1000th Post - iClipse's Gwenneth Powerhouse

[iClipse]

Gwenneth Powerhouse

Hi everyone,

Since this is my 1000th post, I wanted to do something special. These last few months I've really fallen in love with this game. There are a lot of points that need a lot of work, but in general I think this game is awesome. And after 1000 posts I think it's time for me to do my contribution to the community. This is why I'll post my main deck.

The deck you'll see below here is a very powerful, competitive deck. Even though it has some weaknesses, it is quite viable in almost all match-ups.

Note: this is NOT an easy deck to play, and you'll need at least a game or 10 to get the hang of it.

1x Gwenneth Truesight

Allies - 20
4x Jasmine Rosecult
4x Lily Rosecult
2x Birgitte Skullborn
4x Raven Wildheart
3x Aldon The Brave
3x Aeon Stormcaller

Abilities - 11
3x Rapid Fire
4x Retreat
4x Bad Santa

Weapons - 8
4x Soul Seeker
4x Beetle Demon Bow

== Total = 40

The general idea of this deck is to play for the board. Never go for the throat. This deck is designed especially for taking the board. Almost all cards are chosen for that goal.



General usage of the cards:

Jasmine Rosecult:
Card used for general board control. Excellent t3 drop, and in midgame it's best to sac the card, until you have enough resources.

Lily Rosecult
Try to never sac this card. Especially when you're in late game, it's really powerful to bring back those Soul Seekers and keep the board presence in your favor.

Birgitte Skullborn
Tempting as it is, never play this card on turn 1. This card is used lategame to make sure Raven or Jasmine is safe from attacks. Also will this card draw fire away from your hero, so some durability of your bows is saved.

Raven Wildheart
Often an early game sac. If you don't have them at the start, even better, because that means you'll be able to play them all later on. Played together with Aeon she makes a powerful combo. Try and summon her only when you know she'll survive the next turn (for example after a board wipe).

Aldon The Brave
General 3cc drop. Brings all other allies (except Brigitte) to 4 attack, which makes taking out (especially 4 health) allies that much easier.

Aeon Stormcaller
Use him to lock the board. Use him when you see that he will survive the next turn so you can swing back and summon a Raven behind him. Use him to draw fire from your hero. There are plenty of uses for him.

Rapid Fire
I used to run 2 rapid fires at first and 4 Aeons, but I found that I sacked the Aeons way too much, and was longing for Rapid Fire way too much as well. So after over 50 games of testing, I made that single edit (-1 Aeon +1 RF). With the 3th Rapid Fire, you almost always have it in time. And even if you don't draw it early. You have non Rapid Fired Soul Seekers, and Ravens to play on turn 5. Either way, Rapid Fire with Soul Seeker and Lily is a VERY powerful combination.

Retreat
General low cost board control card. Controversially, this is a card I sac a lot. Why? Because this deck has absolutely no draw power, and so playing a card that gives you a -1 card advantage is pretty dangerous. Use this card only when it'll give you a card advantage through gaining board control and being able to kill something. This will usually be late game when you already have enough resources.

Bad Santa
Since this deck has no draw options (I used to work with Wrath of the Forest, but I found that the deck is way more powerful without them) I added 4x Bad Santa to this deck. This deck is littered with strong cards. What is the consequence of that? This means that when using Bad Santa, you will almost always get super strong cards, and in almost all cases stronger cards than your opponent. So, you can conclude from that, that there are almost no bad moments to play Bad Santa. The only bad moments are when your opponent went first and you want to play it on turn 2 (Don't!) and/or when you are already winning. For the rest, it's almost always a card that will give you an advantage.

Soul Seeker
This card is plain awesome. Together with Rapid Fire you can even take out an Aeon in one turn with only this card. The deck relies on late game cards, so this means that it's quite possible that you've received quite a bit of early game damage. This card is super at mitigating that damage since it can heal your hero up for quite a bit. Use Soul Seeker to control the board. Only attack the hero if you want to run out of durability (You have another bow in your hand, or you have a lily in hand). If you have no lily or other bow in your hand, there is no shame in not attacking. So use this card wisely. Just randomly attacking the opponent's hero and then losing the board because of this is a no-go.

Beetle Demon Bow
Transform this card when possible. It's a good card to attack with when rapid fire is equipped, but in general you'd rather want to attack with Soul Seeker, so whenever you can transform it, do so. It'll give the opponent an ally that's actually quite durable and won't die to the most common 4 damage weapons/attacks.


Strong points:
No draw engine: Since this deck has no draw engine, the deck has almost no bad hands. I mean, a bad hand is of course always possible, but when you are lacking some specific high cost card, that means you always have some other, equally powerful, high cost cards, and you'll be able to manage without that 'key' card.

Strong cards: When you are topdecking, you will almost always draw a good card.

Generally strong matchups: This deck has a decent shot when fighting whatever deck your opponent has. Sure, some matchups are harder than others, and when fighting against tuned 30 card decks it's always a hard fight, but is there any 40 card deck that doesn't has that problem?


Weak points:
Armor: The usual weak point. No item destruction. When your opponent plays a Kings Pride when there are some allies on the board, it's usually lights out. So try to keep the board clear, and destroy that KP whenever it comes on the field.
Snow Sapphire is another card that CAN be troublesome, but doesn't has to be. The deck has enough high HP allies to take down that Snow Sapphire. Try to keep your hero from being Frozen, so you can always react to whatever ally your opponent is playing or do your damage once Snow Sapphire is destroyed.

No direct damage: This deck has no direct damage cards. Which makes cards like Erika and Nightshade quite a pain. Lance is also very hard matchup to win for this deck.

Disabling cards: There is no way for this deck to remove attachments, so cards like Captured Prey and Crippling Blow are quite the pain. Also not being able to counter Blood Frenzy hurts this deck (but hey, no-one except Jericho can do that, so..) .


If you have any questions/suggestions or anything else, feel free to post below. I'll try to keep a close eye on this thread so I can answer questions as soon as possible.



Anyhow, thanks for reading.

iClipse

[iClipse]

Reserved. Will perhaps add a FAQ here.

[kentuequi]

Thanks to share this great deck, i was looking for a good Gwen to put in the french forum one hour ago, but wasn't able to found a good one, now i have a great one, . Also, hopefully you had made some helpfull posts before the 1000th .

Question have you a 30 cards version in mind ? You said you play against tuned 30 cards deck, but why don't you cut some cards for quick games ?

[iClipse]

Thanks to share this great deck, i was looking for a good Gwen to put in the french forum one hour ago, but wasn't able to found a good one, now i have a great one, . Also, hopefully you had made some helpfull posts before the 1000th .

Question have you a 30 cards version in mind ? You said you play against tuned 30 cards deck, but why don't you cut some cards for quick games ?

Because I refuse too

No seriously. It was announced several times that 40 card minimum will be coming, so I gear up for that. And that's why I won't make a 30 card version. I hate playing 30 card decks anyway (with and against). If someone wants to make a 30 card version, he can feel free to do so. But I don't really see which cards to cut really without making it a general 30c cooky-cutter Gwenneth deck.

[Gondorian]

Excellent post. Congrats on hitting 1000. Change the dark blue to something else though, because it's hard to read.

[iClipse]

Excellent post. Congrats on hitting 1000. Change the dark blue to something else though, because it's hard to read.

Ok, done

[MattOG]

Dammit... Gwen & Boris now run the quick games

[Raphael Majere]

Wow! Darn!

Keep this a secret, man!

This is the BEST GWEN deck for 1.27!

Look no further! (My current sole loss in the Yellow League is to this deck! My Boris Lost!)

[Harakhte]

Great list, I must agree, and wonderfully thorough post! Definite +1

One note, and I am always semi-surprised this isn't mentioned more often: on your own allies, those Retreat! you correctly included are the only non-Jericho/Healing Touch form of attachment removal available. I find mid-game around T6+ that having the option of picking up and replaying a Transformed BDB rather than leaving it CB'd to be highly effective at only 2cc.

I rarely use Retreat on an enemy ally drop, just as you warned, unless I know it will give me enough time to gain BC or other major gain, so instead I save them to use as described above and in many other tricksy ways. With Gwen that would be primarily recovering a Lily, saving crippled/burning/poisoned/almost dead allies, and being able to keep replaying the same BDB over and over. If Kris was included, an Aldon on the board turns Kris into a little 2/1 monster, that can Retreated and recast with the same damage efficiency as a Fireball, if not the same targeting flexibility. My personal best multiple Retreat/Kris play was 16 damage with a single Kris on T9 using Zhanna (Aldon+KP) but I've been attempting to better it since (War Banner, or DR'd Bloodlust with Boris/Amber, might do the trick).

Cheers,
-Harakhte

[He-Man]

Very nice!