“Like most of House Hlaalu, this grandmaster merchant's deck is centered around acquiring goods,” explains Irenio. “Generating lots of Coin or directly laying claim to cards from the Tavern are this deck's strengths.”

If you wish to activate the Grandmaster's Patron ability, the bigger the sacrifice, the bigger the rewards.

“Playing into the ability to generate lots of wealth and thus afford really expensive cards, Delmene Hlaalu allows you to trade cards gained from the Tavern for Prestige. This can be a direct strategy to victory if you're buying and gaining lots of cards early on, or it can be used to help you cross the line at the very end.”

After the Four-Score War, Northeastern Tamriel was a corpse bloating in the sun. Enter the Great Houses. Out at the front, swooping in to feast on the carcass, was House Hlaalu. Their leader was old man Delmene Hlaalu, who wrested power from the last house elder in a “bloodless” coup that still saw half a dozen fetchers thrown to the guar.

—Naryu Virian