Eldain Trap Decks: OP or Not?

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I reckon ST faction making a comeback is good, i rarely see one in ranked. However i also reckon Trap decks are a bit over the top, since there are only so many trash cards i can spare before playing a golden card straight into that pitfall trap. Then there's the boost horn, and the one that deals 5 damage after playing a card, and another that deals damage to a row. And the thing is, these come in addition to cards that already deal a nice bit of damage in the ST kit, besides the boosts. So overall for example, Eldain can spam a bunch of traps in R3 and ruin my synergy, then spawn 3 elves for a total of 9 power. I agree ST guerilla style warfare is their thing and its supposed to be disruptive but hell... im poised to just forfeit whenever i see a trap deck because my chances are quite low and i dont want to get angry.

Besides who cares right? You can't lose rank anymore lol...
 

4RM3D

Ex-moderator
The "OP" label is being slapped unto too many decks too hastily. I guess this is mostly due to the fact players encounter new decks they don't know how to handle or that, in the "rock-paper-scissors" meta, they are playing against a deck that counters their own, making it OP from that perspective. Now, when players talk about Monsters being OP, that I can understand, but Traps? No, Trap decks are not OP. Among other things, they lack tempo and an endgame. Furthermore, they are susceptible to artifact removal. If someone can predict the opponent's moves, they can play traps in the right order for maximum impact. This, however, is difficult to achieve.
 
I never came across an Eldain deck so far, but the general opinion here in the forum seems to be that he is underpowered up to useless.
I guess the problem is that you play a synergy heavy deck, which is a lot weaker than other decks against him.
 
Not sure what you're talking about there. They don't need an endgame, the whole purpose of the deck is to ruin my next move, sort of like an army of viper witchers without the banish part. I don't run a synergy heavy deck either. As for monsters, i never really found them to be op, strong maybe, but never op. I had few problems vs monsters up till rank 14. I still lost some games vs them but nothing that seemed absurd. Trap decks seem absurd because you mainly have to guess what the trap is, and try and play a trashy card to see if you guessed right, work your way around that, whereas with monsters you know what the opponent wants to do up to a certain point.
 
Yes they are to an extent. The argument, oh you can use artifact removal. Please, who is going to load a deck up with half a dozen artifact removals? They would be useless in almost every other deck and ruin your deck synergies. This trap deck has so many options for traps, it replays one from the graveyard, it can take a trap back to your hand and then play one, etc. etc. I've seen half a dozen traps played and they are replayed again and again. There is no way to stop them since locking no longer works on traps and the only counter to traps is to play a half dozen, or more artifact removal cards which is useless in any other match up and makes your deck trash. You are punished continuously. You can't play around them forever by playing lower cards because you only have 10 to play and need to start playing your strategy eventually.
 

Guest 4344268

Guest
There's no way on earth you could call Eldain overpowered - I thought the title of the thread was a joke. You definitely get good value-per-provisions with your traps, but this guy is probably the weakest leader in the game.
 

Breli

Forum regular
Eldain traps is anything but OP.

There are basically only two strong traps (crushing). Incinerating has a very bad cost/benefit ratio. It gives on average 3 points or even less since the trapped unit can still trigger its deploy effect. Horn can have anti-synergy with Eldain if your opponent goes last. Serpent can brick. Experienced players play around pitfall and you end up killing a 3 point bronze. Of course you might get lucky and kill your opponents win-con but that is more difficult than it sounds. Iorveths gambit is complete non-sense since it tutors two at random (!!!!). That doesn't make any sense. Timing and sequencing is crucial when playing traps. You need at least 4 traps in round 3 in hand since at least one might be removed. Additionally, traps force you to play in a certain sequence/timing and you are less flexible to react to your opponent. Eibhar doesn't have zeal and is usally dead on arrival etc. pp. The list goes on.

Of course, playing against a trap deck can be very uncomfortable in case you don't know the typical way in which they are played. It can be annoying if your two most important golds in R3 are lost in the pitfall trap. I get that.

I had high hopes for a sneaky trap deck with Eldain but it simply doesn't work (so far). Others (and much much better players than me) have tried (e.g. SirPumpkn) and so far, to the best of my knowledge, nobody came up with anything that is remotely competitive. It is a bit sad, since I actually like Eldains concept/design a lot.

Brouver traps is still the only viable option that is somewhat competitive.

Edit: typos
 
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rrc

Forum veteran
Honestly I thought this was a sarcastic post by one of my ST comrades. If Leader Spotlight Videos are like trailers to games or movies, for Eldain, the quotes for him would be:
"He is terrible" - ST Faction ambassador
"I may not even play ST anymore" - SirPumpkin, ST Ambassador
"Honestly, he is the weakest leader. I don't think he is even playable at all" - FreddyBabes, Gwent Champion

And if you watch Streams/YTs you can get even more funny quotes about Eldain. People don't even play him to even discuss about it. FreddyBabes posted videos about all the new leaders, except Eldain. He even posted a video in which he claimed Arnjolf is weak and the video had him losing with him. Eldain is so pathetic that FreddyBabes didn't even want to post a video with him losing. He said he tried and just that he is completely unplayable, he couldn't even create a worthy video material with Eldain.

SirPumpkin is not even playing ST anymore in his streams. Whenever I check he is playing everything other than ST and I immediately close the Twitch.

So, that is the state of Eldain.

Wait, is the entire post sarcastic and making fun of ST and Eldain? Then I give you my thumbs up!

[But, there is one little hope for Eldain. Daddy is back! If anyone can make Eldain work, it is the Daddy (I hope people get the reference, for those who don't, it is
Swim
. That is, if he sticks with Gwent. Fingers Crossed.]

Edit: I only saw Daddy's twitch a bit and got hyped and mentioned him in my post. Just now I was seeing his YT video and this is another accolade to Eldain:

"Eldain.. meh.. Pumpkin said he is shit. I don't even want to read what he does. I trust Pumpkin" - The father of netdecks!

There goes the only hope for Eldain! :p
 
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This is slowly becoming hearthstone forum. Everything is OP from some point of view...
Tomorrow will people learn words like [nope] or "polarizing" and we will finally reach it...

Personally, I do not think that Eldain is anywhere near strong. Good for some meme decks, like solo Ciri, or currently pointless trap decks, but otherwise it is not anywhere in comparison to other leaders. He can be easily worth 0 points in total, if you draw complete garbage... like my Henselt in last 4 games, when I drew literally all duplicates...
 
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DRK3

Forum veteran
Yeah, Eldain is definitely at the bottom. Yes, he can de very effective, but only against certain decks, specially the ones without any artefact removal.

One of the biggest problems with him is there are only 5 different traps in the game, and 7 traps max you can put on a deck (then there's some ways to revive said traps, but they're very expensive). That means an Eldain player might not even be able to use all 3 charges on a match.

This is aggravated by being so predictable - you see a Eldain, he likely will use most of his traps for R3, and use his charges then, so a player will try to save all his artefact removal for R3, then you're even more likely to not get your 3 charges used.

On the last 5 matches i did with Eldain, 3 of them i wasnt even able to use all charges, so i deleted him. I like traps, but i hate being predictable.
 
Honestly, I'd rather play Fila, Fran or Brouver. The former is possibly underrated at the moment because some of the nerfs to tall removals and resets arguably indirectly buffed it.

I tried heavy trap based builds for a bit and, while they can be good when the stars align, they feel sub-par overall. Gambit can brick. Traps can be sniped by artifact removal. Both can be expensive to run in a deck. So the ability to carry both a lot of traps and reliable tempo can be challenging. Even if you can run the traps as you desire the opponent can guess or make a solid informed decision and fubar your plan.

Less trap oriented builds felt more competitive. Maybe 4-5 traps, no gambit and elf swarm concepts. With the leader leveraged to add reliability to pulling Aelrinn, getting a big Isengrim, etc. The problem there is the leader can brick because it's restricted to traps. You often need to burn leader charges R1 because you can hit later rounds and not have 3 traps.

The problem with this leader is the restriction. It only works with one, singular concept. This limits creativity, IMO. You must build the deck a specific way. It's simply not flexible enough. Unfortunately, this is a common issue to run into with ST across the board....

So no, I do not agree with viewing Eldain as overpowered. Even when the perfect hand and sequence falls in your lap it doesn't feel particularly amazing compared to other decks running around.
 
He is on par with old hoog trap deck, but he has the burst

trap deck is definitely not op back then, and now it's viable, not op
 
First games against him i was crushed. So i thought he is good.
Then i played him myself and was crushed again. So no... not everything is OP.
Just try him yourself and you will see he is not.
 
The only deck I hate is Usurper. Everything else has a "point", except Usurper.

Eldain is a flat 9 points, doesn't really do much else. Adda/Harald/Woodland a flat 8 points. The rest are less points, but built to add value to the decks.

[Off-topic.]
 
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Guest 4344268

Guest
Clear weather is also OP. That card needs to go. What was CDPR thinking?
 
Let me explain why Eldain is the "best leader" (imo):

Makes you really think ahead;
Making an enemy fall for your trap feels rewarding;
Spamming taunt and waiting until the clock ends will make the enemy triggered probably and get you a higher win rate (extra stuff they have to deal with);
If you have a good deck, you can control the game;
Combos that you pull off feel satisfying;
Its fun to play;
I don't think hes overpowered, nor underpowered;
And from the comments I've seen, people gave up playing him after the first deck attempt they made or because other streamers, youtubers said it wasn't "good enough"
Its fun to play;

Here's the deck I use, pretty much only played him since the beginning (shameless plug) https://gwentup.com/decks/5461
The deck isn't perfect and it got me from rank 30 to 16 (atm) with minor tweaks, if you have any suggestions to improve the deck pls comment!
 
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