Anna Henrietta may make me quit Gwent for good

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Don't wanna be nitpicky here, but wouldn't then this be true for like.. every other major card in the game?

If you want to get the most out of Crach, of course you'll pack your deck with pirates and ships.
If you want to get the most out of Eldain, probably you'll use traps in your deck.
.. and the list goes on.

These are archetype defining legendaries, their main purpose is to create/support/carry the decks built around them.
Yes, the new cards all reinforce existing archetypes. But they mostly work with underused ones - like SK pirates opposed to dominant warriors, dwarves vs jumping witchers, harmony and unitless Nature. Trap decks are disappearingly rare - I use such a deck for artefact quests, but seldom actually play it - and I almost never meet opponents with traps. With added spring mechanics for golden traps such decks may become more interactive, but still - many traps make a deck unitless, which is always less interesting to play for and against (at least for me).
While Henrietta just inserts herself into quite viable assimilation archetype. I don't think she will encourage NG mill and reverse mill to switch to this archetype (I doubt those "players" have enough humanity left in them to think of interesting decks to play). SO basically - she's the least necessary and game-changing of the whole card pack. Tbh, Emhyr will just make impera crossbowmen and conspirators get more value, but maybe he'll also create more interesting targets for Coup de Grace than just golden NG spies.
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Since when was assimilate this top tier straightforward archetype? As far as I can recall it's been weak because of the fact you have to completely adapt to your opponent.
I think I'm playing another game than the rest of this forum.
Who said anything about top tier? Not me, for sure. To be honest, I don't get all these "tiers". I just play decks and abilities that click good together. And assimilation is a working mechanics. All my NG decks were based on it one way or another - and performed quite well. And I think that Henrietta is just most useful for assimilation decks, but not useful enough to be worth discussing or going great lengths to include her into well-performing decks.
 
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I enjoyed playing against Anna so far. It seems like a nice thing for assimilate decks, and assimilate was the first proper deck I built a year ago (when it was pretty weak), and I still love it, though I haven't played it for a while. I love that each matchup is really different, and you have to figure out the opponent's strategy and how you can use some of that for your own gain. And Anna fits that really nicely in a fun new way. I was playing SY earlier, and my NG opponent copied a spender of mine, and I thought "hah, fools, they'll never get enough coins to make that the right move", and then they played Anna, giving them 6 coins from Lined Pockets, and almost destroyed me with it. It was a blast. This sort of card, that changes a lot depending on matchup, I think is great, as it keeps you thinking. And hey, if it's going to be dead, you can just mulligan it away, as you might squirrel or something else that you know is unlikely to work in a certain matchup.
 
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I enjoyed playing against Anna so far. It seems like a nice thing for assimilate decks, and assimilate was the first proper deck I built a year ago (when it was pretty weak), and I still love it, though I haven't played it for a while. I love that each matchup is really different, and you have to figure out the opponent's strategy and how you can use some of that for your own gain. And Anna fits that really nicely in a fun new way. I was playing SY earlier, and my NG opponent copied a spender of mine, and I thought "hah, fools, they'll never get enough coins to make that the right move", and then they played Anna, giving them 6 coins from Lined Pockets, and almost destroyed me with it. It was a blast. This sort of card, that changes a lot depending on matchup, I think is great, as it keeps you thinking. And hey, if it's going to be dead, you can just mulligan it away, as you might squirrel or something else that you know is unlikely to work in a certain matchup.

Yeah, nobody with a NG deck is going to complain about getting even more benefits than NG already gets compared to any other faction. Let's not pretend there's any sort of high strategy to Anna. 4 out of 5 times it's using your NG ability, Damien, using your NG ability again, then Anna. Damien alone is annoying but at least he can be locked. Along with heatwave and scorch and other neutrals that can't be helped, Anna can't be dealt with, and NG also gets Vilgefortz who can't be dealt with, and Yen who can straight up gank a card. Even before Anna, NG has the most advantages, which is why everybody plays NG. I don't see how playing NG could be any fun at this point.
 

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I enjoyed playing against Anna so far. It seems like a nice thing for assimilate decks, and assimilate was the first proper deck I built a year ago (when it was pretty weak), and I still love it, though I haven't played it for a while. I love that each matchup is really different, and you have to figure out the opponent's strategy and how you can use some of that for your own gain. And Anna fits that really nicely in a fun new way. I was playing SY earlier, and my NG opponent copied a spender of mine, and I thought "hah, fools, they'll never get enough coins to make that the right move", and then they played Anna, giving them 6 coins from Lined Pockets, and almost destroyed me with it. It was a blast. This sort of card, that changes a lot depending on matchup, I think is great, as it keeps you thinking. And hey, if it's going to be dead, you can just mulligan it away, as you might squirrel or something else that you know is unlikely to work in a certain matchup.
"It keeps you thinking"? ....It would be nice if it kept BOTH players thinking, I thought that was the point of the game. I've encountered her with every leader and assimilate wasn't by any stretch the most frequent one so once again it's a card that works in any of their decks, cheap and can't be countered.
 
Anna Henrietta is another addition to the lovely high roll NG cards like:

Bribery
Yennefer invocation
Viper witcher mentor
Cantarella
Imperial diplomacy

These cards are for skilled players and oh wait some of them have synergy with assimilate too so their design is fine.
Can't wait what the next RNG card for NG will be.
I mean seriously all these cards are so annoying why do they even exist?
It feels so bad seeing your opponent highroll in all sorts of ways.
It's by far the most stupid pack of cards in the entire game.
I love this faction but I refuse to play all of these cards.
 
Can't wait what the next RNG card for NG will be.
There is nothing RNG about Anna (or Invo, but it's not the topic). Unless you consider the matchmaking RNG -- but in that case a ton of cards would "be RNG".

I really do not get some of the complaints people have because they don't always make sense.
 
People have some serious PTSD regarding NG, and I know the feeling. At this moment, we should all thank the former Lockdown players - they are the reason Lockdown is no more. Now if only more people would spam that ridiculous Warritt - Mentor - Alchemist combo...
 
There is nothing RNG about Anna (or Invo, but it's not the topic). Unless you consider the matchmaking RNG -- but in that case a ton of cards would "be RNG".

I really do not get some of the complaints people have because they don't always make sense.

I'm not saying Anna is RNG perhaps read my comment better.
The cards I mentioned are dumb high roll cards which have nothing to do with skill.
In case of Anna it's actually kind of RNG because it's very matchup dependent what her value will be.
Against NG faction it's broken, it's very good against some other decks or total garbage against something like SY.
This is another unhealthy direction for NG showcasing their faction identity.
 
I'm not saying Anna is RNG
In case of Anna it's actually kind of RNG
So it both is and isn't.

Going by the logic in the second quote tons of cards are actually kind of RNG because tons of cards have differing value depending on the matchup. Tall removal is RNG, wide punish is RNG, reset is RNG, to name a few things (and not even single cards). Which makes no sense to me, but to each his own.

Anna's effect is always the exact same: she gives you a base copy of the opponent's Leader ability. Zero RNG involved.
I also disagree with the whole sarcastic "cards for skilled players" -- because a skilled player sure will find better ways to get the most out of what Anna gives them than a more inexperienced/less skilled player would. There is more to playing the card than just the Deploy.
 
I'm not saying Anna is RNG perhaps read my comment better.
The cards I mentioned are dumb high roll cards which have nothing to do with skill.
In which world is Yennefer's Invocation a highroll/rng card?

Also, how is this NG specific? We can list dozens of cards in the game that are extremely efficient against one specific build (wouldn't say Faction), while they are mediocre at best vs others. Also, why is this a problem? It is to be expected that given we have different Factions with different playstyles (including widely different strategies) that a good amount of power cards will have a wide array of usefullness against them. As long as Factions won't become homogenised (which shall never happen), this will be quite reasonable.
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I also disagree with the whole sarcastic "cards for skilled players" -- because a skilled player sure will find better ways to get the most out of what Anna gives them than a more inexperienced/less skilled player would. There is more to playing the card than just the Deploy.
^This.
"Skill" does not come from the ability to be able to play a card - it comes from the ability to be able to play it better than the rest of the (not so) skilled playerbase.
 
So it both is and isn't.

Going by the logic in the second quote tons of cards are actually kind of RNG because tons of cards have differing value depending on the matchup. Tall removal is RNG, wide punish is RNG, reset is RNG, to name a few things (and not even single cards). Which makes no sense to me, but to each his own.

Anna's effect is always the exact same: she gives you a base copy of the opponent's Leader ability. Zero RNG involved.
I also disagree with the whole sarcastic "cards for skilled players" -- because a skilled player sure will find better ways to get the most out of what Anna gives them than a more inexperienced/less skilled player would. There is more to playing the card than just the Deploy.
Why does the universe exist? Why do we make certain choises? They are all RNG.
But to put it in context of the cards I mentioned like I already explained Anna is either broken, very good or terrible it all depends on your opponent.
Same with bribery it can be broken, very good or terrible and the same with cantarella.
What they all have in common is randomness and when randomness turns out in to a wincondition it has nothing to do how skilled you are.
The match simply has turned out in having tons of luck instead of playing out an excellent strategy.
Let me put it this way if your opponent wins due to nailing all types of highrolls with the mentioned cards do you agree this is a good way to lose a game?

In which world is Yennefer's Invocation a highroll/rng card?

Also, how is this NG specific? We can list dozens of cards in the game that are extremely efficient against one specific build (wouldn't say Faction), while they are mediocre at best vs others. Also, why is this a problem? It is to be expected that given we have different Factions with different playstyles (including widely different strategies) that a good amount of power cards will have a wide array of usefullness against them. As long as Factions won't become homogenised (which shall never happen), this will be quite reasonable.

Yennefer Invocation value varies per opponent for example it's terrible against elves or swarm decks.
Highrolling with invocation typically involves around good removal value and by adding a good gold in to your deck.
You play a gold and put a gold back on top of your deck and if this unit happens to have higher provision costs you also traded very well.
No wonder this is auto include in all NG decks but what this means for me it doesn't matter which archetype you play Invocation is in all decks.
This makes the NG matchups predictable, boring and especially annoying in mirrors because here it can be game winning because it basically turns out the player which has the best invo will win the game.
This denies other archetypes being played because NG decks will always be build around these usual suspects.
From a value perspective yeah sure it's an amazing card but as for game design it's dominating in a unhealthy way too much.
 
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Every time you play Anna you know EXACTLY what you're getting from her = thus it isn't RNG. :]
On topic, I just think that they should make it so that you can't use the copied leader ability in the same turn as the turn you played Anna in. This way you at least can't get 12 Anna's if you play opponents Anna by copying Double Cross. :p
 
Every time you play Anna you know EXACTLY what you're getting from her = thus it isn't RNG. :]
On topic, I just think that they should make it so that you can't use the copied leader ability in the same turn as the turn you played Anna in. This way you at least can't get 12 Anna's if you play opponents Anna by copying Double Cross. :p
haahah

playing the old seasonal (banish) i have make a lot of it.

Just copy anna over and over and over
 
I honestly quite like Anna (I like these creative semi-meme cards) but I can see how the binary/ matchup roulette nature of the card exacerbates some of the problems that Gwent already suffers from.
 
I enjoyed playing against Anna so far. It seems like a nice thing for assimilate decks, and assimilate was the first proper deck I built a year ago (when it was pretty weak), and I still love it, though I haven't played it for a while. I love that each matchup is really different, and you have to figure out the opponent's strategy and how you can use some of that for your own gain. And Anna fits that really nicely in a fun new way. I was playing SY earlier, and my NG opponent copied a spender of mine, and I thought "hah, fools, they'll never get enough coins to make that the right move", and then they played Anna, giving them 6 coins from Lined Pockets, and almost destroyed me with it. It was a blast. This sort of card, that changes a lot depending on matchup, I think is great, as it keeps you thinking. And hey, if it's going to be dead, you can just mulligan it away, as you might squirrel or something else that you know is unlikely to work in a certain matchup.

I also enjoy playing with cheats when i am bored and just want to dominate opponent.
 
It seems to me that the purpose of a leader ability is to have something to build your deck around, so that you can use your skill to make synergies between your deck and its leader. Enter Lockdown where the opponent can do that because they know they're running Lockdown but yours is negated leading to a disadvantage before you even play a card. Effectively the only way to counter it is to run NG decks that either have Lockdown or have Damien de La Tour (plus some way to protect him so he can use his order).
Enter Anna Henrietta. Not a leader ability but a unit that lets you effectively have 2 different leader abilities. Can also be combined with Lockdown as she steals the other person's ability allowing for preventing the other person from using their leader ability and then stealing it and using it (twice if combined with Damien de La Tour).
This means that if you want to have any hope of winning playing against someone with Anna Henrietta in their deck you basically have to play Lockdown or figure out how to build a deck that's not vulnerable to your own leader ability.

Edit: I forgot to add how stupid it is that it's a Deploy ability and there's no way to counter it. I don't even want to know what happens when you combine it with Syanna.
Utter twaddle. As previously said, calm down. Perhaps also have more dynamic decks.

For players who prefer a more cerebral game than 'mine's bigger than yours', this is a welcome addition.

Besides, there's much more interesting combinations than Syanna (obvious choice).
 
Anna is literal garbage, just like Arnaghad is and he had his own set of rage threads before he came out
 
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