Is it just me or does Skellige really suck?

[rainwatr]

Is it just me or does Skellige really suck?

Been a Skellige player since previous patch, tried Queensguard out but it's terrible b/c both Monster and Nilfguard can interact w/ your graveyard. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like the only viable Skellige is w/ Axemen, which seems gimmicky at best. Having your win condition be completely dependent on finding Axemen, turns out, is not a very consistent way to win. Especially when there are none in the hand or you wind up only finding one the whole game. There's no way to efficiently fish for it and it's a big target for Geralt Igni, Scorch, Weather, and D-Bomb (3 of which there is no counter play for).

I can't say too much about other factions because I don't have the cards to effectively try them, but from the factions I encounter Monsters and Scoiatel are the most consistent. In my opinion this means good job on designing those, but please work on the other 3 so that they can have more reliable avenues for winning.

 

[4RM3D]

It's true the only viable deck for Skellige is using Axemen. But it isn't as gimmicky as you might think. That still doesn't prevent you from getting axed (pun intented) by Henselt's Gold, though. I have been running a wounding deck for some time now and it got me as far as rank 14. Now it's time to find something else to beat that nasty Henselt.

 

[The_def_star]

I'm fairly new to Gwent and have been playing Skellige and Monsters and have a couple decks I enjoy playing with Skellige. Are axe men Berserker Marauders? I have a bear deck that I have been having success and fun playing with. And a discard deck that still needs tweaking but still get some wins.

 

[4RM3D]

Are axe men Berserker Marauders?

Spoiler

Clan Tuirseach Axeman:



Raging Berserker:



Berserker Marauder:

Raging Berserker is used with Clan Tuirseach Axeman and the leader card Harald the Cripple, while Berserker Marauder is used with the leader card Crach an Craite. They have different archetypes.

 

[The_def_star]

Spoiler

Clan Tuirseach Axeman:



Raging Berserker:



Berserker Marauder:

Raging Berserker is used with Clan Tuirseach Axeman and the leader card Harald the Cripple, while Berserker Marauder is used with the leader card Crach an Craite. They have different archetypes.

Ok. I don't have Harald the Cripple yet but I used Berserker Marauders, Raging Berserkers, Savage Bear, Priestess Freya with Crach as the leader. I actually do use Axemen to synergize with my savage bears, Clan Brokvar Archers in my deck

 

[Ruthless95]

i'm just the opposite of you. i play all other 4 and don't bother with skellige. skellige has only 1 super competitive deck (wounding) but multiple fun ones like discard, queensguards and warcry.
i think your fine TBH, use harald, ragh nar hoog, stemmelford and yennefer: chironex and you win without axemen. back it up with weather on melee row and coral for siege row.

 

[eillinggel]

It's true the only viable deck for Skellige is using Axemen. But it isn't as gimmicky as you might think. That still doesn't prevent you from getting axed (pun intented) by Henselt's Gold, though. I have been running a wounding deck for some time now and it got me as far as rank 14. Now it's time to find something else to beat that nasty Henselt.

I think scorch ST is the biggest problem ......henslt cant defeat Monster ..

 

[Zjiin]

SK isnt in a ideal place being that its pigeonholed hard, but it doesnt outright suck. The problem for SK (and the game in general atm) is that ST and MS are leagues ahead of everyone else currently (henselt being the odd one out due to the power of gold spam currently)

 

[DMaster2]

I'm having fun (in casual tho) with revive SK. Super buffing morkvag and win from there. Locking sucks but i have a few tricks to play around it (if they play shackles on empty grave i can replay it with uldaryk for example, or i can decoy morkvag to give it 3 more base strength as an extra bonus).

 

[Cagey75]

I used to play discard SK, and it was decent, could stand up to most match ups. But they hammered it severely. I don't get why every patch with these games they have to destroy something to make something else viable [NR was a bit rubbish before patch, they boosted that and ruined SK in many ways] - Balance seems to be alien to these companies.

 

[Archpriest]

Playing Skellige above 4000 mmr. So...

 

[Rijeka051]

Playing Skellige above 4000 mmr. So...

Can you please share your deck?

 

[GW3NTLORD]

Playing Skellige above 4000 mmr. So...

So? playing with any faction above 4000mmr proves nothing imo. You have already said you are playing with different factions so SK is not your fix faction. Another thing is winning is not always on faction strength but on cards you get in your hand + on opp. skill so if you are playing few rounds with SK above 4kmmr & winning few that's not makes SK powerful faction, Now I am not indirectly saying SK is weak here as I am just trying to say playing some faction over some mmr makes no sense to judge that faction imo.

Now about SK as I always said the main problem is predictability SK offers in its deck strategies. Smart players can judge almost over 90+% that what strategy & cards SK players is going to have & going to play.
Crach - Wounding mostly with warcry
Bran - Discard
Harald - Wounding mostly with Axeman
Bran / Harald + weather immune units like longships or pirates then mostly weather deck

I am not saying other faction are not predictable but SK is most predictable with all leaders imo & actually this is the main problem I have with Gwent right now as it offers very few strategies & after few games it feels so repetitive & boring to play same gameplay again & again. May be its due to low number of cards but still adding mechanism like positioning in proper way & more cards with good abilities will open more possibilities in future, I hope so...

 

[Archpriest]

So? playing with any faction above 4000mmr proves nothing imo. You have already said you are playing with different factions so SK is not your fix faction. Another thing is winning is not always on faction strength but on cards you get in your hand + on opp. skill so if you are playing few rounds with SK above 4kmmr & winning few that's not makes SK powerful faction, Now I am not indirectly saying SK is weak here as I am just trying to say playing some faction over some mmr makes no sense to judge that faction imo.

Now about SK as I always said the main problem is predictability SK offers in its deck strategies. Smart players can judge almost over 90+% that what strategy & cards SK players is going to have & going to play.
Crach - Wounding mostly with warcry
Bran - Discard
Harald - Wounding mostly with Axeman
Bran / Harald + weather immune units like longships or pirates then mostly weather deck

I am not saying other faction are not predictable but SK is most predictable with all leaders imo & actually this is the main problem I have with Gwent right now as it offers very few strategies & after few games it feels so repetitive & boring to play same gameplay again & again. May be its due to low number of cards but still adding mechanism like positioning in proper way & more cards with good abilities will open more possibilities in future, I hope so...

Bringing draw and opp. skill as an argument will take us nowhere because it applies to anyone playing anything (apart form Henselt, hehehe).
I'm not sure what do you mean by "powerful" though. It's "powerful" enough to compete against Consume, Henselt, etc. Let me put it this way, when I need a win, I usually play this Skellige deck.

As for being predictable, you usually can tell by the first one/two card played, regardless of the leader. Also, I bet you will agree that Skellige leader situation is much better than every other faction, apart from Eithne and Hoog.

 

[GW3NTLORD]

Bringing draw and opp. skill as an argument will take us nowhere because it applies to anyone playing anything (apart form Henselt, hehehe).
I'm not sure what do you mean by "powerful" though. It's "powerful" enough to compete against Consume, Henselt, etc. Let me put it this way, when I need a win, I usually play this Skellige deck.

Hahaha that Hensalt one was good, really good

I am just saying after reaching 4k mark & then playing with any deck is not giving a proper idea about decks. try to use only one faction to reach that high from start & you will understand it's not that easy with SK.

As for being predictable, you usually can tell by the first one/two card played, regardless of the leader. Also, I bet you will agree that Skellige leader situation is much better than every other faction, apart from Eithne and Hoog.

yeh as I said compare to other faction sk is more predictable as you can guess sk strategy just by looking at their leader & most of the times you are right.

About leader these are my own rankings with current patch...

1] Dagon 2] Eithne 3] Voorhis 4] Henselt 5] Hoog 6] Calveit 7] Ge'els 8] Harald 9] Bran 10] Foltest 11] Eredin 12] Crach 13] Emhyr 14] Radovid 15] Francesca

 

[Archpriest]

Hahaha that Hensalt one was good, really good

I have to say though that a couple of times I've seen interesting Henselt decks from the top players.

I am just saying after reaching 4k mark & then playing with any deck is not giving a proper idea about decks. try to use only one faction to reach that high from start & you will understand it's not that easy with SK.

When you're above 4k, every loss will drop you insanely and it's more of a 3-1 win/loss ratio just to keep you stable.
So, every game is important and the decks you're using are paramount.

yeh as I said compare to other faction sk is more predictable as you can guess sk strategy just by looking at their leader & most of the times you are right.

I do think it has very little to do with the Leader you're seeing but a lot with the meta.

About leader these are my own rankings with current patch...

1] Dagon 2] Eithne 3] Voorhis 4] Henselt 5] Hoog 6] Calveit 7] Ge'els 8] Harald 9] Bran 10] Foltest 11] Eredin 12] Crach 13] Emhyr 14] Radovid 15] Francesca

I won't get through all of the list but the top 5, imo are: 1.Dagon, 2.Hoog, 3.Voorhis, 4.Henselt and 5.Harald with Eithne a very close 6.
In other words, all factions are represented. Also, I'm always reluctant to look a the cards in the vacuum. I mean, how good would Hoog be if you put him in Monsters? And that's without the actual card interactions.

 

[MirotheDragon]

Granted, I can't say anything to higher ranked play as I just recently got my Beta invite and have reached ranked last night, but out of my last 10 games or so (all with SK), I won 7, I think, which is more consistent than my other decks to this point. Haven't played against Henselt yet iirc but the only deck I regularly seem to struggle with with my SK deck (Crach, Axemen, Warcry) is another Crach SK deck. So as far as I'm concerned, no, SK does not suck, just the contrary. SK has quickly become my favourite deck (after trying out all factions, and then first focusing on MS and NG before switching to SK).

 

[PacyfistaX]

I dunno, Skellige feels like autopilot decks. But that autopilot causes you to crash. Easy to play but also easy to counter and quite boring. But that's my personal opinion.

As for the leaders I lol'd seeing Voorhis at 3rd place. He is the best of NG leaders and has powerful ability for sure, but Henselt and Ge'els do fit better in meta and NG is not in a good place right now.
Again - that's my opinion.

 

[rainwatr]

Granted, I can't say anything to higher ranked play as I just recently got my Beta invite and have reached ranked last night, but out of my last 10 games or so (all with SK), I won 7, I think, which is more consistent than my other decks to this point. Haven't played against Henselt yet iirc but the only deck I regularly seem to struggle with with my SK deck (Crach, Axemen, Warcry) is another Crach SK deck. So as far as I'm concerned, no, SK does not suck, just the contrary. SK has quickly become my favourite deck (after trying out all factions, and then first focusing on MS and NG before switching to SK).

I'm currently rank 9 and have been using the Panda's Control X-Men. It's been 2 wins and 2 losses for like 4 days in a row. Despite the shabby winrate, it's one of the better Skellige decks as long as you get 2-3 Axemen in your opening hand. It very easily beats out Warcry in power and can compete w/ other Meta decks as long as you get those Axemen. When you don't, the deck is terrible.
Warcry Skellige just doesn't give you enough power to deal w/ Consume Monsters, Memeselt, or even Nilfguard. The fact that you are taking a lot of time to set up the Warcry makes it susceptable to the opponent's board control (Lacerate, Alzur's Thunder, Manticore Venom, Yennifer, etc.).
Monsters can blow an axeman up on turn 1, then play ghoul to guarantee eat it. Meaning either you are forced to burn a Revive or permanently lose an Axemen. Even if they don't eat, Griffin or Caretaker an Axemen, they can still beat you on board, because there just isn't enough control in the deck to deal w/ their cards. Kayran is also troublesome because they can eat 3 of their own creatures lessening the value of Harold. I que into a lot of monsters and it's always a tough matchup.

Scoiatel (Control varient w/ lots of Elves and Toruviel) are also very difficult, just because they tend to gain a card advantage from their faction's passive. By choosing you to go first on turns 2 and 3, they are essentially gaining a 2 card advantage. Made even worse when you lose the coin flip and have to go 1st on turn 1. Not only that, but they have 3 Scorches (Scorch, Nature's Gift, Aglais) to counter big creatures you play. Solid deck and faction, tough matchup. To even have a chance at winning w/ Panda's deck you have to commit REALLY hard on turn 1 by essentially playing out your whole hand and hoping they don't have Scorch.

I've been trying out Swim's Harold Control deck and I definitely like it better. However, I still stand by my earlier statement that I would like to see more viable win conditions for Skellige apart from just Axemen

 

[GW3NTLORD]

When you're above 4k, every loss will drop you insanely and it's more of a 3-1 win/loss ratio just to keep you stable.
So, every game is important and the decks you're using are paramount.

Yehh as I said I am not saying SK is weak but its predictable, repetitive with few strategies, plain & boring to play. How many different decks you saw from SK ? except wounding & discard. Even now discard is not as good as previous due to so much graveyard stealing.

I do think it has very little to do with the Leader you're seeing but a lot with the meta.

Nope.. Leader is very important as if you guess opp. strategy by looking at his/her leader then mulligan becomes very easy & effective too & that's why I thought Dagon is powerful as guessing MO strategy with leader Dagon becomes quite hard.

I won't get through all of the list but the top 5, imo are: 1.Dagon, 2.Hoog, 3.Voorhis, 4.Henselt and 5.Harald with Eithne a very close 6.
In other words, all factions are represented. Also, I'm always reluctant to look a the cards in the vacuum. I mean, how good would Hoog be if you put him in Monsters? And that's without the actual card interactions.

Herald is powerful but situational. I mean you need good amount of card on opp. side to really make him useful, removing 6/8 strength is not a great leader ability & there are tons of counters available for axeman.