Reaver hunters & Scout

+
This post is for discussing how to deal with these cards, because I'm always surpassed by them. There are so many ways to get copies and each one is painful. I make no distinction within the two card because they pretty do the same thing: at the end you will have another copye of Reaver hunter on board dealing damage without limit. How can these two cards cost 4 and 5 provisions? Why CPDR use so few times caps like they did with Griffin witcher?
But the subjet isn't about complaining but sharing strategies to beat those two soldiers. I tried killing Scouts first, but Hunters appears evely, and it's impossible to deal with all of them, so at the end you have, at least, 4 Hunters hurting your cards. Surrender is a great option, but I hate having to put a card in my deck only to fight against one strategy.
I'm playing with a SK deck with Shupe, Radeya and discard package, with focus on carry on and I achieve to beat all other decks (rank 1) except NR.
How do you manage with them?
 
Last edited:
As an NG I can think of 2 ways of dealing with them:
1) fill their front row with spies (informants would work great providing us with great engines too).
2) Obsidian Mirror on three of them. Your spawned units won’t be killed as they’re 1 power only (unless opponent’s using something like Surrender for a mirror match). But it’s a bit clunky because waiting for 3 hunters at opponent’s side of the board puts us in dangerous position.
 
I have had only one opportunity to test it so far, but Olgierd: Immortal seems like a decent counter. It is typically the highest card in my deck and, if not locked, can absorb all the damage from Reavers. However, it may not fit into all decks and it may be the same issue as with Surrender - using a specific card to possibly counter a particular deck.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
Its true, Reavers are hard to beat, but that doesnt mean there are few way to beat them, there are actually quite a few...

-Use them yourself. Whether its NR, or NG playing assimilate or illusionists (works well)

-Use movement. ST or MO frost can have enough movement to put units in the ranged row. Obviously you need to move BEFORE they use their order and multiply.

-Lock everything. Same principle as moving. Imprisonment has 2 leader charges, that way you can even lock multiple unit, especially important when they use mobilization leader. You can also wait for them all to fill a row, the use auckes with serrit in hand, but by then you might have taken too much damage.

-Destroy everything. This strategy fits best for SK. Reckless Flurry charges bypasses armor to wipe out these small units, only problem is the mobilization leader turn, 2x 5pt, 2 armor units is very hard to deal with in 1 turn, that's why this strategy might not be the most effective, especially when they spawn so many hunters.
PS- Surrender is great, but it wont kill the hunters boosted by leader charge.

-Embrace the damage!
Use Olgierd Immmortal - which has already been suggested here - if not countered, he nullifies this strategy completely (unless you had taller units than 10).
Or SK's self damage units (there may even be a 'deck of the day' coming in tomorrow that does exactly this :ohstopit: )
 
One thing not yet mentioned that works for all factions: round control is very useful. Reavers are not good in very short rounds. With round control, you can often either shorten round three to three or four cards, or you can force out the Hunters in round 2.

That doesn’t help with all the high provision cards NR has after you deal with Reavers, but usually you have your own cards to compete with those.
 
Thanks guys. Some great ideas I definitly will try in other decks. I just have a NG with Olgierd and alchemist that could be more efective. For instance, with muy SK I will use surrender. Will ser how it works.
Nevetheless, I really think they are the most op cards in the patch: I have so much problems dealing with them and they are only bronzes!
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
Another option i forgot to mention previously is:

-seizing. (Again, exclusive to NG, at least until SY's new cards are working properly)
An enslave deck with amnesty 2x, sweers, and for those two boosted reavers by leader? Muzzle and leader enslave 5 (or imposter, although that isnt exactly seizing).
 
Try to kick the hunters in the second row and kill the scouts before they can replicate reavers. I stumbled over some decks with cintrian royal guards in combination with scouts too. Reavers and combinations are yet another op bronzes that makes matches annoying af imho.
 
CDP Please put more thought into your decisions when creating new cards and synergies, clearly the bronze Reaver Hunters and Reaver Scouts are broken from jump-street, don't understand how testers don't see this immediately, and you nerf cards that have absolutely no business being weakened for example a gold card like the original Shelden Skaggs and with power-creep how has it not been fixed? this is just one example there are many more please test more in the future before a new drop.
 
Olgierd and Surrender is a good counter too. "Embrace the damage" (thanks for this phrase @DRK3 ) with Olgierd, at the right moment wipe the front row. ;)
 
Last edited:
Isn't Olgierd a bit of like wasted resources (10/9) in other matchups? I know it's a hard counter to Reavers and partially vs random dmg based decks like SK, but does it work well in the current meta?
 
Isn't Olgierd a bit of like wasted resources (10/9) in other matchups? I know it's a hard counter to Reavers and partially vs random dmg based decks like SK, but does it work well in the current meta?
tbh Olgierd is an always-include for me in every deck. :D
 
To me, the big issue is the sheer number of ways Hunters can be duplicated: scouts (x2), reinforcements, Adalia, Boholt, Shani, megascope(x2), Operator, Idarran, Mushy Truffle, garrison. And that doesn’t count two in deck, that each Hunter duplicates itself, and more indirect or inconsistent duplication (runestones, duplication in deck with reshuffling or tutoring, renew, necromancy, Hen Gaidth on Operator’s copy, Casting contest x2).

A good player swarms not one round, but two or even three rounds with Hunters. Except for decks that naturally pack huge amounts of removal/control, decks like self-damage or deathwish which embrace the damage, or decks like pirates that can generate exceptional amounts of armor, I don’t know how to tactically counter Hunters for more than one round. To me, this makes Hunters the new, binary deck.

But unlike binary decks of the past, Hunters do not require exceptionally good draws, gimmicky cards and tactics that would not work with anything else, and they are not autolose against any “normal” matchup.

I do have one other approach not yet mentioned to responding to Hunters — even with Hunter’s low tempo, I have found it too slow, but maybe someone else can make it work. That is to clog an opponent’s front row so hunters don’t have space.
 
That is to clog an opponent’s front row so hunters don’t have space.

This could’ve worked a couple of patches ago.
Today spies are not meta (Rainfarn would not find any value since Hunters are too low), others even Dutches's Informants don’t synergy well with current meta (NG “enemy boost” archetype).
 
Imprisonment, force a long round by any tempo option in your deck, keep the locks. Then on last round keep locking to delay the reavers, after 4 or 5 turns of locking them is enough, by that time even if they can do more it's too late. Ez.
Reavers should have never existed, made the game much worse.
 
Not enough of using of existing mechanisms to balance this out.
Row-locking is first step.
Second step, there should be more devotion being used, like for the Reaver :
No Devotion - > dmg cooldown : 2, no armor
Devotion -> dmg cooldown : 1 , 1 armor.

Otherwise it`s another step for making a Gwentstone out of Gwent
 
Th
CDP Please put more thought into your decisions when creating new cards and synergies, clearly the bronze Reaver Hunters and Reaver Scouts are broken from jump-street, don't understand how testers don't see this immediately, and you nerf cards that have absolutely no business being weakened for example a gold card like the original Shelden Skaggs and with power-creep how has it not been fixed? this is just one example there are many more please test more in the future before a new drop.
e new NG Spotters are just as broken !
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
A few days ago i got really mad against Reavers, so i decided to devote the rest of the season into making the players using this deck walk into a living nightmare...

1. I re-checked Team Elder Blood's meta report... it puts this deck at tier 3. I dont think so, clearly they dont know the definition of a tier 3 deck.
I do give them that the 2 decks they place at tier 1 (NG Renfri and SY devotion) are more than capable of beating reavers, but that does not disqualify it from being a super strong deck.

2. I thought about which faction was more adequate to create a deck to completely counter reavers...
The truth i found... all 6 factions are probably capable of achieving this. However this does not mean it's easy to beat reavers, probably 90% of all the meta decks of the past would be crushed by it.

Anyway, the following are my thoughts on the ideal decks for each faction to beat Reavers:

NG - the meta deck... or pretty much any deck. Spotters, cheap locks, plenty of point slam that NR cant compete, many ways to copy and use the reavers for themselves... Im currently using an enslave 5 deck that is undefeated against reavers, even in battle rush where i mess up many times with helge charges.

SY - again, the meta deck. However, unlike NG, i think there arent many other alternatives in SY that would be able to beat Reavers.

ST - its funny, i had this clear idea, but before i tried it, i saw Moshcraft today using a deck with exactly the same concept: Saskia Commander for R1, which makes most opponents give up on R1 if they cant counter saskia, and then going traps + unitless in a long R3 with an Eldain finisher, for precisely 0 damage from reavers.

SK - i did this one yesterday, i used a golden nekker with focus on warriors and damage to wipe out the reavers, but also techs in case i failed - Olgierd immortal and Sigvald, but Sukrus and Arnachad would be amazing too.
Reavers only control are usually a lock and/or heatwave... but margarita is an order lock, and arnachad would kill her before being locked! Not to mention the damage their reavers do to you actually armors up arnachad and makes him sturdier.

MO- i think the best option would be Kelly, but with a few modifications to deal with reavers. Also, Kelly had to survive, so if someone had to eat an heatwave, it had to be the defender or another bait. But i fear the reavers would still spawn more units than Kelly would kill.

NR - this might be weird, but Siege. Not even modified, the "traditional" stockpile list might be able to beat reavers, because although reavers has more damage, its indirect and rarely is removal, so there is a chance siege engines could gain control of each round if piloted well.

Feel free to share your thoughts or add new suggestions on the fight vs reavers.
 
A few days ago i got really mad against Reavers, so i decided to devote the rest of the season into making the players using this deck walk into a living nightmare...

1. I re-checked Team Elder Blood's meta report... it puts this deck at tier 3. I dont think so, clearly they dont know the definition of a tier 3 deck.
I do give them that the 2 decks they place at tier 1 (NG Renfri and SY devotion) are more than capable of beating reavers, but that does not disqualify it from being a super strong deck.
Same opinion.
I don't like this elderblood meta snapshot, a lot of strange decisions. Sometimes i feel they are literally playing a different game lol.
One of them is devo sy tier 1, i rarely see SY in general. I don't like their Sove list in tier 2, extremely highroll and reavers tier 3 is a complete joke. When you have to specifically counter a strategy ( or you lose on the spot ), that strategy is by definition tier 1.

A lot of people at 2500 mmr are still abusing Nekker and Renfri, who would have ever imagined..


Feel free to share your thoughts or add new suggestions on the fight vs reavers.

Schirrù is nuts :howdy:
 
This post is for discussing how to deal with these cards, because I'm always surpassed by them. There are so many ways to get copies and each one is painful. I make no distinction within the two card because they pretty do the same thing: at the end you will have another copye of Reaver hunter on board dealing damage without limit. How can these two cards cost 4 and 5 provisions? Why CPDR use so few times caps like they did with Griffin witcher?
But the subjet isn't about complaining but sharing strategies to beat those two soldiers. I tried killing Scouts first, but Hunters appears evely, and it's impossible to deal with all of them, so at the end you have, at least, 4 Hunters hurting your cards. Surrender is a great option, but I hate having to put a card in my deck only to fight against one strategy.
I'm playing with a SK deck with Shupe, Radeya and discard package, with focus on carry on and I achieve to beat all other decks (rank 1) except NR.
How do you manage with them?
The best counter is Surrender
They have no chance against NG enslavement
Olgeird is a good options Sigvald too
And also a Forgotten old friend those days, madoc with arcas Queen 4 madocs will be enough to crush them
 
Top Bottom