As soon as
Profane Nexus was spoiled I knew I had to create a deck around it. In expedition many people run it in a cultist deck, but in thrones to me the best place seemed to be in the good old Scrappy Hour. Tokens keep you alive in the early game, and they are the fuel to your sacrifice strategy,
Combust,
Profane Nexus,
Stonescar Scrapper and
Worthy Cause (this card is busted). At the same time, the token generators are great for lowering the cost of
The Witching Hour.
Running
The Witching Hour and
Tasbu, the Forbidden in a 3 color deck is maybe a little greedy, therefor we run 20 shadow sources. Except for Nahid, none of the other cards need more than 1 of the other two influences. Also,
Profane Nexus helps with fixing by casting
Last Rites, which is often seen as the weakest of the three spells. In this deck its kinda usefull however for both fixing and brining back
Ephemeral Wisp (also when using it as the sacrifice target for Last rites.
I could see future versions having 3x madness in the main. Proselytize has been so so, in general a worse assembly line, though maybe I dont decimate it enough.
Anyway, I'm having fun with it, hopefully you will too
Combust
x4
1
Grenadin Drone
x4
2
Devour
x4
2
Ephemeral Wisp
x4
2
Worthy Cause
x4
3
Assembly Line
x4
3
Kerendon Merchant
x4
3
Proselytize
x4
3
Torrent of Spiders
x3
4
Profane Nexus
x3
5
Stonescar Scrapper
x3
5
Tasbu, the Forbidden
x4
6
Nahid, the Immortal
x1
24
The Witching Hour
x4
Fire Sigil
x2
Shadow Sigil
x4
Time Sigil
x1
Crest of Chaos
x4
Crest of Impulse
x2
Crest of Mystery
x4
Seat of Chaos
x4
Seat of Mystery
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
In mine i put a single kalis in the market to compensate for some board wipes.
Also, can you really afford not to run seek powers?
Played almost exclusively this list for the past few weeks and here is the iteration that I got to master: Profane Hour 2.0. The sideboard has many ideas I toyed with or am still considering.
I definitely agree on ghorkov's list requiring tweaks regarding influence. However I tried and dislike Seek Power here (by including non shadow sigils, fetching and playing them you delay key cards). Instead I got rid of all sigils but shadow ones and I'm running Vara's Favor, Scavenge and Xenan Banner in market. It feels much more reliable. Shiftstoned gives me better odds all around, especially for Tasbu, the Forbidden going from 12% to 31% (!) on turn 5 (and those odds don't account for scouting).
Talking about Tasbu, I believe it's a key inclusion against many match ups (board sweeps). And with the above tweaks it's actually not that hard to reach the required influence. I did cut some Stonescar Scrapper instead (requires 6 mana to actually do something before being hit by a removal).
I'm looking forward to see the result of your play tests!
I strongly second @NoBigDeal Nahid's Choice suggestion. Not a fan of Proselytize either.
I didn't include Ephemeral Wisp at first and had Manufacture instead. I know it looks crap but it actually has some pros. Warp, market "money", let you hold on something in your hand if you don't need it yet, better synergie with Torrent of Spiders. However that was mostly before I had my third and fourth Profane Nexus crafted. I don't think I'll ever go back.
Cards I'm still playing that didn't make it in your list nor mentions are 3x Vara's Favor (for a bit of thinning and aegis) and some one-of: Unkindness (it wins me games time to time, but wouldn't include more), Xenan Obelisk (just bad) and Whispers in the Void (rarely matters, too slow).
I did cut Nahid, the Immortal. Doesn't feel good enough to require 3 time essences but I should probably try it again.
You mention 3x Madness in the main. I had that but got rid of them. Doesn't work with the site "at the start of your turn" sacrifice, good with Devour unless you had to hold onto it and could have used earlier otherwise, and with Combust / Worthy Cause you don't always have two worthy targets. In both those cases it can backfire pretty hard if your opponent has a denial, and more easily so with Stonescar Scrapper (versus a fast removal). It really shines versus some foes (like infiltration and Tocas, Waystone Harvester) though. The one in market is 100% a keeper.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, but Waylay is both annoying to face and awesome to play (decimated). Plays into your x units in the void cards and also counters your opponent's one! Worth having in market in my opinion, but I'm not sure what it replaces here.
After some more crafts and play testing, here are my current tweaks:
Cutting some fat (Not sure if I actually want to craft the 4th copy of the first two)
- 4->3 Tasbu, the Forbidden
- 4->3 The Witching Hour
- 1->0 Nahid, the Immortal
Same slot but arguably better
- 4->0 Proselytize
- 0->4 Nahid's Choice
Market
- To main deck (3->4) Torrent of Spiders
- Added Waylay
Adjusting power base
- 0->2 Vara's Favor
- 2->0 Fire Sigil
- 1->0 Time Sigil
- 4->7 Shadow Sigil
Feels like there's still room for improvements: (still my opinion)
Scraptank A classic inclusion with grenadins, in this deck mostly a cost 5 Assembly Line that can quickly turn into a big threat. I have none available though. I'd be surprised if it's not on your radar, did you give it a run?
Scavenge Same cost/units ratio as Assembly Line, and even though rats can't block it also can potentially fix a lack of Fire essence, allowing us to run a Xenan Banner instead of Stonescar Banner in market.
Vara's Favor should probably go up to 3 or 4.
Slumbering Stone Tempting as @NoBigDeal mentioned, how did it turn out by the way?
What to cut though?
Nahid's Choice Most of the above suggestions would take that slot for the better (maybe).
Ephemeral Wisp Could probably cut one or more. No doubt it fuels the deck pretty well but: It's the only card that plays into your opponent void bound/silence fixers. It doesn't help with Torrent of Spiders and (to a lesser extend) Worthy Cause. It requires Time influence (which can't be fixed as easily as Fire thanks to market).
Stonescar Scrapper Might try cutting one as well here too, especially if I do cut some wisps. While it does an excellent job, he's still an hungry and expensive dude.
That's it for now.
I'll probably stop bothering you and publish my own list (with a reference to yours) if I still have more to add, but please tell me you didn't give up on this list! I'm really curious to see where's your brew is going.