8.3 Patch notes

[DRK3]

Seems the match was against traps which means quite a lot of uninteractivity in round 3. How does the deck perform against them? And which is the card most on the right in your hand which has 6 power? Can't identify it

True, the pirate deck will never have as much pointslam as the new warrior version with eist and 10/12pt units, but its better for control. I havent had enough matches vs ST traps, but its very important to win R1, to be sure you get last say on R3, after they spawn all those deadeyes, so you can hit them with wild boar of the sea (try removing them before isengrim buff if possible)
Another advantage of this deck vs trap decks is dimun warship, if you play it, and it gets killed by a trap, you insta ressurect a random pirate, its my favourite of the pirate bronzes.

And to answer your last question, its Gremist, so i can purify defenders mostly, but also resilient dwarves without having to spend too much removal on armor.

Post automatically merged: Mar 13, 2021

I did play Crach for quite a while mostly on rank 2 and it's really fun to play but my deck struggles hard against most of the current high tier Decks (that would probably drastically change if I switch to BoG and add Eist and Jutta), so my overall win rate was pretty bad, but if Crach goes off it's just totally fun and in some matchups it can lead to a total overkill with Wild Boar as a finisher (Monster swarm, UR Lippy and NR Witchers) but like I said above for climbing the ladder pirates alone won't be enough.

The Tidecloak Hideaway, Holger Blackhand and some pirates afterwards do really bring some good Tempo in the first round but I really think a pure pirate deck suffers a bit from not enough good midrange Pirate Card's (7-9p) that synergise well with Crach after putting in the most useful Pirate's in my Deck I also switched to Rage of the Sea because I still had provisions left and also switched out some low provision cards for Oneiromancy and Skellige Storm (for Meme reasons).

I have managed to win vs Warriors with pirates, but i was lucky, in general its an unfavoured matchup. The other one i really hate is NG, as they'll just instadeal with my crach and lock all my ships.

The one card im most unsure in pirates is if u should use defender, currently im not using it, mostly because i hate when its Yen Invo'ed and used against me, but it might have some great synergies with Crach if you risk playing Crach first then defender next to him (only in this case is giving it armor worth it, i believe)

I am also using Oneiro, dont need devotion, but im not using Heatwave, i got Morkvarg HoT, Tyrgvii and Wild boar of the sea as my big plays.

 

[ReaperTek]

True, the pirate deck will never have as much pointslam as the new warrior version with eist and 10/12pt units, but its better for control. I havent had enough matches vs ST traps, but its very important to win R1, to be sure you get last say on R3, after they spawn all those deadeyes, so you can hit them with wild boar of the sea (try removing them before isengrim buff if possible)
Another advantage of this deck vs trap decks is dimun warship, if you play it, and it gets killed by a trap, you insta ressurect a random pirate, its my favourite of the pirate bronzes.

And to answer your last question, its Gremist, so i can purify defenders mostly, but also resilient dwarves without having to spend too much removal on armor.

Post automatically merged: Mar 13, 2021

I have managed to win vs Warriors with pirates, but i was lucky, in general its an unfavoured matchup. The other one i really hate is NG, as they'll just instadeal with my crach and lock all my ships.

The one card im most unsure in pirates is if u should use defender, currently im not using it, mostly because i hate when its Yen Invo'ed and used against me, but it might have some great synergies with Crach if you risk playing Crach first then defender next to him (only in this case is giving it armor worth it, i believe)

I am also using Oneiro, dont need devotion, but im not using Heatwave, i got Morkvarg HoT, Tyrgvii and Wild boar of the sea as my big plays.

Yeah Nilfgaard is probably the worst possible Match-up for that deck, I usually play the Defender (I'm not much a fan of Defenders anyway and I only added him because he's a pirate, I think the only Defender I used in the last half year is Azar because he's so flexible) after Crach because the Defender packs quite a punch, not sure if i would recommend it tought, because it get's extremely frustrating if they have a answer to Crach.

I also didn't put Heatwave in which already did cost me one match against Kelly, so I guess it would be better to remove Skellige Storm which is really only good against Swarm decks to make room for Heatwave.

But I think losing to Crach probably doesn't feel that great because I didn't receive a lot of good Games in those Matches that I did actually win lol.

 

[Markus_Wirth]

True, the pirate deck will never have as much pointslam as the new warrior version with eist and 10/12pt units, but its better for control. I havent had enough matches vs ST traps, but its very important to win R1, to be sure you get last say on R3, after they spawn all those deadeyes, so you can hit them with wild boar of the sea (try removing them before isengrim buff if possible)
Another advantage of this deck vs trap decks is dimun warship, if you play it, and it gets killed by a trap, you insta ressurect a random pirate, its my favourite of the pirate bronzes.

And to answer your last question, its Gremist, so i can purify defenders mostly, but also resilient dwarves without having to spend too much removal on armor.

Post automatically merged: Mar 13, 2021

I have managed to win vs Warriors with pirates, but i was lucky, in general its an unfavoured matchup. The other one i really hate is NG, as they'll just instadeal with my crach and lock all my ships.

The one card im most unsure in pirates is if u should use defender, currently im not using it, mostly because i hate when its Yen Invo'ed and used against me, but it might have some great synergies with Crach if you risk playing Crach first then defender next to him (only in this case is giving it armor worth it, i believe)

I am also using Oneiro, dont need devotion, but im not using Heatwave, i got Morkvarg HoT, Tyrgvii and Wild boar of the sea as my big plays.

I also discovered the pirates again. Before latest patch is was a mix of pirates ship and greatsword massacre with leader Reckless Flurry . The deck was kind of fine.

After the patch I must admit that pirates really do an awesome job. I jumped to rank 1 with it. Some comments for my key cards.
- Tidecloak Hideaway is awesome in value perspectives and helps to protect engines
- Crach an Craite is also very strong. You can destroy so many opponent engines. One times blue strip commands (without zeal charges) lost all their commandos in round 3 for instance as they never could summon all of them
- Dimun Warship: Also a nice one. I arranged my deck to get rid of all those strong deploy bronze pirates (Drummond Warmonger) Make sure to play it on Melee cause of Dimun Corsair. In later turn both Tuirseach Invader and An Craite Raiders benefit.
- Tyrggvi Tuirseach. When you play against Eist usually Jutta is your target. Usually finds nice food. Only when you play against Cleavers gang.
- Morkvarg: Heart of Terror: Often finds nice food but has limited value facing specific SK decks.
- Holger Blackhand: One of the key engine cards for pirates to my mind
- Rage of the Sea: Key finisher
- Terror of the Seas + Shipbuilder: Also nice combo and nice interaction with Crach
- Covenant of Steel: To protect Holger, Crach and my surprise card (dependent on the match up you can also first play Crach and then Convenant next to Crach so that his berserk triggers)
- Surprise card Arnaghad: You have to tons of opportunity to damage units with this deck and your opponent usually does not expect him and in the end often he can not efficiently play his key cards (e.g. Eist)

 

[Sensimilius]

I think we should compare the usefulness of Dimun Corsairs and Nekurat (which is pretty much the MO equivalent to Corsair) vs for example a An Craite Longship (a staple 5 Prov card in any SK deck). If we were to do this we would conclude that Corsairs are simply inferior.
Sure they're both row locked and Bleed (2) is actually worth 2 points vs ships 1 point but Longship has no cd and it's instant dmg so that kind of evens them out, BUT Longship is 4 power + 1 armor while Nekurat and Corsair are measly 3 power, no armor!
See this? That means you need 5 dmg to remove a Longship vs only needing 3 dmg to remove the other two 5 prov cards.
This is obviously inconsistency since it means one 5 prov card IS INHERENTLY SUPERIOR to those other 5 prov cards.

An Crite Longship is basically the Endrega Larva of SK, meaning it's in every SK deck (Like Larva are in almost any MO deck).

- For this reason I suggest buffing the Corsair and Nekurat OR nerfing (I am kidding, don't do this! lol) the Longship. I'd prefer the previous solution though. Madness for them to remain in 3 dmg removal range when even the damn Van Moorhelm Hunters (4 provision and have no reason to continue living past their deploy effect) are 3 + 1 armor! >_< and even the 4 prov Brokvar Hunter is 4 power!
INCONSISTANCIES - we must remove them!

Oh and speaking of those...

 

[DRK3]

I think we should compare the usefulness of Dimun Corsairs and Nekurat (which is pretty much the MO equivalent to Corsair) vs for example a An Craite Longship (a staple 5 Prov card in any SK deck). If we were to do this we would conclude that Corsairs are simply inferior.
Sure they're both row locked and Bleed (2) is actually worth 2 points vs ships 1 point but Longship has no cd and it's instant dmg so that kind of evens them out, BUT Longship is 4 power + 1 armor while Nekuran and Corsair are measly 3 power, no armor!
See this? That means you need 5 dmg to remove a Longship vs only needing 3 dmg to remove the other two 5 prov cards.
This is obviously inconsistancy since it means 1 5 prov card IS INHERENTLY SUPERIOR to those other 5 prov cards.

An Crite Longship is basically the Endrega Larva of SK, meaning it's in every SK deck (Like Larva are in almost any MO deck).

- For this reason I suggest buffing the Corsair and Nekurat OR nerfing the Longship. I'd prefer the previous solution though. Madness for them to remain in 3 dmg removal range when even the damn Van Moorhelm Hunters (4 provision and have no reason to continue living past their deploy effect) are 3 + 1 armor! >_< and even the 4 prov Brokvar Hunter is 4 power!
INCONSISTANCIES - we must remove them!

Oh and speaking of those...
View attachment 11194636

I can agree dimun corsair is weak, mostly because of how vulnerable he is at only 3pt, and an craite longship is usually better when trying to get more bloodthirst, since no cooldown (although corsair+bleeding is better vs armored units)

I thought about using dimun corsair, specially after Habbla's video i mentioned, but i rather stick to my dimun smugglers, creating 2 small order units is great, playing 5 for 8, but almost impossible for opponent to deal with both at same time, or likely wasting a 4/5 dmg special on a 3pt unit.

But i disagree an craite longship is that good, comparing it to endrega larvae. Its a 5 for 5, the extra value you get from it is with synergies and combos. Look at the warrior's engine, brokvar archer, now that is a direct upgrade to the longship, and only at 4prov, quite possibly the best 4pr unit in the game.

 

[Sensimilius]

I can agree dimun corsair is weak, mostly because of how vulnerable he is at only 3pt, and an craite longship is usually better when trying to get more bloodthirst, since no cooldown (although corsair+bleeding is better vs armored units)

I thought about using dimun corsair, specially after Habbla's video i mentioned, but i rather stick to my dimun smugglers, creating 2 small order units is great, playing 5 for 8, but almost impossible for opponent to deal with both at same time, or likely wasting a 4/5 dmg special on a 3pt unit.

But i disagree an craite longship is that good, comparing it to endrega larvae. Its a 5 for 5, the extra value you get from it is with synergies and combos. Look at the warrior's engine, brokvar archer, now that is a direct upgrade to the longship, and only at 4prov, quite possibly the best 4pr unit in the game.

I fully agree. Honestly I think that the hunters shouldn't even have a Warrior tag, I mean... they're hunters lol.

 

[Messyr]

I fully agree. Honestly I think that the hunters shouldn't even have a Warrior tag, I mean... they're hunters lol.

This is actually a valid point, and even would fit the lore better.
I mean sure, literally EVERYONE on the SK isles can be considered a warrior given their nature, but still there are differences to be considered. These hunters for example could by simply Humans. Still a solid 4p unit, but losing the warrior synergies would probably result in them dropping from the warrior list (not sure that is a good aim though).

 

[Celadyl]

well SK is quite the mess in terms of archetypes and tags. I really dont see how crach an craite is more of a pirate and less than a warrior than harald the cripple. it really is just an artificial barrier to make two archetypes (which is fine). I think the pirate archetype is clearly underdeveloped but it's actually pretty fun. I'm having decent success in unranked with a point slammy version of pirates, where my only bronze pirates are dimun pirate (7p), an craite raider and 1 tuirseach invader, where my goal is to play them early and get an 11+ dimun warship in round 3, with either crach or just playing enough pirates. funnily enough my opponents tend to kill it of by themselves, giving me massive points lol.
dimun warship has pretty poor synergy with dimun corsair and dimun smuggler, which is why I kicked them. since I unironically play this deck with onslaught, bloodthirst isnt really an issue anyways and I have the 5p engine ships to help with that. maybe rage of the sea would be fitting as well (both thematically and technically) but I dont think you can afford a 13prov leader with this archetype.

 

[Markus_Wirth]

I can agree dimun corsair is weak, mostly because of how vulnerable he is at only 3pt, and an craite longship is usually better when trying to get more bloodthirst, since no cooldown (although corsair+bleeding is better vs armored units)

I thought about using dimun corsair, specially after Habbla's video i mentioned, but i rather stick to my dimun smugglers, creating 2 small order units is great, playing 5 for 8, but almost impossible for opponent to deal with both at same time, or likely wasting a 4/5 dmg special on a 3pt unit.

But i disagree an craite longship is that good, comparing it to endrega larvae. Its a 5 for 5, the extra value you get from it is with synergies and combos. Look at the warrior's engine, brokvar archer, now that is a direct upgrade to the longship, and only at 4prov, quite possibly the best 4pr unit in the game.

Well, to my mind Dimun corsair is okish. From a value perspective its not that great. 3 body + 2 bleeding every second turn (or each turn if you play a ship). Whether An Craite Longship or Dimun corsair is better really depends on the match up. If your opponent plays a lot of specials which do not contain playing units An Craite Longship´s passive ability has limited value. Same holds for Dimun corsair if you face Veil and purify intesive opponents.
Nevertheless he should have same body and armour as An Craite Longship.

Actually I hold both in my pirate deck twice. I need them as enabler for Wild Boar of the Sea and Arnaghad. Furthermore spawning them from a Dimun Warship on Melee is also nice.

The question on what is better Dimun Smuggler or Dimun Corsair is difficult.
Dimun Smuggler offers a 8 for 5. If spawned from Dimun warship he offers 4 value.
Dimun Corsair offers a 5 for 5 in the beginning but can be the start of an at least +1 engine each turn.

Personally I went for the Corsair as I prefer the engine potential. Also I am a little bit afraid of having no ships on boards to use the Smuggler perfectly.

 

[Celadyl]

The question on what is better Dimun Smuggler or Dimun Corsair is difficult.
Dimun Smuggler offers a 8 for 5 + deck thinning. If spawned from Dimun warship he offers 5 value.
Dimun Corsair offers a 5 for 5 in the beginning but can be the start of an at least +1 engine each turn.

Personally I went for the Corsair as I prefer the engine potential. Also I am a little bit afraid of having no ships on boards to use the Smuggler perfectly.

dimun smuggler isnt deck thinning, it spawns a new copy of itself. and if spawned from the warship it has 4 value (3power 1 damage)

 

[Sensimilius]

I'd also like to add Lyrian Arbalest to the list, another 5 provision engine that's within a 3 dmg removal range. But the Arbalest doesn't even have zeal (but he isn't row locked so there's at least that to even it out) so there is a potential for him to end up a 3 power card if locked or killed on the next turn. I think Arbalest, Nekurat and Corsair should all have their survivability buffed by 1 or two points (armor or actual power).

 

[Markus_Wirth]

dimun smuggler isnt deck thinning, it spawns a new copy of itself. and if spawned from the warship it has 4 value (3power 1 damage)

Thx read it wrong. Then he´s even worse without deck thinning. Corrected it above.
To my mind if you want to get the most of these war ships strong bronze pirate deployers are bad (especially in your graveyard).

 

[quintivarium]

On pirate decks, I strongly suggest against focusing too strongly on possible targets for Dimun warships. These ships have little value in the first round as there are likely to be no pirates in the graveyard. And in the second round they are quite conditional — on a dry pass it really doesn’t matter what they draw. They shine in the third round, but often you would rather have good cards there. Rather than disrupting your entire deck design to gain an extra two points when warships pull a unit, I would accept pulling a pirate that plays for “only” four points of value (8 for four is still good) and focus on making the entire deck work better.

 

[Celadyl]

On pirate decks, I strongly suggest against focusing too strongly on possible targets for Dimun warships. These ships have little value in the first round as there are likely to be no pirates in the graveyard. And in the second round they are quite conditional — on a dry pass it really doesn’t matter what they draw. They shine in the third round, but often you would rather have good cards there. Rather than disrupting your entire deck design to gain an extra two points when warships pull a unit, I would accept pulling a pirate that plays for “only” four points of value (8 for four is still good) and focus on making the entire deck work better.

from my experience building around dimun warship works pretty well (not saying its competetive). the best pirate imo is an craite raider which is 8 points in round 3 and can make for a 12p warship. likewise dimun pirate plays for 11 and tuirseach invader too. activating warship is pretty easy if your crach an craite stick and is still very possible if he gets answered. to think that you can live to see round 3 with a pirate/ship deck without investing some of your powercards and still have a full hand of golds is unrealistic against strong decks anyway.

Post automatically merged: Mar 15, 2021

jesus can we please finally do something with svalblod totem? WHY is this in every warrior deck? it literally has zero fucking synergy and is just there for point slam, as if this deck would need more pointslam *facepalm*

 

[DRK3]

Great to see such discussion to SK pirates was generated here. And i've also seen the same happening on reddit, and i had no participation there.

Anyway, ive decided to post my pirate deck and guide:

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Join in The Witcher universe’s favorite card game! In GWENT, you clash with your friends in fast-paced duels that combine bluffing, on-the-fly decision making and careful deck construction.

www.playgwent.com

The guide is quite long, and i still feel i didnt share all of my advices for the deck, but most players should find out the rest naturally without much effort, and i apolozige for not being good at summarizing

BTW, this is a true pirate deck, none of that BS that includes Eist Warriors pointslam, that is a crutch that less confident players feel the need to include to be as OP as possible, personally im not a fan of tryharding.

 

[ReaperTek]

Great to see such discussion to SK pirates was generated here. And i've also seen the same happening on reddit, and i had no participation there.

Anyway, ive decided to post my pirate deck and guide:

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Join in The Witcher universe’s favorite card game! In GWENT, you clash with your friends in fast-paced duels that combine bluffing, on-the-fly decision making and careful deck construction.

www.playgwent.com

The guide is quite long, and i still feel i didnt share all of my advices for the deck, but most players should find out the rest naturally without much effort, and i apolozige for not being good at summarizing

BTW, this is a true pirate deck, none of that BS that includes Eist Warriors pointslam, that is a crutch that less confident players feel the need to include to be as OP as possible, personally im not a fan of tryharding.

My Crach Deck is a bit different, I did now switched out Skellige Storm since I only rarely encountered Swarm Decks on rank 1 and Raiding Fleet (which is way to unreliable in this Deck) for Heatwave.

My Win-rate improved quite a bit, but you really need to go all in on winning Round 1 and Bleeding round 2 against most of the currently popular Decks to have at least a chance to win and it's definitely not a deck that will easily carry you to pro rank.

Here's my Deck ( I was to lazy to write a Guide)

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Join in The Witcher universe’s favorite card game! In GWENT, you clash with your friends in fast-paced duels that combine bluffing, on-the-fly decision making and careful deck construction.

www.playgwent.com

 

[Celadyl]

Great to see such discussion to SK pirates was generated here. And i've also seen the same happening on reddit, and i had no participation there.

Anyway, ive decided to post my pirate deck and guide:

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Join in The Witcher universe’s favorite card game! In GWENT, you clash with your friends in fast-paced duels that combine bluffing, on-the-fly decision making and careful deck construction.

www.playgwent.com

The guide is quite long, and i still feel i didnt share all of my advices for the deck, but most players should find out the rest naturally without much effort, and i apolozige for not being good at summarizing

BTW, this is a true pirate deck, none of that BS that includes Eist Warriors pointslam, that is a crutch that less confident players feel the need to include to be as OP as possible, personally im not a fan of tryharding.

"Finally, the leader ability can be replaced, Onslaught and Patricidal Fury should work well with this deck. "
I wish arnjolf was a pirate would make this archetype instantly better. funnily enough I feel like pirates have little synergy with rage of the sea (you can lose value of wild boar very quickly and there is basically no other cashout for bloodthirst)

edit: since we're at it, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring as well

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Join in The Witcher universe’s favorite card game! In GWENT, you clash with your friends in fast-paced duels that combine bluffing, on-the-fly decision making and careful deck construction.

www.playgwent.com

 

[DRK3]

@OneWhoCravesSouls I hadnt played ranked for a few seasons so im pretty low on ranked, but so far ive only lost once with this pirate deck, and by 1pt, vs a nature symbiosis deck. But i assume the "tryhard ranks" are dominated by Eist Warriors and SY Lined Pocket Crimes, maybe a bit of Elf Traps.

I havent played enough against them with pirates to know for sure which are bad matchups but i didnt feel too unfavoured, and i didnt feel the need to push them R2, as im opting for longer rounds, since im not so pointslammy.

I actually dont feel the need for heatwave with this deck, i havent faced enough balls to be a problem, and the only other scenario im finding its the elf ones, and i can let that one slip since it makes my wild boar of the sea stronger.

Finally, im probably get tired of playing ranked before reaching pro rank, but i feel like i could definitely use this to reach it without too much problems.

@Celadyl I have actually stayed away from onslaught for a while now, even though it gives you more provisions, but i feel like using it is an invitation for players to bleed you, and as a non-aggressive player who doesnt like to push R2 nor be pushed, i prefer the threat of a leader like RotSea, where i also dont necessarily fully commit leader and can only use a single charge, giving me extra reach on most situations.

 

[Celadyl]

@DRK3 well yes but it depends. it lacks tempo but it puts constant pressure on the opponent, I actually kind of like it. luckily this deck has a pretty strong short round since it is pretty point slammy. I've had a NG player bleed me and we played a 4 point round where I had junod, an invader, a raider and a dimun pirate. nothing amazing but my opponent didnt draw super well. I actually like bleeding the opponent with this deck. I can put more pirates in the GY and play a calculated short round with crach warships and put down a huge amount of points very quickly. also, the deck has pretty insane reach with mork, tyrrgvi and wild boar
that being said, I also play only unranked atm, I'm pretty annoyed by everyone playing the same stuff, even in unranked.
onslaught is also pretty hilarious when your opponent plays anna, which is a near useless leader for NG, especially when copied late

I once said in another thread I think onslaught would be pretty decent if it had something like adrenaline 2: decrease cooldown to 1.

 

[DRK3]

Well, i guess Lockdown is completely dead, if there was still any doubt.

I played it on day one of the update and it did quite well. Why? Because most players were afraid of the effect and used it R1 or R2, but the joke was on them... i actually wanted them do use their leader, to spawn the 2 agents because it was an agent deck for Fake Ciri finisher.

HOWEVER... now its absolutely impossible for Lockdown on high ranks, because 2 leader abilities that are dominating the meta completely screw Lockdown: Arachas and Lined Pockets. Why these 2? Since they have multiple charges, you can use your leader (of course if you go 2nd on R3, you likely wont get the chance), but never use that last charge, so their leader is efectively denying you only 1pt/charge.

Just did this as Lined Pockets (who is too good at abusing red coin and getting CA) to a poor lockdown player on ranked who was probably unaware of this filthy strategy and 2-0ed him, i even felt bad for the poor lad.