Top of the meta – Nekker despite powerful play in some cases allows one turn poison unit. Ciri and Candle give us a lot of carryover value in the next rounds. The deck is good in every round since you have double Nekker with Alissa and Arcane Tome to tutor it again. Long round is scary for most decks because of threats like Bleinheim brothers and Drill for direct control but that’s not all – Azar Javed combined with Candle makes it really tough to get your engines, poisons control opponent’s board very efficiently with Failed Experiments on board.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Roach

Round 1:

Try to win round 1 to ensure a long round, since in most cases results in a win. Committing here like Drill might be a key to this win condition.

Round 2:

Setup carryover with Ciri and Candle

Round 3:

Play Azar and boost Scarabs with Candle then setup engines and answer threats with poisons.

Details

Good against:

Knights, Harmony

Bad against:

Elves

Win condition:

Golds

Card replacements:

Nope.

Reworked Royal Inspiration with buffed Knights and new printed cards has created a heavy engine deck that dominates meta and makes people tech around it with Yrden, for instance. The deck relies on passive engines with the addition of shield archetype cards. Knights are scary with Scenario which makes huge points combined with Grace cards and makes your Aerondight grow. Except all of this deck has some carryover potential in Vandergrift which keep infuse from Squire and can be seen in every round thanks to his ability.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Dig for key cards like Korathi Heatwave and Scenario

Round 1:

Commit here Immortals with Damned Scoreress and other engines to gain yourself a round control to not get bled.

Round 2:

Push here hard with Scenario, if your opponent doesn’t heatwave it, then your board “explodes” with Grace being activated.

Round 3:

You have strong payoff from playing an enormous amount of points in Aerondight.

Details

Good against:

Pointslam, Non control decks

Bad against:

Syndicate

Win condition:

Scenario, Engines

Card replacements:

Nope.

Loc Feainn is a gathering place for the woodland creatures, dryads, relicts, and treants, but recently the Lady of the Lake has decided that an unexpected man should wield the Aerondight, or should I say an unexpected elf? After all his hard work getting swole a few months ago and a proposal that didn’t go as well as hoped (don’t tell anyone though, he’s still upset about it) it seems he’s finally getting his big break. Of course, there are people with other plans. Simlas is bringing some magical muscle, and Milva is back for revenge after getting axed a while back. I heard even Broover sent an envoy, not to mention the cat witchers. It seems everything except the dragons showed up at the party. One can only hope they can find some common ground.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Look for Vanadain, Loc, and Lady/Onerio. Make sure Milva is in your deck, and make sure you have a few harmony cards. You can hold onto Aerondight if you go first, but otherwise, just toss it.

Round 1:

Save Simlas. Save Heatwave for whatever scenario(s) your opponent may have.

Open up with Loc and use as many harmony cards as you have. You’re not running Waters or Dana, so you won’t get any more value out of the bronze harmony cards than just using them on Loc. Use Vanadain, and 1-2 waylays ideally if you can fit them in, but prioritize winning R1 over getting in an extra waylay. Your leader charge is a 4-power removal, but make sure that you can put Milva back in the deck whenever you pull her. Try not to use every leader charge R1.

Round 2:

Bleed as hard as you can. You want a short R3, or even better a 2-0 win. Make sure to Alissa the waylays back into your deck, and Simlas if you can win the 2-0 or hold it if you cannot, and just bleed with anything else. Your only pulls for Milva are the leader charges and the one Saboteur, so if you’ve used all three leaders, it may be worth just leaving Milva out for the 2 extra points and the thin for R3.

Round 3:

Simlas. Aerondight if it’s worth anything. Pull Milva and leave her if you haven’t already.

Matchups

Mirrors

Heatwave Loc. Win R1 at any costs. Bleed their Simlas without using yours and win the short R3.

Other matchups

Nilfgaard:
Cultists:
Heatwave Scenario. Ideally win R2, or just bleed hard and win R3.

Skellige:
Selfwound:
Heatwave Melusine. This defends bleed well, and is strong on a short R3, so push for the 2-0 as hard as possible.
Pirates:
Heatwave Scenario.

Monsters:
Vampires:
Heatwave Orana, Regis, or just a Fleder if you need to.
Cat Koschey:
Heatwave Scenario. Thrive suffers from a slow start up and benefits from a high point ceiling, so the shorter you can keep the rounds the better.

Northern Realms:
Bad match up in general.

Syndicate:
Kekker:
Standard battle plan. If you play well you might lose, but its not a good match up.
Devotion:
You don’t really have anything to control, so much of their deck loses value. Not many good Heatwave targets.

Details

Good against:

Engines (Cat Koschey, Vampires, Cultists)
Control (Pirates, Syndicate Devotion)

Bad against:

Midrange (Knights, Kekker, Siege)

Win condition:

Simlas. Aerondight.

Card replacements:

Tech a Bearification if you find yourself struggling against Scenarios too often
Consider swapping Roach for Royal Decree if your draw is too inconsistent, or for Ring, if you struggle to win R1.

Siege might not have the best days in its history but it definitely still has some power. Henselt into Foltest’s Pride with leader might mean up to 34 points swing in just one card. Siege on its own can easily win 2:0 because of engine overload and the control it provides.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Try to find your best cards, there are no bricks so it should be easy. Typically you want Foltest’s pride in the deck because you want to play it with Henselt.

Round 1:

Try to not get abused from blue coin. Set up your engines and play a long round, just remember that you need at least two siege engines to proc siege in later rounds. Sometimes when you feel you can win on even playing Siege from the red coin in your first move might be right.

Round 2:

Try to bleed with your scenario and other engines, keep Henselt for round 3 big finisher. If you are being bled just try to keep at least one of your big finishers, either Siege with siege engines or Henselt with leader ability.

Round 3:

Finish the game with Henselt into Foltest’s Pride and 5 leader charges.

Matchups

Mirrors

There are no Siege mirrors in this meta.

Other matchups

Against ST you have good times with Henselt and Pride countering Simlas into waylays. Often you can go for 2:0 with both Henselt and Siege. Keep Heatwave into their Scenario.
Against NG if you face imprisonment you should never play Radovid, you just lose if you do that because they can copy it with Artraud, which will give him another 2 locks for your engines. Against cultists you should have good times, just remove their 4p cultist.
Against MO you just win.
Against SY just bleed out his Nekker, you can also try to set up good boiling oil next to Ciri so you purify her with its deathblow.
Against Knights use Muzzle to counter Immortals and remember to keep heatwave for their Scenario. Sometimes well played Oil might purify at least 2 shields or infuses.

Details

Good against:

ST Elves, SY Nekker

Bad against:

ST Guerilla Tactics, NR Knights

Win condition:

Siege, Henselt with Pride and leader

Card replacements:

Vial > Pellar, Bombardment > Squirrel, Vial > Squirrel, Bombardment > Pellar.

Koshchey has been in our game for a long time. however, the deck has not been in meta for a long time. In patch 10.7 the Sir Scratch-A-Lot appeared in the game. Koshchey became stronger. The thrive became easier to activate. Renfrey left Koshchey after nerf. Let’s see what Koshchey looks like in patch 10.8. Now the deck with the Scenario you can win the first round. I think Koshcheys problem in past patches was the difficulty of winning the first round. But now there is no such problem. If the opponent does not have a lot of control, it is unlikely that he will be able to win the second round when you have Koshchey and Sir Scratch-A-Lot.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

On the mulligan it is necessary to find – Scenario, two thrives, Maxi ( in the second round, we need to find Koshchey in the hand ) Be careful that there is one bronze card with a power of 7 left in the deck.

Round 1:

It will be great if you win the first round. To do this, use a scenario. You also need to play Maxii to find a good card in the second round. It will be nice to play the Brewess, the other witches will be stronger in the next rounds.

Round 2:

If we found Koshchey, Sir Scratch-A-Lot, Caranthir, Defender then you need to bleed. The cards should be played in this sequence 1)Defender 2)Sir Scratch-A-Lot 3) Caranthir into Koshchey 4) Koshchey

Round 3:

It’s not worth going into a long third round with Koshchey. After all, you will overflow your field and lose a lot of points. If you lose the second round then in the third round you should use for example Whispess and Weavess and other thrive. Perhaps this will allow you to win because the opponent spent a lot of good gold cards in the second round to win.

Details

Good against:

Harmony, Vamps, Knights

Bad against:

SY Nekker, Henselt with Siege

Win condition:

Opponent is not great.

Card replacements:

Nope.

The classic elves deck still has a place in the meta, the recent changes to the deck made it more viable than it was in recent months. Most Scoia’tael units started a new career by becoming bandits, and made a pact with the Free Company, and this wonderful friendship strengthened their connection. Most of the deck is pretty standard, as you have met it in the previous seasons. The main wincon is swarming the board with Feign Death, creating lots of elves with Simlas into Waylays, and finishing it off with Machine-Gun Verno. The deck has a few solid tech options, like graveyard hate, purify, and movement, all in the 4p slots.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Your only bricks are Aelirenn and the Waylays, although you can unclog your hand with Vanadain, so if you have him, you should keep those to put them to the bottom of the deck with Vanadain. Other than this, go for good tempo cards, that can win the round, and only keep the tech cards that are useful in the matchup.

Round 1:

Dropping Vanadain is perfect to start the round, either force your opponent out if you’re on blue, or threaten to win on even. Feign Death also works on both coins, takes the round from blue, or from red, if you feeling like a helicopter, it has massive points in 3 cards (don’t forget to count Aelirenn)

Round 2:

If you won the round, you can either do a soft-bleed and try to get out your opponent’s combo pieces or go for a long round, where your army of elven bandit tokens will get boosted and delete the opposing board thanks to Verno.

Round 3:

If you still haven’t won earlier, just drop Feign Death, Simlas, Verno, etc., and don’t forget to gg when your opponent concedes. If you don’t have those cards because you used them earlier (and didn’t win for some reason), or you didn’t draw them because RNGesus is a cruel master, just ragequit, and post on Reddit about the game being rigged.

Details

Good against:

mirror if you’re skilled, ok-ish against SY because Whoreson JR is no more, control decks with tall punish

Bad against:

Knights, and decks with wide punish

Win condition:

Feign Death, Verno, Simlas

Card replacements:

The 4p techs can be dropped, depending on the meta.

Renfri not being at the top makes the old deck come back. Since the deck is good independently of round length you can be very passive about winning the first round. Conjurer’s Candle makes no worries about spender. Jacques guarantees you payoff from playing Firesworn cards like Cyrus (combined with previously set up Inquisitor) and Mage Salamanders from Tributes. Poisons help with getting rid of high units, especially against Knights.

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:

Setup Mage Salamanders with Jacques and answer the threats.

Details

Good against:

Engine decks

Bad against:

Greedy decks

Win condition:

Top-end golds

Card replacements:

Nope.

You know how when you go to the gym you basically rip apart your muscle ligaments and they grow back stronger? Apparently getting mauled by a bear demi-god works even better. Selfwound is slipping a bit in the meta, but has still managed to hold on a full 6 months after the Sigvald buff. The only real change is the inclusion of Heatwave, proving to be instrumental in the new Scenario Meta.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You need Royal Decree, Covenant of Steel and Melusine. Depending on the match up, you either want to save the defender for a big Sigvald R3, or just protect Melusine from Heatwave and drag out R1 as long as possible.

It may be in your best interest to hold onto Cerys depending on your hand. If you can use Covenant of Steel and an Armored Drakkar to both Melusine, you can keep the number of damage instances low, and not pull Cerys, which you ideally want to hold for R3.

Round 1:

This version of the deck is much more straightforward than a previous version with Ihuarraquax, so you don’t need to think nearly as hard. Just get a big Melusine and win R1 without using Sigvald, Fucusya, or Sigrdrifa’s Rite. Ideally, you hold onto the Mardroemes and prevent Cerys from pulling from your deck.

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 Bleed, but now its vulnerable to Heatwave or even worse, Yennefer’s Invocation (though in this Meta it’s not frequently run, so don’t be paranoid about it).

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 really big, but only if you play it properly. Consideration 1: If they’ve used Heatwave on your defender or Melusine, just pull the other one with Sigrdrifa’s or Fucusya. If they haven’t used it, pull defender first with one, and then Melusine after. Of course, this is under the assumption that they don’t run graveyard hate. The general idea is your Sigvald needs to be protected, so you need to bait the tall removal however you can. Consideration 2: Mardroeme, Knut the Callous, and Cerys 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. 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 leaves him Venerable to removal. You can always put him next to Melusine or a Svalblood Priest, but then you need to watch his health. Cerys can transfer a lot of damage onto Sigvald, most of which will likely come from Knut’s ability or Melusine hurting herself (or both together if you’re lucky).

Consideration 3: What do you do with Bride of the Sea?

Bride of the Sea can be used with no rain for a Mardroeme or Mahakam Ale and 4 rain for Sigrdrifa’s Rite. You can get only get turns of rain from Melusine and Fucusya, but note that the only way to get 4+ rain on board is with a 4/5 provision pull with Fucusya or a combination of both cards. Melusine can also technically do it by herself, 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 for Sigrdrifa’s, so you can figure out if they’re worth more than the points from the Mardroeme or not.

Matchups

Mirrors

Try to get around defender with a purify and Heatwave Melusine early, likely allowing you to win R1, and then bleed out their Sigvald or win the 2-0. Without their Melusine or Sigvald, they should always lose the short R3.

Other matchups

Just bigbrain, use a general plan.

Details

Good against:

Vamps, SY Devo

Bad against:

SY Nekker, Knights, Harmony

Win condition:

Melusine. Sigvald.

Card replacements:

Nope.

Vampires are the only deck which has survived Renfri’s nerf – Curse of Gluttony is better by 2 points. The deck has good pointslam having Nekurat being 2 points per turn engine and Fleder growing fast. There is not much control so the deck is vulnerable to greedy decks and a much heavier engine than them, though it’s easy to win round 1 and push opponents out of these.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Roach and second Red Rider

Round 1:

Win round and gain last say for Regis or opportunity for push

Round 2:

In most cases you push here with everything you have except Regis, possibly with having last say

Round 3:

Last say with Regis with any of Curses and Blessings should ensure your win.

Details

Good against:

Pointslam

Bad against:

Control

Win condition:

Golds and engines

Card replacements:

Nope.

Pirates have a well rounded balance of consistency, power plays, and control. The addition of the scenario gives the deck the ability to push in R2 in order to gain a card advantage in R3.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Mulligan hard to find the discard package. As the deck usually thins to 0 by R3, don’t hesitate to mulligan cards not required to win R1. It also helps if Terror of the Seas is in the opening hand. Roach and Compass are easy mulligans as well.

Round 1:

Try to thin your deck with discards while maintaining tempo and generating carryover with the Onslaughts passive ability. Get as much of this carryover on the red coin as you can get away with without falling too far behind for a tempo pass. On blue coin, you can use Crach to win/ take control of the round.

Round 2:

In case you win R1, feel free to bleed with Infinite Voyage, and usually you should get your card back/ gain card advantage with well timed plays and removal of the opponent’s key pieces.

Round 3:

Use Magic Compass to usually play Fucusya or if you have last say. If you feel the opponent has a big finisher saved as their last play, don’t hesitate to play Kambi thus denying their finisher. The other option is Morkvaarg: Heart of Terror as a tall punish and Wild Boar of the Sea / Hemdall as a wide punish.

Matchups

Mirrors

Try to deny them carryover by moving the An Craite longship or removing it from the board. The other targets to be careful of would be Coral/Birna combo and Crach. Heatwave usually deals with the scenario.

Details

Good against:

Harmony ST, Elves, Engine heavy decks, Mill (in case you already draw Golden Compass)

Bad against:

Cultist NG, Enslave Kolgrim, pointslam decks

Win condition:

Discard package still provides good tempo in R1 without utilizing too many resources.  Generating carryover with Terror of the seas serves as tall removal for R3. Thinning to less than 3 cards in R3 helps activate the true power of Golden Compass.

Card replacements:

Nope.