Discussion: Post hotfix discard deck

[laptopman]

Discussion: Post hotfix discard deck

Dear admins, could you please move my post to the skellige tactician corner? thanks! :cheers:

Hi guys!

I have been playing gwent since open beta and have been enjoying the skellige faction right from the start.
I want to share my deck that I have been playing pre-hotfix, and want to start a discussion of the state of the deck and what should be changed.

As I believe I'm a non-casual player, I tried to create a deck that complies with my personal taste as well as being competitive on ladder.
This is the final design of the deck after I gained enough cards/dust:

3x clan an craite raider
2x savage bear
1x clan tuirseach skirmischers
3x clan drummond shieldmaidens
3x priestess of freya
2x war longship
1x first light

donar on hindar
gremist
sigrdrifa
holgar blackhand
uldaryk
bekkers twisted mirror

coral
madman lugos
hjalmar
renew

The announced hotfix actually did not affect this deck by much (the benefit of not playing a tier 1 skellige deck I suppose), which is a good thing! and I have high hopes that discard skellige would become a thing (next to the queensguard deck).

However, it needs some updates:
I think the following must be changed:
renew: with Hjalmar becoming 'doomed' and only able to get gold cards from your own graveyard, renew is no longer viable
alternatives:
1) ermion - I actually have been running this card half my games, but that was untill I found out that blacklisting was a thing (gwent should really teach you that) so my hand become more consistent and I had no need discarding from hand
2) triss merigold - its alright, but I am really looking for something that suits this deck
3) any other legendary: any advice? careful, I need to craft it.
first light: no longer needed I suppose, I think I will change it for a 3th savage bear

The following cards are up for discussion:
savage bear: it received a big hit, but I think it is still decent. It does less damage, but on the upside its slightly more difficult to remove
war longship: I think it is a staple in this deck, and with everything being nerfed it becomes even better. However, i see nobody playing it! and I wonder how come??
bekkers twisted mirror: this is a tech card which have been really useful agains axe man (80 power swing:yes: ) consume decks and boost-dwarfs. I am not sure if it is still worth it, I will try it out, if it doesn't work out I will swap it back for decoy.

So my big question to you!
What do you think of this deck?
Which legendary would you advice?
Do you agree with my proposed changes?

ps: I am not sure if you guys want to know such things, but I have been playing this deck from rank 5 to rank 15 with a average winrate of 64%

 

[MirotheDragon]

I reduced my ships to one War Longship since I didn't draw them consistently enough for the long discard round, and they are kind of useless once your discards are out.

And I just noticed you have none of the pirates in this deck? Kick out the Savage Bears and the Shieldmaidens and put all six pirates in (three of them will buff with ANY discarded card while in your hand, deck, or on the board--consistently 13+ power cards in round 3 while the other three work as play one, automatically discard the other two from deck). And then definitely pick Ermion as one of the golds for added buffing.

The last gold card is really up to you and your playstyle. I run Yennefer (the 4-power card) as my fourth gold next to Madman Lugos, Coral, and Ermion.

Also, keep at least the one First Light; you will still encounter weather, and if they play it first in a long round, it can still screw you up. If you don't encounter weather and keep track of your bronze units, it can help you pull that sweet Priestess of Freya or buffed Pirate out in round 3 that you haven't drawn yet.

For silver, take a look at Svanrige for yet another discard ability, or Restore to get another card back from your graveyard, maybe?

 

[laptopman]

That is because that is an entirely different deck
the pirate version, mostly in combination with QG, pushes for round 2 and 3, whereas the above deck wants to win round 1 and 3.