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[toastyToast]

I have been screw by Philippa a couple of times already but I don't think she is too much, I mean people need ways to defend themselves against certain type of attacks with a few cards, my issue is that it seems like the other decks don't have someone as powerful as her to take on certain challenges.

All legendaries certainly aren't created equal. Compare to Cerys and Hjalmar to any of the NR gold cards. The Scoia'tel golds are surprisingly awesome actually. Thought I had a game in the bag earlier after I still held the lead after the enemy used a commander's horn then they played a card that can grab a special from either players graveyard and play it again. Got double horned and lost.

I'm not GGing people play the Northern Realms strat anymore. It's too meta for me. I'm far more impressed by a Scoia'tael player who manages to pull out some crazy strat or a Skellige deck who plays in a totally different way. The Northern Realms strat is super HS Inner Fire Priest.

Screwing it up for them as they try to get the ball rolling is pretty fun though

 

[RaginRoss]

Needs to happen some cards have a passive that activates every X turns which still works after passing

Ahh that makes sense.

 

[Forkball]

How long does a typical round against another player last?

 

[fast_taker]

I kinda liked the gwent game on TW3 better.
It certainly needs some improvements.

 

[toastyToast]

How long does a typical round against another player last?

about 10 minutes

 

[DesertFox]

I'm enjoying the beta so far, but so much has changed I feel like I'm playing at a huge disadvantage.

I don't know how many hours I played Gwent in the Witcher 3, and I would say I was pretty confident in the mechanics - but playing this beta I don't understand what's going on half of the time.

I won my first game and have lost every game since. I think I need to take a step back and just go through the decks and read up on the abilities. Maybe I'm not playing the game how the developers intend the game to be played now?

 

[RaginRoss]

I'm enjoying the beta so far, but so much has changed I feel like I'm playing at a huge disadvantage.

I don't know how many hours I played Gwent in the Witcher 3, and I would say I was pretty confident in the mechanics - but playing this beta I don't understand what's going on half of the time.

I won my first game and have lost every game since. I think I need to take a step back and just go through the decks and read up on the abilities. Maybe I'm not playing the game how the developers intend the game to be played now?

I think they could use some kind of tutorial that specifically covers the changes from the Witcher 3 version of the game.

 

[TheKeyPit]

well at least when you lose the enemy most likely presses "good game", while when you win the enemy is often too salty and you wont get extras

Rewards should be like this:

Both gg: Everyone gets a bonus bonus

You gg, opponent doesn't: You get the bonus

Edit:

How long does a typical round against another player last?

From my experience: 8-15 minutes.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I'm not sure how well the Adrenaline Rush + Promote strat is even working now. I played a handful of games this morning and if they weren't a Monster Weather deck, they definitely had counters for buffing and rushing.

Regardless, the overall strat for this game will always be card efficiency. In TW3, the goal was to basically abuse spies to get as many cards as you can. Since that doesn't work here you either got to save cards that are on the table or play cards that pull extra cards out not from your hand (either reviving or pulling straight from the deck). There's a hard limit on the number of cards you will ever get to draw in the game, so you want to focus on playing cards from elsewhere.

 

[toastyToast]

With the rush promote strat what I'm doing now is throwing out Savage Bear and basically make it so that they can't buff their units all the way up. Like I mentioned earlier the bear pretty much nullifies Priscilla/Dandelion which is a big help against getting swamped with OP units before you know it. I find it kind of odd how many people will just give up and pass whereas they could have settled for a couple units in the the low teens carrying over.

Ran into some more monster weather decks. Even with a sunny day the weather will make a mess of any stat changes you've made. Skellige has some weather resistant units. Might have to look into them.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

There's also a single Neutral weather resistant card, can't remember her name, but she actually buffs whenever a weather or Clear Skies is played. But its probably not a great idea to try and build an entire deck around her.

 

[poppedcollar69]

It's the Novigrad Godling, Sarah

 

[Sorian]

There's also a single Neutral weather resistant card, can't remember her name, but she actually buffs whenever a weather or Clear Skies is played. But its probably not a great idea to try and build an entire deck around her.

It's the Novigrad Godling, Sarah

Yeah, buffing up only one card is big scorch or dimeritium bomb bait.

 

[Kuosi]

Rewards should be like this:

Both gg: Everyone gets a bonus bonus

You gg, opponent doesn't: You get the bonus

agreed, the good game bonus should only activate if both press it, as it stands after filling the daily quota of 3 levels it really becomes more beneficial to lose all games.

 

[Randdalf]

With the rush promote strat what I'm doing now is throwing out Savage Bear and basically make it so that they can't buff their units all the way up. Like I mentioned earlier the bear pretty much nullifies Priscilla/Dandelion which is a big help against getting swamped with OP units before you know it. I find it kind of odd how many people will just give up and pass whereas they could have settled for a couple units in the the low teens carrying over.

Ran into some more monster weather decks. Even with a sunny day the weather will make a mess of any stat changes you've made. Skellige has some weather resistant units. Might have to look into them.

Skellige has weather resistant cards, but its most powerful, reliable combo (crach, warcry, horn) is countered by biting frost and scorch. There are other combos but I haven't got the cards for them yet.

I think Berserker counters biting frost but you need at least a round to setup.

 

[sonicmj1]

One novel counter I faced to my Weather Control strat from Scoiatael was Vrihedd Sappers, a spy that debuffs a row whenever a special gets played. Considering a bunch of the cheaper staples (Foglet, Wild Hunt Rider) are pretty weak, that card can make it tough to maintain much strength on the board.

Anyway, it definitely got tougher in the last few days, both as the meta got more mature and as people have acquired more cards. I feel like I'm running into some of the easier-to-craft gold cards almost every other match, so it can be a bit of an uphill battle. I'll probably have to craft a Woodland Spirit and a Caranthir if I want to stay competitive.

 

[TheKeyPit]

Can I still win this? (3 minute video)
http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/TheKeyPit/video/23017797

Spoiler

No, because I drew the most useless card at the end for a scenario like this...

 

[Sorian]

Skellige has weather resistant cards, but its most powerful, reliable combo (crach, warcry, horn) is countered by biting frost and scorch. There are other combos but I haven't got the cards for them yet.

I think Berserker counters biting frost but you need at least a round to setup.

Regular berserker does not. Young berserker does

 

[Sorian]

One novel counter I faced to my Weather Control strat from Scoiatael was Vrihedd Sappers, a spy that debuffs a row whenever a special gets played. Considering a bunch of the cheaper staples (Foglet, Wild Hunt Rider) are pretty weak, that card can make it tough to maintain much strength on the board.

Anyway, it definitely got tougher in the last few days, both as the meta got more mature and as people have acquired more cards. I feel like I'm running into some of the easier-to-craft gold cards almost every other match, so it can be a bit of an uphill battle. I'll probably have to craft a Woodland Spirit and a Caranthir if I want to stay competitive.

Woodland Spirit and Caranthir are both stupid strong and well worth the investment if that's the deck type you want to play.

 

[Stampy]

Becoming slowly addicted to this game. But have sacrificed the whole elf deck just to get a kickstart. Hope I didn't mess up. But that leader card seemed terrible anyway.

Anyhow, does anyone know with the NR deck are those units which buf other units in the deck do they apply only to the same picture type or to all three unit types (since they share the same name, but not the same picture). I mean having 9 of those in deck, could promote some wreckage if so...

Also, properly balanced weather deck seems the most powerfull way to go. I played against one guy, and he only only lost because he missmanaged his weather effects. I mean it's brutal when there are so many untis callign weather, and special weather cards. Is there any meangifull tactics against such deck. I'm thinking of changing my strategy. And start buidling a monster weather deck... Or is it more the grass is greener on the other side kind of thing?

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I'm trying to think if NR has any viable strategies outside of buff+Adrenaline Rush+Promote, but I'm having trouble putting together any good decks. The NR trait, bonus strength for each gold unit, specifically requires you to build a deck to take advantage of that. But it just seems like trying to put together anything that takes advantage of getting gold cards just takes a hell of a lot of setup. Meanwhile Monsters can throw out Eredin/Geralt on the first turn, pass, and either force the opponent to lose a round or go into round two with a win and a card deficit.

Anyhow, does anyone know with the NR deck are those units which buf other units in the deck do they apply only to the same picture type or to all three unit types (since they share the same name, but not the same picture). I mean having 9 of those in deck, could promote some wreckage if so...

I believe the cards with different illustrations still only count as one card type, so you can only have three of them total in your deck.

 

[Sorian]

Becoming slowly addicted to this game. But have sacrificed the whole elf deck just to get a kickstart. Hope I didn't mess up. But that leader card seemed terrible anyway.

Anyhow, does anyone know with the NR deck are those units which buf other units in the deck do they apply only to the same picture type or to all three unit types (since they share the same name, but not the same picture). I mean having 9 of those in deck, could promote some wreckage if so...

Also, properly balanced weather deck seems the most powerfull way to go. I played against one guy, and he only only lost because he missmanaged his weather effects. I mean it's brutal when there are so many untis callign weather, and special weather cards. Is there any meangifull tactics against such deck. I'm thinking of changing my strategy. And start buidling a monster weather deck... Or is it more the grass is greener on the other side kind of thing?

There are some cards that have alternate art just for fun (they form one big picture when put next to each other) but they are all the same and 3 is still the limit.

 

[Exentryk]

The savage bear didn't affect my Dandelion at all the last time I encountered it. It didn't even remove the one point it had.

 

[squidyj]

http://www.gwentdb.com/decks/4884-rescard

My prospective Skellige Res/Discard deck, not sold 100% on brann, bit expensive to test him out too.

 

[Sorian]

The savage bear didn't affect my Dandelion at all the last time I encountered it. It didn't even remove the one point it had.

That's a bug lol

http://www.gwentdb.com/decks/4884-rescard

My prospective Skellige Res/Discard deck, not sold 100% on brann, bit expensive to test him out too.

Leader Bran or gold spy Bran? The leader is definitely a requirement. Lets you make sure you get exactly what you need after a failed mulligan and if you're deck is set right then no disadvantage to you.

 

[Exentryk]

That's a bug lol

The bear can kill the card, but it shouldn't affect the spawning of a commander's horn since that effect should take place prior.

And killing the Dandelion card can actually be more beneficial to the NR user

 

[Sorian]

The bear can kill the card, but it shouldn't affect the spawning of a commander's horn since that effect should take place prior.

And killing the Dandelion card can actually be more beneficial to the NR user

Shouldn't be, if a card dies when it comes onto the board, it doesn't get to use it's effect. That's why scoia traps are a thing.

 

[Exentryk]

Shouldn't be, if a card dies when it comes onto the board, it doesn't get to use it's effect. That's why scoia traps are a thing.

It just depends on what priority the effects have. The card can still die, but the effect isn't bound to whether the card stays on the field or not.

I'll try to use it against an ambush card and see if it works.

 

[toastyToast]

Nothing happens if a card doesn't touch the board or rather it shouldn't. If it doesn't reach the board than technically you were denied your opportunity to play the card. 100% sure it's a bug and an outlier case. Priscilla is more or less the same kind of card as Dandelion and she just disappears if there's a Savage Bear on the field. Same goes for Scoiatael 1 strength buff cards. No buffs are applied.

 

[Exentryk]

Nothing happens if a card doesn't touch the board or rather it shouldn't. If it doesn't reach the board than technically you were denied your opportunity to play the card. 100% sure it's a bug and an outlier case. Priscilla is more or less the same kind of card as Dandelion and she just disappears if there's a Savage Bear on the field. Same goes for Scoiatael 1 strength buff cards. No buffs are applied.

Oh, so Priscilla didn't get to use her effect? I guess then Dandelion is meant work the same way, but I hope not. =/

 

[Sorian]

It just depends on what priority the effects have. The card can still die, but the effect isn't bound to whether the card stays on the field or not.

I'll try to use it against an ambush card and see if it works.

As said above, yeah, the idea is that the card isn't played so it fails. Dandelion is a bug. Also, fyi, Priscilla is getting a nerf sometime soon

 

[Ivory Samoan]

This is the first time I've gotten into a closed beta in the first wave, so stoked!

Won my first few games too, I can see this becoming an obsession...do cards get wiped post Beta?

 

[Sorian]

This is the first time I've gotten into a closed beta in the first wave, so stoked!

Won my first few games too, I can see this becoming an obsession...do cards get wiped post Beta?

The FAQ used to say definitely but they've now changed the answer to something a lot more vague so easy answer is we don't know. They have said if you buy any packs during the closed beta and they do wipe things though, you will get back a number of unopened packs to match how much you've spent.

 

[Stiler]

Holy crap, what do you even do against a Northern Realms deck that can buff a card to 100+, mark it to play next round, and then change it to gold???

Tell me....there's absolutely no counterplay to that unless you are playing the same deck and got lucky enough to get a card that lets you demote a gold card.

The other decks have no counter to it unless you use a scorch (if you get one), and even then if you wait too long and miss the chance and they put it to gold that's out of luck too.

 

[Sorian]

Holy crap, what do you even do against a Northern Realms deck that can buff a card to 100+, mark it to play next round, and then change it to gold???

Tell me....there's absolutely no counterplay to that unless you are playing the same deck and got lucky enough to get a card that lets you demote a gold card.

The other decks have no counter to it unless you use a scorch (if you get one), and even then if you wait too long and miss the chance and they put it to gold that's out of luck too.

Never pass against foltest and run with a scorch and dimiritium bomb in your deck. The second they adrenaline rush something that is buffed to high hell like that, use one of the two cards above. Watch them rage quit in a fit and laugh while you GG and they don't.

Edit: And by never pass, I mean never pass first, once they do, you can obviously. NR is fairly weak if they can't run away with a round like that. If you play them card for card, you will likely win with any deck. An alternative is to run a weather deck and just weather the row the super card is on when it's adrenaline'd

 

[squidyj]

Holy crap, what do you even do against a Northern Realms deck that can buff a card to 100+, mark it to play next round, and then change it to gold???

Tell me....there's absolutely no counterplay to that unless you are playing the same deck and got lucky enough to get a card that lets you demote a gold card.

The other decks have no counter to it unless you use a scorch (if you get one), and even then if you wait too long and miss the chance and they put it to gold that's out of luck too.

don't pass. drag them through the first 2 rounds, you have to maintain your ability to respond to the threat.
have scorch or dimeritium bomb or something to trash the power the moment before they promote

 

[Exentryk]

Holy crap, what do you even do against a Northern Realms deck that can buff a card to 100+, mark it to play next round, and then change it to gold???

Tell me....there's absolutely no counterplay to that unless you are playing the same deck and got lucky enough to get a card that lets you demote a gold card.

The other decks have no counter to it unless you use a scorch (if you get one), and even then if you wait too long and miss the chance and they put it to gold that's out of luck too.

Like others have said, don't pass. You have lots of options to mess up their buffing plans (scorch, weather cards), and even after they've promoted the cards, you have a few options like Djikstra and Phillipa.

 

[Led_Zeppelin]

Becoming slowly addicted to this game. But have sacrificed the whole elf deck just to get a kickstart. Hope I didn't mess up. But that leader card seemed terrible anyway.

Anyhow, does anyone know with the NR deck are those units which buf other units in the deck do they apply only to the same picture type or to all three unit types (since they share the same name, but not the same picture). I mean having 9 of those in deck, could promote some wreckage if so...

Also, properly balanced weather deck seems the most powerfull way to go. I played against one guy, and he only only lost because he missmanaged his weather effects. I mean it's brutal when there are so many untis callign weather, and special weather cards. Is there any meangifull tactics against such deck. I'm thinking of changing my strategy. And start buidling a monster weather deck... Or is it more the grass is greener on the other side kind of thing?

About the same units with different artwork, is just so when playing all 3 of them it looks nice on the board. You can only have 3 of them per deck, regardless of artwork, though in your personal collection you can have 3 for each artwork.

And about the weather deck, you can promote earlier with NR, certain units. With Skellige you can use weather resisting units, like the pirates that are immune to fog or the longships or the young bears. With Scoia'tael I have no idea since I haven't really use them since entering the beta, I don't like playing with them for some reason, while I love playing with the other 3 decks, for what I see they are really vulnerable to weather decks, though they can protect themselves with hidden cards. which can be a good way to mess up with your opponents mind.

Also you could use Dimeritium bomb but that can't help a lot of the times if you heavily invested in buffing, though it is a good defense against monster decks that basically rely on the weather to weakening the enemies, I also combine Dimeritium bomb with Dijkstra to debuff the rush prom tactics.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

Holy crap, what do you even do against a Northern Realms deck that can buff a card to 100+, mark it to play next round, and then change it to gold???

Tell me....there's absolutely no counterplay to that unless you are playing the same deck and got lucky enough to get a card that lets you demote a gold card.

The other decks have no counter to it unless you use a scorch (if you get one), and even then if you wait too long and miss the chance and they put it to gold that's out of luck too.

That deck was a hell of a lot of fun to play 3-4 days ago when no one knew what to expect, but people have been building up their card collection and have counters are plentiful. The strat itself is super obvious to see the buildup. If you see the NR player using Blue Stripe Scouts or Kaedweni Siege Support, then you can tell right away what deck they're playing. Most decks should carry multiple counters to overbuffs, whether it be Scorches or Dimeterium Bombs on the low-end, or a Philippa for a rare card.

 

[Stiler]

Never pass against foltest and run with a scorch and dimiritium bomb in your deck. The second they adrenaline rush something that is buffed to high hell like that, use one of the two cards above. Watch them rage quit in a fit and laugh while you GG and they don't.

Edit: And by never pass, I mean never pass first, once they do, you can obviously. NR is fairly weak if they can't run away with a round like that. If you play them card for card, you will likely win with any deck. An alternative is to run a weather deck and just weather the row the super card is on when it's adrenaline'd

I have both in my deck, but it's not a given that you'll even get them.

If the RNG doesn't give you them you're SOL, nothing you can do to stop that strat if you don't get one of those cards.

Even then it's a toss up. If they have a gold promote, you can wait too late and they apply it, or too short and then they just build up another card instead to copy>lock for next round>turn to gold.

 

[Sorian]

I have both in my deck, but it's not a given that you'll even get them.

If the RNG doesn't give you them you're SOL, nothing you can do to stop that strat if you don't get one of those cards.

Even then it's a toss up. If they have a gold promote, you can wait too late and they apply it, or too short and then they just build up another card instead to copy>lock for next round>turn to gold.

Who cares if they gold promote? Ok, you lost that round, move on. If you see them adrenaline rush the super strong thing that's when you know to fuck it up. As for bad luck, sure but there are some things you should know to definitely be using all 3 of your mulligans for and every deck really should have some draw potential involved.

 

[StrategyFan]

i did not expect this game to work as well as it does

the amount of thought you have to give to your opponent's plays as well as your own is something most card games don't have a lot of

even the deckbuilding in gwent can be tricky. i thought it would be trivial (and for some builds it is), but it's actually harder sometimes because you can't just pick the strongest 30/40/50/60 cards due to the restrictions on golds/silvers


some other tips:

a neat side effect of some of the northern realms decks: you can usually dump most of your deck onto the board with cards like reinforcement/reaver/priscilla so there's a good chance of getting to all the cards you want. you can increase your odds of hitting golds a lot by thinning your deck early rather than saving for the final round

the opening mulligan is really powerful, and is probably the most important decision of the round. there are lots of cards which you might dismiss as luck-based because they're bad if you draw 1 or more of them, but you have so much control over your 1st turn that it's almost a non-issue

 

[Stiler]

Who cares if they gold promote? Ok, you lost that round, move on. If you see them adrenaline rush the super strong thing that's when you know to fuck it up. As for bad luck, sure but there are some things you should know to definitely be using all 3 of your mulligans for and every deck really should have some draw potential involved.

Gold promote = invun.

They throw in a 50+ card, drop a lock on it (so it stays on the board for the next round) then promote to gold after the lock, it will stay on the board once it pops gold.

Then you've got a 50+ card to deal with in the next round as well that is invulnerable to any damage effects.

If you don't draw a scorch or dimitrium card you can not do a damn thing to counter it.

 

[toastyToast]

Had my first draw against a fellow Skelliger. His deck was way better than mine but I managed to get card advantage early on. Came down to his last card with him in the lead and I had a just Scorch and Dimeritium left. Thought I was done for if he managed to play another card. Instead he had a Dimeritium himself and with buffs and shit I guess didn't do the math. He played it and we wound up with the exact same score. I had the highest unit so I couldn't Scorch so it had to be called there.

Matches always seem to end in crazy novel ways (unless there's a Philippa). It's like there's no ramp up and it's mind games as soon as the game starts.

 

[Sorian]

Gold promote = invun.

They throw in a 50+ card, drop a lock on it (so it stays on the board for the next round) then promote to gold after the lock, it will stay on the board once it pops gold.

Then you've got a 50+ card to deal with in the next round as well that is invulnerable to any damage effects.

If you don't draw a scorch or dimitrium card you can not do a damn thing to counter it.

I understand that but 1) there are two cards, at least, that still can mess it up even after they promote it and 2) while it would suck and be unlucky, over multiple NR games I hardly ever fail to draw one of the 2 cards I need, you should only have a deck of 25 cards and you should be playing something in this current meta that let's you get some more draw potential even past the initial 3 mulligans.

 

[toastyToast]

Is Birna Bran worth crafting? I'm concerned that I'll end up graveyarding stuff I don't wanna graveyard since it's pick 4 discard 3. Plus she's a 9 strength spy.

I think I might keep saving for The Last Wish

 

[TheKeyPit]

FU to everyone who doesn't gg a good match.

The FAQ used to say definitely but they've now changed the answer to something a lot more vague so easy answer is we don't know. They have said if you buy any packs during the closed beta and they do wipe things though, you will get back a number of unopened packs to match how much you've spent.

Are we talking about real money at some point during a closed beta? No? If it's just packs bought with ingame currency; who cares? I don't expect to keep anything from playing this beta.

Is Birna Bran worth crafting? I'm concerned that I'll end up graveyarding stuff I don't wanna graveyard since it's pick 4 discard 3. Plus she's a 9 strength spy.

I think I might keep saving for The Last Wish

Most of the time I use her for a round that is bound to be lost and I discard the cards that I want to have in my graveyard.

 

[Turin Turambar]

I would like to see the stats of each faction. Because the impression I'm having of the closed beta is that 75% of the players are NR/Monster players, and only 25% the other two decks, and even more, each time I play against Skellige or Scoia'tel I win 75% of the time.

 

[bjaelke]

Skellige is by far the most interesting faction albeit a bit underpowered. Graveyard manipulation as a concept works really well. Especially with the Monster decks running fuckoglets.

 

[PseudoViper]

The beta is pretty good. I'm enjoying it so far. I haven't had much time to really put into it yet due to work, but I'm hoping I can at least put in 2 to 3 hours (hopefully a bit more) this week. The deck manager is pretty cool, but my only gripe is sorting. Not really liking the sorting / layout.