My two favourite fun decks for casual -
A Study of Ciri in 3 Acts -
Leader: Bran
Gold: Ciri, Ciri: Dash, Ciri: Nova, Royal Decree
Silver: Sigrdrifa, Stribog Runestone, Svanrige, Restore, Roach
Bronze: 2 each of -
Alzur's Thunder
Clan Raider
Doppeler
Dimun Pirate Captain
Dimun Clan Pirate
Greatsword
Light Longship
Priestess of Freya
What makes this one fun to play is that it's not about winning, rather playing all 3 Ciri cards. The easiest challange is simply to have them all on the board at the end of round 3. More advanced challenges can include trying to play one Ciri (in ascending order) each round and activate their abilities.
How to play the deck - Always mulligan Clan Raiders. If you have Ciri: Dash in hand, only consider keeping her if you have Svanrige. In a pinch you can put her next to a Longship, but you won't be able to play Bran until she is off the board. Keep pirate captains and mulligan Light Longships. Open with Pirates, Pirate Captains &/or Greatswords
Always sacrifice your Pirate Captain to the longship you pull with him. Keeping 1 Str units off the board tends to take some of the tempo out of Tremors and other cards that proc additional effects on destroying units.
If you know you SK, then you know that Longships and Greatswords make a pretty good engine. For this deck, they also draw out your opponents locks and removals. Since two of our Ciri's are vulnerable to locking, and the other to Scorch/Igni, the pressure produced by the engine cards is often enough to make your opponent panic and play them in the first round.
Dimun Pirates are there mainly for deck thinning (and this deck does it surprisingly well at times). At 11 str, they also make good resurrection targets in short R2/R3, whereLongship/Greatsword combos don't have time to grow in value. The same is true for Raiders. Being only two of them, they can misdirect your opponent as to what kind of deck he's up against (25 cards and 2 raiders doesn't exactly scream "Ciri: Nova"). Bran-Raider combo can be played at any time. I prefer to play him later in R1, or start of R2. If your starting hand ended up including Svanrige and Dash, you can play Svanrige early, then Bran late. Just remember, if Svanrige pulls a Raider, discard Ciri: Dash. Then when you cycle her with Bran again, you'll have to discard another unit along with your Raider.
Dopplers just create additional points for you. Half the time they present you with units that are situationally useful, other times you'll just be grabbing the Beastmaster. Similar story with the Runestone. What it pulls is going to dictate how you use Restore and Sigrdrifa. If you get garbage, then Restore/Sigrdrifa can be used to bring back your Longships or a Pirate Captain (if you ended up with one of those mulligans that only gives you one of each). Priestesses are there for Greatswords, Pirates and any good soldier cards your dopplers produce.
Ciri can be played in any round. If you're doing all 3 Ciris shown by last turn R3, this won't break the challange, as long as you don't lose her. She can be a tricky card to play in R1. I find a lot of the time when trying to bleed cards, if my opponent has no way to neutralise her, they pass, leaving the round tied or me in the lead. So when the goal is to reveal all 3 Ciris in R3, this is the only time winning R1 and not being cards down is frustrating, since the meme is essentially broken. More often I'll use her at the end of R2 when I've won R1 to secure CA going into R3.
Ciri: Dash shouldn't touch the board until you're ready to reveal her. Use Bran and Svanrige to cycle her through the graveyard. Ocassionally you will get a hand with her and no way to discard her. In that case, play her to a Longship. If you're lucky, your opponent might end up sending her to the Graveyard. If that happens, cycle her with Bran.
Ciri: Nova is going to be the last card. Not because it's a finisher, but because that's how it fits in TW3's story sequence. Of course Ciri is the Lady of Time and Space, so you can always try a reverse order challange with her and open with her R1. If you do get to R3 and manage to play Ciri as your last card, you'll be doing better than me.
Royal Decree is mostly used to fetch Ciri: Dash, given that Ciri and Ciri: Nova seem to mulligan to hand more consistantly than Dash does.
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Civil Unrest
Leader: Usurper
Gold: Uma's Curse, Avallac'h: Sage, Cahir, Shilard
Silver: Ceallach, Dorregaray, Dazhbog Runestone, Portcullis, Nilfgaardian Gate
Bronze: Nauzica Sergeant
Magne Division
3 x Slave Infantry
2 x Slave Driver
2 x First Light
3 x Ointment
3 x Doppler
This is a fairly chaotic deck to play (though not as bad as some of the Shupe decks). It's quite reactive in it's choices. There's no real way to play it, other than mulligan Ointment if you have Magne Division in hand. Everything else, from which leader you pick, what your Uma, Runestone, Slave Drivers and Dopplers create right down to how you deploy First Light will depend on how you read the situation with your opponent. Much like a riot...
