So, since shortly after the public beta started, I’ve fallen down the Gwent rabbit hole. It scratches that card game itch I previously soothed with first MTGO (stopping after it seemed like WotC cared more about making money than satisfying their customers; shortly after the super epic rares popped up I think it was) and then slightly more recently Duel of Champions.
Having spent no money on this just yet, I’m at level 32 (floating between ranks 11 & 12) with pretty much all the bronze cards, some key silver cards, and a handful of gold cards.
Starting out in ranked play I went with Henselt-Reavers (I’m missing the golds and witcher trio to make it really good), then moved on to Elder-Consume (missing all the golds) and Voorhis-Reveal (lacking the reveal golds), next to Elf-Control (missing Villentret), and finally ended up having the most luck with Bran-Discard:
- Queensguard x3, Pirate Captain x3, Pirate x3, Priestess x2, War Longship x2, Mardroeme x2
- Champ of Champs, Morkvarg, Donar, Operator, Sigrdrifa, Svanrige
- Ermion, Ciri: Dash, Drought, Decree
Primarily the deck wins with giant Pirate Captains, supported by giant Ciri, but it also has a bit of a Queensguard-resurrection backup plan (whether you use Operator on them or the Captains depends on the matchup) and I’ve also won a number of games thanks to a 20+ power Champion of Champions.
The Mardroeme used to be Raiders, but I desperately needed more removal. Svanrige has been a bit underwhelming while Cerys, Coral, Kambi, and Lugos are all possible Drought replacements I’m considering. That said, I don’t really like playing Skellige and so may instead save up Scrap for the cards necessary to make a better Monster (Kayran, Ge’els, Crones, Succubus, Woodland Spirit), Elf (Villentretenmerth), or Nilfgaard (Leo, Letho, Vattier) deck.