Rank the factions regarding their difficulty to play and learn

+
There is not really a more difficult faction than the others, i would group it by leaders.

From less to "more" difficult.

Lockdown, there is nothing more foolish than playing without a leader while the other does the same without waiting for it.

After that Hidden cache and Fruits (especially with Ethereal). Simply passive and / or with charges available on each turn.

Thirdly, those that let us play something a second time, thus removing the value of the concept of calculating when we will make a move. Are you against a deck with many units? Play WildBoar on R1 so SecondWind won't penalize you for it. The same to ME and WoB.

Some leaders are not difficult even, they are simply unbalanced and obsolete so playing with them seems difficult for someone new, just because they do not know how beautiful Invigorate has performed in the last year. :beer:
 
Syndicate is definitely the hardest to play because it can be challenging to balance the earning of coins with abilities that spend them. Even though deckbuilding seems to be the bigger challenge, it's still difficult to play well with the Syndicate faction.

Scoia'tael and Nilfgaard are probably next in terms of how difficult they are to play because both are mostly control factions, and you have to carefully assess threat levels of opponent's cards when using your removal and locks.

The rest (Monsters, Northern Realms, and Skellige) are more or less equivalent in my mind in terms of ease of play. You can still make tiny mistakes here and there, but they will most likely not cost you the game. Obviously, there will still be specific decks in these three factions that are difficult to play.
 
Syndicate is the most challenging to master, for sure. It is the only faction where you need to manage an additional parameter (coins)

The easiest to learn is Northern Realms. Lots of simple mechanics there.
 
Syndicate is definitely the most difficult, just as intended.

Monsters has literally always (from the ancient days of Geralt + Eredin pass to present day) been the easiest to play, imo. Of course there are trickier decks within MO, but the faction is not difficult to learn.

I would also say Northern Realms and Skellige are indeed simpler to play than Nilfgaard or Scoia'tael, and of the two latter I don't really know which one is trickier in general.
Definitely ST for me, but that's because I've played it a lot less (and never after beta).


So, probably Monsters > Northern Realms > Skellige > Nilfgaard > Scoia'tael --> Syndicate.
 
What I think is most difficult about Gwent is not a particular faction, but the three round mechanics: when to pass, when to push, subtleties of reach and tempo.

Playing all factions ( well, possibly not SY — I’ve had zero interest in playing that because it hinges around cards I hate and an ungrateful mechanic) is relatively straightforward; and deck building has been rendered moot by a horribly narrow meta and the ready availability of net decks.

For me at least, the hardest parts of playing factions is getting the interface to put the cards where I intend, noticing statuses (especially shield, defender, and veiled where the symbol often doesn’t show up clearly against the card art), and remembering the details of cards whose effects change depending upon the row in which they are deployed.
 
Easiest meta decks (since Iron Judgement) from each faction, ranked from the easiest one:
1.) MO - All-in Thrive
2.) ST - Harmony (before MM)
3.) NR - Swarm
4.) SY - Swarm
5.) SK - Lippy (before MM)
6.) NG - Spies

Most difficult meta decks (since IJ) from each faction, ranked from the easiest one:
1.) NR - Draug
2.) SK - Greatswords (before MM)
3.) ST - Spell'Tael
4.) MO - Vampires
5.) NG - Soldier Ball
6.) SY - Passiflora

I excluded Master Mirror SK :)
 
As far as factions go i agree with previous posters.

Historically speaking...

Monsters & Skellige were designed to be the intro factions, NR and Scoiatel the medium difficulty factions, and Nilfguard and Syndicate were the most difficult.

Add far as the most difficult meta decks, i feel you missed the tricky neutral category decks.

1. Shupe / Radeyah... They need to keep buffing the Strategems, so this will only get better... and Shupe is always on the edge of greatness and ruin.

2. Post initiative Regis (aka most difficult ro run deck ever.) I mean on paper this should be better than ever, as even those who see it coming will doubt you are running Regis. But I see people still countering it in pro rank on reflex.

3. Honorable mention... A deck built around Yrden. Not that you need to build a deck around yrden, it fits in a lot of decks without support... and bricks with the same frequency as Morkvard HoT. Still no one really bothers adding cards specifically to improve this card so who knows the limit
 
Last edited:
1. SY
2. NG
3. The rest

Factions based on control need more hand reading and more precise sequencing. SY also involves more math. The rest depends on the deck.

In fact it all depends on the deck and meta. Right now SK is the easiest because it's broken. You can win playing cards in random order.
 
Top Bottom