Copperhall Crowthbook

I made this because Hooru Tempo is my jam and the weapons based builds I was playing weren't doing it for me. It's pretty much my favorite Eternal deck ever and probably the best one I've built. Definitely better than trying to go all in on weapons with Horde Plunderer and whatnot. Reducing the synergy means we can run more good cards, and Oathbook gives more flexibility and resilience in exchange for a little explosiveness. It's not attached to a unit so you can't get 2-for-1'd, and it often gives you enough pressure with one unit to hold up fast spells instead of playing more units. This stretches the cards we draw out more and lets us hold up interaction every turn without going too slow. Plus it gives us infinite scaling for longer games.

Gameplan

It's a pretty standard tempo gameplan - stick a unit early then buff and protect it until you kill them with it. Generally you want to leave power up for Protect/Unseal, Finest Hour, or a Crow spell, but sometimes it's best to just curve out on fools. If you don't have anything to respond with you probably want to find one

The most important thing is to keep track of each player's clock. The clock is basically how fast you kill the other player if everyone makes optimal attacks and blocks. It's more complicated than that because you also have to account for future cards played but that's the basic idea. Tempo decks are all about getting a faster clock early on and keeping it that way. You don't need the fastest clock possible, just a faster one than your opponent. If your clock is faster you want to maintain it by holding up protection and matching or removing any extra damage they play. If it's slower you need to speed it up or slow your opponent's down.

When you have Oathbook usually you just want to have one unit out. But sometimes you need more evasion/stats, a blocker or more damage. Be careful of going to hard on the Oathbook buffs - sometimes you need a unit to be bigger so it can block, or you need to leave back blockers, but usually if you have multiple units it's better to attack with all of them for the extra damage.

Always keep an eye out for wombo combos. The dream is playing turn 2 Oathbook into turn 3 Crow into three Finest Hours and berserk for 33 damage on turn 4. That will probably never happen but you can pretty easily get double digits of damage with berserk if you plan ahead and find an opening. Bracers + berserk Crow alone is 12 damage. There's also some nice plays with Mirror Image on a tricked out unit.

Power

I used to only run 3 Crests because I think more than 5 depleted sigils is too many and I wanted more than one Crownwatch Tactic. But I decided that before I had Diplomatic Seal, so I'm testing 4 Crests and 2 Standards. I've tested Seek Power instead of 2 sigils and it was alright but I felt like I lost too many games to slow power. So I switched back to 27 and added Diplomatic Seal as well, and it's been running very nicely. I dared to dew the math with the Shiftstoned Power Calculator and I'm pretty happy with the probabilities, but I don't think it takes depeletion into account so I might not be as happy as I think. Still, I like the current power base but it's the part of the deck I'm least confident about, so go ahead and experiment (and let me know if you find a better one!)

Maindeck

Kothon, the Far-Watcher: It's Kothon, he's pretty much an all-star. Really good with Oathbook and Bracers, kinda lame with Shield. The ultimate is nice but mostly you want his hot body.

Crownwatch Paladin: Everything about this card is perfect for the deck. We have great weapons and units to buff, a bunch of strong buffs to utilize her Aegis, and she comes out early. Play her over Kothon on turn 2 and prioritize her as your main attacker if possible (unless you have a Crow). Sometimes you need to move to the air but with some buffs she's also a great blocker.

Acquisitive Crow: Pretty much the main character of the deck. Berserk is a big deal with all the buffs and the extra spells are pretty nice too. It's basically our version of card draw. Use it as your main attacker over anything else - those 1 cost spells will win the game if you get enough of them.

Jennev Merchant: I tested Winchest Merchant but I like Jennev Merchant better. Winchest would give you more aggression since you can grab Oathbook and Bracers. But the deck is pretty aggressive on it's own and you don't really need to draw any specific threat to win. I found that you usually want to play a merchant to solve a problem so you can win with what you already have, and Jennev is much better for that. The bodies are both good for us but I like Jennev a little better here too. We already have a lot of fliers and enough buffs and tricks to break through on the ground pretty often, so an extra Aegis unit to buff is more valuable than a flier.

Unseen Commando: Definitely an all-star, this card is great in a vacuum but it's even better in this deck. All of our units have at least one battle skill and there are a lot of ways to add another. The lifegain wins games and it can buff your single Oathbook attacker or the whole board. Try to play it on a turn where you can buff one or more attackers.

Valkyrie Enforcer: Another all-star. One of my big reasons for moving away from the more weapons focused builds was to find room for this card. A lot of the time you just want this as a threat but if you suspect Sandstorm Titan be very wary of playing it without backup removal.

Shelterwing Rider: Yet another all-star. Crow is the main character but this is probably the best card from a synergy and power standpoint. Don't forget that you can use Protect on it as a attack buff. You can also use Finest Hour on a 0 attack one to swing and get the Oathbook train rolling.

Permafrost: It's Permafrost. We need our removal to be cheap and remove blockers, and this is the best for that.

Linebreaker's Shield: My favorite card from FOA and one of the best cards in this deck. Usually you want to try to spellcraft it but it's not that big a deal if you can't. It's good out of the market to break permafrost and pull ahead on stalled boards.

Paladin Oathbook: There's a lot to say about how to play with this card and some of it is in the gameplay section. You only want to play it onto an empty board if you have nothing else - it's best to play it then get a buff from it immediately.

Copperhall Bracers: If Crow is the main character of the deck then these are the magical bracers of destiny it got from a wizard to backhand the bad guy. We don't care so much about the ramp, but the spellcraft and +4 attack are right up our alley. The ramp is definitely good but I've found that it's too unreliable to build around so it's the icing on the cake rather than the main reason to play it. When you spellcraft it make sure to swing with everything you can, even if some things will bounce off blockers. A lot of the time people will let it through because they're scared of Finest Hour.

Finest Hour: This deck likes attacking and this card lets us do that more often. Also gives us a way to protect units against Killer and Weapons. Plus you can buff a Crow for 10 damage with berserk.

Protect: Very necessary protection (ha). Used over Unseal because we mostly just want to stop things that kill our best attacker. You can also use it proactively with Shelterwing, or to get another skill for Unseen Commando. You can also use it at the end of the opponents turn so you can spend all your power next turn (but watch out for fast removal).

Vanquish: Pretty standard removal, it's mostly here to deal with Sandstorm Titan. In a pinch you can use it with Finest Hour to remove a smaller unit but that's almost never the right play. It might be better as something else but I think it rounds out the deck nicely. If you see a lot of midrange Time decks in your meta you probably want to swap one Protect for another one of these.

Market

Permafrost: One of the most common things to get, pretty self-explanatory.

Gift of Battle: Berserk is crazy good with everything this deck is trying to do. If you have an open shot with a big unit this is a great thing to grab. It's also good when your opponent is trying to race you and Linebreaker's Shield is too slow. Or if they aren't putting up much of a fight you can grab this to finish them off before they can recover.

Linebreaker's Shield: High utility card that's perfect for the market. One of the main things to grab, try to get this as removal over Permafrost if you can. Also get it if one of your units is frozen, or if you need to pull ahead on a stalled board. The merchant is a great target for this so sometimes it's right to grab it when you have no other units.

Unseal: Very useful against slower decks, basically an extra Protect. Grab this when you have a winning board and/or your opponent isn't play very many units. It's also good to stop key spells like Aid of the Hooru, Haunting Scream and Moment of Creation. This is the market card I'm least confident about and my replacement would be Substitute to deal with Titan. If you're seeing a lot of Time decks that's probably the way to go.

Mirror Image: Pretty much the default thing to get. Between Protect, Gift, Oathbook, Shelterwing, and Enforcer this card can make some really powerful copies. It's also really great when you don't know what you want from the market because you can just clone the merchant. Generally you grab this if you need more board presence. Used to be a Feast-Caller for another threat, but this does something similar but it's faster and has a higher ceiling.

Shoutout to flippyflop for reminding me about this deck I meant to post this it a while ago but I forgot until they started pushing the Crow + Bracers combo.