We are at a stage where most, if not all, decks are
practically reduced to nothing. This is due to the Golden
Nekker and the artiodactyl relicts.
However, there is a deck that benefits from the rotation of
cards between the deck and the hand, and we are
witnessing its return in glory.
Thanks to the ability to customize your hand cards and
create on the occasion of the carryover, the deck based on
our Traveling Priestess is one of the most successful and at
the same time universal in the current meta.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

It’s good to have a Mutagenerator to start with
and cards that allow you to extract value from
it, such as Reinforced Ballista or Lyrian
Landsknecht.
If during the mulligans before the start of the
first round, we manage to shuffle any of the
priestesses into the deck, it only works to our
advantage, giving an additional charge.

Round 1:

It’s best to set up with the Mutagenerator at
the beginning and then add 5 commission
units, thanks to which we will boost the
card from the deck.
In addition, we try to get as many charges on
the priestesses as possible, Snowdrop,Thaler
or Istredd can help with this.

Round 2:

The most important thing in both the first and
second rounds is to get charges on the
priestesses and prepare the deck for the final
round. It’s good to keep and boost Sunset
Wanderers on the hand as long we can. It’s
good idea to use machine loads and shorten
deck as much as possible.

Round 3:

For round 3, we leave in a leader charge, so
that in the event of a break, we can put cards in
the deck.
At best, we should get Tridam Infantry and
Traveling Priestess from Vernon Roche, which
in most situations will give us the advantage
needed to win the match.

Matchups

Mirrors:

The number of charges ultimately on the priestess or priestesses and the cards at the beginning of the match may decide about the
win in the mirror, if we can safely play r1 without using the leader for key cards, we will keep the charges for shuffling the priestesses.
It’s also worth having Dorregaray of Vole, it can be useful against Istredd on the opponent’s side.

Other factions:

Devo SY

The match against Devo SY is potentially our best. When The Scoundrel does not threaten us and our deck, we can safely bleed in r2 and in r3, despite the loss card, come out
victorious thanks to our combo: Vernon Roche for Traveling Priestess with Tridam Infantry.

NG Assimilation

Nilfgaard is a problematic faction for us. On the one hand, we give in the early stages of the game some outstanding goals for the
future Artaud, but the opponent has Vilgefortz, which will effectively spoil our deck layout. We can only pray that the enemy will linger with him waiting for the strengthened Tridam to burn.

ST Harmony

The harmony deck is almost in no way to threaten us and destroy the arrangement of cards in the deck – and this is our greatest
asset. Apart from a few poisons and possible Korathi Heatwave, the opponent is deprived of more control, which means that high-score
cards such as Sunset Wanderers or Snowdrop will remain calmly on the board.

SK Warriors

Against the SK Warriors deck, one of the few moves facing us is to remove Istredd in one of the raids before he makes value. Besides, the opponent’s special cards will not be able to harm us, because most of our key cards have a deploy and the rest will be buffed by the Mutagenerator.

Details

Good against:

SY Devo KoB

Bad against:

NG (because of Vilgefortz)

Win condition:

Snowdrop with Istredd, powered Sunset Wanderers,
Traveling Priestess with Tridam Infantry

Card replacements:

Korathi Heatwave -> Geralt Igni

After the last buffs on the horses, the control nekker –
overseas deck has become even stronger.
Thanks to the additional ability to get rid of cards from the
deck and create a lot of bluntness in the process, pirates
have become a skellige powerhouse, proudly representing
one of the most enjoyable and strongest archetypes of
recent seasons.
For every fan of control over the game – a must-have.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

The hand for the first round is extremely
important. It’s good to have cards that benefit
from hurting enemy units – Terror of the Seas
and Bjorn Stormursson.
However, we can’t risk drawing discarded
cards if we can’t move them to the graveyard.
As if that wasn’t enough, you have to keep an
eye on the cards in the deck all the time, the
nekker can’t be bricked.

Round 1:

In round one, we’re looking to get as much
armor as possible on units that gain from it,
and if possible, start to shorten the deck with
cards like Coral and Birna.

Round 2:

In the second round we continue the strategy
from the first, Unicorn and Chironex can help
us, creating pressure and a fast pace.

Round 3:

During the whole game you should try to
prepare the deck to play golden nekker, we
only have two artifacts so it’s good to have at
least one in the deck.
In the end, we have quite a lot of good cards
that can get rid of high-point enemy units –
Terror of the Seas and Bjorn Stormursson with
armor and Curse of Corruption

Matchups

Mirrors:

A better combo from the golden nekker and the
right discard package throughout the game can
decide about winning in the mirror.
It is also important that we gain armor on
pirates and ships as soon as possible, thanks
to which we will gain more control over the
board.

Other factions:

ST Harmony

A large number of cards controlling enemy units
gives us the opportunity to get rid of engines
with harmony or movement.
Thanks to the proper use of relicts, we can
impose a large blunt, which can help in
potentially bleeding the opponent.
In this match, the opponent will have larger
units, so the curse of corruption will effectively
cool down the opponent’s enthusiasm

NG Assimilation

In matches on nilfgaard we are also the favored
side. Potentially the best target for Artaud is
Coral played from the compass, and with this
one we can wait practically until the end. In
addition, we are able to effectively knock down
engines with assimilation, which will
significantly weaken the best moves of the
opponent.

Monsters

When the ladder raises the deck with Kelly, the
ability to remove large units – whether through
Terror of the Seas and Bjorn Stormursson with
armor and Curse of Corruption, is very handy
for us.
We are able to quickly deal with the opponent’s
defender and the dragon, and without that – the
third round of the opponent is extremely pale
compared to our nekker

Details

Good against:

ST Harmony, NG Assimilation

Bad against:

SK

Win condition:

Golden Nekker combo, Chironex and Unicorn

Card replacements:

Nope.

Last month Enslave finally got it’s return to meta and I think it’s not gonna vanish quickly, even tho Torres got changed the deck instead of dying went into more assimilate with Bribery and Braathens.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

If not in hand then mulligan to find Calveit, other than that just keep few bronzes to play round one longer, also you don’t want Nauzicaa in deck.

Round 1:

Play Calveit with few bronzes, try to escape the round.

Round 2:

Defend the bleed with your good cards.

Round 3:

Win long round 3 with a lot of assimilate or win short round with Terranova/Skellen/Nauzicaa

Matchups

Mirrors:

Fight for round one, try to say in reach with Jan Calveit play. Try to play Calveit after your opponent passed to deny his round one Vilgefortz removing one of your golds. Play Runemage late, same with Braathens, those are their best Terranova targets

Other factions:

Against NR:

Don’t get baited into leadering Immortals, this leader does nothing, because they just play Damned Sorceress and are totally fine, it’s better to use leader in later rounds on cards like Knight Errant or Vandergrift.
Against ST:

Keep mirror, you can set up his engines in one turn, while opponent needed 3.
Against SK:

You can copy their second form Tyrs and try to swap your engines that are about to die with pointslam warriors, of course you have to set up warriors in graveyard first.
Against MO:

Kill their Dettlaff with your Skellen, if they go for Dagon in second form, then try to steal it with your leader, if they will do Dagon in second form then just give him spying tag to make sure you will have consume in later rounds.

Details

Good against:

NR Knights, Priestesses

Bad against:

SK Warriors, SK Pirates

Win condition:

Long round with a lot of assimilate.

Card replacements:

Nope.

Old Midrange with minor changes like Bloody Good Friends in our deck makes Pulling The Strings one of the biggest win conditions in Syndicate which can be played up to 4 times with Shady Vendors. Except them we have Junior, Drill and poisons for more control options. Little Bird can spend up to 6 boost which one of the best spenders in the game. Cyrus combined with Whoreson Senior puts 3 engines on our board. Collision as Cherry on the Top.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

King of Beggars

Round 1:

Play bronzes here and quick pass, in some cases you can contest the round with Little Bird.

Round 2:

If you have won round try to push him with Collusion to create big point gap and pass having 1-2 golds in your deck, otherwise you just defend the bleed.

Round 3:

Senior increases our long round potential, properly set up gives us 5 point engines.

Details

Good against:

Nilfgaard

Bad against:

Warriors

Win condition:

Golds, Pulling The Strings

Card replacements:

Nope.

They fight with honor and glory, they fight for their king, their queen or for Lady Bronwen. Boost them to big numbers so they can be even stronger with grace.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Look for Oneiro, Amphibious Assault or Lady of the Lake. Also try to find Damned Sorceress Immortals combo, this is the key for winning round one.

Round 1:

Push as had as you can with you AA, Immortals, Sorceress, Knight Errant. Do not hesitate even going two cards down. Also try to set up Vandergrift carry over. Do not forget that you want to play your temple round one because you are likely to win it

Round 2:

Push with Scenario and other good cards. While bled try to protect either Scenario or Maiden’s Shield, both are going to be wincons in round 3.

Round 3:

Finish the game with whatever you have left.

Matchups

Mirrors:

It’s kinda RNG based because it’s hard to predict what you will get from your temple and you don’t know what your opp will get. Likely with temple you should be favoured against Aeron lists, because you can get additional fuel.

Other factions:

Since this is straight forward deck the games against every other factions look kinda the same. Also many decks have Igni, they will always get value out of it but you can try to not give them 2 units igni or something like that.
Against ST

keep Heatwave for Scenario and remember that he has only 3 poisons in the deck, purifying poisoned units can brick their second card. Against movement you will have really bad time fighting for round one, keep offering for Sentry and try to even commit 2 Knight Errants.
Against SY

count their tags to know how big can their Strings be.
Against NG

you cannot set up Vandergrift because he will be good leader and spying tag target. It’s good way to bait their enslave with Immortals, if he leaders them it’s really good for you because you have many better targets. Also keep Cursed knight for their False Ciri.
Against MO

you have to win round one, in other cases you just lose.
Against SK

remember about Curse of Corruption against Pirates, against warriors you should always be winning.

Details

Good against:

ST Harmony, Warriors SK

Bad against:

NG Enslave, ST Nekker Movement

Win condition:

Bleeding with Scenario and Maiden’s shield, Temple

Card replacements:

Nope.

Warriors SK is very well known archetype, it’s been existing in Gwent since forever. Now thanks to current meta it’s good again. With a lot of carry over you can set up with Highland Warlords and big power push provided by Arnjolf combined with Sove.

Gameplan

Mulligan:

Find Highland Warlords, Blood eagle and 4 provision warriors such as Invader and Brokvar Warrior

Round 1:

Set up your carryover with Warlords, try to escape round as fast as possible, commiting your golds might not be the best idea even if you are being coin abused. Just set up carry over, set up graveyard for War of Clans and escape the round. Losing on even is not the end of the world

Round 2:

Defend the bleed with anything you have, you can still try to set up carry over with Fucusia or Harald into Warlord. Just keep one good card for round 3 (Sove, Fucusia or Harald). If you somehow won round one just go for long round 3

Round 3:

Play your remaining cards, should be enough to win.

Matchups

Mirrors:

It’s always good to have last say, try to win round one.

Other factions:

Against ST just remove their engines with you Raid cards.
Against SY you have really good matchup, SY is in the really bad spot from the beginning.
Against NR you can try to push for round 1 with your leader and then bleed round 2, matchup is still very unfavoured.
Against MO you have be careful about their front row, opponent can play to brick your Sove with brewess and deathwish cards.
Against NG remove their engines with your raids, should be enough to win. Also try to not give him the way to copy your second form Tyr, this might be their way to win.

Details

Good against:

ST Kekker, ST Harmony, NG Enslave, SY Cove

Bad against:

NR Knights, MO Deathwish

Win condition:

Long round with lots of carry over. Denying your opponents engines.

Card replacements:

Nope.

New Year, New Kelly! This time it’s really new.
We have here an unusual combination of one of the
greatest decks – Kelly and classic deathwish, which we have
been able to watch for several seasons.
The Deathwish deck is no longer led by Brewess but by
Dagon. Does the combination of two iconic units of a
monstrous faction have a chance to conquer the ladder?

Gameplan

Mulligan:

It’s good to have Brewess: Ritual to start with
and units with deathwish in the deck to bring
out its full potential. Of course, you should also
have something to eat the units with, including
the leader will not help.
If we expect Ciri on the opponent’s side, it’s
nice to have access to the Tesham Mutna
Sword as our answer.We have a lot of key cards and only two
choices – Oneiromancy and Royal Decree, so
the more gold cards in your hand for the next
rounds, the better.

Round 1:

The first round is so damn important to us. We
have to win it with the help of Brewess: Ritual
or even Kelly (Thanks to Witches’ Sabbath, we
can safely play it for the price of winning r1)

Round 2:

In the second round, the strategy is simple, we
copy the Dagon using Arachas Queen and
Abaya, so it’s worth not playing them before.

Round 3:

The deck is based on simpler plays than in the
classic Kelly deck.
In round 3, we duplicate the strategy in round
2 and use Witches’ Sabbath for that.
There are few controls other than the sword
and the Kelly itself. Deathwish units take their
targets quite randomly, so not every fan of the
dragon may like this version.

Matchups

Mirrors:

Winning the whole match mainly depends on
winning the first round, thanks to this we can
bleed or even try for 2:0, so remember, Chongo
on your part, it’s a win on your part

Other factions:

Devo SY

There is no more control in the opponent’s
deck other than junior and poisons. Junior
himself is not able to threaten us and poisons
with our leader are practically useless.The
only problem may be the constant creation of
Firesworn Zealot, which will slow down our
dragon

NG Assimilation

There are two problems in Nilfgaard, the first is
Vilgefortz, the second is Skellen. It is unlikely
that there is a random squirrel on the deck, so
we only have to be afraid of the
aforementioned gentlemen. Nevertheless, we
should win the first round quite easily, bleed r2
and in the third count that Witches’ Sabbath will
be enough for us.

SK Warriors

Devo warriors are able to threaten our
graveyard, and the raids themselves can only
activate deathwish on our units. This is one of
our best matches in my opinion. We stick to a
proven strategy, the only card that can threaten us is Champion’s Charge, so at most
the dragon will win without the help of the
defender.

Details

Good against:

SY Devo KoB, SK Devo Warriors

Bad against:

NG Assimilation, Monsters deck

Win condition:

Kelly and Cave Troll, Dagon and Arachas Queen, Brewess:
Ritual

Card replacements:

Nope.

Loc Feainn has had its ups and downs, being a peaceful place for gathering at times, and the site of many betrayals at others. It seems someone swapped out Aerondight with Tesham Mutna when no one was looking, so the Lady of the Lake went to go look for it. If you ask me, that Schirru guy is the most suspicious, since the previous wielder, Vanadain went missing…
Fortunately, Dana Meadbh is presiding over this new year’s gathering, ensuring that everyone will get along (or at least pretend to.)

Gameplan

Mulligan:

You absolutely need Saskia: Commander or Royal Decree to pull her for R1. It’s good to hold onto Mysteries and Dana. Schirru is match up dependent. If you expect the opponent to have a lot of 3 or 6 power units, keep him, otherwise he doesn’t do much. Try to keep the Abandoned Girl, and Dwarf Berserker in your deck for Saskia to pull.

Round 1:

Saskia as soon as possible in the ranged row. Play out your bronze movement cards, leave at least 1 leader charge if you’re going to be using Schirru later. Don’t use Dana as she’ll just get locked or removed, and don’t use Mysteries if you can avoid it.

Round 2:

If you’ve lost round 1, be careful not to use Dana. If you’re being bled hard, worst case, you can defend with Mysteries.
You want a long round 3, so if you won round 1 don’t bleed unless the opponent has a very greedy deck.

Round 3:

Mysteries with a few harmony cards and a Dana follow up can easily net 50 points, and Lake Guardian is probably worth around 20, so you should be able to put out 70+ points with only 5 or 6 cards. Schirru ideally is last say, as you can use him at 6 points with your last leader charge to clear quite a lot of enemy units.

Matchups

Mirrors:

Win round 1 and bleed out their Mysteries and Dana

Details

Good against:

Enslave NG

Bad against:

Warriors, Qnerrates

Win condition:

Dana Meadbh, Mysteries, Schirru, Lake Guardian

Card replacements:

Nope.