Tutoring Svalblod Priests

[quintivarium]

I have 2 or 3 SK decks that perform well when I draw at least one Svalblod Priest to use in the first round, but are pretty abysmal otherwise — especially if no Priests are drawn by round 3. Alternative cards like Houndsnout, Sigvald, Cultists, and even Villagers are inefficient (I really need the engine as well as the damage) and are only included in my decks as a contingency for not drawing Priests.

Is there some reasonably efficient way to tutor Priests? Oneiromancy and Royal Decree seem like very expensive solutions. (I don’t own either so I haven’t tried them, but I could craft them if they need to be a priority.) Reliably drawing them with Marching Orders or Ihuarraquax puts too many limits on a deck (virtually every other card would be 6 provisions). Fisher king is the best solution I have found, but is slow tempo. Have I missed anything?

 

[PavelHr]

Don't build your deck around a bronze card that dies to any 5 damage. There's no bronze tutor in the game, your best option is Oneiromancy but Oneiromancy can't be tutored so it's not ideal. If you're going engine-focused druids, there are some cool engines such as Crow Clan Preacher + Scenario and if they don't answer them straight away, they can get 15 points each.

 

[DC9V]

I have 2 or 3 SK decks that perform well when I draw at least one Svalblod Priest to use in the first round, but are pretty abysmal otherwise — especially if no Priests are drawn by round 3. Alternative cards like Houndsnout, Sigvald, Cultists, and even Villagers are inefficient (I really need the engine as well as the damage) and are only included in my decks as a contingency for not drawing Priests.

Is there some reasonably efficient way to tutor Priests? Oneiromancy and Royal Decree seem like very expensive solutions. (I don’t own either so I haven’t tried them, but I could craft them if they need to be a priority.) Reliably drawing them with Marching Orders or Ihuarraquax puts too many limits on a deck (virtually every other card would be 6 provisions). Fisher king is the best solution I have found, but is slow tempo. Have I missed anything?

I'd recommend to craft Oneiromancy if it fits in your deck, especially if you also run some neutral cards or Artefacts. Royal Decree works well in Round one, or if you want to make use of the Tactic tag when playing Nilfgaard, but it can't draw special cards or Artefacts like Mutna Sword, which is currently a very strong card against NR Shieldwall. Fisher King is indeed a bit too slow, and would only make sence when you also got two Skalds or Birna included, who will draw the top card of your deck. And then you also have the option to play Ermion + Freya's Blessing in order to play the priests from the graveyard.

 

[DRK3]

@quintivarium An alternative to tutoring is using the discard package, since to compensate the removal of the sacrificial vanguard ability, some of those cards got buffed.

(power/provisions)
They are Birna (6/8), Morkvarg (5/8), 2x skirmishers (4/4), 2x skjald (4/4) - they provide thinning, so you dont need tutoring and are very likely to get your svalblod priests by R3, and are also good tempo plays.

 

[quintivarium]

Thank All of you for the advice, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I’m sure I will make use of your suggestions both now and in the future

 

[Payus]

Marching orders doesn't sound that bad, if you remove villagers, what unit except Ermion is lower than 3 power in your deck? Ihuarraquax is best used to mill opponent's better card as you draw a powerfull non deploy unit for yourself, using it on range for priests is really bad, the only unit I would do that with are Greatswords so you draw a 10 str unit, even so its not good.

As Drk3 says the discard package is one of your best bets in SK.