ShupeRedayah Saskia AND Renfri

[rrc]

I had build a deck with polar opposite cards with so much polarization that includes Saskia, ShupeRedayah, AND RENFRI. I know Renfri decks are usually loathed by the community and even I hate that card. But in this deck, it is just an attempt. The deck is not nearly as strong as I thought/wanted it to be and I have been having 50% winrate with it - nothing bad and nothing impressive too.

I had so many iterations to it and I think the final version seems to be decent enough to be played and have fun. In the final version I managed to put poison package too in it. The best part of this deck is, people don't expect a Shupe in a Renfri deck (and vice versa - depends on what you commit first, people assume the the other card is not possible). This surprise element is what is the most fun in this deck. People playing 17 power Eithne as first card in Round 3 only to be seized my Shupe because they didn't expect Shupe after I committed Renfri in early rounds.

The best one was, when a Travelling Priestess deck building up everything for the last play with Roach having 2 cards in their deck.. only to be transformed to a junk special card by my Shupe. These kind of sweet victories make this deck enjoyable even though it suffers and loses to a lot to meta decks (NG-Ivar) and super greedy decks like triple Gerni or Keltullis or even Viy depends on your draw.

One of the best Renfri is to "Play a bronze and draw a card" - one of the games, I used it to play two poisons in the same turn to kill a tall unit, TWICE in a game. Even though only 3 poisons are in my deck! Guess how?

Spoiler

twice with bronze poison as first play with Renfri with cooldown 8. For the second time I used Redayah to get poison strategem!!

The deck link is here: https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/85233d0c409ef1d111a7f53599ddd974 (Remember this is more of a meme deck than a good/strong/competitive deck, but with really good draws and RNG, you can beat even the strongest meta decks easily)

I will now wait for the meme master @DRK3 and other deck master @quintivarium to give verdict on this and I hope @Barracuda88 just gives a try too and make it even better. I am sure this can be tuned even more and make it better.

 

[quintivarium]

I was only able to play the deck about a half-dozen times — definitely not enough for a definitive verdict (and I’m not the right player for that anyway). But I don’t know whenI will be able to play more and I wanted to give my initial impressions:

General Reactions:

• This deck is definitely fun. It is strong enough to be worth a try.
• The deck is original — unlike other decks I’ve seen. Moreover, the play does not become stale. Because of limited consistency tools, players must adjust to cards that are drawn. Because it is unfamiliar to opponents, one also avoids scripted responses.
• With Shupe, Renfri, Radeyah, Runemage, and Triss: Butterflies there is a plethora of choices for almost any tactical situation. This is very much a thinking deck, although some aspects (like not bricking Saskia) I find more tedious than actually fun. (I am highly tempted to import the Shupe Renfri Radeyah Runemage Triss idea into a faction I enjoy more.)
• The leader ability is very much a surprise, but could not be more perfect — as thought provoking as the remainder of the deck with both synergy and control options.

Strengths:

• The deck is unique and forces opponents out of comfort zones. It contains several potential surprises.
• The deck is very robust. It is virtually impossible for opponents to disrupt major plays. It plays well against most control decks.
• The deck has sufficient point potential to compete with most point slam.

Weaknesses:

• Lack of consistency — especially on red coin. Surprisingly, the big issue for me was not so much missing my big cards as drawing very awkward rounds. (Some of my discomfort here might be lack of familiarity with harmony cards — better ST players might not struggle to the same extent that I do.)
• Inability to compete with most of the greedy decks in the present meta — especially those that distribute points/threats across multiple cards. The deck cannot outpoint greedy decks and the control/removal tends to be awkward, slow, and inconsistent.

Suggestions:

• After the top cards, there is little design space left. Short of totally redesigning (changing) the deck, further refinement will be very minor.
• My only suggestion is to replace Elder Bear with Abandoned Girl. You sacrifice a small amount of tempo for an additional Saskia target, higher point ceiling, and a small engine.

 

[Barracuda88]

the deck is not nearly as strong as I thought/wanted it to be and I have been having 50% winrate with it - nothing bad and nothing impressive too.

Not like you can do much better than 50% as ST this season, anyway As soon as I tried it, I pulled poison with Saskia, which I expect to happen every single time.

Otherwise, I swapped the ifrit out for Roach, just to up the consistency a bit, and swapped in frenzied dao for morenn, to replace the construct tag. Also, out with antherion and in with the sentry, and agitator for the elder bear.

 

[rrc]

General Reactions:

• This deck is definitely fun. It is strong enough to be worth a try.
• The deck is original — unlike other decks I’ve seen. Moreover, the play does not become stale. Because of limited consistency tools, players must adjust to cards that are drawn. Because it is unfamiliar to opponents, one also avoids scripted responses.
• With Shupe, Renfri, Radeyah, Runemage, and Triss: Butterflies there is a plethora of choices for almost any tactical situation. This is very much a thinking deck, although some aspects (like not bricking Saskia) I find more tedious than actually fun. (I am highly tempted to import the Shupe Renfri Radeyah Runemage Triss idea into a faction I enjoy more.)
• The leader ability is very much a surprise, but could not be more perfect — as thought provoking as the remainder of the deck with both synergy and control options.

Thank you trying the deck @quintivarium! Yes, I find every game unique from my perspective depends on what I draw even though mostly the opponent's play is just in repeat-loop mode. Depends on what I draw and what I have potential of drawing, I had to come up with a game plan to survive/win. The leader ability is actually good as GT can move both poison treant and dryad and get additional points out of them. I had needed his movement and the 1 damage sometimes desperately and used it for offense too.

In one of the games, I only drew Rune Mage and nothing in R1 but still I was able to squeeze opponents good cards with Antrion, Defender, Chariot etc. And later rounds were so much power house that the opponent couldn't do much. The main point of Saskia is for thinning and tempo and not for getting synergy.

Strengths:

• The deck is unique and forces opponents out of comfort zones. It contains several potential surprises.
• The deck is very robust. It is virtually impossible for opponents to disrupt major plays. It plays well against most control decks.
• The deck has sufficient point potential to compete with most point slam.

Yes, the surprise aspect is the best part. And for the surprise element, we will have to sometimes play a bit not-optimal play. Opponent playing Symbiosis with Dunca, then we can pretend our deck to be Renfri deck by not showing Redayah and Shupe, but the Harmony/Engines aspect so that in R3, when they play Eithne we can either seize it (if they go first) or we can destroy it (if we go first and don't want to risk) with Shupe. Redayah giving 4th poison is also a solid option.

Overall, I was very proud of this deck and wanted to share and get all of your opinions

Suggestions:

• After the top cards, there is little design space left. Short of totally redesigning (changing) the deck, further refinement will be very minor.
• My only suggestion is to replace Elder Bear with Abandoned Girl. You sacrifice a small amount of tempo for an additional Saskia target, higher point ceiling, and a small engine.

Originally, the deck was more movement centric with moving treant boar, and sentry along with Matta. But most of the times the movement package were not that good and had to cut them off. Surprisingly, I didn't need Matta in many games and I played her on Melee in R3 quite a few times and hence decided to cut her off for locks. My first version of this deck had fourteen 4P cards

The reason I didn't add Abandoned Girl was, mostly Abandoned Girl wont be pulled from Saskia as we have to commit Rune Mage or Triss who would prevent her from getting summoned. Committing Rune Mage ASAP is necessary to either commit early Renfri or early Shupe to handle some situations. If AG is not pulled from Saskia, she is basically useless as we have no nature cards.

Not like you can do much better than 50% as ST this season, anyway As soon as I tried it, I pulled poison with Saskia, which I expect to happen every single time.

Otherwise, I swapped the ifrit out for Roach, just to up the consistency a bit, and swapped in frenzied dao for morenn, to replace the construct tag. Also, out with antherion and in with the sentry, and agitator for the elder bear.

Saskia pulling poison is punch in the gut I agree Ifrit -> Roach I like the idea. A bit more consistency and tempo is good. I will try that. Actually my initial version had Sentry, but it rarely ever worked. With only one cat witcher and matron he screwed me more. I even added Treant Boar for him to be useful in my earlier versions, but somehow it didn't work. Full of reds in the Match History This final version had 10 wins and 10 loses almost consistently at any point of time.

Antherion is actually good @Barracuda88. I rarely ever pull it as first target for Saskia, but even playing it from hand in some bad R1 draw could help. Why Agitator Barracuda?

 

[Barracuda88]

Antherion is actually good @Barracuda88. I rarely ever pull it as first target for Saskia, but even playing it from hand in some bad R1 draw could help. Why Agitator Barracuda?

Felt like enough dwarves in this deck for him to find minimal use. Only 1 physical point behind the bear and seemed a decent bet to play for 7 on occasion. I like synergies, however minor. Same reason for the sentry, where it's not only the cat witcher and the matron, but also the leader that can play for a couple more points. Antherion is good too, though. Might be equal or better value.

 

[DRK3]

First of all, im sorry i wont be trying out the deck myself, solely because im not playing Gwent anymore this season.
The final straw was when they delayed the new legendary seasonal mode without notice, which was the only thing i was excited for this season.

Regarding the deck, im only sorry you didnt try it in "order in all things" seasonal, because all your draws and RNG problems would not show up there.
I did a similar deck there, it had Saskia C, shupe, radeyah and GT leader, but it didnt have Renfri, you took the next meme step and for standard mode, which is even more bold!

 

[Trevorzan]

Well, I am not going to build such a deck. I believe that in general decks with overpowered cards, and Renfri in particular should not be promoted.