Introduction
Hello everyone, I am ReynevanGK and I would like to offer you King Foltest deck guide. As you may know CDPR with recent patch (3.1) has buffed Northern Realms including Foltest. His previous ability was to ‘buff allied unit by 1 and give it Zeal; Charge: 3’ and it gave you 14 provision. Now his primal ability has been strengthened to ‘buff allied unit by 2’ and Foltest has also received 1 extra provision more to 15. In my opinion his buff was not necessary due to amazing rework of many gold Northern Realms cards (Keira Metz, Bloody Baron, Roche: Merciless etc.) and empowerment many bronzes (Poor Fucking Infantry, Kaedweni Sergeant, Tridam Infantry, Aedirnian Mauler, Revenants etc.). Anyway now we have not only the most powerful Northern Realms deck but I think the most powerful deck since Gwent left open-beta as well. Let’s go to the deck guide.
Decklist 
This is my standard list which I use on Pro Rank and did placement. It does not include any special ‘TECH’ because we have a lot of tools to bleed cheesy decks like Arnjolf-Regis, Sigi-Igor-Townsfolk-Summoning Circle, Francesca-Immune Units-Ragh Nar Roog as well as ordinary decks which like long round 3 – Francesca with Dwarves, Eithne-Schirru-Igni or Calanthe-Cintrian Royal Guard.
Leader ability
King Foltest – most of the times you use his charges to:
-summon all copies of your Commandos in R3
-activate Selkirk of Gulet Zeal
-activate Anseis Zeal on Ranged row (Inspired) for better removal (if you do not have access to Seltkirk of Gulet)
-activate better Vissegerd when he is your last card in the game to set up Revenants
-activate Bloody Baron in the middle of R3 when you see enemy buffed target to reset and give it bleed
In this list essential cards are of course the ones which produce your marvelous combo with Blue Stripes Commando:
Blue Stripes Commando – you want to create as many Commandos as possible in one round (preferably R1 or R2 when you have 9 or more cards and your opponent dry-passed).
Blue Stripes Scout – you use them to multiply your Blue Stripes Commando.
Roche: Merciless – 2 points damage but the most important is that he is a tutor and gives you an
access to another Blue Stripes Commando (he creates it) after Deathblow.
Princess Pavetta – shuffle all your Blue Stripes Commandos from your graveyard into the deck (preferably R2 or R3 if you have access to Blue Stripes Commando) so that you can use them again in R2 (if you go for 2-0) or R3.
Draug – your finisher, most of the time you want to use him as next-to-last (when you have access to Sabrina) or when you have 3 cards in your hand and have access to Sabrina and Vissegerd. Draug transforms all Commados, Scouts and other Human allied units into Revenants.
Royal Decree – very flexible card. It can pull out any piece of combo from your deck like Pavetta or Draug or if you are lucky enough to get what you want you can use Decree to play card which gives you the most points.
Not essential but still powerful cards:
Queen Adalia – In my opinion she is amazing and key card as Adalia creates, and what’s more important, play a bronze unit, with extra shield, from your hand. Most of the times her target is Blue Stripe Commando which assures you access to Commando from hand in R2 or R3 after shuffling all Commandos back to your deck. If you have Adalia and one Commando in your opening hand, you do not want to play Commando from hand at all during R1, you just summon copy of Commando from your deck and multiply this card from Adalia’s target.
Green buff package – Tridam Infantry, Kaedweni Sergeant, Cintrian Enchantress, Keira Metz, Poor Fucking Infantry and Vissegerd – it can be your second win-condition or assures you winning R1 if you do not have access to Blue Stripe Commando combo. Feel free to use Adalia on Cintrian Enchantress if you have Tridam Infantry on board so that second Cintrian Enchantress has bonded ability. If you buff a lot of units R3 and transform them using Draug your Vissegerd helps you significantly to set up Revenants targents.
Prince Anseis and Seltkirk of Gulet – great instant removals for 14 points (if played as full value) when played with King Foltest charge. Be careful with using them as Anseis and Seltkirk are your only two control tools before transforming Humans into Revenants.
Bloody Baron – can be amazing when played into enemy’s highly buffed unit like Townsfolk (against Syndicate), Yennefer: Divination target (against Hyperthin Nilfgaard), Mahakam Defender (against Scoia’tael), Priest (against Skellige) or decent when you play him into your allied unit like damaged
Anseis or Seltkirk with Zeal – very common situation when you face Usurper and you have no access to Zeal charge from King Foltest ability.
Aedirnian Mauler – helps you to set up Roche’s deathblow, just very good 4 provision card which most of the time is played for 6 points.
Replacements
Queen Adalia -> Falibor if you feel that you do not have enough control.
Vissegerd -> Alzur’s Double – Cross for more consistency but please remember that you also you cut some points and make your mirror matches worse if opponent draws perfectly.
One Poor Fucking Infantry/Tridam Infantry -> Siege Support if you face to many Usurpers or feel that you need additional Zeal.
Mulligan
Your ideal opening hand is 1 Blue Stripe Commando, Adalia and 2x Stripes Scout. The rest is flexible but Royal Decree is always good, Anseis and Seltkirk the same, Draug even if he is not needed R1 can be kept for latter part of the game. If you do not have access to Blue Stipe package look for Green Buff Package – one or two Tridam Infantry, Cintrain Enchantress (the best two or one is also fine if you have access to Adalia), Kaedweni Sergeant and Keira Metz. When you are on red coin Bloody Baron will be also good against opponent’s unit with TA (Tactical Advantage) if he assures you winning R1.
Always get rid of second Blue Stripe Commando (you want to summon copy of this card from your deck) and additional cards which you need for the end of the game – keeping only Draug or Pavetta is fine but Draug, Sabrina, Pavetta and Vissegerd in the opening hand may be too much especially if you think that you have to face long R1 and need to win it.
Gameplan
I will probably upset you but I do not have one and simple ideal gameplan for you. I will try to explain every matchup instead.
Nilfgaard
You always need to win R1 against Nilfgaard with Witcher package so that they cannot deny your Revenants from Draug in R3 with Auckes + Serrit. If you face Usurper you should forget about Blue Stripe Commando combo as good Usurper player will never let you multiply them. Try to win R1 with Green Buff Package, Seltkirk, Bloody Baron and whatever needs (except Draug). Long R3 with Draug/ and Sabrina for last say should be enough to win the game. If you play against Hyperthin Ardal/Calveit look for Bloody Baron and use him R3 after opponent’s Yennefer: Divination target.
You can have problem against standard tactical Ardal with Witchers package as they can destroy your every single target in short as well as long round and your Draug is poor or even does not have any target. Adalia’s shield probably will not help to protect your Blue Stripe Command as Ardal plays 2 Tourney Joust. When you are on a blue coin I recommend using TA on Adalia’s Commando as Leo Bonhart or any tall unit punishment except Moreelse/Graden (Syndicate) is not popular in current meta. Moreover if you have Blue Stripe Scout in hand, not using Foltest charge is better because you can summon 2 copies of Blue Stripe Commandos in one turn after spawning a copy by Blue Stripe Scout. Using immediately Foltest charge on Blue Stripe Commando summons copy from the deck, but when opponent kills summoned Commando you are not be able to summon more of them on the board in the same round (you really do not want to use Commando from hand if one was played from Adalia). If you lose R1 Nilfgaard will probably push you in R2. Try to find ideal moment to go ahead with one move like Seltkirk/Anseis + leader charge and have CA for R3. Be careful with Keira Metz ability as every NG deck runs Muzzle, try to play around it giving vitality to units with 5 or more base power or damaged ones.
Scoia’tael
You have to win R1 against Franceska Dwarves or Eithne-Schirru-Igni to have opportunity to bleed them R2.
Winning R1 with Blue Stripe Commando or Green Buff Package should not be a problem as most Scoia’tael decks play low tempo carrover cards R1. You need to push R2 against Franceska and force her to use at least one Novigradian Justice. You should also bleed buffed Sheldon Skaggs this round. Going one card down for R3 if you bleed Novigradian Justice, leader ability and Sheldon during R2 is fine as many Franceska cards are awkward in a short round 3. If you let Franceska plays long round 3 she will annihilate your whole board with 4 Dwarven Mercenaries and you can instantly kill only two of them.
Long R3 against Eithne-Schirru-Igni is also bad because she plays artifacts, immune units and during the round she has opportunity to set up whole board for Schirru and Igni. Your short R3 against Scoia’tael should be always good as you have better bronze and gold cards. Having access to Blue Stripe Commando for last say after shuffling them with Pavetta auto-win the game.
Syndicate = Sigi
R1 is to predict if you face Bouty Sigi or Sigi-Igor-Townsfolk-Summoning Circle. Anyway try to multiply as may Commandos as possible and play around Philippa. If you see Ewald or Menge on board do not hesitate to use Seltkirk/Anseis.
If it is Sigi-Igor-Townsfolk-SC version you have to win R1 and bleed pieces of combo R2. You can go for 2-0 if you are sure that they do not have any coin-spender in hand and your hand is good enough (access to Pavetta, Commando, Draug and Sabrina).
Against Bouty Sigi your long R3 should be fine if you have plenty Commandos in the deck. Please remember that Draug is amazing versus enemy’s bounty as well as multiple bleed done by Witch Hunter Executioner.
Skellige
You have better long R3 than standard midrange Harald or Svalblod. Nowadays when Skellige is significantly weaker that NR they sometimes try to win long R3 with Summoning Circle/An Craite Greatswords/Regis combo on Arnjolf or Harald as a leader. You need to predict such deck, win round 1 and push R2. If you can see that your opponent is playing Svalblod Totem, Harald Houndsnout or any type of weather early round 1 you should not give up and play your tempo cards as well. Bleeding leader ability + piece of combo R2 is highly required. Short round 3 without opponent’s leader ability should be always good for you. It is also worth to say that if you do not bleed Summoning Circle R2 you should go for 5-cards or less round 3 to deny Greatsword from Summoning Circle-Regis combo in one turn.
Monsters
This faction is weak now but if you face them any length of the round should be fine for you unless it is artifact AQ or any kind of cancerous no-unit Woodland which you need to push R2. Monsters generally do not play a lot of control cards so multiplying Commandos should not be an issue. Moreover, you are very resilient to bleed if they try to do it R2 and at some moment you can get CA for R3.
Northern Realms
It is one general rule for the mirror matches – who draws better – wins. Try to create as many Commandos as possible and win R1. If you think that winning R1 is very unlikely or you have to commit too much, do not do it, save better cards for R2 and R3. If you won R1, have access to good
cards for R2 and your opponent did not spawn his Commandos R1 it is nice to push a little bit to check what is going on playing Aedirnian Mauler or Tridam Infantry. Maybe he does not have Commando in his hand or has it bricked. If your card is unanswered push. Going for long round 3
always fish for Commando/Roche: Merciless, Draug and Sabrina, these cards are essential to win mirror matchup. Seltkirk and Anseis should help you to remove engines and Draug targets from the board.
When you face Calanthe or Meve is it always worth to win R1 and bleed R2 because it is probably kind of combo deck with Cintrian Royal Guard or Prophet Lebioda-Reynard Odo. You just do not have enough tools to remove many engines in long round so have to force your opponent to use some of them in R2.
