SEASON OF THE BEAR IS HERE!

[Payus]

I passed after playing 3 cards and the opponent playing as NR played scenario card. 1 trebuche out. I passed saving my Nilfgaard scenario for next round. What happened?! The opponent played every single card bar the last card!!! IN A ROW!!! I had 6 or 7. Then passed eventually with 1 card. Come to the last round, the AI just passed.

I'm not the denying the possibility, but I've seen humans do some stupid s***, me included.
Yesterday I played ranked vs an SK Gedyneith opponnent that played Scenario R1 first play and I used Korathy on it, then he proceeded to play leader and Lippy! Milling his whole deck turn 2, then he forfeited...

 

[DRK3]

This seasonal is more akin to Witcher 3 Gwent and beta Gwent than HC Gwent - only 10 cards and no draws means card advantage (CA) can be achieved anytime on R1 by the red coin player, but also that you can pass early on R1, even a drypass as opener without the setbacks of the regular modes.

Also, the match gets very dangerous on a long R1, when it gets down to 1/2 cards, its possible to win the whole match on R1, since if you go to a round without any cards you pass even if you have a leader ability that could save you.

NG abuse, MO tall units and Resilience/carryover seem to be the most popular strategies, so i've been packing a ton of tall removal and control and have been able to do well in this mode so far.

 

[Guest 4368268]

The concept for this seasonal is something I actually quite like. The strategic element of it, the increased pace.
Unfortunately though it ultimately does the same thing most other seasonals' have done, point out how Nilfgaard has access to some ridiculous swiss army knife cards that never brick and individually each have game winning potential.

So as per usual I search for a dozen games and find Nilfgaard eleven times. The one other guy will be someone that hasn't figured out how the seasonal works yet. It's demotivating. I don't play ranked to avoid these grindy netdeckers but then I find them in seasonal all the same. It makes me wish these reward book challenges such as 'win X-amount of rounds' didn't exist.

I don't think Nilfgaard should be gutted for this reason, I just think it points out how other factions lack unique effects.
Having said that, Vilgefortz and Tibor are cards I disagree with in HC anyway since 'spawning' a random card from your opponents deck can be an upside more so than the downside it's meant to be.