Gwen 30 Card Deck

[Rand al'Thor]

Gwen

4 Jasmine
4 Puwen
4 Raven
3 Aldon
or
2 Raven
2 Aeon

Variants:

A)
3 Retreat!
3 Soul Seeker
3 Beetle Demon Bow
3 Rapid Fire
2 Wrath of the Forest

B)
3 Retreat!
4 Soul Seeker
4 Beetle Demon Bow
3 Rapid Fire

>T1
>T2: Puwen
>T3: Aldon/Jasmine
>T4: Beetle Demon Bow/Wrath of the Forest
>T5: Raven/Retreat!+Jasmine/Rapid Fire
>T6: Aeon/Soul Seeker/Jasmine+Ability/Jasmine 2x

Considerations:
1) Save Retreat! for mid/late-game creatures such as Aeon, Raven and Plasma Behemoth. Retreat! + Jasmine on T5 could turn the tide.
2) Use allies for board control and main source of damage supplemented with bow damage on later turns. I usually stop at 5-7 resources (7: 2 for Jasmine's ability + 5 for Soul Seeker).

Special thanks to Harakhte for providing great comments. Additionally, many thanks to everyone contributing their deck construction and strategy tips in the forum.

Please provide suggestions, comments and constructive criticisms. Thank you for your time.

Edit: original deck edited after doing several tests.

[Harakhte]

Very similar to my Gwen list, except I use 2x of Raven and Aeon instead of 4x Raven, and push to 34 cards with 4 of each bow and 2x Bad Santa (or 2x Wrath of the Forest) and switch the Nightprowler for one of each Arrow (really useful when I want to get Raven/Aeon down into one SS attack range).

When I play with Nightprowler I always try to work Into the Forest into the deck, but it isn't quite as powerful as before the Protector change so I primarily use Wrath now. Question 2 is one reason, as WotF is only 4cc, and it makes a good drop if for some reason I have no BDB, and it helps deal with the cars draw issue mentioned in Question 1 too.

With 30 card Gwen the draw probabilities are so maximized that with 4 of the important cards you will have them when you need them unless you run into horrible luck, but in that case not having Bazaar or Bad Santa probably won't make a huge difference. (Q1)

BDB on T4 and SS on T5 (and T6/T7 RF/Aeon/Raven) is what 30 card Gwen is all about. It will always hurt not having those to play on those turns as with only 30 cards you have limited options in terms of flexibility. It is also why 40 card Gwen is seen as being a rare thing until (and if) a 40 card minimum is implemented. My own Gwen deck hasn't gone higher than 35 cards without losing a lot of consistency and using most of those extra cards for card draw rather than versatility. (Q2)

Other than what you've brought up yourself, I think the deck will work as intended most of the time, but the times it doesn't it will have the same troubles as all low-count Gwen decks.

Good work!
Cheers,
-Harakhte

[Rand al'Thor]

Very similar to my Gwen list, except I use 2x of Raven and Aeon instead of 4x Raven, and push to 34 cards with 4 of each bow and 2x Bad Santa (or 2x Wrath of the Forest) and switch the Nightprowler for one of each Arrow (really useful when I want to get Raven/Aeon down into one SS attack range).

When I play with Nightprowler I always try to work Into the Forest into the deck, but it isn't quite as powerful as before the Protector change so I primarily use Wrath now. Question 2 is one reason, as WotF is only 4cc, and it makes a good drop if for some reason I have no BDB, and it helps deal with the cars draw issue mentioned in Question 1 too.

With 30 card Gwen the draw probabilities are so maximized that with 4 of the important cards you will have them when you need them unless you run into horrible luck, but in that case not having Bazaar or Bad Santa probably won't make a huge difference. (Q1)

BDB on T4 and SS on T5 (and T6/T7 RF/Aeon/Raven) is what 30 card Gwen is all about. It will always hurt not having those to play on those turns as with only 30 cards you have limited options in terms of flexibility. It is also why 40 card Gwen is seen as being a rare thing until (and if) a 40 card minimum is implemented. My own Gwen deck hasn't gone higher than 35 cards without losing a lot of consistency and using most of those extra cards for card draw rather than versatility. (Q2)

Other than what you've brought up yourself, I think the deck will work as intended most of the time, but the times it doesn't it will have the same troubles as all low-count Gwen decks.

Good work!
Cheers,
-Harakhte

Very good points and you seem to be a very experienced Gwen player having applied extensive heuristic methods. I suppose I'll go back to the drawing board and apply some changes with your suggestions. I'll try to give some update with how the deck works in the end. Thank you for the time and good luck with your own deck.