My 2 cents on the MM meta thus far (rank 3)

[DRK3]

Yeah, NR is very good, especially if you stop being fixated on devotion. But I think meta has not crystallized yet to bring out the best in it. The whole process of meta emergence was interrupted and stalled by SK ridiculous brokenness.

I'm trying to get Draug working with Kerack package and the boosty bronzes. Amphibious is crazy good. Oneiromancy is great. But those provisions... Draug is too provision hungry, and there's hardly any room for 5 provision cards let alone 6... Anyone figured it out? I really want Draug to come back...

I really wouldnt recommend Draug for these Kerack decks, simply because Kerack frigate swarms too hard, then you get 6/8 Revenants with pings and no space to multiply, so in the end you paid 13 provisions for 7pt Draug+6/8 pings... Doesnt sound bad, but do you know what sounds better?
Voymir on Volunteers, for 7 provisions and unlike Draug its not limited to a row. And then a Vissegerd for 8 provisions, likely with way more than 6/8 pings you would get from Draug. I got a 16 charge Vissegerd recently, with my Frigate deck.

I agree Amphibious Assault is crazy good, and you dont even need Oneiromancy if you have AA and a smart deck.

 

[Balgar-bard-slayer]

One

I really wouldnt recommend Draug for these Kerack decks, simply because Kerack frigate swarms too hard, then you get 6/8 Revenants with pings and no space to multiply, so in the end you paid 13 provisions for 7pt Draug+6/8 pings... Doesnt sound bad, but do you know what sounds better?
Voymir on Volunteers, for 7 provisions and unlike Draug its not limited to a row. And then a Vissegerd for 8 provisions, likely with way more than 6/8 pings you would get from Draug. I got a 16 charge Vissegerd recently, with my Frigate deck.

I agree Amphibious Assault is crazy good, and you dont even need Oneiromancy if you have AA and a smart deck.

One might say AA is too good.

You can't bleed it because it has echo, so you are pretty much going to lose a short R3.

 

[Jollyrogerxberg]

SK is still on my List to try but opponents SK- Warriors were really tough.

The Fireswarm is great but I guess I will be bored soon and a mixed deck should be better then the total swarm.

SC Symbiosis is a lot of fun but yes, as an all in engine spell deck it is vulnarable and lacks controll but still more points then Wild hunt if you play Gord and Oak as finishers. After I swaped some engines for the Poison package I'm up to Rank 2

Wild hunt is really cool and strong but surly not op.

Spyes I don't know. Lost one game with Symbiosis because I had no Room left, so I changed my game plan
not enough encounters and didn't tryed myself.

I correct myself. Wildhund just does not work because it lacks a fitting leader or intype bigboys. Fireswarm kinda meh but great new lowcost cards for collusion One can finally replace the 4p poison pack.
SC still trying to find a good mix. Think I go back to elves or just don't...

Sk no fun. No fun only coinflip as opponent. No fun only coinflip as playing it myself. Bored after two matches

edit: Hotfix live hmm not expecting greatness

Post automatically merged: Jul 7, 2020

... ST had been beaten to death and was given very weak options to compete. It will become like how it was before the double water nonsense.. the weakest of all factions. May be it is time to turn up "rrc fever" and fight for ST.. but I will wait for some time.

I'll join you. Last one was very entertaining and finally a success^^. Dol Blathana!

I am trying out handbuff Dryads and having a lot of fun in Rank 3.. So this SK nonsense I haven't faced much. Mostly I am facing MO and I have no problem in dealing with MO.

Hehe same here. Had ok results with Symbiosis, went up to Rank 2 after including poison. Tried some collusion nonsense with the new Mutantmakers supprisingly took me to Rank 1 where I reaktivated my take on Sheldon+Aeglais Symbiosis. With a lucky streak of 5 games without an SK player I finally met two who played the worsed way you could ever imagine. Pro Rank with handbuff. Huray^^

Just checked my match history.. apparently I am facing more Usurper DoubleBall/Spy nonsense than MO.. and in Rank 3, ST Dryads are "not bad.. not bad at all.."

how far did this winstreak take you?

 

[rrc]

I correct myself. Wildhund just does not work because it lacks a fitting leader or intype bigboys. Fireswarm kinda meh but great new lowcost cards for collusion One can finally replace the 4p poison pack.
SC still trying to find a good mix. Think I go back to elves or just don't...

Sk no fun. No fun only coinflip as opponent. No fun only coinflip as playing it myself. Bored after two matches

edit: Hotfix live hmm not expecting greatness

Post automatically merged: Jul 7, 2020

I'll join you. Last one was very entertaining and finally a success^^. Dol Blathana!

Hehe same here. Had ok results with Symbiosis, went up to Rank 2 after including poison. Tried some collusion nonsense with the new Mutantmakers supprisingly took me to Rank 1 where I reaktivated my take on Sheldon+Aeglais Symbiosis. With a lucky streak of 5 games without an SK player I finally met two who played the worsed way you could ever imagine. Pro Rank with handbuff. Huray^^


how far did this winstreak take you?

I am in Rank 1. I chose SY for this week (as I had already finished ST last week) and has been playing SY for the missions. I will continue my handbuff adventure and will keep you posted. Hopefully Freya bless me with no SK for a few matches and good draw skills and coinflip skills

 

[Jollyrogerxberg]

I am in Rank 1. I chose SY for this week (as I had already finished ST last week) and has been playing SY for the missions. I will continue my handbuff adventure and will keep you posted. Hopefully Freya bless me with no SK for a few matches and good draw skills and coinflip skills

Forgot to mention that I had the most amazing coinflip skills in my final 7 or 8 games. Only one blue coin . Most Genius play though, buffing Dunca with a beserker kill and removing her armor through playing in Longship - no Decoction in hand - followed by Tempering... If all stars alling and Freya's blessing is apon you.

 

[nedders]

57 points ahead, last play of the game against Nilfgaard. 2nd last turn they play that boosting thing with 2 STR, last play Yrden on my tall Skelliges, plus Damian had reset their leader ability. They won by 3 points. 60 point swing in a single turn.

That's not great play. That's utter BS.

It's as I said earlier. The game has gone all loot-boxy. If you want to spend a lot of money trying to get the best cards from the current iteration - and there are some utterly awful combinations out there - you might have a chance. But if you're going to be the sort of person who does that, you're going to be on YouTube picking out the way to win and META's. That's the sort of person CDPR are attracting, and it makes the actual gaming experience very toxic, very repetitive, and instils anger instead of a sense of achievement. There aren't many GG's because it's so rancid.

Nilfgaard continues to be able to draw all the cards they seem to want or need to counter every other deck. As was said elsewhere, when one deck, built in a specific way, can destroy every other faction, it's just wrong. It's wrong anyway, in a rock-paper-scissors sense, but the way they have it designed is absurd. It doesn't even matter what the leader ability is. NG just plays masquerade ball, the spy, into the other spy and there's not a thing you can do about seeing a point swing of around 40 points or more. Every time.

The more CDPR try to get it right, the more they get it wrong. From Gwent Beta to this is some achievement - no doubt it looks better now, but two rows, crap weather, broken combos and faction favouritism have killed the experience. Depending on the success of CyberPunk, I suspect Gwent is on its final lap.

 

[Slizzl]

57 points ahead, last play of the game against Nilfgaard. 2nd last turn they play that boosting thing with 2 STR, last play Yrden on my tall Skelliges, plus Damian had reset their leader ability. They won by 3 points. 60 point swing in a single turn.

That's not great play. That's utter BS.

It's as I said earlier. The game has gone all loot-boxy. If you want to spend a lot of money trying to get the best cards from the current iteration - and there are some utterly awful combinations out there - you might have a chance. But if you're going to be the sort of person who does that, you're going to be on YouTube picking out the way to win and META's. That's the sort of person CDPR are attracting, and it makes the actual gaming experience very toxic, very repetitive, and instils anger instead of a sense of achievement. There aren't many GG's because it's so rancid.

Nilfgaard continues to be able to draw all the cards they seem to want or need to counter every other deck. As was said elsewhere, when one deck, built in a specific way, can destroy every other faction, it's just wrong. It's wrong anyway, in a rock-paper-scissors sense, but the way they have it designed is absurd. It doesn't even matter what the leader ability is. NG just plays masquerade ball, the spy, into the other spy and there's not a thing you can do about seeing a point swing of around 40 points or more. Every time.

The more CDPR try to get it right, the more they get it wrong. From Gwent Beta to this is some achievement - no doubt it looks better now, but two rows, crap weather, broken combos and faction favouritism have killed the experience. Depending on the success of CyberPunk, I suspect Gwent is on its final lap.

Sounds like that loss is completely on you for not dealing with Damien and relying too much on boosts.
You do realize SK is top tier right now?
I do agree that Masquerade Ball is BS though.

 

[Guest 4404014]

57 points ahead

And how did you manage that if his deck is supposed to be so op, and yours isn't?

 

[nedders]

And how did you manage that if his deck is supposed to be so op, and yours isn't?

Can you read? I didn't say their deck was OP, I said the swing on one play was 60 points, which seemed suspicious given their deck selection.

Post automatically merged: Jul 10, 2020

Sounds like that loss is completely on you for not dealing with Damien and relying too much on boosts.
You do realize SK is top tier right now?
I do agree that Masquerade Ball is BS though.

Are you for real? "Not dealing with Damian"? Do you not think I would have LOVED a card in my hand that DEALT WITH DAMIAN?

I didn't. Which is kind of the point. They had no defender, and played Damian which I could then do nothing about. It, as most games seem to be, was suspicious af.

Or do you think I had a 5+ damage card in my hand and just forgot to play it on Damian?

Jesus.

 

[Guest 4404014]

Can you read? I didn't say their deck was OP, I said the swing on one play was 60 points, which seemed suspicious given their deck selection.

Oh, sorry, I mistook your "Gwent is unfair" for a usual "NG is evil."

 

[Balgar-bard-slayer]

Oh, sorry, I mistook your "Gwent is unfair" for a usual "NG is evil."

NG is evil.

It is literally an international acronym for No Good

And what is the antonym of good?

 

[nedders]

Oh, sorry, I mistook your "Gwent is unfair" for a usual "NG is evil."

SK is evil. How the hell the devs haven't looked at cards like Wild Boar and thought "hmm, maybe that's a bit OP".

 

[Barracuda88]

SK is evil. How the hell the devs haven't looked at cards like Wild Boar and thought "hmm, maybe that's a bit OP".

Well, because to hit provision value the boar needs 4 damaged units or 8 undamaged units on the board? So in a short round it's potentially like 6 for 12? In short, the boar is really not "OP" . It's the combos that are a bit overtuned.

 

[quintivarium]

Wild boar alone is not OP, it’s the combos (e. g. with Greatswords) that are a problem. And yes, even with combos, it’s not good in a short round. That’s part of why the expansion imbalanced SK; SK now has a lot of synergistic combos that also work in a short round.

Post automatically merged: Jul 11, 2020

SK is evil. How the hell the devs haven't looked at cards like Wild Boar and thought "hmm, maybe that's a bit OP".

While I believe SK is still imbalanced, I don’t blame the developers for this one. I saw no response to card previews from players that foresaw the issues that arose in actual play.

Maybe playtesting would have revealed them, but even that might have taken experienced players.

 

[Balgar-bard-slayer]

Wild boar alone is not OP, it’s the combos (e. g. with Greatswords) that are a problem. And yes, even with combos, it’s not good in a short round. That’s part of why the expansion imbalanced SK; SK now has a lot of synergistic combos that also work in a short round.

Post automatically merged: Jul 11, 2020

While I believe SK is still imbalanced, I don’t blame the developers for this one. I saw no response to card previews from players that foresaw the issues that arose in actual play.

Maybe playtesting would have revealed them, but even that might have taken experienced players.

I agree with the issue you point out regarding SK's unreasonable strength in the short round, but regarding Wild Boar:

Those same points are true for Regis as well, and yet they gave Regis initiative and left Wild Boar untouched.

It wouldn't have even required playtesting to realise that given their newest expansion was deliberately designed where SY, ST, NR and MO (with the addition of Ethereal) would go wide, that Wild Boar would get amazing value.

How did they foresee problems with Regis, and not Wild Boar?

 

[4RM3D]

Those same points are true for Regis as well, and yet they gave Regis initiative and left Wild Board untouched.

It's important to note that only neutral cards have receive the Initiative tag, so far. In the past, neutral cards have been a bit weaker than faction cards. Also, neutral cards are trickier to balance because every faction can use them with potentially more value than was intended, like the old Eithne pings with Scorch/Igni.

 

[quintivarium]

As I understand it, the reason for initiative was to prevent players from setting up a row so cards like Regis trigger repeatedly, then playing Regis without giving the other player a chance to respond.

Wild boar is different in that it normally doesn’t need an initial setup — it would be unusual for no opposing unit to be damaged. And pinging an opposing unit before playing Boar is only one point of extra damage.

Actually, I think initiative might work well on boar, not for the original reason initiative was created, but because it decreases boar’s power when re-played from the graveyard. On the other hand, it is reasonable for players to expect full value from Regis if called by Royal Decree. Perhaps 2 separate effects would make more sense.

 

[Balgar-bard-slayer]

As I understand it, the reason for initiative was to prevent players from setting up a row so cards like Regis trigger repeatedly, then playing Regis without giving the other player a chance to respond.

Wild boar is different in that it normally doesn’t need an initial setup — it would be unusual for no opposing unit to be damaged. And pinging an opposing unit before playing Boar is only one point of extra damage.

Actually, I think initiative might work well on boar, not for the original reason initiative was created, but because it decreases boar’s power when re-played from the graveyard. On the other hand, it is reasonable for players to expect full value from Regis if called by Royal Decree. Perhaps 2 separate effects would make more sense.

It's important to note that only neutral cards have receive the Initiative tag, so far. In the past, neutral cards have been a bit weaker than faction cards. Also, neutral cards are trickier to balance because every faction can use them with potentially more value than was intended, like the old Eithne pings with Scorch/Igni.

I understand that neutral card equivalents are often weaker than faction cards.

But it's one thing to release a very strong faction specific card See Crow Mother (10P)
compared to Phoenix (13P))

And that is more an issue of expansion power creep (will Royal Decree get play again now Oneiromancy exists?)


And a complete other thing to nerfing a neutral card into the ground to the point of making it close to unplayable.
See Witcher Trio and now Regis


However, I do take your point that neutrals could be harder to balance due to all decks having access to them. Even so this initiative tag was an obvious one to either apply to both or neither.

Post automatically merged: Jul 12, 2020

As I understand it, the reason for initiative was to prevent players from setting up a row so cards like Regis trigger repeatedly, then playing Regis without giving the other player a chance to respond.

Wild boar is different in that it normally doesn’t need an initial setup — it would be unusual for no opposing unit to be damaged. And pinging an opposing unit before playing Boar is only one point of extra damage.

Actually, I think initiative might work well on boar, not for the original reason initiative was created, but because it decreases boar’s power when re-played from the graveyard. On the other hand, it is reasonable for players to expect full value from Regis if called by Royal Decree. Perhaps 2 separate effects would make more sense.

It's very difficult to set-up Regis without telegraphing it from my experience, but I won't pull us off topic

The issue is more in the second point you raise. Initiative prevents Regis being tutored. Really making him quite unplayable if you don't run Matta.

But if initiative is designed to operate that way, it would also mean that you would also get less value tutoring Wild Boar. This would include replaying it from graveyard. Or playing a GS from graveyard and then wild boar.

Which are all obvious interactions that create the very large point swings that CDPR claim they nerfed Regis for.

Personally I think they nerfed Regis to stop him dominating their new expansion cards, but that's another topic.

 

[Guest 4404014]

It's hard to argue against any SK nerf ideas at the moment, even the weirdest ones. It's not just the SK additions that are broken. They made the old cards insane even without changes. Boar is one of them. Another one is Blacksmith all of a sudden becoming one of the best fours in the game without any changes made to it.

But imo no ship full warrior midrange SK is stronger than the more Greatswordy one with ships.

 

[Pajamasala]

hi, i am new to the forums, i just wanna say from a newbie perspective is that SK's most troublesome combo comes from the Pirate which repeatedly damage units with boost until damaged. That card wrecks all and any of my decks especially tall decks, which i think needs to come back more