It still is advertised like that.
https://www.playgwent.com/en/join
I stopped taking what they say seriously a while ago
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That's literally every card game ever....
Everyone else does it too isn't really a great defense.
I'm not going to sit here and say this game or CCG's in general is/are easy to balance. But, come on.... I'll throw out two recent examples...
1. Hubert. When the setup behind this card goes as planned, with last say and multiple high damage output cards sticking on the board, it probably wins the game. It can easily translate to a 20-25+ point swing in a single turn when combined with the proper cards, leader abilities, etc. The card got changed from 7p to 8p in the recent patch. What exactly does that accomplish? You take a bronze card in your deck and substitute a slightly worse bronze card in for it.
2. Spears and shields. So, these cards got hit with complaints. Most of those complaints were directed at the former of the two. What did they do? Capped them to 4 charges. Now they're basically unplayable.
It's pathetic how they approach adjustments to card abilities in this game.... It's not even a new thing. It's been this way going all the way back to CB. Most adjustments either do nothing, push cards into unplayable land or break something else. And around and around it goes....
The latter part I agree with but you should have said "on average, no". On average the luck of the initial deal is what defines the game, because EVERYBODY plays the same tired netdecks so it's almost entirely down to whether you got a decent deal R1 and whether the mulligans work in your favour.
On average, yes. Skill will win out.
Unfortunately, it still isn't particularly fun. It's not fun to play against Witchers + Roach, into Coral, into discard spam, into Commanders Horn, only to have Lippy hit the board and have the same thing repeat. It's not fun to constantly wonder if the other player is running DD + Nivellen because without an answer it will often win the game R3. Throw thrives and big body units at a board to win R1 then spam more of them in R2 until you have two or three 10-12+ point options left for R3. Or toss Speartip at a board with the expectation your unconditional 12-13 pt card play (12 now) will translate to CA or, prior to dropping it, force the other player out of a round.