Thou have asked and thou shall receive an answer
*LONG POST AHEAD*
Unlike many people believe under the surface Nilfgaard is a really weak faction, from golds to bronzes passing through half baked archetypes.
First and foremost let's consider Status, Nilfgaard's most prominent archetype. It was Tier 2 till not long ago. So what changed? Several things actually:
- Powercreep. Other factions have been buffed mad especially after this last patch, whereas Nilfgaard is practically stuck in Merchants of Ofir and before, so the point gap is so great that you have to overcommit not to find yourself in an unfavourable spot while the opponent only plays bronzes
- Hostile meta. People have moved away from Devotion for the most part and now most decks are packing Korathi Heatwave, which is an autowin against Statua due to...
- Overreliance on Masquerade Ball. Without it's almost impossible to build a competitive deck. Once Ball is out of the picture, it's gameover.
- Counterplay. Ball decks have been around for long now, so people know their weaknessess. Countering the round 2 Bleed is very hard. And most importantly poison and lock got dealt a big blow with MM. There are many ways you can play around poison:
- play uninteractively forcing proactivity
- Feed low Power units
- and now Feed Veil cards
All of this on top of poison's own slowness (requires two turns to develop)
This is why Ball fell from grace, but there are other archetypes of course:
- Mill: dead and abandoned, but still occupying precious Gold slots
- Soldiers: powercrept to Kingdom come, soldier doesn't even have an identity
- Assimilate: I think that Assimilate is the archetype with the highest potential, but it's probably the devs' unwillingness to unleash its full Power that holds it back.
That said it's match-up dependant, RNG dependant, bad in a short round, lacks removal options, rather underdeveloped and most importantly a lot of its cards cost 5 provisions. And don't get me started on Portal.
Spies: It really needs more thought put into because it was a total failure. I also want to point out that Seditious Aristocrats is a worse Thirsty Dame: Dame has a lot more synergies and so an higher ceiling. I can (could?) just slam down Thirsty Dame and boost it away from removal range with IF nullifying the importance of retroactivity. And of course Status> Spies
Tactics: mostly a support package, but could use some improvements as well
Another problem is that most 5 provisions are either overpriced or bad and overpriced. Examples:
Menagerie Keeper/ Alba Pikemen. Lots of powercreep as well.
And I can continue...
*LONG POST AHEAD*
Unlike many people believe under the surface Nilfgaard is a really weak faction, from golds to bronzes passing through half baked archetypes.
First and foremost let's consider Status, Nilfgaard's most prominent archetype. It was Tier 2 till not long ago. So what changed? Several things actually:
- Powercreep. Other factions have been buffed mad especially after this last patch, whereas Nilfgaard is practically stuck in Merchants of Ofir and before, so the point gap is so great that you have to overcommit not to find yourself in an unfavourable spot while the opponent only plays bronzes
- Hostile meta. People have moved away from Devotion for the most part and now most decks are packing Korathi Heatwave, which is an autowin against Statua due to...
- Overreliance on Masquerade Ball. Without it's almost impossible to build a competitive deck. Once Ball is out of the picture, it's gameover.
- Counterplay. Ball decks have been around for long now, so people know their weaknessess. Countering the round 2 Bleed is very hard. And most importantly poison and lock got dealt a big blow with MM. There are many ways you can play around poison:
- play uninteractively forcing proactivity
- Feed low Power units
- and now Feed Veil cards
All of this on top of poison's own slowness (requires two turns to develop)
This is why Ball fell from grace, but there are other archetypes of course:
- Mill: dead and abandoned, but still occupying precious Gold slots
- Soldiers: powercrept to Kingdom come, soldier doesn't even have an identity
- Assimilate: I think that Assimilate is the archetype with the highest potential, but it's probably the devs' unwillingness to unleash its full Power that holds it back.
That said it's match-up dependant, RNG dependant, bad in a short round, lacks removal options, rather underdeveloped and most importantly a lot of its cards cost 5 provisions. And don't get me started on Portal.
Spies: It really needs more thought put into because it was a total failure. I also want to point out that Seditious Aristocrats is a worse Thirsty Dame: Dame has a lot more synergies and so an higher ceiling. I can (could?) just slam down Thirsty Dame and boost it away from removal range with IF nullifying the importance of retroactivity. And of course Status> Spies
Tactics: mostly a support package, but could use some improvements as well
Another problem is that most 5 provisions are either overpriced or bad and overpriced. Examples:
Menagerie Keeper/ Alba Pikemen. Lots of powercreep as well.
And I can continue...