4Game

Let me start by saying this is not a post about me complaining about how NG is OP as they’re clearly not. I want to make a case about how the current state of NG is toxic to the community and poor game design.

I just finished a run of ranked matches during which I faced NG (Mill/Clog) 9/10 matches. This has been happening every day since the patch dropped. And every day I stop playing out of frustration and check Reddit to see if anyone else is equally frustrated. Easy to find on any given day as well as many passionate NG players defending their faction. So, I’m going to try and address some of the arguments I’ve seen in other topics in defense of NG as well.

Let’s start with what NG can do with their archetypes. We have the lesser played and least toxic decks like soldiers which is fun and makes sense for a conquering empire. There is also spies and assimilate decks. Both fun and while getting your deck copied and used better than you are using it can be obnoxious it’s tolerable and impressive when done well. Many NG players have voiced their desire to see these archetypes get some much needed support and I’m right there with them.

Now let’s get to the toxic end of the archetypes. Poison, locks, seizing, mill, and clog. Poison is less common since I believe Syndicate does it better these days. However, having so many instant removal options is rough. Looking at you Ball.

Locks and seize when done to excess is not only ineffective, it sucks the life out of the game although not as badly as mill/clog. Having your units repeatedly stolen or locked turns the match into a flat points contest. No more abilities, no more flavor. You end up locked into the same counter strategy which means every game plays out the same and sadly NG actually loses most of the time because they’re so focused on stealing and locking units they lose the points contest they locked you both into anyway.

Mill and clog. The most toxic archetypes. Mill plays exactly the same every time. They empty your deck and all you can do is hope you can draw your best cards first round and something to remove Kolgrim or double Kolgrim at the end of the match. You can almost predict how a match will go by your opening hand which makes the whole experience feel like a slog. Clog is just as predictable but more easily countered with Maxii and some tutors.

The problem with the toxic archetypes isn’t that they are OP. They are anti-fun. They remove the flavor and strategy from the game that makes Gwent so much fun because they are predictable and focus on halting your strategy by heavy removal, deck manipulation, and locking/seizing units. Every match ends in a hollowed out points contest. Thank goodness they nerfed lockdown so at least leader abilities can’t be completely nullified.

These toxic strategies also attract the worst types of players. People that love to make others miserable, spamming taunts and proudly displaying their “toxic” title. Refusing to send a GG if they failed to torture you into submission. It’s bad for the community and frankly makes the game boring and repetitive when you face them so often. And with them plaguing ranked and unranked alike and draft being broken where is a player to go to find some variety?

The main defense I have seen of NG is that they are the control faction. There shouldn’t be a control faction. Control/removal is needed to counter greed and should be balanced between all factions with unique variations. The reason NG gets so much controversy is because of this imbalance. One faction should not be the anti-meta. This ends with them being constantly buffed/nerfed rather than the core problem being addressed. And nobody is ever happy about it whether they support NG or despise it.

Personally, I understand that these archetypes are lore friendly but they are poorly implemented. NG needs a rework and control needs to be rebalanced between factions. I would like to see new and/or reworked lore-friendly archetypes that are less toxic. I think that would be more constructive than more buffs/nerfs.