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 22nd 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 March Season 2026 I played 400+ Pro Rank games, majority on stream. I almost completely restricted myself to 4 factions, therefore most of my games were played at 2550+ fMMR and effectively I feel like I played more than in January Season, where I used all factions and had 600+ games in total.
Highest ST score is Precision Strike Allgod Schirru, SK Self-wound Nekker, SY Devotion Jackpot Yago (played by Kams as well)
Yaro8 decks:
- NG | Imprisonment GN Clog (2610 to peak) / Enslave 6 Damage
- ST | Devotion Guerilla
- SY | Control Crimes
- SK | Ursine Svalblod
The ladder experience in March Season 2026 was mixed to me.
The good part was more competitiveness on the very top of Pro Ladder (~up to 8th spot), which is also visible in numbers. The Top8 cutoff in March is ~80 points higher than in January, while Top20 is at similar level. The reason for more competitiveness is probably BaM Cup cycle, where ladder position matters for qualification and Top1 gives guaranteed spot in the Finals. The feeling was really different compared with January Season, where my opponents were mainly single deck enjoyers. Here they didn’t stop play, but got in a great deal gatekept from highest mmrs by others from Top8. The gameplay level and drive for the win of average opponent at high ladder grew abruptly. Also Russians are now back the most represented nation in Top100 of Gwent Pro Ladder; in late 2025 it used to be China.
The bad part was that the successful deckbuilding paths got really stale and there was not much space for creativity, especially above 10 provision cost. Want to be successful on ladder? Just camp Hive Mind, Kaer Trolde + Dracoturtle, Temple of Melitele or Vanadain + Simlas value like our grandfathers did, sometimes go more greedy with Ship Ballista abuse or Arachas Sabbath.
Decks I’ve mainly met at 2550-2600 fMMR range:
MO | Arachas Engines Sabbath or Necromancer’s Tome, Golden Nekker Relicts Force of Nature, Midrange Arachas, Tatterwing, Deathwish, Carapace Dagon
NR | Inspired Zeal Temple, Ship Ballista Spam, Melitele, Cursed, Witchers, Shieldwall Midrange
NG | Enslave 6 Damage, Enslave 6 Assimilate, Double Cross Henry Shupe, Formation Soldiers Shupe & Allgod, Nekker Alzur Hyperthin, Aristocrats, Nekker Clog, Constructs
SK | Onslaught Pirates, Patricial Fury Warriors, Self-wound Svalblod & Golden Nekker, Blaze of Glory Renfri, Alchemy, Lippy Shupe,
ST | Guerilla Harmony, non-Devo Symbiosis, Elves Normal / Vanadain 5x Waylay, PS Allgod Schirru, Dwarves, Dragons, GN Movement Poison,
SY | Jackpot Yago, Lined Pockets Crimes, OtB Midrange Sesame, Cove Gangs, Classic Bounty, Firesworn, Jackpot Salamandra
Balance Council Results
(++) great change
(+) good
(/) acceptable
(-) bad
(–) very bad
Nerf Brackets
-1 Power Decreased
Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart (3 -> 2)
(++) Explanations
Captain Yago (5 -> 4)
(++) Explanations
Radeyah (8 -> 7)
(++) 2-step change, -1 cost next. Radeyah would become playable in Golden Nekker decks for more variety; normal Shupe decks will also get more freedom with extra provision.
Triss: Telekinesis (4 -> 3)
(/) Also a 2-step change with -1 cost next, but here I’m not sure what is the real upside of putting Triss: Telekinesis in the GN range. At the same time she becomes a straight target for Coup de Grace.
Yustianna an Craite (6 -> 5)
(–) MetallicDanny’s community doesn’t love facing Pirates, the plausible Abordage nerf they recommended 2 months ago got instantly reverted by Chinese and here we are. Yustianna at 5 power is a bit too weak, the nerf has already happened from MD in the past and got reverted.
Morkvarg (6 -> 5)
(++) Discard package in Skellige is a bit overtuned with Heymaey Skald into Skirmisher being hands down the best pointslam play at zero cost plus extra thinning. Morkvarg -1 power also gives a bit less tempo to Lippy decks. Good change, eyeing especially the popular Renfri Blaze of Glory netdeck.
Penitent (2 -> 1)
(++) Penitent became quite popular both as a card to use with the not-too-balanced Urn of Shadows stratagem and Lilit’s Omen. Okay, harmless nerf.
Ogre Warrior (6 -> 5)
(++) Two-step change to 5/5, which is a safe approach. Ogre Warrior with a unique mechanic deserves to see a bit more play and 5-cost should make him easier to include in big boys decks, not necessarily only Ogroids.
Kikimore Stalker (4 -> 3)
(+) Stalker power nerf was already certain based on community poll results. Engine Arachas decks with Sabbath or Necromancer’s Tome proven too overwhelming and Hive Mind even more unbalanced against decks lacking graveyard hate.
Stalker may return to 3/5 state where it was unplayed now. I think that given the surge of engine Arachas it wouldn’t be unplayed anymore at old numbers.
Viper Witcher (4 -> 3)
(+) Explanations (Even without Kolgrim Golden Nekker Clog was very strong, which got confirmed by Yaro score with the deck linked in Before Patch section)
+1 Provision Increased
Renfri (15 -> 16)
(+) Explanations
The Heist (14 -> 15)
(/) After power nerf to Angus I’ve started to see less Heist opponents. I don’t love the way Heist is abused with Angus / Vandain against decks lacking removal, but I think the nerf wasn’t necessary at this point.
Heist is not an Armor Exploit level of toxicity / binarity / mechanic overlook. It should be playable, but not strong enough to be popular.
This overnerf may make sense as a way to stabilize Heist at 14 rather than 13 cost though assuming a revert.
Golden Nekker (13 -> 14)
(+) Golden Nekker decks weren’t dominant on ladder by any means compared with “normal” builds, but nevertheless a nerf is fine. Examples of successful GN decks last season were Relicts, Clog or Self-wound Nekker.
With each Balance Council iteration more cards get into 4-9 region and therefore GN is also a desirable change long term. Deck like Selfwound Nekker right now often gives impression of infinite resources on top of ~25 pointswing with GN.
Golden Nekker can now be transformed to Triss: Meteor Shower with Land Of A Thousand Fables which is however probably useless but for memes.
Lippy Gudmund (11 -> 12)
(-) Lippy is a unique card in Skellige, with specific gameplay and strategic considerations. In the ladder practice though Lippy decks are often tempo abusive and unpleasant to face – here Shupe Aerondight can be singled out.
At high ladder I met very few Lippy opponents, but surely the archetype remained frequent in the mainstream. In my opinion a provision nerf discentivizes Lippy route too much and removes freedom from already quite rigid builds – I’d prefer a power nerf.
Cave Troll (10 -> 11)
(++) Explanations
Donimir of Troy (10 -> 11)
(++) Explanations (late in the season I’ve met a lot of Ship Ballista + Donimir abusers, which makes me even more happy about this nerf. However a direct nerf to Ship Ballista will also be needed. Somehow Ship Ballista keeps getting lowest support in our balance poll as people don’t taste enough of this medicine yet)
Erland of Larvik (10 -> 11)
(/) I’m not sold on nerf to Erland. While I can see this card being abusable in R3 / high carryover value, at high mmrs Erland was rather seldom for me and when I met him, his value wasn’t astounding. Plausible nerf, but not my pony.
Lilit’s Omen (9 -> 10)
(+) Lilit Omen became relatively cheap at 9-cost, so that became used not only for Gernichora + Mammuna or Koshchey + Kikimore Queen win-con combos, but also just for tempo thinning with cards like Archespore + Penitent.
I’m not a fan of tempo / surprise value (in the case of Gernichora + Mammuna summon) which Lilit’s Omen offers, so I’m okay with Omen nerf.
Ulrich (9 -> 10)
(-) Ulrich provision nerf was suggested by the Zong coalition. The reason was that Ulrich featured in the Lined Pockets Crimes deck. Encouraged by this I tried Ulrich as well in a Crimes deck and indeed when found early Ulrich got very good value including a couple of Intimidation triggers.
Nevertheless on average Ulrich wasn’t that good – this card sometimes bricks in practice or at least forces keeping a bronze non-spender unit in hand, which can be troublesome especially in short rounds.
If any nerf to Ulrich, I’d much prefer -1 power, which keeps Ulrich tutorable with Mercenary Contract. It is a direct revert of the last season buff from MetallicDanny and hard to believe that 3/3 provision nerf suggestions from CN being reverts of MD buffs from last 2 months was an accident.
Hefty Helge (8 -> 9)
(/) Opinions on Hefty Helge diverge: I’ve seen suggestion to nerf it, buff by power and buff by provision. Naked Helge is not a great card: easy to remove for many decks and trading down to locks, for example -3 in provisions and -1 in power to Alba Armored Cavalry. Also in case of defending a push, Helge plays just for 4 tempo.
However if we look at popular Damage Enslave variants like the one played by Yaro, Helge could be protected in many ways there: War Council, Joachim, Imperial Diviner as purifier. It is not unusual to meet variants which even run defender (Ffion) to protect Helge. And unanswered Helge usually just wins the game.
Controversial change, I don’t mind it that much if it will improve gameplay experience for a part of playerbase as Damage Enslave was really popular in the March season and usually obliterates engines and many non-meta decks.
Buff Brackets
+1 Power Increased
Runewright (6 -> 7)
(+) A buff to unplayed card is always welcomed, but in the case of Runewright + Dulla it is both low impact and pure RNG.
Marlene de Trastamara (6 -> 7)
(/) Marlene is a Round 1 / value bleed Round 2 resilient card which requires assistance of a purifier. The most straightforward and fastest one is Redanian Secret Service coming from the deck, which is characteristic for Shieldwall decks, especially Golden Nekker. This is already played and Marlene there can contribute to carryover abuse along with other cards like vanilla Ciri, Nova, Dandelion.
Outside Shieldwall, Marlene can be attempted in a cheap package to get something out of R1, or included in a deck which would run a multi-use purifier like Caretaker or Caellach anyway for other units. The catch though is it needs to be a part of R1 plan and consistent enough.
Paulie Dahlberg (6 -> 7)
(++) Explanations
Síle de Tansarville (5 -> 6)
(+) In combination with Forbidden Magic, Sile just becomes a good card right now.
Hawker Smuggler (5 -> 6)
(-) This power buff makes Hawker Smuggler pretty much a universal carryover card to be considered in any deck. If unanswered and passed at 7, Smuggler in R1 can bring up to 7 points of carryover when the opponent goes down to 4 cards.
HS would be played a lot in decks which care for polarization more than provisions and round control. To the point it may start to be annoying.
Messenger of the Sea (3 -> 4)
(/) Messenger got reverted by independent voters. It is a controversial one, nerfed mainly because of stellar ceiling of MotS in Renfri Beasts with Kraken. However, it hits this deck way less hard than in the case of thematic Rain, which replays Messengers with Freya and is seldom on ladder.
It is not the first time Messenger gets reverted. I think that Kraken needs +1 power treatment instead so that Deathblow condition always requires a synergistic card and Kraken tempo is lower.
Odrin (6 -> 7)
(++) Explanations
Wagenburg (3 -> 4)
(++) Explanations
Tridam Infantry (4 -> 5)
(++) Tridam Infantry is a card characteristic for engine boost NR, goes well with Temerian Drummer, Anna Strenger and Vysogota. Placed between Drummer and Anna, Tridam becomes ~+2 per turn engine, which can get even more value from boost cards with charges. Tridam was practically unplayed in March 2026.
Tridam also used to be played in Travelling Priestess decks until replaced by 2x Onager. Priestess got multiple nerfs recently and the main variants include Musicians of Blaviken, so Tridam should bring nothing more than variety and other ways to build the deck.
The downside of Tridam is always going tall.
Arena Endrega (4 -> 5)
(++) Buff to Insanity SY, like Jackpot Greater Brothers. Personally I’d love Blindeye Apothecary buff first even more as it has a better floor and can be used with Bloody Good Friends in OtB Gangs deck, but its great anyway!
-1 Provsion Decreased
Sigismund Dijkstra (12 -> 11)
(+) Dijkstra was already good enough in my experience, but it’s fine to incentivize him even more as the card was pretty much unplayed till deckbuff cards got overclocked.
Iorveth’s Gambit (11 -> 10)
(/) All-in traps were rare at high mmrs, so balancewise this shouldn’t prove troublesome even if a part of the playerbase actively hates traps. My preferred buff however would have been Mahakam Horn as this trap sees little play and is an everlasting source of mindgames and memes.
Gascon: Iron Falcon (10 -> 9)
(++) A deserved buff. Gascon: IF was played mainly for Renfri’s Gang highroll in Renfi decks. Now that Gang is at 5-power, the whole combo loses 3 points of tempo, so shouldn’t feel that overwhelming.
The benefit for the game though is meant to be Gascon: IF played for other bandits. There are 8 neutral bandits to roll from. Only Iron Falcon Infantry can be of universal value if one row is empty and Strays of Spalla decent tempo (12), but shuffling a gold into the deck is usually a downside. Strays, Iron Falcon Juggler, Troubadour and Cutthroat require a Bonded deck to work. Gascon there would be played after Jugglers, possibly bringing another Jugglers.
Gascon: IF is best embedded then in Renfri Bonded deck with Runemage and the patch aligns pretty well to try such builds which were not any popular before.
Tissaia de Vries (10 -> 9)
(++) Tissaia is mainly recognized for carryover patience abuse with Leticia & Alumni as well as enabler of order carryover in Meditating Mages spam. Both of these decks run Defender (Donimir) which is nerfed in this patch.
Tissaia has been practically unplayed since the times of 4-power Meditating Mages. The card is interesting in general for Mage decks, enabling spectacular turns with tactical flashes and pointswings in longer rounds. Tissaia is viewed as a “win more” card, but sometimes she can be “win-condition” when patience values are low, but round control has been seized.
Tinboy (10 -> 9)
(+) Tinboy is a “wide punish” card, often autowinning matchups against swarm decks. Tinboy didn’t see much play because Syndicate is already tight on provisions. Also Tinboy tribute effect is quite conditional and doesn’t work well as a universal King of Beggars trigger, unlike units like Jacques de Aldersberg or Savolla.
Tinboy surely would be played at 9 cost; if included in Syndicate top gods would depend on how much ladder meta swarms.
Saber-Tooth Tiger (9 -> 8)
(++) Explanations
Bart (8 -> 7)
(++) Bart seen little play in Gangs because doesn’t provide a useful tag himself and delays cards like Pulling the Strings or Little Bird.
Would be played as a coin source as opener in R1.
Horst Borsodi (7 -> 6)
(++) Brothers were still a bit too weak to see play. I think now it would be the time for them to get a bit more presence in decks which need immediate spenders, perhaps some OtB variants.
Renfri’s Gang (6 -> 5)
(++) Explanations
Cutthroat (5 -> 4)
(/) Cutthroat often looks better on paper than in practice. Cutthroat would work best as R1 control tool in deck with easy access to damage pings and running more than just 2 basic copies of Cutthroats; otherwise Cutthroat wouldn’t be consistent enough.
Okay buff, would incentivize more Bonded deckbuilding but also reinforce the strongest ones (like NG Gascon Hyperthin).
Summary
All changes ordered by number of votes and attributed to factions and voting coalitions could be found in the BALANCE COUNCIL RESULTS SHEET.
Overall the shape of the patch is pretty good, some vital nerfs have been made, but most importantly buffs are varied and interesting, not much driven by direct impact hunting.
What is missing in the patch are real nerfs to the most efficient strategies. I got tired in the season by the same core cards outscaling any tries with newly buffed cards. Yet stuff like Dracoturtle, Temple of Melitele or Abordage gets reverted.
Also in NR in my ladder experience the balance changes took a weird turn and I’ve seen a lot of heavy carryover (Ship Ballista, Erland, Temple, Radovid + Philter in Melitele, Redanian Agents…) and poinstlam (Demavend + Priscilla, Temple…) abuse, way more than genuine archetypes.
Buffs to bonded cards (Cutthroat, Iron Falcon Infantry in the previous patch), Renfri’s Gang and Gascon: Iron Falcon can pave the way for new class of decks for each faction based on Renfri and Bandits package. Renfri loves bonded especially because of Highwaymen – cheap thinning tool for all-human decks which struggle with efficient tutoring.
What New To Try?
MO | Mourntart Bonded Renfri
NG | Bonded Hyperthin, Bonded Renfri, Memes with Wagenburg (Heavy Cavalry + Veil/Purifier, Living Armor + Alchemist)
NR | Siege with Odrin, Boost Engines with Tridam Infantry, Spellweavers with Sile, Deckbuff with Dijkstra, Golden Nekker Shieldwall with Marlene, Bonded NR, Order Mages with Tissaia.
SK | Bonded Sihil with Cutthroats, Wagenburg Armor Pirates / Selfwound meme
ST | Hawker Smuggler anywhere, Harmony Nekker with Paulie, All-in Traps with Iorveth Gambit, Precision Strike Bandits Renfri, Cat Witchers Mentors Nekker / Control / No-unit with Sabertooth Tiger, Armor Dwarves with Wagenburg
SY | Cove Gangs with Bart, Off the Books with Tinboy, Eveline with Borsodi brothers, Insanity Off the Books / Jackpot with Arena Endrega and Greater Brothers
Closure
I’m optimistic for April Season 2026 – there is a lot of stuff going from different directions to try. Monsters and Nilfgaard may feel a bit ignored, but still have some spice to cook with from previous patches.
The experience would be probably a bit worse for competitive play, where likely little would change due to a couple of factors. Not wholesome buffs, but lack of nerfs to core powerplays are entirely responsible for this.
See you on ladder!