The mulligan way is simply uncompetitive after the latest patch (June 13, 2017)

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Noela;n8926880 said:
I think he can, but I can guarantee 100% (I seem to recall last match I pulled a Yen Con, but not sure, sure).
But why Royal Decree? If you go full mulligan you have enough options for drawing the card you want, in this case I think using RD is a wasted gold slot.


I play with it around 10 matches even with RD I can only pull Ciri-Dash all 3 rounds like may be only twice? Is it consider good enough?) My other gold options are still limited to Tower Dragon, Geralt-Aard, Vanilla Geralt.

Basically I'm saving to craft another gold and deciding between Avallac'h, Ithlinne and Renew. (I'm kind of building Spell deck too so may be Ithlinne?)
 
In any case, Avallac'h helps a lot with deck thining, and he is a solid 10 (and sometimes with mulligan you ind yourself sort on power the first rounds). Renew is a card who you can put almost in every deck, and give you a lot of options. I'd prefer one of those two to Ithlinne, if you are not going to center much on that spell deck. But frankly, I really really hope devs make some changes to ST golds/silvers so we can have mulligan sinergies...
 
SkippyHole;n8897000 said:
Its alright - its a fun archetype, providing you can thin your deck efficiently. Some silver and gold support would be good though - I'm not quite sure what they were thinking with Scoiatel golds in particular, they just don't seem to work in archetypes since Open Beta. Isengrim could easily have been changed to support Mulligan but no.

Isengrim is an absolute beast now and i'm surprised he wasn't nerfed tbh but yes the archetype lacks some gold finishers.
 
IMHO the probleme with ambush, mulligan (or in my case hybrid deck with both mulligan and ambush) is: you can't get enough C.A to made it competitive (or protective tool).

I used an hybrid deck (hybrid deck are dope) where I buff Roach/Aelirenn with Hawker Support and Vrihedd Dragoon then mulligan them away.

When oppo pass my Toruviel flip and trigger Aelirenn ability for a massive 20+ str combo. But this combo is kinda hard to achieve because you need excactly 4 Elves on board + Toruviel (and with weather it's hard to keep alive some cards like Elven Wardancer) plus to deceive your oppo you need some calculated score setup or he may not bait :S. And obviously the Shackles is a probleme here,Cyprian too but luckily he is not use is the meta.

The buff Roach => mulligan it => play a gold is better but you need C.A to do that or Roach just get Weathered/Scorched/...

This is why I think it's really sad that old ambush card Ida Emean (Cancel next oppo special card) and Old Ciaran (At the end of the round if you lose come back to hand) were reworked. They could have carried the mulligan archetype to a whole new level of bamboozling!

This deck is clearly not competitive (sadly), but I manage to win early even against really good metadeck because I overcommit in R1 and do the Toruviel trick in R2 to "force win" early when oppo is just too happy to go in R3 with +2CA. My two cents on Mulligan deck is it need just a little something to made it really strong!

To conclued this wall of text I will just thanks CDPR because even if this deck is not that good in ranked it's the funniest deck I ever played in Gwent.
 
There are no gold/silver cards that interact with this deck archetype, I've been running it with Iorveth + the clear weather movement cards (as they become 8 strength a piece when Iorveth is present) along with that I runa few weather specials and just throw units into the storm. It doesn't really work though as the win con for mulligan is in the Brigades which just end up inflating Igni which seems to be present in every single meta deck this week.

Restlessdingo32;n8897530 said:
They're supposed to be played with mercs. The trouble is mercs are problematic with certain cards, like BMC, unless you always mulligan every BMC away. I mean, a merc at two means you lose 2 pts to put out a bronze special, which have wildly different values depending on circumstances. Some can be big point swings under ideal conditions (thunderbolt, lacerate, shackles, to name a few). Many are going to be undervalued compared to some bronze units able to better fill the same role (case and point, trapper vs lacerate). In any case it's hard to have solid control over the value on a merc.

Sappers at 7 still seems low. Pulling back mercs makes it a 9-13 pt card, which is moderate to decent compared to other options at first glance. Most dwarves are going to provide better value due to synergy with other dwarves, however. The biggest issue is, again, it's hard to have solid control over Sapper value for a variety of reasons.

Morenn is valid, especially because 5 damage can drop/stop a number of setup cards. But other cards can too, with more control over what you're shutting down. Toruvial can work too. A major drawback to her is having her get locked though.

TBH, I find most ST options are fine to win a round. The issue is they are forced to burn too many cards for their setups to do it, and run out of steam for the other rounds. And, as big of a change as it may be, I think the faction needs cards to interact with it's own graveyard. Say, a rework of healers to work like medic type units. Every other faction can bring back units or mass spawn them, with basic units, except ST. For this reason everyone else can re-setup and re-play important units/combos. ST cannot do so....

Mercs + frosts (and only frost bronze specials) and they become shit weather units like hounds, ironically this seems to be the better way I can think of to use them, that or running rally's but you're seriously fucking yourself over by using rally to thin nowadays as so many bronze cards need to be timed, you can't really field an ST deck with enough independent bronze cards to make it work now they all have some effect.
 
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The only way I got mulligan to work is by exploiting Toruvial/Aelrinn and Operator. Trouble is it still felt inconsistent, crowded and didn't perform great vs certain decks. Plus, people are up to speed on Toruvial/Aelrinn and Morenn. You end up trying to hit 4 elves+Toruvial and either an elf gets sniped or Toruvial gets locked. The big reason for Operator was to get an offset Vanguard, and provide protection vs cards like Regis. Mulligan with more control and less ambush either lacked tempo or got wrecked by weather. You can run a mix with more tempo cards but even that felt inconsistent. The limited synergy for mulligan with golds/silver really hurts.

Mercs are just.... They're basically a +2 power to the opponent spell with 1 deck pull. It's not great..... Even the ambush pull back is weak because you often get little value back. Either you only have like 1 merc in hand or all of them but no ambush. If you use them with FL you end up pulling the wrong cards. It's just a clunky mechanic....
 
Restlessdingo32;n8992660 said:
Mercs are just.... They're basically a +2 power to the opponent spell with 1 deck pull. It's not great..... Even the ambush pull back is weak because you often get little value back. Either you only have like 1 merc in hand or all of them but no ambush. If you use them with FL you end up pulling the wrong cards. It's just a clunky mechanic....

I kinda disagree with you, Merc are great: tech only some Bloodcurling Roar and 1 thunder to play around weather (When your unit are low, turn them into a bear it's really better than FL in this deck). Even if you play against a non weather deck you can use them on Elven Wardancer -keep them for Rot Tosser against Nilfgaard-. But the best part of the Merc is Isengrim: each Merc is a 4 point swing (-2 for oppo +2 for you), if you have used 2 of them, then Isengrim is a 15 swing gold card that summon an Ambush (yeah Isengrim is kinda OP atm due to the fact that ST are weak, when Mulligan/ambush deck will be competitive this card will -105% sure- be nerfed).

I also use Commando Neophyte to bait the lock (against Nilfgaard you can try to bait Auckes with Neophyte then Morenn: 2 targets are just a too big of a temptation, but good player will not be tricked).

Else I agree this deck is very very brittle, if oppo know how to disrupt it then you're in a bad spot :S that's why I used Isengrim and Avallac'h they are both Gold and have the Elf Tag + Avallac'h perform well with the mulligan mechanics since he will draw you some good mulligan target and might draw some bad card to oppo (2nd Crone, 2nd Shieldmaiden, Impera Golem, Saskia against Scoia'Spell,...) but use him only if you have a Vrihedd Officer in hand and/or if you have already use Francesca or he might draw Saskia and you'll have to wait for next round to mulligan her then play your leader.

Edit:I also use Schirru because he's an elf and you can turn Thunder/Wardancer/Merc into a scorch if you need it. he is really great because he has a bid body and he is extremely versatile (you can use Scorch instead of thunder or turn a low minion into a big bad scorch).
 
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Fitz.Olivaw;n8996340 said:
I kinda disagree with you, Merc are great: tech only some Bloodcurling Roar and 1 thunder to play around weather (When your unit are low, turn them into a bear it's really better than FL in this deck). Even if you play against a non weather deck you can use them on Elven Wardancer -keep them for Rot Tosser against Nilfgaard-. But the best part of the Merc is Isengrim: each Merc is a 4 point swing (-2 for oppo +2 for you), if you have used 2 of them, then Isengrim is a 15 swing gold card that summon an Ambush (yeah Isengrim is kinda OP atm due to the fact that ST are weak, when Mulligan/ambush deck will be competitive this card will -105% sure- be nerfed).

I also use Commando Neophyte to bait the lock (against Nilfgaard you can try to bait Auckes with Neophyte then Morenn: 2 targets are just a too big of a temptation, but good player will not be tricked).

Else I agree this deck is very very brittle, if oppo know how to disrupt it then you're in a bad spot :S that's why I used Isengrim and Avallac'h they are both Gold and have the Elf Tag + Avallac'h perform well with the mulligan mechanics since he will draw you some good mulligan target and might draw some bad card to oppo (2nd Crone, 2nd Shieldmaiden, Impera Golem, Saskia against Scoia'Spell,...) but use him only if you have a Vrihedd Officer in hand and/or if you have already use Francesca or he might draw Saskia and you'll have to wait for next round to mulligan her then play your leader.

Edit:I also use Schirru because he's an elf and you can turn Thunder/Wardancer/Merc into a scorch if you need it. he is really great because he has a bid body and he is extremely versatile (you can use Scorch instead of thunder or turn a low minion into a big bad scorch).

part of the problem with mercs is that they add RNG unless you only run 1 or 2 types of specials. The only use for them I can think of is Merc Light rally so they become 2 deck thinning to use in some sort of ciri dash heavy thinning deck. The problem then becomes that your playing ciri dash post d.shack demotes and more so that I cant think of 9 bronze cards I'd be happy to pull randomly. I will agree however that Isengrim is a very powerful card, pretty much always pulling 12 strength before fireball traps trigger.
 
Fitz.Olivaw;n8996340 said:
I kinda disagree with you, Merc are great: tech only some Bloodcurling Roar and 1 thunder to play around weather (When your unit are low, turn them into a bear it's really better than FL in this deck). Even if you play against a non weather deck you can use them on Elven Wardancer -keep them for Rot Tosser against Nilfgaard-. But the best part of the Merc is Isengrim: each Merc is a 4 point swing (-2 for oppo +2 for you), if you have used 2 of them, then Isengrim is a 15 swing gold card that summon an Ambush (yeah Isengrim is kinda OP atm due to the fact that ST are weak, when Mulligan/ambush deck will be competitive this card will -105% sure- be nerfed).

I also use Commando Neophyte to bait the lock (against Nilfgaard you can try to bait Auckes with Neophyte then Morenn: 2 targets are just a too big of a temptation, but good player will not be tricked).

Else I agree this deck is very very brittle, if oppo know how to disrupt it then you're in a bad spot :S that's why I used Isengrim and Avallac'h they are both Gold and have the Elf Tag + Avallac'h perform well with the mulligan mechanics since he will draw you some good mulligan target and might draw some bad card to oppo (2nd Crone, 2nd Shieldmaiden, Impera Golem, Saskia against Scoia'Spell,...) but use him only if you have a Vrihedd Officer in hand and/or if you have already use Francesca or he might draw Saskia and you'll have to wait for next round to mulligan her then play your leader.

Edit:I also use Schirru because he's an elf and you can turn Thunder/Wardancer/Merc into a scorch if you need it. he is really great because he has a bid body and he is extremely versatile (you can use Scorch instead of thunder or turn a low minion into a big bad scorch).

This is exactly why I dislike mercs though. They pull specials but it only functions well if you limit your special selection. Otherwise you end up with too much RNG in what gets pulled. You have to run ambush to recoup the -2 points. Since there is no way to ensure how many mercs/ambush are in hand you either need numerous ambush cards, of which few exist, have to limit mercs or must risk feeding 2 points to the opponent for a special pull at points in a game. Turn to turn decisions made by the opponent or yourself further complicate matters. It's just a restrictive, clunky and/or RNG concept.

Isengrim can be useful, sure. Trouble is you're laying out a scenario where you use mercs, Isengrim and the ambush pull. It's an awful lot of moving parts. AKA, it's vulnerable to be interrupted. What if your merc gets bloodcurdled by the opponent? What if your opponent plays something like tremors/lacerate after you pull mercs back? What if you pull Morenn/Toruvial with Isengrim and your opponent burns a lock on Toruvial or passes for Morenn?

I'm not sure what you mean with the Neophyte. There are more dangerous cards to lock, so I cannot see anyone burning it there.

NG doesn't seem to be a thing in ranked anymore, and it's usually reveal if you do see it...

In terms of Avalach/Shirru... Both cards stand to hurt you too. Avalach can be good but he is often beneficial to other factions too (in many cases to a greater degree). Schirru burns your own card and is susceptible to theft (Renew, which is everywhere ATM). Not to mention a Scorch incoming shortly disclaimer.

Don't get me wrong, these cards can be good. They just feel too restrictive, situational and can either backfire or get easily disrupted.
 
Atm I use 2x Merc with only a few special (2x Bears and 1x thunder) so I pull exacly what I want, and after playing the CBT -in CBT Merc played 1 random bronze or silver card from deck, no choice at all, back then Merc pull Scorch out of your deck without any warning- I'm used to the merc RNG :S

And this is also why I really like the mulligan mechanic: If I don't have ambush cards or Isengrim I mulligan Merc and if I have ambush cards I mulligan special cards this setup is very flexible and gives mulligan target (and Schirru Target aswell: if you can't use the combo Merc + Ambush, you can easily target a Merc in R3 without any regret). In any case I adapt my hand to my draw.

Well, people using cards is a risk in a card game, actually I'm way more afraid of weather than tremors/lacerate: Frost, Fog and Rain kills Merc aswell once they are on your side of the board, but their is no probleme with that because Toru/Aelirenn/Roach are my win condition. And lacerate is not really a probleme because Merc are agile.

Some people lock/thunder Neophyte, in a mulligan deck there's no real high value target for the lock except ambush - and not all mulligan decks run ambush- or the fireball trap and maybe Borkh but he is really akward in a mulligan deck (Officer/Vanguard/Neophyte have decent value). And oppo can't really kill Neophyte slowly with weather because you'll play your Leader asap and gain huge value before they die or are turn into a bear.

Avalach is a great card, really usefull, I know he might backfire but he always help you if you use him well, plus in my deck if I don't draw roach, Toruviel or Aelirenn at the very beginning of the game I lose so I really need him to increase my draw. Seriously in my deck the more card I can get the better it is, I really need a large pool of card to made it work properly, if oppo renew him it's even better for me :S the sooner he renew him the better it is.

Schirru is -most of the time- my finisher so oppo can't renew him, Schirru is the Hjalmar/Tibor of the ST faction (10str + a card for a big swing he may be really bad when you compare him to the 2 other but he's also great sometimes. he always win you the game against units like DBP, Spotter,...

Actually the only probleme is Weather and the value that oppo can bring in R3, if I can't milk him in R2 (things like Crones + Katakan are insane i.g), then I will have some big trouble in R3 especially if I can't buff Roach.
 
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Pure mulligan became even less competitive after hotfix. I've forced to put my favourite deck aside until better times and play monsters.
 
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