Deck History #5 - Hooru Control

In every episode of my Eternal deck history video series I include a modern take on the historic archetype. Some of them will still be good while others will be in a much worse state thanks to nerfs or because they didn't receive enough support to keep up with powercreep compared to other decks.

This is the list for my fifth episode, Hooru Control. I took the core from Mail's 2022 TNE list and up-dated it with the help of IronMan and Slepher. The general idea is to efficiently answer the problematic threats of your opponent and to gain card advantage with board wipes and card draw spells while you do that to outvalue your opponent. You usually either win by draining them out of ressources or with one of the few late-game win-conditions (Plating, Incursion, sometimes Circle).

Some alternatives you can try out:
-The one circle can just be cut for whatever, but I like to keep it if you don't play Jennev Merchant because some sites are really problematic then
- The single target removal can be switched around a bit, you could play Eilyn's Choice or Turn to Seed instead of Condemnation or Ice Bolt (and you can adapt the ratios of those); I like Condemnation with 4 Plating, but Bolt is better against decks like Feln Midrange, Turn to Seed against Xenan Dredge and Choice against other control decks, so it just depends on what you fear the most
- You can play a less justice heavy version with fewer Platings, but then you should also replace some copies of Condemnation, Fall of the Spire and maybe Save the Day with less J-influence heavy alternatives (for Condemnation see above, instead of the other 2 you could play more Harsh Rules and maybe Rift Disaster or End of the Story); you also need other win-conditions if you cut Plating, e.g. more Circles or a market Tomb of the Azuremage
- Hailstorm and Heavy Hail can be switched around depending on what you play against (Heavy Hail is better against Hooru Kira or decks with Stand Together, otherwise I usually like Hailstorm more)
- You can play Jennev Merchant instead of Delivery: It means you lose fast speed aegis (Mistveil), generally can't keep your market access up on the opponent's turn and get countered by Deans' Chamber, but on the flip side you get access to onslaught Royal Decree and a body that helps against aggro, relic weapons and sites
- You can also play Honor of Claws instead or mixed with Boundless Knowledge: Knowledge is better in the late-game, but Honor diggs deeper; also depends on how reactive you want to be (if you play Jennev instead of Delivery and less fast speed removal, Honor makes more sense)

As you can see, the deck has a lot of cards that do similar things similarly well, so you can adapt based on which cards you have and based on which decks you run into most often. Generally I would say Hooru Control is about a 7/10 in terms of powerlevel. It won't be able do answer everything in every game, but its answers are flexible and efficient enough to have a decent shot against most decks, so you can definitely climb with it (I went 16:4 for my last 20 games to master last month for example).