What's Your Opinion of the Syndicate Faction? [Poll]

[Mr_Mugglez]

haha SK has a new challenger. But, as I said months ago (i'm clever like that) "expect more of the same"...

i.e. ONLY 2 or 3 decks are worth using to win. These decks are created by the "Tubers" You are playing their game. Not yours.

 

[Raja_Rajan]

Just wanted to come here and share some cool pics of matches showing that Syndicate has a lot of interesting cards and strategies, that almost nobody is playing because everyone prefers OP and "good ol' removal"...

This is my junkies deck:
View attachment 11008057
This is a sly seductress deck i did yesterday (got the idea from a great player i faced awhile ago):
View attachment 11008063
And this is a crime deck, based on putting as many cutup lackeys and bareknuckle brawlers, then use lots of crimes (nightmare to mulligan them all for R3):
View attachment 11008066

Post automatically merged: Jul 6, 2019

And here's two more. First, a fire"swarm" mirror match:
View attachment 11008069

And this, i just found funny, the guys doing taxes under fire:
View attachment 11008072

Your Poison deck is amazing! Extremely risky to play, but when trying in casual, who cares about risk! Very good ones DRK3.

I tried so hard to create a Cleaver Cutup Lackey deck but it simply is not competitive. I only tried in Casual, and I hardly won since it has almost 0 removal. But it was just EXTREMELY fun to play. I had Germain (to feed Senior), Necromancy, Operator, all focused on getting as many Lackeys as possible. I tried many games, and lost nearly all games, but in one game I had around 6 or 7 Lackeys on board! I would love to try my horribly junk/weak deck against yours sometimes!

I tried a Sly Seductress deck too, but it was just hard removed every single time and couldn't manage to setup like you, but at that time I didn't know the power of Igor. I will give it a try again, but all these decks have powerful single round, but don't have a wincon I can bully the opponent and win R1 easily and that is that

I don't ever get the mood to try Gudrun or Cyrus, somehow they don't interest me. But I had faced an opponent playing Cyrus who used Igor on a card who gains a coin whenever a card is summoned and in one turn, he got 4 (or 5) such cards and in two turns, he already had 20+ points and of course, I forfeited. It seemed super powerful (which made me realise the power of Igor).

 

[4RM3D]

I tried so hard to create a Cleaver Cutup Lackey deck but it simply is not competitive.

Cleaver is the worst leader of Sy, to begin with. Furthermore, spamming Lackeys is pointless. Just make sure you have two and spam Crimes, instead. Operator and Necromancy are overkill. A Lackey Crime deck can work with Whoreson or Hemmelfart (yes, really). However, even then, it's still not the best deck out there, but you can win games with it. PS. I assume you are using Portal? Because that is essential.

 

[Gen_Liu]

I trully enjoy it but the balancing needs some rework, even after the last patch.
There is also a few cards that I'm really not a fan of. For instance, Wheel of fortune (what the hell is this crap) or Swindle (let's produce gold value with a 4 provisions bronze).

Other than that it's easily the best extention they've made in the history of Gwent (at least imo).
I still voted "I like it" and not "I love it" because making mistakes in the balancing process is one thing, making the same mistakes that they did before is another (Ewald Borsodi and Freakshow having the same oppressive problem as Sihil and old school Sabbath, for example).

 

[DRK3]

@rrc Thanks. Surprisingly, at least for me, the junkie deck works better than the seductress or the lackeys decks.

The main problem for the lackeys deck are the mulligans - i try to save Portal and Novigradian Justice for R3, so that's 5 cards i need to mulligan in R1 and R2 (2 Lackeys, 2 Brawlers, and Novigrad Justice, so i can pull it with Cleaver in same turn i use Portal). And this makes it weak for R1 and vulnerable to R2 bleed.

Also, If you use Igor and Whoreson Senior dont bother with Operator. Operator is for other factions who dont have these cards.

When @4RM3D says Cleaver is the weakest SY he has a point. The problem are that the crimes are too weak on their own. Novigrad Justice is great, Tavern Brawl can be great but it can also brick, and the rest are basically coin generators.

The Seductress deck unfortunately is also terrible. Its fun when it works, but they're very vulnerable to removal, and giving shields to all is not worth it when most decks can do dmg pings.

And that Cyrus strategy is interesting. Never seen with Igor, but that bronze that gives a coin can be deadly. If there are 2 on board, Helveed generates zealots for FREE. That's 20pts without the fire artifact, or 28 with artifact, plus the 4 coins Helveed gives you didnt spend by generating zealots. If there wasnt the 9slot row limits, this could be broken.

 

[4RM3D]

If there wasnt the 9slot row limits, this could be broken.

If there wasn't the 9slot row limits, this will be broken. You can span infinite units for unlimited points.

 

[DRK3]

Im sorry, i didnt get it. Are you implying they are planning to remove the row limit?

 

[4RM3D]

Im sorry, i didnt get it. Are you implying they are planning to remove the row limit?

No, I am not implying that. I am just saying that if there wasn't a row limit, Igor would be broken because he allows infinite unit spawn.

 

[Aenarion44]

Dev please nerf Novigrad it's to strong and boring

 

[Raja_Rajan]

Cleaver is the worst leader of Sy, to begin with. Furthermore, spamming Lackeys is pointless. Just make sure you have two and spam Crimes, instead. Operator and Necromancy are overkill. A Lackey Crime deck can work with Whoreson or Hemmelfart (yes, really). However, even then, it's still not the best deck out there, but you can win games with it. PS. I assume you are using Portal? Because that is essential.

Yes, of course! When going to the extent of Operator, how can I miss Portal? Yesterday I tried a similar deck with KoB, lost all games. I think to try and make Cutup Lackey work is useless. With the 13-units-mandatory thingy, this will never work. Probably, if that unit limit rule was not there, Cutup Lackey would have been more powerful. In the current state, he is junk and I am done trying to make him work.

@rrc Thanks. Surprisingly, at least for me, the junkie deck works better than the seductress or the lackeys decks.

The main problem for the lackeys deck are the mulligans - i try to save Portal and Novigradian Justice for R3, so that's 5 cards i need to mulligan in R1 and R2 (2 Lackeys, 2 Brawlers, and Novigrad Justice, so i can pull it with Cleaver in same turn i use Portal). And this makes it weak for R1 and vulnerable to R2 bleed.

Also, If you use Igor and Whoreson Senior dont bother with Operator. Operator is for other factions who dont have these cards.

When @4RM3D says Cleaver is the weakest SY he has a point. The problem are that the crimes are too weak on their own. Novigrad Justice is great, Tavern Brawl can be great but it can also brick, and the rest are basically coin generators.

The Seductress deck unfortunately is also terrible. Its fun when it works, but they're very vulnerable to removal, and giving shields to all is not worth it when most decks can do dmg pings.

And that Cyrus strategy is interesting. Never seen with Igor, but that bronze that gives a coin can be deadly. If there are 2 on board, Helveed generates zealots for FREE. That's 20pts without the fire artifact, or 28 with artifact, plus the 4 coins Helveed gives you didnt spend by generating zealots. If there wasnt the 9slot row limits, this could be broken.

Yes, to handle mulligan I add Eavesdrop x2. Mulligan was not the main reason I lose the games its power level is so low and setup needs so much time and very low tempo. I will try Sly Seductress with Igor for sometime and will try to make it work.

Yes, Cyrus+CoinGivingOnSummon+Igor was the craziest thing I saw from SY. There is no way anyone can win against that setup, if it is left like that. I gave up after couple of turns.

 

[oberklops]

After playing a few games against Syndicate decks I must say the balancing sucks. The players can seemingly endlessly power up themselves and attack my cards using coins... it's overpowered and not fun at all.

 

[Archan6el]

After playing a few games against Syndicate decks I must say the balancing sucks. The players can seemingly endlessly power up themselves and attack my cards using coins... it's overpowered and not fun at all.

I agree and really don't like the coin mechanic. Therefore I don't like playing with or against SY.
- Hoarding untouchable coins. The artifact problem but then larger. Lame. Boring.
- Playing cards that do nothing other than hoarding coins (also indirect via Bounty), playing nothing on the board. The artifact problem but then larger. Lame. Boring.
- Units that can use every hoarded untouchable coin for crazy point swings, on Deploy, with no setup required (hoarding coins really is too easy to call it setup. Just compare it with The Great Oak for laughs). Unbalanced. Lame.
- Units using coins doing so in pings, efficiently using every coin. Extremely lame. Unfair.

Rework the coin mechanic and focus on units instead of coins: Let the coins stay with units and much of this bad SY experience is solved.

 

[SigilFey]

I'm still wondering why they don't do the "Coin Flip" by drawing cards from each player's deck. High card goes first. Thusly, the more powerful the overall deck, the greater the chance that a player will go first. (Doesn't even need to display the card, just its strength or something.)

 

[4RM3D]

I'm still wondering why they don't do the "Coin Flip" by drawing cards from each player's deck.

Because the coin flip shouldn't be dependent on the kind of deck you're using.

 

[Archan6el]

I'm still wondering why they don't do the "Coin Flip" by drawing cards from each player's deck. High card goes first. Thusly, the more powerful the overall deck, the greater the chance that a player will go first. (Doesn't even need to display the card, just its strength or something.)

Funny twist. So many coins. Too much coin-flipping indeed.

 

[Hassene_Gadacha_As]

I'm still wondering why they don't do the "Coin Flip" by drawing cards from each player's deck. High card goes first. Thusly, the more powerful the overall deck, the greater the chance that a player will go first. (Doesn't even need to display the card, just its strength or something.)

Right, so Monsters always start first?

 

[nedders]

On the coinfkip, what if when you go first, you automatically go 2nd in R2 and R3. The slight tweak is going 2nd R2, which I think balances out the disadvantage of playing first.

 

[SigilFey]

Funny twist. So many coins. Too much coin-flipping indeed.

Because the coin flip shouldn't be dependent on the kind of deck you're using.

Right, so Monsters always start first?

Well, from what I've always gathered, going first can be a disadvantage at best, disastrous at worst. There are many arguments (and evidence) about extremely unbalanced decks that have no reliable answer (or can only be answered by equally extreme or super-specialized decks.) I totally get the dislike for randomization. Don't appreciate most randomization myself; prefer 1:1, cause-effect skill.

So, rather than flipping a random coin, leaving advantage/disadvantage up to complete chance, it could be based on a "high-card" system, which much more evenly distributes the spread of chance to favor the underdog in the match without revealing anything about either deck.

As always, it doesn't affect the middle ground, as two relatively even decks (with comparable players) will still see matches that could go either way. In extreme cases, it means that the disadvantaged player is proportionally less likely to be absolutely destroyed outright, before the match even has a chance to get going. The more "high-cards" you've built into your deck, the greater the chances you'll be going first on a regular basis.

There's still an element of chance, but less of a chance for things to go all Tom Stoppard for "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" decks: "Heads... Heads... Heads... Heads... Heads... Heads..."

 

[ardeathwinggwent]

To summarize Syndicate - it's a totally unnecessary variation of a blatantly control heavy faction akin to the old Eithne-scorch that should have never existed.

 

[dunadan5]

I will leave the questions of balance to others who know better than me. If you're interested, scroll back, I did it and read many interesting things. From the perspective of a more casual player; I've lost and won to Syndicate players but I never felt cheated, so they don't seem too strong for me, especially since I don't see many of them.

From an aspect that hasn't been touched on much here - I think they did a splendid job with the syndicate as an in-game faction. The cards look amazing. The factions feel very well defined and stand out from one another. Much more than they ever were in Witcher 3. So what the developers did here was they took out a very general idea of the gangs in Novigrad and fleshed it out and made it real, adding new things onto it along the way. I think that really needs to be noticed and appreciated rather than only focusing on gameplay and balance.
Especially since it seems to me like Gwent has the best visual design of cards in any computer card game that I've seen. I've played a few but if anyone can correct me on this, please do so.

On the gameplay side of things - I find most of the leaders good (Not you, Junior) and I like the fact that each faction has their own school of tactics, making them feel as distinct in gameplay as they are in apperance. On the flipside I also like that you can mix and match, combining the factions.
The Crowns mechanics i also like - it brings a new mechanic to the game, just like Blood Curse brought ticks of vitality and bleeds. And the more there is of those, the better it is for the game (so long as the mechanics aren't rushed). It remains to be seen if and how they will be used or expanded on in the future.

So to summarise - the Syndicate looks great, feels fun to play and brings new options to the game.

Now we wait for the Iron Judgement. I wonder if and what Syndicate changes that will bring.