GWb Astral Slide + PTQ Butler Tournament Report

Eldar · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 346 Location: Rochester

Well I have had a few people ask me about the GWb astral slide list I have been testing and ran at the Butler PTQ so here it is. I asked my friend Jake Fling the maker of the deck if he would mind if I shared it and he didn't care as long as he got credit for making/adjusting it from classic slide lists. The deck seems to perform very well against the metagames and has great matchups against just about everything. So I figure I can throw in a tournament report on how it went.

I started off the day at a friend of mines in Pittsburgh and we arrived in Butler shortly before they opened at 9 am. So I figured we could trade around and try and pick up the cards needed for our decks. It wasn't the best turnout but we had a solid 127 just one short of making it enough for 8 rounds. I had some mixed feelings about this and wasn't really sure if my lack of sleep would take its toll in such a long match; however an 8th round may have been just enough to put some of my friends in contention. We all picked up our cards easy enough and scouted around only to find exactly what we expected to see. Plenty of dredge, doran, tarmoburn, and next level blue everywhere. But then again this is exactly the kind of metagame that slide flourishes in. So without any further ado to the matches.

Round 1: Doran
I was told before I began piloting this deck that doran was pretty much a bye and this match kind of reinforced this statement, but I could definitely see how it could be lost. I basically landed a slide both games and from that point fought through triple vindicate each time. Sliding out witness in response is so great against decks that think they can kill slide once one hits. So I hard cast decree for 3 yes for 3 a whopping 10 mana and fly over his lame guys for 12 and take him out. A similar effect happened in game 2 however in the end he had to drop dark bobby to try and stabilize and after a few lands at 2 life finally hit and died. On a side note his vindicates and dorans ate extirpates this game.

Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0

Round 2: Doran
Man I really hate playing the same matchups over and over again, but I guess I can't really complain seeing as how the matchup is so good. Game one was a long one as it basically involved me stalling out the game until I could find an astral slide which took about 30 minutes or so, but once that happened it was over quickly. Game 2 started with about 10 minutes or so left in the round and left the match at pretty much of a stalemate as we both drew land after land. I was sitting at a comfortable 6 life just holding down the fort with treetops and hierarchs, but no slide and he kept trying to dig for anything but land. He never got to profane command and I never hit slide so the game stalled out and drew when time was called.

Games: 3-0-1
Matches: 2-0

Round 3: G/B Death Cloud
Oh snap a matchup I never took the time to test. Well this shall be interesting. We both start out the game playing some lands and digging with either top or cycling lands and trade off baloths for hierarchs until he ramps up to about 10 mana or so. I wish for mystic enforcer right after I force him to deed away a threatening hierarch and hope that he can go the distance. Man was that a mistake as he was down to 2 cards in hand one being a death cloud. I should have gotten teeg here but it didn't matter too much. He drops death cloud at 8 blowing up all our lands leaving me at 16 and himself at around 8 but with a 4 counter garruk. I drop lands 2 straight turns dredge life from the loam and come back from oblivion just in time with a hierarch to take the game down when garruk runs out of counters and he cant find a land. Game 2 was pretty similar except he starts out with one of his 2 leylines in play. So I play the dig game and stall game. Eventually we stall out and I drop a teeg to halt down death cloud. He smothers it away only for his smothers to get extirpated. So I wish for another teeg after he does a small death cloud to rid a troublesome hierarch away and extirpate his clouds as well. From then on it is commence the beats; however time runs out with him at 2 life facing down a hierarch, teeg, and dragon on turn 5 of turns.

Games: 4-0-2
Matches: 3-0

Round 4: Next Level Blue (Tom LaPille ftl?)
Ahh this again. Well hmm he took down my friend Jake in the top 4 of Cleveland 2 weeks before and I hope to avenge him here. I keep a solid hand but he resolves a quick counterbalance while I hold a couple hierarchs in hand to try and resolve something later with. Little did I know the deck wasn't running any 4 cost anymore and I may have been able to race his shackles with the 2-3 hierarch I held. Game 2 didn't fair much better as he locked me out with explosives/ruins and he took it down pretty handily. Gotta love it when you try to resolve slide and witness multiple turns immediately after he thirsts only to find him with another right on top what a beating.

Games: 4-2-2
Matches: 3-1

Round 5: Next Level Blue
Ugh again are you kidding me? Man I hate this can't I have a little diversity here? Guess not. Well he isn't nearly as good a player as Tom so this immediately goes from almost unwinnable to slightly in my favor when he taps out I resolve a slide and wish for stomphowler and completely lock him out from ever recovering. Game 2 was also not even close as he basically mulligans into oblivion keeping a reasonable hand of 5 and can't win against the slide howler/hierarch the same as from game 1.

Games: 6-2-2
Matches: 4-1

Round 6: Next Level Blue (Wish Version)
Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Seriously? Come on. Alright I was a bit disappointed, but I have to be honest this match was epic. I start off resolving an early slide and begin the shenanigans while he gets counter/top + double shackles out with ruins in play. He wishes for jailer to stop the loam craziness but slide assists in this regard and I wish for stomphowler, decree for a few soldiers, play a witness and a hierarch and begin trying to outrace the shackles. I finally manage to stabilize by killing a shackles in my turn and his turn every turn as well as sliding out jailer to get loam back and hierarch to keep my life up. It really is hard to take things with slide out. Eventually he hits explosives and starts blowing my slides up. I manage to keep digging hitting more slides to re-stabilize and start to think maybe I better just try my luck in game 2. I keep sticking it out and soon there is not nearly enough time to take down a game and I somehow seem to overwhelm him with about 5 cards left in my library and 7 minutes left in the round. I think for a bit about my sideboard options and make sure to use my full 3 minutes to shuffle and board and start the game rather quickly. He keeps a subpar hand involving tarmogoyf beatdown which is highly ineffective as I just resolve slide and hierarch wish for shriekmaw and take control. Time and turns end with the game clearly in my favor so I ask him if he wants me to write down 1-0-1 or 2-0 he picks the first and we move on.

Games: 7-2-3
Matches: 5-1

Round 7: Elf Opposition
I check the standings and pairings do a little worst case scenario in my head and come to the conclusion that I can draw into the t8 with ease as long as I don't get unlucky and get paired against someone who can't. The pairings come up and my opponent said he was in 7th before the round where I was in 6th and sadly this means he has no chance to draw in as he will get 9th and I would get 8th. So we have to play it out. The game starts rather quickly as he gets down turn one druid turn 2 hivemaster llanowar and I quickly find myself down on tempo. I get wrath down to wipe his board only for him to restock it with the elf ringleader. I stabilize with double hierarch, tribe-elder, double eternal dragon and have him dead the next turn as long as he doesn't rip opposition. He does and locks me out. Talk about rough beats. So I board in the hate and use the play to my advantage. I face down similar odds however he is without blue mana and my timely wrath followed by hierarch cause him to scoop them up in an effort to take the game down so we don't draw. I cringe as he yet again goes turn 1 druid turn 2 hivemaster as this is back breaking. I think to myself that if I can just make it to turn 4 main phase I am fine with my hand of wrath, hierarch, decree, 2x cycling lands, loam, and slide but he puts me on defense early and turn 3 opposition never lets me play a spell again. I am able to get one mana open but a turn too late to drop the needle that I get off the top just one turn too late. He reveals krosan grip and I wish him luck in the t8.

Games: 7-4-3
Matches: 5-2

When all is said and done I end up 9th thanks to my fantastic breakers that would have put me first if I could have gotten that last game. Thems the breaks I guess. So I take my packs cube draft with some friends of mine and head over to a judges house later to draft some L-L-M. The deck seemed to function pretty well and with the right matchups seems to be a great choice. I didn't get to play against my worst or best matchups all day so I guess I can't be sure how the deck will always work out. No auto wins vs affinity/any red deck and no near impossibilities vs dredge killing me turn 2. But if you expect a meta of a lot of doran, red decks, and next level blue. And you know you can outplay people playing blue. Then this is the perfect deck for you. Anyway here is the list I played.

Creatures: 14
4-Loxodon Hierarch
4-Sakura-Tribe Elder
3-Eternal Witness
3-Eternal Dragon

Enchantments: 4
4-Astral Slide

Sorceries: 12
4-Life from the Loam
3-Wrath of God
3-Living Wish
2-Decree of Justice

Instants: 4
4-Renewed Faith

Land: 27
4-Windswept Heath
4-Tranquil Thicket
4-Secluded Steppe
3-Temple Garden
3-Forest
3-Plains
2-Treetop Village
2-Barren Moor
1-Godless Shrine
1-Swamp

Sideboard: 15
3-Extirpate
4-Gaddock Teeg
2-Pithing Needle
1-Shriekmaw
1-Mystic Enforcer
1-Indrik Stomphowler
1-Eternal Witness
1-Yixlid Jailer
1-Kataki, War's Wage

If you have any questions for me or about the deck feel free to send me a PM or send me an IM at Eldar1337 on AIM. I hope you enjoyed reading.

Poopsack2 · Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 20

very nice tourney report, good read

ChuckNorris · Joined: 13 Dec 2005 Posts: 108

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL I KNOWZ U!

Trotsky1 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 745

Thats rotten luck with the pairings.

bertu · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 23

Not playing the Hierarchs in rnd4 was a really bad play. : /

Anyways, why don't you run 1-2 akromas vengeance in the maindeck? It looks perfect against counterbalance and automatically wins against affinity.

I would run 2 vengeances in the maindeck and a Boseiju to be wished in the sideboard. That way, you can have a better shot at beating Ideal and Counterbalance decks.

TugaChampion · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 355

Yeah I know the feeling of having bad tiebreakers. In a Kuala Lumpur PTQ I was 5-1 and couldn't draw because my opp would go down to 9th and me to 8th. But there was still hope for us to ID as long as one match that involved a 4-1-1 and a 4-2-0 ended up as a draw or the 4-2-0 guy won. He won and he could ID but the match was already 1-0 for me anyway. Then in Morningtide prerelease I was playing at the first table in the last round and lost and went to 6th place getting only 4 boosters.

JKilla · Joined: 20 Apr 2005 Posts: 26

Quick question do u get the win if time i scalled and ur up a game?, i always thought it was a draw, but in every match that ur up a game and time is called, u get a win.

Eldar · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 346 Location: Rochester

Yeah you get the win if you finish just one game. In 3 of those matches we barely started game 2 when time was called so game 2 is a draw and you win the match 1-0-1 as I said. I don't really think the deck needs vengeance but I can look into it.

This makes me wonder who you are chucknorris. Hmmmm

Conkisstador · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 265

1-0 is a win if time is called.
often you hear: "you have reason to slowplay, u are up a game"
and that's why

TwoTrees · Joined: 22 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

That was a very good tourny report.

JimmyXu · Joined: 12 Nov 2007 Posts: 12

Agreed, Eldar, that was a very good tourney report. Hope some people will follow your lead. BTW, congrats on the finish, hopefully you'll have better breakers next time.

Just a couple of questions. What is the reasoning for only 3 wrath in main? What about the 4 hierarchs in main and none in side?

IshiIshi · Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 17

Is it just me, or does Gifts Ungiven just seem like it would be perfect in this deck?

da_penguin · Guest

its just u, you should have submitted this as an article not on the forums

Circa · Joined: 26 Dec 2005 Posts: 185

I really like the deck, but wouldn't WRg be a little better? Seems like Rift could have saved you a few draws, and Shatterstorm is fucking bomb...

Eldar · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 346 Location: Rochester

Well the deck really doesn't need wrath very often only if it is way behind it can normally hold off an onslaught fine with huge guys or sliding out problem creatures every turn thanks to life from the loam. The deck also draws way more cards than you would expect and over the course of a game draws far more cards than any other deck in the format. Well my breakers were the best in the top 10 or so I had a 64% opponent match win which put me ahead of everyone in that regard it was just bad luck getting paired against a lower ranking opponent in the last round. If I had gotten paired against anyone who was in 1st-5th in the standings (I was 6th) I could have drawn in without an issue, but I got paired against #7 so thems the breaks. I love gifts ungiven more than you know. It is my favorite card ever, however making the mana base even more shaky isn't really worth it and it would change the tone of the deck. If you want a gifts deck then I suggest gifts rock as it is very similar in most regards except instead of running slide and such it runs deed. Well Rift is a bit mana intensive and although I didn't mention it even with 27 lands in the deck you would be surprised how much I was sitting on around 4-7 mana and using it all every turn. As for shatterstorm I really don't seem to need it for any reason. Sure it would help if you are overwhelmed vs next level blue but you shouldn't be there in the first place. For artifacts wishing up stomphowler or kataki is just fine anyway. Also based on what Jake said from Cleveland affinity is practically a bye and I can see how unless they manage a turn 3 kill, but once turn 4 comes around just know when to slide their guys out and you will be fine.

On a side note I really didn't know just anyone could submit things for an article if I had known I may very well have done so, meh there is always next time.