Like everyone else, I’ve been banging my head against the Ranked ladder for the past two weeks. Like everyone else, I’ve been trying to answer the current it question of the format:

How do you beat Time while having a reasonable matchup against everyone else?

Unlike most others, I’ve been spending all of my time (and over 400 games) brewing my favourite archetype in Eternal.

JPS Merchant Control. Control isn’t dead!

(Eternal Warcry link here)

The numbers do look fairly janky (and it is indeed 76 cards), but I’m fairly happy with where the deck is at the moment. Let’s break it down.

Jennev Merchant

Everyone probably already knows how ridiculously strong the Merchants are. In my mind, the Market feels the strongest in this style of deck. Having the luxury to swap in useful cards while swapping out useless ones allows me to play a variety silver bullets – not just in the Market, but also in the maindeck.

Primal generally lacks game-winning offensive silver bullets – most of the prime Market targets in Primal tend to be defensive cards. Thankfully, that suits our purposes just fine.

To sweeten the deal, Jenny herself is a pretty good brawler. Aegis actually allows her to get in for a fair amount of damage after the board is stabilised, which tends to accelerate your victory. She also acts as a great chump-blocker that can save you five or so damage, and thus another turn to draw into a removal spell.

The Market

Most of these cards are fairly self-explanatory. In this style of control deck, Channel on turn 8 or 9 is how you turn the corner against more aggressive decks – hence, one copy goes into the Market. Crest of Cunning is there to help you get to 8 power when you’re stuck on 6 or 7. Black-Sky Harbinger is a source of recurring lifegain against Aggro decks, as well as another boardclear against Praxis Tokens. Vision of Austerity is there to beat annoying relics. I’ll get to that one a bit later.

Wisdom of the Elders might seem a bit loose, but too often have I found myself stuck on turn 5-6 with no power in hand, no Channel, and no cantrips to draw into more gas. Having Wisdom in the Market allows you to “bridge” your way to the later turns by playing a value Merchant that nets you a card.

Why no Hailstorm in the Market? In the situations where you desperately want Hailstorm (ie. against Aggro, or facing down a turn 2 Teacher of Humility), having to Merchant for it is way too slow. I like having 4 copies maindeck to shore up the Aggro/tokens matchups, and throw them away in matchups where I don’t want them. Besides, Hailstorm is a card that can randomly be useful – to remove Aegis, to stack with Auric Runehammer to kill a big unit, to remove that stray Valkyrie Enforcer.

Maindeck Choices

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Why the hell am I playing 2 copies of Vision of Austerity in my maindeck?

This card is just straight up awesome right now. It stops Xenan Obelisk. It stops Disciplinary Weights from Teacher of Humility. It stops the Flamestoker, Citywide Ban, and Azindel’s Gift in the opponent’s Market that they pull specifically to beat you. You can even play it for value against Armory/FJS Midrange when they Auric Runehammer you on turn 4.

When I was playing with only one copy in the Market, I always found myself wanting more copies. I grew a pair, put 2 in the maindeck, and never looked back. With where the metagame is right now, play with this card. It’s worth it.

Nothing else in the maindeck is particularly controversial, so I’ll rattle them off quick.

2 Auric Runehammer, 1 Duelist’s Blade, 1 Sword of the Sky King

Other than Channel the Tempest, these are your primary ways to win the game. I was playing the classic 2 Duelist’s Blade/1 Sword package, but I always felt like I wanted the another weapon to generate value against non-Time Midrange decks, and I arrived at this configuration with Auric Runehammer. Now might be the best time in a long time to play Auric Runehammer, since the number of Hooru Pacifiers and Shelterwing Riders is at at all time low. Need I also mention the Runehammer swallows Sheriff Marley whole?

The Last Word is a possible inclusion, but I’ve never felt like I needed it. Feel free to put it in as training wheels if you’re not used to play a Unitless Control deck, but you don’t actually need The Last Word to win games.

4 Cull the Deck, 3 Strategize, 3 Wisdom of the Elders, 11 Crests

This is how you dig for your cards you want. Having an excuse to play 11 Crests is really sweet, since I feel like I have so much control over my draws. Having the new Cull the Deck is also an amazing inclusion, since it digs so deep. I initially played with 4 Cull/4 Strategize, but it felt like too many, so I cut one copy of the weaker Strategize.

As an aside – having Strategize, Cull the Deck, Crests, and Jennev Merchant makes it so much easier to play conditional things like 2 Vision of Austerity maindeck, since they allow you so many ways to get the bad cards out of your hand for good cards.

4 Harsh Rule, 4 Hailstorm

I already explained why I want 4 Hailstorm. 4 Harsh Rule is an obvious inclusion as well. I experimented with running an additional End of the Story, but there simply isn’t enough space in the deck. Besides, you often play Harsh Rule against a single threat – I personally would rather play one more spot removal spell than a 6 mana card that often does the same thing. That being said, feel free to experiment with including 1 or 2 copies of End of the Story.

Another possible inclusion is Stray into Shadow to beat Dawnwalkers. While nice to have, I haven’t found this extremely necessary as of yet.

2 Permafrost, 2 Eilyn’s Choice, 3 Slay, 3 Deathstrike, 3 Feeding Time

The core of the deck – its removal package. The numbers do seem a little odd, and it is possible they require more fine-tuning.

I wanted some number of Permafrost against Time decks, as it swallows Worldbearer Behemoth whole, and it is also a 1-cost answer on the draw against a Turn 2 Teacher of Humility, or any 2-drop from an Aggro deck. However, they do poorly against certain units, like Alhed Mount Breaker, Thundering Kerasaur, or Icaria. Hence, only 2.

I want 3 Feeding Time against Dawnwalkers and the random Inquisitor Makto deck, as well as Dark Return decks. 3 Deathstrike is a concession to Icaria and other Charge minions.

The 2 Eilyn’s Choice is yet another concession to Icaria that isn’t dead against Time or Aggro decks, and can randomly counter an Obliterate or Channel the Tempest. Just an all around flexible card that I don’t mind having.

Why only 3 Slay? Because I already have 10 other spot removal spells, and 8 boardclears.

3 Levitate, 2 Vara’s Favor

I wanted 5 ways to break Aegis for Icaria. It’s possible that the 3rd Levitate should be cut to bring the deck down to 75, but I just can’t bear to do it at the moment.

Matchups

Against any form of Time Midrange, you are favored. Plan your mana well, get 2-for-1s with Harsh Rule, kill Thundering Kerasaurs, and after you Channel a big threat on 8, you should be doing fine. The only way things get dicey is in the following situations:

Getting hit by Teacher of Humility – Do not panic, you can win through Disciplinary Weights. When you are certain you are going to get hit by a Teacher, play a Crest and attempt to Scout to a power/cheap card to the top. Eventually, you’ll draw a Vision of Austerity and free yourself from the Weights.

Opponent draws and plays 2 early Dawnwalkers – Feeding Time them if you can. If you can’t, use Permafrost as a stopgap measure and avoid using Harsh Rule. The last option is to Hailstorm liberally to stop Dawnwalker damage. There isn’t a real way to beat Dawnwalker other than Feeding Time – I experimented with maindeck Bring Downs, but they felt too poor. If you’re sick of getting killed by Dawnwalkers, 2 Stray into Shadow maindeck is your answer.

Against Aggro decks like Tokens, Stonescar, or Skycrag, Hailstorm is the answer. Manage power well, and attempt to dig to them using Crests and the cantrips. The turn 3 Jenny isn’t bad as well, as the Aegis body is hard to remove. These matchups aren’t great, but if your opponent stumbles you have a shot.

Against Feln, save Levitates, Vara’s Favor, and Cobalt Waystones, as you’re going to need them. Auric Runehammer is an all-star against Jotun-Feastcaller. Lastly, take note of the opposing Merchant – if you see the Shadow Kerendon Merchant, you need to get a Vision of Austerity by turn 7 for Azindel’s Gift. If not, you have to save a Merchant for it. If you see a Jennev Merchant, you’re eventually going to face down Scourge of Frosthome. If they play it, the game is basically over – try to set up and protect a Sword of the Sky King before then.

The most interesting matchups are against FJS decks. In these matchups, Harsh Rules don’t tend to be that great. Vision of Austerity is very good at locking down their weapons like Auric Runehammer and Starsteel Daisho, but try and save one for the eventual Flamestoker you’re going to see from their Ixtun Merchant. This matchup is all about assembling Levitate and Deathstrike/Eilyn’s Choice by turn 7 for Icaria. If you can fade the first Icaria without taking damage, you’re going to be in good shape, as current FJS lists run units like Rizahn, which you can easily beat with your endless stream of removal, even with +5/+5 on them.

Against Rakano Midrange/Valkyries, Auric Runehammer does ridiculously good work. The main things are to assemble Levitate and Deathstrike/Eilyn’s Choice by turn 7 for Icaria, and to survive to that point. Do not be afraid to Hailstorm a single Bulletshape or Icaria, Valkyrie Captain – allowing the deck to ramp is how you lose.

If there are any other matchups you want to know more about, let me know and I am happy to include them in. I’m having a lot of fun playing this deck, and I hope you do too.

Thanks for reading!