Climbing the mountain to the top and welcome Aard with open arms (Rank struggles)

[Bl00dGeist]

Climbing the mountain to the top and welcome Aard with open arms (Rank struggles)

I believe the light bulb finally went on in my head last night as i lost yet another game ( 8 game losing streak now ) . I am now sitting at 61 - 62 ratio at rank 8. This is with only playing NG and no other decks.

Its no surprise that Nilfgaard has always struggled and is usually in discussion of being a weak faction. I am definitely realizing it now as im just getting floored. Biggest obstacles im running into at the moment.

Geralt Igni - I swear this card is the Bane of Nilfgaard. I want to rage every time it is played and opponents have this card all the time. Even with a prepared mindset knowing they have it, because the way NG is structured with spys its always a huge blow. Its very difficult to spread point value across the board. We have to have our emissaries to help thin our decks out. It takes nothing to get our units buffed from impera and nauzicas. I could change those two and try different bronze units but they are built for reveal or have no abilities/underwhelming effects.

Monster Consume - Its already a gamble with Letho and not being able to use him majority of the time on ranged and seige rows. Monster players are smart enough to hold onto a vampire and eat Letho. Killing our chance for the power swing. As well as eating the spies and not able to call them back or destroy them.

Northen Realms - Same ol. Either NR gold to which ive been able to control and manage a lot better. Then you have the foltest, seige and yen con spam. While it easy locking yencon down, it just gets very tiring seeing the shani, neneke combo and are back at full force.

I think what makes it harder is the fact I love how Nilfgaard plays as a faction. Its a lot of fun for me to constantly calculate how to control, when to make the right moves and dictate the players gameplay. I just have no desire to play the other factions as i like how unique NG plays. I know that will limit me and it will definitely be an uphill fight always. Maybe im also drawn to the underdog aspect of it and want to find a way that NG can definitely hang with the big dogs.


I know this is closed beta and changes will happen. I do admit from time to time i forget that and im thinking im playing the full game right now. The biggest concern is what is in the future for NG faction? I feel like its going to need a major overhaul still to be very competitive.

Im curious if anyone else is hitting this wall in climbing the rank ladder? At what about rank or rating did you begin to notice the increased challenge?

 

[JA55er]

I was doing the same thing as you with Foltest before this update. Refused to play any other deck even though it was non competitive. Had 400 games and was still sitting at rank 9. Then i finally decided that I had enough and switched to Morvran. Took only 100 games to get from rank 9 to 15. And now that this recent update rolled out I'm just to afraid to play ranked with him since it has killed rot tosser deck. But I fell in love with Morvran NG for the same reason as you. It is very unique and makes you think a lot about how to counter your opponent when you know what his next plays are.

Anyways once you get all the golds that you need you will definitely be able to climb to rank 15. It's not a bad deck it's just hard to play most of the time and can get screwed by bad RNG, like playing Vilg into Cahir when you still haven't used your leader's ability...

 

[Bl00dGeist]

I was doing the same thing as you with Foltest before this update. Refused to play any other deck even though it was non competitive. Had 400 games and was still sitting at rank 9. Then i finally decided that I had enough and switched to Morvran. Took only 100 games to get from rank 9 to 15. And now that this recent update rolled out I'm just to afraid to play ranked with him since it has killed rot tosser deck. But I fell in love with Morvran NG for the same reason as you. It is very unique and makes you think a lot about how to counter your opponent when you know what his next plays are.

Anyways once you get all the golds that you need you will definitely be able to climb to rank 15. It's not a bad deck it's just hard to play most of the time and can get screwed by bad RNG, like playing Vilg into Cahir when you still haven't used your leader's ability...

I appreciate the feedback

I do have all the golds and NG cards but even so. I had to drop Letho because i can never play him on range or seige rows. Cow tossing is pretty much dead.

I think i may just have to take a break from the game. Sometimes a refresher will help me get out of certain mindset/playset.

 

[nouvato]

Good advice, thank you.

start with a solid skelly deck, to reach level 10, then switch for more fun nilfgaard on ranked.

still playing on very low ranks trying to climb, loosing against golden trebuches, Monsters weather/consume and mirror mostly.

may you show your deck?, thank you.

 

[Ravana729]

I don't feel very controlled by NG and that's sad. Also the cows were silly. I don't find it believable that a cow could do that kind of damage. It's funny the first couple of times, but an assassin would have been cooler. Those buffed units of NG are very vulnerable to scorch too. Seems like a scorch can totally disable a NG deck. And then with Aglais to repeat it, once they think the scorch is gone...

 

[TurkeySon]

I am at level nine and most of my success has come with NG Morvan. I understand what you are sayng but I feel perhaps you keep playing the deck to your build strategy and are frustrated when your build is beat or thwarted.

I play this deck completely as a counter puncher and save my plays for later, but mostly just frustrate the opponenets obvious plays. Every gold and monster deck is the same old story, you know what they are doing two turns in. They build their gold spam towers and cards, or they start to copy nekkers, or they send in vran to eat. Your biggest advantage is you know exactly what they are gong to do.

So:
1) do not get caught up with the NG specific cards just becasue they are so cool, I turned the corner when I got rid of letho. There are great gold cards that many replace for faction specific cards and should not.

2) Don think about scoring think about blocking. I load my special cards with lacerate, Alzur, DT bomb, and of course shackles. I just blow up his play, he spends so many cards that he struggles to get the big payday.

3) mess with his graveyard. I love Vicovaro, and I use them early. They send their desired cards to the grave in round one, and I immediately resurrect them and put them on my side.

4) Rot Tossers still rule. While I am doing all of this, I still use the Rot Tossers, for one they build up your Impera guards, if they get turned to gold no big deal, now you have a perma spy. But don't think of them as destroyers but of forcing the other guy to make decisions earlier or later than he had hoped.

When you blow up this build decks they are toothless, not always possible but often possible. When you use Morvan and Cahir you get two chances to have that final death card. To D-bomb the gold siege row, to lacerate the mele row, and don't forget your First Light card (s). ON the monster decks this is often the end for him...just wait, let him use all his weather crap and then drop that.

The key is you cannot let him build to a point that his graveyard is so stacked with buffed and spawned cards that you are done.

Don't forget Auckels as another locker.

My big win cards then come with Joachim, Cantarella, Treason, and Vilgefortz (this card is great with the ole vicocarro cards as they leave you a 2 point target for Vilge on your side)

I make my deck a little bigger like 27 cards to add more special cards.

Lastly, I have almost totally stopped using Ambassador cards. They just over buff some target on your side that gets killed or they are resurrected by the other side to screw you over, instead of Ambassador I use other special cards for blocking.

Often I lose one round by like 30 points, win another round by an early pass of the opponent and then crush him at the end because he has nothing left and a messed up graveyard.

 

[nouvato]

Thank you for the strategy, we are talking about cards, and good ideas about how/when/against use those cards, are we playing the same deck, but?

Many of this we already are figure out, drop Ambassador long time ago, never got a Letho. Save a D-bomb, First Light, Lacerate, Vicovaro, Auckes or Menno (yep i got a Menno, my only one legend. nice) its so comforting.

stuck on rank 4th, cant compete against all those amazing legends cards

very frustrated when Vs. a mirror match, cause I outplayed my opponent with my lack of legend deck, to lost the match cause he/she/it bring to game the "must to have" Nilfgaard cards.

Craft a 800 scrap cards its too hard for a new player, anyway like all games we have to grind all time.
A good Craft guide, would be

Bronze:
Emmisary->Vicovaro Kedic->Rot Tosser->Combat Engineer->Nauzicaa Brigade

Silver/Gold:
Movran Voorhis->Cahir->Stefan Keller->Auckes->Cantarella->Joachim de Wett->Treason (if you dont get Menno i think)

or save your scrap for legends

Vilgefortz->Geralt: Igni->Xarthisius->Menno Coehoorn

 

[JA55er]

Good advice, thank you.

start with a solid skelly deck, to reach level 10, then switch for more fun nilfgaard on ranked.

still playing on very low ranks trying to climb, loosing against golden trebuches, Monsters weather/consume and mirror mostly.

may you show your deck?, thank you.

If you wanna look at my deck then here is a link: http://www.gwentdb.com/decks/16537-new-shame

 

[soph912]

I don't feel very controlled by NG and that's sad. Also the cows were silly. I don't find it believable that a cow could do that kind of damage. It's funny the first couple of times, but an assassin would have been cooler. Those buffed units of NG are very vulnerable to scorch too. Seems like a scorch can totally disable a NG deck. And then with Aglais to repeat it, once they think the scorch is gone...

The cows are not very good. NG has Nauzicaa Brigades. NR can promote the row to gold. ST can replay the cow with Blue Mountain Commando. Monsters can consume it but at least it's only one point. And of course there is decoy, locking and lots of special cards for removal.

Against ST you have to avoid buffing units and toggle them for next round but sometimes it's difficult to avoid.

 

[TurkeySon]

Thank you for the strategy, we are talking about cards, and good ideas about how/when/against use those cards, are we playing the same deck, but?

Many of this we already are figure out, drop Ambassador long time ago, never got a Letho. Save a D-bomb, First Light, Lacerate, Vicovaro, Auckes or Menno (yep i got a Menno, my only one legend. nice) its so comforting.

Well pardon me....was not replying to you by the way, but seems you got it all figured out....

 

[Bl00dGeist]

I am at level nine and most of my success has come with NG Morvan. I understand what you are sayng but I feel perhaps you keep playing the deck to your build strategy and are frustrated when your build is beat or thwarted.

I play this deck completely as a counter puncher and save my plays for later, but mostly just frustrate the opponenets obvious plays. Every gold and monster deck is the same old story, you know what they are doing two turns in. They build their gold spam towers and cards, or they start to copy nekkers, or they send in vran to eat. Your biggest advantage is you know exactly what they are gong to do.

So:
1) do not get caught up with the NG specific cards just becasue they are so cool, I turned the corner when I got rid of letho. There are great gold cards that many replace for faction specific cards and should not.

2) Don think about scoring think about blocking. I load my special cards with lacerate, Alzur, DT bomb, and of course shackles. I just blow up his play, he spends so many cards that he struggles to get the big payday.

3) mess with his graveyard. I love Vicovaro, and I use them early. They send their desired cards to the grave in round one, and I immediately resurrect them and put them on my side.

4) Rot Tossers still rule. While I am doing all of this, I still use the Rot Tossers, for one they build up your Impera guards, if they get turned to gold no big deal, now you have a perma spy. But don't think of them as destroyers but of forcing the other guy to make decisions earlier or later than he had hoped.

When you blow up this build decks they are toothless, not always possible but often possible. When you use Morvan and Cahir you get two chances to have that final death card. To D-bomb the gold siege row, to lacerate the mele row, and don't forget your First Light card (s). ON the monster decks this is often the end for him...just wait, let him use all his weather crap and then drop that.

The key is you cannot let him build to a point that his graveyard is so stacked with buffed and spawned cards that you are done.

Don't forget Auckels as another locker.

My big win cards then come with Joachim, Cantarella, Treason, and Vilgefortz (this card is great with the ole vicocarro cards as they leave you a 2 point target for Vilge on your side)

I make my deck a little bigger like 27 cards to add more special cards.

Lastly, I have almost totally stopped using Ambassador cards. They just over buff some target on your side that gets killed or they are resurrected by the other side to screw you over, instead of Ambassador I use other special cards for blocking.

Often I lose one round by like 30 points, win another round by an early pass of the opponent and then crush him at the end because he has nothing left and a messed up graveyard.

I was pondering about trying to create a denial/control type deck. Focus more on special cards as oppose to units. Im sure the bigger gamble will be not enough units and falling very short of power.

Lacerate from my experience doesnt do much at all. Because we are the only faction that cant retrieve or play cards out of our own graveyard, the other factions easily fish them all back out.

Letho imo is one of the best and i believe a must in most decks. Because he is so versatile. He can help you defensively if you suspect scorch or geralt igni is coming up. Play him on the offense and he gives you a spy point. He also banishes units completely preventing resurrections. And of course if you have treason or JC after locking him you can retrieve him. It just sucks because of the bug of not knowing you can play him on seige or ranged rows.

Operator and Canterella is always in my decks.

I will admit i dont go heavy with Vico. Only because i have bad luck with them. Half the stuff in their graveyard you cant even get because they are permadeath or silvers.

 

[Frontovika]

I feel the same way as you, OP. I've experimented with Northern Realms and Scoia'tel, but I feel that NIlfgaard's faction ability and card roster makes them extremely adept at controlling the battlefield.

I've been climbing the ladder with a Morvran Voorhis control deck and have been getting mixed results. I do very well against Scoia'tel & Skellige, but poorly against NR/Monsters.

I've also used an Emhyr reveal/synergy deck, but it fares poorly in the numbers game against Monsters and Northern Realm.

How have you been faring so far OP?

 

[Bl00dGeist]

I feel the same way as you, OP. I've experimented with Northern Realms and Scoia'tel, but I feel that NIlfgaard's faction ability and card roster makes them extremely adept at controlling the battlefield.

I've been climbing the ladder with a Morvran Voorhis control deck and have been getting mixed results. I do very well against Scoia'tel & Skellige, but poorly against NR/Monsters.

I've also used an Emhyr reveal/synergy deck, but it fares poorly in the numbers game against Monsters and Northern Realm.

How have you been faring so far OP?

I took a break for a while to prevent burnout and even ponder on new tactics. It definitely helped out and i even discovered some fun combos i completely over looked.

I jumped back into casual first with some experimental decks and ideas. I forgot how refreshing it is to play other decks and not the same ones in ranked over and over. Once i got my decks fleshed out i jumped back into rank and ive been on an ok win run.

I am still sticking with voorhis but been playing a hybrid reveal type deck. Its been a lot of fun and i think it has been throwing some people off guard because voorhis isnt usually used for reveal. So far ive been getting some solid wins with it in rank.

Here are some ideas and conclusions i feel comfortable with.

. Impera brigade : I feel at this point they are completely useless unless your leader is JC. Even with the buffs they get, essentially you are still only playing a bronze unit with power of 6 and you are giving the opponent points. If the imperas get nuked (which they are such easy targets for igni and scorch) its a double whammy. You lose points and your opponent gains even more points. So id rather play knights or nauzicas to take away their points we are giving them.

. Spies in general. Unless you are running JC im finding it almost no point in running any spies at all except opperator + canterlla combo.
- Emissary : Unless you can draw a nauzicaa or a knight, I feel any other bronze is a complete waste.
- Ambassador : Might as well add in the text (grants +12 to random unit followed by scorch or igni)
- dewett : I believe to get the most bang out of your buck you need to pull a weak bronze unit or nauzica again. Of course its ideal to setup stefen with him so you know what unit you can draw. Otherwise its a complete gamble and i hate not having controll of what will be played.

. Tibor and Cahir : Since Cahir is pretty much a must have and he grants the opponent a card, I might as well use everybit of the card and put in reveal buff card types. Same for Tibor.

. Geralt igni : I broke down and went to the dark side and now run him. I swore i would never run it because everyone els3 does and you get sick and tired of seeing it all the time. Theres no denying it why people do. He tends to devastate the opponent.

 

[Frontovika]

Thanks for your thoughts, OP! By the way, I took a closer look at your name, and I think I may have played against you before. We should group up for some practice matches sometimes.

I've been experimenting with JC, Emhyr, and Voorhis .. and I'm still only comfortable with the latter.

I agree with your assessment that most spy cards are useless without JC. I've been experimenting with a Voorhis Control deck .. with a Weather twist, but it's a miss most of the time, especially against Monsters and Northern Realms. Now it's full control with YenCon for extra pressure .. and Dudu for that swing just in case.

Must have golds for my deck are - Triss, Stefan, and Vilgefortz. I was running Cahir but swapped him for Albrich as the other golds are higher priority.

At this point, your best hope is to dominate the board and control it as much as possible. I'd say that Stefan is essential for Round 1 so you can counter accordingly and win.

 

[Bl00dGeist]

Thanks for your thoughts, OP! By the way, I took a closer look at your name, and I think I may have played against you before. We should group up for some practice matches sometimes.

I would definitely be down for that. Unfortunately because I decided to play on xbox there is no way to match up. If you do play on xbox i think the only way we could practice is we would have to filter the search for xbox players only and search at the same time and hope. Which i would be more than willing to try.

Ive been on the fence to try a heavy cow toss controll deck. I wouldnt play them reactively but toss the rots on empty rows. Creating a soft lock and forcing the opponent to play cards they dont want to lose. Of course the downfall is monster consume will eat it up but in a way denying a bigger buff unit to possibly carry over to the next round. SK can inflict damage to their own units and target the cow but thats one less unit to get buffed on their side. Anything to delay of playing the cards to start a combo and forcing them to play cards they dont want to.

 

[Frontovika]

Sounds good, OP. I'm using the PC, so I don't think we can group up. How's your rank looking on the ladder thus far?

 

[Bl00dGeist]

Sounds good, OP. I'm using the PC, so I don't think we can group up. How's your rank looking on the ladder thus far?

I am back at averaging 2-1 win ratio roughly. Because i let my frustration get to me i put myself in a pretty big hole when i originally created the post.

It definitely helped to take an extended break. I was starting to develop tunnel vision with my gameplay. Focusing to much on combos rather the opponents play style and cards. I was really hooked on Letho but i was constantly losing games because of the broken glitch with him. So i changed it up

Ive been having alot of fun with voorhis and reveal. I think it has been catching some people off guard because emer is the go to with reveal. As i am climbing again its running out of steam and i think i have to change play styles again.

​​​​​​​Thank you for asking

 

[thaneize]

the rot tosser rat card despawns even if its goldified, its basically just a way to screw up the plan of a NR player and his gold moves. I like to play morvran a lot, the reveal archtype isnt my style of playing gwent. I like with morvran that you can play so many cards and the mix of ambassadors, emissarys, impera brigade and vicovaro medics combined with lacerate and simmilar cards is what really makes the deck good, also Stefan Skellen + Albrich/Morvran
Peter Sarr Gwynleve is a very useful card.