The problem: Xavier Lemmens banishes the whole game mechanic. The Gwent gameplay consists of several parts including: hand, board (battlefield) and graveyard. It is impossible to imagine a card which would annihilate the whole board or opponent’s hand unconditionally. Yet there is a card which do exactly that for the graveyard. It might be hard to see the impact of the card with the current card pool but as the card pool grows it is inevitable that the graveyard will be used more and more.
And more & more will grow the value Xavier produces. It is perfectly fine to banish graveyard in dynamic games like MTG but for the “static” gameplays (such as in Gwent) this card has too much value. For example, let’s consider the following situation. A Loser plays 4 restoring cards in his deck, and a Winner plays Xavier. They play the first round and go to the final (will it be the 2nd or 3rd—doesn’t matter). The Loser has all or part of his restoring cards in the hand and the Winner has Xavier. If the Loser goes first he can rush up to spend one of his restoring card and lose all of the rest the next turn (because the first thing the Winner does is Xavier).
So on turn 2 the Loser has multiple dead cards in his hand. So the Winner essentially gained a card advantage out of nowhere. He effectively destroyed cards in the opponent hand! And did he pay for it? No! This is just insane. The game punishes players just because they are using one of the game mechanics. Since the Loser can expect Xavier from any player playing any faction, to become a Winner he can do just one thing: abandon graveyard mechanics for good. And I believe it is absolutely unhealthy for the game so the card should be either completely reworked or at least tuned down. My proposal is about tuning the card down.
Solution.
I suggest to change one of Xavier’s abilities which targets the opponent graveyard, leaving the ability to purge its own intact. So the new ability will be as follows: “Order: banish a card from the opponent’s graveyard and damage self by 1”. This way this card might be balanced around to find its optimal base power, amount of charges and provision.
For example, it might have infinite number of charges. Or some finite number but have Zeal. Or he might have Zeal with 1 charge per turn. Such design will allow an opposite player to react on the danger and will also prevent a user from banishing the whole opponent’s graveyard uncontrollably. The provision is also might be increased.
P.S. Please, before considering this post as a rant and starting defending the card ponder about the implications this card have on the whole Gwent gameplay.
And more & more will grow the value Xavier produces. It is perfectly fine to banish graveyard in dynamic games like MTG but for the “static” gameplays (such as in Gwent) this card has too much value. For example, let’s consider the following situation. A Loser plays 4 restoring cards in his deck, and a Winner plays Xavier. They play the first round and go to the final (will it be the 2nd or 3rd—doesn’t matter). The Loser has all or part of his restoring cards in the hand and the Winner has Xavier. If the Loser goes first he can rush up to spend one of his restoring card and lose all of the rest the next turn (because the first thing the Winner does is Xavier).
So on turn 2 the Loser has multiple dead cards in his hand. So the Winner essentially gained a card advantage out of nowhere. He effectively destroyed cards in the opponent hand! And did he pay for it? No! This is just insane. The game punishes players just because they are using one of the game mechanics. Since the Loser can expect Xavier from any player playing any faction, to become a Winner he can do just one thing: abandon graveyard mechanics for good. And I believe it is absolutely unhealthy for the game so the card should be either completely reworked or at least tuned down. My proposal is about tuning the card down.
Solution.
I suggest to change one of Xavier’s abilities which targets the opponent graveyard, leaving the ability to purge its own intact. So the new ability will be as follows: “Order: banish a card from the opponent’s graveyard and damage self by 1”. This way this card might be balanced around to find its optimal base power, amount of charges and provision.
For example, it might have infinite number of charges. Or some finite number but have Zeal. Or he might have Zeal with 1 charge per turn. Such design will allow an opposite player to react on the danger and will also prevent a user from banishing the whole opponent’s graveyard uncontrollably. The provision is also might be increased.
P.S. Please, before considering this post as a rant and starting defending the card ponder about the implications this card have on the whole Gwent gameplay.
