Half its Power would it make instantly bad I think. You could lower the base strength maybe. I honestly think the card is not op. Hawker Support, Ithlinne into Quen and Vrihedd Dragoon are all very low tempo plays especially when you lost the coinflip.
ALFREDOOHAMSTER;n9796421 said:
Yes, buffing card for Scoia'tael is a big deal. You risk low tempo. Quen is low tempo, Ithlinne on Quen is low tempo, even if you use Roach. Dragoons are low tempo and you can nuke/lock them. HS are low tempo. If you nerf the card so it only deals half its power on damage, nobody in their right mind would play it. Basically, it would bench handbuff archetype again.
I spent a fair amount of time playing ST handbuff. It is by no means OP. The swordmasters are great, but it can struggle against certain types of decks like monster consume. The Vran Warriors are out of kill range once they consume an egg. So its hard to stop the consume train. NR machine decks are also particularly nasty to deal with. And lets not even get started on Cursed decks. There simply arent the removal tools to deal with those decks.
All this talk about the Swordmaster - how does a typical deck look like based around them nowadays? I've been playing purely them since they were released, but I haven't yet come across another player using them. My deck is doing so-so, but I'd be interested what other decks (based around them) look like.
here's what I'm using if anybody is interested! http://www.gwentdb.com/decks/34981-handbuff
here's what I'm using if anybody is interested! http://www.gwentdb.com/decks/34981-handbuff
Legendarum;n9800711 said:
Oh, I had try it but don't really play it, but I have encountered a lot of SM, with variations specially on Golds and Silvers.
The staples for the deck seem to be, for golds, Iorveth and Ithlinne. Most of them, from my experience, play Isemgrin with Toruviel, BCM commandos and Ailerenn for tempo. Saskia for mulligan, too.
Others run Royal Decree and Renew with Iorveth.
I've seen Muzzle, Blue dream, and Gold weather a lot too.
Silvers, I see a lot of ADC (I think they mulligan a very buffed SM last round and draw it again), sometimes Morenn, Roach for tempo (specially with Ithlinne), Toru, Ciaran, Decoy, some buffed Hattoris...
And Bronzes, apart from the obvious, I've seen a lot of pleople run instead of Farseers, BCM for tempo, or more removal oriented units.
Noela;n9805601 said:
Oh that's all pretty interesting! I was contemplating trying to fit in the BMC's, perhaps instead of the Farseers - but the Farseers have done some good heavy lifting in quite a few games.
Saskia is also something I'd been considering, perhaps instead of Milva. It doesn't happen often, but having an opening hand with no Ithlinne OR Swordmaster is a pretty bad situation to be in. Saskia would definitely help with that, but again, Milva has worked wonders for me in more than one game.
Legendarum;n9809711 said:
Saskia is good for picking the Swordmasters early, as you need them on hand for buffing, specially if you want to take advantage with the Iorveth buff. But remember, for Ithlinne you'll have to rely on Francesca, as Saskia only picks bronzes.
Btw, I'm having success countering SM decks with a card I don't see often...Dimeritium bomb. I was already running it, because I've played a mulligan/movement deck with no direct removal, and buffed units were a problem, so, align and reset. Now I'm playing a very fun deck (the funny part being that it includes a lot of dwarves and all Ale cards), and Zoltan+Dbomb wreacks havok a lot of times. Last match I aligned the three SM with two Farseers. And G:Igni. I usually see two of the SM with the same strength, and one slightly more buffed, so beware of that.