This is beyond absurd now (a “rant” about seasonals)

"Rule 3 – criticism must be constructive": my suggestions are at the end.

So after a month of Jackpot, Imprisonment, Force of Nature and Siege snoozefest, today everbody is spamming NG hyperthin in ranked – sure, fine, the deck is buffed they just want to try it.

At least I can play seasonal where nothing is the same, every week brings a new adventure! Ooops, 9 out of 10 modes are riddled with Nilfgaard decks to a point where – if I have to estimate – NG's play rate must be at least 50% overall.

Even in the current Banished mode, where they can't use the OP assmiliate package, they just use the armada of other ridiculously cheap cards to just smurf their way to easy wins.

Tibor, Vilgefortz, Shilard, Imperial Golem, Anna Henrietta (3 for 9 for a leader ability), etc. spiced up with Double Cross or Enslave, unbeatable. Oh sorry, you can lose against NG mirror.

For me it's frustrating because I only play NR, SK and MO (out of principle) and year after year, month after month, week after week it's NG, NG, NG.

How can CDPR allow this for like 2 years now, other than a couple of modes NG dominates seasonals all the time. What about balance? Don't they have stats? I see my opponents in seasonals: rarely SY, sometimes NR, MO, SK, ST, and way too often NG. Check any creator who makes seasonal guides: you would think it's a NG only mode.

And before the comments arrive: "bleh, another schmuck complaining about NG, git gud" downvote – ask yourself the question: isn't this an issue? Should the devs or we the "community" just accept this? This is a game of 6 factions and one of the already scarce game modes is basically owned by 1 faction. Even if you are a NG main who plays seasonals: don't you get bored playing the same faction against mirrors all the time?

Standard/ranked mode: netdecks

Training: netdecks lite

Draft: dead

Seasonal, our only hope for salvation: Nilfgaard mode, both play rate and win rate-wise

If enough people would want it, maybe something could be done about this? I don't know if CDPR cares about or keeps track of seasonal stats, play rates, win rates, but maybe blacklisting cards with really high play rates could be a start.

Or my best solution would be: ONLY IN SEASONAL modes, give the player the option to ban 1 faction or 3 leaders – so the player can't queue against the banned faction or leaders. You can't imagine how more enjoyable the average seasonal experience would be without facing NG. And I truly beleive that the current status quo kills any creativity from the playerbase. From personal experience I don't even bother building a seasonal deck because I know it will lose against the current NG mode-killer deck, would be a waste of time so I just skip the mode entirely. Anybody else feels the same and has the same experience facing NG all the time in seasonals or I'm just an unlucky statistical anomaly?

Let's have a discussion about this topic with arguments for and against the option to ban a faction in seasonals!

TL;DR: Nilfgaard is way too dominant in way too many seasonal modes and makes those more boring and predictable than ranked. I suggest to give the option to the players to ban 1 faction or 3 leaders in seasonal modes.