Yellow Feln Seeks Vengeance

Hi! I've been brewing with the new format a lot but this is an adaptation of a pet deck of mine which still has a place in my heart and this is therefore my main brew right now.

I adapted this deck from my previous Yellow Feln Cleaver deck (https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/details/s_Pwps8meLs/the-yellow-feln-yeln-top-20-masters-yadda-yadda) which I did very well with for quite a while until Temporal (which is an awful matchup) became a meta deck and this deck is my attempt at improving that idea now that new cards have been released.

As you can see, this is very different from my previous Yellow Feln build! I switched from being a heavy Elysian midrange core to a Xenan midrange core (this is more like Blue Xenan than Yellow Feln these days I know) because with the release of Vara, Vengeance-Seeker, I feel like this sort of deck provides an incredible home for that card. Additionally, the mana base rework means I can play Ayan which is a very strong card all-round, buying a ton of time against every deck and then having a powerful ultimate. Switching my 8 merchants to xenan merchants also allows me to market Azindel's Gift and Disjunction to attack the slow control matchups and those have been going better since.

Right now, I'm still testing and tuning the deck and I certainly don't have enough of a sample size to say anything about winrate but I have been climbing at least and I am finding the deck fun to play and certainly winning more than I am losing. The deck particularly attacks the regular xenan midrange decks which I have been seeing a lot very well since Cleaver is as usual, the destroyer of midrange and you have other insane cards against them like Equivocate.

I'm unsure about whether there should be Azindels main right now - I would need to run more power in order to accommodate them and Cleaver kind of fulfils their role and I don't think the deck really struggles for high end (plus the 8 mana for Azindel competes with the 8 mana needed to ultimate Ayan). That combination of things means I just have one in the market but I could see trying a couple main later on.

The mana base may still need some tweaking as I have a lot of depleted power which can make facing t2 Teacher on the draw pretty awkward when you're holding a 2 mana removal spell in your hand but in general, this deck plays in a very controlling manner against midrange and aggressive decks so it's not really that much of an issue.

Remember to hold spare power in the deck and don't be too quick to play your cards - playing deliberately is extremely important when you have 8 merchants and while there are 6 cards in the deck that are two cards for the purposes of merchants, knowing when you can afford to hold cards and not use them is extremely important as well. Don't use a snowball to kill half a grenadin drone or an oni ronin that isn't doing anything on the board unless you absolutely need to!

Matchups:
Time midrange - I think this deck is favourable against every time midrange deck, even against the more aggressive combrei and xenan variants since it sports a lot of removal, equivocate demolishes them, you don't care that much about Stand Together with Cleavers and Varas and you have access to a lot of deadly units which aggressive Combrei struggles with. Time midrange is the reason to play this deck.

Aggro - This deck has a ton of lifesteal units and removal for aggro. Sometimes you have awkward draws since the deck has a lot of depleted mana sources and stumbling can lose you the game but I think the matchup is very good as long as you don't stumble and I don't really see a lot of aggro other than skycrag which struggles with all your big units (and again you don't care about aegis very much).

Tokens - Same applies as the aggro section but you also have Disjunction and Banishes for obelisks. While the deck is not as good as old Yellow Feln was against tokens since you no longer have Hailstorm, I still think it's good. If you see a lot of tokens, you can consider marketing Cirso's Choice but I don't really think it's necessary.

Icaria Decks - I think you are about even against icaria control decks since your killer effects are great against them, you can pierce icaria aegis with varas and they struggle to outgrind you (but as always, they can have the absurd draws icaria decks are famous for and crush you). The deck is weaker to Harsh Rule than old Yellow Feln was since you no longer have Feast-Callers so it is very important you don't overextend.The Rakano valks matchup is fairly favourable as long as they don't again nut draw you since your removal is great against them.

Hard control decks - As I said before, this deck is not good against hard control. If you are facing a ton of it, play a different deck. However, I have optimised the market to attack hard control with Azindel's Gift and Disjunction forcing them to have Unseals or merchants and you are very good at breaking face aegis with snowballs, Varas and BSHs and I so far have an above 50% winrate against control with that market plan (but again extremely small sample size and I do not expect that to hold).

The deck is currently in the process of being tested and tuned and I am climbing with it so if you have any feedback or would like to question any of my card choices (some of which might well deserve it...) in the comments, I'd appreciate it!