Another Feln-Recursion Deck, featuring Big Daddy Caiphus

Hey everyone,

This is just an obligatory deck posting for my first time reaching masters in ranked.

To just see the "How to play this deck" part and skip the reasoning behind certain card choices/changes, you can scroll down to "how to play" part.

I am an F2P player so I would like to preface this by saying that this deck definitely is not finished and there are a lot of changes I would like to make once I get the shiftstone to do so, but I am really excited I made it to masters with this as it is.

Look at how cheap it is! Less than 20k shiftstone!

The original deck I started with was LightsOutAce's Father-Daughter-Dance. It was an absolute blast to play, as well as very cheap, so I wanted to see how far I could take it.

However, when Rakano aggro was very popular for that month and a half after Defiance was released, the deck would get absolutely destroyed since you didn't have any units less than a 4 drop.

So I exchanged the original Strategize and Seek Power and Unsealfor Gorgon Fanatic and Haunting Scream

The Sabotage were also replaced with Shakedown, because it is nice to be able to force them to discard removal spells as well as units that would let them play on curve, and shakedown technically replaces itself since it has nightfall.

I only had 1 Rindra, the Duskblade, so I replaced those with Torgov, Icecap Trader, and honestly I think Torgov actually performs much better than Rindra. 97% of the time I played Rindra, it would be to bait out removal spells so I could play a unit with a more dangerous presence (e.g. Vara/Caiphus).

Torgov being a nice body is already very nice, but people will almost always make bad trades with him because they don't want you to get the card cycle from hitting face. And then late game he is a massive 7/8. I was very surprised how well this card performed since it was originally a budget choice.
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How to Play:

This deck is so much fun to play. The overall concept is using recursion in the form of Dark Return / Mirror Image / Sudden Schism on Vara, Vengeance-Seeker and Caiphus, Wandering King . You start with using Gorgon Fanatic to force the opponent to either deal with it immediately or be at a big card disadvantage. Then you can just Haunting Scream the gorgon anyways and get your value regardless.

If I have the option, I will usually play either Torgov or Rindra first to bait out removal spells so I can get the real win conditions (Vara, Vengeance-Seeker and Caiphus, Wandering King) to stick on the board. If you have a Dark Return in your hand, then it's an open range though and you can just play your Vara, let them remove it, and then bring it right back (usually with nothing on the board so it gets the +2/+2 and deadly).

Recursion is the name of the game here. You want to mirror image/sudden schism your Caiphus or your vara whenever you get the chance. If you need to gain board control, usually doing it on Vara is the safer bet since it gives you more life steal and forces them to either make her extra beefy or sacrifice their control over the board. However, a Caiphus with 9 battle attributes including Double Damage, Flying, Aegis, and Unblockable is one of the more satisfying things to get in this game, and getting at least a couple of those happens more often than you might think.

Dark return can be used to either give you an extra caiphus or vara, or it can be used on a previously screamed Gorgon so that it keeps its charge and flying.

Annihilates are great for things like vara, overstatted time units, and beefy justice units.

Rindra's Choice I used mostly as a counterspell to a slay or a feeding time. So if you have the option, keeping 2 mana up at the end of your turn isn't a bad call if you think they have one of those up their sleeve.

Shakedown I like to use on turn 2 if I can. Then force them to either discard their turn 3 play or a removal spell.

Torgov is shockingly great. A 4/5 for 4 is already a nice body. But then opponents feel obligated to either make bad trades with it because they don't want you to cycle cards, or you actually do get to cycle and it's awesome. Then late game it's a 7/8 for 4, which is phenomenal and more than worth mirror imaging or Schisming.

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CHANGES I'D MAKE TO THIS DECK IF I HAD THE SHIFTSTONE

I'd certainly change from a Primal market to a Shadow market. Being able to have Burglarize in the market to remove game-changing relics like Avigraft or Martyr's Chains would be very helpful. I would also love to throw a In Cold Blood in the market for guaranteed removal, and an Azindel's Gift to seal the deal against other greed pile decks.

I'd probably exchange a couple annihilates/rindra's choices for a couple In Cold Blood's as well. It sucks having an annihilate when you need a rindra's choice and vice versa.

I would also exchange a few of the sigils for Crests, because being able to scout in this deck is extremely useful if you are either power flooded, power screwed, or have no units in your hand.

A couple of weeks ago I would have said that the most important card to add to this deck would be Hailstorm, but honestly I don't think it's necessary at this point. I am facing a lot less aggro decks now than I was a couple weeks ago, and having gorgon allows for having a unit on turn 3, often buying you the extra turn you need to slap down a bigger threat next turn (vara/torgov)



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Thanks for reading, let me know of any other suggestions or questions you guys have for this deck!