WotW feedback

[Pacifixer]

Now, that all the cards have been revealed, is a good time to share your final thoughts on the expansion.
I don't want to wait until i get my hands on it, because CP77 is coming mere two days after WotW (really poor timing CDPR!), so i won't be able to properly "get my hands on it" for a while.

Way of the Witcher is wilder and more creative than the previous 2 expansions, so it's difficult to guess which cards or archetipes are going to become the meta and which ones are going to become a meme.
Overall i really like this expansion - it's creative, it focuses on combos, synergies and preparation, and it supports some of the long overlooked archetipes.
I think most WotW cards are well designed, so i'll go over only those that are IMO exceptionally well designed, poorly designed or potentially problematic. Locations are all interesting and well designed IMO, but also little bit bland. Btw where is Kaer Morhen???!!!

NEUTRAL
Berengar - it's basically unconditional 9 for 6, i don't like that at all, he's just too good for how cheap and accessible he is.
Suggestion: 6prov, 4p, Deploy: Boost self by 3 for each adjacent witcher. At the end of your turn, reset, if Berengar isn't adjacent to a witcher. At the start of your turn, repeat the deploy ability, Berengar is not boosted nor damaged.
Geralt: Quen - i think tutoring your most powerfull unit and giving it shield on top of that is a bit too much.
Suggestion: Deploy: Play a bronze witcher card from your deck and give it a shield. Adrenaline 3: Play a witcher card from your deck instead.
Alzur and Cosimo - i don't like RNG cards, but it's nice to have some fun, off-meta, meme-only options. They are fine as long as they are too unreliable to be competitive, but if they become reliable enough to be competitively viable, they will be broken and will require some nerfs.
Snowdrop - obvious NG-hate card.
Idarran - this card will cause problems for sure. Carantir into any gold engine, Mobi into Redanian Archer, Scenarios, Roche in R1, Ulrich, Cerys, Igor, Azar, . . .

MONSTERS
Consume archetipe degenerated a lot sice it's glory days, so it's nice to see it return to its roots.
Evolution - the insectoid part is OK, i guess, it has some synergies so it's more than just point-slam. The beast part however is nothing but point-slam and the ogroid part is just weird and out of place.
Phooca - totaly random card, it has no synergy with anything. When it was revealed i thought: "maybe they are going for some sort of drain-and-thrive archetipe", sadly Phooca is just a nonsensical filler card.
Succubus - the art looks too cartoony. Cool ability, but it probably won't be worth the trouble.
Suggestion: 5 power, 5prov.
Koshchey - i'm afraid this guy is just going to be broken as hell. Engine that spawns engines? That can't end well.
Viy - love it! Old but cool design that promotes a different style of play.
Wererat - cool design, lot of combos and synergies. This is what MO should be like.

NILFGAARD
The reverse mill archetipe is very interesting and much Much MUCH healthier than normal mill, but i'm a bit worried about its viability. It could end up as another fun but clunky meme deck.
Alchemist - i don't like cards that can randomly steal my win conditions! It's OK if you play him as a combo with Coated Weapons or Viper Witcher, but random pulls are just toxic.
Suggestion: . . . if the opponent's card is a gold card from his starting deck, spawn a copy of it on top of opponent's deck before swapping.
Warritt - randomly stealing a win condition is toxic, beeing able to remove the randomness from "randomly stealing a win condition" is one of the worst card designs i have ever seen!
Suggestion 1: same as Alchemist - spawn a copy.
Suggestion 2: Deploy (Melee): Put the highest cost card in your deck on top of it.
Kolgrim - it's hard to say how good he'll be, or if he'll be good at all (since he's a bit matchup dependant), but i really like the design - finisher based on prep and synergy, he can be answered and he also has some extra synergies with game-prolonging cards.
Vypper - unique and possibly difficult to play, LOVE IT!

NORTHEN REALMS
NR cards are all over the place - there's support for shields, swarm, commandos and even some new stuff. Supporting different archetipes is good, but i would preffer if every faction was handled in the same way. Btw wasn Stockpile supposed to get some love?
Griffin Witcher - amazing synergy with veil.
Mentor - no synergy with anything, it's just pure f*ck NG card. Pretty poor design IMO.
Coen - very interesting card with lot of potential and posibilities. The best use will probably be boosting 1 or 2 units to around 11p and quadrupling their power with Coen+Viraxas combo. I think Viraxas should not be able to reset witchers.
Archgriffin - just like Vyi, very cool design and amazing synergy with Ranger.
Erland - interesting concept, but i think that at 12prov he's too expensive to find a place in any deck.

SCOIA'TAEL
Movement is my favourite ST archetipe, so i'm really happy to see some new movement support cards. All the combos and synergies look amazing. Unfortunately there is only one new proactive card.
Making a Bomb - trash! It would have to be usable on allied units to be playable.
Adept - probably too clunky to see any play.
Saber-Tooth - cool design that promotes unique playstyle, but on the other hand, uninteractive is never a good design choice.
Suggestion: Make Stealth a unit as well, and give both normal and stealth versions Veil.

SKELLIGE
From all the factions SK seems to be the strongest this expansion, it has the best bronzes and the best synergies with old cards. Lot of the new cards are matchup dependant, but i think the points are going to be there even in a bad matchup.
Dire Bear - unique card that requires some skill and planing to play around or to play efficiently.
Arnaghad - this one could be pretty broken in the right situation, but just like Dire Bear it can be played around. What i'm worried about is the interaction with Sukrus and Defender, forcing opponent to deal with those two first could be too much.

SYNDICATE
Self-poison is one of the most interesting archetipes, so i'm glad it's getting some love. Unfortunately this archetipe lives and dies with meta, if your opponent can use your own poisons against you, you'll just loose by default.
Abomination - this will probably be the core of a self-poison deck, i think the Adrenaline could be higher.
Salamander - the first board-wipe card in Gwent, love it!
Rayla - great finisher that requires synergy and planing to work. Shame about the interaction with Off the Books.
Suggestion: Give her one more ability: If your leader ability is Off the Books, boost self by 1 every time you pay a tribute.
Hideout - guaranteed and uninteractable poison kill as last-say, not a good idea!
Suggestion: At least limit it to moving poison between units on the same side.

Well, it turned out to be longer than i expected

 

[rrc]

Well, it is still too early to give feedback even though we know the entire card pool. But these are the cards I am most afraid of.

Idarran - Never in my wildest nightmare did I think that a neutral card will be the most scariest card in the game, but here we are. This is going to be toxic and greatly (and mainly) support MO and SK (18 point Totem. Swell!).
Khosey - I hate this card. I was scared of Caranthir -> Khosey. Now it can be tripped with Idarran? Fantastic. Yrden here I come.
Arnaghad - Without proper setup he may be a weak card (especially against MO). But with a good setup and lucky hand, this insta wins the game. But ST can easily play around this by divorcing him and Sukurus, and that is all I mainly care about. Other factions will suffer and will be forced to pack more removals.
Warritt - there are some NG hate neutrals like Snowdrop (and a buff to Poet!), but still he may force players to tech against him with a much costly option.
Gezras - In a long round, lets say with Quen and GT, this card can get incredible amount of points.

But, if I have to guess/predict, SK and MO will be very oppressive and 7 or 8 out of top 10 will be from SK and MO and Precision Strike (to deal with all these remove-or-lose non-sense cards).

 

[Sensimilius]

I don't have much high hopes of enjoying this expansion... :s I'll see how right or wrong I am though.

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2020

I don't want to wait until i get my hands on it, because CP77 is coming mere two days after WotW (really poor timing CDPR!), so i won't be able to properly "get my hands on it" for a while.

You think it's poor timing but actually it's not (for CP2077). See, by ardently supporting SK dominance and not only doing nothing to balance the game but instead intentionally turning Gwent into an unbalanced sh%^show they are intentionally pushing people to forget this thing and go buy/play Cyberpunk 2077 instead. This is.. at least how I see their logic working (either that or there's no logic at all).

 

[Pacifixer]

I don't have much high hopes of enjoying this expansion... :s I'll see how right or wrong I am though.

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2020

You think it's poor timing but actually it's not (for CP2077). See, by ardently supporting SK dominance and not only doing nothing to balance the game but instead intentionally turning Gwent into an unbalanced sh%^show they are intentionally pushing people to forget this thing and go buy/play Cyberpunk 2077 instead. This is.. at least how I see their logic working (either that or there's no logic at all).

You have a point , balance will probably be non-existent on release.

 

[DRK3]

Completely agree / on the same situation as OP, on its first 2 paragraphs.

I have high hopes for this expansion, even if it will be an unbalanced, powercrept mess at the beginning, but at least the archetypes they focused on for each faction are more interesting than just removal or pointslam.

I do think that because of this choice - to go for a bolder design - that a greater danger is incurred, of releasing cards that will be too powerful in certain combos, that werent taken into account when they were being designed.

Cards like Idarran, Arnaghad, Erland, Coen, Kolgrim or Koschey - these arent just cards you look at them and you feel like you got them 100%, you feel like you need to go through the entire deckbuilder and check for all possible combos and strategies they bring - so, a + for criativity and diversity, a - for risk of making gwent more unbalanced than ever...

Here are some decks i already have in mind some concept:

-a SK deck based on Arnaghad and damaged units.
Players are talking about the Sukrus combo but that's not what i want to try, i want to have so many freakin damaged units on the board (mostly mine), that Arnaghad will get so much armor it wont need sukrus, and maybe include armor-giving and restore, and terror of the seas and my beloved heymaey flaminica.

- a NR witcher shield deck.
I dont see many excited for NR and its new cards, but as the ultimate fan of swarm, i can already envision this deck, with a gigantic POGner and Leo to finish it up

- the already infamous Syanna+Salamander combo.
As memes go, it doesnt get any better than this. And it will be the closest we have to my dear Beta Kambi, obliterating the board and that gave me hundreds of hilarious wins, i miss that deck so much...
I might try another variant, less risky, that just uses salamander once to finish up all the poisoned enemies, although i hate poison in general, so if it feels disgusting i wont use it.

- a MO Viy deck
this one, i think i already know how to build and can imagine how it will do, i was very good with beta ciri dash and that experience will translate into here. Will try to get 2/3 Viys and even use cards like Tatterwing for max meme value

-a Koschey deck
ok, this is probably the deck i have the most trouble figuring out what to include and the sequencing, and also consider row space. I dont know how me and others will do it, but im predicting it will be very powerful and hard to counter.
Also, i plan to include Yrden on a lot of my new decks mostly to counter this card and decks around it, because MO is getting a lot that isnt easy to counter with direct removal

I will start with this 5, then go from there. What about you guys?

 

[Markus_Wirth]

My first new deck will be Onslaught + Arnaghad + Sukrus + Defender + many benefit from damaged + many damager including Wild Boar.

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2020

-a SK deck based on Arnaghad and damaged units.
Players are talking about the Sukrus combo but that's not what i want to try, i want to have so many freakin damaged units on the board (mostly mine), that Arnaghad will get so much armor it wont need sukrus, and maybe include armor-giving and restore, and terror of the seas and my beloved heymaey flaminica.

Why Heymaey Flaminica? There are huge counter-synergies with benefit from wounded units.

 

[DRK3]

My first new deck will be Onslaught + Arnaghad + Sukrus + Defender + many benefit from damaged + many damager including Wild Boar.

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2020

Why Heymaey Flaminica? There are huge counter-synergies with benefit from wounded units.

True, my bad, i didnt explain the whole deck as i didnt want to extend my post too long.

The flaminica was not meant to be used on the same round as Arnaghad. She is one of my favourite cards and can do really well on R1, with light longships and GS and the new self damaging witcher (i've had 30+ pt Flaminicas). Then on R3, healing is not so good, because i will work for damaged units, and that's when Arnaghad comes in, and those bear witcher mentors i believe.

(EDIT)

Also i forgot another deck i MUST try:

All the Geralts deck! Yup, i did 5 geralts deck when there were only 5, then i did 6, and now the whole witcher sign set is complete and i will do 7 Geralts deck!
The geralts have some terrible anti synergy, but at least the meta right now has a lot of tall units and greedy decks, and even though the meta will change a lot, i think those elements will remain.

You just need to divide the geralts between rounds, because if you try to stack them all for R3, you are likely to brick or get very little value out of some of them.
Here's an example: on R1 use Geralt/Pro on opponent who used stratagem to boost an engine. Use Aard to stack back row for an Igni, then maybe a lacerate.
Then on R3 use the remaining Geralt/pro on a tall enemy unit with base strength, use Quen to tutor Yrden/Axii for an explosive reset finisher.

 

[Pacifixer]

I will start with this 5, then go from there. What about you guys?

I'll start with the easy ones - ST and NG, and maybe Coen if i have some time to spare before CP77.

 

[DRK3]

I'll start with the easy ones - ST and NG, and maybe Coen if i have some time to spare before CP77.

I am not a big fan of ST, although i do like movement. I will learn the new ST by playing against it before i try it myself.

And NG, which is one of my favourite factions, i feel bad for not jumping on it immediately... Hmm maybe i will do a deck around Vyyper, and another to see how big of a snowdrop i can get, i mean she gets to 12 on the turn you play her if played with morvran's ability, which is my fav NG ability anyhow.

And a Kolgrim hyperthin deck might also be nice, i can probably do a deck where he gets to 30/40, ofc he will get countered like 80% of the times though.

 

[Draconifors]

Movement ST was something I played and liked back in beta, so I will most likely give this new version a try at some point next year. I will only have time to test NG before all my gaming time vanishes into thin air.

 

[quintivarium]

I’m very excited for the expansion. It takes a risk with a lot of cards with interesting mechanics. While some things may need tweaking after play, nothing appears inherently broken (like scenarios and echo cards).

I do have two predictions: Bear Witcher Mentor will receive a nerf fairly soon. It is a very reliable 7 for 4 with significant synergies — probably worth 5 if not 6 provisions. I just hope that when the inevitable nerf comes, it does not butcher the strategy out of the card the way the nerf to Drummond Berserker did.

Second, ST will be very scary and likely dominant. I have tried a movement based deck, which failed rather badly because 1. It was low tempo, 2. It was inconsistent. And 3. It was easily shut down by destroying Malena. But it had combinations that could generate overwhelming points even when only partially activated. The new ST cards are capable of standing on their own with neither Malena nor Sentries. And there are too many engines to shut down by destroying only a few units. I expect it will still be low tempo, butI think there is now enough to force long round 1’s it will win, and dry passing into moderately long round 3’s which it will also dominate.

 

[ParanoidA_2]

The design on the expansion feels really nice, but agree on the potential balancing issues.