Wenzlaff, Oliver [mailto:oliver.wenzlaff@westphalen-law.com]
yammer w/r/g cycle beasts by oli; standard legal 

W/R/G Cycle Beasts by Oli (oliver.wenzlaff@westphalen-law.com)

This deck has done quite well in kitchen table multiplayer magic. Its main 
component is the interaction between Astral Slide and morphing creatures.

4 Plains
6 Mountains
10 Forests
2 Forgotten Cave
4 Tranquil Thicket

26 lands

4 Astral Slide
4 Renewed Faith

8 white spells

2 Lightning Rift/Words of War
4 Solar Blast
2 Star Storm/Slice and Dice

8 red spells

2 Eternal Witness
4 Barkhide Mauler
4 Krosan Tusker
4 Krosan Cloudscraper/Krosan Colossus/Towering Baloth/Titanic Bulvox
4 Naturalize

14 green creatures
4 green spells

total: 60 cards

I have listed a number of alternatives to most of the expensive uncommons 
and rares in order to keep the deck within a certain budget. Feel free to 
experiment with other cards in their place. If you feel like the list is 
too light on creatures (particularly for multiplayer magic), add some 
Macetail Hystrodons or Hundroogs. By taking out Eternal Witness (which 
I would advise you to keep in), you can make the deck Onslaught Block legal.

This deck works by digging into it (by means of cycling stuff) until you 
find Astral Slide. Then, you'll have to play one of your 4 massive Beasts 
with Morph (preferably Krosan Cloudscraper), "cycle it out" (with Astral
Slide) and return it to play face-up, i.e. you'll avoid paying the enourmous 
casting costs and morph costs. In this way, you'll manage to have a massive 
threat consistently during the early game or mid-game.
Before you get out your big beasts, you can take care of attacking creatures 
with the red direct damage spells or by using Astral Slide. Star Storm and/or 
Slice and Dice will protect you from weenie rushes. Renewed Faith helps against 
direct damage and/or life loss. Naturalize takes care of enchantments and artifacts.
The best thing since sliced bread for this deck are the Eternal Witnesses.
You can "slide 'em out" any time, provided you have Astral Slide on the table, 
and get back cycling cards or whatever has been destroyed by the opposition so 
far once the Witness returns to play. You'll even be able to get Astral Slide 
back in case it should be destroyed if you can cycle a card in response in order 
to "slide out" the Witness.

When playing this deck, you should really cycle the Barkhide Maulers and Krosan 
Tuskers instead of playing them. Do it only if it's necessary in order to defend 
yourself from attackers you can't take care of otherwise or if you really do need 
more threats. You'll be able to use the beasts later if you draw into Eternal 
Witness (and you'll draw a lot of cards). The same goes for the cycling lands 
unless you're really short of mana, which hasn't happened to me yet with this deck.
Take care of blockers by using direct damage or "sliding them out". If this doesn't 
work, you can use Lightning Rift and Words of War as direct damage spells.

The deck is a bit at a disadvantage against early creature rushes like typical 
Goblin decks, because you'll hardly ever have blockers in the first turns. But, 
even then, you won't go down without a fight and might even win if you find 
Starstorm or Slice and Dice. And you cannot win all the time, anyway. I have 
also lost once by not being able gto draw more cards. If you want to make sure 
it doesn't happen, add a Feldon's Cane to the deck and take out a Naturalize. 

If you want to enhance the Beast theme, try out Aether Charge or Wirewood 
Savage with their comes into play-abilities, which work very well with Astral Slide.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Regards

Oli