The State of Gwent: Confused

I feel this subbreddit was a fun place to be, but now all I see is people complaining.

Yes, some of it is justified, but I don't think the meta will ever get as a bad as when we had NG poison for months.

You can still play around SY and other decks. People just focus a lot on recency bias and love to complain.

But the current release pattern is what literally everyone wanted. Now people use hindsight bias and explain how good waiting 6 months was. No, it's really not, and I don't want to hear that nonsense.

The way they're updating is good, it's how every successful game does it. That isn't the problem. The problem is that they don't understand their own game at times and they put too much stock on the new content, not focusing if it really fits.

It's the overall game design philosophy that is the problem here. New cards shouldn't disregard old cards but enhance them.

But the problem is you need time and support for some. For example, Melusine actually makes self wound, rain, alchemy all somewhat good to play (par getting heatwaved). But the problem is that they make some things too good and reliable like MO and SY.

If we had gotten MO needed earlier. And SY should have gotten some obvious nerfs. Along with some bronze, low gold buffs to ST/NR, the meta would be healthy.

We still have interesting cards which don't see reworks like Triss Butterflies and we don't see good keywords like Adrenaline being used. They have all these cool ideas and potential but they refuse to use them. That is where the problem lies.

The Master s1 meta was great. Why? Because they actually released cards that enhanced many archetypes. And none of them were bronze or low gold cards.

This means that the floor of most decks remained the same when it comes to consistency but the payoff felt better.

But because a lot of bronze cards now can out value gold cards like Self Eater, Griffin Fruits combo, the Elf Flute card, and so on that the power creep seems good.

People say Gord needs a nerf but he was never buffed. It's the bronze cards that carry decks (par Mamuna and Drill) but the point is that if bronze cards have good payoff and they're good enough to be have to be removed then that makes the game hard to play as strong bronze cards in one faction mean more than gold cards in another, hence you lose in the deck builder. Gord is only good because you have so many good bronze cards that support him now.

But the Gord philosophy isn't bad because you still need to win r1 and play mutliple specials and draw them, it's not the same as instant 20 points like Mamuna and Drill, which need some kind of adrenaline affects, maybe affects which make them stronger early in a round so the opponent can block the setup either in beginning of r3 or end of r1 (maybe this was the best example) but the point is that they're too free right now.

We wanted content and we're getting content. It's just not the most meaningful content. We need way more balance every month. I'm no dev, so maybe I'm wrong, but it shouldn't be as hard compared to making new cards right?

Some of the most fun Gwent has been has been when just 1 card, like Madoc or Alzur, made the game fresh with new ideas. I think if we saw more of that rather than Legendaries that rocket a list to tier 0, it would be healthier. More interesting design cards.

For example, for years people have asked for vampires to be good but it just doesn't happen. CDPR needs to rethink the philosophy of how a new expansion will enhance the overall consistency of all decks instead of printing new cards that make the old ones fall off.

It's weird but it would seem that CDPR has more time as before they'd have to release all 72 cards in June but now it should be easier to focus on quality but it seems the opposite which is weird.

There needs to be a strong focus on neutrals like how a simple rework to Ciri Nova changed the game.

Even the new Eist Lippy comboing with Radeyah and Shupe is some of the coolest things I've seen in Gwent.

I think if we get less boost this and damage this cards and more that try to have fun like Madoc, Alzur, Ciri: Nova, the game would continuously feel fresh.

This is why I'd love some of the major neutral cards to be reworked every month so a good neutral can make all factions feel viable as let's face it, the devotion tag doesn't seem to be used as creatively as it could.