You're usually ahead, because GS decks don't care to keep up. You've won the first round already and have last say, and you know you're going to swing that. But the swing is definitely NOT the only thing poor GS decks have going for them. Especially not after this expansion, with 8-9 point bronzes galore, double tutor and 2 new damage engines.
Tall punishment => mostly neutral => loss of devotion bonus
If any faction had it own Morkvarg, pinging down any boosts with ease - then it would be fine.
The deck doesn't even require great sword tho.
I played out a game against SK Second Wind on Pro Ladder, with Dwarven Invigorate. I had the perfect draw, had solid strategy and got lucky as well. But the power output of the SK decks is disgusting, in not 1 round, not 2 rounds but all 3 rounds. Remember I drew perfectly and they drew sub optimally as you read this.
R1. Two hawker smugglers gave me massive carry over into R3. My opponent plays out rupture and Wild Boar.
R2. I have 7 cards, my opponent 6, I play out my entire win condition in a long round as I also play matta, I had a card advantage, played my entire win condition in sequence and still only survive by a point! We have bother used up out leader ability now.
R3. We have 3 cards each. I have 4 points of boost carry over due to Allgod AND Sigrin has carried over from R2, so I effectively have a gold engine already on the board. I draw near perfect three cards, 2x pre boosted engines!
I still lose though, because two master mirror cards (Harald and War of Clans) costing a combined 17 provisions played for 25 in a short round.
The bronze 4 point invaders create ridiculous power swings when resurrected by cards like War of Clans or Harald in R3, playing for 7 each.
Basically, it's broken as fuck.
Veteran not activating in the graveyard would fix part of the issue.
Anyway, I'll leave you guys to it. We could talk about this until the cows come home. Have fun playing top trumps.
I played out a game against SK Second Wind on Pro Ladder, with Dwarven Invigorate. I had the perfect draw, had solid strategy and got lucky as well. But the power output of the SK decks is disgusting, in not 1 round, not 2 rounds but all 3 rounds. Remember I drew perfectly and they drew sub optimally as you read this.
R1. Two hawker smugglers gave me massive carry over into R3. My opponent plays out rupture and Wild Boar.
R2. I have 7 cards, my opponent 6, I play out my entire win condition in a long round as I also play matta, I had a card advantage, played my entire win condition in sequence and still only survive by a point! We have bother used up out leader ability now.
R3. We have 3 cards each. I have 4 points of boost carry over due to Allgod AND Sigrin has carried over from R2, so I effectively have a gold engine already on the board. I draw near perfect three cards, 2x pre boosted engines!
I still lose though, because two master mirror cards (Harald and War of Clans) costing a combined 17 provisions played for 25 in a short round.
The bronze 4 point invaders create ridiculous power swings when resurrected by cards like War of Clans or Harald in R3, playing for 7 each.
Basically, it's broken as fuck.
Veteran not activating in the graveyard would fix part of the issue.
Anyway, I'll leave you guys to it. We could talk about this until the cows come home. Have fun playing top trumps.
There is plenty of Tall punishment in Factions, even more so than SK, NGs cards are all punishment basically, tons of Poisens, Vincent, Invocation etc etc.
ST has Poisens, Plenty of removal, can take out engines.
NR has bloody baron, Similar to Morkvag, only advantage of Morkvag is the Synergy, but alone these two are the same.
MO doesn't have any, true, I'm a Monster fan myself and it's quite annoying, MO devotion is basically the worst Devotion.
SC has plenty of Tall punishment too, destroy units for tribute, Poisen etc etc.
The problem is not GS that's the point, SK is OP right now but not because of GS, here's the thing: Pre-Expanstion, Second wind GS was pretty strong, the deck was basically turn Swing, most of your cards were weak, and you would usually end up 30-40 points down by the end of the round, but with Wildboar-GS-Dagur-Morkvag Combo as last say, you could win being up to 5-15 points ahead, but, this weird interaction happend imo because how OP Second wind was as a leader, aswell as Wildboar-Morkvag Crazy Synergy with GSs and Dagur, but the rest of the cards of SK, outside this package, were and are trash, that balanced it out, for example Dimun Longship, 5 for 5, pretty bad, Corsair, 5 for 5, up to 9-10 over the round if left alive which usually didn't happen, still not good, and so on, that's why you were down 30-40 points when you basically played 8-9 cards that you had, but after expansion, SK got pretty Strong cards that Supports this Deck, so that Weakness is gone, with the new cards SK won't go down 30-40 Points, usually having his board wiped even, it's actually strong now and can win even without the turn Swing, but the Turn Swing is still there too, and that's what makes it OP, and the Problem, imo, is Second wind, this leader is basically *Play Wild boar or Morkvag*, how valuable is that compared to other leaders? New cards are Strong, but not OP imo, just Strong and T1, their combination with the previously Strong aspects of this deck makes them OP, play this deck with Reckless Flurry or Blaze of Glory and you'll see it's not busted without Second Wind.
The existence of counters alone is not a valid justification.
Agreed.
Second Wind alone is not the single culprit.
The issue is, as you pointed out above, that Greatsword synergy is very valuable and enough turn otherwise terrible cards (Dimun Longship etc) decent.
The Warrior archtype is also a balanced midrange archtype.
However the Warrior archtype actually does synergize with Greatswords, while being a solid archtype, even without Greatswords.
Greatsword decks used to be commital, however the post MM Greatsword decks are as badly designed as the old Imlerith: Sabbath, being either either a decent play or "accidentally" winning the game (as Swim called it).
The issue with Sabbath was that you could not trade up against it and if you did not answer it you immediately lost the round.
Greatswords are similar, you have them as an added bonus on an otherwise perfectly functionable package, so the opponent has to keep Greatswords in mind and prepare to counter them or lose if they turn up, while Greatswords themselves are not commital anymore, which creates the old "respond or lose" situation, while the gameplan, in case they do get answered, does not fall behind in any way and in case there are not even Greatswords if you prepoare for them you fall behind even further.
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I disagree about the strength of other bronze cards. The street urchin for SY can produce 11 + quick points in a single turn without any help. Thrive units for MO can generate 12 to 13- points for 4-5 provisions easily. Drummers for NR can convo into some truly powerful combos (easily 2 sometimes 3 points per turn.) NG has a range of bronze cards worth a ton of points including poison and dames. Harmony plus poison for ST. My point is, GS is hardly god mode compared to other key bronze cards. Also, you missed perhaps the most important weaknesses about GS. 1, they are row specific. There really isn’t a ton of row punish in SK (WB doesn’t care where you are, and the alchemy 6 is distributed against the row rather than damaging all units on the row.) if the GS sets up on melee, use ranged, if he sets up on ranged use melee. Plenty of cards can forcibly move them as well.
GS by itself is useless. On a short round they are harmful. Where they are dangerous is there combo potential. As you noted above they have a lot of combos. But, that need to combo also creates another vulnerability in that you can defeat the combo cards. Lastly, remember that boosted GS are subject to removal by any number of tall killers.
We all know SK Greatsword decks are too strong right now (maybe even with the recent hotfix) and I think the core of the problem is An Craite Greatsword itself. The deck is based a lot on this card to make points. This card can synergize with way too many cards and I feel like they are trying to nerf Greatsword indirectly by nerfing these damage sources because Greatsword have no way to be nerfed simply :
-3 forces would make the unit too weak and therefore, the card too risky.
-7 provisions would not fit the principles of Gwent : there is no bronzes units that have 7 provisions, the maximum is 6.
-And let's not even talk about making this card a gold card.
So the only way to nerf it is to touch the text. And I had an idea, but first we need to define 2 things, we can divide the damage sources in 2 (maybe 3) categories :
-The damages from direct sources, these are effects that damage cards you choose. We can quote for example Morkvarg, Stunning Blow or Merigold's Hailstorm.
-The damages from random sources, these are effects that damage cards you don't choose. For example there is Svalblod Berserker, Hemdall or Harald An Craite the evolving card in its final form. For some cards like Wild Boar of the sea or Skellige Storm they could be put in this category or another new one, but it is debatable.
You probably already know where I'm going, I think making Greatsword boost itself only when damages are done to cards on the opposite row but only from one of those sources could nerf this card moderately without making this card weird. The best sources is probably the random one because Harald An Craite the evolving card is meant to be played with Greatsword and does random damage in his final form. Maybe other cards would need a buff, maybe Greatsword would need to be 5 provisionss, I don't have these answers.
For Dagur Two-Blades I think it would be a smart change if he had the same restriction as my Greatsword, but with the damage from direct sources. These changes could divide the actual Greatsword deck into 2 separates archetypes with one that want to make a lot of points with Greatswords and Reckless Fury, and the other want to control the opponent board more and make points with Dagur and Onslought or Patricidal Fury (if this leader counts as direct). Maybe we'll see more of Bloodthirst decks as well and then we would have 3 leaders for 3 different decks and not 3 leaders for only one deck, and one better than the others.
I hope they will put their head above the parapet and make changes, like I suggested, that could bring diversity with the damage mechanics in Skellige.
-3 forces would make the unit too weak and therefore, the card too risky.
-7 provisions would not fit the principles of Gwent : there is no bronzes units that have 7 provisions, the maximum is 6.
-And let's not even talk about making this card a gold card.
So the only way to nerf it is to touch the text. And I had an idea, but first we need to define 2 things, we can divide the damage sources in 2 (maybe 3) categories :
-The damages from direct sources, these are effects that damage cards you choose. We can quote for example Morkvarg, Stunning Blow or Merigold's Hailstorm.
-The damages from random sources, these are effects that damage cards you don't choose. For example there is Svalblod Berserker, Hemdall or Harald An Craite the evolving card in its final form. For some cards like Wild Boar of the sea or Skellige Storm they could be put in this category or another new one, but it is debatable.
You probably already know where I'm going, I think making Greatsword boost itself only when damages are done to cards on the opposite row but only from one of those sources could nerf this card moderately without making this card weird. The best sources is probably the random one because Harald An Craite the evolving card is meant to be played with Greatsword and does random damage in his final form. Maybe other cards would need a buff, maybe Greatsword would need to be 5 provisionss, I don't have these answers.
For Dagur Two-Blades I think it would be a smart change if he had the same restriction as my Greatsword, but with the damage from direct sources. These changes could divide the actual Greatsword deck into 2 separates archetypes with one that want to make a lot of points with Greatswords and Reckless Fury, and the other want to control the opponent board more and make points with Dagur and Onslought or Patricidal Fury (if this leader counts as direct). Maybe we'll see more of Bloodthirst decks as well and then we would have 3 leaders for 3 different decks and not 3 leaders for only one deck, and one better than the others.
I hope they will put their head above the parapet and make changes, like I suggested, that could bring diversity with the damage mechanics in Skellige.
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