Patch Notes 10.9

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Hey everyone,

For Update 10.9 we took a close look at a lot of Nilfgaard cards and brought a brand new Keyword called "Flanking" to the game.

On top of that, we have game fixes, events and new seasonal modes for you to check out!

Developer Update:

New Features

New Keyword: Flanking - If this unit is adjacent to only one card: on your Melee row, its end of turn ability is triggered twice; on your Ranged row, gain 1 Armor at the end of your turn.

Shupe's Event (8th September - 20th September) - Shupe is back from his adventures. Go to the shop to hear his tales and get some cool vanities by playing more GWENT! Also, Shupe will be giving special deals to all his favourite umans during the event! Get 30% off on select vanities during this Sale.

Check out the new upcoming seasonal modes:

1. "Between a Rock and Hard Place" - (13th September - 20th September)

2. "Bearly Balanced" - (27th September - 4th October)

Changes

Neutral

Alissa Henson - Provision cost changed from 7 to 8.

Garrison - Provision cost changed from 9 to 11.

Ability changed to:

Resilience.

Deploy: Spawn and play a base copy of a bronze Soldier from your starting deck.

Order: Boost an allied Soldier and all its copies by 1 and give them 1 Armor.

Peasant Militia - Power changed from 2 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Whenever you play a unit with Deploy, boost self by 1.

Monsters

Bridge Troll - Ability changed to:

Deathwish: Boost the lowest-power allied unit by 4.

Celaeno Harpy - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Endrega Warrior - Ability changed to:

Deploy: Consume your adjacent units. For each Consumed Insectoid, gain 1 Charge.

Zeal. Order: Spawn a Drone on this row.

Charges: 1

Giant Toad - Power changed from 3 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Consume an allied unit.

When you play a Deathwish unit on your Ranged row, Summon self from your graveyard to the same row, Consume it and gain Doomed.

Hybrid - Ability changed to:

Deploy (Melee): If a unit was destroyed during this turn, boost self by 5.

Deploy (Ranged): Consume an allied unit.

Siren - Power changed from 3 to 4.

Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

Order: Consume an allied unit.

Deathwish: Boost adjacent units by 2.

Succubus - Adrenaline condition changed from 3 to 4.

Skellige

No changes.

Northern Realms

Royal Inspiration - Updated card recommendations.

Knighthood - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.

Knight Errant - Power changed from 3 to 2.

Armor changed from 0 to 1.

Scoia'tael

Milva: Sharpshooter - Provision cost changed from 10 to 11.

Nilfgaard

Imperial Formation - Ability changed to:

Order: Boost 2 allied units by 1 and swap their positions, then give 1 Armor to each targeted Soldier.

Charges: 4

Affan Hillergrand - Power changed from 5 to 3.

Provision cost changed from 7 to 10.

Ability changed to:

When you use your last leader Charge, play this unit from your deck.

Order: Boost all allied Soldiers with Armor by 1.

Albrich - Provision cost changed from 6 to 7.

Ability changed to:

When moved to the top of your deck, boost a random allied unit by 2 and boost self by 2.

Ardal aep Dahy - Deploy ability's minimum power requirement changed from 0 to 2.

Cadaverine - Provision cost changed from 9 to 7.

Emhyr var Emreis - Power changed from 7 to 4.

Armor changed from 0 to 2.

Provision cost changed from 10 to 13.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Play a bronze Soldier or Aristocrat from your hand, then draw a card.

Whenever your opponent plays a unit, give it Spying.

Order: Seize a 1-power enemy unit with Spying.

Devotion: At the end of your turn, refresh this card's Order.

Rience - Provision cost changed from 13 to 12.

Stefan Skellen - Provision cost changed from 9 to 11.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Spawn and play Ace up the Sleeve for each 3 Tactics in your starting deck.

New card: Ace Up the Sleeve - Special, Tactic

Doomed.

Damage an enemy unit by 2.

Tibor Eggebracht - Power changed from 13 to 15.

Provision cost changed from 9 to 13.

Ability changed to:

Immunity.

At the end of your turn, Infuse a random enemy unit with "Whenever this unit receives a status, damage self by 1".

Whenever this card enters the battlefield, your opponent draws a card.

If your opponent has passed or their hand is full, damage self by 12 instead.

Vrygheff - Power changed from 4 to 7.

Provision cost changed from 8 to 6.

Ability changed to:

Zeal. Order: Trigger the end of turn abilities of 2 allied bronze Soldiers.

War Council - Is now an artifact.

Provision cost changed from 8 to 12.

Now has the Location tag.

Ability changed to:

Resilience.

Deploy: Look at the first 3 cards from the top of your deck and play one of them.

Order: Spawn and play Battle Preparation.

Alba Pikeman - Power changed from 4 to 3.

Ability changed to:

Flanking.

Order: Give an enemy unit Bleeding (1).

Charges: 0

At the end of your turn, gain 1 Charge. If this unit has at least 3 Charges, gain 1 Armor instead.

Alba Spearmen - Ability changed to:

Deploy: Damage 2 enemy units by the number of statuses on units adjacent to the targets.

Ard Feainn Crossbowman - Ability changed to:

Flanking.

Deploy: Damage an enemy unit by 2.

Barricade: At the end of your turn, damage a random enemy unit by 1 if you played a Soldier this turn.

Ard Feainn Light Cavalry - Armor changed from 0 to 1.

Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

Flanking.

Barricade: At the end of your turn, damage the last unit played by your opponent by 1.

Ard Feainn Heavy Cavalry - Power changed from 3 to 4.

Armor changed from 2 to 0.

Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

Flanking.

At the end of your turn, gain 1 Armor.

Ranged: When this unit reaches 5 Armor, move self to the Melee row.

Barricade (Melee): Whenever your opponent plays a unit on their side of the battlefield, lose all Armor and damage it by the same amount, then Lock self.

Combat Engineer - Ability changed to:

Deploy: Give 1 Charge to all allied Machines in hand, deck, and on the battlefield.

Daerlan Soldier - Power changed from 3 to 2.

Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: If you control a Soldier, Summon all copies of this unit from your deck to this row.

At the start of the game, Spawn a copy of self in your deck.

Ducal Guard - Ability changed to:

Flanking.

At the end of your turn, boost self by 1 if you used your leader ability this turn.

Impera Bridgade - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Damage all Spying units on the opposite row by 1.

Magne Division - Power changed from 3 to 2.

Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

Play a Tactic from your hand, then draw a card.

Nauzicaa Brigade - Power changed from 3 to 1.

Armor changed from 0 to 1.

Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

If your opponent has won a round this game, Summon self from your deck to a random allied row when you play a Soldier.

Nauzicaa Sergeant - Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: If your opponent has won a round this game, Spawn and play Battle preparation.

Ointment - Ability changed to:

Boost an allied unit by 5. If it was a bronze Soldier, trigger its end of turn ability.

Recruit - Power changed from 3 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Order: Play a bronze Soldier from your deck, then shuffle self into your deck.

Slave Driver - Power changed from 2 to 4.

Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Damage a bronze allied unit by 1, then Spawn a 1-power copy of it on this row. If it was a Soldier, Spawn and play the copy instead.

Slave Hunter - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Damage an enemy unit by 1. Increase the damage by 1 for each adjacent Soldier.

If the target is left at 1 power, Spawn a 1-power Locked copy of it to the right of self.

Slave Infantry - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Spotter - Power changed from 5 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Look at the top 3 units in your opponent's deck, then choose one and gain Armor equal to its power.

Order: Look at the top units in your deck up to the amount of Armor on self, then choose one and gain Vitality equal to its power. If it was a bronze Soldier, boost self by that amount instead.

Van Moorlehem Servant - Ability can no longer copy Infusions.

This change was made in a prerelease hotfix. This means that tooltip is not updated and ability still has old effect vs AI. Both of those issues will be resolved in 10.10 - we apologise for the inconvienience!

Syndicate

Salamandra Hideout - Now has the Salamandra tag.

Failed Experiment - Fee changed from 3 to 4.

Game Fixes

Units with Veteran are no longer blocked from having their base power increased if Locked during round transition.

The Infusion from Bjorn's Drakkar no longer fails to trigger if the damage dealt to the target was fully mitigated by Armor.

Fallen Rayla now correctly Poisons units that are replayed through Teleportation.

Flyndr's Crew no longer loses all its Counters when Locked in hand by Prophet.

Radeyah now Spawns a random Neutral stratagem, rather than a fixed one, on the Melee row if the leader has been changed to Neutral through Renfri.

Eternal Eclipse Initiate, Master of Puppets, and the Curse of Pride are no longer able to bypass Defenders under certain circumstances.

Lake Guardian: Dawn Aspect and Gudrun Bjornsdottir now have provision cost matching the scenarios.
 
I hate being negative (especially against a patch with a lot of reworks, because that's what I like to see) but almost all these card designs would have looked power-crept TWO YEARS AGO, let alone now...
 
Love it. Minor but deserved nerfs, old archetype rework, retooling useless cards, and huge buffs to my favorite archetype. Looking forward to trying out soldiers and playing 30 point succubi. (also what the hell is that Tibor rework, such a strange card (in a good way hopefully))
 
They killed my all time favorite Magne Division turning it into another tutor T_T
Also why so many tutors for this NG soldier pack? Another Renfri support?
Another strange card rework is Tibor who’s wording is not clear: does he damage himself on deploy only or it works even when he’s on the board and the opponent passes?
 
> Another strange card rework is Tibor who’s wording is not clear: does he damage himself on deploy only or it works even when he’s on the board and the opponent passes?

Tibor will damage self when he's played, spawned or summoned, while opponent has hand full or passed already.
 
I remember when we would get a regular update and then a few hours later or the next day the Arena/Draft update would appear on the forum. Now it's been a year or almost two without one... Why???
 
2 ST nerfs, good old "no changes" for SK, a knighthood... buff (?) and a bunch of NG changes I couldn't care less about: not a good patch.

Also don't like the change to Garrison: like this game needs more spam.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
I am divided by these changes. On one side, im definitely glad its NG soldiers that is getting reworks and support, as its one of the very few NG archetypes i dont hate.

On the other, some of these reworks might quickly take over the meta, its hard to say for sure how when there's so many stuff here to unpack, but i can already see nauzicaa sergeants becoming auto include, as the cheapest, easiest condition 10 for 5 in the game.
And Magne Division rework is really unhealthy, does NG really need even more cheap thinning? Meanwhile ST or MO barely have any thinning tools. :shrug:

I am glad though they didnt rework slave infantry, as its one of my favourite cards ever and definitely doesnt need a rework, and its getting both a direct buff and indirect buffs in this patch!

Regarding the 2 new seasonals, they are welcome although they didnt sound particularly interesting, like one will get tired of it in less than a week. Also, will they be replacing existing seasonals? If so, which ones?
 
Alright, with the second patch in a row heavily nerfing mill, I demand actual buffs for mill in 10.10 :giveup:


Regarding the 2 new seasonals, they are welcome although they didnt sound particularly interesting, like one will get tired of it in less than a week. Also, will they be replacing existing seasonals? If so, which ones?
I guess from deckbuilding perspective they're not that interesting, bears one especially :coolstory: I'm really looking forward for them, I can imagine myself playing solely the bears one seasonal during that week. Too bad we have to wait a week for them.
 
Emhyr var Emreis is now an aristocrat who is able to play another aristocrat from hand to proc Ball twice in the same turn ?!!!!!
 
Let me share some preliminary reactions to the patch. I will hold back on predictions as I have not been too successful in the past.
  • Most striking is that the developers did nothing to several cards I find both overpowered and binary. Absolutely nothing was done about Sihil, Simlas, Renfri, Magic Compass, Golden Nekker, Cahir, or all the garbage scenarios. That is my biggest disappointment.
  • I am excited about the new seasonal modes. Both focus upon games play as much as deck-building, and are unlikely to be dominated by a single card or deck. Bearly Balanced might be an excellent mode to emphasize strategic elements of the game such as resource management (commitment level) and contemplation of possible opponent responses. In time, it might get boring, but I am looking forward to it for now.
  • Despite what I expect will continue to be a meta dominated by a small handful of badly overpowered cards (which significantly limit variety), I think a good job has been done to equalize the best decks of each faction.
  • I greatly appreciate the heavy re-work of the Nilfgaard soldier archetype. Although I don't know how the changes will play out, it gives players several fresh and interesting things to try. The rework also significantly impacts spying and assimilate archetypes, so much will be new with NG.
  • I also appreciate the changes to Monsters cards. I don't think they are enough to revitalize the deathwish archetype, but they are all moves in a good direction.
  • Except for the failure to address OP and binary cards, remove or lose cards like Endless Journey, I am OK with the absence of change to SK. It is an interesting faction to play with multiple non-meta but still interesting and somewhat viable deck possibilities.
  • With Northern Realms, I am again happy with the modifications except for the failure to address the OP, binary, remove or lose Damsel in Distress. I don't think the change to Knighthood was necessary, but I also don't think it breaks anything that was not already broken. And I appreciate the recognition that Knight Errant was too much.
  • The decisions mainly impacting ST (Milva and Alissa Henson) seem absolutely horrible. I understand that there is at least one dominating ST deck that the developers want to address. But the real problem has always been Simlas (and possibly Vernossiel) -- not Alissa, Vanadain, Waylay, Bountiful Harvest, or any of the other scapegoats often targeted instead. OK, Mysteries of Loc Feainn is as broken as the other scenarios, and Gezras is as remove or lose as a card can be, but those cards probably don't cause disproportionate problems.
  • SY had good, justified changes that are probably sufficient to keep the faction balanced.
  • Despite the failure to address the huge discrepancies in potential value of cards (which results in randomness rather than skill determining match outcomes), I think there are some trends emerging that will make the game more strategic. The addition of a significant armor component to yet another faction helps ensure that more units remain on the board despite significant removal. Strategic interaction requires cards on the board to interact with. Several High RNG cards (Tibor, Spotter), Van Moorlehem Servant) were replaced or nerfed. And numerous Bronze cards were brought raised in value while no top-end cards were buffed -- which reduces (although nowhere near enough) the excessive play value gap between low and high provision cards.
  • I do note some (possibly unintended) effects in NG. NG will now only have one bonded card (Illusionist) as both Alba Pikeman and Magne Division lose that tag. NG also loses 3 assimilate cards (and all 4 provision assimilate cards). While I recognize that these cards were rarely used, pure assimilate focus is now almost impossible. NG Soldiers has effectively lost an iconic meme card. Vrygheff should now play for consistent and respectable value, but has lost is potential to be a deck defining card. With the loss of spotter, NG loses some of its ability to use its opponents cards better than the opponent -- a defining characteristic of NG. NG has now lost two passive engines (Magne Division and Alba Pikeman). I believe that leaves NG with only four passive engines (Kolgrim and Cahir -- two of the most binary cards in the game, Viper Witcher Adept, and Master of Disguise). Significantly more potential bricks will have to be worked around in NG -- either through play or through deckbuilding.
  • I appreciate the flavor of different NG military divisions having unique characteristics. Imperial Formation also has a nice, military flavor.
 

UMA22

Forum regular
Okay
Skellige no change
What do u think about nerf the squirrel huh ?
Mean u just need to have that 4 provision cards in ur deck and pow headshoot to almost all the SK gameplay
Graveyard shouldn't be an open door wich u can ban any card u want with a 4 provision card, it should allow a choice between 3 cards or something like that
Second isn't NG played enough ?
Mean 40% of match u will have face NG, lol with this new update it will be around 70% lol rip gwent
 
Wow. Do they EVER look at the "gwent community posts"

I don't even play Skellige but ->

"Skellige

No changes."

This is not funny. It's not a joke. IT's lazy.


That's like... a MEME level of what balancing should NOT be. It's almost they wanted to make people that play gwent angry.
Do they not know that people are not happy with the fact that NG is being played too much, or the overpowered/binary cards with "if you can't counter this one card, you lose round" attribute?
Do they not know that there are cards that are 4 provision but play for 10+ points with little setup required?

They decided to do 0 things what people said in the "gwent community"

My theory is they don't know how to balance and they don't listen or care what people say in the community.
They have proved it.

Now MORE People (as it hasn't already been so) will play NG, and it's like they have 5 children but only love one of them.
That's alienating 4 other children.

This is the final straw for me, I am out.

I'm done with this game.
Not because it's not "balanced" at the top 50 players, but because there is so much disconnect, so much disrespect to the people who spend TIME to write posts on the "Community" website (why do they even have it if they don't read it). I have played games for 25 years, and I've never seen updates like these that are blatantly disrespectful.
 
Wow. Do they EVER look at the "gwent community posts"

I don't even play Skellige but ->

"Skellige

No changes."

This is not funny. It's not a joke. IT's lazy.
Actually, the developers have stated that their plan for monthly balance patches (not associated with card drops) is, beyond essential faction balancing, to focus on one or two archetypes — even if some factions have to wait a few months for their turn. It is an approach that I think is very successful. The idea is that a small handful of card changes evenly balanced between all factions does little to create new viable deck opportunities, while a focus on one or two archetypes (even if some factions are temporarily neglected) is enough to create something new. And I think that has been very true based upon the last six months experience.

The top Skellige deck is probably fourth or fifth in the current meta — not so strong as to justify nerfs (as with SY and ST) or so weak as to need help. And the archetype of focus this patch was NG soldiers — I believe the first NG archetype to get attention, and a faction that has been fairly marginal in performance. It may not be my first choice of archetypes to play, but I fully support the policy behind it.
 
Some good changes, but I'm disappointed the greedy knights have managed to escape pretty much unpunished. The deck just vomits points, especially with Maiden's Shield and scenario, and just had a game where they did 50+ points in 3 turns without using either... Then there's completely broken interactions like Squire infusion on Vandergrift carrying over to the next round, or even the order itself carrying over if no card is played to be infused.

Why keep giving NR all these sneaky carryover cards again and again, and again? It has grown to become my most hated faction by far over time because of this.

And about SY changes, I kind of get it, but the problem with that deck isn't the poisons per se, just like there isn't really anything wrong with the drill. The problem arises when these things are combined with Golden Nekker, it's a bit of a shame if these things are going to suffer nerfs because of new OP neutral cards.
 
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