4Game

Categories: DiscussionGwent

Let’s talk about Northern Realms

Right now, Northern Realms is the least played faction, and it only has one good deck: Witcher Swarm. I'm not an NR main, and I don't plan on becoming one any time soon. However, I do feel that the faction needs some attention.

Before we start jumping on the train and asking for buffs left and right, let's consider the following:

It's normal for faction rankings to fluctuate. There will always be tiers, and any given faction will spend some time at the top and some time at the bottom.
NR Witchers is still pretty good. (Although we're mostly tired of playing them by now.)
An overreaction from CDPR will end up with an OP deck that feels awful to play against.
NR Soldiers Shieldwall was quite good, and some minor changes might be enough to see it perform well again.

So what do we want to happen? I'd like to see the following:

NR Witchers should remain on the same power level or increase slightly.
NR Soldiers and Revenants should be revived before trying to create new archetypes such as Mages, Resupply, or Siege.
I'd like to see the return of certain core cards, like Temerian Drummer, Tridam Infantry, Kerack Marine, Kerack Frigate, Anna Strenger, Vissegerd, and Viraxas King.
I'd also like to see some cards played that have long been irrelevant: Temerian Infantry, Poor Fucking Infantry, and Lyrian Arbalest.
There should be more gold warfare cards besides AA.
There should be more synergy between Soldiers decks and Warfare cards.
In general, NR should have more viable leaders than Shieldwall and Uprising.
NR doesn't need to be the "autolose to yrden" faction.

Some buffs in particular I'd like to suggest:

Temerian Drummer possibly buffed to 4 provisions, or else its 1 armor converted to strength.
Vissegerd could receive Formation again, possibly alongside a slight provision nerf.
Lyrian Arbalest should receive 1 boost and armor, giving it the same survivability as Fire Scorpion or An Craite Longship.
Temerian Infantry should remain a 5 provision unit, but should gain 1-2 points of strength.
Poor Fucking Infantry needs a rework. It's worse than volunteers in every way. May I suggest: https://imgur.com/a/0vliPox
At this point, we haven't even discussed leader rework ideas. Your thoughts are welcome here.