I apologize that this post is going to be a lot of reading material without pretty banners and stylish text, but it will be really informative for anyone wanting to play Soulflayer at their next FNM!
I'd spent pre-FRF having fun with a 5 color Chromanticore midrange list that was alright, but was more fun than it was competitive. Some of you might be familiar with the list running Fleecemanes, Sagu Maulers, and Rattleclaw Mystics, but it was more for fun than it was competitive as Chromanticore was fairly fragile, even when stuck onto a hexproof beatstick- being an enchantment meant it suffered from a lot of crossover hate that was intended to fight u/w heroic or abzan whip decks. When Soulflayer got spoiled, lots of people immedietly paired it with Chromanticore, as the best natural paired card to go with it. A little while later, SCG sent an email out featuring a proposed list by Sam Black, and a little while later, Pat Chapin proposed a test list as well.
So more than a few test decks featuring Chromanticore and Soulflayer have been tossed around by various pros, with lots of test lists floating around and various ways to build the Chromantiflayer, I thought I'd take one of the lists and work on it. Here's the deck in its most successful form so far, followed by an in depth discussion of the card choices and how the deck plays:
Manabase Explained
This deck is a four color deck at it's core- base sultai, splash red. The red is kind of an ugly, but necessary splash with the Phoenix, so it's important the RR can be produced somewhat reliably. Chromantiflayer's mana requirements shift from early to mid to late game, so the manabase needs to be flexible and supportive. If you're going to put Chromanticore into a deck, you need to be able to cast it; it's not just something for Soulflayer to delve away. Being able to cast Chromanticore as a threat on T4 or 5 is something you actually want to be doing if you can- I'll discuss why later. Since the deck has flexible mana needs, this means playing Mana Confluence in some number. Mana Confluence is a great land, but kind of...painful, and so painlands have been omitted entirely. 4 of them is too much and you wind up with 2 of them too often, so the 4th was turned into a Frontier Bivouc, since the important thing about Confluence is it can tap for the splash colors (R and U), and give green as well, making it fine to appear in an opener featuring it and Caryatid. The deck doesn't want painlands anyway, they hurt too much when you're playing 3 Confluences. But you don't want to jam a bunch of temples in either, temples don't fuel delve and make the deck terribly slow. Fetches give you the flexibility without the slowness or pain, an actually help accelerate delve cards.
Build-a-Flayer
The natural pairing of SoulFlayer is, of course, Chromanticore, which is lots of fun, but, just like Baneslayer, "Dies to downfall" far too easily. So, it's important that the deck has access to creatures that give it more resilient abilities. Like hexproof (Caryatid) and indestructible (Gods). This deck is a significant improvement over previous Chromanticore lists before FRF because those builds relied on having to stick a hexproof creature (Fleecemane Lion) and then monstrous it, and then bestow Chromanticore to it. Which was great when it worked, but had the unfortunate drawback of Chromanticore catching crossover hate meant for other enchantment based decks, like Constellation. Additionally, Chromanticore is still white, which means Stormbreath Dragon doesn't care about it, and Glare of Heresy also gets to take it out. Soulflayer doesn't suffer from being white OR an enchantment and gives the deck a major level up and offers numerous advantages. Chromanticore needs no further explanation as to why it's the basis of the deck. But what about the other abilities it doesn't grant?
Enter Flamewake Phoenix. Phoenix is a great way to provide a clock when you don't have a SoulFlayer online, and is perfectly fine with being milled off of Commune or Wayfinder, but it also grants haste to Soulflayer, and flying, making Soulflayer a black Stormbreath in a pinch. Since Soulflayer is just a 4/4, even if it is a Chromanticore, Phoenix helps whittle an opponent down while you're trying to set up. If you're on the offense, run him out and beat with him until he dies, but if you're on the defense, play him post-combat to make a chump blocker that happily winds up in the graveyard. Giving a Chromantiflayer haste is a great way to stabilize thanks to lifelink. So now we can have a 4/4 flying, first strike, trample, haste, lifelink, vigilent beatstick. That still dies to Downfall.
Enter Caryatid and Pharika. You know how people always say that Caryatid is great because it makes an awesome blocker, but no one ever blocks with it? Now you have motivation to do so. Bear in mind, outside of Mana Confluence, Caryatid is the only other source of white mana in the deck to actually CAST Chromanticore with, so don't throw it away needlessly of course, but it's enjoyable to have Abzan attack into it with a Rhino, and you actually block with it.....and then next turn delve it away to give Chromantiflayer hexproof. Once your opponents have this pulled on them, they'll be extra careful to consider their attacks if there's a Chromanticore in your graveyard.
Pharika is the god of choice for the indestructible trait, a necessary one when going up against control decks in particular. But when casting her normally, she offers a way to generate ground defenses, or offense if the match is super grindy, and can realistically also be activated off of devotion. She's also good at removing unwanted graveyard choices from your own 'yard when activating Tasigur, and provides mainboard whip hate.
One last card- Prophetic Flamespeaker- made the toolbox as a lonely one of. It's dangerous to put a card in just for its ability to grant doublestrike, but the ability was too deadly not to consider, especially when the deck features the Phoenix as a way to grant haste. Even without Chromnticore in the 'yard, Flamespeaker and Phoenix offer you a 4/4 flying, hasted, doublestriking 'flayer for 2BB. Flamespeaker isn't uncastable either, and he's fine to run out there to eat some removal, or provide a chump blocker, or whatever. Even if that's not applicable, there's other ways to get him out of your hand and into the 'yard.
Other Creature Choices Explained
Which brings us to Tasigur. The dangerous thing about self-dredging decks is that some cards are nothing more than the way you win, and other cards are just enablers to cast the game winners. Sometimes your enablers dredge away cards you wish they hadn't, and sometimes you need a way to build cards back up after having ravaged your 'yard to cast murderous cuts. Tasigur fills all of these roles, and gives the deck something else to do with the surplus of cards in the graveyard. Having a bunch of cards in your 'yard is the side effect of trying to get just a few specific ones in there, so we might as well use them to fuel other strategies beyond Chromantiflayer. Besides that, it's perfectly realistic to run out Tasigur on T3, just to provide a solid Rhino-blocking body, or at least as a way to bait out removal before we start sticking our real threats. If he does stick around, he provides a nice clock attached to a mana sink that can reload both graveyard and hand. But he's not the only creature doing double duty. He also happens to provide an extra way for Flamewake's ferocious ability.
Sidisi provides an early game threat that nets the same number of cards into the graveyard as a Wayfinder, one of the reasons Wayfinder only appears as a 2 of. She can provide an early offense threat against slow decks, or build a solid board of blockers against faster ones while fueling your long term strategy of casting an unstoppable SOulflayer. Still, she's legendary and doesn't add to Soulflayer herself, so she's not a 4 of, and her 4th copy was slotted as Satyr Wayfinder. A pair of Wayfinders made the list as additional aggro defense and a way to find Confluences or specific colors of land/ fixing land light openers that didn't feature Caryatid.
The last creature that hasn't been mentioned is Soul of Innistrad, which seems really odd. THis card was added as a way to fix one problem every dredge deck runs into, particularly this one. Sometimes you accidentally put your Soulflayers in the graveyard, and every now and then your opponent helps with that. Soul of Innistrad aims to fix that, but he'll probably find his way into the sideboard, replaced by another Hero's Downfall.
Spell Package Explained
In order to make your 3 copies of Sidisi hit reliably, the spell package can't be too big, which means that the spells you do play have to be really good or really versatile. Black gets the best removal spells in the business right now between Downfall and Cut, if you can properly utilize Cut, so most of this section is just a matter of playing the best removal spells.
Initial lists used Tormenting Voice as a way to find what you're looking for and also get rid of cards in the hand you'd prefer to have in the graveyard. In testing, I never cared for it. Sometimes I'd find myself having to crack a fetch to get a mountain to cast it when in reality, I'd much rather have broken it for a sultai-based land. Outside of Phoenix, it was the only other red card that made the pro's lists. I suspect this was due to the need to further justify the presence of red in the deck when you're already trying keep Phoenix castable, but it just never did the job and I found myself needing more removal. Sultai Charm was the natural replacement. Even though it's one extra mana, the extra modes are well worth it, and getting to draw and THEN discard instead of discarding, then drawing, is a very real advantage anyway. A solid removal package is important as you'll find yourself sending some to the graveyard anyway. It's also nice to have a mainboard way to blow up whips!
Murderous Cut as a 3x was actually not intentional, I just didn't have more than 1 downfall, and Cut seemed like a synergistic card to provide a psuedo replacement, with the upside being a cheaper cost most of the time and the drawback being that you can't kill 'walkers with it. I still want more downfalls for this reason, but will likely keep the number at 2. Cut's aggressive CMC helps make up for Sultai Charm costing more vs Tomenting Voice, so the curve actually balances out this way.
Commune with the Gods plays a different role than Satyr Wayfinder, it's purpose is to find Soulflayer, not land, but I've also just cast it and not even kept anything at all as a way to try and make Soulflayer even better before I cast him.
A single Whip of Erebos was too tempting to not play, but with how often it winds up in the graveyard, this will probably become another creature to imprint on SOulflayer since Soul of Innistrad is being bumped to the SB for another downfall.
Sideboarding is still in its initial stages, but it being built to target fast aggro builds and UB control, since I feel like the midrange matchups are better.
Playing the deck
The deck takes a little bit of practice to play, but that's due to the different angles of attack and choices it presents. I've won games with Soulflayer having nearly every keyword ability, I've won games from bestowing a wayfinder with Chromanticore, I've won games with Sidisi swarming my opponent while I Murderous Cut anything bigger than her, and I've won games where Flamewake Phoenix beats in nonstop while Pharika clogs the ground. One game was my opponent killing Sidisi, then killing tasigur, then killing another Sidisi, and then just not having anything to deal with the hardcast Chromanticore. So here's some tips-
It's perfectly fine to overextend with creatures that can be delved onto Soulflayer. The deck was built to be able to not just delve out Chromatnicore, but to make him a fully functioning part of the 75 on his own by being reliably castable. I've run out Chromanticore on T4 off of a Caryatid many times and am perfectly OK with them killing it, and if they don't...well, then you've got a Chromanticore. My opponent, however, is never very sure about killing anything when it can come back a million times worse. The deck strains opponents to find enough removal. Bestowing a Chromanticore requires your opponent to kill the creature, then kill the Chromanticore it leaves behind, and then pray you don't Soulflayer it back out.
Be aware of what you're fetching off of your fetches or Wayfinders and what colors/qty the deck needs to be able to make for which plays. If you're smart about it, you'll rarely ever run into problems casting anything in the deck. Getting UGB online by T3/4 is probably the most important thing to consider, but with Wayfinders and Caryatids and Confluences and tri lands and fetches, this is pretty achievable reliably.
Watch out for Crackling Doom, it's one of the few cards that can answer a Chromantiflayer from hell. Perilous Vault is the other. Play around them and make them use it on the other problems you'll be presenting. Of course, Sultai Charm can answer Vault pretty easily, and the deck has more than enough pressure to force a premature Crackling Doom. Thoughtseize is a good card to board in against Mardu for this reason.
Gauge the importance of giving Soulflayer hexproof. Sometimes your opponent just won't have much removal left after answering your other threats and giving Soulflayer haste is more important than waiting around for your opponent to attack into a Caryatid or you finding a way to bin one.
Remember that Chromanticore is an enchantment, and is white, which makes it vulnerable to sideboarded Erases, Glares of Heresy, and doesn't like to go toe to toe with Stormbreath Dragon. Soulflayer is none of these problems, so sometimes putting Chromanticore on the field is a bad move since erase exiles him and he can't be reused. By playing this way, you can effectively blank Erase and Glare entirely; it's really the only white card in the deck and outside of whip, the only enchantment, but for some people, this is the only board plan they can come up with.
Also remember that Chromanticore has default first strike. This makes it pretty good against Hornet Queen.
Don't forget to bring Phoenix back if you've got nothing else to do and get in damage wherever you can. In the same way, don't forget to activate Tasigur if you've got the mana to spend, but be cautious about what's in your yard when you do. Some cards are more relevant in the 'yard than in your hand (phoenix) and a smart opponent will give you those off of Tasigur's ability, so if you don't have a Soulflayer in sight, it's sometimes ok to exile cards like this to make the opponent give you more relevant cards. If you're holding a Soulflayer though, perhaps it's best to keep the Phoenix in the yard.
Broken Plays/Christmastime/Fun plays
Every good deck needs to have the occasional "WTF How do I beat that" and Chromantiflayer is no exception. A T2 Wayfinder or Commune milling a Pharika, Caryatid, Chromanitcore, and Phoenix leads to a T3 4/4 flying, trampling, hasted, first striking, lifelinking, hexproof, indestructible SoulFlayer of Death.
Bile Blighting your own Caryatid in order to kill your opponent's, and then delving it onto Soulflayer is lots of fun.
Bestowing Chromanticore onto a Chromantiflayer is too much fun to not mention.
The look on your opponent's face when he has to either give you a castable Chromanticore, or a Soulflayer off of Tasigur is entertaining.
Really, just about anything you do with Chromanticore is tons of fun because hey, Chromanticore!
Anyways, I'm looking forward to tweaking the sideboard a bit and playing this at GP Memphis if I can get it refined enough. Please provide your input and testing experiences.
I strongly feel these types of decks need 4 Hero's Downfall main. Anafenza and Ashiok are the biggest threats to the deck and Hero's Downfall deals with them quite nicely. Double black and eating your turn is a bit awkward, but it ensures that those cards are not on the board.
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R.I.P. Todd Davis
"Tarmogoyf is such a good blue card that you cannot pitch it to force of will. It is meant to be played." Found on Roflos' sig a long while ago
This is good advice, I've had...issues...with Ashiok. Will try 3 downfalls main and push one to the board dropping a bile blight as I've always felt that 4 was too many. Murderous Cut has proven itself deserving to at least be part of a split however, it's speed is unparalleled so I might cut 1, but likely I'll push whip out of the deck and bump Soul of Innistrad to the board to play the extra downfalls.
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I've been winning non-stop on cockatrice for a while now with a soulflayer deck which is similar in many ways. What the deck really wants to achieve is a turn 3 soulflayer that preferably is hexproof or indestructible or at least has chromanticore abilities. I haven't bothered keeping track of how often this happens, and I don't think I will, but it does feel like I do it around 30-40% of the time. The card that makes it happen is commune with the gods and I can tell for sure that if you want to run a soulflayer/chromanticore list, then 4 commune, 4 soulflayer and 4 chromanticore is where you want to start. 4 caryatids is probably also a lock. Any hand with commune with the gods and at least 2 lands is keepable (probably even a 6-lander, though I'd not be thrilled, but as commune and 5 lands would be decent at 6 I think I'd keep it). I also play 4 satyr wayfinder, though these ones are obviously a bit hit or miss depending on whether your hand contains a soulflayer or not. I've been running 2 Pharika and been quite happy with her. I even manage to turn her on now and then, but you obviously want to delve her away. I'm not sure she's a lock, but a lot of games end turn 3 when you get to delve pharika and chromanticore with soulflayer. There are some answers to it like Ugin and crackling doom, but the majority of the decks just scoop to it.
I've also included thoughtseizes in my list as a way to get rid of a pharika or chromanticore before you play a soulflayer or to get through a counterspell or get rid of a removal spell. The card is incredibly strong and better in this shell than average. I also run 4 Siege Rhinos as I believe this is the best card in standard and if you're 5 colours anyway I think you should play it. I've not been playing with Sidisi yet and I probably should give her a shot, but she is sort of small and fragile compared to the rhino and bestowing chromanticore on rhino doesn't get ruined by lightning strike or stoke. Rhinos also pair up a bit better with whip of Erebos. Sidisi is also sort of random and I avoid randomness where I can. Rhino also helps mitigate damage from mana confluence and is extremely good vs aggro, which this deck can have a hard time against before sideboard (I haven't dropped a sideboarded game to mono-red yet with 3 drowns and 3 blight in the sideboard, but only played 2 matches). Once you get rhinos/chromanticores/soulfayer w/chrom out, the game ends if you've drowned them first.
Sultai Charm is a nice card in this deck as it also allows you to dump what you need and kills some annoying blockers or whatnot occasionally.
A card that can improve the t3 soulflayer and also pseudo-protects it against thoughtseize is taigam's scheming. I usually don't even consider running cards that are card disadvantage by themselves, but this card could possibly be worth it. It would be as a replacement for wayfinders, but wayfinders are obviously a central piece to a 5-colour deck, but scheming would surely lead to more broken starts. I don't think I'll priortize testing this myself as the list already works incredibly well, but someone should look into it if they have time.
By the way the manabase in the opener is a complete mess and needs to be fixed. 15(+4 caryatid) black sources is way too few. You need 18(+4 caryatid) to reliably cast soulflayer turn 3. You also need more green sources 12 is too few to cast caryatid turn 2. You need at least 13 and more is probably better. While fetches appear nice on paper for synergy with delve, they force you to run basics, which you just can't play in a 5-colour deck. Play llanowar wastes and mana confluence for untapped sources, the rest can be tri-lands and temples. Casting double red turn 3 also requires ~20 sources and those cards should obviously not be there. The deck needs to have a BG shell with the other colours being splashes. You need green turn 2 always and you want to have 2 black by turn 3 for soulflayer, downfall, bile blight and drown in sorrow, so you should have around 18(+4 caryatids) of each to make the mana smooth. The rest you shouldn't need before turn 4-5 and thus only needs 9(+4 caryatids). I'm posting from my office so don't have a list available and not sure I want to post it yet, but you can't really test a deck without a working manabase.
By the way disdainful stroke is really important sideboard card. It's the card I side in the most.
Here's my version that has been doing pretty well... went 2-2 (loss vs mono-red agro and u/b control where I couldn't find land to save my life) last FNM. Really need ideas for the sideboard for fast agro.
Most ridiculous play ever was T1 thoughtseize myself, throw Chromanticore in the yard. T2 get greedy and Commune with the Gods, get Pharika and a Caraytid. T3 cast Mistcutter for 0, cast Soulflayer delving Pharika, Caryatid, Mistcutter, and Chromanticore.
rigeld-
21 land is far too little, which might explain the land difficulties you're having. I'm playing 23, Caryatids, and Wayfinders and I'm not convinced that 24 isn't the correct number. I'd cut Mystics and add two more land in- recommend Mana Confluence personally, but there's different options between temples and painlands. The play you really want to make (T2 commune or wayfinder or caryatid) doesn't require Mystic. The ramp just isn't relevant.
Using Mistcutter for the haste is interesting, but I've been pretty happy with Phoenix, you should try him out.
Calladan- I'd be interested in seeing your list and trying it out, from your post it seems like your deck is more focused on getting that T3 bonkers Soulflayer and mine aims to be more midrangy. I deliberatly tried to avoid going all in on that strategy because I felt it was too dependant on having the Soulflayer appear in time, but it seems like you've given it more consistency by going all in on the communes and the wayfinders.
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To be clear - I only had trouble with lands in the control match, and I took one of those games.
Mono Red blew me out by turn 4 both games. I didn't have a change to do anything, even though I was hitting lands perfectly on curve.
I think you're right about the Mystics though - they should be lands as they really don't contribute much of anything. I'll probably add another Confluence and a Bivouac (for another red source).
Mistcutter is there both for Haste and for against control - it forces a decision between downfalling Sidisi or Mistcutter, it adds haste as a Delve option, and he swings through Pearl Lake Ancient.
I'm not a huge fan of the Phoenix in here. The double red isn't trivial to get, Ferocious triggers aren't consistent enough... at least in my build. If it works for you, great!
My meta is being overrun by mono red and R/W tokens, so I might have to sideboard 4x circle of flame or something just for that matchup.
The only really hard matchup I've come across so far is Abzan aggro. I have not actually lost a match to any other deck yet with the list in its current state(though lost plenty of games). Abzan charm is really annoying as it gets around indestructible and thoughtseize is also annoying after setting up soulflayer with commune with the gods. Anafenza luckily comes down a turn late to affect the early plays, but he is large enough to trade with soulflayer without chromanticore or pharika and if the game drags on the exiling really becomes annoying. The matchup is still winnable (at least I have won some games if not matches), but need to swap some stubborn denials in the board for more removal as both anafenza and actually warden of the first tree are threats you usually need to deal with somehow eventually. I actually had 3 bestowed chromanticores at one point and still lost to warden in the end becoming a 43/43 lifelink trampler as I just couldn't for the life of me find a removal spell.
The cards I'm most uncertain of are pharika, courser, nyx weaver and the exact amount of wayfinders. As I mentioned before it could be taigam's scheming is better than wayfinder, but my manabase doesn't support blue turn 2 so would need to change up a lot to accomodate that. Since we're running caryatids anyway, running courser is always nice to improve aggro matchup a lot. Courser doesn't really work that well against abzan aggro though, so could be there's some better options here, probably more removal instead. Nyx weaver I obviously don't see in a lot of games as I only play 1, but it's been quite good in a few games where I just end of turn traded it for a chromanticore and bestowed a rhino for the win. I can see this being replaced by removal as well or another creature with better abilities for soulflayer. So far I've just been winning too much to bother change anything, but people are playing a lot of weird brews right now so this will probably change eventually.
I will actually test 2 abzan charm in the sideboard instead of erebos and a stubborn denial and replace the nyx weaver with hero's downfall (ugin is a *****).
I love this chromantiflayer interaction. I've built my version of the deck, and I love it. Sorry for the fact that this post is not detailed, I'm at work and on my phone. But here's my list. No sideboard yet, but I like what I've been seeing in here.
This is the deck in its latest version. Adjustments exmplained:
Firstly, I'm an idiot and somehow designed a deck with 21 land. That's been corrected. Happy to have the Nomad Outpost more than I initially thought.
Prophetic Flamespeaker is cute, but ultimately not worth it IMO. Phoenix has its moments where it's great, and others where it's not so great, but granting haste is too important to pass up and this is frankly the best card to be doing it with since it's perfectly happy being in the graveyard anyway. Still, I'm not convinced that 2 is the right number, it may go back to 3.
The 4th Sultai Charm is added, it's an important card to get things into the graveyard form your hand in exhange for cards you can use, and it doubles as addtional removal, with the occasional abilty to blow up an opposing Ascendency, which is pretty relevant right now.
Lastly, Torrent Elemental makes an appearance as a one of, it's nice to be able to recycle it as delve fuel and grants flying to Chromanticore.
I'd like to fit the 4th Commune into the deck, with Wayfinder being the most likely cut. A single wayfinder seems really odd in the deck though, so I expect it to be dropped altogether if I can figure out what to replace the second one with. Most lists feature Wayfinders, often as a 4x; I've opted to play Sidisi instead of the Wayfinders as a way to provide additional threats and buy time until I can present a more permanent threat in the form of Chromantiflayer while simulatenously filling my graveyard.
The trick is to keep enough creatures that provide relevant, important benefits to Soulflayer while being good on thier own, with indestructible being a particularly important trait, so another God might find its way into the maindeck, the main candidate being Nylea, as devotion to Green seems achievable if she finds her way onto the board since the permanents the deck features are acheivable, and her pump ability makes other things much more relevant- going so far as to aid ferocious to keep Phoenixes going, so I'll probably test her out, but I've also considered going back to some number of Sagu Maulers, so we'll see how that plays out.
I expect this deck to get deadlier when Dragons of Tarkir comes out, hopefully offering more creatures that have built in keyword abilities, not conditional keyword abilities (like Atarka only granting doublestrike when she attacks).
The deck is still a work in progress, but it gets a little better every time I refine it. I'll do more testing this weekend and post the results sometime next week.
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I took this list to FNM last night and went 3-1. I played against 2 RW token/burn/aggro things, one of which I beat and one I lost. I also played a mono white ajani's pridemate lifegain deck..I won't 2-0 against that having 40 or more life haha...and round 4 was abzan whip....main Bord crypts were awesome haha..I won 2-0 as well
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I'm not going to call him dad..NOT EVER!! EVEN IF THERE'S A FIRE!!!
Here's what a version featuring the mild white splash to play Mantis Rider might look like. It's important to have white, but you only need one, so the single white is actually easier to come by than the RR for Phoenix. Although non-recurring, Phoenix doesn't recur anyway once it's been stuck onto Soulflayer. This build gives a little bit more versatility if you can't get a Chromanticore in the yard in time to be a juicy target and you have the Soulflayer ready to play. I also upped the Commune count to a full 4x, which I was planning on doing anyway.
The ommittance of Wayfinder may bother some people, but between the Communes and Sidisis and Charms, I don't feel like there will be a problem fueling the 'yard. Remember, this isn't a whip deck, or a deck that's super focused on Delve, it's aiming at getting a select few targeted creatures in the graveyard and plays some delve cards to get a bonus boost off of other things that find their way in there. Still, cards do need to go into the yard and you do need to find Soulflayers for this deck to do its thing, and Commune with the Gods is the best card for that job. Sidisi is a good way to establish a good threat while augmenting Commune, and the Charms are there for added filtering- a good way to get 'core from hand to bin while drawing 2 at the same time, so I feel like Wayfinder can be excluded here. Charm is a lot like Brainstorm; it's usually best to wait to cast it, especially if you're not sure which mode to pick rather than burn them early. Sometimes the deck will just get there without ever needing to see Soulflayer, so it's a good to judge which abilities matter most in which matchups- against burn sticking a hexproof lifelinking soulflayer is GG. Against control, indestructible and hexproof are much more desirable than lifelink, so don't fall into the trap of waiting if you can go ahead and go for the throat.
Yeah, I have no idea how I keep screwing up the decklists. The two missing cards in the above post are Satyr Wayfinders, but are reallyt flex slots depending on your preference. I've tried Thoughtseizes there and liked them, but you could also play a 4th Downfall and 2nd Cut, or a test slot for Sagu Mauler.
Don't get me wrong, it's important to be able to cast Chromanticore for the reasons you've cited, but it's not the only creature that is sometimes better off in the bin. Pharika is another example, or an excess Caryatid, or sometimes you just plain don't need any more land. The deck does need some kind of ability to filter cards out of the hand that may not belong there at the moment; as mentioned in the opening post Tormenting Voice was the original card slotted there. I just never liked it and sometimes found myself wanting more removal, Sultai Charm gave me that, built in Ascenency/Whip hate, and the filtering option needed at instant speed. Yes, I do wish it killed Rhinos sometimes, but there's nothing better than this card for his role. Tormenting Voice has been forever unimpressive.
As far as playing your own Rhinos goes, I'm glad to see someone testing them. I'll agree with a lot of people who say Rhino might be the best card in standard, so it seems strange that a deck running 5 colors wouldn't play him. To be fair, I haven't tested with him in this deck, so if he works well to buy you some time or provide a clock while eating some removal, cool. But he doesn't really offer Soulflayer anything special (trample is ok I guess), and the need to make more white makes him a little awkward in my list; but the version I posted above with the white splash might favor him in the flex slots. If I'm running Rhino, and Commune and wayfinders and all that, then I probably should also play some number of whips- whipping Rhino is one of the best plays you can....but at that point, why not just play Abzan Whip? Still, if he does work, he does work.
Seems like your deck might need some more removal in its maindeck. I'd try making room for an acquiring additional Downfalls before pushing Mystic in. The reason I didn't opt to play Mystic is that many of the lands that produce green come into play tapped, making Mystic a T2 play anyway, which at that point I'd rather be casting Caryatid or Commune or even wayfinder. I could roll him out on T3, but at that point he's too late to matter much. So his usefulness requires you to have him in the opener, have a green land that doesn't CiTPP, he doesn't eat an immediete Magma Jet or whatever from your opponent, and you have something to ramp into.
An early Chromanticore is nice and all, but let's face it, 9 times out of 10, it'll eat your opponent's first main removal spell. Which is fine, that's why Soulflayer is cool and all, but I think I'd rather be playing a different dude here. Even Courser might be a very acceptable option.
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This is what I'm going to be trying out this week - and likely take to Game Day. My only thought might be to lower the Silumgar count for more Pharikas... for Indestructible.
Sagu Mauler is better on a lot of fronts than Silumgar. Check it:
Sagu Mauler can be run out early, to provide a chump blocker that might even trade, and then later gets recycled onto Soulflayer, but if you get can get around to unmorphing him, he becomes a really difficult to deal with threat on his own anyway. Plus, have you ever bestowed Chromanticore to Sagu Mauler? It's pretty tough to lose after that.
Of course, I'm fine with ripping him off the top and slamming him down for 6 mana, the same CMC as Silumgar.
Basically, you're trading Silumgar's token nuking ability for morph and a bigger front end that can provide a faster clock. I personally don't think Silumgar is a particularly thrilling card- I feel like he comes down too late to be truly helpful against tokens.
As far as removal goes, in your list, I'd just go to the inverted split that I played before I got enough Downfalls- 3 Murderous Cut, 1 Downfall. PLaneswalkers are gonna be problematic here and there, but I think I'd rather capitalize on the obvious synergy of the deck with Murderous Cut, than try to have Utter End be a poor man's substitute that can't kill Stormbreath and has more awkward mana requirements in terms of color and cost.
The single whip in your deck is just a suggestion, and one is probably plenty since you play 4x Commune With the Gods that can grab it.
I would consider cutting one Sidisi from your list; I found 4 was too many and she was another card getting stranded in my hand, but this time due to the fact she was Legendary.
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Hey all. Just dropping in from the Riddle of the Sphinx thread to say that I think this deck is super sweet, and I'm sleeving up a list to try out tonight. (I based it on one of Ebonclaw's earlier lists in the thread.) I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!
Just bought all the pieces for this deck. Can't wait to play it. Looks like a blast.
edit I can't seem to find where the videos to that guys deck tech is. He lists 4 matches but they don't link to coverage. Anyone else having that problem?
Played a slightly modified version of Lepore's list last night in FNM (main changes were 1 Tasigur, 3 Satyr Wayfinders, 1 gurmag swiftwing, 1 sagu mauler - my thoughts were that Tasigur, while amazing was weak in the deck and the swiftwing and mauler were amazing...you'd be surprised how awesome Haste is and Mauler makes a good alt finisher)
Wen 3-1, playing mostly against sultai/BU control (first round was a villainous wealth deck, 2 & 3 were control and last was a sultai whip). Lost to pretty much only Ugin & Perilous Vault as they were the only things able to deal with 4/4 flying, hexproof & indestructible soulflayer. Had insane fun hard-casting Chromanticore on multiple occasions...even bestowing it once on a Mauler.
I want to put Swiftwings in the sideboard or maybe main...they seemed really strong for some reason. All in all, i thought this deck was fun but janky, but it ended up being a blast and tons of fun. Wish i played it against more than control...
What I took to Game Day. Went 4-1-1 (ID), undefeated until top 4. Only dropped 2 games all night - one was to Narset combo because he was stuck on 2 lands game 1 so I had no idea what he was playing and only brought in the Negates - which I didn't have when Narset swung. The second was in top 8 to nut draws. I was the #1 seed all night (until I lost) and this is the first time that's ever happened to me... so I feel good about that.
Round 1: Rabble Agro
Game 1 he was stuck on 3 lands and couldn't kill my T3 Rhino and T4 Chromanticore.
Game 2 I had a T2 Circle of Flame and then another T3. He scooped when I cast the second one.
Round 2: Gruul Devotion
Game 1 was really really close... but he kept drawing dorks and I landed a T5 Hexproof Indestructible Chromantiflayer.
Game 2 was insane... I was at 1 life more than once, but a Hexproof Chromantiflayer with 2 Chromanticores bestowed on it got me there.
Round 3: Narset Combo
Explained above.
Round 4: ID vs U/W Control
So I go into top 8 feeling comfortable, maybe a little cocky.
First round of top 8: Mardu Agro
Game 1: He has no idea what Soulflayer does, so when I T3 a Chromantiflayer he asked to read the card, looks at his hand, says "Game 2?" and we reshuffle. Maybe he doesn't mainboard any removal? (In Mardu?!)
Game 2: Another T3 Chromantiflayer and he does an EOT Crackling Doom. He has a Crackling Doom for my next 3 threats as well. I lose.
Game 3: He doesn't stand a chance - doesn't have any Dooms for my T4 Chromaflayer, nor my T5 Rhino, nor my T6 Sagu Mauler, and then I bestow a Chromanticore onto the Mauler and don't even get to my combat step before he scoops.
Top 4: U/W Control I ID'ed with
Not going to describe each game except to say that for every threat, he had an answer. End Hostilities, Erase, Banishing Light, Devouring Light, counters for days... it was rough. It didn't help that Game 2 I was on tilt and forgot Sagu Maulers have hexproof and let him Banishing Light one - which I know wasn't intentional, we just both forgot it had hexproof.
Do I just play poorly against control, or is that a tough matchup for us? I mean - one incorrect play wouldn't have won me the match (likely that game though).
He cleared the field with Anger of the Gods and a Lightning Strike to kill my Siege Rhino and dorks, then played Narset, Enlightened Master T6, swung T7. The first time he swung he hit Temporal Trespass, Howl from the Horde x2 and Magma Jet. Used the Jet to kill my only blocker out and then took 5 extra turns (or something stupid like that). I died before I really played anything (I kept a slow hand because I mulled to 5 to see land) because during those turns he flipped 2 more extra turns and a bunch of burn.
I built this on MTGO last night and haven't dropped a match yet. This deck is seriously super resilient. I clawed my way back from the pits of Hell multiple times. Stabilizing at 1-3 life and coming back to win convincingly is a regular occurrence.
A few notes on card choices:
I wasn't overly thrilled with Mantis Rider. I loved to exile him to give Soulflayer three relevant abilities, but I was rarely able to cast him with the mana configuration (which I got from ebonclaw, who runs 4 main so maybe I was just unlucky). Is there a solid replacement for Mantis Rider?
Speaking of the mana configuration, I may tweak it a bit. I felt there were too many basics, and I wasn't always able to hit my colors when I wanted to. I know other iterations of the deck run Temples, and this build foregoes the scry to have tri-lands, but a few Temples may warrant consideration. Overall the deck is awesome. It's incredibly fun and powerful.
My current sideboard is the same as ebonclaw's, but I may tweak it a bit depending on what I forecast the meta in LA to be this weekend.
I love my manabase. I am able to consistently hit all 5 colors by turn 5 to drop a Chromanticore if I have one in hand, able to have BB to delve into a Soulflayer early... Haven't had an issue with missing a color yet.
My only issue is that it hurts. With the amount of lifelink we get though (through Chromantiflayers or Chromanticores) it's not that big a deal. If you're really scared of it though using the CIPT lifelands might be an option - but it might be too slow. Untested.
Also untested is a bunch of fetches and basics, but I feel like that'll cause problems like you said TLK.
Yeah, yours does look painful. Plus you run Rhinos and I don't, so that would cause yours to be a little different from mine anyway. I may have to add in some pain lands on top of the Confluences. I know for a fact I need some Temple of Malady, as the two colors I sometimes struggle to hit on turn 2 (and the two colors I need the most) are black and green.
If you're running 5 colors why not run the best card in Standard?
I'm mostly treating this as a BUG shell splashing Red and White. Which means that Mantis Rider while cute doesn't fit - because he requires two of the splash colors by turn 3.
I've been thinking about putting Torrent Elemental in my sideboard, but I'm not sure what I'd pull out.
True. Rhino always seems like a good call but he just seems so disconnected from the rest of the deck's strategy. Has he been effective for you? I'm probably going to cut Mantis Rider for something, I'm just not sure what. I've considered a single Stormbreath Dragon, as that is easier to cast than Rider and gives two of the three abilities. I'm basically just trying to have a Haste option in the mix, as I feel that's important when you're up against the ropes and want to gain life ASAP with the Chromantiflayer. I'm basically going for the BUG Shell as well, so I agree that Rider is too hard on the manabase. Stormbreath might be as well, but we'll see. I'll probably look to your manabase for some pointers.
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I'd spent pre-FRF having fun with a 5 color Chromanticore midrange list that was alright, but was more fun than it was competitive. Some of you might be familiar with the list running Fleecemanes, Sagu Maulers, and Rattleclaw Mystics, but it was more for fun than it was competitive as Chromanticore was fairly fragile, even when stuck onto a hexproof beatstick- being an enchantment meant it suffered from a lot of crossover hate that was intended to fight u/w heroic or abzan whip decks. When Soulflayer got spoiled, lots of people immedietly paired it with Chromanticore, as the best natural paired card to go with it. A little while later, SCG sent an email out featuring a proposed list by Sam Black, and a little while later, Pat Chapin proposed a test list as well.
So more than a few test decks featuring Chromanticore and Soulflayer have been tossed around by various pros, with lots of test lists floating around and various ways to build the Chromantiflayer, I thought I'd take one of the lists and work on it. Here's the deck in its most successful form so far, followed by an in depth discussion of the card choices and how the deck plays:
4 Opulent Palace
3 Mana Confluence
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Frontier Bivouc
Creatures
2 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Flamewake Phoenix
3 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Prophetic Flamespeaker
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Chromanticore
4 Soul Flayer
2 Commune With the Gods
3 Sultai Charm
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Murderous Cut
1 Whip of Erebos
4 Thoughtseize
4 Bile Blight
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1 Duneblast
Manabase Explained
This deck is a four color deck at it's core- base sultai, splash red. The red is kind of an ugly, but necessary splash with the Phoenix, so it's important the RR can be produced somewhat reliably. Chromantiflayer's mana requirements shift from early to mid to late game, so the manabase needs to be flexible and supportive. If you're going to put Chromanticore into a deck, you need to be able to cast it; it's not just something for Soulflayer to delve away. Being able to cast Chromanticore as a threat on T4 or 5 is something you actually want to be doing if you can- I'll discuss why later. Since the deck has flexible mana needs, this means playing Mana Confluence in some number. Mana Confluence is a great land, but kind of...painful, and so painlands have been omitted entirely. 4 of them is too much and you wind up with 2 of them too often, so the 4th was turned into a Frontier Bivouc, since the important thing about Confluence is it can tap for the splash colors (R and U), and give green as well, making it fine to appear in an opener featuring it and Caryatid. The deck doesn't want painlands anyway, they hurt too much when you're playing 3 Confluences. But you don't want to jam a bunch of temples in either, temples don't fuel delve and make the deck terribly slow. Fetches give you the flexibility without the slowness or pain, an actually help accelerate delve cards.
Build-a-Flayer
The natural pairing of SoulFlayer is, of course, Chromanticore, which is lots of fun, but, just like Baneslayer, "Dies to downfall" far too easily. So, it's important that the deck has access to creatures that give it more resilient abilities. Like hexproof (Caryatid) and indestructible (Gods). This deck is a significant improvement over previous Chromanticore lists before FRF because those builds relied on having to stick a hexproof creature (Fleecemane Lion) and then monstrous it, and then bestow Chromanticore to it. Which was great when it worked, but had the unfortunate drawback of Chromanticore catching crossover hate meant for other enchantment based decks, like Constellation. Additionally, Chromanticore is still white, which means Stormbreath Dragon doesn't care about it, and Glare of Heresy also gets to take it out. Soulflayer doesn't suffer from being white OR an enchantment and gives the deck a major level up and offers numerous advantages. Chromanticore needs no further explanation as to why it's the basis of the deck. But what about the other abilities it doesn't grant?
Enter Flamewake Phoenix. Phoenix is a great way to provide a clock when you don't have a SoulFlayer online, and is perfectly fine with being milled off of Commune or Wayfinder, but it also grants haste to Soulflayer, and flying, making Soulflayer a black Stormbreath in a pinch. Since Soulflayer is just a 4/4, even if it is a Chromanticore, Phoenix helps whittle an opponent down while you're trying to set up. If you're on the offense, run him out and beat with him until he dies, but if you're on the defense, play him post-combat to make a chump blocker that happily winds up in the graveyard. Giving a Chromantiflayer haste is a great way to stabilize thanks to lifelink. So now we can have a 4/4 flying, first strike, trample, haste, lifelink, vigilent beatstick. That still dies to Downfall.
Enter Caryatid and Pharika. You know how people always say that Caryatid is great because it makes an awesome blocker, but no one ever blocks with it? Now you have motivation to do so. Bear in mind, outside of Mana Confluence, Caryatid is the only other source of white mana in the deck to actually CAST Chromanticore with, so don't throw it away needlessly of course, but it's enjoyable to have Abzan attack into it with a Rhino, and you actually block with it.....and then next turn delve it away to give Chromantiflayer hexproof. Once your opponents have this pulled on them, they'll be extra careful to consider their attacks if there's a Chromanticore in your graveyard.
Pharika is the god of choice for the indestructible trait, a necessary one when going up against control decks in particular. But when casting her normally, she offers a way to generate ground defenses, or offense if the match is super grindy, and can realistically also be activated off of devotion. She's also good at removing unwanted graveyard choices from your own 'yard when activating Tasigur, and provides mainboard whip hate.
One last card- Prophetic Flamespeaker- made the toolbox as a lonely one of. It's dangerous to put a card in just for its ability to grant doublestrike, but the ability was too deadly not to consider, especially when the deck features the Phoenix as a way to grant haste. Even without Chromnticore in the 'yard, Flamespeaker and Phoenix offer you a 4/4 flying, hasted, doublestriking 'flayer for 2BB. Flamespeaker isn't uncastable either, and he's fine to run out there to eat some removal, or provide a chump blocker, or whatever. Even if that's not applicable, there's other ways to get him out of your hand and into the 'yard.
Other Creature Choices Explained
Which brings us to Tasigur. The dangerous thing about self-dredging decks is that some cards are nothing more than the way you win, and other cards are just enablers to cast the game winners. Sometimes your enablers dredge away cards you wish they hadn't, and sometimes you need a way to build cards back up after having ravaged your 'yard to cast murderous cuts. Tasigur fills all of these roles, and gives the deck something else to do with the surplus of cards in the graveyard. Having a bunch of cards in your 'yard is the side effect of trying to get just a few specific ones in there, so we might as well use them to fuel other strategies beyond Chromantiflayer. Besides that, it's perfectly realistic to run out Tasigur on T3, just to provide a solid Rhino-blocking body, or at least as a way to bait out removal before we start sticking our real threats. If he does stick around, he provides a nice clock attached to a mana sink that can reload both graveyard and hand. But he's not the only creature doing double duty. He also happens to provide an extra way for Flamewake's ferocious ability.
Sidisi provides an early game threat that nets the same number of cards into the graveyard as a Wayfinder, one of the reasons Wayfinder only appears as a 2 of. She can provide an early offense threat against slow decks, or build a solid board of blockers against faster ones while fueling your long term strategy of casting an unstoppable SOulflayer. Still, she's legendary and doesn't add to Soulflayer herself, so she's not a 4 of, and her 4th copy was slotted as Satyr Wayfinder. A pair of Wayfinders made the list as additional aggro defense and a way to find Confluences or specific colors of land/ fixing land light openers that didn't feature Caryatid.
The last creature that hasn't been mentioned is Soul of Innistrad, which seems really odd. THis card was added as a way to fix one problem every dredge deck runs into, particularly this one. Sometimes you accidentally put your Soulflayers in the graveyard, and every now and then your opponent helps with that. Soul of Innistrad aims to fix that, but he'll probably find his way into the sideboard, replaced by another Hero's Downfall.
Spell Package Explained
In order to make your 3 copies of Sidisi hit reliably, the spell package can't be too big, which means that the spells you do play have to be really good or really versatile. Black gets the best removal spells in the business right now between Downfall and Cut, if you can properly utilize Cut, so most of this section is just a matter of playing the best removal spells.
Initial lists used Tormenting Voice as a way to find what you're looking for and also get rid of cards in the hand you'd prefer to have in the graveyard. In testing, I never cared for it. Sometimes I'd find myself having to crack a fetch to get a mountain to cast it when in reality, I'd much rather have broken it for a sultai-based land. Outside of Phoenix, it was the only other red card that made the pro's lists. I suspect this was due to the need to further justify the presence of red in the deck when you're already trying keep Phoenix castable, but it just never did the job and I found myself needing more removal. Sultai Charm was the natural replacement. Even though it's one extra mana, the extra modes are well worth it, and getting to draw and THEN discard instead of discarding, then drawing, is a very real advantage anyway. A solid removal package is important as you'll find yourself sending some to the graveyard anyway. It's also nice to have a mainboard way to blow up whips!
Murderous Cut as a 3x was actually not intentional, I just didn't have more than 1 downfall, and Cut seemed like a synergistic card to provide a psuedo replacement, with the upside being a cheaper cost most of the time and the drawback being that you can't kill 'walkers with it. I still want more downfalls for this reason, but will likely keep the number at 2. Cut's aggressive CMC helps make up for Sultai Charm costing more vs Tomenting Voice, so the curve actually balances out this way.
Commune with the Gods plays a different role than Satyr Wayfinder, it's purpose is to find Soulflayer, not land, but I've also just cast it and not even kept anything at all as a way to try and make Soulflayer even better before I cast him.
A single Whip of Erebos was too tempting to not play, but with how often it winds up in the graveyard, this will probably become another creature to imprint on SOulflayer since Soul of Innistrad is being bumped to the SB for another downfall.
Sideboarding is still in its initial stages, but it being built to target fast aggro builds and UB control, since I feel like the midrange matchups are better.
Playing the deck
The deck takes a little bit of practice to play, but that's due to the different angles of attack and choices it presents. I've won games with Soulflayer having nearly every keyword ability, I've won games from bestowing a wayfinder with Chromanticore, I've won games with Sidisi swarming my opponent while I Murderous Cut anything bigger than her, and I've won games where Flamewake Phoenix beats in nonstop while Pharika clogs the ground. One game was my opponent killing Sidisi, then killing tasigur, then killing another Sidisi, and then just not having anything to deal with the hardcast Chromanticore. So here's some tips-
It's perfectly fine to overextend with creatures that can be delved onto Soulflayer. The deck was built to be able to not just delve out Chromatnicore, but to make him a fully functioning part of the 75 on his own by being reliably castable. I've run out Chromanticore on T4 off of a Caryatid many times and am perfectly OK with them killing it, and if they don't...well, then you've got a Chromanticore. My opponent, however, is never very sure about killing anything when it can come back a million times worse. The deck strains opponents to find enough removal. Bestowing a Chromanticore requires your opponent to kill the creature, then kill the Chromanticore it leaves behind, and then pray you don't Soulflayer it back out.
Be aware of what you're fetching off of your fetches or Wayfinders and what colors/qty the deck needs to be able to make for which plays. If you're smart about it, you'll rarely ever run into problems casting anything in the deck. Getting UGB online by T3/4 is probably the most important thing to consider, but with Wayfinders and Caryatids and Confluences and tri lands and fetches, this is pretty achievable reliably.
Watch out for Crackling Doom, it's one of the few cards that can answer a Chromantiflayer from hell. Perilous Vault is the other. Play around them and make them use it on the other problems you'll be presenting. Of course, Sultai Charm can answer Vault pretty easily, and the deck has more than enough pressure to force a premature Crackling Doom. Thoughtseize is a good card to board in against Mardu for this reason.
Gauge the importance of giving Soulflayer hexproof. Sometimes your opponent just won't have much removal left after answering your other threats and giving Soulflayer haste is more important than waiting around for your opponent to attack into a Caryatid or you finding a way to bin one.
Remember that Chromanticore is an enchantment, and is white, which makes it vulnerable to sideboarded Erases, Glares of Heresy, and doesn't like to go toe to toe with Stormbreath Dragon. Soulflayer is none of these problems, so sometimes putting Chromanticore on the field is a bad move since erase exiles him and he can't be reused. By playing this way, you can effectively blank Erase and Glare entirely; it's really the only white card in the deck and outside of whip, the only enchantment, but for some people, this is the only board plan they can come up with.
Also remember that Chromanticore has default first strike. This makes it pretty good against Hornet Queen.
Don't forget to bring Phoenix back if you've got nothing else to do and get in damage wherever you can. In the same way, don't forget to activate Tasigur if you've got the mana to spend, but be cautious about what's in your yard when you do. Some cards are more relevant in the 'yard than in your hand (phoenix) and a smart opponent will give you those off of Tasigur's ability, so if you don't have a Soulflayer in sight, it's sometimes ok to exile cards like this to make the opponent give you more relevant cards. If you're holding a Soulflayer though, perhaps it's best to keep the Phoenix in the yard.
Broken Plays/Christmastime/Fun plays
Every good deck needs to have the occasional "WTF How do I beat that" and Chromantiflayer is no exception. A T2 Wayfinder or Commune milling a Pharika, Caryatid, Chromanitcore, and Phoenix leads to a T3 4/4 flying, trampling, hasted, first striking, lifelinking, hexproof, indestructible SoulFlayer of Death.
Bile Blighting your own Caryatid in order to kill your opponent's, and then delving it onto Soulflayer is lots of fun.
Bestowing Chromanticore onto a Chromantiflayer is too much fun to not mention.
The look on your opponent's face when he has to either give you a castable Chromanticore, or a Soulflayer off of Tasigur is entertaining.
Really, just about anything you do with Chromanticore is tons of fun because hey, Chromanticore!
Anyways, I'm looking forward to tweaking the sideboard a bit and playing this at GP Memphis if I can get it refined enough. Please provide your input and testing experiences.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
R.I.P. Todd Davis
"Tarmogoyf is such a good blue card that you cannot pitch it to force of will. It is meant to be played." Found on Roflos' sig a long while ago
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
I've also included thoughtseizes in my list as a way to get rid of a pharika or chromanticore before you play a soulflayer or to get through a counterspell or get rid of a removal spell. The card is incredibly strong and better in this shell than average. I also run 4 Siege Rhinos as I believe this is the best card in standard and if you're 5 colours anyway I think you should play it. I've not been playing with Sidisi yet and I probably should give her a shot, but she is sort of small and fragile compared to the rhino and bestowing chromanticore on rhino doesn't get ruined by lightning strike or stoke. Rhinos also pair up a bit better with whip of Erebos. Sidisi is also sort of random and I avoid randomness where I can. Rhino also helps mitigate damage from mana confluence and is extremely good vs aggro, which this deck can have a hard time against before sideboard (I haven't dropped a sideboarded game to mono-red yet with 3 drowns and 3 blight in the sideboard, but only played 2 matches). Once you get rhinos/chromanticores/soulfayer w/chrom out, the game ends if you've drowned them first.
Sultai Charm is a nice card in this deck as it also allows you to dump what you need and kills some annoying blockers or whatnot occasionally.
A card that can improve the t3 soulflayer and also pseudo-protects it against thoughtseize is taigam's scheming. I usually don't even consider running cards that are card disadvantage by themselves, but this card could possibly be worth it. It would be as a replacement for wayfinders, but wayfinders are obviously a central piece to a 5-colour deck, but scheming would surely lead to more broken starts. I don't think I'll priortize testing this myself as the list already works incredibly well, but someone should look into it if they have time.
By the way the manabase in the opener is a complete mess and needs to be fixed. 15(+4 caryatid) black sources is way too few. You need 18(+4 caryatid) to reliably cast soulflayer turn 3. You also need more green sources 12 is too few to cast caryatid turn 2. You need at least 13 and more is probably better. While fetches appear nice on paper for synergy with delve, they force you to run basics, which you just can't play in a 5-colour deck. Play llanowar wastes and mana confluence for untapped sources, the rest can be tri-lands and temples. Casting double red turn 3 also requires ~20 sources and those cards should obviously not be there. The deck needs to have a BG shell with the other colours being splashes. You need green turn 2 always and you want to have 2 black by turn 3 for soulflayer, downfall, bile blight and drown in sorrow, so you should have around 18(+4 caryatids) of each to make the mana smooth. The rest you shouldn't need before turn 4-5 and thus only needs 9(+4 caryatids). I'm posting from my office so don't have a list available and not sure I want to post it yet, but you can't really test a deck without a working manabase.
By the way disdainful stroke is really important sideboard card. It's the card I side in the most.
Most ridiculous play ever was T1 thoughtseize myself, throw Chromanticore in the yard. T2 get greedy and Commune with the Gods, get Pharika and a Caraytid. T3 cast Mistcutter for 0, cast Soulflayer delving Pharika, Caryatid, Mistcutter, and Chromanticore.
1x Caves of Koilos
1x Forest
1x Frontier Bivouac
4x Llanowar Wastes
3x Mana Confluence
1x Nomad Outpost
4x Opulent Palace
2x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Yavimaya Coast
Enablers:
4x Chromanticore
1x Mistcutter Hydra
3x Pharika, God of Affliction
3x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
4x Soulflayer
4x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Commune with the Gods
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
3x Sultai Charm
Other:
2x Elvish Mystic
3x Murderous Cut
2x Thoughtseize
15x ???
21 land is far too little, which might explain the land difficulties you're having. I'm playing 23, Caryatids, and Wayfinders and I'm not convinced that 24 isn't the correct number. I'd cut Mystics and add two more land in- recommend Mana Confluence personally, but there's different options between temples and painlands. The play you really want to make (T2 commune or wayfinder or caryatid) doesn't require Mystic. The ramp just isn't relevant.
Using Mistcutter for the haste is interesting, but I've been pretty happy with Phoenix, you should try him out.
Calladan- I'd be interested in seeing your list and trying it out, from your post it seems like your deck is more focused on getting that T3 bonkers Soulflayer and mine aims to be more midrangy. I deliberatly tried to avoid going all in on that strategy because I felt it was too dependant on having the Soulflayer appear in time, but it seems like you've given it more consistency by going all in on the communes and the wayfinders.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
Mono Red blew me out by turn 4 both games. I didn't have a change to do anything, even though I was hitting lands perfectly on curve.
I think you're right about the Mystics though - they should be lands as they really don't contribute much of anything. I'll probably add another Confluence and a Bivouac (for another red source).
Mistcutter is there both for Haste and for against control - it forces a decision between downfalling Sidisi or Mistcutter, it adds haste as a Delve option, and he swings through Pearl Lake Ancient.
I'm not a huge fan of the Phoenix in here. The double red isn't trivial to get, Ferocious triggers aren't consistent enough... at least in my build. If it works for you, great!
My meta is being overrun by mono red and R/W tokens, so I might have to sideboard 4x circle of flame or something just for that matchup.
1 Yavimaya Coast
2 Nomad Outpost
1 Mystic Monastery
4 Opulent Palace
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Mana Confluence
2 Temple of Plenty
2 Temple of Abandon
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Llanowar Wastes
1 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Malice
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Chromanticore
4 Soulflayer
4 Siege Rhino
3 Satyr Wayfinder
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Nyx Weaver
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
Non-creature spells (10)
4 Commune with the Gods
2 Sultai Charm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Whip of Erebos
3 Bile Blight
3 Drown in Sorrow
1 Sultai Charm
1 Murderous Cut
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Thoughtseize
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Stubborn Denial
The only really hard matchup I've come across so far is Abzan aggro. I have not actually lost a match to any other deck yet with the list in its current state(though lost plenty of games). Abzan charm is really annoying as it gets around indestructible and thoughtseize is also annoying after setting up soulflayer with commune with the gods. Anafenza luckily comes down a turn late to affect the early plays, but he is large enough to trade with soulflayer without chromanticore or pharika and if the game drags on the exiling really becomes annoying. The matchup is still winnable (at least I have won some games if not matches), but need to swap some stubborn denials in the board for more removal as both anafenza and actually warden of the first tree are threats you usually need to deal with somehow eventually. I actually had 3 bestowed chromanticores at one point and still lost to warden in the end becoming a 43/43 lifelink trampler as I just couldn't for the life of me find a removal spell.
The cards I'm most uncertain of are pharika, courser, nyx weaver and the exact amount of wayfinders. As I mentioned before it could be taigam's scheming is better than wayfinder, but my manabase doesn't support blue turn 2 so would need to change up a lot to accomodate that. Since we're running caryatids anyway, running courser is always nice to improve aggro matchup a lot. Courser doesn't really work that well against abzan aggro though, so could be there's some better options here, probably more removal instead. Nyx weaver I obviously don't see in a lot of games as I only play 1, but it's been quite good in a few games where I just end of turn traded it for a chromanticore and bestowed a rhino for the win. I can see this being replaced by removal as well or another creature with better abilities for soulflayer. So far I've just been winning too much to bother change anything, but people are playing a lot of weird brews right now so this will probably change eventually.
I will actually test 2 abzan charm in the sideboard instead of erebos and a stubborn denial and replace the nyx weaver with hero's downfall (ugin is a *****).
2 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Sagu Mauler
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Soulflayer
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Torrent Elemental
2 Jace, the Living Guildpact
2 Crux of Fate
2 Dark Deal
3 Dissolve
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Tormenting Voice
1 Island
3 Opulent Palace
3 Shivan Reef
3 Swamp
3 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Mystery
3 Mana Confluence
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Yavimaya Coast
4 Opulent Palace
3 Mana Confluence
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Frontier Bivouc
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Temple of Malady
2 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Flamewake Phoenix
3 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Chromanticore
4 Soul Flayer
Spells
3 Commune With the Gods
4 Sultai Charm
3 Hero's Downfall
1 Murderous Cut
1 Torrent Elemental
4 Bile Blight
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1 Duneblast
This is the deck in its latest version. Adjustments exmplained:
Firstly, I'm an idiot and somehow designed a deck with 21 land. That's been corrected. Happy to have the Nomad Outpost more than I initially thought.
Prophetic Flamespeaker is cute, but ultimately not worth it IMO. Phoenix has its moments where it's great, and others where it's not so great, but granting haste is too important to pass up and this is frankly the best card to be doing it with since it's perfectly happy being in the graveyard anyway. Still, I'm not convinced that 2 is the right number, it may go back to 3.
The 4th Sultai Charm is added, it's an important card to get things into the graveyard form your hand in exhange for cards you can use, and it doubles as addtional removal, with the occasional abilty to blow up an opposing Ascendency, which is pretty relevant right now.
Lastly, Torrent Elemental makes an appearance as a one of, it's nice to be able to recycle it as delve fuel and grants flying to Chromanticore.
I'd like to fit the 4th Commune into the deck, with Wayfinder being the most likely cut. A single wayfinder seems really odd in the deck though, so I expect it to be dropped altogether if I can figure out what to replace the second one with. Most lists feature Wayfinders, often as a 4x; I've opted to play Sidisi instead of the Wayfinders as a way to provide additional threats and buy time until I can present a more permanent threat in the form of Chromantiflayer while simulatenously filling my graveyard.
The trick is to keep enough creatures that provide relevant, important benefits to Soulflayer while being good on thier own, with indestructible being a particularly important trait, so another God might find its way into the maindeck, the main candidate being Nylea, as devotion to Green seems achievable if she finds her way onto the board since the permanents the deck features are acheivable, and her pump ability makes other things much more relevant- going so far as to aid ferocious to keep Phoenixes going, so I'll probably test her out, but I've also considered going back to some number of Sagu Maulers, so we'll see how that plays out.
I expect this deck to get deadlier when Dragons of Tarkir comes out, hopefully offering more creatures that have built in keyword abilities, not conditional keyword abilities (like Atarka only granting doublestrike when she attacks).
The deck is still a work in progress, but it gets a little better every time I refine it. I'll do more testing this weekend and post the results sometime next week.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
1x Island
3x Mana Confluence
3x Opulent Palace
3x Shivan Reef
3x Swamp
3x Temple of Abandon
2x Temple of Epiphany
1x Temple of Mystery
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Yavimaya Coast
2x Keranos, God of Storms
2x Sagu Mauler
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Soulflayer
4x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Torrent Elemental
4x Tormenting Voice
2x Tormod's Crypt
3x Hero's Downfall
2x Jace, the Living Guildpact
2x Circle of Flame
2x Crux of Fate
3x Destructive Revelry
3x Disdainful Stroke
3x Negate
2x Surrak Dragonclaw
I took this list to FNM last night and went 3-1. I played against 2 RW token/burn/aggro things, one of which I beat and one I lost. I also played a mono white ajani's pridemate lifegain deck..I won't 2-0 against that having 40 or more life haha...and round 4 was abzan whip....main Bord crypts were awesome haha..I won 2-0 as well
The ommittance of Wayfinder may bother some people, but between the Communes and Sidisis and Charms, I don't feel like there will be a problem fueling the 'yard. Remember, this isn't a whip deck, or a deck that's super focused on Delve, it's aiming at getting a select few targeted creatures in the graveyard and plays some delve cards to get a bonus boost off of other things that find their way in there. Still, cards do need to go into the yard and you do need to find Soulflayers for this deck to do its thing, and Commune with the Gods is the best card for that job. Sidisi is a good way to establish a good threat while augmenting Commune, and the Charms are there for added filtering- a good way to get 'core from hand to bin while drawing 2 at the same time, so I feel like Wayfinder can be excluded here. Charm is a lot like Brainstorm; it's usually best to wait to cast it, especially if you're not sure which mode to pick rather than burn them early. Sometimes the deck will just get there without ever needing to see Soulflayer, so it's a good to judge which abilities matter most in which matchups- against burn sticking a hexproof lifelinking soulflayer is GG. Against control, indestructible and hexproof are much more desirable than lifelink, so don't fall into the trap of waiting if you can go ahead and go for the throat.
4 Opulent Palace
3 Mana Confluence
2 Flooded Strand
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
2 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Frontier Bivouc
1 Nomad Outpost
4 Mantis Rider
3 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Chromanticore
4 Soul Flayer
2 Satyr Wayfinder
Spells
4 Commune With the Gods
4 Sultai Charm
3 Hero's Downfall
1 Murderous Cut
4 Bile Blight
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1 Duneblast
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
Don't get me wrong, it's important to be able to cast Chromanticore for the reasons you've cited, but it's not the only creature that is sometimes better off in the bin. Pharika is another example, or an excess Caryatid, or sometimes you just plain don't need any more land. The deck does need some kind of ability to filter cards out of the hand that may not belong there at the moment; as mentioned in the opening post Tormenting Voice was the original card slotted there. I just never liked it and sometimes found myself wanting more removal, Sultai Charm gave me that, built in Ascenency/Whip hate, and the filtering option needed at instant speed. Yes, I do wish it killed Rhinos sometimes, but there's nothing better than this card for his role. Tormenting Voice has been forever unimpressive.
As far as playing your own Rhinos goes, I'm glad to see someone testing them. I'll agree with a lot of people who say Rhino might be the best card in standard, so it seems strange that a deck running 5 colors wouldn't play him. To be fair, I haven't tested with him in this deck, so if he works well to buy you some time or provide a clock while eating some removal, cool. But he doesn't really offer Soulflayer anything special (trample is ok I guess), and the need to make more white makes him a little awkward in my list; but the version I posted above with the white splash might favor him in the flex slots. If I'm running Rhino, and Commune and wayfinders and all that, then I probably should also play some number of whips- whipping Rhino is one of the best plays you can....but at that point, why not just play Abzan Whip? Still, if he does work, he does work.
Seems like your deck might need some more removal in its maindeck. I'd try making room for an acquiring additional Downfalls before pushing Mystic in. The reason I didn't opt to play Mystic is that many of the lands that produce green come into play tapped, making Mystic a T2 play anyway, which at that point I'd rather be casting Caryatid or Commune or even wayfinder. I could roll him out on T3, but at that point he's too late to matter much. So his usefulness requires you to have him in the opener, have a green land that doesn't CiTPP, he doesn't eat an immediete Magma Jet or whatever from your opponent, and you have something to ramp into.
An early Chromanticore is nice and all, but let's face it, 9 times out of 10, it'll eat your opponent's first main removal spell. Which is fine, that's why Soulflayer is cool and all, but I think I'd rather be playing a different dude here. Even Courser might be a very acceptable option.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
4 Opulent Palace
2 Frontier Bivouac
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Llanowar Wastes
2 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Mana Confluence
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Abandon
4 Chromanticore
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
3 Siege Rhino
3 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
4 Soulflayer
4 Sylvan Caryatid
Spells
3 Murderous Cut
3 Sultai Charm
3 Commune with the Gods
2 Banishing Light
1 Charging Badger
3 Circle of Flame
2 Drown in Sorrow
3 Hero's Downfall
1 Murderous Cut
2 Negate
1 Sultai Charm
Sagu Mauler can be run out early, to provide a chump blocker that might even trade, and then later gets recycled onto Soulflayer, but if you get can get around to unmorphing him, he becomes a really difficult to deal with threat on his own anyway. Plus, have you ever bestowed Chromanticore to Sagu Mauler? It's pretty tough to lose after that.
Of course, I'm fine with ripping him off the top and slamming him down for 6 mana, the same CMC as Silumgar.
Basically, you're trading Silumgar's token nuking ability for morph and a bigger front end that can provide a faster clock. I personally don't think Silumgar is a particularly thrilling card- I feel like he comes down too late to be truly helpful against tokens.
As far as removal goes, in your list, I'd just go to the inverted split that I played before I got enough Downfalls- 3 Murderous Cut, 1 Downfall. PLaneswalkers are gonna be problematic here and there, but I think I'd rather capitalize on the obvious synergy of the deck with Murderous Cut, than try to have Utter End be a poor man's substitute that can't kill Stormbreath and has more awkward mana requirements in terms of color and cost.
The single whip in your deck is just a suggestion, and one is probably plenty since you play 4x Commune With the Gods that can grab it.
I would consider cutting one Sidisi from your list; I found 4 was too many and she was another card getting stranded in my hand, but this time due to the fact she was Legendary.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
edit I can't seem to find where the videos to that guys deck tech is. He lists 4 matches but they don't link to coverage. Anyone else having that problem?
Nvm switched computers and it's fine.
Wen 3-1, playing mostly against sultai/BU control (first round was a villainous wealth deck, 2 & 3 were control and last was a sultai whip). Lost to pretty much only Ugin & Perilous Vault as they were the only things able to deal with 4/4 flying, hexproof & indestructible soulflayer. Had insane fun hard-casting Chromanticore on multiple occasions...even bestowing it once on a Mauler.
I want to put Swiftwings in the sideboard or maybe main...they seemed really strong for some reason. All in all, i thought this deck was fun but janky, but it ended up being a blast and tons of fun. Wish i played it against more than control...
4 Opulent Palace
2 Frontier Bivouac
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Llanowar Wastes
2 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Mana Confluence
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Abandon
4 Chromanticore
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
3 Siege Rhino
3 Sagu Mauler
4 Soulflayer
4 Sylvan Caryatid
Spells
3 Murderous Cut
3 Sultai Charm
3 Commune with the Gods
2 Banishing Light
1 Charging Badger
3 Circle of Flame
2 Drown in Sorrow
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Negate
2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
What I took to Game Day. Went 4-1-1 (ID), undefeated until top 4. Only dropped 2 games all night - one was to Narset combo because he was stuck on 2 lands game 1 so I had no idea what he was playing and only brought in the Negates - which I didn't have when Narset swung. The second was in top 8 to nut draws. I was the #1 seed all night (until I lost) and this is the first time that's ever happened to me... so I feel good about that.
Round 1: Rabble Agro
Game 1 he was stuck on 3 lands and couldn't kill my T3 Rhino and T4 Chromanticore.
Game 2 I had a T2 Circle of Flame and then another T3. He scooped when I cast the second one.
Round 2: Gruul Devotion
Game 1 was really really close... but he kept drawing dorks and I landed a T5 Hexproof Indestructible Chromantiflayer.
Game 2 was insane... I was at 1 life more than once, but a Hexproof Chromantiflayer with 2 Chromanticores bestowed on it got me there.
Round 3: Narset Combo
Explained above.
Round 4: ID vs U/W Control
So I go into top 8 feeling comfortable, maybe a little cocky.
First round of top 8: Mardu Agro
Game 1: He has no idea what Soulflayer does, so when I T3 a Chromantiflayer he asked to read the card, looks at his hand, says "Game 2?" and we reshuffle. Maybe he doesn't mainboard any removal? (In Mardu?!)
Game 2: Another T3 Chromantiflayer and he does an EOT Crackling Doom. He has a Crackling Doom for my next 3 threats as well. I lose.
Game 3: He doesn't stand a chance - doesn't have any Dooms for my T4 Chromaflayer, nor my T5 Rhino, nor my T6 Sagu Mauler, and then I bestow a Chromanticore onto the Mauler and don't even get to my combat step before he scoops.
Top 4: U/W Control I ID'ed with
Not going to describe each game except to say that for every threat, he had an answer. End Hostilities, Erase, Banishing Light, Devouring Light, counters for days... it was rough. It didn't help that Game 2 I was on tilt and forgot Sagu Maulers have hexproof and let him Banishing Light one - which I know wasn't intentional, we just both forgot it had hexproof.
Do I just play poorly against control, or is that a tough matchup for us? I mean - one incorrect play wouldn't have won me the match (likely that game though).
It was stupid.
3 Mana Confluence
2 Flooded Strand
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Mantis Rider
1 Sagu Mauler
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Soulflayer
4 Chromanticore
3 Sidisi, Blood Tyrant
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1 Torrent Elemental
3 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Sultai Charm
3 Hero's Downfall
1 Murderous Cut
I built this on MTGO last night and haven't dropped a match yet. This deck is seriously super resilient. I clawed my way back from the pits of Hell multiple times. Stabilizing at 1-3 life and coming back to win convincingly is a regular occurrence.
A few notes on card choices:
I wasn't overly thrilled with Mantis Rider. I loved to exile him to give Soulflayer three relevant abilities, but I was rarely able to cast him with the mana configuration (which I got from ebonclaw, who runs 4 main so maybe I was just unlucky). Is there a solid replacement for Mantis Rider?
Speaking of the mana configuration, I may tweak it a bit. I felt there were too many basics, and I wasn't always able to hit my colors when I wanted to. I know other iterations of the deck run Temples, and this build foregoes the scry to have tri-lands, but a few Temples may warrant consideration. Overall the deck is awesome. It's incredibly fun and powerful.
My current sideboard is the same as ebonclaw's, but I may tweak it a bit depending on what I forecast the meta in LA to be this weekend.
My only issue is that it hurts. With the amount of lifelink we get though (through Chromantiflayers or Chromanticores) it's not that big a deal. If you're really scared of it though using the CIPT lifelands might be an option - but it might be too slow. Untested.
Also untested is a bunch of fetches and basics, but I feel like that'll cause problems like you said TLK.
I'm mostly treating this as a BUG shell splashing Red and White. Which means that Mantis Rider while cute doesn't fit - because he requires two of the splash colors by turn 3.
I've been thinking about putting Torrent Elemental in my sideboard, but I'm not sure what I'd pull out.