I was really lucky with this quest and did it in 6 matches in casual (lost against Svalblod...in casual...Svalblod...why do play people T1 decks in CASUAL?)
I was really lucky with this quest and did it in 6 matches in casual (lost against Svalblod...in casual...Svalblod...why do play people T1 decks in CASUAL?)
What's even the point of playing Svalblod, they just have too many overpowered cards in the deck and I can't bring 5 Leo/Geralt.
I've had some pretty impressive rounds against Svalblod with various tactics, great tempo, great damage, tall units, engines etc and I thought I would win, but most of those rounds I ended up losing in the end. Just spamming the board with tall units and Svalblod priests and adding high damage.
The worst round was after I bled him in the second round. My last round cards were pretty good, but in the end what ended up taking the last round was the Disgraced Brawler. How sad.
I've won against Svalblod as well, but the general feeling is that it is like swimming up a river.
I've had some pretty impressive rounds against Svalblod with various tactics, great tempo, great damage, tall units, engines etc and I thought I would win, but most of those rounds I ended up losing in the end. Just spamming the board with tall units and Svalblod priests and adding high damage.
The worst round was after I bled him in the second round. My last round cards were pretty good, but in the end what ended up taking the last round was the Disgraced Brawler. How sad.
I've won against Svalblod as well, but the general feeling is that it is like swimming up a river.
To be blunt, the dev team needs to stop riding SK so hard.
They have everything they need and way too many engine pieces.
If they need to buff other factions, cool, but right now regardless of the intention of the team, SK is blatantly a dev favorite.
What needs to happen is more drastic change when it comes to overpowered SK or when bringing every other faction to SK level.
The devs have ben failing pretty hard here...
They have everything they need and way too many engine pieces.
If they need to buff other factions, cool, but right now regardless of the intention of the team, SK is blatantly a dev favorite.
What needs to happen is more drastic change when it comes to overpowered SK or when bringing every other faction to SK level.
The devs have ben failing pretty hard here...
I think you shared the video before in this thread and that time I didn't see as I thought a single video of Rank 4 players doesn't prove anything. But this time I saw and I have to thank you for sharing this video. This just proves that only SK can beat another SK. The NG player won the game due to the couple of SK card he managed to get it (and get it to working); the Priest and The Champion. Apparently the NG player had teched against SvalBlod and managed to win with SK units (and a bit of a RNG luck).
SK is incredibly strong and stronger than all other faction and it is because it has so many high tempo cards and other cards which make other faction mechanics useless. If you don't believe other forum members (and even pro streamers who agree that SK is incredibly powerful and dominant and can only be beaten if you top deck all your important cards and a lot of luck), you can see the meta snapshot which was shared by PlayGwent team itself (in the latest TWiG, it has a link to the meta snapshot). If you see that, it will be clearly understandable (that is if you have an open mind). All four SK leaders have 4+ rated deck and I am 100% sure that they can have a 4+ rated deck with Bran too (video proof here); but in the latest stale broken meta, using Bran to get a 4+ rated deck may need some brain (as other SK leaders can beat you) to be used and why using bra(i)n when you can play the other 4 leaders?
Just see the meta. No need for any explanations here. No need for you to defend SK and no need for others to cry foul about SK. See other factions. There are two 4+ deck for MO which uses the same leader (AQ). There is one 4 rated deck for ST (and read its weakness, it is ridiculously funny; pretty much says that you have to win coin-flip and should get the few cards that give carry-over and you lose against SK. Read the full guide of Spyro if you want). There is one 4.25 deck for NR. There is no 4+ deck for NG. Now, digest this fact with an open mind. That is all I am asking. There is one faction which can play any leader and get a Tier 1 deck which is kind of weak amongst themselves mostly and then there are 4 other factions which have barely one leader who *may be able to potentially* win against them.
In one of the streams when SirPumpkin told that it is hard to win against SK with ST, someone asked "what if you play Eldain? He can disrupt their strategy" for that he replied "if two equally skilled players play, Eldain can never win against SvalBlod. For example, if I play against <some pro player he mentioned and I didn't get his name> and if I play Eldain and if he plays SvalBlod, I will lose 10 out of 10 games". And, SirPumpkin can be argued to be the best ST player out there. Watch Streams of "WatchFlake". He is usually blatantly critical about SK and he said that when he was a cast for the last tournament, the casters all bet that SK's deck will be banned. They are that much confident that pro players don't want to face other pro players playing SK. I can go on and on.
If you still say "but SK is equal to other factions", there is nothing me or anyone else can tell you which will make you realise the fact, the fact told by the strongest pro players in the game.
Please don't put words in my mouth. I never said, what you put in quotes. On the contrary, what I said is
And please don't conclude from a discussion about two very specific cards, that I defend the whole faction. In fact, I don't even think that SK needs to be defended. I still don't understand why people insist on destroying the last working faction, so that we are left with 5 broken ones, instead of fighting to strengthen the broken ones. It reminds me of castaways swimming in the water, and the ones about to drown quickly grab the arms of the last one still swimming, in order to let him drown as well. Why should he survive, when we don't?
When you quote "the best" (I don't know him, but I trust your judgement) ST player, it doesn't surprise me that he doesn't talk positive about SK. It also doesn't surprise me that SK is the strongest faction way up there in the pro ranks (although I think this game should be for us all and not just a selected 500 professionals playing for money). I repeat it, that's because SK is just fine. It's the others that are broken. But hey, if you prefer a future where we play 3 str units that do 1 damage max, without synergies and without engines - then keep fighting to break SK. But it's the first people will complain about. They are already doing it. I heard quite some people say "it's so boring, the games end in just a point difference". But that's the future the more we nerf. How about introducing cents of damage/boost? Engines would need to, say, drain 10 points from a unit to get 1 boost. Better? I ask, because we are already at the lowest, engines can be. Svalblod priest does one damage to own units to get two str. That is +1. It can't get lower. The same for other engines of all factions as well. They go +1, it can't get lower.
But let's move from specific cards. I don't have difficulties finding videos where other factions beat SK (oh and btw., Svalblod is NOT a synonym for Skellige). I even recorded some of my own losses. I strongly disagree with the fact-less assumption that SK wins each and every game, or even just a lot more than half of them. It's simply not true.
And that is my motivation. Not defending a faction (I quoted my statement regarding that). But amend wrong statements. That doesn't make SK equal to the other factions. It is still the only one that somehow works, while the others don't.
Fun fact and just for the smile. After trying hard to get my last win with a leader, which was Francesca, I really became desperate. I thought I could do it in season mode and built a deck with 12 special cards. But, yeah, all opponents were Francesca decks as well, and my draw luck wasn't the best. Out of curiosity I started a ranked match with this horrible deck. And won the first time! Distinctly. Not just by a small margin. And my opponent? Played a Svalblod deck. Funny, eh?
Peeking at the lists, it's pretty clear that Skellige is also a player favourite. Pro-ranks lists is dominated by people who play Skellige, and so are the lists below. There are reasons for this.
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Stop saying that. The other factions DO work, they are just not completely overpowered like Skellige. Skellige is the issue, not all the other factions. Even Northern Realms is pretty decent with the latest cards added, despite the order situation.
So, if you think Skellige is not the issue, let's consider some cards to add to Nothern Realms that can be compared with Skellige. Let's add say a 12 point body that does 7 damage (order), for 10 provision, and cannot be locked or removed. That would make the North Stronger, and add much needed tall units. Let's add some 7 power 5 provision units as well, and a couple of revive cards for that.
8 Provision card, 1 body, deploy, give all northern realms allies "immune".
Want to continue fixing Northern Realms and not make it overpowered? Let's add some more cards to "fix" Northern Realms. How about: 5 body, 3 damage to each opponent, formation, 7 provisions. Sounds nice. These units would not be a problem at all, the other factions who cannot take it would be the issue.
How about adding some immune thrive units to Northern Realms while we are at it as well? 1 body 4 provisions, immune. Oops, we need more tall units, and Northern Realms does not have a Slave Infantry to save units, so let's make one of those too. 8 power body, 8 provisions, immortal.
Since we have such love of the North now, what can we possibly do to improve this faction? It lacks some abilities, so let's steal some from other factions. Let's make a couple of self damage units, a couple of bloodthirst units, some berserk, spies, consume, graveyard etc etc etc as well. Just to make sure NR does not miss out on the abilities of the game.
I'm being sarcastic here, but you get the point. The problem is NOT the other factions, the problem is specific cards of Skellige. Not Skellige types (aside from those added/stolen from other factions).
The other factions have their archtypes, their ways of playing, and those are quite good and quite interesting, just not completely overpowered, and additional types were not just added randomly to all the other factions. A faction should have a concept and a way of doing things, and it should be quite unique to that faction. Not just one thing, but several. But how about Skellige now overtaking monsters both for tall units and graveyard management (revive vs consume).
That's a symbol that something is really wrong.
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In principle you have a point. In theory, balance could be achieved by buffing the other factions. But as others have pointed out: This is incredibly more difficult to do and how should that even be done?
Nobody says that SK needs to be butcherd. But at least some provision tweaks are needed so that they cannot include ALL of their OP cards. The current state is not healthy for the game. Thats all.
Side note: IIRC SK was banned 6 out of 7 times during the last tournament (that time Bran Coral was the main menace). I predict: SK gets banned >80% If we go without changes in the next tournament. There is a reason for that.
This is my point too, small changes can go a long way in fixing the issue. Even if everything was changed as I suggested in the first post, I don't think those are dramatic changes that completely overhauls Skellige.
Take for example Disgraced Brawler. The consequence is that you could not put a 7 point body on the board AND damage 7 with Hjalmar. Instead you could put 4 points on the board and damage 8. I'm far more ok with that personally. Or you could use other units for Hjalmar than 5 provision cards.
Brawler is far more expensive to take away from the board than the ability suggests. And most people chose it over the veteran. Besides, if you don't have any cards over say 5 points on the board when Hjalmar is used, more points is "lost" with veteran than is with brawler. All in all, Brawler was a bad addition that contributed to the problem and is way better than veteran. More tempo, less risk plus the probably overly expensive removal factor.
That's just one example of the cards I mentioned, and even a bronze 5 provision card.
Problem with that is that it cancels the core components of the game and alot of cards that are suppose to be valuable becomes useless. It would upset the whole balance of the game.
Take Geralt/Leo as an example. To deal with Skellige (especially Svalblod), you now need ideally 5 Geralt/Leo destroy abilities.
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I would rather Skellige be fixed and adapted to the rest of the game, than all factions going completely overpowered and destroying the rest of the cards in the game and imbalancing everything.
There is a core "balance" point to the game actually, and cards and factions need to be adapted to that anchor point of the game, unless you move that anchor point somewhere else. But moving that anchor point would be a massive job and create chaos and imbalanced across the board.
Let's say that a balance point indication of the game currently is 5 board points and 3 damage. Could very well be 5 board points and 2 damage. I don't know exactly where it is, but I'm guessing, roughly. The "balance point" includes EVERYTHING, boost, tempo, all damage etc.
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Actually, as sarcastic as you might have wanted to be, all of your proposal would be a nice foundation for a debate. For example, this card: "8 Provision card, 1 body, deploy, give all northern realms allies "immune" "
In Thronebreaker, something very similar exists, The card, when played makes all allies immune as long as that unit (with high str and armor) is on the board. Played next to a card that boosts neighbour cards by two each round, it is a very difficult situation. I loved that idea. It is fun to play around this in Thronebreaker - it of course wouldn't in current Gwent, but that's just a matter of adjustments.
So yeah, as I said, ideas like that are way better than nerfing whatever people can't beat.
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By any chance, do you happen to know where one could see such info?
I was making a joke. Coming up with the most ridiculous and overpowered abilities for Northern Realms that I could think of, to make it overpowered like Skellige.
Those ideas are not a good foundation for a debate. It was a joke, and absurd abilities that the game doesn't need. It was to demonstrate how overpowered and ridiculous Skellige is.
No, it jist shows how extremely biased you are. Not open for any changes other than damaging certain Skellige cards that you personally have issues with. Very sad. As I said, my example is in Thronebreaker and works just fine. So it is very stupid to ignore that and instead just show your hate for Skellige as a whole. People like you are what causes the death of so many card games by demanding nerfs beyond any reason (like SvPr doing one damage on own unit and getting one = +0!). Be a little more open and less personal when discussing changes to a game.
Here's a proposal: Make the best deck of Skellige you can imagine. Then play it 20 times in ranked mode and record your games. I will then watch them, and if you really manage to win 20 matches (shouldn't be a problem, SK is so overpowered that you can play it while sleeping, according to you), I will openly and publicly apologize, say that I was wrong, and that not the other factions should be improved, but instead Skellige nerfed. I will even support a nerf of Svalblod Priest to 1 str, do 2 damage to own units then give +0 str to self.
I'll wait patiently.
I don't hate Skellige, I like Skellige. I just want it to be balanced with the other factions and not ruin the core of the game.
Skellige with the cards I've mentioned ventures far outside of that anchor point. Your suggestion is to change the whole game to adapt to Skellige. My suggestion is to slightly adjust some cards to change Skellige to be balanced with the other factions.
I don’t know whether that is documented somewhere. IIRC the exception was the final where wangID did NOT ban SK. The only reason I can remember it is because everybody was totally surprised by that.
A sample from today: I hit rank 3 with Henselt. 7-3 with 3 games against SK. Two Haralds Midrange and one Svalblod Selfwound netdecklists. I lost those games despite knowing all of their cards and plays before they made them. 1st Harald had to use his leader in R1 to not lose a card. And guess what he 2-0 me leading 3 vs 4 cards in R2. 2nd Harald was a card down and without his leader at the end of R2. Against Svalblod I didnt even have a shot to try to win. Noone of them got GG.
Before HC you could check leaders winrates on the GwentUp page. I guess Harald and Svalblod have now ~55-56% winrate, few % ahead of the next leaders.
Before HC you could check leaders winrates on the GwentUp page. I guess Harald and Svalblod have now ~55-56% winrate, few % ahead of the next leaders.
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This is a bit of an issue actually. It's quite sad when you know exactly what and how a Svalblod deck will play. You know exactly all the cards they bring.
You still will have big issues winning that game.
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Actually I watched that recently, and I'm pretty sure it was not explained in the interviews why or which deck they banned. It was explained at the begining of the match by the commentators.
That is one way to put it. I was going to say the video proves you can make highly questionable choices in a game of Gwent if your opponent also makes highly questionable choices
.