Here I refer to the red deck type for
Magic: The Gathering whose creation is credited to
Paul Sligh. It involves paying close attention to
mana curves and
card advantage during deck building. It was characterized by it's use of "sub-standard" creatures like
Orcish Artillery and
Ironclaw Orcs, which either had a good power/casting cost ratio, or could kill multiple cards.
While the true Sligh deck was not widely played and was relatively short lived, it had a critical effect on M:TG strategy. By highlighting card-advantage over having a
killer card, the Sligh deck changed the way people looked at deck-building.
Once
Fifth Edition cycled in, eliminating the potent Lightning Bolt, and Vision introduced the Suq'Ata Lancer and Fireblast, Sligh decks disappeared in favor of
Stupid Red Burn.
Stupid Red Burn is another deck type in Magic: The Gathering. IMHO, this is
erroneously called a
Sligh deck - but the usage is common enough and the deck type popular enough to warrant discussion here. Stupid Red Burn keeps a very low
mana curve by using many cheap creatures to quickly overwhelm and damage an opponent, using
direct-damage or "
burn" spells to finish them off.
The use of the word
stupid is because the deck is very easy to play, and is a proven favorite with beginning tournament players. It is also relatively inexpensive to build, since most of the cards are
commons. However, while it is easy to play, only an
expert can use this deck's full potential.
Dave Price, dubbed the
King of Burn, has used SRB to achieve many tournament victories, and has shown that in the hands of a master, this deck is far deadlier than ever imagined.
In my opinion, this deck type reached it's pinnacle during the
Mirage/
Tempest block. This is a example
decklist:
4x
Mogg Fanatic
4x Other 1 casting cost creature
4x
Fireslinger
4x
Mogg Flunkie or
Ironclaw Orc
4x
Suq'Ata Lancer or
Ball Lightning
1x
Rathi Dragon
4x
Shock
4x
Incinerate
4x
Fireblast
1x
Kaervek's Torch (or other X damage spell)
4x
Cursed Scroll
18x
Mountain
4x
Wasteland
When compared to the
Sligh decks that
fathered this style, you can see that this type favors a quick kill over
utility. At its prime, this decktype would represent at least 50% of the tournament field. This created the same Deck/Anti-Deck environment that was common during the
Black Summer, where
Necropotence dominated.