Ixtun Midrange

My build for Ixtun Midrange. I've been playing this in top 100 masters to great effect, and I highly recommend it.

Notable Card Choices:

2x Defiance - Defiance is an awkward card since it cannot kill a unit on T5 to prevent a Palace buff, and it's near-useless when you're on the offensive. However, it's the only good answer to Teacher of Humility other than Torch, and it has some use in most matchups. It can also be marketed or Strategized away when it's useless.

4x Howling Peak Smuggler - Skycrag smuggler is the best smuggler in the game, since its synergy with Jotun Hurler is incredible. Red Canyon Smuggler Is the second-best smuggler in the game, since it hits like a truck. Given that, I feel the only logical choice is to play 4 of each of them.

0x Wisdom of the Elders - Wisdom, and Honor of Claws, are strong cards, but they don't quite fit in this deck's gameplan. We're firmly a midrange deck, which means we do want to kill our opponent reasonable quick, usually via Korovyat Palace on a Shelterwing Rider. Strategize, Xo of the Endless Hoard, and 8 Merchants provide us with more than enough card advantage to accomplish this.

2x Avigraft - Not a card people play very much anymore, but it's still very useful in certain situations. Avigraft is quite strong against Rat Cage as you can graft a rat and thereby shut off all of you opponent's cages completely. It's also incredible for killing merchants. However, the main use is as another answer to Vara, Vengeance Seeker. Vara is a tough card for this deck to beat, and we only have 4 copies of Vanquish as an easy answer for her. Avigraft on cards like Heart of the Vault is also very strong.

0x Auric Runehammer - Runehammer is a strong card, but it's not quite good enough at answering the units that are most problematic for our deck. Teacher of Humility gets a hit in before you can runehammer her, while Vara, Vengeance Seeker, Shelterwing Rider, Sandstorm Titan, and Moonstone Vanguard just laugh at it. IF we start seeing more Vargos and Throne Wardens I may include a copy or two.

4x Shelterwing Rider - An incredible unit against aggro decks, it's also the premiere target for Withstand off of Korovyat Palace. Oh yeah, and it also stonewalls Auric Runehammer.

0x Vargo Redclaw - I honestly don't think Vargo is that great of a card. He's tiny when compared to other 4-drops like Vara and SST, and he still dies to a lot of removal spells. Even if you're able to buff him via Korovyat Palace, he'll just die to a Snowball and an Equivocate. If shadow-based decks like FJS and Feln become dominant, I could see an argument for including Vargo. As is, I don't think he's worth it.

3x Jotun Feast-Caller (Removed for Jennev Merchant, see "Edits" at the bottom) - One of the best 5-drops in the game. It's incredible at generating an unbeatable advantage, and is quite difficult to answer for many decks. However, it can get brickwalled by opposing fatties, and multiples in hand are very awkward. For this reason, I only play 3.

4x Jotun Hurler - Probably my favorite card in all of Eternal. Snowballs kill off many cheap units like Initiate, Hojan, and Baby Icaria. It also has fantastic synergy with our 8 merchants and 4 strategizes, and the 4/4 is often useful to play out as a palace target. Snowballs also come in handy for popping enemy aegises, and can get really broken when you have 1 (or more) copies of howling Peak Smuggler in play.

4x Korovyat Palace - This card is broken. Absolutely busted. It requires a bit of setup, but as long as you have any unit in play Palace is just incredible. Shelterwing Rider is the main target for this, although Red Canyon Smuggler is a good one too, and most any unit will be fine in general. Don't be afraid to play this out as an expensive Wisdom of the Elders, the Svetya, Orene of Kosul that pops out is very strong too.

0x Howling Peak - Although peak is a strong card, it just doesn't compare to palace. In addition, I usually prefer to draw a single peak per game, whereas you often need multiple copies of palace to overpower your opponent in long games. For these reasons, I play 4 maindeck palaces and 1 market peak.

3x Rizahn, Greatbow Master - Rizahn is a fine card. He's good against most any deck, and his lifesteal makes him a huge asset against decks like Rat Cage. However, he is a 6-drop, and his lifesteal is often not active. Because of this, I recently went down to 3 copies of him. I may go back up to 4 in the future.

4x Xo of the Endless Hoard - Not sure I even need to explain this, but Xo is still a busted card. The "nerf" did basically nothing to affect the power level of this card.

Market:

1x Bore (Replaced with Kaleb's Choice, see "Edits" at the bottom) - I'm sure I don't need to explain this card.

1x Hooru Banner - Market power in 8+ merchant decks is basically a necessity. It's just incredibly useful to be able to get the 6th power you need for Palace. This lets us get away with playing only 29 sources in the maindeck.

1x Eilyn's Choice (Replaced with Display of Honor. See "Edits" at the bottom) - Eilyn's choice accomplishes multiple functions, all of them in mediocre fashion. It's a removal spell, but it's expensive and sucks against palace. It's a counterspell, but it can't counter most removal spells. However, it's one of the best removal spells that are fetchable with both our smugglers, and answers Vara, Vengeance Seeker very well. It also has utility against cards like Cykalis, the Burning Sand, Maul, Grasping at Shadows, Brilliant Idea, and large units in general.

1x Icaria, the Liberator (Replaced with Molot & Nakova, see "Edits" at the bottom) - Our market finisher. Icaria has been spectacular in this deck, since she's very hard to answer for most decks, kills people quite quickly, and is amazing at answering opposing sites.

1x Howling Peak - The "midgame durdle" card of this market. This is the card you fetch when you don't need any of the reactive cards in our market, have plenty of power, but aren't at the point where you want Icaria, the Liberator yet. You just fetch up a howling peak, and no matter what happens in the ensuing turns peak is going to be useful. If you're behind on board it's a fine removal spell, if you need card advantage it can copy a merchant, and if you're just trying to kill them then any of the 3 modes are useful.

Tips:
Try not to keep hands without at least one copy of Defiance or Torch to answer possible Teacher of Humilitys.
Don't target units that don't have aegis with Withstand or Mirror Image if possible, since you're just asking to get blown out.
Do your best to shuffle Bore back into the market against Rat Cage decks, since you often need to use it twice to close out the game. Rizahn/Shelterwing + Withstand is the easiest path to victory in general.

Edits:
-1 Eilyn's Choice
+1 Display of Honor
Although Eilyn's choice has been useful for countering large spells , I think Display of Honor is just the superior card. It's a great answer to Zal Chi, Herald of War and works well on offence. I'm not convinced about this change, since being able to counter Withstand (as well as other large spells) is very relevant, but I think Display will perform better in the long run.

-3 Jotun Feast-Caller
+1 Rizahn, Greatbow Master
+2 Jennev Merchant
Although I really love JFC, he's been worse and worse the more I play him. Against FJS and Hooru control he's super vulnerable to Auric Runehammer, which is devastating. Against Hooru Fliers he's just way too small and doesn't race well enough, and against most time midrange decks he ends up getting brickwalled by fatties. I replaced him with the 4th Rizahn, because he always seems to be a good draw no matter which deck you're playing against. I also added in 2 copies of Jenny - credits for the suggestion to my friend and teammate Batteriez. Jennev Merchant is incredible with both palace and peak, as well as just being another merchant to combo with our 8 fate cards. So far she's been very strong. The addition of Jennev Merchant prompted the following changes to the Market:
-1 Icaria, the Liberator
-1 Bore
+1 Molot & Nakova
+1 Kaleb's Choice
These changes are really not that impactful, as we took out 1 large finisher (Icaria) and our relic removal (bore) for a large finisher (M&N) and a different relic removal card (K-Choice). Icaria and M&N are both very strong threats, and each one has their own upside/downside. Icaria is more aggressive, and is better against Hooru Control. She's also usually better at killing sites. However, Molot is a lot larger which can be very relevant, and M&N gives us access to a sweeper - something we did not have beforehand. They also answer sites pretty well, assuming you have a way to trigger the spark ability. As for Bore vs. Kaleb's Choice, it's a pretty similar situation. Bore is better against some decks, notably Rat Cage, while Kaleb's Choice is better against other lists as it acts as both a counterspell and instant speed removal. This can be very relevant against opposing runehammers.
All-in-all, these market changes are very minor, and I think they might even have been upgrades to the existing market. If bore becomes incredible in the metagame (it's not great atm) then I could see an argument for replacing choice with bore and running Ixtun Merchant instead of Jenny, but for now the aegis merchant is just too strong to justify anything else.

Good luck, and have fun!