Moonlight Archetype. Any good?

[Khreygond]

Moonlight Archetype. Any good?

Right. So with the new update and a whole ton of new cards, my immediate goal was to try out a couple of moonlight decks. Moonlight is a new special card which creates either a Full Moon Boon on one of your rows (at the start of the turn, boost by 2 a random beast or Vampire on that row. Also triggers werewolf abilities) or a Blood Moon Hazard (Damage all enemies by 2 on contact in that row.). Because there are a lot of cards that synergize separately with Full Moon and Blood Moon, I created 2 different decks, One focusing on Full Moon, one on Blood Moon, using Hillock as the leader in both.

Full Moon list:

• Draug
• Yennefer
• Woodland Spirit
• Ge'els
• Ruehin
• Whispess, Brewess, Weavess
• Frightener
• Nekurat
• 3x Moonlight
• 3x Siren
• 3x Werewolf
• 3x Alpha Werewolf
• Slyzard
• Foglet
• Reconnaisance
• First Light

Blood Moon list:

• Muzzle
• Ge'els
• Caretaker
• Geralt: Igni
• Dorregaray
• Whispess, Brewess, Weavess
• Frightener
• Nekurat
• 3x Moonlight
• 3x Siren
• 3x Lamia
• 3x Werecat
• 3x Bridge Troll
• First Light

I apologize for the choppy format of the lists, the database and its deck builder have yet to be updated. This thread's purpose is just to serve as a guide and a discussion place for anyone wanting to try out the New archetypes. The results of testing are:

- The full moon deck performs really well in almost all situations. A very viable deck that thrives in long rounds, generating a lot of points with moonlight boons while harming the enemy under fog. Your werewolves are immune to targeting so laying those down makes the enemy unable to drag them out with Whale harpooners, damage them with reinforced ballistas, Artefact Compress them, or in general target them specifically at all (a lot of people were taken by surprise at that as I was playing ). Your finisher is Draug and Yennefer into Unicorn, generally. Slyzards are there for deck thinning, while the Frightener can drag opponents into the Fog, or a blood moon hazard if you can spare one (remember, you only need to put down 2 Full Moons on your side. The third row must remain empty for when you play Draug). Its only problem are decks that generate a lot of points, as it lacks the tools to disrupt enemy strategies. Like the Mahakam Marauder deck, it focuses a lot on its own side of the board.

- The Blood Moon deck on the other hand, while pretty good and consistent, it is generally far less powerful. There's not much you can do with it, while still stupidly fun to play with I'd say it is about the same as Reveal, about that powerful. I've been thinking to swap out Lamias for a while. Its main problem is the lack of golds that synergize with it. Ok G: igni is a primary choice, as you will most likely get 2 enemy rows under blood moon and your enemy will start placing units on the third, but other than that, you have no real golds that offer good synergy. You might want to consider Renew instead of the Caretaker there.

All in all, it seems pretty viable, even for competitive play, especially the Full Moon deck. If you are willing to try it, or have any idea how to further improve those two, by all means Have fun

 

[Khreygond]

Update. Made the Full Moon deck in the Deck builder, with a detailed guide of the game plan Here it is:

http://www.gwentdb.com/decks/39030-full-moon-swarm

 

[coralzombie]

I run a hybrid deck with full moon cards. Works good if you incorporate some of the better features into a deck for thinning. Going full on full moon deck probably leaves you too open to weather since they can run over you.

 

[Khreygond]

run a hybrid deck with full moon cards. Works good if you incorporate some of the better features into a deck for thinning. Going full on full moon deck probably leaves you too open to weather since they can run over you.

interesting Do you have a list? some staples of the hybrid deck? hybrid with what? I am always more interested in moonlight decks Plus, if anyone figures out a way to make blood moon actually work, please tell me! xD

I usually wait until my opponent plays a hazard to cancel it out with full moon. Clear Skies can also help in the case of White Frost

 

[Draconifors]

Moonlight is awesome, and viable enough in low ranks/casual. I made my Moonlight deck pretty much as the first thing after the Midwinter update, and it hasn't changed much since then.
A few of my golds and silvers are really off-meta, which helps take opponents by surprise.

Whispering Hillock is a super fun leader for the deck.

Here's the list: Moonlit Shadows

 

[Khreygond]

Moonlight is awesome, and viable enough in low ranks/casual. I made my Moonlight deck pretty much as the first thing after the Midwinter update, and it hasn't changed much since then.

Ι feel it's actually viable even in high ranks but I haven't touched ranked ever since the update. It is very consistent and offers me a pretty good winrate in casual, comparable to my old NG Spies pre-update.

As for your list, it's quite interesting A lot of Hazards so I assume you are trying to make sure your opponent can't clear them all. Parasite I assume is there as an extra organic card for Whispess, but I am not sure how useful it is. Also most your golds are neutral so it's quite clearly deck that relies on control I do wonder how much use you get from Alpha Werewolves though. They are at best 12 points, when most bronzes are worth 13 now. I have them only to put up bodies for my yennefer, otherwise I'd discard them. Or is it just that you haven't found anything better?

If you are aiming on control, you can try 2x Siren and Moonlights, 2x Werewolves, then remove the Alphas or one Alpha and add 2x WH Hounds and Biting Frost, with possible drowners as fillers. Ought to drive your opponent insane especially if you manage to get a Ciri: Nova there too

 

[iamthedave]

I love the idea of blood moon more than moonlight, to be honest. It's such a weird little deck idea. But the more I play with it the more I think it needs more ways to get blood moon down. There's something so viscerally satisfying about dragging things into blood moon with the Jotunn, or just pointing at an opposing monsters line and going 'no eggs for you'. I think moonlight is more powerful, though, both because of semi-passive weather clear if its used on you, and stronger synergy.

Werecat is deceptively powerful in blood moon. Lamia is rubbish. To the point I've begun to think switching the leader out for Dagon and going a hybrid foglet/blood moon might be more efficient. Whispering Hillock is a card I want to love but she feels so... I dunno. Most often I get a 12 point swing out of her via arachas venom or parasite. Or manticore venom for 13. This isn't BAD. But it rarely seems to really change things. She feels lacking in synergy. I can't help but feel I'd be happier if she just created moonlight x 2.

I can't help but feel that this archetype needs a white frost equivalent that lets you put two moonlight/bloodmoon (your choice) on the board at once.

 

[Khreygond]

I love the idea of blood moon more than moonlight, to be honest. It's such a weird little deck idea. But the more I play with it the more I think it needs more ways to get blood moon down. There's something so viscerally satisfying about dragging things into blood moon with the Jotunn, or just pointing at an opposing monsters line and going 'no eggs for you'. I think moonlight is more powerful, though, both because of semi-passive weather clear if its used on you, and stronger synergy.

My thoughts exactly. Blood Moon is a very interesting idea about hazards. It functions differently than other weather decks while also sharing some basic strengths and weaknesses (meaning, if your hazards are cleared, you are in trouble, for example). But I love how interesting the mechanic is

I can't help but feel that this archetype needs a white frost equivalent that lets you put two moonlight/bloodmoon (your choice) on the board at once.

It needs that or a Gold that is something like "move a unit on this row to its side. If it's an ally apply full moon to the row, if it's an enemy apply blood moon to the opposite row". However Full Moon is completely viable on its own because of the swarm properties of the Alphas, the Leshen and the Draug. What needs more gold/silver synergy if it is to become its own thing (meaning a separate archetype) is the blood moon. Right now I feel I can only run that as a mix of something else. My next objective is to try it with a mixed relict deck and the more I think about it the better it seems. Switch out the rubbish Lamias for 3 Fiends, use Weavess: Incantation along with the Crones, then 3 Moonlights, 3 Sirens, 2 Bridge Trolls and 2 Werecats as the finisher. As for the rest of the bronze spots, Slyzard, Reconnaisance and First Light would work just fine. I'll try that as soon as I craft Weavess which will probably take a while.

 

[Draconifors]

Parasite I assume is there as an extra organic card for Whispess, but I am not sure how useful it is.

It has been finding great value against all kinds of things: Axemen, spy engines, various ST units etc.

I've no intention of removing Alpha Werewolves (despite their wolf bugs), because like I implied I don't use the deck for climbing.
And I'm definitely not going to turn the deck into some frost hybrid; would only mess up my mulligans. White Frost is included because it's two rows of weather in one card that cannot brick my hand.

 

[iamthedave]

I second Parasite. It's a nice little card. It's the usual thing I get out of Whispering Hillock. I usually use it as a buff, but removal is a thing you need these days.

 

[iamthedave]

Here's my decklist for blood moon

Leader: Dagon

Golds: Whispess: Tribute, Woodland Spirit, Succubus, Ge'els

Silvers: Frightener, Golyat, Jotunn, Nekurat, Parasite, Black Blood

Bronze: Bridge Troll x 2, Drowner x 3, werecat x 3, Siren x 3, Slyzard x 1, Moonlight x 3, Foglet x 2

The foglet package makes a difference, I find, and puts additional pressure on decks that use weather clears, while Golyat provides an unusual finisher for the deck. At 17 points he's not at gold level but he's very close. Frightener into blood moon shaves off 4 points from the swing and means you can often keep fighting in a round where you play him. Black Blood turns up a second Nekurat more often than you might expect.

 

[Khreygond]

iamthedave Interesting but all I can think is...isn't Monster Nest more suited than Parasite? It can pull you a STR 10 Drowner for free, giving you a target for the slyzard too.

At any rate, thank you for the list. I am aware of Black Blood, I have switched my Blood Moon list too ever since I began this thread and it is pretty good. At worst it can give you a drowner I'll be looking forward to trying yours when I can craft the cards

 

[iamthedave]

When you put it like that... I'll try running Monster Nest and see how it pans out.

 

[DRK3]

I have heard people have been getting good results with Moonlight, and ive faced a few of those myself. However, i think its still very vulnerable - for now, you have to put Moonlight on each row individually. Then you get a Drought / Ragnaroog / White Frost and all that hard work is gone.

Strangely, the people i've been getting used those Weather cards arent Monster users but NG Reveal and some Spellatel, so be careful when you're up against those.

 

[Khreygond]

Oh I know. Seems like every Reveal netdeck packs drought. But knowing that, I can counter at least one row by replacing with the moonlight boon. And since I leave one row empty for the draug finisher, with one row under full moon I usually nullify the drought damage. Not to mention I always pack clear skies. In general, every deck that packs hazards needs caution. You need to wait before you play moonlight in order to cancel the enemy hazards.It works better against Eredin WH players play Frost impulsively usually.

But yeah that's the point I seem to be getting pretty good results. Strong tempo in long rounds via moonlight, strong tempo in short rounds via crones and baseline werewolves, powerful finisher, solid opener, deck thinning tools, I feel this deck has everything I need

Now to make Blood Moon work...

 

[iamthedave]

You tried my decklist yet, Ser? Monster Nest is definitely the right call for Whispess, by the way, Thanks for that.

I have heard people have been getting good results with Moonlight, and ive faced a few of those myself. However, i think its still very vulnerable - for now, you have to put Moonlight on each row individually. Then you get a Drought / Ragnaroog / White Frost and all that hard work is gone.

Strangely, the people i've been getting used those Weather cards arent Monster users but NG Reveal and some Spellatel, so be careful when you're up against those.

You have to just go all in on row stacking with moonlight, and hope there's no hailstorm coming your way. What I like about it is you'll almost always win the weather war. They have to put down their weather, you can replace it with your boon, which gives you more benefit than they get from their aggro, and you can stock weather clears as well (abaya at least), not to mention that while Nekurat is your favourite pull from Black Blood, Abaya is in its create pool as well and comes up regularly. Drought/Ragnaroog are barely relevant to the deck's concerns because they're so easily invalidated. Maybe they get 4 pts out of a drought/ragna, but that's the worst conversion conceivable for a gold card. If CDPR do the smart thing and make Hillock the moonlight leader with appropriate synergy in the same way they did for Adda, this could get even sillier. I think the thing keeping moonlight slightly back is there's no bespoke silvers dedicated to the archetype barring Nekurat (whose power renders it more of a utility/enabler than a real core piece), nor any golds. Blood Moon needs a couple of reworked or newly introduced bronzes as well I think.

In my experience, losing the weather war with a moonlight deck requires a misplay. Even a blood moon deck can just sacrifice a BM for a bespoke weather clear if it's necessary.

 

[Khreygond]

You tried my decklist yet, Ser? Monster Nest is definitely the right call for Whispess, by the way, Thanks for that.

I don't have Whispess or Succubus so I tried with Geralt: Igni (a very solid alternative) and Caretaker. With all the movers, his ability triggers instantly, even if the point swing is not that much, at least you are not in danger in cases of card advantage. I should mention I've only tried it on practice though. It will take me a while knowing what my silvers and golds are for Ge'Els to pull before I try it in normal play I tried it against my sparring buddy too but lost. (I often enjoy pulling a STR 13 Ancient Foglet from Monster Nest too). I just got some scraps due to season end, even if all the rewards aren't there yet, so I crafted it now. I'll let you know how it goes

In my experience, losing the weather war with a moonlight deck requires a misplay. Even a blood moon deck can just sacrifice a BM for a bespoke weather clear if it's necessary.

Yup. Or an opponent catching you by surprise. I ran across an NR deck with all 3 Aretuza adepts in hand and a White Frost for some reason. I lost that weather war unfortunately.

 

[Khreygond]

iamthedave I just tried your list with Geralt: Igni instead of Succubus. First game was against Henselt Machines, which I won No easy feat. However the opponent didn't run the conventional Henselt Machines (no winches), had a dead G: Igni with Dijkstra and could only pull 1 unit with henselt so he was a bit unlucky. But it was stupidly fun at least for me xD

 

[iamthedave]

Yeah I like my list. Gigni usually doesn't do it for me so I stopped running him. You usually do enough damage via BM and other sources that there's few good targets for big g, and often none. Have you considered Geralt: Aard? He's another way to get excellent value out of Blood Moon. Not quite as reliable as the Jotunn, but you can 'reload' him via bridge troll.

 

[Khreygond]

hmm, ok admittedly I was a bit lucky, but in the 2 games that I played against proper powerful decks (nekker monsters and henselt machines, I played another one) I got excellent value from G:Igni. In the latter case I scorched 3 balistas for 18 points in total and in the former case I scorched 2 units worth 23 points each (a Barbegazi and a Vran warrior) for a total of 51 points so I don't know. After all the opponent usually plays their units on a row that is not under blood moon so getting the other 2 under it or moving the units can give you some pretty good value. I'll have to playtest further.

Whispess into Ancient Foglet from Monster Nest is a good opener to follow with Dagon. You get 19 + 12 = 31 points with just 2 cards and then 3 points each turn passively alternatively, depending on your hand, you can also settle with opening with Sirens and Blood Moons (if you have drowners for example in your opening hand)

My first loss so far was against a reveal netdeck. As for Geralt: Aard he also seems a solid choice, and when I craft him, I'll definitely try him

Thanks again for the list, it's definitely far more viable than mine