I had a lightbulb moment looking at Imperial Practitioner. Instead of going down the Vilgefortz Renegade spam route, we can do something more elegant. I don't believe I have ever seen this strategy played on pro rank, and have not heard discussion of it.

The game plan:

1) We thicken our deck with Torres, Invo, Assire, Coup and Imperial Practitioner

2) We thin the opponent's deck with Vilgefortz and Traheaern

3) We play Kolgrim for insane value! Often he is boosting like 12 per turn.

I have gone all-in on the strategy, playing Defender and Letho Kingslayer to fully capitalise on Kolgrim. Compared to previous Kolgrim decks (ie clog), our gameplan is much less counterable— many decks have the capacity to thin whereas very few decks have the capacity to thicken. Lippy and Vanadain/Alissa are notable examples.

We play Imprisonment for control, plus it helps set up Coup De Grace. As an Echo card, it thickens our deck when it is cycled out of the graveyard. We play Assassination to help turn on Practitioner in round 1. (It's possible we want 2 in the deck). We play Squirrel to delete any thickening Echo cards your opponent plays.

We really want to play Torres in his first form to thicken our deck by 3. I have put in a Vicovaro Novice so we can play Calveit then draw into Torres with Novice.

The insane part of this deck? Kolgrim-Letho isn't necessarily our only win con. Often you can get win con cards off Torres and Practitioner that help seal the deal.

This list is yet to be optimised. I am sure there are ways to improve it, please let me know any ideas you have.

From Nilfgaard with love,

J William James