Intro

I’ve been running Guild Aggro Deception for a while now, doing daily P&E and weekend ranked with it. It’s a solid A-tier deck, averaging around 70% win rate across the changes. The deck can last longer than Hidden Rush but lacks the punch it has. It’s a jack of all trades master of none kind of deck, being able to handle most situations if you draw the right cards.

You might have seen one version of the deck on TST’s What To Play Over The Weekend.

Decklist

I’ve gone through a couple of versions of the deck, changing a few cards here and there.

V1

V2

V3

V4 (Current)

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This Guild Aggro deck is less aggressive than hidden rush since it doesn’t run as many hidden threats and fewer buffs but it can last through longer games with card draw from Frumentarii Instigator, handle AOE with Reflection Elementalist, and isn’t as reliant on hidden guys.

The deck is finicky since you don’t have many solid standalone cards. Most of the deck is buffs or utility creatures which brick when you don’t have a good opportunity to use them. Cards like Lethargy Mage, Frumentarii Instigator, and Umber Arrow are good when they work, other times you’re just getting an understatted creature or a dead card. Most of your creatures are understatted, so they don’t trade well most of the time, and you have to play crafty to get the most use out of your creatures.

There is no reliable hard removal in the deck relying on deadly creatures or shrinking your opponent’s creature to trade, making a tall or wide board difficult to handle.

The deck has gone through a couple of minor changes, it’s mostly the same though. With the small sample size for each change, I’m not sure how much difference the changes really make.

You have the typical aggro deception stuff, Ronellan Sparrow, Selfless Guildmate, Switch Duelist, Armor Lurker, Stoneskin Poison, Dark Knives, and Makeshift Shiv.

Lady Marcella puts out 5/5 stats for 3 mana, making it a strong early play. The deadly skulkers are strong trading with most creatures and sometimes make up for your lack of hard removal, but being 1/1s they die to a lot of things like armor, relics, pings, AOE, or getting stolen. You can play around the opponent’s skulkers from the afterlife in the same way using Armor Lurker, Makeshift Shiv, god power, Lethargy Mage, or Umber Arrow.

Stoneskin Poison is best used for stalling a big threat your opponent spent a lot of mana on or getting around frontlines. Stoneskin as removal is weak since burn 2 rarely kills then your opponent can trade their creature in later.

Umber Arrow has a lot of use cases, but your opponent won’t always have a target, leaving Umber stuck in your hand. You can 2 for 1 your opponent’s creatures, steal a frontline, keep your opponent’s Anubian out of their void, transform it with Reflection Elementalist, or push in extra damage.

Lethargy Mage gets a lot of mileage in this deck. The mass strength reduction helps a lot against nature with Marsh Walker and Pyreshell Beetle, shrinks creatures for Armor Lurkers to kill, neuters Marcella’s skulkers. On the other hand, if your opponent doesn’t have creatures, you’re getting a highly vulnerable 3/2.

Uncanny Rogue turns one of your small creatures into removal but 3hp dies easy and is bad on an empty board.

Encumbered Looter is mostly guild filler, the hidden 2/1 body can get in some chip damage or trade but by itself it’s small and you sometimes you want a big creature early than draw a card.

Iron-tooth Goblin hits a lot of relics in this meta, big relic war, Lightning Talisman, Necroscepter, Skull Scepter. Nightleaf Trapper could work, 1 mana for -1 durability at the end of turn, being half the mana makes it better when you aren’t worried about relics.

Madame Denholm gives you 1/1s every turn while staying hidden so you get constant value, but she’s on the slow side. 1/1s do little by themselves and jam your board sometimes. You need to use them with Reflection Elementalist or Uncanny Rogue to get a lot out of them.

Frumentarii Instigator is good to draw cards, but it needs guild creatures to stick and drawing cards doesn’t help if you’re too far behind.

Reflection Elementalist is a big 6/8 stats with warded for 5 mana. It helps against removal heavy control decks. You have a good number of small creature and harmful afterlife to transform with it in the deck. It’s pretty bad getting traded against 4/4s and other high statted creatures.

Cuts

I cut Sneaky Bruiser since it competes with Reflection Elementalist for the 5 drop slot and you brick sometimes with 4 5 drops in the deck. It also is worse from behind and the deck doesn’t focus that much on hidden rush.

Assassin’s Aim was cut for much the same reason, not that many targets in the deck leading it to be dead in hand, and the deck isn’t super aggressive.

Nerfs

The latest balance patch has a couple of hits to the deck. Ronellan Sparrow is too low impact in the deck as a 1/1 and is getting the cut. Selfless Guildmate losing hidden means it is unlikely to stick on board and is just a buff spell effectively. Switch Duelist being hidden for 1 turn now doesn’t hurt much since you rarely kept it hidden aside from niche plays. Overall, the deck is less consistent with a weaker early game.

Strategy

You want to save pips a little more often than a typical aggro deck. The extra mana lets you play your utility creatures at more opportune times, and curving out well is better than getting 2 1 drops out on turn 1 and bricking the next turn.

The deck has no hard removal aside from finessing a deadly skulker, so try to keep your opponent’s board clear, prevent a buff from wrecking you and save Stoneskin Poison for big threats.

Be careful when play Lady Marcella. If your opponent removes her, you’ll be facing deadly skulkers which you don’t always have answers for in hand and will need to clear with your GP lest they trade into your guys.

Mulligan

Look for 1/2s drops and proactive cards, Ronellan Sparrow, Switch Duelist, Armor Lurker, or Pyramid Warden. Your buffs and utility cards aren’t useful if you’re too far behind of board.

Playing a hidden guy first before Pyramid Warden early is slightly better since your opponent will have 0 guys to target then 2 guys to target, whereas playing Warden first will give them 1 guy always. E.g. Against Control Magic, playing Armor Lurker first means your opponent can’t use removal and then your opponent has to choose between Lurker or Warden, whereas Warden first gives the chance to soften up Warden and not float mana.

Counters

The deck loses to the usual aggro counters.

Your creatures are small so AOEs usually clears your board, Shaped Blast kills over half your deck. Try not to overextend around the turns your opponent can play AOE, like 5 mana for Shaped Blast, or 7 mana for Unbound Flames. Reflection Elementalist helps if you have a creature stick around by the time you draw it.

Healing can buy your opponent enough time to clear your board and stabilize. You invest a lot into getting your opponent low, but 1 Return to Cave or Serris will set you back.

Frontlines force your small creatures into trading unfavorable and setting you back unless you have Stoneskin or can afford the tempo loss from hiding it with your GP.

Gameplay

0:00 Card Draw Magic

Typical aggro deception open. Lethargy Mage lets me get good trades. A good draw and my opponent fumbling leads to a quick concede.

3:51 Control Nature

Nothing a good matchup. Lots of removal from my opponent leaves my resources scarce and drawing dead cards doesn’t help. Another Underbrush Boar and I’m running on fumes. More dead cards and I’m out of the game.

10:42 Control Light

Eucos in Eclipse into a Valka’s Discovery wipes my board twice and I’m stuck with utility cards in hand. Trying to climb back on the board, order slows me down, then a Demogorgon knocks out any hope.

17:12 Portal Wrangler Clone Magic

I go second and it’s too slow against a naturally drawn combo on turn 4.

21:38 Aggro Nature

Some back and forth fighting for board control early. Fearing a Sudden Bloom I try to clear the board. Arguably, I should use Reflection Elementalist to transform the 2/2 burnt Shieldmaiden instead and take the risk with the 2/5 burnt Pyramid Warden. And after I should use the Umber Arrow and try trading the Bladeflies. From there, it’s just clean up.

30:44 Heirloom Death

Might have been better to play Looter first and trade instead of playing Lurker to trade and force the GP. The opponent has a slow hand and doesn’t apply any pressure. My board is clogged with 1/1s and I fumble the Umber Arrow trade, giving them back the Priestess of Takhat. My opponent has a weak Land of the Dead, then I clear off the last of their hp.

40:04 Control Magic

I play guys, my opponent plays removal. Reflection Elementalist transforms my Marcella into a warded threat. Uncanny Rogue lets my 1/1 trade for Stormstress. I take the Rune of Sight to use up my mana and not overextend into an expected Shaped Blast. They clear my board and I follow up with guild guys to draw cards. They’re scared of buffs and use Unbound Flames to clear my board. The extra draws give me Reflection Elementalist and Ronellan Sparrow, which stick around for lethal.