My very early impressions from a few games on day one after the patch.
Would love to hear what everyone thinks!
Runemage. Seems rather strong in Assimilate. Really useful with Double Cross and Bribery, etc, for finding a good card from your opponent before they can play it.
Aerondight. Definitely a bit situational, but if you manage to stay ahead most of the game, this gets really strong.
I've only played a bit, mostly SK discard to to to point slam early, but this can get to some crazy value, especially the second time around.
Golden Nekker. This is a tough one to not be forced into awkward plays IMHO. Tried it a bit, and it arguably goes well w/ Aerondight, and Ciri Nova obviously, but i find setting up the deck for this to not be some really awkward plays very difficult. Probably works better in deck types i've not built yet.
Ornate Censor – haven't crafted yet, but if you build your deck for this card, i'm sure it can find value.
Ring of Favour. I think this is kinda crazy strong. People don't want to lose r1, because then you probably are getting bled r2, especially with Ciri Nova everywhere. I was finding i'd get to play almost an entire r1, so this was finding huge value.
Obviously you have to identify what your opponent wants to do, but it tends to be fairly obvious.
Magic Compass. Really good, but i need to find the optimal deck to use it in. I was finding i was getting forced to move too many good cards to the graveyard. If is was "Discard", not "Move", this would be amazing. The first time this gets used it's pretty underwhelming. If you've thinned down for the second time then you get an amazing finisher with it!
I guess the optimal use for this is in decks with a ton of graveyard revival?
Arcane Tome. I think it's okay if you build your deck for it, and your opponent also has specials they want to play.
If they don't, i suppose it's an okay special tutor for one use.
Giant Slayer. This seems really good in Dwarves. Even more Resiliance for them 😮
Mysterious Puzzle Box. I'm struggling with this. I guess you have to build your deck to include high prov cards you're okay turning into Thing?
I was running mostly Ciri Nova, so i didn't win this even once i don't think.
Highland Warlord. Probably going to lose r1, but this gives your Raid cards insane removal range for r2 and r3 if you can find the Warlords soon enough.
Vial of Forbidden Knowledge. I think this is going to be great for Mill/NG players. For the rest of us, i'm not sure how much i want to be running it.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/gwent/comments/txoav1/early_thoughts_on_the_new_cards/