Exocist Chalice Control

from:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EternalCardGame/comments/7tsbh2/new_player_made_masters_in_my_first_month_with/

Card choice explanations

Seek Power

As with most tri-influence decks (and most control decks) you're going to need to be able to fix your power problem (and no, you can't fix your power issues by beating up bad players). Seek power is power-flexible way to do this, while also providing an option for your turn 1 or 2 play, which otherwise might be passing. I only run 2 because I only have 8 sigils in my deck and Amber Acolytes + drawing tend to mean that Seek Power can often end up dead later in the game.

Dessert Marshal

"Think you can escape sweets?"

This guy is good because he fufills three valuable roles:

1) Silence - Paired with ambush will often make this better against bad players (who might play units before they attack, allowing you to silence the unit they just played and trade with the unit they are attacking with). Disregarding that, Combreisian doesn't have access to many cheap hard removal options (Vanquish, Polymorph, Permafrost and Eilyn's choice are the extent of it), so silences are generally used to soft remove an opponent's threat. This can make it so their previously threatening creature is now stuck in a board lock, allowing you to continue with your plan of drawing cards and stalling while your opponent is helpless to stop you.
2) Ambush - Surprise blockers are good. Fast units are also good. Not much else to be said. You're a control deck, you like to keep your mana up for answers. Being able to play this card reactively gives you the option of using your fast spells instead if you find that using this card isn't necessary. You can also play this in response to an evasive (flying/unblockable/deadly/quickdraw/etc.) creature attacking, generally getting a good trade as the opponent was relying on you not to be able to block that creature.
3) It's cheap, which means you don't need as much mana investment to activate chalice using this card.

Disjunction

"Oh no, my chalice got destroyed, whatever will I do?"

"Good thing Daddy Disjunction is here to save you"

Just kidding. This card is actually better as an answer to two bad matchups - Armory (hard to deal with the relic weapons if they keep removing your stuff) and Feln Control (Azindel's Gift = automatic loss). The fact that it can be used to recover a Runehammer or Chalice is just gravy really (but it also makes this card playable in the maindeck so...)

Kothon, the hotly-debated

Is this card necessary in chalice? No, you can replace him with Temple Scribe (just might need to fix up the mana base, because Temple Scribe is the only TT card in your deck if you do that). Is this card extremely good? Almost definitely. Kothon provides two roles:

1) Endurance - Kothon is the only playable cheap unit with Endurance, allowing you to use Chalice on him and block with him on the opponent's turn. I might emphasise that this is not a situation that shows up often, but when it does you'll be thankful for this card. Generally if you need to block, you're not quite stable, which means you generally can't afford to invest in Chalice.
2) Threat - Here's the part of contention. Some chalice players will argue that you don't need Kothon, because hitting the opponent in the face with a 3/7 lumen or 3/3 temple scribe or 3/6 archive curator repeatedly is enough to win the game - Kothon's ability to represent 8 damage a turn with chalice isn't necessary. However, I've found this to be untrue. There are 3 situations to describe
1) Situation where you don't get chalice - Kothon is still 6 damage a turn on his own if you don't get chalice, whereas your other units are 1 or 2 damage at best. You need to be able to put pressure on other control decks before they whip out a threat that you don't have the propensity to deal with easily - such as Icaria, a buffed Daisho/Staff of Stories/Sword of the Sky King, Temporal Distortion, etc.
2) Situation where you do get chalice - As described above. 8 damage a turn generally gives your opponent 3 turns to find an answer before they die. 3 damage a turn gives them a lot of time to find an answer. Killing opponent faster = better, even when playing control.
3) Situation where you do get chalice number 2 - One of the problems you can run into with this deck is not having enough units in your hand. Kothon being a single-card threat becomes a lot more valuable than single-card not-so-threats in these instances. I'd rather topdeck a Kothon (maybe even over a Channel) than a Temple Scribe.

Amber Acolyte

It fixes your power. It is a chalice target. It can put a bit of pressure on controlly opponents when combined with another card. It can trade with a lower-cost unit (generally) against aggressive decks. You should always have 4 of these.

Combrei Healer

Drop this on turn 3 and watch aggro players squeam. This basically blocks every aggressive threat while also gaining you 3 life, potentially making it so you don't die to that topdecked torch or obliterate.

Against control, you can chalice this and it becomes a 4/7. That's generally enough to block most-ground based threats (although it might not kill them).

This card is also generally hard for armory to deal with because 5 health is outside runehammer range (unless they land a warcry/artisan on it).

Eilyn's Choice

I prefer this over Vanquish because of the flexibility (this card is useful in every matchup). It can also take out some threats Vanquish can't take out adequately, such as Charging units, units your opponent just played a weapon on and double (un)seen commandos.

That being said, Vanquish is FAR better against TavGod, as you'll need a silence to prevent TavGod's effect going off if you have Eilyn's Choice in hand instead of Vanquish.

Wisdom of the Elders

Draws 2 cards. Is fast, allowing you to hold up both Marshal and Choice, using this instead if you don't require a response. You can replace this with strategize, as this card can be often bricked early in the game due to double primal requirements.

Archive Curator

Desert Marshal 5-8 does have some upside. Namely, it's a flying creature (so if you buff it with chalice, it can be pretty good at breaking board stalls) and it has 4 health, which means it doesn't die to torch and can block 3/x units.

That being said, i'd still run 4 more desert marshals if I could.

Auric Runehammer

This card acts as spot removal against aggressive decks (maybe even control decks if they swallow the bait of blocking one of your creatures).

Against decks that use relic weapons, this card should be able to remove most relic weapons (in case you didn't draw Disjunction - but if you were a good player you'd have 2x Disjunction against weapon decks anyway).

Against control decks, you can just play this card like you're an armory player - equip it and go face.

Crystalline Chalice

Crystalline Chalice? In a Chalice deck? Say it ain't so!

Your win-condition. Gives you inevitability against other control decks, as you can constantly pump out 3 and 4 attack units that draw cards for you, forcing removal from your opponent that leaves them in card disadvantage.

This card is horrendously bad against aggro. That's why I always draw 4 of them in my opening hand against aggro.

Harsh Rule

Now, I know you're thinking "Wow /u/Exocist that's a really strange choice. Why would you want a board wipe in a control deck?".

Now I know you're (hopefully) not actually thinking that.

Lumen Defender

This card is good because

1) It's a 1/5 Deadly, which eats up most smaller units and threatens to trade with larger units, meaning that it will generally cause a board lock unless the opponent uses removal on it.
2) It gains you 5 life, allowing you to stabilize against aggro.
3) If you buff it with Chalice, it becomes a 3/7 Deadly, which is incredibly hard to deal with without using removal (putting the opponent in card disadvantage), while also pressuring the opponent's life total.

Channel the Tempest

This card is also good for 3 reasons

1) Break board locks - If you get to turn 8+ with a full hand, back to back Channel the Tempests is 24-26 damage (depending on if you consider a full hand 9 cards + the 1 you draw at the start of turn or just 9 cards). Your opponent will generally be unable to respond to this, because, well, the board should be locked down if you actually got to turn 8+ while still being in a position to cast an 8 power spell and most decks don't run spell negation.

2) Draws 3 cards - This deck can actually run out of gas. Drawing cards is good to get more gas.

3) Is removal - You might notice this deck's notorious lack of ways to actually remove creatures (pretty much just Eilyn's Choice - Harsh ruling a single creature is generally not advised). Removing a creature AND drawing 3 cards is a one-way trip to value town.

Power base

You might ask "/u/Exocist ... why is there only 1 Crest"

and the answer is because crests suck obviously who wants depleted power because I only have 1 crest. If you have 4 crests of wisdom, replace both Elysian banners and a Seat of Wisdom with the other 3.

Power base aims to get TJJPPPP. Prioritise based on your hand - JJs are Harsh Rule and Runehammer. PPPP is Channel, otherwise you'll only need PP for Chalice and Wisdom. Try to get T, because Amber Acolyte will help you get the other influence.

This post is getting very long, if you'd like advice with any specific matchup, post below.

Bad matchups generally include - Royal Burn, Rakano Gunslingers, PFJ Armory and Grenadin control (? the one with Gearcruncher, Stonescar Scrapper and Scraptank).