a good way to stop artifact control abuse

[hi_im_Tyy]

I'm not suggesting changing Ethine because I think her and Crach damaging any unit is fine as they are leaders. However maybe a good way to stop artifact control abuse could be by doing the following:

change spear, sihil to only target enemy units
change shield, thunderbolt, petri's philter to only target allied units

Basically if it damages only target enemies and if it boosts only target allies, no matter the unit or artifact with the ability.

it seems like a simple change, but a fair one. Too many games have I seen my opponent play 3-4 artifacts in round 3 and just buff my units with shield to line up scorch, epidemic, or shirru which is incredibly frustrating to play against.

Also this change would help cards like rot tosser because currently sihil, spear, Kaedweni Revenant and many others just automatically counter this card.

 

[Archpriest]

change spear, sihil to only target enemy units
change shield, thunderbolt, petri's philter to only target allied units

And make the game less complex. I don't think this idea will improve it at all.

 

[Falchion_]

change spear, sihil to only target enemy units
change shield, thunderbolt, petri's philter to only target allied units

Good idea imo its to easy now to line everything up (unless your a woodland ghoul with immune wolfs), even when you try to disrupt the line up she will just line you up again with buffs.

 

[4RM3D]

If this suggestion is just to counter Scorch/Epidemic/Schirrú/Regis, then I have to disagree for the following three reasons:
- Buff and ping artifacts, on their own, are fine. You are nerfing one set of cards to prevent another set of cards from becoming too dominating.
- Having the ability to buff enemies or ping allies is an interesting concept which should not be removed.
- Pinging your own units can be used to prevent an Epidemic. This important tactical decision would be removed by your suggestion.

Sometimes, the simplest solution is the best one. This is not one of those times. Instead, we need to look at the problem as a whole and determine why buff and ping artifacts are an issue. The issue is the lack of interactivity, hence my suggestion:
Equip - An Artifact Nerf Suggestion.

 

[DRK3]

Agreed, damaging own units or buffing enemies is one of the most interesting strategies:

I found Black Blood (destroys next enemy unit that is buffed) can be used to destroy any enemy you want - if the opponent didnt trigger it or destroy it, you can use a thunderbolt potion to buff the enemy you want and its destroyed, and you still get the other 2x 2pt buffs for your own units!

I had an opponent using Revenants, so i took care to have my units out of reach and higher than 1 pt. His revenants were on my Skellige storm, so he started pinging his own 1pt Revenants to trigger more revenants, i found it brilliant and hadnt thought of that, even though i also have a Revenant deck.

 

[rrc]

Damaging an enemy is always considered more valuable than buffing/boosting allies. It has always been the case in Beta-Gwent too. So, in that regard, this is what I think the best balancing for the Artifacts (I don't know if it has already been mentioned, if so, I am sorry):

1) Spear and Sihil should have 1 Reach. Sihil should be formidable and one of the most powerful cards in the game and shouldn't have its ability nerfed. This will force the deck to bring *move to another row* units which will kind of balance the artifacts.
2) Spear should have 7 provision cost. 5 is just too less for a card which can do damage to any unit and is super versatile. It is not just the possible 10 damage the Spear can do matters. It can align units for other special cards. It should be considered as a very powerful valid card and should have provision cost accordingly.
3) The shield which boosts should be 6 provision cost.

I agree that the OP idea is also very good, but I think the Reach and slightly higher provision cost is good enough.

 

[kapusta23]

Go and try to play artifact heavy deck without Eithne and witcher trio. Artifacts are not the problem. They actually kinda suck, especially if you have just a few of them as a means of keeping your valuable units alive because they only enable your opponents removal.

Eithne is completely broken however. You can line up a massive epidemic, scorch or schirru EACH round. Without her it would take multiple artifacts and multiple turns to line up anything and you'll have multiple turns to respond. And witcher trio provides a huge tempo play (12 - 16 points is a lot in new gwent) to a matchup where every point counts since nothing sticks around.