This is my first post so pardon me if necroing a thread is scoffed at here.
Recently I got a bit bored with my favorite Nilfgaard combos and tried to play Pirates and Ships. From my experience this archetype simply doesn't work, unless...
Well, Lippy. You know, Crach in the first round, use your cards to compile a deck for 3rd, Lippy in 2nd, have fun.
At first I thought this was a bit unfair, since I'm essentially playing an engine of death. Of course, I was absolutely wrong, as there are many, many ways of disrupting this combo - lock, poison, pure damage (7 strength is easy to kill with 1-2 cards) or, you know, just playing round 2 instead of going for another draw.
So I tweaked the deck to have some answers to those issues. I mean, it's totally fair - if I base my strategy around a single strong engine card, then there should be a possible answer to it, right? And there's plenty!
So I added Sigdrifa's Rite to account for someone killing Crach off. Do mind that it means I have devoted 18 points already to have an ability to kill off my own units if it means I can stop the overall combo power creep of monsters, NR, assimilate and such. That's a lot and I need to have both these cards in hand or pull them with Oneiromancy (this card is bs too, btw) or Royal.
Well, having then played 5 games in a row and getting locked the moment I play Crach (NG is everywhere now, but frankly - seems like everyone has some lock in their deck), I added some purification to unlock the big papa. Seems resonable to me, I am answering someone else's answer to protect myself. I call it playing a game with another person.
But Korathi is simply bs. For the love of all that's good - just make it put the card in the graveyard and don't let it surpass shields and such. Alright, any card, with any power, whatever - but just give people trying to play actually interactive decks (I got only positive feedback from my fellow players about that deck - they said they actually needed to start thinking while playing against it) some means of protecting or retuning their engines if they are willing to account for such a need. Or make Korathi simply deal 100 damage/destroy an artifact. Give people at least some means of counterplay to it. And if they are afraid of shields - that's a whole new sort of paranoia, as no one plays shields, since as low as on rank 6 Gwent is a game of opposing solitaires with a nice little cherry of Korathi on top.
And it's not just about Crach and my gimmick deck - it's about all gimmick decks. Since those gimmick cards exist, I assume the point is to allow them to be used, right?
My friend tried to play Roegnar, and guess what! The moment people see more than one shield, they don't even try to pop the shields, even if they have some means of dealing damage. Oh no. It's easier to just wait for Roegnar and Korathi him to hell.
So why would anyone try to set up an actual combo, defend it, and execute it, while Korathi exists?
If engines and scenarios seem so OP to some, the way to balance them might not be introducing a "DELETE IT" card (that can be drawn by another plague of Gwent - Oneiromancy), but dealing with those OP synergies. From what little I do know about game development, if you see an issue, adding a new thing to combat that issue is generally worse than actually tweaking the thing that's causing the problem.
In short - I get it. If I want to run a gimmick engine deck, I need to prepare for some counterplay and counter it myself. So I need to have some tech cards. That's perfectly reasonable.
But why would that apply only to me? If I need to devote nearly 30 points to my engine + my necro card + puri, then why wouldn't a person wishing to counter a gimmick be forced to run a removal card + graveyard removal one? Korathi + squirrel would still be much cheaper than my gimmick protection set.
Generally, it seems to me that allowing Banish to be used offensively from the game board itself, omitting graveyard, is a misunderstanding. Banish is great as a cost (or, sometimes - actually another perk) of some buffs and drawing cards. But not offensively.
As it stands now, when I drop Crach, there's a moment of tension - will they Korathi it? If not - cool, we can play. Even if they kill him, or lock him - cool, still have 2 rounds of the game, can get him back turn 3.
But if they Korathi it, I can just go home. Instant forfeit, looking for someone less boring to play with.
It just seems unfair to me because there is no counterplay or restriction to it. Oneiromancy can at least be deleted from the graveyard. Morkvarg is faction-locked, as is Yennefer's Invo. Most removals have some conditions.
But this has no counterplay, just like Geralt: Yrden. For real, why would people play engines OR boosts when those two cards are just braindead win conditions?
Or, you know - maybe make Korathi an artifact with an order (NOT zealable)? This way at least I'd get one more turn of possible fun before I forfeit.
So many cards in the game never see a single play because of how braindead and oppressive some neutral cards are. And I thought it was a deckbuilding game...
...sorry for this rant. Disregard, carry on.