RIP this deck - I'll leave it here for posterity. Since Borderlands Lookout got smacked with the nerf-bat first, this deck took quite a hit in its effectiveness. But with Shen-Ra herself taking a slap from the nerf-bat as well ... that's the end. It was a fun run, but it's over.
What follows is my old commentary on the deck, back when it was actually competitive still.
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Update for EoE: We have ourselves a silence meta here at the moment. And Tocas is also really good. So Tocas is up to 4x, Awakened Students are out along with 1 copy of Longhorn, and 4x Desert Marshals are in. I also happen to think that, despite the 3-cost market restriction, Fearless Crescendo is absolutely worth including over either Aurelian or Winchest merchant, as it is a beast of a card that can win a game all by itself. Flying at fast speed for 1 cost is ... pretty good. The list I have here right now (Feb 27) has taken me through D3 to near Masters at a rate of 22 wins, 6 losses.
I used this deck (slightly different versions) to hit masters four months in a row, starting in October. Currently, my highest Masters rank using this deck is Rank 4 (in January). It's a pretty straight-forward aggro list, but it's on the slower end of aggro.
Stand Together is the most important card in the deck, especially if you're facing a control deck of any kind.
The Tocas slot is flexible, but he's pretty good against several different kinds of decks (including the mirror, as mentioned below), so he's probably worth having.
Public enemy #1 for this deck is
Tocas, Waystone Harvester. You need to get
Valkyrie Enforcer to deal with that jerk; otherwise your pump spells are useless. (However, it's worth noting that Stand Together still works, and I once used that fact to blow out an opponent who had Tocas active and therefore thought he was safe from combat tricks.)
Public Enemy #2 is Baby Vara (
Vara, Vengeance-Seeker). Usually you want to sacrifice a unit to keep her small, and then try to find a way to deal with her (via silence, or Aamri's Choice, or some other trick). If Baby Vara starts showing up all over the place, I would be looking to find a way to get Xenan Initiation into the deck so we can deal with her via Killer.
Core cards that you probably shouldn't touch:
-Shen-Ra
-Teacher of Humility
-Aamri's Choice
-Finest Hour
-Intrepid Longhorn
-Record Keeper
-Stand Together
-Valkyrie Enforcer
There isn't anything that consistently wrecks this archetype, though it does lose to decks that have repeated spot removal, over and over and over again. It survives at least one board clear most of the time, which means it usually wins against mass removal. But spot removal is a lot harder to deal with consistently. (e.g. direct-damage this, defiance that, suffocate the next thing, annihilate your Cykalis, etc)
I'm still toying with the market. Not sure what are the best choices yet. I did, however, find that Gnash was an unexpectedly awesome inclusion against Reanimator. They played Sabotage while I had Fearless Crescendo in hand ... so I played the Crescendo (so as not to lose it) and got out Gnash (which they couldn't Sabotage). Tada!
If you're running Tocas now instead of Gnash I'm wondering how consistently the deck could hit 6 power for Sword of Unity.
I could definitely see an argument for Temple Standard. Might try that out. I have to admit, I don't know what you mean when you say "Shift." Are you referring to Phase Out?
I have played some games of the deck and I've had some pretty good success with it.
what I like:
- traditional combrei playstyle
- a lot of tempo if you are the one starting turn 1
- stand together is insane
what I don't like:
- lack of removal
- if you can't get a decent board before AoE's stand together is worthless
- new emblems can deny you power pretty hard if you choose to decimate
- in 20 games played I've used vanquishers blade only 1 time. absolutely dead card.
- awakened student is great in the early game but absolute garbage as a topdeck. I would like to replace him. maybe with crownwatch paladin!
overall a very fun deck and I will continue to play it.
also: how do you trigger muster on gnash with this deck?
You are definitely correct that you have to be very careful about your decimating with the emblems. But it's totally fine to take one damage and play one as a sigil, because the times that you need to decimate a unit out of them are worth the downside of the times that you cannot afford to do that.
I have another question: why did you remove sword of unity out of the market? other than that it's hard to get to 6 power to make it worth playing it I must say that it won me some games due to the lifesteal and the overwhelm. Genetrix in throne is pretty meh in my opinion.