Merrick Was Bought, Merrick Was Sold
For the last WR, I bought Merrick. After WR, I sold it with 0.3 GODS profit π
When I bought him, I was overwhelmed with the idea of combining Merrick with buffed Whisper Barons. I imagined having a huge double hit that takes half the health of the opponent's god. Almost a button that makes you win π
But practically:
- these cards must meet first
- Secondly, Whisper Baron must be buffed by playing Guild cards and this takes time
- And the last point is that you must take control of the board first and only, then, you can usually afford to hit the opponent's god with the strongest creature.
These three requirements are sufficient to eliminate most of potential power of Merrick. In real life, Merrick too often jumps into the game, plays, and dies as a 3-mana creature with only 2 strength which is unable to stop even some of 1-mana creatures. 5 points altogether like the broccoli:
The deck I played at the beginning:
Removing Merrick makes the deck stronger. Lady Marcella is under question. She is sometimes nice. I chose to have two Prison Escapees instead of them.
After playing Merrick and feeling literally pain π... I realized that, if you need to make your deck more aggro, you better add 1 or 2 Dark Knives. I tried this and I played with Selfless Guildmates too. For me, it didn't work: the extreme strength doesn't help you to control the board.
Whisper Barons + My Own Youtube Place
I started in Mythic and got only 11/25 on the last WR. This week, I will be climbing back to Mythic again.
By the way, this is all my fault:
- The deck must be ready - WR is not the time for tests
- Losing a game or two just because you need a warm up after not playing for a while is not a good way either.
As the result, 1 DO Epic as the reward + "What a mortal!" pack for "fanatic" 30 wins on weekend. π
I had much fun with Whisper Barons during this marathon. As proof, I am sharing my gameplay video that I have on Youtube, and, by the way, this is news. Since yesterday, I have a Youtube place to upload my GU gameplays. π A sort of channel. π I don't intend to become a Youtube superstar but I think having a neat place there is a good idea.
In the video, you can see this nice combo Whisper Baron + Prison Escapee. When you play Prison Escapee, Whisper Baron gets +1 strength. Every time Escapee makes a copy, Whisper Baron gets +1 strength.
And this combo raises the share price of Order Deception archetype: Whisper Barons can benefit from neighboring Ring of the Siren, Prisoner Exchange, and especially The Hollow with its order ability and the army of Guild creatures.
And, yes, Whisper Barons helps you to control the board. Because within a Guild deck with 10-15 Guild creatures, they work as 3-mana creatures with, let's say, 5 strength (on the average) and chances to raise this power to 10 or higher.
Frumentarii Instigator
Nevertheless, my opinion about Merrick can be too raw. For example, I needed a while to discover the full scale of the value of Frumentarii Instigator. I knew it was a useful card for a Guild Deception. But today I'll say Frumentarii Instigator is gorgeous!
For example, look what happens when Frumentarii Instigator meets Desert Mercenary in a Guild deck:
The opponent had no chance.
These were my impressions. Let's see what next WR will open, let's see how the new upcoming set will change Guild Deception.
I would be glad to connect with people on Youtube - here.
Regards,
@x-rain
For the title image I used a photo of lightning from Pexels.Com. I created showcases with gu-list-creator.vercel.app.
I tried a Guild Rush deck this week too, and couldn't get it to get past 50%. Desert Merc feels bad when you don't have any 2-3 mana guild dudes in your hand. Vault Vagabond seems out of place here, I'd definitely go for the 4/2 Hidden instead. Prison Escapee while cool when you can pull off the combo seems quite slow for an Aggro deck. Good luck!
Desert Merc -- 3/3 is bad, agree.
Too many weak Deception creatures. Lack of 1 health here and there, as a result, Deception creatures too often die because of all sorts of spells and overkill.
I hope the new set will improve it, at least, I see an attempt there.
Vault Vagabond -- You are right. I tried to substitute Ludia's Dedicant with a creature that fits Merc Roar.
4/2 Hidden -- 2 health is a catastrophe, I believe. If you must trade, 3-mana Paladin can be traded for 1-mana Vanguard Axewoman. Streetslinkers are better, they are the backline but ... not Guild.
Prison Escapee -- slow and 2 health, as always - one ping and an arrow of a 1-mana creature -- dead. But... if you can't ping, he can be a curse.
Thank you for stopping by and advice... This WR, I will play Death. I need to have a break from Guild and Deception :)
I feel like Merrick might be playable in certain variations of Hidden Rush since it could potentially be a hard hitter with Dark Knives/Assassin's Aim, but probably doesn't do too well in Order Deception since too many factors need to come together to make it work. The Instigator and Mercenary combo looks good, but I always wonder how often they get to combo together π€
The Instigator and Mercenary combo looks good, but I always wonder how often they get to combo together
To make Guild synergy happens oftener, I tried this unusual deck:
30 creatures, 24 of them work with Merc' Roar, and all of them work with Instigator. I was inspired by the advice of @meltysquid but I went as far as possible - no spells and relics :) Because Uncanny Rogue's poison opens frontlines and Shady Merchants bring relics. Uncanny Rogue + Dart Maniac together are a killing machine...
The strategy - a sudden Guild mob coming in 1-2 ways.
An interesting idea. From time to time, it works as an avalanche, impressive and fun. Maybe, if I master my playing skills, it can work not bad... But I couldn't play it enough efficient. And I was just tired to keep experimenting. Need a break from Deception.
By the way, a small creature Ronellan Worldwhisperer is a very nice part of this mob. Opponents don't pay attention to this small bird when they see Jinxes and Barons, when they trying to stop them ... Meanwhile, Ronellan Worldwhisperer is making her amazing work.
Maybe, with new cards from the new set, things will work enough well for getting nice results in Mythic WR.
Nice deck, looks like a big high roll deck banking on Desert Mercenary and Frumentarii Instigator.
Desert Mercenary, Frumentarii Instigator, and Whisper Baron. + Opponents don't understand what to wait from this deck.
Interesting seeing Desert Mercenary run with fewer 3 drop guilds, most of the time I've seen Desert Mercenary the deck was jammed with 3 drop guilds.
Maybe I should try it. 90% 2, 3-mana guilds in the deck...
If your trying to make Merrick work, I'd reccommend Running both Selfless Guildmate and Darkknives. It makes it easy to set Merrick to 6-9 attack. I also run assasins aim and regularly have him swinging for 12. Backstreet bouncer can also put a rune of strenth to hand, so i run him in my merrick guild deck too for 4 buffs :D
Its a meme, but its a strong one haha
Fun fact, I OTKed a BWD deck with it. Merrick and shadow pally in play. selfless x2, dark knife and assasins aim on the pally. It was freaking awesome swinging for 32 damage out of nowhere
Backstreet Bouncers -- I have two of them in my humble Genesis collection. I tried to use them (and other relic/rune "hunters") for supplying Back-Alley Vendors but ... I gave up the idea.
Backstreet bouncer can also put a rune of strenth to hand --- Deception needs its own Choralis Rune Moth. I, as a Deception fan, envy the most about this card. π
Dark knives/Selfless Guildmate/assasins aim - I tried to combine them but I couldn't make too many wins although some of them were epic. But much depends on your skills, play style and cards you have, of course.
Currently, I like using Whisper Barons because they, in some way, have Dark Knives included into them in case you play many Guild creatures.
I am experimenting with a deck with 28 Guild creatures. So potentially one of my Whisper Barons can get strength 29 π But this is only potentially π
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