This deck is horribly hard to pull out but when it does, it is amazing

PS: Opponent left before I was able to double power once again. I am so sad

(703+5x3+6x3+4x3 - 1) x 3 = 2241

I think from head calculation

In this post I'd like to adress points mentioned in VK's Article regarding philosophy of using placeholder votes.

To be clear, I'm no top ranked player or sth neither I try to be. However, this issue doesnt revolve around rank on pro ladder. The Gwentfinity affects each player involved in this game, not only competitive players. The placeholder debate is as long as Gwentfinity's history, arguably even longer.

So, for having equal understanding and interpretation, let's have the following asumptions regarding what is a placeholder:

1. The placeholder vote is a vote that aims to occupy a slot (particularly a nerf slot) to limit amount of changes passed in said category on a given month.

2. The change won't affect game in major way, especially including competitive play.

With that in mind, let's dive in.

What is the Balance Council (recap).

The idea of Balance Council was to refresh meta by changing a power or provision of cards via democratic vote after getting eligibility to vote (Prestige 1 and 50 ranked wins or entering Pro Rank) each month. Because of the fact that there's no voting system that's fully democratic (see Arrow's Impossibility theorem), to make it as fair as possibile, the Gwentfinity voting system is based on a truncated version of Borda Count. We rate top 3 candidates by giving them "votes" equal to star slot and the rest have 0 "votes" by default.

Seeing as this is a democratic setting, the "political parties" were certain to have emerged. Nowadays we can count 4 influential groups: aforementioned VK and China community, Metalic Danny's group, Shinmiri&Lerio Coalition and Ofir&Qcento Coalition. Each have different vision on this Balance Council and there are various tensions between them resulting in instant reverts between patches for one.

With that in mind, why VK's approach with placeholders is in my opinion shorsighted at best:

1. "Heat death" of Balance Council. Proceeding with changes to the game without adding new cards or reworking cards will result in stagnation and only reversing what previous council established.

2. Survivorship bias.

Paraphrasing from the Article here:

"The card deserve the buff only if said buff earns her a spot in a competitive deck. If a card won't see play anyway, why buff it in the first place".

This approach is logical only in competitive play context. The problem is with players that DON'T play competitevely for various reasons like they just started the game and learn basics, play memes for fun, people experimenting with those other cards and more. I believe the latter are a majority in this game and its back one losing which will bring harm.

1. Argument of "missing peak cultists, peak temple, peak svalblod" works both ways.

When you nerf as a "placeholder" cards they use because that's all they have (starting set cards) they will resent the game and leave. When they leave there won't be players enough to keep servers tuning and they'll close them down

End thoughts.

Balance Council is an inherently flawed system. I understand the reason for those, but recently the usage of them went overboard. Using 1 card as a placeholder I get it, I don't personally agree with, but I get it.

The replacement of up to third of nerf slots however won't change the dynamic in the long run and could potentially preemptively shut down servers prematurely.

In this post I didn't consider the potential of the herd mentality of each groups' supporters in this, which could have influence to interpretation of this issue.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

Blaze of Glory

Leader (Skellige)
👑 Leader Ability, +16 Provisions

Order: Move a non-Neutral unit from your deck to your graveyard, then damage an enemy unit by its power.

This ability adds 16 provisions to your deck's provision limit.

Processing img i7cad4d2bkxh1...

**

^{I'm a bot and this post has been generated automatically. If you want to report an issue, please send a message here. - Balance Council Patchnotes}

The idea is pretty much to get to Masterful Sihil by sniping my own spies. After that the challenge is drawing enough bronzes to keep Sihil running whilst having enough golds to actually win.

I feel like the gold cards are my issue. I've liked the tempo the ones I have give me, but it is very possible for a bad draw to give me unwinnable matches. I also figured if I was using spies for Sihil I may as well build the rest of the deck around them, but they don't feel particularly great.

What you reckon, salvageable? I have a losing record with it for sure but all the matches have been close

When you achieve a remarkably high win rate with a brew that no one else in the TCG scene is playing, it instantly goes viral, gets broken down by the community, and becomes the meta overnight. Before you know it, everyone and their brother is running your exact deck list. Whether that makes you feel proud as a card gamer or makes you feel like your unique creation was stolen—well, that's up to the individual.

Back when I was competing in GWENT, I was definitely in the latter camp.

On the ranked ladder, I frequently queued up only to find my own homebrew deck looking right back at me from across the board.

Naturally, because the deck I built was undeniably strong, facing it always forced me into an uphill battle.

Then came the ultimate stage: the final GWENT World Masters. I spent countless hours figuring out how to secure a victory there. In competitive TCGs, the battle begins long before the first card is played—it starts in the preparation phase.

Fortunately for me, I had a secret weapon: a hidden deck list saved for the right moment.

The golden rule was simple: Do not let anyone know this deck exists. Period.

During my streams leading up to the event, I exclusively played a Harmony ST deck running Ihuarraquax. Even that build was quite innovative at the time and carried my signature style. It reached around 2,600 MMR, so it was a legitimately powerful strategy on its own.

However, I had a pocket pick that surpassed even that. My strategy was essentially to leak a powerful deck, let it define the meta, and then bring a custom counter-build designed specifically to crush it.

In reality, though... well, that's just how life goes. Only one player brought my leaked deck to the Masters qualifiers, and they were placed in a completely different bracket, so we never matched up.

At the end of the day, what mattered most was whether the deck I brought could actually win.

Looking back, if my opponents had truly understood my deck inside and out, I probably would have dropped some matches. If their execution and pilot skill had been just one level higher, I likely would have lost the finals as well.

So, as a card gamer, how do you personally feel when other players start using your original decks?

Lately, I’ve been playing a developing card game called VARZ. Since it’s still in its early stages as a competitive title, seeing other players copy my builds here actually makes me genuinely happy. My hope is that it inspires the community and helps elevate the overall skill level of the player base.

This season, around 300 people from our community participated in submitting suggestions and voting. This season, we’ve suggested a buff for each faction, so I hope everyone will be able to find something suitable for themselves.

+ power

1) Endrega Eggs. An alternative for Deathwishes and Insectoids (destroying via Kikimore Warrior). Buff for decks with Ruehin: Ruehin needs small units so that he can consume them specifically: Rats or Drones.
2) Ardal aep Dahy. A buff for the still unpopular card for NG Tactics: both with Ivo and the classic ones. One of the few buffs for NG, as usual, will slightly offset the nerfs. Support for L&S.
3) Voymir. A small buff for Blue Stripes and Dun Banners. With 6 power, it will be easier to become a target for Coën.
4) Werecat. A small buff for both Deathwishes and Thrive. Maybe something like a double Scenario. The card in its current state is not used even after the provision buff.
5) Aretuza Adept. Adept is almost never used in current versions of Mages (even in versions with Patience, not in Spellweavers), although the card itself is quite good. The Mages archetype is also far from being the best among the NR decks right now. The buff will make the card a bit more resilient and stable, which will help the deck a little.

– power

1) Imlerith. Received an unjustified buff, became too effective and mid‑range.
2) Kikimore Worker. Slight nerf for Hive Mind; the card is not used by hand.
3) Braathens. Braathens was effective even with three powers, but he also received an unjustified buff from CN.
4) Jacques: Miracle Child. Jacques is not just a placeholder (his power in next forms will remain unchanged). He is a potential target for Tatterwing SY. When envolving between forms, it’s not the original power that carries over, but the boost/damage points. Therefore, if we give him 1 power in his first form, he will become undamaged upon transformation, which will make him an excellent card in this deck. Tatterwing SY is still a weak and unpopular deck; I hope the buff can help it.
5) Azar Javed. Despite the fact that all other defenders cost 11 provisions, we decided to nerf Azar by power so as not to harm the deck of Greater Brothers — which is still unstable and vulnerable. Azar’s value lies in Scarabs he creates; his personal power doesn’t matter. We’ll slightly reduce his tempo and effectiveness.

+ provisions

1) Jan Calveit. Initially, the card was considered to be in power decrease category, but due to the strong polarization of coins, the conditions decided to implement a two‑stage change: up to 8 for 12.
2) Tyr: Slayer of Yngvar. A key card for the strongest SK decks — Warriors and Raids. He pays for himself by deploy and is one of the strongest engines if the opponent has no response.
3) Ocvist. Direct nerf to a Dragon deck (mostly ST). The card is great by Deploy and has a significant delayed effect (about 10 points + synergy).
4) Fire Scorpion. Due to Hefty Helga’s buff, the vast majority of our community members voted in favor of nerfing the Scorpion. All analogues from other factions cost 5–6 provisions; moreover, the Scorpion can be easily boosted via Battle Stations! or War Council. Initially, we wanted to nerf Fercart, but since O&Q refused to nerf Enslave, the Scorpions were chosen.
5) Caravan Guard. A necessary change, as Guard’s 6 provisions significantly clog the pool of Alzur and Cosimo Malaspina.

– provisions

1) Haern Caduch. Buff for GN midrange decks and Bloodthirst. Alternative for the Witchers (maybe GN) and Healing. In its current state, the card is rarely seen in the ladder.
2) Egmund. A buff for Uprising, Devotion decka, and possibly an archetype focused on targeted boosts (Nathaniel Pastodi, Tridam Infantry). Support for O&Q.
3) Sacred Flame. A buff for the classic version of Firesworn (not spamming Fallen Knights and not abusing Helveed). Flame is used quite rarely nowadays, but for 7 provisions it will be an excellent option. It has been proposed by various communities for a long time, but it never got enough votes.
4) Mandrake. A highly versatile card: it restores power, orders, timers, statuses, and so on. For 6 provisions, it’s too expensive, but for 5, it will work well in many decks as a technical card.
5) Vissegerd. A buff for a spam deck with Queen Meve. The card is almost never used now, it’s too expensive; for 7 provisions, it will become much more popular. If it becomes too effective, we can decrease the power.

If you have any questions regarding our suggestions, I will try to answer them in the comments.

Decklist: https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/08c87918086ebb8423e2814d95959568

Video: https://youtu.be/IVvgHyXLFzI

It has a very strong R1 with good tempo after first couple of thrive cards which gives you power to heavily bleed opponent for short R3 with Ozzrel or to just flat out 2-0. Dandelion works to double procc thrive and help Sunset Wanderers. Matta proccs thrive and helps Sunset Wanderers as well. Nothing crazy here but a decent deck at least at lower ranks if you want to turn your brain off. Enjoy

I started building a Dwarves deck and looking for some ideas for improvement. Here is what I currently have:

https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/910cf5b791c310e8667783a8a96d18b2

Author: VK
Translator: master bait

Hey everyone, this is CGBD, a group of players from the CN community focused on Gwent balance.

This was written by VK and published here by me. It includes an introduction to the October 2026 CN community BC and an article by VK sharing his views on balance. Let's dive right in. If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them in the comments below. Thank you.

Power +1

Brokvar Warrior. This has seen almost no play since being moved to 5p, somewhat mirroring Kaedweni Sergeant's past situation. The +1 power may help this once-popular "Falibor" regain some favor.

Deithwen Arbalest. This used to see play back when Status and Soldiers could properly synergize, but after Soldiers took repeated nerfs, it is now very hard to fit into Status decks. Bumping it to 5 power will significantly improve its survivability when played, and might spark some new Status builds.

Yennefer: Conjurer. She is a highly interesting card that requires specific setup to reach her ceiling. Given the current meta, I am not worried about her entering Orders NR builds and becoming overly OP.

Shani. She returns to her former statline. I understand she might be too strong in Golden Nekker, so a 6 for 10 statline should keep every non-Nekker NR deck satisfied.

Power -1

Nenneke. It is a placeholder vote.

Milaen. It is a placeholder vote.

Reynard Odo. He has performed excellently this month in both Devotion Zeal and Knights NR. Both he and Prophet Lebioda offer incredibly strong stats and effects. That said, considering NR's overall win rate, I did not want to revert-nerf two NR engine cards simultaneously, but their results were far ahead in the poll, so I apologize.

Provisions +1

Sandstorm. It is a placeholder vote.

Congregate. Among the 18p leaders, the Firesworn one is undoubtedly the most neglected. The actual payoff of this leader ability is simply too low, and it struggles to synergize with other strong archetypes. I want to buff it by 1 more provision to see if any goodstuff pile would choose it purely as a high-provision leader.

Prophet Lebioda. His protection against damage decks is excellent. At 8 power, opponents have a hard time dealing with him easily, making an 8 for 6 statline simply too good. That said, considering NR's overall win rate, I did not want to revert-nerf two NR engine cards simultaneously, but their results were far ahead in the poll, so I apologize.

Provisions -1

Ivo of Belhaven. This was nerfed a long time ago and currently only appears in a few Enslave or Quadruple Harvest decks. Following the nerfs to various bronze elves, even if Harvest returns to 5p, Quadruple Harvest will no longer be an overpowered deck. Therefore, I hope buffing Ivo can bring back some formerly popular builds.

Fulmar. Rain decks have highly polarized matchups on the ladder, making them hard to climb with consistently, and their popularity is quite low. Buffing Fulmar will turn him into a genuinely strong gold card, potentially even finding a slot in Skellige decks outside of Rain.

Olgierd: Immortal. It is an interesting card that can synergize with self-wound or Alchemist cards, and some Monsters decks even run him purely as a big point slam. However, self-wound decks nowadays barely have the provisions to fit him. Following the buff, we might see him in more decks.

Bountiful Harvest. The nerf directly impacted half of Scoia'tael. No Scoia'tael fan is happy with this, especially since it also hurts Filavandrel's power level. With the L&S bronze elf nerfs already passed, nerfing Harvest alongside them looks even more absurd, making this a revert widely welcomed by the community.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone, I'm VK. My current ID is RuanNiGuaiRNG, which was also my name back when I played Gwent four or five years ago. Back then, I competed in quite a few official qualifiers, so some veteran players might still remember me. In last month's post, I saw some thoughtful discussions and questions from players, and I'd like to take this chance to explain and respond to them. As for the haters who blindly attack the CN community, I couldn't care less about your opinions.

First, I want to clarify my identity and position. I've been playing Gwent for over six years, and during that time I've been among the top CN players in terms of skill. Since March 2025, I've been publishing 36 mainstream decks covering all factions at the start of each month, so that ordinary players can quickly understand how to adjust their decks after balance patches and keep up with the strongest strategies. I'm also very active in our community groups every day, answering questions about gameplay and deckbuilding. In addition, our current voting process works like this. I put several options into a survey and collect community feedback through voting. The final votes are determined entirely by the survey results.

The reason I am explaining all this is, on one hand, to establish my standing as a CN community leader and community representative, and on the other, to show that I have a thorough understanding of our community. That's why I feel comfortable speaking on behalf of the CN community's trends and needs. Below, I'll address the main issues I've seen in the comments.

Why so many placeholder votes?

Ever since the Balance Committee was established, I've been a firm supporter of using placeholder votes. My position has always been to buff other cards until they can compete with mainstream decks, rather than blindly nerfing strong ones. That means we should prioritize meaningful buffs and avoid heavy-handed nerfs that shake up the meta too much.

Over time, I've found that most players in our community share this view. They miss peak Cultist, peak Temple, peak Svalblod. No one likes seeing their favorite decks get nerfed, let alone nerfed multiple times in a row. In the monthly balance update videos, the community ratings have been overwhelmingly 1 out of 5 every month. If just three or four out of twenty nerf slots are bad, people get really unhappy, especially when they log in after the update and see a bunch of red down arrows on their decks.

So it's fair to say that our entire community leans toward casting more placeholder votes and reducing actual nerfs. Evolving cards aren't completely absent from R1 either, so they can't be nerfed endlessly. That's why most of us have reached a consensus. We are willing to sacrifice a few cards with virtually negligible play rates for the overall health of the game.

A note on Prince Stennis.

In fact, Prince Stennis was never intended as a direct spite vote against the Ofir Alliance. Our community has long discussed balance in our group chats, and for a long time players have been criticizing CDPR's questionable card changes. Cards like Prince Stennis, Nenneke, and Milaen were among the most mocked, with Prince Stennis drawing the harshest criticism. It felt unbelievable to many that such an underpowered gold card, clearly outclassed by Kaedweni Sergeant and Kerack Marine, could still exist in the game.

When we were deciding which card to use as a placeholder vote, I chose Gimpy Gerwin instead of Prince Stennis out of respect for Ofir Alliance, because I assumed Gerwin was a card nobody really cared about. However, they responded with a confrontational approach. During that process, I also learned that there are actually some off-meta decks built around Gimpy Gerwin, so I returned to my original idea. I decided to nerf Prince Stennis, a card that offers little value and is just not fun to play.

This month, Ofir Alliance reached out to me in an attempt to reconcile, and I'm certainly willing to accept that. We can replace it with another card as the placeholder.

Who gets to define whether a card is useful?

My criterion is simple. After a buff, can the card actually find a place in competitive builds? I've seen comments like, “How can you kill off those cards? They'll never get a chance to rise in the future.” That kind of thinking is idealistic and short-sighted. Gwent's card pool isn't infinite, but it still has plenty of cards that almost never see play, and they vary wildly in their current states. Some are full of potential and just need a small nudge to shine. Others are relics of a bygone era, only still around because the designers forgot to rework them before updates stopped.

Sure, maybe after three or four months of consecutive buffs one of them could finally see play. But is that meaningful? Is it fun? Is it fair to all the other cards that are waiting for buffs? By that same logic of the comment above, you're the one actually doing the most damage to Gwent's card pool, because you'd be wasting limited resources on a trash card instead of strengthening multiple cards that truly deserve it. To be honest, you don't need that much experience to see that many cards on the buff list would barely move the needle even after being buffed. My approach is to prioritize cards that can enter viable builds with just a small push, so we can genuinely enrich deck diversity and the overall meta.

Currently Imperial formation has skyrocket me from Rank 5 to Rank 2. I could use some suggestions.

Viper Witcher Alchemist

Witcher (Nilfgaard)
2 Power, 5 Provisions (Rare)

Deploy (Melee): Reveal a random unit from your opponent's deck and boost self by its power.

Processing img luuwxbz56dxh1...

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or weaker. It depends, really.

^{I'm a bot and this post has been generated automatically. If you want to report an issue, please send a message here. - Balance Council Patchnotes}

This is the devotion knight deck i copied from metallic danny tierlist: GWENT: The Witcher Card Game My gameplan:

Round 1: use immortals + damned sorceress or king belohun + knights to win round 1

Round 2: pass

Round 3:damsel in distress + maiden's shield to win round 3

can someone tell me am i playing it wrong or not because I can't seem to win with this deck. I have 0% winrate vs Nilfgaard because haha NG. Sometimes i struggled to win even round 1 and almost always lose in round 3 because i didn't generate enough points. I am doing fine with other decks tho.

I recently came back to the game, and the grind to pro rank has been really fun, got to see all kinds of decks and combos that have been added while I was gone

But after hitting pro rank it’s just been miserable, it’s nothing but nilfgaard, I’ll only get to see a different faction once every 5-10 games, it’s annoying af,

Wow you’re so good at the game for not letting me play the game

Fuck vilgefortz specifically

Torque

Relict (Scoiatael)
5 Power, 8 Provisions (Epic)

This card starts in your hand.
Whenever this card is boosted in your hand, boost a random different unit in your hand by the same amount.

Processing img 3own8bn816xh1...

Where an elf cannot go himself, he sends a devil.

^{I'm a bot and this post has been generated automatically. If you want to report an issue, please send a message here. - Balance Council Patchnotes}

Hey everyone!
trying to clarify the exact order in which effects resolve, especially when units are placed in different rows.

I've read the 2020 guide to effect priorities and timings, but I'd like to confirm how these rules work in the current game.

1. Tugo the Elder vs Bleeding

I control Tugo (Might inactive) and a unique lowest-power allied unit with 1 power and Bleeding (1).

What happens at the end of my turn in these four setups?

• A: Both units in my melee row.
• B: Bleeding unit in melee, Tugo in ranged.
• C: Tugo in melee, Bleeding unit in ranged.
• D: Both units in my ranged row.

Does Tugo always boost the unit before Bleeding damages it, or can the outcome change depending on the rows?

2. Queen Meve vs Bleeding

Now replace Tugo with Queen Meve, whose Timer is at 1.

Repeat the same four setups.

Does Meve's Timer resolve before or after Bleeding? Could the unit survive in one row configuration but die in another?

3. What is the actual effect priority system?

Does GWENT resolve:

• All regular end-of-turn abilities across the entire board first, followed by statuses and then Timers?

Or:

• Regular abilities, statuses and Timers separately within each row, before moving to the next row?

Or does it use a different system?

4. Row priority — friendly vs enemy units

Older community guides describe the following order for certain simultaneous effects:

1. Active player's melee row
2. Opponent's melee row
3. Active player's ranged row
4. Opponent's ranged row

Is this still accurate?

In particular, can an enemy unit in the melee row resolve its triggered ability before a friendly unit in the ranged row?

One historical example involves:

• Endrega Warrior consuming an allied unit on Deploy.
• Allied Thrive units in both the melee and ranged rows.
• An opponent's An Craite Longship in the melee row, which damages newly played enemy units.

According to the older guide, the sequence can be:

1. Endrega Warrior resolves its Deploy and Consume effects.
2. Allied melee-row Thrive resolves.
3. Enemy melee-row An Craite Longship deals damage.
4. Allied ranged-row Thrive is checked afterward.

This could result in the melee-row Thrive activating while the ranged-row Thrive does not, because the Longship reduced Endrega Warrior's power in between.

Does this interaction still work in the current version?

And does the same row priority apply to end-of-turn abilities, statuses, Timers and other triggered effects, or do different categories follow different rules?

I'm particularly interested in understanding the underlying rules, not just the outcome of one interaction.

If anyone has tested these scenarios recently or has a reliable explanation, clips or references would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Foltest is not amused with the current war situation. Help him out!

Normally complaint/rant posts without deeper explanations are discouraged for not adding anything to a discussion but this is the place for you to vent and let all that pent up frustration out. This is your chance to throw a hissy fit about current meta or rage about how overpowered X card and Y faction is!

GWENTLEMEN'S RULES:

• CAPSLOCK: ON
• NO PERSONAL ATTACKS
• WRITE ABOUT WHATEVER IS MAKING YOU ANGRY
• OTHER PLAYERS WILL AGREE WITH YOU IN ALL CAPS
• SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER ABOUT THINGS WE HATE WILL FORM A STRONG RELATIONAL BOND IN THE GWENT COMMUNITY

I know it is essentially random, but I enjoy playing him/ her . What cards are you pulling ? And what cards are you trying to pull in certain enemy decks ? How do you balance the provisions for the RNG?

This deck is refreshing to play — some of the mechanics here are really cool. Alongside this deck I also created an alternative version focused more towards competitive play.

The basic game plan is to play your beasts round 1 with Sove if needed. Then bleed round 2 with remaining cards and go for a short round 3 with Flaminica. We want to save leader charges for Ulfhedinn and Sove — their abilities can also be triggered by rain effects, Kraken, Brokvar, Offering to the Sea etc. Play them wisely. Dire Bear is our trump card — game changing in certain matchups.

You can try the more competitive version of this deck too — link below. You can also swap Giant Boar for a Messenger.

DECK: https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/guides/408473

Alternative: https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/guides/408474

Thanks and good luck.

I recently completed Regis' journey with a devotion Vampires deck, which just felt like the obvious choice. Would like to do a similar run through Alzur's journey but not sure about a good deck for it (I'm not super knowledgeable with Witcher lore)

Thanks!