Introduction to 8.3 Card Drop!

[DRK3]

Its not only about Yrden punish and locking Bouver. It´s about that Bouver needs armoured dwarfs in his row and sometimes dwarfs struggle to achieve that (e.g. when they face a control deck or a heavy damage deck (SK)). And of course the big challenge is to win two rounds. From my perspective succeeding with dwarfs still heavily depends on getting the most of Resilience. With Zoltan Chivay you also can have amazing synergies with Zoltan's Company.

To my mind one drawback of dwarfs are their row limitations. What you really want to have is eight units (including Bouver) on Ranged and Gezras boosting them. But you probably want to have Xavier Moran (for me a Must Inlude in dwarf deck) on Melee for instance. Zoltan: Warrior would be a nice guy to have three units on Ranged but he´s a Melee spawner. After the removal of Dwarven Chariot´s bonded deploy there are less Rowdy dwarf for Zoltan´s Ranged boost. That´s the reason I excluded him from my deck.

True, i thought Brouver would be just a better Gezras because he's not rowlocked and cheaper, but its not so simple, since he only boosts dwaves, but more harshly, only ones with armor. I thought these wouldnt be a problem at first, but it turns out, the cards that let you play multiple dwarves on a row, like Zoltan and Zoltan's Company, generate rowdy dwarves WITHOUT armor, so the only good way to put armored dwarves on a row for Brouver is Novigrad Justice.

And yes, dwarves work best on the melee, what i recommend and its what im doing, its to use Gaetan when you have a near full row to put em on ranged, then you can use Gezras (personally i prefer Dennis Cranmer, since he also boosts the entire ranged row, although just once).

On this match i had to use Brouver earlier, but on R3 i used the Gaetan+Cranmer tactic i mentioned. And as you can see it works wonderfully with cat witcher mentor, since when you use Gaetan to move all units, you basically repeat his deploy ability.

 

[AngryDeadGuy]

Maybe it's just because I'm still somewhat new, but it seems like Nilf was already kind of OP before getting these new cards. I mean, I could be wrong, but it seems like over 50% of the matches I play are against Nilf decks.

 

[quintivarium]

My observations: NG (and, to a letter degree, MO players) are very fast to defend OP cards in their chosen faction and quick to condemn anything good in another faction. Witness the objections to the notion that the lockdown leader ability was problematic even when about 1/7th of all pro decks played used it — six times the average frequency. Witness those who would deny that Viy was simply horrible before it’s nerf. Compare that to the number of SY players complaining about how weak their faction has been (and I suspect, continues to be). Compare that to the number of SK players who pretend Eist is not presently broken.

 

[B1ack.Mamba]

CDPR, please I have a small request. Is it possible to switch King Foltest's and Queen Meve's abilities? I hate Foltest but his ability is great, and I love Meve but her ability is to be fair awful. Royal Inspiration was always my favorite NR leader ability, so it's a such a shame for me that I can't play Queen Meve in my deck. Thank you!

 

[Damashiuchi]

Meve does seem kinda weak this go around. Way too much can go wrong to make her very useful. Then again, she could be a game winner in the right situation so who knows. TBH I miss the OLD Foltest... The 'make a copy of a card' version from closed beta!! That was awesome.

In all, I really like the new cards so far... In some respects they all seem OP, in others they all seem weak, so I guess that's a good place to be. Being an avid proponent of Usurper ( i.e. lock down ) I was leary of the change to that, but I actually kinda like it. Gives you some options which is always good.

And the across the board attention given to Devotion I really like too.. overall like the patch so far

 

[quintivarium]

I am mildly surprised no one seems to have mentioned the updates to serpent trap and to pitfall. I am very greatful that these cards have a spring option — especially serpent trap which used to carry a decent chance of bricking. Now both are quite powerful — even in no trap type decks. Serpent trap — at the very least — can be played as an improved predatory dive, and pitfall is always good for a quick 6 points damage to the first enemy played.

 

[Red_warning]

Really hope you guys are going to be quicker on the balancing this time compared to Christmas, or we're going to deal with quite a lot of Eist these coming weeks

 

[1990BW]

This patch didn't bring back fun for me Gwent has turned out to much in a control game.
Some of the new cards actually made it worse Eist / Blaze of Glory for example is extremely broken.
With Jutta in deck it already has a 24 ceiling + 3-5 str Eist + potential extra discard value with bloodthirst 2.
It can have a 39 point ceiling in 1 turn if you manage to discard a Greatsword!

Next annoyance is traps which bring 0 interactivity on both battlefields while your opponent's cards do all kind of things yours can do nothing.
When your board is still empty because everthing gets removed your opponent just plays Eldain in to +5 traps and suddenly they have more than 20+ points on the board.
Same type of play is seen with those non-interactive bomb decks and big Gort fininshers.
You can create hundreds of new engine cards but if they all are in removal range they add nothing to the game.

The whole concept of Gwent depicting a battlefield can be thrown in the trashbin for a long time now.
It doesn't do this due to having so many special cards and all sorts of removal causing the same boring interactions all the time.
Actually it should be the other way around engine decks should carry the game and bring the battlefield ALIVE.
I mean there are so many cool archetypes like spies, vampires, wild hunt, siege, soldiers, assimilate, harmony.
But all I see on ladder and pro rank is kill this and kill that until everything is killed and the game turns dead.

Direct removal should have high costs only so it forces you to think carefully how you want to disrupt your opponents strategy and what you will ALLOW them to do.
Gwent will be a miles better game if all those special cards are gone or will only spawn if you do some kind of INTERACTION.
There are so many options like:

Deathblow
Conspiracy
Bonded
Crew
Weather
....

Traps are cool but they really need a rework to be non-toxic.
Rather playing them from hand it would be nice to see them spawn when you do somehing with ambush units.
To gain max value of the trap there should be a condition and it would help if they can be locked but still gain 'spring' value when that happens.

Ugh here I stop I love this game but it's frustrating to witness the same problems over and over again and see no change.
The devs really should play their game more on higer ranks/ladder and understand what most players are doing.
It's an absolute monstrosity right now.

 

[Draconifors]

I know Trap decks are really hated but I don't care at least while Artifact quests exist.

Eldain really made my quantity over quality, Guerilla Tactics "play as many Traps as the game allows" deck way better than it was before. A great card indeed. 800 scraps well spent.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Been fooling about with Brouver's card a bit. Still haven't found an ideal combination with some of the other dwarves I like to play, but, over all, he's proved useful.

 

[Draconifors]

Still haven't found an ideal combination with some of the other dwarves I like to play

So you're saying an ideal deck wasn't built in a day? Fitting.

 

[Lokiat0r]

Been fooling about with Brouver's card a bit. Still haven't found an ideal combination with some of the other dwarves I like to play, but, over all, he's proved useful.

For casual play, I've found Defender -> Zoltan -> Zoltan's Company -> Brouver to be a decent combination. Three turns to set up 6 armored units for Brouver to boost. At that point, I usually try to play units that can grant armor (miner, chariot, Paulie, etc) to ensure that the armor condition for boosts is maintained.

It could be higher if you use the token spawning Zoltan instead of the resilient one, btw... But I dropped him for Gezras.

 

[Lexor]

Cool, you even went for the uncensored whoreson good seeing you're not afraid to publish these things anymore.

He might look uncensored, but it's still not his original art which was censored.

 

[Messyr]

For casual play, I've found Defender -> Zoltan -> Zoltan's Company -> Brouver to be a decent combination. Three turns to set up 6 armored units for Brouver to boost. At that point, I usually try to play units that can grant armor (miner, chariot, Paulie, etc) to ensure that the armor condition for boosts is maintained.

It could be higher if you use the token spawning Zoltan instead of the resilient one, btw... But I dropped him for Gezras.

This is not too far from a competitve build in all honesty.

I used my version to progress rather fast to Pro this season from Rank3, with the following key cards:

- Broover
- both Resilience units
- Zoltan: Warrior, Munro and Zoltan's Company
- Defender
- Heatwave

 

[Pacifixer]

After messing around with all the new and reworked cards, i decided to post some feedback. I'm not sure if anyone is going to read this, but here it is anyway.
All the new cards are interesting and fun to play (maybe except Meve), some of them are kind of broken (Eldain and Eist), but overall this was really good mini-expansion.

Anna
Interesting ability, but unfortunately too situational to be good. Conditionaly strong cards are great (Brouver, Vernosiel, Igni, etc.), but that condition should not be matchup dependant. Anna is a point-slam card and as such she should always find some appropriate value, so i think she needs some "plan B" ability to be viable.
Suggestion:
Deploy (melee): Replace your leader ability with a base copy of your opponent's leader ability.
Deploy (ranged): Create a leader ability from your opponent's faction (other than your opponent's leader ability) and replace your leader ability with it.


Emhyr
Amazing card, almost perfect. The only flaw i noticed is that you swarm really hard and it's easy to flood your side of the board with seized 1p units. This flaw might not necessarily be a bad thing, but it's really hard to estimate how much space is Emhyr going to need.
Suggestion:
Devotion: Order: Seize a random 1-power Spying enemy unit. Cooldown: 1 turn.


Eist
Eist is strong, way too strong. And also kind of clunky. Blaze of Glory combo is worth up to 27p (potentialy 10p more with bloodthirst), this insane point-swing requires not set-up and is completly uninteractive. I tried playing him in a Discard deck to no success, so he's just another support for Warriors, and Warriors definitely don't need more support.
Suggestion: Turn him into pure discard support. Get rid of the Blaze of glory interaction and the bloodthirst condition.

Crach
This is my favourite leader card! Works really well and is fun to play, he's also interactive for both players. Maybe he should have a counter, but i was never on the receiving end, so i can't tell if he's too strong or not.


Brouver
Dwarves finaly managed to become the archetipe it was supposed to be - non-pointslam, non-engine deck that doesn't need to interact with opponent's side of the board. Brouver can generate crazy amount of points, but his double condition gives opponent lot of ways to interact with him.


Eldain
This is the first card from this "mini-expansion" that is IMO fundamentally flawed. Eldain is really fun to play, but a nightmare to play against. Uninteractive playstyle is just not healthy for the game. The trap transforming ability is good, but it should be more interactive.
Suggestion:
Deploy: Transform an allied artifact into Elven Deadeye.
Order: Repeat the deploy ability. Cooldown: 1 turn.
Devotion: Zeal.


Foltest
I was unable to make this card work, it always got killed or locked instantly, and if i played deffender first, opponent just passed on 7. Foltest looks good on paper, but in reality he's just really clunky. He might be good on red coin or in R3 with Dun Banners.
Suggestion: Give him deploy ability (same as his passive).


Meve
This is the only card from this expansion that i don't like. She's just clunky Bone talisman with a body. However the countdown idea is pretty interesting, i would suggest keeping the delayed boost ability, but changing the way the boost works.
Suggestion:
Charge: 0
Every time an allied unit is boosted during your turn, gain charges equal to the boost amount.
Counter: 3
When the Counter reaches 0, remove 2 charges and boost a random allied unit by 1. Repeat until Meve has less than 2 charges.


Dettlaff
His deathblow is a bit too difficult set up. I thought he would be just "meh", but he's actually pretty great.
Suggestion: Increase the Order damage and cooldown by 1.


Elder
Awesome card, love it! Works really well and is reasonably easy to answer. His deploy might be unnecessarily strong tho.


Cleaver
This is exactly what crime decks needed. Crimes are a bit too strong right now, so some small nerfs across the board might be necessary (preferably to Freak show and Tunnel drill, dealing with both of them is a bit too much), but there are no fundamental issues with the deck.


Whoreson
I like the idea, but i don't like how matchup dependant this card is. I think he should have profit.
Suggestion:
Profit: 6
Deploy: Damage a boosted enemy unit by 6 and reduce the profit by the amount of damage dealt.

 

[Markus_Wirth]

After messing around with all the new and reworked cards, i decided to post some feedback. I'm not sure if anyone is going to read this, but here it is anyway.
All the new cards are interesting and fun to play (maybe except Meve), some of them are kind of broken (Eldain and Eist), but overall this was really good mini-expansion.

Anna
Interesting ability, but unfortunately too situational to be good. Conditionaly strong cards are great (Brouver, Vernosiel, Igni, etc.), but that condition should not be matchup dependant. Anna is a point-slam card and as such she should always find some appropriate value, so i think she needs some "plan B" ability to be viable.
Suggestion:
Deploy (melee): Replace your leader ability with a base copy of your opponent's leader ability.
Deploy (ranged): Create a leader ability from your opponent's faction (other than your opponent's leader ability) and replace your leader ability with it.


Emhyr
Amazing card, almost perfect. The only flaw i noticed is that you swarm really hard and it's easy to flood your side of the board with seized 1p units. This flaw might not necessarily be a bad thing, but it's really hard to estimate how much space is Emhyr going to need.
Suggestion:
Devotion: Order: Seize a random 1-power Spying enemy unit. Cooldown: 1 turn.


Eist
Eist is strong, way too strong. And also kind of clunky. Blaze of Glory combo is worth up to 27p (potentialy 10p more with bloodthirst), this insane point-swing requires not set-up and is completly uninteractive. I tried playing him in a Discard deck to no success, so he's just another support for Warriors, and Warriors definitely don't need more support.
Suggestion: Turn him into pure discard support. Get rid of the Blaze of glory interaction and the bloodthirst condition.

Crach
This is my favourite leader card! Works really well and is fun to play, he's also interactive for both players. Maybe he should have a counter, but i was never on the receiving end, so i can't tell if he's too strong or not.


Brouver
Dwarves finaly managed to become the archetipe it was supposed to be - non-pointslam, non-engine deck that doesn't need to interact with opponent's side of the board. Brouver can generate crazy amount of points, but his double condition gives opponent lot of ways to interact with him.


Eldain
This is the first card from this "mini-expansion" that is IMO fundamentally flawed. Eldain is really fun to play, but a nightmare to play against. Uninteractive playstyle is just not healthy for the game. The trap transforming ability is good, but it should be more interactive.
Suggestion:
Deploy: Transform an allied artifact into Elven Deadeye.
Order: Repeat the deploy ability. Cooldown: 1 turn.
Devotion: Zeal.


Foltest
I was unable to make this card work, it always got killed or locked instantly, and if i played deffender first, opponent just passed on 7. Foltest looks good on paper, but in reality he's just really clunky. He might be good on red coin or in R3 with Dun Banners.
Suggestion: Give him deploy ability (same as his passive).


Meve
This is the only card from this expansion that i don't like. She's just clunky Bone talisman with a body. However the countdown idea is pretty interesting, i would suggest keeping the delayed boost ability, but changing the way the boost works.
Suggestion:
Charge: 0
Every time an allied unit is boosted during your turn, gain charges equal to the boost amount.
Counter: 3
When the Counter reaches 0, remove 2 charges and boost a random allied unit by 1. Repeat until Meve has less than 2 charges.


Dettlaff
His deathblow is a bit too difficult set up. I thought he would be just "meh", but he's actually pretty great.
Suggestion: Increase the Order damage and cooldown by 1.


Elder
Awesome card, love it! Works really well and is reasonably easy to answer. His deploy might be unnecessarily strong tho.


Cleaver
This is exactly what crime decks needed. Crimes are a bit too strong right now, so some small nerfs across the board might be necessary (preferably to Freak show and Tunnel drill, dealing with both of them is a bit too much), but there are no fundamental issues with the deck.


Whoreson
I like the idea, but i don't like how matchup dependant this card is. I think he should have profit.
Suggestion:
Profit: 6
Deploy: Damage a boosted enemy unit by 6 and reduce the profit by the amount of damage dealt.

Like all your ideas except Anna.
Actually I included her into my Assimilate deck and i have to admit that a play style which is mainly focused on playing cards from your opponent deck usually guarantees valuable synergies within the new leader ability and your assimilated units.
Of course there are some leader with limited synergy value. If you steal a SY leader you usually must hope to steal and Fee unit. Stockpile requires you to steal charge units (or have them in your deck which is usually not the case). Mobilization requires to have a stolen or allied soldier.
Leader like Invicorate, Onslaught, Stockpile and Royal Inspiration usually require to use your leader ability and steal the opponent´s early to get the most of these leaders. For Ursine Ritual you should steal some self-dmg units. For Inspired Zeal you need a NR charge unit
If you face Pincer Maneuver the ability is basically worthless. Only if you have viper witcher alchemists. But almost nobody plays Pincer Maneuver.
=> You basically pay provisions for less randomness according to my mind. If you give her the additional create ability she will be so much stronger and much more easily find synergizing leaders. So she must cost much more provisions. I would keep her as it is.

A further remark:
NG Assimilate heavily suffers from units/specials which are deck dependent.
If you many to "steal" cards like Amphibious Assault, Blood Eagle and almost every tutor the value of the stolen cards will be almost 0 for you. Furthermore, I have the impression that there are more and more cards which require so much setup that their passive ability can very difficult be assimilated (e.g. Fallen Rayla, Alzur, Ulrich, many SC hand boosters, Forest Protector,...).
The more of these cards are added to the game and the more of these cards are defining the meta, the lower is the probability that cards like Bribery, Double cross and Cantarella do not get valuable remarks.
And if you play against NG assimilate one great advice is offering your opponent no targetable bronzes by playing defender, golds or specials. So they are Duchess Informants are harmless.

 

[DRK3]

Leader like Invicorate, Onslaught, Stockpile and Royal Inspiration usually require to use your leader ability and steal the opponent´s early to get the most of these leaders.

That's not a problem when those are some of the weakest leaders in the game, an Henrietta that sees little value in those matches wont make you lose the match.

You say Pincer Maneuver is worthless for Henrietta, that is not true at all, its like the Blaze of Glory matchup, you just need Invo (the problem with PM is it cant be the last card, like BoG can)

I would actually say the leader that gives least value to Henrietta is Inspired Zeal, mostly because those decks are going full commandos and usually dont carry Seltkirks or Anseis anymore. So to get value you either need to put commandos on your deck or hit roche merciless with bribery or doublecross leader.

 

[Pacifixer]

Like all your ideas except Anna.
Actually I included her into my Assimilate deck and i have to admit that a play style which is mainly focused on playing cards from your opponent deck usually guarantees valuable synergies within the new leader ability and your assimilated units.
Of course there are some leader with limited synergy value. If you steal a SY leader you usually must hope to steal and Fee unit. Stockpile requires you to steal charge units (or have them in your deck which is usually not the case). Mobilization requires to have a stolen or allied soldier.
Leader like Invicorate, Onslaught, Stockpile and Royal Inspiration usually require to use your leader ability and steal the opponent´s early to get the most of these leaders. For Ursine Ritual you should steal some self-dmg units. For Inspired Zeal you need a NR charge unit
If you face Pincer Maneuver the ability is basically worthless. Only if you have viper witcher alchemists. But almost nobody plays Pincer Maneuver.
=> You basically pay provisions for less randomness according to my mind. If you give her the additional create ability she will be so much stronger and much more easily find synergizing leaders. So she must cost much more provisions. I would keep her as it is.

A further remark:
NG Assimilate heavily suffers from units/specials which are deck dependent.
If you many to "steal" cards like Amphibious Assault, Blood Eagle and almost every tutor the value of the stolen cards will be almost 0 for you. Furthermore, I have the impression that there are more and more cards which require so much setup that their passive ability can very difficult be assimilated (e.g. Fallen Rayla, Alzur, Ulrich, many SC hand boosters, Forest Protector,...).
The more of these cards are added to the game and the more of these cards are defining the meta, the lower is the probability that cards like Bribery, Double cross and Cantarella do not get valuable remarks.
And if you play against NG assimilate one great advice is offering your opponent no targetable bronzes by playing defender, golds or specials. So they are Duchess Informants are harmless.

Maybe you're right, she truly bricks only against Inspired Zeal. So she's probably fine as she is.