Practice mode as bad as ranked?

[nedders]

Can anyone explain to me why so many "players" (I'll use the term loosely, as they're all just playing someone else's deck) are using the same decks in ranked, but in practice mode???

I genuinely cannot fathom the kind of people playing this game, they make no sense to me. There's no attempt to homebrew, EVER, and this is just the final straw. Why on earth would you be using Joachim/Coup, LP with broken SY cards, MO relict deck in a PRACTICE mode?? If anyone is on this forum and does this, can you please, please explain to me why you're using META decks in a practice mode??

I went into practice to play with some pirates hoping for fun match ups but it's the same mindless, senseless boredom as you get in ranked. This isn't a personal attack but a genuine plea to help me understand what on earth the Gwent player base is doing?

 

[zhiphius]

Isn't Practise mode there to uh...practise piloting decks? So makes sense people use meta decks in that mode, ya know... to practise them.

I'd like a new mode called "casual", no ranked or pressure. Just a place for people to have fun.

 

[Philido]

Just play Seasonal, every single game is completely different in the current mode

 

[nedders]

Just play Seasonal, every single game is completely different in the current mode

I can't stand seasonal. Boils down to even fewer META's than ranked.

Why does anybody need to practice decks that are mostly autopilot? Swear to God I keep trying and have had ONE different match, but even that was just Keltullis META so my homebrew had no answer.

Just seems like variety is so sadly missing. I also don't know the CDPR team care.

 

[Lokiat0r]

Yeah, meta decks are the curse of Gwent... That's one of the reasons there's a vocal minority who want Arena back - because there was no meta and each game was always different and full of surprises.

I almost exclusively play in Training mode lately because it's the only place to see any variety of opponent decks. I've been pretty lucky and haven't run across many ranked meta decks there lately. But I really do wish there was a mode where you could guarantee there was no meta so each match would be a mystery.

 

[Philido]

I can't stand seasonal. Boils down to even fewer META's than ranked.

Why does anybody need to practice decks that are mostly autopilot? Swear to God I keep trying and have had ONE different match, but even that was just Keltullis META so my homebrew had no answer.

Just seems like variety is so sadly missing. I also don't know the CDPR team care.

Many decks may look like they are autopilot, but you will find out that this isn't exactly true for most of them if you play them yourself. It makes sense that players want to try them out first before going to ranked. And in addition, Gwent doesn't reward creativity, it's very often only winning that counts, as sad as it sounds. I've heard about a "Gwent safe place" project here, maybe that's something for you. The current seasonal "Patience is a virtue" only has a meta concerning your leader, but the rest is completely random and pretty damn fun.

 

[Cyncynat88]

Maybe it's just my bad luck, but I have seen even less variety in the Training mode this season than in the Standard one. I played enough games just to move to pro-rank and, aside from many meta decks, I met some pleasant surprises - an interesting variation of Imposter, Harmony (!), Off the Books and similar stuff. Several days ago, I moved to the Training mode and about 70-80% of the games are the same - Relicts, Hyperthin, Drill, Precision Strike/Spells etc.

Patience is a Virtue is like a blessing; almost complete randomness and sheer luck, love it.

 

[Lokiat0r]

The current seasonal "Patience is a virtue" only has a meta concerning your leader, but the rest is completely random and pretty damn fun.

Did they finally ban Masquerade Ball, then? Last time I played that it was nothing but Tactical Decision NG decks staggering their card provision costs to spam Masquerade Ball after Masquerade Ball because it's the only 15 P card, and then using their leader ability to pull an aristocrat from their deck to trigger them all, dump a bunch of Fangs on the board and poison the crap out of the opposition...

After all, there's nothing random about it if you know that every time your 14 P card upgrades 1 it'll be a Masquerade Ball...

 

[Philido]

Did they finally ban Masquerade Ball, then? Last time I played that it was nothing but Tactical Decision NG decks staggering their card provision costs to spam Masquerade Ball after Masquerade Ball because it's the only 15 P card, and then using their leader ability to pull an aristocrat from their deck to trigger them all, dump a bunch of Fangs on the board and poison the crap out of the opposition...

After all, there's nothing random about it if you know that every time your 14 P card upgrades 1 it'll be a Masquerade Ball...

I've played about ten games today and didn't encounter a single deck that used this strategy. I think only one guy used NG with Double Cross, that's it

 

[Lokiat0r]

I've played about ten games today and didn't encounter a single deck that used this strategy. I think only one guy used NG with Double Cross, that's it

That's good to hear. Maybe that meta finally died the horrible death it deserves. Because PiaV is the closest to a metaless mode we've got.

 

[quintivarium]

The problem with trying to directly rule out "meta-decks" is the difficulty defining meta-deck. If I happen to use an archetype that is in a meta-deck, doe that mean I'm playing the meta deck -- even should all my other cards be different? If I play one dominating card, am I playing a meta deck?

Unfortunately, I believe elements of game design significantly contribute to the feeling of always facing meta decks. It appears that the designers focus balance decisions around a very small number of identified, competitive decks -- rather than making a large number of cards viable (admittedly this approach could lead to completely broken seasons). Archetypes are often so small that all cards of the archetype are chosen. Decks seem to hinge upon a small handful of "big" cards.. All of which contributes to a relatively small meta.

 

[Philido]

That's good to hear. Maybe that meta finally died the horrible death it deserves. Because PiaV is the closest to a metaless mode we've got.

As far as I can remember Banished is way worse. This has always been Vilgefortz, Tibor and so on.

 

[nedders]

The problem with trying to directly rule out "meta-decks" is the difficulty defining meta-deck. If I happen to use an archetype that is in a meta-deck, doe that mean I'm playing the meta deck -- even should all my other cards be different? If I play one dominating card, am I playing a meta deck?

Unfortunately, I believe elements of game design significantly contribute to the feeling of always facing meta decks. It appears that the designers focus balance decisions around a very small number of identified, competitive decks -- rather than making a large number of cards viable (admittedly this approach could lead to completely broken seasons). Archetypes are often so small that all cards of the archetype are chosen. Decks seem to hinge upon a small handful of "big" cards.. All of which contributes to a relatively small meta.

Ah this is interesting; is it, in fact, due to too few "archetypes" that actually makes everything look very myopic and one dimensional? Is that just a restriction of a card game that in effect can't be much more than boost/damage?

Is there a need for a lot more diversity of playstyles? Is it even possible? Rupture is an example, only one card does it? Should they have considerably more artefact removal? Should there be a lot more artefacts that are interesting (i.e. Frightener)? Lot more weather type effects? Lot more classification of cards, such as - I dunno - diplomats, minstrels, spectres, halflings, thieves (to deal with coins, perhaps?), more animals that aren't always "doomed", better bonded effects for 'chains' of things?

Three rows would have significantly helped, I think, was wrong to do away with that. If they'd never bothered with stupid animated leaders to focus on the size of gameboard even on mobile devices they'd never have needed to remove the third row.

As it stands though all the effort goes into creating a bunch of synergy with a handful of cards, leading to the feeling you're only against a META when - in fact - most players just don't have a choice.

 

[Mr_Mugglez]

It's the same complaint of four years ago. Netdecking youtube players. it's not going away is it? As for practice mode the people using netdecks need to learn how to use it so I guess that's why. Haven't played for a few months now. Not uninstalled yet haha

 

[DarksideDestro]

Yeah, this is why I haven't played a single match in over a year now. Arena was my jam; put in over 1000 hours. Never got old. Give each player same amount of golds and incorporate cosmetics and I'd be in nirvana.