Patch 3.2.2 Review

August 31, 2019 wusubi — No Comments

Skellige review by Hippotompotomus

With the last update, Skellige cements itself as CDPR's favorite faction, as papi Slama couldn't stand another month of their absence (and the complaint threads on reddit). To start things off, let's look at a few intriguing card reworks.

The reworked Cerys acts as a balanced Roche: Merciless, giving you a way to thin out Shieldmaidens and a reason to put a copy of Queensgard into your deck. Whether it will be a mainstay in Svalblod after the experimentation period ends remains to be seen. Tutoring Shieldmaiden or the Queensguard engine seems to be very powerful.

Hemdall is a solid addition to Skellige's arsenal, however he clashes with the usual gameplan of pushing Round 2 for a shorter Round 3. He might find a home as another Greatsword enabler or another finisher for Arnjolf decks.

Cultist might strike you as a decent addition to the self-wound package, but it unfortunately won't make the cut. The biggest problem with this card is that it comes down (and stays) at 4 power. Both Svalblod Priest and Heymaey Protector can get to 5 power when played, which makes them a lot harder to remove. This coupled with Skellige's already crowded 5 provision spot makes including Cultist hard to justify, even in engine-heavy decks.

Alchemy

CDPR have expanded on the Alchemy archetype with Restore, Sigrdrifa's Rite and Freya's Blessing, all gaining the Alchemy tag. Gremist got reworked to a Purify card that refreshes its ability every time you play an Alchemy card. Although Bounty will still see play in Syndicate, his main use will most likely be removing locks from your engines.

Freya's Blessing provision cost changed from 7 to 6 and Alchemy category added.
Ability changed to: Play a Skellige bronze unit from your graveyard.
Gremist power changed from 3 to 6 and provision cost changed from 6 to 7.
Ability changed to: Zeal. Order (Ranged): Purify a unit.
Refresh this ability whenever you play an Alchemy card.
Restore has now the Alchemy category.
Ability changed to: Heal an allied unit, then boost it by the amount it was healed.
Sigrdrifa's Rite has now the Alchemy category.
Ability changed to: Summon a Skellige unit from your graveyard to an allied row.

The clear standout is the change to Sigrdrifa, which now lets you summon any Skellige unit from your graveyard. This is especially relevant for Svalblod, where you have a plethora of good targets for Sigrdrifa such as Jutta, Olaf, Champion of Svalblod or Veteran, making your already great short round even better.

Freya's Blessing being a provision cheaper makes it a wonderful addition to Skellige decks, because they all run the Svalblod Priest and Heymaey Protector package. She is obviously even more important in Greatsword-based decks. Depending on the amount of removal in the meta, a 1-off can quickly become a staple.

Restore is now a cheaper Bekker's Dark Mirror with a caveat of only being able to target friendly units. The value it can get on Jutta is insane, however it's difficult to setup good value on other units. On average, Heymaey Herbalist just does the job better, but if you can reliably use it on Jutta, it can be worth including.

If the Alchemy package turns strong, Ermion might finally see the light of the day, similarly to how Menno did in Nilfgaard after the buffs to Tactics. Reliably playing Sigrdrifa could be the difference between winning and losing.

Beasts

The Beast deck took a big hit with the rework of Bearmasters. Their new ability isn't bad per se, but there aren't many Beast cards that you would like to run on their own. Corrupted Flaminica fills the finisher void left by the Bearmaster change, but the deck wasn't competitive when it could play Bearmaster 5 times, so Flaminica alone simply doesn't cut it. The two (or three?) people who were playing this deck on the ladder must be devastated.

Eist vs Svalblod

Eist has received the Sigrdrifa treatment in lifting the Warrior requirement from his ability. The main benefit is the ability to replay Olaf. Champion of Svalblod would also be a perfect target, however transforming Vildkaarl without Svalblod's pings is a tall order. Pirate players (who?) can also rejoice since Eist can now replay Holger or Hammond.

Although Eist got a big buff, my objective analysis (read as personal bias) leads me to believe that Svalblod will be the leader of choice. He can once again slam Vildkaarl on red coin with no care in the world, because Sigrdrifa can resurrect Champion of Svalblod. Veteran will now fully heal himself when his power hits 2 or lower. This makes him a good secondary Knut/Sigrdrifa target (on top of Hjalmar synergy) which opens up some avenues like cutting Olaf.

Be it a bug or a sneaky change remains to be seen, but Knut can deal damage by hitting units with a shield again. Eist can easily "abuse" this interaction by shielding a big unit and using leader on Knut in one turn, not giving the opponent a chance to ping the shield. Coupled with the provision buff to Sangreal, you can get some scary value.

Monsters review by Alessio1996

Monsters have been in a rough spot for some time. Arachas Queen made up for the lack of interesting mechanics, globally underwhelming power level and leaders who have been either destroyed by multiple nerfs and ended up being irrelevant or are awful in general due to a bad leader ability and/or the lack of an archetype to support them.

We can name a few - Unseen Elder is weaker than Arachas Queen in every aspect because Deathwish historically lacked good cards to play. Post-rework Eredin has no archetype nor use in the faction as a whole, while also being extremely bad on his own. Gernichora is yet to recover from the provision nerfs and big boys have been struggling against most of the incredible engines that other factions have to offer. Not only do they ironically lack raw power, but also control tools in order to keep the meta in check.

Before his rework this patch, Dettlaff was nothing but a mere enabler for various Scorch-based strategies, generally revolving around removal and a very low amount of units. Most players found such decks not only underwhelming, but also boring to play or play against.

Woodland Spirit still had his strange place in Monsters, mostly thanks to his massive finisher with last say, or using his ability on a unit with the Immune tag. But after the continuous nerfs, Woody struggled to even bleed anybody, missing out on pure strength, control and tempo tools. Gernichora in comparison would at least be more threatening in a situation where she won Round 1.

As you can see, most of the faction was in a difficult position, with the only "viable" archetype being Arachas Queen and as we did, CDPR noticed it too. With little buffs here and there, sadly probably not changing the average power level of Monster decks, they showed their intention of bringing the faction out of the dumpster!

Obviously, the most interesting thing will be the Vampire rework, as they tried to tie Dettlaff to this archetype more and tried to make Vampires relevant as a theme.

Dettlaff van der Eretein ability changed to: Order: Give an enemy unit Bleeding for 3 turns. Charge: 3
When all Charges are used, Spawn Ekimmara on random allied row.
Bruxa ability changed to: Thrive. Deploy: Give an enemy unit Bleeding for 2 turns.
Crimson Curse provision cost changed from 11 to 9.
Gael ability changed to: Deploy (Melee): Damage an enemy unit by 1. If it's Bleeding deal 3 damage instead. Deathblow: Boost self by destroyed unit base power.
Garkain ability changed to: Every allied turn, on turn end, boost self by 1 if there is a Bleeding enemy.
Nekurat ability changed to: Zeal. Order (Melee): Give an enemy unit Bleeding for 2 turns. Cooldown: 2.
Whenever you play a Vampire card, reduce this unit's Cooldown by 1.

While the power level of those interactions seems rather weak and the archetype still needs a lot of support in order to be truly viable, we can only appreciate the synergistic aspect of Vampires after the patch, as this will at least allow people to play some "fun" decks with their favorite leader. And who knows, with some new Vampire/bleeding cards, it might eventually end up being played on a larger scale.

Outside of the Vampire rework, we got some interesting buffs that I would like to point out, particularly Miruna and Keltullis. The former had me rejoice over the possiblity of Unseen Elder that would be relevant in his own archetype, but the latter change had me worried on quite some level.

Miruna ability changed to: Deathwish: Seize an enemy unit with 4 or less power.
Keltullis power changed from 6 to 9.
Keltullis provision cost changed from 10 to 11.

The buff to Miruna is a huge one, as it enables you to steal 4 power engines from your opponent. On top of offering considerable tempo, this is a crucial control tool to a faction that was lacking the usual ways of answering engines.

Now let's talk about Keltullis. I want to express my concern about the non-interactive archetypes. Too much control, low amount of units, Immune tag abuse and other frustrating possibilies. I know that some players might enjoy it, but for the most part, such decks have been deemed as "toxic" by the community and the vast majority of players wishes to never see non-interactive decks again. While I don't think that the Kelltulis power level is anywhere near problematic, it would feel pretty bad to face this card with any deck that lacks tall removal.

I hope that this card won't become popular. With Summoning Circle still being in the game right now and multiple non-interactive artifacts and cards being available, I can only imagine what the evil minds of the control players will come up with. Keltullis can be interesting even as the last say play with Woodland's ability.

Overall, Monsters should still not see that much play the next season, but at least CDPR seem to have gotten a grip on the problems with the faction and we will have to wait and see what the future brings.

Syndicate review by Shadowplayred and wusubi

Syndicate received some warranted and some unawarranted nerfs in this patch. CDPR certainly weren't shy with the nerf hammer and delivered most of the anticipated, but also some unexpected balance changes. The Gwent subreddit can finally put their pitchforks down for a while - DJ (Sigismund Dijkstra) and Igor the Hook were both brought down to acceptable power levels.

Sigi still starts with 5 charges, granting you 1 coin per charge. The flexibility of his ability remains relevant, especially with the nerf to Swindle. Playing Crimes doesn't generate carry-over in the form of additional charges anymore, but instead you get a coin in the bank immediately. While you can no longer enter Round 3 with 10+ coins in your bank, Sigi might end up seeing play, despite overfilling his bank. Only time will tell how good he will truly be, but we think he coud be a decent choice for Crime-engine decks. Frankly, his current leader design is both sublime and flavorful. Sigi should have never been released with the carry-over ability, as we all know that carry-over has been one of the most abusable mechanics in Gwent's history.

Igor the Hook, one of the previous season's most hated cards, has been served the long awaited Menge treatment and now has a Cooldown. Coupled with the change to Sigi's leader ability, the Townsfolk combo took a massive hit, but wasn't completely erased from the game. Due to the Cooldown, it's much easier to lock or kill Igor. He can still be combined with engines like Sly Seductress, although his power ceiling is considerably lower than it used to be.

When Bounty is placed on a unit, remove Bounties from other units on that side of the board.
Cleaver ability changed to: Order: Play a Syndicate special card from your deck.
If its provision cost is 10 or less, gain 2 Coins.

Bounty has been the mainstay of Syndicate since the Novigrad expansion dropped. Being limited to one Bounty at a time is quite the nerf, as you can no longer board-wipe with Executioner or Ewald. This is a welcome change, as it limits the non-interactivity coupled with removal that made Syndicate incredibly painful to play against. It will be interesting to see which archetype comes to the forefront for Syndicate now that Bounty was nerfed. We suspect most decks to play 2 copies of Slander and Witch Hunter Executioner, perhaps even Caleb Menge. But with more Purify cards being added (e.g. Ida and Gremist this patch) dealing with Bounty will be a lot easier than it used to be.

Now about Cleaver... He was already the weakest Syndicate leader and this change only made him worse. He could honestly give Demavend a run for the shittiest leader and one that will likely never see much play unless reworked.

Unfortunately, the bronze Crimes didn't manage to escape CDPR's wrath either. Crimes will always be problematic because they inherently promote non-interactive gameplay by forcing the initiative back onto the opponent, while generating untouchable points in your bank. However, they are foundation of Syndicate due to the way the faction was designed and if they are too weak, the faction will struggle.

The nerf to Swindle is too brutal. You could say that highrolling 6 coins was the only offender, since that essentially made Swindle a Pickpocket for 4 provisions, allowing you to reach the magical threshold of 9 coins with the use of Slander or Dip in the Pontar. Changing the card to Profit 4-5 would be reasonable. Swindle does effectively play as Profit 4-6 in Sigi decks, but what about the other leaders? Assuming that Redanian will still be played after its nerf, rolling Profit 3 on Swindle is too punishing, as Eavesdrop only puts you at 8 coins then.

Speaking of Eavesdrop, this nerf is more acceptable, albeit still a harsh one. With that said, we believe that the card is stronger at 5 Profit for 6 provisions rather than at 4 Profit for 5 provisions. It now "competes" with Pickpocket and 1-off Eavesdrop will most likely still be a staple in Syndicate decks.

Additionally, Fisstech was buffed to 4 Profit. It's still too early to tell how much it will shake up deck building, if at all. Poison could replace Bounty, we might see Fisstech Trafficker as tall removal with added utility in the form of Profit.

The Flying Redanian lost 1 base power, but is 1 provision cheaper. This is an understandable nerf, as the card can be pulled out in all 3 rounds if unanswered. A card like Sweers suddenly gets a lot stronger. Redanian is still better than Roach and will probably see a lot of play in Syndicate, especially with leaders like Sigi, Gudrun and King of Beggars, since they can summon the Redanian multiple times with ease.

In Slama Veritas, our wonderful game director is finally getting his very own Gwent card. We would like to take this opportunity and thank Jason for all the hard work he's doing. Gwent now has a clear direction and on top of trying to make the game as awesome as possible, Mr. Walter is also raising a beautiful daughter, all the while interacting with the angry peasants of reddit and apparently also working as a part-time Runestone on a body, creating some Syndicate bronze cards. You can say that he's a real stand-up guy.

It's hard to say how much play will Walter Veritas see with the changes to Syndicate. At 4 power with 9 provisions and the ability to create a spender, a Crime or an engine in a pinch, he could should up as something more than Shupe deck fodder. If the card only created Syndicate units, it would be a bit stronger. Out of the pool of 34 units, you have a solid chance to create either an engine or a spender.

To wrap things up, the nerfs to Bounty, Sigi and Igor are warranted and good for the game as a whole. The nerfs to bronze Crime cards, coupled with the nerf to The Flying Redanian can result in Syndicate struggling to find some powerful deck. People might opt for more engine-oriented strategies, since Bounty is significantly weaker. We are curious to see how Syndicate performs once they hotfix the coin counter. Crime-engine decks should still be good.

Scoia'tael review by Pajabol

Scoia'tael received plenty of changes that especially affected Harmony-based decks with Francesca as their leader. She got 2 extra provisions which is a huge buff. At the same time, her ability was changed and she can only replay Scoia'tael special cards. This means that her ability can no longer be used on cards like Vigo's Muzzle, but it didn't affect the Harmony deck. You are still able to use it on faction cards like Water of Brokilon or Novigradian Justice.

Francesca wants to include the reworked Call of the Forest, which acts as a better Royal Decree for Scoia'tael units. This card added the much needed consistency to a faction that used to be very draw dependent. Since Call has the Nature tag, it naturally fits into the Francesca deck as it can be pulled by Fauve. You can also use that package with other leaders, making the faction a lot better in general.

Water of Brokilon received a huge buff as it now doesn't require you to control a Dryad to spawn two Fledglings. Water can finally be played without Fauve. It also means that you now don't need to draw one Dryad in a shorter Round 3 if you want to use Francesca on Water. You can instead play Water first and then play a unit that will proc Harmony, buffing both Fledglings to 5 power and making them very difficult to remove.

Hunter was reworked and plays as a proactive 6 for 6 that creates two elven bodies which benefits strong cards like Isengrim or The Great Oak. On top of that, Half-Elf Hunter offers the Harmony tag, allowing it to enter Hybrid decks. This card is a huge support for the Elven archetype which was left behind recently and can make even a comeback with other buffed bronzes such as Dol Blathanna Archers.

Dwarfs

Dwarven Mercenaries have been changed and they now have 3 power, but only cost 4 provisions. This makes using Novigradian Justice on them much worse since they are easier to kill, which negatively affects Dwarft-based decks. On the other hand, Makaham Marauders got a very nice rework and are a proactive 4 provision card that plays for 6 or even up to 8 points if you utilize the Bonded ability.

Because of the change to Mercenaries, Francesca lost some of her potential to act like a Henselt style of a deck in Round 3 where she could open with 4x Mercenary and have a lot of damage engines on the board. It also affected Filavandrel decks that revolved around Dwarf synergy.

Other notable changes

Ida Emean aep Sivney provision changed to 8 to 7 and power changed from 4 to 5.
Ida Emean aep Sivney ability changed to: Deploy (Melee): Purify a unit.
Deploy (Ranged): Give an allied unit vitality for 4 turns.
Morenn provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
Panther ability changed to: Deploy (Melee): Damage an enemy unit by 2.
Deploy (Ranged): Give an enemy unit Bleeding for 4 turns.
Pavko Gale ability changed to: Order (Ranged): Damage a unit by 1. Cooldown: 1.
If you control only Scoia'tael units, damage a unit by 2 instead.
Sirssa power changed from 3 to 4.
Treant Boar provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
Weeping Willow ability changed to: Harmony. Deploy (Melee): Gain Shield.
Deploy (Ranged): Poison enemy unit.

Ida was reworked and can be used to Purify a unit, or more likely give 4 Vitality. Scoia'tael lost a card that could reliably remove an Artifact, but she's now good enough to justify running her for boost synergy with Mahakam Defenders for example. Morenn also got a slight provision buff, so she is technically a more flexible Ciaran, who however offers synergy with Isengrim. As the meta develops, you can easily run both locks in a Harmony deck.

Panther is no longer a dead card in Scoia'tael mirrors which is a neat change and it can play for 1 more point than before if you get the full bleed value. Despite losing 1 removal on the card, I would say that it is an improvement to Harmony decks. Treant Boar received a sufficient buff and presents another engine for Harmony decks or Brouver. The Treant tag synergizes with Fledglings and if the Boar gets murdered, The Great Oak will proc Fledglings again.

Sirssa's power was increased to 4 again, making her a good card for Eithné decks. This card also has Harmony on it, but since it's a Dryad and doesn't proc Fledglings, it most likely won't see play in Harmony decks. Weeping Willow now has the Harmony tag and can either gain a shield or apply Poison, which offers synergy with Dryad Rangers. Similarly to Treant Boar, Willow synergizes with Fledglings via the Treant tag and can be used as Milva on steroids.

Pavko Gale got an interesting upgrade as he can now deal 2 damage per turn if you control only Scoia'tael units, which isn't really a condition for Harmony decks, as they don't play any Neutral units. At 8 provisions, this card is more expensive than Treant Boar and will end up getting killed or Muzzled more often than not, but as a Human, Pavko procs Fledglings if you didn't find Milva. Should he stick, the payoff is significantly higher than it used to be.

Additionally, Dana got an extra provision. Unfortunately, with Call of the Forest being reworked, the argument to play Dana over Francesca for "consistency reasons" now doesn't make sense.

Overall the changes resulted in awesome buffs, especially to Francesca Harmony. Call of the Forest is the much needed solution to Scoia'taels problem with being reliant on drawing their gold cards, which has been haunting the faction for most of the time in Homecoming. Francesca looks like a potential Tier 1 deck, but since her main weakness is lacking control cards, she can lose to even greedier decks like Greatswords or Meve engine-overload.

Northern Realms review by Andasama

Surprise, surprise! After dominating the meta for a whole month, Northern Realms are getting nerfed. The nerfs are very reasonable since the adjusted cards were simply too strong.

King Foltest ability changed to: Order: Boost an allied Northern Realms unit by 1 and give it Zeal. Charge: 3
Queen Calanthe provision bonus changed from 16 to 15.
Bloody Baron power changed from 7 to 6.
Draug ability changed to: Deploy: Transform all allied Humans on own row, into Kaedweni Revenants, without changing their power.
Keira Metz power changed from 7 to 5.
Princess Pavetta provision cost changed from 7 to 8.
Roche: Merciless power changed from 5 to 4.
Roche: Merciless provision cost changed from 11 to 12.

Foltest lost 1 point of boost per charge, essentially reverting the recent buff. This is a very expected nerf, making him more fair, but still one of the best leaders in Gwent. He can no longer give Zeal to Neutral units. Foltest players can't get cheeky with Regis: Higher Vampire, Gaunter O'Dimm, Ocvist, Saesenthessis: Blaze or even Prize-Winning Cow.

The nerf to Calanthe is a surprising one, but she has a very strong ability, which makes it warranted. Bloody Baron and Keira lost 1 and 2 base power respectively, which is a good change. Exceeding their provision cost was too easy.

The change to Draug makes him less oppressive in a long Round 3 and also more difficult to play. Princess Pavetta costing an extra provision is understandable, especially considering the value of shuffling back 3 to 5 Commando's.

The most anticipated nerf NR got hit with was to Roche: Merciless, who lost 1 base power and his provision cost was also increased by 1. This certainly makes him more balanced than before, but he is still a crucial part of Foltest decks, providing both carry-over and the ability to thin your Commando's.

Overall, these changes are great, mostly taking some power out of overtuned cards, but leaving the faction strong enough to be a contender for one of the best factions in this season.

Nilfgaard review by Andasama

Anna Henrietta provision cost changed from 15 to 16.
Emissary ability changed to: Spying. Deploy: Boost an allied unit by 7.
Fire Scorpion power changed from 4 to 3.
Serrit ability changed to: Deploy: Damage an enemy unit by 2.
If Auckes is in your hand, damage that unit by 4 instead.
Serrit provision cost changed from 9 to 8.
Stefan Skellen ability changed to: Order: Spawn and play copy of last Tactic card you have played this round.
Yennefer's Invocation ability changed to: Place enemy unit or artifact at the top of your deck.

Nilfgaard got some interesting buffs and nerfs. The first one being Anna Henrietta, who received an extra provision to work with. While that obviously helps, it shouldn't be enough to make her competitive as a leader. Emissary got buffed to be more in line with the rest of 5 provision cards. We will have to see what these changes mean for the Assimilate and Spy archetypes, but it's certainly a good first step towards making them more viable in the future.

With the rise of Portal engine decks and the lowered damage on units, Fire Scorpions took a serious hit this patch. Losing 1 base power means that Portal into Fire Scorpions get answered by cards such as Sandstorm. We will see if Scorpions remain popular in Tactic-based decks. Serrit also took a hit on his damage output to be more in line with other damage cards, but in return he's 1 provision cheaper. Nilfgaard now has an excuse to possibly stray away from the Witcher trio. The question is, what cards would you even play in their place?

Stefan Skellen got a slight ability change, he now spawns and plays the last tactic you played in the current round. While this change makes him better overall, in my opinion it doesn't fix the problem of Stefan being an Order card and thus extremely vulnerable to any locks or removal. On top of that, you want him to replay impactful tactics like Vigo's Muzzle, Royal Decree or possibly Marching Orders, but these cards are generally used earlier into the round, making Stefan even more susceptible to removal.

The change to Yennefer's Invocation makes her slightly more viable and fits perfectly into Nilfgaard's theme of dirty tricks and disruptive plays to annoy the opponent. I think people overreacted to this card and it won't be as good as many try to make it out to be. There are some cute plays available even if it's in very niche scenarios. If anything, this could make Calveit more popular, while making cards like Dandelion: Poet, Joachim or even Vilgefortz more useful.

My conclusion is that some of these changes are surprising but reasonable and can eventually lead to the return of the Spy archetype and the proper development of the Assimilate archetype. The nerfs to Scorpion and Serrit make Tactic-based decks less oppressive, leaving some room for engines in the meta.