Is Spirit Empress Still Good in Merge Tactics? Ruler Review

Spirit Empress After The Card Pool Changes

Spirit Empress is the Merge Tactics Ruler built around volume: cycle the shop, stack merges, and cash the merge milestones in for orbs. Ricky Royale opens this test run by declaring her "finally dead", then spends three games trying to prove himself wrong.

This guide is based on Ricky Royale's three live games with Spirit Empress. It covers why her merge engine stalls now, what the bigger card pool and the five Elixir to four Elixir change did to her specifically, how to pivot to uncontested Troops, how to handle Trait Gift and Abyss Tiles, and the honest bottom line: he went 1 win from 3 games, and the win needed help.

Why Spirit Empress Fell Off

Spirit Empress is an economy Ruler. Her identity is hitting high merge counts to unlock orbs, which means cycling the shop constantly and actually hitting repeat copies. Ricky Royale's testing shows the conditions for that playstyle have quietly disappeared.

The card pool is huge. In his words, "card pool is just so big" and getting a clean cycle early is "nearly impossible". Fewer repeat copies per shop means fewer merges.
The Elixir change stacks on top. He points out they "changed the five Elixir to four Elixir", and while it "doesn't affect every ruler", when your pool is already this diluted it "does that just that much more damage to Empress".
Merge counts are collapsing. He had only two merges going into round two in game one, and just 12 merges by round four in game two. Contrast that with the 47 and 60 merge milestones he chases in a healthy game.
Restricted shops make it worse. Game two was "only Wardens for this game", which narrows what she can even cycle into.

Key insight: Spirit Empress herself does not need a nerf to feel weak. Thinning the odds of hitting copies is enough to starve her engine.

The Merge Milestone Engine

Playing Spirit Empress is not like playing a normal Ruler. Ricky Royale is blunt about it: "I have to play for economy. Like I can't just play like any other ruler." Every decision runs through whether it moves the merge counter.

Cycle relentlessly. Rerolling is the gameplan, not greed: "I need to keep cycling. I need to get my orbs." Hoarding Elixir does nothing for her.
Recycle what you cannot finish. He regrets not recycling a Mega Knight he was never going to max, purely to fund one more cycle and reach his last orb. Dead-end units are merge fuel, not board pieces.
Protect the cycle. His stated mid-game priority is "ensuring our cycle just doesn't completely die". Once copies stop appearing, the whole plan deflates.
Know when to stop. The flip side: sitting on a four-star Queen by round four with only 12 merges, he openly questioned the point of cycling further. If the milestones are unreachable, spend on board strength instead.

Pro tip: Estimate your realistic merge ceiling early. In a contested lobby, accept a lower orb target and put your Elixir into frontline and carry quality.

Playing Around Contested Troops

Contention was the biggest practical problem across all three games. Mini P.E.K.K.A was being stripped out of the pool by the whole lobby: "All the mini pekka copies are gone. That's three copies gone already." For a Ruler that lives on copies, that is fatal.

Pivot to uncontested units. His fix is to "go for cards that are just not as contested", naming Witch, who doubles as a strong support piece flooding the board with skeletons.
Block with a single copy. Even an unmergeable copy has value. He deliberately holds a Mini P.E.K.K.A to make it "just that much harder for everyone else to snag a copy for themselves".
Secure boss units early. In every game he goes hunting for Boss units, because in his view "boss is like the only trait that freaking does something these days".
Buy raw HP when threatened. Facing an early Mini P.E.K.K.A, he flags that you need "as much HP as possible" on the board or the round is simply lost.

Troops That Showed Up Well

Witch: a less contested support Troop with constant skeleton pressure.
Musketeer: his backline carry, sniping priority targets including an enemy four-star Mini P.E.K.K.A, and a good holder for the Ruler's Crossbow.
Giant Skeleton: he swaps toward it over Royal Ghost mid-game as the better frontline body.
Queen: his four-star payoff unit in game two, though he notes he should have kept her further back against enemy fear.
Golden Knight: inconsistent, but he gets one standout round and calls it a "rare GK moment in season 11.2".

Modifiers, Maps And Placement

Game conditions swing Spirit Empress runs enormously, and each of the three games in the video played out differently because of them.

Trait Gift: Ricky Royale calls this "a really good modifier for Empress". Free trait value takes pressure off a Ruler who cannot always assemble clean trait breakpoints through merges alone. This was the game he won.
Abyss Tiles: he stacks everything to the left of the board to stay clear of the hazard tiles, then has to account for enemy fear pushing units around: "I just really hope that nothing sells here for us."
Royale River: the game three map, where the shop gave him two Wardens and a Builder and he eventually forced three Boss units out of desperation rather than plan.
Traits that actually fire. Mid-run he weighs Clan against an extra Boss slot and admits the call is close. Take the breakpoint that activates over a half-filled second one.

Watch the fear effects. Enemy fear repeatedly dragged his Queen off her lane "every 5 seconds". If the opponent has it, place key pieces far from hazards and expect them to wander.

Strengths And Weaknesses

Strengths

✅ Still capable of winning. He takes game one and surprises himself: "I haven't played Empress in like a few days, so I'm surprised that still somewhat can pull it off."
✅ Rewards cycling skill. When copies flow, the merge milestones and orbs still convert into a real spike, including four-star units.
✅ Flexible comp lines. He toggles between Undead, Boss and Clan depending on what the shop offers rather than being locked into one board.
✅ Loves Trait Gift. With a Modifier that hands out free trait value, she is immediately more playable.

Weaknesses

❌ Card pool dilution hits her hardest. Fewer repeat copies means fewer merges, and fewer merges means no orbs.
❌ The five Elixir to four Elixir change compounds it. It does not hit every Ruler equally, but it stacks badly on an already thin pool.
❌ Contested units wreck the plan. When the lobby is also chasing Mini P.E.K.K.A, her engine stalls completely.
❌ The Boss mirror is uninteractive. His verdict on four Boss against four Boss: "you just have to watch troops run around and just literally pray you win."
❌ Inconsistent by nature. His own caveat after the game one win: "not every game goes this way with Empress."

Is She Still Worth Playing

His closing verdict is that Spirit Empress "is definitely still usable, but not as good as she used to be". He made it work in one of three games, and that win leaned on a Trait Gift Modifier plus uncontested pickups rather than raw Ruler power.

Pick her when the Modifier helps. Trait Gift, or anything handing you free trait value, is a green light.
Avoid her into a contested lobby. If rivals are hoarding the same copies, you will not reach your milestones.
Always have a fallback. Be ready to drop the orb chase and build a conventional Boss or Undead board around whatever carry you actually hit.

Ricky Royale is openly frustrated with the wider state of Merge Tactics in this video, describing long stally matches where "nothing can die" and arguing Boss has crowded out other traits. Spirit Empress reads less like the problem and more like a casualty of it.

Key Units & Traits

Spirit Empress: Economy Ruler who needs heavy cycling to hit merge milestones and orbs; still usable but far less consistent now.
Mini P.E.K.K.A: The most contested Troop in these lobbies; hold a copy to deny opponents even if you cannot complete the merge.
Witch: Less contested support Troop that floods the board with skeletons.
Musketeer: Backline carry that snipes priority threats, including an enemy four-star Mini P.E.K.K.A, and a good Ruler's Crossbow holder.
Queen: Four-star payoff unit; keep her further back, since enemy fear repeatedly pulled her out of position.
Giant Skeleton: Preferred frontline body over Royal Ghost when the board needs a tougher blocker.
Mega Knight: Solid body, but recycle it for Elixir if you will never max it and you need one more orb.
Golden Knight: Streaky pick; placement sensitive, but it produced one standout round in his season 11.2 run.

TL;DR

✅ Spirit Empress is still usable in Merge Tactics, but Ricky Royale confirms she is clearly weaker than before: 1 win from 3 games.
✅ The bigger card pool plus the five Elixir to four Elixir change are the culprits: fewer repeat copies means fewer merges and fewer orbs.
✅ Cycle constantly and recycle units you cannot finish; with this Ruler you play for economy, not board value alone.
✅ Chase uncontested Troops like Witch when the lobby fights over Mini P.E.K.K.A, and hold one blocking copy if you can.
✅ Trait Gift is her best Modifier; against Abyss Tiles, stack your board away from the hazard and plan for enemy fear.
❌ If your merge count is still tiny by round four, abandon the orb chase and buy board strength instead.
❌ Four Boss against four Boss is close to uninteractive, so do not expect to outplay that matchup.

Spirit Empress is no longer a first-pick Ruler in Merge Tactics, but she is not unplayable either. Ricky Royale pulled off a win with her on camera despite a hostile card pool, which shows the ceiling is still there: it is just much harder to reach and far more dependent on a friendly Modifier like Trait Gift and an uncontested shop. If you enjoy the cycling, counting and recycling side of the game and you accept that some lobbies will shut you out entirely, she is still winnable. If you want consistency, take a Ruler that does not need the shop to cooperate, and lean on the Boss trait like everyone else.