New Leader Ability Speculation

[Duhad]

So here we are again, first day after a new expansion has been announced and we as of right now don't know any of the leaders outside of Radovid and even with him we don't know what his leader ability might be. So who wants to speculate wildly about who the other 5 leaders could be and what powers they all might have?

I mean to be fair it could be that their are NO new leaders outside of Rad and no new leader abilities added since that seems to have been part of the motivation behind decoupling them, but just for now lets not worry about that and just guess at what leaders could be added! Even if it turns out their are no actual new leaders or abilities we can still have fun just coming up with fun ideas.

Their are no bad ideas and no rules on what may or may not actually fit the Iron Judgement theme. I mean best to try and focus around that, but lets just have some fun with this!

To kick it off I'm going to say...

Post automatically merged: Sep 15, 2019

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NR: Radovid V

Bit of a freebee their honestly, but hey got to start somewhere.

For an ability I know he used to be a lock leader, but that really doesn't fit with NR's over all theme. Honestly some sort of 'give a unit shield, charges 4' ability would make sense for NR, but I doubt they want to just give NR Eredin's ability, just altered a bit. Obviously armor is a new addition and that could be something, but I just don't see Rad as just a straight 'armor up' sort of leader. Hm... Given he is something of a chess master and Warfare was just added to NR without a ton of initial support I'm gonna throw out the suggestion that he will do something with that. Maybe something like:

Master Strategist - Charges 1: Give a unit 2 armor. Add 1 charge whenever a Warfare card is played.

Its a bit simple I know, but I think something like that would be good for NR's engines while giving a Warfare archetype some more bite without it becoming TO strong so that it would limit the design space of future Warfare cards.

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NG: Menno Coehoorn

Ya this one might raise some eyebrows, but one, Menno was the commander of Imperial Forces at the Battle of Brenna (a theme for the new cards according to the websight), two SY established that leaders can be cards that already exist in the game and three, their was an implication that with the decoupling of leaders and abilities that we might well end up seeing leaders who might otherwise have been sort of weird to include. With these three points established I am going to say that its at least conceivable that we will get leaders who are cards right now. So... NG leader Menno. Call him, "Commander Menno" if you like.

Anyway following up that terrible hot take, let me continue by saying I have no idea what sort of leader ability NG would get out of this set... But that's not going to stop me throwing out a half baked idea!

Spy Network - Charge 1: Play a copy of a spying unit from your opponents graveyard and give it doomed. Refresh at the start of each round.

Okay ya I'll admit, that's pretty mediocre. I tried to think of a fun spy synergy mechanic that would not just feel like Bluedream on a leader, but I ended up fairly stumped. This in theory should allow for more spy cards to be played while limiting the ability to just playing a free Joachim every round, but I am sure you can all do better.

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ST: Yarpen Zigrin

Okay so like EVERY elf and dwarf who you have heard of in The Witcher lore was at the battle of Brenna, with the elves on the NG side and the dwarves with NR, but as much as Iorveth or Isengrim would be a PERFECT ST leader being... Well famous ST leaders, their seems to be a dwarf theme to ST in this one and since we have already seen a new Zoltan card in the preview (he's the one in the center of the 3 dwarves, you can see Field Marshal Windbag flying off in his art so you know its him) I am going to go with Yarpen. He lead a company of dwarves, he slew a dragon and he honestly had a TON of history of Geralt in the books prior to the games so honestly he deserves some level of respect and love.

Seriously, if you never read the books, Yarpen is a surprisingly major character especially compared to his minimal role in the games.

Okay back on track with trying to come up with an ability that would fit ST dwarves... Which is tricky since their kind of a weird theme in ST over all since they DO work really well together, but their best decks have always relied on leaders who incidentally help dwarves like Fran replaying NG Justice and Filavandrel giving Sheldon a boosty. I mean something that let you mulligan for a dwarf or boosting a dwarf in hand would be perfect for Sheldon, but I don't think pushing dwarves as being all about Sheldon is a healthy long term design goal. So maybe something that helps to protect your dwarven engines like Defenders and the new Berserks?

Unbreakable Defense - Charges 1: Give an allied unit Defender and 5 armor.

Defender is the ability where the row the defender is on is protected until the Defender them self is killed or purified. So you protect your engines with a unit who has just been given a pretty beefy set of armor the enemy will have to get through. It might be a bit to much armor or too little, we will have to see how valuable defender and armor end up being valued at, but I figured basically turning one of your units into a Cave Troll (new gold monster card) would be pretty decent. Plus as far as flavor goes, I can't imagine a more dwarf-y thing then hunkering down with a big old shield and protecting your allies.

Post automatically merged: Sep 15, 2019

And I some how erase the rest of my ideas... Damn it.

SK Pirates themed thing

MO bring back Dagon as a small monster leader

SY as a self poison leader for Azar Javed

Their was about 20K more words that went with all of that, but I'm tired.

Point is, what would you all like to see? What leaders or leader abilities would you think could make for fun additions to the game?

 

[Weatherdragon21]

Honestly i doubt any new leader ability will happen, given they're decoupling leaders and abilities. but i would absolutly love an sk pirate deck, and the NG leader would sound so fun. Honestly i think it'd work because of the thinning spies, so your guaranteed golds if you have a spy dead on their side, and mill decks because of cantarella. Don't forget purify removes doomed, so shenanigans with that would be fun

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

The Radovid idea makes sense, they seem to like adding a special card leader for every faction.

If every faction gets a leader, Menno makes sense too concerning the theme. But his ability sounds too much like what he already does Menno+Remedy basically replays a bronze spy fromt he enemy graveyard.
What about giving enemies the spying tag + something else?

I disagree on Yarpen. The dwarven commander was Barclay Els at Brenna. Also, Defender doesn't seem that fitting to the ST faction design to give it a leader. But I would agree on something with armor, as I expect the dwarven archetype to be changed from handbuff to barricade.

SY self poisoning would be great.

From what has been revealed I have no clue about SK or MO.

 

[Iuliandrei]

With the leader change i'm expecting less leader abilities, not more. Many abilities are already very underwhelming, for example Meve and Demavend could be merged in some sort of choose one effect.

 

[InkognitoXI]

With the leader change i'm expecting less leader abilities, not more. Many abilities are already very underwhelming, for example Meve and Demavend could be merged in some sort of choose one effect.

Honestly i doubt any new leader ability will happen, given they're decoupling leaders and abilities. but i would absolutly love an sk pirate deck, and the NG leader would sound so fun. Honestly i think it'd work because of the thinning spies, so your guaranteed golds if you have a spy dead on their side, and mill decks because of cantarella. Don't forget purify removes doomed, so shenanigans with that would be fun

I disagree, they specifically stated they decouple them so they do not always have to create new modells for those abilities.
The argument itself points at more leader abilities, not less.

 

[Iuliandrei]

I disagree, they specifically stated they decouple them so they do not always have to create new modells for those abilities.
The argument itself points at more leader abilities, not less.

I don't know how specifically they stated this because i saw that clip aswell and understood the complete opposite of what you're saying here. That they want to create more leaders, but without the burden of thinking of another ability.
Also i think they mentioned that some leaders will be from the shop and makes sense why they want to add more.

 

[Duhad]

I disagree on Yarpen. The dwarven commander was Barclay Els at Brenna. Also, Defender doesn't seem that fitting to the ST faction design to give it a leader. But I would agree on something with armor, as I expect the dwarven archetype to be changed from handbuff to barricade.

Ya that actually makes sense their, I was thinking Yarpen mostly due to his role in the books and Barclay being a bit close to Brouver in terms of looks, but your right in him being the leader at Brenna and thus a more fitting leader option on those grounds.

As to the ability, what do you think would make more sense then for a dwarven armor leader? Some sort of charge based "Give an allied dwarf armor" or something where you can do something with the armor already on the board? I'm not calling you out mind, I am honestly just curious what your idea for a dwarven armor leader would be since I think ST does need some sort of properly dwarfy leader who isn't just incidentally boosting Sheldon and defenders or happening to play a 'dwarves matter' spell twice.

 

[Hassene_Gadacha_As]

Yarpen in ST is an insult.

I hope to see Vivaldi for SY, but I doubt it

 

[Duhad]

Honestly i doubt any new leader ability will happen, given they're decoupling leaders and abilities. but i would absolutly love an sk pirate deck, and the NG leader would sound so fun. Honestly i think it'd work because of the thinning spies, so your guaranteed golds if you have a spy dead on their side, and mill decks because of cantarella. Don't forget purify removes doomed, so shenanigans with that would be fun

I ended up losing my super long write ups concerning what I thought might make for fun leaders for SK, MO and SY, but I was thinking for SK Erlend an Craite (the an Craite king who had the sword made that you get near the end of Witcher 3) as a sort of pirates/ships deck building leader would make sense. Even if their not the best leaders in their factions Cleaver and Dana (and also Ardal though he IS the best leader in his faction) are really interesting to build around since they make you think about what your putting into your deck and force you to play into a certain theme.

And for the record, the ideas for the other two where basically...

Dagon for Monsters since he's a classic from beta who is overdue for a return, with a power based around the much maligned 'small board' monsters archetype that Ice Trolls, Jotunn and Keltullis are in theory made for. I didn't have a super clear idea for it, but basically something where its a passive effect that triggers every turn where you have less units then your opponent, maybe by giving your highest value unit armor to be an additional boost to playing dominance Wild Hunt cards.

Azar Javed was my pick for SY since he's (more or less) the leader of the Salamandra which seems to be their new gang for this release. Then since the Salamandra are BIG into the fisstech trade and Azar Javed is an alchemist in addition to a mage, I figured he would be a perfect leader for self poison SY. Again not super sure about this one, but felt like something like, "Give an allied unit poison, boost it by 4 and gain 4 coins. Refresh this ability at the start of each round." Would be good without being utterly broken. Sure you get 12 points and 12 coins out of your leader, BUT its spaced out over each round and your poisoning your own guys so NG, ST and other SY decks can shut you down hard if that ability starts getting out of control. Could also be +3 and gain 3 coins if 4 and 4 was to much, but... Well Unseen Elder is not that good and he can easily get 6+ points a round from his ability and that's without needing to put a massive weakness on your own units so... I donno, I think its a weak enough and counter able enough archetype that airing on the side of OP is not the worst. Maybe +3 and 4 coins.

But anyway ya, these are just my ideas and I really am curious to hear what other people come up with since I think theirs allot of creativity in this community, not to mention love for some under represented archetypes and I imagine some of you all have ideas that would blow mine out of the water!

 

[Weatherdragon21]

But anyway ya, these are just my ideas and I really am curious to hear what other people come up with since I think theirs allot of creativity in this community, not to mention love for some under represented archetypes and I imagine some of you all have ideas that would blow mine out of the water!

my monster idea: The Monster of Tufo ( https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/The_Monster_of_Tufo )
order: give a monster unit defender and 4 armor, charges 2
or maybe it spawns itself, has 2 power and 9 armor with defender
its lore friendly and does the new mechanics.

Annabelle Maiden ( https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Anabelle )
order:give a unit poison. cooldown 5
i always wanted to see more specters in the game, as well as more cooldown restricted stuff, so it seems really cool, espicallt since they hyped up plauge maidens so much in the game

and NR: (though i know its radovid, still want this leader sometime) Falka ( https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Falka )
order: damage a unit by 2. deathblow inflict 2 bleed on a unit. charges 3
since shes known as "bloody falka", i wanted some bleed effect.

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

I expect to see only Radovid as a new leader and the rest being just abilities. Having new leader abilities without leaders is something they are going to do from what I understood.

As to the ability, what do you think would make more sense then for a dwarven armor leader? Some sort of charge based "Give an allied dwarf armor" or something where you can do something with the armor already on the board? I'm not calling you out mind, I am honestly just curious what your idea for a dwarven armor leader would be since I think ST does need some sort of properly dwarfy leader who isn't just incidentally boosting Sheldon and defenders or happening to play a 'dwarves matter' spell twice.

I have no really creative idea. The best I come up with is as you described. 3 charges: Give an ally 3 armor or remove all armor from an enemy.
It would fit dwarves thematically as they are heavy armored and carry armor breaking weapons. And it would fit ST control aspect because you can remove armor from enemies.

Concerning MO what about something similar to Elf and Onion soup:
Sacrifice: Destroy 2 allies with the same primary keyword, then play a unit from your deck sharing that keyword. Refresh this ability on round start.
You might sacrifice 2 nekkers for Old Speartip, Arachas Drones for Glustyworp or Kayran, or just trigger the deathwish of cards.
The ability would be really strong, but it would require a lot of deck building optimazation and it would brick rather easily such that you can't use it all 3 rounds.

 

[Duhad]

I like these ideas people are coming up with, good stuff!

And ya honestly I doubt their going to make more leaders that come with abilities, more likely we will see leaders added as skins and new abilities added on their own, but just for the sake of creating ideas I find it a bit more fun to think of what lore characters could be added and what sort of powers would fit them.

Annabelle Maiden ( https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Anabelle )
order:give a unit poison. cooldown 5
i always wanted to see more specters in the game, as well as more cooldown restricted stuff, so it seems really cool, espicallt since they hyped up plauge maidens so much in the game.

Speaking of specters ya that would be something I would love to see for monsters! From the trailer it looks like monsters will be getting more inhuman, big beast type monsters in Iron Judgment, but I really hope some near future set will have a specter theme for MO and/or NR since their are a TON of characters and monsters in the Witcher setting and games who have really not been touched yet.

The one odd bit there is what faction they should be added to since their obviously monsters... But NR has a (still pretty weak) specter archetype. I doubt their going to further weaken things like Spectral Knights + Sabrina Inferno by making the specter tag something that goes on MO units. So weird as it might sound, I could see Annabelle being added to NR as an addition to the specter set OR having her and other wraiths given a new... Well "Wraith" tag to help keep NR ghosts and MO ghosts separate.

What unique ability do you think ghosts would be given? I know you said poison, but I get the feeling that poison will be kept mostly to ST, SY and NG as the 'under handed' factions since you have to give so much support to that archetype to make it work and its only now starting to actually see play in ST and SY. I can see the idea of MO getting it making sense, but I feel like bleed is going to remain the key special status that MO and SK care about.

Though... Curse could be a thing? I don't know who here has played Thronebreaker, but in that wraiths had a special ability that's not in the base game where they could curse other units, both do damage over time and enabling other abilities sort of like vampires have with Bleed. While I doubt that version of curse would get ported to the main game since TB was pretty wildly over the top compared to normal Gwent, I could see a net set introducing more NR specters and MO wraiths with a unique key word in the form of "Curse".

 

[SMiki55]

Yustianna an Craite would be a nice thematic choice for Pirate archetype in SK