Lara Dorren New Monsters Card Reveal! – ‘Heritage’ Expansion

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Lara Dorren

(click on the image to get full quality asset)

Read more about Lara Dorren lore here.

Ability Step-By-Step

  1. Lara is Disloyal – gets deployed on opponent’s side of the board
  2. Lara takes damage on Deploy equal to total Frost duration on opponent’s side. 6 turns of Frost are enough to instantly kill Lara.
  3. Lara has a Deathwish effect, which is the source of all positive points. She must be killed in one or more turns to trigger it. Then all units on your side of the board get boosted by 2.
  4. When killed, Lara obviously moves into your opponent’s graveyard. She is active then for the last part of the ability (5.).
  5. When you play a gold Wild Hunt unit, you automatically play Lara again, but from opponent’s graveyard. This time Lara is doomed, so no more than a double cycle is possible (unless you manage to purify Lara before destroy).

Ceiling

  • 6+ turns of Frost on opponent’s side of the board and 100% filled own side of the board => 2*18 = 36. Same 2nd cycle => another 36. Total 72 points for 11 provision cost.
  • Hypothetical ceiling could be even higher with purify in the 2nd cycle, but such situations would be absolutely niche, similar to what could be found on Artem YT channel

Features

  • According to devs, Lara replay is resolved after gold Wild Hunt unit sequence; for example Lara is replayed after both Auberon and bronze unit spawned by him or after Ge’els and tutored card. Therefore using cards mentioned above for instant replay and kill with a Deploy card is impossible. 
  • Lara isn’t boosted by Auberon final form.
  • Unless immediately killed by deploy effect or board setup, Lara Dorren could be countered in multiple ways; the hardest counter are transform units (Cursed Knight, Slave Infantry…). The trade then is extremely bad; about -10 in points and -7 in provision.
  • Staying in opponent’s graveyard, Lara Dorren could be carryover for later rounds.
  • An indirect analogue of Lara Dorren in Skellige is Kraken; both cards are disloyal, deathwish, utterly terrible in a short round and mix two archetypes: Kraken = Beast Swarm + Rain, Lara = Arachas/Rat Swarm + Frost.
  • As a Disloyal unit, Lara Dorren actually gets upgraded in Tatterwing decks. At 1 power Lara becomes easy to kill; for example single Naglfar’s Crew played turn before is enough!
  • Witches’ Sabbath is interesting with early Lara Dorren, possibly enabling triple cycle and getting 2 extra bodies for the collective boost!
  • Lara Dorren Deathwish effect would be the strongest in the game. Moreover, Lara is confirmed to work with Weavess:Incantation! It means a potential of extra 36 points… twice!

Evaluation

High ceiling makes Lara Dorren considerable for competitive play. The floor however is very low (negative points!), which means that Lara is unplayable outside dedicated archetypes, especially in tournament setting. The main weaknesses are low value in a short round 3 and slow, conditional setup.

Tatterwing Arachas Swarm – autoinclude for this Tier2/Tier3 deck; new win condition!

White Frost Devotion – considerable card, but rather not a game changer; carryover/Sabbath plays are most interesting, because White Frost doesn’t swarm too much; about 8 units = 16 points could be expected in a rather optimistic long round scenario for a single trigger.

Closure And Gratitude

Lara Dorren seems fine designwise, not outstanding in terms of power overall, but rewarding enough in well planned builds. She invites deckbuilding adventures on meta borderlands, going from hectic Devotion Aen Elle builds to hybrids with low power filthy scrubs called Humans Insectoids.

Thanks to Gwent: The Witcher Card Game developers from CDProjekt Red for this reveal opportunity! Special shoutouts to Molegion for detailed answers to my questions on Lara Dorren (many ideas in this article come from him!).

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