Gwent the syndicate cardgame

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This meta is already dominated with the new Syndicate hidden cache leader ability.
Hoard is completely of the rail while normal engine cards in other factions all have some kind of restriction or requirement here it's just play your card and get +1,+2,+3 boost every turn.
If you try to catch-up they always have a 4 provision card named Sea Jackel that can boost up to 13 points.
Yes you can tech against this deck in particular or play it yourself but that ruins the whole Gwent experience this not the Syndicate cardgame!
Syndicate in the last patch already was the most broken faction with Passiflora, Savolla/Madame Luiza, Phillipa Eilhart and leader ability blood money.
These cards for some reason didn't get a nerf this patch and on top of this we get this nonsense new leader ability.
If there is no hotfix to balance things out I will skip this pro-rank/ranked season, I wish everyone and including myself a GG but this is no fun at all.
 

rrc

Forum veteran
Hidden Cache is IMHO the strongest leader in the entire game. It is absolutely bonkers, as bonkers as Pincer or DJ when they first came out. It can be 12 provisions and still be the strongest leader in the game. Sincerely hoping to see some huge nerf to this *** leader.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
This is really bad. There are so many problems related to this particular case i dont know where to start...

- Someone (cant remember who or where, otherwise i would credit that person) said SY was a powerful faction, but had weak leaders, or at least not on par with some of the other popular ones. That would balance things out, in a weird way. But now with a really strong leader and really strong cards that synergize well with it? Well, THIS happens.

- Even worse is that SY was already top of the meta last season, so the dev team should take extra care with what they were adding for SY. Instead we get Hidden Cache, that EVERYONE said was OP right when it was announced a few weeks ago, but the Gwent team shrugged it off and released it as is anyway.

This atittude is not ok. When you know (or should know) that something you're adding is broken and will ruin any possibility of balance, and release it anyway, prefering to see what happens and let things in a terrible state (possibly for a whole month/season) until it's fixed.

TL;DR: The dev team lacks foresight when creating cards/abilities and is too slow to react to balance issues.
 
There are still a shit ton of broken cards in this game that was never address or change? Instead they made changes to cards that didn't need changes? Like WTH 😡😂😠
 

rrc

Forum veteran
This is really bad. There are so many problems related to this particular case i dont know where to start...

- Someone (cant remember who or where, otherwise i would credit that person) said SY was a powerful faction, but had weak leaders, or at least not on par with some of the other popular ones. That would balance things out, in a weird way. But now with a really strong leader and really strong cards that synergize well with it? Well, THIS happens.

- Even worse is that SY was already top of the meta last season, so the dev team should take extra care with what they were adding for SY. Instead we get Hidden Cache, that EVERYONE said was OP right when it was announced a few weeks ago, but the Gwent team shrugged it off and released it as is anyway.

This atittude is not ok. When you know (or should know) that something you're adding is broken and will ruin any possibility of balance, and release it anyway, prefering to see what happens and let things in a terrible state (possibly for a whole month/season) until it's fixed.

TL;DR: The dev team lacks foresight when creating cards/abilities and is too slow to react to balance issues.
I knew it the second I saw this. How can the dev team not know that this is super OP? The idea is actually nice. Hoard was a pathetic mechanism. You need coins in the purse for hoard to kick in, which means you can't spend it. So, this leader ability solves the problem. But -3 Hoard is too much. This passive ability alone is enough for the leader to be tier 1. Why giving the active ability for all three rounds? Even if you want to give that why 15 provisions as though this is just another leader ability? How can they think this is only as strong and as good as Mahakam Forge (both sharing same provisions)? It baffles me.

But I wish they don't change the -3 hoard from the leader. I wish the fix is one of these:
1) If the leader has to remain the same in ability, then it should have 11 provisions.
2) If the leader should have 15 provision, change the active ability.
a) Either 1 charge which gains 3 coins.
b) Or gain 1 coin and the ability refresh each round.
3) Or a middle ground of -2 Hoard, One time gain 3 coins, 14 provisions.
 
Seems like it's time for another explanation from the game director. This time not about rewards and (monetization of) vanity stuff, but about actual game balancing, patching and the devs' methods, including testing for balance and quality (bugs).
 
This atittude is not ok. When you know (or should know) that something you're adding is broken and will ruin any possibility of balance, and release it anyway, prefering to see what happens and let things in a terrible state (possibly for a whole month/season) until it's fixed.

TL;DR: The dev team lacks foresight when creating cards/abilities and is too slow to react to balance issues.
Agreed, but they will sadly continue adding problematic mechanics and overpowered Cards the change to renew / Hanmarvyn's BD is probably the best indication for this.

Seriously before the Syndicate Expansion i thought they are on the right track balance wise but than they started adding problematic Mechanics / Cards with each Expansion SY: non intractable Coin Mechanic, IJ: Defenders, MoO: Scenarios / over tuned Poison and they will continue going down that road to release more Overpowered BS that people don't care about the old Overpowered BS anymore.

The new SY Leader Skill shows that they didn't learn s... from the glorious DJ Townsfolk Days, seriously Hidden Cache feels like every SY Coin ability got changed in to a Deploy ability.
 
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Even way back on rank 11 you start seeing these decks way more often. They are piloted badly sometimes, and still there's nothing you can do. It's like Oceanmud recently said: they should make some sort of 'autoplay' mode instead of 'discard', so the game plays a random card with a random target. They'll probably still get a 50% winrate this way.

The point ceiling of the ability and lack of need to set things up properly is just frustrating. I hope a fix is imminent, as there's several streamers who are in a precarious position: you don't want to stream SY, but you lose way too much to make it a fun activity.

Did they screw things up by adding these abilities without much thought? Though new content is always welcomed, they didn't really need to do it at this point.
 
Well, the leader ability is very strong and admittedly a good bit stronger than I gave it credit for (although I did state it would be their strongest leader ability) and definitely a good portion overtuned.

The (main) issue however is not the leader, it is the fact that the competetive Syndicate cards (diregarding the Crime focused deck, they should be fine) are mostly overtuned.

They have a scenario that creates 2 engines, Saul (who is an issue due to usually immediately moving out of damage removal range), Luiza (with the Savolla interaction and Tinboy), Adriano, Seductress, Peaches and the list goes on.

The fact that SY is currently the faction running engine overload, while not even NR does that to that extend should be a wake-up call.
 
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The new leader ability is not the root problem this cycle of OP decks always appears when new leaders/cards/mechanics are introduced.
I understand it's difficult to balance things when you introduce something new and let creative minds have fun with it.

Why doesn't CDPR take advantage of this and share information/test things first with a select group from the community?

Perhaps a greater concern is that the whole concept of faction identity is starting to decline.
Every patch when some kind of new mechanic is introduced most factions must have it.
One mechanic or a combination of it can be so dominant that it can rule out many archetypes.

Why do we need 3 factions that play poison? Isn't 1 enough?
Why can a 5p neutral card destroy the most expensive 12-14p faction unique scenario?
Why can some factions play their highest provision card twice?
....
etc.
 
SY is a strong faction, and we can all agree with that, but you need very good knowledge of the game AND optimal coin managment. This very last point doesnt apply anymore since the release of Hidden Cache. This leader ability DOESNT NEED any knowledge or managment at all.
You just throw cards and those cards work on their own with MINIMUM effort. The only thing you have to remember is to put in play your defender before Saul.
This is the strenght that makes HC G0dTier. A drunk blind monkey can pilot this kind of deck and have 50% WR.
The leader ability need to be reworked, or the card that interact with it. Better the first option IMHO.
 
SY is a strong faction, and we can all agree with that, but you need very good knowledge of the game AND optimal coin managment. This very last point doesnt apply anymore since the release of Hidden Cache. This leader ability DOESNT NEED any knowledge or managment at all.
You just throw cards and those cards work on their own with MINIMUM effort. The only thing you have to remember is to put in play your defender before Saul.
This is the strenght that makes HC G0dTier. A drunk blind monkey can pilot this kind of deck and have 50% WR.
The leader ability need to be reworked, or the card that interact with it. Better the first option IMHO.
Totally agreed. Pre-patch SY was the "smart" deck, when I started to play Gwent I didn't think for a moment to choose SY due to its management's difficulty. But it was also, for the same reason, the most fascinating faction.
Now instead, with the new leader ability, it is really stupid. You just need to start first the first round and then play ALWAYS the same order of cards, they don't need any thinking skills.
And please change the ability of Madame Luiza, SY has a defender, so there is no way Luiza must be unstoppable.
 
In these days it's really hard to get gg from me. I am not giving gg any of these [ . . . ] imba deck copiers. With this deck they havent ruined only the meta, they've also ruined how syndicate supposed to be played. In old good times Syndicate was like managing your coins, gaining them and spending them in true time considering your late game. Right now, just hold all your coins, send all your engines and boost them af. There is even no variety in gameplay. [ . . . ] Rather than being creative you are just playing deck made by pros. You dont even bother using your own brain. And devs didnt even release hotfix immediately after seeing this situation. Amazing job CDPR.
 
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So I've been really addicted to Gwent. But for now I am done.
I AM QUITTING THE GAME.

Reason? : Savolla/Madame Luiza

How can dev's not think that sav/luiza combo is the most braindead easy to execute combo that its very difficult to counter. Every syndicate players (if they want to win) has those two cards, and they do the same thing. Play it at the end. No set up required. And to make everything even more dandy, they give syndicate almost unlimited purifies, and boosts. 18 provision for 23+6 armor.
Now I understand if other cards are needed to set up for this endgame sav/luiza combo. But guess what? you don't! just play the two, and that's it!

For example, for the elf deck, you need to set up the 3p token elves for the final execution. It takes lots of time to set it up, and it is easy to counter. If it is not countered, it can do lots of damage and play for 11 or 13 if lucky. vernossiel costs 12p. And Feign death costs 13p. if perfectly executed it brings 3+6+6 = 15. So about 28 on average if done correctly. But it can be easily countered, but what makes it fun is the buildup, the risk, and the reward. so count about 25p for 28.

Sav-Luiza combo has no buildup, no risk, but same reward for the provision cost. 18p or 23+armor

Sure you might say that there are some elf units that boost/damage based on number of elves.
But in some sense the real issue isn't just the two in isolation, it's all the other gold units in SY that are so stand alone strong that requires no real thinking or "building". If you look at SY units, most of them are just packed with different utilities from poison, purify, boost, and even seize?.. and it's not even one time uses, most of them is just use as much as you want from the coin purse.. and the coin purse.. is really generous and gives them so much flexibility...

I don't think SY is overpowered, but those cards in combo are. It destroys the ingenuity of the game, and after playing against the same syndicate deck, it gets a bit boring. Redundant. Dull. I think I've read other forums and tried to find out how to counter it, and most says it is very difficult to counter and they all say the same thing as what I've said above several months ago.

So, I'm done.
Gonna play another game where Devs give a butt or two.
 
Hidden Cache is IMHO the strongest leader in the entire game. It is absolutely bonkers, as bonkers as Pincer or DJ when they first came out. It can be 12 provisions and still be the strongest leader in the game. Sincerely hoping to see some huge nerf to this *** leader.

I just started playing with HC as my very first Syndicate deck, and I am blown away by how consistently I’ve been winning with it. Typically when I make a new deck, it takes a lot of tweaking to get it to the point where it’s competitive, but my very first attempt with HC proved to be pretty damn good.

The fact that you get to use the leader ability *every round* is bananas. It’s effectively giving you an additional card to play each time!

It’s definitely hurt a lot by Lockdown, but against anything else it’s absolutely savage.
 
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It's a joke honestly. Teamlevitiangaming put it TIer 1, with "no glaring weaknesses."

It doesn't take big brains to see how broken it is. [ . . . ] My guess is Syndicate is the newest faction without even playing this game much, because like all game developers, they buff the newest faction so people pay money to build it. Same for new heroes in LoL, or Hots. Shortsighted and stupid because unlike those games you can't "ban" heros, so players don't have a choice to play against these new hoards of duplicate syndicate players and just want to quit or quit all together.

Am I over exaggerating? I don't think so.
Look at Passiflora Peaches. It's basically a 4power 5provision card that automatically gets 1 at the end of every round. so basically it's a 5-5, and it goes up basically without condition. Hoard 4? comon.. it's harder to NOT trigger that with hidden chache..
But lets compare to a dwarf Mahakam Defender.
It's also a 4power 5 provision card. It can only be boosted when it is already boosted. which means it not's an auto 5-5 at the end of the round, and if it goes below 4, it doesn't get boosted.
This is the simplest example of how this game is not balanced. You might say it's only a small boost, but I beg to differ, it adds up.
How about Sly Seductress. Which, is also a 4-5, and it makes sense the bond and the +1 as the other player makes the unit, but then guess what? Of course, it has an option to gain a shield.
How about Saul de Nauvarette? Ok it is cool that Hoard 3,boost 1. Ok this unit sucks. Oh wait Hoard 6, boost 2. Oh ok that's pretty good since it only costs 7. SEVEN. provision, and since the leader ability cuts it by 3, and you get 3. So it's almost a guaranteed +2. But oh wait, let's give it a third trait, even though it's only 7 provision. How about hmmm.. +3? if it has 9, aka 6 coins in the bank.

And then you have Phillipia Eilhart.. vivaldi bank, the two Bolsodis, and the Savolla/Madame Luiza

These syndicate cards remind me of the new heros that came out in LoL and Hots. Just better versions of old heros.
I played lots of games usually at top level, CS:go, SC2, LoL, WoW, D3, WC3, HOTS....
At first I loved this game because it had some great potential. Thought it was a great game and a very enjoyable at least.
But now I see it's balancing is the worst amongst all the games I've played.

To the people responsible for balancing this game, especially since it's by such a reputable company that made other great games: do your job or let others do it for you.
 
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"No mercy for the developers" this month.Is it possible that they can't edit the leader abilities before the update?
So now I am playing only unracked matches and this is because of hidden cache..
I believe in next month's update for becoming the game more balanced.
(Sorry for my english but I am so much nervous this month and I just wanting to write what I was thinking)..
 
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