Runemage must be looked at, as well as Renfri.

This post could also be titled “CDPR doesn’t know how to balance neutrals” but basically, Renfri isn’t the only issue. Runemage took all of the RNG out of create and basically made it close to 100% consistent to what you want to hand pick.

This isn’t nilfgaards fault, although they benefit with double cross and overall assimilate decks, but create seems to be broken as it currently exists imo.

Overall I think it is a mistake to have such consistent, such powerful neutrals. Neutrals should compliment deckbuilding, not completely dominate it. If CDPR could just tweak a few neutrals down a bit, and simultaneously buff devotion for all factions, then the game will see much more diverse match ups. Until then you will see runemage and Renfri in almost all decks irregardless of the faction just simply because of their value output.

This seems to be a problem that has always plagued Gwent, because when the game left beta, Sihil was dominating the game until they changed it. Years later, they repeat the same mistakes. CDPR do not know how to balance neutrals in Gwent.