I'm thinking of getting into T2 for the first time since Ravnica (incidentally the first time since I entered college) and as usual, I'll be damned before I use some bland netdeck. Budget isn't really an issue for me now that there aren't any jace-level expensive cards in T2, but I want something original and competitive, and preferrably control.
My favorite idea thus far is a virtual-CA-focused control deck that uses its unusual decklist to make big segments of enemy decks worthless. It has zero un-recurrable creatures, making enemy removal nearly worthless, and packs tons of removal to make any enemy cards that work with their creatures (i.e. equipment, auras, etc) worthless, and sweepers to get 2+-for-1 trades. Keeping the field squeeky clean ensures the deck's planeswalkers stick around to suppress the field and eventually get their ultimates off. Liliana is the real focal piece here, as she can force discard to lock people out and prevent annoying recursion engines and bouncers like batterskull, her sac ability makes it easy to keep the field clear if they aren't drawing tons of creatures, and her ultimate can be pretty bonecrushing if done right. She's just a lockdown machine at every level.
Black really has some amazing removal in T2 now, but the second color is sort of a toss up. White gives you artifact/enchantment removal options, sweeper(s...sort of but mostly just DoJ) and gideon, who synergizes amazingly with liliana and pharaoh. Red gives you cheap pseduo-sweepers like slagstorm, burn for killing enemy PWs and creatures for cheap, and chandra, who doubles removal spells and kills weenies, plus finishes well. Blue gives you counterspells, a little draw, and Jace, who isn't really my favorite planeswalker but does give nice CA and a potential wincon.
The sideboard can be all sorts of clever. After round 1, odds are your opponent realizes they should sub out all their removal since it's pretty worthless. So, you sideboard in the most fragile yet problematic creatures available, like royal assassin. Of course, if they don't sideboard, you don't sideboard and their removal stays useless. And if they don't have any mainboarded removal for some reason, you can feel free to toss in your assassins and such too, of course.
I'm planning to try out all 3 via proxy and building the best, if it seems competitive. I'm not planning on changing the entire strategy of the deck, so don't bother recommend adding removable creatures (after all, whatever I play will definitely get removed, since their removal can't do much of anything else, so even great creatures like baneslayer angel make the deck weaker by making their removal useful and losing crucial virtual CA). If this deck style proves to not be worthwhile, I'll probably try an entirely different strategy, not try to add creatures to one of these. But improvements on card choice to get a better curve, hit more important targets or get more CA, ideas for mixing colors, subthemes, sideboard suggestions (still working on that), etc are all welcome of course, as long as they keep the same basic strategy at the core. And of course I'm always happy to explain my reasoning on card choices.
have you considered GB? i think it has more ways to interact with opponents who arent playing creatures.
all that removal you have is great but what if its UB draw-go?
you dont have anything that can threaten them until the midgame but they'll just counter liliana or gideon and then you have nothing really.
I thought about GB (simply because I've made a version with all the other colors) but I can't think of any specific cards that really work very well. The pws are decent, but there's no much removal that does me much good. If you've got any particular cards I haven't considered, though, go for it.
I just started building decks for T2 so I'm really not familiar with the common archetypes. Tbh I'm pretty unimpressed with the current post-INN selection of counters, so I wouldn't predict a lot of counter-heavy decks, but I could be wrong. My general modus operandi if they're waiting me out with counters is to wait until their play their wincon, then drop my pw and kill whatever they played (not necessarily in that order). But how I'd respond to a particular low/no-creature deck depends on how they're planning to win. You'd really have to give me some decklists.
Bump in the night isn't good for these decks, by the time they're dealing damage they should have the game locked down anyway.
As far as 3-color combos, I'm thinking UBR might be solid. The deck's biggest weakness feels like it's against enemy PWs. UBR gives me counters for problem dogs and some of the cheap pyroclasm-type wipes and chandra, and both U and R and pretty splashable.
I think you are going to face a lot of counters early on. Solar Flare is going to be incredibly popular at first, u/b control/draw go looks like it's going to be popular.
I have a feeling you're going to find yourself stuck with Vengeful Pharoah in your hand an awful lot as well, plus he kills your draw. If you have Liliana out he can be great, but Liliana is going to be the first thing your opponent targets, and Liliana dies to other Liliana's which have been running rampant in my testing.
I can see blue working except you don't have a single card draw spell in the list. Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy are both amazing draw spells and they have synergy with Liliana. Merfolk Looter is a good way to dump the pharaoh when he gets stuck in your hand. You could definitely drop some removal and add card drawing. If you're drawing more cards you won't need nearly as much removal, and I think right now you're way overestimating aggro. In the b/u list you have 15 removal spells not including the pharaoh or Liliana, and honestly there's no reason to include the pharaoh with that many removal spells. Also, diabolic tutor is a little redundant when 1/4th of the spells in your deck effectively do the same thing.
Long story short, I would drop probably 8ish removal spells and add 4 think twice and 4 forbidden alchemy. Don't forget that Liliana is also removal.
I am starting to think UB might be the strongest option, simply because counters give me the most coverage, and although black isn't the BEST at mass removal, using another color just to handle mass removal might be inefficient. And I definitely agree that I could use some draw power, the BU was the most recently, and most hastily, cobbled together of the three.
That said, I really don't like jace as my secondary planeswalker, he doesn't have any immediate impact on the board and he costs a lot of mana compared to lily or chandra. He costs the same as Gideon, but at least gideon comes with lots of counters and he can waste something immediately, or at least buy you some time.
So I've put together a UBR version that uses some of blue's draw and counter ability, with a taste of red's sweepers and chandra, with black being the backbone as usual. I've added it to the OP, tell me what you think.
I am starting to think UB might be the strongest option, simply because counters give me the most coverage, and although black isn't the BEST at mass removal, using another color just to handle mass removal might be inefficient. And I definitely agree that I could use some draw power, the BU was the most recently, and most hastily, cobbled together of the three.
That said, I really don't like jace as my secondary planeswalker, he doesn't have any immediate impact on the board and he costs a lot of mana compared to lily or chandra. He costs the same as Gideon, but at least gideon comes with lots of counters and he can waste something immediately, or at least buy you some time.
So I've put together a UBR version that uses some of blue's draw and counter ability, with a taste of red's sweepers and chandra, with black being the backbone as usual. I've added it to the OP, tell me what you think.
Solar Flare was a deck built in the Ravnica era that was UWB, that focused on pitching fatties to the GY, then casting Zombify to bring them back and swing. We now have Unburial Rites, which fits in that UWB sleeve perfectly. Many lists also run Liliana.
I can't stand reassembling skeleton. I think I'd rather play that scepter of empires card from M12 than the skeleton. Most lists, unless they are aggro, don't play 3-4 creatures at a time in standard. Unless they are bad players or aggro, they don't want to over reach. You'd probably be better off ditching the mass removal and running things like Spellskite and targeted removal like Dismember and Doom Blade over the sweepers.
I've played with Pharaoh. The pros: He comes back! He kills creatures without pro black! The cons: He kills creatures after they deal damage. Sometimes they maneuver it where you draw the Pharaoh when they know you want something. He doesn't do much to flyers. If you're on the defensive, which you most certainly will be, he's just going to be a liability unless you can draw past him and pitch him easily. Other posters have given good examples how to do this. If you play U/B, play with Nephalia Drownyards as a looooong wincon or just to get the stupid pharaoh off the top of your deck when you don't want him there. If ONLY they had made his ability "may." Sheesh. Blue also has the new Lantern Spirit. He's a definite upgrade from the stupid skeleton, who is really only a nuisance and super easy to kill. Lantern spirit is a little slower, but that's going to happen anyway if you play U/B instead of R/B.
Red has Chandra's Phoenix. MUCH better than the Pharaoh. If you play red and the phoenix, you need about 12-14 burn spells or Chandra herself to be able to get it back consistently when needed. Red also has Kuldotha Phoenix, which I'd rather build around than the Pharaoh with things like Tumble Magnet, Shrine of Burning Rage, Sphere of the Suns and the aforementioned Spellskite. 'Skite will save your Lili from things like Beast Within and Bramblecrush; which WILL see play. Throw in some Inkmoth nexuses and you should be getting metalcraft consistently enough. Don't forget Torpor Orb for the board.
Don't like Jace? How about Sorin Markov? He's one more mana, protects himself, and turns the game around easy. Even as a 1 or 2 of, he could be a good or better fit for mana consistency.
For G/B, there have been several discussions regarding Smallpox and creature generators. Garruk Relentless is a fine example, however a little slower, but same color Bloodline Keeper could be a token machine answer. Plus, he provides a wincon. Mayor of Avabruck is another awesome idea. You start Beast Withining their lands, and along with smallpox, they won't be casting much spells.
Another option is to play the aggro game yourself. Things like Stitched Drake or an artifact based Grand Architect build could be brutal. Runechanter's Pike looks really fun, and I can't wait to play with that card. In a blue deck with lots of counters and card draw, you can hook up an inkmoth nexus with a pike (especially with the Forbidden Alchemy card dumping instants and sorceries in your GY) and kill in one turn.
Mana wise, R/B and B/U are your best bets. B/G is next because of birds and Viridian Emissary. B/W is your least consistent, but possibly best card combinations. I've toyed with a solar flare style of deck on here in the past shortly after unburial rites was revealed. I've been working on a B/R with a G splash for Naturalize and Ancient Grudge. The grudge is phenomenal with Liliana because you can pitch it, then use a green later to kill their pod, etc. My biggest concern in the upcoming meta is Nevermore as the enchantment I'm afraid of.
Looked up solar flare right after posting this, at first I assumed it was some card I forgot. Name makes no sense to me but w/e.
(Side note: I should mention that currently I'm playing mostly limited, and before that, EDH. So my evaluation of cards might be colored by that, I'm not used to the highly-tuned, netdecky world of type 2)
Haven't gotten to test any of these much yet, I like reassembling skeleton simply because he's an easy eot move and can force people to overextend to get damage in, he synergizes with lily and alchemy, and he can sometimes get some beats in or trade in combat. The problem with lantern spirit is that lily doesn't like it, and it costs 4 mana to recast instead of 2. plus it can't fight anything and come back to life, and he's easier to kill than skeleton imo...you have to leave that mana open, and he still can't block until your next turn, same as skele...he's got flying and more damage, but the tradeoff is that it's twice as expensive, synergizes badly, and can't really fight without perma-dying. If skele doesn't pan out, I'll probably cut the slot for more of something else.
interesting tip on mass removal, I'll have to tune to my meta I suppose.
Pharaoh needs some testing, but he does fit well into the theme of the deck. With the amount of removal I'm packing I should be able to control when he's activated. Admittedly he's way cooler with gideon (hence why he's cut to 1 slot in my most recent version, UBR), but he's still a solid blocker, a beatstick to kill enemy pws, and repeatable removal. Running the mill land is an interesting suggestion, though, I might try a BU version that goes more graveyard recursive to take advantage of that, with lots of pharaohs and skeles and flashback in place of red.
chandra's phoenix is cool, but probably for a different deck, I don't have enough direct damage, and can't afford to run enough, to make it work. Kuldotha, same deal except with artifacts instead of damage.
skite probably won't help lily vs bramblecrush Also, if they have beast within, they'll just hit skite with creature/artifact removal (which would otherwise be useless/near useless) and then use beast within on lily. Not much gained. Counters seem more reliable.
garruk's ok, others are too removable (much as I owe bloodline keeper my victory at the prerelease). still, doesn't seem like enough reason to run green, especially since saccing skeles (or nothing, most of the time) is even better.
sorin's ok, I could maybe see one, but he's expensive and just feels underwhelming for the cost. He's solid against enemy pws, but karn's a lot better for 1 more.
If I do aggro, it'll probably be BR, but that's a completely different discussion. For now, I want to make this concept work.
green for ancient grudge is an interesting suggestion. Right now I'm focused on UB/x?, though.
I think that's true for most of my builds, I could see going higher for BU since I can more easily mill him back to the grave with alchemy or drownyard.
I looked at the OP but I didn't read the whole thread, it's definitely more aggro than mine, but I think mine has the edge in the way it uses VCA.
Right now I'm really leaning UB or UBR over BR, because I don't think straight BR covers enough problem areas.
Well, then you just saw the non-PW lists (Except for Enoch's old one).
BR smashes aggro. And I mean absolutely smashes.
A little green spash for Ancient Grudge helps the Sword heavy matchups.
It seems to be okay against other control decks.
But it really struggles against Solar Flare decks, particularly those chaining Rune-Scared Demon/Phantasmal Image/Phyrexian Metamorph and Sun Titan/Phantasmal Image. Even with 8 slots decidated to the Solar Flare match up post board it is rough.
Well, then you just saw the non-PW lists (Except for Enoch's old one).
BR smashes aggro. And I mean absolutely smashes.
A little green spash for Ancient Grudge helps the Sword heavy matchups.
It seems to be okay against other control decks.
But it really struggles against Solar Flare decks, particularly those chaining Rune-Scared Demon/Phantasmal Image/Phyrexian Metamorph and Sun Titan/Phantasmal Image. Even with 8 slots decidated to the Solar Flare match up post board it is rough.
Hmm, have you considered sever the bloodline? Seems like that'd be pretty harsh against that sort of thing. Alternately, use blue. I'm still tinkering on my BU lilly.
I'm also working on a RU version of a similar thing, with chandra instead of liliana of course. counters handle fatties, burn handles weenies, chandra makes everything better, a little instant draw to grease the wheels, and her pheonix replaces the skeletons. burn isn't as good as some of the black removal, but with blue to take out the bombs it's at least equal or better at killing weenies, plus it can more easily burn enemy planeswalkers.
Decklist looks like this...I won't put it in the OP since it doesn't use liliana.
My favorite idea thus far is a virtual-CA-focused control deck that uses its unusual decklist to make big segments of enemy decks worthless. It has zero un-recurrable creatures, making enemy removal nearly worthless, and packs tons of removal to make any enemy cards that work with their creatures (i.e. equipment, auras, etc) worthless, and sweepers to get 2+-for-1 trades. Keeping the field squeeky clean ensures the deck's planeswalkers stick around to suppress the field and eventually get their ultimates off. Liliana is the real focal piece here, as she can force discard to lock people out and prevent annoying recursion engines and bouncers like batterskull, her sac ability makes it easy to keep the field clear if they aren't drawing tons of creatures, and her ultimate can be pretty bonecrushing if done right. She's just a lockdown machine at every level.
Black really has some amazing removal in T2 now, but the second color is sort of a toss up. White gives you artifact/enchantment removal options, sweeper(s...sort of but mostly just DoJ) and gideon, who synergizes amazingly with liliana and pharaoh. Red gives you cheap pseduo-sweepers like slagstorm, burn for killing enemy PWs and creatures for cheap, and chandra, who doubles removal spells and kills weenies, plus finishes well. Blue gives you counterspells, a little draw, and Jace, who isn't really my favorite planeswalker but does give nice CA and a potential wincon.
The sideboard can be all sorts of clever. After round 1, odds are your opponent realizes they should sub out all their removal since it's pretty worthless. So, you sideboard in the most fragile yet problematic creatures available, like royal assassin. Of course, if they don't sideboard, you don't sideboard and their removal stays useless. And if they don't have any mainboarded removal for some reason, you can feel free to toss in your assassins and such too, of course.
I'm planning to try out all 3 via proxy and building the best, if it seems competitive. I'm not planning on changing the entire strategy of the deck, so don't bother recommend adding removable creatures (after all, whatever I play will definitely get removed, since their removal can't do much of anything else, so even great creatures like baneslayer angel make the deck weaker by making their removal useful and losing crucial virtual CA). If this deck style proves to not be worthwhile, I'll probably try an entirely different strategy, not try to add creatures to one of these. But improvements on card choice to get a better curve, hit more important targets or get more CA, ideas for mixing colors, subthemes, sideboard suggestions (still working on that), etc are all welcome of course, as long as they keep the same basic strategy at the core. And of course I'm always happy to explain my reasoning on card choices.
3x Reassembling Skeleton
3x Vengeful Pharaoh
Instants/sorceries 20
3x Go for the Throat
2x Tribute to Hunger
2x Victim of the Night
4x Day of Judgment
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Life's Finale
2x Dismember
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Despise
2x Diabolic Tutor
4x Liliana of the Veil
4x Gideon Jura
1x Karn Liberated
Lands 22
4x Isolated Chapel
7x Plains
11x Swamp
3x Reassembling Skeleton
2x Vengeful Pharaoh
Instants/sorceries 24
2x Galvanic Blast
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Go for the Throat
2x Whipflare
2x Dismember
4x Tribute to Hunger
4x Slagstorm
2x Diabolic Tutor
1x Life's Finale
4x Liliana of the Veil
4x Chandra, the Firebrand
1x Karn Liberated
Lands 22
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
5x Mountain
9x Swamp
3x Reassembling Skeleton
3x Vengeful Pharaoh
Instants/Sorceries 26
3x Mana Leak
2x Negate
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Go for the Throat
2x Dismember
2x Tribute to Hunger
2x Diabolic Tutor
2x Life's Finale
1x Sever the Bloodline
2x Think Twice
2x Forbidden Alchemy
4x Liliana of the Veil
1x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Karn Liberated
Lands 22
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Island
7x Swamp
4x Nephalia Drownyard
3x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Vengeful Pharaoh
Instants/Sorceries 27
3x Mana Leak
2x Negate
3x Think Twice
2x Forbidden Alchemy
3x Go for the Throat
2x Dismember
2x Tribute to Hunger
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Life's Finale
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Whipflare
4x Liliana of the Veil
2x Chandra, the Firebrand
1x Karn Liberated
Lands 22
3x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Dragonskull Summit
3x Drowned Catacomb
2x Island
1x Mountain
2x Sulfur Falls
5x Swamp
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
all that removal you have is great but what if its UB draw-go?
you dont have anything that can threaten them until the midgame but they'll just counter liliana or gideon and then you have nothing really.
what is the gameplan vs a non-low creature deck?
I just started building decks for T2 so I'm really not familiar with the common archetypes. Tbh I'm pretty unimpressed with the current post-INN selection of counters, so I wouldn't predict a lot of counter-heavy decks, but I could be wrong. My general modus operandi if they're waiting me out with counters is to wait until their play their wincon, then drop my pw and kill whatever they played (not necessarily in that order). But how I'd respond to a particular low/no-creature deck depends on how they're planning to win. You'd really have to give me some decklists.
Bump in the night isn't good for these decks, by the time they're dealing damage they should have the game locked down anyway.
As far as 3-color combos, I'm thinking UBR might be solid. The deck's biggest weakness feels like it's against enemy PWs. UBR gives me counters for problem dogs and some of the cheap pyroclasm-type wipes and chandra, and both U and R and pretty splashable.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
I have a feeling you're going to find yourself stuck with Vengeful Pharoah in your hand an awful lot as well, plus he kills your draw. If you have Liliana out he can be great, but Liliana is going to be the first thing your opponent targets, and Liliana dies to other Liliana's which have been running rampant in my testing.
I can see blue working except you don't have a single card draw spell in the list. Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy are both amazing draw spells and they have synergy with Liliana. Merfolk Looter is a good way to dump the pharaoh when he gets stuck in your hand. You could definitely drop some removal and add card drawing. If you're drawing more cards you won't need nearly as much removal, and I think right now you're way overestimating aggro. In the b/u list you have 15 removal spells not including the pharaoh or Liliana, and honestly there's no reason to include the pharaoh with that many removal spells. Also, diabolic tutor is a little redundant when 1/4th of the spells in your deck effectively do the same thing.
Long story short, I would drop probably 8ish removal spells and add 4 think twice and 4 forbidden alchemy. Don't forget that Liliana is also removal.
I am starting to think UB might be the strongest option, simply because counters give me the most coverage, and although black isn't the BEST at mass removal, using another color just to handle mass removal might be inefficient. And I definitely agree that I could use some draw power, the BU was the most recently, and most hastily, cobbled together of the three.
That said, I really don't like jace as my secondary planeswalker, he doesn't have any immediate impact on the board and he costs a lot of mana compared to lily or chandra. He costs the same as Gideon, but at least gideon comes with lots of counters and he can waste something immediately, or at least buy you some time.
So I've put together a UBR version that uses some of blue's draw and counter ability, with a taste of red's sweepers and chandra, with black being the backbone as usual. I've added it to the OP, tell me what you think.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Solar Flare was a deck built in the Ravnica era that was UWB, that focused on pitching fatties to the GY, then casting Zombify to bring them back and swing. We now have Unburial Rites, which fits in that UWB sleeve perfectly. Many lists also run Liliana.
I can't stand reassembling skeleton. I think I'd rather play that scepter of empires card from M12 than the skeleton. Most lists, unless they are aggro, don't play 3-4 creatures at a time in standard. Unless they are bad players or aggro, they don't want to over reach. You'd probably be better off ditching the mass removal and running things like Spellskite and targeted removal like Dismember and Doom Blade over the sweepers.
I've played with Pharaoh. The pros: He comes back! He kills creatures without pro black! The cons: He kills creatures after they deal damage. Sometimes they maneuver it where you draw the Pharaoh when they know you want something. He doesn't do much to flyers. If you're on the defensive, which you most certainly will be, he's just going to be a liability unless you can draw past him and pitch him easily. Other posters have given good examples how to do this. If you play U/B, play with Nephalia Drownyards as a looooong wincon or just to get the stupid pharaoh off the top of your deck when you don't want him there. If ONLY they had made his ability "may." Sheesh. Blue also has the new Lantern Spirit. He's a definite upgrade from the stupid skeleton, who is really only a nuisance and super easy to kill. Lantern spirit is a little slower, but that's going to happen anyway if you play U/B instead of R/B.
Red has Chandra's Phoenix. MUCH better than the Pharaoh. If you play red and the phoenix, you need about 12-14 burn spells or Chandra herself to be able to get it back consistently when needed. Red also has Kuldotha Phoenix, which I'd rather build around than the Pharaoh with things like Tumble Magnet, Shrine of Burning Rage, Sphere of the Suns and the aforementioned Spellskite. 'Skite will save your Lili from things like Beast Within and Bramblecrush; which WILL see play. Throw in some Inkmoth nexuses and you should be getting metalcraft consistently enough. Don't forget Torpor Orb for the board.
Don't like Jace? How about Sorin Markov? He's one more mana, protects himself, and turns the game around easy. Even as a 1 or 2 of, he could be a good or better fit for mana consistency.
For G/B, there have been several discussions regarding Smallpox and creature generators. Garruk Relentless is a fine example, however a little slower, but same color Bloodline Keeper could be a token machine answer. Plus, he provides a wincon. Mayor of Avabruck is another awesome idea. You start Beast Withining their lands, and along with smallpox, they won't be casting much spells.
Another option is to play the aggro game yourself. Things like Stitched Drake or an artifact based Grand Architect build could be brutal. Runechanter's Pike looks really fun, and I can't wait to play with that card. In a blue deck with lots of counters and card draw, you can hook up an inkmoth nexus with a pike (especially with the Forbidden Alchemy card dumping instants and sorceries in your GY) and kill in one turn.
Mana wise, R/B and B/U are your best bets. B/G is next because of birds and Viridian Emissary. B/W is your least consistent, but possibly best card combinations. I've toyed with a solar flare style of deck on here in the past shortly after unburial rites was revealed. I've been working on a B/R with a G splash for Naturalize and Ancient Grudge. The grudge is phenomenal with Liliana because you can pitch it, then use a green later to kill their pod, etc. My biggest concern in the upcoming meta is Nevermore as the enchantment I'm afraid of.
(Side note: I should mention that currently I'm playing mostly limited, and before that, EDH. So my evaluation of cards might be colored by that, I'm not used to the highly-tuned, netdecky world of type 2)
Haven't gotten to test any of these much yet, I like reassembling skeleton simply because he's an easy eot move and can force people to overextend to get damage in, he synergizes with lily and alchemy, and he can sometimes get some beats in or trade in combat. The problem with lantern spirit is that lily doesn't like it, and it costs 4 mana to recast instead of 2. plus it can't fight anything and come back to life, and he's easier to kill than skeleton imo...you have to leave that mana open, and he still can't block until your next turn, same as skele...he's got flying and more damage, but the tradeoff is that it's twice as expensive, synergizes badly, and can't really fight without perma-dying. If skele doesn't pan out, I'll probably cut the slot for more of something else.
interesting tip on mass removal, I'll have to tune to my meta I suppose.
Pharaoh needs some testing, but he does fit well into the theme of the deck. With the amount of removal I'm packing I should be able to control when he's activated. Admittedly he's way cooler with gideon (hence why he's cut to 1 slot in my most recent version, UBR), but he's still a solid blocker, a beatstick to kill enemy pws, and repeatable removal. Running the mill land is an interesting suggestion, though, I might try a BU version that goes more graveyard recursive to take advantage of that, with lots of pharaohs and skeles and flashback in place of red.
chandra's phoenix is cool, but probably for a different deck, I don't have enough direct damage, and can't afford to run enough, to make it work. Kuldotha, same deal except with artifacts instead of damage.
skite probably won't help lily vs bramblecrush
garruk's ok, others are too removable (much as I owe bloodline keeper my victory at the prerelease). still, doesn't seem like enough reason to run green, especially since saccing skeles (or nothing, most of the time) is even better.
sorin's ok, I could maybe see one, but he's expensive and just feels underwhelming for the cost. He's solid against enemy pws, but karn's a lot better for 1 more.
If I do aggro, it'll probably be BR, but that's a completely different discussion. For now, I want to make this concept work.
green for ancient grudge is an interesting suggestion. Right now I'm focused on UB/x?, though.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=357361&page=2
Enoch and I have been building lists along these lines.
P.S. You probably don't want any more than 2 Vengeful Pharaohs. You don't want them clogging up your draws all the time.
WRGBCombo MillWRGB
???
Modern:
UUWWErayo AffinityWWUU
WWGUEnchantress ControlUGWW
EDH:
GGBBGlissa MultiplayerBBGG
RRRRKazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs Land DestructionRRRR
I looked at the OP but I didn't read the whole thread, it's definitely more aggro than mine, but I think mine has the edge in the way it uses VCA.
Right now I'm really leaning UB or UBR over BR, because I don't think straight BR covers enough problem areas.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
BR smashes aggro. And I mean absolutely smashes.
A little green spash for Ancient Grudge helps the Sword heavy matchups.
It seems to be okay against other control decks.
But it really struggles against Solar Flare decks, particularly those chaining Rune-Scared Demon/Phantasmal Image/Phyrexian Metamorph and Sun Titan/Phantasmal Image. Even with 8 slots decidated to the Solar Flare match up post board it is rough.
WRGBCombo MillWRGB
???
Modern:
UUWWErayo AffinityWWUU
WWGUEnchantress ControlUGWW
EDH:
GGBBGlissa MultiplayerBBGG
RRRRKazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs Land DestructionRRRR
Hmm, have you considered sever the bloodline? Seems like that'd be pretty harsh against that sort of thing. Alternately, use blue. I'm still tinkering on my BU lilly.
I'm also working on a RU version of a similar thing, with chandra instead of liliana of course. counters handle fatties, burn handles weenies, chandra makes everything better, a little instant draw to grease the wheels, and her pheonix replaces the skeletons. burn isn't as good as some of the black removal, but with blue to take out the bombs it's at least equal or better at killing weenies, plus it can more easily burn enemy planeswalkers.
Decklist looks like this...I won't put it in the OP since it doesn't use liliana.
4x chandra's pheonix
Instants/sorceries 29
4x mana leak
2x negate
2x dissipate
3x think twice
3x forbidden alchemy
2x rolling temblor
3x slagstorm
2x whipflare
3x incinerate
2x brimstone volley
3x galvanic blast
4 chandra, the firebrand
1 karn liberated
lands 22
2x dragonskull summit
1x drowned catacomb
7x island
8x mountain
4x sulfur falls
Surgical extraction might deserve a spot too, but I don't know where.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6