Yep, Lyrian Scytheman can reach silly values for a 4p card.
It does require setup but it's not that hard for NRs to achieve this with the Uprising leader ability.
Bear witcher mentors can also (with extremely hard set up) reach high value. But I would argue that this entire question is not especially relevant. Just because a card has relatively unusual properties doesn’t make it overpowered. How many bronze cards can put 6 points on the board with no ability to disrupt? But no one would argue that either elder bear or ice giant is OP.
There are numerous bronze cards (e.g. frigates or Svalblod priests) that, over time, generate substantial value with very little effort. What I think makes viper mentors so oppressive is the number of them that can be produced with no real sacrifice to the deck. If it were a 6 provision gold card — instead of a bronze with two copies and more that can be summoned by Gorthur Gvaed, Necromancy, and Artorious, it would not be an issue. If it had a significant deck building condition such as set power equal to the highest provision card in your opponent’s deck up to the number of agents in your starting deck (not that this would make much sense), Mentors would not be an issue.
Nerfing Mentors because they generate too much value too easily is a reasonable argument. Nerfing them because they are a good bronze card sets a precedent that takes the game in the wrong direction. We need less value differentiation between between top and bottom cards, not more.
There are numerous bronze cards (e.g. frigates or Svalblod priests) that, over time, generate substantial value with very little effort. What I think makes viper mentors so oppressive is the number of them that can be produced with no real sacrifice to the deck. If it were a 6 provision gold card — instead of a bronze with two copies and more that can be summoned by Gorthur Gvaed, Necromancy, and Artorious, it would not be an issue. If it had a significant deck building condition such as set power equal to the highest provision card in your opponent’s deck up to the number of agents in your starting deck (not that this would make much sense), Mentors would not be an issue.
Nerfing Mentors because they generate too much value too easily is a reasonable argument. Nerfing them because they are a good bronze card sets a precedent that takes the game in the wrong direction. We need less value differentiation between between top and bottom cards, not more.
Apparently you all complain about the Viper Witcher Mentors. Aside of the buff the card received what ever the reason, i think it's not a problem on it's own. Why? My opinion : there is severals issues that makes this card so overwhelming.
1- The synergies and impact with NG abilities : NG is a faction that bother you, you come to play and NG will lock, discard your cards, steal or seize your cards and block your leader and his passive. The fact that you can't anwser to the VW Mentor is more because NG will lock your anwser - cards or leader - than the cards is OP. Lockdown and Lock cards will just avoid you to play Regis, Villentretenmerth or other cards that allow you to punish this. So people just play Curse of Corruption, Heatwave, Yrden, Igni and all other [...] cards that block deck building, frustrate players who play for fun/casual or theme decks.
The boost on SK beast/bears is a good things but until this meta turn around hyper control and greedy point slam we won't see any changement in the meta.
2- The draws : VW Mentor punish too hard the fact that the opponent got a bad hand, here again, it's because NG just fill too much trashes in your deck. For exemple, tokens shouldn't comes in your deck. In the end, you are not able to draw your key cards and your opponents will make value on that. Which is actually a double nasty effect, it's like if Kingslayer was boosting self by the power of the card he banishes.
3- The point gap with other factions cards : cards with 6 provisions usually makes the transition between Bronze and Gold cards with a base value + a potential value ON TIME. For exemple, Fallen Knight (SY) can have a huge potential but it's on many round, and opponent can easily have answer to destryo the card while VW Mentor offer no interaction, just a huge point slam. This card have a potential as a gold finisher card. I used to say Harald Gord needed a nerf because 14points for 7prov is too high but VW Mentor cost 1 prov less and there is 2 cards like that.
I saw someone who was speaking about reworking dead cards, Regis for exemple this card doesn't need a rework. You can play him with Crach leader (Assault), Dagur and Aard. So why we don't see this card. First, because this card got Initiative when the card was already not really played. The condition on its own is already difficult to set-up, adding Initiative just discourage even more players to play it. Second, this card is a part of combo decks and Gwent is only focused on the competitive scene a card like Regis that can annihilate an entire row shall have no place in Pro Ladder. That's why Regis received so much conditional making him dead... But this kind of card is typically what casual/normal player will want to play because there is a challenge on its own. The same thing can be apply to most of the dead cards. That's a long time now i said better keep update old cards with effecient buff or rework than releasing extension every 3months. Sadly now we have extension every 6months (what ever the reason). The patch 8.2 wasn't bad, it was just incomplete, it boost some cards that needed it but don't touch to cards that have issues/or do it badly.
To quickly fix Viy, for exemple you could say "Deathwish : after 1 round in cemetry return in your deck" or "Deathwish: At the beginning of your turn return in your deck" do i really need to be a genius to do that, No ! and i'm totally sure devs can do that. The question is why they don't do that ?
The patch doesn't touch Oniromancie nor Heatwave, Oniromancie is also an insidious problem. This card allow you to access to any card, it's a joker that you can get 2 times. This card destroy other tutors, allow players to get the better choice, Heatwave a 14+ power unit or play a 14power Harald Gord. A quick fix for Oniromancie could be "Choose a type of card and play a card from this type from your deck" with the Echo keeping this type of card. And here i will speak about Heatwave, oh Yes, this is typically a cancer card because it's a deus ex machina without conditional, auto include in every deck, that can deal with any situations. In the devs stream, they said that Heatwave was to deal with artefacts so THIS is the main job of the card. An acceptable fix could be "Banish an artefact, Initiative : Banish a unit".
Lastly i would speak about the problem of reactivity, when the game have balance issues like that, we have the right as customers and players to hope a quick answer, patch, hotfix, communication about working progress. I cannot imagine a better futur for the game if there is no more communications. Which is sad considering the reputation of the studio to hear and be aware the community...
1- The synergies and impact with NG abilities : NG is a faction that bother you, you come to play and NG will lock, discard your cards, steal or seize your cards and block your leader and his passive. The fact that you can't anwser to the VW Mentor is more because NG will lock your anwser - cards or leader - than the cards is OP. Lockdown and Lock cards will just avoid you to play Regis, Villentretenmerth or other cards that allow you to punish this. So people just play Curse of Corruption, Heatwave, Yrden, Igni and all other [...] cards that block deck building, frustrate players who play for fun/casual or theme decks.
The boost on SK beast/bears is a good things but until this meta turn around hyper control and greedy point slam we won't see any changement in the meta.
2- The draws : VW Mentor punish too hard the fact that the opponent got a bad hand, here again, it's because NG just fill too much trashes in your deck. For exemple, tokens shouldn't comes in your deck. In the end, you are not able to draw your key cards and your opponents will make value on that. Which is actually a double nasty effect, it's like if Kingslayer was boosting self by the power of the card he banishes.
3- The point gap with other factions cards : cards with 6 provisions usually makes the transition between Bronze and Gold cards with a base value + a potential value ON TIME. For exemple, Fallen Knight (SY) can have a huge potential but it's on many round, and opponent can easily have answer to destryo the card while VW Mentor offer no interaction, just a huge point slam. This card have a potential as a gold finisher card. I used to say Harald Gord needed a nerf because 14points for 7prov is too high but VW Mentor cost 1 prov less and there is 2 cards like that.
I saw someone who was speaking about reworking dead cards, Regis for exemple this card doesn't need a rework. You can play him with Crach leader (Assault), Dagur and Aard. So why we don't see this card. First, because this card got Initiative when the card was already not really played. The condition on its own is already difficult to set-up, adding Initiative just discourage even more players to play it. Second, this card is a part of combo decks and Gwent is only focused on the competitive scene a card like Regis that can annihilate an entire row shall have no place in Pro Ladder. That's why Regis received so much conditional making him dead... But this kind of card is typically what casual/normal player will want to play because there is a challenge on its own. The same thing can be apply to most of the dead cards. That's a long time now i said better keep update old cards with effecient buff or rework than releasing extension every 3months. Sadly now we have extension every 6months (what ever the reason). The patch 8.2 wasn't bad, it was just incomplete, it boost some cards that needed it but don't touch to cards that have issues/or do it badly.
To quickly fix Viy, for exemple you could say "Deathwish : after 1 round in cemetry return in your deck" or "Deathwish: At the beginning of your turn return in your deck" do i really need to be a genius to do that, No ! and i'm totally sure devs can do that. The question is why they don't do that ?
The patch doesn't touch Oniromancie nor Heatwave, Oniromancie is also an insidious problem. This card allow you to access to any card, it's a joker that you can get 2 times. This card destroy other tutors, allow players to get the better choice, Heatwave a 14+ power unit or play a 14power Harald Gord. A quick fix for Oniromancie could be "Choose a type of card and play a card from this type from your deck" with the Echo keeping this type of card. And here i will speak about Heatwave, oh Yes, this is typically a cancer card because it's a deus ex machina without conditional, auto include in every deck, that can deal with any situations. In the devs stream, they said that Heatwave was to deal with artefacts so THIS is the main job of the card. An acceptable fix could be "Banish an artefact, Initiative : Banish a unit".
Lastly i would speak about the problem of reactivity, when the game have balance issues like that, we have the right as customers and players to hope a quick answer, patch, hotfix, communication about working progress. I cannot imagine a better futur for the game if there is no more communications. Which is sad considering the reputation of the studio to hear and be aware the community...
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Regarding Viper witcher mentor: I just argue that he was not a problem with Adrenaline 2. Adrenaline 3 made him much more stable and simply offers more points. When you combine with Kolgrim and everything works smoothly. You can play mentor as the fourth card and Kolgrim (+maybe Letho) as third and second card and then in the end one more Viper witcher mentor and this is too much to my mind. If you reduce Adrenaline to 2 (or maybe even to 1) there is much less point potential
Regarding Heatwave: 10 provision for banishing any card. Compare it to Vincent (A Card many players considered to be problematic). He also costs 10 provisions and allows to destroy (not banish) a statused unit (+3 body). To my mind there is a huge value difference.
I would rework Heatwave as follows:
Banish a unit or artefact. If the banished card costs more than 10 provisions, then deal 1 random to your own units for each exceeding provision. If the power of the unit exceeds 10 spawn a Lamp dyinn on a random opponent row.
For oneiremonancy I would suggest the following rework: Play any card from your deck. Gain Echo if you control a mage.