Some questions from an NR-player (Rant)

[Zimtsternchen]

Hi people,
I dont know guys I think NR is left behind... other factions have stronger combos than NR.
14+ play with a bronze card (Viper Witcher, vicovaro novice, spotter, werewolf (untouchable), ....)

Other questions?
Blue stripe shout vs tuirseach veteran
In a SK deck i can play those verterans early. They buff my hole Turseach forces. Those buffs stay over death and even resurected units have it again
A blue stripe scout can only buff their commando bros, arezula adapts, temerian infanty, roche and the drummers on the last cast.
If any of my units get hit while playing my scouts they dont get buffed again, neigher gets the other temerian roster.
It feels unfair....the Sk resurects replaying his veterans and I sit here like: Oh you did 1 dmg to all my units, ok my 3rd blue stripe just pulls out a commando for 12 points play. Nice!"
Resurrecting my Scout wont do anything because I am not playing SK where the graveyard is my second hand!

Whats up with this Temerian, Redenia, Kedwen, Aderin Tags other than to restrict the Blue Stripe Commando?
Nothing speacial? Am I missing something?

Roche is just a weaker version of Iorveth

Rouch:Mercyless is too situational. Why pick this card ?? 6 power gold against any non ambus decks. No other faction has a gold card like this!!

Lubberkin and Botchling a 15 point play for 2 silvers. NG does this with one bronze.

Aedirnian Mauler vs AN craite Marauder (Same stats, better effect)

Adda is useful for what? Eridin should be the concept for her. Choose one cursed bronze unit!

I feel like NR has no big synergies with each other, other than armor stealing and crew

I feel like NR has only 4 bronze crads to play around: Blue Stripe Scout, Kaedwen Revenant (why is this no soilder???), Siege Support and Redanian Elite

Sorry for the little rant. I lost 3 games against "Turseach boar rampage resurection madness; I damage you and make me stronger" and 4 games against "I buff my elves beyond infinty while I have the resources to kill and weaken all your key units with my bronzes."

And I dont start talking about the MIlfguard imbalance!

What NR deck shall I play ?? What can I rank up with ?? What is viable enough to fight against these combos?? What stands a chance against this overpowered madness from the other factions.

I think the answer is simple: Play Nilfgard and use all NR cards for dust

sry for may bad english. Its not my main language

 

[JojkoK85]

well, I am afraid you provided the answers together with the questions. I am playing exclusively NR decks, but always stopping with ranked after reaching 20, is it just does not make any sense to push further.. I do not see any tier 1 NR deck, but gwentdb offers some nice deck suggestions to try and achieve a certain success with. I play 4 different NR decks in parallel, but none of these is an easy way to grandmaster

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

The deck is far from bad.
With Temerian Infantry, which can easily be buffed to 7 or 8, this deck has on of the best finishers in my opinion.
BSS +BSC easily become 14+ plays, too.
Skelliges main thematic is resurrecting so it makes sense, that Tuirsearch can profit from that. At the other hand they can only play 1 unit with a Tuirsearch tag per round, while Temeria can play 2 to 3.
And even though it is a deck that greatly profits from long rounds, Temeria has lots of indirect carry over, by buffing cards in the deck with Blue Stripes and Foltest and getting strong finishers like the example mentioned above.
Roche isn't a weak card and I wouldn't say that he is weaker than Iorveth. Iorveth becomes more and more useless the later he is played, while Roche becomes more powerful. The only problem is that while Roches total power is good, after his passive activated at game start he becomes not much more than a Bronze card which doesn't synergize with the deck anymore, such that for all that I care, he could discard himself directly at game start.

The biggest problem that I see with Temeria is the number of counters it has:
-Scorch: the deck tends to align all its units at equal power making it easily scorchable. Getting hit by Igni is even easier
-Row Stacking Hate: the deck has at least 4 units on a row even in medium rounds, which make any row stacking punishment units absolute Horror, like Lacerate, or Merrigolds Hailstorm
-Resets: Even though there aren't any single targets with a high strength, the whole deck relying on boosting makes it weak against resets. DBomb and Yrden completly destroy it, even if they aren't viable, and also cards like Petyr gain more than enough value.
-Damaging effects: due to the way BSS work, every damaging effect during the set up hurts twice or more times. Which is inparticular bad for effects damaging more than 1 target. One of the worst problems are damage dealing engines
-Weather: due to all the buffs the player won't get any value from Clear Sky at all
-Removal: BSS have to be played early, else a lot of value is lost and the probability for a bricked hand due to BSC becomes higher. As most decks rely on Reaver Scouts, removing a BSS is quite good too.

While there are some counters, which clearly should be there as Gigni, Row Stacking Hate ortargeted removal, there are others, that shouldn't be there or as strong as they are at the moment.

 

[JojkoK85]

The biggest problem that I see with Temeria is the number of counters it has.

That is very good conclusion. I really enjoy Temeria decks, but exactly for reasons you listed the decks are very fragile. I would accept the fragility as cost of extraordinary strength, but this is not really the case unfortunately.

Playing NR is kind of badge of honor As mentioned in previous post, all decks I play I consider good, but for every of them similar list of weaknesses can be found. Of course, every deck can be countered, but difference is obviously number of efficient counters available without playing completely reactive deck..

 

[mission_deadman]

I'm fine with the Temerians. When I just started playing Gwent I could only win with NR so I milled every other card until I had all NR and neutral cards. Then I moved on to NG, and that's when I realized NRs biggest problem is lack of finishers.

Shani into Stennis isn't as effective because every faction can do a similar thing. DJ is great if your deck thins enough to know what you're gonna pull, and Bloody Baron is easy to predict.

As far as their engines go, Siege Supports and Revenants have the same problems as cards like Enforcers or Mangonels. The decks that utilize them tend to lean too heavy on them. My reveal deck uses Mangonels but doesn't rely on them to win, so zap it, I'll be fine. I've been working on a deck that uses Siege Supports in the same way. I'm personally okay with most engines being on the board in moderation, but when I see Siege Supports I have to put them down, because the chances of the opponent being the kind of person that has Germain or something else greedy is high.

 

[JojkoK85]

I agree with the claim that engine related limitations are not specific to NR. What makes difference in case of NR is that it is much harder compared to any other fraction to find efficient deck not relying on engines. Reveal is good example of robust mechanics- besides of removing Mangonels, not much can be done to counter the deck.

 

[Khreygond]

I agree with the claim that engine related limitations are not specific to NR. What makes difference in case of NR is that it is much harder compared to any other fraction to find efficient deck not relying on engines. Reveal is good example of robust mechanics- besides of removing Mangonels, not much can be done to counter the deck.

What you can do as NR for engines is use Foltest and Redanian Knight Elects. Foltest buffs these guys to 10 with their armor, so just outside the range of most removals, while if you use the "Tormented mage + Thunderbolt" potion you can get more damage from it while exploiting the armor properties. I've seen that deck a few times in casual and it's pretty powerful in a long round.

Alternatively, like you said, you can just exploit engines which are useful when left alive but not a big deal when destroyed. An NR Henselt Deck I've encountered packed 3 Redanian Knight Elects and 3 Reinforced Trebuchets (those STR 8 deal 1 damage every turn ones), neither of which was crucial to the core strategy. There may be lots of removal in enemy decks but most decks lack the resources to kill all 6 of your engines and even if they do, as long as they aren't crucial to your strategy, you can still win.

The sad truth is that engine-centric decks are not viable but that's true for every deck except skellige. Are spies viable somehow?

 

[JojkoK85]

Are spies viable somehow?

agree very much with what you posted, but exactly quoted part is my point. If you want to play Nilfgaard, you do not play spies but reveal as an example. But forming viable NR deck not using engines is much more challenging. What was core part of Henselt deck you are mentioning then? I use similar with reavers, but calling reavers robust mechanic would be very optimistic

 

[Khreygond]

agree very much with what you posted, but exactly quoted part is my point. If you want to play Nilfgaard, you do not play spies but reveal as an example. But forming viable NR deck not using engines is much more challenging. What was core part of Henselt deck you are mentioning then? I use similar with reavers, but calling reavers robust mechanic would be very optimistic

I think it was Kaedweni Knights. Along with Stennis, Natalis, Shani, all the good NR cards. All out points. I can't talk about it's actual efficiency because I haven't played this deck, but I've faced against it with my baseline consume (which can put a lot of points on the board) and it takes a lot of managing to avoid their long round potential while matching them in the short and medium rounds.

I will also agree that Blue Stripes are underwhelming. For them to be worth it you devote at least 9 units in your deck to them (Scouts, Commandos, Infantrymen) and there's just so many problems with them. And if you don't take these guys, you end up not knowing what else to take in their stead.

 

[JojkoK85]

I will also agree that Blue Stripes are underwhelming.

Yes, can only agree here.

Kaedweni Knights are most likely candidates here, yes. Is definitely not bad deck, but I think we are back where we started- long run potential is based on all the engines. If most of these are shut down, Knights themselves are not going to save the day. Reavers can, but you need to run Operator and properly use Muzzle and Summoning Circle to get real value here. And countering them with resets and similar tricks is also rather easy On the other hand, Consume is good match up for this deck, I am mostly able to beat it with this one..