My Solar Flare build. This is what I've been sticking with lately in standard, and let me tell you, if you are a controlish-type player that likes to win a lot and you have never run an SF deck, please try it out. This deck absolutely crushes many of the big archetypes in standard.
After experimenting with Esper spirits for a bit and getting put to bed early with no supper by control EVERY SINGLE GAME, I realized that what I was doing was very stupid, and that abandoning my control roots was the worst decision ever. I absolutely love Esper colors, so I decided to get my control back on and mess around with Solar Flare. WHOA. I was immediately in love. After initially creating the deck, I looked at as many other Solar Flare decks as I could, tweaked and tweaked and tweaked, and came away with a build that I think is slightly unique from the majority of the others I saw. This is not a copy of a top 8 SF deck, this is my brew after analyzing Solar Flare and what it sets out to accomplish. People have wildly differing opinions about what bombs to use in SF, so I'll touch on that.
*the Sun Titan package*
Many people really, really think that the Sun Titan combo sucks. Weeeeeell, it doesn't. It is so amazingly diverse and effective in this deck type that it is absolutely an auto-include for me. Sun Titan can bring back 2 Snapcasters, 2 Phantasmal Images (c-c-c-c-c-combo!), 3 Oblivion Rings, 1 Nihil Spellbomb, and 26 lands. That's not including the 5 other cards in the sideboard that he can recur. 8 non-land targets may not sound very impressive, but trust me. It works. Out. A lot.
*Elesh*
Auto-include in Solar Flare. No explanation necessary.
*Grave Titan*
Some say you're either on the Sun Titan train or the Grave Titan one. Well, I am on both. Grave Titan isn't nearly as synergistic here as Sun, but he wins by himself. Thus the 1-of. I like having a multitude of different bombs anyway, rather than making it too easy for someone to extract all of my threats (oh, you have 3/4 of the same titan in your deck? I'll pay 2 life, and LOL.)
*Wurmcoil*
Colorless. Lifegain. Deathtouch. Intimidate blocking. Turns into TWO separate threats when killed, AKA when you Day of Judgment ;). This card fucking rules so much.
*Phantasmal Image*
What's better than 1 Grave Titan? TWO GRAVE TITANS! What's better than your opponent having Thrun/GOST/Elesh? Your opponent not having one! What's better than playing 1 Sun Titan to bring a land back? Playing 1 Sun Titan, to get another Sun Titan, to get another Sun Titan, to bring that land back! This card is stupid good.
*Snapcaster*
Many Solar Flare players only run 1 Snapcaster. I run so much removal/other instants and sorceries that I feel like 2 is the perfect number. Not too many to where it's a "dead" card (Snappy's never really an actual dead card) more often than not, and not too few that you never see him. He is a lifesaver, anyone that's used him can attest to that. And he's in the Sun Titan package! -Drools- At worst, a flash 2/1 chump is still pretty damn good.
This deck is focused on a variety of ways to clear the board, while digging for a huge bomb(s) and even possibly getting it in with Snappy for the win. If you're familiar with SF, you know that a turn 3 Forbidden Alchemy could POSSIBLY net you a turn 4 Titan/Elesh/Wurm (which, it's important to note, is not always the best play). If not, you just sit and dig and play entirely reactively until you stick one of your win-cons, and then if it dies, recur it, and again, and again, and then copy it, and then kill stuff, and then recur, and copy, and kill more stuff, and copy, and recur, and kill, and if you haven't won by then, you either decked out or your opponent is THE MAN.
***FNM UPDATE***
2-18-12 After playing FNM last night, I am going to take this deck (with some very minor tweaking, mainly to the sideboard) to my local Starcity IQ. I have a lot of faith in this build! Let's take a look at how I did with it (first time running this deck at FNM!)
2-0 vs Mono Blue Illusions
2-0 vs Mono Green Aggro
2-0 vs Koth RDW (2nd game was VERY close, Mana Barbs and Shrine of Burning Rage almost took me out)
2-0 vs B/R/W Junk Reanimator (had to fight through 2 Liliana's game 1)
then for top 8
2-1 vs U/W control (very interesting match up, all 3 games together lasted almost 2 hours)
2-1 vs Koth RDW (Mana Barbs for his 1 win)
2-0 vs B/R/W Junk Reanimator
First place by a mile :D
As you can see, this deck is almost guaranteed a win against most aggro (RDW included!), and if you lose game 1 then the sideboard makes it REALLY REALLY hard for aggro to beat you. The biggest trouble I faced was against control (go figure), but it always turned into a war of attrition and my deck just lasted longer (even though my library usually ended up having less than 10 cards in it by the end haha.) The 1 win U/W control had against me was by the hands of White Sun's Zenith (great card!), and I just kept topdecking lands (hey, it's gonna happen sometimes if you run 26 of them!)
I haven't had a chance to play this against devoted Wolf Run yet, but I really don't think it will be a very hard matchup. Spellskites and removal spank dat booty. I've played against U/W Delver and beaten it (very easily), but haven't played against U/R Delver yet. Tokens are an easy win for me, and most mirrors I've played have gone in my favor, but I see this probably becoming something of an issue down the line.
I am going to have to alter my SB a bit to be able to more effectively handle control, so any suggestions for that are more than welcome. I am seriously considering Jace, Memory Adept for this role. If that makes you think I'm crazy, then you are actually the crazy one!
Love it? Hate it? Don't understand why it's so good? Don't think it's very good and want to play me on Cockatrice? Let me know! Any feedback is appreciated!
P.S. Yes, it's 61 cards. No, I'm probably not ever going to make it 60. :P