Parts scavenged from Asmadi's death inspired a new direction:
I knew I wanted an Elvish Reclaimer, so that I could grab whatever land I needed whenever. With Asmadi being torn apart, I got access to some of his goodies, such as the much superior mana base. Frontier Guide was the worst piece of ramp in the deck, so out it goes.
I've been desiring faster starts and Curse of Opulence gives me that; I've seen players die due to being targeted by this early on as people just continually farm them. Slap this on a Control deck and that could be the death of them. I decided to shave away draw for this, getting rid of theoretically my weakest draw piece of Outpost Siege; however,
Vivien's Arkbow is in contention as it is sometimes hard to justify pitching a card for a random Creature.
Counterspells are less of a problem for Thar as of late; it's kill. They save their counters to protect their wincons, so instead people just wait for an opportune time to Spot Remove or Wrath him away. This is why I have made a Ramp increase; both to get him out faster and get him out again. Spellbreaker goes for Wood Elves.
Packleader actually doesn't draw that many cards, so I cut it for another Ramp piece in the form of the Hydra. I like the Hydra because its' Reach protects me on defence and its large size makes it great for
Skarrg, the Rage Pits,
Kessig Wolf Run or
Rogue's Passage to get in or to be sacrificed to
Fling. There have been numerous 7/7 and 8/8 Creatures in the meta as of late, Thar can't profitably Block them. With the Hydra's ability to fetch any land, I can get a draw, protection, life gain, evasion or ramp.
I've noticed that I've been shy on Red when I wanted it a few times, hence a lot of axes applied to Forests over Mountains. This deck has left its nonbasic punishing early days, so I'm putting in lands that Wood Elves or others can fetch. Nykthos, I'm trying out, because while I do not think it'll be there to make huge amounts of mana, it should help me squeeze out costly Creatures. Hopefully, this will leave me with mana remaining open to protect them with the deck's numerous instants.