In Switcheroo each gamer plays 1 card from their hand, then both hands switch, so you take controll of enemy cards, and he uses yours. A lot of players do not realise how to properly play this mode and simply using main decks, even top-10 seasonal powerfull decks, which are almost unkillable under normal rules. We are gonna be tricky and nasty by picking only WEAK cards, which can generate 3-5 points max. This way, every 2 turns enemy receives useless weak hand, while we will get his strong cards.

We choose Sydicate to win in 99% cases. This faction has unique mechanic — coins. Some cards are coin-generators, others are coin-consumers. Normally, players are trying to find perfect balance between both, so even if you face another Syndicate deck, they are still going to lose in 99% cases. To do this right, we make sure there are only coin-generators and ZERO spenders in our deck. In other words, enemy will receive our cards with coins and simply do nothing during their turn.

Our heroic summons Sea Jackal — a weak bronze unit able to spend coins for boosts. Normally, 2 coins turn into 2 points, but gathering 7 coins inside purse improves boost to +3 for 2 coins. It sounds meh, but actually brings victory. Majority of round 1 cards in our hand are spells with 4-6 coins. Enemy can do nothing with them, but we can show true magic.

This is not step-by-step guide for people who do not want to think! All players who blindly follow other's guides are going to be crushed by my deck. Overall you can pick any cards and experiment at your leasure, but several huge mistakes should be avoided.

Cards to pick:

• Knickers (neutral beast with 3 points, will jump from deck on it's own);
  
• Roach (neutral beast with 3 points, will jump when you play any gold card);
  
• The Flying Redanian (syndicate ship with 3 points, jumps when 9 coins in purse).

Those 3 cards are basic and not really required, but they give extra points and annoy enemy. Flying Redanian will reenter board even if he is in graveyard. And there will be many moments when we maxout purse to call him. Equip syndicate table tactic card called "Tiger's Eye", which gives +5 coins. Since we don't need basic +5 points boost from "Tactical Advantage" which you get by default. (just a reminder, i am talking about card which appears on table when your are going first)

Gold cards to pick:

• The Witchfinder (7 points unit - creates 3 extra coins, which we collect at any time);
  
• Sigi Reuven (4 points unit - gives 9 coins, maxing purse and summoning Redanian);
  
• Vivaldi Bank (gives 3 coins and allows to use card from top of deck, non-important to have);
  
• Pickpocket (gives 7 coins, non-important to have).

This is it, we gonna use as less gold cards as possible and make sure Witchfinder and Sigi are never together in our hand. The best outcome would be if you get one of them in round 2 and the other in round 3. Game rarely reaches round 3 because of us... Ke ke ke.

Any, just make sure they do not spend coins and are weak (3-4 points power). Also remember, Sigi Reuven (our "joker" card) requires preparations -> for every DIFFERENT type of unit in starting deck his coins profit increases. Initally it's only 4, so you have to rise it to 9. At the same time, try to have only 13-15 units overall, which improves chances to find coin-generating spell cards. Do not pick big game changers like "Locks", "Scenarios", or any cards that require way too long preparation (3-4 turns to trully wind up). We get all of that from enemy cards anyway xD

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You start by trying to get 9 coins as soon as possible and activate any gold card. This way all small jumpers will appear on their own. You may also want to play no units during turn 1 and just get some coins from spell. This way enemy can't damage / lock your side of board and there is no way to steal coins from purse.

On next turn you receive enemy cards. Use strongest card + ruin his future combos. You see meditating mages - make sure he can't get 2 of them together. If there is a lock in his hand - waste it. If he has scenario - play it, even if its useless to you. Remember, destroying his hand is more important than caring about points. Any cards that can boost themself over time should be summoned immediately, so he will concentrate on killing / stopping them, which means he fights his own cards, while we keep gathering coins.

Somewhere in the middle of round 1 an interesting situation happens: your hand only has coin making spells and you call Jackal (from heroic ability). By removing all enemy locks and damaging spells before, now there is no way to interrupt Jackal. At this stage you will be able to count how many points enemy gonna have in the end and act accordingly.

Remember few funny facts:
- If enemy passes > keep playing both hands until you outscore him, make sure there are even cards in both hands;
- If enemy used way too strong units and you absolutelly cannot win this round, make sure to not waste Jackal ability and drag that round for as long as you can to reduce ammount of cards in hands. Majority of decks only strong if given enough time to wind up, but forcing them into short rounds gonna bring disaster to opponent;
- Try finishing round 1 with 8-9 doins, this way in round 2 you will have 4 coins;
- Our true power shows up in rounds 2-3, while enemy wasted most strong cards in round 1 to win.

If by some weird circumstances enemy has cards that jump out from graveyard later (another Flying Redanian, Phoenix) - make sure to summon them immediately for later uses in rounds 2-3.

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You and enemy both start second round with 3 cards in hands. You are gong first: use card with big benefits (many coins / points). If it is possible to reach 9 coins — good, a ship will jump from graveyard for +3 points. Wait for enemy to play a card and look at his remaining 2. You will be able to calculate points easely and tell who gonna win the match, since you know what both hands have. Sometimes it is better to throw his card into graveyard instead of playing.

If you cannot win a round and able to afford losing it, do not summon Jackal and force enemy to use all cards. For example, monster deck can place Mammuna creature for 20 points, which is mostlikely impossible for you to beat.
The first played card during round should always be very strong.

So you probably wonder, is it even possible to beat this deck? Yes and there are quite many ways

Nilfgaard can summon many assimilate units, including very strong Glynnis. Every time they get your hand and use any card, even coin-spell, all asiimilate units will activate for bonus points. At some point they swarm field too much and you cannot win. If Syndicate player is inexperienced and going to waste Jackal, he is still going to lose round AND one Jackal from 2. This is devastating and means losing game in the end. To Syndicate: do not use heroic ability and just drag round 1.

Nilfgaard has Ana Henrietta card with 3 points which can copy enemy heroic ability, giving 2 possible Jackals to Nilfgaard. If they use Ana as first card during round 1 or 2, you are most certainly going to lose match. And if they also have Glynnis, it's gg. Tho, Nilfgaard can do big mistake by not using Ana right away, which means Syndicate should immediatly use her. Oh, yes! Majority of players have no idea that you can actually throw cards into graveyard manually by dragging and droppin. So, if Syndicate is inexperienced and simply puts ana in MELEE row, she will not switch Jackal ability. But if Nilfgaard has Coup De Grace spell - it kills unit with 3 power can plays it's copy. Nilfgaard wins this way. Both teams should be very careful and use their head.

Archgriffin (Northern Kingdom) can be game-ender for any deck in this mode, since with heroic ability Pincer Maneuver you can 100% sure get it from deck onto field. Then just boost it a lot with other cards, like Griffin Witcher. On turn 2 you can call Erland of Larvik from deck to consume all buffs from Archgriffin to boost Erland and this mostlikely gonna be gg, since Erland has immunity. Even without Archgriffin, using Pincer Maneuver ability allows you to always place strong card in round 2 and 3, while Syndicate mostlikely cannot answer to something with 13+ power.


You should expect:

• Enemy not giving you "gg" reward, cus they hate you;
  
• Enemy forfeiting the moment they see your hand, since they are smart and can figure xD
  
• Enemy forfeiting the moment they see your heroic ability, since they have seen finale xD
  
• Enemy forfeiting cus they use mirror deck and don't want to let double hell loose;
  
• Enemy wasting your time by not ending turn on purpose, cus they hate you too much;
  
• Enemy trying to understand what the hell is your hand and spending lots of time thinking (in vein);
  
• At some point you start pity enemies, cus able to predict end 5-6 turns before it happens.

• You can easely beat top-tier decks: Melusine Skellige Storms, Handbuff Elfs, Meditating Mages, Sabbath Monsters, Vampires (xD), Northern Siege, Nilfgaard Mill etc;
  
• You can learn how different cards work without having them unlocked and not risking to lose cus you did single clumsy mistake;
  
• You can use swearing dwarf hero from Syndicate who has trully funny emotes;
  
• You can mix many neutral cards into deck, like 2-points Wolfs;
  
• Can finish many achievements, including ones to win with only bronze cards / with 100-provision deck.

1) Get Oneiromancy or something similar (Amphibious Assault) to grab strong card in rounds 2-3, Syndicate can reach 30 or so points in short rounds, use that knowledge and plan your own deck;
2) During first turn play strongest card, all other cards should be weak;
3) Do not take cards with locks or dmg dealing spells, those gonna be used against you;
4) Spam board with units who can buff every turn by +1 point;
5) Any card stealers are nice, since you can steal enemy Ship, Phoenix and coin generators;
6) Avoid sabbath, Geralt of Rivia, Scoia'taels (they simply cannot win);
7) Always think in advance regarding what card enemy will use next;
8) Try having cards in pairs, where each can counter the other one, so if enemy plays card A, counter it with B and if he plays B, counter it with A - they both should posses a late-round threat if not played by enemy soon;
9) Every 6-coin spell will turn into +8 points boost - it's smarter to waste them rather than summon some 3-power unit; 4-coins spells are +6 points boosts - same rule;
10) Get all Resilience you can, Syndicate is very bad at killing that stuff;
11) Vivaldi Bank is actually a trap to seduce you to waste yet another strong gold card in round 1 - don't use it this way;
12) On their own Syndicate can reach around 60-80 score in round 1, even tho this deck consists from bronze cards, it can win normal games as well (non-event).

In "Patience is a virtue!" during start of player's turn all his cards in hand are transformed into cards with +1 higher provision cost. This means any buffs on them will be deleted during switch, so there is no reason to boost their armor or power.

The cheapest card provision is '4' and the most expensive — '15'. At provisions 13,14 and 15 you mostly find 'scenarios'... They have conditions and after playing more than 100 matches i was able to complete only 2 scenarios, my enemies only 1. In other words, they are game ruiners, providing only weak units with 3-4 points when first placed. This also means every time you leave high-provision cards in hand there is a risk to lose late portion of round due to those scenarios. When card transforms at 15 provision, it becomes '4' and cycle starts over.

Pick "Nilfgaard" faction with "Enslave" ability. This skill allows to steal enemy unit with up to 7 power and NOT block his ability. Stealing means you reduce their score by 7 and boost yours by 7, which is +14 points difference. On top of that stolen unit can posses some abilities to even further improve benefits.

But skill is weak first, so you need to put 16 tactic spells into deck in order to increase stealing power from basic 3 to whooping 7. You need all sort of tactics cards, 2 of each. This also means deck is going to be useless in any other mode due to zero alchemy between cards and weak units. But we don't care about their weakness in 'patience is a virtue'!


Roach and Knickers, both are neutrals and jump out of deck on their own to help you with extra +3 scores each. Roach appears after using gold card, while Knickers is random, but most of the time joins after 3-4 played cards. Those two seemingly useless cards will grant additional +7 points to compensate either one enemy card. Ideally, we want enemy to turn first.

• Geralt of Rivia (neutral). if during a match you will find card which summons unit / any card / witcher - it will be able to summon your Geralt and kill someone with 9+ power;
  
• Double spells. Putting any 2 copies of spells is good since you can bump into 'Simlas' — Skoyatael's card, which casts all copies of bronze spell of your choise from deck;
  
• Something to block enemy unit's abilities, it should be highest dmg unit in your deck;
  
• Poisoners, cus there are many ways to put 1 poison onto enemy and it may be good to summon another one from deck;
  
• Any aristocrat, cus he can activate Nilfgaard Scenario and summon poisoner.

You have just enough provision to put all listed above into single deck.


Humans
Those are one of the most populated races, you can find humans in pretty much every faction. And card called "Draug" (cost 13) can turn all humans in a row into cursed knights. Knights have 3 points strenght and Order: deal 1 dmg to whoever you choose. Killing enemy with this skill spawns another knight and sometimes it is usefull to dmg an ally for extra points. So what should you do: place as many humans as you can in same row and do not buff them to not provoke enemy into killing spree (give armor if possible).

Coins
Overall units from Syndicat faction are as strong as any other faction's units, but also giving you coins. Coins have many uses and can carry-over into next round, so make them your priority instead of summoning something like 6-points bear with no skills.

Revival
Any units with revival abilities are good if you can resummon them in later rounds. Crow Mother from Skellige, for example, have 4 power and will return from graveyard if you cast any Alchemy card. Fhoenix can returns from ashes for extra 4 points. Neutral card called "Ciri", if you lose round and it is still alive -> returns to hand, turning into extra +1 card. "Ciri: Engage" is also good card, in 4 turns gives you +1 card.

• Try putting some high-provision cards from hand into deck by using units abilities;
  
• Try having varietty of cards with different provisions, like "4,5,6,7,8,9,10" instead of "4,4,4,4,4,4,4";
  
• It is still somewhat viable to use 'elfs scenario' during first 1-3 turns, since elfs are populated race;
  
• When round ends, consider mulligan some great cards from hand into deck to summon later, since in next round they will all transform again anyway.