Noonwraith is extremely problematic and needs to be dealt with immediately

[nedders]

I have actually won a match 75 to 74 against an arachas swarm deck. You would think that my glusty would have plenty to eat but no as he boosted my (or his i guess) rats with bone talisman. BUT he still had to discard most of his cards because he got flooded so damn quick.

If only they had a third row this crap wouldn't matter......

Anyway, does sound like a problem. I've even flooded myself out using Arachas before, didn't need help from rats!!!!! That said, I guarantee you'll start to face more of the kind of deck that counters it. I'm still going to also be a complete hypocrite and try it out tonight.

So I quickly started a game, and......well, I can only assume my login is somehow blacklisted for bad luck by CDPR. First game, I ended up with Ge'els, Caranthir, Glustyworp and one of the Noonwraiths still in the deck having never appeared R1, R2 or R3 in spite of 3 + 2 + 2 mulligans. Ended up with some utter garbage hand, my Mystic Echo opponent in R3 played Novi Justice into the stupid ping dwarf, had a resilient Garpin or whoever, then for the one consume unit they played Aguara to lock it.

As I say, I doubt anyone gets my "luck", but there ya go.

 

[Pacifixer]

I played few games and i'm not sure if it's actually good meta deck or just a meme deck.
It is very draw dependant - you have to draw powerful tempo cards in R1 and flood combo in R3. If you loose R1 and your opponent decides to bleed you, it's over, you can't win. But if you can win R1, even 2 cards down, and draw the right cards, you should automaticaly win.
BTW it is 100% possible to flood your opponents side of the board in 5 turns.

If this deck becomes meta, it will get countered right away by Epidemy, NG witcher trio, Slyzard, Yen or 2:0 decks.

However, it is TOXIC AS HELL and CDPR should look into it.

 

[Battlebop]

If only they had a third row this crap wouldn't matter......

Anyway, does sound like a problem. I've even flooded myself out using Arachas before, didn't need help from rats!!!!! That said, I guarantee you'll start to face more of the kind of deck that counters it. I'm still going to also be a complete hypocrite and try it out tonight.

So I quickly started a game, and......well, I can only assume my login is somehow blacklisted for bad luck by CDPR. First game, I ended up with Ge'els, Caranthir, Glustyworp and one of the Noonwraiths still in the deck having never appeared R1, R2 or R3 in spite of 3 + 2 + 2 mulligans. Ended up with some utter garbage hand, my Mystic Echo opponent in R3 played Novi Justice into the stupid ping dwarf, had a resilient Garpin or whoever, then for the one consume unit they played Aguara to lock it.

As I say, I doubt anyone gets my "luck", but there ya go.

Well the problem here is that you need more things that make the deck consistent not the strategy itself.
When it comes to consistency you cant have too much. I run naglfar with weavess incantation and matta huiri for consistency. The foglets help too.

Ill put out a deck guide of my nigtwraith swarm deck soon.

Post automatically merged: Dec 12, 2019

Hey guys! just finished a detailed deck guide of my Nigthwraith deck!
I call it Reverse rat swarm though its more like an invasion.

Here is a link to it: https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/guides/48259

Have fun!

 

[nedders]

Well the problem here is that you need more things that make the deck consistent not the strategy itself.
When it comes to consistency you cant have too much. I run naglfar with weavess incantation and matta huiri for consistency. The foglets help too.

Ill put out a deck guide of my nigtwraith swarm deck soon.

Post automatically merged: Dec 12, 2019

Hey guys! just finished a detailed deck guide of my Nigthwraith deck!
I call it Reverse rat swarm though its more like an invasion.

Here is a link to it: https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/guides/48259

Have fun!

Yep, great points - but I agree above, making it stronger and more reliable is incredibly toxic.

 

[DRK3]

Even though what the OP says makes me think this deck is problematic, i cant stop but admiring whoever created the deck, this type of weird decks is exactly my style.

In over 1 year of Gwent HC, there's only been one deck with an alternative win condition - mill, and even that one is pretty terrible unless you had a discard or hyper thin deck, only time mill decks were effective vs all decks was on open beta.

I definitely would like to see this deck in action, i dont think it's as deadly as said here, you are supposed to counter Ge'els, its not that hard, and then the rat swarming should be tolerable unless you're using a swarm deck yourself.

Man, i just created a deck yesterday that floods my board in 3 turns WITHOUT Death's Shadow, since i've always been a fan of swarm (miss the old MO Draug, which is now the 12prov Wraith), but never experienced 'involuntary swarming' at that level (only the occasional NG spies)

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

I'm pretty sure I managed to win a game with NG once due to filling my oponents side.

Here is a suggestion to bringing the card a bit more in line, without taking this unique strategy away from it.
Let it spawn 1 rat on deploy and only 1 more on deathwish.

 

[Battlebop]

I'm pretty sure I managed to win a game with NG once due to filling my oponents side.

Here is a suggestion to bringing the card a bit more in line, without taking this unique strategy away from it.
Let it spawn 1 rat on deploy and only 1 more on deathwish.

This is a pretty good suggestion. It would in a way nerf the card without making rat invasion dissapear.

 

[Raziel_888]

Im such a hipocrate

Not to be an asshole but hypocrite, no? Hippocrates is the greek guy. Hippocrates oath, 'do no harm', all that doctor thing

As for the topic, if this deck becomes meta, more than epidemic or row damage, I'd like to see the face of the opponent when the guy flooded with rats plays yennefer

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

Not to be an asshole but hypocrite, no? Hippocrates is the greek guy. Hippocrates oath, 'do no harm', all that doctor thing

As for the topic, if this deck becomes meta, more than epidemic or row damage, I'd like to see the face of the opponent when the guy flooded with rats plays yennefer

Beating an enemy by helping him getting more units, instead of dealing any damage to him, isn't that a very hippocratean way of playing Gwent?

 

[Battlebop]

As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm.
― Hippocrates

 

[Guerreroymago]

I used that tactic and I win (because my opponent only can play 5 cards of 10, but 69-58 or something like that, not a high win). XD

 

[nedders]

Great news, everyone. Monster counter-swarm ISN'T the worst deck.

Bad news, everyone. It's NG, yet again. Whatever you do, avoid Strategic Poison like, er, the plague. Absolutely horrendous. Unit after unit poisoning basically everything. Just when you thought control couldn't get worse, CDPR blindside everyone with a completely broken NG META.

In fact, Nilfgaard is basically all anyone plays. The CDPR unhealthy love-on for NG is back and worse than ever.

 

[Anciluart]

Noonwraith alone is not a problematic card, it is good to deal with decks that make row setups, now, if there are ways to abuse and use it to fill rows it would be something else, although I doubt it becomes viable as a meta, there are many forms to avoid that field full of rats.

The first day of the expansion I put them in a consume deck as an anti-Big Oak measure and it worked quite well.

Great news, everyone. Monster counter-swarm ISN'T the worst deck.

Bad news, everyone. It's NG, yet again. Whatever you do, avoid Strategic Poison like, er, the plague. Absolutely horrendous. Unit after unit poisoning basically everything. Just when you thought control couldn't get worse, CDPR blindside everyone with a completely broken NG META.

In fact, Nilfgaard is basically all anyone plays. The CDPR unhealthy love-on for NG is back and worse than ever.

I saw an opponent play 3 rotten cows in one turn, if I hadn't had Kayran in my hand I would have lost a whole row of units.
Quite crazy

 

[nedders]

Noonwraith alone is not a problematic card, it is good to deal with decks that make row setups, now, if there are ways to abuse and use it to fill rows it would be something else, although I doubt it becomes viable as a meta, there are many forms to avoid that field full of rats.

The first day of the expansion I put them in a consume deck as an anti-Big Oak measure and it worked quite well.





I saw an opponent play 3 rotten cows in one turn, if I hadn't had Kayran in my hand I would have lost a whole row of units.
Quite crazy

There's a new NG unit that poisons, which you can use with withdrawal, meaning for SEVEN provisions you can automatically kill any unit in a single turn. With the fact defender/damian still exists and is hard to work around, you can do this twice. Then the Masquerade ensures you can do it several times in a game.

It's actually really cool to play with, very frustrating to play against, but another example of powercreep as instead of just targeted damage, it's targeted complete removal. The only thing that's moderated is the rot tosser, there's a few cards can stop it or move it.

There's nowhere near enough purify cards to combat it.

 

[Anciluart]

There's a new NG unit that poisons, which you can use with withdrawal, meaning for SEVEN provisions you can automatically kill any unit in a single turn. With the fact defender/damian still exists and is hard to work around, you can do this twice. Then the Masquerade ensures you can do it several times in a game.

It's actually really cool to play with, very frustrating to play against, but another example of powercreep as instead of just targeted damage, it's targeted complete removal. The only thing that's moderated is the rot tosser, there's a few cards can stop it or move it.

There's nowhere near enough purify cards to combat it.

That little Emyr causing trouble again?
Well, it will be necessary to make his ability no longer use NG units

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

There's a new NG unit that poisons, which you can use with withdrawal, meaning for SEVEN provisions you can automatically kill any unit in a single turn.
There's nowhere near enough purify cards to combat it.

Hasn't that been possible with Fangs of the Empire since Crimson Curse?

 

[DRK3]

Hasn't that been possible with Fangs of the Empire since Crimson Curse?

It has, but using strategic withdrawal for just one kill didnt make it viable.

With this expansion poison got a lot of support though, but it could've been worse if CDPR didnt pay attention to details - the gold unit that poisons on deploy, then on order is actually neutral so cant be used with Emhyr's ability.

Also NG scenario spawns 2 fangs of empires, but since it only triggers when you play an aristocrat, and there is not an aristocrat that poisons (theres the new snake-charmer bronze, the cook and the deploy/order guy, none is aristocrat) it keeps things from getting out of hand (some may argue it is too good as it is)

Then there's the aristocrat that kills on deploy anything that has status, which is what is usually used with leader ability, but he's very expensive so it makes sense that he's powerful (instakill any defender for example)

 

[Pacifixer]

It took me some time, but i finally managed to properly test the Noonwraith flood deck (in casual and pro rank), and i can confirm that it is competitively viable. It's not Tier 1 deck, i would rank it as Tier 3 or lower.

+Pros:
+ If you can get into R3 with all your combo cards left, you will probably win.
+ It is hard to counter.
+ If you get into R3 with card disadvantage, you can still easily win.

-Cons:
- Draw dependant, you have to draw the right cards in the right rounds
- If you get bleed, it's over, you have 0% chance to win.
- If your opponent recognizes your deck, and you have bad R1 hand, it's over, he will win R1 and bleed you.

I would not want to face this deck, it's toxic as hell, but playing was fun. I like these "mind game" decks - conceal the identity of your deck to gain some R3 benefits.
However, if this deck ever becomes meta, CDPR will have to butcher it, because of how toxic it is.

 

[nedders]

Had a bit of a go at this, properly, and it's mostly competitive though weakest against NG. Which is a shame, because 90%+ of decks seem to be some kind of NG meta.

It's basically about increasing the chance of drawing the right cards, so Foglet, WHRider, Renew, Royal Decree and the summon high/low are handy, as well as Penetant. For R1 it's some consume pace and low deathwish, Barghast is a bit OP, Kayran, Frightener. Then your standard DW units, Manticore, Miruna and then the finishing stuff, Troll, Caranthir, Ge'els, Wraiths and Glustyworp. Won with 2 x Ge'els and a last play of a 40 point Glusty. But I felt kinda dirty doing it.

If you face it, push and push R1, you need to at least go second R3 or better still get the card/turn count below 6 in the final round. have a reset card (Artifact is good value at 5 prov), something to purify and you should be ok. Or just play as NG and use any one of dozens of mechanics to kill whatever you want (Vilg, Invocation, Seize, Poison).

EDIT: Great Dandelion Show Special:

Picture the scene - me (Noonwraith) vs opponent (Monsters; Gernichora). So my opponent seems to have a fairly straightforward deck of insectoids, R1 is won by the usual dynamic of boost (bone talisman, arachas queen), but only after my opponent has played Geralt Yrden. I'm not really following why an insect deck would carry Geralt, but ok.

R2 it's a dry-pass so I stick a bronze down and into R3 we go. Remember, the oppo cards are insectoid and we are all aware of the better cards within that deck. So I've got a decision here - do I go for the rats thing and try to out-maneouver a potential Glusty play? Let's do it, I've got renew, so I play Penetant in case of Dive, then onto Defender. knowing that any MO - Insect deck is very unlikely to have any way of dealing with it. I'm thinking this is probably a Glusty straight shoot out. Nope, apparently not. So my opponents next card? Purifying vampire. Riiiiight. Makes complete sense in this deck. Not.

So anyway I'm in a bit of a bind because the oppo can always get a 1 unit on the board, so I Caranthir into Ge'els, then repeat to at least get a couple on the board. That'll work, right? Nope. Opponent then plays Yennefer to do 2 damage to everything, both Ge'els gone. Little more understandable card, I suppose. So I play my final Ge'els and my opponent then produces Weavess: Incantation to play Parasite and kill my final Ge'els. So I'm out of Ge'els, opponent had en answer, every time, to this exact problem. Unperturbed (and visibly laughing at this point) I get a few DW and consume cards down to spawn some Noon-rats as a result, there's about 8 rats or so in play now and I have my renew ready to Glusty myself to some decent point. Before I get the chance, however....and this is the big reveal....the opponent plays bloody MORVUDD!!!!!!

I mean come on!! Insect deck, with no beasts, and the opponent has Morvudd just in case of Noonwraiths?!?!?!?! With no thinning my opponent got Yrden, Yen, Weavess and just happened to have Morvudd. If anybody is seriously telling me there's no sort of rigging going on, then they're mental. You couldn't make it up and in this example it didn't even make a lick of sense. And I'm talking about level 8 match-up here; the one time I don't face NG seize I face, specifically, the anti-noonwraith deck. What are the odds. Seriously. What are they?!