Hi G-O-C community!
After seeing 
The first challenge was to pick a deck. The obvious first stop was top decks on gudecks.com. Here is the current top-performing deck:
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This is an impressive performance. At the same time, the deck contains 2 Pyramid Wardens, which I don't have. PWs easily account for 5% more wins in decks that have them. Even more in decks like HRD and probably anubians, too. They are anubians, and they also bring back enemy creatures which can often be a benefit for aggro anubians.
The deck also has Sulphuric Rains.
This card is huge for anubians and provides board control and card draw.
One approach would be to take this deck and then sub in cards for those I don't have. However, sulphuric rain is such a card draw machine, and PWs are so good, that it's hard to know if the other card choices are optimal (e.g. looters and bootable corpses, perseverance, etc.)
After some digging, I came across this budget variant, and it's the deck I've been playing / learning with.
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60% win rate is very impressive. I checked match history, and he is usually playing in Mythic, so it's not just getting matched up against newbies. Importantly, I own all the cards in this deck.
This is skipping ahead a bit, but I've learned how critical card draw is for this deck. It's like CDM, but death. Big combo turns win games, and for that, you need a hand full of cards. Without Sulphuric Rain, Max relies on the tried and true:
I say 'tried and true,' but Vrock is anything but standard in anubians. With that said, it does give 2 more cards in hand when played (and killed). It also fits well in an aggressive deck and requires opponents to spend removal.
This is hotly debated. 2x Skull Scepter? 1x of each? Only 1x skull? No scepters? All these configurations have been tried. Importantly, though, note that both decks I posted are using 1 of each. The more I play, the more I think that's the right decision. My gameplay vid against War shows the power of digging for Necroscepter during the mulligan. It's an incredibly power card against aggro. It generates so much value, manages favor, stalls, heals you, etc.
Running 2 relics is also nice given that nearly every meta deck in Mythic is running Eiko. They usually only have 1 card of relic hate, though. It's up to us to manage the sanctum to prevent more.
Against control, Skull Scepter is critical. I beat control nature (requiring >70 damage) based in large part by having skull scepter equipped early and for most of the game.
So the key for relics is that they make the deck modal: you want to find the right relic for the job. The mulligan phase makes it a better shot to find the right one. Necroscepter is never a dead card - even against control. Sometimes, skull scepter will be dead. Playing it against aggro is usually a waste of mana. However, this is a small price and on net, one of each seems right.
It's also borne out by actual results.
This is another hotly-debated decision point. Now that LOTD makes your resurrected anubians soulless, you can't bring them back with the second copy. On the other hand, running only 1x makes it likely you won't see the card in half your games. It may be less than half depending on how much card draw you have in the deck, but still, you'll see it a lot less than running 2x.
I'm currently in the 2x camp - largely because that's what Max is doing, and it's working for him. I'm just learning after all.
Scarab and Vrock draw you a lot of cards, but they also draw your opponents a lot of cards. This is especially dangerous against aggro war/light. I'm using them for now, and the idea is that you draw enough removal to mitigate their extra creatures. You also get your combos put together faster. Aggro War is really strong, but it isn't really combo-based. So on net, with big hands, you should come out on top.
Is it better to use Looter and Lootable Corpse? I don't know. You get fewer cards, but your opponent gets none. Lootable Corpse is 0 threat to your opponent, and Looter isn't anubian nor a big threat.
Starting with hardest hard-counter I can imagine for anubians: board buff aggro light. Not much to say about it other than conceding turn 1 was probably the optimal play. They have gleamweavers, relic hate, and transform. You won't win this matchup too often.
This one highlights why Necroscepter is in the deck. I hard mulliganing for it at the open, found it early, and won the game with it.
We actually were dealt a good opening hand. We had a necromancer, removal, and card draw. On the other hand, Brimstone hurts us, which is not good against aggro war, and we want the necroscepter. Felt great to find it.
We have 3 pips, and we need to use them up quickly to get control of the board and shut aggro war down. Getting necromancer out also sets up necroscepter on the next turn (if no blitzer). Drawing Land of the Dead against aggro feels terrible. Perhaps an argument for only running 1x.
At 2 mana, believe it or not, they lose the game. To be fair, it's not completely over, but with such a slow turn, the advantage shift strongly to me. Necroscepter lets me take control and he never recovers. It's worth pointing out that I go with scepter even though relic hate is in the sanctum. That's because scepter actually helps prevent them from gaining favor.
We have the perfect top deck, but Oddi was dying no matter what.
Cunning? I dont' think so. Untold Greed is also huge letting me refill my hand. I also get to the relic hate in the sanctum first. You'll see me hold my favor the rest of the game rather than draw from sanctum again. This is to prevent relic hate from showing up (and be able to grab it if it does).
A lesson on conserving resources. Ray of Disintegration is a big resource. It can remove anything he drops. Therefore, I don't want to use it if I can remove his creature cleanly another way. He is running White-Fur Guards. I want Ray for those.
Now I have 2 LOTD in hand. Both basically dead cards. Card draw in the deck mitigates that problem, but if one of those was literally any other card, my hand would be stronger. Maybe
There almost no way I can lose this game at this point. ??? figures that out a turn or two later. GG!
I'm going to keep at this a bit for several reasons. It's a really competitive deck that can easily keep me in Mythic. Importantly, it doesn't really care how expensive a deck it faces. Leech from demos and hortuks are challenging, but if are beatable. The deck was also relatively cheap to shine up. Dead Body Guard golds were <$1 for example.
Diamonds are only $4. I might buy a few more golds to mint a diamond. After all, 1x DBG was run even in the expensive anubian deck, so there is definitely a place for it.
Lastly, the deck is a nice change of pace. I can add it to the list of strong budget decks I run.
Just keep clear of aggro light!
