Gwent Unplayable Cards

[ShadowKayn]

Hello

I remember a while back i watched a video of gwent developers saying that they want gwent to be unique by not giving it any filler cards. and that they will make the patch notes different that other card games as they will buff all the weak cards instead of nerfing the few strong cards. and that really was the case back in the days but now there are a huge amount of cards that seems as a filler/unplayable. in this thread i will list the competitively unplayable cards and suggest a fix to show the amount of potential this game has without adding new expansions. Ofcourse i dont expect you to do all fix all these cards but 20 of them per month would be a good start.

So i counted 109 unplayable mostly gold cards that some of them are straight up fillers and others are just way too weak. this amount of cards is even more than the upcoming master mirror expansion. if you fix these cards then there will be alot of possiblities and meta changes that will happen in this meta to keep it fresh. also one thing i noticed is that most of the unplayable cards are neutral cards. and i think i know the reason. its because of the leader abilities lock on their specific faction. for example NR leader ability there are 9 faction locked leader abilities. if unlock them then alot of neutral cards will be playable and even competetive. hell you can even unlock some new decks like bandits or witchers once more. i know there are plans to fix some of them in the future but i will just ignore them to list the problems that we face now because i dont know for sure if they will be fixed or not. however i didnt list spycards cus they said that they wil lfix it for sure.

here are the 109 unplayable cards that need to be fixed:

Trap cards: 11 cards: litterly no play except for crushing trap and sometimes mahakam horn: solution is to add more trap synergy in the next expantion

phoenix: i see some poeple experiment with it but its way too weak for its cost

Keltullis: this card doesnt work in this meta and if there is a meta where this card will work then it will be cancer to play against. so you might as well just change what it does.

Hanmarvyn's blue dream: i can see a world where assimilate can play it but it just costs way too much

weather cards: 14 cards: no play because there is no synergy with it. it is just pure damage. and row damage cards such us lacerate are way more efficient that any weather, sollution is to add units that can benefit from weathers would be cool if you change weather cards to be like yugi oh feild cards. like each weather will affect the entire board and benefit certain unit types and harm other unit types.

Most of boost/damage artifacts:9 cards: yeah they can be cancer in no units decks but i think you can manage to make them playable without making cancer no units cards.maybe make afrtifacts last for 2 or 3 rounds so that people have to play units and use the artifacts instead of stacking them for last round.

Dandelion Poet: entirely change the ability

Vernon Roach: it is way too Rng based and most of the times its not worth the 12 provitions. maybe increase its power and make it choose 2 bronze cards to play

Syanna: it can be a very powerful card but its just way too squishy

siggi reven: nerfed too hard

U'mas curse: -1 provision and it will be good for assimilate

Collution: it can be very strong with more synergy

Primorial D'ao: this is a filler card

Dragons:5 cards: they are very well balanced cards but they lack synergy.

Triss:butterflies too expensive for boosting a random card. it has to be played when you only have 1 unit if uwant to use it efficiently which makes it very expensive for a very specific use. maybe make it 9 provision and even then you still wont see much play

ciri:nova change ability

aguara: true form: -1 provision

manticore venom: -1 provision

firesworn zealots: 6 cards that are not seeing play others are good in hybrid decks. jsut buff those 6 cards to make it a viable deck

igor the hook: maybe -1 fee?

Xarthisius: -1 provision

Stregobor: -2 provision

Triss marigold+ yennefer: divination: either change ability or -1 or 2 provision

mage NR synergies: 5 cards no compettitive play others see some play: make more mage synergy. maybe mage leader ability

Gaunter O'dimm: Maraal does it better

Dandilion: vainglory: win game if you play against beasts or lose game if you dont play vs beasts: change ability

the sausage maker: -2 provision

Iris: shade: win game if you play against heavy armor or lose game if you dont play vs heavy armor: change ability

Collosal ifrit: -1 cooldown

Enraged Ifrit: filler card

Vesemir: mentor: witchers too expensive and weak

Regis: bloodlust: - 1 provision

Bandit synergy cards: 15 cards: TBH bandits kind of look like a filler cards

Angouleme: Another filler

Marigold's hailstrom + commanders horn: filler cards

Prophet lebioda+ sukrus: same card same trash: -2 provision cost - 1 power

ciri dash: -1 turns or -1 provision

shiralds fits oesterlen: change ability

shetroll of vergen: -1 provision

gregolie de gargon: -1 provision

walter veritas: change this expensive RNG ability

the last wish: maybe dont banish the other card? no one wants to lose a valuable card if he gets both gold cards

bekkers dark mirror: very expensive reset: -3 provision

trail of the grasess: -1 provision

Mandrake: another expensive reset: -3 provision

Wolfsbane: filler

bekkers rockslide: change ability

glorios hunt: filler

sabrinas inferno: it can be very good card if there were spectre deck: sadly there isnt enough spectre synergy

Vendergrifts blade: -1 provision and even then there is not enough knight synergy

olgeird von eviric: -2 proision

Frienzied D'ao: its a filler as long as bomber exist

holgiered blackhand: not enough synergy

Crew cards: 4 unplayablecards: need some buffs

iris von everic: - 1 provision: still not playable if no weatehr decks

thaler: -1 provision

Iris companion: even if you have only 1 card there is still 50% chance that you wil ldestroy the unit that u chose: change ability

saski: pavko gale does it better: change ability

isbel of hagge: - 1 provision

xavier lemmness: either make him banish all graveyard and -1 provision or just change ability

Ciri: give her 2 armor

Unicorn+chironix: filler

tourny shaelmar: -1 provision

Murleiga +Etreil: -1 provision

boris: +1 power

eskel+vesimer+lambert: -2 provision or -1 provision and +1 power

saer qu'an -1 provision

dudu: -1 provision

hym+ -1 provision

Necromany: -1 provision

resupply: 5 cards: a bit too weak to be played

cynthia: make it spawn in a random place instead of on top. cus they can just mulligan it if it was on top

lady of the lake: -1 provision

Dulla khamani + runewright: make it creat a golden card

False ciri: change the ranged ability

ceallach dyffryn: filler

eskel: pathfinder: -2 provision -1 power

vlodimir von everec: filler

vlfhedin: -1 provision or change ability

giant boar: -1 provision

derran: -1 provision

viper witcher: +2 power

 

[Allistre]

These are underpowered cards but not really filler cards. Aren't filler cards things like Wolf Pack or golden froth? Cards that are intentionally bad/bland/boring to make the cards with actual abilities look good. The are a ton of filler cards in Gwent (probably more than 109) but most of the ones you listed actually have unique abilities.

 

[ShadowKayn]

These are underpowered cards but not really filler cards. Aren't filler cards things like Wolf Pack or golden froth? Cards that are intentionally bad/bland/boring to make the cards with actual abilities look good. The are a ton of filler cards in Gwent (probably more than 109) but most of the ones you listed actually have unique abilities.

my list is a combination of unplayable and filler cards. im not saying they are all filler cards. and i specifically mention whether a card is a filler or under powered for each card. Actually only a few of them are filler cards

 

[Selestes]

This is a very good list.
And there are more, way more.

I dont understand why it's been almost a year since the REAL balance patch.
Why not tweak a little many unplayable cards every month?? +-1 prov +-1 power/armor should be enough. This would shift meta a little without drastic changes.

Ciri Nova is just killing me. Since the day one of hc.

 

[ShadowKayn]

This is a very good list.
And there are more, way more.

I dont understand why it's been almost a year since the REAL balance patch.
Why not tweak a little many unplayable cards every month?? +-1 prov +-1 power/armor should be enough. This would shift meta a little without drastic changes.

Ciri Nova is just killing me. Since the day one of hc.

thanks.
i know there is more but i got tired and i didnt go throu bronze cards. but yeah there are a ton of filler bronze cards but i honestly don't care about filler bronze cards as much as i care for gold cards. it hurts my eyes everytime i see an unplayable gold card that can unlock an entire deck archtype.

and yeah CDPR suddenly stoped patching weak cards for some reason. now the meta just gets thiner after every [patch because they are doing what HS is doing. nerf a few cards and leave all the unplayable cards.

 

[Y_A_M_A]

You ware quicker than me, I was thinking about making list like that yesterday and i will probably still do it. I was planing to go over all cards, your list is good but like some one point it there is more cards that are in really terrible state. Frankly I'm more interested in bronze cards because at the end Imo they are more important. Anyway good job

 

[_Shavi_]

Dont agree because some of these cards have its use in certain seasonal modes. It seems you only play ranked or casual normal mode, but there are other modes where some of the cards can have its play, even if only for 1 month a year

 

[Y_A_M_A]

Dont agree because some of these cards have its use in certain seasonal modes. It seems you only play ranked or casual normal mode, but there are other modes where some of the cards can have its play, even if only for 1 month a year

Acctually today I,ve spend few hours looking at all cards in game I've list about 20 cards in total that are borderline bad, ( and about 40 that could use little tweaks ) like for example spear or shield artifact, there is no excuse for cards like this to exist. It's more about making small changes. You are right about cards that have very specific uses and they should exist even if on first glance seems to be unplayable.

 

[t5chris]

Agree seems like 30-40% of the cards out there need to be revamped. Especially the artifacts like going from being overpowered to completely useless. Zero thought put in by the devs when they made those changes.

 

[StanislavOZZO]

When I saw this post I thought that it would be a kilometer long. And indeed it is
It's quicker to list playable cards, probably.

 

[Markus_Wirth]

thaler: -1 provision:

If you combine thaler with foltest pride it´s a 11 value for 8 provisions

 

[ReaperTek]

Well it's not like the Witcher Trio wasn't embarrassing before but now after the buff to the bronze thinning Cards (10 provisions for 8 Points and one thinning with a small requirement) they've became the biggest Joke of the entire Game ( 24 Provisions for 6 points and 2 thinning with a bigger chance of bricking if you draw another one), seriously they desperately need to rework those guys or at least reduce the provision cost and buff their strength.

 

[Elliezrah]

Not entirely agreed. Some cards are very useful in different game mode (just like phoenix at the moment).

But I agree that I never see people using some cards.

I dont know whats taking so long to buff those two 7 provision cost artifact cards. I think they are spear and shield. Spear attacks a single enemy for 1 damage, and other for boosting our unit by 1. But only 4 charges and with cool down of 1 turn each usage. They need to buff these legacy cards.

 

[rrc]

Not entirely agreed. Some cards are very useful in different game mode (just like phoenix at the moment).

But I agree that I never see people using some cards.

I dont know whats taking so long to buff those two 7 provision cost artifact cards. I think they are spear and shield. Spear attacks a single enemy for 1 damage, and other for boosting our unit by 1. But only 4 charges and with cool down of 1 turn each usage. They need to buff these legacy cards.

They took many attempts to properly balance it. After many attempts they said f**k it and completely destroyed it. With every faction power creeping even viable cards, these cards are made even more horrible. But I wouldn’t miss these cards. These cards encourage unit less nonsense and any decks these cards are remotely viable are toxic decks.

 

[Six-Sided-Prism]

They took many attempts to properly balance it. After many attempts they said f**k it and completely destroyed it. With every faction power creeping even viable cards, these cards are made even more horrible. But I wouldn’t miss these cards. These cards encourage unit less nonsense and any decks these cards are remotely viable are toxic decks.

It's not like it would be that hard to make them semi-playable and also not completely broken. Off the top of my head, just get rid of the Charges and maybe even Zeal; problem solved. For 7-Provisions, you would have a couple of versatile Neutral engines that will probably never be removed, but their maximum output isn't too high (8-10 in a long round). Honestly, CDPR just needs to hire more people that are familiar with card games. Anyone like me who has played a bunch of different ones over the years could more or less balance Gwent in a few weeks.

 

[vladmods]

No, you wouldn't. Neither would the OP.

 

[Sensimilius]

I know this is an old thread but idk where else to post about Raghnaroog. I really wanted to include this card into my SK deck cuz of obvious Skellige theme of the card BUT I just found it to be incredibly bloody useless for the provisions it costs! It takes 4 enemy turns to get to 12 points of damage... And in order to be played you gotta wait for the guy to 1st actually put down 12 points of units on that part particular row AND even then some cards can just move a card to a row that isn't affected. At this rate it's basically an 8 provision card. :] BUT instead of making it cheaper I suggest going the "Red Riders" path and just allowing us to chose to spread it's effect to 2 rows, thus halving the time needed to reach it's maximum damage cap!
Vaedermakar (if they fixed his interaction with Ragh nar roog) could even be a useful card then! :O
Also Vaedermakar should be classified as a Druid, not a Mage (or both but certainly you shouldn't leave out the druid part).

 

[cardgame-respecter]

Dandelion Poet: entirely change the ability

No. I reached pro rank this season with a deck that plays this card for tempo and round control. It's a good card for what it does, if you want it stronger one need only suggest a provision/power buff. Not every card needs to be equally playable, many cards are good except there are cards that fit better for its provisions, just because a card is not played in a meta deck doesn't automatically make it a bad card. I do agree with some of your suggestions, but every card isnt supposed to fit any deck.

 

[Sensimilius]

No. I reached pro rank this season with a deck that plays this card for tempo and round control. It's a good card for what it does, if you want it stronger one need only suggest a provision/power buff. Not every card needs to be equally playable, many cards are good except there are cards that fit better for its provisions, just because a card is not played in a meta deck doesn't automatically make it a bad card. I do agree with some of your suggestions, but every card isnt supposed to fit any deck.

They reduced his Provision cost by 1 in the last update a month ago.

 

[cardgame-respecter]

They reduced his Provision cost by 1 in the last update a month ago.

Yes, I personally think the card is fine in its current form, the idea of reworking a card completely is what I have a problem with. If a card has to change, I prefer provision and power changes instead of totally reworking cards that are kinda interesting.