Solar Flare is an archetype that has made it to tier one a couple of times in the last 10 years. It is an Esper (UBW) control archetype that relies on a 6+ converted mana cost bomb-type create suite along with a solid reanimation card. For this archetype to exist there needs to be an Engine-type bomb that brings the whole concept together, and a playable reanimation card (not looking for speed here unlike Legacy Reanimater, but something in the 4 to 5 CMC range).
Currently in Standard there is one underrated reanimation spell in Necromantic Summons that deserves a look. In the past Zombify and Unburial Rites were the cards that filled that role, but Necromantic Summons, although costing one more colorless than Zombify and lacking Unburial Rites flashback, can target a creature in any graveyard allowing us to have some of that old versatility that Zombify combined with Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni provided years ago. Fearsome Awakening is another card available, but is considerably worse in this deck archetype due to Spell Mastery being more viable than Dragon sub-type, and the restriction to only your graveyard on Fearsome Awakening. Profound Journey also works, but is too high of an investment at 7 converted mana cost to really fill that role.
For bomb creatures, there are many choices scaling from the obscure value bin rares and uncommons from drafts past to the newest most obscene Eldrazi. However when you look over the Solar Flare lists from 2006 and 2011 you will notice the most common bomb acts as an engine (2006: Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Meloku the Clouded Mirror 2011: Sun Titan). These days, with the printing of Battle for Zendikar, there is a currently value bin rare that could act as this engine for Solar Flare: Emeria Shepherd. With Emeria Shepherd it is important to read the card throughly because this can Reclaim or reanimate any ([i]important[/i]) non land permanent in your graveyard as a Landfall ability. That means should the first bit the dust to a traditional-kill removal spell the second can landfall the first back. This is somewhat similar to the 2011 version where Sun Titans would chain off with Phantasmal Images, or more recently Angel of Serenity loops with other copies of itself and something like Thragtusk for extreme stabilization. After adding the appropriate number of Emeria Shepherds to the deck, then you can start to look at other bombs like: Void Winnower, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Bane of Bala Ged, Dragonlord Silumgar, Alhammarret, High Arbiter, dipping into a green splash Dragonlord Dromoka, and dipping into red Swift Warkite .
Alhammarret, High Arbiter: I do not recommend this creature, but with a fetchland and Emeria Shepherd in play, fetching a plains or plains dual and having this enter the battlefield during their draw step may be worth mentioning, although unlikely.
Dragonlord Dromoka: Lifelink is very clutch, and this could be a very worthy splash.
Swift Warkite : If you are fooling around with a handful of 3 or less CMC creatures, this could be interesting.
Counterspells are important in a control deck, but choosing which ones to use is often meta dependent. One I would like to mention however due to it's synergy is Silumgar Sorcerer. Silumgar Sorcerer can self exploit acting as a 1UURemove Soul, however later in the game fetchlands can be cracked searching out plains (or plains duals) with Emeria Shepherd on the battlefield for uncounterable "free" Remove Soul effect. In an aggro meta, this deck is probably a poor choice, but counters such as Horribly Awry are better, and in a bomby Monsters-like meta something like Disdainful Stroke is probably best. In a blind vacuum I recommend Clash of Wills for it's versatility early and late game. Other options for a catch all would be Scatter to the Winds, but costing a set 3 CMC is a little slow and likely best in a control mirror. Of course there are many other more meta specific options such as Dispel, Negate and Silumgar's Command. I am going to mention Ulamog's Nullifier, but I feel it is a subpar Silumgar Sorcerer in most respects from it's increased difficulty to get in the graveyard, to the exile clause, to being 4 CMC opposed to 3.
How about some support cards? Artificer’s Epiphany acts in a similar role as Compulsive Research and Forbidden Alchemy did in the 2006 and 2011 versions. There are other options like Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy or if you splash into green or red other options may be intriguing such as Tormenting Voice. Previous iterations of this archetype have included artifact accelerants to complement the reanimation plan making hard casting more viable. We have Hedron Archive to fill that role for us these days, and it is also an Emeria Shepherd target to draw cards late in the game. Control decks utilize sweepers to catch up in card advantage late and I believe the best fit for our deck is not Languish, End Hostilities, or Crux of Fate, but instead Tragic Arrogance which allows us to keep a planeswalker, Emeria Shepherd and artifact accelerant. Talking about Planeswalkers, they act as a great stabilizing forces in the mid-game with Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar creating tokens, and Ob Nixilis Reignited playing the control complement well. These planes walkers, it is important to note, can be brought back with Emeria Shepherd as they are non land permanents. It is important to tune your removal suite to your meta (I feel as if the base choice is Stasis Snare as the instant speed complements holding up mana for counters), but I suggest including, for similar reasons as to why I suggested Silumgar Sorcerer, Merciless Executioner and or Fleshbag Marauder and Minister of Pain as they are solid 3CMC spells (Edict or -1/-1 to their team), but are phenomenal late game as a free landfall ability for Emeria Shepherd. Really tuning the deck toward aggro, one could look towards a 4 card set of Cleric of the Forward Order as early roadblocks and life gain that can comeback for stabilizing life gain late.
4 Artificer’s Epiphany: Classic instant speed dig effect.
0 or 4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy: Budget or not.
2-3 Tragic Arrogance: Optimal sweeper for this deck.
0-2 Languish: I prefer Minister of Pain or sideboard Virulent Plague. However if the meta requires it, go for it.
0 End Hostilities: This is a subpar sweeper for this deck.
0 - 2 Crux of Fate: If Dragons are huge in your meta, this is a legit option, if not then I’d stay away.
0 - 2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor : I feel like this is a lesser Gideon as you can not pump out a token every turn, however if you really need the lifegain feature it is an option.
0 - 4[card]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[card]: I like these in heavy multiples as he acts as both a midrange finisher, but also he can ultimate immediately for you to cast another copy so the issue of multiples is minimal.
0-2 Ob Nixilis Reignited : This deck is top heavy CMC-wise, but Ob Nixilis stabilizes very well and is a good card worthy of consideration.
1-4 Merciless Executioner : This is essentially the same card as Fleshbag Marauder. I suggest splitting the count to play around Infinite Obliteration
1-4 Fleshbag Marauder : This is essentially the same card as Merciless Executioner.
0-4 Minister of Pain: 4 would be in a meta completely ruled by 1/1 creatures or tokens.
0 or 4 Cleric of the Forward Order : 4 in an aggro meta.
0-1 Sword of the Animist: This can pull additional basic lands out of your deck if you have enough cheap creatures to make equipping and attacking with this viable.
0 of or 4 of each Sidisi’s Faithful + Liliana, Heretical Healer: if you chose to use these two card increase your use of fleshbag/merciless/minister as flipping her into Liliana, Defiant Necromancer allows you to -1 unsummon, or -3 edict or -1/-1. This follows the gameplan, but takes up a significant portion of the deck.
0-4 Secure the Wastes: If you are not using Virulent Plague in your SB (which has counter synergy to Gideon) this is a decent card that plays well with ramp, instant speed holding up counters, and Gideon's anthem ultimate. Likely at it's best in a Jace build where you would also replace Stasis Snare with Utter End.
Liliana, Defiant Necromancer or Emeria Shepherd plus the following:
Sidisi's Faithful = Unsummon (-1 loyalty, or plains landfall) [I have cast this, then used Liliana -1, then Emeria'd a plains for 3 unsummon effects in a single turn for 1 mana]
Merciless Executioner / Fleshbag Marauder = Edict (-3 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Silumgar Sorcerer (Emeria only) = Counter Creature (-3 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Minister of Pain = Opponent's creatures get -1/-1 (-3 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Profaner of the Dead = Mass unsummon opponents smaller creatures. (-4 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Sidisi, Undead Vizier = Demonic Tutor (-5 loyalty, or plains landfall)
I think 8 of a colored source is considered the minimum to fairly consistently have a single symbol of that mana producing land in the opening turns. If you go back in the archives I think this was a big deal in standard in the Delver timeframe of popularity as they wanted a turn 1 untapped island every game, while wanting the lowest possible number in the deck to increase Delver's flips.
Being UB, enchantments were a nightmare matchup during game one when his Starfield of Nyx swung for lethal after Kruphix's Insight drew him enormous card advantage in previous turns. In game two I landed Lilliana, Heretical Healer before casting Sidisi's Faithful which exploited itself to bounce his Herald of the Pantheon to his hand and flipped Lilliana to Liliana, Defiant Necromancer which -1’d to rebuy the Sidisi's Faithful to bounce his Courser of Kruphix. I used this tempo to seal out the game looping it as needed. Game three we drew in time as I could only deal 7 damage in the fifth turn as opposed to the 10 needed. Also this was only matchup where I got to draw the Sword of the Animist which was useful, especially when my hand was loaded with gas and I could attack my equipped Jace into his Herald of the Pantheon + Nyxfleece Ram to ramp. Without it my loaded hand would not have been able to have been played out as well as had I not had the sword.
Round Two (Turbo Fog)
Result: 2-1
Once again being UB and facing an enchantment based deck was a nightmare. He dominated game one by landing a singleton Orbs of Warding which negated my Jace, Telepath Unbound ultimate. Game two I knocked him down to a health range where one turn without a fog effect would lose him the game. He went all in on a handful of draw spells trying to dig to another fog effect, but couldn't find one deep into the game. Game three I had morphed Stratus Dancers multiple times in the match, but had two morphs in this game that hit him for 2 each a turn since the early game. His assumption was that both were Stratus Dancers, and I attacked for two less than lethal to bait him into not using a fog effect on the attack as he at this point consistently discarded down to seven and was representing a considerable number of the effects. Multiple turns pass as I wait to draw any black card to reveal/flip my Ruthless Ripper, which ended the game on the spot. I had only boarded it in as a 3 mana 2/2, which sadly in this matchup was a better option than many of the dead cards, and luckily that rare opportunity presented itself to win the match.
Round Three (Boros Goggles)
Result: 2-0
These games were not really close, but did take a while to finish as his burn would kill my creatures, but eventually I flipped a Liliana to exploit triggers and resurrected attackers that had previously been burned to attack slowly for the win. In game two he was 4 mana short of burning me out with Ravaging Blaze the turn the game ended in my favor.
Round Four (Red Deck Wins)
Result: 0-2
Game one I was on the draw and his Monastery Swiftspear into turn two Call of the Full Moon was too much to overcome once followed up by Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh. I had a turn one Sidisi’s Faithful acting as a 0/4 wall, but the multiple angles of attack and the pressure to cast 2 spells in a turn as soon as possible was too much. I stabilized at roughly 8 life, but was burned out by Chandra and burn spells in the end. Game two I drew both Pharika's Cures, but ended up needing one more, as in the final turns of the game our life totals were 1-1, but I top decked an inconvenient land to his threat in the end. I think this may be the toughest match up, especially since his build had minimal use of one toughness creatures so my Minister of Pain cards were not of much use. I really wish I had the opportunity to curve Hero's Blade into Liliana here to see if it’s possible for them to beat, but I saw neither card in the matchup.
if you splash green you can get rid of multiple enchantments with Back to Nature, it's an easier splash given you can swap some tap lands for the Sultai triple tap lands.
Is True-Name Nemesis too good for standard/limited? It seems like all the other good reprint merfolk are ruled out like Cursecatcher and Master of the Pearl Trident. Black has player sac's a creature effects in standard, red goblins have Piledriver. White's legend in this set can exile it. Green spamming large 4+ toughness creatures can race it especially if lords aren't available to Merfolk. Would let voltron decks back into standard in a big way. Probably not going to happen as it would be insanely powerful, but I can't figure out what merfolk could be playable and reprinted that isn't already ruled out, outdated, or related to an invalid location. At least True Name Nemesis has a little flavor where the Planeswalkers have "true names" this set, and he can slay planeswalkers flipped pretty easy.
Pretty sure Sidisi's Faithful is by far the best trigger and general synergy card for the new Liliana.
This by far. These two cards have the potential to make an oppressive deck. The first self sacs to unsummon a threat creating tempo, a 2/2 zombie and a planeswalker flip. Then you +1. The plus +1 ability drains the hand size to a crawl, while the -X can regain the Unsummon effect to mess with tempo. Eventually they will have no hand and you ultimate Liliana and the exploiting army can ETB on the endsteps to lock the game out.
Is there a deck that runs both Bitterblossom and Tarmogoyf? I'm not talking about like Jund or Junk which are capable of running both, but like a deck that actually wants and does run both.
This Jace is incredible. On the play he enters the battlefield when your opponent only has one land, there is no counterspell in standard for that (Modern has Spell Snare but not Pierce since he is a creature). He dies to Shock, but only the first turn, because otherwise you can loot in response and flip him (assuming minor graveyard requirement). Once flipped he stops the power of most on curve creatures protecting himself while going up to 7 (!!!) loyalty. His minus is a sorcery speed Snapcaster Mage where the mana invested was spent in prior turns. His Ultimate isn't exile the library tier game ending, but it makes it so that your control deck can't easily be run out of game ending threats as all those Divination type cards pair up with your sweepers to bring an out to the table.
Merfork Looter made the top 8 of Worlds in 2001 in an Aggro countrol deck that wanted to find lock pieces and creatures. Liliana could possibly be that lock piece in upcoming standard simply +1ing each turn to lock it up. Sidisi's Faithful very well could become a no play, to staple play common. (1 drop 0/4, unsummon (gives them a card in hard for Liliana's +1), flips Liliana). He also can be resurrected by Liliana, or put creatures into the graveyard for her to target (until they flip in which case she begins to fill that role).
Lotus0
Legendary Artifact
Discard a card: add a bloom counter to Lotus.
Remove 3 bloom counters, and exile Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.
dealing with a turn four rhino is hard enough and I don't need any turn one rhinos coming in.
that would take:
Plains, Lotus, Lotus, Lotus, Siege Rhino, plus an additional nine cards to discard.
It would make modern decks like dredge much better. Opening with that card into discarding a pair of Grave Trolls, and a Faithless Looting to cast off three red would be a very very explosive opening. Decks with Unburial Rites would also get a major boost with discarding Iona+Rites then land for turn for T1 Iona. Standard though, what is really worth 4 cards for 3 mana?
3 Court Hussar
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
2 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Island
1 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Azorius Chancery
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Orzhov Basilica
2 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Underground River
1 Watery Grave
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
2 Dimir Signet
3 Mortify
4 Remand
4 Compulsive Research
2 Persecute
4 Wrath of God
3 Zombify
4 Descendant of Kiyomaro
3 Condemn
4 Castigate
2 Cranial Extraction
2 Persecute
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Sun Titan
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Island
5 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Drowned Catacomb
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Dismember
1 Doom Blade
4 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Go for the Throat
4 Mana Leak
2 Think Twice
2 Day of Judgment
2 Unburial Rites
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Doom Blade
2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
2 Day of Judgment
4 Timely Reinforcements
1 Unburial Rites
Currently in Standard there is one underrated reanimation spell in Necromantic Summons that deserves a look. In the past Zombify and Unburial Rites were the cards that filled that role, but Necromantic Summons, although costing one more colorless than Zombify and lacking Unburial Rites flashback, can target a creature in any graveyard allowing us to have some of that old versatility that Zombify combined with Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni provided years ago. Fearsome Awakening is another card available, but is considerably worse in this deck archetype due to Spell Mastery being more viable than Dragon sub-type, and the restriction to only your graveyard on Fearsome Awakening. Profound Journey also works, but is too high of an investment at 7 converted mana cost to really fill that role.
1-3 Necromantic Summons
0 Fearsome Awakening
0 Profound Journey
For bomb creatures, there are many choices scaling from the obscure value bin rares and uncommons from drafts past to the newest most obscene Eldrazi. However when you look over the Solar Flare lists from 2006 and 2011 you will notice the most common bomb acts as an engine (2006: Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Meloku the Clouded Mirror 2011: Sun Titan). These days, with the printing of Battle for Zendikar, there is a currently value bin rare that could act as this engine for Solar Flare: Emeria Shepherd. With Emeria Shepherd it is important to read the card throughly because this can Reclaim or reanimate any ([i]important[/i]) non land permanent in your graveyard as a Landfall ability. That means should the first bit the dust to a traditional-kill removal spell the second can landfall the first back. This is somewhat similar to the 2011 version where Sun Titans would chain off with Phantasmal Images, or more recently Angel of Serenity loops with other copies of itself and something like Thragtusk for extreme stabilization. After adding the appropriate number of Emeria Shepherds to the deck, then you can start to look at other bombs like: Void Winnower, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Bane of Bala Ged, Dragonlord Silumgar, Alhammarret, High Arbiter, dipping into a green splash Dragonlord Dromoka, and dipping into red Swift Warkite .
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: Current definition of a bomb.
Bane of Bala Ged: Supped up Annihilator.
Dragonlord Silumgar: Steals a Planeswalker or Creature. Sort of a Angel of Despair type creature, but legendary.
Alhammarret, High Arbiter: I do not recommend this creature, but with a fetchland and Emeria Shepherd in play, fetching a plains or plains dual and having this enter the battlefield during their draw step may be worth mentioning, although unlikely.
Dragonlord Dromoka: Lifelink is very clutch, and this could be a very worthy splash.
Swift Warkite : If you are fooling around with a handful of 3 or less CMC creatures, this could be interesting.
Counterspells are important in a control deck, but choosing which ones to use is often meta dependent. One I would like to mention however due to it's synergy is Silumgar Sorcerer. Silumgar Sorcerer can self exploit acting as a 1UU Remove Soul, however later in the game fetchlands can be cracked searching out plains (or plains duals) with Emeria Shepherd on the battlefield for uncounterable "free" Remove Soul effect. In an aggro meta, this deck is probably a poor choice, but counters such as Horribly Awry are better, and in a bomby Monsters-like meta something like Disdainful Stroke is probably best. In a blind vacuum I recommend Clash of Wills for it's versatility early and late game. Other options for a catch all would be Scatter to the Winds, but costing a set 3 CMC is a little slow and likely best in a control mirror. Of course there are many other more meta specific options such as Dispel, Negate and Silumgar's Command. I am going to mention Ulamog's Nullifier, but I feel it is a subpar Silumgar Sorcerer in most respects from it's increased difficulty to get in the graveyard, to the exile clause, to being 4 CMC opposed to 3.
2-4 Silumgar Sorcerer
0-4 Horribly Awry
0-4 Disdainful Stroke
2-4 Clash of Wills
0-2 Scatter to the Winds
How about some support cards? Artificer’s Epiphany acts in a similar role as Compulsive Research and Forbidden Alchemy did in the 2006 and 2011 versions. There are other options like Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy or if you splash into green or red other options may be intriguing such as Tormenting Voice. Previous iterations of this archetype have included artifact accelerants to complement the reanimation plan making hard casting more viable. We have Hedron Archive to fill that role for us these days, and it is also an Emeria Shepherd target to draw cards late in the game. Control decks utilize sweepers to catch up in card advantage late and I believe the best fit for our deck is not Languish, End Hostilities, or Crux of Fate, but instead Tragic Arrogance which allows us to keep a planeswalker, Emeria Shepherd and artifact accelerant. Talking about Planeswalkers, they act as a great stabilizing forces in the mid-game with Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar creating tokens, and Ob Nixilis Reignited playing the control complement well. These planes walkers, it is important to note, can be brought back with Emeria Shepherd as they are non land permanents. It is important to tune your removal suite to your meta (I feel as if the base choice is Stasis Snare as the instant speed complements holding up mana for counters), but I suggest including, for similar reasons as to why I suggested Silumgar Sorcerer, Merciless Executioner and or Fleshbag Marauder and Minister of Pain as they are solid 3CMC spells (Edict or -1/-1 to their team), but are phenomenal late game as a free landfall ability for Emeria Shepherd. Really tuning the deck toward aggro, one could look towards a 4 card set of Cleric of the Forward Order as early roadblocks and life gain that can comeback for stabilizing life gain late.
4 Artificer’s Epiphany: Classic instant speed dig effect.
0 or 4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy: Budget or not.
2-3 Tragic Arrogance: Optimal sweeper for this deck.
0-2 Languish: I prefer Minister of Pain or sideboard Virulent Plague. However if the meta requires it, go for it.
0 End Hostilities: This is a subpar sweeper for this deck.
0 - 2 Crux of Fate: If Dragons are huge in your meta, this is a legit option, if not then I’d stay away.
0 - 2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor : I feel like this is a lesser Gideon as you can not pump out a token every turn, however if you really need the lifegain feature it is an option.
0 - 4[card]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[card]: I like these in heavy multiples as he acts as both a midrange finisher, but also he can ultimate immediately for you to cast another copy so the issue of multiples is minimal.
0-2 Ob Nixilis Reignited : This deck is top heavy CMC-wise, but Ob Nixilis stabilizes very well and is a good card worthy of consideration.
1-4 Merciless Executioner : This is essentially the same card as Fleshbag Marauder. I suggest splitting the count to play around Infinite Obliteration
1-4 Fleshbag Marauder : This is essentially the same card as Merciless Executioner.
0-4 Minister of Pain: 4 would be in a meta completely ruled by 1/1 creatures or tokens.
0 or 4 Cleric of the Forward Order : 4 in an aggro meta.
0-1 Sword of the Animist: This can pull additional basic lands out of your deck if you have enough cheap creatures to make equipping and attacking with this viable.
0 of or 4 of each Sidisi’s Faithful + Liliana, Heretical Healer: if you chose to use these two card increase your use of fleshbag/merciless/minister as flipping her into Liliana, Defiant Necromancer allows you to -1 unsummon, or -3 edict or -1/-1. This follows the gameplan, but takes up a significant portion of the deck.
0-4 Secure the Wastes: If you are not using Virulent Plague in your SB (which has counter synergy to Gideon) this is a decent card that plays well with ramp, instant speed holding up counters, and Gideon's anthem ultimate. Likely at it's best in a Jace build where you would also replace Stasis Snare with Utter End.
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Minister of Pain
4 Silumgar Sorcerer
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
4 Emeria Shepherd
Planeswalker
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
Artifact
4 Hedron Archive
Sorcery
2 Necromantic Summons
2 Tragic Arrogance
4 Clash of Wills
4 Artificer’s Epiphany
Flash Enchantment
2 Stasis Snare
Land
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Prairie Stream
2 Sunken Hollow
2 Shambling Vent
2 Island
1 Swamp
6 Plains
2 Ruinous Path
3 Stratus Dancer
2 Virulent Plague
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Minister of Pain
4 Cleric of the Forward Order
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Silumgar Sorcerer
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
3 Emeria Shepherd
Planeswalker
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Artifact
3 Hedron Archive
Sorcery
2 Necromantic Summons
2 Tragic Arrogance
Instant
4 Clash of Wills
2 Secure the Wastes
4 Artificer’s Epiphany
2 Utter End
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Prairie Stream
2 Sunken Hollow
2 Shambling Vent
2 Island
1 Swamp
6 Plains
1 Ruinous Path
2 Ultimate Price
3 Stratus Dancer
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Minister of Pain
4 Cleric of the Forward Order
4 Sidisi’s Faithful
4 Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 Merciless Executioner
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Silumgar Sorcerer
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
3 Emeria Shepherd
Planeswalker
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Artifact
2 Hedron Archive
Sorcery
2 Necromantic Summons
2 Tragic Arrogance
4 Clash of Wills
4 Artificer’s Epiphany
Land
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Prairie Stream
2 Sunken Hollow
2 Shambling Vent
1 Island
2 Swamp
6 Plains
2 Ruinous Path
1 Profaner of the Dead
3 Stratus Dancer
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Minister of Pain
4 Cleric of the Forward Order
Liliana, Defiant Necromancer or Emeria Shepherd plus the following:
Sidisi's Faithful = Unsummon (-1 loyalty, or plains landfall) [I have cast this, then used Liliana -1, then Emeria'd a plains for 3 unsummon effects in a single turn for 1 mana]
Merciless Executioner / Fleshbag Marauder = Edict (-3 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Silumgar Sorcerer (Emeria only) = Counter Creature (-3 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Minister of Pain = Opponent's creatures get -1/-1 (-3 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Profaner of the Dead = Mass unsummon opponents smaller creatures. (-4 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Sidisi, Undead Vizier = Demonic Tutor (-5 loyalty, or plains landfall)
Phyrexian Plaguelord
2 Hangarback Walker
4 Sidisi's Faithful
3 Stratus Dancer
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Minister of Pain
3 Silumgar Sorcerer
1 Whirler Rogue
Legendary Creature (1/61)
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
Legendary Creature // Planeswalker (8/61)
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Liliana, Heretical Healer
Enchantment (2/61)
2 Thopter Spy Network
Instant (3/61)
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Murderous Cut
2 Thoughtseize
2 Crux of Fate
Artifact (2/61)
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Hero's Blade
Artifact Land (4/61)
4 Darksteel Citadel
Legendary Land (1/61)
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Land (21/61)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Dismal Backwater
1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
6 Island
6 Swamp
1 Agent of Erebos
2 Ultimate Price
2 Languish
1 Crux of Fate
2 Pharika's Cure
1 Minister of Pain
1 Erebos's Titan
2 Encase in Ice
1 Palace Siege
1 Burnished Hart
1 Ruthless Ripper
FNM Report
Round One (Abzan Constellation)
Result: 1-1-1
His key cards in his victory game were Starfield of Nyx, and Sigil of the Empty Throne backed by earlier game enablers like Herald of the Pantheon, Courser of Kruphix, and Eidolon of Blossoms.
Being UB, enchantments were a nightmare matchup during game one when his Starfield of Nyx swung for lethal after Kruphix's Insight drew him enormous card advantage in previous turns. In game two I landed Lilliana, Heretical Healer before casting Sidisi's Faithful which exploited itself to bounce his Herald of the Pantheon to his hand and flipped Lilliana to Liliana, Defiant Necromancer which -1’d to rebuy the Sidisi's Faithful to bounce his Courser of Kruphix. I used this tempo to seal out the game looping it as needed. Game three we drew in time as I could only deal 7 damage in the fifth turn as opposed to the 10 needed. Also this was only matchup where I got to draw the Sword of the Animist which was useful, especially when my hand was loaded with gas and I could attack my equipped Jace into his Herald of the Pantheon + Nyxfleece Ram to ramp. Without it my loaded hand would not have been able to have been played out as well as had I not had the sword.
Round Two (Turbo Fog)
Result: 2-1
Once again being UB and facing an enchantment based deck was a nightmare. He dominated game one by landing a singleton Orbs of Warding which negated my Jace, Telepath Unbound ultimate. Game two I knocked him down to a health range where one turn without a fog effect would lose him the game. He went all in on a handful of draw spells trying to dig to another fog effect, but couldn't find one deep into the game. Game three I had morphed Stratus Dancers multiple times in the match, but had two morphs in this game that hit him for 2 each a turn since the early game. His assumption was that both were Stratus Dancers, and I attacked for two less than lethal to bait him into not using a fog effect on the attack as he at this point consistently discarded down to seven and was representing a considerable number of the effects. Multiple turns pass as I wait to draw any black card to reveal/flip my Ruthless Ripper, which ended the game on the spot. I had only boarded it in as a 3 mana 2/2, which sadly in this matchup was a better option than many of the dead cards, and luckily that rare opportunity presented itself to win the match.
Round Three (Boros Goggles)
Result: 2-0
These games were not really close, but did take a while to finish as his burn would kill my creatures, but eventually I flipped a Liliana to exploit triggers and resurrected attackers that had previously been burned to attack slowly for the win. In game two he was 4 mana short of burning me out with Ravaging Blaze the turn the game ended in my favor.
Round Four (Red Deck Wins)
Result: 0-2
Game one I was on the draw and his Monastery Swiftspear into turn two Call of the Full Moon was too much to overcome once followed up by Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh. I had a turn one Sidisi’s Faithful acting as a 0/4 wall, but the multiple angles of attack and the pressure to cast 2 spells in a turn as soon as possible was too much. I stabilized at roughly 8 life, but was burned out by Chandra and burn spells in the end. Game two I drew both Pharika's Cures, but ended up needing one more, as in the final turns of the game our life totals were 1-1, but I top decked an inconvenient land to his threat in the end. I think this may be the toughest match up, especially since his build had minimal use of one toughness creatures so my Minister of Pain cards were not of much use. I really wish I had the opportunity to curve Hero's Blade into Liliana here to see if it’s possible for them to beat, but I saw neither card in the matchup.
I think it was ruled out by the number crunch
This by far. These two cards have the potential to make an oppressive deck. The first self sacs to unsummon a threat creating tempo, a 2/2 zombie and a planeswalker flip. Then you +1. The plus +1 ability drains the hand size to a crawl, while the -X can regain the Unsummon effect to mess with tempo. Eventually they will have no hand and you ultimate Liliana and the exploiting army can ETB on the endsteps to lock the game out.
If you are the best coin flipper in the world, it's the most powerful card in MTG.
Merfork Looter made the top 8 of Worlds in 2001 in an Aggro countrol deck that wanted to find lock pieces and creatures. Liliana could possibly be that lock piece in upcoming standard simply +1ing each turn to lock it up. Sidisi's Faithful very well could become a no play, to staple play common. (1 drop 0/4, unsummon (gives them a card in hard for Liliana's +1), flips Liliana). He also can be resurrected by Liliana, or put creatures into the graveyard for her to target (until they flip in which case she begins to fill that role).
Legendary Artifact
Discard a card: add a bloom counter to Lotus.
Remove 3 bloom counters, and exile Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.
that would take:
Plains, Lotus, Lotus, Lotus, Siege Rhino, plus an additional nine cards to discard.
It would make modern decks like dredge much better. Opening with that card into discarding a pair of Grave Trolls, and a Faithless Looting to cast off three red would be a very very explosive opening. Decks with Unburial Rites would also get a major boost with discarding Iona+Rites then land for turn for T1 Iona. Standard though, what is really worth 4 cards for 3 mana?