She fits well with Mulligan/move. BMC are, I repeat,a good target for Quen. FL/Merc is not a good option in Mulligan because you don't want to draw cards you just mulligan'ed away most of the time, and definitely don't want to draw a vanguard by bad luck, so BMCs are good for deck thinning. They are lacerate bait? Quen is a good answer.
BMC are a fine choice but the unit that benefits the most from Ida imo is Vrihedd dragoon.
This is typically the unit that your opponent wants dead and wants dead quick, if you put a Quen sign on it not only he's out of range of Thunder but he can absorb one damaging spell on the top of that.
She's not a unit you throw in any deck, that's true and I admit she's basically useless in a dwarf deck (except maybe for giving your Defender a shield...but even that I'm not a big fan of. Your unit is still in range for a lot of damaging spells once the shield is removed unless you played Denis Cranmer first but that's a lot of "if" already. There is better silver for this deck).
If you're talking about dwarf strengh she's even worse. Just not a good friend of dwarfs in general.
She's great with move units though and the move mechanic in general because a/ a lot of those units are 6 str, making them very resistant to removal spells once they have the shield and b/ because fog is a good tool to have at your disposal (not only to move enemy units in it but also because it basically forces your opponent to pack is units in only 1 or 2 rows, which is what you're looking for with this deck).
This is typically the unit that your opponent wants dead and wants dead quick, if you put a Quen sign on it not only he's out of range of Thunder but he can absorb one damaging spell on the top of that.
Restlessdingo32;n9209481 said:
She's not a unit you throw in any deck, that's true and I admit she's basically useless in a dwarf deck (except maybe for giving your Defender a shield...but even that I'm not a big fan of. Your unit is still in range for a lot of damaging spells once the shield is removed unless you played Denis Cranmer first but that's a lot of "if" already. There is better silver for this deck).
If you're talking about dwarf strengh she's even worse. Just not a good friend of dwarfs in general.
She's great with move units though and the move mechanic in general because a/ a lot of those units are 6 str, making them very resistant to removal spells once they have the shield and b/ because fog is a good tool to have at your disposal (not only to move enemy units in it but also because it basically forces your opponent to pack is units in only 1 or 2 rows, which is what you're looking for with this deck).
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GenLiu;n9213651 said:
I mean, I can only see running a high number of move units in a move build. Dwarves might run Dwarven Mercs and Mulligan can get value from BMC, sure. As has been stated Ida doesn't fit in the former and BMC with mulligan has more to do with the anti-synergy caused by Elven Mercs there and the need for tempo in earlier rounds. I cannot recall the last time I ran into either movement or mulligan builds in ranked. The first simply isn't viable, and I'm not sure mulligan is much better off, as it's win con R3 is too easy to stop with tech cards many decks run (Vanguards) and/or RNG based (CDash).
In terms of control... Most of those either run Hawker Supports, Dragoons or a split of both. I could see getting value from Ida there but, as I said, silvers run at a premium in those decks. Protecting vs Thunder only seems helpful in certain MU's (Radovid, Eithne Control mirror if they run Thunder, maybe these weird SK Axe decks, possibly some NG builds). Even there it often isn't necessary because some of those are pretty easy to beat without extended Dragoon up-time (Radovid in particular), easy to beat in general as control or tend to use locks moreso to minimize Dragoons. Admittedly, I haven't tried Ida much in those decks, however.
Fog is... an interesting case. I find Eithne Control functions better when most of your control gives instant value instead of over-time. Just about everything runs some type of clear, and many of the popular decks you face have units you need to deal with rapidly or can create so much tempo so fast you need to hit hard and fast to keep pace with it. Fog could certainly get value, sure. I just don't see it getting much vs most MU's. I doubt anyone would allow it.
You're right about the whole thing. However I do play an "hybrid" movement deck with Francesca for leader and just 3 cards that synergies with mulligan (2 copies of Vanguards (for the late game) and 1 copy of Wardancer (just because it's free)) and this is the deck that houses Ida. For some reason it happens to be the deck I have the most success with either I play on ranked or casual. I even have a reveal deck and a monster swarm but they don't win as much as that one because you find more and more peoples that are highly geared against the tiers 1/2 decks in the format.Restlessdingo32;n9215361 said:
My though process when I chose Ida was to find a silver that helps me the most with my general tactic which is to support my BMC and force my opponent to pack up as many units as he can on a single row (because I'm running both Igni and Lacerate in this deck) and Ida happens to do just that....plus a bonus clear sky if the need arise.
About the synergy between Quen and Dragoon, what you said about Radovid and control decks in general is also true but in another hand, a unit that can survive Thunder can survive a lot of things when it stands to damaging spells or abilities. For example, if you play Dragoon turn one against reveal and your opponent play his leader on 2 Fire Scorpions, your Dragoon is down, if you played Ida before and give it Quen not only Ida is in the way but even if he takes both shot he will still be alive.
And yes, lock remains the best way to deal with Dragoon but when you think about it, your opponent has to drop his key cards in the match up and those locks will not end on Morenn or Toruviel (I mean, I prefere that my Dragoon gets locked rather than my Toruviel, even without boost she can be a huge power swing and always a tricky card to play against if you have no lock in hand).
It depends, Some decks can produce value very quickly with a single card played but some other are much more about setting up first and then getting out of control (like Monster consume or Scoia'Tael movement for example). Ida fits more in the second type of deck.
It's another thing that makes her not designed to be played with Dwarfs, since they're much more of a high value producing deck (the only form of set up they have are the Defender, everything else being pilling up value across your side of the battlefield with pretty much no time out whatsoever (except for playing Defenders or Cleaver)).
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GenLiu;n9216791 said:
At what MMR are we talking? I only ask because it makes a difference. R19 seems to be the new R15 with the ranking adjustments. Below that point there is more deck variety, sub-optimal builds, and misplays. Above it players always seem to know what they're doing, aside from the rare OP T1 netdeck piloted by a player out of their depth. The only two ST decks I've seen lately are Eithne Dwarves and a couple Eithne Control builds. Toss in a Rado Control, Henselt or Foltest Sergeant/RH (usually the former), NG Reveal or Calviet here or there. Everything else is Dagon Swarm builds, Eredin or SK.
The problem with Ida for Quen in Eithne Control running Dragoons is you first have to draw her and a Dragoon. It becomes an even harder condition to satisfy since you want to run Dragoons early R1. Expanding on that thought, it seems far more effective to take SK ships/NG Mangonels off the board (Thunder) or lock them (Ciaran) rather than rely on Quen to block one shot per unit with Quen up. Even if you do Quen they can lock the Dragoons, thus removing Quen, and still get value from those units. Removing/locking those units forces resurrects/defensive lock units to get the desired value. It's a better trade IMO.
It can be worth it vs Scorpions I suppose. I do not see Reveal much anymore though. Most NG I see seem to be running Calviet tempo builds with gold spam/Borkh R3. If given the choice I'd actually rather see Reveal anyway. Eithne Control has ample tools to handle it, even when running minimal Scorches.
I'd also mention I stopped using Morenn/Toruvial a bit ago. They're too situational IMO.
Restlessdingo32;n9235661 said:
I'm going to be completely honest here, I have no idea how MMR works and what it means. I do have the heart sign on my rank with the castle thingy around my picture. I also have more win that loss (I don't recall the exact number I think it's something like +25% to my advantage...roughtly)...don't know what else I can tell, this is not the computer I'm using Gwent on so I can't even check the exact numbers atm. That being said and to be completely honest, I think I was learning more about the game when I was at rank 17/19 because you do fight some good players at those levels and more pples take the risk of playing some more exotic type of decks.
After that point it's just Monster swarm and NR sergent for the nost part. I believe peoples don't take enough risk on what they're playing, which is a shame imo. It turns out to be quiet redundant and not necessarily more challenging. I personally don't play meta every time (in fact I rarely do), I have about 14 decks (or something like that) and just choose whatever I want to play. So, of course, every decks are not equally challenging, this is obvious but I have a lot of success with decks that are not meta at all like Harald wounding deck, Discard, Queensguard or Dwarf for example.
And yes, I do win more with NR or Monster consume (which are the closest to a meta deck I have made) but not by a large margin.
Back to Ida, I do play her in my Francesca deck and of course you can lock the Draggons and Thundering a Mangonel or a ship is also a good plan but at the same time, everything can be countered in this game and when you think about it, a lock happening on a Dragoon (because your opponent wasn't able to thunder or remove it with damage for example) is a lock that won't hit your Toruviel later on.
Gwent is all about countering things and getting the best play out of your cards, every single card can be countered, our game plan when we're playing this game is to develop our game while forcing our opponent's counter out of their hand. This is why a card like Grave hag is so good while being a 2 str unit, because it will come out at a moment where your opponent is probably out of counters/removal.
Ida is a good card for that because she reduces the potential counters for your early game play (Dragoon or Blue Mountain for example) forcing your opponent to "waste" their locks on something that matters less than your late game finisher.
And speaking of control, ida is actually an iteresting card to play against control since Quen can also be used to desinc your units.
I do it more often with Keira Metz in my NR deck, when I have, say 3 reaver hunters, depending on the situation I may play one first and then cast Quen on the others so they are completely desinced (especially if Dandelion buffed another one in my deck or Neneke brough some back to their original value). It's even more valuable here because if your opponent excpect you to have RH they will most certainly keep scorch/Igni for the last turn and will certainly wait for the best possible value on those cards.
You can do that kind of tactic with Ida + "anything you want" really to prevent profitable scorch/Epidemic from your opponent.
I'm not saying it's going to be an auto play nor I say you should run Ida for this reason but that's a trick that can pay off by time to time.
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Oh, Quen makes a lot of sense for NR due to the reasons you brought up for sure. I simply haven't found a way to get huge value off it with Ida in a ST build. Not consistently vs all the other faction meta decks dominating ranked right now (so, like 50-60% MS/SK). You need to have Ida and units worthy of protection early to get decent value. Otherwise it's a bit underwhelming. It's too much, "This must happen.", for it to be useful. It could be good vs SK/MS but it won't help much vs the NR/NG/ST builds I see. And it's only good vs SK if it's available early and unnecessary vs MS.
I'd rather run SK Storm instead of Ida for fog....
If you're running Mulligan it's possibly a different story.
I'd rather run SK Storm instead of Ida for fog....
If you're running Mulligan it's possibly a different story.