Skellige – HARD feelings. Needs rebalance!

[VampiresSack]

Skellige – HARD feelings. Needs rebalance!

Playing only Skellige from the start. It was weakest deck in Witcher 3, and it's weakest here in Gwent.
It looks like:

Nilfgaard: do anything with your deck, your hand, opponent's grave, see opponent's hand.
Skellige's proud answer: take one random card. Kill another.

North: strengthen every your card/upcoming friendly card.
Skellige's proud answer: kick self. Kick neighbour.

Scoia'tael: kill any opponent's unit. Strengthen killer.
Skellige's proud answer: kick opponent's unit. Become 1 more powerful when neighbour got kicked.

Monsters: play 10 cards, make them eat each other, get a bunch of overpowered units constantly eating each other and opponent's units and cover everything with frost.
Skellige's proud answer: play your hero and give opponent free unit. Try to destroy unit. Become 22-hero immidiately dying from frost and execution.

North: hit every new enemy unit. Strenghten every friendly unit every turn.
Skellige's proud answer: hit one random enemy unit when moving troop DIRECTLY from your deck (not hand!) to grave (wait, what?..)

Nilfgaard gold: play overpowered squad, see opponent's hand, make your gold even more overpowered.
Skellige's proud answer: grant opponent with 1-chicken. Destroy everything. Grant opponent with 16-gold.

Nilf spy\North: block\unblock two units in one turn.
Skellige's proud answer: unblock one of your blocked units. Dig opponent's grave.

Other decks: strenghten your units.
Skellige's proud answer: strenghten your DEAD units. Give them to Nilf doctors and Monster's eaters.

Other golds: become overpowered, kill something, choose n cards and play them, become even more overpowered.
Skellige's proud answer: lie in graveyard for some time. Then get 6-gold. Loose it next round.


Support me here.

 

[devivre]

Don't think it is that easy. SK is still top tier, as you can see in statistics like this one:
https://gwentup.com/report/17/25

The only SK leader that is struggling to find his place is Harald. We'll see if the new cards are able to adress that next patch.

 

[VampiresSack]

Don't think it is that easy. SK is still top tier, as you can see in statistics like this one:
https://gwentup.com/report/17/25

The only SK leader that is struggling to find his place is Harald. We'll see if the new cards are able to adress that next patch.

Good point, but it's loose rate is visibly high.

Still, no Skellige cards in popular cards, as I see.


Anyway, it's not "just remove it and burn remains" critics from my side. Skellige can still be officialy "tough path", or it can be re-balanced.
Skellige disadvantages are clear to me in comparsion to other deck, and since I'm supporting the whole game idea, I thought I must state it.

 

[DeathhWisher]

imo SK is second only to NG atm... also im afraid a bit of upcoming patch since new geralt seems to be great for SK vs any buff deck (almost all of top decks), so i hope devs will nerf geralt or SK strengthen archetypes. As devivre said only Harald is struggling hard right now and in terms of faction ST is the one that needs buffs. Other than that I would like to see nerfs to NG, NR and maybe SK depending on final form of new geralt.

And pls note we do not know 89 new cards yet and they can totally change power balance.

 

[IvarsT]

Im Also playing only SK. Today played about 15 matches, never got to fight against SK. People in ranked matches really seem to steer away from using SK. Not to slow ranks? Its clear that SK is not easy route and being used just for gags.

 

[devivre]

Im Also playing only SK. Today played about 15 matches, never got to fight against SK. People in ranked matches really seem to steer away from using SK. Not to slow ranks? Its clear that SK is not easy route and being used just for gags.

SK is still strong, at least certain types of it.

Lately however NR is becoming more popular and people seem to make much better use of it.
That's one reason why SK is less dominant these days.

But even now SK seems to be doing pretty good:
https://gwentup.com/report/17/26

 

[Shuls02]

Stats dont matter all that much, a lot of those wins might be topdecks or misplays from either side so its not "real" evidence of how strong/weak SK is.

Anyways, Harald might get out of the hole he is in thanks to the new gold Ulfhedinn wich is basically one of old Haralds abilities.
Derran looks pretty bad unless they introduce a new keyword similar to Hexproof from MTG, otherwise its just an easy scorch/gigni/ac/lock target

 

[OG.laloquaint]

Nah man, Skellige is really good. They're just a little hard to use. Their gold cards do suck though for sure.

 

[lakired]

RIP Skellige

Veterans archetype fully removed from the game: vet tag removed, veterans changed to "support" tag only so BMs can't summon them and Freya can no longer rez them (only rezzes soldiers).

GS nerfed close to removal: Hunter's ability removed. Freya can't rez ships, Corsair can't rez GS... so in other words, lots of bricked hands and inconsistent ability to maintain engine in a much more removal friendly format.

Self-wound nerfed close to removal: Almost all self-wound synergy stripped from the game.

Discard nerfed: Freya no longer being able to rez harpoons means you either don't run harpoons, or drop 1-2 Freyas for Corsairs, leading to more bricked hands and limited response tools.

Axemen remains mostly unscathed, though hampered somewhat by Freya not being able to rez harpoons. Also benefit from a number of other new support cards. However it wasn't even T2 before the patch, and the only variant that saw any play at all was with veterans which are no longer a viable card. So hard to say whether it'll enjoy any renewed play.

Bears is a brand-new archetype, so hard to say whether it'll be viable in whatever new meta emerges. Looks to have strong potential, but is also very much a scorch bait deck, and Henselt Machines looks like it'll still be a dominant archetype going forward.

Anyone have any other thoughts on SK's future, given the current state of the PTR changes?

 

[Iuliandrei]

My thoughts are that some streamer will make a SK deck which everybody, including you, will netdeck and we'll have the same stale meta as we do now. I've seen this for years, every time a new patch/expansion comes out, if anything changes and it's not enhancing the particular netdeck people are already running then it must be killing the faction/class/etc.

 

[gards]

My thoughts are that some streamer will make a SK deck which everybody, including you, will netdeck and we'll have the same stale meta as we do now. I've seen this for years, every time a new patch/expansion comes out, if anything changes and it's not enhancing the particular netdeck people are already running then it must be killing the faction/class/etc.

This. If players can only mill certain cards from each faction i.e. can't mill the starter deck cards from any faction unless you have a duplicate card. It would go a long way to slowing down the abuse of milling ALL cards from any other faction they don't want. then creating the best deck from the faction they do want. Which is just wrong....low rank players SHOULD NOT have a pro deck (including me) within a few hours of playing the game!

 

[lakired]

My thoughts are that some streamer will make a SK deck which everybody, including you, will netdeck and we'll have the same stale meta as we do now. I've seen this for years, every time a new patch/expansion comes out, if anything changes and it's not enhancing the particular netdeck people are already running then it must be killing the faction/class/etc.

I'm not sure why you're choosing to be so nasty, or why you think I netdeck, or why that's even remotely relevant to what I was wanting to discuss. I mean, I'm literally going through the new cards and changes and theory-crafting with them, which is about as far from net-decking as could possibly get. It also doesn't at all address the issues I brought up. If you're tired of stale metas, shouldn't you be more upset that they're removing viable archetypes? Despite your claims otherwise, I play CCGs primarily because I enjoy deckbuilding, and hit GM with my own deck that I spent weeks tinkering with. And I'm upset, because a lot of the deckbuilding opportunities for SK have gotten completely gutted with the proposed changes. I was excited initially at some of the reveals these past weeks, because it looked like they'd be adding MORE tools for axemen and a new Beast archetype (as well as a clever scorch deck I'd come up with that ended up not working because the new damage ship doesn't let you choose all its pings, but just levels them all on the same target), only to see them completely removing all of the other existing archetypes simultaneously. Again, if you hate stale metas, you should be in favor of potential deck diversity. Obviously the meta can never be that diverse with as limited a card pool as we currently possess, but rather than expand with the new 110+ card release it looks like the SK meta is about to get boa-constrictored.

 

[shroudb]

My thoughts are that some streamer will make a SK deck which everybody, including you, will netdeck and we'll have the same stale meta as we do now. I've seen this for years, every time a new patch/expansion comes out, if anything changes and it's not enhancing the particular netdeck people are already running then it must be killing the faction/class/etc.

that means jack shit.

More than 3-4 decks are completely annihilated, as well as A?NY kind of uniqueness and every single defining mechanic of the faction.

yes, Bear skellige is currently strong at the PTR, that has NOTHING to do with the extreme nerfs to every single archetype that existed for SK so far:

No more self wounding synergy. No more veterans. No more Greatswords. Axemen gutted. Dimum became terrible. Every single strong Sigdrifa res target is excluded. Etc

But your point is "well Bears will be strong".

F that.

Minimum things that need to be done (always imo):

Freya also hits supports.
Sigdrifa reverted to open version.
Veterans getting their soldier tag back.

 

[Evald]

From the very beginning of my play I started to play with skellige and wanted to continue it, but after last patch I need to seriously consider abandoning this faction. Sometimes it looks like someone from developers really hates this faction . Anyway first I try to find a way for this faction to work - but currently dont have much time to experiment :/.

 

[gards]

SK resurrect deck was OP. I have no sympathy.

 

[GlassCards]

With Hemdall buffed, it looks like they really really REALLY emphasize you to add in Geralt: Yrden for him... Remember, Hemdall is a "Token" now. :\

 

[ChinToka]

Like you guys i have been playing Skellige as my Main Deck and it was useful up to Level 30. Then i got kicked and kicked and kicked in the butt...
I finally found a good Deck Combination last week and it worked superbebly, i was winning most of the time, since yesterdays update. Now its total shit! All usefull Cards got nerfed and my tacticts don't work anymore.
Why did they take away the Shieldmaidens ability for causing 2 damage? Sigrdrfa can only resurrect Clan Silver Cards... great! So no Draig Bon Dhu ressurection... Got it working with Resurrection but you are loosing a Point.
Discarded Cards by Clan Wamoger cannot be resurrected by Priestress of Freya! Good Job CDProject Red! A nother useful feature nerfed!

And Kambi is the worst Card of all time! Causing Ragh Nar Roog is cool and detroying all cards can give you a chance to come backn into the game if the enemy has far more Units than you.... but give the enemy a northern god with 16 Points????? F*** this... thats almost blasphemous.

 

[VampiresSack]

Well, as TS,

CDPRR have certainly rebalanced Skellige. On first sight some interesting tactical abilities of SK are lost: "veteran" thing, hunters neighbour-kick-powerup, resurrection... But overall power of SK is definetely up, even without bears, Jango and ever-hitting Harald.
So as TS I'm kinda more happy. Maybe just because everyone is confused by new release and winning got much easier xD

 

[Sigurd_3]

that means jack shit.

More than 3-4 decks are completely annihilated, as well as A?NY kind of uniqueness and every single defining mechanic of the faction.

yes, Bear skellige is currently strong at the PTR, that has NOTHING to do with the extreme nerfs to every single archetype that existed for SK so far:

No more self wounding synergy. No more veterans. No more Greatswords. Axemen gutted. Dimum became terrible. Every single strong Sigdrifa res target is excluded. Etc

But your point is "well Bears will be strong".

F that.

Minimum things that need to be done (always imo):

Freya also hits supports.
Sigdrifa reverted to open version.
Veterans getting their soldier tag back.

Yes, I completely agree with to your suggestion of "minimum things that need to be done." I can understand a slight nerf to Freya since she is a bronze that can revive any bronze unit from your graveyard, but they excessively nerfed her. Since they added the bronze item that revives beasts and Svalblood units, I kind of doubt they want her to be able to revive those units. There is also that bronze unit that revives bronze machines, and so I kind of doubt they want Freya to revive Machines either. So that just leaves the support tag units that she should also revive in addition to soldiers. I personally would be fine if she were able to revive bronze machines or support units, but one or the other so she isn't excessively nerfed (thus there is more of a middle ground).

Also, Sigdrifa is a silver unit and she should not be limited (or at least not as much as now) for reviving units. She should either be able to revive any bronze or silver unit in your graveyard like in the pre-mid winter update, or she should be able to revive any bronze or silver Skellige unit. The latter would also be a middle ground, and thus would be more of a healthy balance. There are some Skellige units like Gremist and Savage Bear that aren't part of a clan, and thus they can't be revived by Sigdrifa.

Also, if CDPR wants to be fair and treat factions equally, why doesn't Northern Realms have more limitations on Reaver Scout since he can spawn a copy of any bronze unit on the board from the deck? Whereas Battle Maiden in Skellige is limited with choosing from Soldiers and Machines, and on top of that, she damages the unit she spawned from by 1 point (the damage is only a good thing for Raging Beserkers, Greatswords and Beserkers). Additionally, if Freya, a bronze unit, can only revive Soldiers, why should Reaver Scout be able to pick whoever the hell the player wants?

I think the nerf to Freya especially hurt the Greatswords/Light Longships archetype since she can only revive Greatswords since Light Longships are obviously machines and not soldiers. The Greatswords/Light Longships was already a very noncompetitive deck archetype, and this just worsen that deck much more so.

 

[DARKBRINGERxX]

Has anyone noticed how worthless Eist the new SK leader is? and the Clan veterans don't strengthen him. what the hell is that? HE IS EIST "TURSIEACH" WHY THE HELL IS HE NOT GETTING STRENGTHENED TOO?!!? its the mans fucking last name how do you screw that up?? plus give us back the Veteran tag atleast on Tursieach units.
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