Astral Slide

Enchantment

Whenever a player cycles a card, you may exile target creature. If you do, return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

Flarhoon13 on Kenrith, the Cycling King

7 months ago

Inaugural game went perfectly. Time of Need got Zirda, the Dawnwaker. An early Fluctuator allowed me to cycle about 7 cards early. Zur the Enchanter got Astral Slide, Escape Protocol and Training Grounds. So, when Kenrith, the Returned King finally came out, all of his abilities were reduced to a single coloured mana. Razaketh's Rite got a Palinchron, probably should've gotten a Herald of the Forgotten. My opponent had been kind enough to mill my Scholar of the Ages so I could search with Razaketh's Rite again, this time for the Dimir House Guard to loop Palinchron via Kenrith, the Returned King for infinite mana and the win.

legendofa on Astral Slide and „new“ Damage …

1 year ago

Your creature would survive, and you would not take damage. An annotated sequence of events for the combat step is basically

• Enter combat step. Activate abilities, cast instants, trigger "at the beginning of combat" abilities, etc.
• Active player declares which creatures are attacking, and which opponent or Planeswalker they're attacking. (Opponent attacks with 2/2.) Activate abilities, cast instants, trigger "Whenever ~ attacks" abilities, etc.
• Defending player(s) declare which creatures are blocking and how. (You block the 2/2 with a 1/1.) Activate abilities, cast instants, trigger "Whenever ~ blocks" abilities, etc. (You cycle a card, triggering Astral Slide. You choose to exile the blocking creature. Slide resolves, and the creature is exiled.)
• Attacking player assigns damage. Blocked creatures deal damage to blocking creatures, and unblocked creatures deal damage to whatever they were attacking. (The attacking 2/2 is still considered blocked, but has nothing to deal its damage to.)

Fast forward to the end step, when your creature returns.

There are a couple of exceptions, but this will get you through most interactions. The most common exception is probably trample. When damage is assigned, it is legal for the attacker to assign all damage to you, since it will overcome all present blockers by assigning them zero damage. Also, if you block an attacker with two creatures and exile one of them, the attacker can still choose to assign all damage to the blocker that's still in play.

RobinTheBird2 on Astral Slide and „new“ Damage …

1 year ago

Hello all, I haven't played Magic since 2004 and started again this year. I've learned that some rules have changed, including the "Damage on Stack" rule. Specifically, I am now wondering about the former Astral Slide combo: For example, is it still possible to block a 2/2 attacker with a 1/1 creature and save the creature with Astral Slide, by cycling a card, while preventing life loss? Or would my creature be destroyed? Or would the damage go through but the creature would be save? Thanks a lot for your help!

Squee_Spirit_Guide on Token Wipe

1 year ago

For repeatable use on a single token there's bouncers like Time Elemental, Temporal Adept, Waterfront Bouncer, and my favourite Tradewind Rider. If it has to be in white there's Witch Hunter and Eldrazi Displacer (if you can meet the colourless requirement). There's also cards that will do it if you meet a condition, like Skybind and Astral Slide.

Vessiliana on Zur de France

1 year ago

Have you thought about adding Astral Drift? It is nice redundancy for Astral Slide and is also Zur-able.

FoldedCorner on A Vicious Cycle

2 years ago

You might want to try Sundial of the Infinite . This lets you use Astral Drift and Astral Slide offensively. During your end step, with the re-enter triggers on the stack activate Sundial, leaving the permanents in exile forever.

zapyourtumor on

2 years ago

I think you should consider changing up the deck a bit and building around Astral Drift , just because Astral Slide is such a classic cycling deck. With Solitary Confinement being printed in MH2, you can do the cancerous Eternal Witness + Astral Drift + Solitary Confinement lock, plus Containment Priest was also reprinted which means you can exile your opponents creatures permanently with Containment Priest + Astral Drift .

Also, Sheltered Thicket and Scattered Groves would be great lands for this deck.

StarstormKK on Flaming shark tornado

2 years ago

I was looking around for a deck to build that uses Shark Typhoon because I keep finding them in the packs I buy. I came across yours and I like the idea of using Unpredictable Cyclone in conjunction with it. It allows you to cheat out more expensive spells pretty effectively, while still creating a shark army. On that note, I would completely revamp the spells you have chosen, aside from Neutralize and Boon of the Wish-Giver , because they need to have cycling to trigger this awesome effect. I do really like Narset of the Ancient Way for this deck. I would remove Teferi, Time Raveler unless you decide to use more sorceries, like Essence Fracture .

• Zenith Flare will be the first obvious choice. It refers to cycling and grows in power rapidly as you cycle things, however it will only grow until the first Unpredictable Cyclone drops, so I am not sure.
• Rescind would be a solid choice, especially if you are running some counterspells.
• Complicate and/or Countervailing Winds seem like some decent choices if you want more counterspells.
• Sweltering Suns and/or Starstorm could replace the damage classic Shock .
• Cast Out could almost directly replace Banishing Light with a cycling equivalent.
• Lay Claim to steal the best of your opponent's forces.
• Astral Slide and/or Astral Drift might be useful, depending on the deck you end up with.

In any case, I love the basic concept and enjoyed trying to think about some synergy for it.