I have been reading you these days because I am a total fan of Astral Slide engine. I played it back in time in extended with exalted angels, eternal dragon and orim chant's lock. I have read you all and I'd like to share my ideas.
- Midrange: It is basically a "blink and taxes" gameplan, without the taxes. I use 3 walls instead of 4 (either omens or blossoms) to block and get cards the early turns, 4 blade splicer as our main weapon, 3 witness to use the astral engine and recover our cards, 3 knight of autumn as our "everything" tool (lives, attack or protection against art/ench) and finally restoration to help with the ETB effects and thragtusk as a mid-late game plan. I think 4 path to exile are a must-have, and I complement it with 2 cast out for other threats. 25 lands are more than fine. I don't run street wraith as I already play edge of autumn as a free cycler and I wouldn't cast wraith ever.
- Abzan Aggro control: This is more similar to the one I used to play. It can protect itself from most threats and although it hasn't got any discard engine like other rock/abzan, we add tidehollows to control opponent's hand and wasteland strangler to get a perfect sinergy. Unearth is simply a must in this deck. Siege Rhino is probably the best way to kill our opponent and balance our life totals. I do include street wraith in this version as we need more free mana to cast our defenses via PtE/Trophy/decay. I love Worm Harvest and I cannot see a deck like this without 1 copy.
We also reduce the amount of LftL as it is not our main course of actions but a great help. I haven't included either Tarmogoyf or Grim flayer because we don't want to run but to control the game and we do not want to be totally wasted against graveyard hate. Finally, the inclusion of 2 Edge of autumn is both to let us find the 3rd colour just in case of need or just exploit tidehollow's ability with astral in the battlefield.
- GWb tempo Astral: This is a non-tested idea I have been thinking of. It is based on my old Astral slide version mixed with the aggrocontrol one. I'd like to include Ayula's influence instead of Worm Harvest to finish off as if it were a copy of Seismic assault. It includes Eladamri's call instead of traverse the ulvenwald/eldritch evolution as we are not in a rush to put creatures in play and as a substitute of Living Wish. In my opinion, this is the least competitive version of it because it has less interaction with opponent's hand and it goes more of looking for the right answer/strategy, but I think it is the funniest one to play.
And YES; As we cannot run a copy of Krosan Cloudscraper -which I would totally love to see-, I included 1 copy of Armada Wurm as our big punch creature that doesn't come along -the same goes for Deep Forest Hermit- and is good for our blink strategy with astral drift.
Could you please post the list with sideboard??
I have been reading you these days because I am a total fan of Astral Slide engine. I played it back in time in extended with exalted angels, eternal dragon and orim chant's lock. I have read you all and I'd like to share my ideas.
- Midrange: It is basically a "blink and taxes" gameplan, without the taxes. I use 3 walls instead of 4 (either omens or blossoms) to block and get cards the early turns, 4 blade splicer as our main weapon, 3 witness to use the astral engine and recover our cards, 3 knight of autumn as our "everything" tool (lives, attack or protection against art/ench) and finally restoration to help with the ETB effects and thragtusk as a mid-late game plan. I think 4 path to exile are a must-have, and I complement it with 2 cast out for other threats. 25 lands are more than fine. I don't run street wraith as I already play edge of autumn as a free cycler and I wouldn't cast wraith ever.
1 Wall of blossoms
2 Wall of omens
4 Blade Splicer
3 Eternal Witness
3 Knight of Autumn
2 Restoration Angel
2 Thragtusk
4 Astral Drift
4 Edge of Autumn
4 Path to Exile
2 Cast Out
3 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
3 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Tranquil Thicket
3 Ghost Quarter
- Abzan Aggro control: This is more similar to the one I used to play. It can protect itself from most threats and although it hasn't got any discard engine like other rock/abzan, we add tidehollows to control opponent's hand and wasteland strangler to get a perfect sinergy. Unearth is simply a must in this deck. Siege Rhino is probably the best way to kill our opponent and balance our life totals. I do include street wraith in this version as we need more free mana to cast our defenses via PtE/Trophy/decay. I love Worm Harvest and I cannot see a deck like this without 1 copy.
We also reduce the amount of LftL as it is not our main course of actions but a great help. I haven't included either Tarmogoyf or Grim flayer because we don't want to run but to control the game and we do not want to be totally wasted against graveyard hate. Finally, the inclusion of 2 Edge of autumn is both to let us find the 3rd colour just in case of need or just exploit tidehollow's ability with astral in the battlefield.
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Eternal Witness
3 Wasteland Strangler
2 Siege Rhino
3 Street Wraith
2 Unearth
3 Life from the loam
4 Astral Drift
2 Edge of Autumn
3 Path to Exile
3 Assassin's trophy
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Worm Harvest
2 Overgrown tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
2 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Nurturing Peatland
2 Barren moor
2 Secluded Steppe
4 Tranquil Thicket
- GWb tempo Astral: This is a non-tested idea I have been thinking of. It is based on my old Astral slide version mixed with the aggrocontrol one. I'd like to include Ayula's influence instead of Worm Harvest to finish off as if it were a copy of Seismic assault. It includes Eladamri's call instead of traverse the ulvenwald/eldritch evolution as we are not in a rush to put creatures in play and as a substitute of Living Wish. In my opinion, this is the least competitive version of it because it has less interaction with opponent's hand and it goes more of looking for the right answer/strategy, but I think it is the funniest one to play.
And YES; As we cannot run a copy of Krosan Cloudscraper -which I would totally love to see-, I included 1 copy of Armada Wurm as our big punch creature that doesn't come along -the same goes for Deep Forest Hermit- and is good for our blink strategy with astral drift.
3 Wall of Blossoms
3 Eternal Witness
1 Siege Rhino
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deep Forest Hermit
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Armada Wurm
3 Street Wraith
3 Life from the loam
4 Astral Drift
1 Ayula's influence
3 Path to Exile
2 Assassin's trophy
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Wrath of God
2 Edge of Autumn
3 Renewed Faith
2 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown tomb
1 Godless Shrine
4 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Blast Zone
1 Nurturing Peatland
1 Barren moor
3 Secluded Steppe
4 Tranquil Thicket
I hope these help us create and find the best combination of colours and cards to defend Astral engine.