3F Sincere Flattery

Taken from LocoPojo's Sincere Flattery decklist.

Disclaimer upfront, this is jank, and you should understand that going in. Still, it performs pretty well. My winrate in masters fluctuates between 30% and 75%, mainly depending on the prevalence of agro and luck.

I tried the original out, but I had a really rough time stabilizing against most decks. The powerbase was particularly difficult, and a lack of early ideas made the deck extremely susceptible to anything remotely aggressive.

So I tried removing time, and adding a few early game units. As far as I can tell, it still feels like the spirit of the original deck, but performs a little more consistently.

A few notes

One Time Symbol with 4 Petition means that you can still play Shen-ra Speaks without Worldpyre. You can't rely on that strategy, but it still feels like a reasonable balance IMO. You basically have 9 opportunities to draw something that plays it.

Maveloft Huntress and Emerald Crafter both serve as early-game interaction. Crafter is a 2-for-1, and leaves something behind after Shen-ra does her thing. Your usual goal with the huntress is to imbue and killer something that kills the huntress, so your imbued target is no longer stunned and can now block again. If you're surviving, then imbuing a surge unit feels great, because you still get to keep the effects of surging, plus all the stats on a unit you don't care about dying.

Forbidden Research should almost always get shadow (unless you have multiple Ijin, Walking Armory in hand and need 7/7s on the board).

Learned Imitator should very frequently get Telut, The Iron Gate to hose the opponent's board. Both her and Ironthorn, Lawman should very frequently be played one turn later than on curve, so that their surge effect can be used the same turn they're played.

Battery Mage is useful if the opponent killed your Worldpyre, but not often otherwise. I removed it.

This deck is very hearty against Turn to Seed and Rain of Frogs, which is really nice.

Careful about attacks into ambush units with your surge enablers, and careful about Wrath of Caiphus if your hand is getting too big around turn 7. Playing out Aid of Hooru whenever possible is almost always the right choice (both because discarding it is bad, and because it pressures your opponent to do something other than take a turn off to draw cards.)

Early power drops should usually be rakano (fire/justice), so you can play Ironthorn, Lawman if you draw him.

Tatoo Dragon creates chump blockers with Learned Imitator. I'm trying him out. The Strange Gladiator kills relics, which the deck was lacking.

What I would cut

Zaxo Leviathan has gotten me very little mileage. He usually hits power (for obvious reasons), isn't reliably drawn, and can't be reliably played.

Severin, on the other hand, has gotten a LOT of mileage, despite not being a target for Imitator.

Karavet feels very "win more", but he's also a good blocker, even when imitated. If it wasn't for Severin, I'd cut shadow altogether.

What I'd like to add

More power is probably appropriate. Most hands, I was seeing 2 power, which is just not enough to hit my early influence.

I considered 1 copy of Sandstorm Titan for fliers. I also considered (but quickly rejected) Circso, for a blocker, but Telut should always be better.

Calibrate would be a good option, if Time were still here.

I'd love to have more aegis, because losing WorldPyre to Burglarize isn't fun.

I'd also consider running an extra Telut, since he's SO integral to board stabilization. When he's drawn, your imitators lose an extremely valuable target.

I'm considering a single Shadow Symbol in case you draw Severin or Karavet and petition.

Good luck! Have fun!