Saber’s Spicy Slyzard

Hi everyone, Saber here.

I’ve previously been very involved in making some very degenerate Eredin decks popular. If you didn’t like my Sabbath or Mourntart decks you probably want to stop reading now and find something better to do.

In the beginning of last season, I started to play some Slyzard on ladder and most people laughed at it and I don’t blame them. The deck was terrible in the beginning. But I enjoyed it a lot and I won my games so kept optimizing and the deck is now, in my opinion, fully optimized. Last season I had the fourth best MO score on pro ladder and in this season I’m currently having the best one (as far as I’m aware).

I’m sure a lot of you saw Crozyr and Kingchezz play it in the open qualifier last weekend and they both did amazingly well with it. At this point, I do consider it to be the best MO deck in the game and potentially the best deck overall.

Decklist:

How does it work?

As you probably know at this point is the main wincon to make Slyzard immune r3 and then just eat every card you play. This bricks every removal your opponent might have and makes your Forktails to cheap Ocvists. If you manage to do this you should win 99/100 times unless your opponent is running Yrden, Scorch or Igni.

Why does it work?

Well consider big Woodland. Have you ever 2-0ed Woodland? Maybe, but it’s usually really difficult since Woodland is super good in short rounds. The slyzard list is quite similar but with 1 less provision and 5 less points on leader. That is a pretty good trade for being able to win almost every MU as long as you don’t get 2-0ed or your opponent is running yrden/scorch/igni.

When you get more experienced with the deck you will even be able to say “okay, I’m in a really good spot right now and I have a good hand. I can win without going all in on slyzard”

General gameplan

Your gameplan on red and blue coin are quite different so I’ll split it up in 2 sections.

Blue coin:

This is the good coin. If you get blue you should be a happy panda for two reasons.

1. a) It’s much easier to outtempo your opponent and force a long r3
2. b) You can blame blue coin if you lose the game

On blue coin I like to lead off with the following cards:

1. Nekkers
2. Witchers
3. Riders
4. A big unit (Careful about Caldwell though)

If you fear that your opponent might have good answers for Nekkers you can also avoid playing them. After you have played 3-5 powerful cards you should be ahead by enough to force the opponent down 2 cards. This will not give you CA but it means that your opponent won’t be able to bleed you in r2.

When you get to r3 you want to make sure you don’t have any units left that spawns two units on the board like Nekkers, Ridders or Witchers since they give value to the opponent’s dmg cards. Save you Forktails until the end and just play everything else in any order you like. This part og your gameplan is not really rocket science.

Always drop Slyzard frontrow since you might brick hounds or ghoul be playing it backrow.

Red coin:

You have two options. You can either start as you do on blue coin but be careful! It’s way more difficult to force the opponent down 2 and if you fail you might not have enough good cards for the r2 bleed.

In general I therefore recommend you to build up your thrive engine in r1. Play your riders and Witchers but keep Roach in hand if possible. If you think you can win the round, then try to do it but if not then pass when you have played all of your bad cards. If the opponent doesn’t 2-0 you or force you to commit leader its most likely a win.

MU guide:

Midrange Movran:

This MU is extremely favored for you so if you find yourself losing this often you are doing something wrong. You want to apply your normal blue and red coin openings in this MU but make sure you have the highest unit at all times in the beginning of r1! Most Movran players are running Sergeants and Magnes and you would really like to kill them with your hounds. If they buff something to 8+ then punish them with Geralt and if they don’t, then kill their engines with hounds. That’s usually all you need to do to get CA in r1.

Crach horn:

This MU is really favored as well. Crach usually runs a lot of bloodthirst units so if you get to r3 you usually win by a lot of points. It can be difficult to outtempo Crach quickly in r1 since they run Witchers+Roach and Birna+Mork/Skirm and they get a point every second turn from leader. I tend to stack backrow and play Nekkers in the first turn where my opponent dosent have a Crach ping available. If they play ship frontrow, then Drowner it backrow. Try to deny him his bloodthirst as much as possible.

Brouver elves:

I Havent seen this much lately but it is ridicules easy MU. Elves cant bleed so getting to r3 is really easy and when you get there you should just win. There isn’t really that much to add here. Don’t play into Schirru and you should be fine.

Tall Gernichore/Woodland:

This MU is slightly favored due to cards like Geralt and Wrath but it’s not easy by any means. Both decks are really good at bleeding so if you end up with a bad r2 hand you might be in trouble. You usually want to Forktail their Nekkers as soon as they come down and try to win the thrive battle. Remember, the opponent needs to 2-0 or you will most likely win. In this MU it is actually possible to lose in r3 even if you get Slyzard down but it is fairly unlikely.

Engine Meve:

This is a bad MU. The opponent can generate a lot of points even with an immune Slyzard. Try to save drowner and Wrath for Avallach and Visogota. If you manage to deny Visogota r3 and the opponent committed Anna r1 to win that round you might have a chance. If face a lot of Meve then consider to change Geralt for Cleaver or Ifrit.

Any Shupe deck:

Shupe can be a pain in the ass since he has 60% chance to kill a random unit on your side of the board. If you only have Slyzard on board you have 60% chance of losing the game. That isn’t exactly ideal. You therefor want to save Alpha Werewolf for r3. Since you now have two immune units on the board your opponent only has 30% to win the game. That is acceptable. If you find yourself in a good position then start to let some of your units stay on the board. This way you will reduce the chance of your opponent high rolling into a win even more.

Any Scorch/Yrden deck:

Thankfully, both cards are really rare right now. If you are playing on pro ladder and face the same players every day then start taking notes if you lose to one of these cards. This deck can win without going for the Slyzard play but you do indeed reduce your chances of victory by quite a bit. So my recommendation is to go for the Slyzard play unless you know the opponent runs Scorch/Yrden. If you are up against a leader like Eithne it’s probably smart to avoid going for it as well.

Stats vs different factions:

Last 20 games this season on pro ladder vs:

NG: 18-2-0 (90% wr)

SK: 15-2-3 (88% wr)

MO: 14-6-0 (70% wr)

ST: 9-4-0 (69% wr)

NR: 5-8-0 (38% wr)

Card choices + variants

I believe this version is the best for laddering. You have all the answers for other decks with big units, you can play around Shupe and Manticore with Werewolf and Alpha Werewolf, and you have enough points to win when you manage to do the Slyzard play.

If you want to play a more greedy version you can run Bridge trolls and Jotunn. Both cards are great in r3 but absolutely terrible when you are getting bleed. The only thing this version isn’t teched for is Meve. If you want to beat her more reliable you can for for the version as Crozyr used in day 2 of the qualifier:

Conclusion

I asked my teammate, KingChezz93, what he thought off of Slyzard:

“The only decks that really stand a decent chance vs slyzard in the current meta without a hard tech for the MU are engine overload meve and a big body MO deck be it gerni or woody – however it is fairly easy to tech for one or other of these MU as slyzard meaning only one of them is ever really an issue. For example i teched for big MO in qualifiers and through testing and the qualifiers combined i had something like a 75% win rate vs it  however i was weaker to Meve hence why that was my ban – however on day two of qualifiers Crozyr teched for meve and that was close to auto win all of a sudden due to the added removal options however his deck was now quite a bit worse vs big MO.

So in conclusion slyzard is basically favoured vs everything in the meta right now bar either big MO or Meve depending on which one you tech for.”

Thanks for reading.