Skellige Gwent Deck and Tournament | Witcher 3 Blood & Wine

Skellige deck is a new addition to Gwent in Witcher 3: Blood and Wine expansion. Beside adding new cards it also offers new interactions/buffs not seen in other Gwent decks.
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Getting all the cards also finishes the appropriately named achievement/trophy I Have a Gwent Problem. It is not difficult to obtain, but we thought we should provide you with some info on how to get all the cards in the deck and win the tournament in Beauclair. Once you arrive in Toussaint you will probably visit the Cockatrice Inn. If you decide speak to the innkeeper there you will also be able to play Gwent with him. This will start two new quests; Gwent: Never Fear, Skellige’s Here and Gwent: To Everything – Turn, Turn, Tournament!

Gwent: Never Fear, Skellige’s Here takes you on a hunt for new Skellige Gwent deck cards. Our recommendation is that you first go visit Count Monnier in the Phaesentry and finish the Obtain a basic Skellige deck step of the quest. This provides you with some basic cards of the deck so you can play around with it and also signs you up for the tournament. Now you need to collect the other 19 cards to complete the full Skellige Deck. Make the step Collect all the missing cards in the Skellige deck active in your quest journal and this should show you the location of remaining 18 Gwent players in Toussaint. Beat all of them (with whichever deck) and they will all reward you with a new Skellige card. Once you complete this quest feel free to go to the tournament.

skellige gwent deck cards player locations map witcher 3 blood and wine
Map of all Skellige Deck card locations

Skellige deck has several strengths:
  • Good combo minions. Pair up Shield maidens, War Longships and Clan an Craite Warriors for massive damage.
  • New Berserker/Mardroeme buff. You have several minions that transform into very powerful versions once you apply the Mardroeme buff. Once you draw – keep the combo if you have it – otherwise just look for something else.
  • New Leader abilities. Crach moves all cards from graveyard into the deck. This is useful against decks that like to bring minions back from their graveyard (like Nilfgaard and Northern Realms) and it can be helpful for your combos. King Bran makes all weather effects remove only half the attack power from units. This is good if you are playing big minion deck and you don’t want to bring Clear Weather card.
  • Cerys is the new Hero card that lets you draw all Shield Maidens from your deck or hand. This creates a huge board with just one card (three shield maidens with 12 attack + 10 attack Cerys). Here is a nice combo. Round 1 play two of your shield maidens. If they end up in the graveyard use Crach an Craite leader ability to put all cards in graveyard into your deck and play Cerys afterwards. That is twice the shield maidens and many decks will struggle with removing that.
  • Skellige is basically a deck that relies on pure strength with huge minion presence on the board.

How to win the tournament with Skellige Deck in Blood and Wine

Once you have all of the cards go play the tournament. You will have to face four opponent decks – Monsters, Nilfgaardian, Skellige and Scoia’tael. I recommend you adjust your deck for each of the opponents and you will manage to overpower them. Here are some tips on how to win the whole tournament:
  • Don’t keep cards in your deck that do not create good combos. Brothers Lugos may seem cool, but if you draw into them they are just a 6 minion that does nothing. You would rather draw into that second shield maiden for 16 attack combo. This is the deck I used to win the tournament (I’ve added different cards when playing versus different factions so this is just a base deck):

    witcher-3-blood-and-wine-gwent-tournament-skellige-deck-example
  • Versus Monsters deck (your first match) you want to include more removal and Biting Frost cards to deal with their overwhelming board presence. So, use two Scorch and add an additional Skellige Storm (or Biting Frost). Just overpower them with your superior combo minions.
  • Versus Nilfgaard deck you have to be careful against its spies. It is imperative you have three decoys in your deck and that you draw into at least one at the beginning. Use this to draw cards yourself. Bait him into using his scorch against only one unit and overpower him because your minions are stronger if he doesn’t draw into his whole deck.
  • Versus Skellige have at least two Scorch because he is vulnerable against removals. This matchup can go either way, but I’ve noticed that you win more than you lose here.
  • Last match on the tournament is against Scoia’tael deck. I have a 50:50 record here. His leader ability kills you strongest close range units (like scorch for close range). Try to play around it. Use two scorch of your own and perhaps look for your ranged and siege combos. I found Kambi to be a very useful card in this matchup.
If you win all four matches you will get 1000 Crowns and a trophy you can place in your new house. If you lose the last match you will still get the trophy, but only 500 crowns. Skellige Gwent deck might not be for Gwent purists but I am glad to see the Skellige heroes make an appearance in this cool Witcher 3 side activity.

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