artifice vs smokescreen

artifice

noun
  • A crafty but underhanded deception. 

  • A trick played out as an ingenious, but artful, ruse. 

  • A strategic maneuver that uses some clever means to avoid detection or capture. 

  • A tactical move to gain advantage. 

verb
  • To construct by means of skill or specialised art 

smokescreen

noun
  • Anything used metaphorically to conceal or distract. 

  • Smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover, as of troops in battle. 

How often have the words artifice and smokescreen occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )