And now Filavandrel (deckbuilding)

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Hello, I'm still hunting that sweet ST border, and I have managed to have the Broover achievement. Here is the deck that I used for at the end if that may interest someone:
https://www.playgwent.com/ru/decks/4511f2b38079e00fe3bb2c217e34ad4e

Now I'm lacking only the Filavandrel achievement, and I feel that is gonna be very fun. Filavandrel is imho one of the worst heroes in the game now, on the same tier as Adda or Voorhis. I would even say that he is actually the worst hero in Gwent, due to forcing the player to play in a super previsible manner.

Either you use your ability on R1, to have your opponent play a long R1, then bleed you in R2 if he have the possibility, either you try to keep it for R3, and winning or loosing R1 becomes a win or die situation, to not be bleeded, or even end to a 0-2 if you lose R1.

To be even more fun, he has no real synergies with ST cards. Only Elven wardancer which is sorta meh, Mahakam Defender and a very little boost to Skaags.

I have no idea how to play him - I've tried three archetypes so far without success.

Harmony - He gives to you main engines (half elfs and fledgelings) a little punch, to survive at the beginning. The biggest problem is the previsibility that I've wrote about - if I don't use my ability on R1, it's pretty surely a 0-2 if i lose the round.

The elf package is a bit better then harmony, for the R1 tempo, with vanguard and Aerlinn. Hovewe, with both of this archetypes, I usually win R1 with 0-1 cards left in hand, so his ability is a meager +6 boost on R3, and I'm forced to drypass R2.

The carryover package. I can't understand how to play it. On blue coin I use all the handbuff cards, then I pass, to be bleed on R2. There is no real way to win R1, using Agitators, Ithilinn and such. On Red coin, I don't even know what to do.

Does anybody has some luck with him?
 
I disagree. I have a lot of fun and pretty good success with Fili. Throw in a lot of engines since they can get his boost and be harder to remove.

I never used his boost in rd 1. If you have a lot of cards in round 2 then it's fine to use it then which also prepares you to push back if they try to bleed you.

Again, you don't have to win rd 1. Use your boost in rd 2 if it's needed.

Edit: If you happened to be on xbox I wouldn't mind helping you out in private games. Unlikely but throwing that out there.
 
I have also a better winning rate with Brouver, but Filavandrel is not so bad. And you see him rarely, that's a pro for me.
I managed to get the Filavandrel achivement recently with using his ability mainly in R1 and than playing some engines. Often I won R1 or could bleed the opponent enough to have a decent chance to win the match. I think, the main problem is, that it is very clear for the opponent, what you are planning. Sometimes I try to outsmart the opponent by using the leader ability not at once or playing parts of my engines as a bait. Or I decide to use Fila in R2 depending on my hand or the cards the opponent plays. I don't care so much about blue or red coin.
 
I have a elf deck with Fila, but i still not optimized. Filas main problem is that he is very predictable and very vulnerable for bleeding in r2. Havent played that deck for some time though, bcs of frans, djs and tactics everywhere.

So i am not sure this is corrent, bcs i am no pro. But by my observations, you simply have to win r1 if you wanna have a fighting chance, then drypass r2 and then take a long r3 while using filas ability to boost your engines in order to make them harder to kill. At least this works quite well for that deck and i had some wins with it. Keep in mind that its no way near the power level of Fran.

Also, you cant really put special cards or artifacts in Fila decks bcs you loose points that way.
 

rrc

Forum veteran
Filandravel is fundamentally flawed. He is one the weakest leaders in the game who forces you not to add the strongest ST cards (the specials), is under disadvantage 50% of the game when you get blue coin, and who will be forced to use his ability on 7 cards 99% of the time, and on top of that the leader who will have one or two points impact in R3 which will eventually make you lose the game.

Besides what do you want to play with him? All elves? Eithné is much better alternative. Engines? Harmony? Fran can do 100 times better. Dwarves? Again Fran. Traps? Brouver or Eldain.

He does not fit with any deck and for any deck, there are much much better alternatives. He is a useless PoS leader whom you will have to force yourself to play to get the border or the leader mastery contract.

I have done both and I can't even force myself to create a deck with him and play him. My advice, wait for a few months and he may get a buff and become at least barely playable.
 
and who will be forced to use his ability on 7 cards 99% of the time,

Really not sure why you think this is true.
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I have done both and I can't even force myself to create a deck with him and play him. My advice, wait for a few months and he may get a buff and become at least barely playable.

He's playable now. Not really strong enough for high rank but I win with him in casual all the time.
 

rrc

Forum veteran
Really not sure why you think this is true.
Dear @StrykerxS77x, on an average how many times do you get a 10 card R3 playing Fila? If you get a lot, then probably the opponents are new and don't know how to play against Fila. Don't mistake me, I like(d) him and I played a lot and actually got 100 win contracts with him, but he is the toughest to get in ST mainly because, in higher ranks Rank8 or less, almost everyone knows how to play against him.

Lets take both cases. Blue and Red coin.
On Red:
You almost always pass at 7 cards, right? Playing more is problematic as it will create your R2 and R3 weird. So, you start with 10 cards in R2. the opponent has 9 cards. Lets say the opponent plays a 6-8 provisions card. You don't know if (s)he is going to push. So, ideally you will play a carry-over card. The opponent plays another card. Now you play a normal card and try to stay above the opponent. Now the opponent plays another card going below 7 cards. You know it is going to be a bleed and you use your leader with 8 cards in hand and most of the time, there is one card you want to mulligan away in R3. The only way you can get full 10 card boost is, you use your leader proactively in R1 or R2 which is bad as if the game goes to R3, you will have a near 0 point worth leader.

On Blue:
What is your strategy on blue? You can't keep playing and lose on even at 5 or 4 cards. You again have to lose on even with 7 cards. You can just pray that after 3 cards, the opponent doesn't have more points, because, either way you are going to pass. And in a 10 card R2, (this is the only legitimate scenario you use 10 card boost with Fila) you can use him and go to R3 with a 0 point leader and lose the game.

How do you play Fila? What is your strategy to get 10 card boost from Filandravel (which is with the intention of winning the game)? Also, this would also mean that you can't use the strongest cards of ST (Justice, Water, Call of even CrushingTrap). After the tournament, R2 bleed is more prominant in the ladder too. Even I bleed Francesca with my Meve (Of course, I chose ST in the challenge, but after reaching R0, want to try different things and played Meve. I even bled Calanthe with a card down andm won most games) with a card down and won most of the games too. If Francesca can be bled in R2, imagine Fila's situation. So, it is my conclusion that Fila is the biggest PoS leader in the entire game.

The defense rests.
 
Passing on 7 cards with Filavandrel is the worst thing you can do in my opinion. Bcs you are going to get bled hard. And if you use his ability on r2 start, you are going to get bled anyway and your opponent is going to play cards even when he will be behind by a large amount of points bcs it forces you to play another card. That means all ponits you got from using his ability are basicaly worthless.

From my experience, everytime i lost r1, i lost a whole match.
 
Dear @StrykerxS77x, on an average how many times do you get a 10 card R3 playing Fila? If you get a lot, then probably the opponents are new and don't know how to play against Fila. Don't mistake me, I like(d) him and I played a lot and actually got 100 win contracts with him, but he is the toughest to get in ST mainly because, in higher ranks Rank8 or less, almost everyone knows how to play against him.

Lets take both cases. Blue and Red coin.
On Red:
You almost always pass at 7 cards, right? Playing more is problematic as it will create your R2 and R3 weird. So, you start with 10 cards in R2. the opponent has 9 cards. Lets say the opponent plays a 6-8 provisions card. You don't know if (s)he is going to push. So, ideally you will play a carry-over card. The opponent plays another card. Now you play a normal card and try to stay above the opponent. Now the opponent plays another card going below 7 cards. You know it is going to be a bleed and you use your leader with 8 cards in hand and most of the time, there is one card you want to mulligan away in R3. The only way you can get full 10 card boost is, you use your leader proactively in R1 or R2 which is bad as if the game goes to R3, you will have a near 0 point worth leader.

On Blue:
What is your strategy on blue? You can't keep playing and lose on even at 5 or 4 cards. You again have to lose on even with 7 cards. You can just pray that after 3 cards, the opponent doesn't have more points, because, either way you are going to pass. And in a 10 card R2, (this is the only legitimate scenario you use 10 card boost with Fila) you can use him and go to R3 with a 0 point leader and lose the game.

In my experience this is how it works. If I suspect the opponent will push I have no problem using my leader on all 10 cards in round 2. If he decides to push he is in danger of losing card advantage in round 3. So it's fairly likely he stops playing at 7 cards and you will still get decent carry over value for your leader play for round 3.

How do you play Fila? What is your strategy to get 10 card boost from Filandravel (which is with the intention of winning the game)? Also, this would also mean that you can't use the strongest cards of ST (Justice, Water, Call of even CrushingTrap). After the tournament, R2 bleed is more prominant in the ladder too. Even I bleed Francesca with my Meve (Of course, I chose ST in the challenge, but after reaching R0, want to try different things and played Meve. I even bled Calanthe with a card down andm won most games) with a card down and won most of the games too. If Francesca can be bled in R2, imagine Fila's situation. So, it is my conclusion that Fila is the biggest PoS leader in the entire game.

The defense rests.

I do use call in my deck just because it is such a strong card. If I have call in round 1 I will probably use it if needed and then the rest of my cards can get the leader boost.

Fila isn't amazing but I prefer her over many other leaders in the game right now. Eredin is awful for example.
 
Filavandrel is imho one of the worst heroes in the game now, on the same tier as Adda or Voorhis.

I just reached pro rank for the first time and I played Adda from rank 4 to zero. Gotta say watching Magpie pushing round 2 with portal taught me a lot about NR tempo. I had reached rank 1 the season before dragon season but never pro.

That princess has more to her than meets the eye...
 
So, I've played Fila quite a lot. Only 30 victories so far, so 70 left for that sweet border.

I tried him with all possible SC archetypes. The best results I had was with a pure elf package, mainly because of the strong round 1 tempo with vanguard and aerlinn.

I tried to toy with different cards -

Eleyas seems to have a natural synergy with fila, but indeed is not so great because of all the archetypes that boosts cards (harmony, nilf slave soldiers swarm, NR, thrive...)

I've got some good results with Avallach -> Pitfall trap -> Iorveth -> Pitfall again to prevent the opponent to play his last two cards in R3. Nobody really expect traps from Fila, and that was often an autowin when the opponent got his finishers in his hand. An autolose also sometimes when his finisher was a special card^^. Avalach still receive hand bonuses from Fila, and is an elf for swordmaster, Aerlinn, Vanguard and Isengrim purposes.

I recently removed somes elves to add knuckles and roach. it may a bit an overkill, but it's very fun to get roach, knukles and Aerlinn gettin on the board in the same turn, giving a +11 points to the played card and 3 cards thinning. However that makes drawing a nightmare, with 8 cards you don't want in your hand R1.

Fila ability have no real synergy with this deck, except for wardancers.

The game flow is always quite the same - Give everything R1, and win at any cost (including being one card down sometimes), drypass R2, play a long R3.

Losing R1 is quite rare due to a lot of tempo cards, but in this case it's usually better to use Fila ability R2 (if you have at least 6 cards) if the opponent bleeds you. The goal is to either force him one card down for R3 or use his ability.

I'm finally above 50 percent winrate with ther last deck version. I'm gonna play it a little bit more before posting it.

I also tried Fila Harmony (don't work, don't even try).

Still want to try Fila - Dwarf
 
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He's not great but he's not the worst. Where Woodland boosts 1 unit by 8, for a big one time play, he boosts several units by 1. Could be less than 8, but could be up to 10. Distilled small boosts along the game, helps some engines. It has very few interactions though yes, even less now with the rework of some cards and is a bit too similar to Maeve in the end. Except Maeve has more interaction with NR boost mechanics
 
Honestly, I play a lot of 'underdog' leaders usually, as I'm not really into ranking, but I would say that Fila is really one of the hardest leaders too play actually.

I don't think he is really comparable with Woodand. Woodland was a very meta leader for quite a long time because his ability is very adaptable - it can be used to bleed or push and win R2, to have a very big advantage on a short R3, or just to create a big 12 points immune engine with an alpha werewolf. He felt out of grace after the big summer rework when bronze units were reinforced , and 8 points isn't a guaranteed card advantage or win om R3 with 3 cards. And also because most of new heroes abilities provide more then 8 raw points today.

Fila is as adaptable and flexible as deadwood. In term of rough points he may be better then woodland (well, it's quite rare to play him for 10 points on R3, but if you have a wardancer in your hand it's a additional +2 per wardancer, +2 with sheldon, and +X with Mahakam guards). However you may just play with a guy that reads your mind - when you play Fila, the opponent knows exactly what you are planning to achieve, and when you gonna play which card. And that's really a huge disadvantage against any player with at least a minimal experience.

I have no real idea how this ability could be reworked to be more playable, but i really thinking that he deserve at least a couple more provision points for all these flows.

40 wins attained. But i still have no clue of how to play this with the new dwarves
 
I tried Fila just to know the game better. But Nilfguard seems unbeatable this way. Capture your best units and lock the rest. Not much you can do about it. Any ideas?
 
So finally !

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Honestly Fila/Vitalize grind was my worst gwent experience. As you can see on the first post, that took me 4, long and boring month where i played barely only this flawed skill and was out of any ranked match as he couldn't hope to win against any normal deck. To compare, grinding 100 victories took me a month with Francesca and Eithne, a month and half with Brouver. (yeah I absolutely can't memorize the new abilities names). i usually play 5-10 matches per day.

That was boring, unfunny, and depressing, I'm happy to have achieve it, but I'm gonna take a pause with gwent now.

Fun fact - During this whole long grind that took me half a year overall (all leaders included) I didn't met even once a Fila deck.

So I absolutely maintain that he is the worst Gwent skill for now, even Adda, Demavend and such have some match up and situation where they can shine. Fila is just constantly bad with a plain ability with no synergies, so if the other bad leaders could have a hope to be improved with new carts and new synegies, Fila will stay bad forever.

This is a bit an emotive feedback, as it just took me 5 loses, to get my 100th win, which can summarize my whole play through with this ability. i will try to write a more detailed post soon, with a detailed explanation why Fila is unplayable, with any ST archetype and how this could be fixed.
 
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