Actually, I'm sorry to inform you Prognostic Sphinx won't work in here, because it doesn't "have hexproof." It has another ability which gives it hexproof, but soulflayer wouldn't gain that ability since it only does those keyword static abilities. You'd be better off with something else with flying and another ability. Skyspear Cavalry, for example.

Also, with pertinence to Brimaz, he's great; but in this deck you wouldn't want him on the field- you'd want him in your grave, where it's static abilities that count. He's amazing if you intend to actually play him though. But you don't. In this case Mantis Rider probably is totally superior. Almost certainly, in my opinion.

Happy new year!

Yeah but it gives Soulflayer flying and if you need, you can discard cards to delve with soul flayer.

i know it's a basic suggestion, but I would never run this at 20 lands. You have zero 1-drops and you're only mana ramp starts at 2-cmc. You may not have noticed this yet, but bring this to a tourney and you will hate yourself not running more lands when you pull opening hands with only 1 land. The only decks that ever run 20 or less are modern decks (hexchants and goblins). I would bump it to 23 for A LOT more consistency.

• Become Immense is a good card but you want consistency over "flavor finishers". I would take out all three for the 3 lands. Also, if you wanted to add another delve card (since you added that for more exiling), add Treasure Cruise. Gas is just so much more powerful than circumstantial instants.

Dreno33 first time I've heard from you thank you for your guidance oh ancient one. i had been working with the mana base since Femme_Fatale i have issues with brewing... 20 land 40 spells go. I'm working on it its a lingering kitchen table habit from the 90s. I've made it up to 22 lands now and that pie hasn't looked so good well see how it goes. thank you for your time and critique.

Definitely agree with Dreno33 on this one. 23 land is generally my go to, even at aggro decks.

I think the most important aspect of this is getting the speed down right. And there are three ways to do this. Consistency, ramp and dig power. For a 5 colour deck you need all three. You are going to be playing multiple dig cards a turn, so you need to have more ramp. I'd put in Elvish Mystic over Taigam's Scheming. Blue was a hard colour to find and not drawing anything from it that turn I played it was annoying when speed was what I was looking for. Up Tormenting Voice to 4, because you will always have something stuck in your hand that you don't want. You definitely have dig power, and I never Taigam's Scheming on that regard.

Finally, you only need Soulflayer to have 2 things. Flying, and hexproof. All other abilities are useless, as those two means the best protection this format can offer, and the best evasion this format can offer. Flying means you can deal a bitch ass blow to certain Temur builds and almost every Abzan build I've seen.

Looking at Soulflayer's P/T, you don't need deathtouch. Deathtouch as a weak creature commodity, a 1/1 is much more important to have deathtouch on than a 4/4. At 4/4 you are going to be killing most of the creatures anyways. You'd do much better off at focusing on first strike and double strike. Those two abilities means that you'd be able to get through blockers that you might see prevalent in the format that would do much harm to you. Butcher of the Horde, Stormbreath Dragon and Hornet Queen come to mind. So with that being said, get rid of Soul of Innistrad and Fleetfeather Cockatrice for Skyspear Cavalry and putting back in Narset, Enlightened Master. Once you've done this your deck should be good to go.

So in a nutshell, here are the abilities you should be focusing on. Hexproof, because Soulflayer is your only opening game play and if it gets removed, you die. Flying, because most of standard's creatures are on the ground. Double Strike, because it kills so much faster and provides protection against 90% of the flyers in the meta. First Strike same reason as double strike really, protection. Vigilance, if this is your only creature you're going to need to block. Then, haste, lifelink, deathtouch, trample are the next ones. Indestructible is not on here because the only thing that gets by hexproof is wrath effects, and those only appear in control. If you are facing control, you might as well as concede.

I did not realize i could already tinker around with this guy. I will set out to work immediately creating a deck for this guy, BTW great deck name. I spit coffee out when i saw load up in the feature banner. Knew right away who built it.

Shouldn't Chromanticore be at 4x? It has most the abilities you could ever need, so it seems like that's the A-number-1 target to Delve with Soulflayer. Other ones you would need are Hexproof and Haste via Narset and the Mantis Rider. Great idea btw, I dig the build and will have to make my own version. +1

I think Sagu Mauler might be better than Narset, Enlightened Master here. When Delved away it still gets you Hexproof and the Trample can be relevant though not as good as First Strike. But when you find yourself with it in hand instead of in the graveyard, casting a 4UG 6/6 trample is more impactful than a 3WUR 3/2 first strike.

I'm not sure where to squeeze it in, but Anax and Cymede could also be a relevant card with First Strike and Vigilance.

Hero's Downfall serms like a good card here, or maybe even Sultai Charm. Sagu Mauler seems better than Narset, since if you have no flayers you can still play it legitimately and go from there. : )

Also, I think the most important abilities are haste, hexproof, and flying. However, have you considered Thassa, God of the Sea or other gods for indestructible? It could be usefull...

I second the notion of Sultai Charm. It will let you dig for pieces while discarding a creature to Delve. I made my own version of the deck, would you mind checking it out? It's quite different from yours: Stockpile of Souls

Just to let people know, first strike is more important than trample. There are A LOT of creatures that can just block Soulflayer and either kill it, or just prevent it from doing anything. Flying is the only creature evasion he needs, as there are no flying tokens besides Hornet Queen or Hornet Nest. And those have deathtouch so first strike is more important than trample.

preach!

Double strike & trample, especially with flying, is better than first strike alone, since with trample not only does the remainder of first strike go through but the entirety of the second strike goes through. This is why I would strongly advise Become Immense. At the least would should hit for more than half of their life, and if you have a playset there's pretty much nothing they can do to prevent you from winning with a second one.

But it is dead far too often. You require a board state in which you can attack the opponent. And then you require another ability, trample. That is two situations which aren't going to happen even 30% of the time. The amount of cards that give trample which are worthy of play in this deck are minimal, and there is no room for removal for this strategy (unless Tormenting Voice were to go), so you can't hope for a empty board state.

While I do agree that Sagu Mauler is a good card, Become Immense is just a win more card that makes one's deck more fragile. Since hexproof is at the top of my list in terms of needed keyword abilities, I'd say swap Mantis Rider for Sagu Mauler and see how that works. Since you are going to be playing your Sylvan Caryatids and not discarding them, you technically only have 4 hexproof grants for Soulflayer, not 6. So putting in Sagu Mauler does put it up to 6.

Actually Femme_Fatale, there is Triplicate Spirits and Renowned Weaver as chumpers.

I haven't seen Triplicate Spirits used since the Before-the-game-day days. And Renowned Weaver I haven't seen at all.

What Femme_Fatale says is true. Become Immense is a win-more card; if you are able to get Soulflayer out soon enough with Hexproof, the opponent will be dead quickly enough anyway. There's no way I'd run Become Immense over a counter spell, such as Negate or Stubborn Denial, to protect him from a board wipe. It's more important to keep the demon alive, than it is to do more damage with him.

I am finding discarded gods in my version of a soulflayer build invaluable. Sure its all gravy if you have a bad ass but board wipes equal game plan crushed, Plus its super sweet to turn two a scheme and turn three a 4/4 indestructible (even if that is all you get out of the scheme)

The gods are an interesting choice, but considering all they'd be good for is anti-wrath, I think only 2 gods in the sideboard would be used, so that you can prevent control from doing some shenanigans. Also, Monastery Siege for the sideboard definitely, because you desperately need something to prevent counterspells.

How does Monastery Siege prevent counterspells? Counterspells target a spell on the stack, not a permanent or player.

Awesome Idea you have! +1 !! I like Vigilance with Doublestrike/Lifelink/Deathtouch

I couldn't be bothered to read through all the 46 comments, so apologies if it has been mentioned, but have you considered Gods for their Indestructible ability? Good thing with a 5 colour deck is that you can choose which one would help you best if it is on the battlefield! I would vote for Thassa, God of the Sea for 3-CMC and its abilitys, but others can include:

• Xenagos, God of Revels can work well with double strike & trample

• Phenax, God of Deception can help mill your opponents deck or fuel your own deck if needed. (AlsoMind Sculpt to fuel your graveyard early game)

• Karametra, God of Harvests can help your mana.

Would you also consider Prognostic Sphinx for its flying ability and if it is on the board, Scry 3 and Discard ability?

I also would prefer Prophetic Flamespeaker over Skyspear Cavalry for its lower CMC, plus it seems their is plenty of choice for fliers

I have given it quite a bit of thought the gods indestructible is so tempting I decided to go the route of skyspear as flying is my evasion of choice here. Thank you for taking the time to make suggestions I'll definitely give it some more thought