Francesca!

[floelein]

Francesca!

Hi everyone,

I want to discuss Francescas Leader ability. She is in my opinion in a really bad place at the moment. If i remember correctly in the beginning of the game she was able to discard three cards, but at the moment it is just redraw and put the cards back in the deck. I don´t get why that is like this?, in my opinion we should draw three cards and then be able to decide wether to put cards back in the deck (like Aelerinn) or discard to empty our deck. In the current state she is by far the worst ST leader. What are your thoughts?

Greetings

 

[Knightlon]

Not at all true. She is really useful because you can put more cards that work only in a specific combination to your deck and then have a greater chance to get them. Do not use her as the first card, definitely! She is better later in the match. She is also good for throwing cards in your hand with no more use (Ocvist after ability, Ciri in the third round...) away and getting better ones.
Though, I would agree that she is one of the harder ones, while Brouver and Eithné are pretty simple and they would IMO make a greater starting leader.

 

[floelein]

I see your points about Octivist and Ciri, propably Ciaran as well (though discarding would be better with them as well), what I don´t like about her is that you redraw blindly, she is worse than Last Wish because of that in my opinion. With last wish you at least see which cards you pull and can discard them immidiatly.

 

[IAxiiYourMother]

She was the most popular SC leader for the majority of last patch at the top of the ladder. She is great because she takes into account cards that you have "black listed."

When you swap cards right at the beginning of the match you are black listing those cards. If you put First Light back in the deck you will not draw another one while redrawing cards whether at the beginning of the match, or while using Francesca. This is true for all re-draw mulligan abilities in the game, but there is no other card that gives you another three re-draws. (You can still draw that FL randomly at the start of you turn, or with spy cards.) So if you are black listing properly, Francesca can ensure that that you draw more useful cards later (commonly golds and silvers). She will only grab you a previously black listed card if there are no other cards avalible.

As Knightlon said, it also allows you to run high risk cards since you always have the ability to swap them for something more appropriate later. He specifically pointed out throwing away cards after you have benefited from them, but it could also be used to drop the D-bomb vs SK that you have in your deck for Dwarves and monsters.

There are times where the other two SC leaders can be dead cards, where as Francesca will always be usable unless you drew your entire deck. She is great to use when stalling a round and forcing your opponent to play another card. You get to optimize your hand for the next round while bleeding an extra card out of them.

She is arguable the most complex leader card in the game, and it takes a good player to user her for maximum effectiveness.

 

[floelein]

She was the most popular SC leader for the majority of last patch at the top of the ladder. She is great because she takes into account cards that you have "black listed."

are you sure about that?, it isn´t explained anywhere! By the way I didn´t say she is not usefull, I just said she is worse than last wish, I guess you disagree with the allogation then. Thinking about King Bran and him beeing better than a gold card called Ermion!

 

[IAxiiYourMother]

are you sure about that?, it isn´t explained anywhere! By the way I didn´t say she is not usefull, I just said she is worse than last wish, I guess you disagree with the allogation then. Thinking about King Bran and him beeing better than a gold card called Ermion!

I'm positive she was most used until emptying your deck for Ciri: Dash started using Brouver Hoog to get Mardroeme targets out in a pinch (and KOB for emergency Mercs). Even then it was still a 50/50 between them.

I don't think she is overly strong, but she isn't weak. I'd put her on par with the other 2 SC leaders.

I don't thinks she should be the SC starting leader since Foltest, Crachan Craite, Eredin, and Emhyr are all far easier to use effectively. Fran is lower tempo then all of them besides maybe Emhyr. But even he can do damage and buff units through other cards in the deck. Hopefully they add a better starting leader for SC for the open beta decks.

 

[IAxiiYourMother]

Here is the deck swim used to hit #1 on the ladder last patch, he explains how to use her effectively.

http://gwentlemen.com/roach-scoiatael/

 

[floelein]

Ok I think I understand now, that re-drawing is actually better than discarding for every faction but SK. Thats why the Nilfgard faction ability is actually pretty strong! Mhm, but she has little synergy with the actual faction, maybe that is what I don´t like her. The Nilgardian Leaders all in some way buff cards in hand or on the field for example.

That Deck is gone forever so no point in talking about it, it got nerfed to death!, actually more than half the cards have been nerfed xD!

 

[Strollin]

I thought they changed the blacklisting mechanic to not work for francesca anymore, could be wrong tho.

Edit: Just tested it some rounds in practice mode. Blacklisting that you do during mulligan is reset when using Francesca (However blacklisting seems to still work when using Francesca)

 

[Knightlon]

There are times where the other two SC leaders can be dead cards, where as Francesca will always be usable unless you drew your entire deck.

Which is not to likely since mercenaries were nerfed in the last patch. No more super thinning.

There are times where the other two SC leaders can be dead cards, where as Francesca will always be usable unless you drew your entire deck.

Which is not to likely since mercenaries were nerfed in the last patch. No more super thinning.

I don't thinks she should be the SC starting leader since Foltest, Crachan Craite, Eredin, and Emhyr are all far easier to use effectively. Fran is lower tempo then all of them besides maybe Emhyr. But even he can do damage and buff units through other cards in the deck. Hopefully they add a better starting leader for SC for the open beta decks.

Agreed. She is really difficult to master. While Brouver and Eithné are quite simple. I think what the devs maybe want is to be less powerful in the beginning. The other two leaders are a lot simple and you learn to get their value quickly so that would be quite strong for a new player. It's like with Emhyr, I don't think he is the best starting leader for NG either. Morvran might be powerful, but he is probably the simplest and always useful one. Same goes for Radovid. I just think that what they don't want is so many easy leaders running around from the beginning. Makes the game boring. Making the players master their tactic already from the beginning seems much more interesting.
There are also cards like Kambi, Philippa, Keira and similar that are definitely not bad, but just require a good strategy and preparation and for that they are really too expensive, while other easier cards are also cheaper.

 

[slow_cheeetah]

Which is not to likely since mercenaries were nerfed in the last patch. No more super thinning.

Which is not to likely since mercenaries were nerfed in the last patch. No more super thinning.
Agreed. She is really difficult to master. While Brouver and Eithné are quite simple. I think what the devs maybe want is to be less powerful in the beginning. The other two leaders are a lot simple and you learn to get their value quickly so that would be quite strong for a new player. It's like with Emhyr, I don't think he is the best starting leader for NG either. Morvran might be powerful, but he is probably the simplest and always useful one. Same goes for Radovid. I just think that what they don't want is so many easy leaders running around from the beginning. Makes the game boring. Making the players master their tactic already from the beginning seems much more interesting.
There are also cards like Kambi, Philippa, Keira and similar that are definitely not bad, but just require a good strategy and preparation and for that they are really too expensive, while other easier cards are also cheaper.

Cards you mentioned and few others really need synergies and I hope that CDPR work on new strategies for these cards.
And speaking of poor Philippa, such a nice card! Let's make her 8 instead of 10, keep all the ability and she'd be back in game. Just try it devs! She's out for too long now.

 

[arz0]

When you swap cards right at the beginning of the match you are black listing those cards. If you put First Light back in the deck you will not draw another one while redrawing cards whether at the beginning of the match, or while using Francesca.

this is no longer the case, blacklisting is no longer carried over between different mulligan phases.
there is a blacklist within the mulligan phase itself, so you don't draw a card to choose not to, but that blacklist won't carry over to other mulligans, such as Thaler, NG passive, or indeed fancesca.

That was charged as of patch 0.8.33 I believe.

Strollin

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floelein Id say Francesca is in a good spot, I don't actually think she is comparable to last wish, for the exact reason she doesn't discard.
Both are useful in different situations, sometimes you want to put a card back into your deck, so as to draw it later on, with rally, elevn merc or king of beggers. and last wish is more about discard synergy, very skellige friendly. and as ST have no resurrects discarding units can actually be a hindrance. (Particularly if you pull last wish out by accident with an elevn merc)

 

[devivre]

Which is not to likely since mercenaries were nerfed in the last patch. No more super thinning.
Agreed. She is really difficult to master. While Brouver and Eithné are quite simple.

Not sure... Eithne in a typical ST starter deck feels more like a slightly better Blue Mountain Commando (you usually don't have that many silver or gold cards, that make sense replaying). Usually not that much value here. Brouver might be easier to get value from for beginners, true, but you only have scorch, horn, cow. It's very limited as well and if you don't use this leader in round 1, it can far too easily become a dead card (in case you draw all remaining silver cards in round 2, which is not that unlikely). In general I think that all three leaders need additional cards to shine.

 

[eddywang]

francesca may need some slight change, but can't tell what really is, sometimes you want that specific card for a round win and she gives it to you even while make them play cards. Sometimes she doesn't.

She is still my favorite leader card tho, and i play her most of the time compared to eithné and brouver hog.

 

[Knightlon]

Fun fact: I don't even have Eithné nor Brouver. Always have been fine with Frankie

 

[pl91]

francesca is by far my most favourite leader in the game.her power to get a second mulligan phase at any point in the game is super strong for control and combo decks,and i hope they create more cards that synergise with it in the future.

 

[Ruthless95]

it's so bad everytime i get choice between 3 epics in kegs definitely 1 is frensesca, devs know how shit it is and made sure it fills and wastes 1 slot out of 3 in epic card choice screen 75% of the time, so epic card choosing is choosing between 2 cards.