Scoia'tael ball-busting with Vrihedd Sappers

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Scoia'tael ball-busting with Vrihedd Sappers

Let's face it, the majority of ranked players use Scoia'tael. The most used strategy on the upper end of ranked is to deck-burn to re-use Ciri Dash into the final round.

I began experimenting today with a combo of Vrihedd Sappers and Dol Blathanna Trappers.

The result is beautiful, because the top strats rely on special cards for deck-burning you end up annihilating their rows very quickly unless they pass which is fine for you to power ahead.

Usually what ends up happening is your opponent wastes his Blue Mountain Commando's trying to throw them onto your side of the table which of course you can counter just the same but either way their strategy becomes completely broken very quickly. Dol Blathana trapper can be used to herd your opponent toward the first two rows which allows geralt ard to annihilate them as well.

Ida Emean when used at the right time works wonders as well (such as prepping ahead of your opponents attempt to decoy up Yaevinn after you just used him to spring one of the traps and take out another row etc.

Downside is there are bugs I've been running into which make the game force a draw due to server errors. I'm trying to button this down before I report it.

I haven't run into a single player using Vrihedd Sappers other than myself yet but honestly... I'm loving this. Good way to stir up the stale deck types.

 
I honestly hate versing Scoia'tael and I wish I had the cards to build a anti Scoia'tael deck like this. It's the only fraction that I have zero epics/legendaries which is pretty annoying
 
ive also been thinking of strategies that counter mercenary first light spam but that one seems great on paper at least

the downside is having to play ST yourself haha
 
I have tried a SK discard deck revolving around War Longship which provided a modicum of advantage towards ST decks but it was weak against weather and gold-diggers. Also it is sad War Longship is not immune to rain :sad:
 

Guest 3973540

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Hurrah, someone using Vrihedd Sappers! I used them a lot in my starter deck. But truth be told, haven't used them for ages. And haven't seen them played but once.

Interesting idea! I haven't thought about combining them with the Trappers. It should work, maybe less so against NR. It looks like people are more and more playing in single rows (despite all the complaints against weather).

And Ida Emean, she is tough to play but I like her, not least because people are not expecting her.
 
Spookily enough I tried something very similar the other night with equally impressive results, I think a lot of players (including those familiar with ST) won't have seen/used sappers so you get an element of surprise currently because everyone is expecting the standard elven mercs based decks.

I was also running a couple of the cards that are buffed by trap cards (blue guys, name escapes me) which is also somewhat unusual/unexpected and works nicely with the trapper and Ida.
 
xiong2mao;n7538060 said:
Interesting idea! I haven't thought about combining them with the Trappers. It should work, maybe less so against NR. It looks like people are more and more playing in single rows (despite all the complaints against weather).

And Ida Emean, she is tough to play but I like her, not least because people are not expecting her.

It seemed to work great against NR as well, if the opponent puts down poor infantry you get a guaranteed use for Ida Emean followed up by Vrihedd Sappers which damage his row as he tries to buff them, if he puts down either redanian elite or reaver hunter then you put down Dol Blathanna Trapper which puts him in a terrible position since his deck isn't built with power cards for any other row and he's left either springing the trap himself or passing and hoping to win in round 2. Skellige is even easier to beat since you know most of their cards are going to the siege row by round 2-3. Skellige may have cards that aren't affected by weather but these ST cards mow em' down all the same.

Granted my context is top ranked players here which have strategies buttoned down in very precise, predictable decks which of course are powerful but also seem extremely susceptible to the combos I've mentioned. At lower levels where people are experimenting with many different cards that ultimately aren't as reliable those are the kinds of players who this strat won't hurt as bad.

I'm still working on refining the rest of my deck around this in order to remove cards that break the synergy, Brover Hoog is leader Ciaran and touroviel are used with Vrihedd Dragoons buff-prepping them for power cards in round 2-3.

 

Guest 3973540

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I tried this - the results are mostly poor, especially against monsters. SK lightships survive quite fine as well. This decks suffers from very low raw power. What is your idea to get some points on your side of the table?
 
xiong2mao;n7584450 said:
I tried this - the results are mostly poor, especially against monsters. SK lightships survive quite fine as well. This decks suffers from very low raw power. What is your idea to get some points on your side of the table?

I'm still playing this deck in ranked around position 800 atm. Your raw power definitely is lower but this is because the goal is to clear entire rows on your opponents side. Between the sappers and trappers, geralt ard and aeromancy + aglais I've had no trouble doing so. When you use aeromany to weather a row the sappers trigger after the weather effect and wipe every non-weather-proof unit to the graveyard in one shot, or if you put down a blathona trapper and spring it with Yaevinn it can remove 7 points (or 12 points if you spring two trappers) from your opponents weather-proof units.

I've had no trouble keeping very little point value on my opponents row that way, if you are playing monsters or skellige Ida Emean is great for blocking their attempt to use commanders horn as well. If your opponent is running a pure weather deck then this strategy is hard to pull off but in the upper ranks where I play noone uses such decks therefore this deck is built moreso to counter the strategies that are used in that vicinity.

>>For point value I primarily use Vrihedd Dragoons with blue mountain commandos to add 3 strength per play onto Ciaran and Touroviel which I can play when needed to win the round with cards that the opponent cannot damage.

This is definitely an advanced play style, and there are other cards in my deck which I've fined tuned to this strategy, if you want to play me to see better what I use and when/how, feel free to add me as a friend and we can play a match or two. Chaob_N7 is my gog name.
 
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Chaob_N7;n7585530 said:
When you use aeromany to weather a row the sappers trigger after the weather effect and wipe every non-weather-proof unit to the graveyard in one shot

That's just evil. Forget Aard; nerf sappers! Funny no one is complaining about this. Well, almost no one is using this tactic. +1 for the idea.

Chaob_N7;n7585530 said:
>>For point value I primarily use Vrihedd Dragoons with blue mountain commandos to add 3 strength per play onto Ciaran and Touroviel which I can play when needed to win the round with cards that the opponent cannot damage.

Doesn't protect you from weather effects though. They also affect unrevealed cards, which is kinda annoying.
 
4RM3D;n7585690 said:
Doesn't protect you from weather effects though. They also affect unrevealed cards, which is kinda annoying.

I run 3 clear skies in the deck with two mercenaries to grab them and place unrevealed cards near the end of the round... usually having point advantage via decoy / yaevinn and often block my opponents use of decoy by placing Ida emean when he has a card on his side that he is likely to take back so that is rarely an issue thankfully.

 
Naturally. It's important to keep the OP in 'opponent', otherwise, the result looks suspiciously like 'pony', and you don't want to know what happens when one of those appears on the board. . . .
 
Ugralitan;n7590610 said:
So any of you can share a deck composition which uses Vrihedd Sappers ball-busting?


This is what I've refined it down to after quite a few games, didn't want to upload a deck image earlier as I was still figuring out which cards were getting in the way of making this work. Again, sappers and trappers to annihilate rows and dragoons to buff hidden silver cards. I found 3 sappers to be too many in the deck as I wasn't getting enough draws for points on my side of the board. 2 trappers, 2 sappers, seems to be ok. if you draw a sapper final round you can always put it on your side in a clear row :D Otherwise the sappers + weather or special cards and the trappers plus yaevinn or ard work wonders on decimating rows.
GWENT_2017_01_27_08_12_23_686-min.jpg

 

Guest 3973540

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I, too, experimented with the number of sappers and trappers. Definitely 3 sappers is too many, but trappers work well with Aard so I had 3. I felt I need 2 shrooms so I had to keep 1 BMC and 2 dragoons.
The silvers and golds are similar. But I don't have Villetretenmerth and neither Ciaran, so it was Milva and the 6th silver slot was actually a question mark and subject to experiments. I came to believe Ciaran should be optimal, but with the patch coming, I was reluctant to spend scraps.
I also tried adding Rain (beside Aeromancy), hoping to get the synergy with the sappers (you mentioned Aeromancy into sappers clears the row, well it seems Rain doesn't, while Aeromancy does). Interestingly, I found sappers work inconsistently (probably should report it). Not just with with weather, but e.g. if Spores are played, sappers do 2 damage then are gone. But Alzur's thunder just removes the sappers. Strange.
[In case someone wondered: if Ida Emean ambush is present, a special card does NOT trigger sappers.]

Anyways. The deck works great against Skellige (them being so reliant on Harald and so few targets for him). Works fine against NR, including PFI. But against Monsters and ST I lose big time. Monsters in unranked are totally unpredictable. And ST - somehow they usually managed to evade my bombs. Only Isengrim decks suffer :) Maybe in top ranked ST are more predictable.

And given I get Monster opps at least 60% of the time and most of the rest is ST, overall I suffered with the deck.

Chaob_N7, I tried to find you in Galaxy but no luck. Maybe I am doing smth wrong, I am new to GOG. I am xiong2mao as here.
 
xiong2mao;n7594370 said:
I, too, experimented with the number of sappers and trappers...

I tried to find you in Galaxy but no luck. Maybe I am doing smth wrong, I am new to GOG. I am xiong2mao as here.

Awesome, thanks for your experience, experiments, and thoughts. :)

Aeromancy + sappers seems to be a unique interaction, it does require the sapper be at full strength when the card is used. Apparently Aeromancy counts as two special cards since you spawn the weather effect of your choice but the fact that the weather triggers before the sappers dish out the second damage makes it unexpectedly effective. And with Aglais in the deck well... :D

I haven't come across the spores bug yet but I have seen the game suddenly end in a draw when my opponent tries to use a decoy on the sapper more than once.
Interesting you mentioned Monsters... I just finished a match against them right before I checked the forums here which I won, although at the upper ranks not as many players use monsters or weather decks. Round one I took easy with Villetretenmerth which set me up great for round 2-3.

I sent an invite via GOG, hopefully you get that. I'm not very familiar with the client either but I was at least able to find your username when I searched for it.
 
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