Remember when Syndicate required skill? Jackpot once again reigns supreme.
Just use all the super over valued low provisions Syndicate spells in rapid session. KOB was “nerfed” so now you need to run a single tribute card on top of Savolla. Once in a while you play against another Syndicate, and have to actually think.
There is an alternate version with more poison focus.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

KOB and the Flying Redanian need to be in the deck.

Round 1:

Get some coins, play out one of your Witch Hunter Executioners or Whoreson’s Freak Show, and kill things.
The only thing to note, is you need watch the amount you spend in tributes. If you spend all the tributes in the deck that aren’t Savolla, you will accidently pull KOB, but this requires you to use Professor’s tribute, so its usually not an issue.

Round 2:

If you’ve used a tribute already, you can get to 7 coins (with Sigi or just a beggar if you had a bit of coin carryover) and Savolla, which pulls KOB, and then put all your coins into KOB. It’s really strong Bleed if you need it. Otherwise, you actually do better with a long Round 3, since you can maximize your Witchfinder value.

Round 3:

Witchfinder and then basically play it exactly like you did Round 1. Use KOB/Savolla if you haven’t already, as a finisher.
If you are playing the poison version, just replace Witchfinder with Gellert.

Matchups

Mirror:

Heatwave has a lot of good targets. Witchfinder is the best target if you don’t have enough coins to deal with her otherwise, otherwise wait for a large Sigi, KOB, or Savolla’s Frightener. Last say can set up a really clean win, if you can hold onto a tributed Graden for their Savolla’s Frightener. Easy 27 swing + 12 coins. It’s honestly disgusting.

Details

Good against:

Almost everything

Bad against:

Other Syndicate decks, maybe a good Assimilate

Win condition:

Classic KOB+Savolla, destroy everything they play

Card replacements:

You can change out a few cards, and use the poison list.

Assimilate still being one of the best archetypes, fighting for the first spot with Syndicate KoB Jackpot. While Artaud and Braathens offer a lot of points in R3, combined with utilizing opponents tactics thanks to Terranova’s ability as well as Coup de Grace and leader, the deck still has quite a strong R1 with Blightmakers. This version uses Calveit instead of Fercart and Dead Man’s Tongue which guarantees to draw every gold.
The deck doesn’t have a lot of control tools, but high point celling compensates for that.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Mage Assasins, Illusionist, look for Calveit

Round 1:

Play Blightmakers, Calveit some bronzes if possible. As most of the gold cards will be available by round 2, being bled is not scary, but beware of value bleeding.

Round 2:

Depending on match-up, but soft push can be performed. In case of losing r1 and being bled, try to calculate how many golds you might need to win short 3. No need to be afraid of spending some good cards if that helps secure card advantage.

Round 3:

Play assimilate engines, spam gold cards, win.

Matchups

Mirror:

In general, the one who has more assimilate engines win, but the tricky part is a board space – in long r3 don’t play Blightmaker into Mage Assassin as well as Illusionists aren’t that good unless targeting an assimilate engine. Clogging your own board is the best strategy, because even if your opponent copies your high-end golds – Artaud or Braathens – there should be no space for him to utilize them.

Details

Good against:

SY, NR, ST, SK Warriors

Bad against:

Vampires, SK Rain, SK Gedy can be tricky

Win condition:

Assimilate engines, Joachim+Coup in short rounds. Artaud and Braathens are the powerhouses of this deck.

Card replacements:

Calveit + Ointment → Fercart and Dead Man’s Tongue

Vampires have been a fan favorite of many a Gwent connoisseur for much of its lifetime, but it hasn’t really managed to hold its own in competitive, until now. With the recent 0 buffs to Vampires, it suddenly got better? That’s because people realized something. Vampires isn’t really good, but Fleder is busted beyond belief. So, what if we just took that one good card, and just made more of them. And there you have it. Of course, Anna Henrietta is a bit pissed that you filled her Kingdom with more vampires after Geralt just finished with the whole Dettlaff thing, but I guess that why we can’t have shit in Toussaint.
This deck specializes in pumping points out of its ass, as every Fleder becomes a 3 per turn engine with no set up.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You want Cave Troll, and at least two Fleders / ways of making Fleders. She Who Knows is also nice, but remember that Double Cross can pull her or Cave Troll, so you don’t need both in hand immediately. You also really want Witches’ Sabbath or Whispess to pull it.

Round 1:

Defender + Fleder + Fleder + She Who Knows. You can go as far as using all four Fleders if you really need to win R1. Once you get these out, you just have to use leader charges or the various bleeding bronze cards to boost them.

Round 2:

Assuming that She Who Knows carried over to R2, you can choose to end the game. Just play Witches’ Sabbath and your Incubus if you have it, and repeat the Round 1 strategy. Sabbath should always bring back Troll and two Fleders, and Incubus should secure another Fleder. You can easy point slam if you held onto 1-2 leader charges and maybe an Undying Thirst.

Round 3:

Assuming you choose to Bleed for some weird reason or, more likely, lost Round 1 by some misfortune, just do what you would have otherwise done in Round 2. You can choose to use any of your gold Vampires at any time, since they’re honestly all worse than your Fleders anyway.

Matchups

Mirror:

Neither of you have much removal. If you’re lucky, they won’t be running purify, and you can Pellar their Cave Troll and at the very least kill one of their Fleders or reset one with Spores. Witches’ Sabbath becomes really bad since, it basically plays for 0 net points, so just get rid of it and hope they use theirs. Overall, really luck dependent match up, as the one with the best solitaire set up will likely just win.

Details

Good against:

Most non-control decks, Assimilate.

Bad against:

Anything that runs Yrden or Igni. Or a lot of Fisstech

Win condition:

Fleder + Bleeding
A really big Regis

Card replacements:

If you think your draw isn’t consistent enough, you can potentially take out a Drowner for another Megascope and swap out Orianna for Naglfar, though this shouldn’t really be an issue.
If you want to go full Fleder, you can also replace Orianna with a Caranthir for another Fleder, since Honestly, Orianna is basically a Gold Fleder anyway.

There is also a second version of this deck by KingOfParcel: Vampires with Old Speartip

An old man once told Geralt, to be his apprentice in alchemy, Geralt had to gather three things. The first was a flower, the second was beer, and the third was the good stuff. But imagine, if upon finding said good stuff, Geralt decided to party instead. That’s this deck. As Geralt rides into the sunset, he tosses a shroom for his druids and everything goes downhill from there. Fret not though, this deck also has enough control to make sure even the wildest of parties are within reason.
This deck takes a bunch of cards that were so good they had to be nerfed, and still manages to make you think maybe they should nerf some more.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Looking for discard package. Little Havfrues are nice. Having Heatwave and Gigascorpion are nice.

Round 1:

Ideally, you can thin out your Skirmishers and Morkvarg, but if you get unlucky with the discard, you can sacrifice Swallow or Mardroeme. Try to wait until Sunset Watchers goes pass your discard targets, to maximize value.
Little Havfrues are good value. You can use The Mushy Truffle if you are planning on 2-0ing, since you want its Golden Froth spawn with the Crow Clan Preaches ideally. Try not to use Gedy or Fucusya, as they are win cons. Hold your leader charge for R3 for more Crow Clan Preacher value.

Round 2:

Usually there’s no reason to bleed. You can save your Sunset for another few points and do well with a long Round 3. If you really need to bleed, just pass when Sunset drops, to get the best chance of them needing to invest another card.

Round 3:

Open with Gedy, then use Truffle or Crow Clan Preachers. Remember you can always get them back with Freya’s Blessing or even Fucusya if you have enough alchemies left to make it worth more than a Havfrue. Then you can spam alchemies. Bride of the Sea can either be used immediately for any 4-provision alchemy, or after using Fucusya for the other alchemies. You only have 5 and 6 cost though, so it doesn’t particularly matter. Dwimveandra can be used to reactivate either the scenario or Mushy Truffle. It’s worth noting that the Mushy Truffle is worth exactly the same number of points, but doesn’t require another Druid to activate, so is generally the better play.

Matchups

Mirror:

Hold Heatwave for their Gedy. Unfortunately, you don’t really have Heatwave bait or a defender, so they will likely do the same. Your best chance of winning is winning Round 1 and Bleeding their Gedy out Round 2.

Other decks:

Control what needs to be controlled. Engines.

Details

Good against:

Weaker engine decks

Bad against:

Heavy control (you don’t have defender and rely on engines)

Win condition:

Gedy + Mushy / Crow Clan + Crow Clan + Alchemy spam
Fucusya -> Havfrue  

Card replacements:

Nope.

The goal of the deck is to prepare a strong endgame that consists of the Alumni (and Practice Makes Perfect). For that purpose, the deck makes use of Aretuza student and Ban Ard Student. Every turn they are on board, they increase their patience count by 1. The highest number achieved is then carried over to the Alumni’s order ability. Ranged buff for Aretuza student’s patience value and Melee damage for Ban Ard’s. Reaching a value of at least 4 on each gives the Alumni Zeal. In the late game cards such as Chapter of Wizards, Practice Makes Perfect, Gerhart of Aelle and Casting Contest allow to replay the order ability of Alumni multiple times, generating very high value from bronze cards. This allows the deck to commit many strong gold tempo cards such as Raffard’s Vengeance or Seltkirk of Gulet in earlier rounds. Depending on the machup, it’s usually good to prioritize growing either Ban Ard or Aretuza student, while trying to give the second student a patience value of 4 to get Zeal. Cards like Shani or eventually Necromancy can either help reach the value of 4 on a unit that got removed or replay an already strong student Gerhart of Aelle.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Raffard’s Vengeance, Leticia Charbonneau, Amphibious Assault (or John Natalis), Students, Winch. Always toss back Alumni and Practice Makes Perfect in Round 1. Keep them in Round 3.

Round 1:

Always play Raffard’s Vengeance in Round 1, its value gets much lower later and in R1 it allows to help with the tempo loss engendered by the Patience cards. Same goes for Leticia. While playing her, it’s important to know what removal the opponent plays and when to trigger for ability (for example, look out for Syndicate’s 6 coins for Moreelse). The goal of the first round is to grow one or both students as big as possible and to go deeper in the deck with Raffard’s Vengeance.

Round 2:

Later rounds play depending on how R1 went. One of the deck’s strengths is that it can go both long and short round if the setup is right. Therefore, R2 is usually for one of two things. Either it can be used to “finish” growing some students (with revive effects or by playing the remaining ones), or it can be used to push some decks into a short round 3. Decks like SK Shrooms should always be pushed (unless a gigantic Leticia has been setup) for example, as they CAN outvalue even big Alumni in R3.

Round 3:

In round 3 we unleash the Alumni and Practice Makes Perfect. If all patience cards have been played, which happens surprisingly often, PMP’s buff value can vary between 7 and 9, in addition to refreshing a very powerful order ability. With the right setup, 1 PMP can easily play for 15+ points. Against control decks, Chapter of Wizards’ order ability should be used in that way: Spawn an Alumni, give it Zeal, and then cast PMP on it.

Matchups

Mirror:

In the mirror, it’s very important to give Ban Ard student the priority, as having access to control tools later can greatly help. Ultimately though, getting the highest value on either one student and PMP should be the deciding factor.

Monsters:

Vampires: Very good machup. Witches Sabbath usually benefits the NR player more than the MO player (reviving cards like Raffard, Seltkirk, or a high patience value Alumni). They also have close to no control option, so growing students is very easy. Careful with Drowner, which can row control Leticia, so there is no need to be too greedy with her.

Scoia’tael:

Milva: Very unfavored machup: Milva is the deck that pushed NR into unplayability during the season of the Wild Hunt and even with Milva being nerfed, they still have all the needed tools to deal with the students. Again, Necromancy and Shani can give a chance to raise a student (preferably Aretuza) big enough to outvalue the deck in the late game, but it’s very difficult.

Nilfgaard:

Assimilate: Good machup: The only card that can deal with Leticia is Yennefer’s Invocation, so Leticia can give free wins fairly often. Playing Alumni should be avoided until the last round, as Illusionists eventually copying them after an early copy of a student can be very troublesome. Students played through Amphibious Assault can’t be removed and Tourney Joust is usually not sufficient to deal with all of the students, which makes the machup favored. It’s important to avoid having Gerhart or Chapter of Wizards copied through the leader ability.

Hyperthin: Slightly unfavored or even machup: Hyperthin usually runs lots of removal options, but if a round 1 is successful and at least 1 student grows big enough, it is very possible for the Alumni spam to outvalue the late game push. The outcome of the game depends heavily on the outcome of R1 and thus draw RNG (especially on the NG side) comes into play a lot.

Skellige:

Shrooms: Very good machup. Their control options are limited, so growing a student big (through Leticia or not) is usually easy. If they pass early in R1, the player should play up to 4 cards in case Leticia is in play, otherwise take the win with whatever patience value is achieved and push R2. If they don’t pass early, then it should be an easy win and they should be pushed in R2.

Syndicate:

Bounties: Unfavored machup: Bounty heavy SY has enough removal options in R1 to deal with most everything that NR sets up. But a Veiled Leticia can be almost impossible for them to deal with if they don’t draw Moreelse and can give free wins. Raffard’s Vengeance can also give enough tempo and power in R1 to allow for a student to grow large enough. Teching Necromancy is especially useful in this machup as it is greatly helpful to “finish” raising one of the students to get Zeal on the Alumni letter.

Details

Good against:

SK Shrooms, any MO deck, any greedy engine deck.

Bad against:

SY Bounties, control decks

Win condition:

Damned Sorceress + Immortals is a 4 point per turn engine that is very difficult to remove and offers an alternate win condition.

Card replacements:

Necromancy -> Immortals / Sorceress -> Casting Contest: Necromancy can help with growing the students. Making that change trades a strong engine combo to focus more on the initial win condition.

Good old Hyperthin gains some additional power with best boy Knickers and Roach which have been buffed. This midrange list is scary in round 2 as well as in round 3. Combo with Snowdrop and Leader gives us a lot of points and thins which is the most important. The whole strategy is to thin between rounds to have a total of 1 card in round three which is Imperial Golem and then play reveal cards like Xarthisius etc. The deck contains control tools like Alba’s Cavalry, Heatwave or Ivar if included (he can be game-changing).
Your gameplan can be interrupted by other Nilfgaard decks by playing Vilgefortz from Double Cross and Artaud or other deck manipulating cards in other decks.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Knickers, Roach, Reveal cards in Round 1 and 2

Round 1:

You don’t need to fight for round control, you can simply play three cards and pass. You would like to play thinning cards here.

Round 2:

You can try to shorten the round to make your reveals more powerful against the opponent’s cards (like salary and inflation) or you can tempo pass after playing Snowdrop and Leader. If you are being bled you should hold Snowdrop and Leader which is your bargaining chip. Doadrick can help you with consistency and to put back undesirable reveal cards, bricks etc.

Round 3:

Reveal cards should give you an enormous amount of points, but you need to be watch out for your units because in the short round you might struggle with playing around tall punishes.

Details

Good against:

Assimilate, Alumni

Bad against:

Syndicate, Control decks, Vampires

Win condition:

Reveal cards, Snowdrop + Leader

Card replacements:

Roach, Nilfgaardian Knight, Alzur’s Thunders > Ivar, Impera Brigade, Ard Feainn Tortoise

Milva has been nerfed but she is still a great card which combined with
Guerilla Tactics can give us a total of 13 points. Milva’s nerf makes her Deathblow more difficult which can make some troubles during the game. Anyway, you have 4 point removal leader charge which still can shut down some engines and make your opponent mad.
This version is a little awkward to play because you need to ensure that Saskia doesn’t brick as well as Madoc, Milva, and Orbs.
If we are talking about Saskia – she is a great card for abusing red coin or for winning round one to bleed in the next round.
So all we need to do is to play Orbs with Simlas and then play Alzur from Oneiromancy or from hand using Mushy Truffle while activating Orbs.
The weakness is that even with Saskia, you might struggle to defend the bleed, opponents might go for 2:0 or just play deeply and you might be forced to play some key cards like Simlas and Alzur having nothing left for round three.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Milva, Orbs of Insight, Madoc,
Double cards like Cat Witcher etc. because of Saskia

Round 1:

With this deck it’s good to win round one to bleed opponents from their stuff in round two.
Movement engines should give you this condition, but if your opponent doesn’t want to give up you can try to commit Saskia.

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 have leader charges if you want to pressure your opponent or give yourself a tempo to gain a card.

Round 3:

Now you need to be cautious to not let your Orbs out before playing Alzur. The round might be a little dependent of Alzur, but even if you low roll, Orbs should give you some points anyway. Additionally, you also have a big Gord coming to the party.

Details

Good against:

Engine based decks

Bad against:

Pointslam decks

Win condition:

Alzur, Harald Gord

Card replacements:

Nope.

Many decks try to outwit their opponents in a long thinking match, where every point matters and even a small mistake can lose the game. Cloggers says “thinking is for nerds” and just fills the opponent’s deck with so much garbage that they just can’t play anything. Fortunately, it’s not actually all that strong, and its strength is supplemented with cards that are actually good, and don’t clog.
Please note, that the deck we have provided is a more competitive deck, but not necessarily the most seen version of Clog as an archetype. Double Kolgrim can produce more points, but is far more binary, as if your opponent has any means of passing through the defender, it usually results in a loss.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Looking for Clog (obviously). Roach and Knickers should be in deck. Consider holding onto Snowdrop in case you really need the points R1.

Round 1:

Try to clog your opponent as much as possible. Pass before Sunset Watchers drops, and ideally hold onto Snowdrop. Rience can either be used R1 to buff one of your own units, or late R3 as removal. For max value, make sure you set up Rico in the top three cards of your deck, so that Reince can remove the last card your opponent played on deploy. This may be hard to do R1, so it’s better to hold out until R3.

Round 2:

Double Kolgrim will often Bleed themselves R2, to get adrenaline quickly, and get as many turns of Kolgrim boosting as possible. This of course relies completely on your opponent not having any answers in the 3 or 4 more cards they have on you. Don’t do this with this deck. Kolgrim is still a win condition, but repeatedly setting up such a binary situation is an unreliable way to play. You can set up a crazy bleed if you plan out the Snowdrop + Morvran combo and pull Affan and the Mage Assassins (max 30 points in one turn) and add a few more turns to your Sunset Watcher. You generally do well in a short R3 though, so don’t be afraid to bleed.

Round 3:

Drop Defender, Kolgrim, and Rience, maybe some Viper Witchers. Pretty straightforward R3. Try to put Kolgrim in a different row than Sunset just in case your opponent actually has Yrden.

Matchups

Mirror:

You have no purify, and Rience + Rico won’t work on Ffion. Your best chance of winning is if you can bleed out their Kolgrim R2 or just flat out 2-0 them. You really need to win R1 either way, so go all out.

Other decks:

Doesn’t matter what faction they play if they can’t play any cards XD

Details

Good against:

Decks with no removal
Decks that are heavily draw dependant

Bad against:

Any deck with a purify and some tall removal
YRDEN

Win condition:

Rience
Snowdrop + Morvran
Kolgrim  

Card replacements:

Can try playing double Kolgrim, if you don’t like getting GGs

This dwarves deck has an unusual friendship with a few witchers. Due to the flood of dwarves, we can easily utilize huge engines like Brouver and Gezras. The deck does not have control tools, but this is compensated by a Yrden in the deck.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

The main plan is to get a long round 3, so those awesome engines can trigger multiple times, and show their true potential.
In the first round, you always want to have some good value bronzes, and thinning, so you’ll have a better chance of finding your golds later. Having Novigradian Justice, Mahakam Guards, Barclay and Yarpen are great to keep up the tempo. It is important to win the round, so we won’t get bled in round 2. Having a Decree is great to find Brouver, Gezras or Yrden as they are the key cards of this deck. Later, you will need a defender, Brouver a few dwarves for him to gain value, and Yrden to deny your opponent’s boosts.

Round 1:

It is best to drop your value bronzes, like Agitator, Pyrotechnician, Berserker. But you also need tempo cards to take the round (Novigradian Justice) and Volunteer for thinning. After a spamming a lot of dwarves in a row, we can get great value with Mahakam Guard, Barclays, Gaetan and Zoltan.
If necessary, you can use Gezras, but it is better to hold him for round 3, if you can.

Round 2:

Although we have Resilient units in the deck, we shouldn’t bleed, the deck does not have a good finisher in the short round), and key cards such as: Brouver, Gezras, and Yrden have much more value in the long round.

Round 3:

We basically start with a defender or cards that can survive on the table by themselves. We want to drop Brouver as soon as possible and have a big Ranged row with dwarves, so when Gezras appears, he can also boost all our dwarves. At the end of the round, Malena plays an important role, which helps creating a huge Yrden play, by moving the opponent’s buffed cards into one row or moving Gezras each time, to get loads of buffs on our Ranged row. Or if our opponent has lots of units on his Melee, we can use Gezras offensively.

Details

Good against:

SK Gedy. Nilfgaard Clog. MO Keltullis.

Bad against:

Jackpot. Alumni. MO Gerni. SK control.

Win condition:

The biggest win condBrouver, Gezras, Yrden

Card replacements:

Gaetan – Xavier Moran
Malena – Paulie Dahlberg