Go Big or Go Home

This is Big Combrei, Argent Depths style. For those that haven't been around, this is an archetype that has been around since Eternal's first set, and is basically a "midrange goodstuff" deck where the good stuff is actually synergistic, having a unifying ramp/Empower/power sink theme. Many of the cards at the low end are both solid road blocks for aggro—which allows the deck the opportunity to mature into the mid-to-late-game powerhouse it is meant to be—as well as win conditions when unanswered. Meanwhile, the top-end should be called the over-the-top-end, because the deck goes off almost like a combo deck when it is firing on all cylinders. Based on what's available and what has felt good, I've slanted the deck a bit towards a Justice-heavy flying theme. There are a lot of potential options in this faction pair, so there's a lot to talk about when it comes to card choice.

Desert Alchemist and Valkyrie Enforcer are your early line of defense and "removal." Traditionally, Big Combrei has played Desert Marshal, but Alchemist brings the improvement of providing hard(-ish) removal in the form of Deadly while also providing fixing; this has been especially relevant since there are very few 2-or-less-health threats in aggro these days.

Siraf, Grand Strategist and Knight-Chancellor Siraf are the other early blockers, and both double as late-game win conditions.

Icaria, Valkyrie Captain and Enter the Monastery provide ramp. Both are slower than similar options (Initiate of the Sands or Tocas, Waystone Harvester, for example), but the permanence of the ramp and Empower synergy are relevant here. Tocas might still be the right choice to replace one or some copies of both, so follow your heart.

Diana, Faith's Shield is an awesome new addition; it fits the flier theme we have going, slows down aggro, and provides another late-game power sink/win condition. This replaces something like Sandstorm Titan or Sheriff Marley, which fill largely the same role without the game-ending ability.

The Great Parliament is very flexible, and can either give you an early threat/blocker, or completely fill/refill the board in the late-game. This is one of if not the best way to rebuild after a sweeper.

Ixtol, Champion of Grodov and Marshal Ironthorn are your late-game big ramp cards. Ixtol has been significantly less bad than I expected, as I haven't seen enough silence in the field to worry about him dying to things that wouldn't have killed a similar unit (e.g. Worldbearer Behemoth). The 2-3 split on redundant effects at this level is important to mitigate the effects of Turn to Seed.

Sediti, the Killing Steel and Grodov's Stranger are your late-game card draw to help you grind. Mystic Ascendant is easily one of my favorite cards and it has fantastic synergy with a lot of other effects in the deck, but for every high-roll game where it draws 3+ cards and wins, there is a game where he gets stuck in hand with no additional power to trigger him. The fact that Sediti is a flier and Grodov's Stranger ramps sealed up their place in my list, but if you figure out how to make Ascendant work better, let me know! Again, the 2-3 split helps us survive TTS.

Telut, Queen's Hand is the big finisher we typically want to get to. With all the ramp in the deck, 7 power is very achievable, and often ahead of schedule. In addition to often finishing the game just by improving your board state so much, the continued ramp helps you increase the size of your late-game Parliaments, trigger multiple Siraf activations, and/or finish the game with a Diana or Ironthorn ultimate.

Bubble Shield is here to try to give our big threats that one turn they often need to really stick and generate value. It's especially good with Grodov's Stranger or Marshal Ironthorn played with power. It hasn't been absolutely stellar due to Vara, Vengeance-Seeker being reasonably prevalent, but the couple of copies have come in handy from time-to-time.

I've chosen a Justice Market mainly because I wanted to play Martyr's Chains there; the deck doesn't go all-in ramp, so it's infeasible to play it in the main deck. Stand Together and Sword of Unity are basically non-negotiable; these effects are easily one of the strongest reasons to play Combrei in the first place, and are both utility and win conditions. Edict of Kodosh is here as our only immediate answer card, chosen due to the amount of Fire aggro and Shadow midrange in the meta. From Beyond, or rather Maeve, Walker of Aeons, is a sleeper surprise that has been pretty strong in early testing. It's somewhat rare to pull her over either of the Stand effects, but she makes a great threat when both players are in or near topdeck mode, as she can quickly start to replenish your hand. In addition, her Summon trigger can reverse a lot of the work done by a mill deck. She also has fantastic synergy with with Telut, since his played weapon will trigger her second card draw. For Market access, I chose Winchest Merchant due to the flying, and Justice Etchings to shore up the power base; because we have 7 cards to hit the Market, don't be afraid to play Etchings as just power search when you need it.