If you have played Gwent since a year or even a half you can easily guess what cards are in this deck. The most recent effect was the leader nerfed by 1 provision and the addition of Keeper of the Flame after the previous Top 16 Qualifiers. After the latest card drop release we run Conjurer’s Candle which we can compare easily to “Jackpot OTB”. Since the deck is good on its own regardless of round length you can be very passive about winning first round. Jacques guarantees you payoff from playing Firesworn cards like Cyrus (combined with previously set up Inquisitor is a huge point swing) same as Salamandra Mages with Tributes. Poisons help with getting rid of tall units against Assimilate or Selfwound, the last one is a hard matchup to face because of the lack of hard removal.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

King of Beggars, always take mulligans to get golds

Round 1:

Play Eternal Fire Disciple to develop your Inquisitors for Cyrus and try to build coin carryover.

Round 2:

Conjurer’s Candle is very pleasant to have here because of Resilience.

Round 3:

Develop engines and answer the threats.

Details

Good against:

Engine decks

Bad against:

Greedy decks, Assimilate

Win condition:

Top-end golds

Card replacements:

Nope.

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.

Beware of mighty Melusine

Or you will be part of Skellige cuisine

Ferocious berserkers under Sigvald’s command

Bend your knee, listen to their demand!

Mighty Knut is leading the charge

They will plunder, put treasures on their barge

Hearts stop, wives cry, children in despair

But Ardent Censer is their nightmare!

Fierce in raid, struggle in final battle

Go long round 3, their knees will rattle!

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You need Fucusya in hand. If you don’t have her, you need Decree. 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 Decree 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, 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

Details

Good against:

Assimilation

Bad against:

Elves

Win condition:

Melusine. Sigvald.

Card replacements:

Nope.

Terranova Suprise Party

With most Nekker decks gone Good Ol’ Pal Terranova leads the assimilate legion once again! A lot of flexibility combined with a decent amount of points as well as options to do what your opponent does, but better, secures one of the top spots for NG once again.

There are two versions of deck: more control oriented with Imprisoment which gave Middle Earth’s dandiest wizard a ticket to Open and a Double Cross one with more points itself.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Look for Calveit, Mage Torturer and Blightmakers.

Matchups

Mirror:

Try to win 1^st round then bleed and clog you board leaving no space for opponent’s spies

Details

Good against:

NR, ST, MO

Bad against:

Selfwound, all greedy decks like Triple Gerni, Keltullis

Card replacements:

Nope.

Here we have a bricky control deck mixed with the best cards. Zoltan and Munro combo ensures your long round as well as Simlas for a short one which makes the deck good in every round. Since the deck has lots of tempo we play Aerondight which can be tutored with Lady of the Lake. List might struggle with draws since Simlas depends on previously played Vanadain then shuffled Waylays with Alissa same as Munro with Chariots and Zoltan additionally with potential brick Brokilon Sentinels.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Brokilon Sentinel, Waylays (sometimes you can keep those to put them at bottom with Vanadain)

Round 1:

Deck has Aerondight so winning round 1 is quite crucial, Vanadain independently of coin is desirable to play.

Round 2:

Mostly you push the opponent with your golds because of Aerondight but if you haven’t drawn them long round is not bad either.

Round 3:

Setup Chariots and play your Dwarves combo then make sure your opponent has no units left

Details

Good against:

Engine decks

Bad against:

Pointslam decks

Win condition:

Top-end golds

Card replacements:

Nope.

Hit two birds with one stone!

Our army has been stopped under the city of Vizima, we need to start the siege!

The deck which has been around for a very long period of time shines again with addition of a new card – Mutagenerator. An artefact created in the witchers’ laboratory offers a lot of carryover although missing this card in round 1 often leads to a miserable defeat as your deck is loaded with 5p cards and lacks of more powerful cards.

General gameplan is to establish Mutagenerator in r1 and then play those 5p cards in the back row as much as possible, which are also engines. Because of the 0 tempo play with mutagenerator there is a huge possibility to lose on even, but carryover points should be enough to secure the game afterall. Our finishers are both Henselt and Siege. It’s also a smart idea to mulligan away Siege Masters as they later will play for a huge amount of points.

There is also an old version without Mutagenerator but with control cards such as Muzzle and Korathi Heatwave.

https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/69a41d3e3eb40b0f330f5beab81480e3

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Look for Mutagenerator at all costs!

Card replacements:

Nope.

Vanadain swears he’s all natural, but suddenly going up in provisions and power is a bit suspicious. Last I heard he was trying to buy a ring for one of Vernossiel’s commandos, but the cost went up overnight and he couldn’t afford it. It looks like it ended up turning out well anyway, since she ended up joining the deck.
In other news, the drought past, and the Great Oak was able to grow back to full strength.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Look for Vanadain. Feign Death is nice if you really need to win R1.

Round 1:

Save Simlas. Vernoissel and Oak is better in a long round, so use discretion whether you really need it to win R1 or not.
Use Vanadain, and 1-2 waylays ideally.

Round 2:

Use Alissa to put the waylays from last round into your deck again. Bleed if you need to. You do well in a long round if you saved Feign Death or short round if you only have Simlas.

Round 3:

Feign first. Simlas for value. Vernossiel or Oak if you still have them after.

Matchups

Mirror:

Win Round 1 at any cost and bleed with Simlas.

Details

Good against:

Assimilate

Bad against:

Northern Realms

Win condition:

Simlas. Feign Death

Card replacements:

Squirrel -> Bronze Elf

Picture this: It’s Saturday evening, the rain is dumping outside, you have a little coat on your shoulders, a NEIPA from your favorite local brewery in your favorite mug at the corner of the table and around this very table, your most beloved friends who came to your house to play tabletop RPG with you.
You’re in the middle of an adventure, you’ve got Zoltan, Munro and Sheldon, the mighty dwarves, Geralt the lonely monsterslayer, Simlas the sage, Dunca the impetuous, Triss the beautiful and you, Torque, the playful sylvan. You’re roaming around the forest trying to get some cheap fur or coins while mug some bandits when it arrives, the Top Tier Meta God Deck itself, destroyer of the Offmetas, Annihilator of the Homebrews. Quickly you prepare your strategy. While Munro and Zoltan take the aggro and Geralt tries some strikes, Dunca, Simlas and you do all in your power to motivate Sheldon, who has anguish and self-trust issues, to take part in the fight.
“Remember Sheldon!” You say, “remember the dance within the field with those elven lasses! Remember this hunt, the forest where all we’ve got was a lady with a basket full of apples! You are capable of great things!”. That’s it, he does remember. In a blink of an eye, he remembers the time when a Farseer predicted his time will come, while describing this exact situation, with all his friends around him. He gets up, sighs, wipes his tears and rushes the boss like a hellhound, screaming, swinging his axe tremendously and got the right blow. The TTMGD lies on the ground, no breath coming out of his throat. It has been a long fight, but you succeeded, thanks to the power of friendship and patience. Good job adventurers, but your road is nowhere near the end…

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Since Torque begins in your hand, keep it and aim for at least one Farseer. Sheldon is great too to combo with Torque but the very basis is the Farseer. Keep enough Rowdy Dwarves if you plan to play Munro fast. Dump the Bountiful Harvest too, they are played through Simlas.

Round 1:

You want to build your whole carryover and finisher. First thing first: Use your leader charges to boost 8 units in your hand but do NOT boost Torque and the Farseer. Then play the Farseer on Torque for a juicy +8×2 and start buildup from that with Dunca, Simlas if you feel confortable winning the round without committing the dwarves.

Round 2:

Aim for the shortest R3 so:

• if you won R1: bleed without losing your card disadvantage and keep the last say to save your finisher
• if you lost R1: If the opponent bleeds you, try saving the card advantage, therefore the last say with one of your finishers.
  All-in-all, continue to build up your handbuff and apply pressure with your Rowdy Dwarves package.

Round 3:

Unleash your Sheldon. Play around tall removal and possible assimilate combo so don’t all-in with your 20+ plays right away.

Matchups

Mirror:

Pray the RNGesus that your Torque will boost your Sheldon, and the Opp’s won’t. Play around Geralt so aim for the last say and play uninteractive until Mister Opponent plays Sheldon. Don’t waste too much of your handbuff in the bleed if the Opp keeps most of his.

Other matchups:

Follow the flow of the game and play around opp’s win conditions. The deck is fairly straight forward so don’t push yourself too hard.

Details

Good against:

Slow decks that dont bleed very effectively or that have a worse short R3 than you.

Bad against:

Aggressive decks that can easily abuse you during R1 or have a better R2 bleed potential.

Win condition:

Extrathicc Sheldon and Torque with the last say, Aggressive bleed with Zoltan and Munro, not bricking your Simlas.

Card replacements:

Dol Blathanna Bowman > Watcher of the Valley – Good synergy with Handbuff if you need more control, but easily gets awkward to play if the opp denies you the first. Still makes some good points.

Are you a real Gas Gas Gas enjoyer? Do you like to never pass? Is tempo your favourite control tool? Putting big numbers and watching your Sword grow is what you like to do? Seems like we have the perfect deck for you. If you didn’t know what RURA means now you know, this is a real RURA deck, where you stop only when the opponent is defeated. Maybe not even then. Relicts might have lost a lot of tempo, which was provided by the Golden Nekker deck build, but now they have an even better finisher thanks to the new added card: Triss: Meteor Shower. This card can single handedly play for even 30 points thanks to your big 9 power cards, like Griffins, Gan Ceanns or Ratcatcheress.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You have no bricks basically so you want to mulligan away bronzes and try to find golds. If you know the opponent’s deck you might consider keeping tech cards like Squirrel against Self Wound or Pellar against a few Nova decks that are still around.

Round 1:

Play Griffin to set up Megascopes. Then set up engines and try to grow your Aerondight as big as possible. Try to win this round at all costs.

Round 2:

If you won, just bleed with all you have in the deck, don’t hesitate to play golds, try to swarm Melee row and finish the round with Triss: Meteor Shower.  Show Mr Opponent what real Aggro means. If you lost Round 1 then the opponent probably won’t bleed you.

Round 3:

Play what is left, in a short Round 3 Incubi and Mammuna are real powerhouses for you. If you lost Round 1 and now you have long a Round 3, just try to row stack Melee and finish the game with 20-30points Triss; Meteor Shower.

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 a long round. Try to keep Whispess for opponent’s Selfeater of Apprentice. Never split selfeaters in the mirrors, it enables big Incubi for the opponent.

Each other faction:

Honestly in this deck gameplay is pretty straightforward and you always do the same things, matchups don’t really matter.
Against Siege you might try to force out Foltest Pride early with your Bloody Mistress, against this deck this is her only purpose because her fruits get killed anyways.
Against Scoia’tael you might try to play around Censer with your Bloody Mistress, most of Precision Strikes and Guerilla Tactics do run this card so it might be worth a try, definitely better than getting Censered for 30 points of something like that.
Against SK always keep Squirrel in hand, it’s kinda your most important card, also keep Dorregaray for Sigvald, if opponent missed Mahakam Ale, you Squirreled Melusine and locked Sigvald then game is basically over.

Details

Good against:

Clog, Mill, Flurry, any other Monsters deck.

Bad against:

Siege, Assimilate

Win condition:

Bleeding opponent from his best cards in round 2

Card replacements:

Pellar -> Lesser Witch

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 Masters 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 4 or 5 cards before this round (depends on Wanderers ). 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 red coin and 1 card down when on 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 (from Compass) 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

After the Aerondight nerf you can play Ring of Favor in this 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 any gold from Compass in a short last round, ideally Fucusya.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You want to have discard cards in hand to make good tempo.

Round 1:

Make tempo with discard cards and try to win this round

Round 2:

You can bleed, play Ciri: Nova and Golden Nekker.

Round 3:

Short last round with Magic Compass and Hjalmar or other good cards should be good for you.

Details

Win condition:

Golden Nekker, Magic Compass

Card replacements:

Ring of Favor/Hjalmar an Craite -> Hen Gaidth Sword

With some changes in poison cards, this deck should be good in the current meta. It is similar to the deck from last season but after Aerondight nerf you play some other gold cards like Tesham Mutna Sword or Walter Veritas. The mix of poisons and Tribute cards is really good. You can win first round thanks to poisons and go for short last round with carry-over like Ciri: Nova and Tribute cards like Savolla or Moreelse.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You want to have tempo cards in hand like the Bleinheim brothers, Eternal Fire Disciple, some poisons.

Round 1:

You want to have tempo with the Bleinheim brothers, and other poison cards.

Round 2:

You can bleed with Golden Nekker, Ciri: Nova and try to save Savolla or other good cards for the last round.

Round 3:

Short last round with carry-over and Savolla or other golds should be good.

Details

Card replacements:

Nope.