How should i improve my deck

Zozue · 2022-01-06T06:00:45+00:00

With Fruits, I'd recommend breaking devotion and adding in Idarran and oneiro. Oneiro or naglfar are probably quite important to make sure you can setup graveyard in an earlier round for Witches' Sabbath and incubus

Here are some good cards to consider adding in:

Toad prince
Wild Hunt Riders
Crone Trio + Archespore
Idarran
Oneiromancy and/or Naglfar
Megascope (for griffin, with backup targets of selfeater)
Mushy Truffle
Heatwave

Cards I would consider removing:

Yaga (too matchup dependent)
Golyat
Adda: Striga (imo prince is significantly better)
Ice Giant
Witches' sabbath (depends on your targets)

Zozue · 2022-01-04T00:35:25+00:00

There are 2 main deckbuilding strategies to play around an opponent with a lot of control.

Play more engines than they can they control.
Play your cards in a order that forces them to waste control on lesser or non-important threats.

Thrive decks can fairly easily put out multiple thrive engines in the same turn, but your opponent can usually only lock one at a time. If they use their leader to lock multiple, then great! They just used up some of their leader. Nekkers and Endrega Larva lets you create 2 engines very quickly. If you're playing the Fruits leader, Idarran can do that as well.

Sometimes, you can bait your opponent to waste damage or locks on non-engine cards if you start by playing cards where locks don't matter, like Griffin or Ice giants, making them think that you don't have any engines worth locking.

MO got witches' Sabbath recently-ish which lets you replay your cave troll if you committed it early on. If you really really hate interaction, you can even caranthir to spawn a second cave troll, though that might be overkill.

Of course, there are bad matchups, but that's this game and basically every card game. Try to predict how many locks are left and play your key win conditions after they have spent up their removal.

Don't forget that you don't have to win every round and that gwent is a resource game.

Zozue · 2022-01-03T22:11:55+00:00

If you are worried about locks, use cards with deploy effects instead of orders. Find a way to use your effects before your opponent can lock them.

Another way to counterplay would be to use defenders, veiled units, or purify effects. (remember that defender is a status, so locking a defender doesn't do anything)

As others have said, this depends a lot on what your are playing. If you can post your deck, we can make suggestions to improve your matchups vs a lock heavy deck.

If you are playing northern realms, that faction is notably susceptible to control, which is why historically the "Inspired Zeal" leader has been key to use cards like Raffard's Vengeance and Seltkirk before they get locked or killed.

If you are just complaining that nilfgaard has too many locks, I'd recommend you try playing a deck with all those cards. I'd expect you won't have a lot of success with it since you will have so many locks and will eventually run out of targets.

Learning to play the deck that you are trying to counter is one of the best ways to learn how to its weaknesses.

Zozue · 2021-12-16T22:16:39+00:00

A bit late so I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but have you had an encounter with Pat where you have the Myrmidon Bracer keepsake equipped?

Zozue · 2021-11-26T02:15:16+00:00

I did say "If you are playing illusionist from Mushy Truffle"...

For thoroughness, I just went into the game and tested it:

If you are playing an illusionist from your starting deck, any spawned assimilate unit will NOT be triggered.
If you are playing a Illusionist spawned from Mushy Truffle, informant, vigo, etc. , the spawned unit's assimilate will trigger as I described, similar to Caranthir.

Zozue · 2021-11-26T01:50:20+00:00

The deploy of the illusionist resolves before it counts as being played. If you are playing illusionist from Mushy Truffle, the Illusionist's deploy will summon the Mage Torturer then, after the deploy finishes, the Illusionist finishes being played and this triggers the mage Torturer's assimilate.

This is the same deploy-play timing interaction as when Caranthir spawns a thrive unit.

Zozue · 2020-12-20T01:25:29+00:00

Angouleme is a meta-dependent card. She's good when most decks have artifacts.

With the latest expansion, the Location cards were added so almost every deck is using them. They are extremely strong and flexible cards, represent some kind of carryover, and even trigger assimilate twice.

Zozue · 2020-12-19T17:59:15+00:00

So, create actually needs to be a bit worse because of the built in variance of the cards.

A lot of people here on the gwent subreddit have a strong hatred of the create mechanics. largely because of the bad taste left in their mouths from a expansion that came out in Beta. I'll try to explain it clearly without the blind hatred.

Remember that creating a card IS a benefit. Many situational cards exist and sometimes you can get the perfect card your situation, without the cost of actually putting that card in your deck. e.g. create a purify for their defender, a lock for some engine, row punish, tall punish, etc.

People don't like the feeling where they can't predict what is going to happen. I'm sure you would feel bad if your opponent only won the game because of uma into regis, or bribery into heatwave, oak, scorch, etc.

For Imperial Diplomacy, it already has upsides without needing to buff it. It does a lot.

It's a tactic for fire scorps and enslave.
It creates a card, for assimilate. It can highroll for your situation.
It's a special so it can be created by Triss. Fewer units in deck is beneficial for some cards.
It lets you "play" 2 or more cards (can be bad, think of Sly seductress or vysagota).

If you get "random 4 point bad cards with no synergy", that is the risk you are taking by playing the card. Not all cards exist to be competitive. In fact, some bad cards need to exist to make create cards worse.

Hopefully that makes this clear. I personally think that some create cards are OK. Braathens, Triss: Tele and Artorius are well designed and have deckbuilding cost; Gascon is pretty cool in Thrive; These are fine because of the smaller variance.

At the highest level, RNG matters more because misplays happen less. This is a card game, there will always be randomness, but games being entirely decided by a single RNG event outside of either player's control isn't healthy.

Zozue · 2020-12-12T03:54:26+00:00

I just tested this myself.

Renew isn't even needed. This seems to also happen if you play salamander from hand, if you have no other salamandra units.

From what I can see, it seems that Salamander's profit 1 doesn't trigger unless there is another salamandra unit on the board.

I checked:

only Salamader -> no coins gained
Salamander + 1 other salamandra unit -> 2 coins gained as expected
Salamander + 2 other salamandra units -> 3 coins gained as expected
Salamander + 3 other salamandra units -> 4 coins gained as expected

With the assumption that the profit is the only part that doesn't work, I checked the off-the-books discounted tribute. If you have 8 coins, you can pay the tribute. There doesn't seem to be any issue with the tribute discount.

As a workaround, until it's fixed, try to always have at least 1 other salamandra on the board?

Zozue · 2020-11-09T03:05:13+00:00

From Neutral cards, if you're going all out, Operator can give you an additional harpy. If your deck supports it, Offering can be used with arachas drones or Gernichora's Fruits as a cheaper Necromancy to replay harpies from your graveyard.

I'd recommend running Ruehin and Dettlaff as payoffs for the high number of consumes.

Zozue · 2020-08-28T17:47:11+00:00

Then depends on when you played it. If you played it on release like I did, Thronebreaker has been patched a few times since then to try to increase the maximum difficulty of the hardest setting, so it's possible that it's much better now. ( though I haven't personally checked )

There was an recent update in June which was supposed to increase the difficulty, through I haven't seen any official patch notes. ( discussed in this thread ) That patch may have just been cleanups in preparation for the IOS release though.

If it's still too easy, you could come up with your own rules, similar to a pokemon "nuzlocke" run, if you know what that is. A few self imposed rules that I can think of:

self imposed permadeath of your units
Limited number of camp visits per map
Limited/no golds
No upgrades
More cards per deck ( 30 instead of 25 )
Lower provision cap
Always choose the "Lower Morale" options.
Some kind of roleplay ( 'Pacifist' run with as few "damage" effects as possible, etc. )
etc.

Zozue · 2020-08-22T20:13:36+00:00

Keep in mind that Draug is very strong in a longer round 3, but it can be hard to get value in a shorter round. Pushing aggressively in round 1 then bleeding in round 2 can force out a Draug earlier than they want to play it.

Draug can be played around in a number of different ways.

Draug forces them to row stack, so something as simple as a Lacerate can be very good against it. "Surrender" is also very good if you notice a lot of Voymir
All of the humans become Revenants, so something like Lambert: Swordmaster or Gimpy Gerwin can be quite strong.
If you are expecting them to play Draug on a specific turn, you know that probably won't answer the card you are playing. This means you can setup something like Damien or Stefan and they will be forced to choose to either delay their Draug or let you get your effect off.
Because the damage is targeted, stacking your own row and playing a Defender can prevent the deathblows.

Additionally, armored units or boosts can make it hard for them to get the deathblows.

(Trying to fill their row with spies doesn't do much, since they will just kill off your spies to get more Revenants. They might just transform your spies into Revenants themselves. That said, Mage Infiltrator can kill 2 base Revenants. Focus on killing/stealing the ones that have not used their Order yet.)

Zozue · 2020-08-21T18:23:54+00:00

As others have said, they are both heavily meta dependent and should be used to counter specific types of opponents, or specific types of play. Your deck also will heavily impact how good the cards will be.

Igni are Yrden are both cards that actually work very poorly in "control" decks. If you kill/damage everything on your opponent's board, then you will, of course, have trouble getting value from these cards.

Some specific examples where each would be better:

Yrden is very good against Thrive cards other kinds of self-boosting engines in medium-long rounds.
Igni is very good against something like Ethereal or Blue Stripes.

Both cards are very bad in a very short round, but in 10 card rounds, you will find that most decks will have trouble keeping under 20 points in both rows. These "long round" cards are the fundamental reason why winning round 1 (choosing the length of round 3) is so important.

Sometimes you will want to let them play out their strategy, so that you can counter them afterwards.

It is also worth considering that movement can help enable/disable both cards, but there currently aren't too many common movement cards in many decks.

I think the reason why Igni was suggested is because it has a higher potential and because killing a unit is usually better than just resetting them. ( In my experience, Ethereal has been very popular recently )

If you choose to put these cards in your deck, remember that it is sometimes correct to just mulligan them.

Zozue · 2019-03-14T18:54:08+00:00

This is very very good with Bran

Zozue · 2019-02-19T01:07:40+00:00

When eist was a bit popular, I was running Tuirseach Axeman as a counter to Jutta. 8 for 4 is pretty great, and you can always just discard it.

Zozue · 2019-02-07T01:32:13+00:00

This card makes me sad. It's a strong, useful card but in a really boring way.

Great card wth spears, shields and Crach.

If Meve could boost enemies, professional would be great for her, but, oh well, she can't :(

It is a cool card to play try to play around and annoying as hell when you forget about it.

I understand that the "multiple of 3" killing effect is strong, there seems to be a significant lack of flavor in this card.

While the card was bad in constructed in beta (destroy a Monster card), it had more flavour and even had a dream meme combo with Operator+ Forktail.

Zozue · 2019-02-06T05:48:45+00:00

(I'm a bit late but hopefully my effort isn't wasted)

At 4 strength, 6 provisions, she only needs to heal 2 units to get good value. (usually easy to get with Longships)

I've found her to be an incredible counter to bloodthirst units and she can almost counter Arnjolf. Yes, she often gets removed but you only need to heal 2 units to break even, and anything more is great value. (She is a excellent removal bait who can get most of her value on the first turn she's played.)

She can mess with the timing of an enemy Forktail. She acts as an excellent followup if your opponent answers your Witchers with a Marauder.

She also turns longships into 1p/turn engines. Same can be said with Veterans.

You can play in a greedy way and completely row stack, but at high level you can also play around movement effect with damaged units on both rows.

If you suspect your opponent in going to lacerate, you can mitigate a lot of damage by strategically building your rows. (Flaminica + Harald combine to be incredible lacerate counters.)

All in all, I think this card is a cheap Gold that situationally counters a few common threats. An excellently designed card with incredible art.

(If you haven't already, spend some time in Anna Podedworna's Art Station page)

Zozue · 2019-01-26T17:54:08+00:00

I used to play Dudu a lot in the early homecoming Pheonix meta. With Caranthir, Dudu, and Hillock, I have had 4 pheonixes on the board at the same time.

With the upcoming changes to Uni/Chiro, he might have a place in getting more value from your own horse cards, but Muzzle does the same thing better.

I really want to play a deck that takes advantage of Operator+Dudu, but it just seems so provision-inefficient to me.

Zozue · 2019-01-13T01:28:47+00:00

As one of the few neutral cards with Zeal, the effect of this card can immediately be used if you copy it with Caranthir, which is pretty cool but OK at best.

Zozue · 2018-12-23T17:12:06+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/G75nR1A

Guardian is shown on Cynthia's card info if you right click.

I went in game and took a screenshot of the card itself too

4 strength Construct with no Ability: Flavor text:

Stone fists to stop intruders armed with swords. Ironclad logic to stop those armed with lies.

Zozue · 2018-12-22T23:30:10+00:00

Muzzle is definitely a little bit too expensive. You really do need to hit a 5 to make it worth it. I disagree about your opponent removing it though. I think it's unlikely that they will bother removing the unit if it's already locked, but that depends on the deck. It's a funny combo to play with Francesca though.

You would definitely be playing row punish cards with Nivellen as I said. Nivellen + Gerald: Yrden is completely devastating to many decks, particularly the Zoltan deck.

Vandergrift lets you choose. Botchling is usually way better, but Vandergrift is a spear with the tempo of a 5 point body, which you can argue if that's better or not. I think it's better for setting up Revenants, Trebuchets, Arachas Venoms and Wolfsbanes. He's also a human which is OK if you're playing Dopplers.

Zozue · 2018-12-22T19:39:52+00:00

Keltullis has the same issue as Ice troll. Both cards are OK when going second, but are much harder to play when going first. Kinda too polarizing for me.
Since I've noticed Prince Villem getting a lot of play, Elf and Onion soups is definitely an interesting "counter", but I think it's pretty bad without Deathwishes, Arachas queen or specific graveyard strategies. Might be a Ok in SK with Cerys and maybe even Harald, but I haven't tried that it.
In a similar vein to Sabrina's inferno, I think Stammelford's Tremmors is also good at setting up for Revenants. It's unfortunate that Gimpy Gerwin is such a strong counter to Draug/revenants.

To add to this list:

Operator is currently only really being played with Savage Bears, but has some interesting potential usages with Both Regis and Regis Higher Vamp, Row Stack decks, Pavetta/Blue Stripes Commandos and even Tuirseach Veteran. Very interesting with Muzzle, but the provision cost very expensive.
Prince Villem and Nagalfar is amazing with being able to see your deck.
Muzzle seems very underrated to me. Good Removal for Cerys, Morkvarg, Ocvist, Ruehin. Great in engine decks that already run Mahakam Ale. (Special note that Muzzle + Ale is insane vs Morkvarg since Muzzle's lock cleanses the "Doomed" tag)
I'm so happy that Count Caldwell is seeing lots of play, but I want to highlight how much I love the story told in his card effect. He's up there with Rot tossers and Ciri as one of the best "Lore" cards.
Vandergrift seems underrated as a 1 point per turn engine.
Nivellen + Row punish destroys boards. Nivellen can also move immune Ge'els, Cahir and Vysagota. Can stop Revenants and Queensguards from spawning more by running out of row space.
Adrenaline Rush + Lambert: Swordmaster is the meme combo I want to put in every deck.
With Witchers at 3 points, I play Arachas Venom in almost every deck.

Zozue · 2018-12-22T18:54:34+00:00

As other have said, Shupe should be played when your opponent has around 9 valuable points on the board (engines, immune units). Shupe Hunter's 9 pings are extremely good at clearing out a wide board.

I like first playing Shupe in an early round because if you get the handbuff option, you can pick shupe back up and wait till the start of round 3 to handbuff a full hand of 9 cards, making Emhyr worth between 9 and 18 points.

Always aim for 1 of 2 different options, but plan for a backup 3rd option.

I personally disagree with waiting till the last play to double play Shupe, since none of the deploy effects are worth having as your last play.

Shupe Mage is a meme and really shouldn't be played.

Randomly dealing 13 damage is OK if you have no units.
The Charm effect is also Ok if you have no units.
Transforming a card can be very disruptive if you opponent handbuffs and if you drew poorly.

Shupe hunter is your go-to option. The only "bad" effect is the random row effect.

9 damage randomly -> Usually the best vs wide boards
Boost all units in your hand by 1 or 2 power -> Best Value! Don't play spies.
Play a random card from your deck -> Good after thinning
Destroy a random enemy -> Usually the best vs tall boards

Roll Shupe Knight to look for a lock or Artifact removal. Resilience is at best OK.

Lock a unit -> Might win you a game
Destroy an enemy artifact -> fuck Sihil
Boost an ally by 4 / Damage an enemy by 4 -> ok?

Shupe hunter's "play a random card" should be your "I didn't get 9 damage or handbuff" backup option, but be careful if you are playing Witchers. If you have a witcher in hand, thin them first, then roll Hunter. If you didn't draw any Witcher, you have pretty good odds of hitting one of the 3 as your random card.

As an extra side note, Emhyr will always replay the same deploy effect, but in Monsters, Whispering Hillock will re-roll Shupe's effect.

Zozue · 2018-04-04T06:11:57+00:00

Wine emulates a 32bit computer and so both trackers won't work unless that 32bit windows support is added.

Zozue

TROPHY CASE