SK Warriors in 9.2

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rrc

Forum veteran
I used to hate SK Warriors with my body and soul as they were super oppressive and have been tier 1 for many many seasons until PoP finally powercrept the hell out of them. With this current meta, even though ST has couple of strong decks, I don't like ST. It is my favorite faction now and forever, but somehow this Spell'tel doesn't apply to me. I am more of GT Movement or DA pure-elfs guy which will have no chance in this meta. So, I wanted to try a different faction and wanted to try SK warriors. The pure breed SK devotion warriors.

SK Warriors, at least in this current state of the game, seems really well balanced. It is a joy to play. SK warriors have generally a weak round 1 and only excel in long round 3 with Herald and all control+point cards like Hjalmar, Madman, Skjordal and can easily out-point most other decks from pre-PoP era. The cards which in my perception were too OP, seems perfectly balanced now. Currently I wanted to try two different decks (with a lot of cards overlapping of course) and I have been having around 50% winrate around 2400 mmr.

There are a couple of cards I want to give a mention to. The Warcrier; this is my new favorite card. It is proactive (it comes at 4 and if it gets removed, who cares? If not, this is a very good solid engine). In a long round sometimes I open with Hearld+Warcrier and it is really good. The other card is Herkja. I think she is the second best 7P-4Strength-1armor card introduced, closely following Dunka who I think is the best of that lot. Herkja helps in getting Bloodthirst and mostly warrants an immediate removal.

SK is my least favorite and least played faction, but I know about SK as I used to face a lot of them. So, I am asking SK veterans (like @DRK3), which leader do you prefer for warriors? I tried PF and RF with most bronzes overlapping and a different take on top deck. These decks perform ok-ok and can beat some cocky or newbie players in pro rank who thinks SY and MO will always 2-0 any other decks. If you were building, how would you modify these decks? Or anything I am missing here and some tips to improve these decks.

PF: GWENT: The Witcher Card Game (playgwent.com)
RF: GWENT: The Witcher Card Game (playgwent.com)
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
I love SK, but SK Warriors is literally my least favourite archetype, the only "sub-archetype" i like in it are Queensguards and Draig Bon Dhu. But i will still try to help with my input.

But before that - i am not surprised you are having success with SK warriors. I've said many times: strong decks may lose popularity, fall out of favour due to new cards, maybe players are tired of it too, but they will remain strong. And SK Warriors, which was tier 1 for so long, and wasnt even nerfed, it will likely do well, specially since despite the opressiveness of the meta, only SY are running very control-focused decks, NR, ST and NG are actually letting more of your stuff stick than in past metas. And SK warriors can "fill that gap".

You may have changed your mind about some SK warriors balance, but i think a few are still overtuned. First and foremost, Eist + BoG (glad you're not using that one). But Skordjal still seems too strong and one of the best reasons to go SK devotion. And i freakin hate Herkja, even if her statline is perfectly reasonable.

Finally, moving on to your decks - they look mostly very solid, what i found most unusual is you're running 2 GS with PF leader, but none with RF. They synergize so well with RF charges. But i guess that's what the Dagur is for, maybe you're going for a classic "Dagur finisher" when you have last say. An alternative would be to include to defender to protect him.

And you're doing well by not using WIld Boar of the Sea. I love this card but i've used it recently and it does very poorly, specially when there are so many Spellataels with 300 orbs where you cant get anything damaged. And against MO relicts, you dont need to WBotSea to counter Gerni/ double Gerni, you can use cheaper options like RF charges, delirium, SK Storm or offering (ive used most of these on my deck to Pro Rank).

(EDIT) Or Hemdall, which i see now is on both of your decks. seems like a solid option with so much rowstacking, dont replace him for sure, but maybe double down on the wide damage options, particularly if you want huge Dagurs.
 
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I may have to go back and try SK Warriors again. They fell out of my favor a couple of months ago and I haven't tried them again since.

I am having a great deal of fun with my half druid/half berserker deck though. Doing better with it than anything else of late. Skellige is my preferred faction and probably always will be.

The new card that doesn't work for me is Offering to the Sea. Unless I am missing something, all it is, is a Skellige version of Ocrist for devotion decks...
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
The new card that doesn't work for me is Offering to the Sea. Unless I am missing something, all it is, is a Skellige version of Ocrist for devotion decks...

Offering to the Sea is amazing, IMO, in the best of all PoP SK cards. It has so many synergies, with swarm, damage, self damage, healing, etc.

It can be used with Dagur for amazing value, to get an Arnachad with a ton of armor, if you play armored units or berserk units, they tank the damage so it ends up being a sorts of bone talisman, or if your units are normal, but you rowstacked, you can play Flaminica afterwards for huge heals.

Giant Bronzes.jpg


Amazing Self Damage Match.jpg
 

rrc

Forum veteran
I love SK, but SK Warriors is literally my least favourite archetype, the only "sub-archetype" i like in it are Queensguards and Draig Bon Dhu. But i will still try to help with my input.
I knew DRK3. I know how much meta/strong decks off-puts you. I was the same about SK warriors. But in this meta, they are not as powerful or oppressive as before so wanted to try it out. I think you can give them a try. It is not actually easy to play them now as R1 is really hard and getting a long R3 is needed and sometimes it may not have chance against other decks too. I feel like you need to play skill-fully to win with SK Warriors and can't auto-play like how they were.
You may have changed your mind about some SK warriors balance, but i think a few are still overtuned. First and foremost, Eist + BoG (glad you're not using that one). But Skordjal still seems too strong and one of the best reasons to go SK devotion. And i freakin hate Herkja, even if her statline is perfectly reasonable.

You are absolutely right about overtuned cards. Instead of them getting nerfed, they were powercrept and made to look normal while a lot of cards which were powercrept by these cards are left as is. I hope this will be addressed soon, slowly and steadily. And honestly, Skordjal is the only card for which I am going Devotion. Herald gets insta removed. I think I have played around 25 games, and I think only in 2 or 3 games Herald stuck to the board and acted as an engine. Skordjal on the other hand is absolutely bonkers!

Yes, Herkja is also too good. I don't know why people don't use her. She can be a very good mid-range annoying card that would need to be removed. I still hate BoG+Eist as I think it is an unfair interaction.

Finally, moving on to your decks - they look mostly very solid, what i found most unusual is you're running 2 GS with PF leader, but none with RF. They synergize so well with RF charges. But i guess that's what the Dagur is for, maybe you're going for a classic "Dagur finisher" when you have last say. An alternative would be to include to defender to protect him.

And you're doing well by not using WIld Boar of the Sea. I love this card but i've used it recently and it does very poorly, specially when there are so many Spellataels with 300 orbs where you cant get anything damaged. And against MO relicts, you dont need to WBotSea to counter Gerni/ double Gerni, you can use cheaper options like RF charges, delirium, SK Storm or offering (ive used most of these on my deck to Pro Rank).

(EDIT) Or Hemdall, which i see now is on both of your decks. seems like a solid option with so much rowstacking, dont replace him for sure, but maybe double down on the wide damage options, particularly if you want huge Dagurs.
For PS, the only reason I am using GS is for Hjalmar. Now I realise 2xGS is not needed since I have Skjall. Not using GS for the 10 points. GS+RF is a good option if we go with Megascope. But I feel like Skordjal control is better than Megascope+GS pointslam. May be I am absolutely wrong. I didn't consider Defender mainly because NG is very prominent and the defender is only going to help NG or get Vincented or purified/bountied by Kurt or just outpointed by MO. Against ST, I play Dagur as my penultimate card and end with Morkvarg on their fat Gord.

Yes, to get damaged unit is hard! To achieve BT 3, I struggled a lot and switched from RF to PF. This used to be so much easier, but now it seems hard. But I like it. Feels like getting BT actually worth it. So Boar may not be good in Warriors deck. The main reason I have added Hemdall is for the Caranthir+Gerni. It is such a great feeling when all three engines die to my Hemdall. Also, Hemdall is an amazing tempo card and is very good against MO as well as ST two of very prominent decks. IMHO Hemdall is a better cheaper Oak.

I find it hard to get value from Dagur in many games with my RF deck. Kind of forcing me to not use my leader charged in R1 and R2 and hold on to them as late as possible. If I remove Dagur and add Hjalmar in my RF deck, then I need to add GS or Skjall. Surprisingly I found RF warriors a little awkward (or I don't know how to build a good RF warrior deck) and I thought it will be very good. So my doubts which require your opinion:

1) Who is a better leader for pure breed warriors? RF or PF? RF has flexibility with leader ability, but BT 3 cards like Champion Charge or even Blood Eagle is harder with RF. PF on the other hand is a single use ability, but greatly synergizes with Champhion Charge, Blood Eagle, and Madman (I once did 12 damage with Madman with PF)

2) Is it worth to go with Protector, 5Pship-which-damages-itself, Beserker for protector value? If I go this route, then Warcrier or Archer needs to be removed and they also seem very good.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
1) Who is a better leader for pure breed warriors? RF or PF? RF has flexibility with leader ability, but BT 3 cards like Champion Charge or even Blood Eagle is harder with RF. PF on the other hand is a single use ability, but greatly synergizes with Champhion Charge, Blood Eagle, and Madman (I once did 12 damage with Madman with PF)

I havent really used Reckless Flurry with SK Warriors since RF was changed to 3 charges. And with my distaste for tall units, i have never been a big fan of Arnjolf/ PF. I love the flexibility of multiple charges leaders like RF; but its undeniable PF synergizes better with Champions Charge and Blood Eagle. That choice is really tough to make, i'll leave it to you that probably already played a bit with both in the current meta.

2) Is it worth to go with Protector, 5Pship-which-damages-itself, Beserker for protector value? If I go this route, then Warcrier or Archer needs to be removed and they also seem very good.

I would say no, not worth it. That damage ship is a 5 for 5, and not even with the protector combo is worth it anymore, i think it has been powercrept. I've used quite a bit in my Flaminica healing decks, but it has performed worse than other bronzes like bear witcher or GS.
 
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well, now we have played a few matches i can respond this topic.

Like i said, Gerd can be a good substitute for hemdall, but it can bricks (adrenaline). In our games Gerd always bricked and in one of them i need to discard it. But, to kill caranthir's gernichora and fruits it problably wont brick
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Offering to the Sea is amazing, IMO, in the best of all PoP SK cards. It has so many synergies, with swarm, damage, self damage, healing, etc.

It can be used with Dagur for amazing value, to get an Arnachad with a ton of armor, if you play armored units or berserk units, they tank the damage so it ends up being a sorts of bone talisman, or if your units are normal, but you rowstacked, you can play Flaminica afterwards for huge heals.

View attachment 11249623

View attachment 11249626
in your picture i can see you use bear witcher mentor, wich its a good combo with offering of the sea, since he gets almost all the points get (and also, in adrenaline 3 he gets a huge value)
 
I wanna report a bug i noticed when you have 2 brokvar hunters or firesworn scribes on the board. One of them stops working. Also would like for tyrgvi to trigger on turn end with devotion. I cant create a post so i have to post here.
 
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