So recently I went back to try and make a deck called Spellcrag that was around a while back, because it seemed interesting. I even crafted 3 out of 4
Kaleb, Reborns for it. I was a little bit disappointed by its general construction, not to mention how it felt positioned against the meta shifts since it was first conceived.
After that, I figured, let's see what I can do.
The theme of the day is 'let's make more decks where
Hailstorm is a one-sided board wipe!' Nothing in this deck dies to your own singular cast of Hailstorm aside from
Powderglider; this is negligible because not only is he an early drop you tend to stop caring about by the time you need to hit the panic button, you also only need one other spell to make this not even the case. Powderglider (and Neo Kaleb by extension, for all it matters) gain the +1/+1 before the spell's effect takes place. Thus, if you, say,
Torch and then Hailstorm, he will technically be a 3/4 by the time the whole board takes 3 damage, so he lives.
Strategize,
Wisdom of the Elders, even
Levitate on a bad day all help you sift through to your cards that matter, and thankfully, compared to some versions of this type of Skycrag we actually have a reasonable headcount of individually threatening cards. Levitate also does double-time as a cheap, instant-speed way to get a little bit more beef on your Prowess-- I mean, 'whenever you cast a spell, gain +1/+1' units.
Polymorph has secretly never not been a good card, it's just that Dire Wolf Digital kinda fucked up imo by printing Slay for the same cost.
Daring Pioneer is just a nice card to run in your Primal deck because it makes your opponent make decisions on turn 3 they otherwise probably wouldn't care about and at the end of the day turning your opponent's Wisdom into a Slay targetting your 4/4 3-drop isn't the end of the world because it means their hand wasn't as good as they hoped it was. She and
Kaleb's Choice come together to help out the Armory and Icaria Blue matchups just by way of turning off Harsh Rule.
Because you fear Harsh Rule less than most decks because of these two cards, it felt right for me to put in
Jekk, Hunted Fugitive. This deck is really good about suddenly making your opponent have a panic attack because your on-board damage can, at any point, skyrocket and present a massive problem, between Kaleb, Powderglider, and the threat in your back pocket of slamming this guy down on the board.
For clarity's sake, I will say out loud that I only have 2 Diesel Jekks in my collection right now, so I'm running a 2/2 split of him and
Jotun Feast-Caller. If that's more your speed and you want to maybe push the deck in a more control-y direction, that's absolutely valid. Maybe bump the Polymorph and Permafrost or Levitate count up to help him get in safely. I just know that I'm a little internally dissatisfied playing him because I like Hailstorm to always be a good topdeck.
Daraka, Queensguard is just a good fuckin' card they printed so Primal has a lategame midrange last push. I run 3 because otherwise I draw all of them before turn 4.
Flamestoker is an include I felt was right specifically to give this deck one last little push in the 'inevitability' direction over some
really removal-heavy decks, because some people are assholes who have fun by not letting other players have fun, and like to play FJS removal pile still. The deck tops out at 6 on curve anyway and already wants FFFPPP, so it didn't feel like it changed a whole lot in terms of powerbase or anything.
I'm as open to comments and criticism as ever. Skycrag Midrange-Topend is still in that weird, vague, deckbuilding void that a lot of people haven't figured out yet, and I'm not a great deckbuilder, so I appreciate extra helping hands when it comes to charting new territory like that!
... Also I'm just throwing it out there, Dire Wolf Digital, you should absolutely make it canon that Powderglider is Kaleb's yeti pal he made while adventuring across the Skycrag mountains. That'd be adorable and make me like Kaleb's character way, way more. :p