New Patch New Meta - The good and bad

[Khreygond]

New Patch New Meta - The good and bad

The meta seems to be settling around ST mulligan and other ST decks, Eithne for example. Eithne Shupe remains a pretty good deck while Reveal is stronger than it ever has been.

What really surprised me is that currently most decks seem to be working. Spies are weaker than ever and very rarely encountered but against ST Mulligan decks they perform adequately for example, which means we might see them again soon.

Eredin Wild Hunt seems to be working again as it can now be a reasonable choice. SK Bears are still pretty common but not as much as they were.

Harald Axeman remains a difficult to pilot but still relatively useful deck while Werewolves are a decent option as well. Deathwish and armor didn't suffer any major nerf either so they work to the extent that they used to before the update, with both even being viable for Ranked play at least up to the lower and middle ranks so far.

Henselt Machines are as usable as they were, so are Nekkers

All in all, this seems to be the finest meta we've seen. It's still too early to say for sure but even the current top decks (ST Mulligan - Eithne Farseers and Dragoons) certainly have their weaknesses and those weaknesses are widely available and easily exploited. Contrary to Nekkers, you don't need to tech against them to stand a chance for example

I hope this season remains as packed with varied decks as it is now.

What are your thoughts and experiences of the meta so far?

 

[Iuliandrei]

Reveal "seems" stronger because someone finally made another deck for people to copy, everyone mindlessly played the exact same bad netdeck for 2 months.

 

[Khreygond]

Reveal "seems" stronger because someone finally made another deck for people to copy, everyone mindlessly played the exact same bad netdeck for 2 months.

I think it's still not viable but definitely stronger than it was before Midwinter.

What I could never get is why people use Drought. As NG you have no way to punish row stacking, Korathi Heatwave (as is its awesome new name ) is a counter-intuitive choice really

 

[Tir_na_Lia]

(OP, has anyone by any chance foresaw ST swap and Shupe decks ?)

Yup, in my opinion too this looks like the most balanced meta so far.
I'm actually surprised.

I just played 5 ladder games where I got 5 consecutive blue coins (1-4-0, btw), so the next paragraph might be influenced by the fact I'd like to rip off someone's spine ala Mortal Kombat.

Coinflip looks like the most decisive factor, more now than ever since the balance has improved.
Just now I fought against Axemen where the only thing that mattered was who had the last word, and ST Mulligans where the winner was who had drawn more Yeavinn/Wardancers.

I don't mind losing a game by one card if I went first (it's how the story goes, in general), but the coinflip should definitely be addressed.
(or implement some sort of f***ing 'pity timer' to avoid someone getting too many consecutive blue coins)

Since they removed its issues from the tournaments it looks like they postponed it indefinitely, they do not even say it's urgent.

I'd appreciate some system to be implemented to -at least try- mitigate the coinflip issue.
If Gwent is to become a successful game, its worst problem must be solved in a way or another.

 

[Khreygond]

OP, has anyone by any chance foresaw ST swap and Shupe decks ?

Indeed all credit for the prediction as well as helping me dust off my old Mulligan deck goes to you my friend

As to the coinflip issue, I agree it is pretty prevalent but someone has to play first. Like, I don't see any real way to fix that, though there are a lot of ideas they all seem...lacking.

Then Mill also got removed, I've only encountered it once and that was from some user who didn't know Avallac'h is now doomed. He played a dead Renew and immediately forfeited

As to the bad part of this meta, well, Spell'tael is still unplayable until Dol Blathanna Sentries are buffed (their strength is at a meager 2 - which means that for them to even get the nominal bronze value, 10 special cards need to have been played beforehand).

Calveit Alchemy is also not as common as it was, especially since Letho:Kingslayer got an indirect nerf from Commander's Horn.

On the other hand, while Armor is still playable, it fails against Eithne Triple Scorch, and so do Spies, their Impera Brigades being the perfect targets.

Also, the only really good option for NR remains Henselt Machines, with Armor being a close second but nothing else being really meta.

 

[Lyserus]

Ethine Shupe? how does that work?

 

[Esmer]

Reveal is stronger simply because everything else has been nerfed. I see two versions of it (with Villie and with Nova), and both lack points to be competitive. Reveal could probably be good if there was less point spam and more engines.

 

[Rawls]

Ethine Shupe? how does that work?

Deck thinning. It's pretty strong against everything but spies mill (which owns it hard).

 

[partci]

... What I could never get is why people use Drought. As NG you have no way to punish row stacking, Korathi Heatwave (as is its awesome new name ) is a counter-intuitive choice really

Cause you can force someone out of a round and it is not messing with your scorches.

... I don't mind losing a game by one card if I went first (it's how the story goes, in general), but the coinflip should definitely be addressed.
(or implement some sort of f***ing 'pity timer' to avoid someone getting too many consecutive blue coins)...

I usually go blue 8 out of 10 games. It's like I'm used to it, but it's so frustrating when you lose a game because exactly of this (and you can tell it's because of this).

Other HUGE factor - the carryover. You know the cards - Olgierd, Wardancer and to an extent - Morkvarg. Those three can be easily fixed - Olgierd and Morkie to trigger a la Ronvid, while Wardancer to drop like an Ambush card that can turn even at the start of your next turn, if not at the end of your initial turn.

 

[Voyagers]

The reveal archtype uses strong R1 openers to win round 1 and then switches to control style as a finisher. This was bad during the last patch since the scorches just do not keep up with the points dwarves or bears generate. In this patch since they have been nerfed they are slightly better. I think alchemy has benefited the most as it use to be good but just could not generate as much tempo as dwarves in the last patch but now they can generate more tempo than most decks. The same goes with swap ST

 

[Tir_na_Lia]

Then Mill also got removed, I've only encountered it once and that was from some user who didn't know Avallac'h is now doomed. He played a dead Renew and immediately forfeited

I had the pleasure to see some (few) guys trying to Mill, and I can proudly say I have a 100% winrate againt them so far.

On the other hand, while Armor is still playable, it fails against Eithne Triple Scorch, and so do Spies, their Impera Brigades being the perfect targets.

Stop arousing me.

Other HUGE factor - the carryover. You know the cards - Olgierd, Wardancer and to an extent - Morkvarg. Those three can be easily fixed - Olgierd and Morkie to trigger a la Ronvid, while Wardancer to drop like an Ambush card that can turn even at the start of your next turn, if not at the end of your initial turn.

Agree, totally.

Giving the units you mentioned the 'Ronvid' treatment could potentially fix most blue coin problems.

 

[SkippyHole]

I find this meta more boring than the last so far. Every game I play seems to be against the same Francesca deck, that just vomits a lot of points with big Vrihedd Officers that come out as 18 points every turn, Wardancer turn 2, elves being spammed all game and often the most boring card in the game, Ciri: Nova to finish it off. I'm hoping it's only because of the really stupid faction challenge, that forces people to play one specific faction for a week with no variation, and then we'll go back to something better.

 

[Khreygond]

I had the pleasure to see some (few) guys trying to Mill, and I can proudly say I have a 100% winrate againt them so far.

On the other hand my hybrid Reveal/Mill seems to perform adequately against ST decks so far You've experienced that of course (Pobably because I switched to Tibor and the way Scoia decks are currently, they either play their whole bronze core/are milled out of it or they end up with a Vrihedd sapper drawn which is useless as the last card )

Stop arousing me.

Right you and your scorches, of course xD You should have been around during the closed beta you'd love what was going on Schirru, Aglais, Nature's Gift, Scorch, Eithne and Geralt:Igni/Villen to burn everything xD

I find this meta more boring than the last so far. Every game I play seems to be against the same Francesca deck, that just vomits a lot of points with big Vrihedd Officers that come out as 18 points every turn, Wardancer turn 2, elves being spammed all game and often the most boring card in the game, Ciri: Nova to finish it off. I'm hoping it's only because of the really stupid faction challenge, that forces people to play one specific faction for a week with no variation, and then we'll go back to something better.

Probably not though. I do see a lot of those but I also see Brouver and Eithne with Farseers and Dragoons. Also, unlike Dwarves, this deck has easily exploitable weaknesses, namely, make sure you bleed them out of their Elf swarm and their vanguards become subpar plays. It's pretty meta

 

[Esmer]

Is it just me or everyone plays only ST?

The last season I encountered Eithne decks 90% of the time at 4300 MMR.

This season in rains ST (Brouver and Eithne mostly) non-stop at 2500 MMR.

One of the Brouver decks was actually interesting enough to pull Barclay into Cleaver on turn one for 24 points swing. But the rest is boring "spam elves, mulligan officers".

 

[Khreygond]

Is it just me or everyone plays only ST?

The last season I encountered Eithne decks 90% of the time at 4300 MMR.

This season in rains ST (Brouver and Eithne mostly) non-stop at 2500 MMR.

One of the Brouver decks was actually interesting enough to pull Barclay into Cleaver on turn one for 24 points swing. But the rest is boring "spam elves, mulligan officers".

Hmm, they definitely are popular but no, I wouldn't say boring at all. Just because their deck plan is linear doesn't make it boring. Many decks have a linear gameplan, namely old dwarves, reveal, spies, greatswords, etc. Plus they are far better to play against than say, Axemen or Nekkers

 

[Maerd]

Then Mill also got removed, I've only encountered it once and that was from some user who didn't know Avallac'h is now doomed. He played a dead Renew and immediately forfeited

It's not removed, it's still pretty strong. After reading about people complaints about mill I decided to try it out. I crafted myself my own mill deck earlier and just blazed through the low ranks into rank 17 in one day with amazing win rate. The biggest problem of that mill deck was playing against alchemy, which was 100% loss due to slave drivers and, thus, ointments become bricks. So, after running into alchemy way too often at rank 17 I switched to alchemy myself, got with it to rank 18. Then I came up with my current unique deck.

Regarding the meta in general, it seems varied only at lower ranks. As I'm now approaching top 1000 it's only ST swappers, ST scorchers, ST Shupe, NG reveal, and SK bears 90% of the time. Monsters and NR are extremely rare and usually there just to loose. I play SK pirates with dragons, which I found when creating fun decks and suddenly it appears to be pretty competitive variant, with which I'm approaching rank 20 now. I'm the only one, who plays it, which also creates an element of surprise for people who never encountered it.

 

[Tir_na_Lia]

On the other hand my hybrid Reveal/Mill seems to perform adequately against ST decks so far You've experienced that of course (Pobably because I switched to Tibor and the way Scoia decks are currently, they either play their whole bronze core/are milled out of it or they end up with a Vrihedd sapper drawn which is useless as the last card )

Right you and your scorches, of course xD You should have been around during the closed beta you'd love what was going on Schirru, Aglais, Nature's Gift, Scorch, Eithne and Geralt:Igni/Villen to burn everything xD

You milled an outdated Baron deck, not a ST one. And it was a friendly match, so it does not count. And I also went easy on you.
(I can write more reasons if asked):rly?:

I was playing CB since late February, I remember the Scorch fest.

Sad that Ambush was cut down, I can name several much more oppressive archetypes (if that was the explanation for removing it).

 

[Esmer]

Hmm, they definitely are popular but no, I wouldn't say boring at all. Just because their deck plan is linear doesn't make it boring. Many decks have a linear gameplan, namely old dwarves, reveal, spies, greatswords, etc. Plus they are far better to play against than say, Axemen or Nekkers

My Coral loves nekkers!

Anyway, I just scorched two 15 points officers with Aguara, feels pretty good. But it's still a boring elves spam deck.

The biggest problem against ST is that if you lose a coin flip, it's practically impossible to catch up on tempo. And, unlike revealgaard, ST actually have good finishers, so going even 1 card down is usually gg (I am kidding, no gg for filthy netdeckers).

 

[DRK3]

I definitely have been facing Elves SC the most, and almost all of them are the same 2 or 3 netdecks. Its either Francesca Mulligan, Eithne handbuffs or Eithné control. They have a tempo i never seen on SC before, and im getting tired of the control options.

Since im supporting SK on the challenge, i always get screwed by these decks, the first 4 or 5 turns its me putting savage bears or berserkers (the ones that turn to bears when damaged), for them to be instantly destroyed by thunder spam. Then they always have locks, artefact and scorches to screw all my key units...

On the NG Reveal, i actually havent seen any difference in power since last meta, although it is indeed more popular.

And seems every Calveit deck NEEDS to be Alchemy, its a shame since Calveit is a very versatile leader and can work with anything.

 

[OG.laloquaint]

I always knew Elf Swap would be a viable deck. The addition of cards like Isengrim: Outlaw and Half-Elf Hunter(?) really make it great. I even use Avallach in mine since he's an elf too. I've been using a Deathwish deck myself and it's pretty good. I think the patch really balanced things out.