Hooru control deck I've been enjoying while playing throne.
You have some decent toolbox options in the market, and main deck disruption like
Royal Decree and
Hooru Pacifier. Not to mention the Orene herself,
Svetya, Orene of Kosul. I wanted to try out
Purgedriver and it's been decent, definitely dead in some matchups and some board states. So the market itself could use a rework, probably.
Martyr's Chains is your super late game tool, otherwise you'll be relying on the classic
Korovyat Palace after you've (hopefully) stabilized behind
Sodi, Wingbreaker or stuck a Svetya.
With the state of Justice I really don't know which single-target removal I should be running, they've all gotten nerfed or were never reliably good to begin with (sorry
Isolate). So instead I just run the good AoE/wrath effects (
Hailstorm,
Pristine Light,
Harsh Rule).
Scoure of Frosthome is a consideration over Chains in the market, but in a heavy control mirror the Chains is your only way to beat the opposing Scourge. Scourge also notably costs 1 more power, though it can lock games down harder.
Permafrost
x3
1
Seek Power
x3
2
Kothon, the Far-Watcher
x3
2
Royal Decree
x3
3
Hailstorm
x2
3
Hooru Pacifier
x4
3
Pristine Light
x3
3
Rime Conclave Smuggler
x4
3
Valkyrie Enforcer
x2
3
Winchest Merchant
x1
3
Wisdom of the Elders
x4
4
Avigraft
x3
4
Svetya, Orene of Kosul
x4
5
Harsh Rule
x3
5
Sodi, Wingbreaker
x4
6
Korovyat Palace
x4
Justice Sigil
x5
Primal Sigil
x2
Cobalt Waystone
x3
Crest of Order
x4
Hooru Banner
x4
Hooru Insignia
x4
Seat of Order
x3
View Deck on Shiftstoned
Kothon/Royal Decree: What's up with Kothon? I've been playing it like an early game blocker but it just keeps getting outclassed by most of the creatures that aggro decks throw. (Instigator, Longhorn, etc.) Am I supposed to deploy it on Turn 5 + another 3 drop so that I can almost assuredly ult the subsequent turn, or wait until I have 8 power and drop it then as a threat to the control decks? :P To that point, thoughts on Royal Decree in the market instead? I feel it's a fairly dead card against aggro, considering the speed of most of the aggro decks on the ladder at present.
Korovyat Palace - Any consideration for Market? Since there's no Strategize and no Honor of Claws, I'm often stranded with this card in hand against aggro. Particularly since only Svetya only benefits from hit.
Stormhalt Knife - Any consideration for this at all, even in market, or is it too much of a dead card against midrange to be a consideration?
Thank you for your thoughts! ^-^
Kothon I do usually play as an early blocker with some upside later. Some considerations for replacement would probably be cheap removal spells, Lightning Strike or Ice Bolt. I've shied away from Ice Bolt recently but with the nerfs to the justice removal suite it's potentially one of the best 2 drop hard removal spells for Hooru.
The deck should probably be reworked pretty hard, it seems. You make a good point about the upside of Honor of Claws and Strategize to dig for answers you need and toss what you don't, then you could keep Palace maindeck potentially, but maybe that should be in the market over Eilyn.
It's been a while since I've tried unitless control, but that could be a direction to take the build as well. Then you can trade most of the units for removal and AoE spells. Very weak to relic hate, unfortunately. Svetya, Sodi, and Hooru Pacifier do a lot of work, though, so I'd be hesitant to go full unitless (barring merchants/smugglers of course).
With more card draw/filtering from Claws/Strategize, you can run a couple Stormhalt Knives maindeck. Putting that extra draw in means you can dig deeper for the board clears you need as well. 2 Hailstorm actually seems a little low. I suppose I'm relying on Hooru Pacifier and Kothon to block early.
I like Royal Decree for the disruption, but the responsible thing would be to put it in the market. Especially like you said, since it really does nothing against aggro. One card that used to be in an older build was Re-read, maybe that's why there are only 2 Hailstorms. So I'd say that's a consideration for the maindeck or market. More spells in general, and with Re-read you may be able to afford running fewer than 4 copies of the other spells besides the card draw.
So it looks like I'll have to re-evaluate the deck, maybe lean into the hard control a bit more, but then it needs some proper late-game bombs.
I definitely think that you are correct in not going full unitless control, otherwise it's far too difficult to contest sites and weapons, which control decks have a definite struggle against. I also 100% concur with only running Permafrost as single target removal in the maindeck cause frankly all the other options are terrible. :P I'm packing Ice Bolt in the market for that sweet 2 for 1 when they try to use a pump spell or otherwise augment it, but I'm just generally not a fan of it against midrange. I can also definitely see the point of having both Gavel and Vision in the market, but I feel that they're really both meta choices. At least currently for me whilst climbing, I'm not seeing a lot of Carver, Reanimator nor Relic Control, so I don't see a massive need to pack either of them; of course that's just speaking for myself.
After all that's said and done, I'm definitely stealing your Pacifier tech to try and use on my own :P , and I wish you good luck in refining your decklist. ^-^