This is my take at gauntlet grinding with a slightly original Hooru Flyers. This deck is very very fast (usually less than 25 minutes for 7/0) and is at about 50% of 7/0ing the AI although I never made stats of it.
I have been trying quite hard to beat the gauntlet as consistently as possible and this is what I came up with. The basic is a standard Hooru Flyers with a few differences compared to the classic lists.
First of all, the list runs no market and should be played aggressively. You normally attack with everything cause you should be faster than most AI decks. The absence of market was after quite a few tests and this seems to be beneficial. The Winchest Merchant are too weak in terms of body and the loss of tempo they cause didn't seem to be compensated by the consistency they provide. My winrate has improved since I removed the market.
Secondly, the list doesn't use any
Vanquish. I realized that
Vanquish is very often a dead card in hand and it's hard to curve with a deck that should stop playing its powers once it has reached 4. I preferred
Permafrost, which is in my opinion more flexible and easier to curve. One should always consider the situation carefully before permafrosting anything : the card should be kept unless the target will make us lose the race or prevents us from attacking.
For removals, apart fromt the
Permafrost, we run only 6 silences with
Valkyrie Enforcer (which doesn't need to be presented, he's just an incredible card and
Bring Down which should be kept in principle for an annoying flyers. Here again, the knowledge of all the AI lists is very important. Never waste a silence, if you're ahead on the race, don't play a silence unless you know you will not need it. Our worst ennemy is SST, and this should be silenced instantly. So we need to take into considerations what are the deadly threats the AI has and play quite conservatively with the silences.
The list plays
Dusk Raider, which should always be played on turn 2 when possible. This can wreck havoc and considerably improves the deck according to my tests. Berserk on a
Hooru Pacifier or on an
Unseen Commando is usually a gamecloser, especially if you can combine it with
Reinvigorate. This card is chosen over
Finest Hour mainly because of berserk units. Also, it can remove a permafrost and provide a surprise block and return a bad situation in our favour. According to my tests, it seems to be a better choice than the
Finest Hour, although the cost is sometimes an issue.
The greatest asset of this list is the possibility to discard and redraw some more gas thanks to
Pitfall Trap and
Honored Skyguard. Usually, you will dump a power once you have your influences and power. I have been so pleasantly surprised by
Pitfall Trap who shines like a star in this deck. The ping is very often usefull (many AI opponents run 1 health creatures, sometimes it can also finish a trade) and this hability to discard and redraw is absolutely crucial. This is the biggest change I have made to the regular lists and it has improved the results by a lot for me at least. Don't forget that pitfall can also boost your
Tinker Overseer, don't play for that but it's always a nice bonus.
Regarding the power base, I added 2 Crests of other factions just for the scouting. It's hard to be 100% sure, but it seems that the scouting is more important than the fact that the power comes depleted, but it's hard to be sure. I wouldn't go with more than 2 but those 2 have convinced me reasonably.
Sorry for the English, not my langage. Hope you like the deck, don't hesitate to make comments on how it performs for you.
Finest Hour
x2
1
Gift of Battle
x1
1
Permafrost
x4
1
Pitfall Trap
x3
2
Bring Down
x2
2
Dusk Raider
x4
2
Eager Owlet
x4
2
Honored Skyguard
x4
2
Reinvigorate
x3
2
Tinker Overseer
x4
2
Wild Cloudsnake
x3
3
Hooru Pacifier
x4
3
Mirror Image
x2
3
Unseen Commando
x4
3
Valkyrie Enforcer
x4
4
Poaching Drake
x2
Justice Sigil
x6
Primal Sigil
x5
Crest of Order
x4
Crest of Progress
x1
Crest of Wisdom
x1
Hooru Banner
x4
Seat of Order
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
First, Acquisitive Crow is just too expensive for what he does. Most of the times, the 1 cost spell are pretty irrelevant and 3 power and 2 primal influences are very often a big deal. I do like the card, but my 3 cost units from the list are better and I don't know what to cut to make the rooms for the Crows.
Whispering Wind is another matter. I really like the effect, but it's somehow unflexible (very much like Pitfall's effect is). You draw the turn after you play the card and you can only draw a more expensive card than the one you threw away. It is therefore impossible to get a power or an influence you would need with him. The main reason it has left the list is that it is a hard card to curve. With this list, the best case scenario is to be able to play a 2-drop on turn 2, a 3-drop (sometimes another 2-drop) and a 4-drop (or 2 2-drops). As the list is meant to be very aggressive, you will never want to play Whispering Wind during those 4 first turn (unless it is your only playable card) because it doesn't put enough pressure. Therefore, it will arrive too late in my opinion to be really effective. My replacement (Pitfall) can be played on turn 1, can boost a later Tinker Overseer and the effect can sometimes be used on turn 3 assuming it was played on turn 1. I find it more flexible and easier to manage with the curve. Pitfall is the only card that Whispering Wind could replace (I don't think you want to cut anything else and Pitfall and Whispering Wind fulfill the same role) but my preference really goes for Pitfall.
I'll keep at it, though. It definitely requires a lot more thought and discipline than a lot of similar builds so maybe I need more practice to play it optimally.
The absence of the card is particularly annoying against the boss Defender of the Spire. But again the result very much depends on where your silences are. If your starting hand as one or two silences, you're looking really good, otherwise, it's gonna be tough.
About the famous SST in particular, just ignore the body, it's only 5 damage per turn and you're usually dealing more than that. Also if it's really impossible to silence you can attack with either Hooru Pacifier or Unseen Commando with a reinvigorate in hand to get rid of him as the AI will take the trade 100% of the times. I have very rarely lost to titans, but I know which list plays him and I always take him into consideration when I face one of those lists.
I did go 7-0 with this list after making the comment, so it's hard to argue with those results! I think I just need to adapt my playstyle a bit to maximize my effectiveness with this deck.