Any tips on playing with Usurper?

[dionihilo777]

I know very little about playing NG. The strongest metas in the game right now seem to use the leader abilities as a crutch so I figured if I'm going to play NG (My least favourite faction) It works for me to take away those advantages. But nothing I try is really working and I need some help.

At first I tried to make a themed '**** your strategy' deck and fill it up with vipers, infiltrators and other tricky units like Tibor and the guy who can discard cards from the opponents deck. The aim being to try and deplete my opponent of all his most useful cards. It didnt really work out. All I felt like I was doing is sacrificing my entire recruit cost to do some partial damage to the opponents synergies whilst pretty much eliminating all of my own.

As Usurper I expect to get 0 mulligans so I cant do witcher trio or any kind of deck thinning. Banking too hard on certain unit interactions also seems risky. So now im wondering if my focus should be playing big units with high strengths and just trying to brute force my opponent. So Tibor, Golem, D'ao, running two recruits instead of spotters and getting rid of all my reveal stuff, for a start. Is this a good idea or are there other things I could be looking into?

 

[teh_rion]

protip: wait until rework.

 

[Draconifors]

Yeah, the witcher trio does not work with Usurper. I initially had them in my deck, along with Roach... in the one competitive match that I played I got super lucky and only had one witcher in my hand. Every time after that, either two witchers or a witcher and Roach (sometimes even worse hands) even if I lost the coinflip.

I recently posted my current Usurper deck here, if you want to have a look.

In general, you'll want to have cards that you don't mind getting in your hand. So, the fewer "play from deck" cards, the better. I run Roach, but even she is risky to have.

Focusing on locks is one option, as there are many cards that support such an approach and it effectively shuts down decks that rely on Orders and/or continuous abilities. (It might also have a negative effect on the number of GGs you receive, but I have no such experiences at this point in time.)

Viper Witchers are great cards to have, for obvious reasons, and you can also build witcher synergies with them. Even without the Lambert + Eskel + Vesemir trio that can be really strong.

Geralt: Igni is a good card to have, in my opinion. It has been a staple in my decks throughout beta, and I would say it's even better now than it used to be.

Since you apparently have Thronebreaker, several of those cards are good options. The discard guy you mentioned, Isbel, and the Bomb Heavers, for example. Also Ivo of Belhaven, if going for witcher synergy.

I haven't tried out nearly all of the Nilfgaard or neutral cards yet, so there are probably hidden gems among them.


Usurper's ability is highly useful as you never need to worry about Eithné pinging your units to line up whatever mass destruction they have, Eredin giving Immune to a key unit, Morvran triggering various Reveal synergies, etc.
(Incidentally, his ability is straight from Witcher 3's gwent -- and it was the ability I never stopped using once I got it.)

 

[DRK3]

Playing Devil's Advocate here, but you can play witcher trio on Usurper. Just put those vicovaro novices on your deck.

It can still screw you up, but it has better chances of not bricking your trio, specially if you play them R1 or R2 (for R3, th odds arent favourable, even with the novices)

And ye, Usurper basically screws any opponent that relies on Leader. I was facing a Usurper with locks with my Crach deck and i could do NOTHING, as most of my units were bloodthirst and i didnt have the ping from crach and he locked my units. Gave up when i had 4 cards on hand, usually pretty good but totally bricked on that scenario.

I would advise not to go with the Isbel/ Stregobor shenanigans R2, and trying to discard your opponent R3... most of the times that will do nothing to your opponent while he's busy damaging or buffing, havent lost a single match vs those, even when they can draw 2 extra cards with Ciri Dash and Letho Kingslayer.

 

[dionihilo777]

Yeah, the witcher trio does not work with Usurper. I initially had them in my deck, along with Roach... in the one competitive match that I played I got super lucky and only had one witcher in my hand. Every time after that, either two witchers or a witcher and Roach (sometimes even worse hands) even if I lost the coinflip.

I recently posted my current Usurper deck here, if you want to have a look.

In general, you'll want to have cards that you don't mind getting in your hand. So, the fewer "play from deck" cards, the better. I run Roach, but even she is risky to have.

Focusing on locks is one option, as there are many cards that support such an approach and it effectively shuts down decks that rely on Orders and/or continuous abilities. (It might also have a negative effect on the number of GGs you receive, but I have no such experiences at this point in time.)

Viper Witchers are great cards to have, for obvious reasons, and you can also build witcher synergies with them. Even without the Lambert + Eskel + Vesemir trio that can be really strong.

Geralt: Igni is a good card to have, in my opinion. It has been a staple in my decks throughout beta, and I would say it's even better now than it used to be.

Since you apparently have Thronebreaker, several of those cards are good options. The discard guy you mentioned, Isbel, and the Bomb Heavers, for example. Also Ivo of Belhaven, if going for witcher synergy.

I haven't tried out nearly all of the Nilfgaard or neutral cards yet, so there are probably hidden gems among them.


Usurper's ability is highly useful as you never need to worry about Eithné pinging your units to line up whatever mass destruction they have, Eredin giving Immune to a key unit, Morvran triggering various Reveal synergies, etc.
(Incidentally, his ability is straight from Witcher 3's gwent -- and it was the ability I never stopped using once I got it.)

Thanks for the info. I havent invested much in witchers (I keep spending my scraps on cool cards that I never use effectively, like Vilgefortz) but thats some great synergising there and it looks very fun to play. I won't be able to go full witcher for some time based on my current levels of scrap. I'm interested to know how you use rot tossers effectively? Against monsters for me the cows get consumed, or shot by a NR engine, or killed by ST in many possible ways. Do you save them for R3?

I've been really liking having slave infantry in my decks, that's all I can say I hold sacred. Its the best counter Nilfgaard has to control decks who whittle down your board. I've seen some really nifty lineups with the guy who repeats deploys of adjacents units so if you sandwich him between two slaves you can fix up another pair on the board. So many cards I need to craft, so few resources...

 

[Draconifors]

I'm interested to know how you use rot tossers effectively?

Tbh I just use them when there's a good target for them on the board. I've liked that card ever since it was added to the game ages ago.
Killed a Milva once, which was great.

 

[Que-Hegan]

[...] I'm interested to know how you use rot tossers effectively [...]

If i have Rot tosser in hand, and if my opponent use Tall strategy (atleast 1 big unit on board), i'll try to stay behind (point behind = your opponent biggest unit +1), and your opponent passed, toss the cow next to the biggest unit and boom you won that round. Don't know if that is the most effective way or not but i always do that.
In short play Rot tosser as your last move AFTER your opponent passed.