Little help with resources/strategy/decks?

[Guest 4404014]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask if anyone can provide some good resources for learning the game, links to good guides and such. I love the game but I'm feeling like rage quitting right now.

I got to rank 3 and was demoted to 6 after the update. From there, I got to 4 and I'm basically losing every single game now. I do read, I know most of the meta decks, I analyze my games and think about my choices. I do misplay but sometimes I see no way I could have won even with a perfect draw and play. I'm running harmony in two different setups and double ball. Both decks are deemed to be pretty strong but to me they feel completely outmatched. I didn't exact copy them online so here they are, maybe someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong:

Harmony (balanced): Oak, Waters, Call, Barnabas, defender, Isengrim Council, Toruviel, Pavko, Fauve, Willow, Hawker, Rebuke, Bomb Heaver, Forest Whisperer, Dryad Ranger x2, Hawk x2, Mahakam Marauder, Miner x2, Vrihedd Oficer x2, Bowman x2

I also played around with 1) Boar and Malena for Isengrim and Hawker, 2) Milaen for Toruviel or Crushing Trap for Toruviel with some changes to browns (usually going for double Rebuke), 3) purify elves (they brick so hard when I need them because of the condition), 4) Percival for Barnabas and some changesto browns, 4) double Hawker for Pavko and more poison, 5) even maxing poison with Maraal, etc. Nope, losing every time no matter what. And not even to techs like Igni or Yrden or Shirru. Just to them decks doing their thing. My strategy is usually check my hand and decide if to go with Waters in R1 or to handle R1 without. Then either bleed against decks with strong long round or dry pass in R2. Then bring it on in R3. Except that I don't bring it on. I lose 100%. I do adjust and I don't play that same strategy all the time. Or at least I think I do. I don't know. I lose every time.


Ball: Ball, Vincent, Maraal, Joachim, Yen, Matta, defender, Assire, Fisher King, Cupbearer, Lacerate, Roderick, Rot Tosser x2, Heaver, Dame x2, Cobra x2 (or lose one for Duchess's Informant or Diviner), Joust, Deithwen Arbalest, Fangs x2, Hunter x2

I also switch Fisher King for Decree and lose some stuff. I notice without a pull it's even more rng than usual because of bad draws. I played around with Vigo but I don't see value in him. I don't have Triss but I also don't see value in her, why not just use double Lacerate? I do sometimes win with the Ball due to the very coinflippy nature of this deck. But generally I lose.

Now, this is quite frustrating for me because before the update, around ranks 7-5, I used to win 70% of my games. Now it's 0% with harmony and maybe 20% with ball. Help!

 

[4RM3D]

I wanted to ask if anyone can provide some good resources for learning the game, links to good guides and such.

Sure, let me link a few beginner's guides...

I got to rank 3 and was demoted to 6 after the update.

Wait, you got to rank 3? That's not half bad. Never mind about the beginner's guides.

This isn't about learning the game anymore, but rather about learning the meta and which decks are popular and how to counter those. I am out of touch, so I cannot help you there. However, my general advice is to watch pro-rank streamers play and observe how they deal with certain decks and their way of thinking about some of the choices you'll have to make.

 

[Guest 4404014]

Is it because those 2 decks I play are basically overplayed and everyone knows them by heart? But like I said, I'm no stranger to the occasional Igni-Forfeit combo but I mostly lose to regular decks doing their regular stuff. Uprising and greatswords especially but also vampires, NG soldiers, everything. Last game was kikomores. No way I could have won even with a perfect draw. I moved his queen in R3, he spawned more crap on the other row, I removed her but she had been doubled and he finished me with his real queen behind a defender, winning with about 50 points. No way in hell I could have won this. I had my harmony set up almost perfectly in R3.

 

[DRK3]

@ya1 The problem of using the most powerful and most popular decks is everyone at your rank will know your deck by heart and will tech against those decks. I can only give general advice, not faction specific advice.

Uprising is very deadly if they're using Draug, try to win R1 and push R2 until you see that Draug, even if you go down 1 card, preferably still with leader ability.
GS again, super important to win R1, and if you have tall removal, have last say to deal with finishing Dagur.
Vampires shouldnt be a problem to Harmony or Double Ball, with all that poison.

Kikkimore is on a different level - they will try to win R1 hardest than anyone else, because they are unstoppable on their Kikkimore round, no other deck puts up that many points... unless you have Yrden, then its pretty much 100% win regardless you win R1 or not, as long as you draw your Yrden.

Finally, you mentioned you dont see the utility in Triss TK and ask why not use double lacerate - i understand, Triss TK is 11, 4 body, lacerate is a 7prov, so its kinda the same thing... except she gives versatility that is invaluable - imagine your opponent only has 2 units on each row, or they are all armored - your lacerate sucks, and you would prefer another special. Or even better, your opponent plays a surprise Damien or Maraal - you can use Triss TK to get a thunder/5dmg faction spell to deal with it and get amazing value from that Triss TK.

 

[Guest 4404014]

Uprising is very deadly if they're using Draug, try to win R1 and push R2 until you see that Draug, even if you go down 1 card, preferably still with leader ability.

Yeah, I do that. I try to win R1 and bleed R2 till Draug. But no way you can do that without one Ball and lots of poison commitment. R3 Ball is bombed 95% of the time, and squeezing one more proc through leader ability always seems to miss. I run defender (for Triss) on my Ball for that reason. And I do win sometimes on perfect draws and red coin. Harmony feels powerless against it, though. Harmonies get Philippa'ed, got no defense against those little jabs, not enough removal for all those point slams, and NR always seem to have enough room for all those pricey techs like Igni (though I lose alright with no Igni as well).

I was this close to deleting my account after my last Ball game against NR which only took two turns. I was looking for opponent pass in R1 and R2 bleed so I opened with Ball. Heatwave and forfeit.

Kikkimore is on a different level - they will try to win R1 hardest than anyone else, because they are unstoppable on their Kikkimore round, no other deck puts up that many points... unless you have Yrden, then its pretty much 100% win regardless you win R1 or not, as long as you draw your Yrden.

Yeah but there's no room for Yrden in neither Ball nor Harmony, is there?

Finally, you mentioned you dont see the utility in Triss TK and ask why not use double lacerate - i understand, Triss TK is 11, 4 body, lacerate is a 7prov, so its kinda the same thing... except she gives versatility that is invaluable - imagine your opponent only has 2 units on each row, or they are all armored - your lacerate sucks, and you would prefer another special. Or even better, your opponent plays a surprise Damien or Maraal - you can use Triss TK to get a thunder/5dmg faction spell to deal with it and get amazing value from that Triss TK.

Yeah I get the flexibility value of Triss. And that pro deck on Leviathan uses it for defender. I watched youtube vids of NG players. They don't usually use the defender either. But not once did I see a game where their Ball got nuked when it was win condition. Most of them only showcase smooth games. And literally everyone at rank 4 is packing Heaver, and I saw a lot of Heatwaves, too. I can't imagine it without a defender.

Triss is great and I do see her a lot. But 11 provisions? How? :/

Anyways, thanks a lot for your reply. I don't really get it why I'm losing so much because I don't consider myself all that noobish. I either got unlucky cold decks for 30 games now somehow, or there is a critical error in the way I play...

 

[Jollyrogerxberg]

https://teamleviathangaming.com/ if you want to know what your opponents decks look like

look for some gameplay videos on youtube or twitch to check out the meta. I can recomment bushr's analytical gameplays... they are, well, quite analitycal

otherwise you clearly had some bad matchups. Harmony is like A+ engine deck. but Kiki has a high commitment AAA+++ engine round. your goal should be to split up this scarry combos. If they have to go into a short round 3 (3-5cards) and only one or no Kiki left, they are pretty dead on the spot, while your ME is still worth 10+ points and combos with oak and stuff.
GS kinda same but they can split. its all about last say.
Ball (e.g. controll/removal) loses against swarm. And if he can use draug to transform poisoned units into revenants...you know... GG

Main value of TK besides her flexy is adding 4P body. Your bronce-removal special just doesn't feels that underdressed when meeting all the golden boys

 

[Guest 4404014]

look for some gameplay videos on youtube or twitch to check out the meta. I can recomment bushr's analytical gameplays... they are, well, quite analitycal

I've seen that, Bushy does analyze, yes. Can learn a thing or two.

Kiki has a high commitment AAA+++ engine round. your goal should be to split up this scarry combos. If they have to go into a short round 3 (3-5cards) and only one or no Kiki left, they are pretty dead on the spot, while your ME is still worth 10+ points and combos with oak and stuff.

Good stuff, thanks!

Ball (e.g. controll/removal) loses against swarm. And if he can use draug to transform poisoned units into revenants...you know... GG

Anything you can do about that beside Lacerate?

otherwise you clearly had some bad matchups.

Well, I got back to rank 3 today. It's just weird that I had a losing streak for ~20 games... Ever happen to anyone?

 

[Jollyrogerxberg]

Well, you can allways tech more into one matchup at the cost of weakening your main strategy. That said, this meta is not so rock/paper/scissors like as others but engine<controll<pointslam/swarm<engine... still applies.

as you can see here https://forums.cdprojektred.com/ind...in-rates-in-the-season-of-the-elves.11031977/
at ranks 1-7 players tend to stick the most to the strongest decks in order to make the final climb. This also opens the option of playing antimeta. So try one of the top3 or build your own antimeta deck and feed on them.

Finally, no I don't lose 20 games in a row, at 10 I switch deck or quit
I made my climb back from 3 to pro this weekend with a wild card heavy control deck. Freddybabes made a video and it looked interesting. so I tried ...only lost 5 or 6 games back to pro. you might try it, too.
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[xMrPhyr]

@ya1 I have been aggregating video guides for all of the top decks on Gwent.us.

Check it how here: https://gwent.us/decks