Power 9 spy is not a problem at all. Just scorch it, dragon it, or freeze it.
Gwent being what it is, you've not always got a scorch and freeze card on hand or dealt them with random being random and all. For example, the only time I put freeze cards in my deck is when playing against someone with a monster deck or if I'm using the Northern deck due to it favoring catapults and the likes, so the freeze cards don't hinder me. I also don't like putting more than 2 scorch cards in my playable deck as getting dealt 3 scorch cards is usually at the expense of something better and more important. I just don't see the issue between the 1 and the 9 because each one has its trade off.Power 9 spy is not a problem at all. Just scorch it, dragon it, or freeze it.
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It's not a problem, but you do have to spend cards to deal with it, making it less effective. For instance, if you play it, get scorch+something for it, then spend scorch to get rid of it (and it'll be just this one card, since there are no other 9s), your net gain is just the second card you drew, so you might as well have started with it instead. Also, it protects weaker cards from being destroyed, so if you play it the opponent can safely muster the crones behind it.Power 9 spy is not a problem at all. Just scorch it, dragon it, or freeze it.
It does give you some extra turns though, which might be important if you are saving a weather card for the last.
To @BlacJAC and @riotamus
If you build your deck properly and use proper strategy there's no way to loose and spy 9 is an awesome card regardless. Nilfgaardian deck is full of spies, you will have 4 of them. Your deck should have minimum allowed unit cards. You can have 2-3 decoy cards. Combined with the dragon those make you a win 90% of times alone. 2 scorch cards and coupe of freeze cards. If your deck is small the probability to get cards you need is very high.
Play spy 9 as a first card, if your opponent has decoys you'll get your spy back 100%. Or you can play it last when your opponent passes and you have full control over the round. Keep your freeze card till the end of the round unless you want to buy time. Essentially, your strategy with spies is to force your opponent to pass and then just add enough strength to win. If you play against a monster deck and your opponent just spammed all their vampires, insects, and crones in one round, just play all the spies and loose one round (alternatively make a "frozen dragon" attack), the opponent will loose all other rounds because will have no cards to compensate anyway.
I don't think I've lost a game after getting 4 spies, including the spy 9, ever. Of course, if AI were better I'd lost some of the games but we're talking about playing with AI.
If you build your deck properly and use proper strategy there's no way to loose and spy 9 is an awesome card regardless. Nilfgaardian deck is full of spies, you will have 4 of them. Your deck should have minimum allowed unit cards. You can have 2-3 decoy cards. Combined with the dragon those make you a win 90% of times alone. 2 scorch cards and coupe of freeze cards. If your deck is small the probability to get cards you need is very high.
Play spy 9 as a first card, if your opponent has decoys you'll get your spy back 100%. Or you can play it last when your opponent passes and you have full control over the round. Keep your freeze card till the end of the round unless you want to buy time. Essentially, your strategy with spies is to force your opponent to pass and then just add enough strength to win. If you play against a monster deck and your opponent just spammed all their vampires, insects, and crones in one round, just play all the spies and loose one round (alternatively make a "frozen dragon" attack), the opponent will loose all other rounds because will have no cards to compensate anyway.
I don't think I've lost a game after getting 4 spies, including the spy 9, ever. Of course, if AI were better I'd lost some of the games but we're talking about playing with AI.
Well if your opponent has the same ultimate spy/decoy deck (e.g. Sacha), she'd do the same things, and it basically boils down to the luck of the draw. Of course it's easy to trounce monsters with an anti-monsters deck (scorch/dragon/frost), but I argue that against spy/decoys well-built monsters can actually win more reliably.
Sasha has a good deck but she doesn't know how to play it. I played her with slightly above average Northern Kingdom deck with just 2 spies (Stennis and Dijkstra), 3 decoys, 2 medic cards, a dragon, variety weather cards, 2 rally horns, and remove weather effects as a Foltest's special power. Had no problem with her at all, just returned her all her spies on the first round and frozedragonned them all, on the second round, resurrected remaining spies and just had more cards than her at which point she had no chance.
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The only tough opponents I've ever come across (once I got a hold of the game obviously) are the halfling during the tournament and some armorer in Skellige (playing a Nilfgaardian deck).
Maybe it's me, but the Halfling was OP as heck. Once I was about to beat him as he was left with 2 cards vs my 6 on the last round.
He then played a spy(!) which got him another spy which got him another spy which got him another.
Rigged as heck. Pretty sure the AI was conjuring them.
Also, that's not an example of smart AI, just cheating. For the rest the AI is all over the place, doing realitvely smart tactics but at the same time throwing away the game often.
The second round passing is especially annoying as it don't make any sense, it's just a free round for you.
Maybe it's me, but the Halfling was OP as heck. Once I was about to beat him as he was left with 2 cards vs my 6 on the last round.
He then played a spy(!) which got him another spy which got him another spy which got him another.
Rigged as heck. Pretty sure the AI was conjuring them.
Also, that's not an example of smart AI, just cheating. For the rest the AI is all over the place, doing realitvely smart tactics but at the same time throwing away the game often.
The second round passing is especially annoying as it don't make any sense, it's just a free round for you.
Usually she has decoys as well, so it's just a matter of luck who can flip the spies over more (and who draws Avallach)Sasha has a good deck but she doesn't know how to play it. I played her with slightly above average Northern Kingdom deck with just 2 spies (Stennis and Dijkstra), 3 decoys, 2 medic cards, a dragon, variety weather cards, 2 rally horns, and remove weather effects as a Foltest's special power. Had no problem with her at all, just returned her all her spies on the first round and frozedragonned them all, on the second round, resurrected remaining spies and just had more cards than her at which point she had no chance.
I love Gwent, it's the best mini game in my eyes. But it has it's flaws and could really use some balancing. Spies are vastly superior to muster, this fact alone makes Northern Realms and Nilfgaard top tier by a large margin. There needs to be cap how many hero cards one can play in a deck, and change up boring default 10 power heroes - like reduce power and add an ability. Scoia'tael faction power is weak, easy fix would be to swap it around with leader ability to draw an extra card, then it would more or less match other factions. On top of it Scoia'tael also has the worst medics, they need to get buffed at least to Northern Realms medic level. Monster faction has good faction power and hero abilities. However overall weak card quality and heavy focus on close combat muster makes it, extremely vulnerable to Biting Frost and Villentretenmerth combos with medics and/or decoys. It feels unfinished and weak deck, at the very least change Crones to ranged units and add bonds to low power close combat units. Scoia'tael could perhaps have anti ranged and Monsters anti siege Villentretenmerth, to help close cap with Northern Realms and Nilfgaard. Then there are also really awful plays AI makes sometimes. Worst one was, when I passed and AI was ahead on board and then played Fog to lose a round. After all the shit talking, anyone else expected dude at the Gwent tournament finals to cheat or have overpowered unique cards? Then get disappointed it being just a terrible Monster deck, worse than a random innkeeper playing Nilfgaard deck.
To answer OP, on my 2nd playthrough as Northen Realms I never lost a single game. My worst result was draw vs Scoia'tael when I literally had Villentretenmerth and all 4 spies in the bottom half of my deck.
To answer OP, on my 2nd playthrough as Northen Realms I never lost a single game. My worst result was draw vs Scoia'tael when I literally had Villentretenmerth and all 4 spies in the bottom half of my deck.