Intro

Guild Deception is an old tribal deck from Trial of the Gods that has seen some fringe play at the start of Divine Order. With the Core Set Refresh, new guild creatures have been added to deception and some cards have become guild. Will the fresh blood in the guild have what it takes to put it on top?

Strategy

Playstyle

The deck is aggressive and tempo-oriented with a low-curve that wants to hit the opponent hard and fast before they can react. It is jammed with guild creatures for the crazy strong guild payoffs in Desert Mercenary and Frumentarii Instigator.

Mercenary discounts your 2 and 3 cost guild creatures to 1 mana leading to a nutty turn where you play several guild creatures and empty your hand. Instigator draws cards for each other guild creature on board including your opponent's, drawing you several cards to refill your hand. These cards form the backbone of the deck and are the reason to run guild deception.

The deck is heavy on Guild creatures for your guild payoffs so consequently, you are light on spells. On the plus side, many of your guild creatures have good utility as removal or draw, so you can manage the lack of spells. On the downside, you don't have many reactive or comeback cards, so if you fall behind on board it is almost impossible to come back.

You have some cards, like Patient Pickpocket, Vault Vagabond, and The Hollow, that generate advantage to refill your hand after you empty your hand with mercenary.

God Power

Always choose Orfeo's Distraction. It is the most versatile god power, you can finish off an opponent's creatures, hide their frontline to attack face, or hide your own creatures. Keep in mind you can't target an opponent's creature after you GP them so think about sequencing first.

Flip and Thievery are too slow to be used in this deck. You don't have the time to dig for cards with Flip or get random cards with Thievery.

Mulligan

Look for cheap creatures to get board control early. Armor Lurker is especially good at trading.
If you have The Hollow in the mull, consider mulling harder for Patient Pickpocket turn 1 into The Hollow turn 2.
If you see Desert Mercenary in the mull, try to mull for other 2/3 cost Guild creatures for the discount. Then save a pip to have mercenary on turn 2 followed by a bunch of guild creatures the next turn.
If you know your opponent is running guild creatures, consider keeping Frumentarii Instigator in the mull so you can draw tons of cards early.

Decklist

GU_1_2_HADHADCCQGAeIAoIAoCDDCDDIClIClCEuCEuCCMCCMBHMIDAGBoGBoCEDCEDICyCEVCEVCCRCCRGBnGBnCAbCERCER

The meta is fresh off the patch and there are dozens of decks being tested. Card choices will change based on what decks become popular.

There are a lot of guild creatures, non-guild creatures, or spells that would go great in the deck so as the meta settles down the best build of guild deception will start to rise. You can consider going harder on more 3 cost guild creatures to high-roll Desert Mercenary and mull for it. Another thing is running more spells so you can better react to your opponent.

There are a couple of cards in this list I'm on the fence about and considering changing for other cards.

• Makeshift Shiv, Dart Maniac, Shadow Paladin, Vault Vagabond, Lokian Disciple, Iron-Tooth Goblin

Card Choices

Guild Creatures

The deck runs a lot of Guild creatures to get value off of your Guild payoffs i.e Desert Mercenary and Frumentarii Instigator.

• Desert Mercenary: 3m 3/3 reduce the cost of your 2/3 cost guild creatures to 1 mana. One of the guild payoffs, it is a super strong effect cheating mana. Discounting a few guild creatures will give you a crazy tempo swing the next turn. You want to run more 3 cost guild creatures to get the most out of mercenary but I feel too many 3 drops are bricky when you don't draw mercenary.
• Frumentarii Instigator: 4m 3/4 draw a creature for each other guild creature on the board. The second and biggest guild payoff. Since your guild creatures are cheap and usually hidden this card regularly draws you 2+ cards and gives you an insane card advantage. This does also draw from your OPPONENT's guild creatures too, so you can draw tons of cards in the mirror.
• Dockside Prowler: Mostly cheap guild filler. Combos well with Uncanny Rogue since you're likely to have this live to attack.
• Iron-Tooth Goblin: Relic removal on a guild body. The guild payoffs edge it out over running counterfeit.
• Orfeo, Champion of Deception: Comes down for free after you play a card. 1/1 Hidden for 1 turn, backline, and deadly means that it usually acts as free removal. Good for getting tempo, removing any threat they play.
• Patient Pickpocket: The best 1 drop for deception. After losing order, you get a random card from your opponent's hand, so you get a good card and info about what is in your opponent's hand. Most early removal spells are 2 mana so your opponent won't usually want to waste their spell on it. The flank can be handy if you buff it.
• Switch Duelist: Got buffed to hidden instead of only hidden for 1 turn so you can hold it back until you need to attack. Hidden 3/1 that switches stats at the end of each turn, so on your opponent's turn, it's a 1/3 and can't get pinged off by their god power. Good for trading up or going face.
• Armor Lurker: One of deception's best 2 drops. 3/1 with 2 armor is effectively a 3/3. You can keep it hidden until you need to attack. It loses the armor after the attack so you can attack into a 2 attack creature and not take damage. After losing hidden, it will still have 1 armor so it won't get pinged off. The hidden combined with armor means this card will almost always 2 for 1 your opponent since they will have to use a removal spell on it or trade a creature after Lurker eats a guy.
• Dart Maniac: It's on the optimistic side getting buffed with deadly by Uncanny Rogue to kill a creature every turn. 1/3 body is weak and the effect is decent. It will usually get run over but maniac can get a surprising amount of value by wearing down your opponent's creatures if it stays alive.
• Jinxblade Duelist: Gains health at the end of each turn if your opponent has a creature. Strong early threat that your opponent will want to take out before it snowballs. It nets health if you hide it every turn since it gains 1 at the end of your turn and another 1 at the end of your opponent's turn. Try not to play it early if your opponent's board is empty since 2hp dies easy.
• Lady Marcella: Lot of stats. The deadly skulkers are great for trading up. The 1/1s can get picked off easily by GP in some matchups but setting them back 2 mana to kill a 1/1 is good for tempo. The afterlife isn't much of an issue since you can deal with them well using GP, shiv, or armor. The skulkers aren't guild currently but they are from Core set and might get changed.
• Shadow Paladin: Got changed from Neutral to Deception and got the Guild tribe. 3m 4/2 hidden is a decent aggressive statline but dies easy.
• Vault Vagabond: Got changed to a 3/3 with the same effect but lost hidden and flank. It dies easier now but 3 strength is a faster clock and trades better when you can't hide it. Copies the top card of your opponent's deck, good for card advantage and knowing what your opponent is going to draw.
• Lokian Disciple: Got changed to a 4/4 hidden, characters damaged by this creature gain sleep. Discount Avatar of Deception with Guild. It does sleep your opponent's god if it hits face so they can't attack or use relic ability.
• Uncanny Rogue: 4/3 body is weak but giving deadly lets you turn your creature into removal especially since you are light on spells in this deck. The statline is bad to play if you have no board.

The Rest of the Deck

There is some room to run a few very strong non-guild cards.

• The Hollow: Amazing value generator. Backline and ward make it hard to kill. It gives order to your creatures to let you reuse order effects and gives you a random Guild creature when a friendly creature loses order. Being an order enabler and payoff in one card is great. The Hollow will win games by itself with the extra creature you get every turn. The guild creatures you get combo well with your payoffs.
• Hunting Trap: Great removal, most creatures have strength equal to greater than health so you usually have good targets, especially in the against nature. Can be dead sometimes against protected and ward when you have to ping it off with your GP then wait until the next turn to use Hunting Trap. The trap is too good at taking down big threats to cut but let's see how the meta turns out.
• Makeshift Shiv: Flexible value card. Can deal up to 5 damage to face over time or help control the board and can gain up to 15 favor. Don't run 2 since you don't want to draw both and have one stuck in hand. Shiv is a good card for flexibility and value but I'm not sure it warrants a slot.

Other Guild Considerations

There are a few other guild creatures with utility I considered running. All of them are 2/3 costs for Mercenary synergy.

• Foreign Diplomat: Decent 2m 2/3 and nets you favor. Another 2 cost creature for Desert Mercenary that's okay on its own.
• Diligent Architect: Delving a structure is good value but I feel it's too slow and you have enough value in the deck.
• Prisoner Escapee: Spawns another Prisoner Escapee when it loses order so you can slowly get infinite value if it lives. The order and effect can be hard for some decks without removal to deal with. But 2 health dies too easily to decks that do have removal.
• Shady Merchant: The 1/3 body is small but it usually gets you at least 1 relic with the hidden for 1 turn. You typically have enough value in the deck to not need merchant.

New Core Set Refresh Guild Creatures

The core set refresh gave deception several new guild creatures. They are mostly focused on hidden rush.

• Ronellan Sparrow: 1m 2/2 with ward and hidden for 1 turn. An upgraded Dockside Prowler. The ward protects it from AOE so you'll like to have it live to the next turn to get it buffed up.
• Ronellan Worldwhisperer: 2m, 2/2 when this creature attacks a god, draw a card. Same stats and a similar effect to Belligerent Warlock which draws after attacking a creature. The 2/2 body with no protection is too weak and unlikely to live and attack the next turn.
• Selfless Guildmate: 1m 1/1 hidden for 1 turn, roar give another one of your guild creatures +3 strength. Dark Knives on legs for another guild creature. The body is tiny but Dark Knives does see play and the guild body gets synergy with the guild payoffs.
• Whisper Baron: 3m 2/3 hidden, gets +1 strength when you summon a guild creature. You get 3/3 hidden vanilla stats after summoning 1 guild creature with potential for more. Guild creatures are pretty cheap so you can buff Baron up a bunch.
• Merrick, Keeper of the Many: 3m 2/3 hidden, after one of your creatures attacks the opponent's god, set this creature's strength to that creature's strength. E.g. You attack the opponent with your buffed 7 strength Shadow Paladin, Merrick will set his strength to 7. This lets you double up on your buff effects by buffing another creature and smacking face then Merrick will effectively gain the buff too by setting his strength. He sets after every face hit so remember to attack with your strongest creature before Merrick.