The unofficial watchlist of cards needing balance or rework

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This is just a list of cards I've seen discussed her and on Reddit that even a provision cost change won't fix. Feel free to add any that you think have been missed or aren't seeing a lot of play.

Waters of Brokilon - strong effect (summons 2 x 4 conditional self-boosting units) and replayable. Has probably seen the longest run as a staple card in T1 decks in the entire history of Gwent. Edit: As of update 5.2, WoB provision cost was raised by one. As we've seen in the past, tiny changes in provision cost aren't enough to put a card up for consideration of being removed from a deck if the card gives the deck a lot of power. If anything, Harmony players are more likely to drop Percival, since he's now vulnerable to removal for another turn due to decreased armor.

Yennefer's Invocation - effect too strong in many areas. Unanswerable, and too flexible in that it can provide removal and tutor synergy. Edit: as of update 5.2, YI lost the ability to remove an artifact from the board. However, whilst she is no longer as flexible, she still has a lot of flexibility for a removal card. I can't see any reason to cut this card over another unit removal card, such as Leo Bonhart, in order to run a card like Korathi Heatwave.

Damien la Tour - repeatable leader effects. The ability to replay a leader ability has often caused more problems in Gwent than solved any. Currently Damien can be cloned, allowing NG to repeat a leader ability twice in the one game.

Scenarios - in general need a rework. NG and NR scenario are some of the least popular matchups in the game. MO scenario might be better if its sequence were changed so the Barghest spawns last so as not to have two consume units and potentially not enough targets on the board at the same time. Also rules regarding a limit on the number of scenarios per deck should be formalised prior to adding any new ones. Given how strong they are, one per deck, regardless of name, would be the best rule.

Edit: per update 5.2, Caretaker no longer resurrects artifacts. While being a good start in this current meta, it is more a solution that sidesteps, rather than addressing and fixing, current and future probems that scenarios present. Additionally, NR's scenario may have been dialled back a little with Reinforced Trebuchet gaining a machine tag. CDPR seems to be of the opinion that the other change to the card, reversion to its earlier unispired ability, will somehow make the scenario easier to play around. It will be interesting to see if the loss of extra ping damage and less dwell time in setting up the Bombardment phase of the scenario will translate to a real reduction in tempo that scenario typically provides.

Bribery - This card seems to have a very high synergy with creating gold cards, usually the strongest one, from an opponent's deck. Though it can occassionally produce a weak bronze, its randomness really needs looking at as most of the time it seems to produce a card that is capable of swinging the game in the Bribery player's favor.

Edit: 25/02
Cards that might be problematic in future metas.

Sukrus - Currently not a big issue, since competitive SK doesn't seem to rely on defenders, and defenders by and large have fallen out of favour with the meta. I do recall when defenders were first introduced, that it was theorised that playing a defender to Surkus' left would effectively render the whole row immune, including its defender, At the moment, he effectively adds another turn in removing a protected piece, but should SK develop a deck that benefits from defender synergy. After further discussion, it seems Sukrus+Defender combo can be interupted. For most factions this is entirely accomplished with removal and having those cards to immediately answer it. NG has the option of using spies to seperate the two cards, so it may just be a case of expanding that tech to other factions, should a future meta evolve where this combo becomes a core component of SK decks.
 
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YE her previous effect was even better with putting any card on top of a deck. So she kinda already is nerved back in time. I have no problems with this card, but to add this card in combo with watch 3 cards play 1 leaderability is as cheesy as it can get.
 
Damien la Tour - repeatable leader effects. The ability to replay a leader ability has often caused more problems in Gwent than solved any. Currently Damien can be cloned, allowing NG to repeat a leader ability twice in the one game.

Wrong. Try 4 (with enslave) and you're more onto something. It's then 5 max I think (strategic withdrawal). Unless you count renewing himself with leader as 1, which could be useful, but doesn't add another leader practically.

Source. I'm currently testing the "worst" of Nilfgaard
 
YE her previous effect was even better with putting any card on top of a deck. So she kinda already is nerved back in time. I have no problems with this card, but to add this card in combo with watch 3 cards play 1 leaderability is as cheesy as it can get.

Consider that many NG decks run Yennefer's Invocation as a removal card. At 9 provisions the card is cheaper than Scorch for tall removal. It's also more flexible than any other removal card in that there is no pre-requisite to play it. It won't brick like Scorch or Geralt if an opponent doesn't have a 9+ strength unit, allowing it to answer threat units. It can remove a defender allowing access to other units on a row, making important units on the row vulnerable. On top of all that, it can remove scenarios from the board. This frees up a tech slot in the deck for another card, since we have one card that is able to remove units and artifacts. With that in mind, I don't think you can say the card got nerfed because it lost some synergy with Tactical Decision and top deck tutor strategies. Even then, the loss is not terribly significant if the card it steals has a beneficial effect like defender. On its own, it's curving well above the power level of other similar cards.
 
If Damien give himself doom and 3 power when using his order ability, it would solve some of the worst issues. It would be possible to remove him from the game permanently (with a 3 damage unit) before the player is able to use Mandrake, and it would prevent Assire on Damien (if the opponent is able to remove him while doomed). It would also force a significant point loss for those using the formation leader ability to keep Damien out of harms way before using him.

It would also prevent Letho Kingslayer copy of Damien (if the opponent is able to damage by 3 or more while doomed).
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
@Evangium Good list to start off, i dont want to add any for now, but i want to comment on what you said on Scenarios:

The Monster scenario doesnt need a rework - Dethlaff HV is the perfect unit to play with it, so you can use both consumes immediately. This is even improved if the sequence is: play Caranthir-Dethlaff HV; next turn, play MO scenario and use Deaths shadow leader on 1pt Dethlaff, immediately advancing the scenario to Ch1 and getting enough Dethlaff HVs to be consumed.

Also, not cool how NG figured out how to play the entire scenario in 1 turn, with those aristocrat spies and strategic withdrawal or tactical decision. That now makes 3 factions (NG,SK and SC) that can play an entire scenario in 1 turn, while the other factions can also play Scenario prologue and Ch1 in a single turn.

I think the best option for scenario rework would be to add a cooldown, only 1 advance per turn (someone else suggested this before me, i do not take credit for it)
 
@Evangium Good list to start off, i dont want to add any for now, but i want to comment on what you said on Scenarios:

The Monster scenario doesnt need a rework - Dethlaff HV is the perfect unit to play with it, so you can use both consumes immediately. This is even improved if the sequence is: play Caranthir-Dethlaff HV; next turn, play MO scenario and use Deaths shadow leader on 1pt Dethlaff, immediately advancing the scenario to Ch1 and getting enough Dethlaff HVs to be consumed.

Also, not cool how NG figured out how to play the entire scenario in 1 turn, with those aristocrat spies and strategic withdrawal or tactical decision. That now makes 3 factions (NG,SK and SC) that can play an entire scenario in 1 turn, while the other factions can also play Scenario prologue and Ch1 in a single turn.

I think the best option for scenario rework would be to add a cooldown, only 1 advance per turn (someone else suggested this before me, i do not take credit for it)

Rid Scenario from the game would solve 90% of the problems... Scenario was a bad game mechanic... Looked cool at first, but quick became a cancer.
The game never was so imbalanced since the release of MoO.
 
@Evangium Good list to start off, i dont want to add any for now, but i want to comment on what you said on Scenarios:

The Monster scenario doesnt need a rework - Dethlaff HV is the perfect unit to play with it, so you can use both consumes immediately. This is even improved if the sequence is: play Caranthir-Dethlaff HV; next turn, play MO scenario and use Deaths shadow leader on 1pt Dethlaff, immediately advancing the scenario to Ch1 and getting enough Dethlaff HVs to be consumed.
I see. From a purely deathwish play, it works well. Where I've been using, to give a bit of tempo to thrive, it's not always ideal to have both Desert Banshee and Barghest out. Mainly situations where one of my Gerni Fruits is the only unit that hasn't been removed. In that scenario, I want the fruit to proc for that extra point, but I don't want to eat the banshee just to do it.

Also, not cool how NG figured out how to play the entire scenario in 1 turn, with those aristocrat spies and strategic withdrawal or tactical decision. That now makes 3 factions (NG,SK and SC) that can play an entire scenario in 1 turn, while the other factions can also play Scenario prologue and Ch1 in a single turn.

I think the best option for scenario rework would be to add a cooldown, only 1 advance per turn (someone else suggested this before me, i do not take credit for it)
Timers would be a good start. I also think that they shouldn't be spawning units that have exceptionally high synergy with other combo pieces. So far, MO is probably the most balanced in that it does give units that are flexible enough to either work with the overall plan of an archetype, or adapt to curveballs your opponent throws at you (e.g. poisoned a unit). The tempo isn't so overwhelming (save for things like double Detlaff on the one turn), that the opponent essentially loses the round, as is the case when NG poisons all their big/key units, NR wipes the board or SK and ST spam tokens and boost them.

Yet despite being solid, reasonably strong and balanced scenario, when compared to the others, MO ends up looking rather weak. It's almost like powercreep set in for the other factions' scenarios during the development and testing phase and was missed before launch. To me, that is probably the biggest signal that CDPR needs to urgently look into finetuning scenarios before they unleash new ones. If they try and half-arse it with their raising the power-level of the underpowered card approach, MO will probably end up with the strongest scenario the game has
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Rid Scenario from the game would solve 90% of the problems... Scenario was a bad game mechanic... Looked cool at first, but quick became a cancer.
The game never was so imbalanced since the release of MoO.
Unfortunately, a lot of balance issues were already there. If you were around during beta, you'll probably have noticed old, problematic abilities have been reintroduced to the game, albiet on different cards. It seems the only things that CDPR couldn't solve enough to pass testing and reintroduce was promote and strengthening mechanics. Scenarios, on their own wouldn't be too bad, if not for problems like spawning units that have too much synergy with their archetypes and having a tick based on unit tags and not time.
 
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Unfortunately, a lot of balance issues were already there. If you were around during beta, you'll probably have noticed old, problematic abilities have been reintroduced to the game, albiet on different cards. It seems the only things that CDPR couldn't solve enough to pass testing and reintroduce was promote and strengthening mechanics. Scenarios, on their own wouldn't be too bad, if not for problems like spawning units that have too much synergy with their archetypes and having a tick based on unit tags and not time.
Sure I noted, because that I said that get rid scenarios could solve 90% of the problems. The other 10% are manageable through play skill and smartness. Scenarios generates a bigger problem, it override the 1 card per turn and escalates it to up 6 cards in on slam and yet, in less than a month... we can use the scenarios in 3 rounds. How crazy is that!?
 
Damien la Tour - repeatable leader effects. The ability to replay a leader ability has often caused more problems in Gwent than solved any. Currently Damien can be cloned, allowing NG to repeat a leader ability twice in the one game.

Scenarios - in general need a rework. NG and NR scenario are some of the least popular matchups in the game. MO scenario might be better if its sequence were changed so the Barghest spawns last so as not to have two consume units and potentially not enough targets on the board at the same time. Also rules regarding a limit on the number of scenarios per deck should be formalised prior to adding any new ones. Given how strong they are, one per deck, regardless of name, would be the best rule.

I'm okay with DLT as I use him and he can help me remain competitive, sometimes, when I can reuse my leader's Seize ability. I'm not aware of being able to clone him, so that's not something that I do.

I agree with scenarios. I play it. Now I'm coming up with players who destroy my card for that. I'm okay with that. But I do agree with you about limiting them to one use.

I'd add Kaedweni Revenant and Blue Stripes Commando. I played a game just over an hour ago where I was about 13 points in front, with my opponent having only one card left to play. They somehow spawned a whole row of these two characters and blew me away. Total BS.
 
I'm okay with DLT as I use him and he can help me remain competitive, sometimes, when I can reuse my leader's Seize ability. I'm not aware of being able to clone him, so that's not something that I do.
Among other things, Letho: Kingslayer onto DLT is one popular way of doing it. I think the way you describe playing him is kind of what his design intent was, and what many players would be fine with. A oneshot, nonrepeatable effect that reactivates the leader ability. When he was introduced, there wasn't really many ways to clone him and power levels were a lot lower, so it was kind of justified. Particularly in matchups with Usurper/Lockdown, who shut down a lot of NG decks tempo and R3 strategies at the start of the game.

I agree with scenarios. I play it. Now I'm coming up with players who destroy my card for that. I'm okay with that. But I do agree with you about limiting them to one use.
Again, this is another batch of cards I think most players would be OK with if they were single-use and doomed. From the NG side of things, particularly with Yennefer's Invocation, I'm starting to get a sense that scnario stealing, particularly in NG mirror-matches is almost in a place the old silver spies were. I don't know if you played during open beta, but if you did, you might remember the temporary fix they did to silver spies to make them single use just to stop the steal/clone and replay hijinks that was warping the meta.

I'd add Kaedweni Revenant and Blue Stripes Commando. I played a game just over an hour ago where I was about 13 points in front, with my opponent having only one card left to play. They somehow spawned a whole row of these two characters and blew me away. Total BS.

On their own, they're a clunky combo to play. BSC needs to stay on the board and then only pulls another one, given the two copy rule. KR often needs a lot of ping damage supporting him to pull off his deathblow. Where they become a problem is when they are cloned or extra copies created. BSC has a few options, including Operator and Roche: Merciless, to put extra copies in the deck to pull for a tempo swing.

KR is much easier with Drauger just turning all humans into KR, without changing their power. Once that happens, KR puts out a lot of ping damage and doesn't even care if the row is full and can't spawn new copies. Given both cards still need a turn to pull that kind of swing, I think the problem is more that CDPR has been killing of wide/swarm removal from Gwent, than the card combos being inherently overpowered. It wasn't that long ago we all had access to cards like Falibor and Lambert: Swordmaster who could deal damage to multiple copies of the same unit. Now it seems SK is the only one that can damage swarms with Wild Boar of the Sea. I'd say now, given NR's overall balance problems, BSC and KR are cards that might benefit more from suitable tech units, rather than outrightly changing them. KR especially, given that for a long time it was seen as a potentially interesting, but garbage performance card. I was one of those who wasted so much time trying to make my NR Cursed deck work back in the day ;)
 
I would like to see this:

Scenarios
= Doomed
Dryad Fledgling
= 2 Power
Percival Schuttenbach = 3 Power, 2 Armor
The Great Oak = 1 Power
Falibor = 3 Power

Saying this as a ST user since beta. That faction has been to OP for a long time, that just confirms that weird conspiracy theory of the devs that is circulating in reddit.
 

Scenarios
= Doomed
Agreed
Dryad Fledgling = 2 Power
too much nerf, id say 3 power.
Percival Schuttenbach = 3 Power, 2 Armor
4 power 1 armor would make him weaker but I wouldn't go much lower, it is 7p after all. Could be 8p.
The Great Oak = 1 Power
Thats insane xD way too harsh, make it at least 5 power.
Falibor = 3 Power
again too harsh, 5 power too.
 
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I'd add that, for scenarios, a special rule of one scenario per deck is needed as well as doomed status. I really don't have much faith that CDPR will do anything about the swing these cards can produce, but I'm fairly sure that won't stop them from printing more scenario cards. Being able to run multiple scenarios is going to warp the meta much the same as when everyone ran Runetstone+silver spy+Summoning Circle back when having the game was all about having significant card advantage over your opponent.

Dryad Fledging is anotherr of those cards that really has its balance thrown out by any card that allows multiple copies of it to be played. Yes, some harmony decks run it, but it's not ideal for them to play them from hand. Instead, what they want is Waters of Brokilon (WoB) tutored out by Fauve for a total of 10 points immediately on the board+harmony engine and repeat spell set up+redundancy against removal. Change WoB, and they're back to playing one dryad at a time, the least ideal strategy. It may be that, like my theory on Blue Stripes Scouts and Kadweni Revenents, if CDPR stops focussing so much on producing tall and individual removal cards and produces some wide removal tech units, then things might self-correct.

Personally, I think WoB being turned into a scenario, subject to changes suggested for scenarios, and losing its nature tag is probably the best solution for all. With a scenario tag, it still works with harmony and it can still create dryads, albiet at a rate of one per turn. If CDPR takes heed of community suggestions for scenarios, making it doomed and a highlander card (as in there can only be one), then ST no longer gets the option of spamming 4 engines on the board in one turn, or repeat spamming it in R3. It frees up Fauve to tutor other nature cards, than just being WoB's tutor and puts ST in the position of having to choose if they're going full harmony or elf spam, rather than the current best of both worlds option they have.
 
I would like to add Sukrus. Event though I almost never see him (I do not understand why - I play neither SY nor SK; but I would use him). Unbeatable combination with Defender. Or did I miss something?
And of course: Rot Tosser
Besides that I hate all the NG cards messing with my deck and consider them greatly unfair (Viper Witcher, Trahearn, etc.). And there are a lot of other NG cards I really hate (Vattier, Vincent Moorlehem, the cook, ...)
A little off topic: This meta is so NG-centric (=bad) that I actually now boycott NG. Instant forfeit in any match. I'm just tired to handle all these locks, poisons, muzzles, f...g with my deck, assimiliates and instant removals. I just noticed that on rank 14 (I'm stuck there because of all the forfeits) more than 50% of my matches are againgst NG. If this is not an indicator that there has to be done something I do not know... (BTW: Playing this game since open beta and always liked it, but now...)
 
I would like to add Sukrus. Event though I almost never see him (I do not understand why - I play neither SY nor SK; but I would use him). Unbeatable combination with Defender. Or did I miss something?

It's just a very slow combo (19 prov for 13 points) that gives you an effect that you don't realy need as a SK player. Unlike NR for example you don't run that many engines and the ones you run can take some damage - or you even want them to take damage like Drakkar. The first time I saw this combo I also thought WTF what a broken play. But I even won that round because my opponent couldn't keep up with points.
 
I would like to add Sukrus. Event though I almost never see him (I do not understand why - I play neither SY nor SK; but I would use him). Unbeatable combination with Defender. Or did I miss something?
I think it's more to do with competitve SK not really needing, nor having the provisions for, two defender cards. If you check the other thread that's popped up on the subject, you'll see that the combo is vulnerable to removal while being set up, and simply doesn't provide SK with enough tempo. SY just seems to have dropped out of favour entirely, but I'd say the tempo and provisions issues are same. I guess against the current meta, many SY decks are too long range in terms of developing their win condition and the others are just too vulnerable to removal to get the kind of value they need. That, and SY's coin mechanic isn't a natural fit with the rest of Gwent.

And of course: Rot Tosser
Rather unusual choice. Could you eloberate a little on why you feel this card in particular needs reworking? I find, if anything, it takes a lot of setup and delays to actually get it to poison something I want to remove. Most of the time, the cow carcass ends up being blocked by a more expendable unit.
 
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