Sear is better than flameblast this format.
I've tested the salvo version and feels it has several weakness for me:
Firstly, It lower your unit counts, that force you to play units like nimble conscript so that you will have around 28-32 units, while he is a fantastic, but he is actually not that much better than smugger on 3 body-wise as its reckless can be a huge problem sometimes. The extra space gained from playing smuggler can actually goes into other cards that actually answer the problem like ChaCha, for example you can play defile main.
secondly, the market option is highly limited if you are using salvo. That can be a huge loss because bore, edict of makkar, and sabotage are all fantastic card.
Thirdly, salvo is quite narrow in the mirror where there are a lot of 3,4,and 5 health units that u can't kill. Also, in some match-up, you often have to give up a card for market access.
Final Thoughts: I will experiment with defile main and desecrate market and see how that goes. Should be the right call in this meta.
You can swap Yushkov for Nimble Conscript if you like lower curve.
Also, I kinda like flameblast in the market. I will have to test.
Latest update 9/4/2020: decided to switch back to desecrate main and defile market because the mirror seems to become a bit less common and we need general kill spell to deal with most of the even golem strategy, especially even keelo where they usually play Rindra, which cannot be killed by both defile and desecrate. Having defile in the market is also important because you can still see a lot of ChaCha and you basically need to kill her onsight, marketing for defile preemptively in the mirror is always a good idea.
updated 20/4/2020: added flame blast to the market.
Do you have any thoughts on how to adapt this deck after the balance changes? I've tried to go bigger with Vara + Vicious Highwayman, but I keep getting Sear'ed on the stack. >.<
I agree with a lot of what you said and we had the similar lists but I went 4 pistols mainboard. I don't think it is that great but they were never an issue and always ended up being a great tool when needed. One in market is a decent idea as well.
I highly HIGHLY recommend Rapid shot. It pushes the midrange decks over and gives you hidden burst power to gain a quick unexpected kill. It came in handy a million times for me so far.
The Salvo issue. I think its preference. We both ran both version and both hit masters roughly same time so I do not think there is any wrong answer here but using bore I disagree with. It is a great card for sure but Stronghold Vandal is much better imo. It gives you a body as well.
Till next season my friend *wave*