Quite liking the Gwent game at the moment.
It seems quite basic but theres actually quite a bit of strategy involved.
I play the default deck, northern realms, but have aquired most of the cards for it so far.
I find weather cards are very useful in the begnning but as you play harder opponents they become less important (though still useful) due to the no effect on hero cards.
My leader is the first one, it lets me play a fog card from anywhere in my side deck, for this reason, when given the option to swap cards at the start you should always swap out a fog card if you draw one because you will be able to play this anyway. Also, for cards in my deck i try to stick to mostly siege and close, this means i can play the fog and reduce damage from ranged without affecting my own cards too much.
My deck focuses on more cards. The strategy goes like this. 2 spy cards (more if i can find them) which get placed on the opponents battlefield, effectively doing damage back at you. I then also have 2 medics and 2-3 decoys. This makes it so that you very often get a mix of those cards. ideally 1 spy, 1-2 decoy and both medics. I place the spy and receive two cards in return. sometimes they will place their own spy or will pick yours up and play, if this happens i use my decoy to play it back again, if not i keep my decoy for rounds 2 and 3. the first round i almost always lose and just use it to gain a card advantage. during my "spying" they are wasting cards on me while im gaining more, by round 2 i have card advantage.
To end round 1 i will use a couple of my big "common" cards (play as many big cards as you have medics, we will be bringing them back next round), that is not heros. This is just to draw more cards from the opponent, they will either use their big cards to keep up, or if you pass they willl then use a lot of their small-medium cards to take the win. on occasion they will just pass and give the round to you which gives you a full deck to just tear them apart on the next round. moving on...
To start round two I will play my medic cards which will then let me bring those big cards back from the discard pile. If i do have any decoys left I can then usse them on my medic and play them again to bring more cards back but i will sometimes leave his to replay my best cards in round 3.
Sometimes I will test the water with any small cards first just to get an idea of what tactics they may play, but usually ill just come staright out strong. This is where its good to have a clear weather card or two, if they do rain you out then you need to either clear it or change your play to a different line. Heroes are also really good for this as they are unaffected by weather. For this reason i will sometimes play a Niilfgarden deck with similar tactics as i have 5 hero cards for this deck now.
Quick note, when playing cards from the discard pile, try and stick to the same type, or limit it to two.
If you do have 2 medics, its a good idea to try and leave on in your hand... which brings us to round 3.
for round 3, if you do have a medic in your hand you can use it, bring back your other medic, then bring back another big card, effectively playing 3 cards in one go. You can then decoy these if you hve any left and bring more of your big cards. then just smash the rest of your cards out, always good to have a commanders horn saved for round 3 so dot use them all up in round 2 just in case the opponent has some tricks up their sleeve. Ive often had times where ive had to play a biting frost weather card just to drop the opponents damage, but also making all my cards near worthless, then playing a commanders horn on my single 6 powered ranged card to double it for the win.
As with any strategy game, everything is going to depend on what cards you draw and what cards the opponent plays. but this strategy works out pretty well 90% of the time, even before I had the hero cards Id gone straight to novrigard to start challenging everyone who had decks much better than mine and i still creamed them.
Quick tip, some great cards are the ones that double in power when placed together, (providing their base damage is 4 or more), coupled with a commanders horn. two 4 power cards become 32 power very quickly. Nilfgaarden has some weaker versions but can have up to 4 in a deck so more likely to get the coupling.
For the rest of my deck:
In my deck i will have one of each weather card, the 2 decoys, 2 clear weather cards and 3 commanders horns.
When given the option to redraw at the start of the match i try to focus on only two main attackers (siege and close, close and ranged, ranged an siege etc) depending on what cards ive drawn, so if i have some good siege cards and good close cards then i will swap my lowest ranged cards in hope for my key cards (decoys, spies etc). rounds 2 and 3 I just hammer the opponent, I try to use one or the other of my attacking cards but always be weary of weather, i have gained some heroes so this lets me save rounds where i might otherwise be flooded out, and always save a clear weather card for when you need it if you can. Also dont play your weather cards against the opponent until your sure. you may be able to beat them by placing a commanders horn after theyve passed, it also lets them waste more cards in that position by placing it at the end, just be aware that they may hold clear weather cards aswell. oh, also if they play a weather card on you you can clear it and still place a weather card on them towards the end of the round. AI seems to often play their weather cards in earlier rounds so be prepared to change up your offence, by round 3 it wont matter as much just make sure your not going to cripple yourself by playing a weather card against them, though by using this strategy you will usually have extra cards to play at the end then they do.
Tips for certain players,
monster decks can be a pain, when im knowingly playing against a monster deck i will swap out all weather cards for just biting frost, they are usually very full of close quarters and can play cards from the side deck and very quickly become very overpowering, even with a biting frost, a monster deck with 10 cards down and a commanders horn will still do 2 damage per card and many of those cards will also bring a siege or ranged card to the table aswell.
Soi'catel (however its spelt) have cards that can choose between ranged or close, AI seems to favour the ranged slot in these cases though so wait for them to use them then smash a fog card to reduce them all to 1, playing the weather too early means they can just choose to play a different slot.
Niilfgarden and northern realms are pretty similar, can help to bring all 3 decoys against either of these decks as they will often play spies aswell, being able to pick them up and play them back can help keep the advantage.
