Katra Gets Even (Razorquill OTK Combo) - Masters, May 2019

Wanted to share this deck which I rode from Diamond III to Masters over a couple days. There are a few variants of this floating around, but this is what was most effective for me. I went through the last stretch to masters with 78.5% win ratio with this deck.

Even though it does have the Stained Honor Katra, the Devoted Razorquill combo, many times you can win without the full combo, usually with either Katra buffing your board or via Azindel, Revealed.

For your mulligan, your aim is to get some ramp (i.e. Devotee of the Sands or Mask of Torment) and/or secure the early board with Teacher of Humility and Vara, Vengeance-Seeker. I will also keep some promising two power hands if there is enough card draw via Evenhanded Golem.

To get the full combo out with minimal chance of disruption, you should have 10 mana and drop all combo pieces on the same turn. However, securing this type of victory can be rare, so you will often need to drop at least one combo piece in advance of the others. My pick for this would be Razorquill because with 4 health, he's a bit harder to remove and, unlike Katra, the Devoted he may not be seen as an immediate threat. If you have duplicates of one particular combo piece in hand, feel free to lead with that one.

If you can stick a four power combo piece, you just need six mana to get out the rest on your next turn which is very doable given this deck's ramp. Because of this, some games can be ended pretty early if the opponent lacks removal for your combo pieces.

Your biggest risks with this deck are either getting overrun early by agro or stalling out with lots of mana and no card draw/combo pieces. You also don't have a market to help you adjust to your opponent's deck. Therefore, I would recommend the following play styles:

Against agro, don't worry so much about the combo and just attempt to stall their board rush. This means dropping combo pieces without support and generally gumming up the board. Lifesteal with Vara and even pings from Razorquill will be important to keep your health up. Remember, ever removal option that they use on your board is one that didn't go to your face. Try to ramp and drop Azindel which should end the game, or if they have left multiple combo pieces unattended, you may combo out.

Against control, your goal is to secure the safe version of the combo. Bait out their removal with threats that have to be answered such as Teacher of Humility, Vara and Azindel. Ultimately, you don't care about whether these cards connect, so much as whether they are consuming the resources of your opponent. Save your hard removals (i.e. Desecrate for big threats that you can't otherwise answer. In this type of game, Mask of Torment is the star, letting us reach > 10 mana quickly. I often find that it's worth dropping a Razorquill and getting a few pings in with Mask in play to ramp for 2-4 mana, even if they can remove the Razorquill afterward.

A few notes regarding interactions:

Katra/Razorquill: The main combo of this deck. Stained Honor only facilitates being able to use this combo as many times per turn as needed to OTK the opponent. But with sufficient power, Katra/Razorquill can get the job done on their own. Remember that Razorquill must have at least TWO health with Katra on the board to combo. If he only has one, Razorquill will die before Katra can buff him.

Razorquill/Azindel: Activating Razorquill with Azindel on the board will ping your opponent and net you one of their cards. This can be very powerful, especially with Stained Honor added into the mix. I will usually be happy to trade a Razorquill for four pings and cards off my opponents deck.

Evenhanded Golem/Royal Decree: If your opponent hits any of your cards with Royal Decree, Evenhanded Golem will no longer draw you cards because there will be one-power spells in your deck.

Hope you try out this deck and enjoy it! Please be a good opponent and don't draw the game out by making the combo take longer than it needs to - you don't have to wait for the animation to complete on each ping. Just queue up all the pings and opponent will either concede or you will cap out queuing them once your opponent's health has been reached.

Comments are welcome below.