Hail and Well Met! The Blood Warriors Guild is back with another Weekly Deck for The Elder Scrolls Legends. This time we are proud to introduce you to Merlin, Moose Sorcerer, a classic mid-range beatdown deck. The guild members voted to design a Sorcerer deck with at least one card from the new FrostSpark Collection. By a clear margin, GicaForta won the competition with a deck that helped many Guild Members to climb the ladder and even play in high ranks of legend. The beatdown deck runs the “Moose”, aka Wilds Incarnate from FrostSpark, making this deck a very good option to get one of the new cards into play.

Sorcerer Beatdown Deck Overview

Merlin, the Moose Sorcerer is a mid-range beatdown-deck designed around creature efficiency. It is running a few Guard creatures to protect your runes in the early-game. Clearly, this is important to trigger “the Moose’s” card draw effect. While that trigger is not absolutely necessary to secure the win, it oftentimes helps in finishing the game even quicker. Here is the decklist. Most noteworthy, the deck can be played by players on a budget, as it contains only must-have legendaries. New players should aim to add such cards to their collection rather sooner than later: Daggerfall Mage, Ancano, and High King Emeric are staple cards in so many (Sorcerer) decks. The only small exception to this, is the legendary Mighty Conjuring, which might be a little bit more difficult to get.

Beatdown Strategy

Mid-range or Control-Matchups

For the most part you will pilot Merlin, the Moose Sorcerer the same as you would with any other mid-range Sorcerer. When playing against other mid-range decks, as well as against Control, you want to use your magicka as efficiently as possible. Try and play threats on curve consistently and be aggressive early on. If you have the Ring of Magicka, mulligan for two-drops, so that you can start-off by taking control of the field lane.

Aggro-Matchups

Against Aggro, you want to keep Guards during your Mulligan, as this will slow down your opponent’s game and protect your runes. Without the ring, you will likely need to pass the first turn, unless you get Crown Quartermaster. In general, you want to be reactive and play for the board until your opponent starts to run low on resources. At this point it’s an opportune time for you to switch to being the aggressor. Use combat tricks like Tomes and Sixth House Amulets to trade favorably. Keep your life total up as your only drain option is Barrow Stalker.

Weaknesses and how to play around them

Mid-range Sorcerer’s two big weaknesses are against:

• Tribunal/Yellow-based Control decks that can trade 1-for-1 every turn and
• Lethal decks that can trade 2-for-1 with cheap lethal creatures + Archer’s Gambit or Quicksilver Crossbow.

When playing against Tribunal, you need to be aggressive and hope they don’t have removal. Don’t overextend into Ice Storm unless you can play resilient threats above 3 health points, creatures with Wards or get the benefits of a Haunting Spirit. When playing Lethal decks, make sure to use Wards to your advantage, especially cards like Sixth House Amulet have to be used effectively.

Notable Cards

Sixth House Amulet

The Amulet facilitates favorable trades when equipped to any of your creatures with 4 or more power. You can also use it to re-equip Ward to Corrupted Shades to keep them around. Additionally, you can give a ward preemptively to protect against damage-based removal or Lethal creatures. Oftentimes, though, it is best to hang on to the Amulet until it can be used to trade.

Ald Velothi Assassin

Left unanswered, this card can be great for snowballing your early game threats, keeping them out of range of damage-based removal and difficult to trade favorably with. More importantly, the Rally buffs can put your creatures into that 4-power range for Sixth House Amulet and into the 5-power range of Mighty Conjuring. The Assassin loves a Guard next to him in the same lane…

Lightning Bolt

Many players have been removing Lightning Bolt from their mid-range Sorcerer decks due to it being a very low tempo play to use for removal. However, it is still the best option for reach that Sorcerer has, outside of Ancano. It’s best to only use it for removal against Drain creatures or off a Prophecy, unless you need it to close a game the next turn.

Mighty Conjuring

This is the main card in the deck that you want to leverage. Use Sixth House Amulets and Tomes to put creatures into 5 power range to proc it. Make sure you have enough of a board presence to trigger it. Be wary of Withered Hand Cultist decks which can make this card dead in hand.

Wilds Incarnate

Big beefy threat, protects your other creatures, and potential for resource extension against Control and other mid-range decks. As long as you are the aggressor in the matchup, you can expect this to draw cards. In mid-range mirrors, if you know you can trigger it next turn, you may want to make trades to keep your life total up. Early Barrow Stalker is this cards best friend.

Beatdown Sorcerer in Action

You can see the deck in action on Gicaforta‘s YouTube channel. .And that’s it for this week! Stay tuned for our next upcoming list focusing on Mage!