Starting Wednesday, $GODS will no longer be part of the WR event and instead will be earned daily by playing. Well, I was going to attempt a full weekend run in celebration of this being the last event where one win in mythic was the optimal strategy. I got a third of the way there going 4/6. Got busy with real life this weekend (all good things) and won't have time to finish. I could probably get a few more games in, but I'd rather get 3 rare packs and (finally/hopefully!) get some Unbound Flames!

Deck

Code:
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The same basic guild deck I've been running for a long time now, but the last change I made to it has been the addition of Rapture Dance. The aggro meta cooled off to the point where I was consistently making it to 6+ mana even if behind. At that point, nothing turns the tide against nature or light like Rapture Dance.

Strategy

This deck has a chance against any deck as far as I can tell. I never feel like I've lost already at the loading screen. I've also played this deck enough to change my mulligan priority by opponent, and while I don't bother to lookup decks, right now the meta is fixed to the point where you can tell what you are playing based on God + God Power. Death takes Blood Ritual? Hope you like Anubians.

Uncanny Rogue works so well with this kit. All of our hidden and echo creatures make excellent targets. Taking out a Guild Enforcer with a 2/1 deadly Beguiling Blade is just fantastic.

For the same reason, Frumentari Instigator is huge for us. An aggro deck with strong card draw: scary. I've really enjoyed Shakedown as well. I never keep it in the mulligan, but it is trivial for this deck to satisfy the requirements and draw 2 cards for 2 mana. This large amount of card draw + plus our various tool/tech cards means we usually either have the answer or can coble one together to get out of a sticky situation.

Anubians

Umber Arrow and/or Counterfeit are what we want to see in the mulligan. An Armor Lurker as the third would be excellent. Snag a Priestess if you can. Grab the scepter, too. This increases your chance of winning by a wide margin. If you can reduce Priestess strength, you can Bound her.

Otherwise, play your normal aggression game until 5 mana. At that point, the strategy changes. Anubians need something big/bulkly like a Guild Enforcer on the board to beat you. They want to resurrect blitzers and priestess/necromancer and then ram the blitzers into the GE. Knowing this, the strategy to beat them is pretty simple: don't play anything you can't hide. You can play a Guild Enforcer at 5 mana (or 5.5 if they can't pip into LotD), but you have to commit to hiding it next turn. Armor Lurkers/Switch Duelists/Bruisers all stay hidden until you're ready, so you can play them, too.

If you are try-harding and looking at their deck, check for Bifurcating Curse. If they have it, don't play too many odd or even cards together. I always assume they have it (not peeking remember?) and play accordingly. In multiple games, I could feel their frustration build. They won't dare play Land of the Dead against our hidden creatures. We might have umber/rapture or other nasty surprises for them. My guess is that anyone playing Anubians is likely deck-peeking, too. It works against them. We may not even have the answers, but they see it in our deck list.

We can usually just attack and then hide a Bruiser or Guild Enforcer each turn until we win.

Zombies

They've seen a resurgence lately. (A reanimation?) But we love to see zombies. Steal an Obelisk. Steal a Scepter. They concede. Even if not, our strength steal clogs their board with useless 0/1 and 0/2 creatures. They have zero answers to our large, hidden threats. We can usually handle a few Decaying Rhinos before 6 mana with trades or surprise deadly creatures. At 6-7 mana, zombie decks these days (including my own) start dropping Vampiric Skulls and Overseers. Rapture is the answer.

Control Magic

It's rare you'll get to counterfeit their 1x lightning talisman. Probably worth holding Counterfeit in the mulligan for the chance, though. Otherwise, this is just a classic aggro-vs-control matchup. I don't think we're favored, but it feels close to 50/50 to me. These are my least favorite games because they drag out. Sneaky Bruiser played on curve is big, because Shaped Blast can't kill it. Played late, it's going to get killed by Unbound Flames. Not even worth playing it unless you just want to draw out the card.

Deception Mirror

These days deception isn't playing as much strength steal. Sucks to be them (as you'll see in the gameplay vid). If they get off the Pyramid Warden + Assassin's Aim combo in the first two turns we probably lose. Otherwise, we usually win with this deck. Rapture lets us handle late game hidden threats. Strength steal is excellent against all their creatures (notably switch duelist).

Aggro Light/Magic/War

These all play basically the same if they are running creature-based decks. Our deck is designed to dominate these decks. The more they are in the meta, the better we should do.

Relic OTK war is a coinflip. If they draw the nuts and kill you on turn 4, just tip your hat and move on to the next game. Hope to draw Counterfeit. Hold any Guild Enforcers you draw. Play them only when you're in OTK range. I don't think it's possible for them to do 30 in a single turn. Best case scenario you stall them, they buff their relic, then you can counterfeit it. You're going all-out aggro in the meantime, so they are definitely on the clock.

Control Light isn't too bad. They can't order what they can't see (except lips). You can umber their Embalmer or reduce it's strength and bind it. Your switch duelist is getting Light's Levied, so I don't usually buff it. As with any control matchup: you've got to go face fast.

Gameplay

A mirror match!

I'm a little annoyed we didn't draw a Beguiling Blade. These kill Switch Duelists even when they are hidden. Instead, we have to wait for them to attack first like simpletons.

We win the game by forcing them to spend their turn using the Rapture Dance they stole from us knowing we have 2 Armor Lurkers ready to finish the game. I can't think any card they could have had in their hand to stop it given the cards we had in our hand. Maybe I'm just missing something obvious, but I was playing like it was game over.

I will say: I do miss playing Barrels + Rapture Dance. Fun times.

Conclusion

Aggro deception is one of the top meta decks right now for a reason. I don't enjoy playing against it.