Is it just me or does Skellige really suck?

[PrincessAzula]

You're right. Skellige does suck. It's horrible! Nothing will ever feel worse than when Zu-Zu stole my crown and became Fire Lord during my crowning ceremony. It was supposed to be MY day, MINE. But Zu-Zu and Water Girl took it from me! Nothing will ever be worse than the traitorous Zu-Zu becoming Fire Lord, but playing a Skellige deck is a close second.

 

[4RM3D]

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.

I have a decent win-rate against monsters with my SK Wounding deck. Anyhow, Axemen getting axed is a weakness not just against Monsters. If I don't have enough axemen or resses (usually do to a bad opening hand), I am usually pretty screwed. But I can still stall the first round and hope for some better cards the 2nd round. Also, I still have Raging Berserker as backup which has won me a lot of games. It's a pretty solid card and less vulnerable to removal compared to Axemen.

On a final note, when facing Monsters, Dagon is usually more of a problem because he can insta gib your whole row of Axemen.

 

[Archpriest]

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.

Isn't essentially every faction predictable at the moment?
Not arguing here, merely observing.

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.

The first time I made to 4500 I was running SK deck with Bran, two An Craite Raiders and Morkvarg but it wasn't a discard deck. It's on player to deceive (if possible, of course) the opponent.
Right now, you can also see a reveal deck with Voorhis.

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.

Harald is pure value. He's much better than Ge'els because the latter only gives your side +2. Harald removes 2 and buffs your units. Plus, right now, everybody has a decent amount of units on the board.

PacyfistaX
Voorhis is perfect for Nilfgaard and his ability is very strong within that faction. As was mentioned, looking at the card in a vacuum is useless and can be counterproductive.

On a final note, when facing Monsters, Dagon is usually more of a problem because he can insta gib your whole row of Axemen.

That's when that OP, gamebreaking piece of... I mean First Light is useful.

Also, a friendly word of advice - those Raging Bersekers only cripple this deck.

 

[4RM3D]

Also, a friendly word of advice - those Raging Bersekers only cripple this deck.

Oh? Why do they cripple the deck? Care to explain? I've used them to not solely rely on Axemen.

 

[Archpriest]

Oh? Why do they cripple the deck? Care to explain? I've used them to not solely rely on Axemen.

Because all they do is provide dead value.

 

[4RM3D]

Because all they do is provide dead value.

That still doesn't explain anything.

 

[Archpriest]

That still doesn't explain anything.

Hope PM did...

 

[GW3NTLORD]

Isn't essentially every faction predictable at the moment?
Not arguing here, merely observing.

Nope I really don't think so... yes guessing is possible but its not perfect like its against sk imo.
ST - So many possibilities with Eithne & Hoog... ambush / weather / control / buffing & so on
MO - Ge'els is only predictable I think as he goes good with breed but Dagon & Eredin goes good with breed / consume / weather & so on
NG - Calveit is predictable with spy strategy but other two specially Voorhis goes quite good with many decks.
NR - Not a single leader is predictable at least for me. Even with hensalt there are many possibilities as you also said that "I have to say though that a couple of times I've seen interesting Henselt decks from the top players."

But I mentioned above how only single strategy works with SK leader & because of that mulligan is super easy for opp.

The first time I made to 4500 I was running SK deck with Bran, two An Craite Raiders and Morkvarg but it wasn't a discard deck. It's on player to deceive (if possible, of course) the opponent.
Right now, you can also see a reveal deck with Voorhis.

That's because at some time after some patches few strategies goes quite powerful then other as I don't remembers exactly but I think after 2nd last patch SK Discard goes pretty powerful with Bran, Morkvarg & Olgierd. After latest patch I don't think it's possible to reach that high with same deck with change in Bran & with new lock ability.
Now if someone reach 4k+ mark with Radovid control & If he said now that I have done it with NR Radovid then I think it's not a proper way to judge some faction or deck as with every patch we are getting lots of changes in many cards.

Harald is pure value. He's much better than Ge'els because the latter only gives your side +2. Harald removes 2 and buffs your units. Plus, right now, everybody has a decent amount of units on the board.

Hmm never faced Ge'els after new patch [ as I am playing very rarely ] so hard to say but still for me both are equally good. Currently really don't have any point to argue who's better so... :x

 

[MirotheDragon]

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

SK has more win conditions than just axemen. I don't necessarily need to draw mine in order to play a strong game and win, although having both axemen and a good warcry setup just feels...good ^^ And committing on round 1 is something I rarely ever do with a SK deck. I often give round 1 away if a) it would force me to spend too many resources to win, or b) I can thus force my opponent to either give me the win or a nice CA. Only exception: If I play against another SK deck, because he will gain the same passive advantage for later rounds so it's moot to wait.

MO are my favourite opponent, by the way, because it's usually a rather easy win for me, so likely our strategies differ quite a bit

 

[Nimraphel]

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

Good post.

I lament the loss of Skellige variety as well. Imagine for a moment that they only introduced the positional changes and lock changes as of last patch; Clan Haeymaey Skjald (CHS) would only affect adjacent units. Morkvarg would be 7 strength still (and lockable like now). King Bran would still give +1 to the discarded cards, providing SK with a decent tempo option.

.... Would that be overpowered? I doubt it.

Discard unfortunately got extremely gutted. Warships are weaker than their counterparts in other factions (Mangonels, ReTrebs/Siege Towers), Birna is nerfed, King Bran got nerfed, Morkvarg got nerfed on top of the introduction of locking, Graveyard manipulation is now much more of a thing vs. Monsters, making that matchup inherently unfavoured...

An archetype was outright killed at competitive (all?) level(s) due to broad, sweeping, sledgehammer nerfs rather than careful, thoughtful and balanced adjusting. Would Discard Skellige be dominant after the positioning patch if that + locking were the only changes introduced? I honestly do not think so. CHS was in large part one of the primary culprits for Discard Skellige's dominance along with the lack of locking for Morkvarg. Positioning and Locking changes changed both. The archetype would have been severely weakened but arguably still viable.

Instead, it is completely gutted and Skellige continues to oscillate between decktypes from patch to patch due to lack of proper nursing to its archetypes. It's a shame.

 

[4RM3D]

Discard unfortunately got extremely gutted.

R.I.P. discard. It's a shame Sigrfrida cannot ress it.

Discard was one of my favorite decks. Not because it was OP, but just because of the sheer amount of synergy it had.

 

[Ultralisk31]

Although I don't play Skellige, almost every time I play against Harold decks, I usually have a high win rate with consume monsters and ST control so I can agree with what you are saying and Skellige is by far the worst faction in the game.

From my experience this is how I win against Harold decks:

Consume Monsters:
- Usually win in card advantage which leads me to counter axemen with Dagon's fog.
- Consume decks also have huge power swings, but they are not 100% dependent on one card like Harold decks do which leaves them more options than just with one card.
- Consume decks also control graveyard really well, so once majority of the axemen are out of the game, the monster deck overpowers Harold in card value.

Control ST:
- With card advantage, cards like Toruviel become unstoppable for Harold.
- Controlling the axemen can mess up their turn since the archers would have little value.
- With dragoon buffed cards, Scoi Tael do not have to worry about that minion being controlled.

 

[ComicsStreaper]

Who knows why some players have 10 or 15 cards in the deck at the beginning of the game. Although minimally like 25 cards?

 

[God_of_Eredin]

Monsters own all with latest consume/control hybrid deck.

 

[noseleather]

Skellige is the most op deck and monsters is weak unless you buy every card.

 

[4RM3D]

Skellige is the most op deck and monsters is weak unless you buy every card.

...said no player ever.

Seriously though, buying cards is the answer to every faction. Still, some factions do perform better when having all the cards you need. The decks played at the top rank in order are: 1) MO, 2) ST, 3) NR, 4) SK, 5) NG.

 

[xferus]

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.

Yeah, I destroy Skellige with my average Henselt deck (about 80% of times) LOL. Poor self-wounding bastards can't survive my D-Bomb and bad weather

 

[noseleather]

...said no player ever.

Seriously though, buying cards is the answer to every faction. Still, some factions do perform better when having all the cards you need. The decks played at the top rank in order are: 1) MO, 2) ST, 3) NR, 4) SK, 5) NG.

Well with default starter decks, skellige is the most overpowered. The leader card = automatically 16 power and all the person needs is warcry for 32 in two plays, not to mention that its more than likely that warcry is in the hand and the leader card is permanently there. Absolutely no counter unless you have scorch or a weather card (no cards have scorch or weather abilities in the default decks). Its pretty broken.

 

[a_page06]

Well with default starter decks, skellige is the most overpowered. The leader card = automatically 16 power and all the person needs is warcry for 32 in two plays, not to mention that its more than likely that warcry is in the hand and the leader card is permanently there. Absolutely no counter unless you have scorch or a weather card (no cards have scorch or weather abilities in the default decks). Its pretty broken.

With a starter deck though by the time you get to ranked you'll have most of the small faction cards, and maybe a heroic or two, so the likelihood that any deck is viable at the lower ranks is pretty good. Most MMR related games have this-any deck/hero/whatever is good at the lower ranks, because typically just outplaying your opponent is enough. That's why I just run NG and don't worry about it too much. Its unlikely I'll play enough to climb all the way to rank 12-13+ where the deck you use really matters all that much, and its just a fun deck in the lower ranks.

Another thing starter players often don't do is craft the basic neutral and heroic neutral cards. Dbomb and Igni are probably the two best cards I've ever crafted in terms of win rate, because people either don't expect it, can't stop me from using it, or just don't have anything to protect the high power in their deck.

 

[The_def_star]

I think I was lucky that I unlocked scorch early on when I first got the game. It isn't until I got in Rank and learned that I needed to add a Dbomb in my deck to counter a lot of things. As far as my Skillege deck it's a mixture of Axe men and bears and I am having fun with it. I know that the current popular Skillege deck is having Axe men and Blue Boy Lugos but I like to play decks that don't follow the meta to a T.