Making Sense of Marlynn

After sorting through my release day haul of High Seas, I was eager to get to work on Marlynn, the newest Ranger hero. While I oftentimes turn to the community for starting points when building new decks, it's different with Ranger, the class I've aligned with since picking up the game back in Arcane Rising. With Rangers, I just dig in, relying on my own instincts and core understanding of the strategies that form the backbone of bow & arrow gameplay.

Adding to that, Marlynn is relatively unsolved as I write this. The Marlynn community doesn't feel like they've found an obvious 'best 80' yet, nor do they all agree on the goals of the deck. Further cementing this is the low Marlynn representation during US Nationals. While only trailing Puffin by 3 entries, Marlynn made 1/3 of the appearances that Gravy Bones did. Inexperience contributes to this, for sure, but so does lack of confidence.

This means two things: the deckbuilding for Marlynn is wide open, and any janky build is fair game! It's the perfect time to get brewing!

Let's start with the differences - and honestly, there are a lot of them!

Marlynn has two separate effects on her card.

Her passive effect allows her to load an arrow into arsenal whenever you draw a card. This has obvious synergy with gold, and allows us to push out an arrow when we didn't carry one over from last turn.

Marlynn also has a 'tap' effect, and like the other High Seas heroes, it allows her to convert a gold into something that helps advance her gameplan. Here, that's a Goldfin Harpoon: a yellow arrow that can't be pitched and deals 2 damage. In other words, the absolute bare minimum of an arrow - but an arrow nonetheless! The most important thing about this arrow is that it's got 'harpoon' in the name, which grants it synergy with Hammerhead, Harpoon Cannon.

Hammerhead is a fascinating bow. While its 4 cost and lack of arsenal-loading make it difficult to use, the effective result of a cannon activation is turning any blue card in your hand into a 1-cost +4 buff, with overpower when targeting a harpoon. If you've played any significant amount of Ranger, you should know the value of a buff like that in the late game - a buff that, because it's built into your weapon and not coming from a card, is constantly going back into the deck.

A weapon like that is going to skew your deck toward a much higher blue count than we've typically seen in Ranger; in a lot of ways, the combination of Hammerhead and the Pirate card pool moves Rangers closer to their dominating cousins, the Guardians. But while Guardians are known for their durability and blocking, Marlynn is not about that. Instead, we look to make use of some of the punishing playlines available when you're regularly pitching 2 or more cards.

With a +4 from Hammerhead, Battering Bolt comes in for 10 with an extremely relevant on-hit in today's meta. King Shark Harpoon is an excellent example of the disruption found within the harpoon class of arrows, which gain overpower as well. And Conqueror of the High Seas perfectly illustrates what Pirate cards can do with 2 blues in the pitch pile - no cannon required!

For the first time, we've moved the focus away from buff cards, and instead we're pitching to increase the power of our arrows. This frees up our decklists to explore other options - such as incorporating attack action cards from outside the Ranger class. While I've previously built decks like Sandscour Azalea without a single non-arrow attack (primarily because the heavy proportion of buffs target arrows specifically), Marlynn is free to use whatever attacks she'd like; Hammerhead's buff is always on board, available whenever you happen to get an arrow into arsenal and 4+ resources to spend.

While you may be tempted to pack your deck with draw effects to help load arrows more consistently, there's an alternative path available where you simply... don't run many arrows. You might even pare it down to the Piratical core of 'just the harpoons' - a 15-card suite of 2-cost arrows that all hunt in the opponent's hand. (I also have to shout out to the ol' standby Bolt'n' Shot, which gets go again and reloads on hit when you fire your cannon first.)

Of course, we have to mention the newly-playable Three of a Kind. Providing you with 3 separate triggers to load an arrow into your arsenal, the cost of 'only playing from arsenal' is massively offset when your deck is looking to pitch multiple blues per turn. You may choose to equip New Horizon for a second arsenal slot, but my preference is to let those 2nd and 3rd triggers fizzle in favor of a big 10 with overpower and a card to arsenal at the end of your turn.

While Marlynn has come at the Ranger class from an entirely different angle - removing its reliance on non-attack actions and arrows - there are some aspects of the class that just won't shake off.

For instance, we still struggle with blocking. This time, it's because we need those cards to pitch, and to end our turn with a card to arsenal. While we can load arrows by drawing, we'd still prefer to start our turns with something already lined up; and while decks can be built to highlight non-arrow attacks, we'd still generally prefer to fire one at some point in the turn. While the average defensive stat is probably sitting closer to 3 now, the need to keep cards in hand continues to dictate a faster pace to the game. We're still not Guardians, even if we've started pitching like them.

Ranger hands are still a thing, only this time they're based less on 'arrow/buff ratios' and more on the parallel concerns of pitch and arsenal. While I'd bring around 30 blues to a Hammerhead deck, that still leaves the possibility that you won't have them when your expensive playlines come up. Gold can help with this, cycling yellow cards while simultaneously loading an arrow; but gold isn't always available to Marlynn, and ultimately you're less 'controlling for variance' and more 'taking another spin'.

A few of my favorite cards for dealing with this are found in the Pirate card pool. Shifting Tides is a blue when you need to pitch it; but when you don't, you can play it out for some free resources next turn (and a chance that the card recurs). Portside Exchange can throw out an unplayable yellow for a new card - and pick up gold along the way. With Saltwater Swell, you can utilize your topdeck knowledge from Skullbone Crosswrap to ensure you get the payoff from playing it - otherwise, it's a pitch card.

While an increased rate of pitching makes it much less likely Marlynn will see fatigue, some opponents may still find it the most reliable way to outplay a Ranger. When that happens, I have to point you to the entirely thematic Quiver of Abyssal Depths. While in the past it's been lack of buffs that has spelled doom for late-game Rangers, Marlynn is happy to restock her arrows. Consider using this the moment you find yourself in the second cycle and drowning in blues you pitched the first time through; it'll add much-needed variety to your draws.

Because I'm still playing only with cards I physically own, I'm not ready to share a decklist- you'd find embarrassing choices like "no King Kraken Harpoons" and "1-of Big Game Trophy Shot". A big reason why I work within the limitations of what I actually have is because it gives me the opportunity to explore cards that might otherwise get overlooked - and from that, I've got a few gems that merit further testing.

So I actually own 6 Codex of Frailty; but I hate moving cards between decks, and until Living Legend takes them from me, my CoFs are already in Azalea and Nuu. But since the Hammerhead doesn't load arrows on its own, Codex of Bloodrot actually solves a recurring problem for the deck; furthermore, Bloodrot represents 2 damage (or a pitched blue) that we didn't even have to attack to deal. By prying a card from an opponent's hand, we leave them with less to block with; and unlike CoF, we don't have to worry about giving them access to the best card in their graveyard. This may be the best the 'runner-up Codex' has ever felt.

The only buff we're actually running in the deck is Prismatic Leyline. This versatile card is extremely likely to give out its +3, and it doesn't care what the subtype of your attack is - only the color. The build I'm on right now uses all 3 colors in relatively prominent roles, and I'm often able to get +5 total out of Leyline. If not, it's a yellow for Portside/Tipple, or a 3-block in a pinch.

You haven't seen devastation until you've gone over the top of a 2-card block with a cannon-buffed harpoon and a Pummel. Feel free to deal psychological damage by pitching one early (that's why I run them in blues).

Primarily an extender for the late-game, Swiftwater Sloop introduces my High Tide sub-theme. It's easy for Marlynn to get 2 blues into the pitch zone; and when your hand is especially blue, you can pay for Hammerhead, then play Sloop for 4, then end with that arrow shot. Personally, I run this in yellow too, with a total of 5 Sloops in the deck; when it's not right, it's not hard to find another use for them.

These sideboard boats each target a different archetype; and even without high tide active, they're 6-power 3-blocks with on-hit effects. I even run Battalion Barque at the moment, though that one's likely to come out as I acquire more of Marlynn's majestics.

For the first time, it feels as though Ranger is splitting into distinct archetypes that want entirely different cards. Staples like Remorseless and Premeditate have much less value here, and blues have risen significantly in esteem. (I'm currently testing blue Widowmaker.) While you can take forward the lessons learned on previous Rangers, Marlynn offers an unburdened freedom to reconsider the rules of the class. Perhaps they were more like guidelines all along...