We're back again for another qualifier meta breakdown! This weekend is the second qualifiers for Gwent Open #3 of Season 4. There's been some significant development in the meta over the past week, so let's see what the players brought. All decks can be found here.

Syndicate (16 total decks):

• Golden Nekker Poison (16)
  • w/Decree (15)
  • w/Roach (15)
  • w/Kalkstein (14)
  • w/Townsfolk (12)
  • w/Necromanmcy (10)
  • w/Knickers (7)
  • w/Walter (6)
  • w/Aguara (5)
  • w/Xavier (3)
  • w/Alissa (2)
  • w/Ring of Favor (1)
  • w/The Flying Redanian (1)

Unsurprisingly, SY reigns supreme. All 16 players brought GN Poison yet again, still with some variations, though certainly there are more popular ways to build the deck now. Double GN only shows up in 2 decklists, and Decree and Roach were overwhelmingly included as consistency alongside Bank. This remains the deck on top of the meta.

Nilfgaard (15 total decks):

• Imprisonment Renfri (11)
  • w/Vilgefortz, Roderick, Lydia, Braathens (10)
  • w/Pellar (8)
  • w/Xavier (7)
  • w/VM Servant (6)
  • w/Squirrel (4)
  • w/Assire (2)
  • w/Peter Saar Gwynleve (1)
  • w/Myrgtabrakke (1)
  • w/Frenzied D'ao (1)
  • w/Geralt:Igni, Gascon:Iron Falcon, Roach, Triss:Butt (1)
• Double Cross Renfri (3)
  • w/Vivienne (2)
  • w/Assire (2)
  • w/Knickers (2)
  • w/Braathens (1)
  • w/Fringilla Vigo (1)
• Imprisonment Cultists (1)

Who would have predicted this last week? Only two players, Truzky and Puzzle.Express, brought NG a week ago, but the Renfri NG idea has since caught on with 11 players deciding to bring Renfri Imprisonment and three more deciding to bring Double Cross, perhaps to try and win Renfri mirrors. Finally, magpie decided to be bold and play Cultists, though it backfired and the deck's 0-3 performance is why he found himself out in the first round.

Scoia'tael (13 total decks):

• Deadeye Ambush Elves (7)
  • w/Heatwave (6)
  • w/Vrihedd Dragoon (5)
  • w/Toruviel (1)
  • w/Tempest (1)
  • w/Surrender (1)
• Guerilla Tactics Harmony (4)
  • w/Saskia:Commander (2)
  • w/Simlas+Vanadain (2)
• Guerilla Tactics Control Elf Hybrid (1)
• Call of Harmony Saskia (1)

Elves was the most popular ST deck of the day, with nearly half the players deciding to bring the deck. Five players liked Guerilla Tactics, four of them bringing Harmony decks and spellingbee sticking for a more control focused list. Of the five total Harmony players, three were Saskia decks (including one Call of Harmony deck) and two brought Simlas+Vanadain. In general, this faction saw a lot of variation, especially in the Guerilla Tactics lists. One thing to note here is the Tempest from magpie – a tech for Azar Javed's Scarabs, as he decided not to ban SY today.

Northern Realms (8 total decks):

• Royal Inspiration Knights (8)
  • w/Heatwave (7)
  • w/Windhalm (3)
  • w/Surrender (3)
  • w/Artefact Compression (2)
  • w/Xavier Lemmens (2)
  • w/Ring of Favor (1)

Quite a fall from grace here, no pun intended. Only half of the players brought Knights this week, when just last week it was a unanimous choice. As players learn the best ways to deal with this deck and in some cases create entire lineups designed to beat this deck, it becomes less and less attractive of an option. Puzzle.Express decided to try Ring of Favor in the deck, perhaps deciding that winning R1 as Knights is the most important factor for the success of the deck.

Skellige (8 total decks):

• Onslaught Golden Nekker Pirates (5)
  • w/Derran (4)
  • w/Holger (4)
  • w/Dorregaray (4)
  • w/Hammond (4)
  • w/Surrender (1)
  • w/Knickers (1)
  • w/Hen Gaidth Sword (1)
• Onslaught Renfri Pirates (2)
  • w/Discard Package (1)
  • w/Roach+Knickers (1)
• Ursine Ritual Golden Nekker Self Wound (1)

Half the players brought SK today, with most of those decks being either Renfri or Golden Nekker pirate decks. The new Golden Nekker Self Wound deck also made an appearance in Gandalf's lineup. Probably the most surprising thing here for me is the lack of any Pirates decks that don't include either Renfri or Golden Nekker. We saw several of them last week, but they didn't make it into any lineups this time around.

Monsters (4 total decks):

• Blood Scent Renfri Vamps (3)
  • w/Maxii (2)
  • w/Dettlaff (2)
  • w/Queen of the Night (2)
  • w/Toad Prince (1)
  • w/Triss:Butt (1)
• Carapace Kelly Aerondight(1)

Monsters' playrate fell off considerably this week, with only four players bringing the faction. Three players went for Renfri Vampires, while magpie decided to bring Kelly in his anti-SY lineup. Notably, no one decided to bring Koshchey, despite both qualifiers last week including it in their decks. Perhaps the rise of NG has come at Monsters' expense? Regardless, though it had a low playrate and none of the players who brought the faction made it out of the second round, Monsters won all of its games today – magpie's Kelly deck beat Imprisonment, and Vamps went 3-0 in its games against Pirates, Harmony, and Knights.