META SNAPSHOT #4 (Patch 10.7)

What happens when a card is too strong? Easy, you play it more than once!

Ah yes, Nilfgaard and Assimilate, name a more iconic duo! Every time when a new expansion is introduced, Nilfgaard almost immediately becomes the hottest faction, simply because its identity is tied to playing cards from the opponent's faction. This time, they are playing your Renfri just because they can, and most likely much better than you!

While Renfri herself can easily play for over 20 points, it's crazy when this deck can play Renfri for 2, 3 or even 4 times on some occasions. This deck also omits Coup, Yennefer Invocation and some 4p special cards to enable Renfri. To help with consistency, 2 Blightmaker - Mage Assassin are used alongside Renfri's Gang and Triss Butterflies.

Explanation for some of the card choices:

• Runemage to improve consistency of Renfri Curses and Blessings

• Vilgefortz to replace Yennefer Invocation in the "tall removal" department

• Assire and Roderick to play Renfri again

• Peter to somewhat aids the "tall removal" department as a lot of decks are running Sunset Wanderers

• Diviner to deal with Defenders or strong Infused abilities

Yes, you are not tripping: Handbuff is finally strong enough to be a tier 1 list of the meta!

The core of a standard handbuff deck usually consists of very few (if not zero) special cards, making the upgrade to a Renfri deck becomes very favourable.

However, this handbuff version isn't just handbuff. It's point-slammy, it has a lot of tempos, control and overall really hard to deal with. Farseers are definitely the bronzes you want to find earlier in the game. The top-end of the list uses Zoltan and Munro, arguably the best ST duos in recent patches. And look what have we here: the good old Geralt Igni making his way to the highest level of Gwent. Some might find the Vanilla Geralt to be a better choice but please trust us, our players have seen so many fives and sixes got destroyed by Igni leading to many close wins that we simply cannot leave out the card.

Thanks to the satisfaction of playing handbuff, it's no doubt that we're seeing so many varieties of it on ladder. In order to triumph in a mirror match, remember to not overcommit - a principle for almost all mirror match-ups. In addition, although losing last say could be a death sentence for Torque, first say is okay since you can be the first to set up the rowdy dwarves for Munro. Disabling their Munro could be the winning line in this case.

Another Nilfgaard list makes it to the meta this month! Curse of the Black Sun confirmed!

If you look closely, it's another Renfri deck! (Yay). In fact, the core of the deck is almost exactly like the standard Hyperthin reveal that some Nilfgaard players use outside of Assimilate. You thin with Roach, Knickers, Impera Brigade, Hunting Pack and Renfri's Gang, before using leader with Snowdrop to thin out the remaining Affan and 2 Mage Assassins.

Coming into the deciding round, you have Triss Merigold, Yennefer Divination and Xarthisius, each could play for 3 to 20 points depending on the board state. You also have a Vilgefortz to "tall remove" or even ranged deploy to bring out your own Golem. In addition to that, you also have a Renfri that plays for 20+ points on Deploy as well. Hmm.. are we still missing something or not? Ahhh, Assire and Roderick for another Renfri, how could we forget!

Overall, this deck is definitely a powerhouse with so much point-slam value. It's not hard to end the game with 30 points difference in a 5-card-R3. To do that, you must win R1 and force your opponent into a short R3, where the reveal combos are ready to go.

We see Renfri so we figure that the deck must be strong. It cannot be weak. Hence the place in the meta.

The deck is quite simple to play. First you draw your vampires. Then you play more vampires, and then you finish the game with a big vampire. Sounds easy enough, innit?

Fleders are the most important pieces of the combo. You will need at least one of them to survive to be okay in the points department. Make sure to grow your Regis every turn and finish the game with a huge Regis with hopefully Renfri into Curse of Gluttony (Boost Regis by its base power) - Go Big Or Go Home!

We prefer Igni over Vanilla Geralt simply because of the higher ceiling and the less probability of being a brick.

Do you hate boosts? Do you like to destroy stuff? Stop looking around. You've found what needed to be found.

This hybrid precision strike list was on top of the world just last month, right before the most "beloved" card in Gwent got reworked - the Ornate Censer. Now, some people are still running the same old core cards, with a change here and there, trying to make it work.

This deck is a heavy control/tempo one that utilizes the best Scoia'Tael cards at the moment. Zoltan-Munro, we can go over this again and again if you want. Vanadain-Simlas-Alissa is the standard trio that helps you with more tempo in R1 and a very strong tempo play/finisher in later rounds. Heatwave deletes troublesome scenarios while Yrden is a big F word towards Harmony or Kitty decks.

However, the deck seems inferior to the current Renfri decks, hence the current tier.

For glory! For Radovid! - Redanian Knight (I'm supposed to say something witty and semi-funny here but I'm out of ideas, sorry about that)

The Black Sun expansion brings a brand-new Knights scenario to Gwent, alongside many changes to the current Knight cards and even a new keyword Grace. However, just like most NR decks, the current list of honourable knights really struggles against control decks - which happens to be most of the ladder decks, unfortunately.

While Mutagenerator Siege decks split boosts amongst allies while gaining points in the form of "damaging the opponents", this Knights deck goes super tall and is extremely vulnerable to locks. We would love Knights to be viable but with the current meta, it is impossible for Knights to compete against the cool kids of the patch.