The ShiftstonedEternal Power Calculator is a deck-building tool that visualizes your odds of drawing enough Influence and Power based specifically on the cards found in your deck.
That would be the merchant choice for sure. A rough market I thought of at work would be Dissociate, Bore, Obelisk, Flameblast/Obliterate and Flamestoker or Jawbone Greatsword.
You could cut from a few different places to make a playset of merchants works, up to one shugo standard (or one crest), up to 2 tocus, up to 2 SSTs and nika are where I would start.
I am in no way a deckbuilder and got this deck from Sunny's stream but I'll give some ideas. The worst card on average was Nika. The next was drawing multiple Daryas, as that's only good in long games or with Gunrunner. After that I guess cut a Time Sigil since all of the pledge units act as those basically ,and maybe a Crest, as depleted power is rough for curving out..
Time Merchant doesn't add pressure and if the deck is curving out aggressively, you don't have time to do it. Having access to Dissociate would help vs Grasp and Harsh Rule, and considering that was the finals, it wouldn't be a terrible idea.