Gwent Leader Abilities -- An In-depth Look

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The intent of this thread is to take an in-depth look at each of the leader abilities: strengths and weaknesses, types of decks with which they work best, and game-play strategies and tactics. As I have not played all leaders to a significant degree, I welcome reactions and input from others. My articles and any comments by others that offer significant insight will be indexed here. While I might comment on my perceptions of a leader’s effectiveness, my articles are more intended as a user’s guide than a rant about relative power. Eventually, I hope to have articles on every leader ability. This will take time – when an article is available, its link will be in blue.

MONSTERS LEADER ABILITIES
General Overview: Many (but not all) Monster leader abilities are highly focused around a particular archetype. Some (most notably Overwhelming Hunger) were severely nerfed in an attempt to balance a broken card – in my view, a very poor approach that has severely inhibited variety within certain MO archetypes. Carapace is probably the most general-purpose leader available; Force of Nature, White Frost, and Blood Scent are also generally effective, although clearly better with certain archetypes. The remaining monster abilities really require a deck designed to benefit from them.

Carapace
Force of Nature

White Frost
Arachas Swarm

Fruits of Ysgith
Blood Scent
Overwhelming Hunger


NILFGAARD LEADER ABILITIES
General Overview: As most NG leader abilities (Imprisonment, Lockdown, Enslave, Double Cross, or Imposter) are geared more toward interfering with or exploiting an opponent than supporting one’s own cards, NG abilities are very flexible across decks and allow a great deal of variety. In its present form, I would not recommend lockdown for any deck and Imperial Formation generally requires a soldier focused deck, but otherwise NG leaders are not particularly limited.

Imprisonment
Imperial Formation
Tactical Decision

Lockdown
Enslave
Double Cross

Imposter

NORTHERN REALMS LEADER ABILITIES
General Overview: Except for Pincher Maneuver, NR leader abilities are more linked to support of specific cards than to particular deck designs. These leader abilities are more interchangeable than the abilities of most factions and can be usefully used across a variety of different deck designs. This feature can be used as a surprise factor to cause an opponent to initially mis-identify your deck.

Inspired Zeal
Royal Inspiration
Mobilization

Shieldwall
Stockpile
Pincher Maneuver
Uprising


SCOIA’TAEL LEADER ABILITIES
General Overview: All ST leader abilities are tied to particular archetypes – providing significant advantages to that archetype. But in contrast to monsters, most leaders provide decent value to most decks. Unfortunately, unlike Northern Realms, the ties to archetypes are strong enough that it rarely makes sense for a particular ST deck to use other leaders and variety in ST decks can be somewhat lacking.

Guerilla Tactics
Invigorate

Nature’s Gift
Precision Strike
Deadeye Ambush
Call of Harmony
Mahakam Forge


SKELLIGE LEADER ABILITIES
General Overview: Except for Ursine Ritual, SK leader abilities are general purpose, although many are strongly paired with particular cards they significantly aid. (Battle trace with Dracoturtle, Patricidal Fury with Bloodthirst 3 cards, Blaze of Glory with Eist and Jutta, rage of the sea with Fulmar, Rioghan and Bride of the Sea). With slight changes to a deck, leader abilities are often interchangeable, giving the deck a different feel and SK a lot of potential variety.

Onslaught
Reckless Flurry
Battle Trance
Rage of the Sea
Patricidal Fury
Ursine Ritual

Blaze of Glory

SYNDICATE LEADER ABILITIES
General Overview: All SY leaders provide coins, manipulate prices, or provide uses for coins. Most do only this, although Blood Money also provides immediate damage, while Congregate and Pirate’s Cove also spawn units. Generally the leaders are chosen that best correspond to how coins are used in a deck and are rarely easily interchanged without significant impact on the deck.

Blood Money
Jackpot
Lined Pockets
Off the Books
Congregate
Pirate’s Cove
Hidden Cache

 
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Whe worse what can happen - You spend a lot of time to create interesting thread hoping for a big feedback, and than no one respond at all :(
 
Shieldwall (Northern Realms)

Boost an allied unit by 2 and give it shield.
Charge: 3


Minimum Value: 6 points

Strengths: Adds good value in almost any deck. There are many units that benefit from a shield, and, in a pinch, the ability can be used simply to provide the boost that some units (e.g. Anna) need to perform optimally.

Weaknesses: Shieldwall is passive (defensive), although all NR leader abilities are defensive to some degree. At 6 points guaranteed value, Shieldwall has a relatively low floor. Shieldwall needs a target. And finally, Shieldwall does not contribute much reach – it is usually far more effective as a tactical tool than a strategic one.

Typical Uses: Usually Shieldwall is used when a deck plays vulnerable engines or units with valuable orders (although inspired zeal might be better in many instances of the latter) to protect those units until they gain value. It can be particularly valuable on dueling units (Anseis and Seltkirk) as it increases their destroy range considerably. It is also powerful on Vysogota, protecting him for more rounds of boost value and sometimes allowing time to move him out of removal range. Shani, Dandelion, and Foltest are also nice targets. A secondary use of shieldwall is as a shield generator when shields derive benefits. I like to use it to renew Windhalm’s shield. It is also good with Roegner – effectively giving 5 value per charge.

Play Strategy: Unlike most leaders that a player wants to save for the last round whenever possible, it usually makes sense to use Shieldwall charges on those units most benefitting from them. Of course, these are often cards you prefer to save for the final round, but cards like Dandelion or Foltest are exceptions. One should also use care not to make targets of Shieldwall too enticing for a heatwave. Sometimes, planning is required to avoid the need to target an already shielded unit.
 
For shieldwall I really like to add the mage/patience package:
  • Protecting Cards like Gerhart of Aelle and Raffard´s Revenge can be of huge value.
  • Also other Patience cards and Cintrian Spellweaver can be a good target for a shield.
The downside of this deck is that you struggle when you face a heavy-removal, heavy lock deck.
The upside is that patience cards and engine cards like spell weaver are best protected by a shield (Much better than Zealing them via Inspired Zeal).
 
Uprising (Northern Realms)

Boost an allied unit by 1.
Charge: 3
Once all Charges are used up, spawn and play Lyrian Scytheman.


Minimum Value: 7 points

Strengths: Scytheman decks are very accessible to beginning players as most key cards are either cheap or come in the starter deck. The ability also often has good immediate value for reach – but benefitting from reach requires using the ability before the final round which is rarely desirable. One point of boost at an opportune time can have significant value.

Weaknesses: The point ceiling (15 points) is not spectacular and is hard to achieve – 12 points is more likely. While the boosts can be nice, other NR abilities can give better boosts and provide stronger benefits with them. The Nerf to Scytheman (allowing it to only count boosts from one row) significantly weakened this ability. Scytheman need wide strategies and boosting, restricting the types of decks for which the leader is effective. They are also vulnerable to decks that produce lots of damage pings because maintaining boosts against these decks is difficult. Finally, Scytheman is vulnerable to tall removal and reset.

Typical Uses: Ideally, all three charges are used in the final round to boost units on a single row so the Scytheman can gain maximal bonuses. In reality, charges are often used to power units benefiting from boosts, or for which one extra health prevents removal. While Scytheman clearly benefits from boosted units, care must be taken to avoid decks that are too passive and allow opponents too much freedom – Scytheman has been power crept and cannot keep pace with other greedy strategies

Play Strategy: Two charges can be reasonably used in early rounds to procure advantages, the third should be saved whenever possible for the final round. With only 2 free charges, discretion must be exerted in their use.

Assessment: At present, I consider this leader a viable option only for players with very limited card selections. There are generally better NR leader options if one has the right cards to support them.
 
Inspired Zeal (Northern Realms)

Boost an allied unit by 2 and give it zeal.
Charge: 3


Provisions Offered: 15

Minimum Value: 6 points

Strengths: Supports several of NR’s best cards (Seltkirk, Anseis, Roche: Merciless, Erland, Raffard’s Vengeance, Black Rayla, Vissegerd). Excellent tech against removal heavy decks by not allowing removal until a card’s impact is felt. Critical enabler of Blue Stripes archetype.

Weaknesses: Contributes relatively little value unless zeal really makes a difference. Effect is not particularly original; it can be duplicated in essence by cards (Ildiko, Ves, Petri’s Philter).

Typical Uses: Inspired Zeal is typically used in conjunction with cards that have powerful order abilities which you either typically either want for immediate tempo or cannot afford to have disrupted by removal or locks. Often these same cards would benefit from the shields of Shield Boost – I prefer Inspired Zeal when tempo matters (you need the effect now, not next turn) or when locks are an issue, otherwise I prefer the flexibility of Shield Wall.

Play Strategy: Usually, I keep a mental list of cards on which I might use leader, where I strongly want to use leader, and where I must use leader. For instance, a recent meta deck counted upon creating a large number of Blue Strips Commandos in deck (often units retrieved by Pavetta from the graveyard) and then getting a huge surge of points by using Roche: Merciless to summon one of the commandos, immediately followed using a commando to summon the rest. In this strategy, I must have two zeal charges – to ensure Roche gets off his order and the Commando gets off his. Otherwise, my whole match falls apart if my opponent can prevent the order. On the other hand, Anseis is a card where I want to use leader as, even when my opponent could not prevent its use, I might want that use immediately. Black Rayla is a card where I could use leader – both boost and immediate use increases Rayla’s value, although rarely in a game altering way.

With a list of cards where I would use leader charges in mind, I typically prioritize, first by card needs, then by preference for timing charges in the last round. Keep in mind that without zeal being utilized, Inspired Zeal is a weak ability. There are times when a little boost is also essential, but, when possible, that boost should not come from leader charges. Also keep in mind that zeal only really benefits certain cards. Do not fixate so strongly on holding charges to the end that they have no viable targets. Obviously, you should not squander charges, either.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
Hey everyone.
I wanted to contribute to this thread.

I did ask permission to the OP to post on his thread, and also if it was OK to head straight to my favourite faction and favourite abilities, and i got the green light to do so! Also, i used the same format you did @quintivarium but i changed the order, i hope that's cool too, otherwise i can change it.

Ursine Ritual (Skellige)

Damage an allied unit by 1.
Charge: 5
Once all Charges are used up, Spawn a Bear Abomination on a random allied row.


Provisions Offered: 16

Weaknesses: If you don't make an appropriate deck to synergize with this leader, its the weakest of all SK abilities, as in the end it removes 5pts, and gives 6pt (the abomination), so a net total of an astonishing 1 point!

Typical Uses: By far the most (in)famous use of this leader is the Lippy Cerys deck.
It guarantees the essential self damage charges you need for the shieldmaidens spawned by Cerys on the 2 rounds she's played, then you are left with 3 charges that are typically used for Champion of Svalblod (pointslam) or Blueboy Lugos (damage).

And that's it! Ursine Ritual isn't used for anything else... according to metadecks. Which is an absolute shame, because that is a drop in the (Skellige) sea of possibilities that this leader ability opens up...

Strengths: Skellige is the master of damage. Its so good in fact that it doesnt stop at hurting others, it loves to hurt itself too!
As a masochist myself (ive been playing Gwent for over 5 years, that is a lot of hurt no? :ohstopit: ), i llove this archetype, and by now it has more than enough support to warrant different decks.
Here's just a few uses ive found for this leader, that make you feel like you are getting positive value out of a negative action:

-Great synergy with another beautiful SK archetype - healing.
-Do the Olaf-Hym combo (play Olaf, next turn use 1 charge on him, use Hym on the big bear, use Olaf's order for a total of 28pts.
-Use the leader charges to trigger berserk abilities like that of tuirseach veteran, svalblod fanatics or armored drakkar (its exposed effect its almost the same as a berserk condition)
-Do a Queensguard deck, and when they arent countered, one leader charge translates into 3pts, which is great bang for your buck (if you do this deck, you want more than 5 self damage charges - use Sigvald, Harald Houndsnout or brokvar archers for more self damage pings)
-Against NG specifically, you can even use this leader to remove their spies, possibly denying a coup de grace. And against MO rat clog (or NG spy clog), it can also be used to make sure you always have a space for your units.
-If you're more daring, you can use this self damage to add value to cards that want "red numbers" on both sides of the board, like bear witcher mentors, giant boar, or Arnachad.
-Can even be used to kill one of your own units so you can revive it immediately after, possibly to get their deploy again.

Play Strategy: This is not a leader you necessarily want to hold all the charges to the end, only the last charge should be held for the final round - regardless of the UR deck you're using - as it provides the biggest point surge with the spawned bear abomination.
 
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Hidden Cache (Syndicate)

Order: Gain 3 coins. At the beginning of the round, refresh this ability.
Your hoards require 2 less coins to trigger.


Provisions Offered: 14

Minimum Value: 9 points (if you can spend coins.)

Strengths: A good beginner ability for SY as it supports many decks and is less sensitive to coin management that most other SY leaders. The Hoard reduction is significant for many cards, giving flexibility both in holding and in gaining coins.

Weaknesses: This leader is minimal help to a lot of the currently effective SY decks. In fact, most of the decks Hidden Cache best supports are very passive and have been powercrept out of being the most effective of such decks. They are quite likely to be out-performed unless some control is teched into the deck – and doing this efficiently is tricky.

Typical Uses: Only 9 cards have Hoard abilities, and three of those have non-recurring abilities, one is repeatedly summoned from the graveyard (gold), three are boost engines (two bronze), one is a spawn engine (gold), and the last is a damage engine (gold). Most hidden cache decks are heavily boost focused. It is also possible (but rare) to focus a deck around Hidden Cache’s regular (but limited) supply of coins. Usually, these decks do better with a more aggressive leader ability (Jackpot, Lined Pockets, Pirates Cove, or even Blood Money), but Cache’s consistency is worth a consideration.

Play Strategy: Because spending is anti-synergistic with hoarding, coin most Hidden Cache decks place only slight emphasis on spending – and hence also place light emphasis on earning. Unless your deck focuses on the distribution of coins received instead of the Hoard reduction, it is unlikely to over-profit. Only rarely is there reason to hold off on the leader ability. It is available once every round. Unless over-profiting is a concern, there is no reason that the one use per round should not be immediate. Hidden Cashe decks tend to have low reach with an emphasis on engines. They prefer long rounds, and struggle to find strong closers. And care must be taken to minimize an opponent’s devastating tall removal.
 
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Invigorate (Scoia’tael)

Order: Boost 5 units in your hand by 1.
Charges: 2.


Provisions Offered: 16

Minimum Value: 10 points

Strengths: Invigorate offers consistent value with appropriate planning. In some ways, Invigorate is more flexible than other boost based leader abilities – it boosts more units than any other leader ability and these boosted units can be used at an optimal time. Of course, this is offset by the need to boost 5 units at a time, and before they enter the board. While invigorate is clearly designed to work with a hand-boost archetype, it is quite usable with a wide variety of decks: it may be mundane, but it will remain solid.

Weaknesses: The need to boost 5 units in one’s hand at one time requires careful planning – Invigorate is not a power to be used on the fly or in response to opponent actions; it requires premeditation and planning. And in general, without careful consideration in deck building, Invigorate decks can lack responsiveness to opponent threats. They are not quite solitaire (they require consideration of how an opponent will react to your plays), but they may have very little ability to react to opponents’ actions.

Typical Uses: I believe that Invigorate is an undiscovered gem. It is rarely used with the diversity of decks in which it makes sense. Invigorate is typically used with Hand-buff type decks. These decks are often greedy, heavily focused on maximizing point generation with little concern about addressing opponent strategies. They are thus quite binary. Moreover, because of reliance upon Torque, handbuff decks are usually devotion. The greediest also feature Skaggs and Aglais, although some omit one of these to allow a few more control options.

Potential Uses: There are many ST units (or even neutral units used in ST decks) that are vulnerable to removal before achieving value – a one point boost can make these units far more threatening as their removal becomes more difficult. Any decks featuring these units can benefit from Invigorate. Also, since Torque is only slightly above the average card provision cost and cards like Dunca and Hawker Smuggler are good investments for most decks, it is possible to incorporate some handboost elements to other decks – creating a much less all-in handboost hybrid. Finally, I have been having some success with a non-devotion handboost deck. While it lacks the consistency of most metadecks, it is sufficient to convince me that there is more potential there than most players realize as well.

Play Strategy: Planning ahead is absolutely crucial with the Invigorate leader ability. Usually, one will play one charge at the start of the first round – while there are ample units in hand to use all five boosts, and no unit that benefits from boosting has been played. Depending upon the matchup and the initial draw, it is plausible to use both leader charges. Unlike most leader abilities, the effects of Invigorate can be saved until a critical round even if the ability itself is used early. For hand-boost decks featuring Aglais (and to some degree, those containing Skaggs), final say is very useful. But handboost, can be low tempo. Depending upon matchup, using leader charges to win round one could have significant merit. Regardless of need, be careful of saving leader charges for a very short round in which there are fewer than 5 units to boost (and boosts are then lost). Also, beware of deciding to play the leader charge late in a round when you have fewer than 5 units remaining – if you foresee a need for boosts, boost immediately.
 
Invigorate (Scoia’tael)

Order: Boost 5 units in your hand by 1.
Charges: 2.


Provisions Offered: 16

Minimum Value: 10 points

Strengths: Invigorate offers consistent value with appropriate planning. In some ways, Invigorate is more flexible than other boost based leader abilities – it boosts more units than any other leader ability and these boosted units can be used at an optimal time. Of course, this is offset by the need to boost 5 units at a time, and before they enter the board. While invigorate is clearly designed to work with a hand-boost archetype, it is quite usable with a wide variety of decks: it may be mundane, but it will remain solid.

Weaknesses: The need to boost 5 units in one’s hand at one time requires careful planning – Invigorate is not a power to be used on the fly or in response to opponent actions; it requires premeditation and planning. And in general, without careful consideration in deck building, Invigorate decks can lack responsiveness to opponent threats. They are not quite solitaire (they require consideration of how an opponent will react to your plays), but they may have very little ability to react to opponents’ actions.

Typical Uses: I believe that Invigorate is an undiscovered gem. It is rarely used with the diversity of decks in which it makes sense. Invigorate is typically used with Hand-buff type decks. These decks are often greedy, heavily focused on maximizing point generation with little concern about addressing opponent strategies. They are thus quite binary. Moreover, because of reliance upon Torque, handbuff decks are usually devotion. The greediest also feature Skaggs and Aglais, although some omit one of these to allow a few more control options.

Potential Uses: There are many ST units (or even neutral units used in ST decks) that are vulnerable to removal before achieving value – a one point boost can make these units far more threatening as their removal becomes more difficult. Any decks featuring these units can benefit from Invigorate. Also, since Torque is only slightly above the average card provision cost and cards like Dunca and Hawker Smuggler are good investments for most decks, it is possible to incorporate some handboost elements to other decks – creating a much less all-in handboost hybrid. Finally, I have been having some success with a non-devotion handboost deck. While it lacks the consistency of most metadecks, it is sufficient to convince me that there is more potential there than most players realize as well.

Play Strategy: Planning ahead is absolutely crucial with the Invigorate leader ability. Usually, one will play one charge at the start of the first round – while there are ample units in hand to use all five boosts, and no unit that benefits from boosting has been played. Depending upon the matchup and the initial draw, it is plausible to use both leader charges. Unlike most leader abilities, the effects of Invigorate can be saved until a critical round even if the ability itself is used early. For hand-boost decks featuring Aglais (and to some degree, those containing Skaggs), final say is very useful. But handboost, can be low tempo. Depending upon matchup, using leader charges to win round one could have significant merit. Regardless of need, be careful of saving leader charges for a very short round in which there are fewer than 5 units to boost (and boosts are then lost). Also, beware of deciding to play the leader charge late in a round when you have fewer than 5 units remaining – if you foresee a need for boosts, boost immediately.
I try to use invigorate in a "movement deck" with catwitchers, gezras, sentrys and etc.

But I dont know, i didnt have much sucess with it, i really think this leader ability is a sh**
 
  • RED Point
Reactions: rrc
I haven't tried it with a movement deck, though I admit it is logical there. But my instinct is that the problem is the movement deck more than the leader. Does your deck work with any leader? My experience with movement decks is that they have a long, low tempo set-up so they need a very long round. To win two rounds, you need two very long rounds (or an opponent who doesn't bleed when they should). This is just not consistently viable.
 
  • RED Point
Reactions: rrc
I haven't tried it with a movement deck, though I admit it is logical there. But my instinct is that the problem is the movement deck more than the leader. Does your deck work with any leader? My experience with movement decks is that they have a long, low tempo set-up so they need a very long round. To win two rounds, you need two very long rounds (or an opponent who doesn't bleed when they should). This is just not consistently viable.
Well in fact i tried to complete the 100 matches contract.

So since i already complete with guerrila tactics (most wins in plus one seasonal) i didnt tried that deck in any other leader.

But i agree with you, problably it wont be good too
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
I will do one more if that's OK with OP.
This time i'll tackle my favourite NR ability, which i see is one of the very few its missing for NR.


Mobilization (Northern Realms)

Order: Spawn a base copy of a bronze allied Soldier on its row and boost it by 3.

Provisions Offered: 16


Strengths:
-NR has no shortage of bronze soldiers (29, to be more precise), which leads to an incredible versatility in deckbuilding possibilities with this leader.
-Able to place two engines in the same turn, making it very difficult for the opponent to deal with both quickly.
-The extra 3pt boost from the spawned soldier helps getting it out of cheap removal range.
-Much higher value obtained from leader than the average of other leaders - IF on a long round and the spawned engine is not countered.

Weaknesses:
-Single use ability, so more prone to be bled out.
-Can brick if you miss all your bronze soldiers, left with no targets (this should never occur, if it does it might be bad deckbuilding).
-Cant be used on siege engines or mages, only soldiers.
-The soldier is spawned, not played, which means no deploy ability, thus reducing the good options pool for this leader to about half (so from 29 to around 15).

Typical Uses: There are actually a few decks popular enough (maybe not in this meta though) with this leader so that you can not know for sure what deck you're facing just by seeing your opponent's leader ability.

The first is probably an hypercontrol list, with redanian archers for leader target, sometimes even with Draug revenants pack too (deck fell out of favour since June, when reinforced ballistae got buffed, and the siege archetype saw a resurgence in populairty).
The second, considered a meme deck, is wildly different, focusing on Cintrian guards (which is the leader target) and spawning as many of those as possible for great pointslam.

Play Strategy: Its possible to play this leader for pure pointslam and tempo - the best option for that would surely be a devotion deck with kerack marines (17 points in one turn)... but that is painfully boring. The leader is best used with engines - usually 1pt per turn - on a long round.
Those engines however can have differrent purposes - redanian archers, arbalests or revenants for control, cintrian royal guards for pointslam, temerian drummers for boosts or kerack city guards for boosts with an option of movement.

Even though you cant use this leader to spawn siege engines (like the super popular reinforced ballista) you CAN however use it for soldiers that support the siege engine / warfare /resupply archetype - rivian pikeman and siege master. The latter is one of my favourites, and one of the bronze engines NR has that can be 2pt per turn, however requires careful placement and setup of units.

Note: Formation condition (putting them on the ranged row for an extra point) doesnt work on spawned units from Mobilization, so units like radovid's royal guards, lyrian landsknecht and kerack cutthroat, although not bad, they arent taking full advantage of this leader.
 
I wrote about this before but ok. If u play Double Cross, ur opponent too and he have Anna Henrietta in his hand u can get 54 points + your card in one round. Looks sick
Post automatically merged:

Carapace must get buff and give Veil to any Unit
Arachas Swarm maybe can get 6 charges
 
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Blood Money (Syndicate)

Order: Damage an enemy unit by 8, then gain coins equal to any excess damage dealt.

Provisions Offered: 16

Minimum Value: 8 points

Strengths: Blood Money is an ability that works with almost any Syndicate deck and one that works against almost any enemy without waste. It has good flexibility in that it can be used for hefty removal, or it could be applied to a weak opponent for some quick coin generation. While it rarely generates substantial value, it almost never bricks either.

Weaknesses: Blood money works with almost any SY deck because it has very few synergies; there is almost nothing to build toward. It is clearly designed for bounty archetypes, and it can trigger bounty for extra value. But most bounty decks don’t need it to collect bounties and will tend to overprofit when it is used for that purpose. Moreover, bounty decks often find better synergies with other leader abilities. Blood Money has a solid floor, but a disappointing ceiling.

Typical Uses: There may have once been a time when this leader ability was popular, but I rarely see it used. I have yet to build a deck where I found it preferable to other leaders.

Possible Uses: Blood Money works for no/low coin SY decks as it gives value in the absence of coins. It can potentially be useful with decks that lack removal – although with Syndicate, it is easy to incorporate decent removal into most decks, and those where removal is sometimes a problem (Fireswarm) have more natural leaders. Finally, it works with bounty decks, especially those prone to being coin-starved.

Play Strategy: You would normally play this leader in decks with ability to grant bounty – usually as early in round three as can be set up. That way, the leader ability can play for close to maximal value while over-profiting by as little as possible, and might allow enough seed money to support damage engines in destroying later bounty targets.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
Blood Money (Syndicate)

Order: Damage an enemy unit by 8, then gain coins equal to any excess damage dealt.

Provisions Offered: 16

Minimum Value: 8 points

Strengths: Blood Money is an ability that works with almost any Syndicate deck and one that works against almost any enemy without waste. It has good flexibility in that it can be used for hefty removal, or it could be applied to a weak opponent for some quick coin generation. While it rarely generates substantial value, it almost never bricks either.

Weaknesses: Blood money works with almost any SY deck because it has very few synergies; there is almost nothing to build toward. It is clearly designed for bounty archetypes, and it can trigger bounty for extra value. But most bounty decks don’t need it to collect bounties and will tend to overprofit when it is used for that purpose. Moreover, bounty decks often find better synergies with other leader abilities. Blood Money has a solid floor, but a disappointing ceiling.

Typical Uses: There may have once been a time when this leader ability was popular, but I rarely see it used. I have yet to build a deck where I found it preferable to other leaders.

Possible Uses: Blood Money works for no/low coin SY decks as it gives value in the absence of coins. It can potentially be useful with decks that lack removal – although with Syndicate, it is easy to incorporate decent removal into most decks, and those where removal is sometimes a problem (Fireswarm) have more natural leaders. Finally, it works with bounty decks, especially those prone to being coin-starved.

Play Strategy: You would normally play this leader in decks with ability to grant bounty – usually as early in round three as can be set up. That way, the leader ability can play for close to maximal value while over-profiting by as little as possible, and might allow enough seed money to support damage engines in destroying later bounty targets.

I've used blood money quite a bit, and one of the simple but effective strategies ive used is to include those 4p witch hunters that give a bounty on the same turn you play the leader, that way you usually get 8 coins (unless the target enemy had armor or was boosted).
You could also use slander to put the bounty but then you overprofit. And you dont even need to be a bounty deck for this to be a good strategy, in fact it might even be more recommended for less removal-centric decks.

On the following turn, you have 8 coins... i like to use Philippa, as she's one of the best spenders and very effective at removing dangerous engines or defenders (for example, if you're playing against SK, if you kill their defender, it will likely be revived, but if you seize it, you're denying it definitively and also getting a great defender for your own).
Of course if the unit the opponent played isnt good, it might be better to wait a bit more to play Philippa.

This strategy is usually a good start for R3, where you denied any setup to your opponent for the first 2 turns, and got a good headstart in points for yourself.
 
Fruits of Ysgith
Order: Spawn a Gernichora’s Fruit on an allied row. At the start of your turn, reset this ability if you do not control any Fruits.

Provisions Offered: 12

Minimum Value: 2 points (extremely unlikely)

Strengths: Fruits of Ysgith is a very flexible leader with a high point potential and good value with almost any deck. If a Fruit is either summoned or given thrive value every round, it will play for 16 points. There are rare instances when it will not play for at least 12. Its synergies are often subtle but are numerous. The ability to guarantee a card on the board at no cost can be invaluable.

Weaknesses: With only 12 provisions granted, Fruits provides the lowest number of provisions of any leader in the game, 3 or 4 fewer than most leaders. To be fair, the leader probably pays this back in extra points over other leaders. But Fruits does not provide the specialized support that many leaders do. In particular, it does not supply consumes for deathwish, it does not interact with weather or bleeding, it does not supply pointslam, it does not protect vulnerable units. In short, it is not the right leader for all decks — which is as things should be. Perhaps a bigger weakness is that Fruits can be a very passive leader. Lack of control is often an issue with monsters, and Fruits, except as a target for predatory dive, does not assist in this regard.

Typical Uses: Fruits is a natural fit for thrive decks, as it guarantees one thrive engine on the board. It is also good in point slam decks as it is free food for griffins, and then is easily procced by any tall unit. It can be a tech against Keltulis, SaberTooth, and random damage ping decks.

Play Strategy: Fruits is not going to provide any significant reach or tempo – a key fact to remember when using this leader. Otherwise, its use is straightforward. One does need to plan carefully the row on which fruits is desired – once played, you may not have opportunity to reposition the card.
 
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DRK3

Forum veteran
Weaknesses: Unfortunately, Fruits is the victim of a poorly conceived nerf because of a toxic interaction with an over-powered card, Etherial, which was itself later nerfed into oblivion. As of this time, neither card has been appropriately rebalanced. Etherial is totally unplayable; Fruits remains viable, but the 12 points of provisions it allows is now less than any other leader from any other faction.

Actually this is not entirely true.
Yes Ethereal was nerfed mostly due to the interaction with fruits of Ysgith, but the leader ability itself wasnt nerfed, it was always the second leader ability that gave the least amount of provisions until lockdown was reworked and had its provisions adjusted this year (i think it was this year, not 100% sure), and at that point took the "first place".

And in strengths, you make it seem 16pts = 16 turns is the ceiling of this leader but that is not the case, it can play up to almost 32 points if you spawn AND procc thrive every turn, even higher if you manage to get some double thrive proccs.
Hence why this leader ability is so expensive provision wise.
 
Thank you for the correction — I looked up the history, and Fruits had been nerfed, but not in association with Ethereal — it was nerfed back in 2019 we’ll before Ethereal was released. And I was also wrong about it having never been buffed back — it received a 1 provision boost in June of 2021. I will rewrite that section.

And technically the ceiling is much higher than 16 — but double proccing is pretty rare. Playing, proccing, then consuming to be able to repeat the next turn is hard, but not impossible — an interesting deck idea!
 
And in strengths, you make it seem 16pts = 16 turns is the ceiling of this leader but that is not the case, it can play up to almost 32 points if you spawn AND procc thrive every turn, even higher if you manage to get some double thrive proccs. Hence why this leader ability is so expensive provision wise.
I tried to create a Fruits of Ysgith deck that used your notion of spawning and thriving in the same turn -- and I was surprisingly pleased with the result. Of course, to spawn, you must not have fruits on the board -- which means you need to spawn, boost, and consume (or otherwise destroy) Fruits (in that order) every turn. This is very possible with two Slyzards and Wererat. With all the consumes (and destroyed units), I also included both Hybrids and She-Troll. (I did not think to include Vran Warriors -- in some ways these are superior to She-Troll because they are not row-locked. Or they are another cheap add-on.) Although not really part of the deck theme, I also included two Griffins and two Predatory Dives because they work well with Fruits. I also found Cave Troll to be useful for some level of protection. I found these eleven cards (with total provision cost 62) to be an extremely solid core. This leaves 100 provisions for 14 cards to fill in the deck. This "package" does tend to go tall, has very limited control, and is somewhat vulnerable to control. But the entire remainder of the deck can address these issues. Even with unpolished and poorly conceived support in my deck, this package was often able to carry a match. Perhaps DRK 3 or some other enterprising deckbuilder will be inspired to create an effective deck from this idea.
 
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