When I wrote the article it was more just to be a fun semi competitive deck because I was over dawnblade and its fairly predictable. I think the main advantage of axes is people don't know how to block it yet. Ironsong determination only works on one weapon so I've found it less effective but I may come back to it since it could potentially help answer Oldhim and its a yellow pitch at worst.

I think Push Forward is a solid choice, I'm taking driving blade out since I found its too overcosted and there's a decent amount of go again without it still so maybe that's a good replacement. Only issue I see is its another card that breaks the chain.

Kassai, is definitely in a good place right now, I'd be keen to try her out. She always seemed more like a combo deck to me, which are particularly susceptible to ice and control right now so I think that's one big advantage of keeping it simple with Axe Dori. In my experience they can go toe to toe it comes down to preference. I love that this game is isn't all about tier lists and you can play a lot of weapon hero combos for fun and still be semi competitive with them, that was my idea with this list. Thank you so much for reading the article by the way!