My iteration of Skycrag aggro for Defiance meta, currently still in progress as I'm testing how viable is the "ashcan"
Urn of Choking Embers.
Deck follows the similar concept of this deck
Skycrag Aggro (Ladder Tuned).
Card Choices Explained
OUT
-3
Ixtun Merchant
-1
Pyroknight
-3
Shogun's Scepter
-1
Obliterate
-1
Backlash
IN
+3
Vadius, Clan Father
+3
Urn of Choking Embers
+1
Dusk Raider
+1
Eilyn's Intervention
+1
Winter's Grasp
The above cards was cut because I'm reluctant to land Ixtun a lot of times as she only fetches me
Obliterate or
Mortar. She's good in aggro or mirror, but in ladder now which I'm expecting a lot midrange decks, I think
Jennev Merchant is much better and
Vadius, Clan Father who has Aegis might play more important role. The Quickdraw from Vadius is where I'm weighing the importance. Still yet to conclude this changes but I'm positive with it.
1
Pyroknight is out because she's the worst 1 drop. The place is replaced by
Dusk Raider because I'm playing our 4th
Permafrost which is
Winter's Grasp. In addition. I'm taking out
Shogun's Scepter to allow
Urn of Choking Embers to make it's way. I might be wrong here because Shogun's value is just too good for the cost of 3 but if the "ashcan" wins me more games than Shogun does then I might as well cut it off. Theoretically, Shogun doesn't help you push in damage in the face of super huge blockers, but
Urn of Choking Embers gives you a window to go all-in and push the life point advantage.
1
Backlash out for 1
Eilyn's Intervention for combating cheap wipes and the Discoveries.
So those are the changes I'd made, once the build is stabilized I'll be editing this post to the final iteration. Do keep a watch on my post for the final build ;)
EDIT: 21/12/2018
Took off
Urn of Choking Embers because it simply does nothing and only awesome when you drew it in your starting hand.
Longbarrel is underwhelming at the moment, meta has a lot Justice aggro while I still face plenty of FJS, hence
Warhelm is added for the burst and charge and the extra Warcry trigger to have some extra big shots other than Oni Ronin to help for the Warcries. Shogun's Scepter was cut so I'd to look for replacement (In fact I was reluctant to play Shogun's Scepter unless I've a surviving Champion of Fury).
Shugo Standard added to replace
Rampage as the combat trick and I added in
Ornate Katana for the fact I've Vadius and Rakano Outlaw and the Quickdraw is very valuable. Ornate keeps me in the smoothness by replacing itself on play.
**Previous Ashcan Win Rate: 45% - 50%. Too many swingy games, doesn't feel great.
EDIT: 03/01/2019
Finalized version is now up.
Warhelm is proven gas and solved some of the Skycrag aggro's issue; not having big dudes to push through damage during mid game. Warcry is too valuable to take away, and
Ixtun Merchant is back because I like
Mindfire for the win or sell
Shugo Standard out with Jennev and later to get it back with Ixtun. Don't bother
Longbarrel anymore, it doesn't replace itself and doesn't really kill a lot targets and a lot of times I'm using the Spellcraft effect to remove Aegis instead.
Deck is stable and I'm now back to Diamond II. Pushing forward to hit Masters.
Final version is up. Longbarrel out, Warhelm stays, and Ashcan is just a hype.
Ixtun is back in place of Vadius for personal preference reasons, unless meta shifts back to more controls I won't be playing it often.
I kept the original explanations and reasoning for reference in case I revert back to Urn builds. But at the moment, I'm shifting to other card choices and maindecking x4 Warhelm.
I'm genuinely thrilled by your comment and will definitely work on finding a way to stream games and create contents. As of now, I don't have any Twitch/YT channel starting out at all but it's part of my plan. Your comment truly motivates me further!
To answer your questions:
(1) Would you recommend crafting this deck for starters? Or would it be too risky as you're still testing changes?
I would not recommend crafting this deck for the time being. The reason is simple, it's still in experimental stage and you might as well craft the regular Skycrag aggro. Once I've come to conclusion and made my final changes then it would much more positive for me to recommend starters to craft this deck.
(2) Also can you please let us know the current win rate of this deck in your testing compared to the SkyCrag Aggro Ladder Tuned deck?
I'm still in the midst of gathering data and also came up with the idea of putting Urn of Choking Ember into Market instead of main decking it, simply because it disrupts my T1 to T4 plays and against aggro on the draw it's practically awkward. I'm still adapting no doubt and I'll have my say in the final version.