Gwent Community Patch November 2024 – Review

Renfri (14 -> 15)

(-) Just like in the September Season, I didn’t found Renfri that problematic. This season at around 2500 fMMR Renfri Nilfgaard was less popular than Soldiers, Shupe or Enslave in my experience. Renfri is a card with rich effect; potentially still new decks making use of particular Curses / Blessings can be built. Provision nerf discentivizes it and puts Renfri decks further below top meta.

Ard Feainn (11 -> 12)

(+) Ard Feainn comes from the deck, can be clicked ~12 times, bringing raw points (>10 usually) fueling status engines and improving topdecks. Probably the best card in Aristocrats who deserved a small nerf. While not that popular on ladder in my experience, they were staple of tournament play – most banned in both main Community Masters Finals and its Qualifier. Okay nerf.

Henry var Attre (11 -> 12)

(-)  (rewritten from scratch)

Decks with Henry: Shupe Double Cross or Enslave 6 were amongst main Nilfgaard picks in the October Season 2024. The unpleasant part of those decks, especially Double Cross Shupe netdeck from Myamon (but also other decks with Abduction) is very high variance. Henry itself is RNG dependent, sometimes being worth best gold from opponent’s faction +4 (~20 points), other times a useless gold and no good fodder for opp hand is found (~10 points). Henry combined with Runemage and a small Assimilate package (to make use of opponent’s golds) is usually worth it by himself as a short round core card. To add to this there is lots of stuff depending on Henry rolls: Abduction, Double Cross leader ability (especially used for Braathens, but not only), Viper Witcher Mentor and Dead Man’s Tongue. Decent on average, these cards raise to very high value vs provision efficiency at times.

That’s the logic behind Henry nerf. Still in my personal ladder experience Henry decks weren’t that obnoxious to face and  Jan Calveit (played in most Henry decks) was pretty much guaranteed to get a nerf. I like the decision making aspect of playing Henry and would prefer him to stay at 11 prov, but not the end of the world. 

Jan Calveit (10 -> 11)

(+) I like provision nerf direction more than power because of the blue coin tempo issue. Good change to make if we want to nerf Shupe NG without touching Shupe/Radeyah. Enslave, Enemy Boost and some other NG decks would also suffer a bit, but maybe that’s just an invitation to try other consistency tools?

Covenant of Steel (9 -> 10)

(++) Covenant of Steel wasn’t as commonly abused as other Defenders, but still was met from time to time on ladder, especially in Armor abuse Pirates with Syanna – Operator – Heymaey Protectors – Tainted Ale. Covenant could be replayed many times in SK with Sigdrifa’s Rite, combined with Sukrus or used to protect Melusine. I find all of those cancerous and unnecessary for Gwent experience – a welcomed change, going in line with Gwentfinity Defender nerfs.

Frog Mating Season (7 -> 8)

(++) Explanation

Reaver Hunters (6 -> 7)

(/) Balancewise probably not deserved, but judging from Reddit, Reavers are ranked ladder and low pro menace, so maybe necessary. That being said, you won’t yet forget your old mates thanks to this nerf. Hunters would still be played even if very weak standalone, because most of the deck power comes from Mobilization and Idarran + Hunters synergy.

Highland Warlord (5 -> 6)

(++) Explanation

Slave Driver (5 -> 6)

(+) “Slave Driver is a card floating between 5 and 6 optimal provision cost. I don’t think SD is that much coupled with Nauzicaa Sergeant – for example Sergeant 3p and Driver 5c would never be optimal because of other decks which copy bronzes – Illusionists Bonded, Spotters, Double Madoc etc. Driver 6-cost and Sergeant 4-power seem optimal to me.”

Megascope (4 -> 5)

(+) Explanation