A spinoff of the pre-nerf Ixtun Howling Peak decks, powered up by the new site. Korovyat Palace seems extremely powerful and a great source of card advantage in a longer game, which matches well with our 8-smuggler, 4 Hurler, 4 Xo package. Whether Vargo earns his place here is a big question mark, as is the exact nature of the disruption and draw packages. I am testing the West-Wind Herald combo because it does have the potential to just end games, but I have always been leery of its inclusion. We will see if it earns its place.
Seek Power
x4
1
Torch
x4
2
Strategize
x4
2
Vanquish
x3
3
Hailstorm
x3
3
Howling Peak Smuggler
x4
3
Red Canyon Smuggler
x4
3
Wisdom of the Elders
x4
4
Vargo Redclaw
x4
5
Jotun Hurler
x4
5
West-Wind Herald
x4
6
Korovyat Palace
x4
6
Xo of the Endless Hoard
x4
Fire Sigil
x2
Justice Sigil
x3
Primal Sigil
x3
Crest of Fury
x4
Crest of Glory
x4
Crest of Order
x4
Seat of Fury
x3
Seat of Glory
x1
Seat of Order
x1
View Deck on Shiftstoned
I strongly feel that Rizahn is missing. He provides very good lifesteal and value to this control deck (which currently has literally no way to gain life and stabilize). Additionally he is INSANE when granted vigilance by the palace. Try is. Landing a palace and giving a Rizahn aegis is gg
I like having a harsh rule in the market for emergencies but that’s a preference/meta thing and yes I admit it can only be fetched by half the smugglers
I do like the deck those are just my thought
Also agreed about Rizahn and Herald, but with Vargo being in the 75 I wanted to test out an opportunity to be a more aggressive deck in midrangey/controlling matchups, with Herald, Vargo, and Merchant beats providing a reasonable clock when most blockers are blanked by your disruption and your opponent may have difficulty lining their removal up correctly to beat your threats.
I'm definitely not saying that strategy is optimal, but it was something I wanted to test out. I think if you modify the list to be more in the vein of old Icaria decks, you could go ahead with changes like:
-4 Vargo
-4 West-Wind Herald
-1 Iceberg Scattershot
+4 Rizahn
+1 Harsh Rule in the market
And then the last 4 slots are more complicated. I feel quite strongly that you want something in the 4-drop slot which blanks aggressive attacks unless they can remove it, but without access to Vara or Sandstorm Titan what that card should be is more complicated. It's possible you could just play the fourth Hailstorm and Vanquish + 2 additional spells, or you could try running something like Shelterwing Rider or Svetya.
That build would also be very good, but I'm interested to test both.