Intro

Hidden Rush Deception is a fast and aggressive deck. It uses hidden creatures and tricky spells to make smart trades early on, gaining control of the board. Later, it keeps your creatures safe by hiding them and uses powerful buffs to finish off your opponent. This deck can be tough for some opponents to deal with.

I've been playing Hidden Rush Deception for about a year, grinding it out in weekend ranked and daily P2E matches. I'm proud to say that the latest decklist I've been using boasts an impressive 70% win rate across more than 300 games.

God Power

The deck almost always chooses Orfeo's Distraction. It is one of the best god powers as it is extremely flexible. You can use it to finish off your opponent's creatures, hide a frontline to get around it, or hide your creatures to prevent them from being targeted. Just remember that once you use your god power on an opponent's creature, you can't target it anymore, so think through your actions carefully.

However, against Control Nature you deviate and choose Thievery. Orfeo's Distraction isn't effective here and Thievery can get creatures to go wide with and make your opponent's removal worse. There are some standout cards in this situation, like Curious Wisp, which provides a recurring threat in longer games, and Chiron, useful for removing Blazing Talisman. One strategy is to stack your hand with creatures using Thievery and then flood the board in one go, overwhelming your opponent. (credit: Nackarub).

Flip is always too slow to use.

Decklist

https://gudecks.com/decks/GU_1_2_BDuBDuBEXBEXBGVBGVBGeKCuPAgCCQCCQCCmCCmCDDCDDCEPCEPCEcCEcCEwCEwGCEGCEIAkIAkIAlIAlIClIClICy?godPowers=101308&creator=henchman&userId=366222&archetype=Hidden%20Rush%20Deception
GU_1_2_CCmCCmCCQCCQBGVBGVGCEGCEIAlIAlCDDCDDIClIClCEPCEPBEXBEXCEwCEwICyIAkIAkBGePAgCEcCEcKCuBDuBDu

The creatures in this deck can be grouped roughly into three categories: there are those with aggressive stats, great for hitting your opponent's face (e.g., Shadow of Lethenon and Shade Walker); creatures that excel at trading (such as Armor Lurker and Pyramid Warden); and creatures with extra utility (like Pietro and Eiko).

The spells in the deck are divided between buffs and disruption. Buffs like Dark Knives and Assassin's Aim are fantastic for dealing tons of damage. You can attack with a buffed creature, hide it, and then attack again next turn, knowing your opponent can't target it. These spells are your key to closing out games. On the other side, disruption spells like Stoneskin Poison, Umber Arrow, and Surprise Delivery can be game-changers in the right situations, but they can also be dead draws outside of them.

This deck is built to favour aggro matchups. Hidden Rush has the flexibility to adapt to different situations, so feel free to make changes based on your preference or the current meta.

Shadow of Lethenon: Shadow of Lethenon is one of the most frustrating creatures in the game for your opponent. It gains hidden at the end of your turn, making it immune to targeting by your opponent. This forces them to rely on non-targeting spells to remove it. Buffing it with Dark Knives can lead to swift victories. If you draw Shadow of Lethenon early, it can steadily chip away at your opponent's health. However, be careful when facing decks with easy removal options like Savage Strike, Eucos in Eclipse, Tracking Bolt, most Nature spells, or Contract Broker.

Switch Duelist: It switches stats at the end of each turn, so it's a 3/1 on your turn and a 1/3 on your opponent's turn and can't get pinged off by their god power. It's a great early creature to push damage or trade up. Dark Knives buffing it gives it extra health on your opponent's turn making it difficult for Magic to deal with.

Needle-Fang Chameleon: Chameleon is a solid hidden 1-drop to fill the curve. Its 2 strength and Burn 1 let it trade with 3 health creatures while having 2 health lets you use Assassin's Aim on it.

Armor Lurker: Armor Lurker is one of the best 2-drops. It's a 3/1 with 2 armour, which makes it like a 3/3. It is permanently hidden, so you can keep it hidden until you want to attack. After it attacks, it loses 1 armour, so it's not easily taken out. It often gets 2-for-1 value by trading with 2 armor then your opponent has to use removal or trade another creature to deal with it.

Pyramid Warden: Pyramid Warden has huge stats early to make trades and use frontline to protect your smaller creatures. It gets worse as the game goes on since the opponent will have an easier time dealing with it and the afterlife becomes a bigger liability. The afterlife usually doesn't hurt since you're likely to end the game before the creature they get back matters much, other times if you are unlucky it can lose you the game. The opponent can get value by trading a blitz creature like Vanguard Axewoman and getting it back to trade again.

It is a a strong buff target because of its high health, putting two buffs on PW can win games by itself, but using only one buff to race is iffy since you are stuck committing two mana every turn to hide it which means you will fall behind on board.

It is great against Magic since it soaks damage spells and plays around Shaped Blast. War can be mixed since they can make good trades on it. Light has answers to it with Light's Levy and Thaeric Extortionist but buffing Warden prevents that.

Lady Marcella: Lady Marcella is a solid early play, offering strong 5/5 stats for just 3 mana. Her deadly skulkers are great at trading with most creatures, which helps when you lack hard removal. The afterlife isn't a lot of trouble since you can handle the skulkers better than your opponent using cards like Makeshift Shiv, Armor Lurker, Feral Shapeshifter, Umber Arrow, or Orfeo's Distraction. Umber Arrow is especially good at getting a big trade with the skulker.

She is great when you are ahead and can make good use of the skulkers against creature-based decks like Aggro War or Light that use creatures as removal or don't have much removal. However, she struggles against removal or if you are behind since she can't make full use of the skulkers and is weak to AOE. The 1/1 skulkers can be easily dealt with by things like armour, relics, pings, small creatures, or AOE spells.

Shade Walker: Permanently hidden and grows in strength. It is typically your finisher, often attacking the opponent and hiding it with your god power, racking up 11 damage most of the time. Occasionally, you may choose to keep it back and allow it to grow. The self-buff can provide a little extra damage over 4/4 creatures but its 3 health is noticeably weaker, especially against cards like Shaped Blast.

Avatar of Deception: A good hidden 4/4 body with the utility to confuse and sleep a random enemy creature. The effectiveness ranges from useless on an empty board to game-winning when stunning a creature that could have killed you.

Feral Shapeshifter: Another hidden 4/4 with useful utility. The ping is super useful to remove protected on a creature or finish one off.

Pietro, Merry Bandit: Pietro lets you hide your whole board without damaging them while developing creatures. You can attack face and set up lethal without worrying about your creatures being targeted or make a value trade and have your guy trade up the next turn. However, most creatures summoned by Pietro have 1 health so he is very weak to AOE. Sometimes Lupine Fanatic pops up and clears your board.

Eiko, Undaunted Duelist: Eiko is a tricky creature. Sometimes, she can beat aggressive decks and control light on her own if you can keep her on the board. However, she only has 2 health and protected, which isn't great against an established board. Also, she's easily taken out by common removal spells like Savage Strike, Blight Bomb, and Perseverance.

Her ability to damage creatures without attacking is useful for clearing threats without taking damage. Another interesting thing is that using her ability doesn't unhide her, allowing her to remain hidden permanently if paired with Pietro, although this rarely happens. Plus, she's good at getting rid of relics like Blazing Talisman, Lightning Talisman, Aegis of the Innocent, Lysander's Spear, and Necroscepter.

Dark Knives: Big strength buff, great for burst damage. You can buff, attack, then hide your creature and attack again next turn knowing your opponent can't target your creature. If you're desperate, you can use it to trade up. It doesn't remove health making it usable on your 1-health creatures, unlike Assassin's Aim.

Assassin's Aim: Gives +3/-1 to your creature and gives them hidden at the end of the turn. Similar to using Dark Knives and Orfeo's Distraction on your creature. Keep in mind you don't kill your creature with it's -1 health. I usually use it on the 4 drops to deal tons of damage then hide them. It's usually a bad keep early as it doesn't have good targets early aside from Pyramid Warden.

A typical play line is to hide the opponent's frontline with your god power, use Aim on your 4-drop then attack face, and on the following turn use your god power to hide the frontline again to attack for lethal with your 4-drop.

Stoneskin Poison: Stoneskin Poison is best used to stall a big threat your opponent has or get around a frontline. Stoneskin as removal is okay since Burn 2 only kills small creatures and anything larger sticks around. Generally, be conservative with it as it is your only removal spell and your best way to get around a frontline without having to commit 2 mana to hide it every turn. Sometimes you will need to play it on a 1/2 drop for tempo early if your hand is bad.

Umber Arrow: Umber Arrow has a lot of use cases, but your opponent won’t always have a target, leaving Umber stuck in your hand, so it is a high variance card. You can 2-for-1 your opponent’s creatures, get around a frontline, steal a beneficial afterlife, keep your opponent’s Anubian out of their void, pop protected, or push in extra damage.

Surprise Delivery: This card gives your opponent 3 barrels, which gums up their board and can stop them from playing more creatures if they go wide. At 3 mana for 6 face damage that goes through ward and partially through protected is a good rate but the barrels can be slow sometimes. It got moderately worse with Ember Oni stopping all or half of the damage with leech.

Surprise Delivery is typically used later as a finisher as it is a low-tempo play falling behind on board. It mostly gives you something to spend your mana on after you hide a big guy and don't want to play into a board wipe. Even if you lock up your opponent's board, you are not progressing your game plan if you are not putting the pressure on to back it up.

Makeshift Shiv: An incredibly flexible relic, the Swiss army knife for deception. It can deal up to 5 damage over time, help control the board, remove protected, and gain up to 15 favour getting you a sanctum card. Two shivs can brick sometimes, but I often find myself wanting to top deck it to pop protected more often than I draw both and have one dead, also relic removal like Eiko has been popular.

Cut

Some cards I didn't run either I couldn't find the room or didn't like them. The general trend is they are too situational and I didn't want too many situational cards in my deck. I also didn't want to replace my shiny cards.

Nightleaf Trapper: This card is only valuable if you need to remove relics, as its 2/2 stats are not very strong otherwise.

Encumbered Looter: With its 2/1 statline, this card feels underwhelming for 2-mana, even though it can replace itself by drawing another card.

Merrick, Keeper of the Many: Merrick's ability to set his strength to the last creature that attacked your opponent can be game-winning but also needs a lot of setup. You can get double use out of your buffs by buffing another creature and attacking face giving Merrick that creature's buffed strength too. I find him bricky and unreliable since he needs another creature and a buff to be worthwhile. He could be worth switching the second shiv out for in a meta without as much face protection. Also having two creatures that both die to Shaped Blast is bad.

The curve usually plays Merrick on 3, 4-drop on 4, buff the 4-drop and swing with both, then hide the 4-drop. Another line is 4-drop on 4, then on the next turn play Merrick, and use Aim on the 4-drop and attack face. Outside of those lines, he is underwhelming to mid. Also, he doesn't play that well with Shadow of Lethenon (low attack) or Eiko (doesn't attack). I rarely wanted to see him in my hand.

Lethal Prowler: While it works like a persistent attack buff, granting one of your creatures +5 strength, its high mana cost makes it awkward to fit into the deck's low-curve strategy. Playing Prowler often leaves your other creature exposed to removal, leaving Prowler useless the next turn.

Reflection Elementalist: Its usefulness is highly meta dependent, 6/8 warded stats are huge against control decks but 3/4s trade terribly against common 4/4 creatures.

Heads of Tails: It gets blocked by ward, and I find Surprise Delivery to be more versatile.

Mulligan

The mulligan is highly important. Sometimes, it's more valuable to keep playable cards rather than risking a poor draw. Bricking can be a concern when you get stuck with dead spells instead of playable creatures. When going first, you want aggressive creatures to apply pressure or creatures that trade well to establish board control. Conversely, when going second, look for reactive cards so you can deal with enemy creatures and hidden creatures so your opponent can't value trade. In the aggro matchup, being aggressive early generally doesn't usually work out since they can outrace you.

Switch Duelist, Needle-Fang Chameleon, Armor Lurker, Pyramid Warden, and Makeshift Shiv, are all good general keeps. Shadow of Lethenon is matchup-dependent, if they have AOE then I don't want multiple, it's almost completely dead against Nature, and doesn't trade well making it bad for board control. Marcella is bad against removal-heavy decks; she is a lot better if you have Shiv, Umber, or Feral in hand.

The 4-drops are usually thrown away since you are likely to see one anyway by turn 4 and don't want multiples in hand. Eiko is a must-keep versus Control Light and Control Nature. Feral is keepable if you have Marcella and are going second against Aggro.

The buffs aren't great early, they are better used as fast damage later as finishers but there are times to keep them like two buffs and Pyramid Warden, Switch Duelist and Dark Knives against Magic, or Shadow of Lethenon and Dark Knives if the opponent doesn't have an answer.

I typically mull Stoneskin since it usually isn't good early except if my opponent has Pyramid Warden who is a pain to deal with. Umber Arrow depends on how many early targets they have, you usually don't keep it outside of Aggro Light or Anubian Death. Delivery is usually too much of a tempo loss early to keep, could be useful against Zombies to lock up their board but it might be too slow without creatures to back it up.

Strategy

The emphasis of this deck is tempo: get board control early with your creatures, use your spells to set your opponent back, and keep pressing your advantage. The deck adapts well to what you're facing. Against aggro decks, you can grind them out of cards and win through value or against control decks, use your hidden creatures to rush them down.

It is hard to pilot, a lot of the experience is knowing when to play for tempo or value, transitioning between them, and starting going face to close the game out. The deck takes some getting used to since you have no reliable removal and inconsistent damage. An important part of the deck is getting multiple uses from your buffs by hiding the buffed creature letting it survive to attack multiple times.

It has a low mana curve and the god power isn't a good mana sink, as in not good when you are in a top deck war unlike Slayer which can close out games or Summon Acolyte which summons guys, so you run out of gas quickly. You want to end games quickly because you will run out of cards. Try to win before 7 mana, a ton of board wipes and stabilizers happen at 7 mana, Demogorgon, Ember Oni, Lysander's Mercy, Apocalypse Now, or Unbound Flames. Often you have to play for the win instead of delaying a loss by putting lethal on board to force them to have the answer or lose since the deck doesn't do well playing conservatively.

Watch your life total and know what kind of reach your opponent has, having cards in hand doesn't mean anything if you're dead. You have to count for lethal, sometimes the deck gets there by inches. Often, I trade off 1 guy so I don't die and jam face with the rest so that Knives/Aim/Umber is lethal next turn.

The deck usually can't go only face and rush them down from 30-0 against aggro outside of a nut draw like two Knives with Shadow of Lethenon or two buffs on Pyramid Warden. It's like running a race, if you start sprinting at the beginning, you are going to run out of gas before you finish. The opponent could have removed your hidden creatures, outraced you, or set up a wall of frontlines. Generally, against aggro, you play for board early and make good value trades until you wear them down to 15 or less where hiding a big guy can finish it.

Curve

In general, you want to be mana efficient and spend most to all of it each turn. This deck wants to save a pip more often than a typical aggro deck. The extra mana lets you play your utility creatures at more opportune times, and having a well-planned curve is better than rushing out two 1-drops on turn 1 and then struggling on the next turn. Some example curves going first are two 1-drops into Pyramid Warden, 1-2-pip 4, 1-2-pip two 2s, or 1-1-pip 4 if your hand is bad. Going second gives you a lot more leeway with 3 pips. The other time you might want a pip is on turn 5 when you can play a 4-drop and hide a creature.

Generally, you want to use your mana to play cards and get ahead on board instead of taking the slow route. Using your god power early if it isn't the best play is a bad idea, as it slows you down by spending 2 mana early and potentially putting you behind on board.

Sanctum

Pay attention to the sanctum, frontlines, healing, and Valka's Discovery can get in your way so take them to deny your opponent or don't take anything from the sanctum unless needed so they don't show up. I like to wait on taking cards from the sanctum so I have more information but be wary of cards that can gain favour like Blessed cards.

The sanctum also has a few ways to deal extra damage like Rune of Fire or Rune of Strength. Rune of Sight can find the card you need for lethal. Bronze Servant and Nightleaf Trapper can get rid of relics.

You can read this article by Hpain to learn how to make full use of the sanctum.

Counters

Your creatures are on the smaller side, making them vulnerable to area-of-effect (AOE) spells that can clear your board. It's important to be aware of the AOE spells your opponent might have to deal with your hidden creatures. For example, if you suspect your opponent has Shaped Blast, it's a good idea to hold back Shade Walker to prevent it from immediately dying. Instead, you can play a 4-health creature that can survive or use Surprise Delivery. Avoid overextending your board when you anticipate AOE spells, such as when your opponent has 5 mana for Shaped Blast or 7 mana for Unbound Flames. Sleep effects can also slow down your strategy.

Familiarize yourself with the potential answers your opponent's deck may have for your hidden creatures. Here are some common ones:

• Neutral: Demogorgon, Ember Oni
• Death: Siren of the Grave, Canopic Hoarder, Neferu Champion of Death, Ragnarok, Sulphuric Rain, Bifurcating Curse
• Deception: Contract Broker, Witherfingers, Golden Curse, Elixir of the Panther, Toast to Peace, Rapture Dance
• Light: Eucos in Eclipse, Lips are Sealed, Lysander's Mercy
• Magic: Lightning Talisman, Stormstress, Tracking Bolt, Shaped Blast, Unbound Flames
• Nature: Selena's Mark, Blazing Talisman, Underbrush Boar, Canopy Barrage, Lightning Strike, Wildfire, Fir Tree's Fury, The Hunt, Enchanted Vines
• War: Lykaios Adherent, Savage Strike, Sole Survivor

Healing can buy your opponent enough time to get a board wipe and stabilize. You invest a lot into getting your opponent low, but a Unexpected Gift or Serris can set you back enough to turn the game.

Frontlines can force you to trade on your opponent's terms leading to bad trades and setting you back unless you have Stoneskin or can afford the tempo loss from hiding it with your god power. They also can prevent you from being able to attack for lethal but Umber, Stoneskin, and god power can get around them.

Conclusion

Hidden Rush Deception is a great aggro deck that has an adaptable strategy and a high skill ceiling. It relies on clever use of hidden creatures, buffs, and disruption spells to gain early board control and push for quick victories. While it can be a challenging deck to pilot due to its lack of reliable removal and inconsistent damage output, it rewards skilled players who can make the right decisions at crucial moments.

Video

Here is a video of some of my games from daily play to earn.

0:00 Aggro Light
Our first match is against our very own kstreet. This game shows the ability of the deck to gain board early and take control of the match. Going first with two Wardens, Lurker, and Shiv let me take favourable trades and prevent them from keeping any creatures on board and playing buffs on them.

4:09 Control War
You need to prevent War from getting wide on board since Grand Hall will give their creatures leech and stop you from being able to race. I lead with Warden expecting an opposing Warden. Warden wars where one Warden summons the other and vice versa is bad for you since you want to be as fast as possible and trading creatures into Wardens slows you down a lot - not developing board or getting in damage. My hand isn't great with two buffs and a Chameleon but the game doesn't favour me in the long run so I have to jam my buffs and hope they don't have Savage Strike - RIP Chameleon. Martyr into Martyr gives me a lot of frontlines I need to chew through. I get them low enough for the barrels to finish them off but they have the Grand Hall and I'm out of gas.

10:42 Hidden Rush Deception
Going second in the mirror is rough, it is 80% up to the mulligan and who can race faster. They hid my Warden which slowed them down a bit. Valka's Discovery is in the sanctum and I can't deny it since I went second, maybe I should have held the second Shadow of Lethenon but my opponent needs to hide my Warden to get the favour and playing Discovery will take most of their mana. Delivery gets them low and I take the Wild Aurochs from the sanctum to prevent them from having two frontlines to prevent lethal. My opponent hides my Warden hoping I don't have lethal. I have 6 cards to topdeck for lethal (Knives, Aim, Umber) but I don't find them and I die to my own Warden.

19:22 Control Magic
Control Magic is a pretty bad matchup since they have a lot of removal, ramp to play the removal quickly, and foresee to find them. Aim is a little weird to keep but it helps getting in 10 damage early before most removal is live, using it later usually gets hit AOE after one attack. Playing Avatar into an expected Shaped Blast is an aggressive line, I could have hidden Shade and played Warden, but this line gets in 4 damage from Avatar while I can refill the board with Warden and Marcella to keep applying pressure. I choose to play Delivery before Ember Oni can be played and not overextend, which can get me lethal if they can't remove my board. They heal a bit but the second Delivery is too much for them.

25:48 Aggro War
Aggro War is what I see most often on the ladder. Going second I want reactive cards, I mull away the dead cards. Two Stoneskins in hand isn't great but it is usable. Shiv helps a lot with board early, I attack with it now because I want to ping off the Trial Spirit next turn and I might want to Shiv something else. I use Stoneskin the Valka's Captain for tempo and to save my Duelist. A 4-drop on curve is just what I want to see. I clear the board since I can't outrace them from here and Warden protects the rest of my board. Imp damages them enough where the Rune of Strength from the sanctum and topdeck Aim or Knives is lethal.