We in the Legacy community have been trolled. Congratulations Bob Huang, you really used a Siren’s Ruse to lure us all in. However, if we really wanted to try and make this Rishadan Tax game work, how would we go about that?
Well, I never get tired of talking about Astral Slide and I know none of you ever get sick of hearing about it. On that note there really isn’t a more efficient way to abuse enters-the-battlefield abilities than Astral Slide. Here we are going to take a very brief dive into Space Cowboys and hope we don’t end up over our heads.
Space Cowboys
There really is no better way to abuse enters-the-battlefield abilities than by using cycling with Astral Slide for up to two triggers per turn cycle per creature that you are sliding out. In case you haven’t kept up, that is a lot of fees to be paid for non-violent Pirates.
This version of the deck will have long term card advantage through Life from the Loam and Jace, the Mind Sculptor as well as the ability to leverage a healthier mana base with access to Wasteland to punish the greedy decks over a long and grindy game. Astral Slide combined with the scurvy Rishadan pirates we can punish greedy and honest mana equally by producing multiple triggers each turn cycle to slowly grind down our opponents’ resources.
I figured it made sense to test out Nimble Obstructionist since cycling it means we get to deny our opponent a fetchland activation and then also tax them on the back side once we return our Space Cowboy to the battlefield.
Naturally I kept a few copies of Eternal Witness to bring anything we need back from the grave. Ghostly Flicker and Eternal Witness alone act like an Astral Slide effect that can be pitched to Force of Will (out of the board) in a pinch. Not too bad right! Right? Hey friends, where are you going? We can talk about Astral Slide again, right now as a matter of fact.
Astral Slide is clearly the best way to really abuse the effects that Siren’s Ruse wasn’t really doing as good of a job at. Thank you for taking the time to check out this brief dive into what Popeye Stompy could be should it become a real thought.
Happy brewing to each and every one of you. If anyone has an idea for a brew that they would like to see, I will gladly take requests and challenges on twitter or in email at [email protected].
Aaron Gazzaniga works part time at a game store and in his off time has been an avid magic player/brewer since 2003. Having begun in Odyssey Standard Block and always favoring control and prison style decks, we come to this moment in time where Aaron finally gets to talk about and share his ideas. If you want to contact Aaron tweet @aarongazzaniga