[9.14.12]
Main Rant: I tore apart my "Solar Shriek" deck back in April (I think) as "Delver" came in heavy and made me come to the conclusion that playing a deck that requires building-up is now a bad idea until rotation. I got tired of the quick turn 2 Delver flips and then getting gored with a $h!tty Runechanter's Pike. I tried some other decks out and I really never full-on liked them, nor did they ever do anything good for me in the local standard tournaments.
I then built a U/G Delver to try and keep up, but that failed ever so badly. I realized that I just suck as an aggro player. It's not like when I played my Mono-Green through the Zendikar block, or was it like my fun Mono-Black Shadow deck.
So here I am, a few weeks before rotation. I've been missing my Solar Shriek deck a lot. Not only because I was good with it, but because it was just so much fun to play! I can honestly say that this deck is the most fun deck I've ever played! So I quickly rebuilt the mainboard and took it to a local tournament and did absolutely... wonderful!
Tech Rant: Okay, so my lady was using 1 of the Liliana of the Veil's in her deck so I quickly replaced it with a Snapcaster Mage because 1. It's within the color combination. 2. It's converted mana cost is 3 or less for Sun Titan fun. 3. I thought it'd be useful if a Day of Judgment got countered. 4. I had only 15 minutes to get to the tournament and I didn't even have the deck in covers yet (lmao). I didn't have time to piece together the sideboard, but contrary to what negative thoughts of how the games could go terribly wrong due to this, I did great!
The idea is to put Mindshrieker to work by having him help dig through your deck while being a solid defender and/or beefy early game threat. This works well since everything in the deck is mostly moderate to high cost (and takes most people by surprise), so Mindshrieker will have a high damage output for cheap considering you'll be tossing Sun Titans, Unburial Rites, and etc. This helps set you up for turn-5 Sun Titan shenanigans and locks you in for the win. The deck plays your typical Sun Titan+
Phantasmal Image
chain with some added goodness to help speed it up and lock your opponents down sooner. Added in, I can't emphasize how funny it is to see someone's face when they get blind-sided by a 18/18 Mindshrieker when they've been trying to hold my Sun Titans down (or as I'm just trying to simply dig for things lol). The Day of Judgments are to obviously help you get out of a rut when shit starts to go South on your end and the
Oblivion Ring
s are to get rid of annoyances that are slowing you down and rid of potential problems in the mid-late game.
The one
Geist of Saint Traft
is solely in there as a fun distraction and the 2nd in the main board (as well as a 2nd Snapcaster Mage) is to draw into him slightly faster if you're going against some type of heavy aggro due to his cheap cost and high capability. This adds on another dimension when it comes to threats within the deck, which I also like as it keeps your opponent on his/her toes.
Don't forget: chaining the Solar Flare combo of Sun Titan &
Phantasmal Image
to have an interesting finish such as also popping out an
Oblivion Ring
or Liliana of the Veil to help clear more of a path for the next assault to swing for the game, or the previously mentioned Mindshrieker and
Geist of Saint Traft
to put additional heat for the next assault. Also a Snapcaster Mage to pop a Day of Judgment in case you're being outgunned even with the Solar Flare mechanic in effect- don't worry, Unburial Rites will help you sustain the very next turn... as for your opponent, I can't say the same. :P
So like any card game (or any game based on luck), this deck has it's moments where I top-deck mana a turn too long BUT- 9 times out of 10, it's doing E X A C T L Y what I want because of the deck's flexibility between card draw, digging, synergy, board wiping, removal, flashback, alt-conditional wins, etc.
Sideboard: So this update not only changes a few cards around in the mainboard, but also adds a fresh sideboard to help against the meta in my neck of the woods. B/U Trading Post, W/B tokens, R/G Strangleroot Bonfire (is this even a THING?), W/G aggro (Beast + Token), Mono-W Humans, U/W/B Vensor (again, is this a thing?), my fellow U/W/B Solar Flare (whom run the same list without trying new stuff), and anything you can throw
Thragtusk
in is what is being played here. No sight of Delver strangely enough... perhaps a new dawn is approaching? If you know what I'm talking about, then a glance at my sideboard is enough to know which cards will switch in on the next round.
Maybeboard: This section is really all about what I may trade out within my sideboard depending on what I see going here locally. As far as
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
, I really like her and I get why others use her. I found my variant to really have no use for her, which I know sounds bat-shit crazy. I can't really explain it, it's "just the way she goes" for this variant. I'll continue to keep her as a maybe... and token decks are the reason, but overall are still no serious threat. Going to wing Sheoldred, Whispering One for fun in the meantime.
I saw a list using Augur of Bolas in the maindeck. I can see why, but I'm not completely sold on him yet as I'm not sure how useful he would be in my variant.
Concerning the Go for the Throats- I've been trying to figure out whether I like Counter Spelling or straight killing more. Even more so, which works better for my variant. I'm leaning toward the killing and will more than likely be trading out the Mana Leaks for the GftT's. Mainly because you have to be making consist plays to keep the pressure on, meaning that if you're not tapped out (or 1 mana from being tapped out), you're doing it wrong. The GftT's will be a bit more forgiving in the sense that I don't have to save for the Mana Leak's and I can just kill a pesky creature the next turn instead of waiting to see it get played and being conservative with my mana in the meantime.
Closing: As it seems, I'm going to be riding out this near-and-dear-to-my-heart deck until the block rotates! Honestly, I'm very glad I can because it's awesome and I absolutely love it!
I may just cry when the rotation happens... not because I'm not looking forward to Ravenica (because Lord knows I am), but the obvious: no more Solar Flare.
I can't help but wonder though, will there be something as fun in the future?
