Praxis Monsters Top 200 Master

Hi guys

I wanted to share this list since Praxis is not that popular right now.
I am currently around 180 in Master and I think that the deck is pretty solid and it could aim for much more if played more.

The deck is pretty straight forward, you play fatties and you smash. I will provide an explanation on all the cards, the list is quite customizable and I find myself often changing cards, I am not really sure what would be the optimal one.

Mainboard

Initiate of the Sands Classic Llanowar Elf, it provides a good start curving it into Amaran Stinger or Teacher plus a Torch
Jennev Cargo or Seek Power I would play 4 Cargo but Seek Power is still fine if you don't have the Cargo or don't want to use the shiftstone to craft those (the improvement is not that big anyway), the thing is that cargo can lead your opponents to think that you are a Zal Chi or Peak deck and sometimes you can even turn on the second mode with Trail Maker, it happened only 2 times to me, but still could be good while flooding


Torch and Purify You need to keep in check those Rakano, I was at 2 Purify at some points, but right now Rakano is too popular

Teacher of Humility Best turn 2 play, it really destroy some decks by itself if you can connect and it still trades against aggro

Trail Maker I was at 0, then i was suggested by some friends to try them and they really over performed, together with Initiate and Merchant they get you the more busted draws and allow your bombs to come down 1 or 2 turns ahead of schedule. They are also great for fixing, triple fire is not trivial to get

Xenan Initiation Only answer to big stuff if combined with one of your fatties, I don't run Dawnwalker so it loses some value but it is still great.

Amaran Stinger When I said that Initiation was our only anwer to fatties I was lying, I tried this card and it was truly great, if you are not too far behind (aka on the play) against aggro and you can afford to attack it helps you secure the late game and it still can block as a 2/4, against deck with fatties the scorpions can be combined with Initiation to kill stuff or they can just chip some damage or stall the board. Initiate of the Sands into Stinger is a great start for this deck.

Auralian Merchant I'll talk later about the market, this card is still a powerhouse even as a 0/4 and can ramp up to Moonstone Vanguard skipping turn 4 (it gets quite absurd if you can Initiate of the sands, Mercahnt, Moonstone Vanguard)

Sandstorm Titan Old reliable Titan, it's not the best these days but he is still a beater

Moonstone Vanguard This card is absurd, it's great in every matchup, it gains life, it attacks, it blocks, it draws cards (also great with Initiation), the only thing that is debatable is to run 3 maindeck and 1 in the market to always have to merchant into vanguard play

Shatterglass Mage I think that this card is good, but it is still one of the flex slot, could be something else depending on the meta

Heart of the Vault I guess everyone knows this card and it is completely nuts, it's a great card if you cast it from your hand and when you warp it it feels like cheating. Nothing more to say about it, mandatory 4 of.

Xo of the Endless Hoard New addition from the new set and the reason to play Fire instead of Primal alongside Heart. It's great at smoothing your draws early, provides fodder to the market and it's a powerhouse later on.


Market

Xenan Initiation and Purify and Shatterglass Mage It's good to have redundancy of these cards and it's quite obvious when to take them

Lumen Defender Does not die to Vanquish and gains 5 life, it also take down anything of Rakano, I think it's a cool card, but you can put another anti aggro card here

Mystic Ascendant Our only late game card in the market, the deck is already pretty good when going late so for now I am quite fine with this choice, might change depending on the meta

Maybeboard

To be fair there are a million cards that could be played in this deck, from Dawnwalker to Worldbreaker Behemoth or even Darya, Warrior Poet, again I am not sure what is the optimal build, but you can swap around card as you prefer.

Gameplay

In general I think you should try to mulligan aggressively for a good start, this deck is really capable of putting on some pressure early on, I try to look up for Teacher or some ramp cards into fatties, just don't keep hands that do nothing hoping to draw something.

Against aggro games are pretty simple, you just do whatever you can to survive and win with a Moonstone Vanguard or some other fatties, be aware that they have Deepforged Plate in the market, so try to have a Shatterglass Mage ready for that.

Against control/other midrange you generally want to outvalue them, make sure they use removals on your less important units like Sanstorm Titan and try to win the game with the advantage provided by Vanguard, Xo and Heart. Again you don't have many answers to fatties, but your creatures are generally the some of the biggest in the meta.

Against Combo such as HH it's always tricky, if you can connect with Teacher is great and it will be quite difficult for them to win. Sandstorm Titan is quite good cause it basically counters Haunting Scream. The real problems come when they Madness and Combust your to biggest units, that is usually quite a beating and not something you can recover easily.

I might add more to this section if you want some more specific stuff, anyway I'll try to answer in the comments if you have any question.

Good luck and may the Hotv be with you