Xenan Lifeforce

Introduction

Hey, all! I've been spending a lot of time with my head in the sands of Praxis and Xenan. While some might disagree, Tavrod, Auric Broker and Argenport in general have shown their strength in the meta and have therefore given me reason to beat it.

I am incredibly displeased with Praxis at the moment and to great controversy believe that it is not positioned well in the meta. I also refuse to believe Crimson Firemaw really places well in the board state on four in this meta as removal and weapons are paramount.

Xenan, however, has shown that it has explosive potential early-game, can stave off aggro, and can tango with the likes of Midrange and pressures Control.

Before we dive-in, I would like to give a shout out to SirRhino's list Lifeforce Beatdown as without it this list isn't possible.


Cuts

Dawnwalker and Sandstorm Titan have shown themselves to be pretty lackluster in this meta-- Walker especially because of Desert Marshal, Valkyrie Enforcer, and to an extent Vara's Favor which can give aggro and the mirror a window to pressure if no threat follows to proc it.

So the old plan of reloading board after Harsh Rule is too weak to silence and sometimes void hate. Too much for me to justify running that package with confidence.


Cycle

It is important that we find Katra, the Devoted, Xenan Obelisk, and Ayan, the Abductor as those are our win conditions. Unsurprisingly, we find Temple Scribe and Auric Interrogator as our draw engine. It can be argued that Dark Return can in certain cases draw for us as well.

SirRhino chose to run two Beckoning Lumen at the top-end of the curve, which I think is generally fine. Though the body is weak to Auric Runehammer among other things, which is too risky for my tastes. Maybe this meta has terrified me into making poor choices and maybe Becky is fine but...


Pressure

We're not running Cult Aspirant for nothing. This card has so much snowball potential it's absurd, especially when you land an Oasis Seeker behind it. Often our first three turns are sorting our fixing while holding board and (hopefully) pressuring our opponent's life total with our early units and some mixture of Auric Interrogator and Ayan, the Abductor.

The rest of the game is playing around our opponent's plays with Banish-- preserving our board and hopefully cycling into Katra, the Devoted for the big blow-out.


Activators

This deck includes 24 activators for Katra, the Devoted and a lot of the skill behind this deck revolves around choosing lines that aren't so obvious and deliberately withholding certain cards for Katra. That means always playing on curve is generally not advised once you reach turn four territory.


Tech

The explanation behind Vanquish reads Tavrod, Auric Broker.

Stonepowder Alchemist, however, serves many purposes. My first line of thinking was to soften the blow of Harsh Rule and in general, give the list some more gas. This card is a huge threat if you play it on four with Katra, the Devoted in hand as it can proc her. It's also a perfectly amazing follow-up to Katra if Katra survives-- revenge also makes it a continual threat that the opponent has to consider any time Katra sits uncontested on board.

While the vanilla body is underwhelming, wait until Xenan Obelisk and Xenan Initiation couple with it and you'll surely feel differently.

Also who doesn't love a bit of weapon hate?


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So far, the list is performing very well on ladder in masters around ranks 800. It's holding up well against Argenport and aggro. I've yet to encounter Chalice, but the score at the moment with this list is something like 10-3.

Please do not hesitate to make suggestions and doubt my sanity.

Cheers!