I appalls me that I didn't think of this sooner. Every once in a while, I encounter a deck that is a real breath of fresh air: a deck that feels unique; that is well-conceived and coherent; a deck not built around the horribly binary "counter or lose" mentality or some contorted one-in-a-hundred combination; a deck that makes me wonder "why didn't I think of that?" This deck is to celebrate those decks and the players who created them.
Because I generally won't know the complete deck contents, I will only describe surface details. When I remember (or can look up) the opponent who played the deck, I will list them -- although that does not guarantee they are the originator of the idea. And because I don't really intend to index the decks, I will not be concerned about posts being automerged.
If you encounter an exciting new deck, I encourage you to add to this thread. It is easy to be negative about boring net-decks or exploitive, binary garbage decks. Let's take a few minutes to enjoy the positives that remain frequent in Gwent.
The first deck I wish to highlight is not entirely new, but it adds refinement to an old (and honestly, irritating) deck in a way that is cohesive, much less binary than the original deck, and is fun to encounter.
Deck Core Ideas:
The deck is a take on the old NG double Madoc deck. This deck incorporates the redesigned Sapper, lots of copies of Sapper, more bombs (to accommodate playing Sappers a half-dozen times), Alissa Henson (helps prevent over-thinning), and cards like Jonny and Sarah that benefit from lots of special cards.
Deck Player: HMSJeanWolf.
Why I Liked the Deck:
The old double Madoc deck felt very match-up dependent, hence binary in a bad way. Bombs lack points to compete when there are no worthwhile removal targets, and erratic Madoc behavior often prevented summoned Madocs from adding significant value. Because it was rare that more than 6-8 bombs could gain significant value, other means of point generation had to replace bombs in several potential deck-slots. This reduced the potential value of Madoc, Sarah, and Johnny to the point where their provision cost was hard to justify. And it made drawing bombs more inconsistent.
Repeated spamming of Sapper eliminates many of these issues: Sappers themselves add value to bombs in a way that is much more stable (and cheaper) than Madoc. Sappers eliminate the need to decide upon an appropriate number of bombs to keep in hand, they allow better tempo with the bombs, and they justify keeping more bombs in deck. Finally, Sappers provide engine value to diversify threats and indirectly support Johnny and Sarah by diverting removal. But because Sappers engine value is not passive, opposing them doesn't feel nearly as abused as other Soldier spam (e.g. Reaver Hunters).
Deck Effectiveness: I have not yet tried the deck and, unfortunately, when I encountered the deck, I was using a deck designed to play as many cards as possible to complete quests quickly -- not a deck designed to win matches. Thus I cannot confirm that the deck is great, but it seems to me that it should be. I have recently played an SK Madoc deck focused upon magnifying row effects (especially cataclysm) using cards like Vaedermakar and Ragh Nar Roog. It played OK in this meta, but felt a little fragile. HMSJeanWolf's deck is much more cohesive. Although it might be vulnerable to not drawing Letho: Kingslayer and to graveyard hate, it is generally founded on sound principles. I wish I could encounter more decks like this one.
Because I generally won't know the complete deck contents, I will only describe surface details. When I remember (or can look up) the opponent who played the deck, I will list them -- although that does not guarantee they are the originator of the idea. And because I don't really intend to index the decks, I will not be concerned about posts being automerged.
If you encounter an exciting new deck, I encourage you to add to this thread. It is easy to be negative about boring net-decks or exploitive, binary garbage decks. Let's take a few minutes to enjoy the positives that remain frequent in Gwent.
Post automatically merged:
The first deck I wish to highlight is not entirely new, but it adds refinement to an old (and honestly, irritating) deck in a way that is cohesive, much less binary than the original deck, and is fun to encounter.
Deck Core Ideas:
The deck is a take on the old NG double Madoc deck. This deck incorporates the redesigned Sapper, lots of copies of Sapper, more bombs (to accommodate playing Sappers a half-dozen times), Alissa Henson (helps prevent over-thinning), and cards like Jonny and Sarah that benefit from lots of special cards.
Deck Player: HMSJeanWolf.
Why I Liked the Deck:
The old double Madoc deck felt very match-up dependent, hence binary in a bad way. Bombs lack points to compete when there are no worthwhile removal targets, and erratic Madoc behavior often prevented summoned Madocs from adding significant value. Because it was rare that more than 6-8 bombs could gain significant value, other means of point generation had to replace bombs in several potential deck-slots. This reduced the potential value of Madoc, Sarah, and Johnny to the point where their provision cost was hard to justify. And it made drawing bombs more inconsistent.
Repeated spamming of Sapper eliminates many of these issues: Sappers themselves add value to bombs in a way that is much more stable (and cheaper) than Madoc. Sappers eliminate the need to decide upon an appropriate number of bombs to keep in hand, they allow better tempo with the bombs, and they justify keeping more bombs in deck. Finally, Sappers provide engine value to diversify threats and indirectly support Johnny and Sarah by diverting removal. But because Sappers engine value is not passive, opposing them doesn't feel nearly as abused as other Soldier spam (e.g. Reaver Hunters).
Deck Effectiveness: I have not yet tried the deck and, unfortunately, when I encountered the deck, I was using a deck designed to play as many cards as possible to complete quests quickly -- not a deck designed to win matches. Thus I cannot confirm that the deck is great, but it seems to me that it should be. I have recently played an SK Madoc deck focused upon magnifying row effects (especially cataclysm) using cards like Vaedermakar and Ragh Nar Roog. It played OK in this meta, but felt a little fragile. HMSJeanWolf's deck is much more cohesive. Although it might be vulnerable to not drawing Letho: Kingslayer and to graveyard hate, it is generally founded on sound principles. I wish I could encounter more decks like this one.
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