Competitive Cursed Deck

[DRK3]

Well, i just reached Rank 19 with my Cursed SK deck, and im sure if i pushed with it, it could go further.

Also helps that i've "mained" Skellige since day one and i have all it's cards, except some of the new ones.

It's kind of a bear deck... except without Beastmasters, cuz i dont have 3 of those and im sick of seeing them used. And to be honest, i've always won against those decks with this deck.

I use savage bears, berserkers, bone talismans, herbalists + bloodcurdling roar, so all my bronzes are bears or cursed. Golds: Coral, Olaf, Hym and cant remember the 4th.

Silvers (and here's where i get most value): Djenge Frett, Siggy, Morkie, the spy, Skjall, and my favourite - Harald Houndsnout. If your opponent doesnt do anything to the skull on its side, use a roar on your skull that does 1 damage to enemy row and BOOM, 2 11pt bears spawned, plus the damage it made.

 

[iamthedave]

I am a great supporter of the mighty HARALD HOUNDSNOUT. He has some of the funniest voice lines in the game, creates three cursed units for the price of one if you need the bodies, and creates a minimum 20 pt swing if he's triggered correctly (6 body, +3 for skull 1, -1 to opposite row for skull 2, AND A BEAR for skull 3). He's also very easy to trigger since both Djenge and weather do the job.

Also Hym has the cursed tag and seems an obligatory gold for this deck type, so I run both.

I go back and forth about the raging berserker and berserker marauder. Never sure which ones are best to run. In long rounds, plus a couple of Harald skulls on the board, marauders get to silly size (Harald offers +3 boost until you trigger the skulls). Though I hate them too, it's impossible to not run beastmaster. It's a 12 point play that sorts out Olaf's only downside, and there's no sneering at restore/beastmaster, beyond 'this is a broken filthy thing I'm doing and it makes me sad'. EXCEPT THAT I USE RESTORE ON THE MIGHTY HARALD HOUNDSNOUT INSTEAD!!!!!!

It's very funny using him 3 times in one match (restore and sigr). I think I got 70+ points out of him one game thanks to row stacking, with the added bonus of reducing the value of weather as I went.

 

[DRK3]

Hym is pretty great, and provides me the small joy of doing a small chain with SK: Hym - Skjall - whatever Cursed Unit he pulls up... Better than nothing.

Meanwhile, yesterday pulled out a 7 card chain with NR... How the world has turned.

 

[iamthedave]

7 cards with NR? What was the chain? I presume Shani into Stennis into... something? Reaver Scout?

 

[4RM3D]

7 cards with NR? What was the chain? I presume Shani into Stennis into... something? Reaver Scout?

You can pull all kinds of RNG combos now with create cards. If you exclude those, then...

Dijkstra > Shani > Stennis > Sile > Summoning Circle > Sile > Alzur's Double–Cross > Thaler > Marching Orders > Reaver Scout > NR copy

And that's already 11 cards, without even mentioning the 2nd chain Dijkstra could pull.

 

[iamthedave]

That's a fair point. I never get that sort of luck with Dijkstra but I can definitely see how it could happen. When I run into him on ladder it's usually Dijk/stan/sten/something which is more than enough.

 

[Ironhead79]

Yesterday I decided to invest some rags in Harald Houtsnout since most of you are pretty excited about. Didn't disappoint one bit. It's a good strategy to hit it with a roar and get two bears for the price of one.
I also transformed my deck to a more bear-based deck instead of cursed. Focusing more on the beast masters rather than cursed ones. So far my winnings went a good deal up. Usually I won one out of six or seven and now it's about one out of three or four.
I also put in a few light long ships to trigger my berserker and to intentionally finish off my beast masters so I can resurrect them.
The raging bear and Derran combo also works pretty nice, since most opponents see that as the biggest threat and focus on getting them off the field, all the while I keep spawning bears.
Only thing that bothers me is that I have not much defence against weather effects so I might put a clear skies in again.

Another not-cursed/beast deck-related question, do you guys mill all the cards from factions you don't play? I'll probably never play NG, so I don't see a reason not to mill every single NG card I have. I even have two Emyrs but it turns out, you can't mill a gold leader.

 

[DRK3]

iamthedave Sorry, only now im seeing your question, and by now i cant remember exactly what the chain was, but like 4RM3D suggested, it did involve create cards as 2 of my Cursed NR deck Golds are Uma's Curse and Kiyan.

 

[DRK3]

Ironhead79 I never ever mill cards i only have one of (or 3 of, with bronzes). When i began Gwent i only played SK and NR. Then expanded to SC. Then NG came out...

Only like 6 months after i started did i touch Monsters decks, and boy was i glad i didnt mill anything even though i initially had no plans to play that faction.

 

[iamthedave]

Another not-cursed/beast deck-related question, do you guys mill all the cards from factions you don't play? I'll probably never play NG, so I don't see a reason not to mill every single NG card I have. I even have two Emyrs but it turns out, you can't mill a gold leader.

No such thing as a faction I don't play. I don't understand the mentality of people who do, either. If you despise a faction, then I guess that's fine, but what if new cards come down the line that you want to play with? What about when new archetypes enter NG like alchemy? I dropped out of NG because I find spies boring, but I love alchemy. And I'm growing oddly fond of soldier swarm.

If you want to get better at the game, you need to play all factions so you understand how they work.

If you want to win at the game, you need to be able to play all factions to adapt to patches.

If you want to have fun deckbuilding (that's me), you need access to all the cards to feed whatever mad urge gets you out of the shower and down in front of the console. Yes, I'm also a filthy console player.

 

[DRK3]

Im getting more and more confident Cursed SK is the way to go. I dont even bother with Beastmasters and im consistently getting +100 points in single rounds.

Yesterday won 6 ranked games in a row with it. Provided im still at low Rank (14 now) since the season restart was recent, but then again that means most people are still climbing, top players included.

Even destroyed dwarf deck, although he did have bad luck and the silver king dwarf called paulie on R1 when he had an empty GY. Also defeated Harald Axemen without ever interfering with his strategy.

 

[Ironhead79]

iamthedave It's not that I hate or despise any faction. It's that I don't have a lot of spare time to play So I rather limit myself to one good deck with which I can win preferably half of the games I play.
Nonetheless DRK3 has a good point: if in the future I change my mind and want to put my time in another faction, I'll have the cards at hand to do so.

DRK3, would you mind if asked you to share your cursed deck build? Seeing as I have a lot of Skellige cursed cards already, it might be worth to try a full cursed deck instead of bear-cursed combo

 

[iamthedave]

Cursed SK is very powerful.

 

[Ironhead79]

Quick not-really-cursed-deck-related question: any reason why my silver restore card won't pull my sigrdrifa back from my graveyard? She was in my graveyard for sure but I couldn't select her to play again.

 

[4RM3D]

Quick not-really-cursed-deck-related question: any reason why my silver restore card won't pull my sigrdrifa back from my graveyard? She was in my graveyard for sure but I couldn't select her to play again.

Sigrdrifa is doomed and shouldn't be in the graveyard, unless discarded. But even then, you cannot resurrect support units.

 

[Ironhead79]

That explains. Thank you for clearing that up

 

[SHALLAHJUSTICE]

Hym is like the ultimate gold SK card right now for me. Especially for a cursed deck.

I got to 18 with my competitive cursed compression deck and Hym has been instrumental.

Allows you to call any bronze or silver cursed unit from your deck, which is perfect for drawing Harold or Iris at the right time (two of my main cards in this deck)

If you already have your main cursed units in your hand you can create a silver from opponents hand, which is cool and can be a serious suprise power play if they have any big silvers.

Of course the premium animation looks dope too.

Coupled with Olaf (as a back-up finisher), Coral, artefact compression,Royal decree and mandrake make this deck really deadly.