First of all, a clarification of what Aggro Control means, in case you are unaware:
You will generally take a long time to actually kill your opponent with your 1,2 and 3 power units, but the name of the game is to keep removing their creatures highly efficiently (in this case with the help of spell damage) and countering their boardclears and thus killing your opponent over a long series of turns.
This deck is very meta dependant, and will generally do quite poorly against very removal-heavy decks, but it works exceptionally well against aggro decks. It also does well against slower midrangish decks, so long as their creatures aren't huge, or decks that heavily rely on
Harsh Rule.
I have run this deck all the way from Silver into Masters in the current meta (about half aggro, mostly Haunted Highway, and half FJS, Chainbrei and Jennev peaks).
Do note, that to get the best performance out of the deck, you have to play very well. It isn't a straightforward "remove their things, and drop your threats" deck, you need to weigh wether you need to develop the board, hold up a counterspell, or remove their threats, or even point all your spells at their dome.
This deck needs to be heavily modified for other metas, but if you can get good removal/threats against the popular decks, this deck works very well.
One other note, I'm not really fully happy with the power base. Due to the fact that this deck benifits extremely well from scouts, I'm weary to cut them. It has secondarily been built to be able to T1
Initiate of the Sands into
Amaran Stinger, since it allows you to basically get free wins against a lot of decks, and against others it gives you an extremely efficient board to put pressure on with.
And now to go into more specifics about the deck. First, the "threats". These are all chosen to be able to be dropped early (T2/3), and thus die to
Torch(except Stinger) and
Defiance, but the number is in order to overwhelm the removal.
Amaran Stinger: By far the best standalone threat, if it can connect, if it cannot, it is mostly useless outside of aggro matchup. Source of a lot of free wins.
Howling Peak Smuggler/
Cloudsnake Harrier: Smuggler is for access to the Market, which is basically required. It and Harrier work extremely well with all the spells, especially for burn damage to finish the game, making them viable threats, Harrier's evasion also allows it to swing unimpeded most of the time.
Acquisitive Crow: Probably the worst of the Threats, but it's quite strong, and, combined with the combat tricks, will give you surprising amounts of damage per turn, and is usually a required kill for the opponent. Its vulnerability to removal is much less relevant in this deck, since all of your units require removal.
Teacher of Humility: Somewhat meta dependant, Teacher is rarely played on T2 with the power base, and thus surprisingly weak (might even be worth completely cutting). I don't have more than one, so you could play around with more copies of it, and a different power base. Against the right decks it's a free win if it connects, though less reliable to continue pushing damage.
Initiate of the Sands: Not technically a threat, but played on T1/T2 will usually eat removal otherwise pointed at your actual threats. Extremely strong with
Amaran Stinger.
After that, there's the spells:
All the 1 mana damage spells
Torch,
Signal Flare,
Jotun Hurler: The non-Torch ones are surprisingly strong, especially against
Hojan, Crownbreaker. if Snowball isn't really great, a spell damage unit usually allows it to kill a Merchant or otherwise get value.
Purify/
Equivocate: Equivocate is great against cards too big for you to currently deal with, and both cards are amazing against Haunted Highway.
Display of Instinct: Absolutely amazing card. Fast 4 damage removal, burn or counterspell for their Boardclears (sometimes even
Grasping at Shadows) allowing you to close out the game in whatever way you need. Often you need to decide wether to keep this card up instead of playing a threat.
Trailblaze: Card filtering, allowing you to stay on as low power as possible while also allowing you to keep fast spells up. Found I flooded a bit too much before this card.
Steely Resolve: Great card to counter
Torch and
Defiance, also catches the occasional
Finest Hour. Also sometimes allows you to counter
Seek Power, or Cargo, on a Power starved opponent, if you're feeling evil. Definitely cut if the removal you run up against isn't mostly consisting of those. Don't run more than 2.
Lastly, the market:
Bore: If relic removal is needed, this is your card. If there are no scary Relics in the meta, definitely cut it.
Violent Gust: In the Market to deal with specifically
Rizahn, Greatbow Master and
Xo of the Endless Hoard in the meta. Also useful to keep your fliers attacking, but other cards are usually damaging enough for that job against other cards.
Backlash: Copies 5-8 of counterspells against
Harsh Rule. Due to the synergy between spell damage and the aggressive nature of the deck, much preferable to
Unseal.
Torrential Downpour/
Rockslide: Absolutely disgusting combos with spell Damage. Usually ends the game instantly against aggro decks.
As a final note, I very much love the playstyle of this deck and to finally have found an Aggro Control deck in Eternal. It's an odd playstyle that takes some getting used to, but also very unique, and if you're looking for a deck that rewards skill (and tinkering) this is it.