Now that daily play is approaching, I want to start looking into a series of almost F2P decks that can help rank up to Mythic and get those first wins of the day in.
We had people sharing cheap decks that work and it helped me a lot to get started at the time, but I feel it got lost in the way and barely no one is doing it now, as far as I know, so I want to do my best to return the favor.
The Deck
I have been playing a Deception deck for 5 weeks now, using it from Solar Gold to Mythic and playing WR always in Mythic with it, making it cheaper, but still competitive.
My results for the past 5 weeks, vary between 8 and 12 wins during WR, some machups are really bad others are really good, but I would say that this deck should get you 9 wins as is and at least 7 with some changes that I will mention below, to make it even cheaper.
That can translate in about +10 GODS (~$5 as of today) and 8-10 packs (Core and Mortal Judgement).
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The main idea with this deck is STEAL EVERYTHING YOU CAN! Keep the board clear and generate cards with God Power using Thievery, to get to mana 6 safe and sound and drop Ekrileth with 8/9 cards in hand to make a 8/8 or 9/9 dragon with ward and control the game from there on.
The way I play this deck will vary a lot depending if going first or second and which God I am facing, I will go trough different scenarios.
Going First
If I go first against Nature, Light, Magic and Deception.
Hollow, Patient Pickpocket and Armor Lurker are keepers,
If I am facing Death or War I go for Counterfeit,
If I know it is relic war, most of the war machups, nowadays, using god power slayer are, I get frontlines, so I keep Inconspicuous Carriage.
But again each match is different and ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION to the God Power your opponent picks, it will help you a lot making decisions during mulligan.
For example Death and War, if instead of Blood Ritual (Death) and Slayer (War) I see Soul Burn (Death) and Enrage (War), I will want to keep Bound by Her Will.
Going Second
If we are going second and facing Agro Light, Agro Nature or Deception we want to keep
Armor Lurker and Stoneskin Poison,
And either umber arrow or bound by her will,
If you are facing Death or War nothing changes go for counterfeit if you can,
If you know your opponent is playing relic war, going second doesn't make much of a difference so keep the same strategy, knowing that hollow might not survive if they have creatures with blitz in hand, so might not be worth keeping it and going for a second frontline or keep a Cutthroat Insight might be a better option.
If you can identify your opponent is playing a mid/control deck, play as if you would go first, more often than not your hollow survives or can suck a bunch of spells and creatures in to destroy it, so even if you don't get value from generating cards you are stalling to get to mana 6 safely.
GAME ON!
From here you are going to start reacting a lot to what your opponent plays and what you can generate, either from Hollow or Thievery.
ALWAYS KEEP COUNT OF HOW MANY CARDS YOU HAVE IN HAND!
You don't want to mill yourself, better to lose Hollow than Witherfingers or Cutthroat Insight 😄.
My strategy is keeping my opponent away from my health points the better I can and only go for his when there are no treats in the board, WE ARE PLAYING THE LONG GAME HERE
(unless is dralamar, then you want to rush it 😅).
I try to save my pip (bag) the most I can, as I might need for an early rapture dance or whiterfingers.
Or if playing a mirror match steal deception, pip on mana 4 to mana 5 to play a cutthroat, hoping to steal a Cutthroat Insight from your opponent.
REASONING ON SOME KEY CARDS AND TIPS WHEN TO USE THEM
Currently the meta has a great number of players going with Heirloom decks and Control Light decks, to fight the winning conditions of those decks, I like to use Gleamweaver to obliterate those key cards from their void, so they can't bring them back.
Heirloom Death > Priestess of Takhat and Raving Necromancer.
Control Light > Radiant Embalmer and Inescapable Duty.
I either play it early at mana 2/3 to get armor lurker an advantage of killing something with 3 strenght without dying (e.g. panther-nature), or later against something like a guild enforcer or any other creature with 3 strength to steal it, combining it with bound by her will.
I look for 2 things in here,
First, what my opponent really needs, for example if I am playing against Relic War and Heirloom Death, I don't care about something that helps me win, instead I would rather take their win condition and drag the game to fatigue if needed so.
For War might be a relic or Unrestrained Power.
For death might be a Priestess of Takhat or Land of the Dead.
Second, I look for something that might help me win, remember to always take your time and check all cards your opponent has, will help you decide if you should rush his face or prepare for what he will play next.
Whiterfingers is such a great card, similar to a Demogorgon (but a lot cheaper 😄) is a great card to get you a breather while giving burn and probably clear a bit your opponent board, you want to save it for when your opponent has something in the board, but in case you need to start giving damage don't hesitate on using it.
Be in the lookout for the sanctum and make sure that Valka's Discovery is not at your opponent reach, as it will remove sleep from all creatures.
One of the cards that people don't expect to see, make sure you have 7 cards in your hand before you play Quicksilver to activate blitz and like Whiterfingers, if you need to play it with a clear board do it.
Besides having blitz, Quicksilver doesn't die right away to spells like Hunting trap and will take some damage before it gets killed.
Charm is your "third Cutthroat Insight", but more than that can be your winning condition.
This one is a keeper until the right time or in an emergency, emergency being in case you don't have lethal and need to clear the board, instead of using the creature to deal damage to your opponent.
Good examples of when to use Charm are right after my opponent drops one of the following, most likely stealing one of the creatures below will grant you the victory.
Make it cheaper or F2P!
There are cards that can be easily replaced for cheaper versions or even free (from the core set), reducing the price of this deck by more than half.
First thing, the current price of this set, taking out the core cards is ~0.01eth less than $20 today.
Below I will add next to the card to remove cheaper/free options,
For cards in your hand, Unlikely Pact is a nice one, Ludia's is great, Vault Vagabound for me is even better, the problem is to keep those in the board time enough to get value out of them, I like to play those behind a frontline like Guild Enforcer or Ekrileth.
City Planner is great in a lot of machups, but I prefer Cyclops in this trade, mostly because of Magic (Unbound flames) and Deception (Hunting Trap) can easy clear City planner.
For a while before buying Charm I used to play Anti-Magic Expert, not sure what is best, but for sure Anti-Magic is cheaper, at mana 8, 7/6 stats are not much, but more often than not at this point in the game, when you play it same way as Charm you want to use a big creature from your opponent to win the game, you don't really care that much if Anti-Magic sticks on the board or not.
If anyone has ideas on how to improve this deck I would love to hear it in the comments.