All these cards are super fun to play with, and quite pushed for a standard environment. Improbable Alliance obviously draws huge parallels to Bitterblossom, and can play as a better version of the card in the right deck, potentially netting 2 tokens per turn cycle with no life cost. Irencrag Pyromancer's double Lightning Bolt every turn cycle has some serious power behind it, and can control the board on its lonesome if left unanswered, or grind out your opponents lifetotal shockingly quickly. The Royal Scions curve out perfectly from Alliance and provide a steady stream of tokens and cards that lets the walker protect itself and threaten to end the game with their ultimate, providing a good distraction and lots of value in the process. Scions is the most slept on card in ELD imo, and 6 loyalty the turn its played is very very strong for a 3 Mana walker. Looting every turn or pressuring with pumped faerie tokens are both powerful effects, and well worth the cost of the card. It also allows us to play 3-4 copies fearlessy, just because of how easily you can loot away extra copies if you aren't in danger of having it removed. Together I think these can form the core of a grindy UR deck that can play both the aggressor and defender. The Arclight Phoenix plan is an easy include here, as it embodies everything we're already trying to do, and functions as one of several routes to victory to help resilience and consistency. The deck already wants to be discarding cards a lot with things like Thrill of Possibility and The Royal Scions, so having something you feel good discarding is a real boon. The list also naturally wants plenty of cheap/reusable draw spells like Opt, Haggle, and Radical Idea, so it has no issues animating the Bird. Arclight Phoenix can act as both a closer after a grindy start, or be powered out early as a plan A. The deck almost feels like it builds itself, and has performed admirably so far in my testing.
All these cards are super fun to play with, and quite pushed for a standard environment. Improbable Alliance obviously draws huge parallels to Bitterblossom, and can play as a better version of the card in the right deck, potentially netting 2 tokens per turn cycle with no life cost. Irencrag Pyromancer's double Lightning Bolt every turn cycle has some serious power behind it, and can control the board on its lonesome if left unanswered, or grind out your opponents lifetotal shockingly quickly. The Royal Scions curve out perfectly from Alliance and provide a steady stream of tokens and cards that lets the walker protect itself and threaten to end the game with their ultimate, providing a good distraction and lots of value in the process. Scions is the most slept on card in ELD imo, and 6 loyalty the turn its played is very very strong for a 3 Mana walker. Looting every turn or pressuring with pumped faerie tokens are both powerful effects, and well worth the cost of the card. It also allows us to play 3-4 copies fearlessy, just because of how easily you can loot away extra copies if you aren't in danger of having it removed. Together I think these can form the core of a grindy UR deck that can play both the aggressor and defender. The Arclight Phoenix plan is an easy include here, as it embodies everything we're already trying to do, and functions as one of several routes to victory to help resilience and consistency. The deck already wants to be discarding cards a lot with things like Thrill of Possibility and The Royal Scions, so having something you feel good discarding is a real boon. The list also naturally wants plenty of cheap/reusable draw spells like Opt, Haggle, and Radical Idea, so it has no issues animating the Bird. Arclight Phoenix can act as both a closer after a grindy start, or be powered out early as a plan A. The deck almost feels like it builds itself, and has performed admirably so far in my testing.
Here's what I'm currently working with on MTGO;
4 Arclight Phoenix
4 Irencrag Pyromancer
2 Crackling Drake
2 Merchant of the Vale
1 Brazen Borrower
4 Shock
4 Opt
4 Radical Idea
4 Thrill of Possibility
Sorcery (3)
3 Lava Coil
4 Improbable Alliance
Planeswalker (3)
3 The Royal Scions
Land (21)
6 Island
6 Mountain
4 Fabled Passage
4 Steam Vents
1 Castle Embereth
The standard cardpool isnt my forte, but cards like Flame Sweep, Fry, Narset, Parter of Veils, Mystical Dispute, Disdainful Stroke, Aether Gust, Brazen Borrower, Negate, and more have been finding their way in and out of my board. Seems quite strong. Not sure how the meta will shake out, but i've been having success against various Rakdos Aggro, Adventure, and Oko Lists.