(EDIT: After watching Thatresolves play the deck, I agreed that the power was a bit awkward and that Teacher influence into Ponysnatcher influence was rough. Cut the Dredgers for more Merchants, at which point I stopped seeing the need for Teacher. It was hard. I love Teacher. But as good as it is early, it's pretty underwhelming late, and this deck wants the option to go late to maximize the extra value generated by Glasshopper. He also suggested Rhysta, which I didn't originally consider to be on-plan, but I may have been underestimating how much work pulling a Shadow sigil out can be. Thanks for the advice!)
I know a lot of people were down on the pledge deck, but there is no better feeling than a Moonstone Vanguard in your opening hand with these little Clockroach beauties. Chump them early and let Dread get them back for even more Vanguards. Slap a blade on them for even more Vanguards. Dredge them back for even more Vanguards. Or Cykalis, I'm not picky. What's not to love about Glasshopper?
Mull aggressively. You want to Pledge. You need to Pledge. Preferably Moonstone Vanguard. Cykalis is a really good second option. Dread is fine, and you can do some neat stuff with a lot of them, but I'd only pledge one as a last resort.
If you can't Pledge, Glasshoppers and Blades are not nearly as cool. If you have enough power that the Pledge unit cost reduction doesn't matter, just throw the Hoppers in the market. Blades are still useful, especially on Cykalis.
Non-Pledge stuff? Desecrate is so good. Initiation is nice with the amount of recursion in here. Vara is Vara. Teacher might be flex, but I like having another 2-drop with Memory Dredger. Ponysnatcher eats well, either removal or markets.
The market needs a better player to make it. I'm testing Apex Predator in there, but I only grab it when I've got multiple Hoppers to put its cost more in line with Carnosaur. Cheaper removal might just be better. And since everything has Time (for now) Auralian Merchant might be better than the Smuggler?
Kerendon Cargo
x4
2
Glasshopper
x4
2
Ponysnatcher
x4
2
Xenan Initiation
x4
3
Auralian Merchant
x3
3
Desecrate
x4
3
Ebon Dune Smuggler
x3
3
Rhysta, Acantha's Herald
x4
3
Star-Reader's Blade
x4
4
Cykalis, the Burning Sand
x4
4
Dread
x4
4
Vara, Vengeance-Seeker
x4
5
Moonstone Vanguard
x4
Shadow Sigil
x7
Time Sigil
x6
Crest of Mystery
x4
Diplomatic Seal
x4
Xenan Banner
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
Anyway, I think you should swap the blades with Dark Return in order to keep the Pledge value going. It's a better, more flexible card when you're running Vara - sometimes t4 Vara into t5 Return Vara just wins.
In the same vein of consistency, I'd probably cut the Smugglers and go up to 4 Time merchants - this is a synergy deck that probably wants extra copies of its payoff cards, not one-ofs. It would also be beneficial to be able to run 7 copies of Banish - 3 main 1 Market - for Gavel and other gravehard hate cards that will mess up the plan. They're still pretty popular because of all the FJS and reanimator decks.
Anyway totally your baby and I haven't even unlocked the campaign yet (or I'd do some testing) but I really like to make decks consistent and streamlined, so that's my 2c. If I've misread how Glasshopper works, or if none of these changes sound right, just ignore me!
I still do think the Dark Return and Merchant switches make sense. I'm unlocking the campaign now so I can test out. :)
I think that you want some more Pledgers in there though, running the numbers you have this probability of having 1 in your opener (considering mulligan and with some approximation)
12 Pledger, First hand P=72%, Mulligan P=92%
13 Pledger, First hand P=75%, Mulligan P=94%
14 Pledger, First hand P=78%, Mulligan P=95%
15 Pledger, First hand P=80%, Mulligan P=96%
Considering that you don't mulligan only for pledger, but you might mulligan for other reasons also the situation is a bit worse. I think that I could be fine with 14-15 Pledgers, adding more increase your odds, but at this point I think you are short of good cards (second best options are probably Apex Predator or the 9 mana flying unit that kills a unit and I don't think you want more than 2 in a deck.
At this point the question is, do you want some sub-optimal pledger, some sub-optimal cards when you don't pledge in a game or splashing a third color for a card like Severin (or other options)
As a good finisher in the market Azindel is probably still better than Apex Predator.
I will test your build though cause it seems a good base to start from.
On a side note: Double Shadow and double Time on your 2 drops is kind of a stretch probably, despite both of them being really good, Desecrate is still fine since it's good later on also. Ripknife Assasin might be a more solid choice over the Pony