Did you see the last qualifiers? Almost no one played NG.
NG, for now, is like MO before MM or even worse.
Low Pro means nothing you can reach it with anything.
It seems you don't realise "qualifiers" are for all intents and purposes a game separate from Gwent proper. Open decks, bans and all.
that triple duel joke these days, NG could only envy it.
Yenvo, VVM,
at least 4 poisons. Now tell me, what is bigger, 4+ or 3?
Once again, DB was never a big deal, so there is no need to count additional 2 fangs. DB never affected the meta that much, even on qualifiers it was barely played.
Right, this forum and Reddit and several Youtube personalities were pissed off over nothing, and many people ragequit the game over nothing. Well, if you say so.
And again - qualifiers are a separate game, only vaguely similar to Gwent, and can't really prove anything related to what ordinary players(yes, even pro) deal with.
And yes, some days it was just DB over and over again, all the way down from rank 10 to pro (and on pro as well).
It isn't only my observation.
Maraal and Cobras are neutrals. SY and ST played Maraal as well. Cobras were used by SY and ST as well, once they became 5provs even NG stopped to play them. So basically NG is as poisonous as SY. I would say SY is a better poisoner because its poisons are cheaper and flexible.
Again, what is cheaper - 4 or 5? Fangs or mutant hounds/drugdealers, mhm?
(spoiler:it's Fangs)
Also ST and SY don't have Dames, so they simply couldn't afford stuffing their deck full of poisons, or they'd just have 20 points R3. Wasn't the case with NG.
Locks are weak. You lock 5 points engine by your 3 points lock. Who wins?
Depending on what you lock. But unless it's something truly minor, like Mauler or something along these lines, you prevent anywhere between 3 to 30 value. Worst case scenario, 3 value for 5 provision, and even then you set up potential Vangemar or VVM, so there's that. But usually it's far above that.
Sure. If you want to play greedy point slam deck be prepared. That's how it should work. Approximately: Control beats Greedy decks, Greedy decks beat Midrange, Midrange beats Control.
It wasn't punishing
just greedy decks. It was punishing
anything going beyond 5 value on a single unit, which is basically making most of the cards and strats unplayable.
Heatwave+Oneiromancy says hello.
Some folks play Devotion. That's one thing. Secondly, there's only 1 heatwave, and far too many "You don't kill it, you lose" targets in NG roster. It's a lose-lose situation, and Oneiro+Heatwave isn't always possible either.
I don't care about Ball. It's just funny to watch how people blindly hate NG not taking into account the whole picture.
I guess the reason is as follows: NG is popular on low rangs and newbies suffer from it, but when they grew up and became expirienced they still hold old grudges.
They aren't "grudges". There're valid reasons to hate some of NG cards and playstyles. Or, at least, there used to be.
You not seeing how some of those are/were a huge problem for the game health doesn't mean that haters are all blind to The Truth.
Perhaps
you are. Judging by your funny math where 5<4, this seems more likely.
And the next time you bring up high pro rank, remember that they're merely 1-3% of the entire playerbase. Balancing the entire game for elites who play a separate game to the detriment of everyone else makes very little sense.