Deception, a God with such a wicked playstyle. Ludia's domain specializes in staying hidden, stealing, copying, and using the opponent's tricks against themselves. Deception's fighting style is extremely flexible, and each game is really different from one another.
In this article, I will go through some of the best options for Deception as a F2P player. Feel free to comment below your personal choices. I'd be glad to view your opinions and that would be extremely helpful towards newer players, regarding their deckbuilding phase.
Let's go, shall we?
1 mana
1. Switch Duelist ($1.54) The design of Switch Duelist is quite cool. It becomes stronger when it's your opponent's turn and hits harder when it's your turn. The card costs only 1 mana, and you pretty much can't remove a hidden unit at 3 strengths. Also, Switch Duelist is the most played 1-mana Deception card, and people usually run 2 copies of it in their deck.
2. Stoneskin Poison ($0.14) Stoneskin Poison is the most popular 1-mana DO card from the God of Deception. It disrupts an enemy creature and most likely will kill it. The card is a hard counter to aggro War decks for sure.
3. Dark Knives ($1.37) Plus 3 strength is a lot for a 1-mana card. Moreover, Deception has a lot of synergies with Hidden, so the card goes really well with the domain in general. The flank also comes in handy in a few situations, especially against Magic frontline structures.
4. Patient Pickpocket ($0.11) This one has the ability to tilt your opponents so hard. Imagine copying legendary cards from your opp's hand and using it against them. Oh boy! I would be mad, would you?
5. Makeshift Shiv ($0.34) A cool relic to have in your deck. You get 5 attacks with just a 1-mana card. We're talking value here. You can use the Shiv to trade with small creatures, break Protected, or simply to farm some favors. The Godblitz and Flank are just icing on the cake. Even Auros would approve this Shiv.
2 mana
1. Hunting Trap ($7.66) Okay, so the card costs over $7 but trust me, it's gonna be so worth it! Imagine insta-killing Celestial Stag, Brazen Moose, and even Giant Pangolin with a 2-mana card. It's just SOOO good!
2. Armor Lurker ($0.62) Armor Lurker is another value card. You can use it to trade with small creatures for free, you can go face with its 3 damage, or you can combo it up in decks like Hidden Rush. With 2 armor and hidden, the lurker is almost impossible to kill in the early stage of the game. People seem to have realized the potential of the card, as it's the 5th most popular Deception card with a rather decent win rate in Mythic.
3. Umber Arrow ($0.38) Ember Arrow is a key card for a lot of Deception decks. By stealing a creature from your opponent that can attack immediately, the card has a strong board control factor that not many other 2-mana cards can achieve.
4. Assassin's Aim ($0.36) Just like an assassin, this card makes a creature significantly stronger, while giving it protection behind the Hidden ability. Keep in mind that the +3/-1 is a modification and the -1 is not damage. Therefore, don't use it on Armor Lurker, please!
3 mana
1. Ludia's Dedicant ($0.11) The design of Ludia's Dedicant is in line with Miraculous Familiar or Celestial Stag. It's really an RNG-based card with Blessed and the Copying aspect. If you get something nice, then, it's nice. If you don't, at least you still get a card, maybe some Favor from Blessed and that is still okay coming from a 3-mana card.
2. Jinxblade Duelist ($0.35) The duelist is a threat the moment it is played on the board. It's an engine that most likely grows after each player's turn and can become a pain in the ass after just a few turns. It's the most played 3-mana card from Deception on Mythic, and that proves just how strong/problematic it is.
4 mana and above
1. Uncanny Rogue ($0.63) Playing against Deception, you never know what will happen to your creatures as there are too many surprise factors from the domain. Uncanny Rogue is a card that could easily make your 20/20 creature vanish into thin air. By buffing a creature deadly, it can kill everything with just 1 normal attack. Now imagine the deadly attacker with Twin Strike, Protected, or Overkill... (you go do the imagining part, cuz I really don't want to).
2. Rapture Dance ($0.46)
So, Axii, going tall is bad cuz of Uncanny Rogue, does it mean I can go wide against Deception?
...
There is a reason why Rapture Dance is the most popular card from Deception, on the highest rank division of Gods Unchained, included in over 75% of decks across over 100,000 matches played in the past 30 days in the game. You really need to get your board completely wiped at least once to truly fear the power of Rapture Dance. And you will never forget to play around it afterward.
3. A Toast To Peace ($2.29) This card can slow down the tempo of your opponent by so much. Sometimes they even lost some good cards because of the hand limit, while your creatures are much cheaper to out-tempo them in the upcoming turns.
4. Anti-Magic Expert ($0.35) This is the elite version of Umber Arrow, when the strength restriction is now gone. At 8 mana, the game is probably in the mid-late stage, with strong and buffed creatures. Stealing one enemy creature with Godblitz and go face can sometimes be your win condition in a tough match. The stats of the card is not bad, but its strength mainly comes from the stealing thingy, which I think we all can agree on.
Summing up
So that was the list! What do you feel about these cards? Feel free to comment below your opinions and suggest the cards of your choice. I'd love to hear about them.
And.. that's the entire series on the best F2P cards from each domain of Gods Unchained. I can't wait to move on to new topics on Gods Unchained to support the community.
Right now I'm working on a very cool project regarding the Gods Unchained champions. It should be out this weekend for you all to experience! So don't miss out on it, I insist! For now, cya all very soon.
Credit
Deception background with Ludia: GU
All GU cards art: GU
Card price: Tokentrove recorded at 2 am Jan 20th GMT +7
Card stats: https://gudecks.com/meta/card-rankings?timeFrame=30&userRank=4&god=deception