So for the past two weeks we have talked about the recommended Golds and Silvers that you can craft as a new player. This week onwards, we will be delving in depth on each Clans and their basic deck. This way, if you have picked a Clan that you are comfortable with and will most probably play that Clan for a long time, you can start upgrading the deck slowly.
Each new player will receive a Basic Deck for each of the Clans and once you finish all of the challenges, you will receive the different Leaders for all the Clans.
So the first deck we will be going to look into is the Skellige Deck which starts off with the Leader Crach an Craite. Crach an Craite is a great Leader which can bring the highest Strength Unit from your deck into play and deal 1 damage to the unit you pull. Although useful and is still being used in top tier decks, the basic deck is more suited for another Leader.
Therefore, the first thing I would suggest is for you to finish the challenges and get all the Leaders for Skellige, if not for all the Clans. So let’s have a look at the Skellige Basic Deck.
Bronze |
Silver |
| 2x Clan an Craite Warcrier | 1x Dudu |
| 2x Clan Tuirseach Skirmishers | 1x Cleaver |
| 2x Clan an Craite Warrior | 1x Holger Blackhand |
| 2x Priestess of Freya | 1x Decoy |
| 2x Clan Tordarroch Shieldsmith | 1x Commander’s Horn |
| 2x Clan Brokvar Archer | 1x Scorch |
| 1x Torrential Rain | |
| 1x First Light | |
| 1x Alzur’s Thunder |
Gold |
| 1x Ermion |
| 1x Triss Merigold |
| 1x Geralt |
| Royal Decree |
All of the Basic decks you received is a mixture of different archetypes. The first thing we need to do is pick an archetype and build around that. For Skellige, one of the best archetype for Skellige is the Discard Skellige. So we are changing the deck to the following:-
Leader Crach an Craite >> King Bran
| – 2 x Clan an Craite Warcrier | + 1 x Priestess of Freya |
| – 2 x Clan an Craite Warrior | + 3 x War Longship |
| – 2 x Clan Brokvar Archer | + 3 x Clan an Craite Raider |
| – 2 x Clan Tordarroch Shieldsmith | + 3 x Clan Dimun Pirate |
| – 1 x Torrential Rain | + 1 x Dorregaray |
| – 1 x Alzur’s Thunder | +1 x Coral |
| – 1 x Commander’s Horn | |
| – 1 x Geralt |
The goal of the deck is to thin the deck with discarding units so that you may draw the cards you need, namely the Priestess of Freya. War Longship is a great card that deals 2 random damage each time you discard a Unit card, either from hand or from the deck. With one War Longship out, playing your Leader King Bran discarding three Units from the deck will deal 6 random damage.
King Bran works best with Clan an Craite Raider since the Raider is played when discarded. Clan Dimun Pirate discards the rest of the same card from the deck, thinning your deck and triggering War Longship. The finisher in the third round is reviving Clan Tuirseach Skirmishers with Priestess of Freya producing a high Strength unit. Clan Tuirseach Skirmishers can be played in previous rounds so it can go the discard pile early or discarded using Ermion or King Bran.
Dorregaray is a great Silver with a lot of utility either bringing carry over Strength with Ekimara or moving an opponent’s unit with Drowners. As I have said before, Coral is one of the best Gold turning your opponent’s high Strength units into a mere 2 Strength little idol. Coral works best after you use Dudu on their highest Strength unit.
And that is the first Basic Upgrade I would suggest to you while you explore more on what else to upgrade. Hopefully you can find more discard interactions and build a better and better decks. Till next time Gwentlemen, keep calm and Gwent!
