Slav Defense: A Tutorial for Beginners and a Good Way to Decline the Queen's Gambit

(the only reason my rating is so low is because I play on Lichess more and I sandbagged my rating so I could smurf. my actual rating is 1132)
The Slav Defense is made of these moves:
1. d4 d5
2. c4 c6
The Slav Defense is meant to protect the d pawn and free the so called "Slav bishop."

Your goal in the Slav defense is to bring out your queen side knight and develop your light squared bishop. Now, this is just my playstyle, but I like fianchettoing my dark squared bishop and bringing out my kingside knight, then castling kingside to make a little fortress. It sort of goes something like this:

Developing your pieces and winning the center and time against White is key to winning the game in the Slav Defense. You need to bring out your minor pieces (or "light brigade," as I like to call them) as soon as possible and exert pressure on the center before White can gain a distinct advantage.
The reason the Slav is so much better than other versions of the Queen's Gambit Declined (QGD) is because:
1. Usually development of Black's queen side bishop is difficult, as it is often blocked by a pawn on e6. The Slav Defense allows you to develop it quickly and attack a knight if needed.
2. The pawn structure offers White targets, especially the possibility of a minority attack on the queenside in the QGD Exchange Variation.
That's just the basics. Get to know some theory and you'll get better eventually!
Toodles. - TheChessSack