The Imperial Reform [Nilfgaard suggestions topic]

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The Imperial Reform [Nilfgaard suggestions topic]

It's been a while that I thought about a similar topic, and now that balancing is approaching I've decided to do it, though I'im aware I'm late.
My purpose is to give a look at all nilfgaardian cards, going archetype by archetype, and suggest tweaks and changes - and with your help eventually submit some of them so CD Projekt Red. In fact I admit that not all of them are going to be great, some even a bit lazy, but I did my best.

SPIES

Once the mightiest archetype of them all, spies have been heavily nerfed and are rarely seen on the meta. Overall I'd say that spy cards just need some points buffs here and there, plus bringing back retroactivity for enforcers, especially thanks to the strong sinergy of the archetype

Anyway:

Assassin: Doubt this card could be used again if it wasn't for some total twist of the card. Suggestion: make it deal 12 damage, to keep up with the point spam.

Ambassador: perhaps it needs a slight point buff. Otherwise: ST1 make two adjacent enemies duel

Impera Brigades: ST8

Impera Enforcers: ST8, bring back retroactivity

Emissary: ST1 (not necessary, still)

Rot Tosser: This one's tricky, because it can become really oppressive. ST 9 1 turn timer

Nauzicaa Brigade: it's fine

Infiltrator: ST11 or ST7/8/9 but double target

False Ciri: High risk High reward. She's fine; same applies for the other silvers and golds of the archetype


SOLDIERS


This one's hard. Soldiers has potential, but lacks consistency, requires too much setup and the sentry+slave infantry final combo needs a lot of cards (Though there are other finishing combos)

Slave infantry: this is the staple of the archetype but it's just too weak compared to, say, Vrihedd officers. First thing I'd make 3,4,5 strenght in random orders, so epidemic won't utterly wreck them (I'm looking at you, Schirru); second all copies should end end up in the graveyard to avoid robbing and banishing; third, give it a slave tag

Standard bearer: others have already said it, they should also buff soldiers not played from the hand even by 1 poiny

Deithwen Arbalest: give them back their old soldier/officer synergy

Slave hunter: ST 2 [slaver tag] charm a 6 power unit or lower and give it a slave tag OR S8 buff by 2 for any unit with a slave tag

Slave master: [slaver tag] create a unit from the opponent's deck and give it a slave tag

Alba armored Cavalry: should work retroactively with soldiers or get an entire different ability (the old one wans't bad)

Pikemen: they're fine

Vreemde: remove pikeman, master of disguise and magne division

Recruit: look at two random bronze tactics card, then play one OR playa random tactics card. Archetype would finally get a strong thinning tool, and moreover synergystic with reconneisssance

NON balacing suggestions

Slave trafficker: ST8 4 timer spawn a 3 power slave infantry doomed unit (only one though)

Slave hunter hound:ST6 choose one of yout opponent's slaved units and damage two random units with the same tags by 3

Finally the deck needs a strong commander for consistency. Slave Lord: play two bronze units from your deck with slaver o slave tag (kinda like Henselt)

(Oh, and by the way it definetely needs some golds an silvers)


REVEAL

there are already some quite decent reveal deck in the upper ranks, but the archetype is far from being strong. It still lacks finishers and strong synergistic golds and silvers, not considering the general lack of reliable bronze combos

alchemist: Just like master of disguise, I think he should have a double ability. Reveal two cards and buff them by two if allies, damage if foes or conceal two cards

Master of disguise: same but with conceal

Spotter: buff by an opponent's power (not base, no gold or disloyal units) doomed

Venendal elite: They should also target specials getting 10 points or set base strenght to 1 (instead of damaging)

Nauzicaa seargent: add the option to reveal one card insted of clearing weather. Otherwise they're fine

Fire scorpion: fine

Mangonel: ST9 Retroactive but damage by 1 or they can stay as they are

Henry Var attre: ST12

Vrygheff: give 3 armor to the machine or ST 9 OR draw a bronze machine

Hefty helge: I'm going to borrow a suggestion in another topic and say it should be gold with repeated ability. Another option could be 2 damage instead of one or damage to all enemyrevealed units.

Daerlan: when you reveal a card (daerlan included) play this card and draw another. So basically, if I reveal two firescorpions in my hand and I also have daerlan it's going to be played together with the firescorpions

Golem Fine or whenever an opponent plays one of his revealed card, summon a golem

ALCHEMY

Right now alchemy is too brainless like the rest of the meta decks and needs some adjusting especially to add more diversity. Therefore I'm going to also suggest some balancing regarding various alchemy cards. In General, though, it just needs more alchemy cards overall

Viper Witchers: It's probably the piece de resistence of the entire topic. Right now Witchers are just dumb 15/16 point bronzes. I think they should be something in between a tech card and tutor. I have different proposals for you.

1) 5 strenght, doomed

Create a random sing or alchemy card

Honestly another create bronze wouldn't be healthy for the game and would reduce witchers' consistency by a great deal. However, it's a possibility.

2) //

This is my main suggestion: create a sign or a potion based on your starting deck

But first and foremost let me explain signs


Igni
Fire Element
deal 7 (or 8) damage to a unit. If it dies, banish it (12/13 point bronze+ banishing. It's a lot, but compensation is needed.

Yrden
Blood Element
reset a unit

Axii
Water Element
Make two adjacent unit duel (really powerful sometimes, needs balancing and maybe a better ide9

Quen
Air Element
Buff by 5/6 and make it immune or three units with 5 str or less receive an Immune tag until they're 6 str or higher

Aard
Earth Element
Buff by 5; then move unit


Now, there are some considerations to be made: as we all know signs in the witcher game can be upgraded, potentially generating even more variety.
second, I have designed an intresting system and Alchemy could become the archetype with the most versions; however it's gonna need a lot of balancing.



So I've picked 5 elements for the five spells.They are rather arbitrary and if someone comes up with something better from the lore I'll be glad to change it

Witchers in a deck can't have more than two signs, else they become OP. To get a sign they need to have at lest two different potions of the same element

Swallow potion Fire
Mahakham Ale Water
Overdose Fire
Thunderbolt Water
Full Moon Air
D Shackles Blood
Crow's eye blood
Mandrake Earth
Mardroeme Earth
Ointment Air
Rune Fire

Golds count as jolly. So, for instance, if I have Mahakham Ale and thunderbolt and also swallow potion, if I have Ale of the ancestors, Blue dream or trial
I'm gonna have Axii and Igni

Regarding potion creation I'm yet to find a criteria but suggestions are welcomed

Potions suggestions:

Petri's filter:

Before I speak about this card, keep in mind that it's strictly bound to the others suggestions. Another important thing to keep in mind is that it should be adjusted on whether or not other decks are going to change drastically. If the meta is going back to pre mid winter times my suggestion probably will make the card overpowered, However, to see play this card needs some kind of buff. Right now 15 points distributed on 5/6 bodies is fair, especially taking into account that however it is gonna be my suggestion for Viper Witchers will stand, making it from dumb point removal to synergistic tech units. I have also tried to design a deck based on my own suggestion. I hope you'll help balance it.

Mahakham Ale: 12 points but remove the rng. Will help against scorches and resets. For example it could be something like "buff the right/leftmost unit on each row"

Overdose: 12 points on four bodies would be best

Ointment: If witchers become doomed, then I think they should be able to freely res any unit. Though skelligers could disagree.

Swallow potion: it's probably the most risky potion, but with the least set up, I think they should be incremental. First one buffs by 10, secondby 12, third by 14, fourth (telekinesis synergy) 16 (High tempo play/finisher)

I need to think about the other ones.


So I imagined a Petri deck, and it would be something like this:ù

3x Slave Infantry - if they become 3 bodies with 12 points they're going to be really useful
3x Petri
3x Novices
3x V Wtchers
2/3x Ointment useful to res you slave infantries
2x Sentries (optional) it synergises with slave infantries and can give high points and tempo in exchange for consistency. Why not

Not sure about the silver/gold body yet, obviously you won't be forced to play cards you don't like just for your witchers (unless required), Some cards will probably stay regardless of the alchemy deck though, like mandrake or vesemir.

So let's go into the details of the witchers. their first power is going to be Quen, the air sign (yes I've changed it so it works with ointment and petri)
Quen is going to be usedto protect slave infantry from being destroyed immediatly by hard counters like henselt, or other small point removals. This is probably sound overpowered to some and too weak to others. But don't forget that my witchers are able to use potions and are allowed a second power. To avoid making them too consistent some powers can't work together (example Igni and quen).

As you can see this version is high tempo with 15+2=17 points once you have your six bodies on the ground, with quen acting a shield for your units for the time being. Round three the finisher can be strenghened Calveit or sentries+triple infantry. Needs balancing, though.

Small non-balancing suggestion:

Witcher's bag: summon cadaverine venom, dragon's dream or a random bronze alchemy card/ dimeritium bomb
it's really powerful and should probably be neutral, but the idea is to make three useless card actually useful.

MISCELLANEOUS

Xarthisius:

- Whenever you reveal a card, buff Xarthisius by two (so he's basically bloody baron)

- or make it an all-round tech card, so for example
choose one: shuffle back three card; reset two cards; clear weather

I know it's a lot for one gold card, but it thematically fits Nilfgaard more than anything else and at the same time the card would finally see play. Lastly, if we can have Schirru autoinclude and Coral autoinclude, why not?

- Leave it as it is if

Treason: play the last silver or bronze card from your opponent's deck. Yeah, it's more or less the old ability of the card, and I can see why it was changed, but the synergy with Xarthisius would be huge

Auckes; make him nine points, he's too low tempo
 
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partci;n10723391 said:
Retroactive is another word for point vomiting.

I know, I probably should have put a disclaimer: the idea isn't trying to change Gwent design, which I think is rather hard now that they've taken this route, but rather make the archetypes competitive. Obviously I could be dead wrong and this patch is gonna prove it, but I have to stick to what we know right now - point spam, unfortunately
 
All cards I don't comment on I agree with.

Bleach25;n10723281 said:
It's been a while that I thought about a similar topic, and now that balancing is approaching I've decided to do it, though I'im aware I'm late.
My purpose is to give a look at all nilfgaardian cards, going archetype by archetype, and suggest tweaks and changes - and with your help eventually submit some of them so CD Projekt Red. In fact I admit that not all of them are going to be great, some even a bit lazy, but I did my best.

SPIES

Once the mightiest archetype of them all, spies have been heavily nerfed and are rarely seen on the meta. Overall I'd say that spy cards just need some points buffs here and there, plus bringing back retroactivity for enforcers, especially thanks to the strong sinergy of the archetype

Anyway:

Assassin: Doubt this card could be used again if it wasn't for some total twist of the card. Suggestion: make it deal 12 damage, to keep up with the point spam.

Ambassador: perhaps it needs a slight point buff. Otherwise: ST1 make two adjacent enemies duel

Impera Brigades: ST8

Impera Enforcers: ST8, bring back retroactivity

Emissary: ST1 (not necessary, still)

Rot Tosser: This one's tricky, because it can become really oppressive. ST 9 1 turn timer

Nauzicaa Brigade: it's fine

Infiltrator: ST11 or ST7/8/9 but double target

False Ciri: High risk High reward. She's fine; same applies for the other silvers and golds of the archetype
What spy really lacks in my opinion is meaningfull row placement. Just putting all spies together on the same row is completly uninteractive and boring. In particular as you can build up an uncounterable setup this way.

Assasin: What you are describing is basically a bronze Manticore Venom with a spy tag. That is far too strong. Being able to kill any engine is already a pretty good card. And with an average of two Imperas on the board that card has basically a 3 point non-spying body. The problem why it isn't used is that Enforcers are that good at killing any engine themselves. I'd suggest making assasins loyal with a 3 point body and dealing 5 damage to an enemy for every adjacent spying unit.

Ambassador: The problem that I see with this card is that it is just a worse Infiltrator. They both do exactly the same by adding one spy tag and giving you X points. The only real difference is on which side the body is. Therefore there is no point in having both of them.

Impera Enforcers: Definetly no retroactively. When that was implemented they were the worsed card in the whole game. Uncounterable being able to remove every key unit of the enemy shouldn't be possible. If the retroactivity would be limited to cards played in the same turn that would be ok. Their base strength should be 7 at maximum as they have 2 damage on deploy.

Emissary: I'd like to add a condition for them that the number of cards to choose from depends on the number of adjacent units. If they are placed without a neighbor, they don't have a choice and play no card at all, with 1 neighbor they only have 1 card to choose from and with two neighbors they can choose from 2 cards as currently. This is a drastic nerf but makes them more interactable and interesting to play. And if the rest of the deck is strengthend enough, they should still be fine.

Infiltartor: I believe double target is too much. Pointwise it is ok for them to have 1 point less than Bearmasters

False Ciri: I think she needs a buff. Currently she is only a Reinforced Trebuchet + a spy tag concerning her reward. That isn't that high. In particular as she needs 7 turns to get to an average value for silvers, which is too long.

Master of Disguise: I would move this one to the Spy-Archetype and move the Ambassador to reveal. Master of Disguse: Spying, Transform into a base copy of the bronze or silver card next to it, then lock this card and set its base strength to 1. Similar to the current Assasin, but it can target much higher enemies too and shifts the power a bit such that Nauzica Brigade can interact with it.



Bleach25;n10723281 said:
SOLDIERS


This one's hard. Soldiers has potential, but lacks consistency, requires too much setup and the sentry+slave infantry final combo needs a lot of cards (Though there are other finishing combos)

Slave infantry: this is the staple of the archetype but it's just too weak compared to, say, Vrihedd officers. First thing I'd make 3,4,5 strenght in random orders, so epidemic won't utterly wreck them (I'm looking at you, Schirru); second all copies should end end up in the graveyard to avoid robbing and banishing; third, give it a slave tag

Standard bearer: others have already said it, they should also buff soldiers not played from the hand even by 1 poiny

Deithwen Arbalest: give them back their old soldier/officer synergy

Slave hunter: ST 2 [slaver tag] charm a 6 power unit or lower and give it a slave tag OR S8 buff by 2 for any unit with a slave tag

Slave master: [slaver tag] create a unit from the opponent's deck and give it a slave tag

Alba armored Cavalry: should work retroactively with soldiers or get an entire different ability (the old one wans't bad)

Pikemen: they're fine

Vreemde: remove pikeman, master of disguise and magne division

NON balacing suggestions

Slave trafficker: ST8 4 timer spawn a 3 power slave infantry doomed unit (only one though)

Slave hunter hound:ST6 choose one of yout opponent's slaved units and damage two random units with the same tags by 3

Finally the deck needs a strong commander for consistency. Slave Lord: play two bronze units from your deck with slaver o slave tag (kinda like Henselt)

(Oh, and by the way it definetely needs some golds an silvers)

Standard bearer: that would be a Siege Support on stereoits. Definetly no.

Slave hunter: remember that even Muzzle only targets 8 point units and hasn't a body. This version would allow you steal the engines of the enemy if you have a source of 2 point damage

Alba Armored Cavalry: they are the equivalent to Hawker Smugglers which see play. So they should be in a good spot considering that you know beforehand that you want to play a spam deck. But the old ability was cool in a way.

Vreemde: that is the way create works that there can be bad choices. Just removing 3 seemingly random units doesn't make sense clarity wise.

Slave Hunter Hound: Did I understand it right, you select a unit created by your Slave Master and damage two enemies with the same tags by 3? That would be a great card. Reducing the power to 5 and increasing the number of targets to 3 might be better though.
Bleach25;n10723281 said:
REVEAL

there are already some quite decent reveal deck in the upper ranks, but the archetype is far from being strong. It still lacks finishers and strong synergistic golds and silvers, not considering the general lack of reliable bronze combos

alchemist: Just like master of disguise, I think he should have a double ability. Reveal two cards and buff them by two if allies, damage if foes or conceal two cards

Master of disguise: same but with conceal

Spotter: buff by an opponent's power (not base, no gold or disloyal units) doomed

Venendal elite: They should also target specials getting 10 points or set base strenght to 1 (instead of damaging)

Nauzicaa seargent: add the option to reveal one card insted of clearing weather. Otherwise they're fine

Fire scorpion: fine

Mangonel: ST9 Retroactive but damage by 1 or they can stay as they are

Henry Var attre: ST12

Vrygheff: give 3 armor to the machine or ST 9

Hefty helge: I'm going to borrow a suggestion in another topic and say it should be gold with repeated ability. Another option could be 2 damage instead of one or damage to all enemyrevealed units.


I'm going to continue with alchemy and miscellaneous. Meanwhile, you can start giving some suggetions (possibly under spoiler if they are very long)
Alchemist: I think this card is fine the way it is.

Master of Disguise: Instead of a general damage added to it, buffing self depending on the card type could be interesting. Buff by 2 for gold and by 1 for silvers. This would make the choice more important.

Spotter: In my opinion it is important that it is the base power, because else it would punish certain archetypes far too much. Also, I don't see a necessarity for the doomed tag. What I would do, would be to increase their base power to 7 and let them conceal the targeted unit afterwards. This way you can't just target the same unit 3 times without any inbetween setup.

Mangonel: I dislike their current effect as they are too oppressive in my opinion combined with Morvaan. Your retroactive solution would be fine. Else they could be 10 power without a deploy and damage a random enemy by 2, whenever a revealed card is played.

Henry: I don't think he deserves a buff. He is a great card, which only needs 3 targets for being average for silvers. He just suffers from the weak archetype in general. At maximum I'd say a +1 buff would be enoguh


Vrygheff: setting his power to 3 and giving 3 amour would be fine.

Hefty Helge: I honestly dislike both suggestions. The first one would just be a lot better than Yen: Con and the second one would be too oppressive considering that Morvan can reveal 4 cards.
 
I had an idea for Enforcers some time ago, to give them the Arachas Behemoth treatment, like: 6 base Strength and 4 shots counter (maybe add them 2 DMG on Deploy, albeit I think this will be too much - Vipers are 5 body with 10 DMG in 90% of the time and it is, indeed, too much). This is still a 14 points Bronze Control Card with the aforementioned retroactive ability, even though this time it would make more sense, as it will be limited in points and will not kill my Borkh (for example) in one turn. I know, some will say "only 8 points removal is low in Gwent 2k18", but lets limit cards with high removal cap to Silvers and Golds (and remember that 8 retroactive points is still A LOT of damage).

And while on topic, speaking of Viper Witchers, I was saying that nerfing them down to 2 will be a good idea, but considering Ointment, maybe a better idea will be to pump them up to 6 and revert Ointment to its pre-nerf state, when it had an option to heal. I still don't see the reason why it should be so much inferior than the SK Bone Talisman, for example.
 
I will bring my old Viper Witcher suggestion to the mix: Strenght: 3 New ability: Boost self by half the amount of Alchemy cards in your starting deck (rounding down) and deal the same amount of damage to an enemy.



 
So, first and foremost I want to apologize because I haven't answered you quickly. Second, I'd be delighted if you put your analisis under spoiler to keep the topic cleaner

FG15-ISH7EG;n10725631 said:
All cards I don't comment on I agree with.



What spy really lacks in my opinion is meaningfull row placement. Just putting all spies together on the same row is completly uninteractive and boring. In particular as you can build up an uncounterable setup this way.

Assasin: What you are describing is basically a bronze Manticore Venom with a spy tag. That is far too strong. Being able to kill any engine is already a pretty good card. And with an average of two Imperas on the board that card has basically a 3 point non-spying body. The problem why it isn't used is that Enforcers are that good at killing any engine themselves. I'd suggest making assasins loyal with a 3 point body and dealing 5 damage to an enemy for every adjacent spying unit. While it's definetely a more tactical approach to a simple engine killer card I'm unsure it would be used, even with your suggestion. Besides, assuming I put all of my emissaries or I employeed any other tactics (silver spy, enforcers), I could esily kill a 15 point card or (more). Technically it's a good way to deal with decks like nilfgaard handbuff, but an 18 point bronze isn't a bit too strong? (Unless I didn't understand completely your suggestion)

Ambassador: The problem that I see with this card is that it is just a worse Infiltrator. They both do exactly the same by adding one spy tag and giving you X points. The only real difference is on which side the body is. Therefore there is no point in having both of them. I admit that they definetely need some new ability but I haven't come up with anything yet. Oh, and I've thought myself about some "swapping" like spotter>alchemist ecc.

Impera Enforcers: Definetly no retroactively. When that was implemented they were the worsed card in the whole game. Uncounterable being able to remove every key unit of the enemy shouldn't be possible. If the retroactivity would be limited to cards played in the same turn that would be ok. Their base strength should be 7 at maximum as they have 2 damage on deploy.

I'd remove the 2 damage deploy and give them 8/9. Oh, regarding retroactivity I aways mean on same turn unless specified.


Emissary: I'd like to add a condition for them that the number of cards to choose from depends on the number of adjacent units. If they are placed without a neighbor, they don't have a choice and play no card at all, with 1 neighbor they only have 1 card to choose from and with two neighbors they can choose from 2 cards as currently. This is a drastic nerf but makes them more interactable and interesting to play. And if the rest of the deck is strengthend enough, they should still be fine. Original, but rather than nerfing emissaries I'd buff other tutors

Infiltartor: I believe double target is too much. Pointwise it is ok for them to have 1 point less than Bearmasters Thump up

False Ciri: I think she needs a buff. Currently she is only a Reinforced Trebuchet + a spy tag concerning her reward. That isn't that high. In particular as she needs 7 turns to get to an average value for silvers, which is too long. Any suggestions?

Master of Disguise: I would move this one to the Spy-Archetype and move the Ambassador to reveal. Master of Disguse: Spying, Transform into a base copy of the bronze or silver card next to it, then lock this card and set its base strength to 1. Similar to the current Assasin, but it can target much higher enemies too and shifts the power a bit such that Nauzica Brigade can interact with it. Not bad. I might consider it.





Standard bearer: that would be a Siege Support on stereoits. Definetly no. Even with a power nerf to say, 6-5 points?

Slave hunter: remember that even Muzzle only targets 8 point units and hasn't a body. This version would allow you steal the engines of the enemy if you have a source of 2 point damage I didn't consider its use is hybrid decks, but soldiers generally lacks damage. However, I came up with some solutions:

- Buff for every card with slave or slaver tag (like marauders, kinda)
- 1 st tutor for slaves/slavers
- charm, give slave tag, but lock the unit (synergy with auckes if someone wants to use a silver spot)


Alba Armored Cavalry: they are the equivalent to Hawker Smugglers which see play. So they should be in a good spot considering that you know beforehand that you want to play a spam deck. But the old ability was cool in a way. They get killed too hard, that's it

Vreemde: that is the way create works that there can be bad choices. Just removing 3 seemingly random units doesn't make sense clarity wise. It's the only silver of the archetype, that's why. Honestly they should give him three fixed choices, just for consistency

Slave Hunter Hound: Did I understand it right, you select a unit created by your Slave Master and damage two enemies with the same tags by 3? That would be a great card. Reducing the power to 5 and increasing the number of targets to 3 might be better though. Exactly. Coincidentally, your suggestion is precisely what I had in mind at first

Alchemist: I think this card is fine the way it is. I have to disagree strongly. It can suffer from low tempo and without something to conceal it's just a brick

Master of Disguise: Instead of a general damage added to it, buffing self depending on the card type could be interesting. Buff by 2 for gold and by 1 for silvers. This would make the choice more important. it' mainly used for scorpions, so it wouldn't be really useful

Spotter: In my opinion it is important that it is the base power, because else it would punish certain archetypes far too much. Also, I don't see a necessarity for the doomed tag. What I would do, would be to increase their base power to 7 and let them conceal the targeted unit afterwards. This way you can't just target the same unit 3 times without any inbetween setup. Good nerf to Handbuff, but I disagree. Perhaps it should stay as it is

Mangonel: I dislike their current effect as they are too oppressive in my opinion combined with Morvaan. Your retroactive solution would be fine. Else they could be 10 power without a deploy and damage a random enemy by 2, whenever a revealed card is played.

Henry: I don't think he deserves a buff. He is a great card, which only needs 3 targets for being average for silvers. He just suffers from the weak archetype in general. At maximum I'd say a +1 buff would be enoguh I said 12 just because he is a tempo loss


Vrygheff: setting his power to 3 and giving 3 amour would be fine. unless mangonels stay as they are

Hefty Helge: I honestly dislike both suggestions. The first one would just be a lot better than Yen: Con and the second one would be too oppressive considering that Morvan can reveal 4 cards. could be given a turn counter. Besides I don't think it would be oppressive with morvran
 
Niktodt1;n10729461 said:
I will bring my old Viper Witcher suggestion to the mix: Strenght: 3 New ability: Boost self by half the amount of Alchemy cards in your starting deck (rounding down) and deal the same amount of damage to an enemy.

Fair
 
partci;n10725751 said:
I had an idea for Enforcers some time ago, to give them the Arachas Behemoth treatment, like: 6 base Strength and 4 shots counter (maybe add them 2 DMG on Deploy, albeit I think this will be too much - Vipers are 5 body with 10 DMG in 90% of the time and it is, indeed, too much). This is still a 14 points Bronze Control Card with the aforementioned retroactive ability, even though this time it would make more sense, as it will be limited in points and will not kill my Borkh (for example) in one turn. I know, some will say "only 8 points removal is low in Gwent 2k18", but lets limit cards with high removal cap to Silvers and Golds (and remember that 8 retroactive points is still A LOT of damage). Fair

And while on topic, speaking of Viper Witchers, I was saying that nerfing them down to 2 will be a good idea, but considering Ointment, maybe a better idea will be to pump them up to 6 and revert Ointment to its pre-nerf state, when it had an option to heal. I still don't see the reason why it should be so much inferior than the SK Bone Talisman, for example.
I think they should become doomed and let cards with more strenght be resurrected. For example a buffed ointment could really help soldiers with sentries

 
There was one suggestion I read somewhere about Daerlans and I think it should apply to Serrit instead:

Serrit - STR 7
When your opponent plays a revealed card from his hand, summon this unit from your deck.

Aelirenn performs in a similar way. She is Strength 6 but has elf swarm synergy with the vrihedd vanguards. The one point difference is meant to cover that.

I am not entirely sure about this suggestion however, as it may function like the Dun Banner, forcing the opponent a card down. On the other hand, as easy as it is for reveal to force you a card down already, I don't think it is going to make it too oppressive.

Also, I'd like a silver like the old Vanhemar. Starts at Strength 2 or 3 and is boosted by 1 for every card you reveal while in hand, deck or on the board. It could give reveal a strong finisher :)

I also like the suggestion for the Hefty Helge, with a necessary power adjustment.

Daerlans will probably also need a rework. While great on principle if you draw them too late you can't control what they will draw you. If you even manage to reveal them.
 
The Serrit suggestion sounds good, but doesn't really fit to him in my opinion. He is a Witcher so he should work with something damage based instead. And I believe the summon condition would be far too easy. (Aelirenn became far too easy too, with Scouts and Half-Elves)

Serrit 5: When you damage an opponent on the board to 1 power, summon Serrit and banish it.

Basically he last hits an enemy for you, if you manage to get it to exactly 1 power by damaging it. Also, the banishment should give a nice bonus such that it offers a more tactical decision.
 
FG15-ISH7EG;n10749781 said:
The Serrit suggestion sounds good, but doesn't really fit to him in my opinion. He is a Witcher so he should work with something damage based instead. And I believe the summon condition would be far too easy. (Aelirenn became far too easy too, with Scouts and Half-Elves)

Serrit 5: When you damage an opponent on the board to 1 power, summon Serrit and banish it.

Basically he last hits an enemy for you, if you manage to get it to exactly 1 power by damaging it. Also, the banishment should give a nice bonus such that it offers a more tactical decision.

Hmm, maybe. Your suggestion is alright for a Witcher like Serrit :) There is one I find a bit more interesting though. He used to do this:

"Damage an enemy by the amount of revealed cards in both hands"

I find that an interesting condition, a bit like a Viper Witcher but far more limited, as the opponent can play Revealed cards to counter that, or avoid playing juicy targets. It also gives Reveal a removal tool which arguably, they currently lack (Fire scorpions are your main point generator, if you shoot a STR 6 engine twice, you lose points. Plus, you have to keep them in your hand, in order to reveal them and possibly conceal them and reveal them again which takes ages, so they are not reliable removal.). Also, like you said, he is a Witcher, so that ability makes more sense for him. Maybe make him STR 7 and "Deal 5 damage. Increase by the amount of Revealed cards in each hand". Now that Cahir is not usable with Voorhis at the same round, it's not easy to reach goddlike levels of power with this, but it is enough for a SILVER removal I feel. After all we do have Nithral and Cleaver currently in the game doing this far more efficiently. Reveal needs such a tool.

On the other hand we could have a different Silver or Bronze doing what I originally suggested for Serrit. If it's Bronze it will need a power adjutment of course. I think 4 would be fine. But that would make drawing cards even more dangerous while golems and these units are in your deck. That's why I suggested a silver, because it will be only useable once, harder to draw, and its power could make real sense.

See, the main problem of Reveal becomes so prevalent as long as Daerlan soldiers remain as they are. Adding cards that are supposed to be tutored from your deck will never work as you are at so much risk of drawing them when you reveal Daerlan. While not adding them makes you so much dependent on your hand, which is hard to fix. I think eventually these cards will have to be redesigned, as interesting as they are now, and as much as I love them in their current iteration, they hold Reveal's power back.
 
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That would actually be a really interesting ability and would fit perfectly for Serrit in my opinion. Also, it would make Vattier a bit more viable again. Also, it doesn't seem to be much stronger than Clearver or Nithral.

I see the problem with Daerlan Soldiers and can't think of a good solution either that would fix them. Summoning them just from the deck will make them just golems, so I would dislike that.
It might work to give them the ability on deploy to move a card from the deck to the bottom before redrawing a card. This way they could reduce the chance of bad draws at least a bid.

I'm honestly not such a huge fan of Golems either, as they aren't an interesting card at all. I believe changing their ability to only appear when a revealed unit is played would be better, such that the Morvan power play in the first turn would be removed. As a compensation their power could be increased.
 
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Very much agreed on your daerlan suggestion. That could make them a little bit more viable, since Reveal is so dependent on the hand. (God I hope the devs read this, so many good ideas here :p ). Blindly drawing the top card can hurt you as much as it can make you. Maybe just "look at the top card in your deck. keep it, or move it at the bottom and draw the new top card", so that you don't look at the entire deck and its composition, the cards order. Then again there is the problem of revealing 3 daerlans at once, it will make the turn take ages :p

And yeah, Golems, I just absolutely detest them, mostly for being in my hand all the time :p Changing the golems into that would make them a bit like ambush units waiting on your deck and I quite like that idea :D It will give Reveal a true feel of intelligence and acting on said info. You found out something in the enemy's force composition and your tactics are all about using that info. As soon as the opponent deploys it, you mitigate that card's power, you spring the trap :D I think it's a great way to reduce Reveal's initial power a bit (which is too much in most situations, it is almost unnecessary aside from bullying opponents out of a round) but increasing its consistency and tactical plays. In general this seems to be one of the best suggestions I've read about Reveal in a while. For example, suppose the opponent drypassed. You don't have to summon all your golems at once, or spend them with an alchemist and gain 15 points on a round you would win with 1. Revealing enemy cards and then waiting for the right opportunity for golems will be awesome :)

As for Soldiers, I think the main problem is that there is no clear soldier archetype, only 3 - 4 different Soldier combos involving at best 2 soldier cards. (Slave Infantry + Sentry. NG knight + Magne Division into Wyvern Shield or Spear). Having the Standard Bearer is good but there is no way you can build a consistent soldier deck like that. Recruits will remain garbage in the very deck they are designed to support because if you pull something that is not part of the 2 card combo you are aiming for, it's a bad draw and a loss of tempo and a waste of a card you might need later. And if you do limit the soldiers to mitigate the randomness, you will probably overthin, or your recruits might end up bricking in your hand.

For Spies, bringing back enforcer retroactivity, making them STR 8 and only able to fire up to 4 times might work. At best it's just 8 points of removal, if you even have 4 spies when you summon them. With Emissaries giving you 2 options, this is not really easy. After all, like everyone likes to say, "this game is still in beta". So we ought to try out things, if they don't work, back to redesigning, if they do work, great :D
 
ser2440;n10749231 said:
There was one suggestion I read somewhere about Daerlans and I think it should apply to Serrit instead:

Serrit - STR 7
When your opponent plays a revealed card from his hand, summon this unit from your deck. I Have other plans for Serrit...

Aelirenn performs in a similar way. She is Strength 6 but has elf swarm synergy with the vrihedd vanguards. The one point difference is meant to cover that.

I am not entirely sure about this suggestion however, as it may function like the Dun Banner, forcing the opponent a card down. On the other hand, as easy as it is for reveal to force you a card down already, I don't think it is going to make it too oppressive.

Also, I'd like a silver like the old Vanhemar. Starts at Strength 2 or 3 and is boosted by 1 for every card you reveal while in hand, deck or on the board. It could give reveal a strong finisher :) I had the same idea with Xarthisius but also with conceal (kinda like Bloody Baron)

I also like the suggestion for the Hefty Helge, with a necessary power adjustment. It's borrowed, but thanks

Daerlans will probably also need a rework. While great on principle if you draw them too late you can't control what they will draw you. If you even manage to reveal them. I also have an idea regarding daerlan

Though I'm curious: what do you think about my slavers suggestion? And What about Viper witchers?

 
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FG15-ISH7EG;n10749781 said:
The Serrit suggestion sounds good, but doesn't really fit to him in my opinion. He is a Witcher so he should work with something damage based instead. And I believe the summon condition would be far too easy. (Aelirenn became far too easy too, with Scouts and Half-Elves)

Serrit 5: When you damage an opponent on the board to 1 power, summon Serrit and banish it.

Basically he last hits an enemy for you, if you manage to get it to exactly 1 power by damaging it. Also, the banishment should give a nice bonus such that it offers a more tactical decision.

I have another suggestion:

Serrit str 7
Create any witcher sign
 
Update!

I have added a bunch of new suggestions.

- Vrygheff
- Recruit
- Witcher's bag
- Daerlan soldier
- Golem
- New miscellaneous section
 
hey man! nice job on the list i like most of the changes. One of the few things that I would add is make the fire scorpions deal 5 st deal 6 damage. ther reason is i think they are really weak when played from hand, plus 5 points dont really kill nothing, 6 points would allow them to deal with battering rams, half elf hunters, etc. Its a small buff that makes them a 11 point bronze wich is not too crazy and would make them more usefull.

I like Vrygheff giving armor or a small buff to the machine it pulls and the buff on helga too. Giving venendal elite its old hability is not a bad idea either.
Other than that i think golems and daerlan soldiers are fine.

Also i dont know if i saw yennefer enchantress there, i like her but she can be very clunky, i would like her giving you the choice between the last 2 spells you used. That would make her way more reliable. (also the other yennefer is trash)

Thanks for your job doing this :)

Long live the emperor!!
 
rpa47;n10902181 said:
hey man! nice job on the list i like most of the changes. One of the few things that I would add is make the fire scorpions deal 5 st deal 6 damage. ther reason is i think they are really weak when played from hand, plus 5 points dont really kill nothing, 6 points would allow them to deal with battering rams, half elf hunters, etc. Its a small buff that makes them a 11 point bronze wich is not too crazy and would make them more usefull.

I like Vrygheff giving armor or a small buff to the machine it pulls and the buff on helga too. Giving venendal elite its old hability is not a bad idea either.
Other than that i think golems and daerlan soldiers are fine.

Also i dont know if i saw yennefer enchantress there, i like her but she can be very clunky, i would like her giving you the choice between the last 2 spells you used. That would make her way more reliable. (also the other yennefer is trash)

Thanks for your job doing this :)

Long live the emperor!!

Thank you, I was really starting to think noone cared anymore :)

Anyway I completely agree that Reveal often can't keep up with meta decks in term of points, but would probably complain if Fire scorpions got buffed again, because as they are right now upon revealing with Alchemist it's +9 for you and less 10 for your opponent, a 19 point swing. Hopefully meta decks will be adjusted with the May update and Reveal might have a shot at becoming Nilfgaard's meta deck IMO (unless spies came on top yet again, of course)

Regarding Vrygheff I'd like to change his ability a bit more:

Choose one ST 5 play a machine from your deck or str 9 swap one of your cards with a machine of your choice

I actually think enchantress doesn't have much place in Nilfgaard altogether. I think your suggestion isn't bad, but Scoia'taels would probably complain that she's too similar to Eithné ( consistency wise)

Thank you again :)
 
I came up with sone new ideas:

-Yennefer Necromancer: resurrect a bronze or silver officer or soldier in the opponent's graveyard

- Alba Armored Cavalry:
I Think this card could have more depth than being just an hawker smuggler. For example:

- Buff this card by 1 for a soldier, by 2 for a support unit and by three for a tactics card.

However they should probably give specific effects rather than simple points and I'd really like if they synergised somehow with tactics. A tactics focused deck would bè be dope

- Sentries Buff all infantry units by 2. It's a slight Buff involving Pikemen and recruits mainly
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or Buff wherever the card is (deck also)
 
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