Stonescar Midrange

This is my Stonescar Midrange Expedition deck that I've been toying around with. It started out as an attempt at Feln Control, and I quickly came to the conclusion that there just wasn't enough good control elements in primal and shadow.

I switched to Stonescar and tried to stay with the control shell, since there's much better removal like Cremate, but I still didn't like how the deck was performing. So I cut a lot of the high end cards like main board Dizo's Office, and opted for a lower curve, with a more midrange shell.

So far, the deck has been performing well. I feel like it has a fighting chance against most of the meta decks. Below, I'll go through a card by card breakdown, with my thoughts on each.

This is my first deck tech, so any thoughts and criticisms about the deck are appreciated.

Seek Power/ Vara's Choice - Pretty self explanatory. You really want to hit double red for Cremate and triple black for Incarnus.

Conflagrate - Good instant speed removal, essential for all the aggro decks in the format.

Fenris Nightshade - Solid 2 drop that puts an early body on board against aggro, and has incidental card draw as well. The other option here is Dreamsnatcher, but I like the extra utility of drawing a card, and potentially dealing some damage paired with Livia.

Voprex's Choice - The flexibility to either use this as early removal or to get back a dragon later on makes this appealing. I can see going down to 2 or 3 copies of this, but I've liked how it's performed.

Crooked Alleyguide - Hopefully you're playing this on turn 1, but a 3/3 for 3 that scouts isn't awful.

Livia, Hexweaver - 3/2 for 3 isn't fantastic, but the lifesteal and -1/-1 curse makes it worth it. There's a lot of x/1s the aggro/go wide decks use, and this deals with them.

Cremate - Instant speed creature OR site removal at 4 mana makes this one of the best removal spells in the format. I can't see myself running less than 4.

Impending Doom - Over statted creature with flying puts pressure on the opponent, while being difficult to kill outside of black.

Incarnus, Makkar's Listener - 4 power, 3/3 unblockable that draws a card is very good. It also grows if it doesn't get removed, and draws another card.

Eclipse Dragon - Flying body with charge that allows you to hold up removal on your opponent's turn is good. Either right away with Conflagrate or turn 6 with Cremate.

Karvet, Solar Dragon - I wasn't convinced on this card at first, but a 4/5 flier with life steal that brings in another body is good on it's own. If you have an Eclipse Dragon, the extra cultist is just gravy.

Emblem of Shavka - Being able to turn your power into a creature when top decking the emblems is very good, in this case a 3/3 for 2.

Market

Edicts - Extra removal to cleanly deal with creatures in those factions. I think these are probably the weakest market inclusions that could be swapped.

Malediction - A necessary evil in a format swarming with aggro decks. It gives you a fighting chance against decks that are faster than you.

Dizo's Office - Extra removal, card draw and life steal

Vara, Fate-Touched - Great for when games go late. Ideally you're grabbing Karvet so you can bring one or two extra creatures back, but diving back into the market or just reapplying pressure after a board wipe is also good.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the deck!

Updates:

It seems like this deck/archetype is gaining traction! I made some changes over the past couple weeks that I think make the deck better suited for the meta and more streamlined, some changes based on user feedback here.

I cut Fenris Nightshade and Crooked Alleyguide in place of a playset of Dragon Forges, 2 Immortalize a 4th Seek Power and a 4th Eclipse Dragon.

The Fenris Nightshades and Alleyguides don't quite feel right. A turn 1 Alleyguide is powerful, and the scout is valuable. But playing on turn 3+ felt bad. Fenris was more or less a curve filler. The 2 mana slot is now mainly removal, and so far it's worked out. There are many creatures in expedition that cost less than 2, and a lot of them warrant using removal on early.

A turn 4 Eclipse Dragon and a turn 5 Karvek are very powerful follow-ups to a turn 3 or 4 Dragon Forge. The full set of Dragon Forges warrants running a 4th Eclipse Dragon.

The 4th Seek Power might be a placeholder for now, but more consistent mana is never a bad thing.

We have a lot of creatures we want to Immortalize in this deck, and 2 feels like the right amount.

I also cut Dizo's Office from the market. It often felt much too slow, and I found I didn't need the extra life gain if games were going that late. I replaced it with the black emblem for an additional threat, and another mana source to power out Incarnus.