You are playing on rank 1 where the tryhard/netdeck concentration is the maximum.
Seriously, what do you expect? To meet a wide variety of decks? Really? Every player on that rank are sweating their face off to reach pro, the easier the better - of course they will play the decks "everyone seems to play".
This is/was/will be a domino effect, which again, has nothing to do with Gwent - if something is slightly better (and something alsways will be), the masses will move towards that option. There wasn't a single season in Gwent, or any seriously competitive game where players wouldn't do the very same - if something has an advantage over the other options, people will use that instead of other alternatives. Once you nerf it, the "balance" will shift, making something else the best - next week players will switch playing that instead. See the pattern?
Kolgrim - again - is not overpowered.
Also, why would you start a new, similar thread every single time you get annoyed (which seems to be every single time you play this game)? Last week you mentioned you already quit. You shouldn't torture yourself. I don't think there is any shame in simply letting go if this is not for you.
Seriously, what do you expect? To meet a wide variety of decks? Really? Every player on that rank are sweating their face off to reach pro, the easier the better - of course they will play the decks "everyone seems to play".
This is/was/will be a domino effect, which again, has nothing to do with Gwent - if something is slightly better (and something alsways will be), the masses will move towards that option. There wasn't a single season in Gwent, or any seriously competitive game where players wouldn't do the very same - if something has an advantage over the other options, people will use that instead of other alternatives. Once you nerf it, the "balance" will shift, making something else the best - next week players will switch playing that instead. See the pattern?
Kolgrim - again - is not overpowered.
Also, why would you start a new, similar thread every single time you get annoyed (which seems to be every single time you play this game)? Last week you mentioned you already quit. You shouldn't torture yourself. I don't think there is any shame in simply letting go if this is not for you.
There could be an easy fix for that: Just make a game mode, where experimenting with less used cards is being rewarded. So people will stop playing the 2 or 3 best decks in the game.
I know it would be better to balance the game. But that would be more difficult.
Therefore I called my solution the "easy fix".
I know it would be better to balance the game. But that would be more difficult.
Therefore I called my solution the "easy fix".
Okay...yes, but actually no.
First, while metagame is inevitable and rank 1 tryhard is real, the sheer power gap between the top archetypes and everything else is outrageous in Gwent.
Like, how are NR witchers allowed to pointslam so hard and reliably, while having no real strategic weakness? Long round, short round, they got it all, and even some control on the side even though they can probably go full solitaire and still win
How are Viper Witcher Mentors allowed to get the points they get with the no-setup, no-brain condition?
How is Kolgrim fair, when it's a card that reaches the value of 2x-5x of his provisions with no additional effort? I mean yeah, sure, he kinda needs to be set up...with some cards that are decently powerful on their own AND absolutely ruin the opponent's draws. Worse yet, it's a card that ENCOURAGES card disadvantage to a degree, which is just another evidence of its toxicity.
Compare it to BushR's Erland+Griffin or Aglais decks. Same basic concept, harder setup, less payoff.
How can Warriors pointslam, while killing everything you play?
And don't even get me started on Lockdown - this ability just shouldn't be in the game, unless it comes with no provision bonuses whatsoever, and even that might not be enough to outweigh its disruptive effect on your game plan, especially when playing SY or, say, Fruits of Ysgith.
It's okay that some decks are stronger. It's definitely not okay when they're so much stronger it's impossible to even try beating them without either playing some equally broken meta stuff or playing a deliberately anti-meta deck that loses to everything else, except for the few things it was designed to beat.
The game isn't in a good state right now. It could be, just with a few value/provision fixes, but it isn't.
Please allow me to quote you here - yes, but actually no.
The actual variety of highly competitve decks is way higher than you seem to suggest. I'm playing there every single day, see it, feel it, experience it on my skin.
I'm glad in your post you already mentioned at least 3 different deck variations that are valid for some tryhard meta grinding, but if you don't mind, I'd add some more (I did a similar list in one of the other topics, but it won't hurt to repeat):
NR: Classic Witchers (the one you mention), Shieldwall Madoc
SK: Ursine or PF Warriors (the one you mention), Classic Lippy+Cerys, Blazing Glory Witchers
MO: Keltullis, Arachas Swarm variations, Koschey Thrive (moderately good), Viy
SC: Movement Witchers, Deadeye Elves, Deadeye Madoc, PS no-unit, Symbiosis devotion/non-devotion
NG: Lockdown Soldier Ball / Nova clog, Assimilate (moderately good), Double Madoc
SY: by real weak spot, only a few decks in T3 currently, nothing better
And I only listed the T1-2 deck variations for each faction that are truly competitive - you can safely pick one of these and reach pro just by playing it on a consistently high level. In reality there are other decktypes out there, although not many in the Rank 1-5 range I admit.
This is over 20 deck variations across almost all factions that are all valid options and highly competitve. How is this a bad state, considering we are talking about the most tryhard Ranks of the game?
As for Kolgrim, though I really don't want to get into a debate regarding that card - there are dozens of ways to counter it, truly.
Viper Mentors on the other hand are a real problem, a truly overpowered card for 6 provisions. Those need to get nerfed to Adrenaline 1, as I proposed in many other posts.
Your supposed list of "competitive" decks is just not accurate as pointed out by several others and not supported by the recent win rate/stats released so ignoring that for the moment, how do you counter Kolgrim? I'm genuinely curious. Unless your deck is filled with tutors there's no way to get to your cards so what's your solution exactly? And please consider there are other factions, so suggesting building your deck around card(s) that only work on this one deck and loses against everything else is not a solution.
First off, hate Lockdown, hate Kolgrim. Now that's on the record, I'm with Messyr. I got to pro with Kelltulis deck. To counter Kolgrim, purify defender with pellar and then heatwave or other tall removal. Kelly deck struggles against a Lippy deck round 2 bleed, Lockdown with all locks, and Arachnas Swarm. So no deck is perfect but it got me to the promised land.
No, but in the 9p slot, it is.
From the game design point of view, this cannot serve as a universal balancing argument. A card that reads "After 2 allied turns, win the game" could also be answered. But it would be probably one of the most overpowered cards conceivable. And how Kolgrim functions is not that very far from that imaginary card there...
VWM is one of the worst card designs ever imo. It's a card that further punishes the opponent for already being punished by bad rng.
The most of what I wanted to respond with has already been pointed out by others, except for the most important part -
Even if said 20 decks were equally played and equally competitive (which they actually aren't), it would still mean the game's in a bad state - because the game has many more archetypes and cards, including previously broken, that don't work at all.
And that's what I'm really talking about here - super overtuned engines/Warrior-type pointslam create hypercontrol meta, that in turn makes it impossible to play less overtuned stuff, which coincidentally is like most of the cards and archetypes in the game.
"impossible" being the key word here. Not "harder to play", but impossible.
Sure, I have a couple of homebrews that aren't technically meta and still work fine, but they both are very mean hypercontrol decks with non-interactive points(Dragon Dream Aglais and Poison Spam+Traps, if you're wondering), which also could contribute to the problem were I to share them.
Tl;dr - the game will stay stale and impossible to diversify until the top 10% of the cards are on par with everything else, either through nerfs or buffs. The power gap between a Griffin Witcher and, say, a regular Kikimore is just too big.
Okay, now we are talking about at least 3 different things: winrates, playrates and being overall competitve (or we can say, Tier ranking). If we want to have a reasonable discussion, those 3 cannot be meshed under one argument.
The ~20 decks I listed are competitive decks, meaning most of them rank in Tier 1 or 2 in the current meta. Some of them are Tier 3. Generally Tier 1-3 are considered as solid options when one tries to determine/measure how effective a given deck in a given meta environment is. Also, it is importnat to note, this list can and will change in mere weeks, as the meta develops. It is never a decisive list, merely a snapshot (and often very subjective).
Once we are talking about end-month winrates, the scenario changes. This is still determined by multiple factors of course, but to make it short, these lists showcase the expected power level (Tier ranking) of the aformentioned competitive decks. A highly competitve deck (usually called metadeck, netdeck, whatever) can land on a "disappointing" 45% winrate at the end of a season, and still considered to be Tier 2 for example. Still, looking at these numbers one can easily come to a conclusion that one of the decks is good, and the other bad, which, obviously, would be incorrect.
As for playrates, we are talking here about a third factor, which has some similarities and connection to Winrate. Playrate is determined by factors as: effectiveness vs other decks (winrate), ease of use compared to other competitve decks (tryhard players will always favour easier decks), and as the third, yet very important factor: overall popularity, typically affected by streamers and influencers. One can roll on the floor laughing on ladder once you see the pattern - a popular streamer plays a certain deck the last day, and a few hours later already copies of that deck start to appear on Standard.
In short: I never stated that the 20 decks I listed are all on the same power level. Of course we all agree, that the BEST options are NR Witcher, SK warriors, Deadeye SC, and a Lockdown variant. These are the current Tier 1 decks. The rest on my list is either T2 in majority and some T3.
The important part here is that this is a natural tendency. There will always be better decks, no matter the balancing effort. Unless you homogenize factions entirely, and use only different colors for distinction, we will always have certain decks dominating the meta - and we will always have the majority of players steer towards these options as they provide the best winrate/effort ratio.
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As for Kolgrim, the list of counterplays really depends on the decklist you play - I gladly discuss any certain matchup in detail.
I believe Kolgrim could use a row locked tag, melee only for example.
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When did we start talking about defenders? The defender is moot, just having last say is enough for them to win a round. So lets get back to the actual 9p card that's problematic. So what's your solution to counter it?
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As I said your list has already been discussed ad nauseum so not much point going in circles on that one, I prefer to focus on the facts not conjecture and the stats released just don't support your argument that those factions and leaders are "balanced". For now I'm just interested in your suggestion on how easily countering Kolgrim is. You are however now suggesting a row lock with means you agree the card needs balancing correct?
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[...] OP, if you don't like the state of the game, take a break or play non-competitive. There is Draft, there is Seasonal, there is Casual/Unranked. Over there you have a higher chance of playing something different, with less or no interaction with meta decks.
I am frustrated with Kolgrim, VWM and a few other cards that are toxic and destroys any chance of you having fun and enjoying the game, but it is what it is. Compared to the previous couple of metas, this one is by far the most varied in terms of deck building and factions. Except SY, all the other factions have 2-4 decks that are competitive.
I am frustrated with Kolgrim, VWM and a few other cards that are toxic and destroys any chance of you having fun and enjoying the game, but it is what it is. Compared to the previous couple of metas, this one is by far the most varied in terms of deck building and factions. Except SY, all the other factions have 2-4 decks that are competitive.
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Glad that others with the capability to focus on the bigger picture see it too.
If by discussed ad nauseum you mean ignoring the reasoning and explanation (including the very facts you mention, data, and other posters on the same page) yes, you are correct.
Of course, those decks are Tier1 decks, having a better chance to win than most other options. Tier1 decks having high win/playrates is nothing new, unusual or unbalanced. They are the current best in the meta. There is a serious difference between a best meta deck and an unbalanced deck.
Yes, I agree he could use a reasonable tuning, as he is a very powerful card. Yet by no means broken. By making it rowlocked, we could add one additional option to the list of possible counters (move) without greatly harming the main concept of the card.
As for the counter (or preventive) plays vs Kolgrim - again - can change with faction.
SK for example has the best preventive tool in the form of a Longship just before Kolgrim would be played - disastrous effect, and a most amusing moment of silence from the NG player once their Kolgrim gets pinged to death on play.
Dropping a Dire Bear right after Kolgrim is played helps too.For the majority of other factions, the best bet is to prepare for the obvious play, Defender at Adr 3 and Kolgrim at Adr 2. My suggestion is to keep your purify in hand, if needed from R1 (if we are talking about serious decks, yes, you need one purify in your deck, be it a bomb or a unit). Once the defender is out, you have plenty of options to deal with Kolgrim - locks, direct removal, resets - it is reasonable to expect you have at least one of those. In total, these are 2 tech cards - your deck won't suffer if you add them, as they are useful vs almost every other decks out there. Of course, you can add more to increase your chances, but again, this is the same for every deck out there - drawing your key cards is crucial.
In case you lack or missed your purify, your best option is to hit it with a Curse of Corruption, once it surpasses other units in power (usually right in the 2nd turn after he is deployed).
And of course there is Yrden, always a solid tech option if you encounter many NG/NR/Arachas decks.
Truth to be told, extreme pointslam "last say" cards (Gord, Roegner) irritate me a lot more than cards like Kolgrim. For the latter you have a wide array of answers, the former can only be countered if you win R1.
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