Xo's Machinations

TLDR: Two-for-One-Value.dec with a good amount of incidental lifegain with Xo + Overwhelm shenanigans top end. Grind out the AI with a good amount of removal attached to lifegain attached to card draw attached to undercosted beaters.

This deck came after months of tooling around with Syl's Aristocrats and trying to shore up its weakness, namely card advantage and sometimes getting cards stuck in your hand that only really work when you already have a board. Then I accidentally discovered that giving Xo, Conquerer of Stonescar Overwhelm triggers his on hit ability over and over again. So I got all excited about this very old synergy I'd never seen before (because no one plays Xo, I guess?). Eventually I shifted focus to include having as many cards which can be used to get rid of two of the opponents cards (aka two-for-one), low cost removal to keep a power advantage, incidental lifegain with other advantages in order maintain some breathing room, and overstated beaters to bring it on home. If things do stall out (which is rare, but it happens) or you get a little bit lucky, Xo can fly in and clear out a board and deal massive damage to the opponent.

Dangerous Gambit: Low costed removal with a bit of downside. Giving up some life is only *sometimes* relevant and most of the time completely worth it. Usually hold onto these for the occasional hero that blanks Victimless Crime, but usually it’s a good idea to fire this off at any threat that is your units can’t take care of without dying.

Furious Accusation: Pure and simple card draw with easy to ignore life loss. Honestly I am not sure if this is quite the right fit, but I do feel it has been nicer than Cull the Deck and the like in other builds. Again, that life loss basically never matters... almost never.

Skullmarket Delivery: Low cost market access for a low cost market. Since our cards in the market are all 4 or less niche removal or finishers, having skullmarket to either easily grab what we need to stay alive or to finish the game later on was a pretty easy pick. The draw effect is sometimes a desperation play you can make, but not sure that's really something to consider most of the time.

Spiritweaver: Power fixing, card draw, lifegain, and early game blocker against aggro. Honestly I was surprised when I felt like this needed to just be 3 copies instead of four since it does so many nice things in the deck. However I found it occasionally got stuck in my hand not doing too much at 4, but 3 seems to be right.

Victimless Crime: low cost removal. There are only so many hero's in the gauntlet decks that this card is simply a staple in Shadow decks I feel. Rarely has this been just dead in hand unless I got a really slow start against one of token decks. The real trick is to know what actually *needs* killing and what can hang around being a nuisance while you get on board.

Vine Grafter: Second market card, good blocker at any stage of the game, two-for-one enabler. Regen is a nasty little ability which the AI seems to have trouble knowing how to deal with and is a big reason I picked this over other Market cards. Giving regen to almost any of the other units is a wonderful plus that forces removal or the AI just gets stuck sometimes.

Champion of Chaos: Because its one of the best 3 drops in Stonescar. Big stats for a 3 drop with a wonderful combo of abilities has kept this card a premier beater for many years. It synergies well with many of our finishers as well, such as the stronghold and Syl.

Frontier Bard: Giving overwhelm to the team is nice, but constantly growing after already being a decent blocker is surprisingly relevant. Full disclosure, this first got into the deck when I was trying too hard to make Xo + Overhwhlem happen all the time, but the card surprised me by how well it stands on its own or with just another unit getting damage in.

Raniya, Miviox Maniac: Known abuser of AI, overall a well costed card with a powerful contract *if you can use it right*. Don't be like me and die to overusing her contract. Yes, you can sometimes get silly four-for-one trades due to the AI, but honestly just getting two-for-one with the forced block of the contract along with getting in a free attack will be more often than not be more than enough for snatching a win. Also do not forget about her passive lifegain, her own taunt and deadly. Sometimes she is just fine to play without her contract as a way to force some trades and stabilize in life too.

Statuary Maiden: Good blocker which shuts down multiple cards/decks in the gauntlet, and can get you some heavily discounted stat increases that can turn the tide of a battle. Slap those extra arms onto a deadly overwhelming unit to push that extra damage or a lifestealer to stabilize and things will go just fine.

Syl's Stronghold: Removal, finisher, ongoing value, and a oddly useful distraction for the AI. You wouldn't be happy only getting one of the effects for 4 power, but the absolute floor of this card is like 4 mana kill a thing and force the AI the swing at anything except your face is still a decent floor. Otherwise this card can close out a game with the damage boost since the Ai wil loath to block the unit that gets buffed.

Vara, Vengeance-Seeker: Another classic two-for-one card in the form of a unit. And if the enemy board is empty or the AI doesn't want to sacrifice it's 5+ cost unit then you're left with a serious threat. And again it comes with lifegain attached which further nips aggro in the bud without them using removal. On top of all this Aegis gets turned off which turns on all that targeted removal for those problematic aegis units getting buffed up.

Xo, Conquerer of Stonescar: Only 3 of these because a 6 drop will often be sitting in your hand for a bit too long, even if it is the name sake of the deck. As said above, getting overwhelm on Xo just ends games quickly if they don't have removal, and all the previous cards you're playing also need to get dealt with or they will have already ended the game in the mean time. Also, even without overwhelm, Xo is just a good card that can solidify a lot of board states.

Market: Annihilate because sometimes you just need to kill another thing. Saloon Massacre when you need to kill many things, which is fairly often, but not so often that I wanted multiple copies. More of I felt that I often wanted one, but basically never more than one. Syl, No Regrets is for those occasional moments when one of your beaters is buffed up by Maiden's arms or Stronghold, or simply a beefy Champion or Bard could close things out if only they had double damage: Syl got the goods. Repurposed Wares and Xenan Fanatic are the two flex spots in the market. I like them because they both can suddenly change the combat math drastically in your favor, but only in some very specific situations, which is why I stuck them in the market. Repurposed Wares is particularly interesting in different situations and rarely do you care that there are no weapons in the deck.