If you are going for the Delirium plan it isn't too difficult to turn on reliably if you take it into account while deck building, although it isn't quite as automatic as we'd like. Nameless Inversion helps out a lot in that regard, while also functioning as removal and a pump spell for your Soulflayer. You also can run Gods and Sphinx of the Steel Wind to help get there while still being useful to delve with the Soulflayer. Hopefully the next two sets will offer us up some quality options to make this even easier.
Traverse does offer up toolbox style options, like Ghor-Clan Rampager or even Insolent Neonate if you need to discard a card in your hand to delve/reanimate.
The problem with Gifts Ungiven that I can see is Soulflayer is a really bad pay out for it. Unburial Rites or even Body Double would get you way more bang for your buck at that point, since the card you reanimate is almost guaranteed to be better than Soulflayer by that point in the game.
The density of stuff you don't want to cast is high, but that is the unfortunate side effect of the deck's goal of a turn 2/3 Soulflayer. The lack of a good analog to Entomb or Buried Alive hurts our flexibility quite a bit, since we can't really reliably tutor things directly into our graveyard until you hit the 4 mana mark (Gifts or Jarad's Orders. Ideally by that point you're already swinging with a Soulflayer, not trying to drop one. Thus, we are stuck trying to use looting effects and things like Grisly Salvage. Hopefully we get something better, but the fact that such a card will also benefit Dredge no doubt makes Wizards leery about printing it.
Edit: for some reason the boards delayed my post (probably due to my low post count) and Yuseimax fielded the questions. I still want to experiment a bit more with Grim Flayer since while Lotleth Troll is a better enabler for Soulflayer, I feel that Flayer does a lot more for us in terms of card selection if the Plan A fails, where as Troll is just a straight (albeit resilient) beater in that scenario.
I've been wanting to try to squeeze Haakon into the deck, but just haven't found a good way for it, since the lists always seem to end up really cramped for space. If you used him though, you could also use Mirran Crusader for double strike and bring back, although that would probably be taxing on the mana base. Shriekhorn definitely is worth trying out too, if only because colorless self-mill that's independent of your draw step is otherwise nigh impossible to find. Would also work towards Delirium if milled/discarded.
I really like Shriekhorn and the idea of having another option for turn 2 flayer. I've never thought about this card too deeply before. Nice find!
Shriekorn will also possibly allow turn 2 4/4 Grim Flayer. One of the reason I abandoned grim flayer was because there wasn't enough method to make grim flayer 4/4 by turn 2. This made grim flayer weak in combat and lack resistance against bolt. Now I feel there will be more opportunity for grim flayer.
So, now that the full spoilers are up, what does everyone think of potential options from Kaladesh? Seems as though the two obvious ones would be the enemy fastlands to potentially help our mana bases, and Cathartic Reunion to give us another option for enabling our Soulflayers (or Delirium cards, if going that route).
Scrapheap Scrounger may also be an option for Delirium builds as part of your Plan B, offering you a cheap threat that adds two card types for Delirium and allows you to turn discarded/milled Soulflayers into a body in the field for cheap.
I was disappointed by the lack of friends to go with Sphinx of the Steel Wind as an artifact creature worth feeding to Soulflayer that you could also bring back with Unburial Rites. Oh well, maybe next set.
Cathartic Reunion: seems good early game when we have plenty of hand, but I can imagine in late game it'll be difficult to provide 3 card(including this card) to discard.
Bomat Courier: gives haste to soulflayer, count as artifact for delirium, it also has interesting discard mechanic (built in One with Nothing with plus side). If this card is ever used, i'd consider running Call to the Netherworld since it'll suck to discard Soulflayer without a method of retrieving it.
Perpetual Timepiece: slightly heavier alternative to Shriekhorn. Atleast this one doesn't become useless in 3 turn. I still prefer Shriekhorn.
Key to the City: slightly slow discard/draw outlet, probably isn't worth mentioning.
That about it for me. I'm pretty excited for this set!
2-0 Soul Sisters
I told my opponent I was playing Living End. He believed it until the very end.
Some changes I made from my previous decklist is removing Unburial Rites from the deck entirely, it was just too slow. By doing so, we can make our plan A more consistence. I also replaced 2 Sphinx of the Steel Wind with 2 Drogskol Reaver because I decided that 4 Shriekhorn was enough artifact for delirium aspect and having double strike was straight out better then any other ability sphinx can give. I returned pump spells back because it made this deck's plan A more destructive.
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Despite some of the unfortunate outcomes, I am still in favor of Shriekhorn. But I will possibly replace some with a removal spell if I keep losing to an aggro deck. Another card that can possibly replace shriekhorn is Vessel of Nascency. Having control over what going to graveyard and what you keep is the greatest pros. What keeping me from using it is the cost. During early game, taking a turn to cast it and another to activate it's cost will hamper the deck's game plan, which is more problematic to me then a random mill. Shriekhorn is especially useful when you have souflayer or Traverse the Ulvenwald in the opening hand.
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I've been wanting to make a deck using Living End for a while. Regular cycle and cascade method wont work with Soulflayer. The only alternative method of using Living End that I'm aware are..
Goblin Dark-Dwellers: Casting Living End from graveyard might be the best method for this deck. It also a viable target for Bring to Light.
Only problem with these two are they cost 5mana.. atleast goblin dark dwellers are searchable with Eldritch Evolution, maybe that where I'll get started. Please let me know if there's a better option.
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So to make sure I understand, your plan would be to be closer to the old Living Death decks more so than the current Living End ones, right? Bring back a few scary dudes rather than an army of smaller ones?
Edit: if you are using the GDDs Footsteps of the Goryo gives you a three mana method for getting them out. It also allows you to get back a big hasty dude to get in the last bit of damage.
I want to use Living End as a side plan. I want to bring back swarms of fatties into the battlefield at once instead of one by one like Unburial Rites.
There's significantly not enough discard/mill spell in this list, but idea is to discard Living End with Faithless Looting or by dredging with Stinkweed Imp. Then I can either hardcast GGD or use Eldritch Evolution(by sacrificing Imp, Flayer or Falkenrath Aristocrat) to bring GDD to cast Living End from gy. Eldritch Evolution can be used for other target like Sigarda, Host of Herons, Baneslayer Angel or Drogskol Reaver depending on situation. I'm thinking of reducing the number of Living End, but I'm not sure yet. Any thought?
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Eh, I can't say I'm a big fan of the idea, for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, it's a side plan that is made worse by the main plan. Ideally, we want our back-up plan to be something we can lean on if Soulflayer doesn't get the job done, but by trying to use Soulflayer we consume valuable fuel for making the side plan work. With Unburial Rites it wasn't as big a deal because we only needed one fatty in the yard, but for Living End to be worth our time it needs to be hitting multiple targets. It also remains vulnerable to a lot of the same kind of hate the main plan is.
Second, it's a lot of hoops to jump through in order to get it off. In the sample list you offered up, you have to get Living End in the yard, a creature with a converted mana cost of 3 or more in play to Eldritch Evolution, or hard cast the GDD. Then you have to make sure you have multiple things in your graveyard to get back, since you don't get to keep GDD. Odds are what you sacrificed if you got GDD through Evo isn't anything to write home about, so you need other things to be in there that didn't get eaten by Soulflayers. It may also lead to you adding additional difficulty to your play choices in the game with your decisions in relation to delve.
Lastly... I'm not sure it's all that much better than just Evo'ing out a fatty if you are going that route, since there's a lot less hoops to jump through and you can always have a 'Flayer eat lands and such to drop cheap to sacrifice to it. The Gearhulks offer targets you can grab for utility off an Evo, and if you have a discarded/milled Evo in the yard if you cast an Evo and sacrifice Stinkweed Imp, you can grab GDD and then use the Evo in your yard to sacrifice him to grab you a 7 mana creature.
Having played since Stronghold, I can really see the appeal of Living End, but I just don't think the place for it is with Soulflayer.
yeah I agree with your entire statement, this concept was probably bad idea. But this deck made me want to explore more with Eldritch Evolution. What really stand out to me is that it unaffected by graveyard hate(except Grafdigger's Cage, but that one doesn't count for soulflayer). I'm also inspired by this naya evolution deck http://www.hareruyamtg.com/jp/k/kD04685W/ that won second place in modern tournament in Hareruya. It plays creature like Strangleroot Geist, Baneslayer Angel, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Predator Ooze, and Thrun, the Last Troll, which can give ability to soulflayer. It's back up plan is using pump spells like Vines of Vastwood and Rancor which can also help soulflayer. This deck might help us build a new soulflayer deck that doesn't have to depend on creature that not playable on it's own like Akroma or Drogskol Reaver.
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I can definitely see the allure there, as I had been sorting through my box of modern legal green cards and came across Strangleroot Geist and thought it would be fun to Eldritch Evolution it into a Siege Rhino on turn 3.
I've also been wanting to try out a couple of ideas I've been kicking around for Soulflayer along similar lines of the concept of focusing less on trying to kill turn 3 with Soulflayer and playing him with creatures that are playable on their own, but a busy work schedule and personal matters have kept me from being able to do more than theorycraft lately. I had been leaning towards Grixis myself, playing with cards like Monastery Swiftspear, Stormchaser Mage, Thought Scour, Temur Battle Rage, and other cheap creature enhancements to help Soulflayer kill quickly without having to eat a Reaver or an Akroma. You could probably stay in Jund and do it as well, since Swiftspear and solid buff spells like Battle Rage or Assault Strobe are in red, and goodies like Rancor aren't anything to sneeze at. Some of the Death's Shadow Zoo decks that are experimenting with Delirum cards might prove interesting to work off of if sticking in Jund.
I don't know that such configurations could be made to be anything other than just bad versions of other decks, but Soulflayer is just too cool of a card to not try to get more mileage out of.
After going to a prerelease today and having a chance to see it in action a bit, perhaps Combustible Gearhulk might be worth considering in the Eldritch Evolution builds? Soulflayer doesn't benefit a ton from eating it (although First Strike is often a bit underrated as an ability), but 6/6 first striker that can potentially refill your hand is nothing to sneeze at if we are trying to cheat it out anyways, and if they decide to roll the dice on the mill portion we have higher casting cost Soulflayer food that could dome our opponent for quite a bit.
I like your idea, let think of a way to put Combustible Gearhulk into play. If we're using Eldritch Evolution, we'd have to sacrifice a creature with cmc 4 or more. Soulflayer would work, turn 3 combustible hulk seems amazing. Maybe we should include few more delve creatures like Tasigur, the Golden Fang, or Tombstalker. Or we can straight up use creature with cmc 4 like Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Siege Rhino. Only if combustible hulk's cmc was 5, it'd make it so much easier to play.
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It would, but alas he's red so he wouldn't be that aggressively costed. A few other Delve guys wouldn't be the worst idea, since they still would allow us some benefits from Horn or Looting if we whiff on those for putting things in the yard that we want Soulflayer to eat, and also help give us more cards with a "high" CMC in the event that our opponents decide to mill rather than let us draw. Not to mention the flexibility to feed them to Eldritch Evolution to get out an Akroma or something similar.
As far as cheating it out, I'm going to do some digging for potential options, but since the Gearhulk is an artifact and we are already testing Shriekhorn maybe adding in some cheap artifacts like Bomat Courier and testing Trash for Treasure, which is the cheapest permanent recursion spell that I'm aware of that would get the Hulk back. It would also get back goodies like Wurmcoil Engine and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Probably too janky to work, but that's the option that immediately jumps out at me, since those Shriekhorns just sit useless after a few turns anyways.
Edit: Can't forget Vault Skirge either as an option to try with that, since it has solid bonuses for Soulflayer and can be fed to Eldritch Evolution to power out a Rhino or Aristocrat.
Here's a Cairn Wanderer deck I made recently. I decided to make this deck after I was inspired from reading an all-in goblin article written by Travis Woo which features Warren Instigator. I noticed I can play Cairn Wanderer using Instigator's ability. It resembles Viashino Slaughtermaster in a way except with better bonus ability. This list doesn't include Soulflayer yet but I really want to make space for it somehow. This list runs pretty smoothly so I have no clue what to take out.
Here is the latest update for the Delirium list. Major changes are inclusion of 4 Chromanticore and 4 Bomat Courier in the mainboard. Bomat Courier used to be Sphinx of the Steel Wind in my previous attempt to insure Soulflayer gains lifelink each game. As I started playing more I noticed that 8 (4 Drogskol Reaver + 4 Chromanticore) was enough lifelink for this deck. So I decided to replace sphinx for artifact creature with haste. I couldn't find anything more suitable for this deck than Bomat Courier. It is pure value in this deck. It can be used as an utility creature like Lotleth Troll, it provides haste for soulflayer, and provides delirium for Traverse the Ulvenwald. The cards that I took out were Akroma, Angel of Wrath, and Grisly Salvage. Akroma was simply replaced with Chromanticore and Grisly Salvage felt underpowered and unecessary.
Lightning Runner is a major update for this deck. I replaced Drogskol Reaver with Lightning Runner because combination of haste and double strike is irreplaceable unlike flying and lifelink. Flying and lifelink can be easily replaced with Chromanticore and Sphinx of the Steel Wind.
Due to the ban of Golgari Grave-Troll it should be safer to play Liliana of the Veil in mainboard if there are less dredge player, and I'm also expecting less graveyard hate in everyone's sideboard which should make Soulflayer easier to play. I'm still working on my sideboard.
Have you had a chance to test the new list any? I moved cross country last month and my cards are still at my old place so I have no way to do any playing myself, but I am a fan of being able to drop Akroma and Reaver for cards that better enable delirium. Has Xenagos been any good for you? He's obviously there for Industructable/Delirium purposes but sticking him with an active Flayer would probably feel really good.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to test any decks recently due to school. On the bright side, there are 2 decks utilizing Traverse the Ulvenwald on modern MO championship series that won the top 8. I think we can gain some tech from there that we can adopt for Soulflayer. Here are the lists.
Traverse does offer up toolbox style options, like Ghor-Clan Rampager or even Insolent Neonate if you need to discard a card in your hand to delve/reanimate.
The problem with Gifts Ungiven that I can see is Soulflayer is a really bad pay out for it. Unburial Rites or even Body Double would get you way more bang for your buck at that point, since the card you reanimate is almost guaranteed to be better than Soulflayer by that point in the game.
The density of stuff you don't want to cast is high, but that is the unfortunate side effect of the deck's goal of a turn 2/3 Soulflayer. The lack of a good analog to Entomb or Buried Alive hurts our flexibility quite a bit, since we can't really reliably tutor things directly into our graveyard until you hit the 4 mana mark (Gifts or Jarad's Orders. Ideally by that point you're already swinging with a Soulflayer, not trying to drop one. Thus, we are stuck trying to use looting effects and things like Grisly Salvage. Hopefully we get something better, but the fact that such a card will also benefit Dredge no doubt makes Wizards leery about printing it.
Edit: for some reason the boards delayed my post (probably due to my low post count) and Yuseimax fielded the questions. I still want to experiment a bit more with Grim Flayer since while Lotleth Troll is a better enabler for Soulflayer, I feel that Flayer does a lot more for us in terms of card selection if the Plan A fails, where as Troll is just a straight (albeit resilient) beater in that scenario.
Shriekorn will also possibly allow turn 2 4/4 Grim Flayer. One of the reason I abandoned grim flayer was because there wasn't enough method to make grim flayer 4/4 by turn 2. This made grim flayer weak in combat and lack resistance against bolt. Now I feel there will be more opportunity for grim flayer.
Scrapheap Scrounger may also be an option for Delirium builds as part of your Plan B, offering you a cheap threat that adds two card types for Delirium and allows you to turn discarded/milled Soulflayers into a body in the field for cheap.
I was disappointed by the lack of friends to go with Sphinx of the Steel Wind as an artifact creature worth feeding to Soulflayer that you could also bring back with Unburial Rites. Oh well, maybe next set.
Angel of Invention: possible alternative to some of the fatties?
Lost Legacy: sideboard against combo deck but I prefer Slaughter Games.
Cathartic Reunion: seems good early game when we have plenty of hand, but I can imagine in late game it'll be difficult to provide 3 card(including this card) to discard.
Verdurous Gearhulk: it gives trample to soulflayer, count as artifact for delirium, recurable with Unburial Rites, 5cmc isn't too hard to hardcast, giving +4/+4 counter on soulflayer with double strike is gg. In case you don't draw soulflayer giving your Viashino Slaughtermaster, Stinkweed Imp, Grim Flayer, or Lotleth Troll a +4/+4 counter seems like a nice sideplan. It also a viable target for Eldritch Evolution.
Bomat Courier: gives haste to soulflayer, count as artifact for delirium, it also has interesting discard mechanic (built in One with Nothing with plus side). If this card is ever used, i'd consider running Call to the Netherworld since it'll suck to discard Soulflayer without a method of retrieving it.
Perpetual Timepiece: slightly heavier alternative to Shriekhorn. Atleast this one doesn't become useless in 3 turn. I still prefer Shriekhorn.
Key to the City: slightly slow discard/draw outlet, probably isn't worth mentioning.
That about it for me. I'm pretty excited for this set!
4x Soulflayer
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Drogskol Reaver
2x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
2x Pharika, God of Affliction
1x Ghor-Clan Rampager
Spells x18
4x Traverse the Ulvenwald
4x Faithless Looting
4x Shriekhorn
4x Grisly Salvage
2x Nameless Inversion
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Wooded Foothills
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Blood Crypt
1x Stomping Ground
2x Swamp
1x Forest
4x Thoughtseize
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Collective Brutality
1x Darkblast
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Golgari Charm
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2-0 Esper Brain Gift
I wasn't sure what I was playing against during first half of the game. I figured it out after seeing Beck // Call.
0-2 Sliver
I'm little disappointed about losing to sliver. I kept on milling Soulflayer and Traverse with Shriekhorn.
2-1 UB Faeries
My opponent had to keep their land untapped for soulflayer and couldn't deal with troll once it became huge.
1-2 RG Land Destruction
Blood Moon = gg. Stone Rain is also troublesome.
2-0 Soul Sisters
I told my opponent I was playing Living End. He believed it until the very end.
Some changes I made from my previous decklist is removing Unburial Rites from the deck entirely, it was just too slow. By doing so, we can make our plan A more consistence. I also replaced 2 Sphinx of the Steel Wind with 2 Drogskol Reaver because I decided that 4 Shriekhorn was enough artifact for delirium aspect and having double strike was straight out better then any other ability sphinx can give. I returned pump spells back because it made this deck's plan A more destructive.
Bring to Light: Flexible depending on situation.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers: Casting Living End from graveyard might be the best method for this deck. It also a viable target for Bring to Light.
Only problem with these two are they cost 5mana.. atleast goblin dark dwellers are searchable with Eldritch Evolution, maybe that where I'll get started. Please let me know if there's a better option.
Edit: if you are using the GDDs Footsteps of the Goryo gives you a three mana method for getting them out. It also allows you to get back a big hasty dude to get in the last bit of damage.
Here's a sample I made..
4x Soulflayer
4x Drogskol Reaver
4x Falkenrath Aristocrat
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
4x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Stinkweed Imp
2x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
4x Living End
4x Eldritch Evolution
4x Faithless Looting
Land x21
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
1x Wooded Foothills
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Twilight Mire
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Blood Crypt
1x Temple Garden
2x Swamp
1x Forest
There's significantly not enough discard/mill spell in this list, but idea is to discard Living End with Faithless Looting or by dredging with Stinkweed Imp. Then I can either hardcast GGD or use Eldritch Evolution(by sacrificing Imp, Flayer or Falkenrath Aristocrat) to bring GDD to cast Living End from gy. Eldritch Evolution can be used for other target like Sigarda, Host of Herons, Baneslayer Angel or Drogskol Reaver depending on situation. I'm thinking of reducing the number of Living End, but I'm not sure yet. Any thought?
First and foremost, it's a side plan that is made worse by the main plan. Ideally, we want our back-up plan to be something we can lean on if Soulflayer doesn't get the job done, but by trying to use Soulflayer we consume valuable fuel for making the side plan work. With Unburial Rites it wasn't as big a deal because we only needed one fatty in the yard, but for Living End to be worth our time it needs to be hitting multiple targets. It also remains vulnerable to a lot of the same kind of hate the main plan is.
Second, it's a lot of hoops to jump through in order to get it off. In the sample list you offered up, you have to get Living End in the yard, a creature with a converted mana cost of 3 or more in play to Eldritch Evolution, or hard cast the GDD. Then you have to make sure you have multiple things in your graveyard to get back, since you don't get to keep GDD. Odds are what you sacrificed if you got GDD through Evo isn't anything to write home about, so you need other things to be in there that didn't get eaten by Soulflayers. It may also lead to you adding additional difficulty to your play choices in the game with your decisions in relation to delve.
Lastly... I'm not sure it's all that much better than just Evo'ing out a fatty if you are going that route, since there's a lot less hoops to jump through and you can always have a 'Flayer eat lands and such to drop cheap to sacrifice to it. The Gearhulks offer targets you can grab for utility off an Evo, and if you have a discarded/milled Evo in the yard if you cast an Evo and sacrifice Stinkweed Imp, you can grab GDD and then use the Evo in your yard to sacrifice him to grab you a 7 mana creature.
Having played since Stronghold, I can really see the appeal of Living End, but I just don't think the place for it is with Soulflayer.
I've also been wanting to try out a couple of ideas I've been kicking around for Soulflayer along similar lines of the concept of focusing less on trying to kill turn 3 with Soulflayer and playing him with creatures that are playable on their own, but a busy work schedule and personal matters have kept me from being able to do more than theorycraft lately. I had been leaning towards Grixis myself, playing with cards like Monastery Swiftspear, Stormchaser Mage, Thought Scour, Temur Battle Rage, and other cheap creature enhancements to help Soulflayer kill quickly without having to eat a Reaver or an Akroma. You could probably stay in Jund and do it as well, since Swiftspear and solid buff spells like Battle Rage or Assault Strobe are in red, and goodies like Rancor aren't anything to sneeze at. Some of the Death's Shadow Zoo decks that are experimenting with Delirum cards might prove interesting to work off of if sticking in Jund.
I don't know that such configurations could be made to be anything other than just bad versions of other decks, but Soulflayer is just too cool of a card to not try to get more mileage out of.
As far as cheating it out, I'm going to do some digging for potential options, but since the Gearhulk is an artifact and we are already testing Shriekhorn maybe adding in some cheap artifacts like Bomat Courier and testing Trash for Treasure, which is the cheapest permanent recursion spell that I'm aware of that would get the Hulk back. It would also get back goodies like Wurmcoil Engine and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Probably too janky to work, but that's the option that immediately jumps out at me, since those Shriekhorns just sit useless after a few turns anyways.
Edit: Can't forget Vault Skirge either as an option to try with that, since it has solid bonuses for Soulflayer and can be fed to Eldritch Evolution to power out a Rhino or Aristocrat.
4x Cairn Wanderer
4x Warren Instigator
4x Giant Solifuge
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
1x Chromanticore
Spells x14
4x Faithless Looting
4x Eldritch Evolution
2x Lightning Axe
1x Darkblast
3x Collective Brutality
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Bloodstained Mire
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Stomping Ground
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Blood Crypt
2x Forest
1x Swamp
4x Thoughtseize
1x Darkblast
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Leyline of the Void
1x Stormbreath Dragon
Here's a Cairn Wanderer deck I made recently. I decided to make this deck after I was inspired from reading an all-in goblin article written by Travis Woo which features Warren Instigator. I noticed I can play Cairn Wanderer using Instigator's ability. It resembles Viashino Slaughtermaster in a way except with better bonus ability. This list doesn't include Soulflayer yet but I really want to make space for it somehow. This list runs pretty smoothly so I have no clue what to take out.
edit: decklist updated
4x Soulflayer
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Bomat Courier
4x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Drogskol Reaver
4x Chromanticore
1x Pharika, God of Affliction
Spells x14
4x Traverse the Ulvenwald
4x Faithless Looting
3x Collective Brutality
2x Nameless Inversion
1x Darkblast
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Blood Crypt
1x Stomping Ground
2x Swamp
1x Forest
4x Thoughtseize
1x Darkblast
3x Pithing Needle
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Golgari Charm
1x Maelstrom Pulse
Here is the latest update for the Delirium list. Major changes are inclusion of 4 Chromanticore and 4 Bomat Courier in the mainboard. Bomat Courier used to be Sphinx of the Steel Wind in my previous attempt to insure Soulflayer gains lifelink each game. As I started playing more I noticed that 8 (4 Drogskol Reaver + 4 Chromanticore) was enough lifelink for this deck. So I decided to replace sphinx for artifact creature with haste. I couldn't find anything more suitable for this deck than Bomat Courier. It is pure value in this deck. It can be used as an utility creature like Lotleth Troll, it provides haste for soulflayer, and provides delirium for Traverse the Ulvenwald. The cards that I took out were Akroma, Angel of Wrath, and Grisly Salvage. Akroma was simply replaced with Chromanticore and Grisly Salvage felt underpowered and unecessary.
DOUBLE STRIKE and HASTE!!!
4x Soulflayer
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Lightning Runner
4x Chromanticore
3x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1x Xenagos, God of Revels
Spells x15
4x Traverse the Ulvenwald
4x Faithless Looting
3x Collective Brutality
3x Liliana of the Veil
1x Darkblast
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Blood Crypt
1x Stomping Ground
2x Swamp
1x Forest
4x Thoughtseize
2x Nameless Inversion
3x Pithing Needle
2x Ancient Grudge
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Maelstrom Pulse
Lightning Runner is a major update for this deck. I replaced Drogskol Reaver with Lightning Runner because combination of haste and double strike is irreplaceable unlike flying and lifelink. Flying and lifelink can be easily replaced with Chromanticore and Sphinx of the Steel Wind.
Due to the ban of Golgari Grave-Troll it should be safer to play Liliana of the Veil in mainboard if there are less dredge player, and I'm also expecting less graveyard hate in everyone's sideboard which should make Soulflayer easier to play. I'm still working on my sideboard.
I'm going to practice it up over the weekend and see what I can do with it. :]
Spirits
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
Planeswalker (2)
2 Liliana of the Veil
Sorcery (13)
2 Collective Brutality
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
Instant (7)
2 Temur Battle Rage
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Dismember
4 Mishra's Bauble
Land (17)
2 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
Tribal instant (4)
4 Tarfire
2 Gnarlwood Dryad
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Collective Brutality
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Shriekmaw
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
Planeswalker (2)
2 Liliana of the Veil
Sorcery (13)
1 Collective Brutality
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
Instant (7)
3 Temur Battle Rage
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Manamorphose
4 Mishra's Bauble
Land (18)
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
Tribal instant (4)
4 Tarfire
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Vampiric Link
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Collective Brutality
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Ingot Chewer
I don't think we can use Tarmogoyf due to heavy reliance on delve, but Liliana of the Veil should definitely stay somewhere in the 75 cards. Maybe we should replace Nameless Inversion with Tarfire? I don't think we'll go as far as using Mishra's Bauble for purpose of delirium due to existence of Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Chromanticore, in addition we have Faithless Looting for semi-cantrip effect. I personally don't think we should play Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek in the mainboard (unless we're running more cantrips and draw cards) but I'm not sure.