#soulflayer

No.

I mean, if you wanted to be really petty....

Yes.

In addition to St. Valentine’s Day, this weekend was Fate Reforged Game Day. Game Day is always a fun Standard event that’s a little more relaxed and casual than normal, which means it’s always a good time for me to show up with some home-brewed deck that occasionally does well. This time the deck was a little less home-brewy than normal, as it’s a spark of inspiration that has touched many a deck builder over the past few weeks. Here is the star:

Soulflayer

Definitely one of the more interesting rares in Fate Reforged, Soulflayer takes on the abilities of the creatures it delves away. A bonafide build-a-demon, Soulflayer asks the deck builder, “How many abilities can you give me?” In the current Standard atmosphere, the answer is, “A Manticore-load of abilities.” Here’s my decklist:

Creatures:

4 Soulflayer

4 Chromanticore

3 Satyr Wayfinder

2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Flamewake Phoenix

2 Erebos, God of the Dead

2 Xenagos, God of Revels

Instants:

3 Lightning Strike

3 Murderous Cut

Sorceries:

3 Commune with the Gods

1 Crater’s Claws

Lands:

2 Mana Confluence

3 Nomad Outpost

2 Opulent Palace

3 Llanowar Wastes

3 Bloodstained Mire

2 Wooded Foothills

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

3 Swamp

3 Mountain

3 Forest

Sideboard:

3 Merciless Executioner

2 Burn Away

2 Destructive Revelry

2 Hero’s Downfall

3 Anger of the Gods

3 Thoughtseize

Working the Graveyard Shift

Commune with the Gods

For those who may not have seen this kind of deck before, here’s how it works. You use cards like Satyr Wayfinder and Commune with the Gods to dump cards from your library into your graveyard. These cards will then be delved away to pay for Soulflayer. Ideally, you want to delve away a Chromanticore, which gives Soulflayer flying, first strike, trample, vigilance, and lifelink. You also want to hit a Sylvan Caryatid for hexproof or a God for indestructible. This makes your super-Soulflayer impervious to many kinds of removal. Flamewake Phoenix also gives flying and haste, sometimes a useful combination by itself.

Most of the lists I’ve seen for Soulflayer decks don’t look like mine. Many of them are Sultai, preferring to use Sidisi, Brood Tyrant to self-mill and utilizing other delve spells like Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise. Others are unstable four-color decks that add in Red to the Sultai builds for Flamewake Phoenix. Finally, some people decide to go all-in on the Chromanticore theme and run very unstable five-color decks.

Looking at these lists, I found a few problems in each of them. The Sultai decks were running too many expensive delve cards, all competing for the same resource. They also didn’t feature many other cards that could win the game on their own. Blue doesn’t offer a lot of “reach,” the slang for cards that win you the game when you’re alllmmmoooossttt there. The four-color decks added in Red for some reach cards like Flamewake Phoenix, but the mana bases were so unstable and clanky that they did not look very inviting. Finally, I’m not sure what drives the five-color decks besides novelty; having to rely on four Mana Confluence and taplands is a recipe for failure.

The Jund Solution

Flamewake Phoenix

My solution to these problems was to cut Blue for Red. This keeps you in three colors, gives you access to two sets of fetch lands, and ensures that you can easily hit all your colors on-time. In addition, my deck is a little more Jund Midrange-y, meaning I don’t have to lean on Soulflayer to win like the other decks. I have the flexibility to be aggressive, lean back and be controlling (especially post-sideboarding), or just out-tempo certain decks.

I’d like to note that I still included ways to cast/bestow Chromanticore if needed. Sylvan Caryatids help a bunch, and the Nomad Outposts and Opulent Palaces help me get the White and Blue mana needed while still supporting the Jund colors. I won more than one game by bestowing Chromanticores onto Satyr Wayfinders. I even won a game by bestowing a Chromanticore onto another Chromanticore when my opponent tapped out to play a non-flying threat, thinking they could survive another attack. It was beautiful.

The other glorious thing about the Jund build is the superior selection of Gods. I’ve seen a lot of decks not running any, but the hexproof + indestructible combination is so powerful that it can win a game on its own. Erebos stops lifegain, which can be relevant against Abzan decks and Seeker of the Way. The extra card draw is also nice. Xenagos is just ridiculous, turning my 4-power creatures into terrifying 8/8 behemoths…with haste. I won a game by paying six mana for a naked Soulflayer and just just swinging for 8 every turn.

Flamewake Phoenix is something special in this Standard environment. From Mardu decks to Temur aggro to Temur Midrange to this deck, it fills an important role: relentlessly attacking until the opponent is crispy. I had a game where my opponent had no fliers and couldn’t stop my insane curve of turn three Flamewake Phoenix, into turn four Flamewake Phoenix, into turn five Flamewake Phoenix. The best part is probably the ferocious ability, which lets me bring back killed/milled Phoenixes all the time; Soulflayer, Chromanticore, and Tasigur all have 4 power.

Me Me Me!

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Tasigur is a snottly little brat, so he gets his own section. Because he’s ridiculous. He’s easily the best card in Fate Reforged. He adds no abilities to Soulflayer, but I wish I had played more of this jerk. It’s not uncommon to Commune with the Gods on turn two and Tasigur on turn three. On the play, this is a potentially back-breaking strategy. He’s also amazing in long, grindy games, drawing from your graveyard to give you two cards for each of your opponent’s one.

Board Games

Anger of the Gods

When it comes to competitive Magic, sideboards are sometimes the most important part of your deck. You’ll have bad matchups, and sideboards can totally swing those around in your favor. For this deck, the sideboard cards are mostly tweaks to give me more removal, tailor my removal for my matchup, or give me some tech against specific strategies.

Anger of the Gods is an all-star card in Standard right now, totally blowing out aggro decks of almost every kind. The exiling clause shuts down Sultai decks, and it’s even a great late-game draw against decks that run Hornet Queen. Burn Away trashes graveyard decks, killing most creatures in the format before exiling a whole ‘yard. Hero’s Downfall is great against decks that use lots of planeswalkers or that have creatures that can’t be killed by Lightning Strike (Decks like Abzan Midrange come to mind.) Thoughtseize is there for combo decks, which I ended up playing zero of. Destructive Revelry is pretty clear, taking out Banishing Light and other enchantments (There are not many artifacts in Standard right now.) Finally, Merciless Executioner takes down decks that rely on having one big creature out, like WU Heroic, control decks, and some Abzan builds.

The Better Half of 50/50

Chromanticore

So how did the deck perform? Pretty well for an initial build. I ended up going 2-2, but won six games and only lost four. I beat a jankier Soulflayer deck and a Selesnya Constellation deck while losing to Abzan Midrange and Boros Aggro. Some bad draws contributed, but I think future versions of this deck could use some tweaks.

I definitely want another Tasigur in there. I’d maybe bump Commune with the Gods up to a full set for more consistent self-milling. I went with Flamewake Phoenix as my flying + haste creature, but Stormbreath Dragon might be a better option. Phoenix does fit the mana curve better, which is why I went with it. Who knows!

5 Shades of Flay

So there it is, the deck I played at Fate Reforged Game Day. This marks the first time I’ve ever repeated a theme in back-to-back Game Day events. We’ll see what happens for Dragons of Tarkir, but there’s always a chance that I look to use Chromanticore again. Soulflayer itself is a pretty fun card, and this deck has tons of explosive potential. I think a little more tweaking could make this a more consistent deck with a lot of upside in a lot of matchups.