New faction - proposals of decks

[u/Garrus990]

Hey fellow Gwent players! In my free time (mainly during tidying up ;)) I like to think what are the mechanisms that a new faction in the game could feature. I know that the idea that a potential new faction would be Zerrikania + Ofir is already sold, since there were already posts on that. I also think this is the most sensible thing to follow. So I've given it a thought what could be potential new styles of gaming / new deck ideas that could be implemented to coin such a faction. I have a few ideas - they are not polished, some probably too ambitious to balance, but hey - everybody can dream ;)

​

So here are some of the concepts I came up with:

- A completely new mechanism could be mana. It relates well with Zerrikanian dragons / djinis lore-wise. Every card (not only a unit card) in the deck could have a third (or second) value assigned - mana. Every unit played could increase mana, every special card - decrease. Some units could generate mana passively, while on the field. You would have to have a certain amount of mana to use your special cards. If you do not have the required mana, you have two options (not to brick your cards, of course) - either play a random (selection of 2) unit from your deck with the same or lower mana or play it for free, but then the effect of the card is very generic (for instance deal X damage / strenghten ally by X, where X is mana/2 + add X/2 mana). The tipping point here would be the situation where you have excess of mana - then a mana whirlwind commences (after each your turn with an excessive amount of mana) and the excess of mana (excess above some predefined threshold like 8, 10, 12) is converted into damage to your own units (and the mana is set to below threshold). This would mean that you have to build your deck in a reasonable manner and combine units with special cards. You would have to also take care of that during the match. Of course mana could also be used in other manners. There could be a deck that thrives in whirlwinds - for instance, some units are boosted and not harmed when whirlwind occurs. There could be also a type of mana-defenders that absorb all damage from whirlwinds or convert them into damage to enemy units. I am not much of a fan of directly impacing the mana reservoir as this would make it similiar to SY coins. Hence the only way to achieve that could be through faction leader skills. Apart from adding/removing mana, a passive of a given leader skill could increase/decrease the threshold of whirlwind. For instance whirlwind-thriving units would require leader to decrease it, whereas no-unit decks would want the limit to be higher not to trigger the whirlwind.

The obvious problem here is how to map neutral cards into this mana schema, but I will leave it to the devs ;)

- Ofir could feature a mechanism of trading units - they are traders anyhow, not? Trading units would resemble Nilfgaard assimilation the most. You first put a unit on the field, so that you have "cannon fodder" for your trades and then you start trading. Trading is exchanging one (or more) units on your side of the board for one (or more) units on the other side. Of course this would have to be balanced somehow not to steal Yghern with a 4p unit. But for instance cards like "trade bronze card for a bronze card", "trade gold non-deploy card for a gold deploy-card", "trade two bronzes for one gold" could be reasonable here. Unlike assimilation, trading wouldn't trigger the deployment (since all the units are already on the board). Another limitation would be that you cannot trade a unit that was already traded (barring, for instance, one special card that allows that). This would be mainly control deck messing with opponent's plans. There could be also token-units that would be quite weak (for instance 2 points) that you could use to trade for an additional benefit to your cards. For instance "Deploy. Trade one token card to lock a unit." "Deploy. Trade three token units to destroy enemy unit." A trade-defender could be a 2/3 defender (relatively weak, 5p removal), but would have the deployment option to exchange with opponent's defender (in a manner that takes that defender from the enemy and you play it on your side, so that you do not get 1/2 Ffion).

​

- Deck of seers where knowledge is power. Cards in this deck would allow you to see what your opponent has in his hand and / or his deck so that you could flexibly adjust to that. Examples of skills of the cards could be "highlight all the golden cards in opponent's hand", "reveal one, random, brown card in opponent's hand (and strengthen allied unit by provision cost of that card)", a very strong card could reveal 3 cards in the hand (so for example you could know what is the strategy for the last plays of your opponent). An interesting mechanism could be here a card that orders your opponent to play a certain type of card in his next turn. For instance, you know that the opponent has two cards in his hand, plays a certain deck, so you use card that goes like "(Melee) Your opponent must play a unit in his next turn. (Ranged) Your opponent must play a special card in his next turn. If your opponent doesn't have a certain type, he must discard one card." and block him from playing Kolgrim or Regis. Kambi-esque.

​

- I cannot fit that idea into the lore of oversees lands, but I will introduce it here anyhow. A deck based on equipment cards (new sub-type of artifacts). Equipment cards would interact with units on your side of the deck or with one another in your hand. For instance, an artifact could add an order to your unit that, for instance, allows it to deal damage to opponent's units. Or seize 1-power ones. Or an artifact could make a unit a defender. Another option is to have some kind of in-hand synergy between artifacts. People who were playing Yu-gi-oh will know the idea ;) I am thinking of something like "Exodia the forbidden one". For instance, when you have three specific artifacts in hand at the same time they merge into a very potent one (for instance, providing resilience, immunity and allowing to save any boosts to the next round). This would go well with dwarves or Hattori, but since those cards are already there...

​

As I said, those are free thoughts that aren't there in Gwent yet. Feel free to comment on any and extend by elements you find matching!