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I've just started playing The Witcher 3 again, and obviously getting heavily into the Gwent side of things.
And playing this version of the game has reminded of why I fell in love with this game. The simpleness of it all compared to what we have now is wild.
No massive point swings, no answer or lose cards, no meta, no cards with a wall of text.
The Witcher 3 version of Gwent is maybe a little simplistic and I only started playing the standalone game in late 2019. And for me that is my favourite era.
The standalone game added some complexity and strategies, but at this point in time, around the Merchants of Ofir expansion, to me is perfect.
Just enough depth to need to deck-build well enough, but not have to play perfect meta decks. Not too many keywords that your brain can't remember what every single card does. No cards were so OP that if you didn't answer them it was game over. No hugr point swings so that you didn't have to do complex maths to figure out where you stood in 1 or even 2 turns time.
So what is your favourite era of Gwent? Can't imagine too many people would say it is the current era.
I also wish we could downgrade our game versions to what it was 4 years ago!
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Fuckin' A!
Monster decks were too much fun
You may consider this crazy but I genuinely love Gwentfinity aka current era. Having a chance (albeit very small) to steer the direction of the game is amazing and something that more company should take into consideration. Sure I miss those dev diaries and the incredible hype behind new card releases but I am just glad we are still here to talk about the game. If I have to look at the past then my mind goes immediately to beta Gwent with resilient dorfs dominating the ladder thanks to Ithlinne into double Adrenaline Rush. Such an insane combo.
I’m in the same boat. Gwentfinity is great in my opinion. It’s sad to see the lack of new content, but there is such a wealth of decks that are viable, and the Balance Council is awesome.
I love the current arrangement too. Obviously would be nice to get new cards etc and there are some misgivings about Russian and Chinese influence on the votes but when isn’t there! The game is alive and well in its golden years - that’s good enough for me. Plus it’s amazing how just a one prov differential can throw new cards and decks into use, offering surprising variety.
yeah, despite whatever imperfection the Balance Council system is, for a game with no new contents for last 6 months and in indefinite future, the system really makes us attach to the game, with the voting buzz toward end of the seasons
200 points is so easy. That deck was lit.
No massive points swings, really? What about the effects like frost, which change the points drastically
There were point swings sure, but all these hyper-powerful abuse packages have power crept older Gwent decks far into meme/nostalgia territory.
Why play a fun archetype when people can just insert a 4-card package that breaks the game unless immediately answered?
When small, powerful packages and single-card winners began taking over, that's when things went a bit sideways.
Philosophically, I've always thought new cards should be undertuned to see if the community can find creative ways to make them highly effective. Then go from there.
Overtuned cards just spread like a virus and dominate the meta until they are nerfed or an even more powerful answer becomes available. Sound familiar?
I know ppl won't agree, but I liked older Gwent specifically because it had less RNG. It's why I will always like it more than say...Hearthstone.
Compared to modern gwent, they are insignificant.
How is setting a whole row to one power insignificant?
Still while I agree that there were a lot less ways to point swing and do OP combos I think the game would've been extremely dull if it wouldn't evolve with cards that have different keywords and effects that add or multiply instead of just dumb pointslam
Sure let's just focus on 1 effect, in one part of my whole post and completely ignore the question. Sure, point swings could happen back then, but not to the extent they do now.
I get that the old style of Gwent could invariably become dull and boring eventually but I enjoyed it at the time. And I'd enjoy going back to it.
I mean a seasonal event with old rules would be cool but I wouldn't enjoy it for longer than a month
The stretch of time from master mirror and the introduction of leader cards (between wotw and pop). Simply because the game didn't consist of pre-defined full archetypes. You could combine archetypes and tech against various threats. Other than warriors and early viper witchers, things were fairly balanced.
Overall, competitive decks felt more flexible, whereas the current state has so many matchups where you know from the start that you basically can't win, and ones that you're basically guaranteed to win. The game felt more technical, as opposed to the more point-slammy and swingy gameplay of today.
I'm sorry, completely different topic, but did you receive my message Sepulchritudinous?
The era when i have time to play it daily.
2017 august - november (spy ng period + nekker consume, spellatael) and last 4 months (current gwentinfinity)
When the yennefer card just came out
That's a tough one. I definitely enjoyed the open beta meta before Cassino Dwarves started dominating everything. But I also always enjoyed the first few days of a new expansion when everyone was experimenting crazily with stuff, and even the meta/meme nonsense I'd eventually come to hate was novel and seemed creative. That probably speaks more about me than the game, though.
Nenneke Igni days where wild
Beta Gwent
I really enjoyed master mirror when it first came out. Still love my Gedynith and crowmother. Scenario's really felt fun was honestly disappointed with the new ones the passives are just too strong on an artifact.
So yea anything before Cursed Toad (tho I am enjoying gwentfinity)
CBT for sure.
PoP part 1 and whichever was directly before it were solid. After that it kinda devolved into powercreep and wish fulfillment in my view, things decks had always struggled with were suddenly easy to do and it was like "ok now you made it boring". Foltest is the emblematic example of this, I had a lot of fun fine-tuning a deck to spawn a row of blue stripes commandos and now you can just do it with one guy (if he sticks).
Everything IJ and onward until PoP 2 were pretty solid. Even CC was good after they hotfixed Detlaff.
Sometime after WotW when Viy got nerfed out of existence, we had a few pretty great seasons where you could see some success with NR witchers, Spell ST with Alzur, wholesome Deathwish and all sorts of other fun interactions. That was sweet. Ended around the time Drill pocket SY came to be a thing.
Oh I remember , really good time for sure. I loved the unitless ST variants and deathwish
Absolutely agree Way of the Witcher after Viy nerf. I had a great Bincy deck and a great Lippy deck. But everything was so balanced
That moment when lifecoach came back for a tournament was pretty cool. His streams were so fun
When SK warriors was OP. Under the right conditions you could play 6-8 highland warlords. Had so much fun killing everything.
Initial release of tunnel drill. I hopped on that bandwagon early and one of my few times getting to pro rank.
sy drill
Mystic Echo
Its funny I remember more the time I really didnt like it. I think it's because it's been great at a lot different moment.
The era I dreaded the most was unitless homecoming and the few months with only 2 deck, foltest and dikstra
Beta gwent was fucking lit
The time of Gwent Masters 1. Just before Price of Power.
Anything before introduction of new relics.Those fkers took away my cheesy Caranthir combos.
I don't know, I played only in beta, doesn't liked the visual. And returned to play after they announced no more updates. Now, I quit again, Can't stand this tutor and thinner and leaders buffs anymore, buffing oneiromancy was too much to me to handle. Have a good gwent gaming for everything that still play this game.
Understandable honestly
I'll get hate for this but... I loved to play ethereal spam
Master Mirror expansion was the peak of Gwent
Lockdown (normal, not overnerfed) and kolgrim adrenaline 2 was my fav one
Mystic Echo Harmony era. I miss that, even if it was completely broken in Harmony's favor. I mean, who didn't enjoy 4 Fledglings on turn 1 of the round 😂😂
But then of course, we remember the chaos that was CDPR trying to nerf Harmony, which was entirely gross, and a revert eventually happened, but even now, poor Waters still isn't played :(
That said, I am also enjoying the modern era of Gwent. Things are more balanced than they ever were with CDPR, and the op things generally get hit hard so the meta doesn't feel super stale to me.
Pretty much anything that happened up to CDPR giving in to that guy who "posted a new card every day until Renfri is added to the game" and him finally getting us our Renfri, which promptly destroyed the game.