Just made Pro Rank for the first time and it feels so good!

Guess I’m kind of just gloating here but feeling so stoked I had to share. I downloaded Gwent last year after finishing Witcher 3 but have only really been playing regularly for the past 6 months. In that time I put most of my resources into building up my favorite noob faction, Northern Realms. As I rose up the ladder it became painfully obvious how limited NR was in the contemporary meta. Using some variations on SpecimenGwent’s NR Homebrews I was able to climb as high as Rank 4 before hitting a solid wall. As much as I love NR I got tired of getting contemptuously 2:0’ed by Chinese Metabreaker and getting spanked by pretty much any NG deck generally. I had been saving up a pretty big pile of ore and scraps from Yen’s Journey and with Patch 8.5 approaching I decided I’d build myself a couple meta decks to get me to the promised land. Picked 2 that looked pretty idiot-proof, SK BoG Warriors and Specimen’s Unitless ST Traps and Bombs deck (Yes yes unitless ST is cancer. I’m sorry, I wanted to win). Well lo and behold I was able to climb all the way from Rank 6 to Rank 1 in the few days since Patch Day. Which brings me to last night. Getting through Rank 1 was a back and forth affair but I finally got to that last match to qualify for Pro. And what do I queue into?

NG Double Cross, my old nemesis.

Was playing my SK Warriors deck and though I had a pretty good draw in Round 1 my opponent came out hyper-aggressive, hitting me with Roderick and a double-Joachim in the first few turns.

Couldn’t match that tempo so I played it out for a few turns and then gave my opponent the round at least managing to go into Round 2 with a 10-9 card advantage.

Playing SK Warriors I certainly expected to get bled in Round 2 but a few turns in I realized that this was no ordinary bleed. My opponent was going all out for the 2:0.

It was right around then he started in with the emote spam. “Bad Move” “Bad Move” “You’re Going Down” “You’re Going Down”.

He hit me with the sequence of cards that had signaled my doom so many times back in my NR Days: Gorthur-Cantarella-Joachim-Coup-Joachim.

He had done it. He had pulled off the Quad-Joachim.

And then to top things off, he did something I hadn’t seen before, played Petri’s Philter on his Damien to get two Double Crosses back to back, hitting my Tyrggvi and a Bear Witcher.

He played out the rest of his hand and passed with a big lead. The emote spamming took on the air of an endzone dance. “You’re going down” “You’re Going Down” “You’re Going Down”.

But what he apparently didn’t know, was that I’ve had Eist in my hand this whole time.

And while he was pulling off the Quad-Joachim and the Double-Double Cross, I had managed to set up Bloodthirst 3.

I slam down my Eist, Djenge comes out on the draw, I Blaze of Glory his tallest unit with Jutta, and win the round by 4 points with Harald still in hand.

My opponent rage quit before we even got to Round 3 and just like that, I made Pro Rank for the first time. Victory never felt sweeter.

Anyway yeah, was just so stoked I had to share. I wish the best of luck to everyone else out there trying to climb up the Ranked Ladder, especially my fellow long-suffering NR Enjoyers. There is light at the end of the tunnel, even if it means setting aside your favorite faction for a bit to get there.