Our latest card drop, dubbed Forgotten Treasures, features 21 new cards!
All new cards utilize and expand existing game mechanics currently used in GWENT, with card art inspired by the Golden Nekker Project — the currently in-development spin-off, based around the core gameplay and mechanics of The Witcher Card Game.
The card drop is available now as part of the game’s latest update (10.4) which also features regular gameplay balance changes.
SHUPE THE TROLL PRESENTS:
Also starting today, for a limited time, you’ll be able to purchase The Forgotten Treasures Pack, which contains all of the new cards from the Forgotten Treasures card drop in their premium animated versions, as well as the all-new Abandoned Laboratory game board. This pack will be available until May 10th, 10:00 AM CEST.
Join in on the celebrations with 21 brand new cards, balance changes and special offers in the in-game store!
Read more about Update 10.4 down below.
New Features
Welcome to the Year of the Cursed Toad!
Forgotten Treasures Card Drop - Discover the new Year of the Cursed Toad set, which includes 21 new cards: two for each faction, along with nine Neutrals.
New Reward Book Page - We are bringing back 9 old seasonal trees (Elves, Viper, Magic), and 2 new ones, which will rotate out at the end of the June Season. Additionally, old seasonal trees will no longer have quest nodes. All players that unlocked these nodes without completing the quests will now find them completed, and the rewards added to their accounts.
New Info Screen - This screen will replace the welcome screen, as well as screens related to various events and activities, and provide the most important and interesting information about the release all in one.
Persistent Starter Decks - Starter decks can no longer be removed or modified. They can still be duplicated however, and the copies modified. These decks will be shown in a separate category, and will not count towards your maximum number of decks. Starter Decks that are missing from player accounts due to having been removed or modified will be re-added to the accounts. Changes
Changed the Season transition flow. For more information regarding MMR you will need to click "more info" as this screen pops up.
Neutral
Allgod - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Bearification - Provision cost changed from 6 to 5.
Ciri - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Iris: Shade - Provision cost changed from 9 to 7.
Lady of the Lake - Power changed from 7 to 3.
Provision cost changed from 7 to 8.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Play an Echo card from your deck.
Maraal - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Vesemir: Mentor - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Watchman - Ability changed to:
Shield.
Order: Give an allied unit a Shield.
Monsters
Kikimore Queen - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Red Riders - Brought back the option to Spawn Frost on an enemy row for 4 turns. Red Riders now has 3 ability choices instead of 2.
Ritual Sacrifice - Provision cost changed from 10 to 8.
Ruehin - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Skellige
Hjalmar an Craite - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Stunning Blow - Damage to targets with Armor changed from 6 to 7.
Northern Realms
Vernon Roche - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Queen Meve - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Aretuza Student - Patience is now active only on the Ranged row.
Ban Ard Student - Patience is now active only on the Melee row.
Scoia'tael
Barclay Els - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Give each allied Dwarf 1 Armor.
If they already had Armor, boost them by 1 instead.
Dennis Cranmer - Power changed from 4 to 7.
Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Boost adjacent units by an amount equal to their Armor.
Figgis Merluzzo - Power changed from 5 to 7.
Ability changed to:
Defender.
Order: Move self to the other row.
Munro Bruys - Number of Charges changed from 2 to 3.
Zoltan Chivay - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Zoltan: Warrior - Power changed from 6 to 4.
Provision cost changed from 10 to 13.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Damage 2 enemy units by 3. For each unit that survived, Spawn a Rowdy Dwarf on this row.
Barricade: At the end of your turn, damage a random enemy unit by 1.
Zoltan's Company - Ability changed to:
Spawn 2 Rowdy Dwarves on an allied row, then give each Dwarf on that row 1 Armor. Increase the number of Spawned Rowdy Dwarves by 1 for each Zoltan in your starting deck.
Dryad Grovekeeper - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Gain Vitality (2).
Bonded: Gain Vitality (4) instead.
Dwarf Berserker - Armor changed from 4 to 3.
Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Dwarven Chariot - Power changed from 4 to 3.
Ability changed to:
Deploy (Melee): Boost self by 4 and gain 2 Armor.
Deploy (Ranged): Spawn 2 Rowdy Dwarves on your Melee row.
Order: Give an allied unit 1 Armor.
Cooldown: 1
Dwarven Skirmisher - Ability changed to:
Deploy (Melee): Damage an enemy unit by 3. If it survived, gain 1 Armor.
Order (Barricade): Damage an enemy unit by 3.
Mahakam Marauder - Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Gain Vitality for a duration equal to an allied unit's Armor.
Barricade: Boost self by that amount instead.
Miner - Armor from the Order ability changed from 2 to 4.
Rowdy Dwarf - Armor changed from 0 to 1.
Nilfgaard
Double Cross - Provision bonus changed from 16 to 15.
Syndicate
Pickpocket - Profit changed from 7 to 8.
Bare-Knuckle Brawler - Has new part of ability:
Fee 1: Damage the highest-power enemy unit by 1.
Crownsplitter Thug - Damage from the Deploy ability changed from 2 to 3.
Eventide Plunder - Ability changed to:
Create a 4 provision cost unit with a Fee.
Payroll Specialist - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
No longer has Intimidate.
Game Fixes
Fixed the issue where Journey contracts related to quest completion wouldn't be completed for some players.
All affected players should receive the missing rewards on login.
The passive abilities for Off the Book and Hidden Cache no longer become disabled when the leader abilities are reactivated by Damien de la Tour or Anna Henrietta.
Stockpile is no longer unusable when both your rows are full.
Melusine no longer increases her base power from a unit that was destroyed previously.
Saov Ainmhi'dh: Unity will now correctly react to specials played from the opponent's side through e.g. through Lydia van Bredevoort.
Siege Master will now correctly react to Siege Engines Spawned and played through e.g. Queen Adalia or Zoria Runestone.
Today we are focusing on communicating our thoughts on the upcoming changes via the patch notes, instead of the usual developer video. In addition to the balance changes, we have Draft updates and game fixes for you.
Let’s begin with the balance changes:
Patch 10.3 focuses on several goals:
Revitalizing Wild Hunt, Elven Swarm and Firesworn archetypes
Increasing the cost of running the most popular thinning tools in Northern Realms, Nilfgaard and Skellige.
Improving some other archetypes and strategies with smaller buffs. Neutral
Geralt: Quen: Adrenaline condition changed from 3 to 4.
Magic Lamp: Lamp Djinn is now a Doomed Token.
Triangle Within a Triangle: Provision cost changed from 9 to 8. Monsters
Auberon Conqueror: Deploy ability changed to:
Spawn and play a bronze Wild Hunt unit from your starting deck.
Eredin Bréacc Glas: Power changed from 6 to 7.
Wererat: Ability changed to:
Order: Spawn a number of Rats on this row equal to the amount of boost on self, then lose a point of boost for each Rat Spawned. Cooldown: 1. Before the end of your turn, Consume a unit to the right.
Winter Queen: Devotion ability changed to:
Once both players have passed, boost self by 2 for each turn of Frost remaining on the opponent's side.
Chimera: Adrenaline condition changed from 4 to 5.
Red Riders: Ability changed to:
Choose one:
- Spawn Frost on an enemy row for 2 turns, then replay a bronze Wild Hunt unit.
- Spawn Frost on both enemy rows for 2 turns.
Slyzard: Power changed from 5 to 4.
Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Wild Hunt Navigator: Ability changed to:
Deploy: Boost an allied unit by the duration of Frost on its opposite row.
Dominance: Boost an allied unit by the total duration of Frost on the opponent's side of the battlefield instead.
Wild Hunt Warrior: Ability changed to:
Deploy: Damage an enemy unit by 2.
Dominance: Also Spawn Frost for 1 turn on that unit's row.
In the past several months Wild Hunt had their moments, but it’s been a while since Aen Elle were a very popular choice among Monsters’ players. In 10.3 we are introducing a bunch of changes that should make the Frost archetype feel better to play.
The reworked cards include the ones players weren’t interested in playing in their decks (such as Wild Hunt Navigator or Wild Hunt Warrior), but there are also other improvements, including more flexibility for the final stage of Auberon - players will be able to pick any Wild Hunt unit from their starting deck instead of relying on randomness.
We also decided to change Winter Queen - from now on, she can protect you from wasting value on Frost if your opponent decides to pass. We replaced Thrive with this ability, as Wild Hunt’s main strategy is not reliably triggering Thrive, and we hope that this ability will help the Frost deck with one of their biggest weaknesses, which is low tempo when applying weather. Regardless of the success of those changes, we want to continue supporting Wild Hunt in the future.
Moreover, we added a small pack of buffs for some of the Consume cards. The most notable change here is Wererat. Due to how the end of turn abilities are resolved in Gwent, Wererat didn’t work with some of the Deathwish cards, such as Ruehin or Succubus. To bypass that restriction, we are changing him to trigger before end of turn abilities. On top of that, Wererat will no longer fully reset when clicking the Order - now the amount of lost points is equal to the number of Rats spawned. Northern Realms
Coën: Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order: Boost all allied units with power equal to Coën by the amount of boost on Coën.
King Belohun: Power changed from 5 to 6.
Power setting value changed from 4 to 5.
Power setting value with Devotion changed from 5 to 6.
Siege Master: Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Ability changed to:
Order: Reduce an allied unit's Cooldown by 1.
When you play a Siege Engine, Summon self from your hand to the left of it, then draw a card.
Northern Realms get a minor buff for the King Belohun strategy - the king himself has better stats, and Coën no longer boosts enemies. When we released Coën we hoped that having to play around the opponent's board state can be a fun way of playing the card, but since players are not interested in running him, we made him easier to use.
On top of that, Siege Master now costs 5 provisions. The card is seeing a lot of success and shouldn't be so easy to include considering what it offers and how easy it is to use. As a small compensation for the Cooldown decks, we also added an Order ability, and due to popular request, we made him jump out on the left side rather than the right side to make using Crew less awkward. Scoia'tael
Toruviel: Power changed from 5 to 4.
Added new part of ability:
If you control an Elven Deadeye, use both abilities.
Vernossiel: Provision cost changed from 12 to 11.
Dol Blathanna Archer: Power changed from 5 to 2.
Ability changed to:
Deploy (Melee): Damage an enemy unit by 3.
Deploy (Ranged): Damage 2 enemy units by 1.
Deathblow: Spawn an Elven Deadeye on this row.
Dol Blathanna Bowman: Power changed from 3 to 4.
Vrihedd Vanguard: Ability changed to:
Deploy (Melee): Boost self by 1 for each Elf in your hand.
Deploy (Ranged): Boost self by 1 for each Elf on this row.
Waylay: Ability changed to:
Damage an enemy unit by 3 and Spawn an Elven Deadeye on a random row.
Isengrim Faoiltiarna: Power changed from 4 to 6.
Schirrú: Provision cost changed from 9 to 10.
Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order: Destroy all other units with power equal to Schirrú.
Milva: Sharpshooter: Provision cost changed from 11 to 10.
For Scoia'tael the main focus is on the Elven Swarm archetype. On top of numerical changes, we added a way to trigger both abilities for Toruviel, gave Vrihedd Vanguard an alternative ability that works with tokens, changed Dol Blathanna Archer into a card that can help with generating Elven units and removed the Deathblow requirement from Waylay.
We hope that with those changes, setting up Elven Swarm strategy will be easier and using the pay off cards - more satisfying.
In 10.3, we are also buffing Schirru. 3 years ago, Schirru was changed to destroy himself. In those times, he was considered one of the most powerful cards in the game - the environment was really good for him because cards were more aligned in terms of points. The times are different, and while Schirru can definitely be very devastating, he is also a very exciting card to play, therefore he will no longer destroy himself. This change not only means more points for the Schirru player, but it also opens up possibilities to boost Schirru to higher values without losing points. Since this is a big buff, we also decided to increase the provision cost of Schirru to 10.
As for Milva: Sharpshooter, we are lowering her cost to 10. She performed pretty well even after the nerf, but since fully using her power is now significantly harder, making her cheaper by 1 provision seems fair. Skellige
Sigvald: Adjusted the tooltip to reflect that only damage from non-status abilities is counted. The ability itself remains unchanged.
Tuirseach Skirmisher: Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Skellige is still a faction with the biggest variety of viable decks, so in 10.3 we are not supporting any of the SK archetypes. However, the discard package is now more expensive with Tuirseach Skirmisher going to 5 provisions. Going for the discard package has been a bit too obvious for Skellige players, and Tuirseach Skirmisher, similarly to Siege Masters, is too easy to include for a card that adds so much tempo to a thinning play. We hope that this change will make some of Skellige players consider running different consistency tools, and the decks that keep running the discard package will be a bit easier to beat. Nilfgaard
Mage Assassin: Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Similarly to Siege Master and Tuirseach Skirmisher, we are targeting Nilfgaard’s most efficient consistency tool, with the same goals as in Skellige. Syndicate
Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart: Now has the Cleric tag.
Damnation: Provision cost changed from 7 to 6.
Ability changed to:
Destroy an allied unit and Create and play a 4-provision cost Firesworn unit. Increase the provision cost by the power of the destroyed unit.
Excommunication: Provision cost changed from 6 to 5.
Lieutenant von Herst: Ability changed to:
At the end of your turn, if you control a Cleric, Spawn a Firesworn Zealot on this row.
Fee 1: Transform a Firesworn Zealot into a Flaming Rose Footman.
Roderick de Wett: Provision cost changed from 7 to 6.
Whoreson's Freak Show: Provision cost changed from 7 to 8.
Cleric of the Flaming Rose: Profit changed from 2 to 3.
Eternal Fire Disciple: Now has the Cleric tag.
Fee changed from 2 to 1.
Eternal Fire Inquisitor: Power changed from 3 to 4.
Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Destroy a Firesworn Token, then boost self by 4.
After 2 turns, Spawn a base copy of the destroyed Token on this row.
Lonely Champion: Ability changed to:
Immunity.
Zeal. Order: Destroy all Firesworn Tokens on this row, then boost self by their total power.
Cooldown: 2
For Syndicate, the main goal of 10.3 is to bring some attention to the Firesworn Swarm archetype. With new Damnation, players will be able to get additional Fallen Knight or any other Firesworn card, depending on how much they are willing to sacrifice. Moreover, Damnation allows you to play a unit without losing board space. Lieutenant von Herst has lost the Hoard condition (which we want to be connected to the Tidecloak gang), and now will spawn Zealots if you control a Cleric. Lonely Champion can now help with board space in a much more flexible way. New Eternal Fire Inquisitor allows the player to benefit from spawning one unit twice. Besides those changes, there are a bunch of other improvements that should make Firesworn more relevant. Draft Changes
All evolving cards are now acquired in the base version.
Nature package: Removed Orb of Insight.
Prebuff package: Replaced Vrihedd Saboteur with Circle of Life.
Prebuff package: Replaced Dwarven Agitator with Bountiful Harvest.
Spells - Neutral package: Removed Undying Thirst and Surrender.
Create package: Replaced Queen Adalia with Filavandrel.
Raid package: Removed Blood Eagle.
Rain package: Replaced Offering to the Sea with Fucusya.
Rain package: Replaced Hermit with Messenger of the Sea.
Rain package: Replaced Havfrue Singer with Little Havfrue. Game Fixes
Keeper of the Flame will now boost itself on Tribute, as intended.
Mangonel will no longer damage allied units following Mage Infiltrator's Deathblow effect. It will now deal damage to any surviving unit that Mage Infiltrator was played next to.
Megascope and Saov Ainmhi'dh: Unity no longer sometimes show references to missing cards in their tooltips.
Siege Master's Deploy ability is no longer triggered additionally when replaying a Siege Engine with Teleportation.
Van Moorlehem Servant will no longer count 1 point of boost less when copying a Bounty.
The second edition of our Art Contest has come to an end and we would like to thank you for taking part and sharing your incredible art with us.
The process of looking through the entries sparked a lot of joy, while the final decision-making process was extremely difficult.
There were a lot of entries that deserve the recognition but in the end, choices had to be made so without further ado, here are our Top 3!
3. Honor to the fallen by Martin Roca
With this beautiful and colorful piece of art, Martin Roca wins the GWENT Mug of six factions, Faction Pins and a GWENT lanyard.
2. Rosa var Attre by Raphael Slinka
This great depiction of the avid fencer Rosa var Attre rewards Raphael Slinka with a GWENT Mug of six factions, a Big Displate (Random Art), Faction Pins and a GWENT lanyard.
1. Nilfgaardian's Wraith by Daria Egorova
This piece made us fall in love with the colors, detail, composition and so much more.
With this, Daria Egorova takes home a Wacom Cintiq Tablet, a GWENT Mug of six factions, and a Big Displate (Random Art).
Congratulations to the winners and another "Thank You" for taking part and sharing!
We have a short but sweet month ahead of us with a special Love Event starting this Friday 11th. Patchnotes: Link Seasonal Modes:
Irresistible Attraction - 08.02-15.02
Whenever you play a non-Spying unit, move a random enemy unit with the same power to the opposite side.
Banished - 15.02-22.02
After mulligan Banish both players decks. Whenever a card appears in any deck, banish it.
Double Down - 22.02-01.03
Whenever you play a unit from your hand, play a unit with the same Provision Cost from your deck. Your starting deck is doubled in size at the start of the match.
Patience is a virtue! - 01.03-08.03
At the start of your turn, transform all cards in your hand into random ones that cost 1 provision more
This season is planned to end on March 8th, 10:00 a.m. CET.
Join us this Thursday, 10th February, at 5pm CET for a special stream in support of GameBlast and Special Effect. Our very own Community Specialist Ryan Schou will join the team behind this great charity initiative for some explosive GWENT games!
This update is going to be pretty eventful (wink wink) as soon our Love Event will start! This time, a series of challenges will await you, aiming at reuniting some of GWENT's most known couples.
That is not the only treat this month, as the new Journey is starting tomorrow (but more about that when the Patch goes live). Of course we didn't forget about the regular balance changes and fixes.
Check all of the news in detail below and join Pawel Burza and Jean Auquier for our Developer Update, in which they go over the most important changes and explain our thoughts behind them.
New Features
New Journey! (No spoilers!)
New Love Event!
Help lovers reunite and receive unique cosmetics!
Take part in challenges to help out Eist, Calanthe, Philippa and Dijkstra. Finishing each quest grants a reward, while completing all of them will grant the player a unique new skin for Queen Calanthe.
The event starts Friday, February 11th and ends Tuesday, February 22nd.
Added a reward tree for Syndicate in the Reward Book Tutorial page.
Added a new Coin highlight that reminds players to end the turn.
Changes
Adjusted the Initiative keyword to also include Fee and Spring.
Neutral
Vigo's Muzzle: Provision cost changed from 11 to 10.
Seize cap changed from 5 to 6.
Skellige
Gedyneith: Provision cost changed from 13 to 14.
Knut the Callous: Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order: Damage an allied unit by half of its current power, then damage an enemy unit by the same amount.
Berserk 5: At the end of your turn, refresh this ability.
Restore: Provision cost changed from 6 to 5.
Sigvald: Power changed from 6 to 7.
Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
Ability changed to:
Whenever this unit is damaged by other abilities, gain Bleeding for the same duration instead.
Order: Damage a unit by the duration of Bleeding on self, then Purify self. If it was an enemy, damage self by the same amount. If it was an ally, boost self by the same amount.
An Craite Warrior: Power changed from 3 to 4.
Tuirseach Axeman: Ability changed to:
Deploy (Melee): Damage a unit by how much it is already damaged.
Northern Realms
Resupply: Ability changed to:
Whenever you play a Warfare card, reduce this card's Cooldown by 1.
Foltest's Pride: Added Resupply.
Keldar: Ability changed to:
Whenever you play a special card, Spawn a Witcher Student in this row.
Adrenaline 4: At the end of your turn, Spawn a Witcher Student in this row.
Odrin: Provision cost changed from 6 to 5.
Ability changed to:
Odrin is a one man Crew.
Trollololo: Armor changed from 2 to 0.
Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order. Lose all Armor, then boost self by that amount.
Whenever an allied unit uses its Order, gain 1 Armor.
War Chariot: Added Resupply.
Battering Ram: Ability changed to:
Resupply.
Order (Melee): Move self to the Ranged row.
Order (Ranged): Move self to the Melee row, then damage the highest enemy unit by 3.
Crew: Choose an enemy unit to damage.
Cooldown: 2
Carroballista: Ability changed to:
Resupply.
Order (Ranged): Damage an enemy unit by 2.
Cooldown: 3
Crew: At the end of your turn, gain 1 Armor.
Kerack Frigate: Ability changed to:
Resupply.
Order: Spawn a Volunteer in this row.
Cooldown: 2
Crew: Set Cooldown to 1.
Reinforced Ballista: Adjusted the tooltip to fit with the change to Resupply.
Rivian Pikeman: Ability changed to:
Order: Damage an enemy unit by 2.
Deathblow: Reduce Cooldown of all units in this row by 1.
Inspired: Always trigger Deathblow.
Siege Ladder: Deploy replaced with Zeal; Order.
Siege Master: Power changed from 3 to 2.
Armor changed from 1 to 0.
Ability changed to:
When you play a Siege Engine, Summon self from your hand to the right of it, then draw a card.
Siege Tower: Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order: Gain Vitality (2).
Crew: Boost self by 2 instead.
Cooldown: 2
Scoia'tael
Etriel and Muirlega: Provision cost changed from 8 to 6.
Francesca Findabair: Counter changed from 3 to 2.
Saov Ainmhi'dh: Unity: Counter changed from 3 to 2.
The Great Oak: Power changed from 8 to 9.
Provision cost changed from 13 to 12.
Monsters
No changes.
Nilfgaard
Emhyr var Emreis: Provision cost changed from 11 to 10.
Philippe van Moorlehem: Power changed from 5 to 6.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: If you control a Vampire, gain Zeal.
Order: Give Doomed to an enemy unit.
If it already has a status, Lock it instead.
If it already has more than 1 status, Poison it instead.
Cooldown: 1
Sweers: Power changed from 3 to 4.
Vattier de Rideaux: Ability changed to:
Order: Lock an enemy unit.
Conspiracy: Seize it instead.
Mangonel: Ability changed to:
Whenever an enemy unit gains Spying, damage units adjacent to it by 1.
Van Moorlehem Servant: Ability changed to:
Deploy: Copy all statuses from an enemy unit to another enemy unit. Boost self by the number of statuses copied.
Syndicate
Jackpot: Provisions changed from 13 to 12.
Off the Books: Provisions changed from 16 to 15.
Charges changed from 3 to 4.
King of Beggars: Power changed from 3 to 1.
Game Fixes
Fixed a crash that was sometimes occurring on launch for Mac M1 devices
Corrected the Order icons for Wyvern Scale Shield, Mastercrafted Spear and Shani.
Old Speartip: Asleep no longer Banishes self when unable to Summon Old Speartip due to a lack of space.
Ardal aep Dahy now correctly updates its return-to-hand ability value when being played by the opponent (e.g. through Cantarella).
Damien de la Tour now correctly resets the Lyrian Scytheman limitation for Uprising.
Chapter of Wizards is no longer able to copy Disloyal Mages being played by your opponent.
Chapter of Wizards is no longer able to Spawn the unit that your last played Mage was transformed into (e.g. Ethereal).
King Henselt now reacts correctly to Casting Contest and Viraxas resetting the cooldowns of adjacent units.
King Henselt is now correctly boosted as a result of Stockpile, when one of the adjacent units is on Cooldown, and the other is not.
Francesca Findabair no longer ignores specials played from the opponent's side of the board, for example by using Lydia Van Bredevoort.
Milva: Sharpshooter now damages the target after being Summoned, as per the ability tooltip.
Welcome to this new article series on the Design of GWENT. Regularly, we’ll publish dive-in into the big concepts that make GWENT, design philosophies and other appropriate topics. We encourage you to reach out on topics you would like to see being dissected in this column!
Written by Gameplay Designer Jean Auquier
One of the massive changes introduced to GWENT with Homecoming is the provision system. Beta players will remember a time during which a third color existed alongside Bronze and Gold: Silver! Decks were made of a maximum of 4 unique Gold cards, 6 unique Silvers, and at least 15 Bronzes (with a limit of 3 copies per card).
Today, let’s explore the Provision system from what stemmed its introduction in GWENT to the impact it has on the game.
To begin, the Provision system is in fact an evolution of the color limitations which already existed in Beta GWENT. So understanding why that system existed in the first place is a good start.
In a majority of competitive card games, systems exist in order to segment cards. One of the most common one, popularised by Magic: The Gathering, is the mana system, also used by games like Hearthstone or Legends of Runeterra. Other systems also exist, for instance Yu-Gi-Oh has used multiple variations of sacrificing one own units to play a stronger one while Weiss & Schwarz uses a level system under which higher level cards can’t be used until later in the game (when one is getting closer to losing). Coming back to GWENT, the past color limitation system and the current provision one both segment cards through deck building restrictions.
By segmenting cards as such, cards can be of different average values between each pool because they are pitted against other cards of the same pool instead of all the cards in the game. Ordering these pools by average value is called the “power curve” as it allows one to visualize how value evolves between pools. For instance, Mana systems commonly present an exponential increase rather than a linear one as higher cost cards turn out to be much less flexible than lesser ones, requiring in turn to be significantly stronger.
The point of all of this? More design space! Limitations breed creativity. As to how it benefits GWENT specifically, the game is at its core an auction. Assuming both players start the game with the same amount of points to spend, the goal is then to win rounds with the smallest point difference possible and on the contrary to lose rounds with the largest difference, meaning your opponents wasted points. That way you can end up with more points in the final round. Having cards of different point value makes this objective more complex and more interesting, especially considering the gameplay is turn-based.
With that out of the way, the evolution from the color limitation system to the provisions one becomes easier to explain. By going from 3 pools (Bronze, Silver and Gold) to about 10 and more (from 4 provisions to 13+), more design space is opened.
This doesn’t come without a price however. The color limitation system offered a pretty low barrier of entry. Since there were heavy deck building restrictions, all you had to do was to pick your Golds, Silvers and Bronzes while being mindful of synergies, no extra questions asked! Heck, since you needed 15 Bronzes and could run 3 copies of each, you were even getting away by just picking 5 Bronzes. Making adjustments to your deck was also easy as synergies aside, adding/removing a card could only affect its own pool.
Compare with the Provision system, questions like “How many high end and how many mid end cards should I have?” and “How should my Bronzes provisions be spread?” starts to arise (questions similar to ones you might ask yourself about your mana curve or your land spread in other games).
On top of that, making a change to the deck can have a direct impact on the rest of the cards as you try to perfectly fit for the provisions available to you. This, however, can be beneficial. By restraining the deckbuilding, the provisions system ends up answering its own questions quite naturally. The usual process involves quickly whipping the deck out by putting in the cards ones want to play, then proceeding to meet the provision limit by adding higher or lower provision cards and finally refining it by moving provisions around.
The minimal (and as such optimal) deck size plays a big role in that regard. Provisions systems in other games often don’t include strict limitations on the number of elements that can be included. It’s up to the player to decide to run a low number of elements with high provisions or more elements but diluting the provision limit in the process. By having a clear number of cards between which provisions must be shared in Gwent, players can avoid these dilemmas and focus on deciding how to allocate provisions.
Speaking of which, with a base provisions of 150, leader allocating on average 15 more and having to fit 25 cards in the deck, the average provisions allocatable per card is around 6.5. Adding a card in the deck under this provision limit allows another card in the deck to be more expensive, and vice versa. For instance, running a 4 provisions card frees 2.5 provisions which can be used to run a 9 provisions card or any other combination for that matter. Fitting a 14 provisions card like Haunt in your card requires you to run three 4 provisions cards to compensate for it!
This brings us to one of the most important topics brought by the provision system: Polarisation. Without considering card effects, in a game of Gwent only 16 cards out of the 25 that makes a player deck can be played. If all cards are close to the provision average, this means that around 60 provisions are not actually used in a game of Gwent. By “polarising” one’s deck, meaning introducing higher cost cards and as a result lower cost ones, this unused provision total can be brought down (if only the lower provision cards remain)... as well as up! This risk of missing out on value (draw your golds!) increases the more a deck is polarised. It’s also nothing new, this risk also existed with the color system. The provision system just lets players control how polarised their deck is.
While polarising one’s deck introduces risk, the Mulligan mechanic allows one to mitigate that risk quite a bunch which makes it one worthwhile to take. Because of this, 4 provisions cards inherently are “mulligan fodder”, cards which you don’t want to play and are just included to allow you to play more expensive ones.
This is one of the limitations of the provision system with the way it works in GWENT. This, by the way, is the reason why cards with provisions lower than 4 will (most likely) never be introduced in Gwent. 0 provisions cards have actually been toyed with during the development of Homecoming, but they basically were “free provisions” to allocate to other cards and their value (or rather lack thereof) didn’t matter since they would always be mulliganed away during games.
This is also the reason behind the increase of Bronze's value over the years. Along with a focus on synergies, it allows us to make it less of a loss to actually play some of them (and miss on provisions), and even make it desirable.
Another interesting observation is that since 4 provisions don’t have to be part of your main game plan, they are a great spot to include tech options: cards that cover specific cases. Players have long known about cards like Squirrel but other examples include Purifies, a bunch of them having been moved to 4 provisions with patch 9.4.
Until now we were leaving out card effects, but with thinners and tutors, one is able to tap into this pool of unused provisions... For a price that is. Imagine a world in which one provision is equal to one point. Being able to finish the game with fewer cards in your deck than your opponent means you got to use more of your provisions, meaning you had more points to play!
This is why this kind of effect often comes with a hefty price in terms of points. Advantages like consistency and big point output aside, we must balance the fact that you’re partially making use of a pool of provisions that would have otherwise been unused. This is also why when evaluating a thinner, 4 provisions must be subtracted to the sum of the thinner and the thinned card’s provisions as 4 is the minimum provision that would have been left unused in your deck if you hadn’t thinned otherwise. Taking the simple example of playing two Impera Brigade, the total value is 8 while the total provisions is 10. Removing the 4 extra provisions the card removes from the unused pool brings it to a 8 for 6 combo play (plus the intrinsic value in terms of consistency that comes with thinning), which is far more understandable that 8 for 10.
Interestingly, the reverse thought process can be applied to Echo cards. Since the deck is thickened by the card coming back to it, more provisions will be left unused which is disadvantageous and this needs to be taken into account in the value of the card. To properly evaluate it, 4 provisions must be added to its cost because that’s the (minimum) provisions playing an Echo card twice is making you miss.
I have painted polarisation in a bad light until now, but it is actually something that we desire and that we have been encouraging (to a degree).
While polarisation increases the variance of decks in terms of potential points output, we feel like it’s mitigated enough by the natural mechanics of the game as well as the stronger consistency tools which have been introduced to the game over the years.
But most importantly, polarisation creates engaging gameplay! Larger differences between cards also means more complexity and depth in the auction system. We’ve all experienced the conundrum of having to play a high-end card when only a low-end one would suffice, and the feeling of waste that comes with it. Due to this, it’s sometimes even the right play to mulligan some high-end cards away in earlier rounds because you don’t want them to be bled.
High provisions cards also make for major archetype landmarks, which are fun to build around (think of the impact of Scenarios!). This is part of why there has been a bigger focus on introducing high provision (meaning 11+) cards in recent expansions.
To conclude this article, while it can be tempting to simplify GWENT to a battle of provision, it is important to remember that it is much more than that. Synergies between your cards, interrupting opponent’s synergies and plays with wide value ranges (ie. Heatwave) are all tools that can allow players to “generate” value. And the most important one of all is the agency over how these points are split between rounds. Even if your opponent has more points available, the fact that they have to split between 3 rounds means that there will still be ways to win!
And as a bonus, I highly recommend checking out Gorflow’s great video on “The rule of 16” on the youtube channel of The Council (
) which highlights how polarisation impacts the way decks have to be built and played.
As some of you might know, we change the format for TWiG hence we closed down the "Ask a Dev" thread on the forums.
Moving forward me and Flake are doing a weekly podcast called Flurza: a show about GWENT (link below) and we would like to feature your questions on the show, so if you have any questions for Flake and me, feel free to drop them in this thread!
Maybe I misunderstand the whole process, it just seems that only the top 10 or 15 players per seaspon actually have a chance at making any headway. The crown point carryover from season to season precludes anyone making it into the ranks. Especially when those at the top, who have been there for 3 years now don't get bumped way down the ladder each season, and therefore don't have to start over again.
That isn't the case. Actually, with the changes introduced in S4, the role of Crown Points in qualification for World Masters is now limited more than ever. Crown points for each competitive (year-long) season are being reset to 0, so carryover exists only on a month-to-month basis within a single year.
