Bran Midrange

5 stars

The last patch introduced an interesting change to Coral. The card now has Zeal, which is ridiculous. This change alone has made the already respectable Bran a truly fearsome leader. He’s no longer overshadowed by Crach, because he consistently thins the entire deck and replaces Witchers and Roach with good cards. Bran offers a decent amount of points and makes it difficult for people to develop engines.

The idea behind this version, which was created by our very own Green-Knight, is to get incredible value from discards. It includes 4 provision specials to utilize Coral. Thanks to Bran, Coral and the usual Discard package, you will have a shiny gold hand in the later stages of the match.

Strengths: The deck has a crazy amount of tempo in R1 and is very effective at bleeding. You’re happy to play a long R3, because the deck has almost no "weak" plays after R1. You have a fair amount of control tools to shut down engines. This is the best Geralt: Yrden deck in the game since the card can also find solid value on your own side of the board. Sigrdrifa is a finisher for 12 points. Hjalmar removes anything you want. Commander’s Horn provides a huge burst of points, with Houndsnout providing the extra bodies.

On Blue coin, you can play Caldwell and the next turn you can use Tactical Advantage on him and then play Jutta for 12 points. Very few decks can keep up with this play. It might also force tall removal, making your Sigrdrifa a safe finisher. On Red coin, you can discard Tuirseach Veteran or Caldwell and then use Hjalmar to kill Tactical Advantage target. This play is absolutely disgusting and often results in winning on even cards.

Weaknesses: It’s actually quite difficult to pilot. Since you will see your entire deck every game, you have to mulligan some of the good cards, because you have to play a certain amount of bad cards from hand. The deck obviously loses a lot of its efficiency when Coral and/or Birna are chilling at the very bottom of the deck.

Considerations: Dimeritium Bomb, Clear Skies, Gimpy Gerwin, Unicorn and Chironex. -Wusubi

Crach Horn

4 1/2 stars

Crach didn’t receive a nerf last patch, so you might be wondering, why the sudden drop in popularity and power rating? Don’t get me wrong, this deck is still extremely strong because well... it’s Skellige. However, with the huge buff Coral has received, Bran is currently the stronger and more consistent leader. Crach offers more control over the round thanks to direct removal, but can have trouble with finding proactive plays, especially when you don’t have the last say. The list I’m sharing is greedy and plays for maximum value.

Strengths: Crach often takes control of the game in R1. Still very consistent thanks to the good old Discard package. Powerful in longer rounds. Favoured against Monsters and engine-heavy decks. Vabjorn is better than Geralt: Professional or Geralt of Rivia in almost every matchup.

Weaknesses: Struggles when forced to play proactively. If you get brute-forced into a short R3, Commander’s Horn value can get disrupted.

Considerations: Honestly, the main reason to play Crach is that thanks to his leader ability and the sheer amount of provisions, he can tech for everything so easily. Djenge Frett against engine decks. Hym butchers Monsters, but can struggle to find value in other matchups.

Warmonger vs artifact decks. Scout vs weather decks. Donar, Skjall, Gimpy Gerwin and Cyprian Wiley are all good cards to consider. -Wusubi

Bran Lippy

4 stars

As you might have guessed by now, Coral buff also affected Lippy decks. The deck is more consistent and has an insanely high power ceiling. Contrary to the popular belief, in some matchups Lippy is actually quite happy to give up the control of the first round and save Coral or even Birna for later. With the inclusion of special cards, you should actually be looking to execute this game plan, as filling your graveyard with junk kind of makes Lippy useless. Push Round 1 when you have to, but for example against Gernichora, you can happily take a timely pass instead.

Strengths: You don’t have to worry about managing your resources, as Lippy completely breaks the provision system. Arguably the strongest Red coin deck for laddering. This deck loves to play out all three rounds, which can be very useful, for example to punish long round strategies.

Weaknesses: The deck is quite reactive and can struggle when forced to play proactively. Some decks can tempo out, pass and counter your game plan, because they can survive your R2 bleed, or outvalue you in a longer R3.

Considerations: Clear Skies, Spores and Enraged Ifrit. -Wusubi