Whilst States was happening in America, England had been busy playing their equivalent: County Championships. HCP (Hampton Court Palace) ended up sending five of their people out to play in them (the rest being busy).

...all five won in separate counties... nice :)

Chris Clapton had decided to play the Lightning Rift deck and came to me with a very rough copy of an idea someone had had on the net a week before. There were several very obvious errors in the decklist from the outset: Only twenty-four lands, some bad cards, and some three-ofs of that should definitely have been four-ofs. Chris and I gradually got to working the deck into the decklist you will see Richard talking about below.

In a while, Richard Edbury is going to share some thoughts about the decktype - but first, I wanted to share some opinions I have about it:

1) This is one of the best decks ever made for mana. I don't know who posted that original version with twenty-four land, but I would say that twenty-six is the bare minimum. I have a hunch that Kai Budde would love this kind of deck if it were slightly more powerful, as his favourite block limited ability had always been cycling. Cycling lands allow you to play enough land to never get screwed and never get flooded - this was the biggest appeal of the deck to me.

2) Pardic Arsonist and Teroh's Faithful. Okay - I am sure I will step on some toes here, but these cards are just not main-deck material. Yes, they are insane when you have the combo going... But in Constructed you really want cards that do something by themselves in most match-ups, and I am afraid that these do not cut the mustard.

3) Burning Wish. The first decklist I saw did not contain these. Why? I have no idea. This card is a constructor's dream, being both powerful and incredibly cheap. Whether you play three or four is really the only question I would have when building this deck. Yes, Wishing on turn 2 for a Wrath is a bit of a give-away - but the great thing about this deck is that forcing people not to overcommit is amazing in itself. You are simply trying to bide time against creature decks, so if they do less damage on turns 2 through 4 then you are laughing.

4) If Chris and I could have changed the decklist he played in the tournament, we would have cut the Sunfire Balm for a fourth Wish I think. - We wanted another cycler in the deck - but Wish can search for a cycling card anyway, so......

5) A hint against Control decks: I seriously suggest anyone thinking about playing this deck tries out Auramancer. The combo with the Slide is obvious... But even if you don't have the Slide, getting back a countered Lightning Rift is just great.

One last point.... For anyone playing red beatdown decks who knows ten people are turning up to a tournament with Astroslide - try sideboarding in your own Lightning Rifts. They may get a nasty surprise.

I will leave you to Richard Edbury, a member of HCP who also pretty much qualifies as the best player in Wales:

"It's the new Type Two - and as with most new formats, creatures rule the land. After the State championships, U/G seems to have won the most by far. Astroglide preys on creatures savagely, with many cunning tricks to catch careless opponents - and it won two English county championships for Pete Norris and Chris Clapton, as well as posting a few good results elsewhere.

Chris played the following listing:

4 "Lightning Rift
4 Astral Slide
4 Akroma's Blessing
4 Renewed Faith
1 Sunfire Balm
3 Solar Blast
3 Slice and Dice
1 Starstorm
3 Wrath of God
3 Burning Wish
4 Exalted Angel
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Forgotten Cave
8 Mountain
10 Plains

Sideboard:
1 Disenchant
1 Ray of Distortion
1 Circle of Protection: Black
4 Boil
1 Pillage
1 Cleansing Meditation
1 Wrath of God
1 Slice and Dice
1 Gerrard's Wisdom
1 Firecat Blitz
1 Pyroclasm
1 Morningtide

Deck choices

Astral Slide is a fun card with many tricks for you to abuse to mess up your opponent's plans. You can kill token creatures, unmorph your creatures cheaply, dodge creature removal (including your own), fog a creature for a turn, untap a creature for your opponent's turn, stack combat damage and avoid dying, and reuse"comes into play" and"leaves play" effects.

Lightning Rift is just powerful: One extra mana on cycling to do two damage to a creature or player is a good deal, and your opponent's in real trouble when you have out more than one.

Once the deck has these two, you need cyclers to go with them. The best of these are the two in-color cycling lands: Secluded Steppe and Forgotten Cave. Between these two, you can play one of the most consistent decks as far as mana in recent years, as eight of your lands are as good as spells in the late game.

Akroma's Blessing will rarely be of much use as a spell... But it is the only other spell that cycles for just one on coloured mana, and occasionally it will help your angel through or protect it if astral slide is not forthcoming.

The more expensive cyclers gain you life and help with creature control: Slice and Dice has a very powerful cycling effect, killing Merfolk Looters, many red and white weenie creatures; this also will prove powerful if actually cast, should a Wrath not be forthcoming - especially as it leaves the angels in play.

One tough call is whether you play Solar Blast or Starstorm. Starstorm is the better card without cycling, but Solar Blast's cycling ability is obviously better.

Against most creature decks your plan is fairly simple: Play the enchantments as early as possible. If you don't have them, cycle to get to them and Wrath when necessary. The exception to this is that sometimes you will need to Burning Wish for Wrath, Pyroclasm, Slice and Dice, or Gerrard's Wisdom.

Against red or black, you should resist the urge to make an early Angel via morph unless you can protect it with Astral Slide... And unless forced to, try to avoid ever leaving the Angel open without the opportunity to slide her out.

Against non-red or -black creature decks, you should make the angel as quickly as possible, assuming you aren't going to Wrath immediately and have no Slide. You shouldn't be shooting your opponent via Lightning Rift early on. Remember that you can also kill Call of the Herd and Roar of the Wurm tokens with Astral Slide.

These are your staple decks; they're your easy wins.

Braids/Ichorid decks can be somewhat trickier: Braids can wreck you if you are careless, because you only have lands to sac - so try to always keep a way of killing it. If you think your opponent is playing Braids and you are going second and have no Lightning Rift, you should play an angel on turn 3 to avoid them Braids locking you - even though it will almost certainly die. You may also need to cast Morningtide via Wish in order to take care of Ichorid. This is one of your harder matchups, but it is by no means unwinnable.

Black control can be hard due to Haunting Echoes... But wishing for Firecat Blitz will often cause them a lot of trouble. Once people have played against the deck, however, they may learn to pre-emptively stop the tokens with Engineered Plague: You want to play your enchantments as quickly as possible to avoid hand destruction, and it may occasionally be worth casting Morningtide to avoid Echoes and reduce the impact of their Skeletal Scryings. If you're scared of this matchup, Circle of Protection: Black is hard for them to beat.

Psychatog, Wake, and other counter decks have lost much with Fact or Fiction vanishing - but they are still a threat. They have problems stopping early Rifts or Slides... And remember, they can't counter cycling effects. It's especially fun to Slice and Dice a Voidmage Prodigy. If you get Astral Slide into play, your angels become scary. With few decks packing more than six to eight counterspells, your fast cycling should enable you to get to your Rifts and Slides before they get to their counters. Upheaval is dealt with via Boil in the board and by sliding out angels.

Wake combo is hard for you to stop if it's well played; you should be able to get Rift down, and then it is just a race to see whether you can kill them with cycling before they can combo. This one is tough for you, though. Wishing here will often be for Firecat Blitz, Morningtide, or a Pillage to kill Mirari. Do not hesitate to try and screw your opponent for a few turns.