Signal Pest/Contested War Zone

I can't believe how fast the new aggro decks are, and this is going to be a golden age of Sligh decks.

Signal Pest and Contested War Zone are colorless, so they essentially can go into any shell you think is the most effective.

Combined with Memnite and Ornithopter, you have easy access to Metalcraft on turn 1-2 with Mox Opal, and the speed with which you can deploy threats is actually ridiculous.

4 Signal Pest
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter

4 Contested War Zone
2-4 Mox Opal

All of these cards can be tutored with Trinket Mage, but unbelievably, Trinket Mage is WAAYYY too slow for the new aggro decks.

Kuldotha Red uses Kuldotha Rebirth, Goblin Bushwhacker, and Goblin Wardriver to create armies in a card, give them haste and power, and just swarm for the win. I can't believe how frequently the deck kills on turn 4 with almost any decent hand (i.e. -- faster than Valakut can set up), and I have even goldfished a number of turn 3 kills with Mox Opal. That is simply ridiculous. Nick Spagnolo thinks Goblin Wardriver is too slow for the list! (GerryT thinks it makes the deck more consistent, but I could see the total number of Wardrivers in the list going down).

White can play Accorder Paladin (aka White Wardriver), Squadron Hawk, Stoneforge Mystic, and Quest for the Holy Relic. I posted a list with Quest for the Holy Relic in the forums, since I think that you can use this shell for an aggressive Metalcraft list, that is also a combo deck with Quest.

Black
You could also just play almost any aggressive deck with Contested War Zone (i.e. -- Vampires), since you just up your damage count each turn.

Squadron Hawk plus Contested War Zone/Signal Pest just seems funny. You are almost guaranteed to trigger Quest with this configuration. This is probably a good shell for the GW list with Vengevines.

Perhaps Boros or Elves can make use of the Signal Pest/Contested War Zone shell for a more aggressive list as well. For the Elves list that we were building, Lead the Stampede + Contested War Zone seems strong with Signal Pest. Boros probably can replace Spikeshot Elder with Signal Pest.

So many decks can be built, but which is the best build?

@ Pest / War Zone - KRed seems like the deck it was made for, honestly.

@ Lead The Stampede - After some testing, we cut the card from the Elves list. It took more away from the deck then it game and would merely be used as an option in matchups where Pyroclasm / Slagstorm is a board option.

@ Contested War Zone, in general - On my Tectonic Edge proxies in Elves I have "Is War Zone Better Here?" The answer so far has been... "Maybe."

I don't buy the Golden Age of Sligh. If it arrives, great....but it's one event of a new format, and I'm not sold on the format having settled after one event. (See my post in the KRed forum)

I don't really like War Zone outside of KRed, I think that in Elves, Tec Edge gives you the option to tap out to use abilities and cast things without having to worry about your KRed or Vampire opponent stealing your manabase. If I'm wrong, great...but in a format which will remain aggro heavy for a few weeks, Warzone is a little risky in Elves.

Any Fauna Shaman/Vengevine deck will be too slow to be useful until the format shifts a bit back to control.

I agree with your assessment that War Zone in Elves right now simply won't happen. In aggressive matchups, Tectonic Edge is miles away better. In control matchups, sometimes the War Zone is better but then other times Edge is better. In Valakut, believe it or not, Tectonic Edge is rather awful. It's too slow to deal with Valakut considering the Elves has no way to remove the Titan once it hits (Unless you block with Monument Elves)

That's why it's a complex card to me. Against ramp I love it and against aggro I hate it. Against control I have mixed feelings about it.