Well, my long-time Magical ally and fellow team Iron Chef member Josh Reynolds won the Type One tournament last weekend at Richmond Comix (www.richmondcomix.com), after finishing in second place twice in a row. I was glad to see him finally get first, which he really deserved. I, unfortunately, lost to the other guy who made it to the finals, who was playing an incredible rogue deck featuring Obliterate, Lurking Evil, and Opal Avenger, because I got distracted and made the huge mistake of not paying the upkeep on a Masticore in the third game. That's what I get for talking during a game, and using cards I haven't played ever before. It doesn't bother me a bit, though, because the deck I was playing is almost done and I know it is going to be great when we finally perfect it. I had a beautiful Obliterate recovery in the second game against Jay Coffman that made the price of admission worthwhile: I Mana Drained it, giving me eight mana in my pool during my main phase. Then I went Lotus, Will, Lotus, Underground Sea, Sol Ring, Mind Twist for six, Demonic Tutor, and Fact or Fiction. Obliterate is not so bad if you know it's coming.

So that was worthwhile, to say the least. I also eliminated the guy that one last time playing Stupid Red Burn, which was a pleasant feeling since now I know that my Type One deck can eat SRB alive with consistency. This is good, as bad red decks take up the bulk of people's Type One experience.

Since I have on more than one occasion taken an opportunity to show extreme disrespect toward SRB and Deadguy Red style decks in Type One, I am going to present a Sligh deck in the fashion of yesteryear, but with modern cards and modern theory. The basic premise is that a beatdown deck in Type One needs to combine speed and consistency with disruption. Extensive playtesting has shown that this deck can defeat heavy control and other aggro strategies with nearly a 50-50 record against the field, all else being equal. The biggest advantage this deck has is that it is not vulnerable to any of the normal silver bullet cards against red, such as CoP: Red, Ivory Mask, Masticore, Moat, or Powder Keg. It also has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive and can be built successfully without any Power Nine, although those quite obviously help the deck.

Rubefacere (formerly known as Azhrei Sligh):

3x Dwarven Miner
4x Goblin Cadets
4x Gorilla Shaman
4x Jackal Pup
4x Kird Ape

4x Incinerate
4x Lightning Bolt

4x Pillage
1x Wheel of Fortune

1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor

4x Land Grant
1x Regrowth

2x Cursed Scroll
1x Mox Ruby
1x Black Lotus

2x Mountain
1x Bayou
4x Badlands
1x Strip Mine
4x Taiga
4x Wasteland

Sideboard:

3x Hull Breach
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Null Rod
4x Red Elemental Blast

This is probably one of the more non-standard red decks out there right now, and there is a very good reason for that: Combo decks are fairly weak right now, which makes the field essentially control or beatdown. This deck, therefore, is designed specifically to be able to beat the Keeper-style deck, which has been the flagship of control for years now, as well as deal with mono-blue control decks. It also beats SRB/Deadguy Red decks and can hold its own with relative ease against Zoo style decks.

The most obvious departures from the norm are the lack of both Ball Lightning and Fireblast. There is a good reason for this: Both of these cards suck. No, I mean it. They really do. All they can do is win games by accident. They deal damage and accomplish nothing else at all, and damage is the least useful thing a deck can do. These cards really take no skill or thought to use, and that makes a deck using them weak. If all I can is deal damage quickly, I may very well win several games, but I can also do absolutely nothing if faced with some form of significant opposition - after all, if dealing damage is all I can do, then I have no options to exercise if that venue is cut off. In addition, my opponent needs to think about nothing other than how much damage I can deal at any given moment.

Pillage is a non-standard card that I included for numerous reasons; the most obvious one was to supplement the minor land destruction theme along with the four Wastelands, the Strip Mine, and the three Dwarven Miners. This gives the deck a strong disruptive strategy against the polychromatic decks that abound in Type One. In addition to this, Pillage is an excellent maindeck answer to Masticore, which is pretty much one of any weenie deck's worst enemies - and especially Sligh. This card has been an MVP in most games, since at three mana it can provide an invaluable decrease in resources for whatever the opponent is trying to do, and can also hit the basic lands that Wasteland cannot.

The sideboard is geared toward defeating Keeper-style decks and mono-blue, as well as other Sligh decks. Null Rods stop Moxen, Masticore, and Powder Kegs cold, and Hull Breach is quite simply amazing. This deck can do well against almost any field, especially after sideboarding, and its versatile assortment of cards means that it will never be without options.

Elegance and thought are the two factors that create a successful Type One deck. Even if a deck plays very easily, if it is ever without real options as to what it can do then it is not a good deck. No consistently winning Type One deck - and I mean NO deck -has been mindless. No good decks build themselves, and no truly great decks play themselves either. There must always be thought and careful play consideration involved for a deck to be solid. The most straightforward path is rarely going to be the most effective one, because that is what people expect.

At three mana, do you expect Ball Lightning or Pillage? If you see a mountain, do you think that a CoP: Red and an Ivory Mask can save you?

It didn't save a Power Nine-fueled Keeper deck that never even had a Hull Breach cast against it. Balance didn't save it either.

Simple, brutal, thoughtful ELEGANCE.

Darren Di Battista
Azhrei at www.bdominia.com
Team Iron Chef