Avoid Death
x4
2
Acantha Ascending
x4
2
Annihilate
x4
2
Cull the Deck
x2
2
Ripknife Assassin
x4
2
Vara's Favor
x4
3
Blightmoth
x4
3
Dizo, Cabal Racketeer
x4
3
Kerendon Merchant
x4
3
Unseen Longbow
x4
4
In Cold Blood
x2
4
Incarnus, Makkar's Listener
x4
4
Veteran Mercenary
x3
7
Icaria, First Reaper
x3
Shadow Sigil
x13
Emblem of Makkar
x4
Seal of Devotion
x4
Shadow Symbol
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
Some issues I've run into:
-Dizo Racketeer is more or less a dead card most of the time. Even if I manage to steal an enemy unit spending quite a bit of power, the deck doesn't have any sacrifice effects to take advantage, and they'll often kill Dizo and get the unit right back.
-Veteran Mercenary tends to generate garbage. If I'm already winning, then sure he can create market fodder, but I'm not sure he's better than simply playing Baby Vara in this 4 slot.
-No lifesteal/lifegain makes it hard to last against some of the more aggressive/burn decks.
-Blightmoth's nerf to 3 power really slows down this slot.
-Avoid Death is a troublesome top deck against the more powerful AI decks. They'll have already emptied their hand of Sandstorm Titans / Monolith Guardians by late game.
-Seal of Devotion, although one of my favorite card designs ever, frequently causes me to not be able to play Icaria First Reaper on curve.
In terms of struggling in Gauntlet, I've actually had the most success with this deck than any of the others I've tried. Two main goals are speed (control isn't good for grinding), and reliability (3 faction nonsense will screw you eventually), so some of my most competitive decks don't hit the mark.
- Dizo Racketeer is certainly dead sometimes, but he performs well because the AI is dumb. It overcommits to attacks, allowing you to steal an important blocker to finish the game, and it doesn't understand the "link" between racketeer and the unit, so it will kill off its own unit instead of racketeer. I usually steal something small, and either chump block or trade with an attacker. He's also a reasonable target for Unseen Longbow (but not the best). In games where he's not useful, he's market fodder.
- Veteran Mercenary is a fair choice to cut. You're absolutely right he makes a lot of garbage. The thing is, that garbage is sometimes playable anyway, and market fodder is actually valuable for saving power drops. The general strategy here is to get the AI to run out of steam, and card advantage does that consistently. I'm not a big fan of Vara against the AI, because a lot of AI decks have garbage units I don't care about being sacced. I'd rather have a 4/4 than a 3/3 lifesteal most games, especially considering it dodges most AI removal.
- Lifesteal is nice, and I find myself pulling Dizo's Office a lot for it. I rarely have problems with the burn decks, because they often target my units, and 1 for 1 trades will always favor this deck. Aggressive starts can sometimes be hard, though.
- Blightmoth is AMAZING against the AI. They play a lot of small tribal units, and it can utterly wreck the board. It almost always kills something. The AI blocking is extremely predictable, so you can attack into a bad board and then play it after combat to justify the attack. It also generates 2 chump blockers, so I've had it save me 10 points of damage just sitting there. It also very often baits out removal for some reason.
- You're right about Avoid Death. I always market it away if it's drawn late game. It's incredibly powerful early game, because it gives you predictive powers for several turns. It might be worth cutting some or all, depending on your playstyle.
- Seal of Devotion vs Icaria can be troublesome every now and then, but with the Shadow Symbols and enough market fodder to avoid throwing power away to a Merchant, I find that I'm somewhat reliably able to get to Icaria. Some more tuning may be helpful here... but I'd rather cut Icaria than Seal.
Anyway, thanks for commenting. Nice bumping into you! Enjoy your evening! :)