It's a new season of Gwent World Masters, and I'm going to be giving a quick summary of the tournament meta for all round of 16 events. Today we began with the Season of the Wolf Top 16 qualiiers. Note that Pajabol and Kerpeten did not participate, so there are only 14 players total. All decks can be found here.

Northern Realms (14 total decks):

• Inspired Zeal Alumni (12)
  • w/Leticia (10)
  • w/Margarita (9)
  • w/Siege Masters (10)
  • w/Muzzle (2)
• Inspired Zeal Siege (1)
• Stockpile Siege (1)

All 14 players brought some form of NR, with most bringing Alumni. There were lots of variations in this deck, more than I cared to list. Some were Devo, some played Necromancy, some played either Decree or even Oneiro for more consistency, etc. Most intriguing to me was how many players felt confident jamming two Siege Masters in a deck with as few as two siege engines. Wlastelin and Xiwer were our two Siege players, with the latter even choosing Stonkpile.

Nilfgaard (14 total decks):

• Double Cross Assimilate (10)
  • w/Bribery (7)
  • w/Artorius Vigo (5)
  • w/Fercart (4)
  • w/Heatwave (2)
  • w/Gorthur Gvaed+Cantarella (2)
  • w/Muzzle (1)
• Imprisonment Assimilate (2)
  • w/Muzzle (1)
  • w/Artorius Vigo+Bribery(1)
• Tactical Decision Hyperthin (2)
  • w/Roach+Assire (1)
  • w/Fercart+Muzzle (1)

Everyone brought Nilfgaard, with 10 of those players choosing Double Cross Assimilate. We had a little variation in the decks as usual, most notably a couple players choosing to include the Location/Cantarella combo. Truzky and Lerio decided to choose Imprisonment for their Assimilate decks instead. Poisound and Mistikal were the odd ones out, choosing Hyperthin Reveal instead.

Syndicate (13 total decks):

• Jackpot (9)
  • Non-Devo w/Heatwave+Decree (1)
  • w/Philippa (7)
  • w/Bounty Package – Witchfinder, Graden, Executioners (1)
  • w/Saul (1)
• Off the Books (4)
  • Non-Devo w/Decree+Truffle (2)
  • w/Jacques (3)
  • w/Flying Redanian (1)
  • w/Knickers (1)
  • w/Heatwave (1)
  • w/Saul (1)
  • w/Gellert+Hideout (1)
  • w/Hammond (1)

Syndicate was a near universal pick, with only Truzky declining to play SY. Every deck contained King of Beggars. The Jackpot decks looked fairlr familiar and similar, with a few notable exceptions as Lekssmiling cut Philippa for Saul, Sif_Great_Wolf leaned a little harder on the Bounty idea, and Ch.ase brought a non-Devo version. CDPR's buff of OTB and nerf of Jackpot has had an effect, however, with four players bringing OTB with each having their own twist.

Skellige (13 total decks):

• Non-Devotion Onslaught (8)
  • w/Muzzle (7)
  • w/Heatwave (4)
  • w/Coral (6)
  • w/Junod (3)
  • w/Wild Boar of the Sea (1)
• Battle Trance Gedyneith+Sigvald Cheese (2)
• Blaze of Glory Warriors (2)
• Ursine Ritual Self Wound (1)

Skellige also proved very popular, with 13 of 14 players bringng it. Non-Devo Pirates is the most common Skellige deck, with Wanderers and Truffle. There's some variation on what the high end looks like, but most surprising here is Wlastelin playing Wild Boar of the Sea in 2022. A few players went in a different direction, either bringing Gedy with the Sigvald cheese, Warriors, or Self Wound.

Scoia'tael (2 total decks):

• Precision Strike Control (1)
• Guerilla Tactics Alzur (1)

Scoia'tael had two appearances. Truzky brought a very interesting PStrike deck that definitely seems like it was meant to target a certain deck – probably Alumni NR, given the Epidemics in the deck that can deal with Students. Sif_Great_Wolf brought Guerilla Tactics Alzur, though notably with no Milva.

Monsters (0 total decks):

Sad Monsters noises