Curiox Control

Hello and welcome everybody to the first deck I'm posting on this page!

I really wanted to build a deck around Curiox, the Collector and Second Sight, so I did that a few days ago and I've tested and improved the list during the last few days. I'm still marking the deck as Work In Progress because I think there's still quite a bit of room for improvement but as I don't have that much time to do that during the next few days I figured I might as well post the deck as it is right now.

Some statistics for the current version:
I am on a 55 % winrate on the high ranks of Master. The highest rank I achieved was rank 8 and the lowest I fell to was in the 40s during that time. Currently I am on rank 23. Overall I am 26-21 with the deck, although the winrate was way better before I crashed into multiple bad matchups right at the end of my last stream.

Some impressions of which matchups are good and which aren't (although in most cases the sample sizes are pretty low):

Argenport Midrange: Seems to be a good matchup, I am 2-0 against it.

Combrei Midrange: Also seems to be very good, I am 2-1 but only lost one match to being power screwed.

Feln Control: 2-2. Very winnable if you draw the right units and answers to theirs, very unwinnable if you don't.

FJS Armory/FJS Dark Icaria/FJP Icaria Blue: Very hard matchups. I am 0-5 against those combined. Relic weapons and all the charge units are hard to beat.

FPS Scream: 3-0, seems pretty good. You have a lot of ways to make sure their screamed units don't connect, and even if for example a Gorgon Fanatic does, you probably have an even bigger card advantage than them.

FTP Moment: 3-2, kinda similar to Feln Control in that you have a good shot if they don't draw spectacular and if they do you probably die.

Praxis Midrange: 3-3. The matchup generally seems better than what this record suggests, although Heart of the Vault and Xenan Obelisk can be a problem.

Praxis Tokens: 2-2. I mean, it's kinda like Hailstorm or die. Not 100 %, but you get the idea.

TJP Midrange: Well, it couldn't get any easier than this. I am 6-0 against them and unless I've stumbled on power it wasn't even close.

Alright, now that we have a basic idea of our matchups, let's talk about the cards that are in here.

Permafrost: Absolutely necessary removal, no way to play fewer than 4.

Equivocate: This serves multiple purposes. It can act as tempo gain early in the game, it can bounce a problematic unit like Dawnwalker, Inquisitor Makto or a unit holding a weapon, act as a combat trick ... All in all it really helps to get you to the late game which is where you wanna be.

Find the Way: Pretty good as a way to find more power. I am not 100 % sure that these shouldn't be Seek Power, Secret Pages or just Sigils, but ensuring that you get 2 power cards in one draw is pretty nice. There's also bonus value if you use it with Second Sight although you rarely want to. The amount of power in the deck is generally up for debate, although I like the current configuration.

Lightning Storm: I have gone up and down on the number of this card but I do like to play 2 at the moment. I had it at 1 in a few of my versions but as you really need one of your storms against aggressive go wide decks, I like playing an additional one.

Second Sight: This card is not up for debate as it's the reason I'm playing the deck in the first place :D. Seriously, although there are certainly times where this is just a 2 cost cycler, it does create a lot of value together with Curiox, the Collector and Thunderstrike Dragon. These engines are the reason why the deck is doing its thing and why you often have an incredibly high card advantage. I am currently only playing three because the fourth is a Nesting Avisaur which I'll get to later.

Strategize: Nothing to say here, absolutely needed card filtering for any Primal control deck.

Twinning Ritual: This is one of the cards I am less sure about, at least regarding its amount. Currently I play the full playset because it is definitely a strong card -- Curiox, the Collector and Thunderstrike Dragon do want to get cloned by it. In addition to that, even copying a Sandstorm Titan or Predatory Carnosaur can be very good in the right situation. It may be right to pless less than 4 though, which I have done in some of my versions. At the moment I like the full four.

Hailstorm: You know the deal.

Scorpion Wasp: Very good to deal with cards that are otherwise hard to deal with for this deck. Opposing Sandstorm Titans, Icaria, the Liberators, Champion of Cunnings and other big units are answered by this. It's vulnerable to Torch etc., so don't expect it to always work, but at least you're blocking the damage of the attacker that way and still traded with a card.

Wisdom of the Elders: Uncuttable.

Nesting Avisaur: As said above this is currently the fourth Second Sight. I do like to play 4 of those two cards combined and while the dinosaur doesn't draw cards and is more expensive, sometimes you're glad to have the additional body or the reduced cost. So I like to play one.

Sandstorm Titan: As everybody knows this card is bonkers and you almost always want to draw one. Very good at dealing with a lot of things. Don't forget that you can Equivocate your own titan and then attack for lethal in the air with your dragons -- I've almost lost a game because I've seen that play five seconds too late.

Yetipult: Just like the Nesting Avisaur I play one copy of this which probably makes this a good time to talk about the two reasons for all the one-ofs in my list:
The first reason is because the deck is still in its testing phase. During that I like to try a bunch of different cards and see how they do. Some of them haven't made the cut to the current version; you will see them below in the Honorary Mentions section. Playing one copy of a card allows for a good impression of whether this card could be good enough.
The second reason is my general principle while building decks. While you need to have 4 of the cornerstone cards of a deck there are always a few slots that can be shifted around. I like to fill those slots with a bunch of different cards to diversify my threats and answers so that I'm suited for many different scenarios that might come up during the matches.
That being said, the Yetipult is here because it's good against a bunch of 1-toughness units on one side and also good in a control mirror match on the other side -- not that many cards achieve that goal. Sometimes it sits in your hand and you can't do anything with it but sometimes it can swing the game around on its own. I like such a card as a one-of.

Lumen Defender: As another card I'm playing one copy of, I am not as thrilled about the Defender as I am about the Yetipult. I felt the need to have an additional card that's good against smaller units and can hold the ground while even providing a little bit of life points. This is definitely a slot that could change in the future though as there are a lot of alternatives.

Predatory Carnosaur: Speaking of alternatives, here's one. Currently I'm also only playing one of this particular dinosaur but I could see myself going up to two copies. I'm not really sure that I want that though because you usually have quite a lot of 6-drops because of the next card I'm about to present.

Thunderstrike Dragon: Having already mentioned synergies with this card a few times, this dragon is one of the reasons this deck is working. When you are in an attrition war against your opponent drawing one of those is absolutely insane.

Curiox, the Collector: Yeah, what should I say? This card is just bonkers. Not in the sense of completely broken and unbeatable but in the sense of being an enormous fun card to play while also being very good. This provides card advantage (a lot!) and an endgame threat AND is extremely satisfying to draw, so what else could you ask from your big dragon?

Channel the Tempest: As a staple in many Primal control decks, I don't think this deck can afford to play as many as the other decks can just because you already have a lot of things to do in most games. That being said, sometimes you are out of gas or you need this to deal a lot of damage to their face and then it's still extremely good. However, in most games your big units and enough to win the end game.


Now that I've talked about all the cards in the deck, let me also talk about some Honorable Mentions that I've tested but that didn't make the cut to the currently final version:

Envelop: While generally not a powerful card, sometimes you only need to gain a little bit of tempo and life to survive the early turns and stabilize with one of your big units. This card can provide that, although currently I don't think it's necessary to include it.

Disjunction: This on the other hand is a card I often wish I had in my deck. Sometimes (relic weapons, Azindel's Gift) you lose the game on the spot without it. That being said, it's also dead quite often so at the moment I'm not playing one. That may very well change in the future.

Lightning Strike: I've tried it for a short time but it didn't seem worth it. While it could have the versatility of being good against units and weapons, it's also sometimes not big enough to kill either.

Daraka, Queensguard: Didn't seem good enough as it doesn't do anything if your opponent has a removal spell for it.

Rimescale Draconus: While having huge blowout potential that usually means your opponent has to have attacked you before which is usually bad. Didn't seem good enough.

Explorer Emeritus: While theoretically being very nice in a control mirror it's just too little impact in most of the games. Sadly not good enough I fear.

Other cards I haven't tested yet but that could be worth testing: Excavate, Secret Pages, Ancient Lore, Praxis Displacer, Waystone Infuser, Worldbearer Behemoth, Herald's Song, Eye of Winter, Polymorph, Celestial Omen, Scourge of Frosthome


Well, that concludes my writeup for my Curiox Control deck -- I really hope reading everything was interesting and I'm very much looking forward to continuing to improve the deck. If you have any ideas, suggestions, criticism or anything, feel free to leave a comment! And if you want to watch me play that deck you can visit my stream: https://www.twitch.tv/chulioz. I am streaming three days a week and my last two streams (you can view them in the videos section) featured this deck.

Thanks for reading and have fun playing with Curiox!