A new mechanic AND a coinflip solution for my favorite game

[kotpeter]

Sorry for making a duplicate post from Reddit, but I sincerely believe that this suggestion deserves more community attention and maybe even developers could see some potential in it!

So, why new mechanic? Well, the game is under development, it has its trustful (though it doesn't seem to be recently) audience and it surely has a future! And that future demands that the game expands, enhances, brings in more interesting cards and mechanics. Hence the suggestion! Also, I found out that the mechanic that I'm about to describe can be expanded to help with the coinflip problem which bothers a large portion of players, myself included. Be warned: the mechanic is VEEERY contradicting at first sight and will require a LOT of effort from game designers to balance things properly around it; so please try to read the post till the end before judging...

Also, it is NOT a card mechanic (not like "duel" when it was introduced), it's just another tactical move available for both players; it can bring you a significant advantage when used properly AND it will hurt your tempo in the short run and allow your opponent to catch up and have a comfortable pass against you! Are you intrigued? I hope you are!

Ok then, shall we? Here's the additional mechanic I propose to Gwent:
======================================= CALL THE REINFORCEMENTS =======================================

• At the start of the game BOTH players are given the additional card "Call the reinforcements" (not to be confused with Northern Realms' tactics card!). The card allows the player to choose and summon ANY bronze or silver unit from his deck... but with a delay of 3 turns (it takes some time until the reinforcements arrive, doesn't it?)
• The turn you play "Call the reinforcements" you get to choose a card from your deck. You make the choice, and the card gets a timer upon it. You gain 0 immediate tempo. That's right, no immediate tempo at all! However, after 3 turns (the card timer ticks at the end of the turn) the card is pulled out of the deck and you have to play it. Which means: when the reinforcements arrive, you get to play 2 cards per turn (1 card from hand, THEN the reinforcements card).
• It's obvious, but I'll still mention, that the spell can only be used once per game per player (i.e. it is banished after being used and cannot be repeated/copied by any means);
• AN IMPORTANT NOTICE: passing does not prevent reinforcements from arriving this turn! (which means, if the reinforcements timer is at 1, your opponent had passed and then you passed, you will still trigger your reinforcements this round, not the following one). I felt that I need to mention this interaction separately, because it's like how end of turn used to work before midwinter patch.

I know, I know, this sounds stupid as it gives 1 permanent thinning to both players, partially eliminates draw RNG (some people find it fun and necessary, you know) and gives some decks 100% chance to prepare the setup for their gameplan (looking at you, handbuff!)... And the game is reaaally going to change with such mechanic in place.
But! Let me try to break down the pros and cons of such change (at least, my opinion on pros and cons):
PROS

1. It adds tactical depth to the game. After all, playing "Call the reinforcements" has its severe penalty (0 tempo per turn, tempo regained only after 3 turns which can be too long) and its outstanding reward (the ability to play 2 cards per turn without giving the opponent time to react, thus enabling some combos with 99% probability). Overall, it is not a silver bullet play and should be considered wisely. I'll also mention, that Xarthisius would be able to show the opponent what card has the timer attached, so that the opponent could predict your move and react accordingly (though I doubt that it'll make Xarthisius more useful).
2. WARNING! PERSONAL PREFERENCE HERE.......... It reduces draw RNG to a certain degree. While I do sincerely believe that such kind of RNG is a necessary and FUN part of the game (in fact, I KNOW that it really is), I have a feeling that guaranteeing at least 1 copy of any card in player's possession would enable many interesting deck concepts without breaking the FUN part of draw RNG in general. I doubt that players will miss those bad times when their silver mage was at the bottom of their deck without any means of getting it out to clear weather and win the game... The last one is just an example of what bad draw RNG can do to competitive games. We're used to it and we rarely complain, but things could be different, you know?
3. It helps solving winrate skew caused by coinflip (more on that much later).
4. WARNING! ANOTHER PERSONAL PREFERENCE INCOMING....... The mechanic is fun! At least for me... Simple as that

CONS

1. It breaks several design decisions in the game and requires substantional rework of some cards. At a glance, I can't tell exactly which cards will need to be reworked, but silver CA spies and weather will probably be on the list. Is it worth the outcome? I'm not the only person to decide here, but for me the answer is "it depends on the community as a whole, not just me"!
2. It narrows design space to a certain degree. Basically, it prohibits the design team to create devastating combinations of cards, which require little setup (possibly 2 or 3 cards) and are balanced by giving the opponent time to react against these cards. As an example, Iris + damage dealing card: when the opponent sees Iris, he has 1 turn to do something about it, whilst with the new "Call the reinforcements" mechanic Iris + something may appear during the same turn and the opponent will have no opportunity to react to that. That COULD be a monstrous problem, but I don't have that much data (neither do I have game design experience at all) to estimate the consequences here. I'm just sharing what comes to my mind...
3. In its current implementation, it has little flavor and does not fit into the gameplay properly. I mean, I don't exactly know how it should look on the battlefield (where the timer could be seen, does it require a separate space or a card slot, how to make the mechanic UI/UX-perfect for both players, etc). It IS a problem to be mentioned, but I'll leave it to other people to design the flavor for this mechanic and integrate it into the game.
4. It may not align to some players' preferences. It's not usual for card games to give the ability to look through the deck and to get ANYTHING out of it, so it's not for everybody, I'm sure.

Concluding on "Call the reinforcements", I sincerely hope, that:

1. It WON'T be added to the game in the exact way that I described it. I believe that best possible alterations to the game are out there, and it's our obligation as a community to help the game grow and develop (spending money on it helps ofc, but I'm talking about different stuff here), so that we could have even more fun with it. I believe that the OP suggestion still needs some polishment and community feedback to be considered viable.
2. It WILL push the community in the right direction when discussing mechanics and possible additions to the game.We all want this game to live, to develop and to become even better, but we DO NOT WANT to create a different game out of it! Some people tend to forget that. In my opinion, the mechanic that I suggested CAN be adapted to this game for greater good without hurting its identity in the CCG world and in our eyes.

======================================= THE COINFLIP SOLUTION =======================================
For this one, I'll skip pros, cons and my own explanations on why this should work as a coinflip fix. I'll just put it down and let you guys discuss and critique my coinflip solution involving the proposed mechanic:

The red coin player has his "call the reinforcements" ability delayed by 1 turn (which makes for 4 turns of waiting in total) if the card "Call the reinforcements" is played during the 1st round. From the flavor perspective it means that the blue player is the initiating side, and the red player needs some time to catch up.

I do have my own explanations as to why this could work and why giving conditional/temporary tempo (points) for the blue coin player is a bad decision, but I'll share it later. I just feel that it's right to just leave it as is, and the post is too long already to keep writing it.

That's it! I hope for a constructive criticism and discussion on the topic! Have a nice day and a good round of GWENT everybody out there

Again, I'm sorry that it's duplicate with Reddit, so please (it's for moderators) feel free to remove it and penalize me if you think that it's too redundant or just plain wrong to spread info like that.

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

I honestly don't see how this would solve the coin flip. I guess the advantage of that system is that even if the second player wins round 1 on equal cards the other one will get an additional card in round two, or if round two is instantly passed in round 3.
In that case the problem isn't solved, because the card adventage is still there, even if the player can play two cards in one turn.
Also, if the starting player has to use this card in the first round to avoid a card disadvantage, but looses the round, the other player can simply prolong round two as much as possible, because he will get a card of his choice in round 3, which is uncounterable carry over. Thus this system would instead of solving the coin flip problem, greatly amplify it.

 

[kotpeter]

the advantage of that system is that even if the second player wins round 1 on equal cards the other one will get an additional card in round two, or if round two is instantly passed in round 3.

It's up to the opponent to decide whether he wants to:

1. Call his own reinforcements to counter the opponent's tempo;
2. Give up the round at certain point to make the opponent waste reinforcements for the 1st round;
3. Play as usual and try some different strategy.

It is important to treat "Call the reinforcements" (ctr) as a separate card, a resource which both players have in possession and need to utilize carefully.

the card adventage is still there, even if the player can play two cards in one turn

Both players have this mechanic at hand (both blue and red coin), so no card advantage here. It's just that the player can give away 1 extra card in R1 and "regain" it in R2 or R3.

if the starting player has to use this card in the first round to avoid a card disadvantage, but looses the round, the other player can simply prolong round two as much as possible, because he will get a card of his choice in round 3, which is uncounterable carry over

Which essentially means that the first player allowed his opponent to do so. He wasted his reinforcements and did not win the first round, while allowing the second player to preserve ctr in hand? Seems like lack of skill more than lack of balance.

 

[jgolden234]

It is an interesting well thought out idea. I like that you see the cons of it yourself, and to fix some of those there would probably have to be a limit on what cards could be used with the mechanic. Your example of Iris is a great example of a card that porbably shouldn't be allowed to be pulled.

This idea reminds me a little of wolfsbane, sacrificing some tempo immediately for future tempo. People have of course helped solve that by including Johnny

 

[kotpeter]

It is an interesting well thought out idea. I like that you see the cons of it yourself, and to fix some of those there would probably have to be a limit on what cards could be used with the mechanic. Your example of Iris is a great example of a card that porbably shouldn't be allowed to be pulled.

This idea reminds me a little of wolfsbane, sacrificing some tempo immediately for future tempo. People have of course helped solve that by including Johnny

Speaking about Iris, a player won't benefit as often from pulling her with this new mechanic. In most circumstances, you need to place her first and then deal damage to her. If she's pulled with ctr, the player gets no immediate value from her and gives his opponent some time to react.

But! If you have some other means of pulling her from the deck (e.g. Rainfarn, Marching Orders), then your opponent is screwed, because you can use ctr to get a damage dealing unit and use it to proc Iris. Or you can simply have several impera enforcers on the board when you play her (however, this would be trickier as your opponent will clearly predict what you're up to and try to counterplay).

I'm not saying that Iris would be in a good state with this new mechanic in place; certain rebalance will surely have to occur. However, she's not as bad as she may seem at first sight.

I love the idea of using Tibor + ctr'd Venendal Elite, but this one might be too unbalanced to be allowed. Others that come to my mind are Morenn + Yaevinn, Dol Blathanna Bowman + Nivellen (now that's how I punish row stacking), Harald Houndsnout + Djenge (or + Siegfride into Djenge)... However, if every faction had its own set of such combinations, why would we call it the unbalanced state of the game? These combos sound really fun for me, and I can only imagine what others could do with such mechanic...