Almost everyone I talked to about Gwent more or less agrees with this line of thought: none of Gwent cards are really overpowered because MOST OF THEM ARE OVERPOWERED. The game allows for stunning possibilities to gain insurmountable advantage over your opponent as long as you've hit your draw and they have not. This leads to an obvious conclusion: the Gwent marketing slogan "Skill Beats Luck" is a major overstatement. Another slogan advertising "Back-And-Forth Gameplay" is also quite disconnected from reality. In most cases there is only a "forth" and there is no way in hell for a "back" unless - of course - you hit your draw.
This forces quite a sad comparison. Gwent is an amazing game in many aspects. But when it comes to the win-lose factor, it pretty much boils down to a more sophisticated version of a card game called "War." You drew your higher and the guy drew his lower - you take it. There is some skill involved, naturally, but that's limited to neutral draws. By the end of the day, cards in Gwent are so powerful and offer so much crushing synergies that if you didn't draw, no skill will help you. Not even if your opponent played open handed.
I hope devs are reading this because the solution - in principle at least but surely not in execution - is quite simple. Lower the cost and increase the availability of tutor cards. Royal Decree for example is 10 provision which is more or less at the same level as some of the most powerful golds. Why is it so? If it was cheaper and available in different versions (say 8 for Decree and other similar tutors but with different flavors in each faction), the chance of you not being able to use what you packed would not be so high.
I am aware that every change can affect or even ruin the cohesion of the system so I am not proposing this lightheartedly. But it is certainly something to think about. The frustration of constantly losing because you just couldn't draw what you needed is real. Gwent cards are just too powerful for the current level of how luck can influence the game.
Thanks for reading. All comments welcome.
This forces quite a sad comparison. Gwent is an amazing game in many aspects. But when it comes to the win-lose factor, it pretty much boils down to a more sophisticated version of a card game called "War." You drew your higher and the guy drew his lower - you take it. There is some skill involved, naturally, but that's limited to neutral draws. By the end of the day, cards in Gwent are so powerful and offer so much crushing synergies that if you didn't draw, no skill will help you. Not even if your opponent played open handed.
I hope devs are reading this because the solution - in principle at least but surely not in execution - is quite simple. Lower the cost and increase the availability of tutor cards. Royal Decree for example is 10 provision which is more or less at the same level as some of the most powerful golds. Why is it so? If it was cheaper and available in different versions (say 8 for Decree and other similar tutors but with different flavors in each faction), the chance of you not being able to use what you packed would not be so high.
I am aware that every change can affect or even ruin the cohesion of the system so I am not proposing this lightheartedly. But it is certainly something to think about. The frustration of constantly losing because you just couldn't draw what you needed is real. Gwent cards are just too powerful for the current level of how luck can influence the game.
Thanks for reading. All comments welcome.