Hello,
I have been playing with this since FoA came and am at the Diamond 1 rank at the moment (didn't have much spare time these days because of work). In short, the deck is nuts, everything that bothered me in the past with Argenport (like being overly dependent on Tavrod, getting caught off hand by heavy control, no cheap library manipulation like
Strategize, ...) was fixed by the latest set. You may notice the exclusion of cult cards like
Impending Doom and
Unseen Commando, but I'll try to explain everything in the next section.
New Card Explanations
Cull the Deck - the black Ponder. Searches for answers, lets you plan future turns and makes the deck very consistent.
Ironfist Chancellor - the new win condition and a unit your opponent has to deal with ASAP. He shouldn't be treated as a 2 drop, basically he's the replacement for
Impending Doom, while having great synergy with weapons (especially Tavrod boosted ones) and suicide attacking your Tavrod or Assassin. tl;dr this guy wins you games you should lose.
Vanquisher's Blade - people were quite negative about this one, but I think it's nuts. Great synergy with Chancellor and flyers, while taking out the most problematic enemy unit.
Winchest Merchant - merchants are an absolutely genius addition to the game. I'll explain my market in the next section.
Inquisitor's Blade - not a new card, but new to this build. It's basically a flex slot to raise the value of Tavrod and Chancellor. It hasn't been stunning, so I'm thinking of trying out
Copperhall Bracers/
Surgeon's Saw/more copies of
Vanquisher's Blade when I have some shiftstone laying around.
Market
Argenport Banner - power fixing when you need it
Citywide Ban - this one is actually hilarious. It ups your chances against heavy control that wins through cards like
Icaria, the Liberator or
Channel the Tempest and hoses engines like
Clockroach. Never a dead card!
Inquisitor Makto - great card for the midrange mirror or against non-shadow control (more like non
In Cold Blood decks)
Harsh Rule - makes the Praxis matchup much easier, saves your skin in some other random situations
Sword of the Sky King - not entirely sold on this one, I'll probably change it depending on the ladder.
Thank you for reading, if you have a suggestion - feel free to leave a comment!
Sabotage
x4
2
Cull the Deck
x4
2
Ironfist Chancellor
x4
2
Ripknife Assassin
x4
2
Vanquish
x2
2
Vanquisher's Blade
x2
2
Vara's Favor
x4
3
Auric Interrogator
x4
3
Bloodletter
x4
3
Slay
x4
3
Valkyrie Enforcer
x4
3
Winchest Merchant
x4
4
Inquisitor's Blade
x2
5
Tavrod, Auric Broker
x4
Justice Sigil
x4
Shadow Sigil
x6
Argenport Banner
x3
Crest of Vengeance
x4
Emerald Waystone
x4
Seat of Vengeance
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
Also, do you find the deck misses Auric Runehammer? That's pretty much the weapon I find myself crossing my fingers for most of the time I am resolving a Tavrod trigger!
As a final point, I love the inclusion of Citywide Ban in the market! Previously I have been using the market in this type of deck as a sort of "bag-o-tools" full of useful but situational weapons that don't necessarily want/need to be hit by Tavrod.
I have made some changes in the list, the full update will be posted on the weekend. tl;dr I found the Inquisitor's Blade to clunky, just a win-more card like Thief's Pick and replaced it with 2 Annihilate to counter Mono Time that pops up every third game. The other changes are in the Market - I haven't actually once cast the big ass sky sword, so I replaced it with Auric Runehammer that sadly can't make the cut in the maindeck, and Makto got cut for one more copy of Vanquisher's Blade. Makto proved to be another win-more card that ALWAYS got pwned by random silences and In Cold Blood, and the Blade gives me more answers to graveyard strategies and you can set up a nice removal with the merchant if you're expecting something like Sandstorm Titan to hit the board next turn. But honestly, against aggro strategies I always fetch Harsh Rule and against everything else Citywide Ban because the card is so freaking good and it can shut down entire decks by itself.