God Power: Orfeo's Distraction
Deck Link: GUDecks
Deck Code: GU_1_2_GCKGCKIAoIAoICnIAlIAlHAEHAEIClIClIAhIAhBEsIDAGBoGBoCEDCEDICvICvBBkBBkCCRCCRCBqCBqICHICHCAJ
This is the Guild Deception Deck I've been tinkering on the past few weeks.
Does decently at Mythic with WR 50-60%. Started this week actually in Diamond, because I forgot to push up to Mythic in time. Finished with 17-25, so it would've been slightly less with a Mythic start.
It's very exhausting to play, because you need to constantly decide between several options on what to play and in what order to slowly inch out advantage.
This results in exhausting and time consuming matches which isn't worth it for the current deck price, win rate and time consumption. That's why I'm looking to find another main deck for WE ranked and play this deck more casually. So I thought it's a good time to post this since I'm not really sure how to improve this deck.
The goal and initial idea was to create a deck around Desert Mercenary's Guild ability:
Guild creatures that synergize with that ability in this deck:
When deciding on which to play between Shady Merchant and Vault Vagabond, I prefer Shady Merchant, because it can generate relics with Blitz to play with immediate board effect on the next turn.
Patient Pickpocket is very good on it's own and can regain Order through The Hollow over and over again.
Stoneskin Poison on it's own can take out 2 Health creatures and bypass Frontline with Order.
If played together with Gorgon Gargoyle on the same turn, Gorgon Gargoyle's effect will activate exactly when Stoneskin Poison's Order fades, sleeping 2 random enemy creatures (if there's 2 or less enemy creatures, the burned creature will definitely be slept). The enemy creature will be sleeping during the opponents turn and thus upon turn end once again take 2 damage from burn. So it's a 2 cards, 3 mana combo for 1 immediately disabled enemy creature, 4 damage and a 3-2 creature for oneself.
The combo works identically with Sleep Dart, only difference is that sleeping a creature will not allow you to bypass it's Frontline. With Sleep Dart it's a 2 cards, 4 mana combo for 1 immediately disabled enemy creature, 6 damage and a 3-2 creature for oneself.
The downsides are that one needs to get both cards on hand and the combo is vulnerable to a 2 damage disrupt.
I'm still not sure if it's worth it to keep this combo.
Svart Basilisk can be exchanged for the more expensive Iron-Tooth Goblin, which will then also benefit from the Guild synergy with Desert Mercenary.
Win conditions:
The deck mainly relies on Desert Mercenary to combo with Guild creatures, Prison Escapee multiplying and outlasting the opponent with card generation from The Hollow, Shady Merchant, and Vault Vagabond to win.
Weaknesses:
This deck is really weak against Overkill and Spells, because Deception creatures have such small amounts of Health.
Additionally it's susceptible to early game aggro and going wide which can snowball into Sanctum draws and too much God damage before being able to recover, since besides Armor Lurker this decks' early game is very weak and the majority of 3 mana creatures require 1 or more turns to set up with Order or Hidden. As for Jinxblade Duelist it'll have 3 Health going into the opponents turn and that's easily removed.
Considering the current meta with Frenzied Aggro War decks running rampant it's no surprise this deck isn't faring too well.
Example match:
Going 2nd, wasn't able to mulligan for Desert Mercenary, but got 233 and the opponent is already going early aggro and wide with 2x 1 mana drops.
Going to play Armor Lurker to look for a 2:1 trade.
Now the decision is between playing Shady Merchant or Prison Escapee with Mana crystal usage. I went with Prison Escapee, because I wanted to get it out early, but even in hindsight I'm not sure if it would've been better to play Shady Merchant to contest the board earlier so the opponent doesn't accumulate too much favor, because the current Sanctum is stacked with two runes.
The opponent played another Brawler and traded with our Armor Lurker.
This time I play Shady Merchant and on turn end a Prison Escapee gets generated.
The opponent played Vanguard Axewoman trading with Prison Escapee and uses his God Power.
Here's why in hindsight I'm not sure if Shady Merchant would've been better.
If the opponent had a 3 mana or 4 mana card my Prison Escapee would've still been able to trade anything with 3 Health resulting in a very similar situation.
I'm going to play Glamoured Gladius (Blitz, 1-3, +1 strengh to random friendly creature), damage 1 creature to 2-1, my Shady Merchant got buffed to 2-3 and finishes off the other one. Use Mana Crystal and play Vault Vagabond.
The opponent got Rune of Fire from the Sanctum for 17 Favor and destroys my ordered Prison Escapee and plays Valka's Captain.
I'm going to trade, go face with Vault Vagabond, which generates Thunder Caller. I play Thunder Caller and Gorgon Gargoyle.
The opponent played Ravenous Chimera, destroyed Vault Vagabond, grabbed Rune of Strength from the Sanctum and attacked Thunder Caller for 2 damage with his hook.
From here on out the plays are pretty straight forward. Only thing to keep in mind here is that Gorgon Gargoyle's effect will activate at the end of the turn, so I don't need to clear the board. (I wasn't fully paying attention to this match, since I was constantly taking screenshots and alt-tabbing. That's why I didn't notice that Sole Survivor could come out on the opponent's 6 mana turn. Would've played Ludia's Deception if I noticed. Luckily it didn't come out.)
In the end it came down to this turn, where I didn't clear the board, because I wasn't really paying attention throughout this match, since I was constantly taking screenshots and alt-tabbing. Sole Survivor came and I wasn't prepared, Gorgon Gargoyle's effect slept it so it wasn't gg yet. I was able to bring the opponent down to 3 Health, but that's it. GG.
Cards image source: GUListCreator
Out of curiosity, have you experimented with Onyx Nightblade given it's another Guild creature with removal baked in? It's a strictly reactionary play, but it can bump a variety of staple creatures in certain themes.
No, because it seemed to niche of a use for me. Off the top of my head I can only think of Onyx Nightblade affecting Marsh Walker, Shadow Scryer, Blind Martyr, Cursed Obelisk and various Deception creatures. The thing is the main matchups in terms of quantity and danger are War, Nature and Magic. Whereas the danger from Magic lies in their spells. That's why Onyx Nightblade seems too niche for me. Additionally the later the game progresses the worse of a card pull it is (which isn't too bad of a trait with this deck's card generation).
But since I'm out of ideas, I might try it out at some point. Thanks for the suggestion!
This deck looks right up my alley, I enjoy playing more methodical decks, as opposed to warrior/nature (budget) ones. Sadly I am still missing many of these cards. I will come back to this later, thank you for your efforts:)
I never played deception before! I might try it soon cz it sounds fun
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