The state of Northern Realms as a viable faction

[Esmer]

Hello,

I started recently to play gwent (less than 2 weeks) and I came on the forum to look for ways to improve my deck, just to find out that a lot of ppl are struggling to get to 21.

So here's my Henselt deck that I build myself during these 2 weeks, and which got me easily to lvl20. And the only reason I didnt get to lvl21 is that I had no idea the season would end on 29.03 and not on 31.03.

Anyway, if anyone knows ways to improve this deck, pls let me know, or if you guys have questions, I would gladly share my ideas.

Thanks.

I made it into top 500 last season with Henselt machines. The deck wrecks Brouvers (every version: just kill his elves), nekker consume, and has 50/50 chance against alchemy, greatswords, veterans, and deathwish monsters. The only really bad matchup is Harald. Ofc, a lot depends on your skill, because, despite an easy coin flip abuse with Thaler and Dun Banner, machines is one of the harder decks to pilot.

So here's my two cents:

1. Use reinforced ballistas instead of ballistas. Ballistas are great against elves and deathwish monsters (when they spawn a lot of lesser daos), but elves are not a problem with any setup, and I found deathwish an easier matchup when I could remove their Daos (with 3 hits from a reinforced ballista) before they trigger its deathwish.

2. You have too many bronze cards. Remove siege supports. You need to bait removal with winches, not supports or masters.

3. Replace Nenneke or Dethmold with Alzur's Double Cross for better spy/Ronvid consistency. I like Dethmold more since you can remove a key unit or clear weather.

4. Replace Dandelion with either a gold weather or Seltkirk. Seltkirk is an amazing single target removal and/or a solid 19 points play.

5. Since you can abuse coin flip with a spy/dun banner, Red Baron is usually a good last play. But Villy is great too, especially against greatswords and consume. Anyway, you have enough small targets in almost every matchup for your baron to be 20+ points.

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[Kissofpain]

Thank you for your advices, sir.

I am wondering about ballista, as it has a potential damage of 15, while reinforced has only 6. In my book there is no comparison in power and IMO if you can pilot your deck well it's much better. Also the 1 damage is great to align targets for scorch.

Speaking of scorch, my latest discovery is Geralt IGNI (which I use instead of Dandelion) and I have a blast with it. It's even better than scorch cos I can clear an entire row of units w/o worrying of my own units being bigger power. And comparing it with Seltkirk that removes a unit with less than 13 power, Geralt usually removes 20+ power.

Bloody Baron seems like a great finisher, though I am not sure what to take out. But will try him out when I get enuf scraps. Villy is a double edge sword if the enemy buffs one of ur units, so far Geralt seems a much better choice.

 

[Khreygond]

Geralt is a bad choice in a short round though. Blodoy Baron isn't. If you are being bled you may be forced to use him earlier than you would, because it is worth nothing if you go to a short round 3 with like, 2 or 3 cards.

 

[Kissofpain]

I just met an Ursine Grand Master playin Henselt. He used G:Igni. I took G out of my deck to test Baron. He won.

As I had the Baron in my hand in fist round, my strat was to play Henselt and win first round and then finish with Baron in 3rd. My opponent won first round with G:Igni after I played my leader, and then won 3rd round with scorch. You may call this luck, but truth is Baron is too ez to shut down unless played as the last card. That means you have to win first round.

 

[Neatse]

So I stopped playing gwent last year when Henselt/reavers were nerfed. Since that was my only deck, Rebuilding as another faction(having milled all the cards) seemed like a daunting task.

I came back couple of days ago to test the waters again, however the deck seems even weaker than after initial nerf ?.. I've mastered a few boosting tricks, spamming knight elects/boon/triss butterflies and finishing by henselt+trebuchets, Ves is pretty useful and so are cursed mages. Seems to me the only way to use henselt's power is if you exhaust your opponents attack cards before you play the treb, which is why healing deck is useful, players usually go for destroying siege support/knight elect right away so by the end game they're usually out. However it seems to me other factions are able to pull any card out of their arse at any point in game, which makes henselt's strats a bit impotent against any decent deck.

I've managed a stunning come back or two but I've also had games where I was completely shut down. I'd say deck is one of the weakest in game right now, Only faction I feel confident against are monsters. With NR you're heavily dependent on getting your best cards and even then it's an uphill battle.

 

[mission_deadman]

When I started playing Gwent I was most successful with NR so thats all I focused on, milled any other card until I had all NR, then went on to other factions. Nilfgaard was second,and thats when I realized the problem with NR was lack of finishers. Outside of Shani and DJ they had none, and neither is 100% reliable. I started off loving NR, especially Radovid, but now there's only one deck I enjoy playing. Henselt is broken, and almost any other competitive deck uses Ciri Nova as a finisher, both I find boring.

 

[HraTonto]

ive been playing ranked gwent 50-60 hours and managed to climb to rank 17 with NR only. I mainly play cursed + siege support henselt deck which feels to be underdog against pretty much any other deck. i believe my win rate is over 40% tho. so i know i have very limited perspective what comes to card synergies and meta.

Armor is useless atm because you cant give it enough to units in hand or deck. just making it possible to give armor to units in hand could make NR much more viable without need to nerf other factions.

Considering how much other factions have damage dealing cards comparing to NR, NR is only about playing against those cards either by blocking or boosting. Boosting works, it is very satisfying to play Germain Piquant twice with hand full of f'king infantry after successfully playing all the siege supports to the table with henselt, but there just is not enough armor cards for blocking effectively.

id say the faction is just broken, when you have to play your cards against cards such as viper witcher without being able to counter them some way. you are forced to end up to play an empty table. this is the situation in every NR vs NG match.

Although the faction feels broken, challenging of the NR makes it fun and im going to keep playing it in ranked.

 

[G4merY]

I feel the same way, and a little sorry for you. In The Witcher 3, I mostly stuck (past tense of stick) with NR deck, mainly because it was the first deck you start with. And although I like Scoia'tael more, NR is my least played deck in Gwent. I do have the emotional sympathy or connection with Temeria like you do, and unlike you I try to play each faction so that I may learn about the cards, archetypes and synergies better. But I just couldn't make or find a good NR deck for high Ranked Play.

We've a new Faction Challenge, and I decided to play NR. But since I don't have a competitive NR deck, I'm forced to play Casual. I was hoping to ask a NR player for help, but when hardcore NR players like yourself are facing problems, I can't complain much, really.

Now, I've a few points to make regarding why I think NR is weak:

1. NR has high Power cards. For example, Redanian Elite and Kaedweni Cavalry together make for a 25 Power play. Similarly, Trollololo and Vincent Meis are high-Power Silver cards. The problem here is that almost every NR card is an engine. The 25 Power Redanian Elite + Kedweni Cavalry combo is a mere 8 if someone destroys the Redanian Elite. Same is true for Trollololo and Vincent Meis. You need to setup to get the most out of these cards, when other factions can simply play their high-Power cards...even worse, in chains.

2. Armor is NR's unique archetype. It is supposed to be effective against weather and damage. But the problem is that the unit's Power and Armor value has not been updated. If it were the early Open Beta, and the average damage was 3 or 5, or even 7, at most (as is with most NR machines, and Scoia'tael cards), cards like Redanian Elite and Tridam Infantary would be great. They would render the opponent's damage-dealing units useless. But we live in a post Midwinter update world now, where there are 5 Power Viper Witchers dealing as much as 13 damage, and Mastercrafted spear doing the same. This is why we'd Locks, because damage alone wasn't enough to destroy units. But these cards have made the Locks useless. We've pre-Midwinter and post-Midwinter update cards, and many of them do not share a Power synergy still, unfortunately.

3. NR also has Sigismund Dijkstra. What is arguably the longest chain card possible in Gwent. Unfortunately, he's also the most unreliable for being so open-ended (which is counter for a Redanian Intelligence head). If you run any damaging spell or tutor in your deck, be ready to be surprised. It is only for the most-controlled deck, or a stocky Power-deck...that too, as a finisher.

4. Blue Stripe swarm is a high-Power deck, and one of NR's best decks, but it also comes with its own set of problems. First of, every swarm deck needs a good amount of luck for getting a good hand, and for every few rounds you win, you'll be losing a couple. So, although it may be a fun deck, it's not exactly reliable. And although Ves is a good swapper (the strongest), it is the only in NR; and again, not very reliable...but it's okay. Now, what makes the Blue Stripes worse than other swarm decks is that it also has an engine mechanic, where Blue Stripe Scout only boosts those units which share its Power (a bit similar to Triss: Butterflies). Clearly a feature of the pre-Midwinter era, and it makes NR openly inferior to the Scoia'tael (which questionably shouldn't even be having a swarm deck, since they're so few in numbers).

5. Although, Triss: Butterflies is a neutral card, I just wanted to point that for a mere 7 Power, it should be Immune (non-targetable). Specially because she's easily distracted by damaging another unit to make it the lowest-Power unit.

So, CDPR should seriously reconsider the NR units' Power and Armor values, and abilities of some, for the Homecoming.