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Isomorphic Destiny - Dark Frontier Update

Throne Deck By
zsjostrom35

+6

Cost Curve

Type

Faction

Information

Started with Isomorphic’s Five Stages of Destiny, and decided to see what improvements I could make with the cards that have been released since. Main additions are as follows:

Display of Ambition: Absolutely amazing, perfect for what this deck wants to do, etc. The original list was running Smuggler's Stash with no weapons, for crying out loud; this not only does the same thing for half the cost, it even has a removal mode for when you need that. And not only THAT, it’s fast. BTW, Piercing Grief only sacs itself at the end of YOUR turn; you can play this to pull it out of the void and draw at opponent’s end step and still be able to attack with it.
Desecrate: More flexible than Annihilate most of the time, and you’re generally gaining enough life that the face damage doesn’t matter. The one downside is that the slow speed can hurt you against big Time ambush cards (primarily Saber-Tooth Prideleader and Xumucan, the Surveyor), but that hasn’t been as common as needing a way to get through stuff like Heart of the Vault and Icaria, the Liberator. You really don’t want to use your Displays for that if you don’t have to.
Pristine Light: This was a tougher change to pull the trigger on. Harsh Rule is just better in some spots; I won’t dispute that. However, we do still have it in the Market thanks to the next change below, and Pristine enables some truly disgusting value combos if you have one or more Destiny units with more than 3 attack on the board. Even if it’s a single Grief that will die again immediately, you still have a cantrip mass removal spell against any big stuff your opponent has. And if you’ve got Alchemists...hoo boy. One technical note on the mechanics of this spell: if you have a Revenge unit on board without Destiny and it dies to Pristine with the Onslaught trigger, the unit goes back to your hand, not your deck, and the Revenge doesn't trigger at all (i.e. it doesn't get Destiny). That was surprising to me the first time I saw it.
Hidden Road Smuggler: Two reasons for this. First, I wanted Market access to Harsh after cutting it from the main. Second, having an extra lifestealer (and one that doesn’t die to Snowball, to boot) helps in aggro matchups. This also, naturally, forced an overhaul of the Market itself, as the old one was mostly redundancies for some of the more important pieces of the deck:

Adjudicator's Gavel: This deck can’t beat reanimator without it. Lotta bullshift running around these days too.
Rise to the Challenge: With three copies of redundant cards going back to the main, something had to get cut, and this was the choice. Costing 4 is a drawback, and in the case where you haven’t gotten any Destiny units in your deck it’s VERY slow. Certainly might be correct to swap this in for one of the cheaper draw spells though.
Harsh Rule: Explained above.
Unspeakable Torment: Okay, this is probably my favorite piece of tech in the whole deck. When you get off to a fast start against a lot of slower decks, they’ll try to just stabilize and durdle for a while, and if they have really devastating answers coming like Equivocate or Dizo's Office that strategy will usually work, even if (as is usually the case) you’re like 30 health ahead at that point. Unless, of course, you have a face nuke that converts health differential to lethal :).
Smuggler's Stash: It’s not Display, but it’s still good if you can afford it.

UPDATE 8/19:
Unwavering Exorcist added to the Market. This deck completely folds to Adjudicator's Gavel if you can't remove it. The other option for our current factions is Burglarize, but there aren't many non-cursed relics you really need to get rid of, and the fact that Exorcist is half the cost and comes with a reasonable body is worth the loss of flexibility. Also, Exorcist can deal with a Permafrost cleanly, which you’d otherwise have to murder your own unit to get rid of.
Rise to the Challenge moved back to the main deck x4; Quarry cut entirely. Rise was the Market cut to make room for Exorcist, but I felt it was too good to remove from the deck entirely (instantly turns on your Pristine Light degeneracy, if nothing else). I chose to keep Cull over Quarry because it digs a little deeper, and is a little easier to play on 2 since it doesn't require Fire.

Update 10/19:
Adjudicator's Gavel cut from the Market for Vanquisher's Blade. Oddly, reanimator-style decks seem to have more trouble dealing with a weapon than a relic, and Blade actually has some utility against normal decks too in a pinch.
Paladin Oathbook and Whirling Duo cut for Crownwatch Press-Gang and Tock Tick. I realize this fundamentally changes the identity of the deck somewhat, but the fact is that between Garden of Omens and Saber-Tooth Prideleader there’s just too much incidental relic removal these days to rely on Oathbook to build up threats. The Press-Gang/Tick package doubles down on the nasty destiny/draw shenanigans this deck thrives on, and cutting Duo to make room for it doesn’t feel terrible since that card only really shined with Oathbook anyway.
Now, if we do find ourselves in a matchup where we can stick a relic and want to snowball some threats, a newcomer from Flame of Xulta does the job even better: Blood of Makkar has been added to the Market instead of Smuggler's Stash. This thing is downright filthy with Alchemist, and it also forces your opponent into kick-starting your revenge because they can no longer afford to allow your stuff to hit face. Also worth noting that every unit but Tick becomes Pristine-eligible with a single hit, enabling even more kill-draw degeneracy there.

Details

Shiftstone Cost
Does not include campaign cost
39,800

Premium Cost
185,600

Influence Requirements
1 2 2

Power Sources
11 14 14 15 4

Power Calculator
Shiftstoned Icon View Deck on Shiftstoned

Deck Rarities
12 28 26 5

Card Types
21 3 28 0 28

Contains Cards From Campaigns
Into Shadow [Set1004]
Homecoming [Set1005]

Archetype
Combo

Updated
October 15, 2019

Added
August 16, 2019

Views
1,974

Eternal Version
The Flame of Xulta

BBCode For Comments

Deck URL

Revisions (Since last major patch) October 15, 2019


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Comments

Shimrra Eternal Version: 1.46.10
Just vsed this and, uh, was shown what my insides looked like - except I was laughing the whole time because the deck, while terrifying, is very amusing and plays how I want to play. If/when I make this I am thinking about throwing in something like a Twinstrike Master instead of the Smuggler's Stash because a DD buffed Alchemist sounds amazing - Righteous Fury was my first thought but seems very redundant since everything has Lifesteal already..
zsjostrom35 Eternal Version: 1.46.10
Haha yeah, that was a good game; thought you had me with the second Vanq Blade on the Svetya. I drew really well though; the end was a perfect example of how hard this deck can go off once it gets the void set up right.

The version of the deck here is a smidge out of date, as you may have noticed; I’ve since moved Oathbook to the market instead of Stash (too much relic removal these days for it to be a staple) and cut Whirling Duo entirely to make room for the Press Gang/Tock Tick combo. That makes the market space REALLY tight, but I may have to see if I can find some room for Twinstrike Master; that’s a really good idea.
Shimrra Edited Eternal Version: 1.46.10
(That was a good game.) Hm, thought it seemed off - I definitely would have noticed the Oathbooks.
Might almost be worth running a couple Twinstrikes in the maindeck, almost. Given how many recurring Destiny units there are.
SilentNSly Eternal Version: 1.46.9
This seems weak to an opponent's Gavel.

Maybe you should consider adding the Justice unit that destroys a curse on summon to your market?
zsjostrom35 Eternal Version: 1.46.9
You are absolutely right, and I actually already made that change; just haven't updated the list yet.