I am sure most players have used, seen or faced this deck by now.
It appeared very recently, im not 100% sure of its origin but i think it was Redrame that popularized it after being very successful with it on the latest open qualifiers, immediately after, pro players were copying it for other tournaments, and then when it was featured on the latest meta reports, it exploded.
I really hate it, but not because its toxic or OP, the usual reasons at least for me, to hate decks.
No, in fact, at first sight, i even thought this deck wasnt that good or hard to beat... Then i lost to it, many times, but i wasnt even sure why - its deceptively strong.
Also, i've had several SY off-meta control decks that actually looked really similar to this, so i wasnt much intimidated by it.
So, why do i hate it? It single-handedly represents half a dozen of the major problems Gwent has been afflicted with for very long:
1. Midrange domination. The pirate cove deck is almost 100% non-committal, it uses Saul which is an overtuned, cheap 3pt per turn (with full purse), which immediately plays outside of removal range, it most likely will require a counter more expensive than the 7pr of Saul. Everything else is immediate value or 2 turn combo but that are high tempo and somewhat hard to counter (location+poison).
2. No identity. Yes, the PC deck is very strong, but is it because of the leader? I dont think so. It could probably do very well with any other SY leader with minor adjustments, but since this was the version in the spotlight, its the one everyone is using.
3. Control domination. This isnt a hyper control deck, but uses the best combination for low risk - bronze pointslam (thinning packages), bronzes with great provision-point ratio (mutant makers, poisons), with gold control tools, with big bodies, but not big enough to be a liability (reminds of you something else? SK warriors)
4. Overbuffs. Dont get me wrong, i like the trend that started this year of buffing unused cards.
However, i believe they should be more careful, and made sure those unused cards are actually weak and deserved a buff.
BOTH the Professor and Boris were cards that i used regularly before the patch this month, on control/bounty, and they were doing really well for me, i really think they werent used only because another SY archetype was OP and players flocked to it (on the last 12 months: HC Passiflora, Congregate and Lined Pockets).
Buffing the Professor and Boris, not just by 1 but by 2 was a big mistake. Same applies to Whoreson Junior, which i warned it would be on every SY deck.
This control trio is underprovisioned, not even SK warriors has something like this (not considering Eist, which is more pointslam than control).
5. Balances always too late, not enough. Do you think these cards will get nerfed on June 8th, with new expansion? Probably not, they need more time to collect data
In fact, they will even get further support, just check the bounty cards revealed today, bounty and SY control will dominate the meta, because destroying is always easier than building. So, after 2 months of lined pockets tunnel drilling domination, we are getting 3 more months of similar SY control in the meta.
Yesterday, i think i had my 1st victory against it. By now i know the deck by heart, i played around every single play (boosted outside of 3/4pts of Boris/Professor, but not enough to give value to Whoreson Jr), kept my engines alive with shield and got good value out of em, immediately killed the poison bro that also boosts, purified when he tried to poison me, heatwaved his biggest unit since i had last say.
Meanwhile my opponent did several mistakes, including wasting 3 coins on Jacques... and i won by 1pt! So, without that last mistake on last turn, he would've won.
This could be 6.: when a deck is so strong and simple it carries any player to great winrates (played on casual, but he had pro rank avatar), even when they play poorly, the opponent knows exactly their deck and happens to have a lot of counters for it and its still so close.
It appeared very recently, im not 100% sure of its origin but i think it was Redrame that popularized it after being very successful with it on the latest open qualifiers, immediately after, pro players were copying it for other tournaments, and then when it was featured on the latest meta reports, it exploded.
I really hate it, but not because its toxic or OP, the usual reasons at least for me, to hate decks.
No, in fact, at first sight, i even thought this deck wasnt that good or hard to beat... Then i lost to it, many times, but i wasnt even sure why - its deceptively strong.
Also, i've had several SY off-meta control decks that actually looked really similar to this, so i wasnt much intimidated by it.
So, why do i hate it? It single-handedly represents half a dozen of the major problems Gwent has been afflicted with for very long:
1. Midrange domination. The pirate cove deck is almost 100% non-committal, it uses Saul which is an overtuned, cheap 3pt per turn (with full purse), which immediately plays outside of removal range, it most likely will require a counter more expensive than the 7pr of Saul. Everything else is immediate value or 2 turn combo but that are high tempo and somewhat hard to counter (location+poison).
2. No identity. Yes, the PC deck is very strong, but is it because of the leader? I dont think so. It could probably do very well with any other SY leader with minor adjustments, but since this was the version in the spotlight, its the one everyone is using.
3. Control domination. This isnt a hyper control deck, but uses the best combination for low risk - bronze pointslam (thinning packages), bronzes with great provision-point ratio (mutant makers, poisons), with gold control tools, with big bodies, but not big enough to be a liability (reminds of you something else? SK warriors)
4. Overbuffs. Dont get me wrong, i like the trend that started this year of buffing unused cards.
However, i believe they should be more careful, and made sure those unused cards are actually weak and deserved a buff.
BOTH the Professor and Boris were cards that i used regularly before the patch this month, on control/bounty, and they were doing really well for me, i really think they werent used only because another SY archetype was OP and players flocked to it (on the last 12 months: HC Passiflora, Congregate and Lined Pockets).
Buffing the Professor and Boris, not just by 1 but by 2 was a big mistake. Same applies to Whoreson Junior, which i warned it would be on every SY deck.
This control trio is underprovisioned, not even SK warriors has something like this (not considering Eist, which is more pointslam than control).
5. Balances always too late, not enough. Do you think these cards will get nerfed on June 8th, with new expansion? Probably not, they need more time to collect data
In fact, they will even get further support, just check the bounty cards revealed today, bounty and SY control will dominate the meta, because destroying is always easier than building. So, after 2 months of lined pockets tunnel drilling domination, we are getting 3 more months of similar SY control in the meta.
Yesterday, i think i had my 1st victory against it. By now i know the deck by heart, i played around every single play (boosted outside of 3/4pts of Boris/Professor, but not enough to give value to Whoreson Jr), kept my engines alive with shield and got good value out of em, immediately killed the poison bro that also boosts, purified when he tried to poison me, heatwaved his biggest unit since i had last say.
Meanwhile my opponent did several mistakes, including wasting 3 coins on Jacques... and i won by 1pt! So, without that last mistake on last turn, he would've won.
This could be 6.: when a deck is so strong and simple it carries any player to great winrates (played on casual, but he had pro rank avatar), even when they play poorly, the opponent knows exactly their deck and happens to have a lot of counters for it and its still so close.