Hey all. I hope you all had a great weekend, whether you spent it playing tournaments or doing other stuff. Anyways, Standard rotation is drawing near. It is barely two weeks to go and we say good bye to our dear fetchlands and other cards we love in the Zendikar block. It was a good season (for me at least) and preparing for the new set is the next step.

As of the current spoiled/previewed cards, I’ve noticed a chance of revival of a previous deck in the Ravnica days of Magic. I am referring to the deck known by name “Solar Flare”. As a reference to freshen up your memories, here is a list piloted by Paul Cheon in the US Nationals way back in 2006:

Maindeck
3 Angel of Despair
3 Court Hussar
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
2 Yosei, the Morning Star

4 Azorius Signet
2 Dimir Signet
3 Mortify
4 Remand
4 Compulsive Research
2 Persecute
4 Wrath of God
3 Zombify

2 Azorius Chancery
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Orzhov Basilica
2 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Underground River
1 Watery Grave
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
1 Island
1 Plains
2 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Descendant of Kiyomaro
3 Condemn
4 Castigate
2 Cranial Extraction
2 Persecute

The deck features control in the early turns with spot removal and Court Hussar, while ramping up to six mana to cast the 5/5 dragons. The option is to achieve the “Zombify draw”, which is Compulsive Research plus Zombify plus Dragon or Angel. That in a way is the much aggressive approach of the deck.

Now let us check what Innistrad offers to substitute the essential components of Solar Flare.

Compulsive Research is to Forbidden Alchemy – Although obviously not that powerful, the new set’s graveyard theme and the return of Flashback make this card very viable to use.

Unburial Rites is to Zombify – A very much improved version with the Flashback ability. Also it works well with Forbidden Alchemy as the flashback cost is much cheaper.

Liliana of the Veil is to Persecute – yep it’s not a one-time-empty-the-hand use, but still Liliana is more practical to include as both a discard engine and creature removal.

Other possible cards I would include are:

Bloodgift Demon – the pseudo Phyrexian Arena on a stick might work very well in the deck to fill up the five-mana slot. I’d still wish it was Baneslayer though.

Snapcaster Mage – the latest (and probably the last) Invitational card to see print. He can do a lot of tricks with your Instants and Sorceries, and can give double value to your sideboard cards. Yes I’m looking at you, Timely Reinforcements. (evil grin)

Bloodline Keeper // Lord of Lineage – an effective four drop that can get out of control if left unchecked. I call him black’s Emeria Angel.

Nevermore and Silence of Stone – your potential sideboard cards for specific matchups.

For the Solar Flare’s post Innistrad partial deck list, it would probably look like this one:

Creatures
2 Grave Titan
2 Blade Splicer
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Sun Titan
2 Snapcaster Mage

Spells
1 Go for the Throat
1 Doom Blade
1 Dismember
3 Day of Judgment
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
2 Mind Rot
3 Unburial Rites
2 Divination
2 Think Twice
2 Liliana of the Veil

There are probably changes later on as Innistrad’s full spoiler will be finally revealed. I’m hoping this concept will see play in the post rotation Innistrad Standard.

Comments and suggestions on the deck list would be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading and until the next post. 🙂