Palace Control

It's time to come home (to Master's ranks).
[Update as of 9-4-2019]
Xo has been pushed up to 8 and FFFF now. Understandably. And the metagame is starting to adjust to this particular iteration of Ixtun Palace as well. So I came back to this list and made a few changes, firstly, I redid the market and put 1 Xo in there for continued market cheatyface plays with merchants. Often you want to generate your value by swapping Hurlers out so perhaps the count there goes up to 3 again, I haven't decided. I have added 3 Hammer and 3 Display now maindeck. Display of Honour is surprisingly good even in a deck unlikely to bring two weapons back to use once again, here it also serves as a nasty trick on Vargo to establish board position when your opponents really don't expect a control deck to be running a pump suite. It also grabs Deepforged Plate back if you get blown out, plus bonus goat content. This list is still very much in a great position. The Xo nerf actually kind of helps us, to make some decisions about the maindeck if nothing else!

Original Intro:
I got very tired of playing against FJS so when I saw Vargo Redclaw spoiled I absolutely knew I had to build around him, he gives that deck so many headaches!

So, little did I know that Direwolf would also release an absolutely savage midgame site as well, one that fits perfectly into our strategy: Korovyat Palace. We are going to be seeing that card everywhere, I promise you.

This deck is about pure value generation. We use the tried and tested 8 merchant package together with 1 market Xo of the Endless Hoard and 2 Jotun Hurler, alongside a range of other cards you can ship to the market if they do not fit your board position. We have numerous little two-card soft combos, the most obviously juicy is to make your opponent over-extend with a Vargo out, and then Harsh Rule them. That's often a game ending play, on curve.

People will note there are 4 Torch cards in this list, 4 Defiance, and 2 Vanquish. You can change the removal package to suit your style and your ladder meta. I find Defiance a good draw as the game goes on, and this deck really benefits from a clutch swing play by stunning a beefy dude on the block. I like Vanquishes for easily getting rid of Varas and establishing an uncontested Vargo early on. The market is pretty standard, note that you will quite often be going to get Rizahn because he is degenerate with aegis and endurance from our Site, but pressure plays with our Red Canyon Smuggler are also pretty common. You will be grabbing Xo back a lot too.

Match-ups: So far it wrecks FJS, which is the point. You need to play carefully against Reanimator, you only have one out against them unless you have a mitt full of Harsh Rules. Agro is pretty decent, they will have to spend a lot of resources getting rid of Vargo. The deck plays very similar to Jennev midrange anyways, and has a close match-up against it. The fight here is one for Board control, so getting a palace down with a unit out to absorb that +4/+4 and aegis is clutch.

Happy homecoming!