2
Dragon Whelp
2 Brothers of Fire
2 Orcish Artillery
2 Orcish Cannoneers
4 Ironclaw Orcs
3 Dwarven Lieutenant
2 Orcish Librarian
2 Dwarven Trader
2 Goblins of the Flarg
4 Brass Man
1 Shatter
1
Detonate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
1 Fireball
1 Immolation
1 Black Vise
4 Strip Mine
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Dwarven Runes
13 Mountain |
 Sligh
Circa 1996.
Description of deck by Alex
Shvartsman @ www.wizards.com (quoted):
 Red
decks have a special place in the hearts of many a player. Whether it be
a weenie strategy, land destruction, control decks or pure burn, most of
us have given in to the allure of Mountains at one time or another.
The most successful and – I will venture – the most important red deck
ever is Sligh. This name references a mono-red deck featuring small,
fast creatures combined with direct damage. This archetype is especially
key because it advanced the overall Magic strategy by making the concept
of mana curve mainstream. Mana curve is an application of math to Magic
where you attempt to maximize your chances of utilizing every point of
mana that you are able to generate every single turn. That means playing
with a certain number of creatures/spells that cost one mana, two mana,
three mana, etc. The math an original Sligh deck was built upon breaks
down approximately like this:
1 mana slot: 9-13
2 mana slot: 6-8
3 mana slot: 3-5
4 mana slot: 1-3
X spell: 2-3
Removal/Burn: 8-10
The deck is named after Paul Sligh, who played it at a Pro Tour
Qualifier held in Atlanta on April 21, 1996. Although it is commonly
told that he won the qualifier, Sligh actually finished in second place,
losing to a Necropotence deck in the finals. The tournament organizer
for this event made a post to the message boards during the week after
the tournament commenting that "Up till now, I still do not understand
how this deck got as far as it did, but it did. The math worked out, I
guess!!!"
Indeed, Sligh's deck list featured a number of cards never before seen
at the top tables in a competitive Magic event.
One of the things to remember looking at this deck list is that the
format it was played in required you to build the deck using 5 cards
from every legal expansion set (this was the format used in Pro Tour 1
and the subsequent round of qualifiers for Pro Tour 2).
Although the deck ended up named after Paul Sligh, it was designed by
Jay Schneider – a popular Internet writer and deck builder from the
Atlanta area at the time. Schneider has designed a number of high
profile decks and always strives to find innovative strategies whenever
a new expansion set is released, but Sligh is by far is greatest
creation.
Despite the deck's "goofy" appearance, players quickly realized that
Paul Sligh and Jay Schneider were on to something here. Shortly
thereafter various Sligh builds were running rampant in the metagame.
Players would even adjust their Sligh decks for the mirror, using Keeper
of Kookus! Others would play 3 to 5-color Sligh, splashing for powerful
off-color cards such as Armageddon and Derelor.
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