Geralt Igni: it goes in any deck and should be a priority craft. Especially as it doesn't lock you into an archetype. If however you are after cards more suited to monsters then Triss Butt and Yennefer are also good shouts whilst still being neutral.

Frightener is also really important to maintain card advantage. Depending on the silvers you already have it might be worth crafting four of them over one gold.

My current deck, 70-25, something like 3450 MMR:

Vert's Monsters

Eredin

3x Caelano Harpy
2x Wild Hunt Hound
2x Earth Elemental
2x Thunderbolt Potion
3x Biting Frost
1x First Light
1x Dimeritium Shackles
1x Mardroeme

3x Crones
1x Scorch
1x Water Hag
1x Jotunn

1x Caretaker
1x Geralt: Igni
1x Caranthir
1x Old Speartip

Level 17, Rank 17

Well I've been playing Monsters more or less since day 1, so I'm happy to stick with it. Not impressed by Triss Butterfly or Yennefer - when they're played against me I just tend to pass as soon as possible. They can also be managed, and in a long round, Biting Frost does more. Geralt: Igni is a good card, but has also been quite underwhelming when played against me now that I'm not running Ogroids & I see it coming, so I'd rather not craft that either. Succubus is SO GOOD against high-power minions anyway.

Vert about your deck, I take it you're running Eredin? If so then:

1) I'd run 3x Wild Hunt Hound since I really like having access to my weather (I'm even running White Frost!). It also allows you a free 3 power when you play Eredin because of Wild Hunt Navigator.
2) I'd probably cut First Light for Archgriffin. At the moment I'm just running Water Hag as weather clear, your meta might differ, but even then running two full Clear Skies effects seem excessive.
3) Why the Dimeritium Shackles and Mardroeme? Drowner is a solid performer in my deck so you might want to try it, especially since you have Geralt: Igni; I do run a lot more weather than you though.
4) Jotunn is a card I tried and eventually took out. It's not that the card is bad, it's just that for full effect you need your opponent to have 3 minions to move. Now that frost only damages one unit in a row, the effect is also not that strong. I can see Jotunn being an absolute all-star with the old frost effect, but not the new one, given the other competitors for its silver slot (Fiend, Frightener, etc).

Your gold card choices make me somewhat jealous haha, wish I had those cards.

Do you find your relative lack of interaction a problem? Say, opponent plays Arachas Behemoth, or Redanian Knight on a frosted row, etc?

Jotunn is a powerhouse in Verts deck. The deck is about stacking a row for massive value Igni, Speartip and Lacerates. It makes the deck better against buff dwarfs and NR Muster which otherwise have the potential to outvalue you.

Your math is off on Triss too. Frost hits one target at a time (unless using multiple cards for the effect) for 2 whereas Triss hit gains more per turn. The fact you'd rather pass than play against the card is also telling: I'll take a round win for a gold card. Frost is also more easily played around whereas Triss almost always generate points. Often 20+ point gold which is great value. There is a reason the high MMR players use Butt in swarm.

Lack of interaction? I have weather, Hag's Lacerate, Scorch, Igni, Shackles, etc.

I like cards that move for the reasons that Sjok illustrates. All those effects, plus Speartip, really benefit from my ability to move your cards around and to fiddle with their totals.

Mardroeme is the bronze poor man's version of Bekker's Twisted Mirror. It can easily swing 15+ power vs. decks designed to concentrate power (Dwarves, Elf Mulligan, Consume, Skellige Discard, etc.).

I like First Light because it's flexible. Sure, the Archgriffin has 7 power attached, but that's irrelevant if you are facing either multiple weather effects or Rahg Na Roog/Drought. Clear Skies has 6 power stuck onto its butt if it is used to sweep Foglets, even more if those foglets have been pumped.

Also, First Light is my potential extra Hound. Hound/Harpy/Elemental are my only bronze unit, so one of those is what my first light is grabbing in non-weather matchups. It's never a dead card and, in those scenarios, it's also deck thinning. I wouldn't want the third hound over any other bronze card and I'm not going above 25, so it's the cut.

Also, Shackles + Caretaker can steal gold cards, and stealing Triss/Yenn is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off.

My deck is reactive. I don't try to play super aggro. I try to generate card advantage, usually losing round 1, try to maintain card advantage through round 2 thanks to my carryover creatures, and then punish them with card advantage round 3.

Also, this is just truth.

Also, why do people like Tibor? He's awful.

I don't know.

I feel the same about Ciri. Sure you have card advantage but just play your faction spy: the value on opposing golds will just overcome the difference you gained because she is 5 freaking points. Once you factor in the abundance of carry over too, I just dont get why I still see her.

7 point Ciri was an auto include. At 5, it is only very good in decks that really care about card advantage/win round 1. Tibor is good in round 3, problem is nilfgaard is overall too weak

Even round 3, 23 power isnt worth losing a card, especially for a gold slot.

Igni isn't buffed very well by Jotunn, after all it does do two damage. If e.g. opponent has two Ogroids and you stack both on the same row for Igni, Igni is only worth 14 power, not 24 like you want it to. Drowner on the other hand can stack both for 24-power Igni without doing damage. I admit though I haven't played with Igni so I may be wrong.

About Triss: no, I don't agree. Triss Butterfly says "boost all other lowest allies by 1". Obviously once it's played the opponent will attempt to make it so that Triss is only generating one point of power a turn. My decks are definitely capable of doing this. Same goes for Yennefer, I'll try to play a higher-power minion to again limit her to 1 damage a turn. Once that happens Triss / Yennefer is adding less value a turn than Frost is taking away. Triss can generate 20+ points of power, but by that point, my frosts are also probably generating 20+ points of power, more than canceling her out. As for passing against Triss Butterfly, weather also puts strong inclination on the opponent to pass, and weather is called out by a bronze card.

vert about the lack of interaction: how do you deal with the two minions I mentioned? Shackles does it I suppose, but it's a 0-power play.

Which two minions? Triss Butt and Yen? Shackles or passing when it's favorable cards wise

No, Arachas Behemoth & Redanian Knight on a frosted row. I'd try to hit them with Imlerith or Fiend, but your deck seems substantially more vulnerable.

About Tibor: I think you overestimate card advantage. You play him as late as possible so the card has minimal impact. 23 power for a gold card is tremendous - Imlerith hits for conditional 16 for example, Triss Merigold for 12, Geralt for 13 max, etc. Sure not all of these cards are actually good, but clearly few cards are actually reaching 23 power. So it comes down to how much power is an extra card worth. Comparing cards like Frightener and Thaler, the extra card is worth about ~10 power. That gives Tibor a converted value of ~13 unconditional power. Add on the fact that the opponent can only draw a bronze card, the fact that Frightener is more flexible, and the fact that there are cards you don't want to draw in round 3 (Earth Elemental & Harpy in our decks for example) I'd say "awful" is too harsh. Not great, but he's better than Geralt, and a new player should swap him in if opened.

Why would I care about behemoth on the forst row? Redanian knight is super slow so I wouldn't much. I worry more about value per card and Redanian knight is a bad tempo play.

And no, I'm really not underestimating card advantage. It's the entire basis for my record

Yes, and I'm undefeated in ranked play with something like a 20-0-1 record, with the sole draw coming because it was the first time I encountered Coral, in spite of caring less about card advantage.

No further comment.

Cool. I'm happy you found a style that works for you. Of course, it doesn't involve playing Tiber at all, so I don't really see the relevance. If you are down in cards and your opponent still loses, your opponent is either bad or has a bad deck. It's really about that simple.

I decided to try to pull myself out of the dumpster and start playing ranked and boy oh boy, the place is truly infested with monsters. It's not a question of which faction I play against at this point, but which leader. Right now I'm seeing 80% Dagon and 20% Unseen Elder. I saw a few Nilfgaard reveal decks when I first began the climb and I have not played a single game against Northern Realms, Skellige, or Scoia'tael.

Variety is the spice of life, folks!

Eh? I can be down in cards and win anyway because all three of my opponent's rows are frosted and he's out of Clear Skies. Or maybe I simply have my high-value plays left while he only has his low-value plays. Like seriously - would you rather go into round three with five bronze cards or four gold ones? Latter option should win almost every time, heck four good gold cards might even beat six good bronze cards.

PS Nice of you to actually back your statements up instead of tout your record and use that as a proxy for "I'm right".

...but that's what you did!


(I like your Jund ramp deck, btw)

I didn't tout my record, I said my record is proof that utilizing card advantage is a successful strategy, because it is. Not necessarily the only one, but certainly successful.

For the record, Im skeptical 4 gold could beat 6 bronze in a well made deck, but you know that is literally the most extreme example possible. It's like saying one gold could beat 12 bronze weather cards. It's a closet case and seems practically irrelevant to me.

This seems like your argument against Triss to me where you start with the conclusion and work backwards. Yes, you can win with less cards if an impressive number of factors come true. That just means that card advantage is extremely important, just not automatic.

Like, I've lost with card advantage by accidentally scorching my own unit. But that was incompetence on my part and not some great play by my opponent.