WHAT IS THIS?

    

This is a followup project to my print-and-play Mono-black premodern deck, "Moneyball Black", which I released here a few weeks ago. Check out that project here!

      Another 100% Free print and play project for Magic: The Gathering™ which mimics the style and diy-punk xerox aesthetics of the early pre-alpha playtest cards and the Secret Lair™ drop, "The Zeta Set", released  by Wizards of the Coast™ and MSCHF™ on September 3rd 2026 which referenced those same playtest cards. To say the release of this set went poorly would be an understatement. Between artificial scarcity and incentivized scalpers the release was riddled with technical issues and sold out in a matter of minutes (when it was actually up). The release went so poorly that wizards actually has started to make moves to make it right:

Wizards  re-ran/plans to re-run their Zeta set drop as a print to demand set on dec 9th 2026. 

While I still have some issues with the project, I do want to give wizards their flowers for partially making it up to players and for using a release model that incentivizes scalpers less and benefits real players more.

      This is a collection of cards in that early Magic playtest style, all based around a single printable, playable, 60 card maindeck and 15 card sideboard for a Premodern deck known by many  names: mono-red Burn aka "Sligh" . This set contains 36 different cards in only one color: Red, along with a few artifacts and lands required to fully build the deck out. The download contains 5 pages of 9 cards each (one page is all basic mountains) which can pre printed onto labels with a home printer. Each sheet comes in a normal and "inverted" treatment. 

-JS

WHAT IS PREMODERN?

From https://premodernmagic.com/ :

     "Premodern is a community-created constructed format consisting of the sets from Fourth Edition to Scourge. The card pool thus roughly spans the period inbetween the formats 93/94 and Modern. A rule of thumb for the card pool is: all cards with the old frame printed between 1995 and 2003, which were standard legal at some point during this period. Portal and promo cards are thus not legal (sorry, Nalathni Dragon). See the list of all legal sets here, or you can browse the entire card pool here.

An underlying idea is that the format should be a home for iconic and fun cards that don't see play in other formats—either because their relative power level has withered over time, or because they are not tournament legal due to their interactions with newer cards (e.g. Survival of the Fittest and Vengevine in Legacy). In line with this idea, some cards that are dominant in other formats are banned in Premodern (e.g. Brainstorm and Force of Will) in order to leave room for other cards to prosper, and to make the format distinct from others. See the deck gallery or the blog for inspiration, or start brewing from scratch!

Premodern was invented in 2012 by Martin Berlin, as he switched gears from competitive to casual play. At that point, he was already into the 93/94 format, but felt that it didn’t fully satiate his cravings for old school Magic. Martin is responsible for maintaining the banned list, based on input from the community. See here for a short introduction video about Premodern."

WHAT IS SLIGH?

You can read me yap about it below, or you could just watch this video by Rhystic Studies

Almost more of a philosophy than a single deck, Sligh is a sub-archetype of the aggro archetype, named after the player Paul Sligh, who brought the deck to second place in an Atlanta PTQ in 1996. Concepts of the deck itself had already been invented two years earlier in 1994 by Jay Schneider who was calling the deck "Geeba" after "the sound a goblin made when it hit you with its stick" during their live action role-play sessions around that same time. Schneider is famous for popularizing, through Sligh, the concept of the mana curve which he pioneered playing magic while also studying statistics in college. A concept many of us take for granted today.

The idea was to cast the best possible creature or the most damaging spell "on curve" every turn and to always utilize the entirety of the deck's available mana on every turn. Because of this it prioritized cheap but high value creatures, often with downsides that caused them to have CMCs below rate, to get in fast and early and efficient removal to clear the way and go over the top when necessary for the win. 

Various configurations of Sligh decks have come and gone in most formats since those early strategies in 1994-6, and, with the changing of the guard who piloted them, new names also rose and fell. What started as "Geeba" and "The Orcish Librarian Deck" became "Sligh", Sligh in turn gave way to "Red Deck Wins", "AiR (All in Red)", and Big Red. But throughout the years the philosophy (and many of the cards) of these decks remained the same.

The deck comes down to three core principals/philosophies:

• The Philosophy of Fire: An idea from some of the earliest days of magic- every card in the deck aims to deal maximum damage efficiently (ideally three damage per card), requiring about seven resolved spells to win. [1]
• Mana Curve Efficiency: Originating from early tournament concepts by Paul Sligh and Jay Schneider, the archetype maximizes mana usage each turn with low-cost threats. [1]
• Early Pressure: The game plan starts on turn one with aggressive 1-mana creatures like Jackal Pup or Mogg Fanatic. [1]

How to play Sligh:

Shoot you opponent until they die. simple as.

Typical Core 60-Card List

• Creatures (12–16):
  • 4 Jackal Pup (1-mana 2/1 with a downside that gets in fast and early)
  • 4 Mogg Fanatic (Flexible early blocker, ping utility, or face damage)
  • 2–4 Grim Lavamancer (Turns your used graveyard into a repeatable damage machine, especially useful with fetch lands)
  • 2–4 Goblin Patrol (or alternative aggressive 1-drops like goblin cadet)
  • 0–4 Ball Lightning (A classic, explosive trampling 6/1) 
• Spells & Burn (20–24):
  • 4 Lightning Bolt (The  1 mana for 3 damage standard)
  • 4 Incinerate (Slightly worse Lightning bolt that deals with regeneration)
  • 3–4 Flame Rift (4 damage to each player for 2 mana)
  • 3–4 Fireblast (Free finisher by sacrificing mountains)
• Artifacts & Enchantments (3–7):
  • 3-4 Cursed Scroll (Grants late-game card advantage and reach, plays around COP R)
  • 2–3 Sulfuric Vortex (Stops life gain and ticks players down rapidly) 
• Lands (18–20):
  • 3 Barbarian Ring (Provides colored mana and acts as a hidden removal/burn spell at threshold)
  • 15–17 Mountain (or 9 mountain and 8 Red Fetch Lands to fill the GY for Grim Lavamancer and Barbarian Ring's threshold)

WHY SLIGH?

     Of all the cards in Magic, why a Premodern deck? Of all the decks in Premodern, why Sligh?  A few weeks ago I released another downloadable playtest style Premodern deck, Moneyball Black. Part of my reasoning then was that I was just getting into Premodern, that I'm nostalgic for these old cards from my childhood, and that I thought that deck had the punk rock attitude fitting this style of card and the statement I was trying to make about zeta set, art, and authenticity. I had so much fun making that deck I wanted to run it back, and in thinking of what deck to do next Sligh/RDW just felt like it had the same swagger, you know?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE:

     Designed to be printed on “Apostrophe Games Blank Poker Size Stickers for Playing Cards” available at apostrophegames.com and other online retailers.

https://www.apostrophegames.com/products/blank-poker-size-stickers-for-playing-c...

 I’m not associated with them in any way, but it was the first sticker sheet I found for sale that came with an easy to download template. 

     It will likely work on other brand label stickers but I make no guarantees. Set printer paper to “Label” and print full size with NO scaling and “fit to page” OFF for best result. Apply to any cards you no longer care about (blanks, casino used playing cards, hand cut cardstock, draft chaff from your favorite TCG,  etc) measuring roughly (3.35" x 2.36"). Put 'em on crooked if you want, that's part of the fun. If you don't like the slight red hue I added to the art please print in black and white.

 Warning: stickers may ruin cards you put them on. Stick only on unwanted cards!

Play sleeved for best results.

This is not an exhaustive list of EVERY card which can go into Sligh, but it is more than one deck’s worth. 

     Many cards you see in the following sheets are a one-of in the deck, sideboard cards, not found in all lists, etc. I pulled cards from dozens of different versions of the deck over the past year. As such, if you print each page 4 times (I recommend 2 normal and 2 inverted pages) you’ll have more than enough copies of each card for most of the most popular current permutations of the deck. You can choose from there which version of the deck you want to build. Printing 1 copies of the mountains page will give you 9 mountains, more than enough to run any deck that also runs all 8 fetch lands. If you want to use only basic mountains for your list just print the page twice.   

My goal was to give you the tools,  just printing the sheets wont give you a readymade deck. Go out and build it!

Deckbuilding is an ongoing process, and there is no doubt that even this deck, who's strategy is so settled,  will continue to evolve along with premodern. Hell, the version I'm releasing now could already be behind the times. I'm more of an outsider looking in when it comes to premodern. Just because the card pool isn't increasing doesn't mean new techs wont be discovered or new responses to the current meta wont be side-boarded. I don't plan to add more cards, for me this project is likely finished.  So just think of this as a snapshot of Premodern Sligh as of fall 2026.

YOU SAID ITS FREE, WHY'S IT ASKING FOR MONEY?

      You can just skip that and pay 0$. I don't  need any money for this project and I want to give it away for free. It was more of a fun experiment to see if i could. 

But I thought I'd leave the option to donate if you'd like to thank me for my time and effort spent in making this project. The option is there, and if you donate a buck or two I thank you for your support, but your monetary support is neither expected nor needed. Cheers!

SPECIAL THANKS

Richard Garfield (Creator of Magic: The Gathering™)

Martin Berlin (Creator of Premodern Format)

Jay Schneider (Creator of Sligh)

Paul Sligh (First Pilot of Sligh)

Rhystic Studies (For their video on RDW)

As well as all the countless players who have piloted and tinkered with Sligh and RDW and made it their own.

LEGAL 

     “Sligh” The Omega Set is an independent fan-made project created for fun and as commentary on the state of the game. It is not produced, authorized, sponsored, or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, MSCHF, or any of their affiliates. "Magic: The Gathering," "Secret Lair," “Zeta Set,” and related names are trademarks of their respective owners and any reference to them does not suggest any affiliation with this project or endorsement of it by those parties. Nor is it related to any other fan projects.

While not copyrighted, credit for the creation of the name “Sligh” rests solely with its creators, Jay Schneider and Paul Sligh.

All artwork in this set is sourced from public-domain and free-use sources; no copyrighted card art, mana symbols, set symbols, card frames, or MSCHF artwork have been used, repurposed, or reproduced in the making of this project. All fonts used are licensed for personal and commercial use. 

And, most importantly:

This project is offered for free, personal, non-commercial use.