Gwent Undervalued Cards

[quintivarium]

I have noticed several cards rarely used by other players, but that I find very nice. So this thread is to offer an opportunity for players to highlight their favorite underutilized cards.

As I list some of my favorites I have to ask whether they are too weak, too inconsistent, don’t fit recent metas, or have simply been overlooked. Anyway, here are some of my favorites.

NEUTRAL:

Syanna — vulnerable to removal, but huge potential, and not just in gimmick decks.

Ihuarraquax — Yes, this card now sees significant play in VIY decks, but has potential in many other decks.

Idarran — This card is gimmicky, but it can be a lot of fun. It is too easily disrupted to be a deck centerpiece, but it is a nice tool for some decks.

Wagenburg — a great card that lacks an adequate supporting cast.

MONSTERS

It is evidence of a sad state of Gwent that I can identify no monster cards that I feel are overlooked. Prior to the last update, I would have listed Fleder: a play it and forget it engine generating a reliable level of points, but not so strong as to draw heavy removal, or to make you feel bad if it did. And the ability to destroy an unwanted allied unit was a nice bonus. The reworked version may look better on paper, but only has value (often in unrealized vitality) only in vampire decks. And it lost its distinctive quirkiness.

NILFGAARD

Cadvarine — a very nice card completely overshadowed but the unfortunate existence of the grotesquely overpowered Coup de Grace.

Courier — an often overlooked source of consistency for other cards in several NG archetypes.

NORTHERN REALMS

Archgriffin — a good card that I think got a bad reputation from players who want it to carry rather than support decks.

Nenneke — a fast and flexible source of boosts.

Nathaniel — a slow but viscous passive engine.

Windhalm — when bolstered with extra shields, Windhalm can be a huge thorn in an opponent’s side.

SCOIA’TAEL

I’m not sure either of these is really underutilized, but few ST cards are.

Hawker Smuggler — a card very capable of forcing an opponent into unpleasant decisions.

Pyrotechnician — another card that can be surprisingly annoying.

SKELLIGE

Artis — one of the biggest game changing cards out there; a bit difficult to use.

Dire Bear — a potential game winner I never see

Flaminica — after her recent buff, this card briefly appeared, but has disappeared again; this card has so many potential combos I’m surprised.

SYNDICATE

Igor the Hook — maybe I’m biased because for a long time he was the only good SY unit I owned.

Blind Eye Apothecary — makes a nice pairing with Igor’s insanity.

 

[Draconifors]

Olgierd: Immortal.

I also really like Musicians of Blaviken, because even when it rolls a Poison it's still a 6 body -- and the resilience is excellent when it happens. This card is always in any Neutral deck I build and I'd say it pulls its weight often enough.

I absolutely loved Ihuarraquax in (late) beta, when it damaged itself on deploy and then dealt massive damage when its current strength = base strength, so I sometimes consider trying to find cool uses for the card. Uses that are not Viy, that is...

Prior to the last update, I would have listed Fleder: a play it and forget it engine generating a reliable level of points, but not so strong as to draw heavy removal, or to make you feel bad if it did. And the ability to destroy an unwanted allied unit was a nice bonus.

I agree here. I had a vampire deck that ran a Fleder or two, and while the card was far from great it had its uses plus, I believe, also had some surprise value.

 

[Gimme_a_break]

I will go with Bekker's Dark Mirror. Very useful in Ursine Ritual decks, especially with Jutta. Also good against any deck that has highly boosted units (e.g. Viy ). Very good value for 8 provisions.

NORTHERN REALMS

Archgriffin — a good card that I think got a bad reputation from players who want it to carry rather than support decks.

Imagine this:
- you boost your Archgriffin in round 1 and 2 to 30 points
- then you play your 30 points card in round 3
- then your opponent uses Yennefer's Invocation
- then your opponent uses Joachim on the stolen Archgriffin
How many points will the Archgriffin be on your opponent's side of the board?

 

[Slizzl]

SHUPE

 

[DRK3]

Great thread by @quintivarium , to be honest i even thought it was one of my threads that was ressurected, i know i put some post about underused cards somewhere. Anyway, first i will comment on OP's picks, ONLY the ones i disagree:

NG Courier - this card became obsolete when that viper witcher alchemist was added, that is basically courier+ offieri merchant, 2 in 1

Archgriffin - i do not think this card its good at all, in this meta and every other meta, because all decks in all metas always have at least one tall punish like Heatwave, and if you boost this 20+pts, its begging to be hit, you just have to pray the opponent missed it. Viy is basically the much better version of this, since you can only target the consumes, not the Viy itself.
This is a meme card and im a meme player, but i never built a deck for this, nor do i plan to do so, as i hate going so tall.

Now, my picks:

- Bone Talisman - i guess i consider it one of my signature cards, as the ultimate swarm fan.
Currently we only see it in Arachas swarm lists, but its a shame, there are quite a few strong decks that swarm really well like Lippy Cerys, symbiosis and elves, where they regularly have 12+ units on a full R3 and ive never seen anyone else using bone talisman on those decks.

- Cyprian Wiley - ive always loved and used this card, but he's specially good this meta, because of 2 cards: Madoc and Flying Redanian (which is usually found on the most played deck in this meta).

How often have you seen heatwaves on madocs? Heatwave is a 10pr, no body, Wiley does the same thing for 8pr with a 5pt body, and you get to keep heatwave for something bigger, and even if the opponent doesnt have any of these 2 cards, its easy to find a 3or less enemy (it bypasses armor and shields too).

- Artefact Compression - i use this instead of spores, only 1pr more and its also a lock. One of the cheapest tall punishes, great for this meta where the tall units are boosted (Lined Pockets, NG metabreaker, etc) and not base strength (only MO pointslam, Tibor and Jutta).
Can even find use vs some decks that dont boost like SK Warriors, if they use TA on a bronze engine as opener (if its the stratagem that gives veil, it will reset but not lock, less effective but probably gets the engine into removal range)

Post automatically merged: Apr 23, 2021

Imagine this:
- you boost your Archgriffin in round 1 and 2 to 30 points
- then you play your 30 points card in round 3
- then your opponent uses Yennefer's Invocation
- then your opponent uses Joachim on the stolen Archgriffin
How many points will the Archgriffin be on your opponent's side of the board?

I didnt come up with this strategy, i think i saw it on Misterhabbla, but i cant even say for certain it was him that came up with it. The best strategy to play Archgriffin:

play it R1, behind a defender, pray it doesnt get answered. Now, you WONT play archgriffin anymore, you want to use *Erland*(EDITED) as R3 finisher, it gets immune and absorbs archgriffin boosts (and its only vulnerable to things like CoC, Yrden and Igni, which arent as common as heatwave/ Yen Invo).
You can also double up on this by playing hyperthin NR and using Triss and Yen Divination to reveal boosted archgriffin, like NG does with Tibor.

 

[Tucoffin]

I didnt come up with this strategy, i think i saw it on Misterhabbla, but i cant even say for certain it was him that came up with it. The best strategy to play Archgriffin:

play it R1, behind a defender, pray it doesnt get answered. Now, you WONT play archgriffin anymore, you want to use Eldain as R3 finisher, it gets immune and absorbs archgriffin boosts (and its only vulnerable to things like CoC, Yrden and Igni, which arent as common as heatwave/ Yen Invo).
You can also double up on this by playing hyperthin NR and using Triss and Yen Divination to reveal boosted archgriffin, like NG does with Tibor.

You mean Erland, instead of Eldain surely (just to avoid confusion in newer players' understanding).

 

[EduFerraz]

Great thread by @quintivarium , to be honest i even thought it was one of my threads that was ressurected, i know i put some post about underused cards somewhere. Anyway, first i will comment on OP's picks, ONLY the ones i disagree:

NG Courier - this card became obsolete when that viper witcher alchemist was added, that is basically courier+ offieri merchant, 2 in 1

Archgriffin - i do not think this card its good at all, in this meta and every other meta, because all decks in all metas always have at least one tall punish like Heatwave, and if you boost this 20+pts, its begging to be hit, you just have to pray the opponent missed it. Viy is basically the much better version of this, since you can only target the consumes, not the Viy itself.
This is a meme card and im a meme player, but i never built a deck for this, nor do i plan to do so, as i hate going so tall.

Now, my picks:

- Bone Talisman - i guess i consider it one of my signature cards, as the ultimate swarm fan.
Currently we only see it in Arachas swarm lists, but its a shame, there are quite a few strong decks that swarm really well like Lippy Cerys, symbiosis and elves, where they regularly have 12+ units on a full R3 and ive never seen anyone else using bone talisman on those decks.

- Cyprian Wiley - ive always loved and used this card, but he's specially good this meta, because of 2 cards: Madoc and Flying Redanian (which is usually found on the most played deck in this meta).

How often have you seen heatwaves on madocs? Heatwave is a 10pr, no body, Wiley does the same thing for 8pr with a 5pt body, and you get to keep heatwave for something bigger, and even if the opponent doesnt have any of these 2 cards, its easy to find a 3or less enemy (it bypasses armor and shields too).

- Artefact Compression - i use this instead of spores, only 1pr more and its also a lock. One of the cheapest tall punishes, great for this meta where the tall units are boosted (Lined Pockets, NG metabreaker, etc) and not base strength (only MO pointslam, Tibor and Jutta).
Can even find use vs some decks that dont boost like SK Warriors, if they use TA on a bronze engine as opener (if its the stratagem that gives veil, it will reset but not lock, less effective but probably gets the engine into removal range)

Post automatically merged: Apr 23, 2021

I didnt come up with this strategy, i think i saw it on Misterhabbla, but i cant even say for certain it was him that came up with it. The best strategy to play Archgriffin:

play it R1, behind a defender, pray it doesnt get answered. Now, you WONT play archgriffin anymore, you want to use Eldain as R3 finisher, it gets immune and absorbs archgriffin boosts (and its only vulnerable to things like CoC, Yrden and Igni, which arent as common as heatwave/ Yen Invo).
You can also double up on this by playing hyperthin NR and using Triss and Yen Divination to reveal boosted archgriffin, like NG does with Tibor.

I think bushr thought in that stdategy, or He copies from misterhabla.

But, for my experience, problably mister copies bushr

 

[Gimme_a_break]

I didnt come up with this strategy, i think i saw it on Misterhabbla, but i cant even say for certain it was him that came up with it. The best strategy to play Archgriffin:

play it R1, behind a defender, pray it doesnt get answered. Now, you WONT play archgriffin anymore, you want to use Eldain as R3 finisher, it gets immune and absorbs archgriffin boosts (and its only vulnerable to things like CoC, Yrden and Igni, which arent as common as heatwave/ Yen Invo).
You can also double up on this by playing hyperthin NR and using Triss and Yen Divination to reveal boosted archgriffin, like NG does with Tibor.

What I had in mind by drawing that Archgriffin/Invo scenario was how would the card behave when stolen with Invocation.
Would it keep all the boost and eventually be a 38 point when pulled with Joachim, or would it reset to base power and be 14 point card after Joachim?

 

[DRK3]

What I had in mind by drawing that Archgriffin/Invo scenario was how would the card behave when stolen with Invocation.
Would it keep all the boost and eventually be a 38 point when pulled with Joachim, or would it reset to base power and be 14 point card after Joachim?

I cant say for sure - like i said, i never played archgriffin myself - but from reading the card description more carefully, my guess is the card would lose its boosts, since the text seems to point out it only retains them when the card is on board at the end of a round.

ALTHOUGH... it wouldnt be the first time a card would behave differently from the text, and i wouldnt be surprised if the devs coding made the archgriffin retain its boosts always unless its destroyed/banished.

 

[quintivarium]

In general, I think boosted cards stolen by Yennifer revert to base value.

 

[Guest 4416545]

Got to mention the card i fall in love this season and i think peopel (as its normal) undervalue him a lot: Avallach the wise.

Its neutral, 11 provisión, an unit with 1 power... Seems a meme, but, he is mvp in my deck since he is an elf, which make him fit elfs deck procing scenarios by example or not disrupting comandos, not only that he is like a tutor letting you choose the artifact you want (never miss scenario thanks to the wise) thining in one the deck to more consistency and even more: he is the best meal for ele'yas, making eleyas a 9 provisión for 11 points and setting more elfs for vernossiel in case u want to go brrr enemy board.

Dont know, for me its a great Discover how good he is, im max mmr i ever have with st and i think its because all this Guy brings to the deck, the only bad thing its peopel dont gg when they see avallach and lose i Guess they get mad, but not gonna lie i dont care hha.

 

[DRK3]

On my last post, i only shared some neutral underused cards, now i'll do it for faction cards:

SK: Ulfhedin - 4pt body, 7prov, does half damage of an enemy unit (for example can kill an Yghern with 6/7 armor)
He's quite cheap and plays for more than its provisions +95% of the time. He usually doesnt remove the enemy units, but i like to use him R1, and keep my better tall removal for R3. Specially great this meta where there are big units everywhere, even Arachas swarm gets a few 8-10 pt chimeras/endrega warriors.

NG: Peter - a 3pt body +reset for only 6 prov. It fell out of popularity when ball and poison became a thing, but i see a lot of NG decks struggling with not enough tall punishes, since they usually only run Yen Invo + ball/poisons. Personally i use him on all my NG decks unless im running Yrden.

NR: Kerack frigate - OK, so this is not actually an underused card, but its nowhere to be seen now, while IMO its the best bronze in the game (maybe tied with larvae) and can carry a whole deck.
Its understandable NR is at its lowest now, due to SY lined pockets dominance, but before that WotW brought NR witchers which replaced this card and i disagree, i think frigate+soldiers is better than that. I would say after the upcoming patch it could see a resurgence with SY's nerf, but its unlikely as other NR cards will be buffed and take the spot (PFI!!!)

ST: Morenn and Ciaran - with the exception of NG which is the locks faction, ST is the only faction with 2 locks, but i see players only using one.
I've won quite a few games because i use one, players assume i dont have another lock, then i do and stop their biggest plays and win. Now that they're dirt cheap, i strongly recommend using both.