Hit Masters this season using just this deck through diamond with this midrange powerhouse. With the emergence of
Blackhall Warleader as a key card in Stonescar Midrange in the Dark Frontier ECQ, I figured it was time to go ahead and craft it. Like so many people, I played Stonescar Midrange and found it to be a good deck though I wasn't having great results. I thought I would try to repurpose it with
Tavrod, Auric Broker since I always wanted to try that out but never had the card, and Argenport Minotaurs haven't been played ranked since the Warleader's buff (the 3 health is quite relevant, trading and blocking with other 2-drops well.)
I believe this is one of the few decks that might be favored against Stonescar Mid, so that worked in my favor post ECQ. It is a bit more greedy, but
Vara, Vengeance-Seeker gives it the staying power it needs usually in that matchup.
Other than that, the basic gameplan is to play on curve and use the 10 weapons in the deck on
Hojan, Crownbreaker or
Auric Interrogator to either ramp or draw respectively. I can use the
Hidden Road Smuggler because there are a lot of great options for singleton Argenport Market.
Finally, this deck got some new tuning again based on the amazing success of Stonescar Midrange and what that indicates.
Shakedown is now included in the deck as it is a powerhouse for Midrange decks. I had to split it with
Defiance though because both are amazing.
Desecrate from Homecoming is a mainstay in Shadow. Finally, it uses the extra power package from Stonescar Mid to avoid putting power in the market and curve more reliably. In shadow, this works beautifully with 2
Vara's Favor and 2
Rhysta, Acantha's Herald
Updated 5/10: Use a couple of the new Justice coins because the extra weapon activator is worth the depleted cost for just 2.
Updated 5/23: Made the deck a little less greedy by using 4
Elder's Feather. This card is also more flexible by allowing extra draw or ramp by playing it the same turn that you play
Hojan, Crownbreaker or
Auric Interrogator. Also, I updated the market to be better in this meta. I have been seeing a lot of Xenan Obelisk, so I wanted relic removal, and
Copperhall Bracers just feels a lot more useful than
Auric Runehammer because of it's activation abilities and extra ramp in one.
Updated 5/31: Wanted to make the deck a little more power friendly, so I substituted
Elder's Feather for some of the other weapons. It basically serves the same purpose.
Defiance
x3
1
Elder's Feather
x4
1
Shakedown
x3
2
Blackhall Warleader
x4
2
Hojan, Crownbreaker
x4
2
Vanquisher's Blade
x3
2
Vara's Favor
x2
3
Auric Interrogator
x4
3
Desecrate
x3
3
Hidden Road Smuggler
x4
3
Rhysta, Acantha's Herald
x2
3
Slay
x3
4
Inquisitor's Blade
x3
4
Vara, Vengeance-Seeker
x4
5
Tavrod, Auric Broker
x4
Justice Sigil
x5
Shadow Sigil
x5
Amethyst Waystone
x2
Argenport Banner
x4
Crest of Vengeance
x4
Emerald Coin
x2
Seat of Vengeance
x3
View Deck on Shiftstoned
Hojan's ramp trigger is actually surprisingly common because there are now 12 triggers (if you include the coins.) The most likely scenarios that it doesn't work is when he is immediately removed (mostly snowballs) or when you just don't need the power and are saving the weapon for Auric Interrogator. I will very often play Hojan on 2, Vanq Blade on 3 with no removal just for the ramp if I need it.
Now that you put it that way it kind of is tight. My strategy is usually to shave a few of my 4 of's back to 3, run the new card i'm trying to integrate and see which of the cards i shaved back i wanted more of.
Defiance gives me nightmares at the moment... I'm tweaking an Alessi and Rilgon deck and all i seem to run into is Hooru :(
No dark return is interesting though... Do you get much value out of Auric Interrogator? I've been playing minotaurs the last few days in masters as well and a returned Interrogator on 4 or 5 is usually brilliant!