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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.

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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 impossible to remove 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.

Tips and Tricks:

• Remember to cast / flashback Otherworldly Gaze in your upkeep to choose what you want to draw this turn if you have the spare mana.
• Sometimes 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.
• 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 hardcastable 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 massive lifelink threat.
• Grafdigger’s Cage shuts off your own flashback, don't get caught out!
• 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 muligaining, Zetalpa or Samut is almost always the first card to go back, unless you have a reliable way to discard it like Malcolm or Tainted Indulgence 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 and flying, haste from Arclight Phoenix.
• Scavengers can get menace, Soulflayer can't

> Why Sultai?:

Although the 75 only has 7 green pips total (10 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 1, Otherworldly Gaze for U, Turn 2, Grisly Salvage, mill some cards, pick up a third land, Turn 3, cast Thoughtseize, see the coast is clear, cast Soulflayer for BB exiling relevant cards.
This is only possible if all of our lands make black as we often need double or triple black for our 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 is 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 has a problem though as if we would play a Pathway on blue for Otherworldly Gaze on turn 1, we then couldn't cast Soulflayer on turn 2, if we chose black, we'd then miss out on our turn 1 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.

Green definitely comes with powerful cards for the strategy though, Grisly Salvage is by far the best dig spell, Assassin's Trophy is the most versatile sideboard option, Boseiju is a maindeckable answer to Leyline of the Void and Haywire Mite can answer anything from un-crewed vehicles to Rest in Peace while also being a creature that can be found with Grisly Salvage.

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. 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. 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 B for Soulflayer on turn 2 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 other card in Pioneer and being able to take lands from among them is fantastic. The best tool for smoothing our draws by a long way.

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.

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, in matchups where we have a little more time Gaze can be the thing we need to keep our wheels turning and stay drawing relevant cards.

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

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 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 3-5% chance to happen with 10-15 cards milled and gets less likely with fewer cards early in the game, so it’s possible, but unlikely. Equally, drawing two cards in the grindy matchups against Control or Rakdos is actually very useful. At its floor it’s a reliable way to discard a card that replaces itself.

Bitter Triumph - Triumph is a versatile, maindeckable removal spell that also allows us to discard a keyword creature. An unconditional removal spell with “upside” can only be good.

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 large two-drop slot, but it’s been an invaluable tool against control, combo and aggro decks. This is the reason the deck is only running two Thoughtseize.

Thoughtseize - A staple in every format it’s legal in. Take their best card, have perfect information of their hand. There’s only space for two in the deck, but it’s undoubtedly a powerful tool.

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. The reason why, is that 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.

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 but unique axis, 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 exile used in response. Three mana is also a lot more than two when the deck is so streamlined.

>Sideboard:

Ashiok, Dream Render - Stopping tutoring hoses a wide spread of decks, exiling graveyards hoses another set. This is a difficult to remove disruptive piece that will further our gameplan as well.

Assassin’s Trophy - This removes literally anything, in matchups where you expect them to have relatively few, but diverse threats, this is what you bring in.

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

Extract the Truth – Since Leyline of the Void is such a blowout, when we even slightly suspect that an opponent will play it, we have to be prepared. This is a card that we can bring in if we expect Leyline, but then won’t be completely dead if they don’t have it. On the surface, this seems terrible, but answering a Leyline for two mana while also having relevant text if not needed for that is fantastic. The floor is a bad Duress, the ceiling is dealing with a card that completely stops our gameplan.

Grafdigger’s Cage - With Amalia and Phoenix on the rise 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.

Haywire Mite - An answer to Leyline that can be found by Grisly Salvage is very useful as it’s our best dig spell. Gaining 2 life when it dies is also worth it in aggressive matchups that play Rest in Peace like Humans and Convoke.

Knight of Dusk’s Shadow - This is exclusively for Amalia, but has some uses against Angels. Another problem permanent that they have to remove before they can do their thing. It should slow them down enough that we can stabilise with a threat.

Mystical Dispute- Our counterspell of choice, very strong against Spirits, a historically bad matchup as it can hit creature spells too, good against anything that wants to resolve blue spells, or counter ours.

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

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.

>Noteable Exclusions:

Banehound - Blocking vs aggressive decks and/or forcing opponents to trade into these is very strong, especially when we don't mind if it dies. But when it’s a card that fundamentally doesn’t further our gameplan aside from maybe chump blocking 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 vs aggro and get damage in against control, all while forcing our opponents to think about how many spells they're casting and furthering or gameplan, which sounds fantastic! However, when you need to double spell to do so on an already restrictive manabase, in a deck that need to run a non-zero number of uncastable cards, that can be more difficult that it sounds. I found 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, 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 trigger revolt for Fatal Push.

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 fairly 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 * 1.79) – (0.28 * 19) = 17.67 lands, even discounting Boseiju, Who Endures as a land still gets us comfortably over this guideline, so hopefully that gives you some confidence!

>Currently Testing:

Ashiok, Dream Render - Lotus will fold to this, as will most of the big mana Bring to Light or Enigmatic Incarnation decks. Three mana is relatively expensive for this deck, but this will absolutely win games when it resolves.

Knight of Dusk’s Shadow / Grafdigger's Cage – Both of these are to combat the rapidly rising Amalia combo deck that wins by gaining huge amounts of life and cheating creatures into play with Chord of Calling and Collected Company. Cage also has some equity against Arclight Phoenix, Enigmatic Fires and Izzet Creativity

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Sideboard Theory:

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> 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, 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.
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 Extract the Truth – Can do a bad Duress impression at its floor or remove a Leyline that they thought we’d just lose to.
1x Assassin's Trophy - Can remove Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Archfiend, Leyline or any other problem permanent. Gives them a land, but a land should always be much less scary than the thing it removes.
1x Haywire Mite - Kills Leyline of the Void if they have it, otherwise it can hit other graveyard hate or Fable of the Mirror Breaker.
1x Stubborn Denial – Catches early copies of Fable, Liliana, Go Blank etc. and can hard counter an Extinction Event or Languish late game.

Out:
2x Thoughtseize - While hand disruption is good, it's a terrible draw when both players are low on resources, the Deep-Cavern Bats are at least 1/1 fliers in a topdeck situation.
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.
1x Striped Riverwinder – While is 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.

>Phoenix (Izzet / Grixis):

Phoenix has risen from the ashes with the printing of Picklock Prankster and a Grixis version has sprung up because of Bitter Triumph, this version has an almost completely Dimir manabase, playing cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Fatal Push and Thoughtseize alongside the typical Phoenix cards of cantrips and Treasure Cruise.

Their Problem Cards:

Soulflayer Removal – Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft, Languish
Creature Counterspells – Disdainful Stroke
Graveyard Exile – Go Blank
Extraction Effects - Unmoored Ego

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 Thoughtseize in the Grixis version.

Post Board:

Post board against Izzet is similar, but you’ll have to watch out for Disdainful Stroke. Against Grixis they have more interaction with cards like Languish, Go Blank and sometimes Unmoored Ego. Due to the nature of the deck, they’ll most likely want to tap out on their turn to cast the maximum amount 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 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 - Incidentally exiling their graveyard is a great effect to have access to.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – The deck is full of fliers, so Malcolm won’t be able to connect consistently.
2x Thoughtseize – They’re a very resilient deck with all their card filtering. One of the few important cards you would take actively wants to be discarded. Thoughtseize doesn’t help in this matchup.

>Abzan Amalia:

Amalia is the newest combo deck in Pioneer and it’s very strong, 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.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats - Amalia Benavides Aguirre, Wildgrowth Walker
Graveyard Exile – Jirina, Dauntless General, 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:

Since the Amalia list is relatively new, there’s little consensus on sideboard options. Most 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, Scavenging Ooze and Jirina as 2 cmc tutor targets that hurt our gameplan.

Changes:

In:
3x Path of Peril – Removes 90% of their creatures.
1x Grafdigger's Cage Stops CoCo and Chord of Calling
1x Knight of Dusk’s Shadow – Shuts down their combo, they will have to remove this before they can kill us.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – They have too many incidental fliers for Malcolm to be as consistent as we want, between Deep-Cavern Bat, Archon of Emeria and Gilded Goose they have plenty of ways to block. Path of Peril also incidentally hits Malcolm, so cutting him here makes Path better for us.
2x Striped Riverwinder – Even post-board they have absolutely no way to remove a Soulflayer and only Fatal Push with revolt or Skyclave Apparition to remove a Scavenger, can cut two here.

If you see Leyline:

In:
2x Extract the Truth – Can hit Leyline or discard key combo pieces.
Out:
2x Tainted Indulgence –When we need to answer hard hate like Leyline we have to take out some enablers. Be aware that you’ve cut a lot of ways to discard cards here, so hands with uncastable delve targets are much less keepable than usual.

> Azorius Control:

Control will be a slower game and is a difficult matchup, although they play fewer true 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.

Their Problem Cards:

Graveyard Hate – Farewell, Rest in Peace
Soulflayer Removal - Farewell
Creature Counterspells – Absorb, Make Disappear

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:

Rest in Peace absolutely destroys our gameplan, so try to always have hand disruption or counters for it. They only run two, so answering 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.
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.
1x Assassin’s Trophy – Removes RiP or another problem permanent they’ve managed to resolve.

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.
2x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Since this will be a longer game and Malcolm is legendary, drawing a second while the other is still on board isn’t great, they can also make 1/1 sharks at instant speed to remove him and deny us the card filtering. Slightly too vulnerable here.
1x Samut, Voice of Dissent – Since the game will go longer than most, we can cut down on a few delve targets as we have more time to find them.
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 5 disruptive spells. I feel comfortable trimming one Riverwinder here.

>Boros Convoke:

Convoke is the fastest true aggro deck in the format. Their most explosive starts can kill you on your turn 2. 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 6 discard spells and two 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 Extract the Truth and take out some copies of Malcolm or Thoughtseize.

Changes:

In:
3x Path of Peril - Wipes all their smaller tokens and lets us stabilise.
1x Haywire Mite – Removes Rest in Peace and gains us a small amount of life if it dies.

Out:
2x Tainted Indulgence – Faster matchups want more efficient ways to fill the graveyard.
2x Striped Riverwinder - Next to no removal in their deck. A singleton Giant Killer is all that we need to worry about.

> Lotus Combo:

Lotus can be fast, but often stumbles if it’s interacted with. We have six maindeck discard spells, so the matchup should be good if we open with one of them. Their combo revolves around looping Chandra, Hope’s Beacon with three copies of Bala Ged Recovery, if you can exile one or more of these from their graveyard over the course of the game with Scavengers, it makes it harder for them to combo.

Their Problem Cards:

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

Game One:

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

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:
3x 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 Ashiok, Dream Render - Difficult to remove. Their passive ability is very disruptive and their -1 incidentally exiling their graveyard makes things harder too.

Out:
2x Striped Riverwinder – Next to no targeted removal coming from Lotus so we can get away with fewer copies of hexproof.
2x Bitter Triumph – While this does remove Chandra while they’re comboing if they’ve got to that point, we’re likely already losing and it has few other relevant targets.
1x Tainted Indulgence - Only putting one card in the graveyard is the slowest of our dig spells. The longer the game goes, the more likely they are to combo, so the slowest enablers come out.

> Gruul Midrange:

Gruul has picked up Smugglers 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 Unlicenced Hearse and/or Tranquill Frillback, Hearse is the most annoying to deal with as it repeatedly exiles.

Changes:

In:
1x Assassin's Trophy – Mostly for The Akroan War or Esika’s Chariot, but can also remove graveyard hate and any creature.
1x Haywire Mite - We have to use this in response to them crewing a vehicle, as it specifies non-creature, but can really swing the tempo back in our favour.
1x Stubborn Denial – Has the potential to catch some of their early game spells and become Negate once a Soulflayer has resolved.

Out:
2x Thoughtseize - They're a very resilient deck, so throwing away a card isn't as impactful.
1x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Malcolm is great unless they have Smuggler’s Copter in which case he’s basically a dead card. Trimmed one.

>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 its 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:
1x Assassin's Trophy - Kills the bigger threats if they have time to stabilise or Rest in Peace if they try to stop us early.
1x Haywire Mite - Removes all their enchantments.
1x Ashiok, Dream Render – Stops Incarnation completely. Grafdigger’s Cage also does this, but doesn’t further our gameplan. Just slowing them down doesn't help. They’re better equipped for the endgame than we are.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters both their engines and Leyline Binding.

Out:
2x Tainted Indulgence – We need to go fairly fast to outrace them, only putting on card in graveyard at a time isn’t going to do that.
2x Thoughtseize – While hand disruption is good, they’re designed to go over the top of it. All four copies of Deep-Caven Bat stay in as they at least present a clock if unanswered.

>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 to right tools to beat it.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats - Greasefang, Okiba Boss, Parhelion II
Graveyard Exile – Kutzil’s Flanke, Go Blank, Unlicenced 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:
1x Ashiok, Dream Render - Hard for them to remove and repeatedly exiles their graveyard. They'll have to combo all in one turn to dodge us exiling Parhelion.
1x 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 Assassin's Trophy - Destroys any permanent, no questions asked, Usually Greasefang or Parhelion, but also hits Leyline of the Void if they're running it.

Out:
2x Striped Riverwinder - They have relatively little targeted removal, so two copies can come out.
1x Tainted Indulgence – Speed is important here so only putting one card in graveyard is a little too slow.

If you see Leyline of the Void:

In:
2x Extract the Truth – Leyline completely shuts down our gameplan, so we bring in as many answers as possible.
Out:
2x Deep-Cavern Bat – While lifelink is nice, it’s one of the least impactful effects in the deck in this matchup. Cavern Bat is a Thoughtseize that happens to come attached to a flying lifelink creature and we’re trading it for one that comes attached to enchantment removal.

>Mono-White Humans:

Mono-white 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.

Their Problem Cards:

Graveyard Exile - Rest in Peace
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:
3x Path of Peril – A wrath on turn three or four typically sets them back long enough for us to win.
1x Haywire Mite – A way to remove Rest in Peace and can also help our life total when it dies.

Out:
2x Thoughtseize - Hand interaction is much less important in the aggro matchup, losing two life is also relevant.
2x Tainted Indulgence – Humans won’t be a grind, so the slowest ways to fill the graveyard come out.

>Mono-Red Aggro:

They will be fast, but have literally no way to remove a resolved 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.

Their Problem Cards:

Soulflayer Removal – Roast
Threats – Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, Eidolon of the Great Revel
Graveyard Exile – Unlicensed Hearse
Lifegain Hate – Rampaging Ferocidons

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.

Post-Board:

Very similar, but we have more disruption, eight damage a turn is hard to race, especially if they're losing attackers running into a Soulflayer with vigilance.

Changes:

In:
3x Path of Peril - A great way to stabilise in the mid game.
1x Haywire Mite - Blocking a large attacker and gaining two life is surprisingly relevant, can also hit any graveyard hate they may have.

Out:
2x Thoughtseize - The life loss hurts more than the disruption helps.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They need to use multiple burn spells to take out a Soulflayer so hexproof is less relevant.
1x Tainted Indulgence – In the faster matchups, the slowest enablers can get trimmed.

>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.
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.
1x Assassin’s Trophy – Removes RiP or another problem permanent they’ve managed to resolve.

Out:
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.
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 Samut, Voice of Dissent – Since the game will go longer than most, we can cut down on a few delve targets as we have more time to find them.

>Quintorius Combo:

Quintorius Combo is a new 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:
3x Mystical Dispute – This doesn’t counter Quintorius unless you pay its full cost, but it can counter Spark Double 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.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Malcolm is a little too slow and dies to Bedeck//Bedazzle and Trumpeting Carnosaur’s discard ability.
1x Tainted Indulgence – Card quality doesn’t matter as much here, it’s a messy race to see who can jam their threat first.

> 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

Changes:

In:
3x 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.
1x Haywire Mite – Can hit Rest in Peace if our other interaction doesn’t get there first.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Their deck is full of fliers so Malcolm will be unlikely to connect consistently.
2x Striped Riverwinder – They have Skyclave Apparition to hit Scavengers, but that’s all the removal they have. We should be able to discard this before it becomes a problem
1x Thoughtseize – Aside from CoCo and Kayla’s Reconstruction, their deck is incredibly resilient, discarding a random Angel is rarely worth a card.

> Nykthos Ramp:

With Karn gone, this deck still exists, but in a much-weakened state. Before, Karn was the decks 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.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats – Vivien, Arkbow Ranger, Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger. Emrakul the Promised End

Game One:

Reasonably straightforward, they have absolutely 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 Disdainful Stroke – Counters any of their big plays.
1x Assassin’s Trophy – Removes any threat that they manage to resolve.

Out:
1x 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.

>Spirits (Mono-Blue / Azorius / Bant):

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.

Their Problem 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 their counterspells rely on creatures to make them efficient. Don’t be afraid to trade with Deep-Cavern Bat or Malcolm as keeping their board presence low is key.

Post-Board:

Spirits game two is uniquely difficuly, 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.
Mystical Dispute is great against blue-based decks and Path of Peril is an enormous setback for them, but that leaves us with very few outs to RiP. Be careful though, as even if they’re tapped out Mausoleum Wanderer can counter Path.

Changes:

For All:

In:
3x Mystical Dispute - Will hit most, if not all their spells.
3x Path of Peril – A huge setback, especially since it will make Lofty Denial and Geistlight Snare less efficient.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – Their entire deck is full of fliers, so Malcolm will rarely be able to attack freely. All copies come out here.
2x Thoughtseize - Their creatures are their card draw, so removing their attackers and Deep-Cavern Bat is our form of resource denial.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They have limited targeted removal outside of Skyclave which only hits Urborg Scavengers.

For Azorius / Bant:

In:
2x Extract the Truth – While I don’t love this here, it’s much better than being cold to Rest in Peace

Out:
2x Tainted Indulgence – In the faster matchups, the slowest enablers come out. Be aware that you’ve cut a lot of ways to discard cards here, so hands with uncastable delve targets are much less keepable than usual.

>Bean 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.

Their Problem Cards:

Threats - Bring to Light
Graveyard Exile - Rest in Peace
Soulflayer Removal – Hostage Taker, Valki, God of Lies, Leyline Binding, Chained to the Rocks.
Extraction Effects - Slaughter Games

Game One:

If they work out what you’re doing, they can Bring to Light for Slaughter Games which is a real problem. Try to discard as many copies of Bring to Light or Omnath, Locus of Creation 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, however, they run the full four copies of Rest in Peace so we’re going to need ways to deal with that

Changes:

In:
3x Mystical Dispute - Counters Bring to Light and Omnath, worth it just for them.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters both their engines and other big plays.
1x Ashiok, Dream Render - Stopping them searching turns off their main value engine.
1x Haywire Mite – Removes Rest in Peace or can take out some of their other enchantments.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – A little too slow and they play Arboreal Grazer which incidentally blocks it forever.
2x Bitter Triumph – Omnath is the only important creature in the deck and we should be trying to counter or discard them.
1x Tainted Indulgence – The later the game goes, the worse it is for us. We have to try and race them so trimming some amount of indulgence for interaction is needed. Doing this means we have very few ways to discard cards so keeping hands with uncastable delve targets is much more risky.

>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.

Their Problem Cards:

Graveyard Exile – Go Blank, Graveyard Trespasser, 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.

Game One:

This is our worst matchup so it will be very hard to win. 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, probably a 2/10 rather than 1/10. They bring in yet more graveyard hate and removal, we bring in disruption and trim some of the Soulflayer plan. We need try our best with a bad midrange deck since Soulflayer just isn’t going to work 90% of the time.

Changes:

In:
2x Extract the Truth – Removes a Leyline from the board or another threat from their hand.
1x Stubborn Denial – Catches early copies of Liliana or Go Blank while countering edicts once we resolve a threat.
1x Haywire Mite – Protects against edicts and can remove Leyline.
1x Disdainful Stroke – Counters a lot of their impactful plays like Sheoldred and Invoke Dispair.
1x Assassin’s Trophy – Can remove Leyline as well as any other permanent that is posing a problem.

Out:
2x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn – Not being able to run the Soulflayer plan as we want to means that Zetalpa is a dead card more often than not.
2x Striped Riverwinder – They have next to no targeted removal so we can trim two Riverwinder.
1x Soulflayer – The matchup is such a hostile environment for Soulflayer that we often can’t cast it as our graveyard is empty and the opponent has a Liliana to kill it as soon as it resolves. Trimmed one.
1x Samut, Voice of Dissent – As we’re moving slightly away from the Soulflayer plan the mostly uncastable delve spells can be 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.
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.

Out:
3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel – One of their ways to get combo pieces out of hand needs us to have a creature in play and then have a lot of one or to damage spells, Malcolm is just too unreliable in this matchup.
1x Striped Riverwinder – They have almost no way to kill an indestructible threat and killing an x/4 will take multiple removal spells in the same turn, cutting a Riverwinder feels safe.

For Izzet:

In:
1x Ashiok Dream Render - They care about their graveyard, as without it Torrential Gearhulk is just a 6/6.

Out:
1x Bitter Triumph - Their only creatures are essentially instants that happen to come attached to a body. Removal for them is much less valuable.