Syndicate has slept in the last few months, but from time to time, this faction always finds the way to become one of the strongest factions of the game. This time, King of Beggars has arrived in the last patch and this card was enough for the novigradian thugs to take their well-deserved place at the top of the meta. But how is it possible? The weakest point of this deck was a hard Round 2 push. Usually, you had to use your best cards for staying alive, and even if you defended the bleed well and went for Round 3 with a card up, you haven’t had enough points to win the game. Until now, because King of Beggars is able to make one of the strongest finishers in the game. Now you can calmly use your best cards in potential bleeding, you have only one job: save your Savolla, and you have 30+ points only just from this combo. Insane, isn’t it?

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Mulligan the Redanian, KoB, and the second copy of Raiders and Bouncers.

Round 1:

First you have to drop your bricks out (The Flying Redanian, KoB, second copy of Raiders and Bouncers), then try to make sure you can make 9 coins without too much effort. If you want to stay in the round a bit longer, you will need at least one spender (Sea Jackal is the best in this early phase). The perfect R1 is if you can thin out Redanian, the Raiders, and Bouncers.

Round 2:

If you won R1, you can decide to go for a soft bleed depending on the matchup, but you can also drypass, and go for a long R3, as this deck prefers that. Your combo pieces work well together in a longer round. If you lost R1, you can still easily defend the bleed, with some of the 7-8 prov golds. If your opponent bleeds hard, you might have to give up some of your high-tier golds as well. Try to keep your Savolla+KoB combo for R3 if you can.

Round 3: Your high-tier golds are so strong that you can rely on them in the last round, Professor, Sigi+Caesar, and the Savolla+KoB combo worths insane amount of points, so you should be winning with them.

Matchups

Mirror: If you are on blue coin, you can likely win Round 1, and usually you should be okay with a long Round 3 with last say. If you are on red coin there are two ways: you reach 9 coins and pass, or try to win the round and you should be okay with last say, unless you haven’t got a potential 2-0 hand.

Northern Realms:

NR decks are non-existent in this patch, but you should be favoured if you can deal with its students.

Monsters:

MO Deathwish: The only thing you have to do in this matchup is winning R1, then go for a long R3 and your opponent will never be able to catch up in points with you.

Scoia’tael:

ST Movement: This is probably the hardest matchup. Your opponent can easily destroy your engines with bombs and leader ability or abusing with Saskia from red coin. You will need some big gold cards to survive R1, and after that you should prepare for a massive bleed. The only win condition is if you somehow win R1 and go for a long R3, but if your opponent uses the Alzur version, you can try to bleed out his Orbs and Alzur.

Nilfgaard:

NG Assimilate: This is one of the few matchups when bleeding is suggested, because this deck can destroy you easily in a long Round 3. That’s why it is one of the hardest matchups, you have to win Round 1, but it’s really hard against it, especially when your opponent has double Blightmaker, Dead Man’s Tongue or other high tempo cards. You should also try to wait with Professor and Whoreson Junior, as they are the best targets for your opponent’s Mage Torturers.

Skellige:

SK Onslaught Pirates: And there’s the other matchup when you should bleed, because of the Veteran package and sometimes Harald, the later the round is, the stronger the deck. You can win Round 1 easier than in the NG matchup, with your engines and some spenders. Blue coin is favoured, because Skellige has high tempo with the  discard package + faction stratagem. After you win R1, start pushing and try to save Savolla + KoB combo for a short R3 and you will likely win.

Details

Good against:

SK, MO, NR

Bad against:

NG, ST

Win condition:

The biggest win condition is of course a combo with King of Beggars + Savolla.  

Card replacements:

You can try the Bounty-heavy version. Some other good options for this deck: Philippa Eilhart, Moreelse.

Assimilate was one of the best decks since the last drop of Price of Power. By mastering the art of versatility and being good in long round and short round, the faction climbed up to the top of the snapshot alongside NR Alumni but good ol’ faces came back from the dead earlier this month and shook up the meta tremendously. In itself, the deck has some very good synergies. It utilizes the opponent’s tools against him very well by being rewarded using them. So you can basically play the opp’s deck better than him. Braathens with his Duchess’s Informants, Artorius Vigo, Yennefer’s Invocation and Lydia van Bredevoort never miss and you will always find a way to adapt to your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. It has pretty strong thinning tools with Blightmakers and Mage Assassins, and Fercart who has another use in latter rounds. The short round isn’t to be forgotten if you manage to keep one Coup de Grace with Joachim and two units in deck. Those plays are explosive, even in a long round, and can buy you some time before having to find a target for Artaud.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Always mulligan your Mage Assassins, since they have to be summoned by Blightmakers. Mulligan your Illusionists package and your Experimental Remedy in early rounds since you’re not getting any easy targets. Mulligan your Create cards if you don’t have any Assimilate ability, and some weak bronzes like Emissary but keep your Joust if the matchup requires it.

Round 1:

The goals of the early rounds are to thin your deck by playing Blightmakers, Dead Man’s Tongue and Fercart or Menno to a certain extent, and to set up your Artaud by giving Spying to the right targets if possible. You can try to force your way through by playing low cost assimilate cards like Artorius Vigo and an early Coup de Grace and take the round control if needed too.

Round 2:

Play or don’t play the round 2, it depends on the opponent’s deck, and how well you prepared the stage in round1: If you thinned a bit, or have a better long round than your opponent, you can try drypassing and maximise your chances in R3. If your opponent has an explosive combo to bleed, and you managed to thin properly, go for the long R2 and bleed the hell out of your opponent. Go all-in or not is up to you. If you didn’t manage to thin properly R1 but still have the round control, you can use the R2 to bleed a bit and set the R3 up by thinning what you couldn’t in R1.

Round 3:

If short round: Play your Joachim + Coup and win, if it’s a short round without Joachim + Coup, just play your topdecks. If you managed to have a medium-to-long R3, your goal is to find the best value out of your assimilate procs and Artaud. Keep one of your Mage Torturers to a last Spying proc on one of the opponent’s key cards and roll with it. Your Illusionists may find some value so you can buy some time with them before having to play your Torturer and Artaud. Finish with your Create procs with Lydia, Mushy’s order, Diplomacy or Coup if you still have those. The other goal is to use all of your tools to prevent your opponent from setting anything up. You can create offensive engines by copying them and using them against him, pressuring his gameplan until he can no longer count on it.

Matchups

Mirror:

Do not play your Mage Torturer first and try to swarm your opponent’s board real fast with all of your spies, even the bad ones. Avoid playing Illusionists, outside R2 if you’re brave enough to bleed since you’ll get swarmed. Put the Spying tag on Braathens and roll with at least 3-4 Braathens later on.

Other matchups:

Control and adapt. Place your Spying tag on a strong 9+ gold unit that you can combo with later on or Yenvo them and replay them if needed:
Skellige: Fucusya + Mermaid/Pirate from Illusionist
Northern Realms: Gerhart, Shani > the Student with a lot of Patience you stole with Remedy, Keldar, Raffard’s Vengeance, Baron or Anséis if needed.
Scoia’tael: Gezras + a pair of Dol Blathanna Protectors, every engine is good to copy.

Syndicate: Witchfinder, Freakshow, Junior, you take what you find.

Monsters: Gernichora, She Who Knows, Cave Troll, The Beast, even Witch Apprentices.

Details

Good against:

All of the 9.5 meta decks.

Bad against:

No Unit shenanigans.

Win condition:

The opponent’s win condition but better. Assimilate boys hitting the right target, no brick on Joachim, not queueing against a mirror.

Card replacements:

• Menno -> Bribery: An extra adaptability tool + Assimilate proc is always welcomed, and you might have enough thinning already to not rely on Menno to find your Coup.
• 1 Mage Torturer -> 5p Control spell: Take what you think it’s best if you need an extra control option for cheap: Assassinate, Coated Weapon, Thunder (not tutorable though)
• Illusionist/Emissary -> Mage Infiltrator: A very good surprise in Enslave Midrange decks and can find a good value in Assimilate since it brings some control and sets up options through Braathens.
• Mushy Truffle + Illusionists -> Jan Calveit/Korathi Heatwave/Ramon Tyrconnel/Vincent + 2 Ard Feainn Tortoises/Thanedd Turncoat or techs (Pellar/Squirrel/Spore/bombs): Hitting hard the long round potential but can help you in certain Scenarios or greedy matchups. Ramon would be played with an Alba Armored Cavalry.

After Milva’s arrival, Guerilla Tactics gains a huge buff by gaining reach to kill 5 point units,
Rock Barrage and Making a Bomb gives even bigger reach to 7 point units, thanks to the leader we mostly kill the opponent’s engines while playing our own stuff which makes our deck really annoying to play against.
On the second plan, we have good old Alzur with elves and specials.
The deck is not bricking easily compared to the Precision Strike version some seasons ago.
So all we need to do is to play Orbs with Simlas and then play Alzur from Oneiromancy, Alzur’s Double Cross or from hand using Mushy Truffle while activating Orbs or other spells later on if your opponent doesn’t answer to him.
The weakness of this deck is vulnerable to being bled because of elves which don’t give you that much of tempo so winning round one is key.

PS. Some elves told me that they need hands to set up their traps with Saskia as a commander.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Milva, Orbs of Insight

Round 1:

With this deck, it’s good to win round one to bleed opponents from their stuff in round two.

Unanswered Whisperer of Dol Blathanna combined with specials and other elves might get you this condition.

Round 2:

After round one, it is really good to find SImlas to develop our Orbs (additionally with Elven Seer). We play deeply in this round to ensure that our carryover combined with Alzur in round three will get us victory. You can also try to play some cards while killing the opponent’s engines to get yourself a tempo pass.

Round 3:

Since now you need to be cautious to not let your Orbs out before you play Alzur. The round might be a little dependent of Alzur’s rolls, mostly you put him front row to get the best possible targets (like Xavier, Keltullis). If you have developed only 2 Orbs, you can use Alzur’s ability with other spells.

Details

Good against:

Engine based decks

Bad against:

Pirates, Pointslam decks

Win condition:

Alzur, Harald Gord

Card replacements:

Nope.

Provisions nerf to Fucusya and Coral have not changed that much, Alchemy archetype still remains strong thanks to Crow Clan Preachers’ Bonded ability. The deck has big amount of points in every round with additional carryover in form of Crow Mother.  The Mushy Truffle allows you to play Preacher and Golden Froth which is also an alchemy,
order can be restored with Dwimveandra to gain another one. With this deck you need to defend push without bleeding out your win condition cards because many decks are scared of our big points machine but Sunset Wanderers helps us with this deck’s side effect. Anyway playing Alchemy with Preachers on board gives us a lot of points where deck is able to gain 100+ points in long round.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Crow Clan Preachers, Dwimveandras in R1

Round 1:

Most points here are Derran with Morkvarg/Crow Mother (to develop carryover) and Discard Package and other 6p cards. We shouldn’t play Preachers and Mushy Truffle to save our points and to not brick Dwimveandra. You can try to win a round and push hard in next round with Gedyneith.

Round 2:

If we lost previous round then we should prepare for bleed. Mostly you should hide Gedyneith and Preachers but developing Mushy Truffle is good to defend with Dwimveandra. You can also play Preacher and try to get their Bonded ability to defend even better with Dwim. Freya’s Blessing and Fucuysa will allow you later to resurect played Preachers. If you won previous round you can decide if is it better to push or go for long round 3. Pushing with Gedyneith will allow you to generate a lot of points additionally with big tempo Sunset Wanderers and (some less) Crow Mother.

Round 3:

Our alchemy card will summon Crow Mother and with other cards should give us enough points. If you managed to keep Gedyneith or other gold cards, they should carry this round. If you went for long round then you should simply develop your Preachers and play alchemy.

Details

Good against:

Nilfgaard, Syndicate

Bad against:

Control decks

Win condition:

Gedyneith, Fucusya, The Mushy Truffle

Card replacements:

Bride, Dorregaray, Skald -> Coral, Maxii, Mardroeme.

This season’s changes to the Onslaught leader ability coupled with the new cards have resulted in making pirates a competitively viable archetype.  The addition of armor whenever a unit is damaged can play for game defining carryover value. As a lot of pirates are warriors that have the veteran ability as well, the addition of King Bran helps to generate a lot of passive carryover value in the deck.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Try to get your discard package, a couple of damage ships, Crach and Terror of the Seas in your opening hand. For R2 and R3 fish hard for your golds if you didn’t draw them.

Round 1:

The gameplan here is to generate carryover armor using the ships and Crach, and thin out the discard package. Depending on matchups (e.g. against no-unit) push to win R1. Also, note that Crach surviving and triggering his second ability generates a lot of carryover value for Bran as a potential finisher. (Usually in the case Crach stays on board your Bran plays as a 12-13 point body in R3).

Round 2:

In some cases, you can keep the discard package in R2 for a soft/ hard bleed but be careful not to overcommit if you are not going for a 2-0.

Round 3:

This is where you drop your carryover armored cards like the Terror of the Seas, which if set up correctly in previous rounds plays for more than 15 points on average. Having Skjordal as a 6 point damage also comes in handy against engine heavy decks. Depending on your thinning situation you can use Fucusya flexibly to resurrect one of the high-end cards used in previous rounds or one of the discard cards. Usually Crach, Defender, or Skjordal are good targets.

Matchups

Mirror:

As with a lot of mirror matches, going first is preferred here as is generating the aforementioned carryover in R1. Be mindful to prevent the opponent from getting carryover of their own by getting rid of their ships. Usually, in a Skellige mirror match hand quality matters, a lot more than last say so be careful not to overcommit high-end cards unnecessarily.

Northern Realms:

Another Faction that boosts their units a lot but is more engine heavy so is generally a favourable matchup on both coins. However Shieldwall could be a problem as this deck has no direct answer to their defender.

Monsters:

As Monsters tends to have multiple units that are boosted and go tall, it is generally an unfavoured matchup especially on blue if you draw badly and dont have enough tempo to get out of the round. Last say with Morkvarg is generally important here.

Scoia’tael:

This deck is surprisingly robust against all variants of the Milva decks given that its a control deck but the armor value generated can render the traps and other no unit shenanigans useless. Winning R1 is usually easy and with last say you usually outpoint everything they have thrown at you.

Nilfgaard:

The rogue faction plays more emphasis on your ability to pilot the deck and read what you are going up against as NG has the most deck diversity of any factions on the ladder. Against Kolgrim decks make sure to have your an craite longships in hand just before they drop the Kolgrim. Against assimilate decks try to deny value to their assimilate engines and try to avoid Fucusya being played multiple times against you.

Syndicate:

This is by far the most difficult matchup against decks running Savolla + King of Beggars. The only wincon is to win on even (on red) and bleed out the Savolla combo in R2.

Details

Good against:

Any Variant of Guerilla Tactics, Engine heavy decks

Bad against:

Decks that boost their units (less carryover armor generated), Jackpot (Savolla + King of Beggars), Assimilate NG, Depending on draws and coin it can also struggle sometimes against no unit/ control heavy decks.

Win condition:

This is a very draw heavy deck. Getting the discard package properly thinning out your cards and generating tempo in round 1 makes life much easier but bad draws can easily lose you even favoured matchups.

Combos that generate a lot of value:

Crach + subsequent Units played next to him if he survives, he generates a lot of additional damage to boost King Bran.

Every instance of Damage contributes to the increasing value of Terror of the Seas.

Card replacements:

Dimun Smuggler → Dimun Warship (but be mindful as the passive ability of Onslaught can make this a bad play in later rounds)
Covenant of Steel → Junod
Another consideration especially as a counter to Shieldwall witchers and row stacked boost heavy decks is Dire Bear.

Symbiosis deck looks similar to the deck from last patch but it has some changes because you want to play Saskia: Commander. Sometimes it can be problematic if you don’t get Gord or low power cards in last round and you have Saskia which can summon not needed cards.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You have to make good muligans and be careful to not draw all cards like Abandoned Girl, Cat Witcher or Sorceress of Dol Blathanna. You want to get these from Saskia. Of course you need just two of these cards in your deck so you can play some from hand but mulligan is really important in this deck. Also you want to have two of the same special card in deck as a target for Simlas Finn aep Dabairr.

Round 1:

In most cases you want to win the first round to have last say in the last round.

Round 2:

You can go for long round or bleed. It depends on the matchup.

Round 3:

Make big points with Saskia, Symbiosis synergy and Gord.

Matchups

Mirror:
Kill Hamadriads or Sorceress of Dol Blathanna if you can. Hold onto Natures for Eithne if possible, to max out value R3. Last say for our Gord is good so he survives,  but there is no tall-removal in our deck, so we can’t kill the opposing Gord.

Northern Realms:
Against Northern Realms Alumni you should kill Ban Ard Students and Aretuza Students quickly if it is possible. In this matchup short round 3 is better for you so it is good to win first and bleed second round. This matchup can be problematic because you don’t have many options to kill mages.

Skellige:
Against Melusine Rain you don’t have good chances to win. Your deck hasn’t got cards to kill Melusine or any graveyard punish options. In this matchup Rain is favoured.
Pirates have removal options. It can be hard to keep Hamadriads or Sorceress of Dol Blathanna alive. Morkvarg is very good against Gord so you need last say in this matchup. Winning first round is not that easy because of the opponent’s removal options.
With last say you have chances to win but in this matchup Pirates are favoured.

Nilfgaard:
Against Nilfgaard Assimilate short round 3 is better for you. Also you need last say because your opponent has cards like Yennefer’s Invocation or Vilgefortz. Your opponent has spies so he can fill your board, thus making your overswarm. This is the main reason why you need to shorten the last round.
Symbiosis should win this matchup.

Syndicate:
Jackpot has many removal options so it is so hard for make good symbiosis value for you. This matchup is favoured for Jackpot.

Details

Good against:

Nilfgaard Assimilate.

Bad against:

Melusine Rain, Jackpot

Win condition:

Gord, Saskia, Eithne

Card replacements:

Ciaran, Runestone -> Dunca, Waylay

Deathwish is a fairly old archetype. In patch 9.5, the Deathwish deck was buffed. + 1 power to Dettlaff and Miruna. And in patch 9.6, the deck received a very strong boost. The most important buff is the appearance of the Arachas Queen card. This card allows you to create copies of Dettlaff and Miruna. The deck has become even more tempo-oriented. This deck can withstand being bled very well. It prefers a shorter round. But in the long round, having a strong hand, it’s also winnable.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

We try to achieve a balance between bronze and gold cards. We need more bronze cards on the left for the Wanderers interaction. Also do not forget mulliganing the second Archespore copy.

Round 1:

We are trying to win the first round with strong bronzes, keeping Sunset Wanderers would be also great.

Round 2:

If we win the first round we usually go for a bleed, depending on the hand quality.

Round 3:

If we didn’t bleed, we are going to the third long round, where most likely we will have a good hand.

Matchups

Mirror:

In a mirror matchup, the number of gold cards is very important. Do not give away strong cards unnecessarily. In the mirror, it’s worth going into a long third round. Bleed usually ends badly.

Northern Realms: Alumni – In the first round, you need to play Miruna in order not to give the opportunity to strengthen Alumni. In the second round, it is worth bleeding, without big Alumni the game may end 2-0 in our favour. Siege – The Siege is very strong in the long round. Even if we find Korathi Heatwave, the game may still end in defeat. Their deck is very vulnerable to bleeding, you need to use this and force them to give up the Siege. If you can manage that, in the third round victory is almost guaranteed.

Scoia’tael:

This deck is always worth bleeding. In a long round, he will be comfortable playing thanks to a huge amount of control. Therefore, you need to try to win the first round, even if you have to play a couple of gold cards.

Skellige:

Pirates and Warriors – these two decks have a lot of control, which prevents us from implementing our cards. These decks are difficult to play against. But it’s best to bleed them, so there is a chance that the opponent will not find Morkvarg: Heart of Terror and other controls tools.

Nilfgaard:

Assimilate – This deck is also worth bleeding. In a long round, cards with assimilate will worth a lot of points and we will most likely lose. Therefore, it is worth trying to force the opponent to give up Artaud Terranova or something else in the second round.

Enslave – This deck must be bleed. In the first round, Jan Calvet puts all the gold onto the top of the deck and these golds must be forced out in the second round.

Syndicate:

Bounty – Bounty feels great in a long round. Therefore, you should not go into a long round with this deck. It’s worth winning the first round and bleeding.

Standard with King of Beggars – It’s a rare case when the deck is stronger than us in a short round. Therefore, it makes sense to go for a long round with this deck.

Details

Good against:

Milva, Enslave, Siege, Standard SY with King of Beggars

Bad against:

Pirates and Warriors, Assimilate

Win condition:

Haunt, Arachas Queen+Dettlaff: Higher Vampire

Card replacements:

Nope.

It’s a testament to the strength of this deck that, even after the powercreep of the last card set, it is still viable with almost no changes from its pre-patch list. The gameplan is straightforward enough: develop your Alumni with patience ticks while leveraging tempo bombs like Raffard’s Vengeance and Gerhart of Aelle to pick up the slack. You will find that, while this list is still viable, playing it is significantly harder now that your opponents have access to powerful cards like King of Beggars and Milva. You can check all possible Gerhart spells here.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Ideally, you want access to both Ban Ard and Aretuza students in order to activate zeal on your Alumni for later rounds. Donimir, Leticia, Chapter of Wizards, and John Natalis/AA will all help you achieve this, and are great in an opening hand.

Round 1:

Develop as much patience as possible. It is critical to get both students to four in order to activate your alumni. However, if your opponent is running a control heavy deck, rushing your engines may lose you the round. In that case, don’t be greedy; play cards like Donimir and Radovid’s Guards to exhaust their removal and protect your engines. As your patience units approach four, your opponent will feel pressured to pass even when ahead in points. Pay attention to this, as while this is a huge advantage, it is easy to overcommit if you falsely assume your opponent won’t concede the round.

Round 2:

If you are confident in your ability to win r1, it may be advantageous to save your patience abilities for a bleed. Generating patience in r2 is far more reliable, as your opponent cannot pass to cut them off. However, if you lose r1 without developing patience units, you will almost certainly lose the game. 

If you lose r1, developing patience cards deters your opponent from a heavy bleed, but only if you manage to keep up on tempo while you do it. Dropping Chapter of Wizards, while slow in tempo, can set up some nice carryover in r3.

Round 3:

If you haven’t used them yet, pay close attention to the amount of turns left in relation to the countdown values on Shani and Raffard’s Vengeance. Delaying them by even one turn can make you miss a proc, which is often the difference between winning and losing. Otherwise, assuming all has gone well you should be able to use your buffed Alumni to carry the round.

Details

Good against:

Decks with few removal tools

Bad against:

Milva, Jackpot