Deck of the Day

[dj_pindis]

Yesterday i didnt post, the first day since i started the thread where i missed, my bad.
I will try to keep going everyday until the end of the month, then i might take a one week break and return as soon as the expansion drops, with new decks right since day one


[DECK OF 21-05-21]
[MENAGE À TROIS] = [CAHIR-YEN AFFAIR] = [NG SPECIAL SOLDIER SWARM]

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

I love this deck, and its not something i created recently, i had versions of it since before there were even defenders.
I used Calveit leader ability, which was "look at the top 3 cards of your deck and play one", i used this to play Cahir and Yen in the same turn so Cahir couldnt be instantly countered... good times.

I thought this deck could be better now, with defender and recent buffs to vrygheff and vreemde, plus more ways to play daerlans, but unfortunately it has suffered with powercreep. Also i wanted to mantain the spirit of 'wholesome NG', without much damage or control.

Is it fun? Hell yeah.
Is it strong? Well, it does well in a long R3, the problem is it doesnt have a good R1 strategy, and if bled R2 its ruined.
I promise tomorrow's deck, which will be a NR parallel, will be stronger, albeit a tiny less fun.

View attachment 11219567
This is not a very impressive example, i wasnt able to swarm the most because the defender was going to die next turn, then he could kill the cahirs, so i ahd to play the yen... he forfeited after. Still, it gives the idea of how it works, you can use Yen boost even if going into a swarm deck with more units than you because cahirs will absorb the boosts and Yrden will neutralize the most boosted row anyway.

Where do you guys play ? i am only playing in standard mode. and this is exactly what i have been looking for in days! I only play against "noobs" They ALL Have the same decks! its so boring! just alone today i have been in 10+ matches today and everyone played the same deck! nilfgard or scoia, and they all just bannished cards or used boosters. Oh and EVERYONE i have played use renfri!!! I am so tired of that card! A Leader should only have 1 ability. I played against one he/her used leader ability 5 times in 1 round! The person lost big, but still a leader should only have 1.
I started playing a couple of weeks ago i have over 200 hours logged and i loved it in the beginning because everyone used diffrente decks and "Random" cards and i loved it! now everyone just google best decks and plays them. I can see they all have the same cards and it is really starting to annoy me.

 

[DRK3]

Today's deck is one i had been working in for several weeks.
Its very ambitious... probably too ambitious... i went overboard with my own self-set conditions...

To prove myself as the Pirate King - someone who truly mastered the SK pirate archetype - i did a pirate deck, BUT:
1) Doesnt include Renfri
2) Doesnt include pirate scenario
3) Doesnt include ANY PIRATE OR SHIP IN THE META
4) Doesnt include the discard package
5) Doesnt include any top neutral gold (heatwave, muzzle, mushy truffle, igni, yrden)

The result is something "janky", as some would call it, but it still has its charms.
But be warned - if you want to go and compete with Renfri decks, this deck is not well suited. I've won against Renfri's a few times, but its highly unfavoured.

[DECK OF 01-08-22]
[HIPSTER PIRATES]

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 TITLE
I called the deck this way because im trying hard to avoid anything that's in fashion (meta), and went for alternatives.
However, one of the initial concepts for the deck was 'Anti-Pirates' - yes, these pirates, which can also be called 'Armored Pirates' are well equipped to fight the more aggressive meta pirates.
Also, i only noticed this recently, but the deck has a lot of Dimun clan units, so it could also be called 'Dimun Pirates'.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Make no mistake - i stand by these bronze pirates and ships, i firmly believe they're underrated, and if the deck has weak side its the top end, because i put myself through so many tough conditions to fill that there weren't many great options.

One of the deck strengths is the surprise value - no one will expect CoC, Portal or Summoning Circle in a pirate deck.
Also Hen Gaidth sword helps a lot in getting the great golds we dont have, with a leader charge we can get anything up to 8pts, as long as its played on early rounds (Crachs and RuneMages are two of my favourite targets).

The biggest weakness is how strange the deck is to pilot. I had to include Oneiro to compensate not having any thinning or tutoring - Portal cant be used on R1 here, so its not used for thinning.

There are other pressure points - CoC can backfire, especially if Jutta is on board already, and Wild Boar of the Sea is conditional - it can be really weak in many matchups, but its actually a great R1 play against two of the most popular decks - SK pirates with discard package (while they still have little armor), and against NG Assimilate and Blightmakers and bronze thinners, many units, no armor.

After playing this deck i fell in love with armored drakkars. They're a ship i never liked (i dont like svalblod priests), but they synergize so well with many units and make damage opponents have a tough time, because they're hard to remove.

ANTI-SYNERGIES
There are a lot of anti synergies, but there would be a lot more if i didnt optimized it a couple of times. The biggest culprits are two bronze ships i love, but they make the deck way harder to use - tidecloak hideaways and dimun warships. Im sorry i couldnt get my self to ditch them

The tidecloak hideaways require the deck to have a LOT of pirates, and few specials or ships. This deck barely has any top gold pirates due to my self-imposed restrictions, and 6 bronze ships (including the hideawys themselves) is a bit too much, ive shared better decks for them in the past where they consistently got 10+ pts each if played R1.

The Dimun warships are a nightmare for deckbuilding, but so much fun to use against random damage from pirate's Crach or cataclysms, Dwarf berserker pings or Renfri's 8pings ability (the selection of totem is for the same reason - to make this random damage awkward).
They're the reason we cant play portal R1, or i didnt include raiding fleet in the deck, they need dimun pirates in the GY to be worth it (all other tall bronze pirates were meta, so they didnt fit the bill), and they can be just 4pts if the round isnt long enough and they arent triggered.

Finally, terror crew plunderer. Why did i include her, if it makes the portal even more awkward? Well, she has been very useful to me, either for damage against an enemy in a desperate situation, or to get some self damage to kill a spy, but in most situations she works similar to dimun corsair. Also i cant afford to lose more pirate slots to other bronze units or specials, or hideaway gets worse. Just dont mulligan her.

Here's a devastating Wild Boar of the Sea against a filthy Renfri user, for that sweet victory.

This deck is actually really good against Arnachad decks, for an unusual reason.
Yes, you can counter their play with CoC, maybe Djenge to lock Arnachad or Hammond to move Sukrus...

But its also possible to ignore it and give 0 value to their Arnachad! Artefacts like Portal, Totem or Summoning Circle summon cards, so Arnachad doesnt hurt them. You can even use Arnachad's damage to help if you play dimun warship from hand, and emote your opponent so they realize how you just outplayed them like a boss

 

[igor565]

Weird question but what is Jutta doing in the deck? Just for deploy 12 for 7?)

All in all interesting idea with these hipster pirates, I already forgot Armored Drakkars and Hammond existed

 

[EduFerraz]

Weird question but what is Jutta doing in the deck? Just for deploy 12 for 7?)

All in all interesting idea with these hipster pirates, I already forgot Armored Drakkars and Hammond existed

Summoning circule carryover, its in deck description

 

[DRK3]

Weird question but what is Jutta doing in the deck? Just for deploy 12 for 7?)

All in all interesting idea with these hipster pirates, I already forgot Armored Drakkars and Hammond existed

Yeah, like Edu said, she is the main summoning circle target, you never want her in hand, although if she does, a dimun pirate still in deck can be an alternative for SC.

She doesnt synergize with the rest of the deck, but the carryover threat is valuable, for example you can push R2 and lose card advantage but set her up for R3 (Summoning Circle is much less likely to get removed than other carryovers like resilient units). Or if you are going to lose R1, make a R2 push much less appealing to your opponent.

I chose Jutta (12 for 7) instead of greatsword (10 for 6) for another reason - NG's illusionists, i know they're not in the most popular NG Renfri deck currently, but a GS is the most valuable bronze for an illusionist to copy (with bonded effect), so Jutta is better because golds cant be copied by those bronzes (nor by informants).

 

[DRK3]

Last deck of the season.
Usually i like to end up with something extra spicy, but im afraid this time that is not the case, its actually quite tame compared to most other 'deck of the day' decks.

It's a NG Eternal Eclipse scenario deck. A cultists deck.
First, i have to admit - outside of a couple of matches on the 'Trial by Fire' seasonal mode, i didnt touch these NG new cards until the beginning of this month!

I covered SY, ST and SK new scenarios, i chose to ignore MO and NR scenarios as they didnt seem that interesting (sorry if this disappoints anyone), but i've avoided the NG one so long because it seemed very complicated.
I think i was right. I definitely dont feel like i've mastered it, and most of my experience comes from facing it rather than using it.

[DECK OF 03-08-22]
[TOTAL ECLIPSE]

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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OPINION ON CULTISTS ARCHETYPE
I dont love it, but i dont hate it either. For a NG archetype, that's pretty good, since what they get is usually so toxic it quickly becomes some of most hated cards and decks in Gwent (mill, kolgrim, elder bears tactics, poison ball, ...)

I like it because it doesnt feel toxic (unless you're playing the imperial practitioner version, that literally breaks the game), and is rather focused on swarm, my favourite style.
I dislike it because it doesnt 'work with any other pre-existing NG archetype' like i and many others first thought. In theory it does, but to maximize value you need to rely on cards that summon from deck and play multiple units per turn... so you are driven to use blightmakers + MAs and other thinning packages again!

When i thought about it, basically my NG Renfri deck - which i posted fairly recently - was already so similar to what a cultists deck should be, i just had to replace renfri and her gang with the cultists and scenario.
Still, i tried my best to use different cards from that deck, but they're cards you're tired of seeing (Braathens, Henrietta, Yen Invo) or that i use often (Bonhart, Peter).

MATCHUPS AND STRATEGY
The deck works very similar to how the 1st wave of scenario decks did back in the day - in the scenario round, a long round, against an opponent without scenario, its very favoured, unless the opponent is hyper control and manages to remove everything before it ramps up.

Yes, even against Renfri decks you can win... but only on a long round.
On my experience, this deck has very clear patterns - I won against Renfris on a long round, but lost to Renfri when they pushed R2 and i was forced to use scenario, i got CA, but on R3 i didnt have much left and they had Renfri's ability and other OP cards.

For example, i played against MO vampires 3x times with this deck (Renfri or Devotion). They all went for a long R3, where vampires are usually favoured... they underestimated cultists, which have a slower start, but at the end they are being crushed so hard most forfeit before the last card is played, not even a 30 pt Regis or 40pt Renfri is enough.

This happens because CULTISTS ARE EXPONENTIAL.
Maybe unlike anything we've ever seen in Gwent. Engine decks already behaved like this - where they get more dangerous the longer the round goes, unless against an opponent that counters all their engines. But most engines are linear (provide 1/2pts per turn), while cultists value actually increases each turn due to Ch1 of its scenario (which i dont think its a passive effect, like other new scenarios - need to confirm).
That's why it breaks the game when multiple eclipse scenarios are used, and we see screenshots out there with 400/500 pts on these greedy decks. They were built for the long round.

Cultists beatin the hell outta vampires on a long round.

Cultists beatin the hell outta vampires on a long round... again?

Cultists beatin the hell outta vampires on a long round... Deja Vu.

Yes, i lost this long round. But trust me, it does not mean their deck is better in the long round, it's just that everything went terrible for me in that R3 - from missing essential cards, getting terrible options from leader, and this is the version that still had Lydia instead of Bonhart (he played defender very late, i had time kill that Bincy).
Even with all those things going awfully, it was rather close

 

[EduFerraz]

When you talked about the multiple scenarios imperial practioner i remembered i have win a match where my opponent get like 3 or 4 scenarios and still lose.

And guess what i was playing?

Yes, that hidden cache deck.

Why i win? becaue i had a corrayover in sausage (with infused coins on him) and use the scenario unit order in evry unit has drop. So my opponent couldnt had any unit in his border.

Said that, i have do disagree, usually a long round - without removers - its a favorite match up for sy hidden cache scenario. But yes, in this case you managed to lock the scenario unit (usually i have that card that removes lock and boost by 5 to avoid that)

 

[DRK3]

Maybe i was wrong on the right way to play a cultists deck...

Shortly after i posted the last deck of the day with such a deck, i faced an opponent who opened R1 with Eclipse scenario.
I thought he was overcommiting - especially because i had a bad hand and wasnt going to fight for R1 - and later he would have trouble with cultists but no scenario... i was wrong, since he was able to give so many cultists status early on, he still managed to ramp up his points in a crazy way, and get cultists to 15-20pts in a long round.

 

[DRK3]

Hey everyone, hope you're having a good summer (or winter, in case you're on the other side of the planet).

1. The last patch brought some much needed nerfs, but barely brought any interesting reworks, so there isn't much motivation to play Gwent lately
2. Due to the previous point, i haven't been playing much and im not sure what the meta is shaping up to be, so i may be a little off on my considerations.
3. Also, dont expect many decks in here this month, but there will still be a few.

I will start with a few odd ducks i had from last season but never got the chance to share them:

[DECK OF 13-08-22]
[HARPY HORDE]

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

Yes, i am back at the harpies again. I love these bronzes, and every once in a while i do a deck focused on them (harpy eggs, celaeno harpies and spawned harpies). Last time i did one of those, there wasnt mushy truffle nor arachas queen, so i feel this revisit is justified.

I admit - the deck is not that strong... or at least, not as strong as i would like. Or maybe its my mistake, testing it early in a season in 'tryhard rank 3', a true trial by fire.

The biggest weakness is definitely the lack of consistency - i should probably have included something like triss butterflies or matta, since oneiro sometimes isnt enough and you get screwed right off the bat with R1 draws. Because i went full meme, and didnt include ANY other deathwish units (there's arachas queen, but without harpy eggs, it wont have a good target anyway), so DW stratagem can brick on blue coin... Sorry

ALTERNATIVES:
I tried a version with 2x offerings, to revive more harpy eggs. But without any damage, the only way i had of creating 1pt units was idarran or the arachas drones spawned by arachas queen, but both of those can be countered or missed, and it felt awful to have 6p cards just doing 1 damage. Incubus are way more reliable in reviving eggs.

I also tried weavess incantation, but since most of the harpy eggs in the deck are spawned or summoned instead of played, it wasnt getting enough value, so i replaced her with arachas queen.

You can use caranthir too, but the deck already has many many ways of getting harpy eggs that its not necessary.
A strong consideration is necromancer's tome, but it's low tempo, worthless without the proper setup and it would be very hard to get more than 2 extra harpy eggs out of it, so i chose not to include it.

WHY HARPY EGGS ARE GREAT
Unlike some of my other favourite deathwish units (Miruna, Werecat), harpy eggs value is constant - a 6pt token. This removes the stress aspect of worrying you are timing your deathwish effect incorrectly for it to be effective, so you can setup your own side of the board at any pace.

Also its very hard to punish harpy eggs. Damage is just saving us the trouble of consuming it, seizes are quite rare, so the only nightmares are either a lock-heavy opponent or a Yrden/ Igni, which for me so far, have been a rare sight.

I am sharing this loss for a few reasons:
- it seems harmony scenario is one of the most popular decks this season, from the little ive seen so far
-this deck was from last season, but after Renfri nerf, Yrden will be even better to put scenario decks in check
-my opponent was very careful in distributing boosts on the two rows, a lesser opponent will be crushed by Yrden

-i could have won but lost on an advanced detail: i had a 18pt harpy on melee, and i already expected poison from an harmony opponent...
But since i filled the melee row to maximize triss MS value, if i used a leader charge (i had one at the time) to consume the poisoned unit, it would just make it disappear due to how row limits work in gwent, and i would lose it even without the 2nd poison.

To avoid that fate, i could have not been so greedy and only leave 8 units in melee, or have an external consume from hand, so i could consume the melee poisoned unit from the ranged row.

 

[DRK3]

Today's deck is one i did in the middle of last season.
Its purpose was to abuse deranged corsair, one of the most OP bronzes in the game, now slghtly nerfed (by 1pt base power).

Usually i dont like to create toxic, oppressive decks that dont let the opponent do anything... but one can only take so much beating before saying 'enough' and fighting back. So, tired of losing against other toxic decks where you either have a very specific counter or you lose (Kelly or Melusine, for example) while trying out some wholesome, "decent but not strong enough" meme decks, i created this one:

[DECK OF 15-08-22]
[CATACLYSM]

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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There isnt much to say. If you've seen Madoc decks, you can expect to know how this works. Except other than the Madoc bombs, this deck has even more control, different enough to deal with almost all types of threats.

It has a very good winrate, especially now that Renfri decks have taken a step back and new scenarios a step forward. I even pity some opponents i faced, wiping out their boards every turn, with this deck you dont need to fear a long round against an engine + scenario deck like NR or ST, you just destroy them.

NOTES: the deck originally had Haern Caeduch, the SK witcher location, but i replaced it with magic compass which should be way more valuable, especially since it has a lot of thinning to get the deck below 3 cards.
The problem with this replacement is it makes the deck have even less proactivity (maxii, skald or gremist - maxii was included mostly as a good blue coin opener).

No screenshots, as the results are usually empty boards or a lot of cataclysm turns on the other side of the board. Dagur can get huge (with this deck i've got him above 30) but he's almost always countered at the end, but usually that isnt an issue.

 

[DRK3]

This is the last deck i made last season.
I really like it, and it proved me Renfri was viable in many decks/ archetypes where she wasnt being used.

Also, one of the main goals of the deck was to highlight an underused Renfri blessing - Charity - which makes you play the lowest provisions unit left in the deck. This option may be bad if you polarize your deck and include a lot of mulligan fodder you dont want to play, but if the deck is synergistic, that blessing can easily be worth more than the 8-10 pts of the other blessings.

[DECK OF 17-08-22]
[CURSED REALMS]

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

I started to love NR's thinning - 2x siege masters + Hubert Rejk - and by now i include them in all my NR decks.
They're especially good in Renfri decks, since you cant (or shouldnt) use AA on those for tutoring, so thinning is more important.

Also, i hadnt used Frigates (my favourite NR bronze) in a long time, but i stand by my opinion that they're underrated and can still keep up with the powercreep, unlike some of the other engines (for example, anna is a 2pt per turn 7p card, while Knight errant can be 2/3pt per turn at only 5p )

Another personal favourite i hadnt used in a long time is Draug, and it can still turn the tides in a match, it's effect on the board can be on the same level of a scenario and i've even been able to do a few 2-0s when my hand was good enough in R2.

Igni is one of the most fun cards. Period.
Yrden may be more effective in most cases in this meta, but if there was a deck where Igni fitted right in, its this one, where you get a lot of pings with Draug's revenants and the opponents are too worried with them to notice you're lining up an Igni (my best with this deck is a 19x2 burn that took 3-4 turns to setup )

Note: the original version of the deck was very similar but had Vissegerd, the problem was that if i used Uprising R1 to replace with Renfri, i wanted to play Scythemen and Renfri immediately after and Vissegerd came too late and unnecessary. Also, on R3 i didnt have as many boosts and he was near useless, and i had already have 2 finishers in Voymir and Igni, i didnt need a 3rd one.

Yes, this screen is still from last patch (Renfri at 7pt), but it wouldnt make a difference. I bled the poison scenario in R2, and because it came out a bit too late, i was able to 2-0.

I loved facing this interesting opponent, anyone using desert bros + shaelmaar has my approval.
When i face NG Assimilate opponents, if they copy my frigates and swarm a lot its OK, Renfri still has that wide damage curse that even nerfed, can still be a ton of points.
The scariest case is if they get Draug, as they can easily get a row filled with humans and if they Draug before us its an absolute nightmare, that's why i often bleed Doublecross opponents R2 with this deck.

 

[DRK3]

The biggest rework of the last patch was probably the addition of the bandit tag to elves. The consequence it had wasnt significant though, it simply made free company a nice inclusion in elf decks as a sort of 2nd isengrim, while the remaining neutral bandits remain ignored.

As a swarm aficionado, i couldnt just add this swarm payoff and call it a day, i HAD to take the swarming into the next level...

[DECK OF 21-08-22]
[ELVEN HAVEN]

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

COMPARISON WITH SIMLAS - 4X WAYLAYS
The popular strategy of Vanadain, Alyssa and Simlas for 4 Waylays leads to an explosive 26pt play in 1 turn, with both removal and pointslam.
Note: it's possible to get more, if Vanadain is active on board or if you manage to get more than 4 waylays in deck, but i will use the 4x copies as default for comparison.

This deck uses 2x bone talismans instead. The value of this depends on how many units you have on board.
The break-even is 12 units on-board (Simlas is the 13th). That leads to the same point output as the Simlas Waylay play. If you have more units, it will be worth more, less units and its worth less, obviously.

The Waylay version is meta for a good reason. Despite having a slightly smaller potential, its much better in a short round and more versatile, as it works well against almost all decks, while this swarmy version suffers in a short round or if going against control decks that eliminate as many units as we put.
Still, my personal favourite is this one, its very satisfying to win with those 2 huge waves of boosts that are always a surprise to your opponent.

ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED
One of the options was to make a Renfri elves deck. It wouldnt have Simlas or scenario, and have Renfri and Renfri's gang instead... I already did a very similar deck last season (wasnt shared here), so i didnt find this interesting.

I also considered cutting scenario for oneiro, as oneiro works really well in decks where you include a lot of techs that you dont want to play them if you dont need them, like this one, but i ultimately decided the swarm value of scenario is more important.

Another possibility was to do decoy shenanigans - do the 4x waylays simlas, then decoy him, then tutor him again, but this would make the deck impossibly harder to pilot and manage mulligans, but if you're brave, go ahead and try that out!

In this case, i had to use Vernossiel melee, although she's usually better fitted for ranged due to the 4pts of boosts for every unit this deck packs. I was insanely lucky and the deadeye pings managed to finish off the defender, so my spores wasnt bricked!

This Viy opponent didnt go all in on the Viy and used other DW units. I was able to take scenario into R3 and all the swarm payoffs and DB archers and toruviel were huge here and lead to my record in points with this deck so far.

 

[DRK3]

No deck today, but i wanted to share what my plans for the near future are, now that we have got a glimpse of tomorrow's patch and can start wondering how the next season / month will be.

- A syndicate deck, focused on firesworn.
This is the archetype ive been trying and testing on the few instances i played on the last couple of weeks.
Also my last Firesworn deck shared in this thread was from at the end of last year, and even though no new cards were added to that archetype since then, several were reworked and are much better now (eternal fire disciple, Lt von Herst, Damnation)

- I had planned to do a NG deck for my 150th deck in this thread, but i had been running low on ideas... Good thing i awaited for this patch, as NG will get almost all the attention, and since its FINALLY my favourite archetype, i wont just do a single NG soldiers deck but a whole series!
Probably 4-5 decks, all centered around these reworks... If you hate NG, you will have a bad time soon, in this thread and in the game

 

[DRK3]

I could wait...
Or i can start the NILFGAARD SOLDIER SPECIAL SERIES right away!
I DID spent pratically the entire day playing (over 8 hours), so i did get the chance to test things properly and did a few adjustments...

Although, i should warn - i will focus on themes and mechanics for each of these decks, instead of cherrypicking the best of which (i already have a good idea of which bronzes those will be... )

[DECK OF 06-09-22]
[SWARMING SOLDIERS]

NILFGAARD SOLDIER - SPECIAL SERIES #1

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

Here, i will do a small review and rank - from lowest to highest - on the power of the reworked soldiers i use in this deck:

-Slave Hunter - this unit will probably never be used by anyone. Its an easy 7 for 4 (between 2 soldiers), even an 8 for 4 if you manage to hit a 4pt unit, but the unit spawned is locked, so the only synergy it has is to provide a 1pt target for slave infantries, but there are better options.

-Nauzicaa Brigade - these are meant to provide more points to fight a R2 push after a R1 loss, but at only 1pt for 5p, they probably arent worth it. They do synergize well with slave infantry and nauzicaa sergeants (so you dont go tall), provide extra bodies for a massive Affan boost, and provide thinning, although thinning is best early...

-Daerlan Soldiers - they are a cheaper thinning (2x 4p bronzes) for the same 8pt as most other bronze packages (which are 5p), but with 2 extra units in deck, mulligans might be trickier, you definitely want to get these out on R1, and they provide many bodies for swarm strategies.

-Slave Infantry - im a bit biased, as this has always been a favourite bronze, but its even better now (went from 5p to 4p). Unfortunately Vrygheff doesnt work on it anymore, to make a proper SI army, but there's no shortage of ways to put 1/2pt units on board so this is a 8/9 for 4 card! Also dont forget the amazing value of this to deny sihil players or cantarellas/ joachims being couped.

-Slave Driver - this unit has gone from 'total crap' to 'probably OP'. Its incredibly versatile, synergizes well with armored units (so its damage is negligible) and its strength relies on having other really strong bronzes... which NG definitely has now (some werent used in this deck).

-Nauzicaa Sergeant - its a freakin 10 for 5 (and 2 armor)! Oh, the powercreep...
Its not even a hard condition, losing a round. Even those aggressive players who like going for a 2-0 (not me) can commit pretty much everything, but if they lose R2, they just need a couple of these bad boys to still have a good shot at winning in R3.
This is a strong contender to strongest bronze of this patch, there's only one other soldier who can rival it, i think...

This is still from the 1st version of the deck that had war council instead of oneiro, but it was my record on the amount of nauzicaa sergeants on a round.

If going against a "certain" deck that focus on a "certain" other NG soldier, we should definitely pivot and start locking EVERYTHING... and win.

 

[DRK3]

150th DECK OF THE DAY!
I was planning to make this one special, hopefully wholesome... but the new patch turned the tables on me...

Its definitely special... specially oppressive, as it can wipe out the enemy board against most decks. But you wont face "most decks" nowadays, its more likely you will face mirror matches - very similar, or possibly even worse, assimilate lists that will copy these broken engines and have assimilate value on top...

[DECK OF 07-09-22]
[F---KING SOLDIERS]

NILFGAARD SOLDIER - SPECIAL SERIES #2

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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I will do the same as yesterday, and review the reworked soldiers i included in today's deck (and one that wasnt).
Again, from worst to best (IMO), here they are:

- Ducal Guard - this one is so bad i didnt even attempted to include him in the deck. Its a flanking engine, but unlike the others, its boost based, and only works on the turns you use a leader charge, so 4 turns tops, or more if you use Damien or Henrietta. Its cheaper than the other flankers, but still not worth to include.

- Alba Pikeman - this one isnt tied to armor, but that also means it wont generate anything unless its on a flank. It has the advantages of controling where the damage goes, unlike the others, and bleeding is very useful to bypass armor, which will be everywhere, in this month.

- AF Heavy Cavalry - this one is by far, the most interesting one, although not the strongest.
It can make placement way trickier - when it moves to melee row, it goes to right flank, so if you had another flanking soldier there, it loses its spot. And can be triggered earlier with movement or armoring up.
A cool interaction i was very close to doing but opponent had a lock leader charge to stop it: you can use this to kill a stupid Kolgrim behind a defender before it boosts, all you need is 1 armor and being on the front row, it works like an an craite longship there!

- AF Light Cavalry - quite good too, probably the best passive flanking soldier, so good for early rounds. However using two of these on front row is not advised, since after the last unit played by opponent is killed, they wont do damage anymore, and opponent can use specials or spawn to generate points which stop this soldier from generating value.

- AF Crossbowman - the bronze so OP it had to be hotfixed in 24 hours!
They nerfed its power, which does nothing to stop its removal potential. Its the only bronze unit in the game that does 4 damage on a single turn (all it requires is an adjacent unit or artefact), then does 2 damage every other turn if placed on a melee flank. Ridiculous.
Honestly, locking this early in a round might be better than locking a top gold at the end of it, that's how dangerous this is, and why you absolutely should stock up on a counter to it. Welcome the Xbowmen meta!

To be fair, this is actually R2, after a tie R1 where my AF light cavalry generated so much value i went to this round with 2 more cards than my opponent. He topdecked, but it was no match to the storm of pings that was coming...

This deck brought me a lot of intense mirror matches... and a lot of 2-0s against older decks, because even the top decks from last season struggle against this new power level. Xbowmen may have to be nerfed again soon

 

[DRK3]

One more NG deck. One that isnt much different from the ones being played by many players and streamers, but i hope i can bring some insight nonetheless.

[DECK OF 09-09-22]
[TACTICS SOLDIERS]

NILFGAARD SOLDIER - SPECIAL SERIES #3

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 time, i wont be making an individual soldier review, because it doesnt warrant one.
The new Magne Division is a new thinning tool, but you dont necessarily need it in decks with Calveit like this one, its better suited in decks that dont go so strongly on tactics. Venendal elite - which wasnt reworked - is an amazing opener in Enslave 6, but probably not worth it in enslave 5 or less.
And combat engineer (which was NOT included), IMO its a bad joke, there are many safer ways to create value than giving charges to units your opponent will do its hardest to counter.

The new Skellen is the star (pun intended) of the show, and of tactics decks.
But after quite some matches, and seeing how he was used in other decks, i have come to think enslave 6 is not the best fit for him, even if its the way he gets 4 stars instead of 3.

The problem of enslave 6 is that its very restrictive in deckbuilding. You need to include 12 tactics, and due to the minimum units being 13, that leaves no room for other specials or artefacts if you want to keep your deck size at 25.
But that is not it. Since most tactics are bronze and cheap, that occupies your lower end, forcing your high end to be golds. NG has good gold units, but two of the most reliable ones - Braathens and Terranova, you cant just put them in the deck, they have deckbuilding restrictions too - you need to put bronze spies for braathens, or bronze mages that give spying for Terranova, and in enslave 6, you dont have much room for bronze units.

Finally, i just wanted to mention the insane amount of synergies the new Skellen has:
The 1st is obvious Helge, which doubles up on the damage.
Then, if you see Fuchsia-Brief's video from yesterday, he really goes deep into this combo, and uses Syanna and Sarah too. Spoilers: he doesnt pull off the full combo, because there's always something that gets countered, but i did the math, and those 4 cards give a total of 66 points!, if no damage is wasted.
Also, there's the obvious fire scorpions, which get 1pt instead of Helge's 2.

But probably the most effective way to get value from Skellen is to use assimilate and get boosts instead of damage. Because assimilate decks can put up many assimilate engines, more than can be removed, and units like Braathens, Vigo and Terranova can put 2 or more engines in the same turn, removing them all is next to impossible.

Skellen and Helge did almost a full wipeout on this poor dwarf player.

This is moments before the helge-skellen combo, while i was pushing R2 on this assimilate renfri.
I got like 30pts ahead, felt pity for my opponent and passed without using leader... My mistake, because he proceeded to play Terranova into Lydia into diplomacy into slave driver into nauzicaa sergeant, and beat me by 1pt and one extra card into R3, and then i lost cuz Renfri...

 

[DRK3]

Another deck of the day...
And yet another NG deck!

After this one, i will cover at least one deck from other factions... but the NG series ain't over yet, there's at least 2 more NG decks in the pot, and let me tell you - best for last!

[DECK OF 11-09-22]
[SPYING SOLDIERS]

NILFGAARD SOLDIER - SPECIAL SERIES #4

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 isn't exactly the peek of creative deckbuilding, half of it - the assimilate part - looks exactly like the most popular NG metadeck for the past few months. Still, it made sense to do it to test the spying archetype as a whole.

Before i make a bronze soldier review, i want to talk about the reworked Emhyr: it was definitely an improvement from what he was before, however i feel like he's still not on the same level as terranova or braathens. Being 4pt, 2 armor makes sure he isnt removed by a cheap 5dmg special, and putting 2 engines in 1 turn is always very valuable. Still, its weird that he has anti-synergies with impera brigade, through his seizing ability.

SOLDIER REVIEW (worst to best):

- Alba Spearman - this is a strong contender to the worst reworked bronze soldier. Or maybe im just using him in the wrong deck, and he's better with Tibor or poison/ Philippe decks. In theory, he has a good point potential, with the limit being the amount of status you can put, but he's really awkard to use, and i just wanted to mulligan him away, as most times i only got 4 or 5pts out of him (including his 3pt body).

- Impera Brigade - honestly, i think this rework was also a bit of a miss, but not as bad as the previous one. He synergizes well with emhyr's ability to give spying, but poorly with its seize 1pt spies ability, which this unit would remove anyway. This has a 13pt max value, which is good for a 4p unit, but requires careful spy placement and i just rather use an assimilate engine or any 1pt per turn engine, because brigade is only decent in long rounds.

- Impera Enforcer - not reworked, but still the best soldier of this archetype. However, probably not as good as assimilate engines, but definitely more fun. Biggest weakness is how long it takes to set these up, i usually go for 2/3, unless i manage to get to a R3 with operator, then i can just spam more and more of these while giving charges to the existing ones, now that's what i call synergy!

DECK ANALYSIS: the deck performed really well, mostly because of the assimilate package, the weak links are definitely the alba spearmen and impera brigades, if you manage to replace those with solid soldiers like the new nauzicaa sergeant, or more locks, it will be competitive.

Like most assimilate decks, the fun depends on the matchup and how well you can copy your opponents strategy... which usually isnt much fun for your opponent

Almost forgot to include an image of a proper enforcer squadron.
Unfortunately this was R1, and the setup couldnt keep up with tempo, which lead to a tie or loss of CA. Try to avoid this, its R1/2 where you need to be most careful with this deck in deciding how much you commit, especially on blue coin.

 

[DRK3]

Greetings, fellow Gwentlemen and Gwentladies.
Today's deck is one a long time coming...

I promised a firesworn deck, and i shall deliver! Due to the recent patch, i had to reformulate the version i had for the current meta. I didnt know how to do it, until the day where that Tibor spam deck started to pop off, and enraged by it, i knew i had to counter it... It was time to bring back Scorch!
The result is perfect, even lore-wise: the cards that burn, in a FIREsworn deck.

[DECK OF 13-09-22]
[FIRE AND FLAMES]

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

Sad to say: i still havent gotten a chance to scorch 3/4 Tibors and make the opponent forfeit, after i made this deck specifically for that.
However, dont assume this deck is bad against others, because it has been doing very well, because its properly built.

If you observe, the deck is focused on swarming, and almost all units are low powered, to not get in the way of scorch. We have a few 6s, but usually our scorch targets will be above that. Also Bloody Good Friends is a key piece in lining up scorches and ignis, because relying on your opponent to play poorly and line them up for you is not very strategic, and a waste of these beautiful, neglected card's potential.

Finally, im in love with this damnation card. When it was reworked into its current ability, i wasnt playing Gwent, so im only trying it out now, but i remember seeing Myamon using it on pirate cove, where he could easily get a tidecloak at 4,6 or 8 to get what he needed. In this deck, setting up those units doesnt happen on the same turn but it shouldnt be a problem either.

Note: i forgot to mention this in the guide, but the coin spending should be done mostly through EF disciples. Getting a 2pt zealot for 1 coin is better than paying 2, so cards like Helveed or cleric of the flaming rose are used for their coins and cleric synergies rather than to swarm.

Note 2: it may seem the deck doesnt have enough crimes (6) for the cutup lackeys to get value, but with shady vendors, hemmelfart, possibly a 2nd hemmelfart and veritas, its possible to get 10/11 crimes.

Note 3: besides damnation, this is also the 1st time im using Igni and Scorch since the 'initiative' tag was reworked. Now being able to tutor them - in this case, with vivaldi bank - without breaking initiative makes them so much better!

In this match i overswarmed, and had no space for the massive Igni i set up... luckily i had last say, and i know these decks like to leave heatwave for last (unless you play a scenario), so that heatwave would open up room for my igni...but wasnt needed, the dies irae was enough anyway.

This image shows a lot of good plays by both players. I actually managed to get 4 clerics on board, so the tribute of my keeper of the flame was free! But my opponent filled my front row, so i couldnt maximize its value (13pt max).
Also, my opponent wisely went for Renfris ability to do 1dmg to all units, but its because of that, and all the NG random pings that im packing cleric and lt von herst - to transform the 1pt zealots into 3pt 1 armor tokens for only 1 coin.

Hope you try out this deck, and if you get massive Tibor scorches/ Ignis, please do share them here!

 

[sfruzz]

Note 3: besides damnation, this is also the 1st time im using Igni and Scorch since the 'initiative' tag was reworked. Now being able to tutor them - in this case, with vivaldi bank - without breaking initiative makes them so much better!

Vivaldi Bank doesn't break initiative? I always assumed it would.

Cool deck. It's able to put points on the board, but has tall punish and ways of interacting with the opponent board.

 

[DRK3]

Sorry its taking so long to share my "NG Soldiers masterpiece", but i think i've finally cracked it...

I promised 2 more decks on this series, but i was having trouble optimizing them... turns out the solution was as beautiful as fusing the spicy bits of each of those 2 and having one ultimate strong + fun deck!

The deck is coming soon, tomorrow at the latest, stay tuned...