A new take on a tribe I liked to play during SOI and EMN standards.
Hazoret the Fervent is a very good new curve topper for the deck, and the addition of
Bloodrage Brawler
also enables more punch at the 2 CMC slot. Also, having Hazoret in the deck makes going heavy on discard theme is ok :)
Stromkirk Occultist
is the all-star here. A card that should not be the first to eat removal because less threatening to life points than all the other threats, but granting card advantage while keeping hand size low. Yes, your cards will often get exiled, but does it matter ?
Olivia, Mobilized for War has interesting interactions with Hazoret (give it counter and vampire type for
Stromkirk Condemned
) and with Brawler (gives it haste, a counter, vampire type, and if you have only 1 card in hand when you play the Brawler, you can choose to resolve Olivia's trigger first so you have a 5/4 haste for 1R and only one discard). In the 3 CMC spot, she fights with Drana, Liberator of Malakir and
Bloodhall Priest
though, so the count might go down a bit.
I haven't done any testing against the 2 ogres of Standard. I expect a bad matchup against Mardu vehicles (so I may add more Lightning Axe or Fatal Push if I get the budget in the mainboard), and an okay one against Saheeli (Hazoret and Lightning Axe protect against the combo and a lot of presence on the board need answers before it goes out of control and under Saheeli - but you need nut draws)
And I mean, there are obvious budget/flex slots (
Alms of the Vein
and Tormenting Voice should be taken out) so I'll work on these first. I think first tests will be swapping Voices for Brawlers, until I get my hands on some Fatal Push (but really, a 5 uncommon is really the proof WotC can't/doesn't want to handle printings and secondary market properly so I'm a bit turned off)
