And yet that's exactly what they do. It's simply mind-boggling the number of problematic mechanics and interactions that were removed once the game switched from open beta to HC that have filtered back into the game with CC, Novigrad and subsequent patches. Even HC gave us a hint of things to come with the repackaging of immunity. It seems CDPR's main takeaway from the Mid-winter decline was "High RNG cards are bad, but the community likes everything else."
Id like to throw in the coming back of huge finishers and even more overtuned golds in general.
Hyperthin NG being the main offender but also Roche Merciless, Oak, Ozzrel + cost reduction on Speartip (not horrible but going that direction for sure) and some fairly poweful combos in ST.
Then theres other super overtuned golds that win the round by themselves under certain conditions (like Keltullis, Bloodmoon (Crimson Curse), Anna Strenger, Philippa if she hits things like boosted Anna and so on). We go back to building your deck to counter specific broken cards/combos and playing the game only around those few cards while everything else is largely irrelevant.
I still think a lot of the "engine" type cards are waaaay too good and if you lowrolled on draw and just dont happen to have an immediate answer there is nothing you can do except lose to that single unchecked card.
Hyperthin NG being the main offender but also Roche Merciless, Oak, Ozzrel + cost reduction on Speartip (not horrible but going that direction for sure) and some fairly poweful combos in ST.
Then theres other super overtuned golds that win the round by themselves under certain conditions (like Keltullis, Bloodmoon (Crimson Curse), Anna Strenger, Philippa if she hits things like boosted Anna and so on). We go back to building your deck to counter specific broken cards/combos and playing the game only around those few cards while everything else is largely irrelevant.
I still think a lot of the "engine" type cards are waaaay too good and if you lowrolled on draw and just dont happen to have an immediate answer there is nothing you can do except lose to that single unchecked card.
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If everything was balanced as you say, and if your deck contained removal, you would pretty much use it arbitrarily in every match. I.e you would be playing uninteractive yourself. And as we already have complaints about uninteractive game play, atleast for decks that play engines, which are played in a certain order each match, with some variance in certain match-ups.
My point is that this game will be very boring.
If it was balanced you wouldnt lose the round instantly just because you havent drawn removal for 1 card and you wouldnt have to stuff your deck "arbitrarily" with removal as it is right now.
Combos are fine and all but they should be harder to pull off and not just - slap down 1 card - no answer kkthx ez gg.
Look at the complete unviability of "fair" engines with lots of counterplay opportunities like Dominance (as was also mentioned by OP).
Right now the only interaction you can have with some cards is to kill it or lose the game thats really not a lot of depth in the first place. Especially considering how unviable move is for every faction except ST (and even there its not particularly great) and how cheap removing locks is. Things like bloodmoon literally have no viable counterplay since running weather removal is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the hand. You kinda just play against the guy knowing that youre guaranteed to lose a long round to bloodmoon.
Cards like Keira which are completely overtuned and have borderline no counterplay whatsoever other than knowing shes coming and baiting her out with as low value cards as you can get away with. Like playing around expected value is what gwent should be about right. You estimate how much value your opponent can put out and try to just barely get out more value - thats how the game should be in my opinion. Its not that. Its, okay he has these 3 really op cards (probably) what can i invest to eventually force those out or deal with those.
Meh - really not interactive right now in the first place. Kill it or lose game is a pretty shallow decisionmaking process.
Combos are fine and all but they should be harder to pull off and not just - slap down 1 card - no answer kkthx ez gg.
Look at the complete unviability of "fair" engines with lots of counterplay opportunities like Dominance (as was also mentioned by OP).
Right now the only interaction you can have with some cards is to kill it or lose the game thats really not a lot of depth in the first place. Especially considering how unviable move is for every faction except ST (and even there its not particularly great) and how cheap removing locks is. Things like bloodmoon literally have no viable counterplay since running weather removal is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the hand. You kinda just play against the guy knowing that youre guaranteed to lose a long round to bloodmoon.
Cards like Keira which are completely overtuned and have borderline no counterplay whatsoever other than knowing shes coming and baiting her out with as low value cards as you can get away with. Like playing around expected value is what gwent should be about right. You estimate how much value your opponent can put out and try to just barely get out more value - thats how the game should be in my opinion. Its not that. Its, okay he has these 3 really op cards (probably) what can i invest to eventually force those out or deal with those.
Meh - really not interactive right now in the first place. Kill it or lose game is a pretty shallow decisionmaking process.
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As much as you have a point I refuse to agree that we've done a full circle to beta Gwent and it is even WORSE judging by your words, let me make some points and maybe have a nice conversation:
- SirPumpkn showed and proved that Dana in some cases is even BETTER than Franchesca, so that comparison is out the window, about CoF, I agree that now is a plain and simple card, however it is a part of a base set and if CDPR wants every faction to have that kind of tutor, I don't see the problem, we are 1 expansion into the game and I hope to see old effects to be introduced in a better fashion and to be more reliant (I don't count SY since it doesn't provide anything to the other factions)
- You are contradicting yourself, at one point you are complaining about "brainless tutors" and consistency on the second note you are talking how randomness is "swinging" the tide of the battle (set up your mind) also the randomness is SOOO negligible that you've gotta be the luckiest MF to change the game with an RNG play!
- We lived in a meta where control was everywhere, I vividly remember how every single person was complaining all day and night that they can't play engines or interact with their opponents' board
- Every faction having 1-2 tutor cards is more than necessary for future expansions and card design because this allows you to make the combos that are going to be introduced work more fluently and overall to have a better experience with the new cards!
- Final thing, the meta is shaping up to be quite diverse, Fran, Svalblod, AQ, Meve, Calanthe being the "hard engine decks" and on the other side Ardal, Emhyr , Eithne, from SK Crach and Harold, almost every SY deck (except Hemmelfart and sometimes Gudrun) that interact more with their opponents board and disrupt strategies "control decks" Detlaff being the middle ground.
All in all, that's IMO, this is the best patch we've seen since the start of HC, a lot of viable decks, the power level between faction is not one universe apart from each other and even though there are clear winners *cough* Franchesca *cough* hyper thin, the other decks could counter them or win by playing better value cards. For example, Fran is losing to AQ hard! Hyperthin loses to tall removal HARD! It's not close to the insanity Foltest and DJ were the last patch, and we can be a little grateful for that! Also this opens up for a very interesting Challanger decks!
- SirPumpkn showed and proved that Dana in some cases is even BETTER than Franchesca, so that comparison is out the window, about CoF, I agree that now is a plain and simple card, however it is a part of a base set and if CDPR wants every faction to have that kind of tutor, I don't see the problem, we are 1 expansion into the game and I hope to see old effects to be introduced in a better fashion and to be more reliant (I don't count SY since it doesn't provide anything to the other factions)
- You are contradicting yourself, at one point you are complaining about "brainless tutors" and consistency on the second note you are talking how randomness is "swinging" the tide of the battle (set up your mind) also the randomness is SOOO negligible that you've gotta be the luckiest MF to change the game with an RNG play!
- We lived in a meta where control was everywhere, I vividly remember how every single person was complaining all day and night that they can't play engines or interact with their opponents' board
- Every faction having 1-2 tutor cards is more than necessary for future expansions and card design because this allows you to make the combos that are going to be introduced work more fluently and overall to have a better experience with the new cards!
- Final thing, the meta is shaping up to be quite diverse, Fran, Svalblod, AQ, Meve, Calanthe being the "hard engine decks" and on the other side Ardal, Emhyr , Eithne, from SK Crach and Harold, almost every SY deck (except Hemmelfart and sometimes Gudrun) that interact more with their opponents board and disrupt strategies "control decks" Detlaff being the middle ground.
All in all, that's IMO, this is the best patch we've seen since the start of HC, a lot of viable decks, the power level between faction is not one universe apart from each other and even though there are clear winners *cough* Franchesca *cough* hyper thin, the other decks could counter them or win by playing better value cards. For example, Fran is losing to AQ hard! Hyperthin loses to tall removal HARD! It's not close to the insanity Foltest and DJ were the last patch, and we can be a little grateful for that! Also this opens up for a very interesting Challanger decks!
Not gonna argue your other points (not because they're correct), but SirPumpkn is one player, whose decks are, unfortunately copied by (at most) a few hundred others. He is also a streamer, who pretty much relies solely on Gwent for viewership, meaning that it is not in his interest to give criticisms that would lessen other players' enthusiasm toward the game.
Same goes for other streamers like Trynet123 or Spyro_ZA. To them, streaming and retaining viewership is a job. Keep that in mind.
Where did I say something about Pumpkin retaining his viewership or something about him in general? I said quote "Pumpkn proved (by playing the game) that Dana is better than Franchesca in some cases. And the CoF argument was something that I think is okay and I approve of the change!
And even if we start the argument that streamers are silent about the games' flaws you are the furthest from the truth, because last month Trynet, Bushwook, Mcbeard, and even Pumpkn stopped playing the game or were streaming it for 3-4 hours because of the unbearable meta it was in and were always vocal that the balancing was in a bad state.
Again I didn't start that conversation, but even if we go into that direction I don't see how he or any of the streamers in that matter deliberately say that the game is "good, better, best" just to retain their viewer base. That would be hypocritical and it would show through their streams and actually will lure away their viewers instead of retaining them. It ALWAYS shows when someone is not enjoying the thing he/she does.