Make Nilfgaard Great Again

[hooglese]

Hello there.

After seeing the recent reveals from the Crimson Curse expansion, I've become concerned about the direction CDPR is taking with NG. That direction seems to be a very random chance direction (via Create and Steal which depends on what your opponent is running + whatever you grab). Assimilate is a neat idea given NG's lore however from a gameplay point of view it's incredibly random since the only cards that can proc (that we know of) are Imperial Diplomacy (create), Canterella (depends whats on top of your opponent's deck), Bribery (create), Blue Dream (actually good but expensive, also neutral) and Hen Gaidth Sword (looking strong but also neutral). So the best cards for Nilfgaard's new keyword are neutral cards. Anyway's I'm less here to harp on how bad NG's new cards are looking and instead give suggestions for new cards by fleshing out old NG mechanics rather than making new under developed ones (also I'm not well versed enough in Witcher lore so I'm not going to give names and instead just say bronze or gold).

1. Reveal+Agents
Reveal is the most functional of all NG archetypes. That said, it has been nerfed into oblivion and is completely random. On top of that "Agents" are an archetype almost exclusive to NG with no synergies with an obvious potential to the synergy. The dev's are aware of the situation and this reddit post highlights good changes to it, so I won't get into changing what needs to change but instead what to add.

• [Bronze] 4 Power 7 Provision: reveal a card in your opponent's deck that was/is not in their starting deck, and boost self by that unit's power.
• [Bronze] Special card, 5 Provision: reveal an agent in your deck and damage an enemy unit by the power of that card.

2. Spies
Nilfgaard's whole thing is spies. I don't know the lore well but I know that NG heavily utilizes spies, so why is it that only three spies exist in NG's card pool? I fully don't comprehend the decision to exclude them from the game since they're so fundamental to NG's whole theme. Here are a few examples of cards that could work with current synergies.

• [Bronze] 4 power 4 provision: Apply the spying tag to an enemy unit.
• [Bronze] 2 power (spying) 5 provision: Play a random bronze card from your deck.
• [Bronze] 1 power (spying) 6 provision: Damage adjecent units by 3.
• [Gold] 1 power 6 provision: Boost self by 2 for each spying unit on your opponents side. (Jotunn equivelent).
• [Gold] 1 Power (spying) 8-9 provision: Damage a random unit on this row by 1. When this card is locked boost 3 random units on the opposite row by 3.
• [Gold] 5 power 9 provision. Destroy a spying unit.
• [Gold] 4 power (spying) 10 Provision: Switch sides when you pass. Boosts applied to this card are doubled.
• [Gold] 1 power 11+ provision: Boost self by the power of a spying unit.
• [Gold] 1 power (spying) 13 provision: Deploy: boost self by 6. Deathwish: boost 5 random units on the opposite row by 3.

3. Lock
Lock is probably NG's second most fleshed out archetype and strongest. The only problem with it is that there are very few cards that take advantage of cards being locked. Obviously lock is powerful on it's own but the archetype can't support a whole deck. Here are a few supplimentary cards that would help lock NG be a whole deck without needing a ton of neutral cards.

• [Bronze] 2 power 4 provision: boost self by 2 for each locked unit
• [Bronze] 3 power 5 provision: Purify an enemy unit and boost self by 3 if it was locked.
• [Gold] 4 power 10 provisions: Lock the right most unit in both player's hands
• [Gold] 3 power 10-12 provision: repeat the ability of a locked unit.

4. Enemy Boost
This is one of the most interesting archetypes and i hope there will be more cards that do this because it may the the least fleshed out. It has amazing synergy potential with Scorch/Igni and is all round a very fun ability. Assume all of these units are knights.

• [Bronze] 3 power 4 provision: boost self by 2 whenever a knight boosts an enemy unit.
• [Bronze] 4 power 4 provision: damage and enemy by 1 then boost it by 1.
• [Bronze] 5 Power 5 Provision: Order: Boost self and an enemy by 1.
• [Bronze] 4 Power 6 Provision: Damage all boosted units by 1.
• [Gold] 4 power 6 provision: Boost an enemy by 4 then boost self by 3 (old Rainfarn but not in Geralt range)
• [Bronze] 7 power 7 provision: set a unit to the power of a stronger enemy unit.
• [Gold] 6 power 8 provision: Set an enemy units power to 1, then boost it by the amount damaged.
• [Gold] 4-5 Power 9-10 provison: Melee: Whenever a unit is boosted on your turn damage by twice that amount).

 

[OG.laloquaint]

I feel like CDPR has no idea what to do with Nilfgaard lol. They're my favorite faction for sure but a lot of their cards need changes in my opinion.

I hope the new cards aren't complete trash. I am honestly kind of disappointed with every new Nilfgaard card I've seen so far....except Vivienne.

I also quite liked your ideas, they need more cards that work well with each other.

 

[hooglese]

I feel like CDPR has no idea what to do with Nilfgaard lol. They're my favorite faction for sure but a lot of their cards need changes in my opinion.

I hope the new cards aren't complete trash. I am honestly kind of disappointed with every new Nilfgaard card I've seen so far....except Vivienne.

I also quite liked your ideas, they need more cards that work well with each other.

Oh thank you. I also really don't think there was much focus with regards to NG, it really feels like there were conflicting developers.

I can see Vivienne getting good value, especially with Emhyr. With a midrange NG deck you can use Emhyr with her on roach for 6 value and 7 on leo for a 16 point play or 17 with Zoltan: Scoundrel. That said whatever you do user her with is going to get killed by Geralt.

 

[Koi.Master]

IMO spy should play with position and disrupt enemy position. like set up for combo with your spy position punnish enemy for not playing around.

Boost deck should deal damage first then boost(reverse rainfarn). that is make more sense and useful.

Reveal shoud not rely on randomly get power from a reveal card, it should reveal a lot of card with no other effect or reveal top card. combine with card that summon enemy top or mill it. This make you know what is in their deck and is it worth to do something next. It's information deck not RNG deck.

 

[SMiki55]

Nice propositions, but too numerous I'm afraid (the game would broke if they added them all). 3 to 5 new cards from the ones you mentioned would do the work imho.

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

Assimilate is a neat idea given NG's lore however from a gameplay point of view it's incredibly random since the only cards that can proc (that we know of) are Imperial Diplomacy (create), Canterella (depends whats on top of your opponent's deck), Bribery (create), Blue Dream (actually good but expensive, also neutral) and Hen Gaidth Sword (looking strong but also neutral).

There is also Experimental Remedy, as well as Uma(though also create). And depending on how the keyword works exactly, even Operator might trigger it.

• [Bronze] 4 Power 7 Provision: reveal a card in your opponent's deck that was/is not in their starting deck, and boost self by that unit's power.

• [Bronze] Special card, 5 Provision: reveal an agent in your deck and damage an enemy unit by the power of that card.

The first idea sounds really imbalanced in combination with Cynthia.
And the second one will probably only be used in decks, running exactly one high power agent (if there were any) and no other agents to get max value out of it, the same Barclay Els was missused.

• [Gold] 1 Power (spying) 8-9 provision: Damage a random unit on this row by 1. When this card is locked boost 3 random units on the opposite row by 3.
• [Gold] 4 power (spying) 10 Provision: Switch sides when you pass. Boosts applied to this card are doubled.

I doubt that the first one should be working, as the lock mechanic would stop the ability.
The second card is similar to Fake Ciri from Beta, which never worked that well, because the card often would be consumed or just locked when it was already boosted, which made it extremly risky and binary.
The rest of the agents seem fine, and with the Purify mechanic, a spying deck should a lot more interactable than before.

• [Bronze] 3 power 5 provision: Purge an enemy unit and boost self by 3 if it was locked.
• [Gold] 4 power 10 provisions: Lock the right most unit in both player's hands
• [Gold] 3 power 10-12 provision: repeat the ability of a locked unit.

What does Purge mean? If it is purify, why not make the damage effect for all stati and not only against locked?
That seems to be a far weaker version of Kambi for the same strength and provisions.
The provisions of that card seem awfully high to me. Normally you would mainly want to lock engines, which have weaker abilities, because they can use it more than once. The number of cards such an ability would be usefull against is really limited.

 

[BoYoDes]

M I L L​

 

[Guest 4339135]

I feel like CDPR has no idea what to do with Nilfgaard lol. They're my favorite faction for sure but a lot of their cards need changes in my opinion.

I hope the new cards aren't complete trash. I am honestly kind of disappointed with every new Nilfgaard card I've seen so far....except Vivienne.

I also quite liked your ideas, they need more cards that work well with each other.

Hello there.

After seeing the recent reveals from the Crimson Curse expansion, I've become concerned about the direction CDPR is taking with NG. That direction seems to be a very random chance direction (via Create and Steal which depends on what your opponent is running + whatever you grab). Assimilate is a neat idea given NG's lore however from a gameplay point of view it's incredibly random since the only cards that can proc (that we know of) are Imperial Diplomacy (create), Canterella (depends whats on top of your opponent's deck), Bribery (create), Blue Dream (actually good but expensive, also neutral) and Hen Gaidth Sword (looking strong but also neutral). So the best cards for Nilfgaard's new keyword are neutral cards. Anyway's I'm less here to harp on how bad NG's new cards are looking and instead give suggestions for new cards by fleshing out old NG mechanics rather than making new under developed ones (also I'm not well versed enough in Witcher lore so I'm not going to give names and instead just say bronze or gold).

1. Reveal+Agents
Reveal is the most functional of all NG archetypes. That said, it has been nerfed into oblivion and is completely random. On top of that "Agents" are an archetype almost exclusive to NG with no synergies with an obvious potential to the synergy. The dev's are aware of the situation and this reddit post highlights good changes to it, so I won't get into changing what needs to change but instead what to add.

• [Bronze] 4 Power 7 Provision: reveal a card in your opponent's deck that was/is not in their starting deck, and boost self by that unit's power.
• [Bronze] Special card, 5 Provision: reveal an agent in your deck and damage an enemy unit by the power of that card.

2. Spies
Nilfgaard's whole thing is spies. I don't know the lore well but I know that NG heavily utilizes spies, so why is it that only three spies exist in NG's card pool? I fully don't comprehend the decision to exclude them from the game since they're so fundamental to NG's whole theme. Here are a few examples of cards that could work with current synergies.

• [Bronze] 4 power 4 provision: Apply the spying tag to an enemy unit.
• [Bronze] 2 power (spying) 5 provision: Play a random bronze card from your deck.
• [Bronze] 1 power (spying) 6 provision: Damage adjecent units by 3.
• [Gold] 1 power 6 provision: Boost self by 2 for each spying unit on your opponents side. (Jotunn equivelent).
• [Gold] 1 Power (spying) 8-9 provision: Damage a random unit on this row by 1. When this card is locked boost 3 random units on the opposite row by 3.
• [Gold] 5 power 9 provision. Destroy a spying unit.
• [Gold] 4 power (spying) 10 Provision: Switch sides when you pass. Boosts applied to this card are doubled.
• [Gold] 1 power 11+ provision: Boost self by the power of a spying unit.
• [Gold] 1 power (spying) 13 provision: Deploy: boost self by 6. Deathwish: boost 5 random units on the opposite row by 3.

3. Lock
Lock is probably NG's second most fleshed out archetype and strongest. The only problem with it is that there are very few cards that take advantage of cards being locked. Obviously lock is powerful on it's own but the archetype can't support a whole deck. Here are a few supplimentary cards that would help lock NG be a whole deck without needing a ton of neutral cards.

• [Bronze] 2 power 4 provision: boost self by 2 for each locked unit
• [Bronze] 3 power 5 provision: Purge an enemy unit and boost self by 3 if it was locked.
• [Gold] 4 power 10 provisions: Lock the right most unit in both player's hands
• [Gold] 3 power 10-12 provision: repeat the ability of a locked unit.

4. Enemy Boost
This is one of the most interesting archetypes and i hope there will be more cards that do this because it may the the least fleshed out. It has amazing synergy potential with Scorch/Igni and is all round a very fun ability. Assume all of these units are knights.

• [Bronze] 3 power 4 provision: boost self by 2 whenever a knight boosts an enemy unit.
• [Bronze] 4 power 4 provision: damage and enemy by 1 then boost it by 1.
• [Bronze] 5 Power 5 Provision: Order: Boost self and an enemy by 1.
• [Bronze] 4 Power 6 Provision: Damage all boosted units by 1.
• [Gold] 4 power 6 provision: Boost an enemy by 4 then boost self by 3 (old Rainfarn but not in Geralt range)
• [Bronze] 7 power 7 provision: set a unit to the power of a stronger enemy unit.
• [Gold] 6 power 8 provision: Set an enemy units power to 1, then boost it by the amount damaged.
• [Gold] 4-5 Power 9-10 provison: Melee: Whenever a unit is boosted on your turn damage by twice that amount).

Yeah, I've got the same concerns like you. Every new card feels like they are doing just random things and don't know how to support the archetypes. NG already has more than enough archetypes that don't work and I hoped that will change with the expansion. But they wanted to add new archetypes and this will end the same way like the old one's...they don't work. Instead of repair and focus on this problem they randomly throw new cards out and hope that the people forget about it while they are excited about the new one's. It is typical for CDPR and gwent, they don't know what they're doing and I still can't understand why they don't listen to the community and support the archetypes and especially every faction, NG and NR don't get much love.

 

[Sleeperko]

Well, majority of your spy card ideas were already in the game during beta. I believe, that they removed them just to bring them back in the expansion focused on nilfgaard secret services.

 

[mzeebra]

Hello there.

After seeing the recent reveals from the Crimson Curse expansion, I've become concerned about the direction CDPR is taking with NG. That direction seems to be a very random chance direction (via Create and Steal which depends on what your opponent is running + whatever you grab). Assimilate is a neat idea given NG's lore however from a gameplay point of view it's incredibly random since the only cards that can proc (that we know of) are Imperial Diplomacy (create), Canterella (depends whats on top of your opponent's deck), Bribery (create), Blue Dream (actually good but expensive, also neutral) and Hen Gaidth Sword (looking strong but also neutral). So the best cards for Nilfgaard's new keyword are neutral cards. Anyway's I'm less here to harp on how bad NG's new cards are looking and instead give suggestions for new cards by fleshing out old NG mechanics rather than making new under developed ones (also I'm not well versed enough in Witcher lore so I'm not going to give names and instead just say bronze or gold).

1. Reveal+Agents
Reveal is the most functional of all NG archetypes. That said, it has been nerfed into oblivion and is completely random. On top of that "Agents" are an archetype almost exclusive to NG with no synergies with an obvious potential to the synergy. The dev's are aware of the situation and this reddit post highlights good changes to it, so I won't get into changing what needs to change but instead what to add.

• [Bronze] 4 Power 7 Provision: reveal a card in your opponent's deck that was/is not in their starting deck, and boost self by that unit's power.
• [Bronze] Special card, 5 Provision: reveal an agent in your deck and damage an enemy unit by the power of that card.

2. Spies
Nilfgaard's whole thing is spies. I don't know the lore well but I know that NG heavily utilizes spies, so why is it that only three spies exist in NG's card pool? I fully don't comprehend the decision to exclude them from the game since they're so fundamental to NG's whole theme. Here are a few examples of cards that could work with current synergies.

• [Bronze] 4 power 4 provision: Apply the spying tag to an enemy unit.
• [Bronze] 2 power (spying) 5 provision: Play a random bronze card from your deck.
• [Bronze] 1 power (spying) 6 provision: Damage adjecent units by 3.
• [Gold] 1 power 6 provision: Boost self by 2 for each spying unit on your opponents side. (Jotunn equivelent).
• [Gold] 1 Power (spying) 8-9 provision: Damage a random unit on this row by 1. When this card is locked boost 3 random units on the opposite row by 3.
• [Gold] 5 power 9 provision. Destroy a spying unit.
• [Gold] 4 power (spying) 10 Provision: Switch sides when you pass. Boosts applied to this card are doubled.
• [Gold] 1 power 11+ provision: Boost self by the power of a spying unit.
• [Gold] 1 power (spying) 13 provision: Deploy: boost self by 6. Deathwish: boost 5 random units on the opposite row by 3.

3. Lock
Lock is probably NG's second most fleshed out archetype and strongest. The only problem with it is that there are very few cards that take advantage of cards being locked. Obviously lock is powerful on it's own but the archetype can't support a whole deck. Here are a few supplimentary cards that would help lock NG be a whole deck without needing a ton of neutral cards.

• [Bronze] 2 power 4 provision: boost self by 2 for each locked unit
• [Bronze] 3 power 5 provision: Purge an enemy unit and boost self by 3 if it was locked.
• [Gold] 4 power 10 provisions: Lock the right most unit in both player's hands
• [Gold] 3 power 10-12 provision: repeat the ability of a locked unit.

4. Enemy Boost
This is one of the most interesting archetypes and i hope there will be more cards that do this because it may the the least fleshed out. It has amazing synergy potential with Scorch/Igni and is all round a very fun ability. Assume all of these units are knights.

• [Bronze] 3 power 4 provision: boost self by 2 whenever a knight boosts an enemy unit.
• [Bronze] 4 power 4 provision: damage and enemy by 1 then boost it by 1.
• [Bronze] 5 Power 5 Provision: Order: Boost self and an enemy by 1.
• [Bronze] 4 Power 6 Provision: Damage all boosted units by 1.
• [Gold] 4 power 6 provision: Boost an enemy by 4 then boost self by 3 (old Rainfarn but not in Geralt range)
• [Bronze] 7 power 7 provision: set a unit to the power of a stronger enemy unit.
• [Gold] 6 power 8 provision: Set an enemy units power to 1, then boost it by the amount damaged.
• [Gold] 4-5 Power 9-10 provison: Melee: Whenever a unit is boosted on your turn damage by twice that amount).

I like this, and obviously you have put alot of thought into it. I generally think Nilfgaard is underpowered. Perhaps neglected as some say, but all in all underpowered. My opinion is that Nilfgaard is as much underpowered as Skellige is overpowered.

Nilfgaard is suppose to be the "main" faction. Skellige didn't even exist before the Blood and Wine expansion. My point is that it's unacceptable to neglect Nilfgaard.

I really like your thoughts about spies, and I really agree that part of that is also to "manipulate" the situation of opponents like you describe in the last section. For me the Nilfgaard Knight is a very cool card, and alot can be done with it.

Anyways, brilliant post! Bravo.

 

[hooglese]

There is also Experimental Remedy, as well as Uma(though also create). And depending on how the keyword works exactly, even Operator might trigger it.

The first idea sounds really imbalanced in combination with Cynthia.
And the second one will probably only be used in decks, running exactly one high power agent (if there were any) and no other agents to get max value out of it, the same Barclay Els was missused.


I doubt that the first one should be working, as the lock mechanic would stop the ability.
The second card is similar to Fake Ciri from Beta, which never worked that well, because the card often would be consumed or just locked when it was already boosted, which made it extremly risky and binary.
The rest of the agents seem fine, and with the Purify mechanic, a spying deck should a lot more interactable than before.


What does Purge mean? If it is purify, why not make the damage effect for all stati and not only against locked?
That seems to be a far weaker version of Kambi for the same strength and provisions.
The provisions of that card seem awfully high to me. Normally you would mainly want to lock engines, which have weaker abilities, because they can use it more than once. The number of cards such an ability would be usefull against is really limited.

Yes I mean Purify, just a typo, and the change you suggested would make it better but I also don't want it to be OP. Also about the reveal agent damage card but I feel like revealing an Agent in your deck would be a fun idea. That said, lets go into what I disagree with.

The first idea is designed to give synergy to cards like Cynthia, who is quite weak in game (especially with Assire who can throw a witcher in or pull roach out if you get her on R3). The card maxes out at 8 power (in Geralt range) point play at 7 provision and requires set up from either previous rounds or with Cynthia. Contrast that to Vreemde who also requires set up, can also secure an easy 8 value that can't be denied with Geralt. Unless you mean weak?

Some recoding might have to be done to work with the "on lock" but that's a type of card that could work with NG as a pseudo-deathwish. My False-Ciri equivelent is a card that would work in the HC but didn't work before namely because "enemy boost" wasn't a thing. Enemy boost has a lot of synergy with spies in theory since you can boost a spy, obviously it wouldn't be super strong for the reasons you said, an option to counter act that would be "apply immunity on your opponents turn" instead of boost self, but that could be more problematic. I don't see an issue with it being locked though (more an issue with consume), since few cards can lock an allied unit and there are Purify cards coming in.

Lastly, it sounds like you haven't used Auckes or faced Auckes before because locking a card in hand is really strong. For one, it denies the card's deploy ability, effectively bricking most cards, which with a card like Ozzrell means that you've just denied up to 12 points from your opponent. For two, locking your own card means that a card like Tibor now is worth a full 13 points and Imperial Golem give it's full 11 since their deploy abilities won't go off (and give NG a much needed massive finisher that isn't Commander's Horn). On top of all of that you get the cards that work with lock for even more value.

Post automatically merged: Mar 11, 2019

M I L L​

no

 

[C7Racehead]

Lots of interesting ideas with the abilities presented here.

We still have 10 NG cards to be revealed as of this post

 

[mzeebra]

With Crimson Curse now having been released, it would be interesting with some Nilfgaard spy cards with poison effects as well.

 

[Lexor]

With Crimson Curse now having been released, it would be interesting with some Nilfgaard spy cards with poison effects as well.

There is one already, Rot Tosser.

 

[mzeebra]

There is one already, Rot Tosser.

I heard this was changed. I didn't check it yet.

But yeah, perhaps more and placed 1 point cards that wreak havoc with poison in the opposition row(s).

 

[partci]

To think that this was the most diverse faction of the all...

 

[Wonderboy8700]

NG in theory has 5 archetypes (I say in theory because many of them are not fully supported.) Reveal, spy, assimilate, mill, and lock. The issues with these were addressed well above, so let me offer some additional ideas.

1. Armor should be returned to Gwent and given to NG. NR has shield, NG has all the money in the lore and the money pays for the blacksmithing. Armor would protect the NG order cards and provide synergy options just like in beta.

2. Infiltration. NG in the books backed the ST to attack the NR. Likewise, NG has the deepest pockets and could pay for the capture of live monsters to be used against their enemies. Enter infiltrate. A spying unit whose deploy plays a either a MO or ST card of the same provision cost. Some people will argue this violates the division of the factions, but honestly a big part of NG is that they don't follow that divide.

3. Slave infantry is a good first step in a new archetype called retrain. Retrained units can either transform, or reduce their current and base power to 1 and gain the ability of an ally on the board. For example you have card a with base of 5 and the ability to change a 1 to a 5 if played on melee. Or he can go to ranged, get reduced to a 1, and repeat the deploy ability or order ability of the ally he selects. This is incredibly powerful, but it comes at 2 costs. Not only can that same unit be deathblowed for bad results (including the enemy playing a copy,) but the unit becomes a 1 (not very skilled at the new job.) You can have bronze limited retrain cards and some that work on the enemy. It has synergy with lock and sieze and overall adds new layers.

 

[partci]

... mill...

I'm not sure where you've seen this. But is the thing I miss the most about Gwent - playing my Mill decks.

 

[Wonderboy8700]

I'm not sure where you've seen this. But is the thing I miss the most about Gwent - playing my Mill decks.

I used mill in seasonal mode last month, won a huge percentage against all non lippy decks.

 

[mzeebra]

3. Slave infantry is a good first step in a new archetype called retrain.

With all the new "effects" I had to add another Slave Infantry unit to my main deck. It's a good unit. Countering for example bleeding or poison in addition to anything it would counter before.

I'd hate to have to bring purify units or such things in my deck, so your suggestion seems like one I would like at least.