Skellige Deck Strategies

[Shuls02]

I don't understand this myth that they've 'nerfed' SK's resurrection. They've got nearly a dozen ways and means to get cards out of the deck if you factor in cards who auto-res. They changed it, that doesn't mean they nerfed it. Freya was too powerful, that's not news, and while the change might seem painful, it's mostly for the better. Freya only resurrecting soldiers ONLY means she resurrects almost all of SK's core and best cards. That's hardly a problem.

Except your point is flawed by the fact that as I said on my previous post Vicovaro Medic can still ress any unit so its a reverse Freya so its not that they nerfed her because it was too strong rather so they could make all this different versions of Freya, effectively "spliting" the bronze res SK had.
And that makes it so now or you stick to one type of unit and choose the res that works with it or you mix them up and make your deck less consistant.

 

[Sigurd_3]

Except your point is flawed by the fact that as I said on my previous post Vicovaro Medic can still ress any unit so its a reverse Freya so its not that they nerfed her because it was too strong rather so they could make all this different versions of Freya, effectively "spliting" the bronze res SK had.
And that makes it so now or you stick to one type of unit and choose the res that works with it or you mix them up make your deck less consistant.

Yes, I agree. Also, I think they have basically made different versions of Freya (or, in the case of ST, Sigdrifa) for other decks. This overlaps with a more general complaint that different players have had increasingly, and that is the complaint that factions are becoming more and more similar and thus are not as unique as they used to be.

Nilfgaard has that alchemy special card (I can't remember its name tbh since I don't even use that deck) that can revive any bronze unit with 5 strength or less. Some might think that the limitation of 5 strength or less means that isn't very powerful revives, but it can revive the Viper Witchers who oftentimes can do up to 11 damage on enemy units (depending on how many alchemy cards they have of course) and so that can be potentially a 16 point revive. Also, Nilfgaard can revive the slave swarm units which really have synergy with other bronze NG units. Meanwhile ST I believe has two different units that can revive units from their faction.

Now to back step on a slightly different note, I completely disagree with iamthedave's comment that SK's resurrection nerf is a myth. First of all, I think an acceptable middle ground between the old Freya and the new excessively nerfed Freya would be to allow her to revive one additional tag besides just soldiers. If it were soldiers and machines that she could revive, that would have great synergy with the Battlemaidens, but they made a 4 strength bronze unit that can revive machines. They could make Freya revive beasts too, but they made a SK item card that can revive beasts or Svalblood units. So, if Freya wouldn't get the middle ground of reviving one of those two tags (ideally machines), that just leaves the support tag. While iamthedave makes the point the point that SK has so many ways of reviving units (as I have even myself demonstrated with the new bronze revive cards), SK has still gotten a revive nerf. It is absolutely a nerf because, as you pretty much pointed out Shuls2, Freya's versatility of being able to revive any bronze unit is a better option than having multiple units that can only revive one type of tag, and the old Freya completely beats having multiple different bronze cards in a deck for reviving units. Limiting bronze revive cards to one tag means you can too often (I'm not saying it is very common but still too often) have a useless revive card if you have more than just one type of tagged bronze units in your deck.

 

[iamthedave]

'Excessively nerfed'? This is plain hyperbole.

Excessive nerfing would mean the card is useless. How many Skellige lists don't STILL run Freya as a core card? I can't think of a single SK list that doesn't. Why? Because most of the core units are soldiers. Bears runs her to resurrect beastmaster and cursed maraude (only two of the most powerful cards in the deck), axemen runs her for axemen, QG lists - not that there's many now - run her for QG.

You're complaining not that Freya is a bad card (that is absurd and provably incorrect) but because she's now a bit less powerful. And a card so powerful that it kills design space is generally a card that needs to be nerfed for the good of the game. Old Freya completely kills revive design space for the entire SK faction because she resurrected absolutely everything bronze. That isn't healthy.

Comparing her to Vicovaro Medic is a false equivalence because they're cards in two different factions doing two different things and fulfilling different roles in the decks they appear in (sort of; Vico's a one-for-one equivalent in spies), and there's no competing design space for the Vicovaro. Now is he too powerful? I think there's a definite case to be made there, but ONLY because the SK faction is based largely around revival and he shuts it down. Except contextually of Freya and Vicovaro, only one sees usage in almost every deck their faction makes. There are multiple competitive NG lists right now, and only spies has to run Vico, and they don't do it to mess with other decks but to revive their own spies. NG swarm has no room for him and NG alchemy has no need for him, and NG reveal doesn't use him either.

Seriously, how many SK decks of note in the current meta can you think of that don't run 3 x freya?

What they've done isn't nerf freya, it's add even more resurrection to the resurrection faction, but narrowed the lines of that resurrection so that it all has an actual purpose instead of everyone saying 'this card is just a worse freya' every time they make a res card.

 

[Sigurd_3]

'Excessively nerfed'? This is plain hyperbole.

Excessive nerfing would mean the card is useless. How many Skellige lists don't STILL run Freya as a core card? I can't think of a single SK list that doesn't. Why? Because most of the core units are soldiers. Bears runs her to resurrect beastmaster and cursed maraude (only two of the most powerful cards in the deck), axemen runs her for axemen, QG lists - not that there's many now - run her for QG.

You're complaining not that Freya is a bad card (that is absurd and provably incorrect) but because she's now a bit less powerful. And a card so powerful that it kills design space is generally a card that needs to be nerfed for the good of the game. Old Freya completely kills revive design space for the entire SK faction because she resurrected absolutely everything bronze. That isn't healthy.

Comparing her to Vicovaro Medic is a false equivalence because they're cards in two different factions doing two different things and fulfilling different roles in the decks they appear in (sort of; Vico's a one-for-one equivalent in spies), and there's no competing design space for the Vicovaro. Now is he too powerful? I think there's a definite case to be made there, but ONLY because the SK faction is based largely around revival and he shuts it down. Except contextually of Freya and Vicovaro, only one sees usage in almost every deck their faction makes. There are multiple competitive NG lists right now, and only spies has to run Vico, and they don't do it to mess with other decks but to revive their own spies. NG swarm has no room for him and NG alchemy has no need for him, and NG reveal doesn't use him either.

Seriously, how many SK decks of note in the current meta can you think of that don't run 3 x freya?

What they've done isn't nerf freya, it's add even more resurrection to the resurrection faction, but narrowed the lines of that resurrection so that it all has an actual purpose instead of everyone saying 'this card is just a worse freya' every time they make a res card.

Hah. Okay, I'm gonna agree to disagree with you. I'm not gonna write my second wall of text about this topic, and especially when I know you won't change your mind. I feel confident my first post was correct, and I will just reiterate from my first post that Freya can be a dead card if you run a deck with multiple tags and not exclusively soldiers. I don't know if you use Skellige much since you might be another non-user that likes to bash the faction, but Axemen decks often have machines like the Harpooners and the new Warship unit. So, other than Axemen, Freya won't have anything good to revive (Clan Archer and Clan Hunter would most of the time only be decent at best revives if they are in the Axemen deck). Again, old Freya's versatility>>> multiple new bronze revives for only one type/tagged unit. Also, while I might not be a pro, I for one decided to run just 2 Freya's in my Axemen deck post-mid winter update (of course I also use Sigdrifa). I think Nilfgaard Witcher alchemy decks have better consistency with their bronze revives than Skellige, and especially outside of Skellige Beastmaster decks.

 

[iamthedave]

Many decks 'can' have dead cards in certain circumstances. That's not a problem with the game or the card, just a mix of bad luck/bad mulliganing choices/bad deckbuilding, or game state events such as banishing valid targets or consuming them or vicovaro-ing them. If a 'nerf' makes people have to actually think before including a card and has to think about whether having them in their opening hand is ideal, that is a good thing. Last I checked Gwent was supposed to be a more skillful card game with less brainless play. Including freyas is the definition of brainless deck building. It's the same reason certain gold cards get nerfed. If they're omnipresent to the point that it's unimaginable having a faction deck that doesn't use that card, it's very likely a problem that needs looking at. I for one relish the day when I put together an SK deck and actually sit back for a moment and think hard about whether or not I need 3x priestess of freya in my deck. It hasn't happened yet.

And you still run 2 freya despite her being 'nerfed'. I listed 3 out of 4 commonly run NG archetypes that don't run vicovaro medic AT ALL. You cannot take a card out of the context in which its used and then analyse it independently. Cards are changed or nerfed dependent entirely upon how they are used and how prevalent they are in a format. A card being utterly omnipresent to the point that every single deck uses it without a second thought is always a card that's going to be looked at by developers, and a prime target for being changed. And as mentioned, Freya still sees play in basically every deck SK players make. Old freya was too versatile and too powerful, and the alleged nerf hasn't stopped her being played in pretty much every SK deck. That isn't a nerf. Shieldmaiden was nerfed hard and unnecessarily, and you can tell they were because nobody uses them anymore. Tuirsech Veteran was probably over-nerfed because removing the soldier tag almost killed the deck, and the lists now bouncing around seem to struggle, or at least I've yet to encounter one that's put me on the back foot unless I'm using a meme deck.

I play all factions and most decks; it's the best way to learn the game and get good at it or learn how to play against other decks than your own. SK is my favourite facion though and I've run them from day one as my mains (originally Queensguard.deck), but I find bears so disgusting that I've moved over to NG alchemy and ST for a spell, because I find them more fun to play.

NG alchemy does have better consistency because it mostly runs low power units and its revive is tied to power, not type. But NG has three revives. SK decks can run SEVEN or more if they want, and all but one (revive) of them come attached to bodies (I seem to recall the bear-resurrecting one can be searched by a shieldbearer?). Speaking of which, both of the non-body revives buff the ressed unit, leading to the absurd 8-strength beastmaster play that no sane person can consider reasonable. Due to having fewer revives the NG alchemy deck has to think carefully about how and when it uses its ointments for that reason. SK barely needs to think. 3 x freyas, 1 x sigrdrifa, 1 x restore, maybe a couple more if you need harpoons and longships back.

The only other faction really infringing on SK's resurrection speciality is dorfs at the minute, due to the absurd power they can generate from the two resurrection cards they have. I think it's highly likely that one or both of them will be nerfed, however. I expect it'll get a racial limitation, or some other type. It's not exactly a secret that dwarfs is a cancer deck that everyone hates. While I don't think NG ointment is a problem, I won't be surprised if it sees some change (most likely so it can't cause alchemy chains with novice). As it is though it's still a situational card suitable for some decks but not others, and that's a good place for cards to be (neither reveal nor spies use it, for example; at least I've not yet seen a spies list using it).

 

[Sigurd_3]

Many decks 'can' have dead cards in certain circumstances. That's not a problem with the game or the card, just a mix of bad luck/bad mulliganing choices/bad deckbuilding, or game state events such as banishing valid targets or consuming them or vicovaro-ing them. If a 'nerf' makes people have to actually think before including a card and has to think about whether having them in their opening hand is ideal, that is a good thing. Last I checked Gwent was supposed to be a more skillful card game with less brainless play. Including freyas is the definition of brainless deck building. It's the same reason certain gold cards get nerfed.

I'm just going to focus on this part of your post for now. First I just wanted to say that usually people that are upset about a nerf or wanting a nerf in a video game, they are the ones writing with so much passion in long posts about changes, and not people complaining to those who dislike a nerf. Anyway, I don't see how including Freya's is the definition of "brainless deck building" since most factions have core cards they include. Yes, Freya and Sigdrifa have been more of faction staples regardless of the deck type of Skellige (does Skellige even have more than two deck types these days?); whereas other factions might not of had staples outside of their specific deck types like consume monsters for instance. However, I would argue that other factions have had staple cards. To me and other Nilfgaard users (at least before the mid-winter update), Auckes was a must, and especially in the days of a Bran meta with Queensguard and Cerys. Two locks from a silver unit is really good though even today, and he is in almost all of my NG decks today. Increasingly, I think factions are having more staple cards actually.

Speaking of cards that revive which are pretty much staples in a deck, just looking at Yugioh for example, Monster Reborn was included in everyone's deck. Then Monster Reborn was banned in Tournaments (being able to revive any card from either player's Graveyard was overpowered), and so people just used another spell card, Premature Burial, that revived monsters exclusively from the user's graveyard for 800 life points in attack position. Mirror force was also a staple of almost every deck. The nature of card games is that there are certain ones that are must haves regardless of your specific deck type. The difference being that everyone could use Monster Reborn and every user can still use Premature Burial, whereas Freya and Sigdrifa are limited to just one faction in Gwent, and of course, Yugioh doesn't have "factions." For what it is worth, I haven't kept up with the state of Yugioh's meta much over the years. Having said that, just because one card is very frequent doesn't mean the deck or anyone using it is brainless. A card's frequency shouldn't detract the quality of a card game as long as the card isn't broken, and that is absolutely the key. Curiously though, I don't recall any discussion in the past about nerfing Freya and Sigdrifa. I certainly remember people wanting spies nerfed. In fact, Queensguard used to be bashed to death by people for its constant revives, and particularly with strong round 3 finishes. Yet they just became weaker relatively speaking by the the addition of other cards. Which is actually what I would argue with Freya and Sigdrifa with the addition of new revive cards for other factions. Which leads me to my next point.

You never did acknowledge in your two replies to my posts about my suggestion of Freya being able to revive one additional tagged unit besides just Soldiers, but I guess it isn't surprising based on your views on the unit that you would just ignore that. I would also point out that Sigdrifa should be able to revive all loyal Skellige units, and not just clan units. For a silver unit, I think that is quite doable, and they can weaken her base strength to 1-2 for all I care if they have that middle ground. Which leads me to my next point. There is a middle ground for these units which I feel they didn't take for balancing sake. Yes, I will admit that there is a decent argument to be made that the old Freya and Sigdrifa were a little too versatile, but they didn't even attempt a more modest nerf like I have suggested on a few different occasions. If they did these middle of the road nerfs to Freya and Sigdrifa, how is that wrong particularly when they have become weaker indirectly with just the additions of new revive cards that other factions can use?

Sooner or later, all cards will get nerfed. Some new cards will be released in Gwent that are a little over power, and that is until they become old themselves. This game has been in beta for what? A little over a year? Gwent has had so many changes to cards that I think CDPR has a challenge with balancing this game and figuring out the direction they want to go in. I also don't like factions becoming more and more similar to one another. Monsters was the faction for swarm, and now almost every faction can. Skellige was the faction for revives, and now NG and ST can too. And so on.

By the way, it turns out I did write my second wall of text about this topic.

 

[iamthedave]

We're meant to be helping CDPR make a balanced game for release, not just venting about how much we dislike things. It's extremely important that we have actual analytical discussions about nerfs and buffs, rather than the usual one-sided complain fest, because the normal dynamic is people who are unhappy whinge, and happy people don't bother because it doesn't matter. I care very much about Gwent being a good game, and I'll defend it from accusations that good changes are bad for it (just as I'll passionately accuse it of decisions that genuinely are bad for the game, such as the spy spawn meta, which is absolutely awful and needs to die in a fire (due not to anything inherent about spies, but how card advantage functions in Gwent as opposed to other card games such as MT:G, where 'card advantage' doesn't mean anything like the same thing and often doesn't matter).

I can't think of any card in any faction at the bronze level that's a staple at the level of freya. There are staple cards in different archetypes, yes, but freya crosses all archetypes and appears in all decks, even now. By all means throw a couple at me if you have some in mind. The new revives have that potential but we won't know for a while yet. I'd argue that silver revives are staples.

The silver level is where real staples appear and you see silvers that appear in most decks. Spies, obviously. You torpedo your argument by mentioning Auckes, and you even mention why. He was never a staple, he was only there because the meta made him necessary. Freya has been a staple since the card was invented and the game ended closed beta. Auckes was omni-present in an environment where every deck required you to lock something or die because you didn't. Now fewer decks put that kind of pressure on a NG deck he's a preference play. Lots of NG lists don't run Auckes at all, because he's a sub-10 point silver whose only value is stopping other active abilities from generating value.

By the way, did Auckes ever do much to QG? I don't remember being inconvenienced by him much. And as QG main... the deck was a bit OTT back in the day, and though it's been over-nerfed, I think it made sense to do something.

Yu-gi-oh is awful and always has been. It's so bad that it's become a meme that the only way it operates is by serially banning cards so new ones get played.

I think there's a case on sigrdrifa, but I don't agree on freya. She is still incredibly powerful and still omnipresent. Your argument is 'I want my omnipresent card to be even more omnipresent'. Why is it necessary? There is a strong argument that freya WAS broken, on the grounds that while it exists, the existence of any other bronze revive card is pointless because it will simply be a worse version of her. Make a proper case for why freya needs that extra tag, based on how she's actually used in the game we're playing.

A card's frequency does detract from a game because it makes decks homogenous and makes things samey and boring. It's exactly why prevalent decks such as dorfs HAVE to be nerfed. Same reason why - in the days of yore - wizards of the coast took the nuclear option with Ravager Affinity. It was virtually impossible to beat, pathetically easy to play, and the metagame couldn't create a deck that could challenge it without being useless against everything else. And even dedicated hate decks couldn't beat it regularly.

Freya and Sigr have NOT been nerfed 'indirectly'. This is simply untrue. Other decks having access to revive doesn't nerf freya or Sigr, it simply means other factions can use the revive mechanic. Those cards may or may not be broken (Hattori clearly is making a case for being overpowered), but they have no bearing on the balance of Sigr or freya. You could argue - using those terms - that sigr is clearly overpowered since Shani - a gold, remember - was only just at the same power level. Should a SK silver be more powerful than a NR gold?

 

[DaronDJ]

why "Olaf" ability doesn't trigger by "Germain Piquant"? germain piquant spawn 4 cows, which are beast but doesn't reduce the damage inflicted on Olaf. Is it a bug?

 

[Sunsibar]

why "Olaf" ability doesn't trigger by "Germain Piquant"? germain piquant spawn 4 cows, which are beast but doesn't reduce the damage inflicted on Olaf. Is it a bug?

Because Germain spawns those cows. You play Germain, but you don't actually play those cows. So to me it sounds about right.

Olaf says:

Deal 10 damage to self. Reduce the damage inflicted by 2 for each Beast you played this match.

 

[Khreygond]

Well I haven't tested it recently but Bearmasters do reduce Olaf's damage. So it's a bit weird if they do but Germain doesn't

*EDIT* Bearmasters spawn the bear in hand, so you do play it afterwards. Germain spawns the cows adjacent to him, you don't play them.

My next objective is to find out if Morkvarg counts when discarded via King Bran. He shouldn't.

 

[Void_Singer]

[...]My next objective is to find out if Morkvarg counts when discarded via King Bran. He shouldn't.

he doesn't, I reported it as a bug and was told it was intentional

 

[Khreygond]

he doesn't, I reported it as a bug and was told it was intentional

Indeed he doesn't. But Raging Berserkers that have been transformed count. Those that haven't don't. Even though they weren't beasts when you played them

 

[Void_Singer]

ugh another inconsistency with that card....

 

[DaronDJ]

Because Germain spawns those cows. You play Germain, but you don't actually play those cows. So to me it sounds about right.

Olaf says:

Well I haven't tested it recently but Bearmasters do reduce Olaf's damage. So it's a bit weird if they do but Germain doesn't

*EDIT* Bearmasters spawn the bear in hand, so you do play it afterwards. Germain spawns the cows adjacent to him, you don't play them.

My next objective is to find out if Morkvarg counts when discarded via King Bran. He shouldn't.

oh well you guys right. I have tested it with Roach it doesn't counts too. I think Olaf deserve a auto summon meta.

Thanks guys

 

[DRK3]

Still no strategies for fellow Skellige players in HC Gwent? OK i can start:

Discard - Bran - i guess most people have figured this, but Phoenix and Morkvarg work pretty well in this deck. Be careful Phoenix can be locked if played to the board, or Phoenix Hatchling can be destroyed with an artefact removal. And be careful with how much you discard, specially vs NG: if they're playing Tibor and Ihuarraquax, they'll leave it for when you have 0 cards on deck so you dont summon anything to the board.

Damage - Harald - the axemen strategy works exactly the same, except now its the GS that have its effect, and Dagur that has the previous effect of Derran, and dont forget you can put those units and activate ability on same turn (which i think is OP)

I find this strategy too straightforward and predictable, so im using a Harald weather deck. Weather was badly nerfed? Yes. So no one is using it? Yes. Which means no one is using weather clears? Yes. That makes it actually quite effective: on R3, put Ragnaroog on a row early. Enemy stacks all other units on other row. On the last 2 turns, put skellige storm. Profit.

Self-damage - Crach - Queensguard are amazing again. They spawn a copy, not summon, so you can fill your entire side with them. Crach's ability every 2 turns is best used on own QG than just ticking 1pt on enemies. If QG with order gets killed, ressurect them (the spawned ones arent doomed). If you put a Spear on the field, you can create even more QG every turn.

-Easy Big pt combos: Jutta (only if there's no other 12pt or higher unit) + Twisted Mirror on her = 18 pt Jutta (more if you damage her below 6 pts)

Olaf, then next turn damage him 1 pt if he's undamaged (with spear or Crach's ability, so you can still play a card). Then use Hym on Olaf, and trigger Olaf's ability: you should get a 7 pt Hym and a 15 pt Olaf.

You could also do Jutta (6pt)-Hym-Mirror, but that takes 3 turns and its risky because the opponent can destroy your 1pt Jutta, and the whole strategy is ruined.

(Havent tried Eist, will post strategies for him when i do, but i can already say Cerys is perfect for Eist decks, based on ressurecting)

 

[ArghyaD]

Still no strategies for fellow Skellige players in HC Gwent? OK i can start:

Discard - Bran - i guess most people have figured this, but Phoenix and Morkvarg work pretty well in this deck. Be careful Phoenix can be locked if played to the board, or Phoenix Hatchling can be destroyed with an artefact removal. And be careful with how much you discard, specially vs NG: if they're playing Tibor and Ihuarraquax, they'll leave it for when you have 0 cards on deck so you dont summon anything to the board.

Damage - Harald - the axemen strategy works exactly the same, except now its the GS that have its effect, and Dagur that has the previous effect of Derran, and dont forget you can put those units and activate ability on same turn (which i think is OP)

I find this strategy too straightforward and predictable, so im using a Harald weather deck. Weather was badly nerfed? Yes. So no one is using it? Yes. Which means no one is using weather clears? Yes. That makes it actually quite effective: on R3, put Ragnaroog on a row early. Enemy stacks all other units on other row. On the last 2 turns, put skellige storm. Profit.

Self-damage - Crach - Queensguard are amazing again. They spawn a copy, not summon, so you can fill your entire side with them. Crach's ability every 2 turns is best used on own QG than just ticking 1pt on enemies. If QG with order gets killed, ressurect them (the spawned ones arent doomed). If you put a Spear on the field, you can create even more QG every turn.

-Easy Big pt combos: Jutta (only if there's no other 12pt or higher unit) + Twisted Mirror on her = 18 pt Jutta (more if you damage her below 6 pts)

Olaf, then next turn damage him 1 pt if he's undamaged (with spear or Crach's ability, so you can still play a card). Then use Hym on Olaf, and trigger Olaf's ability: you should get a 7 pt Hym and a 15 pt Olaf.

You could also do Jutta (6pt)-Hym-Mirror, but that takes 3 turns and its risky because the opponent can destroy your 1pt Jutta, and the whole strategy is ruined.

(Havent tried Eist, will post strategies for him when i do, but i can already say Cerys is perfect for Eist decks, based on ressurecting)

How do you fare against scorch / epidemic / artifact Eithnes with Crach- Queensguard?

I started playing Crach that way, but changed my whole deck after facing a few of those Eithnes.

I really like the combos you mentioned, specially Jutta - Mirror.

 

[DRK3]

How do you fare against scorch / epidemic / artifact Eithnes with Crach- Queensguard?

I started playing Crach that way, but changed my whole deck after facing a few of those Eithnes.

I really like the combos you mentioned, specially Jutta - Mirror.

To be honest, i havent faced any Eithnés with Crach... i only started playing with him 3 days ago and wasnt able to play on the last 2 days (where i've seen more complaints about this Eithné)

I'll play now over the weekend, and i'll get back to you, and with new strategies.

 

[DRK3]

@ArghyaD So, i've played a bit more, specially with Eist.

To be honest, i was expecting him to be a lot better, but i think he's the worst SK leader. He can ressurrect gold warriors, but its hard to take advantage of that.

I made a deck with Hjalmar, Cerys, Jutta and lots of bronze warriors, but it's not as good as my Crach deck.
1st, Cerys is only good if you can discard a lot to make sure you put her in the GY early. With Eist sometimes i didnt even get her the whole game.
2nd, you can use Jutta 3x (one played directly, 2nd revived with Sigdrifa, 3rd with Leader ability)... but she's only a 6 pt card unless combo'ed with Mirror (which can only be used once by SK, i think)
3rd Hjalmar needs a big unit to banish (ideally Jutta for 12pt damage), but found little use of him, and definitely wasnt able to use him twice.

Honestly, the saving grace were still my Harald + Queensguard, and Draig Bon Duh at the end which is basically a froth when you have your entire side filled with QG. But it performed horribly vs EIthné artefacts, im starting to consider using white frost, now that even NR and MO decks are artefact heavy...

 

[ArghyaD]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am not really enjoying this game any more. Last game my Shupe got auto discarded and of course I lost. The game before that my opponent discarded a card when he was behind and quit after 2 turns (I think the same bug happenned to him). I am just too frustrated right now.

But still, I wouldn't mind a few friendlies if you wanna play. Will be nice to see you in game.

 

[DRK3]

I come with brand new SK strategies.

People have complained lately about how SK seems to dodge the nerf hammer everytime... and they're probably right. There werent many changes to SK directly with December patch, but the changes to the rest made SK stronger.

I know a lot of players are still using Crach/ Bloodthirst decks, but since they added Hemdall, i just had to make a deck about him.

So, Eist is pretty awesome right now. Xavier Lemmens was nerfed to oblivion, havent seen him a single time since patch so the only graveyard hate you can get is an Alghoul when facing Giant Woodland, or the rare chance of a Blue Dream.

Since Scorch and G:Igni were also nerfed, they stopped being a problem too. I just have to be extra careful when facing Foltest (because of Gaunter), other than that you can put big units.

Im using 2 Eist decks, and they're very similar:

-the first is a classic GS deck (previously axemen), with lots of ways to do 1pings to boost the GS and Dagur. People usually use Harald for this, why? A Dagur+Leader ability is a 20pt finisher, which is pretty good. Im using a Dagur ressurect(with Eist ability) + Shupe Hunter for 9 pings (if i get lucky, its a 60% chance), which is a 26 pt finisher.

-the second is my Heimdall Warriors deck. I use veterans (8 base strength), jutta + mirror, Hjalmar and Cerys. And it has a super powerful finisher, in the right conditions. So Heimdall boosts by every warrior damage you do. and the good part about this deck is you can and should use powerful moves like Jutta and Hjalmar on R1 and 2 so they're at the graveyard R3.
Assuming the opponent has a 12pt unit, you play Hemdall from hand, ressurect Hjalmar and use Jutta to do 12 damage. This is a 31pt finisher! (also works if Hemdall is on GY and Hjalmar on hand, since they're both warriors)
This deck is great against giant woodland which seems dominant lately, as you can remove most of his thrive units early, and use his big units to your advantage, just be careful if you play Hemdall early and he has drowner to put it in ranged row, Hemdall is melee restricted.