How To Break Soulflayer

Soulflayer is a good card. It has the potential to be a two-mana creature with seemingly countless abilities. The problem is the hoops that you have to
jump through aren’t always worth the effort.

There is a misconception about Soulflayer that has striking similarities to Tarmogoyf when it was first printed. Tarmogoyf was seen as a 1/2 or 2/3 that
required effort from Seal of Fire and Horizon Canopy for it to be a reasonable card. Since then, more cards were printed, including more card types, and it
became easier in general to get cards into graveyards.

But most importantly, people learned that you didn’t really need to try to make Tarmogoyf good: All you had to do was play Magic.

It wasn’t the Tarmogofys that made the original Goyf decks lose: It was the underpowered cards surrounding it that made the deck bad. What was once a
couple dollars and generally a bulk rare is now arguably the best creature of all time.

So what will it take for Soulflayer to be good in Standard? Well right now there aren’t many straight-up playable creatures with a bunch of keyword
abilities on them. Chromanticore is clunky and stretches your mana in an extreme direction. Grumag Swiftwing is miles away from being an acceptable card on
its own. Right now you have to play a combo deck that hustles to get creatures of varying skills in your graveyard for the payout of a hopefully
unstoppable 4/4 threat that also hopefully overcomes the opponent’s board presence thus far and makes up for all the durdling that’s occurred over the last
2-3 turns.

What Soulflayer needs are more playable, on-color creatures with enough good keywords to make the effort worthwhile. A card like Vampire Nighthawk would
make a world of difference. Soulflayer needs to slip into a shell of cards that complement it instead of enabling it. Many Soulflayer builds in Standard
right now function anywhere from extremely poorly to not at all without Soulflayer itself.

Let’s take a look at a few Chromanticore + Soulflayer decks that have been floating around recently.

Chromanti-Flayer

Ryan Overturf

7th Place at Star City Games Super IQ on 02-08-2015

Standard

Creatures (23)

Lands (24)

Spells (13)

Sideboard

Chromanticore Delve

Todd Anderson

Test deck on 01-23-2015

Standard

Creatures (25)

Lands (24)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

Chromanticore Delve

John Cuvelier

Test deck on 02-19-2015

Standard

Creatures (26)

Lands (24)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Chromanti-Flayer

Hecto Carceles Mendez

81st Place at Grand Prix on 02-15-2015

Standard

Creatures (27)

Lands (23)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

After analyzing the above lists and running each of them through some games and working on my own various lists, I’ve come across a few basic truths that
an effective Chromanti-Flayer deck needs in order to operate smoothly.

You can’t be all five colors. You must focus on three or four.
You want some number of Temples to bridge the gap of mana consistency, early plays, and engine elements.
You need a healthy number of cheap removal spells to interact and catch you back up.
You need to be able to function without your linchpin card: Soulflayer.
You must have sufficient lifegain to counteract early aggression and to offset the life loss from Mana Confluence and fetchlands.
You can’t play sideboard cards from colors that aren’t your main ones.
Your sideboard plans must not dilute your maindeck engine.

Limit the durdling, play the good cards, and find a reasonable manabase. This is what I’m liking as of now.

Chromanti-Flayer

Tom Ross

Test deck on 02-19-2015

Standard

Creatures (26)

Lands (24)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

The goal here is play some of the best cards in Standard like Siege Rhino and Chained to the Rocks in a shell that also has a big payoff in Soulflayer.
Play some good old-fashioned Magic for a few turns, and creatures will end up in your graveyard naturally. Treat your cards like the buffalo and extract
maximum use out of each part.

Two Mountains and six fetchlands for Chained to the Rocks may be the low-end of what’s typically acceptable to support the card, but with a few Temples,
Satyr Wayfinders, and Tormenting Voice to dig deeper, you find the Mountain you need in enough time. Chained to the Rocks also gets better as the game goes
longer, so as long as you find the Mountain before you’re at high risk of dying, you’re usually just fine.

Siege Rhino really ties the room altogether. Trample isn’t all too impressive to give to Soulflayer, but of course, that’s not where Siege Rhino’s power
comes from. As we’ve learned, a turn 3 Siege Rhino will always be trouble against a large number of decks in Standard, and in multiples, the herd of Siege
Rhinos will seal the deal on their own regardless of if you’re playing Abzan Aggro, Abzan Midrange, Four-Color Reanimator, or a Chromanti-Flayer shell. Any
card that’s this impactful deserves to be in deck when the colors can support it, even if it may look shoehorned in. The lifegain is huge in a deck with
four Mana Confluence, and with elements of racing in haste creatures, Siege Rhino allows you to punish stumbles and play catch-up all at once.

Butcher of the Horde is another generic good creature that doesn’t exactly bring a ton to the table for Soulflayer. I do like a few things about it outside
of its 5/4 body and granting flying to Soulflayer. First off, you have these Satyr Wayfinders that usually just chump-block after they’re cast, and Butcher
of the Horde puts the little guy to work. Next is the Butcher’s nice interaction with Flamewake Phoenix. The Phoenix often isn’t what you want in play when
you’re trying to piece together a Soulflayer plan, but alongside Butcher of the Horde it can grant the Butcher haste before triggering in combat from
ferocious and coming back either to attack for two or to grant Butcher of the Horde another ability in lifelink or vigilance. Lastly, Butcher of the Horde
sometimes eats an old Sylvan Caryatid for both immediate ability value and to put a hexproof creature in your graveyard for Soulflayer.

There aren’t any indestructible creatures for Soulflayer to draw power from in the maindeck. Basically, the Gods are weak on their own, even though Pharika
can reach seven devotion quite easily. Crux of Fate, End Hostilities, and the minus from Elspeth, Sun’s Champion are reasons to want indestructibility, but
those cards can be overcome in small numbers, and they’re cards you see out of the sideboard as well. I like having a pair of Pharikas in the sideboard for
when it’s necessary.

Lean towards simply casting your cards. Morph a Sagu Mauler and let them kill it or block with it. Cast Flamewake Phoenix in your second main phase and
threaten a block or prevent their attack. Cast Chromanticore and don’t worry if they remove it. Either your cards live and threaten away with the game on
their own (or otherwise advance your board) or let them hit the bin for Soulflayer. Instead of running in circles trying to make Soulflayer work, just let
it work on its own.

And now a basic sideboarding guide. If you see some sweeper effects, then the Pharikas can come in more often than listed. If you feel the need to bring in
Thoughtseizes versus various things, that’s okay as long as you don’t remove too many pieces of your engine. Sometimes you can shave, and that’s
reasonable, but once you start removing too many moving parts you’ll start drawing one piece without the other more often; the deck will suffer as a
consequence.

VS R/W Aggro and Jeskai Tokens

Out:

In:

VS Siege Rhino decks

Out:

In:

VS Green Devotion

Out:

In:

VS U/B and Sultai Control

Out:

In:

VS W/U Heroic

Out:

In:

Chromanti-Flayer is a blast to play, and honestly it isn’t far from being a real, tuned deck. Some outlying results are coming in from various tournaments,
and I don’t think it’ll be long before we see the correct build push through into competitive territory. Chromanti-Flayer is on my list of potential decks
for Grand Prix Memphis, and believe me when I say I really want the list to be strong enough to take home the trophy.

Maybe I’ll decide on it… or maybe I’ll show up with Boss Sligh…