Deck of the Day

[DRK3]

BLACK SUN!
And as promised, a deck on the very first day. I promise i already tested it and its working properly
For Syndicate, as requested / challenged by @EduFerraz

[DECK OF 05-07-22]
[PIRATES AND WENCHES]

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

Im sure i wont be the only one doing the greedy thing and playing both scenarios in a deck.
I already analyzed and the best factions to do this are probably SY, NG and MO.

The SY one - this deck - synergizes quite well, because despite each scenario being associated with a gang, both of those 2 gangs (tidecloaks and blindeyes) fit really well with the hidden cache leader.

On a silly note, the name of the deck should be reversed, because i recommend playing the 'wenches' first (Passiflora) and then the pirates (Treasures).

The deck puts up many points, but the almost complete lack of control makes it very vulnerable against certain decks... Kalkstein and fence are the only 2 cards that might be underperforming and to be replaced, maybe for the much needed control, but i wanted to keep it a "friendly" deck to start out, because the rest probably wont be so...

Also an interesting detail: if you know what you're doing, seductress spam can annihilate NG assimilate, if you win R1 and push R2, and they will try to make many seductresses too, but every turn they play 2-4 cards so our seductresses get way more value than theirs, and as soon as you pass theirs stop getting value:

See, i pushed R2, but at the beginning i was getting way more points than opponent, the key is knowing when to stop (i passed here).
If i wnet all in, the opponent might win because he is about to get more points per turn than me, but i pass here and my opponent is screwed. This is exclusive to this matchup, usually assimilate isnt punished for lagging behind and can catch up easily.

The result? Opponent played 3 more cards, golden froth and leader and still wasnt ahead, and forfeited

 

[quintivarium]

I have a challenge — one you probably won’t want to undertake immediately as I’m sure you want to experience the full range of new cards while they are fresh. And I pose the challenge because I think it is impossible — but if anyone can do it, that person would be you.

The challenge is this: create a deck that uses no scenarios and no Renfri (i.e. none of the seven new, broken cards) that is viable against a deck that does use them.

 

[EduFerraz]

BLACK SUN!
And as promised, a deck on the very first day. I promise i already tested it and its working properly
For Syndicate, as requested / challenged by @EduFerraz

[DECK OF 05-07-22]
[PIRATES AND WENCHES]

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

Im sure i wont be the only one doing the greedy thing and playing both scenarios in a deck.
I already analyzed and the best factions to do this are probably SY, NG and MO.

The SY one - this deck - synergizes quite well, because despite each scenario being associated with a gang, both of those 2 gangs (tidecloaks and blindeyes) fit really well with the hidden cache leader.

On a silly note, the name of the deck should be reversed, because i recommend playing the 'wenches' first (Passiflora) and then the pirates (Treasures).

The deck puts up many points, but the almost complete lack of control makes it very vulnerable against certain decks... Kalkstein and fence are the only 2 cards that might be underperforming and to be replaced, maybe for the much needed control, but i wanted to keep it a "friendly" deck to start out, because the rest probably wont be so...

Also an interesting detail: if you know what you're doing, seductress spam can annihilate NG assimilate, if you win R1 and push R2, and they will try to make many seductresses too, but every turn they play 2-4 cards so our seductresses get way more value than theirs, and as soon as you pass theirs stop getting value:

View attachment 11310427
See, i pushed R2, but at the beginning i was getting way more points than opponent, the key is knowing when to stop (i passed here).
If i wnet all in, the opponent might win because he is about to get more points per turn than me, but i pass here and my opponent is screwed. This is exclusive to this matchup, usually assimilate isnt punished for lagging behind and can catch up easily.

The result? Opponent played 3 more cards, golden froth and leader and still wasnt ahead, and forfeited

wow i tried myself to do a double scenario deck and its almost the same as yours.

The diferences: i dont have bank but i have oneiro (for more consistent).

In other hand, i dont have inke (i dont feel its necessary here). Also, dont have kalkstein, but i have freakshow (really good as spender with scenario and control, also you wont stack your coins in huge units to be later removed).

But in both decks (me and yours) i really sufring to not have a defender and heatwave.

Defender its stremly low tempo, but if you protect all your engines in round 3 its almost garantee you will win

 

[DRK3]

Day number two, another deck i had already envisioned before the expansion released.
A combination of one of my favourite archetypes, with "everyone"s new favourite meme card...

[DECK OF 06-07-22]
[RAD RENFRI]

RENFRI SPECIAL SERIES #1 - MO

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

This is NOT the obvious choice for Renfri + MO Deathwish.
By going singleton (BTW, this is the first singleton deck i ever do without Shupe) we miss a lot of great thinning options, like Renfri's gang, Archespores and WH Riders. Not too mention the fact we cant use x2 of the best bronze DW units (harpy egg, rotfiend, foglet) and thus Brewess Ritual is not a good target for multiple 'urn of shadows'/ abaya. And we cant use Succubus either.
The deck i describe sounds really good, maybe better than this one, i might try it later, but its definitely not as 'memetastic' as this one.

Another consequence of focusing on the urn of shadows stratagem is that it doesnt work/ it's terrible with some of the other top DW units - Dethlaff HV, Ruehin and my favourite, Plague Maiden. That's why they arent used here. And without them, Arachas Queen doesnt seem worth it either.

I've played many matches with it, and i rarely miss my best golds. My winrate is mixed, the deciding factor is usually if get good value out of Miruna, Manticore and Toad prince, stopping engines while they're still low. And also how long its the round, usually i win short R3s, and bleeding R2 seems favoured, but when going against long R3s with new scenarios, its a nightmare.
Renfri however is very reliable, always provides massive amount of points even when i get other options than the ones i want.

Going for the ultra greedy goal i described on the guide (8 stratagems), might seem great, but can easily backfire. Since it relies on having Runemage and Renfri R1, and possibly overcommitting early, and not even having guaranteed options we want.
Going for the Renfri effect twice on a long R3 should be more than enough, specially if you still have brewess ritual and radeyah.

Post automatically merged: Jul 6, 2022

I have a challenge — one you probably won’t want to undertake immediately as I’m sure you want to experience the full range of new cards while they are fresh. And I pose the challenge because I think it is impossible — but if anyone can do it, that person would be you.

The challenge is this: create a deck that uses no scenarios and no Renfri (i.e. none of the seven new, broken cards) that is viable against a deck that does use them.

I gladly accept your challenge, in fact, i am already working on two decks that fit your challenge.
One, is kinda based on a loophole of you're request, and is kinda cheating, but the other really fits the bill, and is based on some of my favourite old memes...

wow i tried myself to do a double scenario deck and its almost the same as yours.

The diferences: i dont have bank but i have oneiro (for more consistent).

In other hand, i dont have inke (i dont feel its necessary here). Also, dont have kalkstein, but i have freakshow (really good as spender with scenario and control, also you wont stack your coins in huge units to be later removed).

But in both decks (me and yours) i really sufring to not have a defender and heatwave.

Defender its stremly low tempo, but if you protect all your engines in round 3 its almost garantee you will win

Yeah, i agree Imke and Kalstein are definitely replaceable, i only kept Imke for theme purposes (Gudrun appears on the card), and Kalkstein because i wanted to keep it wholesome, despite the temptation to sneak in some control like a lock or reset.

Purify isnt much needed because Ciri Novas arent being played now, and whats the point of purifying defenders if i dont have control after to deal with the other units? Well, i guess we could get damage from shady vendors...
And still, it has other advantages, like purifying infusions, poisons, resilient Vandergrifts...

 

[DRK3]

I'll say this straight away: i dont recommend today's deck if you want to win.
Its a deck i really thought would be very strong, but its not the case for multiple reasons i will explain.

Sidenote: i am starting to see creators or even players i face using some of the meme strategies i had planned, as i naively thought it would take them longer to figure out. Even if i post them after they become general knowledge (after all, im only posting one deck a day), they are my original idea unless i state otherwise, because i believe in giving credit if you use something you've seen someone else using to inspire you to do something similar/ equal.

[DECK OF 07-07-22]
[COPYCAT LASSES]

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

In theory, Angouleme would be OP in this meta... She is not, or im playing all wrong. There are 2 major problems:

1) There are WAY more Renfri decks than new scenario decks (Rank 3).
This deck is pretty bad against Renfri, because Angouleme is an expensive 3pt body, low tempo, and heatwave and yen invo usually get crap value.
Surrender and Henrietta try to counter this, and are usually good against both Renfri and non Renfri decks.

2) The new scenarios are WAY trickier than old ones, which are mostly pointslam.
I've had experience against all except SY's, and i will share my rank, from BEST to WORST matchup:

MO - very easy to copy thrives, stop or use sir kitty and koschey against them.
NR - we have good value for prologue (NG knight), but Henrietta is essential to copy Royal Inspiration and trigger graces.
NG - very tricky to use, even for them. If the opponent doesnt use those cultists that give cultist status on R1, it will be hard to make enough gold cultists to trigger scenario. However when it pops off, you can make more points than them.
(SY) - i am guessing its a bit tricky to fight them. Again Henrietta is essential to copy their hoard ability. Unfortunately Flyndrs Crew is not the same value for us (im assuming if played through bribery or doublecross it will only spawn 1 instead of 3/4).
SK - hard when our deck doesnt have much damage, you rely on copies, the new cataclysm pirate is probably the best target.
ST - AWFUL. I've been 2-0ed against them. Your prologue is 0 pts (token gets destroyed), and the rest doesnt make up for it, and its very hard to spawn as many engines as them.

As an extra issue, some scenario players sometimes run that stupid 4p blue artefact, making it a 50-50 on Angouleme. Ive ragequitted both times i played Angouleme and got the scenario, and when i played it on R3, where it matters, i got that 4p artefact.

The ugly truth? If you want to counter these new scenarios, just run Yrden, much less trouble and more effective against all but SK scenario. Sad, because i really like Angouleme and was hoping this would be a return to the "golden era", when the first scenarios were released...

This was probably the best match ive had with this deck and my opponent threw me off when i played that angouleme and saw nothing, as everything pointed out to a new MO scenario deck, but still managed to win the sir scratch-a-lot duel!

 

[DRK3]

Today's deck is the one i've had the most success so far.
Although i feel a bit bad about it, as it's toxic as hell.

-Regarding the new cards, everyone is understandably focused on Renfri, but i am laughing at Renfri's gang, and i will explain why:
Not because they're weak, quite the opposite, but because of the explanation the devs gave in the stream, of how "poor Renfri decks" would need some thinning tools to compensate not having acces to Oneiro and other specials...
This shows me how naive they are, assuming it will just be used like they intended for a 12pt play... But for machiavellian players like me, it took less than 30min of evil planning to come up with a couple of decks that will abuse this thinning tool for absurd carryover. You can expect to see some of them soon on my 'deck of the day' thread, i promise.

Posted on Monday, one day before the expansion. And today is the day where you witness what i teased in that quote:

[DECK OF 08-07-22]
[RENFRI'S ARMY]

RENFRI SPECIAL SERIES #2 - NR

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.

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The reason why this deck is toxic is obvious to anyone who's seen Foltest on Blue stripes Commandos or Dun Banners. Except those are 4/3 pts respectively, Renfri's Gang are 6! Yes, they arent summoned as easily, but that works in our favour.

When i say R1, is decisive, i dont mean you need to win it! As long as you fulfill the gameplan of creating a 'Renfri's Army', you can lose R1 cards down and are still favoured, because you get huge point plays on R2 and R3 (unless you miss key cards).

The deck is obviously hyperthin (Hubbert, Siege Masters, Dun Banners) to greatly increase odds of finding everything.
This is the 2nd version of the deck, the first didnt have Triss Butterflies and i relied too much on Renfri getting me one of the two curses (Greed and Sloth) that allows to get Renfri's gang again after using Pavetta on R3. I failed 3 times in a row and decided i needed an extra tutor.

STRENGTHS
Actually does really well in the current meta. Yes, even the NG Doublecross Renfris usually lose to it, because they dont have as much control as old NG had. And SK Pirates has a tough time killing Defender on R1. Also there's very few GY hate going.

Also many opponents dont know how to react, and pass early R1, 5-6 cards in hand, when they see the foltest, thinking i will stop...
Oh, poor guys, i go down to 4, sometimes 3 cards, AND i still push R2 like a lunatic.

WEAKNESSES
1. The opponent actually has enough control to stop the foltest copying R1. NG Renfri decks can do this with Vilgefortz + Renfri Damage 10pt (and if they're lucky they go for cooldown 7).

2. You miss key cards. On R1, its drawing Renfri's Gang. And if you didnt copy them and lost, and are being pushed R2, its a tough situation.

3. If gameplan was succesful R1/2, there are only 2 cards that can deal with a full Renfri's Army - Igni and Scorch.
Havent seen a single one, although i typically play around it with radovid's royal guard.

CONSIDERATIONS
I didnt mention the Yrden in the guide. It isnt important to the strategy, you can replace it if you really hate it, but it makes total sense in this deck.
Because the only thing that beats a "Renfri Army" are super engine heavy decks on a long round, and those are usually boost.

I've done 20-30 matches, and i've used it to rank up. And i got a WHOLE FOLDER out of screenshots of this deck!

This is what i described before - I started R2 with 5 cards, my opponent 8. I played Gascon IF (50-50 chance of getting Renfri's gang, if RuneMage was used). I passed. I went from being 3 cards down to being 2 cards up, and i still have this explosive play again on R3.

If that was an Igni, i would have lost. Another strength of this deck - because of the meta, opponents are more likely to run Yrden than Igni, and Yrden is near useless against this deck.

Here's a case where without Yrden i would have lost. (SY players need to find other great spenders, cuz tidecloak is too vulnerable to tall punishment)

These matches are NOT exceptions - i consistenly was able to create 9+ armies of Renfri's gang.
And with last say on R3, you can even discard all your cards and just save this finisher (only counter would be Kambi or Shupe Mage, i guess)...

Its kinda broken, its a 'counter R1 or lose' deck for sure.

 

[genjuro2008]

The case is that every control deck without Yrden loses atm. Since the patch EVERY single match I’ve had was vs. mindless solitaire decks that fail to interact with opponent at all. I’ve put Yrden, Heatwave, and spores in all my decks and am having more succes. But it’s tedious facing what is essentially a procession of engine overload decks and being screwed if I fail to draw certain cards.

 

[DRK3]

Today is Scoia's turn. I wanted to give a fair shot to the scenario and not just make a pre-existing ST metadeck with Renfri slapped on top.
I dont think i ever did an Harmony deck, nor a 'Call of Harmony' leader deck on this thread, so another reason to do so.

Also, im so sick of seeing the same top golds in ST (Zoltan Warrior, Munro, Simlas) that i cant get myself to use them.
And after spending a lot of time trying to figure out a deck idea for ST, i realize now why i dont like the faction - it does not welcome meme strategies, at least not as much as others.

Because of the "tribes" thing, there are enclosed archetypes (elves, dwarves, harmony, symbiosis) that dont work well with each other, but work even worse with neutrals. Cards like Saskia Commander and new scenario dont even count neutrals, which restricts deckbuilding by a lot.

So i tried something that is less than ideal. A ST hybrid...

[DECK OF 09-07-22]
[HARMONIC SYMBIOTIC]

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

This deck almost fooled me. I played 4 or 5 matches in casual, and won them all, but i suspected it was because i was facing amateurs, judging by their decks. So i tested it in ranked, and my suspicions were proven correct - 4 or 5 more matches and didnt win a single one.
Although in Rank 2, at this time of the season, its packed with the hardest of the tryharders out there, so it indeed was a trial by fire.

The deck does generate a lot of points, over short or long rounds... unfortunately, not as much as some other new decks, and more than the "hybrid thingie", which makes separating cards between rounds trickier, its the devotion restriction that takes out its competitiveness, as it cant punish extreme greed (yes, i could use poisons, but that is still one of my most hated mechanics in Gwent).

NEW HARMONY CARDS
On a more positive note, i do really like the 4 new ST cards. Chameleon and Antherion have gorgeous colours and art, and work well.
Antherion helps in making harmony engines since i dont include many in this deck. And Chameleon is basically a budget Sir Scratch-a-lot, that is usually ignored and ends up generating over 10pts.
The new scenario has the advantage of the biggest prologue play of the bunch, which helps fight off R2 bleeds. And the new epic is like Gord for Harmony, but if forced to play it early, still acts as engine.

Ah, another thing - i REALLY wanted to try out this reworked Eithne with immunity, that's the main reason for devotion, and was hoping its uninteractivity R3, where opps have the most control, like freakin 10/7p + 8 damage Renfris or giant pirate boats would help, but its not enough (also, with this leader it spawns 3pt Treants instead of 4 on Nature's Gift leader).

Harmony has the points (Scenario, WoB, Barnabas and Percival committed - the harmony package), when it faces something that is very similar like new NR knights - boost boost boost. The problem are more control decks, or MO Scratch a lot + Koschey which generates more points than this.

 

[DRK3]

To end this first week of Black Sun, i share with you my baby... my favourite deck so far.
I did a deck every day since patch, and covered all 6 factions.
From now i will tone down a bit the frequency of releases and wont bother so much with faction variety.

[DECK OF 10-07-22]
[THE DECK CYCLE]

RENFRI SPECIAL SERIES #3 - SK

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

This deck is very polarizing, not because of the different matchups with opponent's decks, but because of how hard it is to manage your hand, deck and graveyard. Its not about 'will i get my best cards' - because you definitely will - its about 'will i get the cards i need, WHEN i need them'.

The gist of it is - get worst cards in hand, banish them, discard package, play best cards, Lippy (on a different round, so best cards are in GY) and play discard package and best cards again.
The problem is you rarely get this ideal sequence, so sometimes you may have to play right away the best cards, or not push R1 so hard in hopes R2 will fix the hand.

I've definitely noticed this deck favours the short round, the few times i lost was when i didnt get a good R1, but opponents didnt bleed me R2 and went for a long R3, and since there are no engines here, sometimes not even playing Renfri 2/3 times is enough. On the other hand, ive often won even after losing on even on R1, being bled R2 which helped me recover, then destroyed on R3.

CONSIDERATIONS
-Fucusya - she is too good not to include, even though she is not one of those golds that can be played at any situation. If you thinned to 0 and played Lippy, the GY will be empty, you need to discard or wait for opponent to kill a SK unit to play her.

-Geralt - this is the RuneMage slot. But i stand by my decision to include tall punishment instead, because this deck doesnt rely so much on having a particular curse/ blessing combo, you can adapt and try out things. And you can discard Geralt if on R3 and you see it wont get a target.

-Operator - this is what makes the deck harder to run. I've been told by some friends who saw the deck in action that its not worth it, just for an extra renfri's gang. I cant disagree, but i just love to take that extra step, and go for that unexpected flashy play.

-Djenge Frett - i use him instead of Dorregaray, only because of the chance to revive with Fucusya (cant do that with neutrals).

FEATS & MATCHUPS
-Used to rank up from 2 to 1 (definitely needs practice from the user to learn how to best pilot it)
-Beat pirate decks consistently (they have a lot of control, but its single, not wide). Still, its best to lock or kill Crach and Bjorn
-Beat boosty new scenarios too, by pushing them really hard and going for short R3s - but usually it was close
-Against most Renfri decks, its tough but i think this deck is still favoured

Notice the cooldown 7 at pass R3 - this is no coincidence, you SHOULD plan ahead and calculate when you play Renfri so if you get cooldown 7 (almost always the best blessing) you will get it 1 or 2 more times.
That is how you play Renfri's abilities 4 times - play her early R1 with cooldown 7, repeat ability midgame, repeat ability at end and immediately play her again for a different curse + blessing (yes, this is broken, im just showing how to optimize her )

What you can see on this screenshot and the previous - on a long R3, its very easy to overswarm, which may cause a loss. That's one of the reasons - i hadnt mentioned yet - why this deck favours a short, explosive round.

 

[roothaan]

Looks great!

 

[DRK3]

I have mixed feelings about today's deck.
When i made it, like on the 3rd or 4th day of the expansion, i hadnt seen anything like it, and was very proud of its originality and meme value.

Unfortunately, it seems to have popped off in the last couple of days, due to several streamers popularizing it, with very similar lists to mine, and it quickly became one of the most hated decks at the moment.

It may seem im only now jumping on the bandwagon, imitating others, all because i didnt post the deck as soon as i found it (cuz i tested it on mobile and didnt have screenshots for it). I did consider not publishing it. I will do it anyway, as regardless of its popularity and toxicity, its undeniably a meme deck. And CATS!

[DECK OF 12-07-22]
[OLD MAN AND CATS]

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

So, apparently this deck is getting very popular (i've seen it called 'kitty spam'), to the point players are targetting it.
I would never have imagined this weirdness would be able to compete with Renfri decks as the most hated in the current meta.

Therefore, i cant recommend playing it, as it may already be too late. Many players teching GY hate just to counter it.
I tried on saturday some matches to take screenshots for this post, but clearly quite a few players were already familiarized with it, and almost no one lets you get anywhere near the end of the match, to capture "proof" of its potential - they either counter it early or forfeit early.

Luckily i was able to have one match, with a poor player who still had hopes of winning, but even when you know what you're doing its a very time-consuming deck due to replaying the cats and the thrive animations, which motivates players to forfeit when they see they cant turn the tides around.

Each kitty gives 2pts per turn, not counting the thrives they trigger.
Each turn 4 cards are played at least (3 cats + 1 from hand) so Eltibald can use his order once per turn, and does 4 damage x the number of units you already cursed. It is a LOT of points, of boosts and damage, possibly the greediest deck Gwent HC has ever seen.

Now i really hope the same doesnt happen with the other meme decks i got planned, but i doubt it, as they arent as flashy as this one.

 

[DRK3]

I have a challenge — one you probably won’t want to undertake immediately as I’m sure you want to experience the full range of new cards while they are fresh. And I pose the challenge because I think it is impossible — but if anyone can do it, that person would be you.

The challenge is this: create a deck that uses no scenarios and no Renfri (i.e. none of the seven new, broken cards) that is viable against a deck that does use them.

I did not forget your challenge. And although yesterday's technically also qualified, as it didnt include Renfri or new scenarios, it did include other OP new cards.
But today's deck doesnt include any card released this year, in matter of fact, it consists of mostly really old cards, and a really old meme that i really love and brought back. (Last year, 30th June 2021, i posted a similar deck, 14 cards are the same, and yet the deck is significantly different )

Regarding the viability of the deck, with this humble deck i beat NR scenario 2x, SY, MO, SK 2x and ST. I still havent beaten Renfri with it, but i didnt get many matchups of that kind.

[DECK OF 13-07-22]
[OLD SKOOL ALCHEMISTS]

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

This is a meme deck that sadly never got popular, as its probably one of the most wholesome strategies NG has, and we all know NG isnt known for its wholesomeness.
It has become better though - the original combo, with Living Armor, was way more vulnerable, as any damage, even a 4/5p special would ruin the combo, so you definitely had to include defender to protect it.
With Olgierd Immortal's immunity to damage, its still vulnerable to heatwave and locks, but i dont feel like protecting him behind a defender is neccessary, so instead i use Renew in case he's killed or used in another round.

At the beginning of this season/ patch, everyone was trying the new cards and control - especially heatwave - was less prevalent, and this deck did really well, now players are going back to "good ol' heatwave" (unless its Renfri deck) and the deck performs slightly worse, but still has a respectable winrate for such a vintage cardpool.

One day, all my 10pts cows will all be scorched/igni'ed... That day still hasnt come

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I have updated the index with all decks up until today (you can check the 2022 tab)

Deck of the Day Index

2021 KEY,LINK TO THREAD NG,Nilfgaard,<a href="https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/deck-of-the-day.11087713/">https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/deck-of-the-day.11087713/</a> SK,Skellige SY,Syndicate,Note: all decks are designed to use all provisions according to its...

docs.google.com

 

[DRK3]

Hey everyone.
I haven't been posting many decks this week, this is not due to any shortage of ideas, it's actually a particular deck i'm trying to crack and its proving really hard. Today's deck is not that one, i will keep working on that one.

Today's deck was actually super easy to make, based on an idea a lot of creators had as soon as SK scenario was announced...
It includes all new SK cards... except seagulls, but fear not, those lovely birds will have a whole deck of their own in the future

[DECK OF 16-07-22]
[GIANT DRAKKAR]

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 deck is quite strong, even with the meme elements that make it a bit less consistent (i admit - they are mostly just the 2 dwimveandras).

I considered including more bronze pirates and at least one an craite longship, but i didnt want to cut on the discard package. And light longships have better synergies with this deck (Haern Caeduch's heal, boatbuilders, getting BT for Bjorn or armor for pirates in hand, etc.)

I've had a lot of success with the deck, its usually able to keep new scenario decks in check. Its usually harder to execute the gameplan than winning.

Up until yesterday, i only had reached 15pt drakkar. That could not be, so i learned how to take screenshots with my new mobile and went at it again...

Here's the 20pt Drakkar i promised!
Turns out you can even hold the charges and play them when you want!
The opponent was forced to yen invo my defender, so that giant drakkar was safe and i won, although it was close.

 

[DRK3]

By now, i've tried all new scenarios, although some i only explored in last week's new seasonal mode, with pre-built decks.
The NR grace knight decks you see are very similar to that standard NR deck in that mode. I obviously didnt want that.

I keyword searched 'grace', but i ended up not using all the options, only the ones i found more interesting and that would still get me enough value with the reworked Royal Inspiration leader. Then i revisited an old favourite archetype.
The result is different from anything you've seen grace knights being used on, i promise...

[DECK OF 18-07-22]
[YOUR GRACES]

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This deck isnt very flexible, and suffers a bit from being a "one (long) round deck". But when it pops off, its glorious!
It's mostly an engine overload deck, but the turning point is usually when Idarran is played and so many threats appear on the board that opponents lose control of the situation.

CONSIDERATIONS
-I did consider variations of the deck - including the shield witchers, to boost Roegner... but they needed Keldar who is a late round play, or those 4p bronze specials to spawn students, which would steal more of the bronze slots.
-Also considered the reworked mad charge, which would work well with vandergrift and increase odds of arcane tome not bricking... but the bronzes included are essential, and the 5/6p golds are the little control the deck packs, so i didnt find a way to include it.
-Finally, i thought of going more "swarmy", to synergize with Meve, because outside of the Idarran round, the deck doesnt swarm that much. But the truth is she gets countered too often, and my plan for this deck is not to bother with any specific unit, if one gets removed or locked, you move on to the next engine and hope the opponents control will run out soon.

I would say i did pretty well here, considering Townsfolk is one of the greediest decks in Gwent, with one of the highest potentials on a long round. I missed Meve (or possibly played her on early rounds), and i still hadnt figured out the best placement of units for this deck.

In here, you can see a much better placement - megascopes need to be on the leftmost, to avoid losing adjacent units value, as both redanian knights and knights errant grace abilities affect adjacent units.
Also, you want this system on the ranged row - big units (first engines) in the middle, expanding to left and right, so when they reach grace, they boost the lower units, therefore helping them reach their grace sooner too.

 

[DRK3]

Today is the day.
The deck that i have been obsessing for over a week... Well, not the deck but the concept of the deck: Syanna and Renfri.

More than the deck itself, i want to share the development process, the findings i reached, the alternatives i discarded. This will be a very text-heavy post, i understand if most readers will want to skip it, but i wouldnt be writing it if i thought it wasn't benefitial to others players.

[DECK OF 19-07-22]
[CURSE OF THE BLACK SUN]

RENFRI SPECIAL SERIES #4 - ST

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CONDITIONS
I already established condition 1: the deck would have Renfri and Syanna.
Now the main question was - pair Syanna with what?
I made a HUUUUUGEEEEE list with all units i thought it would be interesting to pair Syanna with, the problem was a lot of them broke conditions #2 and #3 (described next)

Condition 2: i already shared Renfri decks here, for NR, MO and SK. So i decided this deck would have to be for one of the other 3 factions: NG, SY or ST.
Condition 3: i want to pair Syanna in a new combo, so nothing i had already done before, nor any of the amazing combos Mr. Fuchsia Briefs did in his Syanna series. This narrows the options pool by a lot.

DISCARDED OPTIONS
-Simlas was a great option. It pairs up beautifully with Syanna, so many options... the problem is, on a Renfri deck, packing bronze specials would be a problem. And im not using Vanadain to do an half-assed version of a meta strategy.
-A neutral option, that would fit in all factions would be to pair syanna with tall punishment, like Geralt. I think that would be effective, but a rather boring use of Syanna, hence discarded. Although a little bit of that was still included in the tested decks, as backup and with more spice
-Another option available on different factions would be a swarm payoff deploy. A unit that boosts by x units (Axel 3-eyes or Corrupted Flaminica), or a unit that boosts by 1 all x units (Morvudd or Isengrim). But they were on factions i didnt want to use again or werent that interesting.
-A great option i thought would be Ihuarraquax. The problem was this would have to be used on R1 to maximize the disruption value, and not even on NG i was able to find 2 expensive units i wanted to summon with Ihuarraquax early.
-Another NG option that seemed promising was actually an underrated, cheaper gold: Vrygheff. Paired with illusionists + NG knights, it could be explosive, or even try some shenanigans with standard bearers, one of my favourite obscure bronzes.
-A final option was Yennefer. Most likely for boosts. But on NG, ST or SY, i dont think i could swarm so fast and so much that double yen boost would be massive in points, especially because most decks are swarming quite a bit these days.

DECK ITERATIONS
This is not the 1st 'Ladies of the Black Sun' deck i made, in fact, its the 3rd! And im not sure this is the best, one of the reasons i took so long, bouncing back between which deck i would eventually post.

The 1st iteration was a very standard elves deck, but with Renfri, Syanna and Igni. The main targets for Syanna were Vernossiel melee or Isengrim. The deck suffered from not putting as many deadeye elves because it lacked scenario and the Vanadain + Simlas combo, which is ironic because those elements were precisely what would give great value to our syanna combos!
On the other hand, Renfri is so damn strong that it compensated these shortcomings, so in the end, the power level was similar to that classic elves deck.
What was interesting on the deck was the Igni, and the bronze elf selection i made to line up Ignis beautifully.
If requested, i can share this decklist, without any guide though.

The 2nd iteration was a SY list. It was easily the worst, even though the concept was interesting: Syanna + Triss Meteor Shower.
I was trying to put many big units on a row, SY has quite a few. The problem is Renfri is probably the least adequate in SY, because when you use her, you lose the passive abilities of the leader (OTB tributes cost 1 more, LP crimes dont give 1 coin anymore, jackpot you lose the overpurse boost ability,...) which makes most strategies awkward if you want to use Renfri early.

The 3rd iteration is ST again. Its the one you find in the link above, and although its Renfri Invigorate, its quite different from the popular list (i think it was Lionhart that came up with it).
I refuse to use Zoltan Warrior and Munro Bruys, it seems these cards are ST's auto-includes, and i hate it but understand it.
I had to study ST's pool really careful in search for combos for this deck and didnt find other options that would be great with little board setup as those 2 gold dwarves.
I had to do these for 2 possibilities: Renfri has one option that allows to play a bronze + any card in hand in the same turn, also with Filavandrel and syanna, with CotForest twice i could play ANY 2 ST units in the same turn. I thought Aglais, but there was no way of boosting her with another unit.
In the end, double CotF didnt seem that strong, and it was actually double novigrad justice that seemed stronger and never lost a match when i pulled that off.
Double Waters seemed interesting, like a nostalgia trip, but remember when you pull that off, you have Defender (dwarf), Syanna (human), and FIlavandrel (elf) already on the board when those dryads spawn, so the main harmony categories are already lost without triggers, that is why i dont recommend this route.

Last note: i am using Igni. This is a handicap. The truth is a single Yrden would have been more valuable than all of the amazing double Ignis i pulled off, in the many matches i did with these 2 ST Renfri decks i described.
But players really hate Yrden. Not that it matters. I let the decision of including Yrden or not to each.

Yes, this deck can win the "mirror" against the popular invigorate list. You just need last say Igni/ double Igni and if so its an almost guaranteed win.

Here you can see the double Novigrad Justice's value. If you can think of a cool double CotForest combo, with ST units i didnt include in the deck, please let me know. (no Zoltan Warriors, Munros or Saskia commanders please)

I took this screenshot too late, but what i burned was 8pt sir scratch a lot, kiki queen and 3 arachas drones.
On the previous screenshot, an amazing double igni.
What do they both have in common? In both instances, a Yrden would be way better and i wouldnt have to worry with timing, lining ups or combo'ing with Syanna (although double Yrden with Syanna sounds like the Gwent equivalent of a war crime )

 

[DRK3]

Again, another deck that took me longer than expected to nail down...
Tried many completely different iterations, but im finally happy (enough) with it.

I made no secret that SK is my favourite faction, nor that beasts and swarm are some of my favourite archetypes/ playstyles.
When i saw the new seagull, i knew i had to make a new deck around it.

[DECK OF 23-07-22]
[SKELLIGAN AVIARY]

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REASONING
On one iteration, the deck had a very different feel. It relied on Little Havfrues and Havfrue Singers and healing, and i must say it felt great. I discarded it for two major reasons: it was very similar to a few decks i did last year on the PoP expansion, and it broke the theme - BIRDS - because the spawned sirens were stealing the bird's spotlight.

SEAGULL ANALYSIS
I even considered naming the deck 'A Flock of Seagulls'.
Unfortunately, even in a deck that originally was built around them, seagulls felt weak.

In case you dont know how this card works: when you play a seagull, it's a 1pt unit, that deals 3x1 damage, so its very low tempo.
An even bigger problem - the carryover it can create, it only works when you actually get the target damaged. That means if you hit armor or a boosted unit, it wont create a seagull in GY, and in this meta, everything is boosted (ST Harmony, NR Grace, MO thrive) or armored (SK pirates, ST dwarves).
Also, you are FORCED to hit 3 targets, if there arent enough enemies, you have to target allied units. At least this allows you to create carryover at the cost of negative tempo, if you can afford it.

Most of the times, i felt tempted to mulligan the seagulls. In theory, you can play them 6 times (2 from hand, 2 freyas blessing, Bride of the sea into freyas, fucusya), but they're so low-tempo i just wanted to play the other cards in deck if i had any intention of winning.

UNORTHODOX GAMEPLAN
The best strategy i found was winning R1 with more high tempo cards (knickers and roach help with this, and synergize with axel and corrupted flaminica), then push R2 with extremely low tempo, no chance of 2-0ing and most likely going down a card for R3, but buildind a lot of carryover for a near unbeatable short R3 (its possible to do around 50-60pts in 3 cards with this deck), and hopefully getting good cards out of the opponent on R2.

Here's the promised 'flock of seagulls'. When you play 2 and get all the damaged targets, and purify them, you get 8, which is the perfect amount.
You play the corrupted flaminica - its a mistake to play it on ranged, it should be on melee. Because 8 seagulls on backrow leaves only 1 slot, which is perfect for Axel 3-eyes, after the seagulls come out.

I was down 3 cards against this mill opponent (6vs 3). I had a 4pt crow, i had a magic compass into gedyneith, then i had fucusya into bride of the sea into crow clan druid to complete the whole scenario and somehow won.

 

[igor565]

i had a magic compass into gedyneith, then i had fucusya into bride of the sea into crow clan druid to complete the whole scenario

That’s a lot of dirt, bro

 

[DRK3]

That’s a lot of dirt, bro

Magic compass is still kinda busted, but Renfri took the spotlight on the OP scale, so now other broken cards get less called for nerfs.

With discard package, its almost guaranteed to provide absurd value, but only for the sake of the theme of the deck did i decide to not use it, and instead used more expensive thinning, which balances it out i guess?

Sidenote i only remembered now: this is a good example of a deck that could be really good but suffers because of the current meta - in particular that Renfri option that damages all units on enemy side by 1/2, that singlehandedly is keeping swarm decks like this offmeta.

 

[DRK3]

I've decided to post the deck i mentioned yesterday on the Renfri thread.
By now most people will hate anything that has Renfri in it, but i want to cover her in at least one deck per faction in this first month she's in, before she is nerfed in a way we dont know how yet (its unlikely she will be dramatically changed though, but i'll play it safe).

[DECK OF 27-07-22]
[KINDNESS]

RENFRI SPECIAL SERIES #5 - NG

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The deck isnt super original, but it does try to do something that no one else does, on focusing on a neglected Renfri option (Kindness).
To be honest, it wins either way, whether i go for the kindness potential, or i ditch it (because i get Renfri late or i have an opponent forcing me to play more aggressively to win) and play it in a more conventional way.

Got me to pro rank last night with little effort, which is not noteworthy, i think only using non Renfri decks would qualify as commendable in this meta. This has a lot of pointslam and no units going tall, and enough control, so its a very safe deck. It can beat SK pirates, it can beat anything that boosts a lot due to Yrden, and it can even beat "classic NG Assimilate Renfri" by just being better players than them (mulligan her away before Doublecross is used, or play her through Roderick, possibly leave her for last).

I've actually won games because im not being greedy and using Assire to replay Renfri a 2nd time: i've had a lot of opponents that after they win R1, open R2 with a squirrel on my Renfri, which is low to tempo, and im able to get and keep being ahead, get CA and last say for R3, to kill their huge finisher Regis Reborn or Torque.

Lydia was so good here - since im Renfri, players dont expect i get acces to specials that buff sorceresses, so they damage them but dont finish them off... then i play Lydia to get a boost from their GY and suddenly i get a sorceress chain of specials!
(And yes, Yrden crushed that little Gezras boosty row)

This is kinda disgusting - i have last say Yrden, which is always going to win against Grace knights who are forced to stack boosts on a row to maximize value... but i didnt even need Yrden, because my illusionists let me play their strategy better than them.

I dont want to only show my good plays - my mistakes can also serve a lesson.
One that i made multiple times is perfectly represented here - Stack the illusionists + vreemde row too hard, and get screwed. In this case, because i chose 3 dryad matrons (i could have chosen cat witchers), they get stuck and none moved, and i lost over 15pts of boosts
Ive also screwed up by filling the melee row with vreemde illusionists and then Vilgefortz couldnt be used on melee to kill a 34pt unit
Anyway, illusionists find so many amazing targets in different matchups, but be careful with row limits.

--------------------------------------

There will be one more Renfri deck soon, for SY, i promise it will be spicier than this though.
And at least one more pirates deck this season, one very different from what you've seen before!

 

[DRK3]

Yes, another Renfri deck. I promise its the last one.
Its for Syndicate, which is a faction i dont give much attention, so it would feel bad to make Renfri deck for every faction except SY.
And also, its the faction that i've seen the least Renfris used, understandably so, due to the loss of leader's passive abilities. So hopefully this one will be quite refreshing, compared to all the other Renfri decks out there.

[DECK OF 30-07-22]
[RENFRI'S BOUNTY HUNTERS]

RENFRI SPECIAL SERIES #6 -SY

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Of all 14 of Renfri's options (Curses + Blessings), my favourite is probably Curse of Sloth, because it opens up so many possibilities.
Even though its very strong, at least it restricts the play into a bronze and any other (bronze/gold) in the same turn, otherwise if it allowed 2 golds, i would have found a dozen of broken combos by now...

Still, i explored the cardpool a lot, looking for combos made possible with this ability, and i think this one (Shady Vendor + Tunnel Drill) is quite ingenious, even if its a card i absolutely hated last year, and its a combo i already tried in similar fashion sometime ago, with Golden Nekker's possibility of multiple cards in the same turn.

Also this is my first 26 card Renfri deck, and i wanted to give a go to the reworked Ornate Censer, even if its basically just a 1-turn, neutral Dagur.
I didnt find much issue with the provisions, because SY has very good bronze thinning packages, now with Renfri's gang on top, so i still had provisions for other 4 top golds besides Renfri.

Not the most impressive Censer (17pts) but this was just with Renfri's abilities alone, this deck can do a lot more with a damage setup i describe in the deckguide.

This was a happy coincidence - my Walter Veritas gave me the option of sewer raiders and they were still in deck (i usually try to play the 3 bronze thin packages on R1, or maybe save Renfris gang for later). Possible to do the same with casino bouncers, with Runemage the options go from 3 to 5, but i would say the odds of getting one of these 2 is still pretty low.