Why NG is better at playing your cards than you

One of the jokes in Gwent community is that NG is better at playing your cards than you. We all know that it's a great joke. And we also know that it's a truth. In this post i would like to explain why it's true.

First, NG can play your cards, multiple times. They have access to cards you play by Duchess's Informant, Experimental Remedy, Coup De Grace,…….. and most recently, Illusionist and Artaud. Note that most of these cards are bronzes and can be played 2 copies. And if that's not enough, NG has cards which can spawn cards which copy your cards. Braathens, Vigo and Truffle can spawn you another Duchess's Informant and Illusionist. Your strong bronzes are not OP since you can only run 2 copies of them. However NG can play 4 copies instead, yes, 4 copies, of your best bronze.

Second, their copying cards are good. So you think that copying cards will have a cost which balance out the card? Well no. First off since your opponent copies your strongest bronze, the mere value from duplicating something like Witch's apprentice far outvalues the -1 they get from Disloyal. Additionally, NG can gain value from copying cards. Braathens is an engine, which copies your card, and also procs engines including itself, twice. Illusionist can spawn a 1-power copy of your bronze, and give you +4 instead of -1.

So to conclude my point, you can play your best bronzes 2-3 times. NG can play that same card 2-4 times, at the same time setting up their other combos and engines. That's why NG is better at playing your cards than you. But the mechanic is not broken, in fact, it's not even close to broken. It cannot copy your golds easily, it relies on you having strong bronzes and it only has interactive play.

Overall, NG playing other people's card is a cool mechanic. Sometimes you can setup and play your opponent's strategy. Sometimes your opponent accidentally plays Witch's apprentice and you win instantly. Just be careful not be make your entire deck around Duchess' Informant or Illusionist. Banking on your opponent running good generic bronzes is quite a bad gambit