Edit 8/6/2018: Deck has still been playing very very well, I've been winning at least 75% it feels like lately. Easily my best performing deck. Still fiddling a little bit with the market, I feel there are too many games where there aren't things I want to get from it, so I'm trying to figure out the best configuration.
Edit 8/1/2018: The words below come from the original primer before FOA came out. Busy making changes to this list, but it's been performing very very well lately.
This is the first time I'm posting a deck here, but I've had such a good day today I figured to post it here for some input and sharing because I think this deck is legitimately great and I don't see anyone else play a similar version. Just went through a 12-2 stretch, bringing me from the bottom of diamond 3 to near the top of diamond 2. I've had lots of success with this deck but never as good as I have been today.
I can't remember who I got the idea from, I can find the deck soon, but it's based off of their Argenport Sacrifice deck, adapted to my collection, and built up more over time. This deck is extremely resilient to control decks, but can also go underneath them and play the aggro game. It can play the very long game against other midrange decks, and is quite strong against non nut draws on aggro decks as well due to having a lot of incidental life gain, willingness to trade, and
Harsh Rule. Opposing sweepers do very little against this because almost every card leaves advantage when it dies.
Stonepowder Alchemist is easily the best card in this deck, allowing tons of damage and life gain, as well plenty of value with all of my sacrifice outlets.
Dizo, Cabal Chairman is fantastic in this deck, and Alchemist also clears the way for Dizo to hit using
Cabal Extortion Scheme by knocking off face Aegis. I'm a super big fan of
Umbren Reaper as well. That card wasn't in the original list, but it's won me some games straight up by itself.
Anyone have any recommendations? I've been tuning and I'm super happy with this. Willing to answer any questions as well!
Edit: shouts to Eyestrained for the original deck, that I've adapted and made changes to, but they are the first person I took this from. The deck is here:
Argenport Snacks
Edit 2: Trying a third Reaper over the 2nd Makto for a little, Reaper just feels so powerful in here.
Edit 3: Just hit masters, I've had a really really good week with this deck. I highly recommend!
Edit 4 (5/13): Just went on a 10-0 run through Diamond 1 to get Masters
so, uh, this deck is good right now. just went on a 10-0 run in Diamond 1 to go straight to Masters. same list.
Dark Return
x3
1
Slumbering Stone
x2
2
Annihilate
x2
2
Copperhall Porter
x4
2
Dark Wisp
x2
2
Devour
x4
2
Vanquish
x2
2
Vara's Favor
x2
3
Kerendon Merchant
x4
3
Madness
x2
3
Slay
x3
3
Stonepowder Alchemist
x4
3
Surgeon's Saw
x1
5
Harsh Rule
x4
5
Umbren Reaper
x4
6
Direwood Prowler
x2
6
Dizo, Cabal Chairman
x2
6
End of the Story
x1
Justice Sigil
x7
Shadow Sigil
x7
Amethyst Monument
x2
Argenport Banner
x3
Crest of Vengeance
x4
Seat of Vengeance
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
My question is, why the 1 of for Surgeons Saw? I pretty rarely get value out of the lifesteal and +1/+1 on a creature because most of the creatures in this deck have low health and get traded out. Why put this in over a 4th Dark Return?
I know you removed him previously, but how about a Makto to sub for the saw? A higher HP blocker that continues the card advantage trend?
Counters face Aegis which can sometimes be an issue and is either a beefy unit or removal on a stick depending on the other players choice?
stumbled upon this by accident and man do I feel happy XD
let's see how long it'll take me to take it from bronze to master (year long break :P)
edit: master ez :D
My vision of the deck .much more greedy... end is near is amazing in market. keep me away from those flooded game.
i'm not amazed with dark wisp.it seems a blank in the deck.
Also, fuck you for including End of the Story in this deck. Nothing like Devour>End of Story against my full board of aegis units to make me feel good.
I still don't think I've tributed EOTS yet, hah. This deck really loves sweepers so one copy definitely feels right even if it's mostly just a more expensive harsh rule for the most part
Gratz on the masters. I am about to craft my first deck I have like 35k shifstones. This stonescar was already a deck that I wanted to wait for more dust and try. Maybe I am gonna wait and craft this.
Oh that would be a good addition if you post this deck anytime in the future.
Lately, though, it's been an absolute slog; anything outside of an ideal hand/curve seems to get outpaced by a lot of different opposing deck approaches. Perhaps the nature of the deck is just super-sensitive to meta shifts, but it feels quite frustrating at times. My particular meta has me seeing lots of Removal Pile Icaria (blue,black) which can obviously crush and search for answers to stall out until the bomb, Roaches (which used to be a free win, but now seems to outvalue me far more easily), Combrei Aggro (good luck with that removal there, friend - also enjoy the silence), and Scream (does the same thing we do with disposable creatures, but can draw through their entire deck to find answers while doing it).
Just feels like the right answers don't come in time - mind you, most games are close, but don't result in that big fancy "W."
I'm chalking it up to pilot error at the moment, but I'm not sure what to tweak in my head to get there more consistently.
I really like the Griefs because it allows the times this deck needs to go more aggressive. A Grief on turns 2 or 3 with a Porter or Alchemist as well really starts getting the opponent down pretty quickly, there are times i win because I'm up by like 20 life (15-35 is actually pretty common with this deck) even before dropping a Dizo or Reaper. I wouldn't go up because there are times that the card is horrible, and there are sometimes nonbos with it when it's brought back due to a Wisp or Devour and you don't get value out of it, but it definitely serves a purpose.
I'm not 100% sold on Madness yet. Wanted to try it as an extra way to handle big Time decks and it's won me a few games but it really hasn't made that much of an impression on me yet. Still testing that, it's definitely one of the flex spots right now. Madness into Devour is still just a stupidly strong play though.
actually very interesting, i haven't seen this played in ranked at all yet. was hoping to start seeing it around but alas, guess i don't have that power yet
I am slowly leaning away from Dizo however. It seems like whenever I cast his spell, they give me the draw 3, and they’re sometimes 2 power sources and a medium card that doesn’t help me push through for the win.
Reaper has been fantastic though and I think adding more copies is a good decision.
I've tweaked the Copperhall Porters down to two, but I'm still flooding out almost every game. Anyone else?
I love the almost endless fuel of card draw :p
Just a thought - maybe the witching hour card can fit here ?
Another question - have you test it on the ladder ?
Im sure this deck can hit masters easily.
I dont have much experience with it so im sticking with the feln for now - struggeling in D2
If you got time - it would be great to add a short guide on how to use the properly and especially regarding the use of Dizo.
One of the most important things is knowing matchups. This deck absolutely doesn't have a standard gameplay, you can't just jam all your guys down and go to town. You need to know if it's a matchup where you should be aggressive, or if it's better to just hold back units. Deciding which unit to play on turn 2 gets to be pretty important, though you almost always want to drop an Alchemist turn 3. The Porters are definitely the play if you're power light or want to go aggressive and don't have any Piercing Griefs, and Dark Wisps are really good at blocking 1 toughness units in aggro decks. Knowing when to hold back or play Enforcers is a tough thing as well, I sometimes get really greedy and save them for value but it's better sometimes to just put the clock going. There's a lot of removal in this deck, but being able to stabilize with Harsh Rule is super important.
In regards to Dizo, I do everything I can to get full value out of him. Face Aegis really messes things up sometimes, though Vara's Favor and Alchemists help a lot. One thing I've noticed is that most players always go on the life drain as opposed to the card draw, even when in some decks the card draw really doesn't do much for this deck. I almost prefer players to give me the drain, because it really speeds up the clock and helps me really pull ahead. Dizo is a really good blocker though as well, being able to block Sandstorm Titans as well as put an unblockable clock that must be dealt with, and all the life gain usually puts you ahead on clock anyways.
Some more tips: as I said above, using Dark Return to put destiny Alchemists and Griefs on the battlefield is one of the most powerful things this deck can do, since it digs you deeper in your deck as well. There are also a lot of turns where I'll attack with an Umbren Reaper, and then immediately sac it to a Dizo, Prowler, or Devour to put a quick 15 life swing. Dark Returning Reapers is very powerful as well, since unless it's silenced it assures a big life swing. You should feel comfortable using Dark Return on Porters or Wisps if you really need power or gas, especially if you need some sac bait anyways.
Have you ever thought about splashing Fire? Some Combusts, Recyclers and even some Scraptanks could use all this sacrificing stuff ;)
I've thought about the splash but I'm actually a huge fan of how consistent the power is. I also don't really know what I'd cut to add the splash faction as well, as of now the deck's core seems really solid. The Piercing Griefs are incredibly powerful at times, especially against control or aggro matchups. Copperhall Porters and Dark Wisps both really help out the early game, and I'm not sure I'd drop below 7 total between them.