How to deal with Monster deck (Geralt opening) easily.

[Mak0r]

How to deal with Monster deck (Geralt opening) easily.

To stop all the talks how Monster deck is OP and opening with e.g. Geralt to keep him for 2nd round is game breaking I have made a video with a deck which is so "OP" it destroys even ultimate (full amount of gold and silver cards) monsters decks with Geralt opening and even when Geralt is carried randomly to the next round TWICE. You not only win but you can even dominate such Monster deck (other decks too).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwH9ulRiLqg - video how to build such deck [Should be REGIS (much better than CIRI to open vs. Monster deck and gives 1 more unit to graveyard but 600 scraps more expensive) in place of CIRI. I will switch it when I got 800 scraps.]

http://i.imgur.com/ncx7zHQ.png - battle proof

Btw. CDPR please dont nerf Skellige deck

 

[mike850]

the issue isn't that the monsters deck is unbeatable. the issue is that with the current progression system that Gwent has in place, it's too difficult to acquire any of the cards that would be helpful against a Geralt monsters opening. I don't find trouble with the opening at all, but I also spent some money on card kegs.

 

[Mak0r]

the issue isn't that the monsters deck is unbeatable. the issue is that with the current progression system that Gwent has in place, it's too difficult to acquire any of the cards that would be helpful against a Geralt monsters opening. I don't find trouble with the opening at all, but I also spent some money on card kegs.

Im not sure about it. At level ~15 you can have 1 deck with 3 gold cards for 800 and 1 gold for 200 and 6 silvers. Level 15 is less than a few days of playing. At level 3 you can have 3 gold cards so you can already fight vs. best decks. All you need is to mill all other cards.

 

[Esclive]

Level 15 is less than a few days of playing.

I have to disagree. Since 70% of people right now play monster decks (seriously, 2 of 3 decks are monster with the same strategy), it's pretty hard to pass the first levels. Let's me explain why I think monster deck is too strong.

In my opinion, the main problem of this deck is its faction ability that you can't counter it with the basic cards.
What you just need to do in order to easily win is to have in your deck Eredin, Geralt and/or a manticore in your hand (pretty simple since you can pass 3 cards) and to play one or two of them. Therefore, you keep 10 or 9 cards in your hand AND a 10+ card on the battlefield for the next round.
That forces your opponent to
- Play Geralt (to waste it when your opponent keep its 10+ card on the battlefield) ;
- Pass ;
- Play 2-3 cards wich brings you to a hand with 7-8 cards (+2) when your opponent still has 9-10 cards (+2)

What I suggest is to nerf the faction ability of the monster deck : "Allow you to keep one random NON GOLD card on the battlefield"

What do you think of it?

 

[Rawls]

I have to disagree. Since 70% of people right now play monster decks (seriously, 2 of 3 decks are monster with the same strategy), it's pretty hard to pass the first levels. Let's me explain why I think monster deck is too strong.

I don't think monster decks are that prevalent. I probably played 20ish hands last night. I think I played Monsters and NR roughly seven times each. Skellige about four times and Scoia'tael twice. I had two monster decks try this start. They both lost. I haven't bought any kegs (although I have scrapped all my non-Scoia'tael decks).

 

[Wasteland_Ghost]

What do you think of it?

I think you're forgetting about special cards. Having 2x28 adrenaline buffed cards with NR is not super hard and it's waaay more powerful than Eredin. And if it's not only Eredin/Geralt they play, you have debuffs to make them stuck with 1 point card in round 2.

 

[Maerd]

@makor86 Geralt opening is strong only as a beginner's deck. Right now I'm opening my monster games with fog then thunderbolt then Ciri (if possible) and I either pass or go ahead playing depending on my hand. With my current most updated monster deck I'm yet to loose, even to other monster decks. It can be a beaten by turn of fate, internet connection, or similar monster deck. What is really OP is not a monster deck but the WEATHER. It debuffs and thus making impossible for other setups to plan buffs or long term plans. Any deck immune to weather will perform well against monsters. As of today immoral foglets are just insanely powerful.

 

[OptoNick]

I think that Geralt or Eredin opening is not a big deal - 12 points on the start of second round is not a huge gap.

For Monster player it's worth to gamble on getting a bunch of 10+ cards while luring out opponent's best cards. Or gamble on one-two 20-30+ cards.

 

[Mak0r]

Ok. After playing some games I see there are 2 game breaking bugs which work against this deck. Discarding An Craithe Raiders is bugged in combo with WAR LONGSHIP and also Hawker Support is bugged in a way most special cards dont work against it. Sadly there is still many bugs. At least Freya is fixed but this other 2 bugs are painful :/ Now Im doing experiments with more discard heavy variation but those bugs almost every game stop my enthusiasm :/

 

[lord_blex]

I don't think monster decks are that prevalent.

maybe match making does work. I have opened a few kegs so my deck is definitely stronger than the starter deck and I don't see 2/3 monsters either and they definitely don't always start with gold card+passing.

 

[Rufus.255]

Hawker Supports trigger on either players special cards...kill them with units.

But on topic of Monsters passive ability in conjunction with Geralt/Eredin It is in no way unbeatable but it is quite a bit stronger than the other factions passive abilities. In terms of Passives I feel that Monsters is by far the strongest while Skellige and Northern Realms seem to be on par. Skellige might have a slight edge but these two really do feel close in power level. Scoia'tael on the other hand, while getting to choose who goes first a in a round is nice it feels much weaker than the other 3 factions abilities. Scoia'tael definitely needs a passive boost (and Franchesca could use some tuning to bring her on par with the other starting faction leaders) but that is not what this thread is about.

While I like previous suggestion of changing the Monster's passive ability to "non-gold" I feel this may be too big of a nerf. And it doesn't fix the opposite side of the Monsters passive and a big reason of why they are only playing one or two units round 1. The randomness of the ability can cause them to keep a Foglet or hound. Thus my solution is "Keep the second-strongest monster unit in the next round". This still allows for Eredin + Geralt, Pass but you will always get Eredin. This removes playing just one of them and passing as well as Eredin + Manticore, pass and encourages the Monster player to actually play round 1. It also adds control to what they will keep and they won't get shafted with keeping a Foglet round 2.

 

[Is_A_Dreadlord]

I also feel like changing the monster deck passive to just non-gold cards would be a bit too big of a nerf, but honestly the passives should never make it so you only play two cards then skip the round and if the opponent wants to win the round they have to drop several cards in order to catch up, only to then get one of those two cards back in my opinion. The current strength of the passive is just too strong compared to other decks.

I'm not sure how they could change it without it being too big of a nerf to monster decks, but maybe just start with making it non-gold cards only and see how well that works on beta since monster decks still have some very strong tactics and cards besides just the eternal gold card nonsense.

Maybe make it so that you can keep gold cards, but if that's all you play you won't get them for the next round unless you play at least 1 non-gold card. That way there is still some randomness in the card draw for the following round.

 

[Fillory]

Simplest way to beat the players doing this is to play a fog card. Nine times out of ten, Monster players have Forglets in their decks. You put fog on the field and their 100% chance of carrying over a gold card turns into a 25% chance. If they've got two gold cards on the field, the chance of that card carrying over is only 40%.

 

[Hedlesss]

Simplest way to beat the players doing this is to play a fog card. Nine times out of ten, Monster players have Forglets in their decks. You put fog on the field and their 100% chance of carrying over a gold card turns into a 25% chance. If they've got two gold cards on the field, the chance of that card carrying over is only 40%.

I've done this plenty of times, and I laugh my ass off when they get stuck with a foglet (who then dies). Of course, because i'm also playing monsters, it can bite me in the ass too. Then on round 2 i'll play a griffin to steal the foglet from their grave, meaning i have 4 and then have 2 (This has won me multiple mirror matches)

 

[madracc00n]

Monster player gonna ofter get dead draws(duplicate muster cards) if only playing Eredin or Geralt,so i think it is not as broken as people claim.I am not monster player myself.

 

[Hedlesss]

People who think Geralt > Pass is a OP start, obviously havn't seen the Geralt > Ciri > Pass start xD which does the exact same but at 20 strength instead without losing a single card.

But, in the common Monster decks (Breeding and Weather Control), opening with 2 gold cards leaves them at massive risk of drawing cards such as extra Wider Hunt Riders, Foglets, their breed-able cards etc, cards which they really don't want to draw, and generally prefer to get onto the field on the first turn (and in the case of Foglets, recycle from the grave every turn)

So by opening with a 1st turn that puts lots of pressure on the opponent, they are increasing the chance of a bad draw come turn 2.

 

[Maokiel]

Eredin / Geralt is one of the worst opening for a Monster deck and I use it only if my opponent does.

 

[Fillory]

I've done this plenty of times, and I laugh my ass off when they get stuck with a foglet (who then dies). Of course, because i'm also playing monsters, it can bite me in the ass too. Then on round 2 i'll play a griffin to steal the foglet from their grave, meaning i have 4 and then have 2 (This has won me multiple mirror matches)

I do the exact same thing with Griffins. I normally keep them in my deck to put a dent in resurrection strategies used by NR and Skellige players, but when facing other Monster decks I can at least take some solace in the fact that I can keep them from reusing their Foglets after the first round.

 

[Tsarconic]

So we either need to pay money or just be in the beta from the get go and just play every day and night just to get a specifically tailored deck. Are there no other decks or is attempting variety not encouraged?

 

[Fillory]

So we either need to pay money or just be in the beta from the get go and just play every day and night just to get a specifically tailored deck. Are there no other decks or is attempting variety not encouraged?

Three options:
- If you're on PC, yeah, you can buy cards with real money. Not an option on Xbox and there's no telling when that will change.
- Gain three levels per day for the "level up" bonus. That combined with the ore from the "good game" bonus helps me get at least three kegs per day.
- Mill the decks you have no interest in. Most people are just sticking to one or two decks, so milling the ones you know you'll probably never use is a good way to get scraps (you can use those to make some cards that you want to use in the decks you actually like).

For that last one, I would only mill one or two decks (you want to have at least one back-up in case you get bored with the main one you're using imo). Also look up what cards people suggest/like the most to keep yourself from making any cards that are a lot more useless than they initially look. Never make a duplicate "Geralt" card, for example, because you can only use one in a deck.