Gwent Deck Anatomy: Enslave 6

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Introduction

After Skellige (Devotion Warriors Raids) and Monsters (Devotion White Frost) deckbuilding guides its time for Nilfgaard in Gwent Deck Anatomy cycle. 

This time we explore the class of Enslave 6 decks, starting from the very basic restriction…

Enslave 6 Definers

Axiom | We want to play full value Enslave leader ability. With 25 cards in the deck, max possible is (6): exactly 13 units and 12 tactics. This restraint means that no Artifact cards (except War Council) or specials other than Tactics can be included. 

Enslave leader ability itself is analyzed in the Nilfgaard Leader Abilities article. Next logical step to take is to look into Tactics – how good are they, what are their synergies and if something concise be built of them at the provision high end or we shall rather rely on Units.

First look reveals that there are only 2 Tatic cards at 10+ cost: Battle Stations! and War Council. Two more at 9-cost can help to build a reliable high-end: Coup de Grace and Abduction, but require dedicated decks.

Due to lack of high-cost Tactic cards we can already conclude that units would make for a good deal of Enslave 6 high-end. Nevertheless, let’s analyze Tactics one by one.

Tactics In Nilfgaard

(in bold the most stable or important ones)

Golds

  1. Battle Stations! – strong gold with power dependent on the most likely topdecks. Highest potential in engine overload – deploying two +2 per turn engines means hard to disrupt +4 per turn scaling. It gives 40+ points potential in a long round. Outside overload, BS! value would be good when strong topdecks are guaranteed and bronzes are just good (for example Sergeant + Slave Driver instant combo would be worth about ~19 points). It makes the deck more rigid, harder to include tech cards. BS! can also be played before decisive round to gain thinning, round control and not necessarily play topdecked cards.
  2. War Council – raw value equal to the best card from 3-topdeck +~6 points from location order. In total WC would be worth about 15 raw points, but more value could be gained from its flexibility and synergies, like threat protection, assimilate, or Tactics payoff cards.
  3. Abduction – an Echo card which requires setup with cards clogging the opponent’s deck, like Toxicologist, Viper Witcher, Coated Weapons or Sandor. At least 4 of those are needed to make Abduction consistent enough, which is a serious deckbuilding constraint. Abduction value would be strongly dependent on the meta; generally Assimilate should be able to make the most value out of Abduction via synergies with the pulled card (usually a bronze). When everything goes right, a single round Abduction value would be around ~14 points and including echo ~20 points total (baseline 8)
  4. Coup de Grace – high-risk high-reward card, ranging from 3 points when condition not satisfied up to the value of a strong gold unit + 3 … in two rounds with Echo. There are 3 main ways of setting Coup up:
    – via Disloyal unit (Joachim…) – safest way. Can be countered with Transform, purify would help only if power >3.
    – via Spying – need to sign opp unit with Mage Torturer or other card. Can be countered with Purify or Transform.
    – via Damage – pinging down opp unit to 3 or less points. Least reliable.
    Disloyal / Damage can bring most points, but also easiest to play around – optimal Coup value would be possible usually only later in the round, which can complicate sequencing. Coup Disloyal would work best with strong (preferably controlled) topdecks not going tall. Spying/Damage would work best with Assimilate.
  5. Royal Decree – good tutor, but not a target card.
  6. Bribery – huge variance card, unreliable unless having some spare provisions to try extra value. Improves by a lot with Runemage. Considerable only in Assimilate builds. 
  7. Marching Orders – tutor, irrelevant for deck power.
  8. Glorious Hunt – a tech card; normal deck would still need another expensive, more reliable control tool.
  9. Treason – a surprise value card; while damage can help to improve treason consistency a bit, it still wouldn’t be reliable enough unless opp deck is very specific.
  10. Cadaverine – poison + spawn a copy. Conditional card. Requires Poison package (or at least a single card) and preferably should make good use of the copied card on average (Assimilate).
  11. Surrender – a long round card, tech against some decks (Reavers, Dwarfs Swarm)

Bronzes

  1. Experimental Remedy – a fair costed R2/R3 card which can interfere with opponent’s gameplan. Best average value in Assimilate, because 5- and 6- costed units from the opponent’s graveyard would often be archetype specific engines. 
  2. Assassination – a removal potentially trading even in points. Good only when opponent do not play around; otherwise can get some value as a threat by slowing engine development down.
  3. Amnesty – a card which requires ultimate damage support and Devotion for a solid, repeatable value. When used on engines or units important for later rounds (bronze Warriors, Flying Redanian) can reach high effective value. Otherwise 8 for 5 is also acceptable, but slightly underwhelming compared with blunt pointslam cards (like Fiend in Monsters etc.). Therefore would fully shine only in specific ladder meta (engines…).
  4. Coated Weapons – control, banish and interference with the opponent’s deck, but no real added raw points. Can be a backdoor for Abduction.
  5. Imperial Diplomacy – decent card, especially in Assimilate and after Runemage. In such an environment it can often reach 8+ value when picking 5+ cost bronzes.
  6. Ointment – at best 7 for 4, synergy with flanking Soldiers, so not very stable in Enslave
  7. Tourney Joust – acceptable to control 4 power units, otherwise very underwhelming
  8. Battle Preparation – 6 for 4 raw points at best on a Soldier, but Armor sometimes would be useful
  9. Obsidian Mirror – very conditional and low tempo, sometimes can be amazing and game winning (e.g. vs Reavers), but also game losing if found at the wrong moment.
  10. Buhurt – good on False Ciri (12 for 4) or when played on tall removal target (9 for 4). The drawback is going tall.
  • 10 bronzes; 6 at 4-cost
  • 11 golds

Tactics Summary

  • Bronze Tactics in general are not stable enough to guarantee consistent point output with a good tempo
    • The only two potentially stable and good value bronze tactics are Amnesty and Buhurt, but both require dedicated support, especially Amnesty. Imperial Diplomacy also can be reliable enough if upgraded with Runemage.
    • Bronze tactics can just be fillers – contribute to 9 unplayed cards, while the targets would be mostly units
  • Amongst gold tactics there are only a handful of solid ones: BS!, War Council, Coup De Grace, Abduction – and most of them require dedicated builds.
  • Many decent Tactics cards benefit from Assimilate or in general playing multiple cards from the opponent’s archetype (Diplomacy, Bribery, Coup de Grace, Abduction…).
  • Battle Stations in Enslave 6 may have topdecks issue, because Bronze tactics are underwhelming. Battle Stations then should be played R1/R2 for thinning and tempo or topdecks in R3 have to be improved in a different way. Thinning with Battle Stations exactly to 2 unplayed tactics looks tempting then – all good cards are guaranteed, while the worst tactics are left out; still need to play 11 of them though.

Tactics Payoff Units

As bronze tactics are in general not stable and underwhelming compared with the real, synergistic bronze packages, then maybe they help to develop value from synergistic units?

  • Menagerie Keeper – when conditions fulfilled breaks even with the provision cost at 3 power (7 for 4).
  • Fire Scorpion – naked Scorpion is slow and prone to removal at 4 power. Can be a decent opening engine from blue coin, gaining roughly 1 point per turn and helping to remove opponent’s threats. Also may be combined with protection in later rounds (War Council, Joachim)
  • Venendal Elite – gets power of 5 + #tactics in hand (max 14 in total). Can be useful from blue coin for safe tempo. To challenge opponent from red likely not that good, because next you have to play those tactics ;-). Scales badly into short rounds, so has to be found early preferably.
  • Magne Division – in tempo terms adds +2 to the played tactic value, in full round terms +2 to topdeck value. Extra thinning. Could be combined with Slave Driver (3p/5c at the moment of writing) for +3 value on the tactic played. In this combo Battle Preparation on Magne could get extra value – Slave Driver would damage armor. A damage tactic combined with Magne starts to trade up in points vs removed engine, which is important for keeping points advantage.
  • Hefty Helge – greedy engine, 3 or 4 shots is enough to break even with provision cost, lots of extra value from control.
  • Ardal Aep Dahy – complex card, should be viewed as value play above all. It has small but natural antisynergy with Enslave 6 – topdecked card would likely be a tactic, usually underwhelming.
  • Stefan Skellen – great card to trigger Tactics / Assimilate engines, control opp engines, especially combined with Enslave leader ability.
  • Jan Calveit – at the moment of writing JC stats are 7p/10c. With Jan Calveit played in R1 it is guaranteed to find 10 most expensive cards not in hand. What is most important for Enslave 6, Calveit guarantees that filler Tactics wouldn’t be found in R2/R3. Quality of bronze Tactics wouldn’t then matter much. With 12 tactics in the deck, Calveit would be found everytime from blue coin and 96% of time from red.

Calveit Deckbuilding

At the moment we decide to include Jan Calveit in Enslave 6, the deckbuilding changes drastically. The Deckbuilding Rule Of 16, which says that only 16 best cards of 25 are used during a game of Gwent is nowhere as strictly obeyed as in Calveit decks. Top golds would always be found in R2, cards from 5-6 provision range would be found in R3. No deck is as capable of transforming hand fast into higher quality between rounds as Calveit decks. Drawing a 4-cost card outside R1 is barely any risk unless it was mulliganed out in R2.

4-cost cards

All 4-cost cards which are supposed to make any impact should either be dedicated only to R1, or kept in hand during R2. 4-cost cards of mediocre value, ‘safe topdecks’, are relatively irrelevant and contribute little. For R2/R3 we need value higher than more expensive cards, which usually means matchup dependence – for example banishing Hive Mind with Squirrel is easily worth ~20 points. If we mull out such a tech card in R1, then we should likely never see it again.

Strong bronzes / low end golds

Cards from the 5-6 provision range should generally be decent in a shorter round. Otherwise the deck will suffer from Round 2 bleed, which is generally natural against Calveit decks. Having crucial long round cards in this region is not a good idea (for example sometimes finding 6p/6c Auckes for Witcher Trio could be an issue). Safe pointslam should be preffered.

Top End

In R2 we are pretty much forced in a Calveit deck to have at least Top3 golds in hand. Mulling out a gold card is extremely risky and inefficient. Therefore but for at most 1 card, all top-end should be R2 playable. At least one (perhaps the most expensive?) card should have an excellent short round value. 

4-Tactics Dumpster

It is poor people who make Rockefeller rich. As 4p cards are mostly deck residents in Calveit builds, they could at least help to fulfil Enslave 6 constraint. 6×2 = 12 tactics are available at zero cost. Thanks to Calveit, Enslave 6 decks can easily end up playing no or one tactic total in R2 and R3. Not exactly as it was supposed to be when Enslave leader ability was designed…

Round 1

In R1 we play Calveit and at least 2 more cards. If using 4-Tactics Dumpster, R1 is unstable – high variety of R1 hand power, probably a handful of very low tempo plays.

The crucial checkpoint is not losing on even cards from blue coin. Especially in a Calveit deck this could be devastating, with the opponent getting out our top golds in Round 2 ‘at no cost’.  Due to instability, it would be best to have 2 decent tempo plays in hand and then pass. Going deeper into the round while having cards like Ointment or Obsidian Mirror in hand can be risky. Good tempo units playable in R1 are welcomed, especially if cheap.

If pressed hard, using leader ability is a serious consideration – often would work better than losing on even cards, because R3 leader value is uncertain.

Rule Of 16 And 4TD

By basic math: 16-13 = 3; at least 3 tactics would have to be played still during the game. From the red coin it would usually be easy – just drop 3 weak tactics in R1 and pass. How about blue coin? Unless we manage to sneak in some tactics, we would have to play 3 in later rounds. 

And we surely don’t want to, because what has to happen by the rules of logic is playing weak tactics in R2 or topdecking from 4p tactics at random in R3. 

Going all-in with 4TD then can lead to awkward situations. More refined approach would be to pick two or three 5+ tactics instead of obligatory 1.

4TD = Full 16

Most normal decks could be seen as rocks (golds) on the sea (bronzes from the archetype)

In Enslave 6 Calveit 4TD, the more proper picture is rocks on lava. We have to make sure the provision bottom would never be reached in a game of Gwent. Going from 4- to 5- cost can be 4 or more points of improvement. Two good mid-end cards would be better than one good from high-end and one random from 4s.

Calveit Enslave 6 Synergies

Calveit Enslave 6 could rely less on Tactics synergies than other builds. The scaffold of Calveit + 4TD + strong leader can host different R2 / R3 strategies. 

That being said, when we examine top-end units available for NG, Assimilate is by far the most developed archetype. Henry + Runemage or Artaud are perfect candidates for a card to keep for R3. There are other options, but not as convenient. 

Enslave 6 Calveit = Assimilate is close to truth, and the main question then is the choice of particular cards.

12 Tactics = Low-unit

Enslave 6 decks would play fewer units than normal decks and as shown in the article so far, those units would be of higher average power.

  • Joachim de Wett – can act as a value play and an untargeted tutor at the same time. In Calveit decks or well thinning ones can be used to summon prepared units with a buff. Without thinning, Joachim can be a regular, untargetted tutor for units, while Tactics are left in the deck. One only needs to find him… 
  • Rience – if there are 3 or less units left in the deck finding Rico is guaranteed. Rience can be active very soon in an Calveit Enslave 6. The drawback is the high provision cost of the whole combo, which can make following the Rule of 16 troublesome.
  • Reveal (Yennefer: Divination, Triss Merigold) – very niche, would work best with Calveit

Demo Decks

Enslave 6 Damage Tactics w/Enforcers

War Council could be used to protect threats, Battle Stations could help to establish engine overload or play Enforcers with Battle Preparation in one turn. Amnesty is a high ceiling tactic, for which Enforcers, Fire Scorpions and Hefty Helge support is run. 

Fercart links Spying and Tactics. Stefan Skellen played with Fercart on the board procs Enforcers 4 times. Fercart can instantly protect self with Buhurt if needed. Another source of protection is the Joachim + Coup combo (demo of Low-unit perks!). Enforcers are not a necessary part of the deck (and Emhyr value is questionable when they die), but make the life spicer. 

This deck thins to zero if Joachim is replayed with Coup De Grace. It means that all tactics from the deck may be played during the game. Often there would be a better target than Joachim present at the board – both damage and spying from Fercart/Emhyr are available for setup.

Enslave 6 Echo Henry (Non-Calveit)

(Artaud version: GWENT: The Witcher Card Game)

This deck demonstrates high-end tactics having synergy with Assimilate (by which i mean playing opponent’s deck). Deck thins well, but would still suffer if crucial golds are right at the bottom. 

The secret of good performance with this deck is making full use of Echo value of Abduction and Coup de Grace. Otherwise this list lacks outstanding high-end cards.

Enslave 6 Ivo

The point of the deck is winning with Ivo last say finisher in a long or mid-length round. The value on Ivo is developed by playing multiple cards per turn; for example Artorius into Slave Driver into Nauzicaa is 4 procs on Ivo in one turn.

Magne Division combined with Slave Drivers provide points and thinning in Round 1. Assassination + Magne could trade up vs opponent’s bronze engines. Battle Stations are used for thinning and tempo in Round 1.

Runemage here is used to improve Diplomacy and Lydia; Ramon Tyrconnel is a good alternative with Sergeant and Magne targets.

Enslave 6 Calveit Assimilate

Absolute classic. Note how the principles of Calveit deckbuilding are realized in this deck: we have two >4 tactics, Nilfgaardian Knight contributes to R1 blue coin tempo and along with Nauzicaa Sergeant to a good short R3 after opponent’s push, Artaud Terranova is a strong pointslam card for Round 3 (or alternatively Vilgefortz to counter opponent’s finisher).

In this list Artorius has 5 targets (consider swapping NG Knight to improve this aspect), so be sure to play him when both Informant and Sergeant/Emissary options are viable.

Closure

In this article we dissected Enslave 6. The scope is narrow, so we could have gone very deep without writing a book; Enslave 5 exists too of course, able to host cards like Artifacts, Non-Tactic specials or Shupe.

I hope that the theory described in this article not only would make you try demo decks, but also come up with your own builds! Also let me know if there are aspects of Enslave 6 which I missed – I’d be glad to add those into the article.

See you on ladder!

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