Introduction
In this article I’d review Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Community Patch April 2026 generated by democratic voting via Balance Council tool. I’d sketch the situation before the patch, analyze the changes one-by-one and then provide summary and a general review.
Check out the discussion of balance changes on Reddit.
It was the 23rd council we formed Coalition with Shinmiri and published our balance suggestions on Reddit. I also welcome you to check out ‘Balance Council‘ page on leriohub if you haven’t yet – there is a lot of practical information and my Council philosophy. There is also an analysis of how Balance Council works in practice: What Gwent Balance Council Does? Successes, Failures and Democracy Analogies
Before Patch
In the April Season 2026 I played 450+ Pro Rank games, great majority on stream and reached 2550+ fMMR on all factions.
The ladder experience in April Season 2026 was okay to me. Compared with March, the competitiveness at high mmrs was lower, with less players involved in BaM cup race; 6th player fMMR dropped by ~70.
Ladder meta experience improved a bit. The staple deck was Nature’s Gift Midrange, very solid, good pointslam, but honest. Binary Arachas Swarm decks were no more after Stalker power nerf, Ship Ballistas seldom, Lined Pockets with Fallen Knights a bit less popular.
After Hefty Helge nerf one the main NG decks, which is Damage Enslave 6 got less popular and Nilfgaard was seen less at high mmrs.
Decks I’ve mainly met on ladder (popular / present at high mmr decks in bold):
MO | Arachas Midrange, sometimes Tatterwing, midrange Fruits, White Frost, Koshchey, cheese Carapace decks at lower mmrs
NR | Inspired Zeal Temple, NR Witchers, Shieldwall Golden Nekker, Cursed Pincer, Melitele, Alumni, Viraxas Kimbolt Duelers (not my hours)
NG | Hyperthin Nekker Alzur, Soldiers Allgod, Midrange Tactical Decision, TD Constructs, various Enslave 6, Henry Enslave and Double Cross
SK | Patricidal Fury Warriors, Patricidal Fury Sove Compass RnR, Pirates, Blaze of Glory Renfri, Alchemy, Crowmandos, Lippy Flurry, Renfri Beasts
ST | Nature’s Gift Midrange and Symbiosis, various Elves, Traps, Guerilla Harmony, Guerilla Devotion Schirru, Precision Strike Allgod Schirru, various Invigorates, Dwarves
SY | Jackpot Yago, OtB Midrange Sesame, Pockets Crimes, Cache Scenario, Classic Bounty, Cove Gangs
Balance Council Results
(++) great change
(+) good
(/) acceptable
(-) bad
(–) very bad
Nerf Brackets
-1 Power Decreased
Telianyn aep Collen (7 -> 6)
(++) Telianyn seen play in many successful midrange Scoia’atel decks, most notably Sanvanter’s Non-Harvest Gift. In those decks Telianyn isn’t really played for some major synergies, but high polarization and pointslam value: Telianyn there simply adds points to high-end Elves like Simlas or Filavandrel and thanks to high power her order is hard to answer. Justified change.
Wild Boar of the Sea (6 -> 5)
(/) Wild Boar of the Sea seen play in a number of Skellige decks, like Patricidal Fury RnR, BoG Renfri, or even just Pirates. Personally I’m not a fan of this nerf, because in my experience Wild Boar wasn’t that strong and also that’s a card of long round payoff type, which in my opinion is not present enough in the meta in favor of instant value and control.
Shani (6 -> 5)
(++) Explanations
Hjalmar an Craite (4 -> 3)
(++) Explanations
Isengrim Faoiltiarna (6 -> 5)
(+) Explanations
Whoreson Senior (6 -> 5)
(++) Nice, harmless power nerf mainly to Lined Pockets Crimes decks, but also some Congregate builds. LP Crimes deserved a small trimming.
Harald Gord (3 -> 2)
(+) Harald Gord got nerfed mainly because of Midrange Gift, where he plays as a 15 for 7 finisher. In my opinion that’s a justified change to be done sooner or later, maybe not necessarily in a patch full of other ST nerfs though.
Ship Ballista (4 -> 3)
(++) Ship Ballista decks became quite successful in the March season. While a bit less popular in April in my experience, they are still extremely binary and Ship Ballista itself has outstanding value, be it a finisher in long R3 or a carryover card in R1, where can often stack 20+ buffs into the deck. Playing control cards is not enough to stop Ship Ballista deck, whole archetype must revolve around control.
Personally I’d prefer provision nerf to Ballista, which is more harsh, but any containment is welcomed.
Bear Witcher Mentor (4 -> 3)
(-) Bear Witcher Mentor is power nerfed because of Crow Messenger spam decks with Patricidal Fury leader and Offering to the Sea.
Indeed that’s a very strong deck, but I’ve seen Blaze of Glory version (which I think is weaker) even more often on ladder. I’d honestly prefer a harsh, direct approach instead, which is Crow Messengers nerf to 6-provision and accepting this card as unplayable outside Crow spam (which is already the case – Compass and Alchemy use more efficient thinning). Mentor -1 power hurts whole area-(self)damage archetypes in Skellige, which were far from common.
Crow Clan Druid (5 -> 4)
(/) A good nerf standalone, but as Dimeritum Shackles got nerfed as well, Alchemy took a solid blow. It would have been better if CCD remained at 5-power in this context, but at the moment this recommendation was made, Shackles nerf wasn’t yet the case.
It would be interesting to see what happens in the next patch in Alchemy context, because there are two paths again: reverting CCD alone and reverting Shackles alone.
+1 Provision Increased
👑 Royal Inspiration (16 -> 17)
(- -) I hate the idea of picking up a completely figured out Tier 2 archetype and buffing it towards Tier 1 just because it feels less popular than other decks in the same faction. That’s not the first time, same ideas spontaneously arise for example for Enslave 6 (even a leader buff was suggested because “Enslave is not even good in the current meta and not played enough”). Also leader buffs are hard to revert because a buff slot has to be wasted.
I reached 2.6k+ fMMR with Devotion Knights for a couple of seasons including the current one. I’ve scored literal 2676 fMMR with them and published vod on yt.
👑 Fruits of Ysgith (14 -> 15)
(- -) Fruits are quite popular in Monsters, but never top notch. The reason though are not leader shortcomings, but simply the fact that there is no outstanding cards at high end available for Fruits – the only one is Mammuna. In comparison, Deathwish can make use of Dagon, Brewess: Ritual, Dettlaff: Higher Vampire and Arachas Queen.
Many high end cards available to Fruits can and should be buffed, but it will never make Fruits Tier 1 and in fact… they shouldn’t be there. Fruits are high raw points (including 4 points from red coin at 7, which is helpful for the beloved “win on even cards and push” strategy) and typical decks rely on playing one midrange card after another without much synergies or decision making.
This buff would have a negative impact on ladder meta.
Simlas Finn aep Dabairr (13 -> 14)
(+) Explanations
Allgod (11 -> 12)
(++) Explanations
Ffion var Gaernel (10 -> 11)
(+) Going in line with last month nerfs to Cave Troll and Donimir. Defender mechanic in Gwent supports binary “answer or lose” strategies and needs to be discentivized for better ladder experience. It doesn’t mean completely killing Defender cards, but making them expensive enough for greedy decks to consider more complex strategies than hiding 10 points per turn threat behind a wall.
Ffion was played for example in Rot Tossers, Kolgrim, Cultists or Helge decks.
Sigrdrifa’s Rite (8 -> 9)
(++) Explanations
Savolla (8 -> 9)
(/) Pretty harmless change which also nerfs two main ladder netdecks: OtB Midrange and Jackpot. At the same time Savolla is not really the source of points: assuming 1 coin = 1 point, Savolla plays as 11 (Jackpot) or 12 points (OtB). The main value of Savolla comes from KoB; refunding tribute makes Savolla a great, heavily polarized pointslam card and often spender at the same time when KoB is pulled out.
Therefore In my opinion a KoB nerf was more deserved in the same context, and there also various other options, like Novigrad.
Abordage (5 -> 6)
(+) Abordage is an outstanding card which can provide both control and thinning. The card is even stronger in Patricidal Fury decks than in Onslaught (where however drawing a card part is even more beneficial if a crucial Pirate/Ship is found and can be armoured early) because of easy bloodthirst setup and synergy with the strongest bronze Pirate: Seagull. Abordage is also pretty much the sole reason why popular Warriors Raids are played with Patricidal Fury leader ability rather than Blaze of Glory.
Abordage has been nerfed to 6 three months ago with Dimun Smuggler at 4-cost and Dimun Pirate Captain at 4-power as compensation and still got reverted by the Chinese. Hopefully this time the community will proceed with buffs to other cards instead.
Dimeritium Shackles (4 -> 5)
(/) Dimeritum Shackles is an example of a card which doesn’t have optimal cost to satisfy everyone. At 5 it would be totally unplayed and unconsiderable, at 4 it feels too cheap and universal for a part of the playerbase and can be replayed many times by Alchemy with Crow Clan Druid and Bride of the Sea.
Brokilon Sentinel (4 -> 5)
(- -) Meant as an overall nerf to Precision Strike decks. I don’t understand this nerf; Precision Strike Allgod was the highest rated of PS decks in the April season in my experience and didn’t deserve any nerfs on top of what has been already scheduled, which is Allgod, Telianyn, sometimes Simlas. An overnerf, which at the same time makes Sentinel unplayable from hand; Sentinel was barely played, but still sometimes found place in decks which aimed at hyperthining.
Buff Brackets
+1 Power Increased
Kraken (3 -> 4)
(++) Explanations
Katakan (6 -> 7)
(+) 7 power Katakan looks colossal, but that’s a kind of card which Vampires need: high-end proactive play with a small contribution to engine overload. Vampires already have decent proactive plays like Incubus or Fiend, but those are often too weak to be a part of a reliable R3 hand.
Junod of Belhaven (6 -> 7)
(++) Explanations
War Chariot (5 -> 6)
(++) More variety for siege engine decks is always welcomed. War Chariot can be used to move row locked enemy threats like Keltullis or just move opponent’s unit to the ranged row so that it becomes Reinforced Trebuchet target.
Cat Witcher (4 -> 5)
(- -) Balance Council is a playground where all the ideas which you heard of so far are doomed to happen at some point proven they are popular enough. Just as in the case of Knights buffs, this one likely comes from misjudgement of Movement power and strives for impactful, “easy life” changes.
Movement isn’t popular on ladder, nor completely unplayed; I usually faced a few movement opponents in a season, typically less than 5. Some movement lists were really successful; I had 2.6k scores with Poison Movement Nekker and the same for lavk945. Balancewise Movement is fine, can snowball hardly when uncontrolled and Frog Mating Season + Stygga Castle played from Golden Nekker are huge powerplay by itself even in shorter rounds.
This buff would only make snowball scenario more likely, tempo abuses with Saskia: Commander in other lists more effective and meta to shrink even more around decks with efficient control like Midrange SY, Nilfgaard Enslave or ALBAAAAAA!
Celaeno Harpy (4 -> 5)
(++) Explanations
Aedirnian Mauler (4 -> 5)
(++) Needed for Mauler to see play. Would be an okay card now, synergistic with other damage cards and summonable with Shani.
Lyrian Cavalry (4 -> 5)
(+) Lyrian Cavalry is completely unplayed. After power buff it becomes playable from hand as well as Portal. Outside general weakness, Lyrian Cavalry is unplayed because doesn’t go too well with typical combination of Carroballista + Reinforced Ballista; removal value gets delayed by a turn.
Lyrian Cavalry expected growth per turn is 1, but sometimes can be more with cards like Demavend, Raffard’s Vengeance or Reaver Scout.
Redanian Knight (2 -> 3)
(- -) I can here pretty much repeat all the points from the Royal Inspiration paragraph. Redanian Knight at 3-power will be a decent 0-cost engine by itself, especially for metas with little movement/cheap locks and lots of removal, because it effectively has 6-power. It is also equivalent in points to 5-power +1 per turn engine assuming that we can make full use of Grace. Damaging Redanian Knight by 2 would make it play as 8 for 4, which is good and couldn’t be viewed as any real counter. RK could also be instantly Graced with Royal Inspiration leader now.
RK becomes an okay standalone engine, which may be used even outside Knights archetype.
Acherontia Deckhand (4 -> 5)
(+) Acheronita Deckhand is a card which couldn’t find its place: too weak for R3 compared with cards like Townsfolk, quite slow for R1 and requiring coin spend. Also relatively easy to remove unless a spender is already present on the board.
Deckhand would be interesting to experiment with, trying to find a fitting R1 package for it. The card would be quite good.
-1 Provsion Decreased
Viraxas: Prince (11 -> 10)
(/) Viraxas was already a fine card and after another buff he would be really strong. Viraxas is mainly used to get another duel with Seltkirk or Anseis, but there are also other options, like for example reeanabling Shani or Priscilla (all these options were run in Kimbolt Duelers deck, which Shinmiri played to 2.6k+ fMMR).
Viraxas buff wasn’t needed from balance considerations, the purpose is probably to raise more interest in the community to try this complex card.
Erland of Larvik (11 -> 10)
(/) Erland has been buffed to 10 cost 3 months ago by MetallicDanny and then reverted by Zong coalition in the last patch. In my experience, Erland wasn’t a big problem in March 2026 meta. At 10-cost Erland is a great carryover card in Nothern Realms decks which are built on units summoned or played from the deck. Erland is sometimes also a win condition card in decks like Shupe Mutagenerator (where 10-cost is additional benefit – Erland will be buffed in the deck from 10-cost units played ranged with active Muta), Ship Ballista spam or Dun Banners.
I think that full Erland potential wasn’t discovered yet in spite of nerf and the change would have okay impact in the short term with new decks being built.
Triss: Telekinesis (10 -> 9)
(+) FInishing 2-step change. Triss: Telekinesis is now stronger than before, just a good card if you play strong enough bronze specials. For example it can be interesting to try her in some all-in Golden Nekker Raids deck, or more common Arachas Swarm Golden Nekker with Bone Talisman.
Anna Henrietta (9 -> 8)
(++) Explanations
Geralt: Aard (8 -> 7)
(++) Explanations
Holger Blackhand (8 -> 7)
(++) Explanations
Mercenary Contract (6 -> 5)
(++) Syndicate decks often have consistency issues and Mercenary Contract is a cool option to make them more consistent. Mercenary Contract was already played in Crimes decks, but otherwise not that popular amongst ladder meta just because of effective 2-provision cost which can be used for value or control instead.
Ogre Warrior (6 -> 5)
(++) Ogre Warrior is a unit with original mechanic which invites a kind of “tall swarm” strategy (look at this clip to see what I mean), but most often is just run in Ogroids as a payoff in longer rounds. I’m very happy to see 2-step getting finished. Net the card surely got buffed, as the step from 2 to 1 effective cost is bigger than 1 power deficit.
Standard Bearer (5 -> 4)
(+) Standard Bearer and Knight Challenger are two card characteristics for an underdeveloped archetype of area enemy boost, which sees little play due to intrinsic weaknesses. Probably power buff was more proper here just because Standard Bearer is meant to be a part of R3 strategy and cards which support the gameplan are very few. There are also some concerns whether Bearer wouldn’t be a cheap tech card against boost swarms, especially in decks playing Ramon. I think it wouldn’t be that relevant.
Trained Hawk (5 -> 4)
(+) Trained Hawk needs 2 buffs to be played, that’s the first one.
Summary
All changes ordered by number of votes and attributed to factions and voting coalitions could be found in the BALANCE COUNCIL RESULTS SHEET.
I predicted a solid patch in my Balance Council post, which was made before MetallicDanny published recommendations. Indeed, most coalitions made reasonable picks, with exception of Fruits provision buff and a bit too much overlap in nerfed archetypes (Midrange Gift, Alchemy). Little impact hunting, buffs to interesting, underplayed cards.
MetallicDanny picks though completely changed the character of the patch. We got direct, “easy life” buffs to figured out archetypes (Knights, Movement) and crossing out of Brokilon Sentinel from the game to double provision nerf Precision Strike. While there used to be misjudged buffs from MD in the past, like Dryad Fledgling 6 power or Chameleon 5 power, this time four negative impact changes are packed in one patch. Hands down the worst bc from MD ever, which is disappointing given good overall contribution of this coalition and lots of experience.
Does it make May 2026 unplayable? Of course not, Gwent is selfbalancing pretty well and even metas with Selfeater 6-power, Spellweaver 5-power or Seagull 2/4 were endurable. Current state isn’t worse than those. The main problem isn’t even in balance, but in shifting the ladder meta into very specific direction of “just play decks good against X”. With engine overbuffs the number of successful ladder archetypes is limited and mainly made of already meta level decks: Midrange SY, Poison Bounty, Enslave 6, Aristocrats, Control ST… There is a common flawed logic, which I already explained during engine buffs from Seagull Coalition. Example line is as follows:
- Spellweavers are too weak to damage, Pirates matchup is impossible, Renfri NG with locks is doomed too, SY midrange autolose, need to buff them to 5 power.
- 5- power Spellweavers are rolling over most ladder decks but Pirates, Renfri NG and SY Midrange. The meta is Pirates, Renfri NG and SY Midrange and Spellweavers.
- No other cards buffed in the patch are played.
- Spellweaver is nerfed back to 4-power.
Another flaw of MD balance council is little care to distribute buffs between factions. We end up with 7 buffs to NR, some borderline powercreep. Other factions got little love in comparison.
What New To Try?
MO | Vampires with Katakan, especially Golden Nekker, Bonded MO with Celaeno Harpies, Arachas Swarm with Triss: Telekinesis into Bone Talisman, Ogre Warriors Ogroids and value maxing piles, Fruits Consume Nekker
NG | Assimilate Enslave / Double Cross with Anna Henrietta, Standard Bearer & Challengers deck with summoned units (Brigade, Affan…)
NR | Viraxas Falibor (like one in this vod), different decks with Maulers, War Chariot and Lyrian Cavalry, Erland with units summoned from the deck, Mages with Triss: Telekinesis
SK | Regis decks with Geralt: Aard, Flurry Witchers with Junod and maybe Aard.
ST | Movement Nekker, but now you need to wash after every game, Offensive Movement with Geralt: Aard and maybe Triss: Telekinesis into Lacerate, Nekker Dwarves with Triss: Tele into extra Workshop copy.
SY | Acherontia Deckhand Vice decks, Crimes with Mercenary Contract, R1 Consistency dependent decks with Contract (Gellert, Eveline, Fallen Knights…example targets)
Closure
May 2026 Gwent Patch is disappointing, but not terrible – a classic impact driven engine + control meta is expected, but still better balanced than on a few occassions in the past.
Sadly if you’re not a Northern Realms main, the list of really new stuff to try in this patch is short. Also if you happened to play Precision Strike deck with Allgod, Telianyn, Simlas and Gord you might have lost 4 provisions and 2 power from the deck. Don’t let self get mad enough to vote beyond Sentinel revert though! I also hope that +1 power buff to Sentinel idea instead doesn’t arise – turning PS decks into non-flexible pointslam bulldozers is not something to strive for.
See you on ladder!