Tap my back, while I cry, please :)

[tulamide]

I had such a disappointing day, that I could need some cheering up. For about 2 1/2 days now I'm working on a Harald deck. Nothing spectacular, but a reliable workhorse that lets me win more matches than lose. It's not that I like Harald much, but as I saw that I was at 25/100 won matches for the contract (just by experimenting with factions and leaders), I thought I could as well try to make it to 100

The deck I finally decided to go with contains 13 golds of good potential and synergies. The bronze cards again selected for synergies.



Nothing groundbreaking, but pretty solid. Or so I thought. It started really well for the first half day. I could manage to win pretty much every match. On the second day, I decided to play season mode rather than ranked, and that's when frustration slowly built up. I lost more and more matches. Most of them to decks that either mindlessly do (damage+block+unblock) or very clever designed Nilfgaard decks (without Anna!). I could live with the latter, but I really thought my deck would perform better against damage only decks.

But then came today. So far I played 30 matches - and I lost all of them! All. No exception. I lost to all factions, to all player levels (btw, there are some guys that are said to be level 11 or 12, but play -without thinking much- always the right cards at the right time, and their few gold cards are the perfect match for their bronze cards, amazing talents!) and throughout the day.

And in all of those matches I barely got a gold card on hand! Can you imagine that? You know you have the answer to an opponent's gameplan, but the cards just won't come out of the deck? As if I only had a deck of 12 bronze cards - oh and of course 2x spores, a card that I only had in there as a filler. The disappointment when playing R1 with an all-bronze hand (4x Svalblod Ravager in starting hand was the record), just to see another bronze R2, and in R3 the few golds just doesn't match.

And that over and over again. Bad luck. But still frustrating. So much that I beg you to cheer me up, please.

Post automatically merged: Apr 29, 2019

3 more lost matches.

I'm down on my knees, begging you.

Post automatically merged: Apr 29, 2019

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!1!11
34 matches and 1 win. Well, now I feel so much better. The goddess of luck might kiss me now!

 

[idomyownstunts]

Tap.

 

[tulamide]

Tap.

Thank you soooo much

 

[rrc]

Tap Tap.. there there..

 

[Karolis.petrikas]

 

[idomyownstunts]

Getting wet here. Too many taps running.

 

[DRK3]

@tulamide do you need help optimizing that deck? SK is my faction, so i got plenty of experience.

Also got a Harald deck im using on this new Season of Vipers mode, in case you're interested. Still needs a few tweaks though.

 

[tulamide]

@tulamide do you need help optimizing that deck? SK is my faction, so i got plenty of experience.

Also got a Harald deck im using on this new Season of Vipers mode, in case you're interested. Still needs a few tweaks though.

Actually yes, that would be awesome! So far I got to good working decks with all factions (a non-discard Crach deck being my favorite), but let's be honest: Harald hates me as much as I hate him. I just can't give him the crew he expects, it seems.

So any help would be appreciated at this point in time

 

[DRK3]

Actually yes, that would be awesome! So far I got to good working decks with all factions (a non-discard Crach deck being my favorite), but let's be honest: Harald hates me as much as I hate him. I just can't give him the crew he expects, it seems.

So any help would be appreciated at this point in time

Your Harald deck is using cards that dont usually see play, but there's nothing wrong with that, but there are some synergies that are lacking, that can be solved:

-you have Morkvarg but you're playing it directly from hand? That is a waste. Usually its played with discard units, so he's immediately revived. If you dont want to use any discard tactics on this deck, you have an alternative - a new card: 'Corrupted Flaminica', use her to kill Morkvarg, he's revived, she boosts by 5 and does bleeding by 5, its a good play.

-you have several units that rely on self-damage (Olgierd, Vildkaarl, Blueboy Lugos, 2x Svalblod Fanatics) but only 2x Svalblod Butchers to actually apply self-damage, so im guessing you're hoping the opponent does the damage to your units to benefit you, but good players will avoid that.
Put Harald Houndsnout or the recently buffed Svalblod Priests (cheap bronzes) to do damage on Olgierd and Blueboy Lugos.
Svalblod Totem is also a great card, which you can use to trigger Vildkaarl with less risk of him being locked or destroyed before he's transformed.

-With the leader Harald, unless you're ok with his leader ability being just 8 random pts damage, the only way to take advantage of it is using Greatswords or Dagur combined with his leader ability (Dagur+Harald ability= instant 20pts play guaranteed, unless the opponent has less than 8pts on his side)
Almost all Harald decks use these cards, and Delirium which is like a mini Harald's ability.

 

[tulamide]

...all you said...

That was very, very helpful. Some of the mentioned synergies I do actually use, but in the Crach deck (for example, priest/blueboy). I have no clue, why I omitted them here! However, there's a lot of other valuable information and I tried to build the deck, so that it covers, hopefully, everything you said. Here's the current revision:


I tested it in season mode and it works so much better already (in the first match, I accidentally thought I'd play with Crach, so that was 5 wasted damage points, but still the match ended in a tie. I won the other two, but mainly because my opponents locked the wrong cards)

However, I feel there's still room for optimization. For example, Doppler doesn't really help much. I can get him to 3-5 strength, but for 6 prov it seems too weak. So if you find time to look at the deck again, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I had to spend all of my remaining scraps for Totem, Dagur, Harald and Delirium, so any expensive optimizations will have to wait. But even if you'd recommend a 3.2k card, that's fine. It's only a matter of time to get there.

Btw., how do you deal with circumstances like a hand that just doesn't want to give you the synergies? Do you try your best still, or do you pass as early as possible?

 

[rrc]

View attachment 10998994

I have played literally 0 games with SK, so I may not be qualified to give a good advice. But with the general knowledge of the game, here are my 2 cents:
1) You deck tries to do two different things: Self damage (Svalblod) and damage opponents (Harald).
2) Remove Svalblod Fanatic, Olgierd (Svalblod Priest can work with Blueboy or Skeletons if Harald Houndsnout is killed), Doppler, Corrupted Flamanica, Vildkari (if people lock this unit, you have played a 5 point unit) and Morgvarg (only Corrupted Flamanica can use Morgvarg in your deck and it is extremely risky, absolutely not worth the risk).
3) Add Freya's Blessing to resurrect your Greatsword, Trophy Catch (to bring the enemy units to GS's opposite row), Svalblod Ravager/Heymey Spearmaiden (both to do damage and proc GS if necessary), Rain instead of Fog (Rain can do damage to 2 units thus trigerring GS twice), Drammond Shieldmaidens (for thinning) and Agura if you can (to unlock your GS or lock most dangerous enemy engines).

Your gameplan should be to have last say. Everyone will expect Harald+Dagur as the finishing move and hence will withhold their tall removal (like Geralt). Having the last say is absolutely critical to win with Harald. Don't hesitate to use all your valuable cards (Harald Houndsnout, Svalblod Priest, and Great Swords. Except Dagur, of course) in R1 to create tempo and win. Good Luck.

I am also interested to know @DRK3's opinion about your latest deck.

 

[BrokeCiri]

The first one is my updated standard greatswords deck and the second one is your latest deck but i customized it to maximize the pings and the self-wound character you are trying. I also noticed that you don't have any thinning or any form of consistency so i added discards, rrc might hate this. hehe. You can swap Roach and Skjall/Olgierd with Totem and Vildkaarl if you like. You can also remove 1 rain and add Ulfheidinn/Delirium/Fisher King.

 

[DRK3]

@tulamide You didnt have to go spending scraps on all the cards i mentioned, but at least Svalblod Totem and Harald Houndsnout are really good versatile cards you can use in any SK deck.

The advice rrc gave you is really good. Definitely replace that Doppler. And the Morkvarg+ Corrupted Flaminica is a nice play, but like he said, if that is the only beast in your deck, its not worth going for the combo - in general, you dont want 2 cards that only work together, its better to have versatility so your cards dont brick as often.

However, i disagree with rrc on one thing - he says your deck is trying to do 2 different things, which is exactly right, but he's implying that that's a bad thing, which i dont think its always true, in fact, im a big fan of mixing different archetypes on a single deck.

The advice he gave you is focused on creating an optimized 'pure GS/Dagur deck' (which is always with leader Harald), however that also means your deck becomes more predictable and less adaptable to different situations, since its only focused on making damage to boost the GS/Dagur.

On a last note, the fierce fight to win R1 when playing Harald, to get last say and do the classic Dagur+Harald 20pt play without fear the boosted Dagur gets destroyed/reset might be outdated - in my opinion, in the current meta, i havent seen many people running big unit destroyers like Geralt, so sometimes its beneficial to do that play earlier to destroy important engines or immune units, and keep doing damage so your opponent cant catch up (i.e. when facing NR with lots of engines)

 

[tulamide]

Guys, I can't thank you enough! That's all so valuable input!

Indeed there's two different paths the deck can go, and I like that for the reasons @DRK3 pointed out. I indeed use Harald earlier to get rid of engines that I could never block or destroy individually, for example, or to prevent ST dryad boost nightmare, etc.

But the other thing that was always important for me is that I play SK decks that are not discard decks. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against discard decks at all, I just don't feel that it's fair from the devs to nerf SK just because some people discard half of their deck to get to the few valuable cards. So if I play discard-less the statistics may show the devs that SK isn't nearly as op as people report here on the forums. If they then just change (or somehow nerf) some discard cards, that's fine with me.

I know it's an idealistic view, some may even call me a dreamer, but that was the thoughts behind no-discard SK decks from my side.

That said: if it turns out you can't successfully play (= more wins then losses) SK without discarding, I will of course do so! That's where your proposal, @BrokeCiri , becomes extremely helpful, as I have no real experience with discarding. So your posted decks will be tried for sure!

What I like about Sigvald is that he works on all units not just mine or the opponent's. I'm always looking for cards like that. Olgierd is another example.
But I do understand your proposals, @rrc , especially regarding Morkvarg. The way I use that card in the deck is just too risky, so I think I'll get rid of him. I'm also very thankful for pointing me to rain instead of fog. That indeed makes more sense! It's exactly those details that I tend to miss.

And let me thank you all once again for taking the time to help me improve that deck. I can't emphasize enough that it is so much more helpful than the usual deck copies or videos, because you describe in detail why you prefer one card over another. (Or I'm just an old-school guy who learns more from words than videos or pictures )

 

[nedders]

I'll pat your back if you pat mine; I gave up for a month or so because, frankly, the game's a pile of crap. I reinstalled about half an hour ago as work is quite stressful and I could do with a break, thought I'd see if anything had improved.....

Very first game I played a SK deck to get back into it. The deck included Morkvarg, Derran and Corrupted Flamenica. I drew Morkvarg R1, R2 and R3. Derran and the Flamenica, which both get value from Morkvarg, stayed in the deck. That's an initial deal, + 3 mulligans, + 2 mulligans, + 2 mulligans, no Derran, no Flamenica, so ended up with Morkvarg on the board. Also still in the deck were both Knut and Summoning Circle. Four golds refused to appear and the only useful bronzes to get value from Olaf or Vildkaarl didn't appear either.

This is what is and will always be the biggest flaw of this game - it actively ensures we need to try synergy, combo, etc., but unless you get the right deal at the right deal you will lose the game. I've said it time and time and time again, and will be called dull/repetitive again, but until they do something remotely clever about the mulligan/deal system this game will be forever broken and impossible to enjoy. There HAS to be a way to ensure some of the combos can happen. I don't know whether you should get one 'choice' card each round, or the hand size should be bigger, or the return of blacklisting, but that it's now half a year on from HC's release and nothing's changed is beyond me.

 

[tulamide]

I'll pat your back if you pat mine; I gave up for a month or so because, frankly, the game's a pile of crap. I reinstalled about half an hour ago as work is quite stressful and I could do with a break, thought I'd see if anything had improved.....

Very first game I played a SK deck to get back into it. The deck included Morkvarg, Derran and Corrupted Flamenica. I drew Morkvarg R1, R2 and R3. Derran and the Flamenica, which both get value from Morkvarg, stayed in the deck. That's an initial deal, + 3 mulligans, + 2 mulligans, + 2 mulligans, no Derran, no Flamenica, so ended up with Morkvarg on the board. Also still in the deck were both Knut and Summoning Circle. Four golds refused to appear and the only useful bronzes to get value from Olaf or Vildkaarl didn't appear either.

This is what is and will always be the biggest flaw of this game - it actively ensures we need to try synergy, combo, etc., but unless you get the right deal at the right deal you will lose the game. I've said it time and time and time again, and will be called dull/repetitive again, but until they do something remotely clever about the mulligan/deal system this game will be forever broken and impossible to enjoy. There HAS to be a way to ensure some of the combos can happen. I don't know whether you should get one 'choice' card each round, or the hand size should be bigger, or the return of blacklisting, but that it's now half a year on from HC's release and nothing's changed is beyond me.

Don't get me wrong, but I'm actually glad to read that. It happens so often, that I started to think "maybe it's me, I just can't make the best of whatever cards I get on hand". The above mentioned deck, and a new Eist deck work very well - IF you get the right cards on hand. With Eist it is even more difficult, as some cards NEED to be on hand for R1. And although I'm at 14 golds (the absolute maximum I can do without sacrificing important high provision cards), my hand is half bronze junk and half golds without matching combo parts. And that's AFTER mulligan.
At least it's fair, since all of us will experience it. But it also means that we all are more or less frustrated.

>tap<

 

[nedders]

Don't get me wrong, but I'm actually glad to read that. It happens so often, that I started to think "maybe it's me, I just can't make the best of whatever cards I get on hand". The above mentioned deck, and a new Eist deck work very well - IF you get the right cards on hand. With Eist it is even more difficult, as some cards NEED to be on hand for R1. And although I'm at 14 golds (the absolute maximum I can do without sacrificing important high provision cards), my hand is half bronze junk and half golds without matching combo parts. And that's AFTER mulligan.
At least it's fair, since all of us will experience it. But it also means that we all are more or less frustrated.

>tap<

Some of it is just too suspect, imho. I recently lost a match, because in R1 my opponent passed at the precise moment when I couldn't surpass his total with either of my last cards; they were only 3 points in front, but i had summoning circle! they then proceeded to win by a single point R3.

I've just lost and quit; it rarely takes more than 3 or 4 games to quit in disgust, such is the crapness of this game. This was the scenario - in R3, I'm one card down because of a quite incredibly fortunate series of R2 plays. Final straw comes when I play Heimdall - I don't expect it to stay on the board, because I have Eist - however, the opponent then plays a spy, "randomly" plays Saesenthessis - Blaze, but it doesn't have order - it immediately does 5 damage, removing my Heimdall. I quit because it's just cheating? Since when did Saes Blaze not have orders?

Hateful game.

 

[BrokeCiri]

but it doesn't have order - it immediately does 5 damage, removing my Heimdall. I quit because it's just cheating? Since when did Saes Blaze not have orders?

could you elaborate more? what other units is on his board? maybe there's a zeal giver?

 

[nedders]

could you elaborate more? what other units is on his board? maybe there's a zeal giver?

There was, John Natalis, but I'd removed it.

Here's more evidence of cheating:

Unless the opponent knew what I had, or I was - as I STRONGLY suspect - up against the computer AI, why would you risk going into R3 losing CA?

I could have had Knut into Olaf. I could have had more or less any decent unit, except of course I didn't. This is the second time in the past few matches that this has happened, where my suspiciously bad hand has been exposed by someone with either incredible foresight or the ability to see my cards.

Back to uninstalling yet again. CDPR, cheats.

 

[BrokeCiri]

There was, John Natalis, but I'd removed it.

Here's more evidence of cheating:

View attachment 10999723
Unless the opponent knew what I had, or I was - as I STRONGLY suspect - up against the computer AI, why would you risk going into R3 losing CA?

What rank are you? At higher rank bleeding is common even if it means sacrificing card advantage and I do this all the time. Players do this because:
1. His/Her short round is better than yours
2. Forcing you to play core cards
3. Going for 2:0

Strategy =/= Cheating