I rated each of the cards changed in Gwent Patch 10.1 (list of changes). All predictions are presented in the chart below.
(in case some wild symbols appear instead of content – click them – should help)
Meta Level category is reserved for cards which I predict to find place in various meta decks.
- Savvy Huckster: Added the Witch Hunter Category. Has a new part of ability: Fee 1: Gain Vitality (1)
Savvy Huckster is a good value bronze filler with Witch Hunters synergies (Tamara, Purge…) and some spending capabilities.
Rating: Fine card for its provision cost.
- King of Beggars: Power changed from 4 to 3. Provision cost changed from 10 to 12. Counter changed from 9 to 12.
King of Beggars is a type all-around deck buff card. Repaying 12 coins worth of Tribute costs and having 3p of power, King of Beggars provides 15 points of value coming ‘from deck’.
Evaluating real KoB power it would be around 22 points for 12 provision, which is massive.
Rating: King of Beggars is a powerful card. It’s only limitation is the quality of Tribute cards.
- Tourney Shaelmaar: Provision cost changed from 8 to 6.
Extra comment: This 2 provision buff is in fact equivalent to lowering provision cost 2 times. Now Shaelmaar becomes something between bronze and gold, ready to be added to any Assimilate or Copy deck.
Tourney Shaelmaar is a unit with 4 points base value and 6 provision cost. It buffs self by 2 for every controlled unit from a different faction.
In a long round the number of different faction units played by an Assimilate deck easily reaches 5 or more, so that Shaelmaar value could be roughly estimated as 14 for 6.
Rating: At 6p Shaelmaar became low risk high reward card. Strong.
- Hawker Support: Ability changed to: Deploy: Boost an allied unit in your hand by 1. If a unit was already boosted, boost it by 3 instead.
Hawker Support is a handbuff unit. If gets extra payoff for boosting already green unit. Great synergy with Torque (4p bronzes are R1 cards usually and guaranteed Torque in hand is a substantial benefit.
In spite of easy to satisfy 9 for 4 value with in Devo Torque decks, it plays for very low tempo and could make proper defense against lose on even gimmicky at times.
Rating: Card with very high strategical potential, strong in Devo Torque decks.
- Sirssa: Deploy effect changed to: Damage an enemy unit by 2, then boost a random unit in your hand by 2.
Sirssa is a handbuff/weak engine (Harmony) card. It grants 10 points of raw value with Deathblow and 8 without. Could be multiplied with Handbuff payoff cards, like Torque; in most lucky scenario effective instant value cloud reach 18 points (2x Torque hit with Aglais in hand).
Rating: Whenever 2p targets are easy to setup and Handbuff is strong, Sirssa should find place in the meta. Card with potential, needing some support to be meta.
- Invigorate: Provision bonus changed from 16 to 15. Ability changed to: Order: Boost 4 units in your hand by 1. Charges: 3.
Invigorate is a handbuff leader ability. With 3 charges and 4 units buffed by 1 per charge it offers 12 raw points. Could be used in synergy with handbuff payoff cards (like Torque, Sheldon Skaggs )
- Istredd: Provision cost changed from 7 to 6.
Istredd is a 6 provision 6 power card with scrolling/handbuff/pointslam capabilities. It hardly trades down to cards from same provision range (trades up even with locks if order is immediately used)
Rating: Good card, would be considerable in every Northern Realms deck.
Knickers is a 3 power 7 provision card, which most likely jumps out of the deck in Round 1. It means extra tempo and thinning at the expense of playing perhaps one 4p bronze instead of low-end 7 provision gold.
In the context of R1 Knickers could be thought of as one with a bronze card, for which it adds +3 points to the value.
Rating: With current stats Knickers is simply a decent value card, most useful whenever it helps to achieve some objective in R1. Autoinclude in thematic decks like Hyperthin or Lippy.
Roach is a 4 power 9 provision card, which consistently jumps out of the deck in Round 1 whenever a gold could be commited. It means extra tempo and thinning at the expense of playing one 4p bronze instead of 9 provision gold. Decks playing Roach are generally in an underdog position whenever long round 3 arises and Roach didn’t help to establish any carryover.
Roach is easier to control than hers animal brother Knickers; in some scenarios she could be saved for later rounds, especially to defend bleed while securing card advantage. Unlike Knickers, to play Roach, a suitable garnish of R1 playable golds is needed.
Rating: Roach is a decent card, perhaps a little weaker than Knickers in the general case. She could be a coin abuse tool, especially in red-coin tournament decks.
Interesting at least category is reserved for cards which:
– could have interesting applications in ladder decks
– or i would like to meme with at least
- Scapegoat: Power changed from 7 to 1. Ability changed to: Disloyal. Profit: 6. Deploy: Place a Bounty on self.
Scapegoat is a non-interactive profit card for bounty archetype, helping to fill the bank and establish payoff on cards like Brute or Ingatius Hale.
Rating: Interesting for Bounty archetype. Doesn’t make good value by itself but could be of utility
- Vilgefortz: Renegade: Power changed from 6 to 8.
Vilgefortz: Renegade is a high-end unit for Nilfgaard combo decks. With 8 power for 13 provision, he has to guarantee at least 7 points on average with his deploy ability to be playable.
If a swap of gold card from opponent’s graveyard with bronze (~7 effective power) card from hand is possible, then the value of this gold card must be equal to 14 points at least for Vilgefortz: Renegade to be directly playable.
Alternative is setting up an extremely synergistic card from own hand on opponent’s graveyard and then regain it with Imperial Practicioners.
Rating: Interesting card with high meme potential; not meta, but decks build around it could win games.
- Rience: Power changed from 5 to 6.
Rience is an additional win-con (or lose con) card for heavily thinning Nilfgaard decks. At 6 points of power Rience is not a very easy removal target, but could still be locked. Usually comes in package with another card: Rico Meiersdorf, which enhances its consistency. This elevates effective Rience cost to 15 provision.
- Vrihedd Saboteur: Ability changed to: Deploy: Boost an allied unit by 1. If you control an Artifact, boost an allied unit by 3 instead.
Vrihedd Saboteur is a conditional handbuff card. Unlike Hawker Support it could not be set up with Invigorate leader and is generally weaker therefore, forcing deckbuilding restrictions. Also card drawing skill check has to be passed.
Rating: Directly weaker than Hawker Support, but still having some potential (unlike many 4p cards). Decent, but very specific.
- Old Speartip: Asleep: Power changed from 9 to 6. Armor changed from 0 to 2. Provision cost changed from 9 to 6. Ability changed to: After 3 turns, Summon Old Speartip from your deck to this row and increase its base power by 6, then Banish self. If Old Speartip: Asleep takes damage, Summon Old Speartip from your deck, then Banish self instead.
Old Speartip:Asleep is a 6 power + 2 armor, 6 provision card with time counter. Its trigger effect is summoning Old Speartip from the deck while banishing self. If not damaged, the point vs provision value is equal to 18 for 13.
It means that uncountered Old Speartip: Asleep doesn’t give any point surplus by itself. However, base power of Old Speartip gets boosted to 18, which enables 19 for 8 Ozzrel. Total value of the combo would be 37 points for 21, which is very good. Alternative combo use is Witches Sabbath value (maybe Arachas Queen + Abaya?)
Rating: Old Speartip: Asleep seems to be an average card. Trades up to instant removal but doesn’t need to be removed. Trades down to patient Heatwave, which is extraordinary for a 6p card. Could be considered in decks with Ozzrel/Sabbath combo. Many things could go wrong for this card unfortunately.
Average category is reserved for cards which:
– may be played in decent decks
– are not bad nor especially interesting
- Octavia Hale: Power changed from 7 to 6. Provision cost changed from 7 to 6. Has a new part of ability: Fee: 1: Boost an allied Witch Hunter by 1.
Octavia Hale is a dediciated Hale family (Bounty) tutor:
- The Brute (14 prov)
- The Scoundrel (10 prov)
- Fabian Hale (7 prov)
- Ignatius Hale(6 prov)
With new Fee ability Octavia could buff Witch Hunter Executioners out of removal range. Obviously Octavia lacks targets to be provide real consistency for the deck – other tutors are needed if there are important pieces outside brothers.
Rating: Average card. Weak as a tutor, but its low cost + spending flexibility is a decent payback.
Ignatius Hale is a payoff pointslam low-end gold for Bounty archetype.
Rating: Decent card.
- Dwarven Agitator: Power changed from 3 to 5. Ability changed to: Deploy: Give 1 Armor to 2 Dwarves in your hand. Whenever you play a Dwarf, give it 1 Armor.
Agitator is handbuff (or maybe “handarmoring”) engine unit for Dwarves archetype. Offers 2*1 armor buff in hand on deploy and additional +1 for every dwarf.
- Fisher King: Power changed from 5 to 6.
Fisher King plays roughly 4 points below provision curve and guarantees finding one of crucial cards for the next round by putting it on the top.
Unless top card is accessible, Fisher King becomes weak in R3. There is roughly 1/3 chance of missing him up to R3. If there is no R3 synergy with FK, then it plays for roughly -4 value compared with a value card in this slot ~33% of the time.
Another thing to note. Let’s say FK concurs with Royal Decree for space in a deck where only units are worth tutoring and there is no synergy with FK. Outside 33% effect, imagine that you use FK in R2 and there are 2 cards worth tutoring. You don’t know about it, but one would be accessible in the topdecks and second not. There is 50% chance that FK in fact would achieve nothing. Meanwhile Decree always guarantees access to the second card.
Rating: Fisher King should not be played outside synergistic decks, able to benefit from placing a card at the top in R3. Decks with draw and discard comes to mind. Also decks with Sunset Wanderers are to be considered. On the other hand, Nilfgaard decks playing topdeck tutors like Joachim have generally better tools in the same slot (Albrich, Blightmaker) or above (Jan Calveit)
Meh category is reserved for cards which are:
- Below meta level
- I don’t want to play
- Fabian Hale: Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
Fabian Hale is type of pointslam/payoff card for Bounty archetype.
Rating: Fabian seems like a conditional card, not providing Bounty with essential tools while the build is already very tight and has to rely on consistency. Average card.
- Milva: Sharpshooter: Order damage changed from 2 to 1.
Milva: Sharpshooter is a supporting card for control Guerilla Tactics decks. With 1 damage from movement + 1 order damage it lets to instantly kill any 4 power engine.
Nerf of order damage from 2 to 1 caused that 5 power engines are no longer removable and setup of deathblow damage becomes considerably harder.
The nerf is worth more than 5 points + synergies.
Rating: Milva is not a meta card anymore.
- Mourntart: Armor changed from 1 to 4. Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
Extra comment: Don’t really like the direction Mourntart buffs take. This card is still about cheesing opponent. I believe it should rather get a floor buff and lower ceiling or conditional zeal.
Mourntart is a payoff card for swarming Monsters decks. At 7 provision, 1 power and 4 armor it is very prone to locks by itself. May require support of purify cards
Mourntart has very high ceiling (~40 points for 7 provision), but forces severe deckbuilding restrictions and without last say + Zeal all this payoff could often be denied.
Rating: Mourntart is a cheesy meme card, generally weak because of its conditionality and low flexibility.
Summary and meta prediction
The patch is rather concised in form and consists mostly of:
- slight nerf to King of Beggars + Savolla finisher combo
- big nerf to Milva
- slight buff to Bounty archetype built around Witch Hunters
- substantial buff to Invigorate and devotion Handbuff decks
Regarding the last point, especially Hawker Support looks like a problematic card, inviting massive red-coin abuse.
My meta predictions:
Top2
Nilfgaard – Assimilate, Hyperthin, Cloggers
Syndicate – Midrange Tribute Jackpot, Bounty Tribute Jackpot
Bottom 4
Scoia’tael – Invigorate Engines Saskia
Northern Realms – Alumni Zeal
Monsters – Vampires Devo and Non-Devo
Skellige – Alchemy/Warriors/Pirates/Rain…
*Erratum
Apparently Vrihedd Saboteur does not handbuff. I’m sorry for the misread, but it stems from me not even taking into consideration that old trash Hawker Support ability could be left in the game. I’m going to leave the entry in the chart unchanged for the testmemeony of the lazy change done 😉