Which decks have a good matchup vs. Greatswords?

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Which decks have a good matchup vs. Greatswords?

This patch, my first guess would be that Greatswords is the deck to beat. The matchup can be swung with certain tech cards of course (Geralt: Igni, Miruna, Muzzle, Artefact Compression ...) but I'm more curious about which decks have a naturally good matchup against Greatswords and don't need to tech much to beat it.

The meta reports (link to latest one) are hard to decipher since Crach has more than one viable deck. Still, there are a few leaders with a significant advantage:

Usurper - presumably spies, but small sample size. I imagine it's Emissaries blocking ships followed by Medics stealing the biggest Greatswords.
Eithne - presumably control lists. 2x Artefact Compression should be strong, possibly multiple Scorches and / or Alzur's Thunder as well.
Jan Calveit - presumably since Viper Witchers can easily kill Greatswords again and again. Not sure how well Alchemy will hold up this patch however.
Princess Adda - can someone explain why Adda matches up well against Greatswords? I genuinely don't get it. I suppose the Sorceresses can kill Greatswords, but so can Viper Witchers and Adda's win rate vs. GS is significantly higher.

Are there any other decks with a naturally strong matchup vs. Greatswords?
 
Jeydra;n10954517 said:
This patch, my first guess would be that Greatswords is the deck to beat. The matchup can be swung with certain tech cards of course (Geralt: Igni, Miruna, Muzzle, Artefact Compression ...) but I'm more curious about which decks have a naturally good matchup against Greatswords and don't need to tech much to beat it.

The meta reports (link to latest one) are hard to decipher since Crach has more than one viable deck. Still, there are a few leaders with a significant advantage:

Usurper - presumably spies, but small sample size. I imagine it's Emissaries blocking ships followed by Medics stealing the biggest Greatswords.
Eithne - presumably control lists. 2x Artefact Compression should be strong, possibly multiple Scorches and / or Alzur's Thunder as well.
Jan Calveit - presumably since Viper Witchers can easily kill Greatswords again and again. Not sure how well Alchemy will hold up this patch however.
Princess Adda - can someone explain why Adda matches up well against Greatswords? I genuinely don't get it. I suppose the Sorceresses can kill Greatswords, but so can Viper Witchers and Adda's win rate vs. GS is significantly higher.

Are there any other decks with a naturally strong matchup vs. Greatswords?

Adda probably wins against them because:

1) Great sword lacks the control tools necessary to stop their cursed 4 points soldiers and it's not as High tempo as Brouver or Henselt

2) it's the only deck running D-Shackles (Lock)

3) their finisher is scorch

As you can see it's a perfect match, however cursed is weak and it suffers from control itself, so don't expect to see it often.
 
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Anything that runs grave hate, locks, or lots of direct damage. Also anything that does point spam(ex: Greedy Consume, some Swarm, etc) has at least a neutral matchup.
Weather and scatter damage have the worst matchups against it.
 
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Bleach25;n10954568 said:
Adda probably wins against them because:

1) Great sword lacks the control tools necessary to stop their cursed 4 points soldiers and it's not as High tempo as Brouver or Henselt

2) it's the only deck running D-Shackles (Lock)

3) their finisher is scorch

As you can see it's a perfect match, however cursed is weak and it suffers from control itself, so don't expect to see it often.

Surprising, if there's an Adda vs. Greatsword video somewhere please link and I'll watch it.

Void_Singer Crach actually has a 58.2% win rate vs. consume. The most-known swarm leader, Foltest, has it even worse - 65.8% win rate for Crach.
Laveley what exactly are you running? I imagine with Compression you will auto-win vs. Greatswords, but the card is embarrassing against many other decks.
 
I am playing at the moment a Scoiatel Spell Deck with Dol Blathanna Sentry and a lot of Thunder ( 10x playing is possible), so its really annoying for Greatswords.
 
Spies is probably one of the best anti-Greatsword decks, being able to field an army of Vicovaros and constantly place disloyal units between their ships and greatswords.

Reveal, if you field Scorch abuse (Yen: Enchantress, Scorch, Villentretenmerth) is also good, with the added benefit of faring well against nekkers as well, for the same reason. They can barely shut down 1 Mangonel with Coral, and Reveal's characteristic is that it strikes hard and fast. By the time you field 2, your opponent will have 4 units tops (Pirate Captain, Longship, Greatsword, Leader), which narrows down the targets. You can just unleash hell by using your leader and you only need to reveal one fire scorpion in case the greatsword is left standing. After that every massive reveal that you do, is going to destroy them. Not to mention the scorches.

If you are fielding Auckes, especially with Decoy, the quadruple lock can be a massive pain for Greatswords, by just locking all their ships

Spell'Tael absolutely slaughters both greatswords and nekkers with hard control, like Artefact Compression, Muzzle, Mandrake, and a massive ton of thunders.
 
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Jeydra;n10956110 said:
Laveley what exactly are you running? I imagine with Compression you will auto-win vs. Greatswords, but the card is embarrassing against many other decks.

Compression helps against anything that relies on engines. Also, meta until now is somewhat between big units/engines, AC is good against both. Its only bad against swarm, but with elven swarm nerf, the only thing you risk to face is the meme 30 cards nr decks.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
Well, i think by now we can agree there are plenty of ways of countering GS by control decks, so i will suggest one that actually doesnt rely on control but on doing more points than GS:

NG Slave Infantry + Sentry. Even if they have 3 longships + 3 GS on a long round, they're nothing compared to the 32pt each BRONZE sentry gives if you manage to put 12 S Infantry on board, and they're Coral, which is the only control they have, can do nothing. I actually use Peter for a longship reset and Aguara True Form for a scorch / compression at the end, but they werent even needed.
 
Sometimes i feel my Harold and Frett deck was perfectly created to counter greatswords with the acception of my herbalists and arachas venom but even then you can hit the stacked tutor cards.

I got 2 if Aguara pulls it, three artefact compression to take out the strengthened greatswords and whale harpooners to move the longships to another row where there useless.

 

DRK3

Forum veteran
SHALLAHJUSTICE;n10958402 said:
Sometimes i feel my Harold and Frett deck was perfectly created to counter greatswords with the acception of my herbalists and arachas venom but even then you can hit the stacked tutor cards.

I got 2 if Aguara pulls it, three artefact compression to take out the strengthened greatswords and whale harpooners to move the longships to another row where there useless.

Do you play the Artefact Compressions on the GS early or late? Because it seems you play them when they're big already, but wouldnt it be more effective to do as early as possible? Its not like they have anything else going for it, and their medics will be useless.
 
DRK3;n10959323 said:
Do you play the Artefact Compressions on the GS early or late? Because it seems you play them when they're big already, but wouldnt it be more effective to do as early as possible? Its not like they have anything else going for it, and their medics will be useless.

I was thinking the same thing myself, i think it's better if you do it round 3, because by then they are relying on those cards to win, if you compress last minute they will have a minimal space of time to react and adjust their strategy (especially if they have a small hand!!). If you compress them early they will have time to come up with an alternative strategy.
 
You sure NG Soldiers has a good matchup vs. GS? Seems to me that it is a proactive engine deck, so they have no problems winning a long round, but it also has few / weak win conditions which means winning a short round 3 vs. a big Greatsword will be hard (since the GS deck will play a long round 1 or 2).
 
I have had no issues dispatching GS decks with my unconventional Northern Realms Deck.

Important to note I'm presently only Rank 13, but have faced off against this GS combo 5 times in the past 2 days going 4/5 80% WR.

Leader = King Foltest

Redanian Elite x3
Tridman Infantry x2 (formally 3)
Trollololo - Silver
Poor F'ing Infantry x1 (Trial Phase) (Swap for Tridman Infantry or Kaedweni Sergeant)
Redanian Knight-Elect x3
Field Medic x1 (Trial Phase) (Swap for Temerian Drummer or Aedirnian Mauler)
Aedirnian Mauler x1
Kaedweni Sergeant x2
Tormented Mage x1
Thunder Bolt x1
Prince Stennis - Silver (Optional) Nivellen works better here for your purpose. Do not recommend scorch this deck buffs well. Going back to Vaedermaker personally Alzur's + 5 pts on my side under Foltest.
Sabrina Glevissig - Silver (Able to debuff / weaken entire row if no weak units on row set up with Sigismund Dijkstra)
Hubert Rejk - Silver (Works really well with Foltest)
Vincent Meis - Silver (Buffed by this deck as a whole, strips down enemy armor and gives Redanian Knights + 5 power)
Priscilla - Gold (Optional) Plays for up to 19.
Sigismund Dijkstra - Gold (Best played in combination with Sabrina when you have a way to kill Sabrina. Wouldn't waste the + 2 cards while thunderbolt/tormented mage are in deck if avoidable.
Keira Metz - Gold (Thunder bolt to rebuff Elects and or give armor chow to Vincent Meis, Alzur's for isolated kills and Venom
for just a 19 pt value Gold.
Triss Merigold - Gold (It's in the name, duhh..) Yeah, another method for the Kill on Sabrina and ultimately a 16 pt gold otherwise.

I'll provide a guide if you are at all interested.
 
You sure NG Soldiers has a good matchup vs. GS? Seems to me that it is a proactive engine deck, so they have no problems winning a long round, but it also has few / weak win conditions which means winning a short round 3 vs. a big Greatsword will be hard (since the GS deck will play a long round 1 or 2).
Absolutely. You usually win R1 and Soldiers are not that dependant on CA. Sometimes you just 2 round them. When I play Soldiers, I pray for a GS matchup. Spies are good vs them as well. Dry pass R1 and there you go...
 
I usually crash them easily with my Spelltaet. Two jade figurines (from hand and from Ethne) and a muzzle - no greatswords.

I recently changed slightly my deathwish dagon by adding a jade figurine (instead of one weather) as GS are about 40% of my opponents past rank 20. One GS is jadified, a second one is eaten by Ozzrel while in the graveyard, and the last is locked by Morvudd.

I didn't played my reveal deck since a moment, but GS isn't a problem that a vicovaro medid can't solve.

I'm rather surprised to see that the current meta in based on weak decks (GS and Foltest swarm, about 75% of deck taht I see). Well, more points for me).
 
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