Cairn Wanderer casual deck. The knight sub-theme sprung up unintentionally when I saw that Haakon, Stromgald Scourge is a perfect fit for the deck, and that there are very few changelings with good keyword abilities for Cairn Wanderer to copy.
The deck ended up being more focused on the Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
+
Mesmeric Orb
interaction. Quickly mill cards from my deck until I get Haakon, and then play everything from the graveyard and wreak havoc.
Early on in building the deck, I had problems when I drew Haakon, Stromgald Scourge because I was unable to play him. I looked around the web for targeted discard spells that were practical. When I found Cabal Therapy, I thought it was perfect because it only costs 1 and can be cast from the graveyard when I mill it. Then I noticed that my deck was over $100 and I took it out. Smallpox will have to do for now. Mercenary Knight helps get Haakon out of my hand as well. Now it hardly matters, because with Mesmeric Orb I mill so quickly and recklessly that I will get a Haakon in the grave regardless of what's in my hand.
Mirri the Cursed was in the deck for a while, but she stuck out like a sore thumb and I replaced her with Gurmag Swiftwing. It is basically the same thing for the purpose of this deck, except the bat is a lower mana cost. They are both obviously there to give as many keywords as possible; Cairn Wanderer
+
Gurmag Swiftwing
is deadly, and Cairn Wanderer
+
Gurmag Swiftwing
+
Nameless Inversion
even more so. Especially if he has fear.
Nameless Inversion can also work as spot removal, especially with Haakon.
As time passed, I was just putting more and more Mesmeric Orbs into the deck since they fit it so perfectly and work so well. It also makes milling my opponents a viable secondary win condition, because I can do a mass suicide late game on the Altar of Dementia and mill about 10-20 cards from their deck every turn. Once the Orb comes out, I have about 7 turns before my deck is depleted and I die, assuming it is not destroyed.
I wish I would have bought some more Mesmeric Orbs when they were $1.50... they were at that price for YEARS, until recently, likely due to the emergence of Delve. It's seen a 300% price increase, and it's still going up.
