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FJP Control (Pretend Armory) - NEW VERSION

Throne Deck By
Rhike

+21

Cost Curve

Type

Faction

Information

Deck brewed by Rhike and The_Hierophant

Short Summary:

A multilayered win condition draw-go control deck with which, if piloted perfectly, can succeed against any archetype. It is not countered by any deck in the current metagame, if used by a good enough player. In fact, it counters the meta as far as our experience is concerned.

Stick around though, this deck needs serious explanation. Also requires serious experience in it.

General Strategy:

Winning with this deck: Surviving to exactly 6 mana, which is easier against some decks than others, then using Relic Weapons which you draw either normally or through Rise to the Challenge to create card advantage (by removing multiple minions or forcing multiple enemy cards to be used) or deal face damage, leaving the enemy to topdeck for potential answers while you pummel them down. When you run out of weapons, Display of Honor (4) to get two back to outvalue your opponent. Alternatively, West-Wind Herald from your market will enable you to re-use spells from your void, with Brilliant Idea being a legitimate win condition among them. As a last resort, especially against aggro, Xo works well as a finisher.

Against Control: The easiest matchup of them all, you can easily afford to Rise to the Challenge (4) into needed cards or win conditions along with your Merchants (6). You shouldn't have any problems getting answers to anything they put out, with Resurface giving you plenty of options to choose from (namely Bore), and Eilyn's Choice (4) in the main deck against any big spells like End of Hostilities (Relevant right now), Grasping at Shadows (Relevant right now), Solitude, Maul, Rain of Frogs, Channel the Tempest etc. Be wary of possible counterplay with cards like Unseal. Do not forget that in a pinch you can Rise into Merchants as well. As a possible win condition, you can rush the enemy by using Champion of Fury from your market along with your merchants and Throne Wardens.

Against Midrange: Your trump card will be Auric Runehammer (2) from Rise to the Challenge (4) which will let you remove any midrange threat in the game apart from very high HP ones like Worldbearer Behemoth, because it will have 6 damage. It is advised to use Molten Fist or Stonescar Maul against beefier targets like Amilli (I recommend using Polymorph or Display of Honor against them instead). Otherwise, use Eilyn's Choice (4), Display of Honor (4), Harsh Rule (2), and Polymorph from the market to remove any threat that does not have Aegis. Use fast spells wisely and alternate between defending yourself and drawing to outvalue midrange decks. You may use Rise to the Challenge (4) or Resurface to get various required cards (especially Harsh Rule from Resurface), but some matchups don't let you do that too much, so you might need to rely on conventional means to survive.

Against Aggro: Use Defiance (4), Torrential Downpour, and Hailstorm from your market. If all else fails, employ removal aimed against midrange, Harsh Rule (2), and Display of Honor (4) on your units, especially the Jennev Merchant 4 (cannot be torched or permafrosted) or Champion of Fury to lifesteal back up. When they run out of steam due to you getting value out of sweepers, draws and unit/weapon trades, finish them off with any means possible. If you draw a bad hand full of Rise to the Challenge, get Throne Warden (6/4 heal for 4) to keep you in the game.

Explaining Rise to the Challenge

If you treat this card as garbage: The deck has a lot of survivability, so having a dead card in your hand doesn't amount to much and can be counted as a sigil draw. Your usual win conditions, if you topdeck them, are just as dead in your hand as this card until their turn. Besides, for win conditions to be consistent you need to run multiples, which muddies the deck - this deck can afford to run 1 ofs easily. Drawing Rise opens you up to a gallery of cards on any turn after the 3rd, not only one set win condition. Do not forget that this deck has a lot of cycling from Crests and Strategize which allows further dead card removal (and you can pull those dead cards back when you need them with Rise)
If you treat this card as a tempo loss: The card has an extremely strong synergy with Auric Runehammer which gives you the ability to cleanly trade with most threats, and playing it on curve against midrange (Rise on 4, Hammer on 5) is viable as far as our playtesting goes. Other relic weapons benefit from this as well, especially Starsteel Daisho with TWELVE DAMAGE to face on turn 6.
If you'd rather just play merchant: The market can only hold 5 cards. All of them except Icaria are defensive, and they're limited in influence. You can be flexible and choose the exact card you need in a given situation with Rise, which has a larger pool.

Let me explain every single card that you might want to pull with Rise, and possible scenarios where you'd use it.
Merchants are self-explanatory, although that's a big tempo loss to Rise. However, this deck doesn't need tempo. Rise into Merchant is 7 power, you can use any market options next turn.
Auric Runehammer is one the main reasons to Rise, explained above.
Throne Warden is an amazing defensive drop that is a 2 for 1 because of Aegis and immediately heals you and buffs up your Relic Weapons. Becomes a 6/4 with Rise, which trades the same way like Runehammer but in a unit form - ignoring Aegis.
Starsteel Daisho is your main win condition because of how early into the game you can play it and how much damage it deals (12).
Molten Fist is the defensive relic weapon option, for when you want to smash up midrange units and still retain your weapon. Better than Sword of the Sky King because you can cast it on turn 6.
Stonescar Maul is similar to Molten Fist, where Molten Fist does 8 damage. However, Overwhelm on this weapon is extremely important and allows you to chip through tokens like Polymorph targets or Grenadin (Scrappy Hour).
Xo of the Endless Hoard, if pulled by Rise, is an alternate win condition that also has an immediate effect in form of a draw spell. This way, it's not a dead card to have in the openind hand as well.

With that out of the way, let's review the Market.
Champion of Fury is a proactive play that closes out games, but, MOST IMPORTANTLY, it's a clean answer to all sites. Relic weapons cannot target sites. A good turn 5 play is ChaFu into Display of Honor, as well.
Hailstorm makes most aggro decks fall apart.
Polymorph is a solid anti-revenge anti-recursion removal which leaves a token that dies to your merchants.
Resurface lets you pull any spell in your deck to the top, such as Bore, Harsh Rule, Display of Honor, Brilliant Idea, and so on. Extremely flexible and it is simply a spell version of Rise.
West-Wind Herald is an extremely flexible market addition which lets you re-cast any spell you have previously casted (or had it discarded), and also serves as a chip unit against any type of deck that doesn't use flying units. Survives Torrential Downpour, but not Hailstorm. Once again, casting Brilliant Idea with him is game-winning because you get to amplify without paying the initial cost.

Miscellaneous
Two Torrential Downpour are great against aggro, can do anything a Snowball can do, like removing Runehammer. Suck a bit against midrange, hence having two of them. Also they clean up the Goats after Display of Honor.
We run two Auric Runehammer for semi-guaranteed Rise value, an increased chance of drawing it (because it's a good card), and to expend weapons to recur from the void. Why not 4? Because Hammer redundancy is dangerous, talking from experience. Ultimately, it's a dead card vs aggro.
Strategize (4) lets us put our wincons away in the deck without fear, as Rise will fetch them back.
Wisdom of the Elders (4) gives us plenty of value to overpower other decks.
Exactly 6 merchants is the perfect balance for this deck.
Two Eilyn's Favor are for face aegis, which is important against things like Sabotage off Regent's Tomb or Solitude.
This deck usually wins the topdeck war because of the sheer amount of value you can get. 6 Merchants, 4 Rises, 1 Xo, 1 Daisho, 1 Maul, 1 Molten Fist, 4 DoH, 9 draw cards.
We've tried a lot of things. And I mean a lot. Most of what people may suggest may have already been tried. We didn't have Rise for a while at first. We had two. Then three. Then four. It only made our deck better. So did the other cards.
The aggro vs midrange removal has been thoroughly tested and thought about. Those are the ideal amounts as of this meta.
Countering Azindel's Gift is really easy - Merchant into Resurface is a 7 mana play, topdeck Bore next turn. Alternatively, use it proactively to keep your hand. Read the opponent, heh.
If you're stuck with a lot of power and a merchant or two in lategame, Resurface into Rise into Daisho/DoH works.

Before you ask, yes, this deck is teched to win against FTP Mid, FJS, Warhelm Rakano, Maul, TPS Relic Control, Vara Reanimator, Combrei Empower Crew and Kennadins. The only thing this deck is soft to right now is relic tempo through things like Golem Press and Xenan Obelisk due to a bit costly access to Bore. Haunted Highway could pose a threat because we don't have ways to tutor Gavel, but we run a lot of fast spells. Reanimator is countered by Eilyn's Choice.

Details

Shiftstone Cost
Does not include campaign cost
34,300

Premium Cost
169,600

Influence Requirements
3 2 2

Power Sources
13 15 13 14

Power Calculator
Shiftstoned Icon View Deck on Shiftstoned

Deck Rarities
8 28 28 3

Card Types
11 5 37 0 27

Contains Cards From Campaigns
Dead Reckoning [Set1003]

Archetype
Control

Updated
January 31, 2019

Added
January 19, 2019

Views
9,685

Eternal Version
Balance Changes

BBCode For Comments

Deck URL

Revisions (Since last major patch) January 31, 2019


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Comments

BossDominator Eternal Version: 1.43.0.6161
This deck is awesome!!! Why no Rizhan? It runs more thanenough spells for him, and he single-handedly ends most aggro plans... Actually he beats most anything if they cant remove him fast. I'm running 1 and I like it a lot so far
BossDominator Eternal Version: 1.43.0.6161
He's also the perfect response to most sites!!
Rhike Eternal Version: 1.43.0.6161
Good point, but we didn't like Reckless in him. Our site answer is ChaFu. At the moment, Rizhan feeds into their Xo and doesn't even trade. Also, when we had him and had to play him, he didn't have lifesteal and we lost. That actually happened. A day after his nerf. Thanks for the suggestion though, perhaps I'll look into it.
zafuri Edited Eternal Version: 1.43
Gotta try this out. Ever since I started homebrewing with FJP I started off with Armory list but it's just too slow most of the time and I'm looking to turn corners faster. Most ideas are inspired by your previous version and since now you'd updated the deck, I gotta give your choices a go and see how it works out compared to my version.

I guess the only difference is player's skill level. Excited!
rocketshot Eternal Version: 1.43
I too have had problems with this deck with all the aggro I have been encountering.
It just seems to be to slow and the one bore main deck just isn't enough.
I moved the bore back to the market so Its more accessible.
As the previous posters have asked,can you recommend any changes?
I would appreciate it.
Thank you.
Rhike Eternal Version: 1.43
Aggro situation can easily be fixed if you add in Torch, but then you're automatically weaker to midrange. It's up to you to make that decision.

6 merchants and hailstorm is better than 4 hailstorm usually, because it's more all-around, unless you want to dominate them with multiples of those.

Bore into market is worse on average than the other options, as in, it's a specialized counter that occupies a market slot. But once again, if there's a strong resurgence of tempo relic decks, might as well. Also hailstorm can be considered a "specialized counter" in itself so yeah.
mauric Eternal Version: 1.43
Ok so update me - how is this going on ladder atm? The meta is changing so quickly.
Rhike Eternal Version: 1.43
Deck is built for laddering, it's not soft to anything. But if you're in a specific meta pocket you can always swap cards out and even change market (which is hard on your own tho). For example. A crap ton of aggro - 3-4 hailstorm maindeck.
edpham Eternal Version: 1.43
Let's say you're facing the aggro matchups more. What would you take out for the Hailstorms?
mauric Eternal Version: 1.43
yeah keen to hear your thoughts on this. aggro is everywhere.
Rhike Edited Eternal Version: 1.43
-2 DoH -1 Eilyn's Choice -1 Brilliant Idea +2 Hailstorm +2 Torch.

The idea behind this is to have 4 sweepers 2/2 split because Downpour pings off runehammer, and 6 turn 1 plays (4 defiance 2 torch).

Of course, you're automatically weaker to other things like so.
Pickselated Eternal Version: 1.43
Why the Defiance over Torch? I’m yet to find a situation where I’d rather have the former over the latter
Rhike Edited Eternal Version: 1.43
It stalls against midrange (torch is almost useless against mid), prevents buffing units to stop the burn, and excels against Haunting Scream which may pull units higher than 3 hp. The downside of Defiance is vs Warcry, but your other removal is mostly spot so you wouldn't care about the random +1 +1 buff, in fact, it could help you reach the Eilyn's Choice minimum requirement. As far as I know, the only other relevant "when attacking " minion is Xo and torch does nothing against him. Also Defiance stops Amaran Stinger whereas Torch doesn't do anything against it.

Edit: Defiance can also help you against Blitz because they'd spend a crap ton of resources pumping a unit whilst you just defiance it.
edpham Eternal Version: 1.43
An early answer to Stinger is pretty big. There's a lot of Praxis decks popping up recently.
mauric Eternal Version: 1.43
agreed. Stinger is everywhere.
Rhike Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
The deck is now updated to the newest version which excels more against everything! Description is going to be updated soon. EDIT: Done.
Welon Eternal Version: 1.43
Thank You so much for the update. You are amazing :)
edpham Eternal Version: 1.42.3
I love the design on this deck. Reminds me of the Napster decklists from MTG back in the day. I definitely agree with your guys' assessment about the need to get experience with such a deck. There's a lot of decision trees that are involved with this deck, especially with how you utilize the RttC. You just have to be patient if you do pick it up and run it. Good stuff!
edpham Eternal Version: 1.42.3
I will say though that I feel like it struggles against Chains. Because they're running with multiple Chains now, I feel like you have to find a win quick before you die to inevitability, even with the market Bore. I don't think it's out in massive force. However, if it is, I feel like it might need a couple of extra Bores. I'm not sure how to pull that off with the black market setup though.
Rhike Eternal Version: 1.43
The new version of the deck can Bore into WWH into Bore. That's actually been done by me. (:
edpham Eternal Version: 1.43
Yup! Saw that. Liking the changes.
mauric Eternal Version: 1.42.3
The write up on this deck is brilliant. I'm stuck at work and am honestly pumped to play this when I clock off. Great work!
mauric Eternal Version: 1.42.3
So I played it for a bit over 10 matches and went around 55%-60%. Really enjoyed it!! Lots of fun to play and requires some creativity. Had a few very close matches but lost to the new combrei chains deck from catamo twice. Can't seem to outvalue the damn worms and chains once the game gets to that point.
Comment Deleted
241ackerman Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
hey i'm back again and after a day or so of testing i can say with conviction that this deck is the real deal, im currently 11-0 with it in ranked so thank you for the massive boost. I have made a few changes that I thought you might want to hear about, both for budget reasons and play experience, and I'd love to hear what you think of them. First off I don't own a copy of [[Throneof the Sky King]] and didn't feel like spending 3200 shift on one, so I decided to run [[StarsteelDaisho]] in its place, and boy has that card been a super bomb for me, the double activation has been back breaking for alot of my opponents when the game is at parity, and has evened out games where I'm behind consistently. Secondly in the 5 slot I found that I loved [[ThroneWarden]] and hated [[JotunHurler]] so I decided to just go to 3 copies of the warden. Third, because of the loss of [[snowball]], and because the 3 drop slot felt very over crowded, I cut the [[ValkyrieEnforcer]] and the 3rd copy of [[Displayof Honor]] for a pair of [[defiance]]. My last main deck inclusions were a couple more crest (I went from 6 to 9) and the inclusion of 2 copies each of [[EmeraldWaystone]] and [[CobaltWaystone]], they both felt like reasonably free includes that in different ways protect our weapons, honest might consider more copies of both. Lastly, I've been very underwhelmed with [[avigraft]] since it was bumped up to 4 cost, especially in a deck like this that's loaded to the tits with single-target removal, it just felt very unnecessary, so I cut it for a copy of [[Hammerof Authority]], it will still give you the single target removal if you're in a pinch, but with the added benefits of dicking over other control players. so those are the changes I've made, hope I made an adequate case for them, and again thank you for sharing the deck and taking the time to write the primer.


Edit: I've also been running [Injins Choice] over [/Bore] for the reasons I discussed in my last comment. It's been a functional replacement, I haven't run into a situation where I lost because I didn't have double attachment removal, nor have I run into the problem of needing attachment removal and only having green merchant, so the difference seems marginal.[/avigraft][/defiance][/snowball]
ETrex4240 Eternal Version: 1.42.3
Long live Icaria Blue! I love this archetype however my list and your list have a few differences. Firstly, 4 Rise is A LOT. I play 3 and think that is the sweet spot, you say your deck doesn't need tempo, but adding 4 mana to all of your Weapons and Units adds up, I would reccomend testing 3 for a bit. Second if you're playing Armory and Throne Warden, Molten Fist should definitely be in your 80. You will never know true joy until you play Warden, Rise into Fist, and start Hulk-Smashing some nerds. 10/10 would reccomend over Maul. Third your extreme lack of sweepers is terrifying to me as an old school Armory player. I would try to add 4 Harsh into the main and an End of the Story in the market as your market sweeper. 3x Hailstorm just isn't enough these days. Fourth, no offense, but Winchest Merchant is garbage. I would not play him anywhere but gauntlet. I would play Howling Peak Smuggler instead so your mortar hits for more and your Hailstorm is closer to a full sweeper. Lastly, no Gavel in the Market has to be wrong in this meta. I would fix that ASAP.

However, critiques aside, I love to see people working with a deck that I really love and believe to still be powerful. I like the inclusion of Eilyn's Choice as a way to answer Kennadins and Reanimator maindeck. I love the work you all are doing for the archetype and would love to share lists and testing results as I will always be jamming Icaria Blue in my spare time.
Rhike Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
As we said in the Misc section, we experimented with all amounts of Rise and every time it increased the deck simply got better. There's 0 reason to put more wincons because of Rise. 0 reasons to put more removal because we have loads. 0 reason to put draw because Rise draws you the exact card you need. Still, if we demand other cards EXTREMELY we might run 1 less Rise. Depends.

Suggest what to remove in market for Gavel mate, don't just randomly suggest. Sorry. We explained our Market thoroughly.
Fist is too greedy and too situational - a 1 of of Warden is 100% better because of Rise. Otherwise it's a dead card in an aggro matchup. A lot more dead than Harsh Rule which clears the turn it's played instead, for example. Imagine dying to Skycraggro because you drew three Wardens
Winchest is able to pull J removal cards whereas Howling Peak cannot, which is extremely important - how come you suggest more sweepers whilst removing the ability to cast them by having a Howling Peak smuggler? Although with EotS in market which is a semi-late game option it could be possible.
As for sweepers in general - we are likely replacing Vanquish with Harsh rule, should be fine.
Howling Peak merch's damage is pretty irrelevant apart from Hailstorming 4 HP units like Amaran Stinger, I don't see THAT much value in it. Why? Because Amaran comes down in the same turn, so the Howling Peak merch is useless there unless you tank the infiltrate and Hailstorm / Torch next turn. The cutoff point is significant for sure but I can't recall any important minions having 4 HP - we have Runehammer for that anyway.
All in all, Winchest is for consistency, not the body. It grabs important cards. We'll see though.
Don't forget that this isn't your Armory. This is FJP Control. Even though we kill things with relic weapons, the decks aren't too similar. The title is Pretend Armory.

Ty for suggestions though. Vanquish definitely is one of those proactive plays that we can replace for Harsh Rule, which has more flexibility albeit more cost.
ETrex4240 Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
This was such a dismissive comment from someone who has a lot of experience with the archetype (more than you) and was offering constructive advice. If you don't want people likening your deck to Armory take Armory out of the title "mate." Sorry.
Rhike Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
The title's an inside joke, Armory is dead.

Icaria Blue used to run Icaria maindeck, I don't think you can call Icaria Blue something which has her in the market.

Sorry if I was being dismissive, I'm thankful for feedback, I merely explained how things are the way they are. Also it's just a good sport to say what to replace cards with instead of suggesting to add new ones - that's how decks work after all!
Alvirian Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
Great deck. Lot of fun to play. I changed Jotun Hurler to Jotun Feast-Caller and for me it seemed to work better. Thanks for posting the deck . Worth a thumbs up for the guide alone :)
ArrowofKira22 Eternal Version: 1.42.3
Amazing guide and explanations about the deck. I'll give it a shot it seems really interesting to play and as a player this deck might improve your skilllevel. I just have one question what is in your opinion the most difficult matchup?
241ackerman Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
deck seems really sweet, even post nerfs im not sure Ixitun Peaks is worse than this though. A couple market suggestions though, first i think the new reanimator decks might be running you out of steam so i would consider something like Adjudicator's Gavel, and second, I know Bore is a staple market piece, but i think you might want to try Ijin's Choice as your market attachment removal, all 6 of your merchants can grab it and the second mode can close out a late game top deck war with a 6/6 flyer or double striker. Thanks for the good read my friend.
Rhike Edited Eternal Version: 1.42.3
Thanks for the feedback. Ixtun Peaks will probably scoop to this because we run Mortar in the market which is just a free instant site removal, along with being light removal against units. There is no reason to use Peaks because it demands board control and you just don't have the luxury. It's much better to use Relic Weapons in a meta where Baby Vara STILL exists even with the FJS nerf. So the Jennev Merchant, Molot, etc etc, which all have Aegis and benefit off of Peaks, don't exactly work out. Peaks seems like a good chump blocker though.
About Gavel: Seems too greedy, is used in too few matchups, we run 6 merchants so using all 5 of market slots sounds good. We already counter Reanimator with DoH/Enforcer, Eilyn's Choice for Grasping and Avigraft if they ever play the first Vara instead of Grasping her. Oh and Bore removes Monolith and Harsh Rule cleans their board, provided they didn't Stand Together in the same turn.
About Ijin's Choice: Really nice suggestion, we will consider it, sounds good. We don't care about permafrost. SMOrcing with Red Canyon Smuggler happened fairly often (we tried Warhelm in that slot earlier). If we ever face TPS Relics I'm sure we'll have a way to pop aegis, with Torches and Snowballs and Mortar.
Ultimately, Peaks is a lategame control card that is fairly unnecessary because mirror imaged units and/or Kaleb are extremely susceptible to Baby Vara and overall removal. Honestly, I'd rather Rise Maul on 6th turn and hit them for 8 removing 32% of their HP rather than Site. That being said, feel free to put Peaks in market and see what happens. We've tried it.
crazy_cat Eternal Version: 1.42.3
What is sideboard?
Rhike Eternal Version: 1.42.3
Don't worry about it, it's card suggestions and cards you can use.
BloodRazor94 Eternal Version: 1.42.3
Hey, i just want to ask if that deck is good for the actuall meta, beacuse im stuck at master 1400, tryed couple of decks but nothing worked and lost much shiftstone... Thanks 4 the awnser(s) ✌
Rhike Eternal Version: 1.42.3
If you're a good control player and most importantly know your matchups and what you should be doing to answer their deck, you will have an incredibly high winrate.