We’ve already talked about the Monster faction and their two favorite styles: Weather decks and Consume decks, so now we’re moving on to the Viking-inspired Skellige faction. Today, we’ll go over the myriad of cards that play off of Skellige’s ability to easily Resurrect units from your graveyard.
Keep in mind, this isn’t a guide to get you top-ranked in the leaderboards, and it isn’t an explanation of how to play. If you need help with that, you can check out our Gwent beginner’s guide to get started on the right foot.
How to Build a Resurrection Deck for the Skellige Faction in Gwent
Resurrection is a great mechanic for any card game. Who doesn’t want to get their units back from the dead? The Skellige faction capitalizes on this notion by actively sending units to the graveyard by discarding them from your deck or hand, enabling units to grow while in the graveyard, and allowing units to trigger abilities from discarding or resurrecting.
Here’s my Resurrection deck list up front, using King Bran as the leader:
Gold (4/4) Cerys Ermion Madman Lugos Renew Silver (6/6) Draig Bon-Dhu Holger Blackhand Morkvarg Restore Sigrdrifa Svanrige Bronze (15) Clan An Craite Raider x3 Clan Dimun Pirate x3 Priestess of Freya x3 Queensguard x3 War Longship x3
Image Source King Bran
King Bran as the leader gives you three discards from your deck, and strengthens them, to boot – remember, strengthening a unit gives them a new base power, so they can’t be Reset. By discarding units to your graveyard, you set up the rest of your deck. (More on that with specific cards to come later in this guide.)
Image source Cerys
Cerys plays off all the Resurrecting you’re about to do – her counter will go down whenever you Resurrect something, and if she’s in the graveyard when the counter hits zero, poof! She’s automatically back on the field. Ermion basically lets you mulligan a couple cards for new ones (possibly even golds), with the added benefit of throwing units into your graveyard that you want in there.
Image source Madman Lugos
Madman Lugos is great for this deck: he’s nothing but beneficial for you, as he pitches a Bronze unit into your graveyard, and deals damage to an enemy unit equal to their base Strength. Clan Dimun Pirate is your best bet here, with 6 Strength – though he won’t be in your deck if you already played one, due to his ability. Clan An Craite Raider is your next best bet, damage-wise.
Image source Renew
Renew is a simple choice for this deck, as it lets you take any unit from any graveyard and put it straight into the field (and if Cerys’ timer is at 1, you get a twofer!). You’ll most likely use Renew on your units, unless there’s something spectacular in your opponent’s graveyard – remember to look there, as well!).
Morkvarg is wonderful discard bait, as you just can’t keep him down (until he’s weakened too much), so discarding him is only to your advantage. Sigrdrifa is a 3-Strength version of Renew, limited to your graveyard. Restore isn’t fully in-line with the rest of the deck – it doesn’t Resurrect, but it does Discard, and nets you a potentially powerful unit from your graveyard to play next turn.
Draig Bon-Dhu sets up units for Resurrect by strengthening them, and Holger Blackhand works much the same, though you have to destroy a unit with his 5-damage attack, first. Svanrige gives you a new card (possibly a gold), and discards a card for you (thanks!).
Most of the Gold and Silver cards in this deck work with the Bronze cards: three Queensguards are wonderful in your graveyard, as Resurrecting one will get you all three. Clan An Craite Raider refuses to stay dead (and triggers Cerys’ counter). Clan Dimun Pirate throws his fellows into the graveyard, ready for Resurrection. And Priestess of Freya resurrects your dead Bronze units.
Image source War Longship
The final piece to this deck is War Longship. You’re doing all this discarding, after all, and War Longship will reward you for it (above and beyond strengthening units in your graveyard). Every time you Discard a card, War Longship deals 2 damage to a random enemy. The card synergy here is top-notch, and you can expect War Longship to deal some decent damage – if your opponent doesn’t kill it first.
That wraps up our guide to a Resurrect deck in Gwent. In our next guide, we’ll take a look at Skellige’s pure damage potential. In the meantime, what’s your favorite Skellige unit to throw in the graveyard? Let us know in the comments!
