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Hi, I'm Gami and this is my Pioneer Soulflayer list! If you want to play an interactive, unique graveyard combo deck, you're in the right place!
This deck is built to maximise the power of Soulflayer and Urborg Scavengers to apply early pressure with a hard-to-remove threat while disrupting its opponents for long enough to win.

Last updated for Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

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Deck Info:

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> Overview:

The main gameplan of the deck is to mill or discard creatures with valuable keywords like Zetalpa, Primal Dawn, Samut, Voice of Dissent or Striped Riverwinder, exile them with Soulflayer or Urborg Scavengers to steal their abilities and make an impervious threat to win the game with.
Deep-Cavern Bat and Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel are creatures with incidental keywords that also fuel our threat, and we have a large amount of card selection to make sure we always have the pieces we need.
The deck feels fast, disruptive and powerful, especially post-board once we bring in more interaction.

> Why Sultai?:

Although the 75 only has eight green pips in total (Ten if you count occasionally hardcasting Samut) the argument for being Dimir instead of Sultai is actually less strong than you might think.
Take a typical play pattern for the deck. Turn one, Otherworldly Gaze for. Turn two, Grisly Salvage, mill some cards, pick up a third land, Turn three, cast Thoughtseize, see the coast is clear, cast Soulflayer for BB exiling relevant cards.
This is only possible if all our lands make black as we often need double or triple black for our “combo” turns. (We'll get to why Boseiju gets a pass later)
We also regularly want to double-spell with our blue cantrips - casting Tainted Indulgence into Otherwordly Gaze costs UUB, for example - meaning most of our lands should also make blue, if possible.

If we would play Dimir, the best Dimir land that we aren't already running is Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway. This presents a problem though, as if we would play a Pathway on blue for Otherworldly Gaze on turn one, we then couldn't cast Soulflayer on turn two, if we chose black, we'd then miss out on our turn one dig spell. The issue restricting the deck isn't the number of colours we play, it's the number of colours the lands make.
We could play the pain lands though, Underground River makes both colours and sounds like a solution to our problem, but there's so few colourless pips in the deck we're taking damage almost every time. If we're taking damage all the time we might as well play Mana Confluence instead, if we're playing Mana Confluence, we might as well splash green.

Despite the drawbacks of running a third colour, green comes with powerful cards for the strategy. Grisly Salvage is by far the best dig spell, Goldvein Hydra offers strong keywords and is relevant at any point of the game, Pick Your Poison is a very versatile sideboard option and Boseiju is a maindeckable answer to Leyline of the Void.

This leads us to a second question of why I decided to play Boseiju, despite it not casting half my spells. I'll answer that in the next section.

>Individual Card Breakdown:

>Manabase:

The manabase is fairly self-explanatory, fastlands like Darkslick Shores and Blooming Marsh cast our dig spells early. Watery Grave taps for both of our core colours and can be played tapped or untapped depending on whether we prioritize life or tempo. One Overgrown Tomb for our splash. Mana Confluence fixes our colours completely, but the life loss is a relevant downside, hands with two or more Confluences are often unkeepable, especially if they’re our only mana sources. Shipwreck Marsh comes in tapped on the first two turns, but after that is untapped with no downside, this would be a fifth Watery Grave if I could play it, but sometimes you have to make do. One basic swamp is included to have something to search for if hit by Field of Ruin or similar.

Boseiju, Who Endures – To run Boseiju or not has been one of the most difficult things about building this deck. While Boseiju hardly counts as a land as it casts very few of our spells, having a maindeck way to remove problem enchantments has been invaluable. In my testing it has saved more games than it’s ruined, but it has ruined games. Being the only land in the deck that doesn’t make black mana for Soulflayer on turn two or not being able to cast a second spell in a turn as the colours aren’t right is a real problem, but it’s a problem that can be played around if you’re aware that it might come up.
On the other hand, it's removed a Hall of Storm Giants in a grindy control game, a Leyline of the Void that a Rakdos player thought I'd be cold to and a Parhelion II before Greasefang got a chance to crew it, to give only a few examples. You almost can't count it as a land, but you can definitely count on it to save you when it matters.

>Maindeck:

Grisly Salvage – This is the main reason to play green in more typical Soulflayer builds, seeing five cards at instant speed is well above rate of any similar card in Pioneer and being able to take lands from among them is fantastic. This is the best tool for smoothing our draws by a long way.

Otherworldly Gaze- Gaze seeing three cards for one mana and having the potential to put four cards into the graveyard is one of the best early enablers in the deck. The dream scenario is to cast Gaze on turn one, hit some combination of Zetalpa, Riverwinder, Samut and Deep-Cavern Bat, delve all four cards from the graveyard and cast Soulflayer on turn two. Gaze doesn’t offer card advantage, but it does offer selection. Flashing back Gaze can be the thing we need to keep our wheels turning and stay drawing relevant cards.

Tainted Indulgence- This replaced Ledger Shredder for me, this came from watching Modern Goryo's Vengeance gameplay where the plan is often to play lots of draw-discard rather than mill so you can sculpt the cards in your hand as effectively as possible.
The rest of the deck makes it very likely that you can discard a card when you want to and not discard a card when you don't. Having five different mana values in your graveyard and not having anything useful in it is rare. There’s plenty of zero, one and two-drops, but then you’d need to mill one of both Soulflayer and Scavengers and to miss on Zetalpa and Samut to not be able to discard and have no good keywords. There’s a 3% chance for this to happen with ten cards in graveyard and it gets less likely with fewer cards early in the game, so it’s possible, but unlikely. At its floor it’s a reliable way to discard a card that replaces itself.

Fatal Push - With Pioneer’s efficiency, Push will hit most threats - especially with revolt active. The meta appears to be tending towards non-creature strategies though, Amalia, Mono-Red and Gruul aggro are the dangerous few left, so most of my copies are in the sideboard for now.

Bitter Triumph - Triumph is a versatile removal spell that also allows us to discard a keyword creature. An unconditional removal spell with “upside” can only be good. Two mana against the faster decks is a real cost though, so this is for the more midrangey matches where you need to answer large creatures.

Spell Pierce - With Ashiok, Dream Render, Liliana of the Veil, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, Go Blank, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Collected Company being key parts of the top meta decks, Spell Pierce is much better positioned than it once was.

Thoughtseize - A staple in every format it’s legal in. Take their best card, have perfect information of their hand.

Striped Riverwinder- Riverwinder is the easiest creature to get in the graveyard and it replaces itself when it does. It's basically an instant-speed cantrip that happens to have hexproof on it.

Deep-Cavern Bat – Flying, lifelink and hand disruption are all things that this deck wants. I wish it didn’t add to the already quite heavy two-drop slot, but it’s been an invaluable tool against control, combo and aggro decks.

Zetalpa, Primal Dawn - Look at all those keywords! Next to impossible to cast, but absolutely the best thing to exile with our threats.

Samut, Voice of Dissent - This deck is less all-in on creatures for Soulflayer to delve than most, only having seven main exile targets. Zetapla is standard, Samut less so. Almost any combination of Samut and another creature is powerful, where other options needed three to four different creatures to have been milled to be a real threat without Zetalpa. This means we can run fewer threats overall and have much higher card quality.

Goldvein Hydra - Three strong keywords, a way to immediately put it in the graveyard by casting it for X=0, a scaleable threat whenever you draw it and can even ramp you into hardcast Zetalpa if the games get super grindy. I think this card is great!

Soulflayer - The core of the deck. Dodges most removal, can come down incredibly early and once it resolves, the number of cards the opponent can have that we care about falls to single digits.

Urborg Scavengers - This plays on a similar axis to Soulflayer, but has unique strengths and weaknesses. Being able to be cast with no setup and exile cards from the opponents graveyard are huge advantages over Soulflayer. However, having a window where it can be removed before it gets its keywords and having to target the card it exiles opens it up to being removed and having graveyard hate used in response. Three mana is also a lot more than two when the deck is so streamlined.

>Sideboard:

Path of Peril - With aggro decks tending towards a much lower curve, Path hits almost everything out of Humans, Spirits and Amalia.

Pick Your Poison- This offers three powerful options for one mana. Answering a Vein Ripper is what it's really here for, but forcing Phoenix to sacrifice a Ledger Shredder or being Stone Rain against Darksteel Citadel from Ensoul makes this a worthy consideration in other matchups.

Tear Asunder - Another Leyline or RiP answer that can be useful later on in slower matchups. Best in metas with lots of control or midrange piles.

Vampire of the Dire Moon - A powerful blocker that will almost always end up in a sort of two-for-one. Trading with a creature and then giving a threat lifelink is incredible value from a one-drop.

Stubborn Denial - This is for matchups where we want to counter something after Soulflayer has resolved, as at that point it’s Negate for one mana. Occasionally it can catch a Fable of the Mirror Breaker, Liliana of the Veil or other early play as well.

Mystical Dispute- Very strong against Spirits, a historically bad matchup, as it can hit creature spells too, good against anything that wants to resolve their blue spells or counter ours. Slightly edged out by Spell Pierce in the current meta, so only one in the 75 for now.

Grafdigger’s Cage - With Amalia and Phoenix at the top of the meta, a one-mana answer to their plans is strong. It doesn’t completely shut down either deck, but it will be a thorn in their side the entire game.

Ashiok, Dream Render - Lotus will fold to this, as will most of the big-mana Bring to Light or Enigmatic Incarnation decks. Phoenix is also hit since it exiles graveyards. Three mana is relatively expensive for this deck, but this will absolutely win games when it resolves. Ashiok is a difficult to remove disruptive piece that will further our gameplan even when it's not slowing down our opponent.

Disdainful Stroke - Mostly for countering wraths or big value-engines from slower decks.

>Noteable Exclusions:

Banehound - Additional lifelink sources against aggressive decks are strong, especially when we don't mind if it dies and can chump block their attackers. But when it’s a card that fundamentally doesn’t further our gameplan aside from blocking once and being exiled later, I feel we can play better cards. I think with Deep-Cavern Bat being printed I’d be very surprised if I register Banehound again.

Ledger Shredder - Shredder can block against aggro and get damage in against control, all while forcing our opponents to think about how many spells they're casting and furthering our gameplan, which sounds fantastic! However, when you need to double spell, to do so on an already restrictive manabase, in a deck that needs to run a non-zero number of uncastable cards, that can be more difficult than it sounds. I found that more often than not; Shredder didn’t let me discard a key card because I couldn’t cast a second spell early-game. With the printing of Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel, Bitter Triumph and running more copies of Tainted Indulgence, I think that the deck can be more consistent at discarding its cards, without having to worry so much about the mana curve and the amount of one-drops. Shredder is undoubtedly powerful, but I feel it was getting to the point where it was restricting the deck more than it was helping it.

Cragplate Baloth - Hexproof and haste is fine, but only good as the first Urborg Scavengers target. Even then, Scavengers can still be removed in response. Samut is a better option here, I feel.

Adult Gold Dragon - A similar story. Extra lifelink is good, but I don't think it's better than Samut.

Neoform / Atraxa, Grand Unifier - There's an argument that the Atraxa Neoform variant is a better deck, but I think we can be equally consistent - if not more so - and pose a bigger, harder-to-remove threat, even if it doesn't refill our hand.

Founding the Third Path - I like this card a lot for its ability to pseudo colour-fix, mill and reuse spells from the graveyard - a lot of what the deck wants to do. But there's one issue; we want to do as much as we can at instant speed, and a non-creature sorcery speed spell that doesn’t offer any selection isn't where we want to be in this deck. It’s more suited to something like Neo-Atraxa where it can flashback Neoform and the deck plays more at sorcery speed.

Lands - Nineteen is low, but when the most expensive card we're trying to cast in the deck is Urborg Scavengers at three mana, and we have 19 ways to filter and draw cards at two mana or less, we can run a comparatively low number of lands while still being consistent. One or two land hands are perfectly keepable if they have one or two dig spells.
If we take into account the mana we actually intend to pay for each card - Soulflayer being BB, Striped Riverwinder being U etc. - the average mana value of the maindeck is 1.79. Using Frank Karsten's well respected method for calculating the minimum number of lands needed in a deck, that being 19.59 + (1.90 * average cmc) – (0.28 * cheap card selection spells), we get 19.59 + (1.90 * 1.66) – (0.28 * 16) = 18.264 lands, even counting Boseiju, Who Endures as half a land still gets us over this guideline, so hopefully that gives you some confidence!

>Currently Testing / Other Options:

Pithing Needle - Naming Sorin or Liliana in the matchups where it matters is a great way to stop worrying about their threats and start to focus on your own gameplan.

Haywire Mite - An answer to Leyline that can be found by Grisly Salvage is very useful as it’s our best dig spell. Gaining two life when it dies is also worth it in aggressive matchups that play Rest in Peace like Humans and Convoke.

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – I was initially low on this card, but I feel that it plays a lot better than it may first appear. Flash means it almost always connects once unless they hold up instant speed removal to play around it and when the rest of our deck is so non-creature based that’s often the incorrect thing to do. If it deals combat damage four times, we can start using it to cast spells for free, including Zetalpa and Samut. This is another plan to get around graveyard hate that we can play in the maindeck. Plenty of fliers in the meta means that Malcolm isn't well positioned, but it could return to the deck when he can deal combat damage more reliably.

Knight of Dusk’s Shadow – Considerations to combat the Amalia combo deck if that matchup becomes more of an issue.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse - If you find aggro to be a problem, you can play good old Shelly in the sideboard, acting as a must-remove for practically any deck that aims to win with combat damage. Four mana is relatively high for us, but if it sticks, it can win you the game by itself.

Sedgemoor Witch - If Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is a bit too pricey and you want a decent midrange / aggro sponge, Witch is great. Making chump blockers and gaining life whenever we cast our spells can often slow down opposing aggro decks enough for us to execute our gameplan and get a threat into play.

Assassin’s Trophy - This removes literally anything. Best in metas where decks have few but varied threats.

Extract the Truth – On the surface, this seems terrible, but answering a Leyline for two mana while also having relevant text if not needed for that is undoubtedly powerful. The floor is a bad Duress, but the ceiling is dealing with a card that completely stops our gameplan. This is a card that you can add to the sideboard if you expect a Leyline heavy meta, as typically the Haywire Mites, Tear Asunder and Boseiju do a good enough job.

>Tips and Tricks:

• Remember to cast or flashback Otherworldly Gaze in your upkeep to choose what you want to draw this turn if you have the spare mana.
• Against graveyard hate that they have to activate, like Unlicenced Hearse of Remorseful Cleric, they don’t get priority after you resolve a spell and before you cast your next one. You can chain something like Grisly Salvage into Soulflayer, and since you delve as a cost, there is no window for them to exile whatever you put into the graveyard.
• Samut is a lot more hard-castable than you might think, and she has flash! Terrify control players by casting it on their end step.
• Mystical Dispute can still counter non-blue spells, it just costs a little more to do it.
• Cycling Riverwinder cannot be countered, if you think someone has a counterspell and have the option, cycle!
• Sometimes, it's better to let your creatures die so you can exile them with Soulflayer. Chump block with a Deep-Cavern Bat and then exile it on your turn with to have a big lifelink threat.
• Grafdigger’s Cage shuts off your own flashback, don't get caught out!
• Against decks that you know play Pick Your Poison, it might be better to avoid exiling a creature with flying so that they can't force you to sacrifice your threat.
• If you don’t have anything meaningful to take from Grisly Salvage, it’s better to take a Striped Riverwinder than a land if you have enough mana, as that’s at least a redraw.
• Against counterspells, Scavengers is better, as it doesn't exile a card until it resolves. Against removal Soulflayer is better as there is no window to kill it before it gets its keywords.
• When mulliganing, Zetalpa or Samut is almost always the first card to go back, unless you have a reliable way to discard it in hand. Too many times I've kept an uncastable card hoping to draw a discard outlet that never came.
• Urborg Scavengers can exile cards from any graveyard, and can get keywords from any card not just creatures. Use this to steal flying, first strike, vigilance from Parhelion II, hexproof from Lotus Field indestructible from Darksteel Citadel and flying, haste from Arclight Phoenix.
• Sometimes, Otherworldly Gaze doesn't show you what you need so you have to high roll, put all three to the graveyard and pray, but when you have time it's often better to chain it into another guaranteed dig spell than to draw Zetalpa when you needed action.
• Scavengers can get menace, Soulflayer can't.

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Sideboard Theory:

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> Rakdos Vampires:

Rakdos Vampires plays fairly similarly to the midrange decks you're probably familiar with, but it has the additional threat of Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord using its -3 to put Vein Ripper into play as early as turn three.

Key Cards:

Graveyard Exile – Go Blank, Hidetsugu Consumes All, Unlicensed Hearse, Leyline of the Void
Soulflayer Removal - Extinction Event, Liliana of the Veil
Threats – Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Archfiend of the Dross, Vein Ripper

Game One:

Their only relevant interaction mainboard across all decks is Bloodtithe Harvester - because it gets around indestructible - and the ever-present Thoughtseize and Duress. Sorcery speed interaction is fairly simple to play around, so game one shouldn’t be too much of a challenge if they don't execute turn 3 Vein Ripper.

Post-Board:

A little harder as any number of hate cards come in - the most harmful being Leyline of the Void. The gameplan is mostly the same, but this time we can answer their board a little more efficiently. We have to be ready for graveyard hate and forced sacrifice, as that's likely what they sideboard in.

Changes:

In:
2x Pick Your Poison - Kills Leyline of the Void if they have it, otherwise save it for Vein Ripper as it's the best answer to it in the format.
1x Tear Asunder - Hits Leyline, Vein Ripper in a pinch and Fable when either of those aren't relevant.
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon - Vampire will almost always trade up into a bigger threat and can also be sacrificed to an edict if needed.

Out:
2x Thoughtseize - There will likely be a lot of hand disruption on both sides and we're worse in a topdeck situation. Thoughtseize brings the game towards that scenario and is the card that punishes us most when we topdeck it, shaved a few here.
1x Otherworldly Gaze - Going down on cards in the matchup where resources will be precious isn't great. We'd like a higher card quality going in this matchup and can afford to go slightly slower.
1x Striped Riverwinder – While it seems wrong to trim a Riverwinder, a lot of their removal is easy to play around, ineffective or ignores hexproof completely.

>Izzet Phoenix:

Phoenix has risen from the ashes with the printing of Picklock Prankster, cantrips and Treasure Cruise is the name of the game, aiming to cast a bunch of spells in a turn and overwhelm with fliers.

Key Cards:

Soulflayer Removal – Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft, Languish, Thing in the Ice
Creature Counterspells – Disdainful Stroke
Graveyard Exile – Ashiok, Dream Render

Game One:

This should be a favoured matchup. They can apply pressure with Arclight Phoenix and Ledger Shredder, but they have extremely few ways to remove a Soulflayer if we get hexproof or indestructible and no way to remove it if we get both. Their only maindeck interaction for us is burn spells for hitting Scavengers with its trigger on the stack, Jwari Disruption as a counter and a one-of Brazen Borrower.

Post Board:

Post board against Izzet is similar, but you’ll have to watch out for Disdainful Stroke. Due to the nature of the deck, they’ll most likely want to tap out on their turn to cast the maximum number of spells for Shredder and Phoenix so you should be able to wait your turn and find a window to cast Soulflayer.

Changes:

In:
3x Fatal Push - Answering Young Pyromancer from the sideboard is something we need to consider, They don't run many and Push isn't the best in the rest of the matchup, so one one extra copy in.
1x Mystical Dispute - Will hit all their counters and most of their creatures, though the best target for it is Treasure Cruise.
1x Grafdigger's Cage – Stops Arclight Phoenix coming back from the graveyard. They can still play around this by hardcasting them, but it’s not where the deck wants to be.
1x Ashiok, Dream Render - This is one of our best answers to Phoenix, hard for them to remove and exiles their graveyard repeatedly.

Out:
2x Thoughtseize – Most of their deck is either very redundant or actively wants to be in the graveyard, we can rely on a reduced amount alongside the Deep-Cavern Bats here.
1x Goldvein Hydra - No flying makes this a much worse standalone target.
1x Striped Riverwinder – Hexproof shouldn't be too important, especially with all the cheap interaction we bring in.
1x Otherworldly Gaze - We're aiming to slow them down, so we don't need to go quite as fast ourselves.
1x Spell Pierce – While it's nice to hit Treasure Cruise, there are few relevant non-creatures, Mystical Dispute wins this spot.

>Niv to Light:

The deck in its most basic form is Omnath, Locus of Creation and/or Niv-Mizzet, Reborn with Leyline Binding, Up the Beanstalk, Bring to Light, ramp and interaction.
Bring to Light searching out their best card for the situation is one of the main strengths of the deck and the thing that should be first on the list of things to deal with going into the matchup.
With the addition of No More Lies and Lightning Helix from MKM, the deck is a lot more interactive and consistent than it once was.

Key Cards:

Threats - Bring to Light
Graveyard Exile - Ashiok, Dream Render
Soulflayer Removal – Leyline Binding, Vanishing Verse
Extraction Effects - Unmoored Ego

Game One:

If they work out what you’re doing, they can Bring to Light for Unmoored Ego, which is a real problem. Try to discard as many copies of Bring to Light, Omnath, Locus of Creation or either Niv-Mizzet as you can, as these are their real value engines.

Post-Board:

The deck is often an 80-card Yorion list, so their sideboard cards are less impactful as they aren’t as likely to see them. Game two should be better for you.

Changes:

In:
1x Mystical Dispute - Counters Bring to Light, Omnath and both Niv Mizzets, I prefer this over the third Spell Pierce as it counters the 4-5 colour creatures.
1x Tear Asunder - Can remove Fable, Leyline Binding in response to it's own trigger, meaning we get to keep our threat, and whatever big threat thay manage to sneak past our disruption.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters both their engines and other big plays.
1x Ashiok, Dream Render - Stopping them searching with Bring to Light is powerful, this will be a slower game, so we have time to resolve Ashiok before they start to pressure us.

Out:
2x Tainted Indulgence - Slightly less reliable in the longer matchups, especially since we have fewer cards we want to discard.
1x Otherworldly Gaze – This will be a longer game so going down a few dig spells is safe.
1x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn - A lot of their removal is exile based so indestructible doesn't help too much. As the game will be slower, we can get away with trimming some delve targets.

>Mono-Black Midrange:

Mono-Black has the potential to be a horrible matchup for us with maindeck discard, edicts and graveyard hate. Post-board we have to be happy to play without Soulflayer as it’s so difficult for one to stay on board for any length of time.

Key Cards:

Graveyard Exile – Go Blank, Unlicensed Hearse, Cling to Dust, Leyline of the Void.
Soulflayer Removal – Rankle's Prank, Sheoldred’s Edict, Liliana of the Veil, Invoke Despair, Extinction Event, Blot Out.

Game One:

This is our worst matchup so it will be rough. Discard as many threats as you can from their hand, try to remove the ones that resolve. Get damage in wherever you can, this won’t be a matchup where a single Soulflayer can run away with the game.

Post-Board:

Post board it’s slightly better. They bring in graveyard hate and removal, we bring in disruption. We need to try our best with a tempo plan when faced with so much hate.

Changes:

In:
1x Stubborn Denial – Catches early copies of Liliana or Go Blank while countering edicts once we resolve a threat.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters a lot of their impactful plays like Sheoldred and Invoke Despair.
1x Tear Asunder – If they play Leyline it gives us one more out, it also hits, Waste Not, Unlicensed Hearse and Mazemind Tome, as well as any big threat for it's kicked cost.
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon - Edict protection and can stop them attacking as it trades very well.

Out:
2x Otherworldly Gaze - Going down cards against the dedicated discard deck isn't a great plan.
1x Tainted Indulgence - Triggering Waste Not for them isn't the best, shaved one.
1x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn – Not being able to consistently run the Soulflayer plan as we want to means that Zetalpa is a dead card more often than we'd like

> Lotus Combo:

Lotus can be fast, but often stumbles if it’s interacted with. Their combo revolves around Fae of Wishes fetching Approach of the Second Sun from their sideboard, usually after resolving Omniscience.

Key Cards:

Threats - Lotus Field, Emergent Ultimatum
Soulflayer Removal – Languish, Sunfall

Game One:

Interact with their hand, apply pressure. We have relatively few ways to deal with their combo other than simply to discard the pieces of it and race.

Post-Board:

Better, as we have more disruption, but the same still applies. Pressure wins games here.
Some lists are running Leyline of Sanctity which stops our discard, but counterspells should still be enough to interact and resolve a threat.

Changes:

In:
1x Mystical Dispute - Catches a lot of important spells, most notably Emergent Ultimatum and Pore Over the Pages.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters almost all their big impactful plays.
1x Stubborn Denial - This can catch early Sylvan Scryings or be cheap combo protection on the turn we deploy our threat.
1x Ashiok, Dream Render - Stopping them searching and removing their fuel for Lier is great, they'll most likely have to remove this before winning.

Out:
2x Striped Riverwinder – Next to no targeted removal coming from Lotus, so we can get away with fewer hexproof creatures.
1x Goldvein Hydra - Doesn't pressure fast enough on its own and haste is the only relevant keyword, trimmed one.
1x Bitter Triumph - They occasionally bring in big creature threats if they feel we can answer their plan A, thought this appears to be much less common with more recent versions.

>Abzan Amalia:

Amalia is a fast combo that can be put into play at instant speed with Chord of Calling or Collected Company and has redundancy with Return to the Ranks.

Key Cards:

Threats - Amalia Benavides Aguirre, Wildgrowth Walker
Graveyard Exile – Remorseful Cleric, Scavenging Ooze, Leyline of the Void

Game One:

They will be trying to race as fast as they can, try to find as much disruption as you can while making an indestructible Soulflayer as this will stop the combo. Some lists play Aetherflux Reservoir so you’re not completely safe with an indestructible blocker as they can explore that to the top of their library and win next turn.

Post Board:

Most Amalia lists have moved away from Leyline of the Void and are playing some form of one-of tutor package for Chord of Calling but we have our own answers to that in Grafdigger’s Cage. Be aware of Remorseful Cleric and Scavenging Ooze as 2 cmc tutor targets that hurt our gameplan.

Changes:

In:
3x Path of Peril – Removes 90% of their creatures.
3x Fatal Push - Repeatedly removing combo pieces is the best way to get enough space to execute our plan
1x Grafdigger's Cage - Stops CoCo and Chord of Calling

Out:
2x Striped Riverwinder – Even post-board they have essentially no way to remove a Soulflayer and only Fatal Push with revolt or Skyclave Apparition to remove a Scavenger, can go down to one here.
1x Goldvein Hydra - While haste is nice, having too many "do nothing" cards in the matchup isn't great.
1x Tainted Indulgence - Only putting one card in the grave is a little too slow.
1x Spell Pierce - Hitting Chord of Calling or Collected Company is nice, but not enough to keep Spell Pierce in over wraths or other removal.
1x Bitter Triumph - While more removal is usually good, two mana is a lot of investment, especially with three Path of Peril and Fatal Push.
1x Otherworldly Gaze - The early turns will most likely be spent interacting, so we can play fewer one mana dig spells.

> Azorius Control:

Control will be a slower game and is a difficult matchup, although they play fewer true creature counterspells than they used to and their build is much more aggressive. This favours us, as the way they win is to stabilize in the late game and overwhelm us, the most recent builds are worse at doing this, prioritizing early game over late game power due to the presence of Amalia Combo.

Key Cards:

Graveyard Hate – Farewell, Ashiok, Dream Render, Rest in Peace
Soulflayer Removal - Farewell, Sunfall
Creature Counterspells – Absorb, Make Disappear, No More Lies

Game One:

Take your time, don't rush. Force them to use their interaction on less important things. If you suspect they have a counterspell and have the option, cast Scavengers first, as if it gets countered you still have cards in graveyard to use. Cast instants when/if they tap out on your end step. This is not a race.
Don't be afraid to cast Urborg Scavengers early with no value if you think you can get them to resolve and start getting damage in. If you can start exiling relevant things as well, even better.

Post-Board:

Ashiok or RiP hurts out our gameplan, so try to always have hand disruption or counters for it. They only run two or three, so answering one is often good enough. Other than that, very similar to game one.

Changes:

In:
1x Mystical Dispute - Interacting efficiently is key, hitting Memory Deluge or resolving something through an Absorb is great.
1x Stubborn Denial – Will hit Rest in Peace early game or counter a Farewell that would kill our threat.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters any big, expensive play they make.

Out:
2x Otherworldly Gaze – Card efficiency will be relevant here. Gaze going down a card, even though it sees six over the course of the game, means it’s a worse spell in this matchup, trimmed two.
1x Striped Riverwinder – The only targeted removal is Get Lost, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, The Wandering Emperor and March of Otherworldly Light. Indestructible stops Get Lost and March will be quite expensive, as it’s based on mana cost. The Wandering Emperor gets stopped by vigilance as the creature will never be tapped. As well as this, we’re bringing in seven disruptive spells. I feel comfortable trimming one Riverwinder here.

>Izzet Ensoul:

Ensoul Artifact has returned to the meta after Smuggler’s Copter was unbanned, using its namesake card to turn it into a 5/5 flier. It plays like a slightly slower, less all-in version of Convoke, but it still has the potential for Gleeful Demolition into Bushwhacker lines.

Key Cards:

Soulflayer Removal - Shrapnel Blast
Graveyard Exile - Unlicensed Hearse

Game One:

They will most likely try to be fast, but this is what the maindeck interaction is for. Discard their creatures and leave them with Ensoul Artifact stranded in their hand. Other than that our plan remains to simply make a bigger creature and fly over.

Post Board:

We have plenty of disruption, depending on how you want to tackle the matchup you can almost bring in the entire sideboard.

Changes:

In:
3x Fatal Push - Answering their little creatures isn't really worth it, save your pushes for anything Ensouled Smuggler's Copter or Inti.
1x Tear Asunder - Can exile Unlicensed Hearse, Smuggler's Copter, Darksteel Citadel and The Akroan War. It's kicked mode will almost never be worth using in this matchup.

On the Play:
3x Path of Peril – Removes almost all of their creatures. Much stronger on the play as they will be less likely to Spell Pierce you.

On the Draw:
2x Path of Peril – Still good, but will have to be more carefully timed.
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon – A lifelink blocker that will trade with most things and be exiled for value later. Better when playing from behind.

Out:
1x Thoughtseize - They can be disrupted in the early turns, but are fundamentally fast and resilient. We don't want to topdeck Thoughtseize on turn 5 facing lethal.
1x Tainted Indulgence - Doesn't enable turn 3 Soulflayer as well as we'd like
1x Otherworldly Gaze - Bringing in so many one drops means that we can trim some too. Interacting early will be more important.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They have little meaningful removal for a 4/4, especially if it’s indestructible, trimmed one.
1x Spell Pierce - Engaging with their board is a better way to win the match.
1x Bitter Triumph - Most of their creatures aren't worth killing one for one, Triumph is a two for one unless we have something we specifically want to discard, feels safe to cut it here.
1x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn - Cutting two ways to discard means that we should go down an uncastable card, Zetalpa's keywords are nice, but this matchup is about dealing damage fast, rather than making an invincible threat.

>Quintorius Combo:

Quintorius Combo is a one-card combo that aims to win by casting Trumpeting Carnosaur or Quintorius Kand which then uses his Discover 4 ability to find clone effects until his static ability kills the opponent as each one is cast from exile.
This deck completely relies on casting one of its two winning spells and without them the deck is pretty terrible. Discard or counter as many as you can and hope to race them.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats – Quintorius Kand, Trumpeting Carnosaur
Soulflayer Removal – Consign // Oblivion, Leyline Binding, Languish, Release to the Wind

Game One:

They have extremely limited interaction as everything needs to have more than 4 cmc, if they look like they’re about to combo, hold up interaction, other than that you’re free to go as fast as you can and ignore them.

Post-Board:

Very little changes game two, most lists run no relevant cards for the matchup in the sideboard so it should be a repeat of game one.

Changes:

In:
1x Mystical Dispute – This doesn’t counter Quintorius unless you pay its full cost, but it can counter Spark Double and Clever Impersonator which should stop their combo chain before it kills us.
1x Disdainful Stroke – They have exactly two spells that they care about, this hits both of them.
1x Stubborn Denial - Counters Quintorius, all it needs to do. Especially good with pressure as they're forced to try and go for it when it's a hard counter.

Out:
1x Striped Riverwinder - They have a few ways to remove Soulflayer, but they should be fairly easy to play around with all of our discard and interaction.
1x Otherworldly Gaze - We don't need to go as fast, though this is still a race.
1x Tainted Indulgence - Card selection doesn’t matter as much here, it’s a messy race to see who can jam their threat first.

>Aggro (Mono-Red / Gruul):

They will be fast, but have literally no way to remove a resolved hexproof or indestructible Soulflayer, if we get indestructible and lifelink, it's basically game over. Some lists are maindecking Rampaging Ferocidons to stop lifegain from Amalia, this also indirectly hurts us as we usually try and stabilise on a low life total and use lifelink to get back into the game. Save your removal for this if you can.

Key Cards:

Threats – Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Slickshot Show-Off
Graveyard Exile – Unlicensed Hearse
Lifegain Hate – Rampaging Ferocidon

Game One:

This is simply a race, force them to direct burn spells at your creatures rather than your face, get lifelink as soon as you can. Win from there. Often it's better to pass priority before damage to bait them into using the buff spells, and then remove the creature. If they don't buff it, you only take 1-2 damage. Play tricky!

Post-Board:

Very similar, but we have more disruption, eight damage a turn from Soulflayer is hard to race, especially if they're losing attackers running into a creature with vigilance. Be aware of Pick Your Poison from Gruul as this is one of the few options that can kill our threat.

Changes:

In:
3x Path of Peril - A great way to stabilise in the mid game.
3x Fatal Push - They usually struggle to kill you without creatures.
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon – Extra lifelink and can block well.

Out:
4x Thoughtseize - Taking a card often isn't worth the two life, all copies out.
1x Spell Pierce - They have such a volume of burn and buff spells that countering one does very little, it's much better to take out the creature if you can.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They need to use multiple burn spells to take out a Soulflayer so hexproof is less relevant.
1x Bitter Triumph - Too slow here, two cards for one creature is rarely going to be effective against the most efficient aggro decks.

>Spirits (Mono-Blue / Azorius):

Which version of Spirits is the best has been debated for a while, currently Bant and Azorius are about as popular as each other, so be prepared for both. Mono-blue is on the fringes, but much less popular.
The main difference between Azorius and Bant is that bant runs more three drops and Collected Company, making it slightly slower, but more resilient and the cards are more individually powerful. Since it runs CoCo it has to run many more creatures, giving it no space for countermagic.

Key Cards:

Creature Counterspells - Lofty Denial, Geistlight Snare
Graveyard Exile - Rest in Peace, Remorseful Cleric
Soulflayer Removal – Settle the Wreckage

Game One:

As with most aggro decks, they can't beat a resolved Soulflayer with good keywords, they offer similar pressure to other aggro decks and significantly more disruption.
Game one should be relatively straightforward, if difficult. Remove their creatures as much as you can as they need a relatively high density of creatures to pose a threat.
When trying to resolve spells, be aware of Mausoleum Wanderer as it can counter even if they’re tapped out.

Post-Board:

Spirits in game two is uniquely difficult, the threat of turn two Rest in Peace, counterspells and a fast clock means that we often want more cards in than we can take out.

Changes:

In:
3x Fatal Push - Simple, effective.
1x Mystical Dispute - Will hit most of their creatures, keeping them on the back foot.

On the play:
3x Path of Peril – A huge setback, for them though they have ways to counter it, timing is key.

On the draw:
2x Pick Your Poison - Being able to answer Rest in Peace or a creature is incredible utility for one mana. They can likely force RiP through while they're on the play, so answers to it on-board are needed.
1x Path of Peril - Much more likely to get countered.

Out:
4x Thoughtseize - They're resilient and aggressive, so taking damage for a card often isn't in our favour.
2x Striped Riverwinder – They have limited targeted removal outside of Skyclave which only hits Urborg Scavengers.
1x Bitter Triumph - Triumph costing two cards to kill their small creature is likely a losing battle.

---

>Sideboard Archive:

>What's this?:

This is where non-updated guides go, if a deck fell out of the meta, isn't as relevant for one reason or another, but I wrote about it in the past, I've put it here.
It's a lot of effort to keep 20+ matchups up to date so I've had to prioritise the most relevant ones, but hopefully these are helpful, even if not fully comparable to the most recent lists.

> Rakdos (Midrange / Aggro / Sacrifice):

There are three main types of Rakdos decks in Pioneer now, Midrange, Aggro and Sacrifice. Midrange is the deck you’re probably most familiar with - Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Bonecrusher Giant etc. - slower, but more inevitable. Aggro forgoes this late game inevitability by trying to go faster with Smuggler’s Copter, Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and more one-drop threats. Sacrifice is the most different, playing Mayhem Devil and the Witch’s Oven, Cauldron Familiar loop.

Their Problem Cards:

Graveyard Exile – Go Blank, Hidetsugu Consumes All, Unlicensed Hearse, Leyline of the Void
Soulflayer Removal - Extinction Event, Languish, Liliana of the Veil, Sheoldred’s Edict
Threats – Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Archfiend of the Dross

Game One:

All three of these matchups are favoured for us. Their only relevant interaction mainboard across all decks is Graveyard Trespasser, Bloodtithe Harvester - because it gets around indestructible - and the ever-present Thoughtseize. Sorcery speed interaction is fairly simple to play around, so game one shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

Post-Board:

A little harder as any number of hate cards come in - the most harmful being Leyline of the Void, that all three versions can play. Be careful if they reveal Jegantha, the Wellspring game one but not game two, this means they likely have brought in Leyline.
The gameplan is mostly the same, but this time we can answer their board a little more efficiently and have to play around graveyard hate.

Changes:

In:
2x Haywire Mite - Kills Leyline of the Void if they have it, otherwise it can hit other graveyard hate or Fable of the Mirror Breaker.
2x Stubborn Denial – Catches early copies of Fable, Liliana, Go Blank etc. and can hard counter an Extinction Event or Languish late game.
1x Tear Asunder – Kills Leyline or can be kicked to hit anything if they don’t have it.

Out:
2x Otherworldly Gaze - Going down on cards in the matchup where resources will be precious isn't great. We'd like a higher card quality going in this matchup and can afford to go slightly slower.
2x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel. Smuggler's Copter does a good job of blocking Malcolm and still gives them their loot when it does. He’s often a little too vulnerable with all the removal flying around as well. Trimming two here.
1x Striped Riverwinder – While it seems wrong to trim a Riverwinder against the removal deck, a lot of their removal is instant speed, meaning even if we go to exile a Riverwinder with Scavangers they can respond and kill it, destruction-based so if we have Zetalpa it doesn’t work anyway, or completely ignores any protection we could have had. Trimming one for more interactive cards feels safe.

>Boros Convoke:

Convoke is the fastest true aggro deck in the format. Their most explosive starts can kill you on your turn two. The deck has moved away slightly from the more turbo all-in strategy to play slower and more consistently, but it’s absolutely still an aggro deck and will require you to interact or resolve a lifelink threat very fast to not be overrun in the early turns.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats - Gleeful Demolition, Venerated Loxodon, Reckless Bushwhacker
Spell Tax – Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Graveyard Exile – Rest in Peace

Game One:

Both players are trying to race and they’re better at it. We’re going to have to find Soulflayer fast or hope they stumble somehow. Cavern Bat is great disruption, as they need a certain density of cards in hand to “go off”, if we can take key pieces it should slow them down enough that we can resolve a threat.

Post Board:

Most lists seem to be moving away from Rest in Peace, which is great for us, but they do sometimes still have it in. Between five discard spells and three ways of removing it after it resolves, we should be ok. If you feel you’d like more options against it, you can bring in Tear Asunder or even some copies of Stubborn Denial.

Changes:

In:
2x Haywire Mite – Removes Rest in Peace and gains us a small amount of life if it dies to help us get past the first wave of creatures.
2x Path of Peril - Wipes all their smaller creatures and lets us stabilise.
1x Thoughtseize – With the printing of Novice Inspector, the potential for them to Gleeful Demolition into convoke creature on turn two is increased, disrupting their most explosive starts is key.
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon – Extra lifelink, a great blocker and will always trade with what it blocks.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Between Warden of the Inner Sky and Ornithopter they’re surprisingly good at blocking Malcolm, not connecting consistently enough.
2x Striped Riverwinder - Next to no removal in their deck. Two or three Giant Killer or Get Lost is all that we need to worry about.
1x Tainted Indulgence – Faster matchups want more efficient ways to fill the graveyard.

> Gruul Midrange:

Gruul has picked up Smuggler's Copter to lower their curve and be more aggressive. They have artifacts, enchantments and creatures as a way to pressure you, so one set of removal isn’t going to work as well as it once did. As well as this, they are very heavy on three-drops, so Path of Peril is terrible against them. This is the matchup the sideboard is least equipped to deal with, but should still be in our favour as they don't have much interaction.

Their Problem Cards:

Soulflayer Removal - The Akroan War
Graveyard Exile - Klothys, God of Destiny, Unlicensed Hearse, Tranquil Frillback

Game One:

This should be straightforward, they’re a snowball deck that we need to take resources from or they’ll overwhelm us. They have next to no ways to deal with a hexproof Soulflayer, so it’s a race to get there before they kill us.

Post Board:

They’ll likely bring in Unlicensed Hearse and/or Tranquil Frillback. Hearse is the most annoying to deal with, as it repeatedly exiles.

Changes:

In:
2x Haywire Mite - We have to use this in response to them crewing a vehicle, as it specifies non-creature artifact, but can really swing the tempo back in our favour.
1x Tear Asunder – Hits most of their threats by default and can be kicked to remove any problem.
1x Stubborn Denial – Has the potential to catch some of their early game spells and become Negate once a Soulflayer has resolved.
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon – Will almost always trade up with a bigger creature when they attack into it, then it becomes a lifelink creature in grave for us to stabilise with.

Out:
2x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Malcolm gets blocked forever by Smuggler's Copter, trimmed two.
2x Striped Riverwinder – The Akroan War is really bad if we don’t have hexproof, but extra Haywire Mites should make sure that they don’t steal a threat for long.
1x Otherworldly Gaze – This matchup shouldn’t be as fast as the aggro decks so we have slightly more time to set up, especially with more interaction post-board.

>Five-Colour Fires:

Fires is a big slow deck that gets better the longer the game goes on. To help it get there it plays lots of removal and card draw to make sure it’s always slightly ahead into the late game. However, being an 80-card Yorion list means finding their engines is often inconsistent and the chances of drawing a second if we interact with the first are low.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats - Fires of Invention, Enigmatic Incarnation
Graveyard Exile - Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, Kutzil’s Flanker
Soulflayer Removal – Chained to the Rocks, Leyline Binding, Deputy of Detention etc.

Game One:

They’re one of the slower decks in the format, but they have plenty of exile-based removal and ways to search for it. We’re going to need to get hexproof as number one priority, but we should have time.

Post Board:

A similar story, but we get plenty of disruption to slow down what they bring in. They are designed to go into the late game, so quick pressure is good, but don’t rush out a threat early, if it has a weakness, they can search up the perfect card to deal with it.

Changes:

In:
2x Haywire Mite - Removes all their enchantments.
2x Stubborn Denial – Can stop their early advances or catch one of the value engines later.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters both their engines and Leyline Binding.
1x Tear Asunder – Hits all of their major value engines.

Out:
3x Fatal Push – They have no creatures that Fatal Push can hit without Revolt active.
2x Tainted Indulgence – We need to go fairly fast to outrace them before they begin to stabilise, only putting one card in the graveyard at a time isn’t going to do that.
1x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – They have plenty of removal and a few fliers that they can tutor up so Malcolm is less likely to connect.

>Abzan Greasefang:

Greasefang is a smaller part of the meta, as there’s more graveyard hate than usual, and a lot of players switched to Amalia Combo as the manabases are very similar. That doesn’t mean the deck is bad, it’s still just as strong as it once was if you don’t have the right tools to beat it.
If you face a lot of Greasefang, it might be worth it to switch the Grafdigger’s Cage in the board to Weathered Runestone as this stops them reanimating Parhelion II. I’ve chosen not to do this, however, as one mana is significantly less than two and Greasefang has been on the decline.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats - Greasefang, Okiba Boss, Parhelion II
Graveyard Exile – Kutzil’s Flanker, Go Blank, Unlicensed Hearse

Game One:

Getting a strong Soulflayer is borderline game over. Both decks combo at similar speeds, but we have seven threats and they only have four, some are running six if you count Eldritch Evolution or Traverse the Ulvenwald, but these take much more time than the dreaded turn three Greasefang.

Post-Board:

They have more interaction post-board, be aware of all the ways they can exile your graveyard, especially Kutzil’s Flanker, which can happen at instant speed.
We get more hate and interaction too, so the dynamic of the match doesn’t change much.

Changes:

In:
2x Haywire Mite - Kills vehicles in response to them crewing. Be careful to sacrifice it in response to the crew trigger as Mite specifies a non-creature artifact. If you try before, they can crew it in response, making it no longer a legal target.
1x Thoughtseize – Disrupt the combo deck as much as you can.
1x Tear Asunder – Hits Parhelion II and importantly exiles it so they have to find another.

Out:
2x Striped Riverwinder - They have relatively little targeted removal, so two copies can come out.
2x Tainted Indulgence – Speed is important here so only putting one card in graveyard is a little too slow.

>Humans: (Mono-White / Orzhov)

Humans seems like it should be an easy matchup on the surface, but it’s very much a race. They can’t beat a hexproof doublestrike Soulflayer, but they won’t give us much time to set up at all. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is one of our worst nightmares as her one mana tax is incredibly stifling. Discard her or remove her as your top priority.
Orzhov splashes black for Kitesail Freebooter, Jirina, Dauntless General and Thoughtseize in the board. This version has more maindeck interaction, but plays Rest in Peace less often.

Their Problem Cards:

Graveyard Exile - Rest in Peace, Jirina, Dauntless General
Spell Tax - Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Game One:

As simple as Aggro vs Combo gets, aim to cast Soulflayer before they kill you.

Post-Board:

The matchup gets quite a bit better with plenty of sideboard cards in, prioritize lifelink and hexproof to make an impossible to remove Soulflayer as soon as possible.

Changes:

In:
2x Haywire Mite – Removes Rest in Peace and gains us a small amount of life if it dies to help us stabilise. Many lists are moving away from this and it’s a practically a dead card if they don’t play it so only two come in.
2x Path of Peril - Wipes all their smaller creatures.
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon – Extra lifelink, a great blocker and will always trade with what it blocks.

Out:
2x Tainted Indulgence – A faster matchup means we have to fill the graveyard fast to resolve a threat ASAP.
2x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Malcolm is a little too slow but can at least cause damage and block if needed. We don’t want to cut all our discard outlets, so one stays in.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They have Brutal Cathar and Get Lost, but other than that there’s no way for them to deal with a threat.

>Lotus Control:

Lotus Control aims to leverage Lotus Field tapping for three mana by using Strict Proctor or Discountinuity to skip the sacrifice trigger and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria to untap it and hold up interaction on our turn. To make space for this they run fewer counterspells and more wraths.
Against regular control, the problem is resolving a threat, here it’s keeping one on the board.

Their Problem Cards:

Soulflayer Removal – Sunfall, Farewell, Settle the Wreckage
Graveyard Exile - Rest in Peace

Game One:

Take your time, don't rush. Force them to use their interaction on less important things. They have very few true counterspells and run more wraths than regular control. Cast instants when/if they tap out on your end step. This is not a race.
Don't be afraid to cast Urborg Scavengers early with no value if you think you can get them to resolve and start getting damage in. If you can start exiling relevant things as well, even better.
Be aware of Settle the Wreckage and Farewell, resolving a perfect Soulflayer isn’t invincible like usual.

Post-Board:

Rest in Peace absolutely destroys our gameplan, so try to always have hand disruption or counters for it. They only run two, so stopping one is often good enough. Other than that, very similar to game one.

Changes:

In:
3x Mystical Dispute - Interacting efficiently is key, hitting Memory Deluge or resolving something through an Absorb is great.
2x Stubborn Denial – Will hit Rest in Peace early game or counter a Farewell that would kill our threat.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters any big, expensive play they make.
1x Tear Asunder – Hits Shark Typhoon, Rest in Peace and if kicked hits any big threat they managed to resolve.

Out:
3x Fatal Push – Strict Proctor dies to this, but it’s their only creature for the most part and killing it doesn’t meaningfully slow them down often.
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Between 1/1 sharks and 1/3 Strict Proctors, Malcolm just isn’t going to connect as often as we need.
1x Otherworldly Gaze – Card efficiency will be relevant here. Gaze going down a card, even though it sees six over the course of the game, means it’s a worse spell in this matchup.

> Selesnya Angels:

Angels is making a comeback, as it’s a deck that absolutely flattens Phoenix. Low interaction, but an almost insurmountable endgame if they get going.

Their Problem Cards:

Graveyard Exile - Rest in Peace

Game One:

Angels is a snowball deck, so disruption and stripping them of resources is the way to go. They run almost no ways of dealing with our threat so it’s a race to see if they can gain more life than we can deal damage.

Post-Board:

All that changes is that they will have some more protection to stop our removal and some form of graveyard hate, most likely Rest in Peace, although many lists have moved away from this.

Changes:

In:
2x Path of Peril –Path isn’t fantastic here, but it clears out any tokens and a lot of their acceleration in the early game. Much later it can be cast for its full cost and wipe everything if we find Mana Confluence.
1x Grafdigger’s Cage – Stops their copies of Collected Company and Kayla’s Reconstruction having any text at all.
1x Knight of Dusk’s Shadow – Turns off all their lifegain, which is the engine of their deck.
Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Their deck is full of fliers so Malcolm will be unlikely to connect consistently.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They have Skyclave Apparition to hit Scavengers, but that’s all. We can feel safe trimming some hexproof here.

> Nykthos Ramp:

With Karn gone, this deck still exists, but in a much-weakened state. Before, Karn was the deck's interaction. With Karn gone, the deck is slower, less consistent and has much fewer ways to remove a threat.
Karn was replaced by Vivien, who can’t wish for a card the turn she comes down, has a more limited set of sideboard options to pick from and needs much more mana to do something impactful. Some lists have picked up Archdruid’s Charm and Leyline of the Guildpact to claw back some of the consistency and explosiveness that the pre-ban deck had.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats – Titan of Industry, Hornet Queen

Game One:

Reasonably straightforward, they have no way to remove an indestructible-hexproof Soulflayer and aren’t as fast as you are. You should be able to find one good threat and carry it to victory.

Post-Board:

They will have more threats maindeck now, but they still can’t answer ours. Try not to let them snowball value, put on pressure and you should win the match.

Changes:

In:
1x Tear Asunder – Hits their ramp enchantments or if kicked, their bigger threats.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters any of their big plays.
1x Thoughtseize - They still play somewhat like a combo deck, so if you can take away their payoff they’re stuck with not much to do.

Out:
2x Striped Riverwinder – They have incredibly limited removal so hexproof is less important
1x Tainted Indulgence – Only putting one card in the graveyard is the slowest of our dig spells. The longer the game goes, the better their deck gets so the slower spells get trimmed.

> Creativity (Temur / Izzet):

Temur and Izzet play quite similarly, the biggest tell for which one you’re playing against is that Big Score only appears in Temur and Magma Opus only appears in Izzet. Temur needs to get to five mana and two tokens to flip into Worldspine Wurm and Xenagos, God of Revels to one-shot the opponent. Izzet only needs four and one, but their payoff is much less impactful. Deduce from MKM has been a boost to both versions.
Soulflayer can combo faster than Creativity and then play defense, but there's an element of luck to it, the matchup isn't terrible, but you need to be careful. Either resolve Soulflayer fast and close the game or wait until they're low on resources and capitalise.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats - Indomitable Creativity
Creature Counterspells - Make Disappear, Disdainful Stroke

Game One:

The plan game one is simply to resolve a Soulflayer, doesn't have to be particularly strong or be particularly fast, just make sure it resolves. Deep-Cavern Bat and Thoughtseize should help pave the way for this and to make sure they don’t combo first.

Post-Board:

After boarding it's quite similar but we now have countermagic. They have relatively little to bring in against us so take your time and be ready for a fight on the stack.

Changes:

For Both:
In:
3x Mystical Dispute - More disruption early, hits their counters and makes sure our threats resolve.
1x Disdainful Stroke – This comes in just to counter Indomitable Creativity or Big Score out of Temur.
1x Thoughtseize – Taking their combo pieces or interaction early sets them back a fair way.

Out:
3x Fatal Push – No relevant creatures.
2x Otherworldly Gaze – This will be a slower matchup so the all-in dig spells can be trimmed.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They need two burn spells in a turn to kill an x/4, feel safe cutting one hexproof creature here.

For Izzet:
In:
1x Grafdigger’s Cage - They care about their graveyard, as without it Torrential Gearhulk is just a 6/6.

For Temur:
In:
1x Vampire of the Dire Moon – If we have a creature with Deathtouch and Double Strike it means that their combo doesn’t work as Worldspine Wurm dies in first strike no matter how big it is.