I had this match against NR the other day, where I controlled the initial set up and tempo'd ahead pretty well in R1 on them and passed. The dude had basically nothing developed. Had a damage mage on the board with patience 1 maybe. No resilience, nothing. So he proceeds to go down 4 CARDS in R1 on me (I passed with 5 in hand and he had 1 card at the end of R1), then BLEEDS all his 4 cards in R2, plopping his mage guild whatever and wiping the board with 2 duelers and catching 2 cards up basically. So we enter R3 with him 2 cards down now. Still no resilient mages on his side. Couple of spammed alumnis later and those "boost by 5, renew ability and give zeal back LOL" cards and he wins by a comfortable 20 points. Didn't even use Shani. Granted, I was playing an off meta ST deck, but I feel like this should not happen in a match, no matter what the hell I play. The amount of points in this NR deck is just ridiculous.
Don't know what to say... I find NR to be rather underwhelming this month. NR never really does well in a control/removal heavy meta. Played an NR deck with Siege, Duels and the basic Mage package and barely won a third of the games I played. Loses to almost everything popular right now, ST handbuff, NG Assimilate, SK Rain, Double Kelly MO, etc. Most of the games I won were against players trying something different.
NR as a faction is built in a way that if you let their engines stick on the board, you're in trouble. Unless you play control decks or an even greedier strategy than what NR offers, then you're in for a challenge.
NR as a faction is built in a way that if you let their engines stick on the board, you're in trouble. Unless you play control decks or an even greedier strategy than what NR offers, then you're in for a challenge.
I tried that Siege deck today and it sucks. All-in mages+duels is much better, i would even say it's kind of broken.
While SK Rain and messengers of the sea, and NR meditating mages generated the most controversy and attention in the first few days of HoS, its definitely Alumni who's the biggest culprit of breaking the game.
You can NEVER pass on R1, because specially if they have a Letitia, it makes alumni into 20, 30, 40pt cards on deploy, so it doesnt matter if they go 3,4 or 5 cards down early on.
Its similar to Archgrifin (who was only made very dangerous by who? Letitia, again), except much stronger because it doesnt put all of the eggs in one basket, so it cant be bled easily, and also cant be countered with a CoC, Igni or Yrden on an immune Erland.
The possible counters are:
- dont let both aretuza adept and ban ard adept reach 4, so alumni doesnt get zeal. but then you still need counters to deal with them all
-NG can steal their biggest patience mages and copy the alumni for even more value (PTJ has some videos where he exemplifies this)
You can NEVER pass on R1, because specially if they have a Letitia, it makes alumni into 20, 30, 40pt cards on deploy, so it doesnt matter if they go 3,4 or 5 cards down early on.
Its similar to Archgrifin (who was only made very dangerous by who? Letitia, again), except much stronger because it doesnt put all of the eggs in one basket, so it cant be bled easily, and also cant be countered with a CoC, Igni or Yrden on an immune Erland.
The possible counters are:
- dont let both aretuza adept and ban ard adept reach 4, so alumni doesnt get zeal. but then you still need counters to deal with them all
-NG can steal their biggest patience mages and copy the alumni for even more value (PTJ has some videos where he exemplifies this)
I am not impressed with Alumni either. I find it difficult to keep one of the students alive for 4 turns without them being removed, in a removal heavy meta. Shani usually helps a bit to even the odds. This is one of the reasons why I carry only 1 Alumni in my NR deck and not 2. Most of the time they play for 8-9, which something you expect from a 5p card.
Archgrifin's ability needs to be removed from the game, together with all the other greedy shit that incentivizes control. I am tired of having to witness so many months of control, control and more control. It makes the game very boring and ugly. There is no room for creativity either, for experimentation. You either go full greed, or you go all-in control to counter the greed.
Archgrifin's ability needs to be removed from the game, together with all the other greedy shit that incentivizes control. I am tired of having to witness so many months of control, control and more control. It makes the game very boring and ugly. There is no room for creativity either, for experimentation. You either go full greed, or you go all-in control to counter the greed.
Wow, Alumni are really one of the most toxic bronzes I've seen in this game so far lol. wth :[
Pls make it a gold unit, even at 5 provisions. I am just sick of seeing it replayed by like 6 times in a game for insanely high INSTANT value in damage or boosts!
Pls make it a gold unit, even at 5 provisions. I am just sick of seeing it replayed by like 6 times in a game for insanely high INSTANT value in damage or boosts!
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I'm not entirely convinced that NR is "insane" as I am still getting my fair share of beat downs by control decks. Course, I've only been playing for less than a month, so my card inventory is fairly sub-standard. =(
As only one faction - NR - player, I tried mages deck in that and previous season. On lower levels it was doing great, and players couldn't dealt aginst it, I won almost 90% of games. But on the higher levels, when more and more of control decks appears, it was very hard to win anything with mages - it was very hard to even get 4-4 zeal to alumnies, no mention about high value of them. My winning rate drops to maybe 50% tops.
I stop playing mages, and switch to different forms of my homemade draug + scorch - centerd deck, that I like much more, and seems to be more suprising for opponent, more effective (struggling only against SY and SK) and fun, because playing metadecks is very boaring for me - no opponent will appriciate your another boosted even 20p duel, but burning 5 cards at once with setup scorch is often ends with some form of "good job" even from... rival leader.
In summary: duel mages deck have huge potential, but when facing hard-control playing opponent they are not working well. And they dont have a lot of immidiate responses for opponents moves on they own, so when the all three zeals will be used there is a problem. It is no weak deck, But surely it is no strong either, and absolutely no something to call it OP
I stop playing mages, and switch to different forms of my homemade draug + scorch - centerd deck, that I like much more, and seems to be more suprising for opponent, more effective (struggling only against SY and SK) and fun, because playing metadecks is very boaring for me - no opponent will appriciate your another boosted even 20p duel, but burning 5 cards at once with setup scorch is often ends with some form of "good job" even from... rival leader.
In summary: duel mages deck have huge potential, but when facing hard-control playing opponent they are not working well. And they dont have a lot of immidiate responses for opponents moves on they own, so when the all three zeals will be used there is a problem. It is no weak deck, But surely it is no strong either, and absolutely no something to call it OP
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The Alumni deck is just a card-check.
Option 1: You didn't draw a purify or Korathi Heatwave access in R1 as your first card = Okay, you lost. Save yourself some time and Alt+F4 right now.
Option 2: You did draw a way to deal with their defender instantly = Ok, you may keep on playing and we will see how you do.
Also what's up with NR and their decks (archgriffin and Foltest+Commandoes do the same) which always play EXACTLY THE SAME with the R1 1st card always having to be their defender? Is this like the Theme of NR, it's the "instant defender faction" lol?
Option 1: You didn't draw a purify or Korathi Heatwave access in R1 as your first card = Okay, you lost. Save yourself some time and Alt+F4 right now.
Option 2: You did draw a way to deal with their defender instantly = Ok, you may keep on playing and we will see how you do.
Also what's up with NR and their decks (archgriffin and Foltest+Commandoes do the same) which always play EXACTLY THE SAME with the R1 1st card always having to be their defender? Is this like the Theme of NR, it's the "instant defender faction" lol?
No bro, defender is a desperate act of protecting engines, that is no effective though and I personally dont play with it
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I wasn't even taking an aim to the defender (defenders existed since before I started playing this game lol, the Alumni are a recent scourge though and I hope they don't stay so strong for long) but the stuff behind it, it's binary and always plays the same like a damn script.
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An unpopular opinion:
Alumni, much like many other problematic nee cards, would be fine if instant, reliable removal got its overdue nerf across the board. I am talking Boiling Oils and Rebukes for 6 here (also Korathi delenda est).
Sounds counterintuitive, but it really isn't if you think about it - there are dozens of potential strategies that could potentially compete against mages, but can't because they don't rely on easily replaceable bronzes. Imagine being able to unironically play movement or freaking Vattier or Incantation or Artis or Puppeteers or Stefan or Francesca or Syanna or Griffin Machinegun or whatever. Would Alumni still be strong? Probably. But they would meet a lot more resistance.
Alumni, much like many other problematic nee cards, would be fine if instant, reliable removal got its overdue nerf across the board. I am talking Boiling Oils and Rebukes for 6 here (also Korathi delenda est).
Sounds counterintuitive, but it really isn't if you think about it - there are dozens of potential strategies that could potentially compete against mages, but can't because they don't rely on easily replaceable bronzes. Imagine being able to unironically play movement or freaking Vattier or Incantation or Artis or Puppeteers or Stefan or Francesca or Syanna or Griffin Machinegun or whatever. Would Alumni still be strong? Probably. But they would meet a lot more resistance.
NR with spellatell bullshit, has become the biggest pain and the most OP deck in the history of gwent. i have seen them with over 45 points buff each. That's bronze cards, that can boost 45/50 points, multiple times!
How the hell are you supposed to play against that?
If these cards are not changed, then what's the point of playing? Where's the fun?
How the hell are you supposed to play against that?
If these cards are not changed, then what's the point of playing? Where's the fun?
And the problem is worse than that, because it causes a snowball effect on the whole game:
Alumni and patience mages is a new level of ultimate greed, unbeatable without control - which leads to many control decks popping up in the meta, because they dont want to lose against that NR BS (and to a lesser degree, ST spellatel) - which ends up making the other dozens of engine and combo decks that are reasonably balanced completely unviable, since there's so much control going around - the result is a much more narrow meta, all because of a single deck, even a single card!
Yes, I agree completely.
But the real problem is that the "master creators" in Poland don't seem to notice anything wrong with this, and it's business as usual.
It's because they're always up to sneaky shit: )
On topic though, alumni needs to be fixed, either some serious nerfing or make it a gold card, other than that NR is mostly fine atm imo.
well, i ve played a lot of NR mages and i can tell, my winrate its the same as other factions.
Yes, its a good deck, if you manage to do the 4+/4+ patience you problably will win, specially if you do more than 4/4.
But its so hard to do that. And when you are unable to do it, you will problably will lose.
Alumni for himself its a 6provision for 4 power. Of course he can get more extra huge value, but it can also only get 2 or 3 more points.
So in a deck where you prepare to play an entire round 3 based in one same card, its extremly weak if that card play only for 6/7 points.
Yes, its a good deck, if you manage to do the 4+/4+ patience you problably will win, specially if you do more than 4/4.
But its so hard to do that. And when you are unable to do it, you will problably will lose.
Alumni for himself its a 6provision for 4 power. Of course he can get more extra huge value, but it can also only get 2 or 3 more points.
So in a deck where you prepare to play an entire round 3 based in one same card, its extremly weak if that card play only for 6/7 points.
It's a lot harder to stop this from happening than it is to make it happen, let's consider how much removal a deck must have to stop it.
Raffard, instantly puts two threats on the board, and will keep on putting more mages that needs to be removed if you don't stop it, especially with winch. Shani, revives the mages you actually did remove, with the patience counter still intact, again two threats on the board. AA, makes these units really tall, let's not even talk about blue coin. Chapter of wizards, again two threats, one with shield. Then there's defender.
Well, I could just keep on going, but how much removal do you expect an average deck to have to counter all this? Things are going to slip through eventually.