Changes to Skellige Cards

[Theodrik]

You can have the same effect of Coral with Merigold's Hailstorm, which is a neutral Silver spell. So if we're to discuss any nerfs to Coral, we're also implying nerfs to Hailstorm. They are strong cards, but I honeslty don't feel they are that OP, also I like their effect in the game. Even so, because of its flexibility I believe they should add a limitation to that effect. Maybe something like:

1. Damage the three most strong Units on a row by half their Power (rounding up and ignoring Armor);
2. Damage the strongest Unit on a row by half its Power (rounding up and ignoring Armor) thrice in a row;

What do you guys think? Obviuosly the second option is stronger then the first one, but would that be a nerf to the current effect?

 

[partci]

Theodrik Merigold's Hailstorm does not put you 5 Gold STR on the board. And often you do need your other Silvers more, just for the sake of some combo or something.

 

[Theodrik]

Theodrik Merigold's Hailstorm does not put you 5 Gold STR on the board. And often you do need your other Silvers more, just for the sake of some combo or something.

But then a Gold card is supposed to worth slightly more then a Silver when talking about points. To keep things consistent I believe that either both cards should get an update or none of them.

 

[partci]

Silvers are more important to you in the way you navigate your deck, while Golds are often your finisher. And she makes a nice one.


Pardon me, but I just saw this Harald buff and am blank staring at the monitor.

Poor Draug.

 

[Theodrik]

Pardon me, but I just saw this Harald buff and am blank staring at the monitor.

I feel you... I really hope they are nerfing Axeman somehow. It's a disgusting deck IMO.

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

You can have the same effect of Coral with Merigold's Hailstorm, which is a neutral Silver spell. So if we're to discuss any nerfs to Coral, we're also implying nerfs to Hailstorm. They are strong cards, but I honeslty don't feel they are that OP, also I like their effect in the game. Even so, because of its flexibility I believe they should add a limitation to that effect. Maybe something like:

1. 
   
   Funny, as if Hailstorm is better option than current Skellige silver pool And though I haven't mentioned hailstorm I'm not saying it's not OP. SK silver pool is even better than gold pool.
   
   Targeting 3 Adjacent units with half power damage is already good damage swing, and any intelligent play would try go for the highest ones, this allows punishing blue potion abuse already, I don't get the point of 3 highest units or half highest unit thrice, seems just another automatically good swing. Making it 3 Adjacent unit also allows opponent to have a real way to play around her by carefully placing units like igni.
   
   
   The thing is the effect is brainlessly good, 90% SK deck run her and none would swap her with Igni. I think the sole reason is just the obvious ridiculous power swing with high consistency.
   
   What I think acceptable nerf is people would actually consider swapping igni at some scenario. Your suggestion, though make sense, doesn't really nerf Coral at all.
   
   And yes, I dropped my jaw seeing Harald buff, this ability just effectively wipe out Every NR opening I could imagine.

 

[GenLiu]

How?

In a long round SK tends to have 80+ on the board (already kinda conservative) and for the opponent to win they have to have at least 81 on board (or deal enough damage?). Let's say even they spread units perfectly we have 27 on a row. Then the last Coral must be at least 14+5 swing, which is already beyond many gold card's cap value. Besides to distribute units like that opponent already give up some value in the process so even more difficult to catch up Skellige in the first place.

Many had claimed Coral being row stack tech but what I observe is that the only reason people use her is she consistently generating above the limit value in a fashion that no other gold card (including igni) can do so.

My idea is making her only target 3 adjacent units. In that way she is still decent with expected gain of 15-21 instead of ridiculous 20-32 swing (Obviously people are going for the highest units), without affecting her lower bound in short rounds. I expect people would criticize this being to harsh but honestly even with this nerf Coral is still a tier 1 gold card.

Everyone knows how to play around Coral, the thing with this card is that, you can't deny her entire value, unlike Igni (I mean besides their body obviously) but you can make her more bearable by not stacking your units/points on the same row and try to force her out of your opponent's hand when it's not the best moment for it (like in turn 2 when you won turn 1).

I regularly beat Coral in game, sometimes even when I have the card disadvantage, she's not a nemesis to me like she seems to be to others.

Now, if everyone else agree that she need to be nerfed why not but I think she should hit 5 targets instead of 3.
3 is just pityful and would send the card to Oblivion, I'm pretty much sure about that.

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

Everyone knows how to play around Coral, the thing with this card is that, you can't deny her entire value, unlike Igni (I mean besides their body obviously) but you can make her more bearable by not stacking your units/points on the same row and try to force her out of your opponent's hand when it's not the best moment for it (like in turn 2 when you won turn 1).

I regularly beat Coral in game, sometimes even when I have the card disadvantage, she's not a nemesis to me like she seems to be to others.

Now, if everyone else agree that she need to be nerfed why not but I think she should hit 5 targets instead of 3.
3 is just pityful and would send the card to Oblivion, I'm pretty much sure about that.

You keep talking as if every faction has reasonably easy method to avoid getting big fat Coral without losing their win condition, I do want to know how is that works out for every faction to both catch up with SKellige while avoid the big fat Coral finish. All I can think of is pure control deck.

And 5 target Coral is laughable nerf since there is no nerf at all. Again before you suggest plz ask yourself will you ever consider swap Coral for igni as an alternative at least in some reasonable scenario.

The oblivion card is stuff like Natalis or pre remake Pricilla, even Coral only hit 3 unit I fail to see her being worse than that, care to elaborate?

 

[GenLiu]

You keep talking as if every faction has reasonably easy method to avoid getting big fat Coral without losing their win condition, I do want to know how is that works out for every faction to both catch up with SKellige while avoid the big fat Coral finish. All I can think of is pure control deck.

And 5 target Coral is laughable nerf since there is no nerf at all. Again before you suggest plz ask yourself will you ever consider swap Coral for igni as an alternative at least in some reasonable scenario.

The oblivion card is stuff like Natalis or pre remake Pricilla, even Coral only hit 3 unit I fail to see her being worse than that, care to elaborate?

Quiet on the contrary I said that she can be avoided but not by every decks and this is specifically why I think Coral has to be strong.
She basically keeps peoples away from decks that produces huge amount of power on one row and encourage/reward players who find an alternative way to win.

It's basically the same concept as Igni, if this card wasn't a thing (as well as Scorch) everyone would play decks that can make a 6O+ str single unit on the board with 3 Adrenaline rush to pack it up. I think those kind of cards are important to control the meta.

Again, I've never said that she's not good, in fact she's very powerful but she has to be at least imo.

As for the 3 target nerf, your opponent would simply have to play is big fatty at each corner of a row to be safe from Coral. 3 units isn't a lot and it's very easy to build a board with no good target for Coral because every big units are seperated by 2 small ones.
This is especially true since Coral HAS to be played late, the dream scenario being to play her last unless you're playing against Unseen elder before use obviously.

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

Quiet on the contrary I said that she can be avoided but not by every decks and this is specifically why I think Coral has to be strong.
She basically keeps peoples away from decks that produces huge amount of power on one row and encourage/reward players who find an alternative way to win.

It's basically the same concept as Igni, if this card wasn't a thing (as well as Scorch) everyone would play decks that can make a 6O+ str single unit on the board with 3 Adrenaline rush to pack it up. I think those kind of cards are important to control the meta.

Again, I've never said that she's not good, in fact she's very powerful but she has to be at least imo.

As for the 3 target nerf, your opponent would simply have to play is big fatty at each corner of a row to be safe from Coral. 3 units isn't a lot and it's very easy to build a board with no good target for Coral because every big units are seperated by 2 small ones.
This is especially true since Coral HAS to be played late, the dream scenario being to play her last unless you're playing against Unseen elder before use obviously.

Guess what they remade Coral to target only one unit and instead of half the unit she compress target into 3 power token made my day Buahahahahaha

 

[GenLiu]

Guess what they remade Coral to target only one unit and instead of half the unit she compress target into 3 power token made my day Buahahahahaha

lol I guess that makes everyone happy, instead of dealing with a big headache they straight up changed her ability.
I think it's good, the new ability seems incredibly interesting and strong too (correct me if I'm wrong but that means now Coral actually banish the unit...that's very new).

 

[Theodrik]

Well I believe Coral got a bit of a nerf, but it still seems to me a really good and competitive card. A 5 strength body that plays the very strong new silver spell Artefact Compression is still pretty solid. This new spell as I read transforms the target into a Jade Figurine with 3 power. So not only it can shrink a very strong threat, but it also silences and banishes the original target.

Below is a preview of the Artefact Compression card art:

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

lol I guess that makes everyone happy, instead of dealing with a big headache they straight up changed her ability.
I think it's good, the new ability seems incredibly interesting and strong too (correct me if I'm wrong but that means now Coral actually banish the unit...that's very new).

Well I think she is more acceptable now and nevertheless a decent gold card. The purpose is different but I expect typical 18-23 swing which is a lot more manageable than previous. I can see her being auto included again but in a more reasonable manner.

 

[GenLiu]

Well I think she is more acceptable now and nevertheless a decent gold card. The purpose is different but I expect typical 18-23 swing which is a lot more manageable than previous. I can see her being auto included again but in a more reasonable manner.

True, the only thing that makes me a bit nervous about this Artefact compression is Queensguard.
There is already quiet a few counters to QG and there is more coming in the nexct patch but if you add AC on top of that and since there is 2 ways of casting it (the spell and Coral)...I just hope it's not going to flat out kill QG because it's a really fun deck to play with.

Now for the rest, I'm fully happy with this change not because I didn't like Coral before (as I said, I actually loved the card) but because I think it makes everyone feeling great and that's what I want about Gwent.
Furthermore, I trully think this card will be very good and will remain a staple for Skellige decks. A/ This is a deploy ability which makes her viable since Gold will be targetable by removal after the patch and B/ Turning any unit (maybe even including Gold, I don't know just yet but it might be the case) into a 3 str unit with no ability is incredibly good imo. When you think about it, it's like casting Mardroeme and Dimeritium shakles on a single target at the same time (I mean, more or less) It cannot be bad.

 

[ResoundingBuahaha]

True, the only thing that makes me a bit nervous about this Artefact compression is Queensguard.
There is already quiet a few counters to QG and there is more coming in the nexct patch but if you add AC on top of that and since there is 2 ways of casting it (the spell and Coral)...I just hope it's not going to flat out kill QG because it's a really fun deck to play with.

Now for the rest, I'm fully happy with this change not because I didn't like Coral before (as I said, I actually loved the card) but because I think it makes everyone feeling great and that's what I want about Gwent.
Furthermore, I trully think this card will be very good and will remain a staple for Skellige decks. A/ This is a deploy ability which makes her viable since Gold will be targetable by removal after the patch and B/ Turning any unit (maybe even including Gold, I don't know just yet but it might be the case) into a 3 str unit with no ability is incredibly good imo. When you think about it, it's like casting Mardroeme and Dimeritium shakles on a single target at the same time (I mean, more or less) It cannot be bad.

Yes I agree, But I don't think it's wise for QG deck to put all their bet on QG alone so a back up plan is always something to consider. And for pure neutral special card we already see Aeromancy, necromany being dead card so I won't worry a lot.

Now if you excuse me I need time to recover from reinforcement & Keira nerf...D: End of my journey main NR perhaps

 

[GenLiu]

Yes I agree, But I don't think it's wise for QG deck to put all their bet on QG alone so a back up plan is always something to consider. And for pure neutral special card we already see Aeromancy, necromany being dead card so I won't worry a lot.

Now if you excuse me I need time to recover from reinforcement & Keira nerf...D: End of my journey main NR perhaps

Believe me or not but I actually had a though for you when I saw the changes, I remember that you mentioned to be a NR player.
I understand your feeling but I think it's gonna be kinda general. Everything is going to change and the decks we are playing now will probably have nothing to do with those we're going to play after the patch hits.

It's kinda annoying for peoples who don't have much ways of crafting new cards and that's a big risk taken by CDPR but I just wait and see. Maybe the new NR will be even more amazing as it currently is (I mean, it's hard to imagine the deck is really good right now but it might still be very good).

I hope you're going to be happy at the hand and will find NR being a winner after all those changes. It's definitely possible, Reinforcement is a tutor of officers and I don't remember what else but maybe it will be awesome (especially since you can play it with Natalis...if Reinforcement is good Natalis will be great).

I also hope that Keira Metz is still going to be good enough, I really like the card and I'm agree with you, changing the Quen for Aeromancy is kinda dumb. I don't really understand why they made this change but maybe it would make sense eventually.
Maybe they want her to be played with Radovid control, which might or might not be a good thing since Bloody Baron is assumably going to be terrible unless they change the way he works.

We will see I guess.