Dryad Seasonal Mode

September 7, 2019 wusubi

Andasama and Wusubi are back again with another Seasonal guide. Season of the Dryad has a very intriguing ruleset. At the end of each turn, all your odd-value units get damaged by 1, while the units with even-value get boosted by 1. Units with the Immune tag don't get affected by this rule (for example Milva and Frightener).

Skellige can make great use of odd-value units getting damaged by 1, due to potent engines like An Craite Greatsword and Heymaey Protector. Arachas Queen has by far the most powerful Seasonal deck. Since all Arachas Drones die and respawn at the end of your turn, Vran Warriors and She-Troll of Vergen have an infinite value ceiling if left unanswered. Scoia'tael and Northern Realms can easily take advantage of their even-value units getting boosted due to engines like Mahakam Defender and Tridam Infantry. Units that have Harmony or Inspired tags naturally synergize with the ruleset. Nilfgaard can rely on Hefty Helge, tactics and Nauzicaa Sergeants combined with Assimilate engines and Create cards.

The recently buffed Triss with the addition of some versatile bronze specials can be put in many decks in order to counter the engine-reliant and heavy boost-oriented decks which are very popular in this Seasonal. On top of offering you an extra copy of crucial neutral specials such as Dimeritium Shackles and Stammelford's Tremors, she can also utilize the powerful faction-specific specials like Freya's Blessing or Arachas Nest.

This card has never seen play, but it's useful in Dryad Seasonal. Acting as a reliable counter to Arachas Queen, when you time this card properly, you can also double-dip on the board-wide damage it deals to the enemy units due to the odd-value rule. Additionally, Tremors can get ridiculous in a Skellige deck with Greatswords, essentially punishing opponents for playing units.

While Dimeritium Shackles (combined with Triss) are common, most decks try their best to fit in Artefact Compression as well. Similarly to Tremors, this card finally found its use. The ability to both lock and reset the likes of She-Troll and Dagur Two Blades, Compression is a cheap card which can deny the crucial threats.

Furthermore, due to the greedy nature of this mode, any tall punishment card will obviously be strong. Don't be shy with putting cards like Geralt of Rivia or Ulfheddin into your deck, as they won't have trouble with finding their expected value. In the spoilers below, you can find a few deck ideas for each faction. We will update the guide in the near future, as we test more decks and leaders. Most importantly, we are trying to come up with something playable for Syndicate, so stay tuned.

This deck has a couple of win conditions which you can spread very comfortably across all three rounds. Similarly to most Arachas decks, you have the consume package with Slyzards, Barbegazi and some Deathwish units, while having the lucrative target in Dettlaff: Higher Vampire. She-Troll boosts herself by 2 when you consume a unit, but also at the end of the round when all Arachas Drones die and respawn due to the ruleset and AQ's leader ability. She-Troll can reach astronomically high value if left unanswered. And what's even better, you have Caranthir in this deck, allowing you to spawn another 1-health copy of She-Troll. Be careful though, as you need to have some kind of a consume engine on the board to boost her up. The combo works on Blue coin with Tactical Advantage. You can use Caranthir any Deathwish unit. It will trigger at the end of your turn.

Now we get to the spiciest part, Portal into 2x Vran Warrior. They deal 1 damage to a random enemy each time a unit dies during your turn. This of course works at the end of your turn as well, resulting in a hilarious unstoppable machine gun. Always think about the sequencing and all the possible answers your opponent could have. Vrans can easily wipe the whole board. To ensure the consistency of drawing your combo pieces, the deck runs Avallac'h, who has Frightener as the secondary target. Decree further improves consistency, often pulling a key card.

Kayran is another consume engine which can help you with utilizing Dettlaff and your Deathwish units. Glustyworp is a great win condition on its own, while also double-procing your Vrans and She-Troll. Forktails are here mostly for the mirror, but similarly to Glusty, they double-proc your Vrans and She-Troll. You can slam them when your opponent has more even-value than odd-value units and hence double-dip on the damage. Arachas Nest synergizes with each of your win cons. Artefact Compression and Spores represent very cheap control options that will always find an important target in this Seasonal mode.

Since the enemy units will be taking damage at the end of every turn, you can abuse it with An Craite Greatswords and Dagur Two Blades. We added Hemdall as the lucrative Eist target, potent counter to Arachas Queen and a good finisher. Triss: Telekinesis can pull Tremors for the wonderful synergy with GS and Dagur, Freya's Blessing to revive your engines and Dimeritium Shackles. Svalblod Priest and Heymaey Protector package is even stronger than usual due to the ruleset. Harald Houndsnout presents 6 removal as his skulls die instantly, while boosting your already developed GS or Dagur. Sigvald is a nice 2-damage-per-turn engine if you leave him alone, also making for a decent secondary Sigrdrifa's Rite target.

We included Ermion and the alchemy package, because with Ermion and Triss you have two tutors for Dimeritium Shackles and Freya's Blessing. Ermion also pulls Stribog Runestone and Sigrdrifa, usually used to revive Dagur Two Blades, GS or Sigvald. Delirum and Dimun Warships synergize with your engines, while presenting solid removal options. Royal Decree improves the consistency of the engines, control and revive cards. Artefact Compression is very useful in mirrors or versus Arachas Queen. An Craite Longship goes to 5 power immediately and when unaswered, it can generate a lot of value with GS and Dagur. If you want more tall removal at the cost of consistency, replace Decree with Geralt of Rivia.

Svalblod variation is similar to Eist, but you have 2 extra provisions. We replaced Hemdall with Vildkaarl. This frees up 3 more provisions, allowing you to upgrade Dimun Warships to Blueboy Lugos and Ulfhedinn. Longships were replaced with Drummond Shieldmaidens for some more thinning. In the light of this change, Decree and Runestone can be cut for Cerys and 1-off Drummond Queensguard.

Thanks to these changes, you have a much stronger presence in Rounds 1 and 2. Sigrdrifa has two more nice targets in Champion of Svalblod and Blueboy Lugos, who represents another 2-point-per-turn engine and has a high removal ceiling with Svalblod. Your leader charges are often used to align your units accordingly, while buffing Heymaey Protectors.