Meta snapshot #26
[16.04] Release: 8 new decks, new ranking, new matchups & gameplan info.
This month’s new patch brought us the ever so desired Golden Nekker card along with 20 other cards contributing to one of the most influential meta shifts we have seen in Gwent. This mini-expansion, called “Forgotten Treasures” should have been named “Nekker, Nekker, and more Nekker”, since it feels like the majority of matches on ladder have at least one player using this new card.
We now have Ciri Nova/Golden Nekker decks dominating the ladder with the likes of SK Flurry, MO Arachas Swarm, SY Congregate, and MO Relicts. Also, NR has a new toy with Traveling Priestess, which we believe is currently the strongest deck. Some decks from last season remain strong too, however – NR Siege and SK Self Wound are largely unchanged, while minor changes have been made to NG Assimilate, ST Elves, and NG Hyperthin.
And can we please not forget that our beloved ST Dorfs are back in the meta?! What a time to be alive when you can unironically jam dwarves games on high ladder! We hope you enjoy these decks as much as we do. For Mahakam!
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Tier #1
You are seeing it right, a Priestess deck. Building your deck around a 4p card turned out to be the best option right now. It’s super consistent and, if played properly, you thin to 0 cards at the end of R3 while getting access to all of the necessary cards. No fear of bricking as you can easily fix your hand with leader ability, Griffin Mentor, Snowdrop and Istredd. This deck has almost everything. You have engine overload, great tempo round one, good potential to bleed round 2 and great finisher in round 3. Having last say in any matchup is a cherry on top. The only downside of this deck is the entry level. When to pull off Sunset? Which card do I take from leader? Which do I mulligan away? As difficult as it is, it is equally rewarding. No better feeling than an overcharged Traveling Priestess clearing your opponent’s board.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
Knickers, Priestess, Tridam Infantry, Mentors – exactly in this order. Do not hesitate to mulligan as it can get your Priestess bigger and there’s always leader that can help you managing your hand.
Round 1:
Ideally, you want to win this round, so try to setup your damage engines or, alternatively, start with Istredd into Snowdrop, if in hand. Push hard, you can use your leader into Siege Master to create crew pocket for your Foltest’s Pride. Always remember about the Ring! If it gets banished then you have to play one of your drawing or tutoring cards like it was bricked.
Round 2:
Try bleeding with the remaining engines but it’s up to the matchup. Against some, you want to secure the last say. It’s preferable to get all of your tutors out in round 2 so you have exactly 5 cards in deck before the last round. Don’t worry about using your Sunset Wanderers, as your round 3 combo is fully capable of compensating it.
Round 3:
If you set your deck correctly you will have 5 or 6 cards before this round (depends on Wanderers and AA). Then you use your leader to make sure both Priestesses are 2 cards remaining. This way you guarantee 3 additional charges each time you play a Mentor. You want to finish round by playing Vernon Roche into Priestess and Tridam Infantry. It’s key to play in this order as Tridam doubles points you accumulated on your Priestess. As this combo can easily play for over 30 points you should be able to secure the win.
Matchups
Mirror:
Mirror is a complicated one. Blue coin is going to help as you will be the one setting engines first. In this matchup, focus on removing engines on your opponent’s side with yours. Round 3, if you have the last say, you can wait with your combo and try not to give your opponent targets to shoot at. If you face a lot of mirrors then I recommend swapping Kaer Seren into Trollolo and one Tridam Infantry into Traveling Merchant. Often, you don’t need second Tridam and Trollolo basically triples the stats on Priestess. Sometimes in the mirrors people try to greed out and play two Priestesses out of Roche. In this circumstances, your main win condition is playing Roche earlier and killing his Tridam Infantries.
Northern Realms Siege:
Against Siege, definitely bleed round 2. You want to get everything that your opponent has. Remember about Heatwave, as some iterations of this deck run it so you are forced to split the buffs. It’s easy to lose against it so stay on a lookout!
Scoia’tael, Syndicate, Nilfgaard, Monsters:
Against any decks from these factions, you want to win on even cards when on the red coin and 1 card down when on the blue coin. Play your engines and focus on providing good tempo. Elves, Dwarfs, Firesworn, Savolla, Clog, Mill, Assimilate, Relicts or Arachas Swarm – doesn’t matter. It won’t catch up your engines. Then on round 2 simply throw your bad cards in to opponent’s win cons.
Skellige:
Against SK it really depends on the opponent drawing their Discard Package. if he did, you might even consider using Sunset Wanderers round one because of how big of a tempo the Discard Package provides. If you have Snowdrop then you’ll definitely want it early because of how well she scales with leader ability and Istredd. Remember that these days SK can play Arnaghad that can kill your combo. You obviously don’t want it to happen so always think how to get rid of him so your Priestess can survive.
Details
Good against:
Blade Flurry, Arachas Swarm, Dwarfs
Bad against:
Mill
Win condition:
Roche into Tridam Infantry and Traveling Priestess
Card replacements:
Kaer Seren > Trollolo and Tridam Infantry > Travellng Merchant
Grandma came back from fighting Harpies in the North to visit her cute grandson Sigvald. With a basket of Mardrome (kids, don’t do drugs) and Mead (please drink responsibly), she wanted to surprise the young lad. She looked around, but everyone was an adult. Where was her sweet boy? “Grandma?” a burly man called out. It seemed that in the time Grandma was away, Sigvald had grown. Apparently the “god” Melusine had been putting him on some steroids or something. “My, how you’ve grown since I last saw you.”
This deck is actually quite complicated, so be careful.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
You need Fucusya in hand. If you don’t have her, you need Oneiromancy. You also need Covenant of Steel and Melusine. If by some miracle you draw none of the cards you need or the tutors, then you have to go all in Sigvald R1 to have a chance. If it gets removed, however, you just lose.
Round 1:
Okay, this is the “easy” part. You need Melusine to get large in round 1, and for her to not be banished. That means you need to bring out Covenant of Steel first. If you have them both in hand, good. You can use Oneiromancy to pull the other. On red coin, there is no reliable way to put her in hand, so hope you get lucky. If you really need to, you can pass on 7 R1, play Fucusya R2 to defend bleed, and try for a long R3. You can use Restore. You can use tutors if you already have the combo pieces (see R3) in hand.
Round 2:
For the sake of simplicity, assume you won R1 and dry pass for a long R3. You can risk playing Sigrdrifa’s Rite on Melusine for Bleeding, but now it’s vulnerable to Heatwave or even worse, Yennefer’s Invocation.
If you lost, try to defend with just Fucusya and bronzes, but use Sigrdrifa’s Rite if you really need to. If they are trying to 2-0 you, you can also employ the normal R3 strategy combo (see R3), saving Sigrdrifa’s Rite, and take the short R3 with Melusine carryover.
Round 3:
Okay, this is the not so easy part. Sigvald can get realllly big, but only if you play it properly.
Consideration 1:
If they still haven’t used Heatwave, you need to bait it with Melusine. If you suspect they have two tall removals left, try to spread the points instead of pumping Sigvald, even if it’s less point efficient.
Consideration 2:
Mardroeme and Knut the Callous all pair very well with Sigvald, but you have to play them properly.
Mardroeme plays for 12 points on Sigvald, since he turns the 3 damage into bleeding, and boosts by 9. Your leader Ability is best used here.
Knut the Callous, can be worth a lot on Sigvald, but remember that he needs to be at Berserk 5 to do this every turn, which is somewhat hard to accomplish. You can always put him next to Melusine or a Svalblod Priest, but then you need to watch his health.
Consideration 3:
What do you do with Bride of the Sea and Restore?
Restore is best used on Melusine after taking a lot of damage. This can best be accomplished by using a turn of Knut or even two, and by placing her next to a cultist (Sigvald and Hermit on left both work very well for this, and Svalblod Priest and Knut also work). If your Melusine is dead, it’s pretty much a brick, but as a last option can be used on a Hermit for up to 12 (if you self-damage it to 1).
Bride of the Sea can be used with no rain for a Mardroeme or Mahakam Ale, with 1 rain for Restore (not recommended), and 4 rain for Sigrdrifa’s Rite. You can get turns of rain from Melusine, Fucusya, and Little Havfrue, but note that the only way to get 4+ rain on board is with a bronze pull with Fucusya or a combination of multiple cards. Melusine can also do this, but only if you stack the rains in the same row 3 turns in a row (which obviously takes a few turns of set up). You have a few good targets, so you can figure out if they’re worth more than 12 points from the Mardroeme or not.
Matchups
Mirror:
You don’t really have ways to interact with each other.
Details
Good against:
Alumni, Assimilation
Bad against:
Elves
Win condition:
Melusine. Sigvald.
Card replacements:
Nope.
Siege has been a staple for a while now, understandably so, since it’s the most effective way to starve out your opponent and take his food and MMR. Surprisingly enough though, Henselt and Radovid have been spending so much time together sieging various Nilfgaardian towns, that they decided to get married. Everyone should congratulate them. Of course, the wedding isn’t until the spring, but Radovid’s engagement ring (of favor) is looking big and beautiful.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
You ideally have King Radovid and Henselt in hand for later rounds, since you don’t have any tutors for them. Siege is a must have. AA or John to pull AA. You have 5 crew cards, so make sure at least 1 of them is in the deck at all times for Henselt.
Round 1:
Play cards until your opponent concedes out of frustration, because every card he plays dies instantly. If your opponent doesn’t concede, play your 14-point Ring of Favor and watch as he spams the “well played” voice line. Try to play Radovid R1 just to not worry about him later. Save Siege and Henselt. Anything else just plays for value. Since you really need to win R1, don’t worry too much about trying to banish your opponent’s hypothetical Ring. Just keep playing, and if he uses his, use yours. If he passes to burn yours, you probably already won, so its fine.
Round 2:
Siege typically won’t win a short R2, and you don’t have any good bleed, so push for R1 and a long R3. If you really need to defend a bleed, use Henselt over Siege.
Round 3:
Play Siege, Henselt, Foltest’s Pride. It’s absurdly strong on a long R3. You can easily average 4-5 points a turn, plus another 4-5 points per leader charge. Henselt’s best pull is Foltest’s Pride on a long R3 and Siege Tower on a short R3.
Matchups
Mirror:
Win R1 at any cost. I know I said don’t bleed just a minute ago, but bleeding out our opponent’s Siege and/or Henselt is really powerful. Just be careful to not accidently bleed yourself. You can potentially use siege R2 if you are bleeding, and just hold Henselt for an explosive short R3 with the leader charges and Siege Towers.
Details
Good against:
Engines, Midrange, Swarm.
Bad against:
Unitless
Win condition:
Siege, Henselt. Killing everything your opponent plays that has remotely any value.
Card replacements:
Ring of Favor -> Hubert Rejk or even Belohun if you’re feeling spicy.
Heatwave -> Lambert if Swarm becomes prevalent again.
Tier #2
Skellige’s back on the menu with a very spicy deck. This deck is centered around Compass which allows you to play any gold cards outside of your deck TWICE. You can play 2 Fucusya for 8 provisions which is kind of nuts. The goal of this deck is to win round 1 with your discards, Knickers, Roach tempo and go for a massive bleed with Golden Nekker and your Echo cards for a short round 3 with a massive Aerondight and any gold from Compass, ideally Fucusya.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
Round 1: Keep discard package, Maxii , Fisher King.
Round 2: Echo cards and remaining thinning cards so only 2 cards will remain in your deck.
Round 3: Echo cards and the best value tempo cards left, so you win.
Round 1:
Thin as much as you can and always try to be ahead for maximizing your value on Aerondight. Discard + Roach and Knickers give you a solid tempo for winning on even or being ahead on blue coin. Maxii can help for putting Gutting Slash to the bottom of your deck and also helps to know where your discard is located in your deck if you don’t shuffle.
Round 2:
Keep your remaining thinning for getting at least 1 or 2 cards in your deck. Keep trying to be ahead in terms of points for maximizing the value of Aerondight, you can use some leader charge if it’s needed. It’s also the perfect moment for dropping Ciri Nova and get carryover for round 3. You should push in any matchup since you have to play your Echo cards twice. Golden Nekker must be played round 2 for thinning as much as you can your deck and being able to play your Compass with at least 2 cards left in your deck.
Round 3:
You should outpoint your opponent on a short round, thanks to Compass and Aerondight.
Matchups
Mirror:
You are in favor on blue coin since you will get a better value on Aerondight + 1 more mulligan + stratagem, which allows you to get a better chance to thin your deck. On red coin you should try to be ahead for Aerondight, in the worst-case scenario you can transform Aerondight thanks to the magic box.
Each other faction:
General game plan: Win round 1 with your thinning, discard, tempo cards (try to save at least one special “Gutting Slash” (tips : you can use Maxii for putting it at the bottom of the deck) and one artifact, never use Echo cards round 1 if you want to maximize their value. Save Golden Nekker for a round 2 push with the first iteration of your Echo cards, your opponent would have to commit for staying ahead which allows you to give the final “Coup de Grace” round 3 with your powerful Echo cards.
Tips for specific matchup: against NR Priestess try to keep your removal as long as you can for a short round 3 if you won round 1.
Details
Good against:
Mill, Assimilate, Blaze of Glory
Bad against:
Vampires / Relicts can give you a hard time because they can outvalue your tempo cards with engines round 1 and go for a long round which gives less value to your Echo cards.
Win condition:
Golden Nekker / double use of Echo cards
Card replacements:
Replace Fisher King with Dorregaray or Xavier if you face a lot of mirror or engine decks.
Latest patch with new cards drop Forgotten Treasures has made that Arachas Queen is now more popular in meta then it was in last seasons. Monsters looks like a tier 2 deck. Now we have many decks with max 9 provison cards in the meta. Golden Nekker and Ciri: Nova are very popular cards these times. Also Ring of Favor is a strong card which can give us 20 points for only 8 provisions. Ornate Censer is also a really good card in this deck because you have many 1 point tokens and there is big chance for us to win the swap. Arcane Tome can thin your deck. Mysterious Puzzle Box allows you to change one card into 13 power Thing from the Box. Your opponent can do the same but you have Ornate Censer so you can steal the power of the opposing card.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
You want to have one artifact in deck because you will draw it from Golden Nekker later. Also you want to have some special cards in deck to draw them from Arcane Tome and be careful not to draw all organic cards to not brick Whispess: Tribute.
Round 1:
You should win this round. Try to be ahead in most turns to make Aerondight stronger. You can play some organic and gold cards. You should save some powerful cards for the next rounds.
Round 2:
You can go for a 2:0 or pass and go for a long last round. It depends on matchup.
Round 3:
Play your best cards, be careful with Aerondight to not make your unit the biggest on the board. You need to use Ornate Censer in a good moment of the match.
Details
Good against:
Nilfgaard Assimilate/Hyperthin
Bad against:
Skellige Flurry
Win condition:
Ornate Censer, Aerondight
Card replacements:
Nope.
The last patch gave us an enhancement of the Dwarves archetype. There are more opportunities for spam, which makes the game easier. Some of these changes include rework of Zoltan, Zoltan’s Company, and Chariot. Strengthening Munro Bruys and adding Rowdy Dwarves 1 armor makes it possible to play Brouver earlier and get more points from him. Filling the board with the help of engines and maintaining the pace is the main strategy of the deck. Maintaining your resources and the ability to win on equal cards with the help of Resilience allows you to win both long and short rounds.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
You want to see tutors (Oneiromancy, Novigradian Justice) and engines (Xavier, Berserkers, Zoltan: Warrior)
Round 1:
A good start is Xavier Moran and setting up Berserker with Miner or Chariot, which replenishes the number of Berserker’s armor and fills the board. Building up Resilience and winning [on equal cards] in a round is the ideal outcome.
Round 2:
If you have gold cards in your hand, you can try to go for a 2:0. Zoltan, Munro and Bruver Hoog will help you in this. They quickly get you a huge amount of points.. Putting up Resilience while bleeding helps you win a short round 3.
Round 3:
If you passed in the second, then in the long 3 you need to stick your engines and spam the table to get big points from Brouver. If round 3 is short, but you have Resillience on the table, then Novigradian Justice or Zoltan’s Company will be a good continuation for spamming and playing Zoltan: Scoundrel or Munro Bruys
Details
Good against:
Is just in a middle of deck ranking
Bad against:
Norther Realms
Win condition:
Gold cards.
Card replacements:
Oneiromancy -> Royal Decree , and changing 4 provision cards to more valuable, like Pyrotechnician or Mercenary -> Barclay Els or Dennis Cranmer.
Syndicate Swarm with Forgotten Treasure’s drop cards. The deck relies on swarming Firesworn Zealots and buffing them by playing Sacred Flame, Dies Irae, Zoltan and Whoreson Senior to get additional points from Crimes and a little control. Roach, Knickers and Ring gets you a lot of tempo and are extremely good for red coin abuse. Alissa is to play your Golden Nekker or Ornate Censer an extra time which second option should happen more often since deck has a lot of thinning. Ornate Censer ensures you that opponent won’t get out of reach with high powered units. The deck feels much better in long rounds but has also short round finishers like Aerondight and Gord.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
Roach, Knickers
Round 1:
Well, you swarm Zealots then you play Dies Irae, it has Echo so makes sure that you don’t overcommit. Ciri should be played most often in r2.
Round 2:
You swarm Zealots again, you can use Dies Irae, Zoltan and Sacred Flame.
Round 3:
Your silver sword and mighy dwarf companion ensures your win.
Details
Good against:
Good against most decks
Bad against:
Elves
Win condition:
Gold cards 😉
Card replacements:
Nope.
Elves come back to meta as good deck after a few seasons. For now this is most popular deck on ladder. Simlas, Vanadain, and Waylay combined with each other they can make many points. There are many ways to play Simlas. It is possible to play up to 5 Waylays from deck. Alissa makes it possible but you have to get a very good hand and this does not happen often. We can also play double Heatwave thanks to her.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
You can look for Vanadain.
Round 1:
You can play Vanadain and Waylays. It give you many points and set up graveyard for Alissa to put them back to deck in next rounds. Its good to win first round. You can drop Feign Death if you feel like winning the round is important.
Round 2:
You can play long last round or push for 2:0. If you have Feign Death and good Elves on hand it is possible to win 2:0 or go for short last round with Simlas combo.
Round 3:
Long last round with Simlas, many Elven Deadeye and Vernossiel can be your wincon. Also short round with Simlas and Waylays should give you the win.
Details
Good against:
Assimilate
Bad against:
NR Siege, Alumni
Win condition:
Simlas, Vanadain, Feign Death, Vernossiel
Card replacements:
Squirrel → Bronze Elf
Jackpot has finally been dethroned after taking most of eastern Europe and northern Africa in its Macedonian conquest. Fortunately, he died at 32, and his Empire collapsed. Less fortunately, the army managed to settle succession rights in barely a month, and Off The Books has cleanly taken over.
Though, I am proud to say SY is no longer completely braindead. Now you have to take the 3 seconds to not overprofit. Don’t worry though, if you’ve been relying on braindead tactics to climb ladder, this deck is still pretty easy to play. SY hasn’t been played that much recently, but it still has some power left in the crimelords.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
Just don’t have KOB in hand. Every one of your Golds is good.
Round 1:
This deck has a bit more to it than its previous iterations. First and foremost, you have a lot of tributes, and it’s quite easy to pull KOB. You DO NOT want to pull him R1, so watch your coin spending. You are running devotion, so Jacques can get to level 3, but you don’t have enough firesworn for it to really matter (2 or 3 coins of value tops), so feel free to play him earlier if you really need to. Moreelse is your only tall removal, so be prudent with his usage. Besides that, though, you can just play it like you normally would, slamming whatever cards you have.
Round 2:
Play your remaining gold cards. This time you can play Savolla and pull KOB. Most decks have a hard time catching up, so you will likely either win or be up a card in R3.
Round 3:
You already won last round. If you didn’t, just repeat R2.
Details
Good against:
Almost everything
Bad against:
Assimilate sometimes
Win condition:
Classic KOB+Savolla, destroy everything they play, Philippa has also a lot of targets in this meta: Ciri Nova, resilient Dwarfs or engines in general.
Card replacements:
2 Shady vendors + 1 Mutant Maker + 1 Renegade Mage -> 2 Witch executioners + 1 Witch hunter + 1 Slander
Tier #3
Relicts are back and they even got new toys. With addition of Aerondight, Golden Nekker and Tome you have one of the best long rounds in the game. And this deck plays for itself, you just slam engines like Endrega Larva, Rat Catcheress, Selfeater, Witch Aprrentice. Remember that you want one copy of each bronze in your graveyard. After you play Tome and your opponent doesn’t answer it you have lots of fun by slamming those bronzes for 10+ points.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
Knickers, Roach, try not to brick Nekker and you can consider mulliganing pairs since you don’t want to use 2 same bronzes in round one.
Round 1:
Play your engines, then pointslam cards, force your opponent out of the round or at least make him play strong golds. You don’t have to win it but make sure opponent played good cards before you let him out of the round. Remember to play one of as many bronze units as possible.
Round 2:
If being bled consider slamming Tome early, it will help with getting into round 3 and if opponent decides to play longer you almost always guarantee card advantage. If you won and are afraid of your opponent’s deck, for example he is playing dwarfs then you definitely want to bleed everything out of him, which is easy if you played round one properly and set up the Tome.
Round 3:
Play what is left, if you haven’t been bleeding and still have your Tome then you should be good to go. Also remember about Idarran, who spawns additional Fruits and Endrega Larva, if not answered it plays for a lot of points.
Matchups
Mirror:
In the mirror you have to remember to Megascope another Witch Apprentice, it’s much better than copying Griffin or Gan Ceann since both players benefit from long round. Try to keep Whispess for the opponent’s Selfeater or Apprentice.
Northern Realms:
Against NR most of the times you just lose because either opponent plays Priestess or Siege and your board gets destroyed by his shooting engines.
Scoia’tael:
Against elves you definitely want to bleed everything he has, you have better tempo round one which can force him to either overcommit or pass early, then you are good to go because all you care about Is getting his Scenario, Simlas, and Isengrim
Nilfgaard:
Against NG you should be good, your deck doesn’t thin that much, and your bronzes are good so he even can clog you. You get much more tempo than Nilfgaard should so it should be easy to win round one and go for long round 3.
Firesworn should be an easy matchup, you just have to pay attention to his Censer, it’s difficult to play around it with your deck, but I would definitely consider playing piggies later so they don’t grow that much, or just keep a 1 power selfeater on the board.
Skellige:
Against SK you want to push round one, but it’s not that simple, the opponent’s deck has better tempo and often you just have to pass. Most of the times he is going to bleed round two so you have to commit Tome or actually good cards, like Golden Nekker. Because of how much tempo opponent has you might consider playing Puzzle Box into Aerondight
Syndicate:
Against cirmes you shouldn’t care, you have more tempo round one and your long round 3 is much better than his, Drill is the only card that puts you in trouble so you should try to bleed this one most of the times.
Similarly to Firesworn matchup you should always keep Censer in mind while playing against Arachas Swarm, this card can rekt you hard, so remember about keeping a 1 power Selfeater on the board so your opponent has chance to lowroll.
Details
Good against:
Mill, Clog, Assimilate, Crimes
Bad against:
Blade Flurry, Arachas Swarm, Siege, Priestess
Win condition:
Long Round with Tome
Card replacements:
Nope
Indiana Jones himself is here to give you MMR. He wants the Golden Nekker, and will do anything to have it. Ride Roach to the tomb, use Knickers to scout out danger. Move to avoid all the traps, and snatch the Golden Nekker. If you’re good enough, you might not even trigger the Boulder.
The deck looks a lot more complicated than it really is. The mismatch of archetypes is confusing, but it plays segmentally.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
Put the Sentinels, Roach, and Knickers back into deck. You really want Ciri. Ideally you have your defender and movement package to win R1. If you are going first, Aerondight is really strong. If you are going second just put it back in the deck. Royal Decree and Council are always nice to have in hand.
Round 1:
This is the “movement” segment. Play out your defender, the Sentries, Matrons, and Cat Witchers. Dunca is also nice R1. Ideally you move the melee row back to ranged with Gaetan to get Sentry value. You can use one of the artifacts if you need to, but don’t use both, or you reduce Nekker value. Ideally you win R1 and R2, since you do badly in a long R3. Council will give you [Figgis + Dunca/Matron/Sentinel + Sentry/Archer] as options. Defender is the most consistent option, and Dryad is a big gamble.
Round 2:
This is the “This game is too consistent now” segment. Since you will have already pulled out Roach, Knickers, and 2 more with Decree and Council, now pull 3 more with Golden Nekker. Then, for laughs, you can try pulling 2 more with your leader charge, and now, suddenly, you have exactly 3 cards left in deck for R3. For even more consistency, you can use the leader charge R1, so you don’t accidently draw a Sentinel, but don’t overcommit and lose because of it. Also, if your Ring gets burned, you’ll only have 2 cards left for R3. The easiest way around this is just not to play Decree/ Isengrim’s or play Aerondight even if it’s bad because you go second. You can prevent these cards from being bricks in your hand with the Puzzle Box, since it’s unlikely your opponent chooses to transform a 10+ cost card.
Round 3:
D
If you haven’t already won R2, just play whatever 3 card you have left and hope they do something. Ideally you have last say and the Ornate Censer left, so you can play an Archer or even a Sentinel if you haven’t used your leader charge, to have a good chance of being the lowest power card for Censer.
Details
Good against:
Pointslam, Midrange
Bad against:
Control, Swarm
Card replacements:
Ring of Favor -> Brehen
Hyperthin has came back with new cards and structure because of Ciri Nova and Golden Nekker so you don’t play any cards above 10 provisions. This deck is different than usual Midrange lists before, contains Clog cards; Coated Weapons, Viper Witchers and payoff Kolgrim. Playing Golden Nekker in Hyperthin deck is very awkward so you setup cards at top with Albrich and leader, you need to remember that Gorthur Gvaed is your only artifact in this deck so you keep it. There is also one special card which is Surrender so you dont end up dead against Dwarves. Old structures such as Doadrick to improve your hand, Snowdrop and leader combo remains the same. The deck despite having Surrender should play r2 to clog your opponent so in r3 you don’t play these low point cards.
Gameplan
Mulligan:
Reveal cards, Imperial Golem
Round 1:
Winning round 1 is comfortable so you can push your opponent and make pressure in r2. To get this condition you have Dead Man’s Tongue, Blightmaker and Viper Witcher Adepts.
Round 2:
If you haven’t played clog cards in r1 this is the right moment if roundcontrol is given. This round is also pretty crucial to play Golden Nekker. If your hand is playable till the end you can even try to play Kolgrim.
Round 3:
Reveal cards should give you enourmous amount of points especially if you somehow managed to buff Imperial Golem with Albrich.
Details
Good against:
Pointslam decks
Bad against:
Engines decks
Win condition:
Reveal cards, Kolgrim
Card replacements:
Ffion -> Vilgefortz
Ability guides
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Blood Scent
Overwhelming hunger
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Imperial formation
[NEW][MEME] Tallgierd’s Companions
[NEW][MEME] Cahir-a-hi, Cahir-a-hu, Cahir-a-ho, Cahira(a)-a-haha
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[NEW][MEME] Infinite Cantarella
Lockdown
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Blood Money
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Jackpot
Lined pockets
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Off the books
Contributors
Writers, consultants, and editors:
Truzky, Gandalf0271, HighRollerko, Briquey, T1mMy, Gregor_, oXo, Rogbros, Kozix, INAF_Official, Electric000, Artem.Klyq, TroVNut and JustKazz.
Manager: KissAndRun