HIDE Soulflayer: The star of the deck. Under optimal conditions this becomes a 2-drop with flying, first strike, vigilance, trample, lifelink and hexproof; under less than optimal conditions, this becomes 3 or 4 drop with some combination of the preceding keywords. Very strong delve card.
Chromanticore: The main Soulflayer combo piece, and is actually hard castable with a bit of luck thanks to Sylvan Caryatid and
Mana Confluence
.
Nyx Weaver: Fills up the graveyard, dredges, synergizes well with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and grants Soulflayer a sometimes-useful reach, all on a reasonably-costed 2/3 body! Like Sidisi, Undead Vizier, these bad boys let me safely run several one-offs.
Sagu Mauler
: Trample and hexproof for Soulflayer and late-game efficiently priced fatty.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant: Fills up the graveyard and spawns tokens like nobody's business. Relatively low mana cost to boot. Good synergy with Nyx Weaver and Commune with the Gods.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Graveyard filler and tutor, allowing me to more effectively run one-offs of several cards without gutting deck reliability. Soulflayer appreciates deathtouch.
Dragonlord Silumgar
: Flying and deathtouch for Soulflayer, syngergizes with Liliana Vess and is lategame hard castable. Helps deal with big threats and his ability can easily turn a loss into a win.
Silumgar, the Drifting Death
: Similar to his older self in function, except more of a token/weenie-neutralizer.
Sylvan Caryatid: Provides ramp so that some of the more expensive creatures are actually playable and can be recycled with Sidisi, Undead Vizier as exploit material. Provides hexproof for Soulflayer; thankfully defender isn't copied!
Torrent Elemental
: Getting this into your graveyard is about as good as drawing it, since you may play it from exile post-delve (granting Soulflayer flying in the process). Additionally, the powerful active helps further ensure attacks connect against creature-heavy decks.
Liliana Vess: Another library tutor which combos well with Nyx Weaver, as the spider's ability lets me choose between tutoring delve targets by activating Vess prior to upkeep and tutoring draw targets by activating Vess during upkeep (similar logic applies to Sidisi, Brood Tyrant). She also brings hand disruption for +1, which doubles as a way to push Chromanticore from my hand to my graveyard in a pinch. Finally, something of an alt win condition with her ultimate.
Commune with the Gods: Fantastic self-mill and card draw. Gets Soulflayer into my hand and Chromanticore and friends into my graveyard.
Taigam's Scheming: Another fantastic self-mill. Deck fixes to smooth an otherwise sometimes-iffy mana curve.
Bile Blight/Drown in Sorrow: Standard removal in a token-heavy meta.
