Season of the Cat is well underway and so Andasama and Wusubi are back at it with their spicy guide for Seasonal Mode. The rules are fairly simple: every 2 turns the players switch their hands. You play your own card, the opponent plays theirs and then your hands switch. Since card advantage doesn't exist here, the basic idea behind this Seasonal is to never pass.
You should try to build a deck that can win Round 1 without giving your opponent any good cards that would synergize with their deck. If you manage to win Round 1, you should always try to 2-0 the opponent. Choosing a rare cardback is a good idea in order to keep track of which cards are yours because of possible hand manipulation.
The deck ideas that we will suggest later on are usually built in a way to have around 7-9 gold cards that you want to play over the course of the game. You have to mulligan your strong cards if you have too many of them in your opening hand. It's a good idea to keep 2-3 gold cards in your hand so that your opponent only gets value from one. Tutor cards that only work within specific factions are convenient, for example Scoia'tael has the most luxurious options with Call of the Forest, Isengrim's Council and Fauve. If you're looking to complete some contracts, this is a good time to focus on Assimilate and Harmony, as both decks are great at securing Round 1. You can also finish any leader ability mastery of your choice.
The MVP of the vast majority of our represented decks is Shupe, our most beloved keg-smasher. Other than being a strong play on his own, most players actually don't use Shupe decks in this Seasonal. When your hands are switched, the best they can do is play him as a brick just to deny you the value. Since Shupe is a special card, you can fetch him with Land of a Thousand Fables. You can use Shupe: Mage to answer engines on Red coin.
Thinning options are very strong in this Seasonal and you will definitely see some of them in any deck. Portal potentially pulling out 2 engines not only makes your Round 1 better, but also improves your draws for the remainder of the match. To ensure you get the Portal out, you can throw in Avallac'h: Sage while adding 1-2 more artifacts so that he never bricks. Marching Orders are another option to tutor Avallac'h. Marching Orders can be tutored with Land of a Thousand Fables.
Land of a Thousand Fables allows you to tutor your expensive special cards and significantly increases the odds of drawing your combo pieces and winning Round 1. Being able to grab Shupe or Marching Orders into Avallac'h can tip the scales in your favor. With that said, be careful when giving this card to the opponent, because they might find it useful. The rule of thumb is mulliganing tutors that can benefit your opponent, while keeping the tutors they can't utilize.
Some decks prefer playing Alzur's Double-Cross to pull their highest unit. Monsters can utilize it for consume carry-over. Marching Orders are perfect in Nilfgaard due to being a Tactic, but most decks can use it to grab a low power tutor.
If you ever have some leftover provisions, throwing in Roach and Knickers is always good. They provide additional thinning and tempo in order to get round control, which is the most important thing in this Seasonal. It is worth noting that Roach can't be played in Shupe decks, because then you lose the option to cheese the opponent with Shupe: Mage on Red coin.
