Hello and welcome to my guide to getting a strong Northern Realms deck early on in Witcher 3!


Northern Realms is the only usable deck for a while, but fortunately it's a brilliant deck anyway.

First, buy all of the cards in White Orchard if you didn't get them from the innkeeper first time round.  If you fast travel back there from Velen, then Bram (the guy you saved from the Griffin) will have them.  These cards include the 1st Catapult card, and a Decoy card. Each time you fast travel anyway and go back to the innkeeper, she will usually have another Decoy card so you can buy all 3 (the maximum possible).

If you have Hearts of Stone installed, there is a Gwent-obsessed elven merchant North-West of Carsten who has loads of cards for sale.  He has some great ones like the 2nd Catapult card, amongst others (mostly some excellent Scoia'tel cards). He also has 2 Gaunter O'Dimm Darkness cards.  To find him, go to the map and look South of Novigrad and there is a notice board next to a lake. Looking East on the map you can see the Vegelbud Estate, which is the sprawling estate with the racetrack next to it.  A little West of the Vegelbud Estate is another small lake, and next to this is an elf camp where the merchant is.

Next, head to the Ofieri merchant in Upper Mill, who has the other Gaunter O'Dimm Darkness.  These 3 cards can be added to any deck, and they are Muster cards. This means you only need one in your hand, and when you play it, it will summon the others and add 12 to your total score.  They're really powerful early on. Play it before any spy cards as well.

Choosing the main quest for 'Hunting a Witch' leads you to Midcopse.  Buy the cards from the merchant there. You might as beat both the merchants to win some random cards, as well do the first part of that mission to find the witch.

Now go to the Notice Board south-east of Midcopse.  This should be the village of Oreton. After reading the Notice Board there will be a question mark due east of Oreton.  Go there and save before fighting the bandits and freeing the merchant held captive there. Meditate for a day and travel to the village north of Oreton, just by another lake.  This is the village of Claywich, and the merchant you just freed should be there and will have cards for sale, including another Crinfrid Reaver card.

Lastly go to Crow's Perch and complete the first part of the Bloody Baron's questline.  After searching the rooms in his house you'll eventually be able to play him. Beat him to get the Dijkstra spy card.

You should now have 2 spies, 3 Crinfrid Reavers, 3 Blue Stripes Commandos, 2 extremely powerful Catapults, the 3 Gaunter O'Dimm Darkness cards, and the other good siege cards that the deck starts with.  You shouldn't have too much trouble the rest of the way. Remove bad cards so that you have a minimum of 22 wherever possible. I'd recommend also buying all the cards from the innkeepers near the Notice Boards to buy any remaining Decoys, Commander's Horn and Scorch cards.

2 extra things for the Gwent-obsessed...you can beat the nobleman in Vizima for a great leader card, but be warned he has a very good deck and can be tough to beat.

You can also go to Skellige as early as possible and buy the Thaler card from the innkeeper at Arinbjorn, which is an awesome spy card, and then travel back to Velen to carry on with the rest of the game. Check out my video about going to Skellige early if you wanted.

Let me know what you think, and please like, comment and subscribe!

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