Icaria Blue Post Defiance

This is my variation on an Icaria Blue deck. I really like this variant a lot, I really like using Bulletshaper to get things earlier than you should.

Then Zuberi is a nice choice for the 4 drop slot so that we can give our power pieces (mostly just Icaria and Rizahn) double damage. Rizahn with double damage is devastating, you can take out an SST on his summon and if you have 6 spells in the void (which this deck is good at doing) then he is a real game swinger.

I went with 6 merchants instead of 8 because I felt 8 was too many, but 4 was too few. I diversified and went with 3 of each since avigraft/silence effects still find their way through the game. This makes it so I wouldn't be locked out of my market if one type was no longer allowed to play. Additionally it lets me cycle any card in and out of the market.

I am running a lot of 3 ofs here, there's really a lot of things that I wish I could have 4 of like Rizhan (I actually just dont have a 4th copy yet), Strategize, and maybe Zuberi. But I also feel I want a lot of card utility here and running these 3 ofs gives me enough that I will draw them frequently yet still have a good diverse set of options.

I used to run Display of Honor, but I feel that card would really shine in a Blue Armory style deck rather than here. I played with it for a while and I found myself rarely using, only ever really using it with bulletshaper. Occasionally I would win a game by using it on one of my flyers or on Red Canyon Smuggler, but I felt it wasn't useful enough. I then swapped this out with Eilyn's Choice and it has given me a much higher degree of success than before so I like this change.

I run Herald's Song to synergize with Bulletshaper and Privledge of Rank. It gives me an additional card for free so this is card advantage, people are running Jotun Hurler for a similar reason but I just can't bring myself to do so, I generally think he doesn't have a good body for his cost and a snowball really isn't all that great in my opinion. Herald's song adds on to the list of 2 cost draw in this deck so you get a good amount of draw, and worst case you pitch the other Herald's Song that was echoed for a true 2 cost draw similar to treasure trove. This also synergizes really well with Rizahn by allowing you to reach that critical mass of spells in the void. Win Win here.

I use Avigraft in this deck because it is still good even at 4 cost. You will find it will shut down many decks and if not it will pull them from being offensive to defensive in order to rid of the avigraft, but you have to target cards that you realize might be important for the deck. Often times I have found myself playing this on turn 3 thanks to Bulletshaper if needed to get an early lock down and then you can play something like Permafrost, Torch, or Seek Power with the remaining power.