EDITSplinterfright > Boneyard WurmEsper Solar Flare > This deck
UBgw deck inspired by Solar Flare. Mana base, sideboard, and (some) mainboard elements are still a work in progress. I'm not sure that this is even a better version than the standard Flare deck, mainly because of how good Day of Judgement is right now against almost every deck. Originally the deck used Garruk Relentless and Garruk, Primal Hunter to help avoid Day of Judgement and provide additional card advantage. Neither worked out as well as expected, which is why the green is barely a splash for Mulch, which has basically been Forbidden Alchemy number 5-8, and Boneyard Wurm, who, while usually a little underwhelming, is a real beating if the game goes long or against opposing Flare Decks, where you can drop multiples on a turn and force them to have Day of Judgement.
I haven't decided on Mana Leak or Think Twice yet. Think Twice isn't really a very good card, but the deck frequently will pass with 3 mana up and nothing to do, which in that case, Think Twice is pretty sweet. Mana Leak is also sweet in the same scenario. However, after about the third turn, you mainly are just tapping out every turn making them deal with a huge threat, or getting massive card advantage. I tried Dissipate in the maindeck, but the color constraints of the deck are already somewhat difficult to manage.
As is the case with most Flare decks, the deck is nearly impossible to disrupt through standard means, but is completely hosed by Nihil Spellbomb. It also folds to aggro strategies, at least pre-board. The deck could probably use additional removal, possibly in the form of Dismember, Go for the Throat, or (in the event that green is dropped) Oblivion Ring.
Deranged Assistant and Molten-Tail Masticore have both been excellent in my playtesting. The assistant often leads to turn 3 masticore or turn 5 titan, and also helps get creatures and spells into the graveyard to be abused by Unburial Rites and Snapcaster Mage (Who is totally awesome, by the way. 5 mana for a 2/1, stocking your graveyard, and drawing a card by flashing back Forbidden Alchemy is sweet, and it's even better at instant speed.). You almost always have random land to discard to masticore, due to mulch, so the "drawback" is negated. Masticore is also sweet because it lives through Day of Judgement, and is a very relevant clock when you hit your land drops every single turn like this deck does.
Liliana of the Veil doesn't seem super exciting in this deck, but the interaction with Sun Titan is awesome and is another way to grind out a game that goes long. It's very possible that the deck should be -1 Liliana, +1 Phantasmal Image just because of how awesome it is to get back the image with Sun Titan.
Currently the biggest issue with the deck is Boneyard Wurm. He is just horrible against any aggresive deck, and only decent against slower decks. I tried Mayor of Avabruck
in the deck some time ago, when it was heavier green, and he was extremely underwhelming. Daybreak Ranger also seems horrible right now (in general, not just in this deck). In a previous build I had a singleton Kessig Cagebreakers, which was actually not bad. In the late game he is actually much better than Grave Titan simply because if you attack with him you just win. Unfortunately he ended up being too slow, and too bad against graveyard hate. The only thing tying me to the green with this build is Mulch, because it really is just that good. It's unfortunate that green is in such a tough spot right now, with a lack of efficiently costed threats. Skinshifter is really my only other option after boneyard wurm, which is unfortunate because it makes the mana of the deck (which actually really isn't that bad, believe it or not.) much worse due to actually wanting to cast it early and needing to have G to activate it.
Mulch is so awesome in this deck, I've got to get another paragraph to talk about it. It fixes your mana, gives card advantage through putting only business spells into your graveyard, gives you discard fuel for masticore, and gives you resilience to discard effects. You can flash it back cheaply with Snapcaster Mage for a sorcery speed Forbidden Alchemy, and no I'm not exaggerating here, mulch is as good as alchemy in this deck.
Another big problem with this deck (and most Flare decks) is probably the fact that it has a really REALLY hard time against the red deck before sideboarding. Even after sideboarding, the matchup is probably favored to them, at least with the current sideboard. Stromkirk Noble can't be blocked by either Deranged Assistant or Snapcaster Mage, which is a really big deal since the deck runs no other efficient blockers. Masticore, Liliana, or one of the reanimation targets are the only ways to hope to stabilize against the red deck, and they are a little too slow to be all that effective. Out of the board Spellskite is pretty sweet against them, as is Black Sun's Zenith, (Which is a concession to my manabase. It would be Day of Judgement but there's no way to support 2WW in the deck.) and Gnaw to the Bone. The Creeping Corrosions in the board are for Tempered Steel and the various Sword decks. However, corrosion is quite difficult to cast early in this deck, which is an issue. The mana base should be able to be tuned to help alleviate that problem somewhat however, so I'm not all that concerned about it. Nihil Spellbomb is for opposing Flare decks. The sideboard also needs to be tuned to combat Birthing Pod decks, which is probably what would go in the last 3 slots. I'm not sure what would be good just yet.
I'm pretty sure that every tournament deck should be running Nihil Spellbomb in the sideboard right now, just due to the popularity of Flare and reanimator decks, and because of how effective it is against those decks. (Hint: It pretty much wins you the game if you have any way to kill them.)
