Pointed Discussion

looks like fun

I've seen (and used) decks with cards like this that take advantage of repeated exiling and returning to re-use comes-into-play effects. The only problem is that you have to cycle...

U-B-E-R
Tigers come into play abilities among other things, I run four of these along side four Monk Idealists in my Cycling deck. But Eternal Witness isn't the worst idea either.

This is awesome comboed with Eternal Witness and Decree of Justice, so much fun:D

Landcycling abilitys count as cycling, and thus trigger this card. So does creature-type-cycling.

Wasn't this used to bring morph creatures back face up?

Anyone that complains about Jund obviously wasn't around for this monstrosity.

Very strong engine card! Removes enemy attackers, removes enemy blockers, saves your creatures, recycles your creatures.. Awesome synergy with evoke creatures (Shriekmaw, Mulldrifter) and unearth creatures (Viscera Dragger, Sedraxis Specter, Fire-Field Ogre) because it "resets" them and you don't have to sacrifice them anymore! :)

@cats_and_me


"reseting" the unearthers doesnt work, they dont sacrifice they become exiled, but that isnt the problem, unearth reads as, at end of turn or would leave play exile it, so when you go to get rid of it, the exile ability triggers and its gone before the astro slide ability resolves.


also, the best cycling cards for this are either the 1 colour cycling land cards from onslaught such as Secluded Steppe or the 2 colourless cycling land cards from urza's saga such as Forgotten Cave or Blasted Landscape

@Havens:

I'm pretty sure cats_and_me has it right. Exiling it with Astral Slide would trigger the second part of Unearth, but since it's still getting exiled, Astral Slide would still return it to play.

No, Havens is right. Unearth replaces all remove from battle field effects with its own exile effect. So when Slide tries to exile it it exiles itself instead, and doesn't return.

DutchSanta is right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rua4kKSjy00

I remember for a solid 2 years Astral Slide decks were the decks to beat, no type 2 deck in recent years has had that long of an impact on the format.

I can't believe what they named it. It reminds me so much of "Astroglide".

Anyone voting less than five stars here is wrong. Enviously elegant yet balanced control.

@baldof

The card in the video exiled and returned the unearthed creature with one ability. Astral Slide, however, uses two abilities. The first one exiles the card and generates a linked delayed triggered ability.

607.2f If an object has both a static ability and a triggered ability printed on it in the same
paragraph, those abilities are linked. The triggered ability refers only to actions taken as a result
of the static ability.

607.2a If an object has an activated or triggered ability printed on it that instructs a player to exile
one or more cards and an ability printed on it that refers either to “the exiled cards” or to cards
“exiled with ,” these abilities are linked. The second ability refers only to cards in
the exile zone that were put there as a result of an instruction to exile them in the first ability.

Because unearth replaces the exiling with it's own exiling, the card is no longer linked to the ability and will not be returned to play at end of turn.

If you are looking to get around Unearth, take a look at Teferi's Veil
Phasing doesn't cause them to leave the battlefield so they won't have to be sacrificed at end of turn if you attack with them. The Veil is in color for unearth, and attacking with creatures seems to be much more common than cycling.

702.23d The phasing event doesn’t actually cause a permanent to change zones or control, even
though it’s treated as though it’s not on the battlefield and not under its controller’s control
while it’s phased out. Zone-change triggers don’t trigger when a permanent phases in or out.
Counters remain on a permanent while it’s phased out. Effects that check a phased-in
permanent’s history won’t treat the phasing event as having caused the permanent to leave or
enter the battlefield or its controller’s control.


Aside from all that, Astral Slide is a great card and is not inherently broken, though in set with all the cycling and morph creatures it is pretty powerful.

Augh, one of my favorite cards! I'd love to see it reprinted. Even after it left Standard, I tried to play a pseudo-slide deck with Otherworldly Journey, Eternal Witness, and Hikari, Twilight Guardian because I missed my slide deck so much.

I say any card that gets a competetive deck archetype named after it deserves 5/5.

Kind of sounds like a dance. Or a rave.

I agree with armogohma, this card defined a format for a bit.
It was a pretty cool deck, too; you could blink you're own guys for ETB triggers or flip an Exalted Angel, or you could blink an opponent's guy to save you from getting beaten down for a turn.

OK to clear up the confusion on Astral Slide and Unearthed creatures (since there is a lot of bad information here):

It's actually really simple. Unearth's exile effect is a *replacement effect* for if the unearthed creature would go to any zone *other than* being exiled. Because Astral Slide exiles the creature, this replacement effect doesn't happen. Therefore, astral slide's ability happens as normal and the creature will return to the battlefield at EOT due to astral slide's ability. And because it returns as a "new object," the creature forgets it was unearthed and so it's fresh, ready to die and be unearthed again if you want.

There it is, simple and sweet. Also, @ RuscoJames, you completely missed this point and just added needless confusion to the comments. Please read up before you type! ;)

Huh... THREE pages of comments and no one mentions Gilded Drake huh? Well, if ever there was a combo in Magic that would make a Flyer into one of those annoying-asz "rats with wings" from Finding Nemo... THERE IT IS!! - - *seagull looks at Marlin* ... "Mine?" ... ChAos ensues!

If you're going to evaluate based on win-power armohgoma, then I'd say the scale should be:

7/5- the Vintage Restricted List

6/5- Legacy Cards

5/5- Format Warping stuff. More than just 'Best Deck syndrome', it has to be 'Best in such a way that it heavily effect the maindecks, not just the sidedecks, of other lists', such as demanding people play lower curves even in control because this deck is just too fast for 6 drops or 5 drops to be playable.

4/5- A-game Stuff. The Archetypes that ruled the more fair and balanced/easy entry Metagames belong here. Like say, Vampires (or probably anything Tribal).

3/5 The cards that were shell-shockers in their Limited formats but haven't aged well for constructed. Gempalm Strider being a fine example.

2/5 Cards that you wouldn't cut in Limited but have had completely strictly better cards made since and you'd feel old if you actually cast it in Limited.

1/5 should only be used on cards you think are Bad for the Game and shouldn't exist

0/5 Come on, folks-- there are enough Formats that every card, overpowered or underpowered, also has a semi-useful and actually fair application. I don't think any card honestly deserves 0. Except the Moxen and Black Lotus, but only because it's funny with their mana costs ;D

Arbound Ravager is a card that I'd give 5/5 and I wouldn't give 1/5, but I'd possibly give the Artifact Lands 1/5. Ravager is just fine, only very powerful, without Artifact Lands. Stoneforge Mystic I'd give 1/5 or 6/5. Ravager isn't Bad for the Game as a Whole, they just mistakenly thought Artifact Lands were safe to print next to him. Ravager isn't banned in Modern. Not saying 'Banned in Modern' makes a card 1/5, but it's a place to start.

So many tricks with this card! Not as strong now as it was but still loads of fun 4/5

One of my favorite mechanics. I think this archtype is still pretty rad; it's so techy and interesting.

Combo with Sundial of the Infinite to exile a creature for every card you cycle. Too bad cycling still wouldn't be viable.

-Swag_Crow

During this card's day, it was a threat. When your opponent put it out, you couldn't just let it slide.