Is it just me or Nilfgaard is absolutely ridiculous right now?

[Sigurd_3]

While my encounters against the new reveal decks have been frustrating, my time that I spent yesterday with Venendal Elite/Morvran deck in casual matches was not that successful as I thought it would be. However, I made several simple mistakes since I'm not used to playing as NG and instead I have been only playing with SK and NR. Still, it was a bit underwhelming even with the dumb mistakes I made. Now I don't think Venendal Elites should receive as heavy of a nerf as I did before, but maybe nerf them so they can't affect revealed gold units. I certainly think Serrit needs a buff. Even +2 strength would be good IMO. The big downside for this deck IMO is the lack of high tempo plays after you have used Venendal Elites and or Spotters. It was something I certainly struggled with, but I will make a couple of deck adjustments to try to fix that.

Having said all of that, it is still frustrating to have so many of your cards revealed and have all of them vulnerable to being reduced to 1 strength. I will wait a little longer to give a final judgement on this deck being OP even though I thought it was OP before I used the deck myself. I still hate when Fringilla is used successfully by an opponent. I was using this V.E. reveal deck last night and I was about to win the match, but my opponent made such a huge point swing with Fringilla as his last card that I couldn't maintain the lead and so I lost with my last card.

 

[Barracuda88]

I can live with and adapt to a lot of bs, but I just think 1-point spy is insanely OP. There's nothing you can do to counter that. Who came up with that idea?

 

[Maerd]

but I just think 1-point spy is insanely OP

That requires quite a setup. I suggest you just build yourself a reveal deck and find out yourself how strong or not strong it is. There is no evidence so far that it is OP. By some reason nobody's bitching about Skellige's Restore on Gremis, which is way better combo than 1 point spy, for which you have to have the perfect hand and right circumstances.

In three days I finally built and tuned a quite good competitive deck based on reveal. All I can say that SK restore is still better and more reliable and that restore combo usually wins the day against any counteraction. And yesterday I had a streak of playing those SK restore netdecks almost 10 times in a row. A winrate against those was below 50%. And right now I almost don't see opponents that play reveal at all. Yesterday out of 20+ matches only 2 people played reveal.

 

[Fjormarr]

And right now I almost don't see opponents that play reveal at all. Yesterday out of 20+ matches only 2 people played reveal.

That's my experience too, there was an explosion with reveal decks as soon as the patch came out, but after a couple of days their numbers seemed to have started dropping. I definitely come across more Scoiatael Restore than Nilfgaard Reveal now.

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

https://gwentup.com/report/17/21

I'll just leave it here and see how people complain (Lying) about NG being OP again and again. A classic example of double standard it seems

 

[Archpriest]

https://gwentup.com/report/17/21

I'll just leave it here and see how people complain (Lying) about NG being OP again and again. A classic example of double standard it seems

Spies is still the top tier. Popularity =/= power. Not always. But yeah, I've said it many times before - we just need to accept the fact that Skellige will be a top faction... forever. At least, as long as some core things in it aren't reworked.

In general:
- SK got a buff for whatever reason
- Monsters are... ok-ish?
- NR looks like a tier 2 again, although there might be some potential.
- Scoia got screwed. Again. The Restore "nerf" (I laughed so hard at this) directly made people drop Aglais instead of affecting Skellige in any way.

 

[panerola]

- Scoia got screwed. Again. The Restore "nerf" (I laughed so hard at this) directly made people drop Aglais instead of affecting Skellige in any way.

LOL, I learned that in the hard way.

 

[Maerd]

https://gwentup.com/report/17/21

Oh, wow. My win rate with Movran is definitely higher than that average. But I guess all experimental deck tests were also counted as win/loss ratio. Before I found the right combo my reveal deck was loosing a lot.

I can say that my version of the deck is better than spella'tael, better than nekker swarms, better than NG spy decks, better than other reveal decks I've encountered (I've never seen anybody playing a deck similar to mine), better than the NG mill deck (but you have to play very carefully), better than radovid's whatever he has, Henselt and Foltest are kind of even but I don't see them often. With weather decks I'm not sure, sometimes I loose against them several times in a row but then win several in a row. SK restore is just better especially with that Wolfsbane cheat now, SK cursed is slightly better. Franchesca and her swordmen are very luck dependent, if I disable those dgaroons right away then it's a win for sure, if I'm out of removal cards then I'll likely loose. Dwarves with spawning explosives with golden weather that moves your units are nasty but fortunately I don't see them much.

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

- Scoia got screwed. Again. The Restore "nerf" (I laughed so hard at this) directly made people drop Aglais instead of affecting Skellige in any way.

Exact the same reaction here LOL. That been said, I don't doubt NG spy can be on par with skellige but it require a lot effort (and luck) instead of direct effective teching. NG is good if played correctly and I see why there's a argument on tuning it down, but to me it should not happen before skellige got some serious change

 

[Archpriest]

Oh, wow. My win rate with Movran is definitely higher than that average. But I guess all experimental deck tests were also counted as win/loss ratio. Before I found the right combo my reveal deck was loosing a lot.

I have no idea what deck are you playing and what mmr are you on but I'm closing on 3100 now and no Morvran in sight. His only advantage is a strong opener. Nilfgaard can do better than that in terms of leaders.

Exact the same reaction here LOL. That been said, I don't doubt NG spy can be on par with skellige but it require a lot effort (and luck) instead of direct effective teching. NG is good if played correctly and I see why there's a argument on tuning it down, but to me it should not happen before skellige got some serious change

I think that the "NG Spies is hard to pilot" myth should be put to rest. Really...

 

[Maerd]

I have no idea what deck are you playing and what mmr are you on but I'm closing on 3100 now and no Morvran in sight.

Well, the deck is my own design, so it's rather unique, I haven't met anybody playing similar decks. My MMR is 3434 at this moment.

His only advantage is a strong opener. Nilfgaard can do better than that in terms of leaders.

Well, you have to have the correct deck to have more than strong opener. Last season I played NG spy deck and I can say that reveal is a bit more balanced. With spy deck there were decks I had no chance against and with reveal deck I always have a chance, but yeah SK restore is way too good.

 

[Barracuda88]

That requires quite a setup. I suggest you just build yourself a reveal deck and find out yourself how strong or not strong it is. There is no evidence so far that it is OP. By some reason nobody's bitching about Skellige's Restore on Gremis, which is way better combo than 1 point spy, for which you have to have the perfect hand and right circumstances.

In three days I finally built and tuned a quite good competitive deck based on reveal. All I can say that SK restore is still better and more reliable and that restore combo usually wins the day against any counteraction. And yesterday I had a streak of playing those SK restore netdecks almost 10 times in a row. A winrate against those was below 50%. And right now I almost don't see opponents that play reveal at all. Yesterday out of 20+ matches only 2 people played reveal.

Quite a setup? You have to have Cantarella in hand and a Venendal Elite. Some setup. You get what? 40-45 percent hit rate on that? And it's not like it's some automatic loss if you don't draw it. And circumstances? You kind of have to consider circumstances when you play an 11 point spy, sure, but a 1-point? It's a free card advantage. Plain and simple.

I haven't run into any SK Restore decks, which might be why I'm not bitching about them. Though, for the record, Reveal always rubbed me the wrong way, and this 1-point spy bs just made it worse.

 

[Maerd]

Quite a setup? You have to have Cantarella in hand and a Venendal Elite. Some setup. You get what? 40-45 percent hit rate on that? And it's not like it's some automatic loss if you don't draw it. And circumstances? You kind of have to consider circumstances when you play an 11 point spy, sure, but a 1-point? It's a free card advantage. Plain and simple.

1. You have to have a venendal sucker, Leo, and Cantarella in your hand all at once because otherwise I prefer trashing my opponents' golden cards instead of sucking Cantarella.
2. If you get a sucker as your last card most often than not you're going to loose, so the suckers have a huge drawback. I also thought that those are becoming overpowering until I actually built a deck and faced this drawback more often than I wanted.
3. If you win the first round it doesn't matter if Canatarells is 11 points or 1.

I haven't run into any SK Restore decks, which might be why I'm not bitching about them.

What deck are you playing? And at what rank?

 

[Archpriest]

Well, the deck is my own design, so it's rather unique, I haven't met anybody playing similar decks. My MMR is 3434 at this moment.

Hehe, you're way ahead of me. And I thought that my 3 hours in each of the last few days was a lot.
I too play NG as one of my decks but mine just has Reveal in it with Calveit as leader. Some of my card choices come as a surprise to the opponents. It did take quite a few tries to optimise it though.
I also agree that running more than 2 Venendal is risky.
And what other than improved Spell deck clearly beat Spies last season?

 

[Maerd]

And what other than improved Spell deck clearly beat Spies last season?

Harald with greatswords and ships, where unless you remove those greatswords right away or they they boost themselves sky high because you cannot damage them with enforcers unless killing them off completely.

Radovid's weather deck was pretty nasty to play against with the spy deck due to double lock and weather that kills off all your enforcers. Nothing to resurrect worthy of stealing from opponent's graveyard too.

SK restore is as usual was just better than spies and unless you have a good starting hand, stakes are not in your favour.

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

I think that the "NG Spies is hard to pilot" myth should be put to rest. Really..

Oh never said it's hard, but the pure power of the card is not so good as skellige, need some brain to close up the power gap

remove those greatswords right away

Yeah...only to find out Freya pull it back again and again. Removal is a joke against skellige

 

[Maerd]

Yeah...only to find out Freya pull it back again and again. Removal is a joke against skellige

Exactly, that's why that setup is almost unbeatable by spy decks because it's pretty much denies enforcers.

 

[partci]

Exactly, that's why that setup is almost unbeatable by spy decks because it's pretty much denies enforcers.

You know you can put spies between Longswords and their ships, do you?...

 

[Maerd]

You know you can put spies between Longswords and their ships, do you?...

No, I'm stupid and didn't know that

 

[partci]

Thus you were enlightened.

I was really bored with NG last patch and am kinda happy that they now have another different build to play with. I still do miss the Spellgaard deck, but what can you do.