5C Value Pile (peak #27, league)

Well, this was an interesting sealed league. Wasteland Broker + solid fixing allowed for a ton of flexibility around a solid Time-based core.

Week 1 opened Wasteland Broker, General Izalio, Hatchery Hunter, 2x Permafrost, and some reasonable stuff in Time (Apprentice Mage, Pteriax Hatchling, etc). I didn't have the greatest fixing - just Seek Power - but week 1 decks are usually piles, so I decided to just be greedy and play all my bombs to somewhat mixed results, going 6-4.

Week 2 brought a significant power boost in Waystone Infuser, which is a fantastic card in any limited format. Plated Goliath was another beefy threat, while Humbug Swarm went great with General Izalio. Banish was a premium piece of removal off an effectively free splash. I also got a bit more fixing, which helped out a lot. Ended up going 9-1.

Weeks 3 and 4 unfortunately didn't add a lot to the deck - the most significant upgrade was probably Cut Ties in the market, but there was also a little more fixing to support the influence requirements.

In terms of gameplay, this deck was pretty firmly midrange - a couple of beefy bodies backed up by some solid removal and a bit of card advantage (mostly from warp cards). The plan of 'play good cards and grind out advantage' generally worked pretty well, and my ramp cards often helped me deploy threats ahead of curve.

Overall, I'd say I was pretty happy with the deck. I do feel like I was pretty lucky - I didn't get that punished for running so many influence requirements. On the other hand, I'd also argue the deck isn't actually as greedy as it may look. The deck was very heavily biased towards Time, with the other colors all being splashes that generally required light commitments.

I'll also call out that I was able to use Wasteland Broker to grab off-faction cards only when I actually had the necessary influence. Seed of Creation certainly isn't as powerful as Cut Ties out of the market, but it's not a bad default either. On the other hand, having access to Highwind Glider was a massive buff for some long games, and definitely felt worth the market slot, even on a splash. Using Praxis Displacer to rebuy Wasteland Broker also came up in a few games as a bonus value option.