Skellige Has Too Much Thinning

[OG.laloquaint]

I think Skellige is becoming too problematic when it comes to thinning. They can almost guarantee that they will draw all the cards they need to win. This is why some people think Lippy is OP, but I think the source of this problem actually comes from the fact that they are able to thin out their deck twice. The developers have noticed this problem because they did nerf some Discard cards. I think it's unfair that Skellige has a lot of good thinning cards while the rest of the factions struggle with that.

 

[StrykerxS77x]

If you're going to give good thinning cards then you kind of need to do it for all factions, not just one.

 

[Channu]

Skellige has a lot of thinning and it's a characteristic of this faction. You won't have a lot of different factions and play-styles by giving any faction a wide variety of thinning options.

I agree with you that Lippy is too strong. He is basically Emyhr on steroids.

 

[nedders]

No, Skellige's characteristic is discard/resurrection. However, in this iteration of Gwent it equates to thinning, which is unfair because most other decks only get to play 75% of their cards, so are a the whim of RNG-sus and the deal mechanic.

What's worse is Skellige thins, then recycles. That's just wrong. Lippy should be removed. It's not like any of the other 3200 scrap cards are anywhere near as good. The dragon is near on useless.

 

[Sleeperko]

Northern realms have too many engines. What else?

 

[OG.laloquaint]

If you're going to give good thinning cards then you kind of need to do it for all factions, not just one.

I kind of would like to see more factions get some sort of thinning cards. Like, Nilfgaard for example does have a few but they don't have any interesting interactions like Skellige discard does, you know? At the same time, maybe Skellige shouldn't just have so much thinning.

Skellige has a lot of thinning and it's a characteristic of this faction. You won't have a lot of different factions and play-styles by giving any faction a wide variety of thinning options.

I agree with you that Lippy is too strong. He is basically Emyhr on steroids.

Well i guess that's true but at least it should be properly balanced by giving other factions the option of thinning cards as well. I don't think thinning should be a characteristic of a faction, it's not right.

I was actually saying Lippy isn't OP lol.

No, Skellige's characteristic is discard/resurrection. However, in this iteration of Gwent it equates to thinning, which is unfair because most other decks only get to play 75% of their cards, so are a the whim of RNG-sus and the deal mechanic.

What's worse is Skellige thins, then recycles. That's just wrong. Lippy should be removed. It's not like any of the other 3200 scrap cards are anywhere near as good. The dragon is near on useless.

This. I disagree on Lippy though.

Northern realms have too many engines. What else?

You're missing the point.

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

I think it is ok for one faction to have a lot more thinning than any other, because that can be part of the faction identity. Nonetheless that should result in the rest of the faction being a bit weaker, as the player can easily reach his most important cards.
It is the same, as when all NR engines had one less strength than Alzurs Thunder, such that they still could be one-hitted by it even in Foltest decks.

 

[Sleeperko]

I do not think that there actually is any issue. SK decks are not any particulary strong. They seems like that, but it is not really true. The thinning cards can also brick and even if they draw all their strong cards, they are as strong as any other deck. Sometimes even weaker, because they have too many cards focused on thinning.
Only one of the stronger cards is Coral. And sometimes lippy too. But just wait until he rotates or they will apply R:higher vampire treatment

 

[OG.laloquaint]

I do not think that there actually is any issue. SK decks are not any particulary strong. They seems like that, but it is not really true. The thinning cards can also brick and even if they draw all their strong cards, they are as strong as any other deck. Sometimes even weaker, because they have too many cards focused on thinning.
Only one of the stronger cards is Coral. And sometimes lippy too. But just wait until he rotates or they will apply R:higher vampire treatment

Idk man, i have a lot of trouble beating them. They do have very strong cards in my opinion.

 

[jonybir]

play gerni MO. It is true SK has too much point generation via thinning and too much control. Which makes the opponent very hard time generating point keeping their units alive vs sk. CDPR should reduce their point generation since they have the best control already in the game. Barna 9 points ,coral12,pirate captain 6 for 4PV and etc.

 

[Melysan]

Skellige has a lot of thinning and it's a characteristic of this faction. You won't have a lot of different factions and play-styles by giving any faction a wide variety of thinning options.

I agree with you that Lippy is too strong. He is basically Emyhr on steroids.

Your point is invalid , the old GWENT was based on thinning - but the pace was different and the game was still diverse in play styles.

 

[rrc]

From Open PTR I have been very vocal about this. I had created many threads and a lot of posts about Discard and what kind of balancing that is needed. Discard is the most disgusting mechanics in the game. With so many tempo generation options and possibility to thin to 0 easily, they can plan for any combo and will always get it. Even if there is a 3 or 4 cards combo, SK can achieve it (the cards may be locked or killed, but they can do those combo without any problems). They kind of balanced Derren which was kind of fair (2 power and 8 provisoins) but then saw SK people not liking it and hence immediately in the next update, they brought in another OP discard card, Coral. The funniest thing is, in the stream, Jason told that SK has too much consistency and hence they want to put them in leash, but what they did was exact opposite, with Coral change.

The one thing which that needs to be done is, balancing Morgvarg. He provides +5 tempo through a single card. His ability is almost the same as Roach (or I would say even better and easier). He should have only 3 power and 9 provisions. The free on demand tempo shouldn't be 5. If that happens, then I think Discard would be kind of OK. But I don't think it will happen.

[Imagine if Aelirenn gets summoned by 3 elves on board. There would be roar of disgust from the community saying it is so easy and an auto-include, etc. There will be no reason why anyone will not add her in the deck. Morgvarg is the same, but CDPR has a blind eye towards Discard. For the same kind of tempo, other factions will have to suffer a lot, but Morgvarg can be summoned by a bronze card or by a leader and can be on demand. That IMO is disgusting and broken].

 

[C7Racehead]

From Open PTR I have been very vocal about this. I had created many threads and a lot of posts about Discard and what kind of balancing that is needed. Discard is the most disgusting mechanics in the game. With so many tempo generation options and possibility to thin to 0 easily, they can plan for any combo and will always get it. Even if there is a 3 or 4 cards combo, SK can achieve it (the cards may be locked or killed, but they can do those combo without any problems). They kind of balanced Derren which was kind of fair (2 power and 8 provisoins) but then saw SK people not liking it and hence immediately in the next update, they brought in another OP discard card, Coral. The funniest thing is, in the stream, Jason told that SK has too much consistency and hence they want to put them in leash, but what they did was exact opposite, with Coral change.

The one thing which that needs to be done is, balancing Morgvarg. He provides +5 tempo through a single card. His ability is almost the same as Roach (or I would say even better and easier). He should have only 3 power and 9 provisions. The free on demand tempo shouldn't be 5. If that happens, then I think Discard would be kind of OK. But I don't think it will happen.

[Imagine if Aelirenn gets summoned by 3 elves on board. There would be roar of disgust from the community saying it is so easy and an auto-include, etc. There will be no reason why anyone will not add her in the deck. Morgvarg is the same, but CDPR has a blind eye towards Discard. For the same kind of tempo, other factions will have to suffer a lot, but Morgvarg can be summoned by a bronze card or by a leader and can be on demand. That IMO is disgusting and broken].

Faction cards with a similar/identical ability as their factionless counterparts are supposed to be stronger.

So no, Morkvarg doesn't have to be brought down to 3 power.

 

[rrc]

Faction cards with a similar/identical ability as their factionless counterparts are supposed to be stronger.

So no, Morkvarg doesn't have to be brought down to 3 power.

Morkvarg at 3 power would still be much stronger than Neutral counterpart (Roach). Where Roach can only be summoned by playing a gold card, Morkvarg can be summoned by a bronze card (or even with Bran). Where Roach getting summoned can't be delayed (if you play a Gold, it will always be summoned), Morkvarg can get you on demand tempo. You will realise it if you look at the card objectively, that Morkvarg is a 100% auto-include for these reasons.

So, yes, I stand by my suggestion. Morkvarg should be 3 power.

 

[Sleeperko]

Morkvarg can easily tear apart that glitchy horse. It is goddamn werewolf! You cannot give them equal power!

 

[rrc]

Morkvarg can easily tear apart that glitchy horse. It is goddamn werewolf! You cannot give them equal power!

Then why is a God damn mighty Werewolf and a glitchy Horse have same provisions? Let the almighty Werewolf have 10 provisions.

 

[mzeebra]

Being able to basically rotate deck and choose cards you want to keep in your hand, from any of the ones in the deck, while damaging units is definitely one of the most powerful abilities of this game, if not the most.

You get to swap the deck and graveyard too, and thus can play alot of things twice, like the 12 point Witcher combo. Or some other big cards. Skellige has too many specialities, the MAIN one being damage, not deck thinning.

If you can't beat them, join them. I guess I should play Skellige too, most OP faction. Newbie friendly too.

 

[Sleeperko]

Then why is a God damn mighty Werewolf and a glitchy Horse have same provisions? Let the almighty Werewolf have 10 provisions.

True that. Werewolf have to eat so much more than this weird eccentric horse.
#GiveMorkvargMoreFood

 

[C7Racehead]

Morkvarg at 3 power would still be much stronger than Neutral counterpart (Roach). Where Roach can only be summoned by playing a gold card, Morkvarg can be summoned by a bronze card (or even with Bran). Where Roach getting summoned can't be delayed (if you play a Gold, it will always be summoned), Morkvarg can get you on demand tempo. You will realise it if you look at the card objectively, that Morkvarg is a 100% auto-include for these reasons.

So, yes, I stand by my suggestion. Morkvarg should be 3 power.

Roach is less situational than Morkvarg actually.

You require a gold card. Let's say that the average deck has 11 golds (including Roach); this being fairly accurate.
That means that 40% of your deck can pull out Roach.

Let's consider Morkvarg and the tools available for him now. Birna, Skalds, Coral, Derran, Kambi & Bran's ability (if you happen to be playing Bran). For the purpose of this comparison, let's suppose that Bran's ability is the equivalent of a card in hand.

That's a total of 7 cards that can trigger Morkvarg's ability; 2 of which see little play (Derran & Kambi). So the absolute best case scenario if you want to go all in on using Morkvarg's ability is such that 28% of your deck can activate it.

Morkvarg isn't much stronger than Roach. What I just mentioned above should be sufficient to prove it.

Edit: Add Lippy to the list as the most conditional card to pull out Morkvarg. So that's a grand total of 8 cards to trigger his summon meaning that Roach is still marginally more flexible.

 

[rrc]

Roach is less situational than Morkvarg actually.

You require a gold card. Let's say that the average deck has 11 golds (including Roach); this being fairly accurate.
That means that 40% of your deck can pull out Roach.

Let's consider Morkvarg and the tools available for him now. Birna, Skalds, Coral, Derran, Kambi & Bran's ability (if you happen to be playing Bran). For the purpose of this comparison, let's suppose that Bran's ability is the equivalent of a card in hand.

That's a total of 7 cards that can trigger Morkvarg's ability; 2 of which see little play (Derran & Kambi). So the absolute best case scenario if you want to go all in on using Morkvarg's ability is such that 28% of your deck can activate it.

Morkvarg isn't much stronger than Roach. What I just mentioned above should be sufficient to prove it.

Edit: Add Lippy to the list as the most conditional card to pull out Morkvarg. So that's a grand total of 8 cards to trigger his summon meaning that Roach is still marginally more flexible.

Are you kind of remotely suggesting that Morgvarg can get bricked because there are less number of cards that can pull it off? If you are, then, I have to politely say that your passion for that faction has blinded you. I have never seen Morkvarg getting bricked. Of all the hundreds of games I had played against SK, never have I seen once Morkvarg getting played from hand. Morgvarg is an on-demand at-your-will +5 tempo. Which is much much stronger than Roach. If you think it is fine, then you are a passionate SK player! Even if Morkvarg has 3 Power, it is still stronger than Roach due to that attribute (and because of that fact that a bronze card can pull it off).