Please do read the description. You'll get extremely confused (and craptalky) otherwise.
The deck listing looks janky, but works perfectly - like Knifebloom decks. Let me elaborate.
I have worked for weeks on a concept of a unitless control in 2019, have gone through many ordeals and have finally created a viable version that absolutely demolishes the current meta!
Note: Temporal is a worthy contender, with Pit becoming ever so relevant. This deck does have answers to that though.
General Strategy
Against Aggro: Use
Defiance (3),
Hailstorm (3) and then
Harsh Rule (4) to remove the majority of the onslaught.
Eilyn's Choice (3) is not terrible against aggro, especially against units like Hojan.
Svetya, Orene of Kosul (3) is a really good defensive 4-drop, since aggro cannot remove her in the turn you play her due to her effect.
Jennev Merchant (4) is also a persistent unit that allows you to gain further survivability by accessing the market which I'll explain later. Usually, you will stabilize with the sweepers mentioned and proceed towards your gameplan whilst the opponent will be gassed. If you're very low on HP, feel free to fetch
Sword of the Sky King(1) to get some armor and finish the game.
Against Value Midrange: The absolute carry of this deck (and control right now) is
Martyr's Chains, which in the lategame converts power topdecks into kill spells. Whilst you are surviving until the Chains turn, you're using
Eilyn's Choice (3),
Polymorph (2),
Avigraft (1),
Harsh Rule (4),
End of the Story (2), and drawing for further answers plus accessing the market.
Against Control: You pretty much win every time unless you punt. You can push your gameplan easily whilst protecting your own with
Unseal (2),
Eilyn's Choice (3), and a lot of Face Aegis options.
Against Combo: Refer to Control, but add in meta tech disruptions (a combined 5 techs in the deck) such as
Rain of Frogs (1),
Avigraft (1),
Adjudicator's Gavel (1),
Bring Down (1),
Vision of Austerity (1).
The Game Plan
Whilst this is control and not a combo deck, it does have a game-winning combo, provided you have the pieces and can protect them (depends on the opponent's colors how easy it is to protect - for example, scouting with
Rain of Frogs works before playing the first piece). It is
Svetya, Orene of Kosul combined with Quicksilver Mirror. Here are some of the ways you can get the combo:
1. Draw Svetya, Merchant for Mirror.
2. Draw
Celestial Omen (2) for Svetya and Merchant for Mirror.
3. Draw two Celestial Omens for Svetya and Merchant.
4. Draw two Merchants for Svetya and Mirror.
5. Use Omen for Merchant and Mirror, then infiltrate with
West-Wind Herald (2) to activate the second omen for Svetya.
Approximately 9-12 cards to fetch parts of the combo.
The combo is reinforced by drawing or fetching Chains which will double Svetyas' stats to ruin the enemy's side of the board without your own removal.
You can do this using
West-Wind Herald (2) instead, but it is not as effective or disruptive as Svetya. Depends on the matchup etc though.
How it works:
Slam
Quicksilver Mirror on either turn 7 provided they cannot remove it (Face Aegis helps against non-F colors), or on turn 9 with Unseal in hand. If they try to remove it, unseal the spell (You can Eilyn's Choice the Burglarize). Next turn, put Svetya on the board. From now on, they cannot remove Svetya unless they have a fast spell to do so. Here is an incomplete list of somewhat relevant spells/units that can target Svetya:
Desert Marshall,
Equivocate,
Rindra's Choice, Display Of Instinct,
Deathstrike, Temporal Disjunction spells.
Alternatively, a wincon is Sword Of The Sky King (1), and a rarely possible one is Merchant + Chains. A new addition is
Mistveil Drake in the market, which can win games as well.
Card Information
Adjudicator's Gavel (1) - Instantly shuts down decks that are void-centered; a Strategize/Crest/Merchant material in other matchups. Can be Omened for. More in the Reanimator matchup section, and the 1 ofs section.
Defiance (3) - The staple aggro removal card, because no matter how hard they buff up the unit, it's still going to die to this. Amazing against Haunted Highway. A relevant card against midrange still, due to the stun and removing merchants alike. 3 of is to have a total of 6 aggro removal along with Hailstorm - a 3/3 split.
Bring Down (1) - It is a must to have a fast silence somewhere in a tutor deck, even though you have transform effects. An ideal card to tutor for against Makto. Screws with Talir Combo as well, and many other things like Xo.
Eilyn's Favor (3) - Face Aegis is godlike against disruptive spells and harmful effects like Infiltrate, otherwise a simple Seek Power for 2 mana. Has synergy with
Mistveil Drake. 3 of because 3/3 split with Icaria.
Icaria, Valkyrie Captain (3) - Was originally Privilege of Rank, but a unit combined with a sigil draw is much more versatile. Has good battle skills for Quicksilver and Chains. Better topdeck than PoR, etc.
Strategize (3) - A staple draw/cycle tool, allows you to get rid of unneeded cards like Gavel, power or wincons out of your hand. 3 of because of no deck space lol.
Unseal (2) - Counterspells are really strong in the meta right now, shutting down powerful spell effects like Display Of Ambition. Alternatively, Unseal can be used to protect your own gameplan. 2 of because you rarely need to draw more than one.
Vision of Austerity (1) - Tech against various relics like
Pit of Lenekta - can be fetched by Resurface or Omen. Refer to my 1 ofs section for further information.
Eilyn's Choice (3) - Staple Hooru removal/disruption tool, the negate hits End of Hostilities,
Grasping at Shadows (Relevant right now), Solitude, Maul, Rain of Frogs, Channel the Tempest, Temporal spells etc. 3 of because the fourth piece is in market. A draw-go spell that occupies the same mana as Wisdom.
Hailstorm (3) - Staple anti-aggro sweeper. 3/3 split with Defiance.
Jennev Merchant (4) - Resilient body, accesses a Primal market.
Polymorph (2) - Proactive anti-midrange removal to later use with WWH. Feel free to replace this card with
Vanquish due to 2+3 tempo on turn 5, but I enjoy Polymorph more due to anti-recursion and anti-Makto, also good against Zal Chi. Weapons aren't in the meta MUCH right now aside from Vanq Blade and Warhelm.
Wisdom of the Elders (4) - Staple fast spell card advantage engine.
Avigraft (1) - Whilst being a good midrange removal, it doubles as screwing over Merchants and Clockroach-Wurm-Grenadin-etc decks. You can also silence a Makto and Avigraft it, I think. A great tech 1 of to have, as it is flexible and almost always useful to topdeck / have in starting hand. If keeping Avigraft on the opponent is important, you can easily protect it with Unseal and alike.
Rain of Frogs (1) - No matter how hard people craptalk this spell, it's useful to draw on any stage of the game apart from having it in the opening hand against aggro. It serves as both disruption and protecting your own combo. It's comparable to
Sabotage, except that it completely removes that card from the game and stops recursion. Depending on the situation, a good spell to tutor with Resurface or Omen. It is niche, so it's a one of in the deck. Never need to draw or use two, and it's too costly to grab from a market.
Svetya, Orene of Kosul (3) - Your win condition and a good 4 drop. 3 of because the fourth one is in market.
Harsh Rule (4) - Staple sweeper.
West-Wind Herald (2) - Allows you to cast any of the spells twice, including the one-offs in the deck if you really need to. Synergizes with Mirror. On T5, can cast Wisdom for card advantage. Can trade with Haunted Scream targets. 2 of because it's more useful than a 1 of, but you don't need to draw two of them.
Celestial Omen (2) - Staple
fast spell tutor, fetches anything you want from the deck - from SotSK to Merchants to Harsh Rule. 2 of because it's fairly important to draw, yet two in the hand is below average.
End of the Story (2) - Sometimes, 4 HRs is not enough. This is in the deck for HR redundancy. Synergizes with
Resurfacein the market. 4/2 split with HR.
Martyr's Chains (1) A staple late-game removal tool and a wincon. Fetchable by Omen, so you have 3(more with Resurface but that's very slow) ways to obtain the card in your hand. 1 of so that it doesn't appear in the opening hand often.
Sword of the Sky King (1) - Your alternate wincon and a healing tool. You have many sweepers to clear the path for it. 1 of so that it doesn't appear in the opening hand often.
Market:
Eilyn's Choice is a very good defensive all-around spell, explained above. Very useful to grab against pretty much all matchups (though it's usually better to just advance wincon).
Resurface will fetch you any spell from the deck, including the tech 1-ofs. This is extremely powerful because you remove any variance from your topdeck. Merchant into Resurface into Harsh Rule works. So does 10 mana Resurface +
End of the Story which has Warp.
Svetya, Orene of Kosul is your wincon piece and a very powerful defensive 4 drop since it cannot be removed in the same turn, so she's a guaranteed blocker (Finest Hour is not allowed as well).
Mistveil Drake is a godlike hand protector on as quick as T3 - preserves your hand against disruptive Reanimator and alike. Not a bad unit overall.
Quicksilver Mirror is your primary wincon, and it's protected by being in the Market. Fetch it wisely, do not let disruption remove it from your hand.
Why Hooru?
1. Not redrawing because the power has a 95% likelihood of being right is GODLIKE.
2. Relying on
Eilyn's Favor and Privilege of Rank for power draw instead of Cargo is great.
3. Influence on
Martyr's Chains and
Quicksilver Mirror is pretty high for 3F.
4. Not many spells would be relevant for this deck if we add one more faction aside from
Bore and
Display of Honor.
Why the 1 ofs?
1. They are fetchable by
Celestial Omen or
Resurface. The exception is Gavel.
2. You have Crests, Merchants and Strategizes to remove the 1 ofs away from your hand if the matchup doesn't ask for them.
3. If I run more than one of these cards aside from Avigraft, I will lose because I'd have hands full of niche cards.
4. If I don't run these cards, I will lose to certain matchups unless I will be quick with the combo.
Thus, now you understand. There's no way around it. This is a tutor deck.
Matchup Information
Reanimator: This deck, if piloted correctly, demolishes Reanimator (much like every other deck aside from perhaps FTP Mid???). There's a highroll existing where you get Gavel in the opening hand or the first turns, then you hold up Unseal for the rest of the game so it doesn't get Burglarized. Otherwise, if this doesn't happen, the relevant cards are Unseal, Merchant, Harsh Rule, EotS, Eilyn's Choice, Polymorph, Rain of Frogs. RoF'ing Vara is game-winning - they only are left with Azindel+BSH. Do try to get face aegis as fast as possible, through cobalt waystones, eilyn's favor, or mistveil in market to preserve your hand integrity. Sabotage gets decimated by face aegis, as Reanimator has no way to ping it off. They have 0 ways to disrupt your Quicksilver combo aside from Burglarize, AFAIK.
FJS: lol just unseal/rain DoA and they fold
Talir Combo: Aggressively look for disrupts like Rain of Frogs and Bring Down. Both of those are game-winning AFAIK.
Temporal: This one's hard, but, generally, hold up mana for counterspells, Avigraft the Wurms and
Vision of Austerity any of the relics, including a SotSK if they run it. If you don't have Avi, VoA pit. Otherwise, Temporal. Vision 2 for 1's Disjunction. RoF helps as well, especially if you hit merchant.
Haunted Highway: Have mana open for Eilyn's Choice and Defiance. Alternatively, Frogs their Scream (ACTUALLY HAPPENED).
FTP Mid: Tough matchup, but it is like any other midrange really - just with a lot more card advantage. Hooru needs to race with FTP, and they have a bunch of ways to disrupt your combo.
Any Aggro: You're bound to have early game plays that will almost guarantee stabilizing, otherwise aggressively redraw for those. Hold up mana with Eilyn's Choice or Defiance against Warhelm highroll.
Thank you for reading. Please leave a like because this took a lot of time. Before giving feedback, look at the revisions.
Another deck I've made (Vulnerable to Sabotage right now):
FJP Control (Pretend Armory) - NEW VERSION
First impressions are great! Will play it out for a bit and try to get used to finding the ins and outs as I play it.
Thanks for the submission and the detailed guide to go with it!
What would you consider cutting for more Vision of Austerity?