With the disappearance of U/G Madness, Tog, Opposition, and MBC, Astroglide will undoubtedly be the deck to beat in OnBC. What can you do against a deck that was already extremely powerful in Type 2, and doesn't stand to lose too much in block? In this article, I'd like to take a look at not only why Astroglide has, and will continue to, enjoy such success... But also what new archetypes might rise up to do battle with the new king of the hill.

In any given format, there are always four or five Tier 1 archetypes that rule the roost. Thus far in OnBC, there are only three that have been discussed - Astroglide, B/W Clerics, and Piledriver Sligh. All three of these decks have one thing in common: None of them will lose much power in block, and will actually seem to gain power, as most Tier 1 decks become non-viable with the loss of their major components (Upheaval, Corrupt, Opposition, and so on) As these three are the only decks thus far that are assured to see lots of play, this leaves one or two spots open for decks that have not yet been discovered or widely recognized. One of these decks, which I not only fully expect to see grow in popularity, but also plan to be on the forefront of, is B/G Beasts. But I'll go into that later - first, why is Astroglide such a monster?

There are several reasons that are actually rather obvious, which means they will invariably be overlooked. The first is the deck's unmatchable versatility. The fact that Astroglide can handle anything from Control to straight-up Beats without a need for extensive sideboarding undoubtedly is its strongest feature. Against Aggro, it simply controls the board with Astral Slide until its win condition is set up. Against Control, it continues to make full use of Astral Slide, but on its own creatures, providing a path to lifegain and recurring options, thereby gaining the upper hand. With easy access to control, beats, and enchantment/artifact/land destruction, it is inherently good against everything, no matter the type of opposing deck. Its arsenal is generic and powerful at the same time.

The second reason is fact that the deck always manages to have some kind of card advantage. If nothing else, due to the fact that every card in the deck is either useful in any situation (like Astral Slide), or just cycles, it's very, very rare that the deck has a dead card. As obvious and inconsequential as that may seem, I have no doubt that this absolute synergy between every card in the deck is one of the main reasons Astroglide is so hard to beat.

With the absence of game-breaking cards like Haunting Echoes in block, no other deck really has a proven weapon to stop Astroglide. The solution, it would seem, would be to construct a deck that either matches Astroglide card-for-card in terms of advantage - or one that just flat-out overwhelms it. I expect almost every major deck in OnBC to at least splash either white or green, as Naturalize and Demystify currently stand as the only real way to defang the monster.

As for what Astroglide loses out of the maindeck, the absence of Wrath of God means that Slide will be relying heavily on Starstorm and Slice and Dice to keep opponents' armies at bay - but overall, I don't expect the deck to be too much weaker because of it. As long as the Slide player can keep the Astral Slide namesake on the table, I believe Wrath of God to be more of a concession than an absolute necessity. Considering the fact that they can simply cycle through to the good stuff when, or before, they need it, I'm expecting a couple more Exalted Angels and Lay Wastes (for beast and cleric lands) to fill the Wrath slots without too much trouble.

Without Living Wish - and even more importantly, Aven Cloudchaser -Astroglide's only ways to deal with enchantments are the aforementioned Naturalize and Demystify. Good in and of themselves, yes, but in the hands of the Slide player, they're nowhere near the reusable power of the recurrable Aven.

On a side note, despite the fact that Demystify hasn't seen much play, there really aren't any artifacts worth destroying in Onslaught (and none at all in Legions), with the possible exception of Riptide Replicator. However, with decks that can actually support it efficiently no longer being around, like Wake and MBC, I don't expect the Replicator to be seeing much action; therefore, Demystify should come into its own in fairly short order.

What this means, exactly, is that Oversold Cemetery now has the potential to provide as much card advantage as Astral Slide in that matchup, and Astroglide is seriously weakened against such strategies. For the purposes of B/W Clerics, however, I don't expect to see very many Cemeteries, as Nova Cleric is the deck's best defense versus Astroglide, and it doesn't work well with enchantment-based strategies. To the end of gaining advantage, Aphetto Dredging and Misery Charm might actually see some Constructed play in Clerics.

In the interest of combining both anti-Slide strategies - matching a deck's versatility and just overrunning them - I've been working on a B/G Beasts deck that definitely has the potential to do both, which means that it will not only be a strong weapon against Astral Slide, but against any other deck in the format as well. Here's the current decklist:

4x Wretched Anurid
3x Spined Basher
4x Wirewood Savage
4x Ravenous Baloth
4x Hystrodon
3x Krosan Tusker

3x Oversold Cemetery
4x Smother
3x Steely Resolve
3x Infest
2x Death Pulse

3x Barren Moor
9x Forest
9x Swamp
2x Tranquil Thicket

Sideboard:
3x Taunting Elf
4x Naturalize
2x Tribal Unity
3x Undead Gladiator
3x Fallen Cleric

The Spined Bashers are simply a filler at this point, until I can find something better in Legions to replace them. However, they serve the purpose nicely, and I won't be too upset if there isn't really anything better - three power for three mana, plus the beast cantrip with a Savage in play. Steely Resolve makes this deck incredibly hard for Slide to deal with, leaving only Starstorm as reliable removal. It's usually Naturalize's first target, thereby helping Oversold Cemetery do its thing without interruption. Against decks like Sligh and Beasts, they come out for the Taunting Elves. Tribal Unity often makes your damage too much for Clerics' prevention to handle, and has ended more than one game.

The ideal situation against Astroglide would be to have a Cemetery, Steely Resolve, and Wirewood Savage in play, with a beast or two in hand. So far, this has happened very early on in nine out of ten games in playtesting. The creatures can't be targeted, therefore they're only vulnerable to mass removal, in which case you sack everything to a Ravenous Baloth, use the Cemetery to get a Savage back, and start all over. It seems to never be at a shortage for beasts to play, especially with the three-card-a-turn, Savage/Cemetery engine going. Call me stupid, but I believe that any beatdown deck that can consistently draw three cards a turn is definitely worth a shot - and that's with only one Savage and one Cemetery in play.

As far as the matchup against Clerics, I haven't yet seen a definitive decklist that will be commonly used, so I just built one that I would think to be fairly good. It's kind of like U/G Madness in that there's really not a lot of room for variation - they'll all be basically the same, with maybe six or eight cards maximum difference between the different versions. Anyway, the early game is really what decides the outcome. If you can deal enough damage early on and force them to start chump blocking before they get their damage prevention going, you're okay. If not, just keep plugging, an Infest should eventually break the stalemate. Death Pulse is also a strong weapon against the Battlefield Medics, as it doesn't deal damage.

In games two and three, the Fallen Clerics come in and finish the job. Unless they have creatures of another type, the Fallen Cleric is absolutely mad. With a Steely Resolve out, it can't even fall to Profane Prayers. An opposing Infest is its only worry, but that's what the Cemeteries are for.

Another deck that I expect to see a good amount of play is a retooled Suicide Black. There's just something that makes me shiver about a turn 1 Entrails Feaster, turn 2 Wretched Anurid, turn 3 Nantuko Husk, turn 4 Graveborn Muse, either netting a handful of removal to let the beats through, or just more creatures. That could be a monster, given a little better construction than I could probably come up with. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Sui start popping up in Type 2 as well, since I believe Entrails Feaster to be every bit as powerful as Withered Wretch against Wonder, if not even more so. It may have a hard time dealing with Slide, which would definitely hinder its growth in the Block environment, but only time will tell. It seems to be fast enough to simply overwhelm the Teroh's Faithful-less OnBC Astroglide, but I suppose we'll find out.

This is the version I put together for the purposes of testing:

4x Entrails Feaster
4x Wretched Anurid
4x Nantuko Husk
4x Graveborn Muse
3x Grinning Demon
4x Shepherd of Rot
3x Boneknitter
2x Bane of the Living
4x Smother
3x Infest
2x Death Pulse
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Polluted Delta
13x Swamp
2x Unholy Grotto

Even though it's the most difficult match I found, Block Sui definitely has the potential to absolutely tear up Goblin Sligh, as Smother will take care of almost anything they can play, and the Entrails Feaster will be that much bigger for it. A Grinning Demon or two should work nicely to stop the bleeding if Sligh gets ahead in the damage race; just don't ever play it face-down.

While Infest will usually take out most of your army, it will completely annihilate theirs. Oversold Cemetery wouldn't seem to have much synergy with the Feaster, so it will either be a one-shot sort of deck, like it has traditionally been (hence the name), or people will just find a more fitting one-drop. Festering Goblin, maybe. The presence of Graveborn Muse will definitely keep it as the kind of deck that either kills quickly or dies, but it will give you a ton of options to work with before you run out of life. A few Nantuko Husks would be necessary here, just in case your Muse puts you in the red zone.

Versus Clerics, Sui usually just beats them down long before the prevention and/or life gain can kick in. A few early Cabal Archons can set you back, but there really aren't any insurmountable obstacles in Clerics. The main problem you have to watch out for is the Clerics player building up creatures for a massive Profane Prayers once you've put yourself low enough. From there, if they can stabilize the prevention, you're in trouble. I don't think every version will run the Feasters, as they don't really have much synergy with the Unholy Grottos, and aren't very aggressive unless your opponent has enough creatures that are easily killed off. However, they absolutely murder Oversold Cemetery-based strategies.

Another deck that has enjoyed some success in Type 2 but hasn't really been brought up in Block discussions is R/G Beasts. While not as powerful as Astroglide or Piledriver Sligh, Beasts is in the same situation, with the potential to rise to power in the absence of other Tier 1 decks. However, there isn't really any good burn in Onslaught, with the exception of Shock - not exactly a game-ender, even in multiples. One or two copies of Searing Flesh could be viable, and significantly enlarges a deck's red zone versus Beasts.

It doesn't post a very impressive record against Astroglide; 50-50 at best. It's too much of a traditional creature deck to really perform well against something that murders creatures as easily as Slide. The wins here usually come from getting out some early threats, then around the fifth or sixth turn, Naturalizing their Astral Slide and pounding away. Not the most reliable strategy, but it's really the best chance there is for beasts versus Astroglide. One thing you really don't want to see is a Slide player bringing Wirewood Savages in from the sideboard. With them Sliding your beasts in and out all the time, they're pretty much guaranteed a full hand as long as the Savage lives. Provoke might just prove to be more useful than I first thought.

Against Sligh, the Ravenous Baloths are just what the doctor ordered. Big enough to stop almost any goblin, and if a Goblin Piledriver gets too big, they're damn good chumpers. In a pinch, they work wonders at putting your life just out of burn range. This is a very difficult matchup for Sligh to win, as your big boys usually lock up the ground before the goblins can give you a headache. In the Clerics matchup, it's a race to the desired setup. If you get beasts before they get clerics, you'll probably win. If the clerics start piling up before any real pressure is applied, chances are you won't be able to hurt them. Not the most desirable chances, but since most beasts and clerics cost around the same, it's not too awful a matchup. The odds of pulling this one off are slightly better than they are against Slide; the scale tips in favor of the beasts, but not by much.

Being a fan of R/x, and occasionally R/x/x, my first OnBC endeavor was in fact a R/G Beasts deck - which I soon realized did not fare well at all versus Slide, and in the event that no Ravenous Baloths graced my hand with their presence, it died a horribly quick death to Sligh as well. With the loss of Browbeat, it is sorely lacking in the mid-game hand department, even with Hystrodons going to work every turn. In an attempt to fix this, I splashed black - under the circumstances, the only viable splash color - for Oversold Cemeteries and a few other random solutions, and quickly discovered that the best idea would be to drop the red altogether. Not only does this allow for more necessary black (including removal), it also makes the mana issue easier to deal with, and altogether makes the deck immensely more powerful.

In a previous article, I discussed Zvi's notion of deck-drifting, and this is a classic example; this alone is probably the main reason I expect to see more B/G Beast decks within the next month or two. Regardless of the fact that red has more (and better) beasts to offer, as well as Aether Charge (overcosted though it may be), the B/G build just seems to be the most solid choice.

As for my predictions of Suicide Black's return, I think it's still a little iffy. It's got the basics, but the whole thing could just be up in the air until it has a little more support. There's always the possibility of my primitive build taking on a second color for some versatility, maybe evolving into a sort of post-Invasion MachineHead, or possibly B/R Goblins. Believe it or not, Cabal Slaver can get pretty ugly if played right, and it fits nicely into most goblin decks' mana curves. Oversold Cemetery could be just what goblins need to keep from running out of gas in the midgame, and Festering Goblin would not only help pump a Piledriver, but could be very effective removal, depending on the opposing deck. Maybe three or four Smothers to let the little bastards through, and it's not a bad-looking pile at all.

There are also several decks to watch for that I personally haven't explored yet; old-school Green Stompy has the potential to come back in a big way, now that it has all the tools it needs to survive on its own. Then again, I expected it to show up in Type 2 a little more than it actually did. Solid Elf decks probably won't be around too much, with the lack of the all-important Llanowar Elves and Elvish Champions. Given the ability to keep creatures on the board, though, elves could lay down some serious fourth or fifth turn beats, be it large creatures, possibly Voice of the Woods, or just a couple of Timberwatch Elves. A W/B version of Slide could be viable, with loads of extra removal available if the loss of Wrath of God proves too much. Undead Gladiator could easily replace the red cylers, and even though Withering Hex seems to suck majorly, it could be a decent sideboard answer to some of the larger, non-Shockable creatures that will be running wild in the format. It would take quite a few Infests to kill a Krosan Cloudscraper. Heh. Death Pulse provides almost the exact same security as Solar Blast, but is unpreventable. I'm thinking there might even be a few decks that utilize Astral Slide for no other reason than to pump out some quick Krosan Colossus's (Colossuses, Colossi, whatever the word is) and Cloudscrapers. A little cheesy, maybe, but a 13/13 on the fourth turn (with no Chainer's Edicts in sight) is definitely nothing to scoff at.

So that's my take on the upcoming Block format. If any of you guys have ideas and/or opinions on decks that could see a rise in popularity, or why the three or four existing archetypes will or won't work, I'm definitely interested in hearing about it in our forums!.

Jared Gardner