GWENT GAME PLAY STRATEGIES
Bleeding
Bleeding is the term used to describe the round one winner playing into round two in order to draw out important cards of the opponent or to shorten the third round. Successful bleeding (and successful defense against bleeding) is a key element of Gwent strategy. This article will discuss elements of a successful bleed; the next will discuss defending against a bleed.
Successful bleeding begins before the start of round two, with two decisions: whether is bleeding appropriate, and which round two mulligans will shape the hand to bleed most effectively. Deciding whether to bleed or not was already discussed in the article on Round Two pass strategy (found here). But let me summarize a couple of important points. First, a bleed can have four different objectives: to win the second round and hence the match, shortening the long round when one’s deck benefits from a shorter round, driving dangerous cards out of an opponent’s hand to prevent their use in the critical third round, or exploiting round control to either develop carry-over or to force your opponent into playing better cards than would otherwise be needed as your opponent can neither afford to pass nor to fall too far behind. But it comes with the risk of losing a card if you cannot stay ahead of your opponent on score.
Before mulliganing for the second round, if you intend to bleed, you should consider how deep you need / are willing to go into the round. If you are wanting to win the round, you will use all cards, and clearly want the best hand you can get. If you are shortening round three, you should decide just how short the round needs to be. If you are wanting to bleed out critical cards, you need to decide whether you can stay ahead without using your own critical cards, and then whether you would be likely to draw those cards in the round three draw/mulligan phases. The deeper you can play into the round without losing a card, the more likely you will force out good cards. Note that your opponent must guard against a 2-0, so that opponent will usually need to keep some good cards in hand; you do not. Therefore, if conditions are right, you may want to mulligan those cards you would not want to use in round two. If you are playing for carryover, you want to either insure you do not lose a card or that the carryover is worth the lost card. Generally, you would play as few cards as possible to achieve your carryover. And if you are playing to draw out better opponent cards than you play, you want cards that threaten points but are not that valuable in the final round, or cards that trade up in provisions against likely answers. You must threaten a 2-0 or your opponent will simply play junk cards and you gain nothing. On the other hand, you don’t want to be using cards that would be better for you in round three.
Once you decide whether you will keep or mulligan your round three win condition cards before round two (you keep them if you don’t want to risk not drawing them later, you get rid of them if you want to play deeper into you hand than keeping them would allow), you need to consider the cards you do need for a good bleed. Generally, you should not expect to be successful in a short bleed – assuming you did not win round one on even, but went down a card, your opponent essentially can afford to play one card more than you can to win round two. If you attempt to bleed playing only one card, it is very likely that your opponent will win the round with two much cheaper cards than the one you played and that good card you played would have been better saved for round three. That is not to say you cannot opportunistically abort a bleed if it has served its purpose (for instance, if your opponent immediately plays the card you were trying to bleed out of his/her deck), but you should never count on a short bleed. You can also abort a bleed if you believe your opponent will have to go a card down to catch up and that playing round three a card up is less risky than continuing the bleed. Also, unless you are willing to play round three down a card – which could be the case if you have a very strong short round, or you desperately need to (and can!) get at least one threatening card out of the opponent – you should not expect to successfully bleed with bad cards. If you cannot, at some point get and stay sufficiently far ahead of your opponent that they don’t have reach to catch up, you will go down a card. Thus, you will be balancing playing good cards with reserving good cards for round three. Remember, a bleed is rarely useful if you are playing better cards than you force your opponent to play, but allowing an opponent to only play bad cards is not effective either. Having engines to play early will usually demand an opponent response, holding one or more high tempo plays to use immediately before passing to try to get sufficiently far ahead that the opponent can’t catch up is also important.
When playing a bleed, I suggest selecting those cards you are willing to commit (exclude any cards you need to reserve for round three), and then to play the hand as though those cards were all you held to try to win the round. Of course, if you are given a pass opportunity (you are ahead of your opponent on your turn), you can consider passing if you have achieved the bleed objectives. And if you reach a point where, if the opponent responds to your play by passing, your best response is to pass yourself, you should probably pass before playing – even if you go down a card, otherwise you will go down two cards.
Finally, do not play a bleed robotically – watch what your opponent plays. Be prepared to exploit obvious signs of weakness, even if that was not your original plan. Conversely, look for ways to step out if your opponent is unexpectedly resilient. Always ask whether you have achieved your objectives, or if you should try for new objectives.
Like many others, bleeding is a skill that comes from practice. Do not assume that a bad bleed is always a bad idea – sometimes it is the only hope in a matchup. And do not always assume that a successful bleed was perfect strategy – sometimes even good bleeds would have been played with less risk going directly into round three with a dry pass. But understanding bleeding is critical to Gwent and pays off in the long run.
Bleeding
Bleeding is the term used to describe the round one winner playing into round two in order to draw out important cards of the opponent or to shorten the third round. Successful bleeding (and successful defense against bleeding) is a key element of Gwent strategy. This article will discuss elements of a successful bleed; the next will discuss defending against a bleed.
Successful bleeding begins before the start of round two, with two decisions: whether is bleeding appropriate, and which round two mulligans will shape the hand to bleed most effectively. Deciding whether to bleed or not was already discussed in the article on Round Two pass strategy (found here). But let me summarize a couple of important points. First, a bleed can have four different objectives: to win the second round and hence the match, shortening the long round when one’s deck benefits from a shorter round, driving dangerous cards out of an opponent’s hand to prevent their use in the critical third round, or exploiting round control to either develop carry-over or to force your opponent into playing better cards than would otherwise be needed as your opponent can neither afford to pass nor to fall too far behind. But it comes with the risk of losing a card if you cannot stay ahead of your opponent on score.
Before mulliganing for the second round, if you intend to bleed, you should consider how deep you need / are willing to go into the round. If you are wanting to win the round, you will use all cards, and clearly want the best hand you can get. If you are shortening round three, you should decide just how short the round needs to be. If you are wanting to bleed out critical cards, you need to decide whether you can stay ahead without using your own critical cards, and then whether you would be likely to draw those cards in the round three draw/mulligan phases. The deeper you can play into the round without losing a card, the more likely you will force out good cards. Note that your opponent must guard against a 2-0, so that opponent will usually need to keep some good cards in hand; you do not. Therefore, if conditions are right, you may want to mulligan those cards you would not want to use in round two. If you are playing for carryover, you want to either insure you do not lose a card or that the carryover is worth the lost card. Generally, you would play as few cards as possible to achieve your carryover. And if you are playing to draw out better opponent cards than you play, you want cards that threaten points but are not that valuable in the final round, or cards that trade up in provisions against likely answers. You must threaten a 2-0 or your opponent will simply play junk cards and you gain nothing. On the other hand, you don’t want to be using cards that would be better for you in round three.
Once you decide whether you will keep or mulligan your round three win condition cards before round two (you keep them if you don’t want to risk not drawing them later, you get rid of them if you want to play deeper into you hand than keeping them would allow), you need to consider the cards you do need for a good bleed. Generally, you should not expect to be successful in a short bleed – assuming you did not win round one on even, but went down a card, your opponent essentially can afford to play one card more than you can to win round two. If you attempt to bleed playing only one card, it is very likely that your opponent will win the round with two much cheaper cards than the one you played and that good card you played would have been better saved for round three. That is not to say you cannot opportunistically abort a bleed if it has served its purpose (for instance, if your opponent immediately plays the card you were trying to bleed out of his/her deck), but you should never count on a short bleed. You can also abort a bleed if you believe your opponent will have to go a card down to catch up and that playing round three a card up is less risky than continuing the bleed. Also, unless you are willing to play round three down a card – which could be the case if you have a very strong short round, or you desperately need to (and can!) get at least one threatening card out of the opponent – you should not expect to successfully bleed with bad cards. If you cannot, at some point get and stay sufficiently far ahead of your opponent that they don’t have reach to catch up, you will go down a card. Thus, you will be balancing playing good cards with reserving good cards for round three. Remember, a bleed is rarely useful if you are playing better cards than you force your opponent to play, but allowing an opponent to only play bad cards is not effective either. Having engines to play early will usually demand an opponent response, holding one or more high tempo plays to use immediately before passing to try to get sufficiently far ahead that the opponent can’t catch up is also important.
When playing a bleed, I suggest selecting those cards you are willing to commit (exclude any cards you need to reserve for round three), and then to play the hand as though those cards were all you held to try to win the round. Of course, if you are given a pass opportunity (you are ahead of your opponent on your turn), you can consider passing if you have achieved the bleed objectives. And if you reach a point where, if the opponent responds to your play by passing, your best response is to pass yourself, you should probably pass before playing – even if you go down a card, otherwise you will go down two cards.
Finally, do not play a bleed robotically – watch what your opponent plays. Be prepared to exploit obvious signs of weakness, even if that was not your original plan. Conversely, look for ways to step out if your opponent is unexpectedly resilient. Always ask whether you have achieved your objectives, or if you should try for new objectives.
Like many others, bleeding is a skill that comes from practice. Do not assume that a bad bleed is always a bad idea – sometimes it is the only hope in a matchup. And do not always assume that a successful bleed was perfect strategy – sometimes even good bleeds would have been played with less risk going directly into round three with a dry pass. But understanding bleeding is critical to Gwent and pays off in the long run.