Introduction
In this article I’d review Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Community Patch October 2024 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 and for the influencers suggestions before patch check out Vote Map by A_Reveur here.
It was the third council I collaborated with Shinmiri and we published our 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
September season was the last one accounting for Crown Points in Gwent Community Masters. These mattered for a handful of players able to earn a spot for Masters Finals Qualifiers (8 players below Mya-Mon and me in Crown Points rating would play). Overall, the season was non-competitive and hard to say when any ladder competition would return.
My scores above aren’t any representative for the strength of the particular factions because I played a variety of decks, often memes (Big Aglais, Circle trick…). The only thing which they show is that you can build a sensible new deck on your own and reach high fMMR – there is no strict ladder meta. My peak decks:
- SK – Ursine Ritual Self-wound Nekker
- MO – Fruits Midrange Nekker (not a strong deck, but has some points)
- ST – Forge Dwarves Nekker
- NR – Mobilization Ship Ballista Reavers Nekker
Stats between Top2500 and Top100 differ mostly in two aspects in my opinion. First, Monsters are the best faction along with Syndicate in the 2500 sample, but 5th faction amongst Top100. Indeed, while I met many Monsters opponent throughout the season (usually Fruits Midrange), the very last days I’ve met almost none.
Second, Nilfgaard was clearly the worst performing faction in Top2500, the only one with negative overall winrate. In Top100 NG %wr is still the lowest, but over 60% and close to next factions. What I met on ladder mainly:
- Monsters | Fruits Midrange
- Nilfgaard | Imperial Formation Shupe Calveit, earlier in the season Aristocrats, variety of decks including Enslave and Henry Double Cross.
- Northern Realms | very few opponents, Myamon with Reavers
- Skellige | Pirates Compass, Patricidal Fury Warriors
- Scoia’tael | Devo Guerilla, sometimes Renfri Precision Strike or Dwarves at lower MMRs
- Syndicate | Lined Pockets Fallen Knights, Dauren on Hidden Cache 2x Scenario.
Balance Council Results
Nerf Brackets
(++) Change I like a lot
(+) Change I like
(/) Okay
(-) Change I dislike
(- -) Change I dislike a lot
-1 Power Decreased
Living Armor (8 -> 7)
(++) Explanation
Whoreson Junior (5 -> 4)
(+) Whoreson Junior at 5 power made playing non-Devo Midrange SY quite questionable. It was already a good card at 4 power and at 5p it was capable of providing persistent board control with a small support, while trading up in points. Reasonable nerf, hope it wouldn’t make meta strive towards engine play too much.
Lord Riptide (10 -> 9)
(++) Lord Riptide was an outstanding control card, not only in MO. In spite of losing Might for Ogroids (which is seldomly important), I welcome this change. Hard to make a better use of power nerf slot.
Roach (4 -> 3)
(++) Explanation
Immortals (6 -> 5)
(+) Explanation, Shin liked this change more than me – I didn’t find Immortals combo that troublesome, but wasn’t against nerf either.
Vildkaarl (4 -> 3)
(+) Okay change given Power Nerf bracket problems. The difference between 4 and 3 is not as important as it was between 5 and 4. Knut would do same damage, trigger from Totem would have same effect as at 4-power. Ursine Ritual would be able to save an extra charge for other units, which is quite important in decks like Self-wound Nekker. Naval Supremacy will now trigger Vildkaarl instantly, which however likely would be of no use.
Fallen Knight (5 -> 4)
(++) So we have given Fallen Knights a legit final trial in the last patch and Hemmelfart combo was still too much. Fallen Knight place is simply at 4 power and we can decide between 6 or 5-cost.
Bare-Knuckle Brawler (5 -> 4)
(/) Understand where this nerf comes from although not a fan of reverts. Brawler would always be between unplayable and potentially oppressive state.
Anglerfish (3 -> 2)
(/) First step towards 2p/4c Anglerfishes. This way Rain would get more provisions to fit juicy cards in, while less tempo oppressive. I like cheap thinning overall and think that buffs to cards like Wild Hunt Riders or Mahakam Volunteers had very good impact on the game. In this case though I’m not sure how essential this buff really is but for making Rain players life more colorful. Anglerfishes at 4 prov would be so good, that other decks may start to consider playing a small Rain package: 4 points and 2x thinning for free. Or other archetypes would start to use Rage Of The Sea leader.
Illusionist (4 -> 3)
(-) While Illusionist was too strong at 4p/4c, i think 4p/5c direction would have been more proper. Bronzes in Gwent generally are used to support R1. A handful of them is used in R3, sometimes with whole deck built around them. Illusionist can be one of those, although thanks to outstanding statline they could have been included in almost every archetype. What power nerf does is making dedicated R3 Illusionist strategies lose many points and getting easier to disrupt. Not being worthy in R3, Illusionist may become dead but for use as an opportunity tech card or fodder for Mushy Truffle.
+1 Provision Increased
Deadeye Ambush (15 -> 16)
(/) Buff to Elves and Elves + Traps hybrid. Okay change. As Devo ST is the main pick right now, a small buff to Ambush should serve for variety.
The Eternal Eclipse (14 -> 15)
(++) Explanation
Ale of the Ancestors (12 -> 13)
(++) Standalone carryover abuse card with a very high ceiling and extra value possible when protecting threats. Good nerf.
Morvudd (12 -> 13)
(++) Explanation
Witches’ Sabbath (11 -> 12)
(++) Explanation
Magic Compass (11 -> 12)
(/) Skellige is at the crossroads. Either it has cheap, good thinning and expensive Compass or harder thinning and cheap Compass. The first approach seems closer to reality now, so an okay change.
Cleaver (11 -> 12)
(-) Cleaver is a strong engine and spender, but didn’t see that much play until Fallen Knights became abused. I think this change may be an overnerf, but we will see.
Golden Nekker (10 -> 11)
(+) Good, natural change. WIth buffs to bronzes and mid/low end golds (which are popular in Balance Councils), Golden Nekker becomes stronger.
Raiding Fleet (6 -> 7)
(/) Raiding Fleet at 6-cost was good, at 7-cost barely played. If I had to pick a nerf, I would prioritze Abordage nerf. Abordage got way stronger after buffs to bronze Pirates and is played also in Patricidal Fury Warriors. Still an explainable nerf.
Blue Stripes Commando (5 -> 6)
(+) First step to power buff and another test. Hopefully, the most abusive part: Defender + Foltest would also be nerfed till then.
Buff Brackets
+1 Power Increased
Freixenet (5 -> 6)
(/) Buff to Devotion ST, mainly Nature’s Gift, but other decks also may consider Freixenet – he would always at least return provision cost and Frog Mating season is a strong way to lower his cooldown. I’m okay with this change, but not a big fan – strong, easy to play pointslam may be bad for overall meta and promote greedy decks with engines going tall.
Caesar Bilzen (4 -> 5)
(+) Nice change, Caesar was a bit too low floor and his synergy with cards like Sigi Reuven or Brute in Jackpot not used on ladder. On the other hand, Caesar is a bit cheesy, gimmick card, relying on surprise value to some extent.
Serrit (5 -> 6)
(++) Explanation
Egmund (4 -> 5)
(++) Explanation
Morkvarg (5 -> 6)
(+) In the context of Roach nerf this change looks pretty good. Morkvarg power buff not only improves the Discard package, but also Lippy and Blaze Of Glory leader ability.
Nauzicaa Sergeant (3 -> 4)
(/) Ink depleted.
Whisperer of Dol Blathanna (3 -> 4)
(++) Big buff to Spella’tael. Not sure how healthy this card would be again (definitely more than Fallen Knights with Hemmelfart though because easier to remove), but good to try. Whisperer becomes a high ceiling engine with +4 per special scaling, with the drawback of crowding the board in a long round. Could be played via tutor to trigger Orb of Insight chains for high instant value.
Rivian Pikeman (4 -> 5)
(++) Interesting card which supports Cooldown cards and damage in Northern Realms. May be used early for control value, or played late to develop extra value from a row of Cooldown units. Also very good synergy with 5’s Mutagenerator – inspired condition would be easier to trigger.
Vicovaro Novice (4 -> 5)
(++) Explanation
Kerack Marine (3 -> 4)
(-) Straight buff to Devo Inspired Zeal netdeck to make NR more competitive. I hate such an approach – it leads to powercreep and a bigger gap between strongest and weakest decks inside the faction. Still Marine wasn’t that outstanding compared with other cards at 4s available to netdeck, so the powercreep and distancing should be small.
-1 Provsion Decreased
Renfri (15 -> 14)
(/) I would never go for a Renfri revert, but don’t really mind it either. Renfri wasn’t that troublesome two seasons ago in my experience and surely she isn’t the main problem in Nilfgaard or Scoia’tael.
Ardal aep Dahy (12 -> 11)
(++) More varied high-end in decks playing Tactics? Sounds great.
Eithné: Young Queen (12 -> 11)
(+) Deserved buff, Eithne wasn’t that much of a payoff in Devotion Scoia’tael decks, sometimes impedes natural push.
Jan Calveit (11 -> 10)
(-) Buff to a card which was played in the main NG netdeck last season – Shupe Imperial Formation. Unjustified in my opinion.
Alzur (10 -> 9)
(/) Alzur loses his high-end win-con gold dignity and may now join Golden Nekker decks as one of many threats. None of the currently played GN decks could naturally host Alzur, so it would be interesting how decks are tuned to play this card
Geralt: Aard (9 -> 8)
(++) Explanation
Mahakam Horn (8 -> 7)
(++) Explanation
Fauve (8 -> 7)
(-) Fauve is a tutor card for Nature spells. Those find best value in Nature’s Gift and Devotion Guerilla/PS netdecks, which were both at the top of ST in September 2024. Fauve buff both results in a powercreep and makes tutoring via nature cards (which was already superior in ST) stand out with respect to other ways of providing consistency.
Boris (8 -> 7)
(/) High ceiling card, probably too good to cost just 3 excess provisions. Nevertheless, as Boris sees little play, this change would incentivize more experiments and maybe some decks will stick even if Boris catches a revert.
Slave Driver (6 -> 5)
(-) Slave Driver is a card floating between 5 and 6 optimal provision cost. I don’t think SD is that much coupled 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. Sad change which makes Balance Council go in circles again.
Summary
All the information about council results: changes by the order of votes, support by influence groups, number of changes per faction and attribution is accessible in the Balance Council Result sheet.
The impact of influential groups was quite even; our coalition with Shinmiri got 12/13 suggested changes (thanks for your support!), but the crucial and most impactful one: Grand Inquisitor Helveed didn’t go through. Probably the voters didn’t recognize the context of the certain power nerf to Fallen Knight. At the same time we supported many changes from other groups, which elevated our impact in attribution stats. Necrotal didn’t share recommendations with other groups and got 8/12, which is probably best our coalition could have hoped for without shared recommendations. Three joint one-star picks with MetallicDanny finished as Top4 most popular.
Overall I rate the patch as quite good in spite of Nilfgaard reverts (which to some extent had to be expected) and small powercreep changes (Fauve, Kerack Marine). Most changes are reasonable and some invite deckbuilding efforts (Whisperer, Alzur, Boris, Ardal, Rivian Pikeman). Scoia’tael got clearly the most love out of all factions; probably Skellige deserved a bit more. In the context of Monsters, which got only nerfs and no buffs, I think the variety and balance was already good enough.
What New To Try?
Monsters | Try Monsters deck you haven’t played yet – there is a great variety; from White Frost to Golden Nekker Yen Arachas Swarm.
Nilfgaard | Try Nilfgaard decks you played last 3 years: Enslave 6, Renfri Soldiers. Don’t give a fuck about other buffs or you would look like an intellectual.
Northern Realms | Stockpile / Inspired Zeal with Rivian Pikeman.
Skellige | Blaze Of Glory with Morkvarg.
Scoiatael | Spella’tael Nekker/Ale of Ancestors Truffle with Alzur and/or Whisperer of Dol Blathanna. Devotion Gift / other leaders.
Syndicate | Lined Pockets Firesworn with Boris.
Closure
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this review. Feel free to share your thoughts on Reddit.
I also invite you to my recently activated Youtube channel, where new patch decks and gameplay would emerge during the season.