What do you do against a perfect deal?

[nedders]

I played against NG Witcher deck and by the end of the game the oppo had used Witcher trio, Vesemir, Eskel PF, Letho (2nd Eskel), G:Yrden, Geralt, Serrit, Auckes, one VW and Renew to play Vesemir a THIRD time (leader was Emyr).

Does anyone else face this kind of imbalance, does it happen 'often', and do you more or less accept that you'll win about as often as you lose?

Just interested in the community feedback when playing. I often find once I win a game, possibly two, I'm almost inevitably paired off against a deck with either a) the right counters, or b) there's a huge imbalance in the deal. The above NG example happened straight after a decent victory, where I admittedly had the benefit of the deal. My concern about this particular game is that there's no pattern of play you can really influence and you're almost destined to win one, lose one, because of the combination of deal-reliance, RNG and net-decking.

What's your thoughts/experience? Really question for the more casual players, I appreciate that the hardcore will just say I'm not very good!!!

 

[Kelbob]

If you're playing casual, my suggestion would be to play ranked. Sometimes there's just not much you can do though.
Good luck and here's hoping for a win streak!

 

[OG.laloquaint]

Yeah the matchmaking is very random. Sometimes you can tell that your opponent doesn't have good cards in their hand. The same could be said about yourself. In casual, you'll go up against a lot of strong decks. I've noticed that people in Ranked play more fairly, in my experience at least.

As for the stuff you mentioned, i think that's just how it'll be honestly. It's normal. There are times where I get absolutely destroyed in the first round but i still end up winning the game. Winning depends a lot on each players' decks and hands.

 

[Raja_Rajan]

I believe that the deal is perfectly fair. Sometime you get the best deal you can imagine and sometime the worst. The same goes for your opponents. Sometimes, you get meh deal and so does your opponent. Now, if your best deal meets your opponent's best deal, you get a very good game. Same is the case for your meh facing the other meh. The other cases in which one gets the best deal and the other the worst is a sad thing. I am sure you would go through all these combinations equally, only that, when we win due to best deal it doesn't register in our mind as strong as when you lost with your worst hand against the best enemy hand.

 

[nedders]

ITC, you're completely right and I just hate it. I will probably quit Gwent for good at some point because it's becoming a very laborious and monotonous task. There's no variety at all, it's always the same decks. You barely have to play 5 games before playing the same deck you've encountered already, yet depending on the deal will dictate the outcome, which seems about as pointless as cutting a deck of cards, highest wins!!

I only play ranked, tbf. Matchmaking seems anything but random. It's noticeable I play vs Harald a lot with an Eredin - Mourntart deck, which also "randomly" always seems to hit the 'right' target. Similarly, if I switch to Imlerith deck, I'll face big MO or boosted NG witchers. Before I uninstalled the game, I had all kinds of decks but would always come up against the counter - it's why I gave up on things like MO Swarm or ST movement, as the counters are always there.

It's a bit like just now. Lost R1 thanks to Monster oppo playing Speartip, but I've got Gyrden in deck (not hand) so I know what's coming and hopefully have 6 draws plus mulligans to draw it. As long as I draw Yrden, I should be ok and challenge, but it's literally the ONLY card I can counter it with. Naturally, I didn't draw it and almost as if the opponent KNOWS I don't have it, down goes Ghoul in R2. I just quit, there's simply no point. I am getting to that point in matches where it's so utterly predictable there's little enjoyment from the game itself.

I was just wondering others' experiences - not to create yet another moan thread, but to find out if it's really - mentally - not the right game for me, if you have to just shrug and say "meh, bad deal, move on" then I don't like it. I only really play games where I have at least a fighting chance to win every single time, and not be pre-defined by RNG.

Personally I think something should be done. I don't think you should automatically get thrown into a matchup, I think you should get to choose. And I also think certain cards should have perhaps a sticky attached, your 'banker', so you know you can draw one, or more, every time then build a deck around it. Bottom line is I just don't enjoy this game and that probably applies to all games of its' type. It's a shame as it's a great format, but it does need work.

 

[Raja_Rajan]

Big MO is an abomination which gets buffed and buffed every time by nerfing all their counters. Apart from Big MO, I don't mind losing against any other decks. Even Harald is OK for me. But this is Gwent. You may face MO much more than other factions especially in lower ranks as new players will always tend to play the easiest decks that would give them wins. Hopefully, it will get changed, but even then, even if all the factions are fair and all the leaders are fair, the deal/hand randomness (innate to the card games) will still come into play and you will lose game because you drew bad. If you can't handle that, probably card games are not your thing (I am not sarcastic or flaming. I am sincere). I will be OK as long as I have more than 50% win rate.

 

[Restlessdingo32]

Depends on the match-up. In some you just lose.

As an example, if you draw bad and the other player doesn't you can perform a R1 bleed. Play your junk, get it out of your hand/deck. You don't want those cards. So get rid of them. This doesn't necessarily mean actual junk cards. It could be the worst cards for the match-up. Play with the assumption you're losing the round and try to force the opponent to over commit. Save your good cards for R2 and R3. Maybe you get lucky, the opponent doesn't know you drew poorly and you manage to pull out R1, somehow, someway. Maybe they try to bleed R2 with their junk and get burned for it. Maybe you win because they played too many good cards R1.

On the other hand... meet a deck where last say close to 100% determines the game result and the above may not work. There you probably just lose.

 

[nedders]

Big MO is an abomination which gets buffed and buffed every time by nerfing all their counters. Apart from Big MO, I don't mind losing against any other decks. Even Harald is OK for me. But this is Gwent. You may face MO much more than other factions especially in lower ranks as new players will always tend to play the easiest decks that would give them wins. Hopefully, it will get changed, but even then, even if all the factions are fair and all the leaders are fair, the deal/hand randomness (innate to the card games) will still come into play and you will lose game because you drew bad. If you can't handle that, probably card games are not your thing (I am not sarcastic or flaming. I am sincere). I will be OK as long as I have more than 50% win rate.

I completely agree with you, I've never been interested in card games, only picked this up from playing Witcher. Have absolutely zero interest in things like Hearthstone or Artefact. But I think you've kinda answered it - my win rate is just about over 50%, current lvl is 14, highest ever was 11. Win a few, lose a couple. But I was thinking about it socially - the game I tend to play most on Xbox is FIFA. In FiFA, you have a chance to win every match you play. You might not, but 99% of the time it'll be because the opponent was simply better than you. Same for most regular games. Card games seem different - there are factors that render the playing of the game 'unfair'. There's still obviously skill involved, else there wouldn't be pro's, ladders, tournaments, but for a casual games it's a bit too random to be enjoyable. The wins don't even feel great, which then doesn't help the fact the losses feel unbalanced.

Post automatically merged: Feb 7, 2019

Depends on the match-up. In some you just lose.

As an example, if you draw bad and the other player doesn't you can perform a R1 bleed. Play your junk, get it out of your hand/deck. You don't want those cards. So get rid of them. This doesn't necessarily mean actual junk cards. It could be the worst cards for the match-up. Play with the assumption you're losing the round and try to force the opponent to over commit. Save your good cards for R2 and R3. Maybe you get lucky, the opponent doesn't know you drew poorly and you manage to pull out R1, somehow, someway. Maybe they try to bleed R2 with their junk and get burned for it. Maybe you win because they played too many good cards R1.

On the other hand... meet a deck where last say close to 100% determines the game result and the above may not work. There you probably just lose.

Yes, there's definitely a feeling of rock/paper/scissors and it definitely feels like there's an algorithm at play which sets that up. There may well not be, it just feels like there is. Like you'll play with Imlerith/Eredin and draw Big MO. Or you'll have a Arachas/Swarm and meet an ST/SK removal deck.

I wonder if that could be avoided by introducing a pre-game accept/decline mechanic? Probably not, I think a lot of these things are just par for the course for card games and if folk like me don't like then we probably shouldn't play.