Season of the Dryad Ultimate Stats Summary

[lor1keet]

Team Legacy released their article today. It has excellent information about last month's (September's) Season of the Dryad.

Season of the Dryad: Ultimate Stats Summary

Gwent unofficial faction, players and nation statistics for the Season of the Dryad. Efficiency ratings, faction picks, Gwent World Map...

teamlegacy.org

SK apparently had a 60+% win rate for top 500 players.

I guess CDPR forgot to check the stats before they nerfed NG into the ground and gave them inconsequential buffs.

 

[Elliezrah]

Surprised with Syndicates low popularity.
I know its difficult to use but I usually lose when good players use Syndicate against me.

 

[Philido]

Anyone else here who absolutely hates Master Mirror? The entire expansion is just a big disaster for me. Has the game ever been THAT imbalanced for such a long time without any meaningful action from the devs to fix this?

 

[Kessman]

Anyone else here who absolutely hates Master Mirror? The entire expansion is just a big disaster for me. Has the game ever been THAT imbalanced for such a long time without any meaningful action from the devs to fix this?

Me too.
The most ridiculous thing is that eventually, they killed NG the only faction that somehow countered all this unbalanced shit.

 

[lor1keet]

Me too.
The most ridiculous thing is that eventually, they killed NG the only faction that somehow countered all this unbalanced shit.

This. So much THIS.

 

[Nerevarine228]

Me too.
The most ridiculous thing is that eventually, they killed NG the only faction that somehow countered all this unbalanced shit.

Meta is much more diverse now that Ball is mostly out of the way. If everything is broken, nothing is.

 

[Kessman]

Meta is much more diverse now that Ball is mostly out of the way. If everything is broken, nothing is.

How can Meta be more diverse due to one of the factions being dead.
Ball is just 1 removal requiring setup in 2 turns and which can be easily outplayed. How can it affect meta. There are tons of removals besides, but you gonna hate NG.
For example, everyone hates NG poisons: 2 Fangs from hand, 2 from Ball, 1 Cook. (Cows are barely played). But no one cares about cheap triple pair of SY poison bronzes. This is so fun.

 

[croloris]

NG is not dead. It is just has the title of "worst faction in the current meta" for perhaps the first time in its history.

Assimilate is still alive and performing well and single ball imposter shenanigans can win. So can lockdown if nearly everything goes your way.

As for for Syndicate, i enjoy playing them, but they have done uncommonly bad matchups that ruins the whole experience. Swarm v Assimilate and the whole faction against Monsters (OH & Thrive.) You tend to need all you mulligans with SY, and Monsters tends to go for a 2‐0 more than most.

As far as balance goes, it has been worse... much worse. It may seem strange, but the players base does not complain as much so long as NG is not on top. When NG was top tier, holy hell was raised.

 

[Nerevarine228]

How can Meta be more diverse due to one of the factions being dead.

.
First of all, NG isn't dead. Some of its playstyles are actually balanced for fhe first time (assimilation, enslave 5/6 for example).
Some, like soldiers, are fairly bad, but the same could be said about any faction. Have you seen Dorfs? Heartbreaking.

Some guy here on forum dared me to prove it by getting to pro eith NG, and it took me only 20 games or so, note that I only played like 30 before that, and with significant breaks and meme decks mostly, so it's not like I understand Assimilate all too well.

Secondly, NG doesn't equate to poison.

So your question really should sound like this:
"How can death or the (poison spam NG) affect diversity?"


And the answer would be "Easily". Because when meta was under constant pressure of dealing with up to 5(!) pairs of poison instances (6 fangs, cupbearer, Maraal, occasional Cobras) on top of YenInvo+VVM and then a couple of blocks on top of that, many strats were just impossible. Many cards weren't playable. Because Poison Ball could kill nearly anything on your side of the board, so you basically were forced to play trash cards and swarm to get anywhere.

By comparison, SY and SC usually had 2 or 3 pairs of poison cards tops. It was still annoying, but manageable. 5+...not so much.

I think people talking about NG being dead were spoiled by sadistic ease of non-stop removal, and that prevents them from seeing that NG is in fact fine right now.
Struggle with swarms, you say?
Ever considered Lacerate?
Of course not, because before you could kill everything one by one. Well, now it isn't the case, and you need to get down to everyone else's level.

Oh, and the Ball itself isn't dead, by the way. With Heaver out of the way, you can use it uninterrupted most of the time, which works wonders in certain decks.
Only cheap removal spam is, which is fair.

 

[judgecsk]

.
First of all, NG isn't dead. Some of its playstyles are actually balanced for fhe first time (assimilation, enslave 5/6 for example).
Some, like soldiers, are fairly bad, but the same could be said about any faction. Have you seen Dorfs? Heartbreaking.

Some guy here on forum dared me to prove it by getting to pro eith NG, and it took me only 20 games or so, note that I only played like 30 before that, and with significant breaks and meme decks mostly, so it's not like I understand Assimilate all too well.

Secondly, NG doesn't equate to poison.

So your question really should sound like this:
"How can death or the (poison spam NG) affect diversity?"


And the answer would be "Easily". Because when meta was under constant pressure of dealing with up to 5(!) pairs of poison instances (6 fangs, cupbearer, Maraal, occasional Cobras) on top of YenInvo+VVM and then a couple of blocks on top of that, many strats were just impossible. Many cards weren't playable. Because Poison Ball could kill nearly anything on your side of the board, so you basically were forced to play trash cards and swarm to get anywhere.

By comparison, SY and SC usually had 2 or 3 pairs of poison cards tops. It was still annoying, but manageable. 5+...not so much.

I think people talking about NG being dead were spoiled by sadistic ease of non-stop removal, and that prevents them from seeing that NG is in fact fine right now.
Struggle with swarms, you say?
Ever considered Lacerate?
Of course not, because before you could kill everything one by one. Well, now it isn't the case, and you need to get down to everyone else's level.

Oh, and the Ball itself isn't dead, by the way. With Heaver out of the way, you can use it uninterrupted most of the time, which works wonders in certain decks.
Only cheap removal spam is, which is fair.

- Well said mate, couldn't said it better my self.

The way NG used to play with poisons was way too oppressive to allow a good and healthy competitive environment for people to play what they like.

Now in saying all the above it doesn't mean i want NG to be further nerfed.
I want em boosted but more in terms of archetypes and interesting abilities more so than poisons, removals and locks,
like spies actually doing some spying work, something more thematic.
I like the NG faction even though they're major b@LL busters.

 

[Philido]

- Well said mate, couldn't said it better my self.

The way NG used to play with poisons was way too oppressive to allow a good and healthy competitive environment for people to play what they like.

Now in saying all the above it doesn't mean i want NG to be further nerfed.
I want em boosted but more in terms of archetypes and interesting abilities more so than poisons, removals and locks,
like spies actually doing some spying work, something more thematic.
I like the NG faction even though they're major b@LL busters.

I'm pretty sure that's everything most of the NG mains want. Better archetypes. The way this faction is handled at the moment is definitely not okay and doesn't solve the problem at all.

 

[Kessman]

First of all, NG isn't dead. Some of its playstyles are actually balanced for fhe first time

Did you see the last qualifiers? Almost no one played NG.
NG, for now, is like MO before MM or even worse.

Some guy here on forum dared me to prove it by getting to pro eith NG

Low Pro means nothing you can reach it with anything.

Because Poison Ball could kill nearly anything

As well as SY, as ST. Siege NR could wipe your board completely. And I'm not talking about that triple duel joke these days, NG could only envy it.

6 fangs, cupbearer, Maraal, occasional Cobras

Once again, DB was never a big deal, so there is no need to count additional 2 fangs. DB never affected the meta that much, even on qualifiers it was barely played. Maraal and Cobras are neutrals. SY and ST played Maraal as well. Cobras were used by SY and ST as well, once they became 5provs even NG stopped to play them. So basically NG is as poisonous as SY. I would say SY is a better poisoner because its poisons are cheaper and flexible.

a couple of blocks on top of that

Locks are weak. You lock 5 points engine by your 3 points lock. Who wins?

so you basically were forced to play trash cards and swarm to get anywhere.

Sure. If you want to play greedy point slam deck be prepared. That's how it should work. Approximately: Control beats Greedy decks, Greedy decks beat Midrange, Midrange beats Control.

With Heaver out of the way, you can use it uninterrupted most of the time

Heatwave+Oneiromancy says hello.

I don't care about Ball. It's just funny to watch how people blindly hate NG not taking into account the whole picture.
I guess the reason is as follows: NG is popular on low rangs and newbies suffer from it, but when they grew up and became expirienced they still hold old grudges.

 

[StanislavOZZO]

Three things got my attention in this report:
- mistake in the math on Faction Winrate graph. It is not possible that all factions have over 50% winrate. If SK wins the most and NG loses the most, for NG it should certainly be below 50%
- Russians are dominating the game. Did you see how many are playing?!
- Some people dedicate most of their life to gwent with more than 1000 games a month.

Surprised with Syndicates low popularity.
I know its difficult to use but I usually lose when good players use Syndicate against me.

That's the thing. It's trickier to play. Why bother when you can win with SK warriors or Shieldwall on autopilot?

 

[Nerevarine228]

Did you see the last qualifiers? Almost no one played NG.
NG, for now, is like MO before MM or even worse.
Low Pro means nothing you can reach it with anything.

It seems you don't realise "qualifiers" are for all intents and purposes a game separate from Gwent proper. Open decks, bans and all.

that triple duel joke these days, NG could only envy it.

Yenvo, VVM, at least 4 poisons. Now tell me, what is bigger, 4+ or 3?

Once again, DB was never a big deal, so there is no need to count additional 2 fangs. DB never affected the meta that much, even on qualifiers it was barely played.

Right, this forum and Reddit and several Youtube personalities were pissed off over nothing, and many people ragequit the game over nothing. Well, if you say so.

And again - qualifiers are a separate game, only vaguely similar to Gwent, and can't really prove anything related to what ordinary players(yes, even pro) deal with.
And yes, some days it was just DB over and over again, all the way down from rank 10 to pro (and on pro as well).
It isn't only my observation.

Maraal and Cobras are neutrals. SY and ST played Maraal as well. Cobras were used by SY and ST as well, once they became 5provs even NG stopped to play them. So basically NG is as poisonous as SY. I would say SY is a better poisoner because its poisons are cheaper and flexible.

Again, what is cheaper - 4 or 5? Fangs or mutant hounds/drugdealers, mhm?
(spoiler:it's Fangs)
Also ST and SY don't have Dames, so they simply couldn't afford stuffing their deck full of poisons, or they'd just have 20 points R3. Wasn't the case with NG.

Locks are weak. You lock 5 points engine by your 3 points lock. Who wins?

Depending on what you lock. But unless it's something truly minor, like Mauler or something along these lines, you prevent anywhere between 3 to 30 value. Worst case scenario, 3 value for 5 provision, and even then you set up potential Vangemar or VVM, so there's that. But usually it's far above that.

Sure. If you want to play greedy point slam deck be prepared. That's how it should work. Approximately: Control beats Greedy decks, Greedy decks beat Midrange, Midrange beats Control.

It wasn't punishing just greedy decks. It was punishing anything going beyond 5 value on a single unit, which is basically making most of the cards and strats unplayable.

Heatwave+Oneiromancy says hello.

Some folks play Devotion. That's one thing. Secondly, there's only 1 heatwave, and far too many "You don't kill it, you lose" targets in NG roster. It's a lose-lose situation, and Oneiro+Heatwave isn't always possible either.

I don't care about Ball. It's just funny to watch how people blindly hate NG not taking into account the whole picture.
I guess the reason is as follows: NG is popular on low rangs and newbies suffer from it, but when they grew up and became expirienced they still hold old grudges.

They aren't "grudges". There're valid reasons to hate some of NG cards and playstyles. Or, at least, there used to be.
You not seeing how some of those are/were a huge problem for the game health doesn't mean that haters are all blind to The Truth.
Perhaps you are. Judging by your funny math where 5<4, this seems more likely.

And the next time you bring up high pro rank, remember that they're merely 1-3% of the entire playerbase. Balancing the entire game for elites who play a separate game to the detriment of everyone else makes very little sense.

 

[EduFerraz]

Three things got my attention in this report:
- mistake in the math on Faction Winrate graph. It is not possible that all factions have over 50% winrate. If SK wins the most and NG loses the most, for NG it should certainly be below 50%
- Russians are dominating the game. Did you see how many are playing?!
- Some people dedicate most of their life to gwent with more than 1000 games a month.


That's the thing. It's trickier to play. Why bother when you can win with SK warriors or Shieldwall on autopilot?

The first part of your post.

I think because they are The Best 500, so If they play against "lower players" they still win.

Thats why it has more than 50% winrate in all The factions

 

[lor1keet]

The first part of your post.

I think because they are The Best 500, so If they play against "lower players" they still win.

Thats why it has more than 50% winrate in all The factions

Yup, that's exactly it.