So I'll be honest, I was getting really sick of the current meta. 90% of the decks I see are JFS Removal Pile with seemingly endless board clear and a few huge threats.
The typical game went Slay, Slay, Avigraft, Annihilate, Harsh Rule, Avigraft, Torch, End of the Story, etc. etc.
I finally got tired of it and said, "Fuck it, I'm making a deck that literally never runs out of threats." And so that's what I did. Of course Removal Pile isn't the only archetype running a ton of removal. Even the Windy Peaks decks are running a decent amount of removal (especially if you include the Sites themselves).
So anyway, that's the deck. It's pretty straightforward. Overwhelm your opponent with threats until they run out of removal and concede the game in frustration.
Because of Dawnwalker and Xenan Obelisk very rarely will your opponent outvalue you on board, and you will slowly grind down most decks until they simply have nothing left to defend against you with.
Overall the deck has 20 card draw engines, Temple Scribe, Moonstone Vanguard, HOTV, Mystic Ascendant and Xo the dragon. However, if you include things like Merchant, Dawnwalker and Worldbearer Behemoth (plus Ascendant) as additional card draw options (which I would), it has even more than that.
Ultimately, unless you draw horribly or play bad, the reality is that very few decks will be able to outlast you. Most of the time you will either die before you get online (due to aggro or mana screw), or start grinding your opponent out in the mid/late game into oblivion.
This list does have some tools against aggro. Torch of course is the MVP against most aggro lists. Dawnwalker acts as a recurring blocker that they have to waste removal on. Sandstorm Titan and Vanguard are walls that can't be stunned. The deck has a few different ways to heal as well.
A note on
Learned Herbalist. Many of you may be asking why I included this creature instead of
Teacher of Humility.
Teacher of Humility obviously offers even more card draw while potentially screwing over your opponent, so I'll try to explain why I think Herbalist is slightly better.
Teacher of Humility
+Great Stats for its cost
+Can curse the opponent
+Offers card draw
+Amazing if it infiltrates
-Costs 2 Time influence
-Easily removed
-Easily blocked
-Less effective in lategame
-Kinda shit if it doesn't infiltrate
Learned Herbalist
+Guaranteed Value with discard target
+Healing
+Ramps you
+Works well with Ascendant
+Only 1 Time influence required
-Weaker stats (but still decent for the cost)
-Weaker blocker
-More easily removed
-Less useful without discard target
As you can see it's pretty close. They both have advantages and disadvantages in this decklist. But to be honest I see Teacher as a more viable option in aggro decks and aggressive midrange decks with more early game threats (to eat the removal) and ways to protect your units. Most the time in a deck like this, it simply doesn't get through. It may eat a removal, which is pretty good, but Herbalist can eat a removal as well (most decks don't want you to have endless healing).
On the other hand, Herbalist may seem strange in a deck like this (no Reanimator options), but it has plenty of great discard options (especially Dawnwalker and Xo of the Endless Hoard or his treasure), and ramps you into your amazing lategame threats.
It's close, and if Teacher of Humility suits your playstyle more then by all means include it. Personally however, I don't own the card and I have no interest in crafting a full playset of them when on paper it seems weaker in this particular list. Even if in general it's an incredibly strong card that can fit into many Time lists.
Torch
x4
2
Learned Herbalist
x4
2
Temple Scribe
x4
2
Xenan Initiation
x3
3
Auralian Merchant
x4
3
Dawnwalker
x4
4
Sandstorm Titan
x4
4
Xenan Obelisk
x3
5
Moonstone Vanguard
x4
5
Worldbearer Behemoth
x4
6
Heart of the Vault
x4
6
Mystic Ascendant
x4
6
Xo of the Endless Hoard
x4
Fire Sigil
x6
Time Sigil
x4
Amber Waystone
x4
Crest of Impulse
x4
Praxis Banner
x3
Seat of Impulse
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
I would be interested to hear how the deck would work with Praxis Arcanum however. Darya and Obelisk are flex spots in the Market.
The 2nd problem is avigraft just wrecks you. All you have to deal with those 2 problems is a single copy of passage of eons, which is super slow to setup and very obviously telegraphed.
I've been messing around with praxis a bit, personally I cut worldbearer behemoths and I was running 3 shatterglass mage. It does die to torch, but there's just too many relics running around to ignore. I also liked a couple copies of praxis arcanum in the deck, and I do feel like teachers were pretty important. The card is just insane if they don't draw early removal.
Ultimately though, although the deck is very powerful,I feel like it just has too many weaknesses overall.
Bad matchups are:
- Anything with vara
- anything with avigraft
- maul
Vara, when the opponent sacrifices a creature, is a subpar 4 cost creature with lifesteal. This is a deck with tons of expendable 2 cost and 3 cost creatures such as Temple Scribe, Herbalist, Merchant, and especially Dawnwalker. You can literally "sacrifice" Dawnwalker every time they play a Vara and just bring it back the next round for free.
So it's the exact opposite of what you just stated. This deck excels against Vara because it has so many sacrifice targets against her, making her a subpar 4 drop that doesn't do much of anything.
Maul is a good counter to card draw heavy decks, but I rarely see it.
Avigraft is strong but not a huge problem either. You already mentioned Passage of Eons, but in addition the deck has too many targets to make it amazing. If they Avigraft your Merchant so you can't pull Relic removal, they don't deal with your big threats. If they Avigraft your big threats, you have Dawnwalker recursion. If they Avigraft Dawnwalker, you still have all your big threats.
If they Avigraft multiple targets, you Passage of Eons and punish them for it while getting several 3/3s with flying.
In other words, I don't see how this deck is weaker to Avigraft than any other deck in the meta. In fact having access to the Yellow Market makes it less weak to it than most decks are. If you think it's too big of a problem just swap out Darya for Disjunction and have another answer.
To be honest the only card I've seen so far that absolutely shits on this deck is Statuary Maiden because you have absolutely no answer to it and no way to interact with it. It messes up your strategy completely, makes your Dawnwalkers useless, and you can't attack. That's the one you should have mentioned, not Vara lol.
Scribe is designed as such that he gets his value whether or not he's removed the next turn. Initiate has to be drawn early and survive for x amount of time to get value. Just my thoughts.