This deck is trying to be as thematic as possible, meaning I’m playing a couple of suboptimal cards (specifically Merlin, which isn’t great at only 20 magic spells).
The deck is definitely going for quantity over quality with 14 cards giving card draw, 4 that provide tutoring/collection play, and 5 recursion cards. It’s heavy on the mortal theme (Sir Tom Thumb being my only non-mortal), and makes Lady of the Lake REALLY good with bombs like Death Dealer, Morgan Le Fay, Green Knight, Aino, Ruler of Thule, and Sir Mordred, as well as great value moves with Crown Prince, Lady Iseult, Dame Brittomart, Guinevere, Arthur, and Doctor Demetrius. She’s also great at retrieving blown up Ring of Morrigan/Philosopher Stones, as well as getting additional uses of Wiccan Tools and Silver Bullets. This is one of the best shells I’ve ever seen for Lady of the Lake.
Pact with the Devil is strong with River of Flame, Merlin, and 2x Arjaro Exorcist, and maybe even a used up Morgan Le Fay, setting her up with recursion from Lady of the Lake. I’d love to get Adept Illusionist in here too, but I didn’t want to dilute the Sir theme too much.
The biggest theme miss is no Lancelot and no Dozmary. Lancelot is just too slow, and I don’t have anything that can recover submerged artifacts in the deck. I feel like this was a big flavor miss with Lady of the Lake, but oh well.
Swap, Blink, and Grapple Shot are great as always, allowing, in addition to all the normal shenanigans, the opportunity to potentially set up Sir Percivere and/or Sir Balin.
Wedding Hall is pretty bad, but theme and rule-of-cool trumped optimization here. And if I ever get a Wedding Day win, it’ll make it all worth while. Not impossible either, thanks in large part to Dr D and Lady of the Lake. Did I mention that she’s good in this deck?
Most of the magics are self explanatory, but I’ll make a few mentions here:
Vanishment- it’s a cantrip that can protect all your units setting up for a kill. If you have Arthur and Gwenivere setup for a win, it can make them un-targetable making it really hard to interfere with. It’s also nice with Doctor Demetrius ensuring you’ll get at least one more Ward out of him.
Feast of Crows can get Toolboxes, Doom of Dilmun, Atlantean Fate, Root Spiders… whatever would most likely wreck you that you think your opponent might be running.
I’m running Silver Bullet over Toolbox because Poison Nova, Mimic, Whirling Blade, and Root Spiders are so amazing. Searing Truth is my Zap! for Deaths Door kills, but can also be a great draw spell in a pinch. No aura removal is probably ok because I’m running Arjuro Exorcists with potential recursion from Lady of the Lake.