Double Market Kennadin

(Masters 8/5)

This is my version of Isomorphic's Dragoncrunch brew, which I was so happy to stumble upon. I hit Masters in 3-4 days, over 75 games (68% win rate), so I thought I would share my take on the deck. (the first 7 games I played were with a different deck altogether)

As you can see in the matchup record below, this deck has great results against some of the most popular decks atm (Praxis Tokens, Charge Rod, TJP Alessi, Icaria Blue). It feasts on Icaria-based decks in general.

Skycrag Yetis gave me lots of trouble and that one Hooru loss was against Chapin :'( with an unusual valkyrie brew.

Matchup Record:




The changes from the original are:
-1 Permafrost
-3 Seek Power
-1 Aeva, Eilyn's Elite
-1 Kenna, Shaman of the Scale from main deck.
-1 Gearcruncher from the market.

+2 Jennev Merchant
+1 Jotun Hurler
+3 Eilyn's Favor
+1 Kenna, Shaman of the Scale to the market.

I played Iso's list for the first 10 games or so, started tinkering around with all sorts of other cards for the next 15-20, and ended with this list for games 30-68.

Only 7 changes, but I believe the +2 Jennev Mechant has a major impact on consistency, which is the primary weakness of the deck. It's very important to have 5 power by turn 5 and at least 1 Kenna. Jennev Merchant makes this happen. His 3 market options provide a useful choice for each stage of a game.

With more merchants, we need more cards to trade to them, which is where the extra Jotun Hurler comes in. A Snowball + a free merchant trade is very strong in this deck. The Snowballs are very useful against Oni Ronins, Initiate of the Sands, Alluring Embers, and providing a method for Icaria to be End of Hostilities'd. . .in addition to pumping Kenna up for a kill.

Finally, I opted for 3 Eilyn's Favor over 3 Seek Power. I wanted aegis primarily for Disciplinary Weights defense, though protection against various shadow discard effects is almost just as good, and also prevents direct damage finishers. The only time I need more than one Fire influence is for Molot & Nakova or Flamestoker, who usually come late enough in the game not to matter.

Gameplan: (If you don't already know how this deck plays)
Abuse Combustion Cell with End of Hostilities (as early as turn 4) and Kenna, Shaman of the Scale (as early as turn 5). It's extremely powerful to play a tributed EoH on Kenna, which then allows you to draw the EoH back immediately along with another spell. The deck becomes competitive with the fact that EoH can be cast on enemy units, making it very versatile and not reliant on Kenna. The market provides Molot & Nakova for a brilliant late-game threat (as early as turn 6) and also Flamestoker for control-heavy opponents.

It can take some clever piloting at times and it's very important to get the early game right (mulligan + draw spells + merchant decisions) but the reward is often fantastic.