Not great, but I've run into some weird counter-mill strategies, like NR with Nenneke AND Decoy on Nenneke to reshuffle 6 cards back and people using Summoning Circle on Assire to put their own cards back. Still some wins, but not a winning record at this point. I have some gameplay flubs here and there though as I try to adjust to the archetype more (never played mill last season), so hopefully it will correct itself.

It could just be safer to run spies. Mill can be a nice counter strat, but in reality it maybe more of a tourney deck rather than something to ladder with. I mean Avallac'h should destroy my deck because it thins like crazy but with Caellach and Assassins I don't feel troubled and I have no problem putting out more points.

I'll still give it a whirl but I think I've found my go to deck for this patch.

I'm increasingly convinced Prince Stennis is overpowered. My games against it are constantly fighting over that card: opponent trying to Shani it, Decoy it, Nenneke it; me trying to do the same with Caretaker. If we're fighting that hard over one card that doesn't do anything unusual (like Kambi) I don't see why it's not overpowered. One could say the same about something like Avallach, but Avallach is gold and requires Shackles and such - Stennis isn't.

What happens if I play Kambi and my opponent plays Kambi as well? Both of us end up with Hemdall?

About Summoning Circle - crafted it and played a few games, haven't been impressed but it's a reasonable performer. How exactly does it work though? I know if I play Fire Elemental, it spawns a copy of the Elemental, not the 1-power spawns. I also know if I play Eredin spawning whatever, the circle copies the spawned unit (not the one played before that). If I play Prince Stennis bringing out something, does the circle copy that unit, or Stennis?

Farseer combo should easily still be viable, you just need to keep one Protector in hand. Related question: if you're playing against Farseer, Impera Brigade, etc, do you think it's better to weather them and start damaging them, or wait until there're multiple of them on the battlefield -> Scorch?

Yeah, I had a match with Nilfgaard where I played Avallach, got Assassin'd, Renew'd Avallach, and got Assassin'd again before I could Shackles him. That made me a sad panda.

The spawns aren't bronze or silver units. Assuming Stennis pulls a bronze or silver unit, it would copy that.

On the mill topic, Nenneke+Decoy is infinite cards so if that variant of the deck continues to increase in popularity I don't think mill will survive.

I'm currently running a Renew in the NR list and quite like it, when Shani and Natalis are always 26 points why wouldn't I want another of them?

I think the gold damage change has made Renew a lot better. You can intentionally place golds into weather to use them twice in one round and sometimes they just die naturally!

Yeah, it's reason enough for me to swap Assassins for Emissaries.

Hey Ordev, thanks for posting the NR list a few days earlier. I made some tweaks to it to fit my style and learned how to use Nenneke properly; and it's putting up great results.

I'd guess your gold slot would be Dijkstra/Shani/Natalis/Renew? Currently running Keira in that last slot, and while she does good work I could easily see swapping her for Renew. Biggest point against it is probably that I tend to keep these two golds for round 3; especially Shani.

For reference; here's my list:

Radovid

Dijkstra
Shani
John Natalis
Keira Metz

Commander's Horn
Decoy
Reinforcement
Prince Stennis
Nenneke
Trollolo

1 First Light
2 Reaver Scout
3 Blue Stripes Scout
3 Blue Stripes Commando
3 Temerian Infantryman
3 Dun Banner Heavy Cavalry

My current decklist:

3x Magne Division
3x Alba Spearmen
1x Dimeritium Shackles
1x Thunderbolt Potion
2x Assassin
3x Rot Tosser
1x Vicovaro Novice
1x Lacerate


1x Sweers
1x Albrich
1x Assire
1x Decoy
1x Peter Saar
1x Merigold's Hailstorm

1x Avallach
1x Renew
1x Cahir
1x Stefan

I opted for a variant on the 28 card Alchemist deck, but I only played 3 games in casual and promptly gave it up as a bad job. I'm almost certain Rot Tosser is a bad card.

Your list feeling any better Vert? Would you consider Swallow over Thunderbolt so you don't have to row stack? I might fool around with your deck and see how it goes.

Yeah, it's working better. I'm a short little 5-0 streak currently with the current list, which is good. Still feels fairly frail.

I could see cutting a Rot Tosser for an Assassin, but they obviously have added value when you can play them after your opponent is out of actions through milling them out.

I like Thunderbolt because, if I already have Shackles, any row with 2 people is a quick 11 points down with the Novice. Being honest, it's probably close to a wash, though. Honestly, Full Moon or Overdose might actually be better, since it's usually a late round play for me anyway and they offer a net 13 points with Novice. It's rare the armor does much for me.

Yep, these are my golds. With renew you would obviously play differently, play natalis-horn in r1 for tempo pass, or open with shani r2 AND r3 instead of dry-passing. But I'm convinced Renew is great here after trying it out.

I changed the slots a bit, -decoy +dethmold, 1 reaver scout, 2 battering ram, 3 of other bronzes. So far 8-0 on the 'pro ladder' with it, though the skill of opponents is noticeably lower than on the normal ladder... That might change when more people realise playing in that format is of no benefit to them, though.

Was thinking of crafting Renew since I have some vague idea to make a Triss: Butterfly deck (still literally have yet to see that card). If Triss gets Shackled, can she still be renewed? I assume no, since the card says "gold unit"?

Looking at the new pro ladder makes me shake my head. It makes sense from CDPR's point of view of course, but to even fight for one of the slots in these tournaments takes a stupendous amount of dedication. Four different factions, and emphasis on getting MMR as high as possible - this will take hours and hours of play, more than I'm willing to commit. I'm not going to try. Good luck if anyone else goes for it.

On another note: I'm thinking of adding Avallach to my Monsters deck partly as a countermeasure against NR decks. The idea is that Avallach prolongs rounds, making weather better; further, NR decks thin so effectively that Avallach could conceivably mill them out. Ordev and modulo, do you find Avallach a threat? What about Merrigold's Hailstorm - how effective is that against you?

EDIT: Actually come to think of it, why don't more people run Artefact Compression? From the description I assume it removes key cards like Avallach / Prince Stennis from play entirely - they can't even be resurrected. If that's played the turn these key cards come down, the other deck's a lot weaker. Even against other decks it's not awful - it bypasses deathwishes and shrinks big minions.

Mill can hit you for 6 cards with Avallach before you could use a compression.

Oh, I thought I could aim the Compression at gold Avallach. Still, I don't see how Mill can hit for six. The second time it comes down, after it's demoted, it should be vulnerable; at that point it has only hit for four cards.

Emhyr/Cahir can bounce it in and return it without ever passing back.

Avallach (gold)
Emhyr (unlock Avallach and return to hand)
Cahir (play Avallach then return Avallach to your hand)
Avallach

Then you can Compression after 6 cards

Decoy for nenneke was a good tech against avallach, but I'm seeing more weather nowadays and almost no mill.
I bait out merrigolds before last round (double commander's horn helps), or go into r3 with just 2 cards to not let it get much value.

Hmm, seems like surprise tech then. If the mill / NR player isn't expecting it, Avallach / Compression could do a lot of damage - I actually just beat a mill player in my first pro ladder game when he played a naked Avallach, presumably thinking that as long as it isn't in frost a monsters deck cannot kill it from full health (or maybe he just didn't have Cahir in hand). However once the tech's known it's still decent but not devastating. I will play more games with both cards and see how it turns out.

**** the weather clear, although the same mill player I played against had 2x row weather clears and I had enough weather to overpower it haha. Drowner certainly feels on the edge of overpowered now - it's an 11 power bronze with strong potential for more. Compared to that old cards like Savage Beast has no chance of comparison. But if Drowner is overpowered there'd also a lot of other overpowered cards out there. A symptom of the power creep I guess.