Pair the MLGS special with the phalanx spells and you become a stance break machine. Most bosses will break from one phalanx and two hits of MLGS special.
I did a run with that rapier, its actually really good. It's a twinned weapon so you can power stance it with one or 1hand it, and it has unique move sets when power stanced
Yeah, brotato is my number 1 survivor game. A lot of people gave it flack because it didn't have meta progression. Issue I find with metal progression in most of these games is that its not balanced well and once you get a decent amount, the game becomes a cake walk.
Sorcery is worth a play through, and I'm usually a melee guy, and if you still feel the need to melee some, you can do the best of both worlds and do a Darkmoon Greatsword sorcery play through. That thing is a beast once you get it going.
Your only choice for decent premium is the $5 strike. The July $5 premium for example is 0.55 or an 11% return and this has closed above $5 several times so doesn't seem worth it.