DRK3's Thread (Farewell)

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DRK3

Forum veteran
Hello guys.
I want to start a new type of posts, and i decided to re-use this thread instead of creating a new one.

They will be short posts (hopefully), without any schedule or defined frequency (i might post two on a single day, or none in a whole week).

The topic is my personal playstyle, deckbuilding style and preferences, but im not doing this to talk about myself or imply my way is the best way. I will share the reasoning behind those choices and OPEN THEM UP FOR DEBATE, so these posts will either be helpful to readers or lead to constructive discussions on the subject.

MY GWENT STYLE

(I had planned to do these posts for quite awhile, and one of the first topics is no longer relevant, so i will discard it, unless someone asks for it. It was about 'Sunset Wanderers', and why i never really used it much on my decks)

For the 1st of these posts... Lock units.
If you've seen the decks i post on 'Deck of the Day', you might have noticed i almost always include at least one lock unit.
This is not something new for me, i already did this when most faction locks were 5pt bodies costing 7 provisions (and they were rarely seen), so when they were recently buffed to 6pt bodies and 6 provisions, of course i was gonna use them even more.

I know some people hate locks completely, but in my opinion they are a healthier form of control - unlike removal, it allows the opponent to counteract and purify the lock. Of course there's also extreme cases: when one player is NG and runs 4-7 locks, and just locks everything the other player plays, which happen to be engines, it sucks for that 2nd player. I've been in both ends of that case, and i can say its not a healthy match.

Why do i like to use at least 1 lock?
Simply because it works! Its a good counter, usually cheaper than others, and unlike removal, you wont be caught offguard because the opponent boosted your target outside of your reach and now you cant counter it.
Also, for every time i didnt get value from a lock, there's 10 times i wish i had even more locks - even though the meta is more midrangey than in the past, its still very easy to find good targets to lock against all factions.

I should also point out nowadays there's veil, which makes locks lose that 'good against everything' feel (*cof cof Heatwave *cof) i thought they had before. Units like Melusine, Francesca or even the humble bronze Whisperer of Dol Blathanna, they can be problematic for a locks fan, you need to rely on other counter or just let them go unanswered. But these veiled units fortunately arent prevalent enough to make locks obsolete, so at least for me i will still use them.
 
for every time i didnt get value from a lock, there's 10 times i wish i had even more locks
I completely agree with this.

I also like to run at least one lock, even if it's just a D. shackles, just in case I really need to disable something. When I don't have a lock in whatever deck I'm playing I usually find myself facing some dangerous(ly strong) card that would be great or even essential to be able to disable.

Plus, even if a lock finds no target it's still some points (plus potential synergy) so it's practically never (you need to be really unlucky with Shackles or Compression) completely worthless. The recent buff to lock cards certainly helped, too, yes.
 
I wish more people thought like you — then the Mahakam Ale I always include will get more value!
 
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DRK3

Forum veteran
Should the Initiative keyword be replaced by Adrenaline?

Not really, i dont think that would be a good solution to fix them.

There are 4 cards with Initiative: Regis, Scorch, Geralt Igni and Blizzard.
Lets pretend the latter doesnt exist (i have tried to make it work, but i was utterly defeated by the lack of good results).

Adrenaline is a condition that makes cards weaker if played earlier, but the initiative cards are finishers anyway, the only negative it would bring its they wouldnt be viable to win R1, and perhaps R2 against a bleed.

I think the first step to buff these cards is to change 'initiative', so it isnt broken when you tutor it or create it, only when you change points on the board (damaging or boosting anything).
 
Lets pretend the latter doesnt exist
Yes. De jure it does, but de facto it doesn't.

Adrenaline is a condition that makes cards weaker if played earlier, but the initiative cards are finishers anyway
Good point.


buff these cards is to change 'initiative', so it isnt broken when you tutor it or create it
Also yes.
Post automatically merged:

So then add Adrenaline to reward playing early instead of finisher, like Adrenaline 2: Initiative etc.
 
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DRK3

Forum veteran
MY GWENT STYLE

I wanna talk about stratagems.

My most used stratagem is by far the magic lamp. This can be attested by looking at the decks in the 'deck of the day' thread.
The buffs to other stratagems in the past months were welcome, but most stratagems still arent as appealing and universal as the default ones: TA, crystal veil and magic lamp.

The exceptions are SK and SY's stratagems. Both i and the rest of the playerbase consider these really good and use them often. The NG one is decent, but personally i just prefer to use cheap locks units instead. And the MO stratagem is one of my favourites, but only works on DW decks, and not even all DW decks, only specific ones. The ST and NR stratagem are mostly forgotten.

But going back to the neutral stratagems - both TA and magic lamp are 5 points. TA can be replaced by crystal veil, where you lose 1 pt but gain veil, to protect from locks and poison. This makes it my 2nd favourite neutral stratagem, great for boosting bronze engine openers out of bronze removal range, as they will require a gold (or a sneaky pred dive) to counter.

But as someone who avoids going tall at all costs, magic lamp. Guaranteed 5 points, more distributed points, even if you boost it a bit, its unlikely opponents will want to target it with something like an heatwave or Yen Invo, as they would (rightly) feel like its a waste.

Also, this preference is still influenced by years of NG poison/ control meta, which is finally fading away (although arguably, being replaced by something equally bad), so it might take some time until im comfortable playing tall units on blue coin R1.

Anyway, what are your favourite stratagems and why?
 
I use the poison one in my ST or NG poison deck. Just because i got a lot of poison in those.

It does make me wonder why NR doesn't have a good purify unit. Also i miss a NR leader which synergizes with warfare cards, maybe rework Stockpile again?

And i still think Regis should be Adrenaline 2: Initiative.

On topic: I use the knife with the bleeding stratagem for blood scent leader, to protofleder pointslam the round.
 
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rrc

Forum veteran
MY GWENT STYLE

I wanna talk about stratagems.

My most used stratagem is by far the magic lamp. This can be attested by looking at the decks in the 'deck of the day' thread.
The buffs to other stratagems in the past months were welcome, but most stratagems still arent as appealing and universal as the default ones: TA, crystal veil and magic lamp.

The exceptions are SK and SY's stratagems. Both i and the rest of the playerbase consider these really good and use them often. The NG one is decent, but personally i just prefer to use cheap locks units instead. And the MO stratagem is one of my favourites, but only works on DW decks, and not even all DW decks, only specific ones. The ST and NR stratagem are mostly forgotten.

But going back to the neutral stratagems - both TA and magic lamp are 5 points. TA can be replaced by crystal veil, where you lose 1 pt but gain veil, to protect from locks and poison. This makes it my 2nd favourite neutral stratagem, great for boosting bronze engine openers out of bronze removal range, as they will require a gold (or a sneaky pred dive) to counter.

But as someone who avoids going tall at all costs, magic lamp. Guaranteed 5 points, more distributed points, even if you boost it a bit, its unlikely opponents will want to target it with something like an heatwave or Yen Invo, as they would (rightly) feel like its a waste.

Also, this preference is still influenced by years of NG poison/ control meta, which is finally fading away (although arguably, being replaced by something equally bad), so it might take some time until im comfortable playing tall units on blue coin R1.

Anyway, what are your favourite stratagems and why?
Somehow, I have never used Magic Lamp. May be in one or two decks, but I don't remember using it much. 99% of my decks use Crystal Veil to handle NG and SY (locks and poisons in general). If I forget to change it, it will be TA :p and when the game starts and I am on blue coin, I would think "I should change it after this game", but I forget most times.

If I build an SY deck, it is 100% SY strategem even when it was only 4 coins (why? why was this strategem buffed?) I mostly play ST only and I rarely ever use ST strategem.

So, it is either Veil or SY-Strategem if I play SY.
 
As one who does not yet own every card, I find crafting a stratagem — any strategem — not worth giving up a different legendary card for. So, I use what I have, typically tactical advantage. I also own collar but have never used it (and never missed having it).

One I have used, which I think is unjustly maligned is Aen Seidhe Sabre. If not immediately removed, it plays for at least 5 points with a possibility of 6 or even more. This is as good as Magic lamp. And if Sabre draws removal, that is one less removal for something of greater value. It’s big drawback is playing into cards like Waylay, Forbidden Magic, War of Clans, etc., or playing into damage pings. But it is usually advantageous to flush out the death based specials early in round 1, and damage pings can add value to Sabre as easily as denying it.

The only strategem I have ever really missed having is Crystal Skull. Boosting a four strength engine by four and giving veil is much nicer than boosting by five and playing into Rivia and the like.

Predatory Dive is usually easy to play around and drawing heatwave on an otherwise low value unit usually also feels good — although the lost tempo really hurts. The cards that I would most fear are Rockslide, Curse of Corruption, and the like as they do mess up your round one play without really compromising your opponent.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
MY GWENT STYLE

Today, i come to talk about a controversial card.

GERALT: YRDEN

I know this is one of the most hated cards in the game. Usually, im in agreement with the haters, im right there at the front with the pitchfork, against cards like Masquerade Ball, Kolgrim, Viy, etc.

But i LOVE Yrden. And i wont apologize for it. But this time i will share my full reasoning.
Maybe i wont "convert" you players who hate it, but hopefully you'll understand other points of view.

(A) INTRO
- This card can be devastating against some decks, i admit that. Something like dwarves, who need to rowstack to maximize their point potential, and most of their mechanics are around boosts. An Yrden finisher destroys the effort of a full round, and its unfair.

- However, in my opinion, Yrden is a necessary evil, just like NG and more specifically Lockdown was, before being reworked (into oblivion).
Their role is to keep ultra greedy and overtuned decks in check. And i wasnt a fan of Lockdown, but you can probably agree since the rework, it allowed many OP decks to proliferate and dominate metas, plenty of Tier 1s, arguably even some Tier 0s.

(B) VALUE TO ORIGINAL DECKS
- As a meme player, Yrden is the perfect tool. A lot of my decks are complex combo pieces that take a lot of setup, and almost always want a long R3. If i start including techs - a purify to counter enemy defenders, a lock or two to stop dangerous engines, an heatwave to destroy scenarios, a tall removal to deal with big units, ... - i wont have "room" for the actual strategy i was going for with the deck.

This is where Yrden comes in - I have played a lot, and tried everything, and nothing comes close to the effectiveness of Yrden as a single counter. And to those who argument that "in some matchups, it bricks, and its just a 2pt 11 prov unit since the opponent didnt boost" - this is usually SK.
And at the moment, SK is usually considered at the bottom of the meta. But even when it was at the top, i think Yrden was still really good, due to the prevalence of boosts across all factions and lack of other mechanics. I WILL take this brick against one faction, if it improves my odds of winning against all other factions substantially.

(C) PERSONAL BIAS
- There's one other factor: bias. I AM biased towards Yrden, not just because it provides me many points, gamechanging swings when i use him, but also because he isnt usually very good against my decks - i avoid going tall very hardly, denying value to opponent's tall punishes, with the exception of bronzes or cheap golds, in that case im probably trading up in provisions a lot so im fine.
(you can confirm this on the deck of the day thread - i avoid using Joachim - except in the meme Joachim deck - and emissaries. You've never seen an Aglais, Archgriffin or Dagur deck there either :shrug:)

(D) BALANCE TOOL
If your deck isnt too greedy, Yrden isnt devastating:
I) If you have one big boosted unit. it will be reset by Yrden, but its probably around a 10pt reset, an even trade in provisions. (Gord is the exception, but that card is part of the problem)
II) If you have two big boosted units, just play one on each row, only one will be reset
III) If you have three or more big boosted units, you've entered the greed area, and Yrden will start to be really punishing

- Look at the current Spellatael lists. How the hell is anyone supposed to counter 300 Orbs? I've tried Xavier Lemmens and even that isnt guaranteed to counter, as there are many ways to cycle through the original and doomed versions all at once.

Unless you're running another metadeck who vomits points, you cant keep up. Last month, i've probably had the worst winrate ever, and guess what - i didnt use Yrden once (by accident), but without other ways to counter the powercrept metadecks (NG and ST, SY isnt as punished by Yrden, one of the reasons why is even stronger), its not fair to blame the use of Yrden either.

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Note: no Yrden decks in 'Deck of the Day' in August. Probably was a mistake.
But the deck i posted on the 1st has it. The deck i posted today? Has it. And guess what - the deck for tomorrow... it will also have it! (and its essential to the strategy)
And it's a F*in masterpiece :cool:
 
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  • RED Point
Reactions: rrc
I agree. Yrden definitely is not the problem so many people claim it is; yeah, it counters greedy decks and especially ones that stack boosts on one row, but getting wrecked by Yrden is a risk you're willingly taking if you play such decks.

Splitting boosts between the rows, or of course not going tall in the first place, works well in reducing Yrden's effectiveness.

And yeah, some decks are so extreme in their boostiness that Yrden is the only thing that can counter them unless your own deck is even more insane. Which indeed means the card is necessary to exist as a tech option.

If the meta is not greedy Yrden doesn't see play. We've seen that so many times over the years. "Nobody plays Yrden" isn't said right now, but it sure has been in the past and will undoubtedly be in the future.


Plus, what rarely is pointed out is that Yrden does not only reset boosts but can be used to heal units as well. And fully healing an entire row can be very good in some cases, even just for denying Bloodlust (SK often doesn't have many boosted targets to reset anyway) or something like a Coup.
 
Hello everyone.
This thread's glorious purpose is to properly introduce myself and share some things about me as a Gwent player.

Late to this post but wanted to give my congratulations to you.
I remember your great input in these forums since the beginning, well deserved.
I don't play this anymore, but sincerely, hope you keep enjoying the game and keep bringing great content to these forums

Saludos.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
MY GWENT STYLE

CURSE OF CORRUPTION AND ARTEFACT COMPRESSION

Curse of Corruption (gold) - 9 provisions - destroy the highest unit on board
Artefact Compression (gold) - 5 provisions - lock and reset a unit

I am a big fan of these two cards, but i rarely see them being used by other players.

I do believe they are underrated, and one of the reasons they dont see play is because no pro players uses them in tournaments... Except tournaments are Open decklist, and in such format, pro players know how to play around em, to avoid or at least minimize their value. Same thing for Geralts, Ignis and Yrdens.

BUT... open decklists is only for tournaments, in ranked mode, at any rank, the opponent doesnt know what you use, unless you're using a metadeck.

Heatwave is the prefered counter of choice, understandbly so, only 1 more prov than CoC and can remove almost anything: defenders, scenarios, powerful engine/order or tall units, and also cant backfire like CoC can in case you're the one with the tallest unit.

Personally, i rarely go tall, so that last issue isnt a problem.
And there are a few fringe cases, where having a CoC is better than Heatwave - in case the enemy puts a defender to protect a Kolgrim, a big Arnachad or Dracoturtle... the CoC will bypass the defender and deal with the real threat.

Also, there are a few decks that allow you to mulligan the CoC in case it will burn one of your units - Pincer Maneuver, most NG deck manipulation stuff, SK discard or even Land of thousand fables to either tutor it if needed or its order to transform it if in hand into something else.


Artefact compression is even more underrated. Spores is more popular but AC is sooooo much better.
With the exception of Arachas swarm decks, that may use the organic tutor and synergize with organics, artefact compression is better.

For only 1 more provision, you get a lock in AC. That lock, even if its 0 tempo sometimes, can stop a foltest or a damien or a witchfinder and be the difference between winning and losing. Not to mention the many cases where resetting is not enough since the target is an engine and might generate more points, like Kolgrim, Cleaver or Snowdrop.

These are my favourite tall punishes, they are cheap and good in decks where you dont want to allocate too many provisions in tall punishment. I do recommend you try them.
 
Curse of Corruption seems very powercrept for me. When it was introduced if it destroyed a unit with high power, it made an impact on the round. Now, when a lot of bronzes reach high numbers pretty easily, I think CoC could safely have 8 provisions.

As for Artifact Compresion - I refuse to play it until its beta ability returns. Increase its provisions to 8 and make it transform a unit into 1 power Figurine.
 
  • RED Point
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DRK3

Forum veteran
So today, i finally finished the last of the reward trees (the last 2 were Cleaver and Whoreson Jr)

YEAR OF THE WILD BOAR PAGE COMPLETE.jpg

All other reward book pages are filled, with the exception of some seasonal trees (only fill the ones i like, which is about half of them)

Now i can finally sit back and relax, with my full reward book status... :cool:
For the next 12 hours or so, when new reward trees will be added :facepalm:


My next goal is to finish up all masteries - only need 60 thronebreaker leader wins and 60 SY leader wins, i will attempt to do all these in the following week, in my beloved 'Battle Rush' seasonal mode.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
I have been working towards my ultimate Gwent goal for years, and i worked it out so it would happen precisely today, on Gwent's 5th birthday since closed beta.

"What is that goal?" you might ask.

Final Mastery Contracts (close).jpg

(A few days ago)

All Mastery Contracts - Complete.jpg

(Today)

I have now completed every single Mastery Contract in Gwent, and ascended into an higher plane of existence.
That was years and years, hours and hours of playing leaders you didnt like much in order to contribute towards these contracts... and now im free!

For those that dont know, this includes winning 100 wins with all 42 leader abilities in Gwent, plus 1000 wins with all 6 factions, plus Thronebreaker leaders, Crimson Curse leaders and Year of Wererat leaders.

I truly have no more goals left, so now i'll live the rest of my gwent days just making and playing meme decks with no pressures. :shrug:
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
Its been awhile since ive done one of these...

Usually i use these posts to share some of my favourite cards, strategies or playstyles.
By praising them, i might come off as braggish, perhaps even vainglorious :smart: even when that is not my intention.
Today, there is no such risk, as im doing something quite different - im pinpointing one of my greatest weaknesses, particularly in deckbuilding, so everyone else knows what to avoid and hopefully improve as a deckbuilder.

MY GWENT STYLE

MY GREATEST DECKBUILDING WEAKNESS

First of all, my main goal while building decks is not to be powerful and competitive, but to be original and find new strategies (while hopefully also achieving a degree of strength to put up a fight with metadecks).
Meme decks DONT have to be weak, but finding a strong one takes so much more effort than going the obvious route while selecting cards.

But i digress...
The goal in Gwent is to win matches by winning 2 rounds.
That means any good deck should have a 2-round strategy, maybe even a 3-round strategy!
Of course you can win only 2, but having a 3-round strategy means you have enough "gas" to win 3 rounds. Its not that unusual really, most tier 1 metadecks have so many powerful midrange options it doesnt matter which round they're played and it would be enough to win 3 rounds (if that was possible).

My deckbuilding weakness is not following this rule, and becoming so absorbed in making a strategy as complete (some would say greedy) as possible, that i end up with a 1-round strategy deck... and of course that round is 3, the decisive one...
But the result is by saving everything for R3, the R1 is pretty weak, and a push by the opponent in R2 is likely, and there wont even be a R3, that almighty R3 we had prepared that could beat almost anything.

How to avoid this?
The only way to guarantee you will have a R3 of the length you desire is by gaining round control through winning R1. And R1s are usually hard fought, so you should devote quite a lot of resources (read provisions) to win R1 if you dont want to be bled and prefer a long round 3. If all you get are cards you need for later, you wont have a good time.
Great examples of this are SK discard package and NG thinning tools. They are cheap, they thin, they provide tempo and quite often they are enough to win an early round, so you still have your expensive cards for any wacky strategy you planned for R3.
 

rrc

Forum veteran
You are a BEAST DRK3!! This is bloody impressive!! The only number we both are equal to is the number of cards we own :p.
 
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