Skellige
Discard Deck Currently I have a
Blaze of Glory Hyperthin deck. Probably will get rid of the Hyperthinners Triss and Yen and replace by Eist Turiseach.
Card evaluation:
Eist Turiseach: To my mind the whole discard archetype makes most sense with Blaze of Glory as you can put your high body bad deploy cards (Jutta, Greatsword, Bear witcher adept, Bear witcher) to graveyard via discard and use them later with
Sigrdrifa's Rite and
Hjalmar an Craite. Of course there´s the tradeoff outstanding whether you should use Onslaught/Patrimonial Fury as Bloodthirst enabler. Without bloodthirst Eist easily gets into removal range. Furthermore he will be best used in round 3 due to its Veteran. In best cases he can have the following value in round 3: 5 (body) + 12 Jutta + 10 Greatsword which would be a 28 for 11.
His devotion also makes most sense with Blaze of Glory.
Pirate deck: Currently I use a Greatsword massacre pirate/ship deck +
Reckless Flurry. I am very convinced by the new cards but not sure which leader best helps. Probably it will be Rage of the sea.
Card evaluation:
Crach an Craite: Main challenge is to have at least 3 pirates or ships in hand for the armour boost. So you really have an incentive to focus on this tags during deck building. Both ships and pirates are not focusing on greety strategies. Thus, you have incentives to focus on control strategies.
I see amazing synergies with
Terror of the Seas (+2 armour) and of course Holger Blackhand must be an autoinclude in this deck.
Dimun Smuggler: One more summoner (but the only 1 card summoner with only 3 body) and a weak order which makes him basically also a 8 for 5. Will probably be considered in pirate/ship deck.
Dimun warship: Really like the rework but greatsword massacre looses one important enabler. To get the most of this card you need a bronze pirate in graveyard (best
An Craite Raiders,
Dimun Corsair,
Tuirseach Invader,
Dimun Pirate) and 4 pirates to trigger his deathwish (maybe cards like
Terror Crew Plunderer speed his deathwish up). Probably it will be difficult to get the most of this card. But interesting and worth a try and a hello to the first non MO deathwish unit.
Additionally I appreciate all the nerfs (Ursine ritual, less warriors)
NR:
Card evaluation
King Foltest: Here
Blue Stripes Commando is one strategy affected by King Foltest. I am worried that this gets to strong as he has a body of 7 and can be removed difficult. Blue strips commando is currently already a strong strategy and will get much stronger through him.
Additionally targets made be
Dun Banner.
Queen Meve: Not really convinced by her. In swarm strategies bone talisman is the safer choice as it might be difficult to keep her inspired long enough. Maybe she makes sense when NR swarm also want to focus on devotion. But currently do not see much swarm/devotion synergies.
The other changes are fine. The Lyrian Scytheman and Vesemir (Neutral) nerf will significantly tackle uprising griffin swarm´s dominance.
SC:
My dwarf deck which was not doing a bad job will definitely welcome Brouver Hoog. Traps I mostly use for artefacts but they will get stronger. Nevertheless I think that traps need still more support to get competitive.
Card evaluation
Brouver Hoog: To my mind he is the stronger Gezras. Less provision. No adrenaline. Much higher body (due to armour). Of course he only tagrets armoured dwarfs, but I do not see many problems getting them with Mahakam Forge.
Dwarfen chariot: Armour gets more important for dwarfs, but still not sure whether this is a nerf or a buff as no bonded dwarf spawn means less targets for Munro and Zoltan.
Eldain: Probably best synergizes with Deadeye ambush + Vernossiel as a finisher.
Eibhear Hattori: Also a strong one
Saskia: Never ever would use her in harmony as her deploy destroy one harmony enabler.
NG:
The most obious target deck of this expansion are spies. I used them a lot in the early days of MM but no I use them only rarely (for assimilate and Brathens). Anna Henrietta might find some spaces in Assimilate (maybe as a replacement for
Angoulême). The nerf on lockdown and Kolgrim might significantly shift the meta and a few tier 2 NG decks will disappear.
Card evaluation
Anna Henrietta: Many stated that this is too strong. I do not consider her to be strong. She´s a RNG card and her success heavily depends on your opponents chosen leader (her deploy will be almost worthless in case of Ursine Ritual, many SY leaders,
Pincer Maneuver) and have only limited value with leaders like Nature´s Gift,
Stockpile,
Battle Trance,
Mobilization,
Arachas Swarm,
Enslave,
Overwhelming Hunger,
Precision Strike.
She is to my mind an option to Angouleme in Assimilate (His success also heavily depended on whether your opponent uses an artefact or not) but in total not more than a fun high-risk high? reward card.
Of course in Assilimate she adds the most value if she targets a spawer leader like Patrimonial Fury.
Additionally, you should not forget that playing her usually more or less requires playing your leader first.
Emhyr var Emreis: From my perspective the strongest new card. He synergizes so nicely in spy decks via helping those units getting intense value:
Seditious Aristocrats,
Impera Enforcers +
Ramon Tyrconnel, Thirsty Dames and always finding nice targets for conspirancy (
Coup de Grace)
Combined with False Ciri his Devotion can also add intense value
Cadaverine: Might serve some purposes in poison decks
Kolgrim/Viper witcher mentor: I apprectiate viper witcher mentors renerf but I am afraid that deck spamming gets not competitive after Kolgrims nerf.
Syndicate
The most I like the crownsplitter support . Probably I will design a deck soon (but with which leader? Probably
Lined Pockets,
Jackpot or Blood Money, Pirate Cove). Maybe a challenge is finding enough spenders.
Card evaluation
Cleaver: Nice idea to have a conditional Intimidate 3 card who can also used as a spender in case of copin excess.
Best synergizing crownsplitters:
Sir Skewertooth,
Crownsplitter Thug and of course
Halfling Safecracker.
The Sausage Maker might also be a option as you can benefit twice or even three times from the Crownsplitter tag.
Also you need many crime cards.
Swindle might be worth a try due to crownsplitter support
Tunnel drill: Will definitely be more competitive now and should be given a try.
Whoreson Junior: He can be a great control tool but can also really suffer he he can not target a boosted unit. His fee option might be nice to target units behind defenders (e.g. Vysogotta).