Renfri, the New Queen of Gwent

[DRK3]

If there was EVER a card that warranted a thread of her own, its Renfri.

https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?attachments/1656868468706-png.11310175/

https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?attachments/1656868595999-png.11310187/

https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?attachments/1656868621896-png.11310190/

Credit to @ThorR_RPG , for the images shared on another thread, they're the ones i found with the best quality.

She is by far the most complex card in Gwent ever (sorry Shupe).
In my opinion, she is also the strongest card.

And i consider her a meme card, due to MY definition of memes - it has nothing to do with power or viability (like i said, i consider her strong and viable). It's a meme due to its high complexity and variability and strategies it opens up.

There are 7 curses, 7 blessings, that makes up a total of 49 possible combinations.
And dont forget you only get 3 options in each decision (5 if you played RuneMage), you may not get what you wish, which is one of her greatest weaknesses.
And the other weakness is... you miss her, as with 25 min units it will be hard to tutor her.

Discussions and strategies here please.

 

[cardgame-respecter]

I guess playing matta is a or Triss butt is an option. Every faction has 2 or more bronze thinning units like eg. NG's impera brigade, blightmaker thin and doggo's. I'm gonna try an old classic; NG humans with the dopplers for additional human tag value, lol. I kinda wish they went with an all neutral requirement for the Renfri card along with more bandit buffs. Maybe a devotion to neutrals could become a thing in the future.

 

[DRK3]

Personally, i think the best curses, or at least the most interesting are the Greed and Envy ones.
Greed - spawning two stratagems is crazy, and there is one particular stratagem (which happens to be my favourite ) that has a much higher potential than others, so its a perfect match with Renfri.
Envy - this is basically a free wild boar of the sea, except arguably better - if the enemy boosts a lot, it will do 2dmg to all units, just as it would if they were damaged (but that would require a lot more effort from our side)

The curse of lust also has much potential, but without a consistent gameplan to put a unit you want on the other side of the board, its very matchup dependant.

The blessings, the patience one is complete bonkers if you manage to get it, and also play Renfri early R1, you get to play your default leader + the renfri ability 3x times during the match!

Finally, she will also be an insane control tool, curse of wrath/pride + blessing of diligence does 15-18 damage, to multiple units on the other side, plus the 7pt body.

I think overall her point average will be above 20pts, which is way higher than any other card in the game (if analyzed individually and not in combos with leaders or other cards), and because she is so valuable, there will be many attempts to create decks that play many renfris (from me included).

 

[EduFerraz]

Hahaha i think you and me thought The same thing.

When i see that she spawns The faction stratagem i already thought in MO.

And The rework in ritual its good in this deck. If you manage tô get ritual and abaya that is 4 thinning and huge tempo.

Archespore, wild Hunt and renfri's gang are more 3 thinning. So you already have 7 thinning and thats almost garante you Will get renfri

 

[Slizzl]

Tactical Decision, Fisher King and some units that draw like Matta or Vicovaro Novice should help get her early. There's also the option to Assire her. And Runemage already synergizes with NG. So this is where I'm thinking she'll shine competitively.
I'm sure she'll have some insane combos, there's no way they have playtested her properly. But at least she looks exciting.

 

[rrc]

The very first match I faced was a Tactical Decision Renfri Hyperthin deck! Yes, 25 units and the deck still manages to thin to 2 cards having the Golem in the deck and using Yen, Tris and the Mage who boosts himself by 12.

 

[DRK3]

So yeah, we've had a few days of Renfri, i mean, Black Sun Expansion, and its clear who is dominating the meta.
I am not even remotely surprised though, the dev team clearly overestimated the deckbuilding restriction she carries.

If you look at all the metadecks this year, with the exception of GN/ Aerondight era decks, there are a lot of strong decks for all factions based on units, maybe they sacrifice an heatwave or oneiro but the benefits of Renfri are definitely worth it.

Also, the amount of greed by players is THROUGH THE ROOF.
I sometimes have to build greedy decks for complex meme combos, even though i gravitate towards safer decks.

But what ive seen in the past few days blew my mind.
I saw double scenarios used a lot (SY by me, a lot of NG, one by ST that was awful and i crushed, sorry)
I saw Renfri + scenario.
I saw Renfri + Shupe / Radeyah.
Then yesterday, i saw RENFRI + BOTH NG SCENARIOS. That is 27 cards min, with a 15,14 and 13 pr card!
And this mad guy didnt even used Calveit, Matta or a lot of thinning, just renfri's gang and blightmakers + MA. I guess he was just godly skilled, because he drew everything.

 

[Barracuda88]

So yeah, we've had a few days of Renfri, i mean, Black Sun Expansion, and its clear who is dominating the meta.
I am not even remotely surprised though, the dev team clearly overestimated the deckbuilding restriction she carries.

If you look at all the metadecks this year, with the exception of GN/ Aerondight era decks, there are a lot of strong decks for all factions based on units, maybe they sacrifice an heatwave or oneiro but the benefits of Renfri are definitely worth it.

Also, the amount of greed by players is THROUGH THE ROOF.
I sometimes have to build greedy decks for complex meme combos, even though i gravitate towards safer decks.

But what ive seen in the past few days blew my mind.
I saw double scenarios used a lot (SY by me, a lot of NG, one by ST that was awful and i crushed, sorry)
I saw Renfri + scenario.
I saw Renfri + Shupe / Radeyah.
Then yesterday, i saw RENFRI + BOTH NG SCENARIOS. That is 27 cards min, with a 15,14 and 13 pr card!
And this mad guy didnt even used Calveit, Matta or a lot of thinning, just renfri's gang and blightmakers + MA. I guess he was just godly skilled, because he drew everything.

I have a Renfri/Saskia deck

 

[rrc]

I have a Renfri/Saskia deck

Me too!! That was the first and only Renfri deck I built..

 

[quintivarium]

I built a Renfri / Imperial Practitioner deck. It annoyed me so much I forfeited after playing the second of five Renfris. In fairness to my opponent, I must say they handled it well and very well might have still won — which is testimonial as to just how OP the new scenarios are.

I guess that since I cannot play this junk with good conscience, I will rebuild my mill deck to at least occasionally counter it.

 

[DRK3]

A lot of Renfri's abilities are very similar to existing units/ specials:

Lust - Dudu or Letho KS
Greed - a better version of Radeyah
Sloth - Dandelion Poet, Triss Butterflies or even Sihil (except here you play the bronze before, then the card you want)
Envy - a better wild boar of the Sea
Wrath - old Adda leader ability, similar to Blood Money too

Diligence - Reckless Flurry leader or Delirium
Kindness - Wolfsbane
Humility - Mahakam Horn

 

[DRK3]

So, after a few days of Black Sun, we all got a good dose of Renfri, for better or worse...
Personally, ive now shifted my focus into trying to counter Renfri decks, but i still havent gotten far (was a bit sidetracked by countering SK pirates, which is way easier )

On the OP, i mentioned Renfri as a meme card, due to her diversity (49 possible combos, compared to Shupe's 15), but turns out this is more of a strength than an obstacle, as she's equipped to deal with many situations, and most of her options are really good, so its not tragic if you missed the one you wanted most.

To add difficulty in the task of countering her decks, she is being used in many different decks, different factions. Countering ST Invigorate Renfri will probably not work as well in countering NG Assimilate Renfri, and vice-versa.

Also, i still havent figured if its better to use Renfri herself to counter other Renfri decks or not. On one side, she is so strong so its a 'fight fire with fire' situation, but on the particular matchup with NG Assimilate Renfri, which seems to be one of the most popular lists, they may get to play 2 extra Renfris (Doublecross leader if you try to save her for last, TerraNova if you play her early )

For example, since a lot of Renfri players like to go for the basic options (kill a 10pt unit, or deal 7damage) i considered going extra wide, maybe with the "classic" Arachas swarm deck... except Renfri also has the options of doing 1/2 dmg to all units and 8 random pings, which could be devastating for that deck.

i will update with any progresses in this quest, i will reveal - to those interested - a couple of cards that have potential:

Spoiler

Ihuarraquax and Arcane Tome

 

[JoeBilly781]

How to beat imperial practitioner + Renfri deck? as long as they have the needed card in hand, and you play a deck with limited remove, it's unplayable at all.

 

[DRK3]

Renfri is confirmed to be be nerfed on the next patch. Rightfully so (in fact, it shouldnt have taken this long).

Still, i think players focused too much on complaining she is OP and on suggestions on how to balance her before analyizing her value properly. Lets make it clear - im not defending the card, im just trying to discuss aspects of her that i havent seen brought up.

One such aspect actually brought my hopes even lower on the average Gwent playerbase's ingenuity:
The selection of blessings. In particular, the avoidance of the option 'blessing of kindness', which ive read several times that its considered the worst of the bunch, and ive never seen any other player use it besides myself.

Its an option that forces a player to think, about numbers and unit placement. Not that much. But apparently the average Gwent player has an allergy to Math, which seems kind of ironic.

Well,i did the math. And i went even further, and did a whole deck to maximize this blessing.
It's not a weird deck, in fact its quite similar to a lot of NG Renfri decks.
I chose NG for a good reason - its the faction that allows to play more units per turn for cheaper provisions, to maximize the 'blessing of kindness'.

This passive ability is worth more if Renfri is played early, like all other passive blessings. It provides 1/2 pts every turn.
If Renfri is played as the 2nd card in a match, that makes 15 turns of this blessing, if we average it as 1.5pts per turn, that is around 22pts of value. This is not even considering the case where you play more than one unit per turn, and if you do a proper setup - which is quite tricky, i admit - you can get 2pts per turn almost everytime, putting odds between evens and evens between odds.

So, in the end, this blessing alone can potentially be worth up to 30-40pts. And yet, players just love going for the basic 'do 8pts of damage' or 'set the lowest unit to 12', because they dont want to think.

I urge you to give this blessing a try and check it for yourself, its definitely not bad, as its general perception is.

(EDIT) i just realized that Renfri synergizes with herself! Her 'curse of sloth' - which happens to be one of her strongest options, that players still havent found out about its true potential - allows you to play more units, thus synergizing with 'blessing of kindness'. And this blessing's effect works even on the turn Renfri is played. Its madness!

 

[rrc]

Renfri is confirmed to be be nerfed on the next patch. Rightfully so (in fact, it shouldnt have taken this long).

Still, i think players focused too much on complaining she is OP and on suggestions on how to balance her before analyizing her value properly. Lets make it clear - im not defending the card, im just trying to discuss aspects of her that i havent seen brought up.

One such aspect actually brought my hopes even lower on the average Gwent playerbase's ingenuity:
The selection of blessings. In particular, the avoidance of the option 'blessing of kindness', which ive read several times that its considered the worst of the bunch, and ive never seen any other player use it besides myself.

Its an option that forces a player to think, about numbers and unit placement. Not that much. But apparently the average Gwent player has an allergy to Math, which seems kind of ironic.

Well,i did the math. And i went even further, and did a whole deck to maximize this blessing.
It's not a weird deck, in fact its quite similar to a lot of NG Renfri decks.
I chose NG for a good reason - its the faction that allows to play more units per turn for cheaper provisions, to maximize the 'blessing of kindness'.

This passive ability is worth more if Renfri is played early, like all other passive blessings. It provides 1/2 pts every turn.
If Renfri is played as the 2nd card in a match, that makes 15 turns of this blessing, if we average it as 1.5pts per turn, that is around 22pts of value. This is not even considering the case where you play more than one unit per turn, and if you do a proper setup - which is quite tricky, i admit - you can get 2pts per turn almost everytime, putting odds between evens and evens between odds.

So, in the end, this blessing alone can potentially be worth up to 30-40pts. And yet, players just love going for the basic 'do 8pts of damage' or 'set the lowest unit to 12', because they dont want to think.

I urge you to give this blessing a try and check it for yourself, its definitely not bad, as its general perception is.

(EDIT) i just realized that Renfri synergizes with herself! Her 'curse of sloth' - which happens to be one of her strongest options, that players still havent found out about its true potential - allows you to play more units, thus synergizing with 'blessing of kindness'. And this blessing's effect works even on the turn Renfri is played. Its madness!

Is there anywhere the nerfs/patch is available?? What kind of nerf are we taking about?? The Milva kind where it is dead and unplayable? Or the Sigvald kind where it is mild pat in the back?

 

[cardgame-respecter]

They will probably just nerf the power of the card and the provision only.

 

[quintivarium]

They will probably just nerf the power of the card and the provision only.

There’s really not much space to nerf the provision cost — and adding provisions to an already very costly card just makes the game more binary.

Decreasing power score would help, but even at power 1, I think the card plays for too many points for its minimal set up. I hope to see the replacement leader skills reduced in value as well.

 

[cardgame-respecter]

There’s really not much space to nerf the provision cost — and adding provisions to an already very costly card just makes the game more binary.

Decreasing power score would help, but even at power 1, I think the card plays for too many points for its minimal set up. I hope to see the replacement leader skills reduced in value as well.

I hope you're right, but I somehow think they are gonna half ass it due to Renfri being the main character of this expansion. A provision nerf is not that unrealistic though. She is essentially a scenario on a body with deploy. At 15 provisions, she would still see play. But yeah, the point swings are insane even for my tastes.

 

[ianann]

Tbh, Renfri should just be banned until it gets a complete overhaul. I seriously like the idea of the card, but its both massively overpowered and the restriction of pretty much only having units in your deck isn't really a downside. I wonder if they even really tested Renfri mechanics. Same with Sir-Annoy-a-lot.

 

[Bean54]

I just played a match where my opponent played Renfri on 3 consecutive turns. How the hell is this even possible or allowed?