Can't thin with ST since patch, suggestions?

[Redcoat2012]

Can't thin with ST since patch, suggestions?

Since the change to weather removal and mercs being relentless running the old 3First 3Merc 3Commando is nonviable.

Running mercs in general to me seems very weak as their random factor will either force decks to remove or potentially waste powerful specials like scorch/d.bomb, on top of that First light itself is now a card you often need 3 of when facing monster decks with seemingly endless (at least 8) weather effects to play, so even if hypothetically 3 mercs came up in my opening round and I played them to get 3 rallies I'd be fucked.

Thinning was far too intense before especially as Aglais could remove all weather in a clutch, now that weather is much stronger its being played a lot more, although I run 3 FL cards I can't really use them as a thinning mechanic right now as I need them vs monsters. This in turn has left me lost for thinning options, Yaevinn was nerfed too hard IMO to play, the enemy would need at least 6 non gold units on a row for him to become a typical 8 strength on the enemy board spy and even then he's got a few flaws as he empowers a lot of SK masochist options, becomes an amazing kayran target, NR gold cards and this is to name just a few.

Johnny - can't thin enough to get the gold/silver card back + with decoy/d.bomb being practically mandatory now, fitting him in one of the 4 spots can be tricky (especially as Aelirenn makes up another thinning mechanic and may well be mandatory too)

I'm lost for thinning, I literally have Aelirenn and Francesca as my only thinners in my neophyte high board value deck but this lack of thinning keeps losing me more games than I win. Attached is the deck so you guys can have a look at what I am running at current if you guys can suggest a way to make it play more consistently I'd be pleased to hear it, the idea is linear, play Vanguards, Commando them, make a massive Ele'yas for round 3, problem is however is that its to inconsistent.

P.S saving up for last wish, will likely swap out Iris for it, that would allow me to drop a lacerate possibly for more board power, I'm running D.Chains for Borch, Nilfgaard 36 bonus strengths (ambassadors) and the T.bolts for neophytes, anyway any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[KasumiGoto]

Here's all I can say:
Milva isn't that good anymore, I'd go for Schirru or Saskia
The core unit of your deck is Ele'yas so running Brouver Hoog as a leader might be a good idea to have him in every round
Remove dimeritium shackles and add fireball traps maybe (they spawn neophytes)
I don't really like thunderbolt potions, I'd much rather run elven mercenaries or vrihedd officers (they are really good now, especially with neophytes - even if you have fireball traps on the board, it's just 1 STR, then it gets buffed to 3 by officer, and then all your 3's like mercenaries and neophtyes get buffed with every officer reuse by blue mountain commando)
Also Aelirenn is terrible, pretty much any silver is better than that. Scoia silvers are very good, and 1 card deck thinning isn't worth sacrificing a slot for that.

 

[Noela]

Not a solution for thinning, but since you are running Iris, Saskia would be specially efective (kills Iris, and your units are buffed for a total +4)

 

[Redcoat2012]

No Title

I actually just dropped Iris for scorch, seeing as I'm not running mercs I feel much safer in using cards like d.bomb and Scorch. The fireball traps for neophytes sound interesting, I don't own Brouver but its a very good idea, I really want to use my Premium Fran/Milva however, either I will find a way or make one that works.

The Milva nerf didn't effect the way I use her much, I lack a lot of the cards people were running in that '5 golden card Johnny, thinned ciri dash deck' that would net them a 2 card advantage and then allow them to use Milva after a pass in round 3 strategy. I use her almost exclusively as a psuedo decoy which has been working really well currently; its really hitting those 40 strength Tuirach axemen/ambassador nilfs in the nads that are starting to become meta. It generally allows me to replay a Vanguard especially true if one was previously decoyed, I'd never play Ele'yas before Milva, he will near always be the last card I play, generally speaking.

D.shacks are possibly my favorite cards in the game currently, as mentioned they're used to deal with Borch, New Yenny conjurer, decoying gold spies, healing, resetting etc very very versatile, without D.schacks and a thunder a lot of those power cards would cause massive problems, especially as most of my board is made of 6 strength silvers and 5's, Fireballs are a very good Idea I'd likely find a way to implement them.

Thunder bolts have been paying off big time for me currently, as I have upwards of 5 neophytes in a round on various rows they often play more than 20 strength, this is about the only time I run them though I generally dislike them myself, the change to the Vrihedd Officers is great too, I'm generally using the commando on the vanguards for extra neophytes, this makes the commandos worth 7 points (potentially more if used on a wounded) whilst buffing the Ele'yas, so lets say conservatively 8 strength as Ele'yas might get shackled/bomb'd/scorched, that's more or less the minimum power swing required from a bronze.

Using the commandos on the vanguards is dynamic it really depends on the number of neophytes but lets just assume Isengrim is AWOL on round 1, and I manage to get 3 neophytes the first officer will buff them to 5, meaning that subsequent use of them with commando dupping will only effect the commando itself at 4 strength. I can see one being used as a tech option but I'm not so sold on replaying them with commandos unless I start using traps.

This creates an interesting choice either go the T.bolt route with lots of neophytes getting +4, or take traps an officer and replay it once to get them all up to 5 with the commandos acting as an epidemic barrier. I'd have to experiment with this change it sounds hopeful but it still lacks any thinning. I've never liked Elven mercs, and only took them for the thinning they provided. Now they can't really thin decks and in using them I feel like scorch,D.bomb,Bekkers, most silver specials, and weather effects are essentially no goes, these cards turn it into a game of Russian roulette, often wasting powerful specials which is counter productive, its all well and good if they thin the deck but if they do so by taking the cards you want to thin for why bother? On top of that against monsters 3 First lights isn't really enough.

As for Aelirenn I've been questioning her use personally, she often forces me to stop my mulligan at 2 of 3 even if I'd like to try for more, the problem is I'm not sure what silver I could really take, I'm thinking that maybe a Natures call + Last wish combo would be perfect and Aelirenn would get cut for it, along with one of the scorch/decoy/d.bombs or with a heavy heart Malena. Problem is, I'm short about 870 scraps as I went nuts and spent a small fortune in scraps on a Wild hunt themed deck with alot of legendaries now that weather is more powerful, big mistake. So far I swapped her for folding Iris back in.

So far so good thankyou for the input. Here is the deck with some adjustments + bonus round winning bugged rally (Used rally with nothing to pull from to stall, the card didn't disappear not sure if its the lack of bronze units to pull from that caused it, either way it probably won me the game.

 

[Instaxes]

I have a similar deck to yours, and Operator works great in the deck. You can get two Eley'as, and both will get buffed with neophytes, and your opponnent will only get a 4 silver card (unless he is playing neophytes too). And if you don't get Operator + Eley'as en first roud you can use Operator with Malena or with another commando/vanguard.

 

[Redcoat2012]

I have a similar deck to yours, and Operator works great in the deck. You can get two Eley'as, and both will get buffed with neophytes, and your opponnent will only get a 4 silver card (unless he is playing neophytes too). And if you don't get Operator + Eley'as en first roud you can use Operator with Malena or with another commando/vanguard.

Christ that's another 800 scraps too the shopping list then it would be a very good addition. So far the edited version is working well, unfortunately I've only been facing Nilfs however so it may be skewered.