Emhyr mill is the worst thing to happen to Gwent in ages.
Look, I don't even want to get into whether this deck is "OP" because that's not even the issue. The problem is that it is just a really awful archetype to have in the game. It's such a rock-paper-scissors deck. Its effectiveness is entirely just a matter of what kind of deck you're playing against it. Obviously that's true to a degree of most decks, but with Emhyr mill, it's just ridiculous. If you're running even a decent amount of deck thinning you're just out of luck. Actual gameplay doesn't matter in the slightest. There's almost literally *no* effective counter-play to it. Locks are pointless. You can try to destroy Avallach before they bounce him but they're just going to Renew. Or, if you hit him after he is silver, they're just going to use Assire. And they've got so much draw power now that they'll probably draw him back. You can *maybe* use Artefact Compression but that's literally one single card and by that point they've probably already played him 3 times. Realistically, all you can really do is just *hope* that they tremendously draw poorly. Either that, or just don't run a deck with any thinning. But that's such a big part of so many fun decks.
Part of the problem also is that this deck takes *forever* to play against. You're looking at 25+ sets of turns instead of the usual 13-15. It's awful. I mean look, I'm not one of these super competitive players. I even don't mind losing so long as I get a good match out of it. But that's the problem. Every time I run into one of these I come away feeling like I just wasted 40 minutes of my life. By all rights I know I'm going to lose and it just becomes a matter of *arduously* going through the motions for a very long time. I don't say this lightly (I've been a steady player since the closed beta) but if this doesn't get hotfixed, I may just sit this patch out. Forcing your opponent to run out of cards just shouldn't be a win condition. By all means make more/better cards like Alba Spearmen and make those into the deck's win condition. But either make Avallach doomed and stubborn or make him and other draw cards only activate if your opponent has cards to draw.
Look, I don't even want to get into whether this deck is "OP" because that's not even the issue. The problem is that it is just a really awful archetype to have in the game. It's such a rock-paper-scissors deck. Its effectiveness is entirely just a matter of what kind of deck you're playing against it. Obviously that's true to a degree of most decks, but with Emhyr mill, it's just ridiculous. If you're running even a decent amount of deck thinning you're just out of luck. Actual gameplay doesn't matter in the slightest. There's almost literally *no* effective counter-play to it. Locks are pointless. You can try to destroy Avallach before they bounce him but they're just going to Renew. Or, if you hit him after he is silver, they're just going to use Assire. And they've got so much draw power now that they'll probably draw him back. You can *maybe* use Artefact Compression but that's literally one single card and by that point they've probably already played him 3 times. Realistically, all you can really do is just *hope* that they tremendously draw poorly. Either that, or just don't run a deck with any thinning. But that's such a big part of so many fun decks.
Part of the problem also is that this deck takes *forever* to play against. You're looking at 25+ sets of turns instead of the usual 13-15. It's awful. I mean look, I'm not one of these super competitive players. I even don't mind losing so long as I get a good match out of it. But that's the problem. Every time I run into one of these I come away feeling like I just wasted 40 minutes of my life. By all rights I know I'm going to lose and it just becomes a matter of *arduously* going through the motions for a very long time. I don't say this lightly (I've been a steady player since the closed beta) but if this doesn't get hotfixed, I may just sit this patch out. Forcing your opponent to run out of cards just shouldn't be a win condition. By all means make more/better cards like Alba Spearmen and make those into the deck's win condition. But either make Avallach doomed and stubborn or make him and other draw cards only activate if your opponent has cards to draw.