Intro
I finally decided to pull the trigger and pick up Lady Marcella. Sold my second Tekhat (won her two weeks in a row) plus a couple bucks worth of ETH. I've been running a variant of this deck, but she was the missing piece.
The Deck
(a beautiful curve)
Deck Code:
GU_1_2_GCEGCECCmCCmCDDCDDIAoIAoBEXBEXBEsCBhCBhCCMCCMIClIClIDACEDCEDIAkIAkICyCERCERHBcICHICHCAJCAJ
Strategy
Aggression combined with lots of options for hard removal. The Poisoned Dagger might be a little too memey (makeshift shiv probably better for competitive play), but this deck is full of surprise deadly - the best kind of deadly.
Mulligan and First Turn
So many great options it's hard to pick. You're looking either to combo two 1 mana drops on your first turn or drop a solid 2 mana card. Priority order for each mana slot:
1 Mana:
- Patient Pickpocket
- Switch Duelist
- Shadow of Lethenon
2 Mana:
- The Hollow
- Skeleton Heavy
- Pyramid Warden
- Armor Lurker
You'll routinely find yourself with both options. E.g. A pyramid warden plus 2 1 drops. Go with the 2 1 drops. The only exception is The Hollow against creature-heavy gods like Nature/War/Light. Played turn one, the only real threat is from 2 Viking Axewomen.
Removal Spells
Sleep Dart is great early game, but falls off quickly, so we're only running 1. Hunting Trap just gets better and better as the game progresses, so we've got 2. I'm currently of the opinion that Rapture Dance is an auto-include in any Deception deck, but there are two specific reasons for it in this deck:
- Deadly and single-target removal can get overrun by lots of small creatures.
- We are running super-fun barrels!
Barrels by themselves are beautiful for an aggro deck. 6 damage for 3 mana. Yes, please. They do double duty for us by preventing swarms of small creatures. They also have a nice synergy with Marcella: if their board is full, they don't get deadly skulkers.
And of course: they go boom with Rapture Dance. This combo is great when it goes off, but don't hold on to your barrels trying to pull it off. Both cards are excellent on their own.
Deadly
Lady Marcella is a solid card. Two deadly 1/1s. When she dies, your opponent gets 2.
IMPORTANT: If you kill Lady Marcella on your turn (e.g. trading her), the opponent's skulkers will be able to attack you on their next turn. If they kill the Lady on their turn, the skulkers sleep. I'm not saying never trade, but it makes a big difference.
Your GP will take care of one of the skulkers. Odds are you can find a way to deal with the other.
Uncanny Rogue is everything you could want in this deck. You're behind on the board, but have a creature. Now it gets deadly letting Rogue guarantee an excellent trade. Armor is a problem for 1/1 creatures with deadly. Giving deadly to a patiently hiding Armor Lurker is a great play.
Also, armor is the sole reason for bringing Poisoned Dagger.
Feels Good:
Cats
These two cards can win games. However. Treat the cats like the 1 drops they are. Don't over-invest. They make excellent targets for Uncanny Rogue, so use them. If you get the combo off and can get a few hits great. There are plenty of board clears, random damage spells, etc. that will kill them. In other words, they aren't the core win condition for this deck.
Why no Fae?
A great card no doubt. Just a little slow for this deck. We aren't running a ton of order, so in most games you pay 5 mana for 3 damage and then maybe 4 mana for 3 damage and the creature. Obviously, if The Hollow is established, that changes, but that's a low probability. Could swap it in for the dagger or maybe Sleep Dart if you wanted to give it a try.
Closing Thoughts
Remember that you're an aggro deck. You want to be pushing face. You're not looking to make trades where both creatures die unless you absolutely have to. Your removal spells are there to fight for board while your creatures go face. With enough pressure on the opponent's god, they are forced to make the even trades on their turn. That's what you want.
Joy is having 6 barrels on the opponent's board. Nirvana would be rapturing them for lethal.
Sources:
https://gu-list-creator.vercel.app/
https://gudecks.com