Shadow-Stalker;n10467292 said:That's incorrect; sure, Gwent is, was and always will be about points. That is the main basis of the game.
However, it used to be about what tactical advantage you had over your opponent, what your deck could do that they couldn't. Expecting what they could do and stopping it or countering it. Luring them into a trap or playing every moment like it was your last. (To sum it up very, very simply)
Now you play your deck. You don't care what your opponent does because it won't change what card you play next. Because you're going to play your cards in a specific order because that's the order you play your cards every match.
And you're also kidding or weren't actually in the closed beta if you think there was LESS identity and variety back then.
You know how nostalgia always makes you remember things better than how they were? Yeah, that's what's happening here for you, my friend.
Gwent started off as little more than point slapping and card advantage. In TW3 you could literally win every single game 100% of the time by getting the cards with the highest value, spamming spies and decoys and then slapping down all your high value cards. The only strategy ever involved was playing around scorch.
Gwent as a TCCG has had to evolve from that and make it suitable for multiplayer, but hell it's had A LOT of rough patches along the way. Remember when weather took EVERYTHING on a row down to 1? When clear skies could only clear a single row? When golds were completely immune? When NR was the only faction who could make "promote" other cards to gold and therefore have a board full of immunity? Remember when ST could choose who went first and would just repeatedly do so to always gain CA over you? Remember when Monsters could carry over ANY amount of strength from one round to the next and frequently manipulated it to carry over 20+.
Gwent is no less about strategy than it was in closed beta, in fact with the new archetypes and cards always appearing, there's more diversity and strategy behind each play than there was back in those days. Sure, the cards and patch introduced over winter had the bronze power creep up and thanks mainly to dwarves and bears, started to become a lot more point slappy and strength above all else, but CDPR had proven they're listening to our concerns about this. Plenty of streamers have discussed their discomfort about the introduction of this kind of playstyle, and I bet you over the coming months we'll see changes and additions that address and soothe those concerns.
And if you honestly think there's no thought involved any more and you just play your deck with no consideration for your opponent, then my friend, you need to start watching some higher level players.