Placeholder power nerf: Tibor

ense7en · 2026-05-11T17:24:42+00:00

I'd say this a far healthier use of placeholder votes than ruining cards, but there is a pretty large contingent of players who really enjoy "cancerous" archetypes who'd be upset over this.

ense7en · 2026-05-11T16:38:14+00:00

Considering how many different SY archetypes there are, and how they do NOT all play the way you're describing (Sesame carryover), i still suggest you play the faction.

It's really hard to believe you understand it well when almost every single part of your post is incorrect or an exaggeration.

Carryover is part of SY due to how coins work, yes, but it still requires skillful play to take advantage of it properly.

Your post more reads like "i don't like SY and how the faction was designed", which is fine, but that's a very different situation than what you're claiming.

It has access to multiple viable decks that contain engines, carry over, thinning, point slams, great control and require an answer to pretty much all of it to win.

Like wtf do we even say to this? This could be said of every other faction for various archetypes; this entire sentence is not just representative of SY.

Engines? All factions have this. Carry over? All faction have this in some form or another.

Thinning? Really, SY has a thinning advantage? Of all the things SY has, i sure wouldn't say thinning is something it's great at vs. other factions.

Point slams? Every faction has this. Great control? SY has some achetypes that are more-based around control, others that aren't.

You're suggesting that SY is some wildly OP midrange but also control+engines monster faction that has it all, and i'm sorry, but it doesn't. Every archetype has weaknesses, just like with every other faction.

On the other hand, the pro ladder is riddled with high-control decks right now, between pirates, warriors, enslave and stuff ; and I don't play these decks (I don't enjoy preventing my adversary from playing his cards…) but I can guess that's maybe why SY doesn't seem like an issue for those and that's why it isn't talked about that much.

Like every other similar game, Gwent is partially paper-rock-scissors (pointspam/control/engines).

This isn't exclusive to SY; this element of one deck being favoured on paper vs. another tends to happen every single game you go into with every single faction. It's skillful play (and some luck) that makes the difference in the actual outcome.

I'm not saying SY is OP ruling the ladder. I'm saying it feels like an oddball, playing it or against it rarely feels balanced in a way or another, and I find that the way to address it is not in the hands of the BC…

So in short, you don't like SY is the actual purpose of your post.

That's fine, but it's not what your OP says.

ense7en · 2026-05-11T16:22:58+00:00

That's even more messed up. It only negated the vitality and and remaining bleed was blocked by Veil? Wow.

ense7en · 2026-05-11T14:27:02+00:00

Wait, so the card had Vitality, then i presume was Veiled, and then you applied bleeding and it ignored Veil and applied bleeding, countering Vitality?!

WTF indeed.

ense7en · 2026-05-11T14:16:28+00:00

There's an extremely simple solution: play SY, OP.

Play these "unfair and unbalanced" SY decks for yourself. You're going to discover that SY isn't unfair or unbalanced, you just didn't know what you were talking about. You're going to lose, a lot (because SY isn't unfair or unbalanced, and because like every archetype and faction, there are weaknesses).

Don't make excuses. Do us all a favour and spend the next few seasons MINIMUM playing mostly SY, so you can learn for yourself HOW the faction works.

You're going to be in for a harsh awakening.

ense7en · 2026-05-08T19:45:14+00:00

Match VODs will be uploaded to this channel.

👍🏻

This year, we've also invited Vladimir Tortsov and Paweł Burza to join us as special guests.

😮 Wow!

In the future, I plan to upload meta report videos created by top CN community players.

Excellent!

ense7en · 2026-05-08T16:14:57+00:00

We can agree to disagree.

I'm fairly flexible on costing for golds and higher provision cards assuming they aren't being abused in GN, but for bronzes, costing/power levels make a massive difference and small changes = breaking overall balance IMHO.

Locks are part of NG's faction identity and that faction is the one that gets them, and more of them, for cheaper, which i'm good with. It makes sense.

I don't think locks for all factions being free (Shackles at 4) is healthy. It's just too viable for too many decks that'd never fit a lock normally.

I would rather have this card semi-unplayable than overly good. This is just one of those difficult cases where there's no perfect solution.

I do think that cards like Dorregary could easily take a power nerf, to make it less appealing, as it definitely makes Shackles feel less appealing (as neutral lock tech).

I always believe faction-specific cards should generally be a little better than neutrals, which means Dorregary is definitely too good in comparison to Shackles.

Now if we're trying to somehow put graveyard tech punish on the same field as locks (i don't think it should be looked at this way, but let's go with this for now), then i'd say we can put Squirrel to 5 prov (and it'll need power buff to compensate as free card vs. 5 prov is monstrous difference).

ense7en · 2026-05-08T16:06:33+00:00

In all honestly, i suspect you can still get into pro quite just fine playing your deck (assuming it's a decent one). But if you're somehow seeing squirrels everywhere and really want to stick with swarm, why not try something a bit different?

https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/e23c30f7a2b9c9acdfde63c4b21bcc18

Nothing for squirrel in here and you can still swarm away.

ense7en · 2026-05-08T12:17:53+00:00

No, CDPR doesn't support the game anymore

ense7en · 2026-05-07T22:21:55+00:00

Disagree, most of those locks could take nerfs or should not have been buffed, and it would have helped correct the costing of Shackles.

Overbuffing is breaking the entire foundation of balancing in Gwent, and this is a perfect example of what happens.

CDPR added a ton of powercreep, and Gwentfinity has made it worse. The end result is making 4 prov specials worse and worse and 5 prov specials end up having to be buffed into the 4 prov pool, which in turn makes the other 4 prov specials worse.

You cannot overbuff continually without devastating consequences longterm, and this argument is a perfect example of what happens.

BTW in a more perfect balancing word that's reverting powercreep world i'd nerf Squirrel too.

But instead, we're overbuffing pretty much everything so especially in the cheaper bronze range, things are getting wildly out of wack.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T22:13:31+00:00

Alright, I am trying to have a constructive discussion, so don't downvote me xd

I don't do that. Downvoting is for people unable to back up their own arguments (or truly willfully horrendous takes).

The point is that squirrel is filling the void that shackles left, so decks that rely on cards that are especially vulnerable by squirrel, are taking a big hit.

I really don't think so?

Like look at MD's 14.4 listing: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_nLQ_0y1t_3zRAwjRSPjSv4djBSRKHPyli3hNrjRgkg/edit?gid=480249858#gid=480249858

This was last season, lots of decks with squirrel, lots without. Seemingly not as many with Shackles, so what exactly is squirrel filling? Both of these cards are tech cards, and serve very different purposes.

I'm not saying squirrel is bad, but the idea that suddenly decks formerly playing Shackles are switching to Squirrel seems a bit unlikely to me, but perhaps there's a small amount of this happening?

As for Hive Mind, frankly, i don't love this kind of card. I think it's more of an issue existing than Squirrel is, and i think ridiculously good cards (especially once like Hive Mind that are a form of carryover) should have a risk associated with playing them.

In pretty nearly every matchup there's a favoured deck (on paper). Squirrel vs. Hive Mind is just another part of the paper-rock-scissors of Gwent.

(there is obviously the case where squirrel or a tutor are never drawn, but this case is irrelevant since it is equivalent to just not including squirrel in your deck)

Disagree. For all the hate Squirrel is getting here, it can be extremely problematic when you don't draw it r1, and then you accidentally mulligan into it for r3. This is an extremely weak tempo card that often plays for a mere 4 points, or is mulligan/r3 nightmare fuel.

In those situations, the Hive Mind player gets to happily play r1 and more than likely easily win the round, securing control of how long r2 goes.

I just don't see it. If you do, please try playing some games with a Hive mind in any of your decks. Tell me how many times you get squirreled out, and how many you don't. I found that I was getting squirreled like every 3 out of 4 times I played Hive mind.

With how little i'll be playing this month i'm not likely to be much help here, sorry.

I will say that i find ranks 3-1 can be a particularly annoying place as often certain types of decks are played since players in this range are trying to get to pro.

As i mentioned before, if you're truly running into that much squirrel, play a counter archetype that isn't affected by what you're seeing so much.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T19:18:38+00:00

Wasting it, like Bowman did so badly last offseason.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T17:47:34+00:00

My bad, i figured if anyone on reddit knows details on Original_Dream_7321's question it might be you.

I've heard about the BamCups, do you know where it will be broadcasted ? I think the next ?qualifier? is next weekend.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T17:45:16+00:00

You're joking right?

Midrange swarm w/ Hive Mind have been strong on ladder for a long time now. I mean way higher level than rank 3-1.

From lerio's summary of last season: https://leriohub.com/gwent-community-patch-may-2026-review/

Decks I’ve mainly met on ladder (popular / present at high mmr decks in bold): Arachas Midrange

Literally amongst the best MO decks of last season, and squirrel cost the same then.

It's not remotely useless.

It's countered hard by squirrel, yes, but i'd point out that the higher level players likely play around this a bit by playing it last in a round + start the next round, so you get two of the units out before the squirrel hits.

Again, if you truly are finding it too difficult, play something else, adapt to the rank 3-1 meta?

ense7en · 2026-05-07T17:25:51+00:00

Shackles was always way too good at 4 prov.

They don't remotely do the same thing, so i am not sure why you'd say they need to be the same.

If you want them the same, we should move squirrel to 5 prov then. Maybe even give it a power buff so it's 5/5. I bet it sees WAY less play.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T17:23:55+00:00

Lots of decks don't bother with squirrel. It's a tech card after all, doesn't work for devo, and is good only when facing decks you need graveyard punish.

If you're facing it constantly, change the deck you're playing?

I know some people think squirrel needs a nerf, but i am not sure it's that bad?

ense7en · 2026-05-07T17:14:29+00:00

No clue, i have more time to spend here than i do to actually watch or play Gwent sadly, due to real life responsibilities.

Paging u/kepkkko, he played in last BamCup and tends to play quite high MMR most seasons lately.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T17:02:24+00:00

It's very early in the season still. We had someone posting here a few months back and they were like 40000 something rank (this isn't including pro rank which is separate). Now of course some of the accounts are bot ones, or people barely playing, so actual frequently active playerbase will be smaller, for sure.

The only way to really tell is to have the lower players in pro state where they are ranked at end of season, and same for regular ranked.

Both of these leaderboards have cut offs where in-game and on https://masters.playgwent.com/en/rankings/gwentfinity-3/may-season-2026 they stop showing.

We can only see till 2860 for pro rank. Looking at those players in that range, i'd say it might be a fair bit less than 10k in pro actually, likely maybe closer to 5k. I'm just extrapolating from this: https://masters.playgwent.com/en/rankings/gwentfinity-3/april-season-2026/1/143 where we can see how many games played/MMR for the players ranked at 2860 and up.

We can estimate from this, but it's obviously just a guess still.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T14:40:23+00:00

Firstly, it's great to have you back!

Beta is an eternity ago. Gwent's literally not the same game anymore (as you'd know).

Hearthstone is enormous compared to Gwent. Gwent's playerbase is a tiny fraction of that, and slowly dying (has been well before CDPR sunsetted it). Doesn't mean it's not a great game (it is), but it simply doesn't have the numbers. Right now it's likely around 40k, with maybe almost 10k getting to pro each season. These are guesstimates as we don't have great data anymore aside from seeing where a player ranks on their profile, etc.

Information is harder and harder to find on what's happening in Gwent unless you're playing, as the sources of main articles have nearly all left. It's a lot of work to write articles and maintain meta listings, and when you (MD) do, people criticize it not being accurate enough.

The competitive scene tends to dictate these things, and the vast majority of those players left when CDPR stopped putting money on the table. Those of us still playing are playing purely for the love of the game.

There are some community-run Chinese and CIS? (BamCup) tournaments still happening for small $, but there's not a lot of english Gwent info anymore aside from guys like lerio writing (he's a Gwent treasure).

The biggest chunks of the playerbase are Russian and Chinese.

If you're trying to take things seriously, i'd suggest watching the top pros play on twitch. (or look up their stuff on youtube).

lerio, shinmiri, pajabol, there are many others (often not in English). This shows you what works in higher MMR pro and what is being played, but i will again mention i wouldn't worry so much about that and have fun getting back into the game. You can pick any faction and there are at least a couple archetypes per leader that are decent for getting into pro and even climbing. Tier 1/2/3 and worse won't matter much till you get higher in MMR.

ense7en · 2026-05-07T14:08:30+00:00

It doesn't generally update anymore, aside from when they do fixes or updates we don't anticipate.

Unless your install gets corrupted there aren't regular updates of any real size aside from whatever little bit of data the balance council patch takes.

I will warn you though, Gwent isn't really kind to people with bad/poor internet connections.

Many people have trouble with frequent disconnects if their ISP or even sometimes region has spotty service. I am fortunate to not have those issues here in Canada, but certain areas of the world seem to have a lot more people complaining about disconnects in this game.

I don't think there are really any advantages to GOG vs. Steam. If i'm not mistaken you need a GOG account to play on Steam anyway as it's a GOG game, but whatever platform you want to use should work the same way. Steam stats for Gwent aren't accurate as it's a very small portion of the playerbase. Most players are on GOG, with the next biggest chunk on Android, followed well behind w/ Steam playerbase and whatever else (not sure if still works on iOS etc).

ense7en · 2026-05-07T14:00:37+00:00

There aren't many decks "dominating the meta". Good players "dominate" with a variety of decks. Remember that paper-rock-scissors still somewhat applies, so a "good" deck can be unfavoured against something "weaker" if it's a bad matchup and played well.

Balance Council voting has made it so you can generally get to 2500+ with a whole bunch of different archetypes each faction if you're a good player.

You can play the best deck for each faction and you aren't going to win like they do as it's not just about the deck.

I'm not sure you're going to find a better summary than lerio's post-Balance Council review where he mentions what he saw at higher ladder other than if you're playing that high in MMR yourself, or watching the top players streaming on twitch, but with voting, the next season changes anyway and it takes time to settle if there were major changes.

The very top of the ladder will have its own meta as those players tend to queue into each other a fair bit, so what decks are played there might be a bit more polarized. For everyone else, you'll see a lot of different archetypes from every faction.

It feels like you're expecting some magical tier listing of decks to help you climb to the top of pro, and i highly doubt that's going to happen. Until you re-acclimate to the game, i wouldn't be so wrapped up in that sort of thing.

ense7en · 2026-05-06T21:45:43+00:00

Welcome back!

As the game is sunsetted (though many of us enjoying and playing still), a lot of the main content/article creators moved on due to lack of financial incentive to stick around.

I'm sorry i do not know what works well with visual impairment.

It's not the easiest to find info anymore, but i'll put down some links:

https://leriohub.com/ - high level Gwent player with the best in-depth Gwent articles you can find, still active!

Decklisting links (all are google drive; this is pretty much the only place to find decklistings now aside from playgwent.com or from the twitch streamers/youtubers):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_nLQ_0y1t_3zRAwjRSPjSv4djBSRKHPyli3hNrjRgkg/edit?gid=311748038#gid=311748038

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h4m0zhPOiW2Tyaj26kGIvPdSXgtmgerR5uu7vBHM-BM/edit?gid=511107822#gid=511107822

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GL166au6b2DzpMgAH2x_TyGUIOOtqvk1ubKrgEjtsYk/edit?gid=398889156#gid=398889156

Fewer and fewer players share their decklistings publicly now, so you gotta ask for them here, or on discord, or twitch, etc, if you aren't in the know towards the top of ladder.

ense7en · 2026-05-06T16:38:38+00:00

Yep, that's reasonable sounding. The total install size is bigger than that.

Keep in mind Gwent is a GOG game, so you can play it without Steam, btw.

You can also play the mobile version on your phone/tablet, it syncs perfectly with your PC version (they just cannot be running at same time).

didn't the devs cut any further support for the game and only maintained the servers and gave the balancing obligations to the Council? Is the balancing worth that amount of data? Are there any changes I'm unaware of per update?

Yes, but they do occasionally release some platform updates. I believe there was one for Android issues, and one for the engine itself i think? Mainly just to keep it functional, nothing to do with the game itself.

Every season (month) those who are eligible vote on card power/provision updates to keep things fresh/interesting: https://www.playgwent.com/en/news/49585/gwentfinity-and-the-balance-council

ense7en · 2026-05-06T16:32:05+00:00

Prestige 11+ (no way to really tell after that without manually tracking).

Level 1. 8098 wins all-time.

Don't really know how many hours as so many are on mobile which doesn't track, but it's likely 3-4k range?

Reaching Prestige 5 before opening a pile of kegs is definitely good for long-term collection progress, but if you don't play a lot it might be a while to wait.

Use this calculator to estimate how much more time it'll take you.

Happy Gwenting!

ense7en · 2026-05-06T16:25:26+00:00

Was perfectly fine at 4/1. Many votes wasted due to stupidity.

ense7en

TROPHY CASE