I have a real love/hate relationship with
Katra, the Devoted, (don't tell my wife.) When I first started out I absolutely hated playing against her. Eventually I got enough shiftstone to craft a set and now I'm on the other side of the fence and the grass is much greener.
I decided to revisit my Katra/Lifegain deck with some of the newer cards from the new sets. I figured while I was at it I'd try seeing if an even version could work, the extra draw from
Evenhanded Golem would help reduce the games where Katra doesn't even get drawn.
Xenan Cylix and
Spiritweaver's plunder also work to this end.
Here are some of the substitutions I made to keep the deck even:
-
Xenan Lifespeaker +
Spiritweaver
-
Surgeon's Saw +
Lethrai Falchion
-
Dark Return +
Immortalize/+
Sleeping Draught
-
Kerendon Merchant +
Wasteland Broker
I decided to change up the market a bit being that we'll be getting 4x instead of just 1x of each:
Dread seemed like a good fit for quick life stealing and bringing something back, with a pair of them they can just cycle in the void.
Icaria, First Reaper and
Cruciation are good removal.
Pale Rider's Timepiece and
Azindel, Revealed should help wrap up if we get locked somehow.
As usual, this is just something I slapped together so I'm sure it'll get refined more as I play it a bit but so far it has a pretty good track record...