Elf Machinations

So, this is an iterated throne deck of a deck I used to climb to masters for this month that I played in Diamond after mindlessly grinding some even Elysian from silver-gold after a hiatus of a couple of months. Saw Eremot's Machinations, and thought that Xenan elves would be a low-hanging fruit deck to try it with.

It works about as well as expected. The card's honestly nuts, and IMO, probably a lot better in Throne than in expedition for the following line: revive a 1-drop, switchblade deadeye, and Kerendon merchant. Use Kerendon merchant to go into your market to get another machinations. Trade off, play machinations AGAIN, and either get one of your other 3-drops, or revive your merchant *again* to market *again*.

So, while I could go into depth about every single card in here, and why one particular card over another, I myself am not particularly sure about the exact tuning of the interaction suite (2+1 banish/vchoice, 2x suffocate main, 4x shakedown), whether or not to 3+1 sunset stone or run all 4 main to maximize chances of turn 3 sunset stone (slow your roll with this card against time decks because the cat tax is expensive, but thanks to machinations, isn't hopelessly so).

What I do know is that Switchblade Deadeye, when coupled with machinations and sunset stone, so long as you can play one or the other, can get really scary, really fast. Coupled with Tavia's buff, and she can trade into just about anything. The deck has more than one way to gulp up excess power late game (Tavia, Sunset Stone, Machination cascades), and definitely seems interesting to me.

That said, I am certainly not sure of the *exact* numbers, and they very much may be meta-dependent on your particular pocket. See more fatty time midrange? Consider cutting down some of the shakedowns for annihilates or more copies of banish. Facing a heavy dose of sacrifice decks? Find room for that fourth Vishni. Seeing more prideleaders? Add that 3rd maindeck Vchoice. Etc.

But anyway, what really impressed me about this deck is that when the game draws long, just how much stamina this fairly low-to-the-ground aggro deck has. Machinations cascades have beaten their fair share of FTJ Icaria grind piles, a spellcrag that had to market for their hailstorm, etc.

Also, the influence demands are VERY light. TSS, and that's it. All of the power is undepleted all the time except the xenan banners. If 3 shadow sigils are too few for Rhysta (draw 1 regularly, play 2 Rhysta, have nothing besides her for machinations), feel free to cut some emblems/waystones.

So try it out, let me know how it goes, and what changes you'd advise. Thanks a lot :D