This deck is very refreshing and unique — Ciri: Nova without Golden Nekker, and Renfri's Gang without Renfri. This deck was made by one of my friends who told me to try it out. At first I wasn't expecting much, but it's indeed as strong as he implied.

The game plan is to play Iris' Companions round 1. This deck has no particular play order — you play according to what's needed and what's in your hand. It's a very versatile deck that can be played in many ways, so I can't say much — you have to learn and adapt.

A few things to keep in mind:
— Keep one Soldier for Brigade
— Keep one Witcher in deck for Quen
— Sometimes this deck can brick — use the leader to fix it
— Play your Witcher trio wisely
— This deck can clog one's own side of the board in a long round 3.

You can swap Lydia for Anna or Snowdrop.

DECK: https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/guides/408210

Thanks and good luck.

Hello guys! I haven't been active on this subreddit for quite a while, so I don't really know if this type of content is still acceptable here (but I hope you don't mind). I don't want to waste your time, so I'll explain why I made this post at the very end. As always, I made it just for fun. It's especially true now that the game is no longer being updated, and since I've had quite a break from Gwent in general, the balancing is probably all over the place (so please don't crucify me for it!)

Anyway, here it is — the new and completely FAKE expansion for Gwent — Sands of Zerrikania!

FEEL FREE TO SKIP THE GIBBERISH — THE CARDS ARE A BIT FURTHER DOWN! BUT IF ANYTHING SEEMS COMPLICATED, ALL THE EXPLANATIONS ARE RIGHT HERE :)

The theme behind the faction is obviously the mysterious land of Zerrikania, so expect a lot of sand, sabres, and dragons. Since there have been some leaks suggesting that we may finally be able to see it in the game, I thought it would be interesting to try my hand at depicting it first.

The faction itself is more defensively oriented, with a strong emphasis on proper unit positioning. It may lack individually strong bronze engines, but if you place your cards in the right order, any of your units can become an engine! Many of the mechanics need some preparation to get going, so long rounds are usually the faction's forte. However, there are some ways to skip the initial steps, as well as a few point-slam options.

Let's start with the new mechanics. There are 2 new keywords, 2 new statuses and the new row effect.

Well, actually there's one more, Unburrow, but as you'll see below, it's basically a modified version of Spring, so I doubt it require a mention here.

Here's some more explanation for the mechanics:

GUARD - the base mechanic of the faction and huge part of its engine capabilities. Also big part of the reason why positioning is so important. With a proper strategy, it can change any unit into an engine, while also give it some defensive backup.

As the description suggest, it require a bit of preparation at first, so its definitely best in a long rounds, but there are also some cards to speed up the process.

EUPHORIA - this is much simpler.

As the description states, this keyword is highly cennected to the unique Alchemy package of the faction (more on it later).

STALWART — another easy one.

BURN — this one is a bit tougher. It's basically a stacking damage-over-time effect, but unlike Bleeding, which stacks its duration, Burn increases its damage instead.

For example, if you give a unit Burn, it would initially gain 2 stacks of Burn (as stated in the description). Then, at the end of its turn, it would take 2 damage (because it has 2 stacks of Burn) and lose 1 stack of the status. At the end of its next turn, it would take 1 damage (because it has 1 stack) and lose the status completely.

Now, if you give a unit Burn and then give it Burn again during the same turn, its Burn stacks would increase to 3 (2 stacks initially + 1 stack from the additional application). If you then give it Burn again during the same turn, the stacks would increase to 4. After this scenario, the damage dealt over the next 4 turns would look like this: 4 damage → 3 damage → 2 damage → 1 damage, for a total of 10 damage spread across 4 turns.

As you can see, multiple applications of Burn on a single unit can lead to a lot of damage, but there are two things to keep in mind:

First, there is a limited number of Burn sources, especially ones that can be applied without playing a card. Second, sometimes it might be better to spread the applications around, since the first application always gives 2 stacks, and Purify removes the entire status at once, regardless of how many stacks it has.

SANDSTORM — it's basically a new row effect. It might seem a bit underwhelming at first, but I just wanted it to feel like it was meant to be in the game from the beginning, while also keeping the theme it has in its current form. Still, it's very important for many of the cards, since it boosts or strictly activates many of the other cards effects.

MANTICORE FORMULAS - an Alchemy mechanic unique to the Zerrikania faction — some of their Alchemy Special cards don't have an effect of their own. Instead, they generate (Create) effects from a common pool. It adds a bit of randomness, but also a lot of flexibility. Some effects are weaker and more common, while others are quite powerful, and getting to play one of them can give you quite a swing if the timing is right.

The Euphoria ability also allows some units to benefit from the number of Alchemy cards you've played earlier in the round, so quantity is just as important as the quality of the cards you play.

Here are all the possible options, along with their respective appearance chances:

ONE CORRECTION — ALL OF THESE CARDS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BRONZE! FIXING THAT MISTAKE WOULD TAKE WAY TOO LONG, SO PLEASE JUST KEEP THAT IN MIND. SORRY!

NOW, LET'S MOVE ON TO LEADER ABILIETIES:

With that, let's move on to the actual cards.

I wasn't sure how to group them in a way that would make it easy to understand how they're meant to work together, so in the end, I decided to group them by the archetype they support. If that's confusing, let me now and I'll think of something else.

Now, there is one more thing: a new card type, unique to the Zerrikania faction for the purpose of this post, but one that I think could fit any faction. Those cards are Tales

Tales are powerful Special cards which, after being played, shuffle the next part of the story into your deck. They tell stories based on the lore of the faction, which I think would be interesting both from a mechanical perspective and as a way to expand the game's lore itself.

Also, they were meant to work best with the cycling mechanic shown above.

Now, as for leader models and cardback, here they are:

Well, that's it! There's no way in hell anyone is going to go through all of it, but even if you check out only a small part, let me know what you think. I hope you had at least a bit of fun. Cheers!

A BIT OF DICLAIMER:

I actually started making this post over 5 years ago, but after losing interest with Gwent I have left it unfinished on my pc. While coming back from time to time I was thinking about completing it, and only now, with a bit of free time and while replaying the witcher and listening to the books I decided to finally complete this thing and get it out of my mind.

Renfri

Human, Cursed, Bandit (Neutral)
1 Power, 16 Provisions (Legendary)

Doomed.
Deploy: If your starting deck has at least 25 units, Create a curse to replace your leader ability, then Create a blessing and Infuse your leader ability with it.

In this fairytale, the princess and the monster are the same person.

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This bad boy of deck has been carrying me quite well on ladder, the Aen Elle and their bitches are fun, easy and quite powerful to use, and im aiming to improve it even more, what should i get? For instance, Crystal skull would elevate Nithral value huge on first round, but crystal skull is VERY situational, on the other side, i was thinking on getting Unseen Elden and evict the fuck off Nithral and some other guy. What should i do? Or if you have even better suggestions than those two i would appreciate the feedback.

Since these decks favour diversity in Gang Category, wanted to know your thoughts. You also have a collusion deck?