First I'll reply to some comments, then add some additional personal thoughts.
Shuls02;n8099770 said:
The biggest hit to ST was the Resilience balance change and it was more than needed, carrying a Bronze unit through all 3 rounds without having to use extra cards to keep it on board and keeping all the buffs form previous rounds was way too cheap tho I would have changed it so they got reset to base strength after the round ends but they remain on board for all 3 rounds.
And SK Discard got hit hard with Lock now staying on the graveyard (RIP Mork) and Birna/Donar nerfs, and also Vicovaro Medic is unchanged and with Caretaker out there (nice try Olgeird) I don't think we will see a Discard deck after the patch hits.
As others have pointed out, the resillience change was not the culprit. Hawker Healer and the obscene value it gave for a bronze card was the primary problem. Resillience itself was not the main problem, unless your deck did not incorporate any form of anti-buffing or scorching (i.e. Geralt Igni).
gigabomb;n8100770 said:
Looking at it from being in the bottom 200, every deck I played that was stacking rows already tried to make commander's horn the last card, and I had to hold DB back because of it. The positioning mechanic and changes like making mahakam defenders resilience only last one extra round changes the timing and gives me more flexibility when deciding to lock down a resilient unit or DB a set of cards, but it also makes them much less powerful due to the positioning. This patch seems like a huge nerf to row buffs, debuffs, and stacking, and people exploiting row mechanics was the hardest thing to overcome with my NG deck and lack of experience.
It would be helpful knowing which level and rank you are playing at. It sounds very much like low-budget if people withhold Commander's Horn as the last card. Anyway, if my assumption is correct, I think it is a symptom of the sad state of the game for new players. Due to the barebones starter decks, the new player experience is simple, binary (last card Commander's Horn vs. D-bomb/weather) rather than engaging and interactive.
I have been where you were - and I don't mean that in a bad way - and I do not think it is representative for "true Gwent." I don't disregard that it is the common experience of new players though, and I would implore CDPR to change that experience dramatically. But it is isolated from many balance related changes, which are and were not needed even at average level.
On a sidenote, starting out with a Nilfgaard deck is, in my opinion, not recommended. Being the newest faction, it only has one viable deck - which, ironically, ignores the two key trademarks of the faction, namely spying and revealing. The "Frankenstein deck" originally made by Mysling is the only viable Nilfgaard option by utilizing Card Advantage into Cahir Cheese and Rot Tosser + Weather/Myrgtebrakke/Arbalest/Cantarella. It is, ironically, is a deck that handles row-stacking very well due to having the option of safely including both D-bomb and Aeromancy, or even a standard Biting Frost. And it completely shuts down the Dwarves and Monsters meta decks due to Auckes/Sweers as well (Nekkers/Priestess of Freya/Hawker Healer or Elven Merc).... But only if you have the scraps for the essential cards.
roundert;n8101260 said:
I happen to like the fact that you can no longer take out three or four of skellige's golds with one card, nothing worse than playing legolas or whoever it is then have them just take him out in third round, not fair.
"Fair" is hardly a good argument when you can easily work around that. Look, Madman Lugos is - and rightfully should be - a gamble IF you don't play him while having massive Card Advantage (which is definitely manageable as Skellige). You can build a deck around him and make him viable, but if you don't, he should not be a default 19 strength powerplay instant win. He is currently used alongside Kambi - often the opponent cannot take out both. I simply don't think your argument has any salience.
Added thoughts after having digested the changes further:
Dimetirium Shackles having a locking function removes even more flavor and uniqueness from cards. We can expect to see at least 2 locks per match on key cards, though I suspect the count is more likely to rise to 4-5, depending on faction. Tournaments will be a mess as sideboards will be littered with locks.
Weather will most definitely become more prevalent. Since weather's binary effect (all or nothing) is unchanged, First Light is Fleeting, and "reset cards" such as Armorsmith is nerfed due to positioning changes, we can expect to see more weather. Furthermore, as I wrote in my OP, Card Advantage and Last Card will become all-important and almost always game-deciding.
The patch fails to address some archetypes remaining unviable. Nilfgaard Spies led by John Calveit will always face severe hard-counters as long as Kayran and Ekimmara sees play. Furthermore, D-shackles and D-bomb's newfound essentialism will make Ambassadors an even stronger liability.
The patch has outright killed some archetypes in spe. Skellige still hasn't got a viable "pirate/raiding"-themed deck. The old Wild Boar of the Sea - horribly clunky and unviable as it was - hinted at a potential archetype revolving around pirates. That has now been definitively buried due to becoming a golden Myrgtebrakke.
I suspect hero discrepancy might also have widened further. Ge'els is +2 to all units on the board. Henselt is essential +2 (and gold) on one row. Ge'els looks to be very competitive and flexible (which is good), but he also makes Henselt look really bad - unless somehow NR Ragh Nar Roog becomes a thing, or NR find a way to reliably swarm the board other than Margarita (who is within Alzur's Thunder range at 6 str., and with the prevalence of Locks she has just become even more unviable). As I wrote in OP, Foltest, Fransesca, Crach an Craite, Emhyr remain unadressed.
Nilfgaard reveal is a sword of Damocles. Too much reveal and it breaks with one of the core concepts of a CCG (in a bad way), namely the battle between two people amidst unknown variables. I think reveal, if limited, is a very interesting flavor, but I sincerely doubt it can and should become a viable archetype.
I like the Radovid change. The 8 damage was way too oppressive for a readily available hero power, and the new one definitely has utility as well, while requiring more thought.
Was LACERATE changed? If so, how? If not, then lacerate will be absolutely horribly powerful in the hands of any weather player.
Concluding Remarks
Overall, I must confess I have become even more pessimistic towards the patch these past days. I will be happy to test it and hopefully contribute to the game (if only by stresstesting the servers
), but like many others, I feel the game is taking a turn for the worse towards homogenization. The oscillating stance on the meta - killing off archetypes completely after a period of success (see upcoming Discard Skellige - hell, Morkvarg can be stolen from Graveyard now) and buffing others immensely that were hitherto unused (I suspect Ge'els will become a powerhouse) - reminds me too much of Blizzard's schizophrenic approach to balance in Hearthstone (and all their other games). It reeks of money grabs so that people will spend time, effort and money on rebuilding new decks rather than creating a diverse, long-lasting environment with many different, viable and competitive deck types. I hope CDPR will refrain from "killing" successful archetypes outright, focusing instead of creating a foundation in which mechanics and metas can evolve organically and adjust itself - at least most of the time.
