Misc. Gwent Guides to... [THINNING]

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Have these guides been helpful?

  • Yes. Keep 'em coming!

    Votes: 39 88.6%
  • Not really. Dont waste your time...

    Votes: 5 11.4%

  • Total voters
    44
4. Unpredictabilty is a weapon. You can play original decks, filled with cards your opponent wont see coming. But even with this advantage, sometimes its hard to beat metadecks. Sometimes just changing 1 or 2 cards is enough, specially if they're finishers. If all your cards are weird, your opponent will expect weird next, but you can trick into a false sense of security then strike hard when it counts.
I love doing this, like playing 2 tall removals, the 1st is the meta one, they assume i dont have another, then hit with the unusual one.
Or using Yrden in SK, they never see it comin! (gonna get hate for this :ohstopit:)

I commend your effort in writing these guides, most entertaining. I did give you a Red, even though I located a distasteful word amidst your text...but I granted you the point anyway. Just don't do that again. :sneaky:
 
I return to my guides topic, for another dive into a seasonal mode.
I checked my earlier posts on this thread and found i already did a guide for this, in December '19, when seasonal modes still didnt have specific modes. I might repeat some of my hints, but i feel like the mode changed a lot due to new cards, so it deserves a new post.

I have NOT played much of this seasonal, either this week since it started, or when it was on back last December, so i dont feel like im in a position to make a real guide, it will be just a mesh of hints and opinions on the mode:

- PLUS ONE SEASONAL MODE TACTICS -

This is a very interesting concept for a seasonal mode. I hadnt played it in awhile, i remember it was "broken" by Damien swarms, but i thought now it would be better... Nope, its even worse, it didnt take many matches until i found some opponents with strategies it just makes you wanna forfeit and never touch the mode again, which is a shame because the mode has a lot of potential for fun.

HINTS:

1. you only get value by playing units, in order to spawn the 1pt copies. That mean artefacts and specials in general should be avoided. It also means your opponents are less likely to have heatwaves or yen's invo or 4/5 dmg specials.

2. the most obvious strategy is to do engine overload. All 6 factions have decent engines, so in theory all 6 should be viable.

3. usually engines either do damage or boost. I havent done a full cardpool analysis, but i think there are more boosty engines, and boosts are easier to counter with a Yrden finisher, so i would value more any damage engine deck.

4. Its very easy to fill your side of the board, so be careful not to overswarm, and consider both wide boosts and damage like bone talismans/lacerates or similar faction cards.

CHECKLIST:

I dont know if i'll have the time, but these are the 6 strategies for the 6 factions i would like to try in this mode, feel free to join in and try these or others and then share your results.

1. MO - deathwish - this deck i already did and played a few matches, its decklist and guide can be seen on the thread 'Deck of the Day'

2. NR - siege - i love NR scenario, its my favourite, and although there are seasonal modes where its even more explosive (the one where your deck duplicates or the one where specials are doubled), i think it can do well here with huge bombardments due to so many siege engines on board, also control for 1pt enemy engines.

3. NG - maddoc madness - im not sure yet, but i would like to investigate possibilities on how many madocs you can get in this mode, i dont know if letho KS on madoc will make a new madoc, appear, might be crazy with 4+ madocs.

4. ST - engine overload - this is what i used before, like in '19, way before ST got the movement archetype buffed. This seems like the strongest deck in this mode, it feels ridiculous, and if possible i want to try something a bit different.

5. SK - crow messenger - again, another deck i did for 'Deck of the Day', but with a few modifications for this mode, it can create a huge amount of carryover, way more than the 4/5 i get in standard mode.

6. SY - Passiflora - this will probably be very simple, spam seductresses, peaches, scenario, saul, but i wanna add "spice" with Igor and shenanigans on him to generate many more passiflora girls.
 
I return to my guides topic, for another dive into a seasonal mode.
I checked my earlier posts on this thread and found i already did a guide for this, in December '19, when seasonal modes still didnt have specific modes. I might repeat some of my hints, but i feel like the mode changed a lot due to new cards, so it deserves a new post.

I have NOT played much of this seasonal, either this week since it started, or when it was on back last December, so i dont feel like im in a position to make a real guide, it will be just a mesh of hints and opinions on the mode:

- PLUS ONE SEASONAL MODE TACTICS -

This is a very interesting concept for a seasonal mode. I hadnt played it in awhile, i remember it was "broken" by Damien swarms, but i thought now it would be better... Nope, its even worse, it didnt take many matches until i found some opponents with strategies it just makes you wanna forfeit and never touch the mode again, which is a shame because the mode has a lot of potential for fun.

HINTS:

1. you only get value by playing units, in order to spawn the 1pt copies. That mean artefacts and specials in general should be avoided. It also means your opponents are less likely to have heatwaves or yen's invo or 4/5 dmg specials.

2. the most obvious strategy is to do engine overload. All 6 factions have decent engines, so in theory all 6 should be viable.

3. usually engines either do damage or boost. I havent done a full cardpool analysis, but i think there are more boosty engines, and boosts are easier to counter with a Yrden finisher, so i would value more any damage engine deck.

4. Its very easy to fill your side of the board, so be careful not to overswarm, and consider both wide boosts and damage like bone talismans/lacerates or similar faction cards.

CHECKLIST:

I dont know if i'll have the time, but these are the 6 strategies for the 6 factions i would like to try in this mode, feel free to join in and try these or others and then share your results.

1. MO - deathwish - this deck i already did and played a few matches, its decklist and guide can be seen on the thread 'Deck of the Day'

2. NR - siege - i love NR scenario, its my favourite, and although there are seasonal modes where its even more explosive (the one where your deck duplicates or the one where specials are doubled), i think it can do well here with huge bombardments due to so many siege engines on board, also control for 1pt enemy engines.

3. NG - maddoc madness - im not sure yet, but i would like to investigate possibilities on how many madocs you can get in this mode, i dont know if letho KS on madoc will make a new madoc, appear, might be crazy with 4+ madocs.

4. ST - engine overload - this is what i used before, like in '19, way before ST got the movement archetype buffed. This seems like the strongest deck in this mode, it feels ridiculous, and if possible i want to try something a bit different.

5. SK - crow messenger - again, another deck i did for 'Deck of the Day', but with a few modifications for this mode, it can create a huge amount of carryover, way more than the 4/5 i get in standard mode.

6. SY - Passiflora - this will probably be very simple, spam seductresses, peaches, scenario, saul, but i wanna add "spice" with Igor and shenanigans on him to generate many more passiflora girls.
Thank you for posting this right now, I just closed the game to create a post regarding this seasonal mode, but I'll just add my two cents on tow. This is (or was) quite an interesting mode for me until I noticed the uncanny interaction with its rules and a certain mutant. It's beyond crazy and not fun if your opponent doesn't know what's coming. Winning with it can be too easy, so I stopped playing it as the person on the losing side would not enjoy the game - as opposed to a "fair" loss.

My favorite deck is my siege one, as I do also love this card. The deck can lose when undermined early enough, but if the scenario sticks on the board, then the opponent may as well put this as soundtrack during the match.

EDIT: Letho KS does create an extra Maddoc when its spawns, I played against it. Quite cool deck.
 
This is a very interesting concept for a seasonal mode. I hadnt played it in awhile, i remember it was "broken" by Damien swarms, but i thought now it would be better... Nope, its even worse, it didnt take many matches until i found some opponents with strategies it just makes you wanna forfeit and never touch the mode again, which is a shame because the mode has a lot of potential for fun.

One other thing to point out, for contract oriented players, is that this is a fantastic mode for playing certain keyword contracts. For example, Assimilate, Harmony, and Intimidate triggers can be racked up twice as fast (provided your 1 pointers stick around for a turn or two).

And you're right - there are a few combos that really ought to be banned from this mode because they do make for an incredibly unbalanced match.
 
Until he's banned from this mode, which seems unlikely given how little effort CDPR puts into balancing the Seasonal modes (i.e. none), I'll engage in instantaneous forfeiting against the offending deck. It's hard to condone such practices, but that deck might actually have a 100% win rate. It's basically play 2 cards and expend a leader charge to automatically win the round (even when your opponent uses their entire hand), then rinse and repeat; plus, the game has so many tutors that it's practically impossible to not draw him. I've seen CDPR ignore countless glitches and balancing mistakes in the past, but this could kill the Plus One mode.

Fortunately, it seems that the majority of players are not yet abusing the problem. Maybe people actually have a modicum of self-respect; more likely, it probably takes a couple of days before the [...] masses figure out what they should be copying.
 
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Fortunately, it seems that the majority of players are not yet abusing the problem. Maybe people actually have a modicum of self-respect; more likely, it probably takes a couple of days before the [...] masses figure out what they should be copying.

The plus side of the seasonal mode rotating each week instead of each month is precisely that: whenever a broken strategy or deck afflicts a certain seasonal mode, at least now it only lasts a few days and a new mode will replace it.

While on the previous system, we had a new seasonal mode, the first 2-3 days were awesome, everyone trying new stuff, then the next 4-5 days a meta was starting to shapen up, but it was still bearable, then we had 20 days of the exact same crap, even worse when a broken tier 0 deck existed.

Of course this new system isnt perfect, sometimes one week really isnt enough, specially when there's a new balance patch, you try the new stuff on standard, when you finally decide to try seasonal its almost over. I think 2 weeks would be the perfect system (and BattleRush permanent :shrug:)
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Anyway, it seems a great number of players are using NG (surprise!) and trying the toxic tactic of clogging the board with spies. Oh well, still better than the other stuff that is ruining the mode, at least there's a fighting chance.

I tried the SY passiflora deck i said i would do for this mode and its really fun, braindead while spamming engines, the only tricky thing is Igor and coordinating his coins and insanity.

Surprisingly, i havent found many players using Yrden, while mine has been essential for most victories.
1st Try - Hoes vs spy clog (After 200pt Yrden).jpg


This was my very 1st match with this deck, luckily he used leader and his Yrden R1 to win (my seductresses were boosting like crazy on his multiple moves).
He clogged me very fast, i had to discard 2 or 3 units, but my last 2 plays were lacerate on my own front row, then a 200+ pt Yrden on his giant Cahirs and won. :howdy:

PS- he would've won if he had kept his coup de grace for last on my Yrden, he just thought i wouldnt be able to play it ehehe

I also faced a NG using triple madoc. Was able to 2-0 him with this passiflora deck somehow, so i dont think i want to try that anymore.
 
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it probably takes a couple of days before the [...] masses figure out what they should be copying.
Unfortunately I don't think so, 75% of the matches I queue into are using that specific leader already. I believe Plus One is sadly gone.
 
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Until he's banned from this mode, which seems unlikely given how little effort CDPR puts into balancing the Seasonal modes (i.e. none), I'll engage in instantaneous forfeiting against the offending deck. It's hard to condone such practices, but that deck might actually have a 100% win rate. It's basically play 2 cards and expend a leader charge to automatically win the round (even when your opponent uses their entire hand), then rinse and repeat; plus, the game has so many tutors that it's practically impossible to not draw him. I've seen CDPR ignore countless glitches and balancing mistakes in the past, but this could kill the Plus One mode.
If we're talking about the same deck, there are a few counters... Lambert: Swordmaster can be played immediately after the offending card to destroy all the 1 point copies. Alternately, Lacerate will have the same effect while being a lot cheaper. If they don't immediately use a leader charge, then this hinders them somewhat unless they have other cards to fall back on.

If you let them play the second card of the combo and then pass because they've a full board, then Igni (EDIT: I meant Scorch, but either way you need a 1 point damage ping for it to kill all the copies) with initiative can be used to significant advantage. Yrden also helps if you've got to tutor someone.

But even these techniques can still make it very hard to beat them without going down a card or two. Plus, you really shouldn't have to design your deck around countering a single card combo that otherwise breaks the mode.
 
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If we're talking about the same deck, there are a few counters... Lambert: Swordmaster can be played immediately after the offending card to destroy all the 1 point copies. Alternately, Lacerate will have the same effect while being a lot cheaper. If they don't immediately use a leader charge, then this hinders them somewhat unless they have other cards to fall back on.

If you let them play the second card of the combo and then pass because they've a full board, then Igni (EDIT: I meant Scorch, but either way you need a 1 point damage ping for it to kill all the copies) with initiative can be used to significant advantage. Yrden also helps if you've got to tutor someone.

But even these techniques can still make it very hard to beat them without going down a card or two. Plus, you really shouldn't have to design your deck around countering a single card combo that otherwise breaks the mode.
You would still always be playing catchup. Perfect play might lead you to winning one round, but when facing even a moderately skilled opponent, winning the match is basically impossible.

Per your example, let's say the opponent fills the row and then uses a leader charge on one of them before passing. Even if you have Lambert: Swordmaster, the strongest possible play outside of Auckes (which requires an insane amount of luck), the opponent still has an additional two spawns next turn; you've only temporarily countered a bit of the pointslam. The only way a combo like this could ever be considered fair is if Gwent had boardwipes, which, admittedly, could easily appear in one of the upcoming expansions given how much the design team is obsessed with massive point swings.
 
You would still always be playing catchup. Perfect play might lead you to winning one round, but when facing even a moderately skilled opponent, winning the match is basically impossible.

Per your example, let's say the opponent fills the row and then uses a leader charge on one of them before passing. Even if you have Lambert: Swordmaster, the strongest possible play outside of Auckes (which requires an insane amount of luck), the opponent still has an additional two spawns next turn; you've only temporarily countered a bit of the pointslam. The only way a combo like this could ever be considered fair is if Gwent had boardwipes, which, admittedly, could easily appear in one of the upcoming expansions given how much the design team is obsessed with massive point swings.

Yeah, there really isn't a great solution.

This was a problem last time Plus One came up, and it will be going forward until they ban that card from the mode. CDPR were able to ban the old Yoana / Freakshow combo from Arena, so they ought to be able to do something about this too. I'd suggest they just add something along the lines of "At the end of your turn, if there is more than one copy of this card on your side of the board, damage all copies by 2 points".

Personally, I just play this mode for the opportunity to quickly rack up triggers on some of the 1,000 xxxxx contracts before people start spamming that deck. Which unfortunately is only a day or two...

EDIT - Brainstorm: Precision Strike + Schirru should be able to wipe all the offenders off the board unless they use all three leader charges to move the same copy three times (or the original one twice, but that doesn't help them at all). But that only works for one specific leader...
 
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Plus one really suffers from many of the problems all seasonal modes suffer -- there are a small handful of totally broken cards or combinations. In this case at least, there are a lot of ways to play despite the one broken card; the mode doesn't have to be a boring repetition of the same deck. The leader combination is not essential -- it simply accelerates the play by one turn over a variety of cards that could accomplish essentially the same thing. What I see as the big problem is that to effectively play many seasonal modes is that success absolutely demands ownership of certain cards and demanding that they be crafted is really unfair to the players who haven't been around for enough years to have a nearly complete collection. This problem is not limited to plus 1 by the way -- I quit playing switcheroo because i didn't own the cards I needed for a good deck.
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On a different note, I have had some success with a different tactic for plus 1. Although special cards are supposedly "bad" because they do not benefit from the duplication, I have found them very helpful. Some (like decoy or renew) can allow an especially useful card to be replayed. Some (like lacerate or stammelford's tremors) may provide very valuable wide punish. Those which result in playing (but not summoning) a unit still derive the +1 benefit. And all (except those that call for playing a unit) are very useful when board space is limited -- as it often is in plus 1.

I also love the SK berserk cards as they automatically trigger on the spawned copy; and, if playing SK, healing cards (e.g. Heymaey Flaminica and Bear Witcher Adept) quickly achieve great value. And don't overlook some truly great neutral cards (yrden, dudu, snowdrop, necromancy, desert treasure cards, to name only a few).

But most factions have some real strengths: SY has a lot of cards that benefit from spawning (fallen knight, firesworn scribes, eternal fire priests), NG can get double (or quadruple with Letho: Kingslayer) copies of the already broken Cahir. Monster consume is the only really effective way to clear boardspace, NR can totally swamp the board with engines.
 
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Just played some of the seasonal mode and it got boring pretty quickly as it seems as though everybody today is playing those games which just go berserk in this mode. It was like that mode last year, I think, where everyone played the Damian La Tour deck or whatever his name is. It was just an insta-win for them, unless you were playing the same deck.

Think I'll give this mode a miss, as I don't want to do a copy and paste deck of the current meme deck.
 
Hahahaa
I am laughting about People blaming about The ildarran and snowdrop combo.

Every seasonal its a NG festa, with super combos and all those NG lovers doenst blame about it.

Now The first time NG its not The Best seasonal faction, everyone is crying.

Yes, lets take off that combo and what we Will have? The same NG deck full The opponent board with spies.

The ildarran combo is toxic? Of course, but The spies deck its toxic too, The Madoc deck is toxic too.

So NG lovers, just wait a few days and The seasonal Will change and you can use you NG decks again.

For those Who are thinking to quote me, think about The others seasonal and If The NG faction with The same deck is The most play. If The answer is Yes, i m right.

Even in this seasonal, with this suprb combo i still play against a lot of NG

For The Last, we can take off ildarran, but we Also need tô take off ALL the spies
 
Although special cards are supposedly "bad" because they do not benefit from the duplication, I have found them very helpful. Some (like decoy or renew) can allow an especially useful card to be replayed. Some (like lacerate or stammelford's tremors) may provide very valuable wide punish. Those which result in playing (but not summoning) a unit still derive the +1 benefit. And all (except those that call for playing a unit) are very useful when board space is limited -- as it often is in plus 1.

I did say in my "kinda" guide that special cards were bad, but only in general.
The main exception is indeed specials that allow you to play a unit, like Renew or Decoy or many others like Bribery or freya's blessing.

And yes, more exceptions, lacerate and bone talismans can be very good, the former because it can provide a lot of (negative) points (for opponent) but also destroy the 1pt copies of engines or order cards; the latter because you can run out of space, and 18pts is nothing to scoff at.
 
And don't overlook some truly great neutral cards (yrden, dudu, snowdrop, necromancy, desert treasure cards, to name only a few).

Living Armor is my favorite among the neutrals. SInce armor isn't affected on the spawned copy and LA's ability is for it's power to always equal it's armor, both copies play for the full 10 points. A great 20-for-10 pointslam card in this mode. Both of the Olgierd cards are also pretty decent as well.

Of course this is predicated on not matching against a ST Idarran deck. I was pleasantly surprised last night to only encounter that deck twice in eight matches. Half of my matches were against NR charge decks using the Vysogoto / Dandelion / Priscilla combo.
 
Hahahaa
I am laughting about People blaming about The ildarran and snowdrop combo.

Every seasonal its a NG festa, with super combos and all those NG lovers doenst blame about it.

Now The first time NG its not The Best seasonal faction, everyone is crying.

Yes, lets take off that combo and what we Will have? The same NG deck full The opponent board with spies.

The ildarran combo is toxic? Of course, but The spies deck its toxic too, The Madoc deck is toxic too.

So NG lovers, just wait a few days and The seasonal Will change and you can use you NG decks again.

For those Who are thinking to quote me, think about The others seasonal and If The NG faction with The same deck is The most play. If The answer is Yes, i m right.

Even in this seasonal, with this suprb combo i still play against a lot of NG

For The Last, we can take off ildarran, but we Also need tô take off ALL the spies
I do not find it laughable when there are people so incapable of objectivity that they will not admit when their own pet faction or pet deck is clearly imbalanced -- regardless of the faction.

And spies are not comparable to idarran. After filling a row with nine Idarrans (by playing one card) and moving three to a different row by movement, you then create space to produce 8 copies of a card of your choice the next turn. If that card is Snowdrop, it will play for 8*2*2*8 + 9 == 265 points. If that card is Vildkaarl (the next best I can find), it plays for 12*7 + 5) = 89 points. Even if a player can get off a lacerate or equivalent, there will remain enough for 6 copies of Snowdrop (which play for 2*2*6*6 + 7 = 151 points). And the SK player needs an intermediary turn to move copies of Idarran (probably with either samun or or nivellen) while scoring 65 points. And if I'm being totally honest, the Vildkaarl combo is itself OP. With spying units (assuming no Idarran), it is possible to very slowly fill one row (which can be dealt with in numerous ways such as consume, self damage, movement, or even a friendly fire lacerate). There is a huge difference between a strategy that can be stopped in numerous ways that can be organic to most decks and a strategy that flat out guarantees a round. When you have an elephant and an ant in the way, you deal with the elephant first.

Other seasonals are also imbalanced - but I will complain about them when I notice the imbalance. I simply cannot recall all issues with all other seasonals, and even if I could, I prefer to deal with them separately.
 
I do not find it laughable when there are people so incapable of objectivity that they will not admit when their own pet faction or pet deck is clearly imbalanced -- regardless of the faction.

And spies are not comparable to idarran. After filling a row with nine Idarrans (by playing one card) and moving three to a different row by movement, you then create space to produce 8 copies of a card of your choice the next turn. If that card is Snowdrop, it will play for 8*2*2*8 + 9 == 265 points. If that card is Vildkaarl (the next best I can find), it plays for 12*7 + 5) = 89 points. Even if a player can get off a lacerate or equivalent, there will remain enough for 6 copies of Snowdrop (which play for 2*2*6*6 + 7 = 151 points). And the SK player needs an intermediary turn to move copies of Idarran (probably with either samun or or nivellen) while scoring 65 points. And if I'm being totally honest, the Vildkaarl combo is itself OP. With spying units (assuming no Idarran), it is possible to very slowly fill one row (which can be dealt with in numerous ways such as consume, self damage, movement, or even a friendly fire lacerate). There is a huge difference between a strategy that can be stopped in numerous ways that can be organic to most decks and a strategy that flat out guarantees a round. When you have an elephant and an ant in the way, you deal with the elephant first.

Other seasonals are also imbalanced - but I will complain about them when I notice the imbalance. I simply cannot recall all issues with all other seasonals, and even if I could, I prefer to deal with them separately.
OK, just blame about The other seasonals


Wait... Didnt see People blaming about other seasonals, why?

In fact there is a topic created in Last year in The first or second Page, but The OP of that topic was blaming about NG and noone cares, and now, One year later, The topic ups with People blaming about ilderran

Also i dare you win against The assimilate/spyes deck with any another deck.

And when i mean win, its a Good win rate, not only One match where you have luck to get all the good cards and your opponent not
 
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