Welcome back to another Fractured Crown Deck Tech! Today, I will be writing about a very popular champion, Merlin, inside of my favorite element, Fire.

The idea behind Fire Merlin is to quickly and efficiently level using the cycle cards inside of your deck, in order to enable the Crux element and draw a lot of cards. From there, you’ll want to use cards like Fireball, Sudden Steel, and Ghosts of Pendragon to push damage while protecting yourself using The Majestic Spirit.

Outside of The Majestic Spirit, cards like Fast Cure, Resolute Stand, and Incendiary Fractal can help slow down the game while you search for win conditions with your draw power and Scry the Skies.

Material Deck

Spirit of Fire | Lorraine, Wandering Warrior | Merlin, Memory Thief | Merlin, Kingslayer

In a faster deck, Lorraine is the best level 1 champion for a Merlin deck. It lets you skip the materialize phase needed to get your sword for Spirit Blade: Ascension, and can help kill annoying 1 health allies.

The Majestic Spirit

One of the most powerful allies in the game when it hits the board. This card forces a response from any deck in order for them to beat you, and will win the game if it is not dealt with. However, there are many cards that easily defeat The Majestic Spirit, so be careful playing it in case you leave yourself with no hand after using your whole turn to play it.

Sword of Avarice

Your Ascension target. A very self-explanatory card, it helps you dig through your deck extremely quickly once you are level 3. Be careful against Water players however. If it gets fracturized, your game plan can be ruined and you can be left with a very small hand.

Sword of Seeking

The sword you will be materializing with Lorraine. While it is our main target to return to the material deck with Ascension, it also helps to deal with any ally with Stealth. Once you have used Ascension, it is also an excellent target for Ghosts of Pendragon to draw 2 for free.

Drawn Blade

Drawn Blade is an alternate sword in case your Sword of Seeking is broken. Additionally, if you do need to cycle cards it is a good option to materialize. This sword is entirely here as an alternate in case of losing Sword of Seeking, and also has use in slower games where you have extra time to materialize. Being 1 durability helps you with being able to break it in order to make Incarnate Majesty Cheaper.

Tithe Proclamation

Tithe Proclamation is a strange card in this deck. You have a lot of card draw not just in your Advanced element, but in your basic element as well. However, it is a massive advantage to use your card draw before playing this using something like Quicksilver Grail, as it can put your opponent too far behind to recover from, especially against an aggressive element like fire.

Quicksilver Grail, Channeling Stone, and Smoke Bombs

Quicksilver Grail is an outstanding card for outplaying your opponent. Against Merlin, you can bait a rest to banish a card with Floating Memory from your graveyard, then use Grail to materialize a drawn blade in order to enable other floating memory cards in your deck. It also synergizes extremely well with Tithe Proclamation, allowing you to save the materialize through your turn, and prevent your opponent from drawing past 3 cards if they attempt to.

However, 2 of its best uses are with Channeling Stone and Smoke Bombs. Smoke Bombs is the simpler of the 2, if an opponent tries to kill your Majestic Spirit or even Ghosts of Pendragon, you can materialize smoke bombs using Grail to save them. Channeling Stone is a very powerful card when paired with Grail. Effectively, you can increase the size of your hand used for reserve costs by 2. By playing 1 card then materializing Channeling Stone, you can increase your options significantly in the late game, which often lets you push for game on a turn you otherwise wouldn’t be able to, and give you incredibly explosive turns in the midgame.

Main Deck

CRUX PACKAGE

3 Incarnate Majesty

Very self explanatory card. It is how you are playing your Majestic Spirit. Be careful as most of the time it is very expensive and you will be low on hand after playing it, if not using your entire hand. You generally want to use it to buy yourself a turn while pushing a little extra damage.

4 Spirit Blade: Ascension

The strongest draw card in the game. Looping it with Sword of Avarice lets you draw an insane amount of cards at fast speed, which you can do immediately after leveling to Merlin, Kingslayer in order to recover the cards you lost from leveling. Be careful against water decks, they’ll try to Fracturize your sword of avarice and when you Ascension it to save the sword, they may go for a Frostbind to make you lose an ascension and your sword temporarily.

2 Ghosts of Pendragon

Ghosts are a very potent ally. They’re a -1 from hand to push 3 damage. Additionally, being protected by The Majestic Spirit makes them a significant threat in the late game, requiring 8 damage to kill while being able to kill most allies on their own. A very useful tool to recur and protect certain regalia as well, such as Sword of Avarice or Drawn Blade. If you use your own Tithe Proclamation, you can also block your opponents draws for a turn before using the ghosts to enable your draw engine.

FIRE PACKAGE

4 Creative Shock

Not only is Creative Shock a very potent cycle card, letting you load your graveyard with floating memory or just go through your deck more quickly to see important pieces, it is also very helpful as a removal spell. Fire Merlin in the early game sometimes struggles to kill allies that are rushing it down, so getting the 2 damage from creative shock is very useful on level 2 and even level 3, when you’re looking to draw your win conditions.

4 Hasty Messenger

Being a cycle card is incredibly good, however in the current meta where Merlin is very popular, past turn 1 or 2 the discard becomes a more simple cycle, because you don’t want to be giving your opponent free levels. It is also a good target for your cremation rituals, you can go through 3 cards of your deck using this combined with Ritual, while also setting up floating.

4 Cremation Ritual

Cremation Ritual is an outstanding cycle card, seeing more of your deck is always useful. If you expect your opponent to kill an ally, it is almost always better to cremate it to draw cards instead. With Library Witch, it is a +1 as well, and you can also use it in combination with Flame-Rune Swordsman to push early damage and get the floating memory when you expect to need it on your next turn.

4 Tempered Steel

Generally a card you want to discard using Hasty Messenger of Creative Shock. Additionally, you can use it on Sword of Avarice in order to attack with it and Merlin when her effect is active for 3 damage, then return Avarice to the material deck with Ghosts of Pendragon, reserving Avarice for later use. It also helps set up going to level 2 because it is 1 cost, so if you don’t have many plays on level 1, Tempered Steel is a very efficient way to level up.

4 Flame-Rune Swordsman

Another discard target for Creative Shock and Hasty. Additionally, it helps push early damage against any deck, 2 attack isn’t something that can be ignored for a long period of time. You can choose to kill it with Cremation Ritual or even Creative Shock when you decide you need the floating memory as well.

4 Fireball

Fireball is part of your win condition. Using it prior to recollection helps push a large amount of damage, making it significantly easier to finish the game using your attacks. Additionally, if a Rai player uses Peaceful Reunion against you, this is a strong way to push damage while you aren’t doing much else on your turn.

3 Incendiary Fractal

The only fractal available to fire, as well as the only fractal we are running. On level 2, it is an incredibly strong removal card, and having 1 copy combined with Dungeon Guide lets you pick exactly which cards you want to banish in order to level. Overall Incendiary Fractal is a very strong card that amplifies your gameplan without making you lose out on much.

2 Purge in Flames

Once you are on level 3, Purge in Flames becomes an excellent board wipe if you aren’t able to control the board early on in the game. Additionally, in some situations it can help deal a little bit of extra damage, and in the late game eventually becomes free to cast. It is also outstanding against Silvie players, denying certain On Death or On Leave effects like Bedivere or Green Slime from giving them value. It helps in ally based Lorraine strategies as well to stop their ally rush.

2 Disintegrate

Disintegrate will be your premier way of removing opposing Majestic Spirit’s or Tithe Proclamations. Much like Purge in Flames, the efficiency just makes this card better the longer the games go and is very useful in dealing with 1 ally or regalia that is making your game difficult.

2 Devastating Blow

Devastating blow is an outstanding card. It helps get rid of any big ally while also stopping your opponent from retaliating, making it a one card answer to Kraal, and if you have even level counters, it answers Majestic Spirit as well. Additionally, most opponents won’t retaliate the poke damage you deal to either of those allies because they expect the Merlin to Sudden Steel to kill it, so it indirectly helps save allies like Ghosts of Pendragon and Flame-Rune Swordsman if they’re on the board. The 2 extra damage over sudden steel also comes up significantly often, so do not underestimate that when attacking your opponent directly either.

NORM PACKAGE

4 Fast Cure

Fast Cure is a very versatile card, it can help you level to Kingslayer easily, while also being a good target to discard with Creative Shock and Hasty. It can also be used in some situations to heal, just making it less likely for you to lose the game. Put simply, Fast Cure is a good card, while it doesn’t shine above many other cards in the deck, it is very useful.

3 Library Witch

Library Witch is a useful card against ally beatdown decks, just letting you slow them down a tiny bit while putting cards into memory for leveling, and not losing anything from hand. In a lot of matchups, Library Witch will be a main target to sacrifice with Cremation Ritual in order to go plus 1.

3 Dungeon Guide

You can’t always get the level from Memory Thief, so leveling quickly is incredibly useful to accelerate the game and enable Crux more quickly, while also picking more accurately what to banish for leveling. Against Rai, it can be necessary just to get to Crux more quickly to get Majestic Spirit, and get the additional materialization phase you saved to get Quicksilver Grail with Tithe Proclamation. Also, once on level 3, the Dungeon Guide you used is a good target to sacrifice as well, just to see 2 new cards in your hand.

3 Sudden Steel

Sudden Steel is a strong offensive or defensive option. Using it pushes good free damage, or can even kill a pesky ally. It doesn’t take a little while to ramp to being free to play, but even playing it for 1 is incredibly strong for pushing damage. Overall one of Merlin’s best tools, and it is a mistake not to run it in most Merlin decks.

3 Scry the Skies

Scry the Skies is an outstanding card. Because of how cheap a lot of plays in Merlin are, you often find yourself with a little bit of extra hand. Scry the Skies helps filter cards that aren’t useful on level 3, like Hasty Messenger and Dungeon Guide, to search for your heavy hitters and win conditions in the deck. Also, in combination with Ascension, it is a very easy way to dig through 5 or more cards to find what you need at that moment without using much hand size. It is also an excellent card to set up good draws with Ghosts of Pendragon.

2 Resolute Stand

Against ally rush decks, you can struggle to remove allies early on depending on draws, so once your opponent floods the board, Resolute Stand can easily give you an extra turn, or even 2 with the health gained from leveling, even without using the effect to skip your next draw phase. Against fire aggro strategies, it saves you against rending flames blowing you out of the game.

Sideboard

3 Blanche, Sheltering Saint

Blanche is a useful card to side against Rai. Once you’ve used your draw engine against a Rai player, she just makes them require even more cards to answer you, while you continue to push damage to defeat them. She can also be useful in the mirror against Water Merlin and Fire Merlin, because of her ability to prevent damage from Fireball, Purge in Flames, and Refracting Missile. Against Rai, take out your Resolute Stands and 1 disintegrate to add her to your deck. Against Merlin, you can take out Purge in Flames.

2 Resolute Stand

The 2 extra copies of Resolute are for incredibly aggressive rush decks, like Level 2 Fire Lorraine lists and some wind ally rush decks. You’ll want to take out Devastating blows for these, as those aren’t as useful in those matchups because you don’t need the extra damage due to your opponent having a lower life total to get through, and not having any real large ally threats you need to remove. Another consideration to side out is Disintegrate, but I prefer to keep it in so I can remove Tithe Proclamations if the need arises.

1 Disintegrate

I have a 3rd copy of Disintegrate in here for the mirror match. Majestic Spirit can be incredibly annoying to remove from the board, so having it is useful just to have extra cards to kill it. If you don’t want to run this card, you can elect to run another Purge in Flames, or side a fourth copy of Sudden Steel if you want to side out Purge in Flames as well in a less ally heavy meta.

Nullifying Lantern

We don’t run any cards that check graveyards like Rending Flames, Fiery Momentum, or Crux Sight, so this can be very useful in the mirror, against Lorraine, but mostly against aggressive fire decks. Putting this down requires them to see Varuckan Acolyte or Spurn to Ash, otherwise the efficiency of their attack cards is significantly reduced. Also, it can save you from the second turn kill that some Fire Lorraine decks have, so if you expect to be up against one and you don’t open Resolute Stand, materializing this lowers your odds of being blown out of the game. Generally however, you want to materialize this card using Grail and prevent the fast losses using your Azure Trinket.

Azure Protective Trinket

This card is in here for the exact same reason as Nullifying Lantern. If you know you are against a Lorraine that will attempt a turn 2 kill, this card isn’t a bad one to materialize to banish the first 3 fire cards in graveyard. Additionally, against other Fire decks, you can materialize this in order to deny floating memory as well to supplement your Merlin, Memory Thief. Overall a very useful card against fire players trying to blow you out of the game.

Deck Link: https://build.silvie.org/@Remetic/8VxdEJJrNqwHmRChEnHz