Introduction
In this article I’d review Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Community Patch January 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 19th 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.
Before Patch
In December 2025 season I played over 600 games and finished at 3rd place of Pro Ladder, which has given me a good view on high pro ladder meta.
Ladder experience was much better than in the preceeding season thanks to Slave Infantry revert to 5-power. Pointslam Nilfgaard wasn’t that overwhelmingly abundant, but some decks remained very popular, most notably Soldiers (Allgod, Shupe). Renfri Tactical Decision was met less, but still represented and strong enough.
As can be seen from fMMR tails in the tables above, Scoia’tael and Nilfgaard were the most popular and successful factions by a bit. All top 4 NG scores are with different kinds of Enslave 6, which wasn’t that popular overall. Scoia’tael was the most varied faction with many strong archetypes capable of reaching high mmrs.
The variety of factions and archetypes met on ladder was decent, nevertheless not much use was made of “new” cards. Most decks were old design, usually of pointslam type. Can’t blame the patch – it got many entertaining changes.
MO | Arachas Swarm Midrange / Lara Swarm / Tatterwing, Fruits Midrange, sometimes Necromancer’s Tome decks, Vampires, Koshchey, Frost, some “one player” decks: Carapace Sabbath Dagon (Barwann), Arachas Swarm Nekker (KronoSex), Vampires Sabbath (ricoden)
NR | Shieldwall Midrange, Shieldwall Nekker (often Onagers + Vysogota), sometimes Melitele 2xRadovid, Mobilization Mutagenerator 2x Roche
NG | Allgod Soldiers, Shupe Soldiers, sometimes Cultists, Renfri Tactical Decision, Henry Shupe, Aristocrats, Constructs, Enslave 6 Joachim, “one player” deck: Enemy Boost Calveit (StoneHeart27)
SK | Pirates, Flurry Lippy (Shupe, sometimes Flaminica, Constructs), Battle Trance Svalblod, Golden Nekker Self-wound, Patricidal Fury Warriors, sometimes Witchers, Renfri Rain
ST | Harmony Guerilla / Quarixis, Elves Traps and Scenario, non-Devotion Gift, Devotion Schirru Guerilla, 4x Harvest Guerilla, Dragons, Dwarves, “one player”: 2xScenario Elves (KronoSex)
SY | Jackpot Yago, OtB Sesames, Bounty Nekker and Classical, Crimes Fallen Knights Igor (Sanavanter), Firesworn
My peak decks:
- NG Enslave 6 Assimilate (vod)
- MO Devotion Wild Hunt (vod)
- SY Cove Gangs
- NR Devotion Scouts
Balance Council Results
(++) great change
(+) good
(/) acceptable
(-) bad
(–) very bad
Nerf Brackets
-1 Power Decreased
Svalblod (7 -> 6)
(++) I prefer Svalblod to be in the 6-power state where he has proven to be playable enough. Svalblod netdecks are not too healthy for the meta when the lack of answer to Sigvald or too much dependence on swarm means a loss.
Captain Yago (6 -> 5)
(++) Explanations
Rainfarn of Attre (3 -> 2)
(-) Risky change especially for the long term. Buff to card like Rainfarn supports squeezing most from Rainfarn + Coup combo rather than support Enemy Boost. In fact one of Myamon’s Enslave 6 variants played Rainfarn + Coup with little enemy boost synergies. Rainfarn at 3 was okay. If we get to the place where Rainfarn would be considered for provision nerf, that would be an L for Enemy Boost, just like in the case Ivar.
Procession of Penance (13 -> 12)
(/) Weird nerf coming from CN community at a first glance, but with an idea behind. Procession of Penance at even number can deliberately be played as 8 or 10 to set up Damnation into Hemmelfart or Saint Gregory. A provision buff may come next now or later, after which PoP becomes quite strong even without the Damnation combo. Then power nerfs can come down to 10 if PoP is too strong. Note that with Firesworn Scribe at 6-cost, Damnation would no longer be guaranteed to give PoP, which is another reason to try some changes.
I think in practice the idea wouldn’t work, but let them cook.
Giantslayer (4 -> 3)
(/) 2-step change into 3p/5c. Another spicy idea. Giantslayer at 3-power would get armor when targeting 4 base power units. It means that it becomes less reliant on armor from Mahakam Forge leader – in fact after change Giantslayer may become more of a midrange card going well with leader like Precision Strike to guaranteed resilience. As a side perk, Mahakam Pass becomes less highrolly.
Giantslayer would become almost a different card, which surely would be interesting to see in practice. Would the final outcome be better for the game than the current, little played, but Mahakam Forge thematic Giantslayer is the main question.
Caravan Guard (3 -> 2)
(++) Explanations
Nauzicaa Brigade (2 -> 1)
(++) Our Coalition with Shinmiri was the one which proposed the Nauzicaa Brigade power buff, yet… THATS UNIRONICALLY MY MVP OF THIS PATCH. I’m really tired of NG Soldiers and other Midrange decks with Brigade being omnipresent on the ladder and with Nauzicaa Sergeant power buff this would have only gone deeper this season. Soldiers NG are rock-solid and if they include Battle Stations you have to be ready to defend +4 per turn engine from the first turn when they abuse red coin. If you lose on even cards, they would play full carryover with 2x/3x Artifacts in R2 and other stuff, then win short Round 3 with Brigades and usually Affan.
A great deal of Nilfgaard decks recently looks like a “most unconditional pointslam” contest and what is worst, these full deploy value decks are often successful. Disgrace to the Empire. We don’t learn about magic, medicine and diplomacy to bonk opponents with a club at the end of the day.
Deranged Corsair (3 -> 2)
(+) Corsair is a natural nerf target with 12 for 5 points potential. Hopefully the ping pong would stop after this month with CN community searching for other pirate bronzes to buff (like Dimun Pirate Captain this patch).
Eternal Eclipse Deacon (4 -> 3)
(++) Facing Cultists this season was a flashback to pre-Gwentfinity times for me and… hell, why did I even play this game back then? XD. Even if Cultists are hard enough to manage so that unlike Soldiers or Renfri Midrange you can’t play them when drunk, their matchups are extremely binary. Cultists players may do something wrong or draw badly and lose; opponents can’t do sth well and win unless having an answer for Scenario or playing one of very few specific archetypes.
Deacon at 3-power makes the battle more fair for unfavored decks, while Cultists are still playable (iirc there were Cultists players at 2550+ even with Deacon at 3-power) but not stable / rewarding enough to use them as a regular competitive deck.
Kikimore Worker (7 -> 6)
(++) Explanations
+1 Provision Increased
Inspired Zeal (14 -> 15)
(-) Inspired Zeal is a leader with 6 points raw value and payoff located at powerful cards playing above the curve like King Demavend or Raffard’s Vengeance. Inspired Zeal provision buff got a bit more justification after Kaedweni Revenant provision nerf. Nevertheless it still promotes the old ways of playing NR and main netdecks would run Fobidden Magic instead of at least one copy of Revenant. Also Zeal Mages are a bit underrated option. This change contributes to preservation of NR in the old tracks, which were already perfectly playable even if the fashion leaned more towards Shieldwall Midrange.
Double Cross (16 -> 17)
(/) Compared with Enslave 6 (which is an alternative Assimilate leader) this change is justified, but Enslave itself in my opinion is too high ceiling leader against certain decks for its cost. This change directly would bring more interest to already played and pretty much figured out (but not top popular compared with Soldiers) Shupe Henry decks.
Uprising (16 -> 17)
(/) Uprising was unpopular in spite of good pointslam value, seen mostly in NR Witchers decks. It was playable (see for example Uprising Kimbolt or Witchers vods), but too sophisticated when you can instead jam one 2+ points per turn engine after another and protect them with Shieldwall at the same provision cap. Just as in the case of Double Cross, I think that change is justified in comparison with the other leader (Shieldwall), but that’s mainly the other leader’s too high provision cap fault.
Also I would prefer to not see this buff along with Lyrian Scytheman in one patch – Scytheman is unplayed and more essential while buffs Uprising as a side effect. I think the leader may be too strong now overall.
The Eternal Eclipse (15 -> 16)
(/) Explanations. This change was prophylactic with respect to possible buffs to Cultists. If I could, I’d remove it from patchnotes now as a power buff to Eternal Eclipse Initiate didn’t happen. As a result there is a real risk of not only Eclipse getting reverted, but other buffs to Cultists (Deacon, Initiate). Can only appeal to Cultists enjoyers to stop at TEE revert and not consider power buffs to bronze cultists, which already caused lots of chaos.
Melitele (15 -> 16)
(+) Explanations
Torres var Emreis: Founder (14 -> 15)
(/) Torres is recently a new ping-pong card. The arguments against nerf are that Torres 2nd form is not that strong and Assimilate archetype is not the very top of competitive Nilfgaard. The arguments for nerf are that Torres 1st form is a high variance card, especially when combined with Jan Calveit, which can win games on spot and has a good reach, useful when defending push. If Assimilate needs any compensation, then a card having more counterplay / less rng can be buffed, like Coup de Grace.
Both sides have many advocates, which for now makes revert more likely than not in the next season.
The Heist (13 -> 14)
(/) Another card which got ping-ponged and likely would continue next month unless something is done. Arguments for 14-cost is that Heist is abusable for carryover with Angus/Vanadain and high value in long rounds if bounce targets like Vernossiel, Riordain or Hostage Taker. Arguments against are that Heist Elves, while high ceiling, are not the strongest Elves variant, aren’t stable enough with respect to draws and matchups and Heist itself is a card with cool effect.
Regis: Bloodlust (10 -> 11)
(/) Creative, but devilish nerf proposed by Zong and Chinese community. The idea is to make Regis:Bloodlust more convenient to summon with Ihuarraquax. Another side effect is that Masterful Sihil can be transformed into Regis: Bloodlust. The pool is big enough (12 cards now) to dilute highroll possibility, but still… ~8% chance for big boy finisher!
Mill players will not understand…
Caranthir: Golden Child (8 -> 9)
(++) Explanations
Firesworn Scribe (5 -> 6)
(/) 2-step change to 5p/6c. Personally I’m not a fan as it invites more binary play focused on engine overload and also makes already strong Hemmelfart more oppressive.
Buff Brackets
+1 Power Increased
Yaga (2 -> 3)
(-) Ever heard of Ivar’s sister? She is really funny!
On a serious note, Yaga was already played as a random value card with good enough result, no reason to incentivize it more when there are many honest cards in Monsters which can be buffed instead. Even Keltullis seems noble and more deserving.
Ivar Evil-Eye (1 -> 2)
(++) Explanations
Vernon Roche (1 -> 2)
(++) Vernon at 1 power proven too strong.
Nauzicaa Sergeant (3 -> 4)
(/) Cycle’s return confirmed in both directions. While standalone it is reasonable for Sergeant to play as 10 for 6, at this point I’m also really fed up with Soldiers decks.
Lesser Witch (5 -> 6)
(++) Explanations
Crow Clan Druid (4 -> 5)
(+) Back when Crow Clan Preachers were at 4-cost a buff to Crow Clan Druid was out of question. Now that’s effectively an interesting buff to all decks which spawn crows (Alchemy Gedyneith, Crowmandos…) and play some 4-cost Alchemies. In such decks CCD has to be treated as a payoff card which plays above the curve thanks to crow spawning cards playing a bit below. For instance 5-power Crow Clan Druid into Dimeritum Shackles would be equivalent to 6-power lock card like Dorregaray, but at expense of including cards spawning crows and at the risk of bricking in case of missing those.
Crow Clan Druid can be really good from blue coin in R1 with Mask of Uroboros.
Dimun Pirate Captain (3 -> 4)
(/) This buff would have been a big yes but for combination with Abordage which let’s shut down immediately any 5-power engine (and Abordage can be activated instantly with Patricidal Fury leader). For this reason I preferred Dimun Corsair provision buff.
Tuirseach Bearmaster (3 -> 4)
(++) Explanations
Lyrian Scytheman (4 -> 5)
(++) Lyrian Scytheman along with Vissegerd and Reynard Odo Grace effect are the only NR payoff cards for Boosted Swarm. In spite of 12 for 4 ceiling, Scytheman was unplayed because the process of building up boost swarm board is rather slow in R1(need to both swarm and boost) and in R3 one would often like to play more stable and expensive cards already.
I think Scytheman must be in a strong state if the real boost swarm is supposed to exist and if any troublesome, other cards run in the same decks should take priority for nerfs.
Kaedweni Sergeant (3 -> 4)
(/) Not sure about this change. I’ve seen Sergeant a few times in Onager + Vysogota Golden Nekker decks last month. Card wasn’t unplayable. Now it would play as 8 for 4 + synergies (in theory can be “5” when removed, but in practice almost always there would be higher priority targets). I think Sergeant without Devotion may be better than Kerack Marine now thanks to the option of leading the way for more greedy units and other synergies.
Still something to see in play and big support for Boosted Swarm.
-1 Provsion Decreased
Temple of Melitele: Congregation (18 -> 17)
(-) Temple is a card polarizing the deck, which possibly gives game winning carryover on spot. I’d prefer if it stood at 18-cost for now. Wouldn’t it be better if sth new got buffed instead?
Renfri (16 -> 15)
(-) It was clear the revert will happen, nevertheless, wouldn’t it be better if sth new got buffed instead? Tactical Decision Renfri was playable enough even with Renfri at 16.
Telianyn aep Collen (13 -> 12)
(/) Telianyn is a tutor card for specifically built decks, which also offers additional value of ~6 to ~14 points depending if Order effect goes through and if it does what Backup Plan roll is. She can be used to polarize the deck even more for short rounds when tutoring one of high end elves like Simlas. I’m not a fan of buff to this card, especially in the context of no nerfs to pointslam or Havest spam Scoia’tael in the patch. Nevertheless I think that if Telianyn is balanced next by power nerf she ends up in a better and more interesting spot than now.
Geralt: Axii (10 -> 9)
(++) Deserved buff, interesting mainly for SK Witchers Golden Nekker decks, where synergies with both Ciris are interesting.
Aguara: True Form (10 -> 9)
(++) The pool of specials is so broad, that having this card in GN range brings nothing toxic.
Fallen Rayla (10 -> 9)
(++) Explanations
Kolgrim (10 -> 9)
(-) A revert of the nerf we suggested in the previous month, pretty much expected. To me at 10-cost Kolgrim wasn’t weak enough to warrant revert (climbed to 2500 with Ballad Clog), and at 9-cost it was abused in a binary way, so… wouldn’t it be better if sth new got buffed instead?
Mad Kiyan (8 -> 7)
(++) Explanations
Palmerin de Launfal (7 -> 6)
(++) Enemy Boost is decent, but needs a little more love for more attention. Palmerin is a thematic card which often gets excluded. It has extra synergy with cards which can set up the topdeck, like Jan Calveit or Fisher King.
Doppler (5 -> 4)
(-) I’m afraid this card at 4-cost would see play mainly in all-human decks, which right now is Renfri NG and maybe Renfri SK as 11 tempo a R1 opener unit. In concept it is supposed to support also Relicts Monsters and Scoia’atel with Quarixis, but I find this unreal. In Relicts Doppler has a small antisynergy with Selfeater (Selfeater usually should be played first) and isn’t great Necromancer’s Tome target / Golden Nekker topdeck as well. It would be just a filler, probably not getting full value because of necessary non-Relict cards included in decks (GN, Decree, Oneiro…). The possibility of triggering Quarixis another time is a “win more” scenario.
Summary
All changes ordered by number of votes and attributed to factions and voting coalitions could be found in the BALANCE COUNCIL RESULTS SHEET.
The January 2026 Gwent patch is about the best it could have been. No changes were unpredicted. Our pre-emptive nerfs to Highland Warlord and Lord Riptide succeeded and ping pong stopped – thanks to everyone who trusted in the plan and contributed to it! Artorius Vigo power buff and Rioghan power nerf didn’t happen out of the changes we dislike. Very controversial Caravan Guard placeholder which we proposed got through.
The main regret is no Filavandrel provision nerf which was crucial and recommended at *** by Ofiri&Qcento.
While patch is about as good as it could have been, the main question at the end of the day is: would January Season 2026 be good to play. Here I think that competitive experience would be fine, but very little will change in the spectre of decks faced on ladder. Clog with Kolgrim will replace Cultists as the “toxic” NG, but is a bit less binary and weaker still. In NR people would try Shieldwall and Uprising Boost Swarm, some will turn back to Temple Zeal. SY will experiment with Fallen Rayla in Golden Nekker. NG will try Renfri Doppler and Shupe Henry with extra provision. Some ST 4xHarvest variants would get +1 provision with Telianyn, she would be tried in whatever midrange decks. That’s it, the rest is old decks. I can only hope my predictions wouldn’t be valid and some surprise happens.
Of course there is also the underground where real Gwent takes place – here stuff like Mad Kiyan or Tuirseach Bearmaster would be enjoyed, but few people are ready to go down there.
I think the next patches would have to look at the most popular and successful decks on ladder and try to find ways to nerf them for real – otherwise the ladder would get flat boring. If I think about playing 600 games another month against Nilfgaard Soldiers, Precision Strike Dwarves, Renfri TD… well, may as well do something productive.
What New To Try?
MO | Mourntart Bonded Fruits / Arachas with Lesser Witch, Yaga Relicts, Yaga Fruits/Carapace Engines.
NG | Double Cross Assimilate, Enemy Boost and other combo decks with Palmerin
NR | Boosted Swarm with Uprising/Shieldwall (Vysogota+Onager+Vissegerd)
SK | Tuirseach Bearmaster + Ulula experiments in different decks – Feral Bond, Berserkers, Primal Savagery, Seagulls, Anglerfish, Rage of the Sea leader… there are many ways to provide beasts, Alchemy/Crowmandoes Gedyneith with Crow Clan Druid, Sihil with Dimun Pirate Captain and a chance of Regis Bloodlust from transform, SK Witchers GN with Geralt: Axii
ST | Optimist would say Quarixis Harmony with Dopplers, Telianyn decks aren’t really new.
SY | Golden Nekker Self-poison with Fallen Rayla
Closure
January 2026 Gwent Balance Patch is pretty good and reasonable – there is not a single “double minus” change. Sadly probably the meta shifts would be quite small, but nevertheless the game should be enjoyable. Just pick the path of memer and join the Gwent underground or a Gwent tryhard and smash through the jungle of pointslam decks. Anything in the middle would probably be least enjoyable (hey, that’s me).
See you on ladder and Happy New Year!