Next month of Renfri being the strongest deck out here, yay. Because of the provision nerf to Imprisonment this month we decided to switch the leader ability. We chose Imperial Formation and more engine type of the deck, with the inclusion of Crossbowmans and Light Cavalries, both of these cards are super oppressive to your opponent’s round one. Other cards are straightforward, they didn’t change a bit, and it’s almost the same deck.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Use all mulligans, look for gold cards, if your hand is good then try to not brick Gang.

Round 1:

Play good tempo units such as Runemage, Ramon or Renfri’s Gang, then overload with engines and pointslam cards, such as Spotters. Try not to commit your golds except the two mentioned above. On the red coin you can try to win on even with your midrange cards.

Round 2:

You should be favored in the long round against most of the meta decks. The deck is pointslam so against engine-heavy decks you can bleed with all your cards.

Round 3:

Stack one row, play good cards, and remember that you have to play Ivar as your 4th last card in hand, so when you have 6 cards in hand you can play Milton into Guillaume into Ivar to provide a huge swing.

Matchups

Mirrors:

The last say and timing on Ivar is very crucial, because of that hard-pushing round one makes a lot of sense.

Other factions:

Against NR: Thanks to all armor you have you should be favored in long round three.
Against SK: Just keep your locks to play on Gremist and Sigvald, also remember that Ivar swaps power, which means you can play him on a huge Sigvald if needed.
Against ST: you can go for the long round, they have no tall punish, which means your Ivar goes brrr.
Against MO: Play around Toad Prince with your leader ability, you don’t want your spotters to get consumed.
Against SY: Bleed them, you should be unfavoured in the long round.

Details

Good against:

Everything

Bad against:

Nothing

Win condition:

Long round with Meteor Shower

Card replacements:

Nope.

Another month with Devo Syndicate is one of the strongest decks out there. After small Sigi nerf now the leader is switched to Pirates Cove and Collusion had to be included into the deck. This leader ability allows you not only to set up another gang tag in the same turn you want to play Sigi but also assures you that you cannot overprofit thanks to Sea Jackals.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You want to mulligan a lot but remember that you have 3 bricks in the deck: Drill, KoB and Collusion. Try not to brick and find your gold cards.

Round 1:

Try to escape the round fast while setting up carry over with cards such as Eternal Fire Inquisitor, Mutants Maker and Eternal Fire Disciple.

Round 2:

Skip the round, go straight to round 3. While being bled try to defend with Hemmelfart and Jacques, keep Sigi for as long as you can.

Round 3:

Setup Gang tags, play Little Birds, and then Sigi into Drill and Collusion.

Matchups

Mirrors:

Winning round one is really good because you want to play your Sigi second to answer opponent’s Tunnel Drill.

Other factions:

Against NR: Don’t be afraid of the long round, your control tools are enough to win, just use Whoreson and Drill to win 2 rounds.
Against NG: Do not stack buffs on one unit, also try to avoid playing into a huge Ivar, you don’t want your units to be 8 or above. Also from Red coin you can use Professor round one to deny them Spotter value.
Against SK: Poison Sigvald early to force them to use his order ability. Against warriors try to bleed out their Sove round 2, then you should be good.
Against ST: Go for the long round.
Against MO: Just try not to overcommit too much when you are on blue coin since they always want to abuse it. Losing to Frost on even is fine, you are still favoured in the long round.

Details

Good against:

Reavers, Frost

Bad against:

Renfri NG, SK Warriors

Win condition:

Long round 3 with good value cards and control.

Card replacements:

Nope.

They fight with honor and glory, they fight for their king, their queen or for Lady Bronwen. Boost them to big numbers so they can be even stronger with grace.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Look for Oneiro, Amphibious Assault or Lady of the Lake. Also, try to find Damned Sorceress Immortals combo, this is the key for winning round one.

Round 1:

Push as hard as you can with you AA, Immortals, Sorceress, Knight Errant. Do not hesitate even going two cards down.  Also try to set up Vandergrift carry over. Do not forget that you want your Aeron to grow so try to stay ahead every turn.

Round 2:

You have Aerondight so you want to push this round hard, commit scenario and Maiden’s shield. Remember, round control and big tempo are your control tools, use them and go as deep as you can. When being bled either try to protect is with Maiden’s shield or scenario, second card can be your win condition in round 3.

Round 3:

Finish the game with big Sword.

Matchups

Mirrors:

From red coin push round one, try to win on even. From blue try to leave the round with least commitment you can. If you won round one push round 2 with everything. Round 3 try to brick opponents Aeron with shields.

Other factions:

This deck is straight forward, every match looks kinda the same, doesn’t matter what are you playing against.

Details

Good against:

Warriors SK, Devo SY

Bad against:

Reavers, Renfri NG

Win condition:

Scenario, Maiden’s Shield, Aerondight

Card replacements:

Pellar -> Spores

In times when the reavers from the Northern Realms hurt out comrades and some Nilfgaardian decks followed a similar path, we can see the return of bloodthirsty cultists. The advent of bestiary druids and warriors brought some changes, which gave more freedom to lead the deck to new heights.
We are not afraid of hostile statuses thanks to the presence of Gremist and the immortal Olgierd gives us a good alternative to pairing with Knut or priests. The rest of the deck is a well-known compilation of self wound units and alchemy greatifying the brutal gameplay.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Here the matter is quite simple. One of the few cards we absolutely want to have in deck is Cerys.
Sigrdrifa’s Rite and Freya’s Blessing are unlikely to be useful in the first round.
During the game, it’s worth remembering to have an alchemy card in the graveyard, so that Bride of the Sea will make her value.

Round 1:

At the beginning, it’s a good idea to set up a card that benefits from continuous damage, and Armored Drakkar is perfect for that. In the next moves, we play Melusine so that she hits other allied units. The purpose of the round is winning without giving up the most important cards as possible.

Round 2:

Playing Fucusya with Melusine is a very good start. We apply a high dullness which is recommended for bleeding. Knut, which is a good long term control option, may turn out to be a bargaining chip in a long round.

Round 3:

We try to win the match with Sigvald, who, when strengthened by mardroeme, becomes an ideal target for resurrected Knut’s maiming.

Matchups

Mirrors:

In the mirror, the most important thing is to find the answer to the Knut played by the opponent. If we don’t play and keep the warrior on our side, we can have a lot of trouble with controlling the round.

Other factions:

NR Reavers:
In a Mobilization duel, it is good to be able to quickly play Olgierd and Gremist, in case the opponent tries to block the immortal nobleman.

SY KoB:
Current SY decks usually play two pairs of poison, so there is a small chance that the opponent will have more than two poison cards. Withthis knowledge, we can safely clear more important cards if the opponent plans to get rid of them.

MO Frost:
Placing Olgierd in one of the rows and Sigvald in the other will ensure that we deny the opponent’s points from potential frost damage.

ST Harmony:
The poison issue in ST is even more stable than in SY, where the opponent can highroll poisons from shady vendor or eventide plunder.
It is also worth to force the opponent to use the leader charges before playing Knut. Thanks to this, he will have no way to remove him and we will be able to eliminate cards with harmony.

SK:
This fraction is dominated by all raids, which, thanks to Highland Warlords, become a big problem controlling our board.
The best solution is to play as no unit as possible without giving your opponent damage points.

Details

Good against:

NR Reavers, ST Symbiosis, SY Devo KoB, MO Frost

Bad against:

NR Knights, NG Renfri

Win condition:

Melusine, Sigvald with Knut

Card replacements:

Harald Houndsnout -> Ermion, Olgierd: Immortal -> Covenant of Steel

NG’s Spotter no longer tanks hundreds of points which makes Frost stronger than before. Tir Na Lia gives carryover in Red Riders, which combines with Foglets making them grow stronger. Caranthir Golden Child with Eredin’s help can grow up to 31 points. Aen Alle Aristocrat for more frost and what is more important – order with movement. The deck has Imlerith’s Wrath which changes Frost into a competitive deck as you also have tall punish as current meta decks have a lot of pointslam.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Winter Queen, you can mull Red Riders to combine them with Auberon.

Round 1:

You want to win round 1 so your Caranthir can be played on last say R3 and more important you don’t get bled out of his frost counter.

Round 2:

Drypass as your opponent goes second so it’s harder to accomplish anything

Round 3:

Setup engines and show them how threatening this winter can be.

Details

Good against:

Pointslam decks

Bad against:

Selfwound, Cultists

Win condition:

Gold cards

Card replacements:

Nope.

Don’t you recognize your old mates? Reaver hunters are back to the game, with some beta flavor still being in the deck. At first new nr cards seemed really bad but it turned out to be one of the strongest archetypes in Gwent. Boholt, Adalia, Locations, and Idarran allow you to easily swarm at least 8 Reaver Hunters melee row each round. Locations also provide a lot of carryover value, especially with Dwims and Reinforcements.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Find echo cards, Idarran and at least one create card (Adalia or locations)

Round 1:

Play Idarran, then play location or Adalia, swarm at least 5 reaver hunters and tempo pass your opponent. If you have access to both locations it’s better to use Truffle round one since Garrison provides much more points so it’s better for later rounds.

Round 2:

Bleed, bleed and bleed, try to 2:0 your opponent.

Round 3:

If round 3 happens then just use whatever you have left, probably the second Amphibious Assault.

Matchups

Mirrors:

Having first say is good for tempo so winning round one might be crucial.

Other factions:

Against MO: Keep your ladders for later rounds, Monsters have a lot of movement and they will be more important in rounds 2 and 3.
Against SY: Try to set up a huge tempo round one, they often have problems with catching up.
Against NG: Don’t go tall with one of your units.
Against SK: Use heatwave on Knut, he is their biggest threat.
Against ST: Just win.

Details

Good against:

Knights, Symbiosis

Bad against:

NG Renfri, Devo SY

Win condition:

Engine overload

Card replacements:

Nope.

Patricidal Fury has been changed so it is now more versatile for Bloodthirst condition. The main function is to give Sove wounded targets or to play Jutta. Fucusya and Harald can both be used to replay Warlords. Raids give you a crazy amount of control, most units are killable with War of Clans and Brokvar Warrior combined. If you cannot kill them you have an alternative in Djenge Frett.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Little Havfrues

Round 1:

You can play passive here with bronzes.

Round 2:

Drypass so your opponent can’t play interactive and your warriors are weaker.

Round 3:

Destroy everything

Details

Good against:

Engine decks

Bad against:

Greedy decks

Win condition:

Raids and Golds

Card replacements:

Jutta > Mad Charge

Though it is Autumn some decks in Gwent like Symbiosis rise up from the shadows and make it fun to play once more, new cards improve the Vitality process such as Naiad Fledgling and Frog Mating Season. There is a control option with the new Naiad Pondkeeper, so the archetype has more control in some cases than only Rebukes. Aucwenn gives carryover as Nature tag into Naiads and is the engine itself. Though it’s an engine deck In the best case you should play mid-long R3 so you don’t fill your rows entirely.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Bountiful Harvests

Round 1:

On red coin, you can invest Aucwenn to gain a chance of winning on even, otherwise play bronzes.

Round 2:

If you kept Aucwenn then you easily defend or push with other Naiads aside.

Round 3:

Forest Protector, Simlas, or Eithne should give you enough points.

Details

Good against:

Pointslam

Bad against:

Control and greedy decks

Win condition:

Golds

Card replacements:

Eithne -> Gezras, Frog Mating Season makes row ready in 2-3 turns.