The Purpose of CA Spies: Cantarella, Frightener, Thaler, Udalryk and Yaevinn

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DRK3

Forum veteran
Great guide for the newbs, if i had tried to do one i would probably take 3x the words and they wouldnt read cuz it would be too long...

I'm a huge fan of CA, run Ciri and spies on most of my decks, and usually got my lovely fire cards to deal with the points im giving them.
 
Esmer;n8804560 said:
Frightener is worse than other spies since you don't get to choose a card you draw.

However, it still gives you card advantage and because of that it's a very good card. You can also try to push the enemy units into the weather row from a row that has no weather.

You can't choose a card with Cantarella either. You just get a second chance but it could also be worse than your first...
 
soph912;n8808230 said:
You can't choose a card with Cantarella either. You just get a second chance but it could also be worse than your first...

Yes, but Frightener is still worse than Cantarella, because she gives you a second try. You get the idea of what I was saying anyway.
 
Anything that grants card advantage is never useless. if you think so, then you are using spies incorrectly. Play them in rounds that you don't intend to win (R2 after winning R1, R1 if you are far behind your opponent and can't catch up without going 2 cards down).

Frightener's ability to push units to other rows isn't good enough to synergize with weather, but it can be used to set up massive swings with Geralt: Igni. Played a game where I was ~20 behind and had exhausted almost all my high value cards. My opponent had one 16 strength unit in siege row and another in the ranged row. I was planning on playing Frightener and passing the round because my opponent was ~20 up and I had exhausted almost all my high tempo cards. Fortunately for me, my opponent passed and Frightener threw the 16 strength unit onto the siege instead of the melee row. That allowed me to steal the game with a 36 value Gigni. Now that Frightener is getting buffed to pull one unit to its row and not two to other random rows, you can setup these swings more consistently. They will happen rarely, but when they do, they'll win you rounds.
 
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Today I used frightener to delay the round as I was winning, played borkh and my opponents had a highish buffed resilient unit. They pass behind with 2 ticks, I play frightener so that borkh burns the resilient unit and frightener too. Still a highly situational play though.
 
soph912;n8804430 said:
Priscilla is overpriced for example. Got her yesterday in a keg and she seems to be a complete waste of 800 Ores if you ask me. Any neutral gold card is better in a NR deck.
And she's probably still better than Keira, but that's a topic for another thread.

But frightener will be much more useful to me in this next patch. I may have to start running him in my weather deck.

 
Can someone explain frightener for me? I am using it in my consumption deck and it rarely, if ever, sees proper use.
 
Mystikast;n9156840 said:
Can someone explain frightener for me? I am using it in my consumption deck and it rarely, if ever, sees proper use.

Eh... I've merged your post into the thread that literally gives the answer to your question, besides what you have mentioned yourself, moving a card in line with Speartip or Igni.
 
Why is everybody so fond of Cantarella?

I'm new to Nilfgaard and in order to get familiar with it I browsed some decks on GwentDB for common units and combos. I liked the spy archetype so I mainly browsed spy decks, and I noticed almost all of the spy decks run cantarella. I could not really figure out why, though. Sure, it grants you CA but is that worth 11 points? Yes, you can kill it with Menno but then you only have played 8 points in 2 turns. Can anyone enlighten me what possible benefit I am overlooking?
 
Rayquorz thread merged

This thread should give you the answers you're looking for. Also, for Cantarella it's particularly nice because she synergizes with the spy archetype (more so than other spies with other archetypes).
 

rrc

Forum veteran
How to properly use the CA Spy card?

I know that one valid usecase is, if I win the first round with equal cards, in second round I can start with the spy and go on till the opponent's last card and then either win the round if I can or pass so that in third round I have a card advantage.

Also, I know that NR can use the spy to lose with more than 20 points and when the opponent passes the Dun Banners come and with a single card they can win R1. Similar thing Brouver does with the Cleaver thingy.

These two are specific to a faction/leader/deck. But apart from this, how to use a Spy. More specifically, in which scenario is a CA Spy useful in R1, R2, R3 in general? And in which scenario should I Mulligan the Spy if I have drawn one.

I have read in one post that the OP recommended using ADC to tutor the Spy, which is like giving 15 points to the opponent which didn't make sense to me. I am currently playing without CA Spy since I don't find them useful other than in R2 if I have won R1 which is too conditional.
 
rrc thread merged

Take a look at the OP (and the rest of the thread) for some more advice.
 

rrc

Forum veteran
4RM3D;n10917212 said:
rrc thread merged

Take a look at the OP (and the rest of the thread) for some more advice.

Most of the information (apart from the OP) was stale and not valid anymore. People discussing second try for Canterella, Frightener/Kayran consume, all these things are not valid anymore (and I didn't even know that they were valid before) :(

I wanted to know when I should mulligan the spy I have drawn. Valid usecase of the spy in R1, R3 scenarios and why in the world would using ADC and giving a 15 points to opponent is a good thing to do (and if so, in which scenario).
 
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