My ST Elven Handbuff Deck

[iamthedave]

My ST Elven Handbuff Deck

I've been running this deck around 4000 to good success, so I wanted to share it here for opinions and inspiration, since it seems to me that ST is a bit lacking in variety right now. This deck's surprisingly strong against bears and slaughters NG infantry swarm, has a good game against dorfs, NR, spies and Nekker, but has issues against spellatael and reveal.

Leader: Francesca

Gold: Iorveth, Schirru, Ithlinne/Iorveth: Med, Renew

Silver: Yaevinn, Milaen, Decoy, Scorch, Nature's Gift, Summoning Circle

Bronze: Vrihedd Neophyte x 3, Vrihedd Dragoon x 3, Hawker Support x 3, Elven Swordmaster x 3, Elven Mercenary x 3, Crushing Trap, Elven Blade x 2, Tremors x 1 (if using Ithlinne)

The ideal hands depend on the deck you're up against. Most decks you want Renew in hand and Francesca for Iorveth turn one, and hopefully shoot something turn 2. If it's bears or other massive tempo decks you usually want Schirru instead so you can machinegun scorch. By turn 3 your swordmasters should be a minimum of an 18 point swing and I've thrown down ones at 15 power before with some lucky RNG. Milaen isn't a card people use often but in the current meta she's almost always a 17-20 point swing (depending on hand buffing). The deck's major advantage is that it can just kill key units in almost every deck, almost every time. Elven Blade provides a little extra reach against those tougher combo parts like SK warships or partly strengthened greatswords. I'm not yet sure whether Meditation or Ithlinne/Tremors is the better gold slot.

Summoning Circle is a meta choice so you can win the inevitable spy wars that this meta is all about, and decoy is a back up way to do it and get even more advantage.

 

[VladAtheris]

Looking at it, this deck is pretty bad, to be honest. That's if you are interested in climbing the ladder. If you play just for fun then that's a whole different story. You might enjoy dropping massive Swordmasters on fools and watching them cry. That's cool. However, that being said, I don't see any way this deck wins against anything. And when I say wins I mean maintains a 50%+ win rate over multiple games. And I'm also using as frame of reference rank 20 and upwards decks and skill level of players.

First of all you have 29 cards in a deck that only thins 5. That is if you play Ithlinne.
Let's go golds first. Iorveth isn't great. Resurrecting him further devalues the deck. If you think about it. In ideal circumstances, that being a hand full of elves, with all swordmasters in hand, and a 7 body on turn 1, he is 7+7+9+3 in round 1. If you manage to keep all swordmaster into round 2 and again you get a 7 body on turn 1 in round 2 and still have, let's say 5 elves, then you get 7+7+5+3. So that's 26 points in round 1 and 22 in round 2 for a total of 48 points in the entire game. That's probably best case scenario. And you won't get that pretty much ever. In most case, I think, you'll end up with somewhere around 30 points of value by using Iorveth+Renew. One round will be long but the other will be quite short and empty of elves in hand. Two Gold cards for 30 points is pretty bad.

Silvers, Milaen is okay as it can line up scorch and tremors if given the opportunity and even just dropped is still 16 points. I still wouldn't use it, to be honest. I think there are better ones out there. Decoy on the other hand is absolutely awful. You have no cards which warrant a decoy. Summoning Circle is good for denying the enemy his draw card spies and I can see why you would need Nature's Gift when you have 29 cards. It still loses a lot of its value when not paired with Eithne.

The bronzes have no tempo and you can very easily be forced to go two cards down which is disastrous for your deck as you want to be last to act in order to secure the best possible scorch and swordmaster targets. You probably haven't felt this weakness yet because people below 4k don't quite understand the power of passing.

Swordmaster isn't really hot this patch but if I wanted to play it this is what I'd go for.
http://www.gwentdb.com/decks/40054-swordmasters-for-dave
First any buffing deck needs Farseers. Put it below or to the right of Dragoons and they will proc each turn. Elven scouts and 2 silvers for tempo so you can push for card advantage and set up your finishers properly. Hattori for resurrecting elven scouts and if buffed hard enough even larger units.
I:O if you need to draw scorch. Aguara to make your Swordmasters even stronger.
The leader is Filavandrel because they other three don't synergize at all.
I haven't tested this deck yet but you can give it a go and tell me how it does.

 

[iamthedave]

Why is it only if they're on the right of Dragoons? I'd thought they just stopped working.

Iorveth's boost adds up to more than you think. Bearing in mind every point he adds to a swordmaster essentially doubles their value. Most games I hit at least a 5 in the first two turns. The deck generally wins by shutting down people from putting together card combos by killing whatever they play. It's by no means the best deck, but I think it has potential. Try running it for a while. I'll give your suggested deck a try. Initial prognosis is... interesting. Uses more create than I like (the mechanic hates me and gives me dross constantly), but it's done well against every deck so far, win or lose. I'll play it out for a few days and see how it goes.

Also, this deck is awful against dorfs.

 

[Draconifors]

Why is it only if they're on the right of Dragoons? I'd thought they just stopped working.

New mechanic added in the Midwinter update, introduced to help players better plan the positioning of their cards.

In the recent Midwinter Update Review video the devs explain that cards' trigger order has been changed so it's now from left to right and from melee to siege. (See here for the relevant bit in the video.)

 

[VladAtheris]

Try it out and give some feedback on it. I think it should get you to 4200 at least. That's if it fits your play style and you understand its strengths and weaknesses well. But maybe it's not a good fit for you and it fails. I'm quite interested.

 

[iamthedave]

The problem I'm running into so far is it has a very very strong first round, but no finisher to speak of outside Ithlinne, who's good for single or group targeting depending on what you need (20 pt swing vs single target with thunder, 20+++ vs a large, busy board.

Aguara's hilariously flexible in this era of infinite creation, as a lot of decks end up with elves you can nick through one means or another. I don't know if she's really good enough though. At best she seems to be a 15 pt swing, and maybe 10 + nicking a card. That seems sort of weak now that everyone runs Ciri: Nova.

I need to practice more with IsenOut and Filavandrel. Isen especially I need to figure out when its best to create vs. draw from the deck (especially for Yaevinn), but Filavandrel is so... random. The best draw with him seems to be Commander's Horn.

The nuts and bolts are nice enough. Farseer/Dragoon get shot most of the time but when both stick they're a royal pain. It's usually a better idea to hand buff Hattori if possible, but swordmasters can be very nice, and Aguaya/swordmaster in the last round works nicely.

Edit: I can't fathom how this deck is meant to take on bears. It can't come close to the bear tempo, can't shut down the longships, can't match the resurrection, can't out-point Olaf. Even Ithlinne/Tremors is barely a dent. I'm going to try shortish rounds, because long term and once the marauders come down, this deck is dead in the water. For perspective, I've gone two cards UP against bears several times and still lost by over 20 points.

 

[VladAtheris]

I think the best way would be to take advantage of your strong tempo and win round 1 quickly and then bleed him out in round 2. Don't be afraid to use a gold unit in order to secure round 1. Even if you have to use it very early. Then you can finish him in round 3 with your scorch or sword masters. After all, we did build this deck around sword masters. They are the flavor.

 

[iamthedave]

True enough. Though I think it's better point value to hand buff Hattori and use him to rez a swordmaster. Not 100% sure on that though.

Eithne might be a better choice for leader than Fila. I get trash out of him regularly, and the deck throws out a fair few spells worth replaying.

 

[VladAtheris]

Eithne was the one I initially chose but then I thought Fila would make for more interesting plays. It's quite possible Eithne is better.

 

[Pruny]

I use Brouver to thin deck and grab ciaran or toruviel.

 

[gards]

1) Players using other factions read other factions forums
2) Then they post decks to encourage other players of that faction to use that deck.
3) I'm playing at 4000 MMR and I just love using (crap card) to surprise my opponent.

I'm being paranoid aren't I? haha

 

[iamthedave]

I play all factions and all decks. I'm a deckbuilder at heart and like experimenting. I currently have 20+ fully constructed decks and play 10 of them on rotation (depending on daily quests). I have no real faction, though Skellige, Monsters and Scoia'tael are my favourites. But I like all of them and like playing all of them. If Cursed NR becomes good I'll adore NR as well.

So yes, you're paranoid. Wrong, too, but those often go together. I've had good - not great - luck with the handbuff archetype. It stays stable at 4k and has good game against a lot of the field. I don't think it can be moulded into a climber in the current climate, but that's no reason not to try. In fact, that's the exact reason TO try.

 

[Gwentmaster18]

Handbuff just doesn't feel able to both maintain tempo and have a big finisher. With the need to have large targets for Blademasters to get value, it's just too hard to make work on its own.