playing and how they were playing them. All of the major decks were there: TurboOath, The Rock, Muffin, Suicide Black, Reanimator, and Sligh. In the end, TurboOath beat The Rock for the invite, and the guy was ecstatic. After all of these great decks and plays I saw, I was amped up to make a killer deck - not dependent on any combos. A deck that can win against anything.

You've heard me say this before, twice now, and I know that you're all saying,"Oh, God, not another deck from this kid again....Will he ever give up?" Now I've come back from both a PTQ and a Grand Prix trial wiser and enlightened. Both times I had the opportunity to talk with one of the top 10 Sligh players about their deck, and what the heck was wrong with mine. Most of the other players wouldn't talk about the construction or secrets of their decks, but the two guys I met felt somewhat of a pity for me and broke down the successful components of an aggro-red deck: Speed, Quantity and Quality.

So, on the two-hour car ride back home, I wrote down my former Goblin deck and started replacing cards. I had invested a lot of my money into Rishadan Ports and the like, so I wanted to stay into Sligh. I first thought of making the traditional Sligh deck, but I couldn't fork over the $80 for four Cursed Scrolls. I decided to base the whole thing around Goblin Piledriver. So, I started with the basics:

4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Raging Goblin
4 Jackal Pup

All of these creatures are one or two mana, ensuring that they'll all come out fast, and not depending on anything else but two lands. Since Piledrivers depend on other goblins, if an Engineered Plague hits the table, there needs to be some fuel for him to work with; the Flunkies. The Jackal Pups are great bruisers, and they won't be affected by a Plague set to goblins. Now, for direct damage:

4 Seal of Fire
3 Lava Dart
3 Shock

Burn not only clears a path for the Piledriver, but also neutralizes your opponent's offenses. Seal of Fires work well against Aluren, Lava Darts against Muffin, and Shocks against Suicide Black. Everything else in the deck looked like this:

10 Mountain
4 Barbarian Ring
4 Rishadan Port

4 Reckless Abandon
4 Reckless Charge

Sideboard:

3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Threaten
2 Disorder
3 Shattering Pulse
3 Price of Progress
1 Lava Dart

So this was my rough sketch on the trip home from the GP trial. I built the deck, playtested as much as possible, then went to the PTQ a week or two later. I did better, with my record being 4-3. This is still lacking! The main problem that I saw was that the Piledriver was blocked and killed too easily. Against matches like The Rock and Suicide Black, the Ports were helpful when I got them - but my opponents got too much mana and started going to town just one turn too early. I watched the top 8 and got some ideas for what to add. I decided that Tangle Wires would be very helpful third turn, allowing me to get a couple more attacks in with whatever I had out before they can Pernicious Deed or Plague me. Also, I wanted to make my Piledriver unblockable" This is almost impossible to do for red except for cards like Bedlam, Falter, or Demoralize - and all three are purely conditional. I didn't want to waste cards on slots where they'd be useless in a lot of situations.

Yet, just as I was leaving the tournament, one of the vendors had a"grab bag" bin on the floor with about 1000 packs in it, with one of them containing a Mox Ruby, or so he claimed (I never got one). Being a luck junkie as I am, I bought 5 packs for the hell of it. I never got the Mox, or any good rares, but I did find the card I was looking for: Order / Chaos. The solution to Piledriver's problems. A guaranteed attack for in upwards to fourteen or fifteen damage on had to be too good to be true, even if I couldn't use the other half of the card.

I ended up taking the Reckless Abandons out and put in Tangle Wire, and taking out the Shocks to put in Chaos. It was the best decision I ever made. I went to a local FNM (if you consider"local" forty0five minutes away) and joined in the night's Extended tournament they held to see how I would do. Well, I won. It was the first time I won a judged tournament in my life. I fought almost every kind of deck and rolled right over all of them. TurboOath can counter the Chaos and Tangle Wires - but the Cognivore can't block the Piledriver, so that's a win. Suicide black can Vendetta the Piledriver, but is otherwise helpless against Chaos. Ports and Tangle Wires slow down The Rock, and a sideboarded Threaten or even Ensnaring Bridge nails Reanimator. Classic Sligh is hurt by Shattering Pulse, Muffin dies against Disorder (except for Waterfront Bouncer), Madness slows down with the Tangle Wires, Threatens (again) get rid of that Nantuko Husk or Phyrexian Ghoul in Academy Rector decks (Block! Always block!), and Price of Progress is great against any deck playing lots of nonbasic lands. It's hard to take cards out to sideboard others in, but mostly Tangle Wires come out first.

Since this deck is low on burn, a Sarcomancy or Carnophage on first turn only allows one of your creatures to go through. In that case, give them a choice: Either let a Lackey go through for one and a Piledriver comes into play, or block the Lackey and take five from a Recklessly-Charged Jackal Pup. I never play Reckless Charge and all three Ensnaring Bridges together, so I take one or the other out on most occasions.

There's no way to stop a Pernicious Deed, and that's the one weakness of all Sligh decks. I found that holding back against The Rock when they get close to playing the Deed pays off. Give them just enough creatures on the table for them to use it, then play the ones kept in your hand. It takes a little more time to win, but it's more successful than going all out.

Goblin Mayhem!
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Raging Goblin
4 Jackal Pup
4 Tangle Wire
4 Reckless Charge
3 Order / Chaos
4 Seal of Fire
3 Lava Dart
10 Mountain
4 Barbarian Ring
4 Rishadan Port

There's not much else to say about the deck. Almost every hand that has two lands in it is worth keeping, and every card you draw helps and is never conditional. Other Piledriver Sligh decks, like the ones used in Reims, are more aggro and direct damage oriented with less control. With the control, there's no room for them to get anything sound on the table. It's that little dash that makes the deck.

Until next time, Happy New Year!

Marshall Terry
guitardr@iwon.com