BGw and Esper Slide

[Drahcir_Nagrom]

I've been trying to make an Astral Slide deck for Peasant, which has been hit and miss, but I think I have a couple pretty good versions now. The decks look to capitalize on the Synergy of Astral Slide + Tilling Treefolk, among other creatures.

BGw Slide

Creatures:20
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Tilling Treefolk
1 Gravedigger
1 Marsh Flitter
1 Blind Hunter
1 Krosan Tusker

Answers:16
3 Duress
1 Raven's Crime
4 Doom Blade
4 Rend Flesh
4 Astral Slide

Lands:25
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Barren Moor
6 Forest
5 Swamp
2 Plains

SB
1 Duress
1 Raven's Crime
1 Gleeful Sabotage
2 Auramancer
2 Gravedigger
4 Wickerbough Elder
4 Rejuvenate

It should be okay against most aggro given the 8 hard removals and Slide to all but seal up the game barring too many cip abilities from the opponent's creatures. The discard suite of Duress + Raven's Crime + Ravenous Rats is meant to grind control and combo decks down; Ravenous rats works just fine with Slide and Tilling Treefolk gives you more Raven's Crime ammo.

Gravedigger is brought in against removal heavy decks, Wickerbough and Sabotage are obviously brought in against affinity and other annoying artifacts/enchantments, and Rejuvenate is brought in against the red decks.

Bant Slide


Creatures:20
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Man-o'-War
4 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Tilling Treefolk
1 Eternal Witness
4 Mulldrifter

Control and tricks:14
4 Negate
4 Mana Leak
2 Momentary Blink
4 Astral Slide

Lands:26
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Lonely Sandbar
2 Secluded Steppe
2 Tranquil Thicket
6 Island
4 Forest
4 Plains

SB
1 Momentary Blink
4 Renewed Faith
4 Rishadan Cutpurse
2 Auramancer
4 Wickerbough Elder

This one gives up the hard removal and discard for some counterspells and Man O War. Man O War + Momentary Blink take the tempo game to the extreme here, although it has been weakened a great deal by the rules change.

Renewed Faith is brought in against red. Rishadan may be a little too cute, but I plan to bring it in against midrange control decks that tap out a lot. The singleton Momentary Blink is for the lack of anything really good to put in there, but it's certainly not a bad card to add another of.

Any suggestions aside from adding Lightning Rift? Lightning Rift would be a 4th color for either list and I don't think red would provide too much to either list otherwise.

[BudgetDecks]

Try Essence Warden and Soul Warden. You'll get a life every time something comes back into play.

Lose some of the ravenous rats in the first. They'll be out of cards eventually. Maybe eliminate a plains and put in a fieldwild borderpost. Blastoderm would be a really nice card to have here, as you can remove it from play and then put it back with 3 new counters on it. Try experimenting with similar cards.

[BudgetDecks]

You could have some fun with this and allies