Faction Tag Identity #2 – Nilfgaard

SOLDIERS – Flanking, Armor, Tactic, Status

Verdict:

Flanking as a mechanic is cool but it actually didn’t add depth to the playstyle (just place this card at the side and if it sticks, it will snowball pretty hard with these 2 points per turn bronze engines). The ranged passive of Flanking wasn’t even utilized well because there are only a few cards that benefit in armor stacking. In addition, the current NG soldier design seems to be all over the place and their abilities seems to support multiple playstyles. It looks more like a support tag.

Suggestion:

I don’t know if this is a nerf or buff since I have no way to play test it, but what if “Flanking: Trigger this ability if this unit is adjacent to only one unit”. With this revision, we can now add “Deploy, Flanking: Do X”, “Order, Flanking: Do X”, and “Flanking, Melee/Ranged: Do X” abilities and for engine effects the wording would look like “Flanking: Every allied turn end, do X”.

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AGENTS – Disloyal, Spying, Tactics, Card Disruption, Card Manipulation

Verdict:

Agents are currently just a support tag. The Spying keyword is not even utilized well, it’s just a keyword that you spam for engine triggers and with only Artaud Terranova as an actual payoff.

Suggestion:

“Intel: Number of Spying units required to trigger this ability”. This keyword will serve as a payoff for spamming Spying. e.g. “Play a random bronze unit from your deck. Intel 3: Play a bronze unit from your deck instead” or “Spawn and play a random bronze unit your opponent has played this game. Intel 3: Create and play a bronze unit your opponent has played this game instead”.

We can even buff Conspiracy to be less clunky. “Conspiracy: Trigger this ability if the target is Spying or is adjacent to two Spying units” (I’m imagining the second part of the ability as two spies whispering plots and heresy therefore corrupting the target’s thoughts). This will add more depth to positioning.

I also wish there were more Agents with Tactic synergy especially with deck building cost. It makes theory crafting more fun. An ability that changes depending on how many Tactic cards you have in your starting deck would be cool.

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ARISTOCRATS – Tactics, Status

Verdict:

I’m just a little disappointed that are few build around cards. I always imagined these high personalities of Nilfgaard to have these crazy effects with deck building cost or hard conditions that turn the tides of the battle. Something like a December card drop abilities.

Suggestion:

Maybe some rule bending abilities like gaining/removing mulligans? Removing row limit? Decreasing turn timer?

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MAGES – Card Manipulation, Spying, Assimilate

Verdict:

A lot of the abilities of NG Mages revolves towards deck manipulation or card manipulation in general. I just wish they implemented the “skillful deck manipulation” a lot better.

Suggestion:

I have a few ideas on card manipulation abilities:

“When this unit is moved to the top of your deck, transform self into a copy of the last bronze unit your opponent played this round without changing power”.

“Play a card from your deck that is not from your starting deck”

“Move a card in your deck to the top of your deck, then trigger an effect based on its card type. Unit – Give an enemy unit Spying. Special – Lock an enemy unit. Artifact – Poison an enemy unit”

There should also be a better Assimilate payoffs (just like Tourney Shaelmaar), not just creating random stuff and triggering Assimilate multiple times in a turn. e.g. “If you control X or more units from your opponent’s faction, do X” or something ambitious like “If you control a unit from all factions, do X”.

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KNIGHTS – Offensive Boost, Grace

Verdict:

For me, NG Knights rework is a poor attempt to make them playable. Stacking all boost into one unit then stealing or destroying it afterwards isn’t just that appealing to me. This is the problem I’m trying to point out in my first post. If the design of an archetype or tag is all in on one specific mechanic or playstyle, there’s not just much room for design expansion that’s why a secondary identity is important whether it may be direct or just subtle. It also increases deck variety making theory crafting or deck building more fun.

Suggestion:

What if we have a keyword like Bloodthirst or Grace but with boosted enemy units?

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WITCHERS – Card Disruption, Card Manipulation

Verdict:

Card disruption (mill) is an area that is hard to expand on especially in today’s version of Gwent where thinning is accessible to all factions now. Expanding on deck clog is also risky because we reverted back to draw your golds era. There was actually a time before where bronze and gold cards have little power disparity.

Suggestion:

I actually have no idea on how to expand or refine card disruption.

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CULTIST – Cultist Tag Spam

Verdict:

This is a big face palm. They added the Cultist package in a year they promised to go “deeper” in terms of design and archetype support. They could have easily given the Cultist batch lock or card manipulation identity.

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I am not suggesting that every tag should be an archetype or should have a midrange ability. The goal is faction design coherency. This post is simply me stating my observations of the current tag design identities and just suggesting on what design areas we can expand on or refine.