Let's make Soulflayer great again. The goal here is to dump at least two creatures in the graveyard, then exile them with Soulflayer, preferably with at least hexproof, double strike, and flying so that you can close out the game as quickly as possible.
I originally used all green filter spells (Commune with the Gods, et al), but found that they were too selective (sometimes you really wanted to keep another filter card but couldn't), and that I had no good way of ditching the creatures I drew into naturally. Red filter spells are much more effective at this: You can fill your hand with the cards you want, and only ditch the creatures you want to flay.
I also originally wanted to give Soulflayer all the abilities, but I found that ineffective against most decks in the format (usually too slow). Instead, the most important abilities are hexproof (anyone can run Dismember), double strike and haste (to kill the opponent as quickly as possible), and flying or trample (for evasion). Vigilance, indestructible, and lifelink are all extremely helpful against "fair" creature decks, as it can be hard for them to get around that.
So you want to play the deck based on your opponent's build. If they're combo/control, you want double strike and haste to be aggressive; if they're aggro, you want vigilance and lifelink; if they're midrange, you want indestructible.
It's possible to win on turn 3 by going: Fetchland, Faithless Looting on turn 1 (discarding Samut and Sigarda). Turn 2: Soulflayer (exiling land, Looting, Samut, and Sigarda), attack for 8. Turn 3: Attack for 8 and Lightning Bolt to the face. If they've taken any pain already, that's game. But typically, a turn 4 or 5 kill is very doable.
I originally had Fatal Push in for Lightning Bolt, but realized that Bolt could help close out the game an entire turn faster. Finally, Traverse the Ulvenwald is basically Soulflayers 5 and 6, especially if you can fill the graveyard with lots of cards (don't forget that Chromanticore has two types!) but don't draw into Soulflayer naturally.
SideboardOriginally, I really wanted to side in a bunch of anti-graveyard hate to protect the combo, but I don't think that's reasonable. Instead, you can swap in 4x Birds of Paradise and 4x See the Unwritten as a transformational sideboard (taking out Soulflayers, Traverse, and Grisly Salvage). You turn into a ramp deck, trying to cast your threats naturally, or See the Unwritten-ing them into play.
Ideally, your opponent has sided out their spot removal (if you only played hexproof Flayers game 1), so your non-hexproof threats are still strong. Then, you can hopefully cast See the Unwritten with ferocious to fill the board with threats.
In game 3, I think you either swap back to Soulflayer or keep it the same, based on how you think your opponent is siding. Or maybe you go half and half? Who knows? :-)
