GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Hadn't played for two years or so. Since the witcher netflix series convinced me to play the witcher 3 again, the witcher 3 then made me give gwent another look. I had some fond memories of gwent, especially spending hours crafting this whacky deck involving kambi and berserkers. It wasn't a great deck, but it was interesting, and it was mine. I wasn't too surprised to find that all of my chards were milled when I logged back in. If it happened in an update or if I decided to mill them before quitting those years ago, I have no idea, but it doesn't really matter. First thing I wanted to do was to see if I couldn't recreate my deck from that time, but it was impossible, since most if not all of the cards had changed. The disappointing part was though, that when I started browsing through the new/changed cards, they all looked incredibly dull. The vast majority of them are boost a little here, deal some damage there. What I really enjoyed about gwent was pulling off big combo's and making big swings. But this feels like a totally different game at this point.

This game was better when it was first released; and coming back to it every six months or so, this game never even resembles its previous iteration. The rules have been simplified, but the graphical flourishes and annoyances constantly intensified. What was a simple and satisfying game in The Witcher 3, is now extremely tiresome due to the constant rule updates and visual vomit littering the screen. This is not simple enough to be a classic. I want Magic...I really want Chess. I don't want Candy Crush.

I've tried many card games and I can say with confidence, Gwent is the best one. Pros: Art(!): Every card is an amazing piece of art, each with own story with own atmosphere. New boards also add to the atmosphere and let the cards shine more with their bigger sizes since Homecoming launched. Great mechanics, freedom of choice, decions matter: 3 rounds and being able to choose any card you want every turn allows you to play as you want whenever you want, build your own strategy, adapt; makes the game feel like you're on a war battlefield, trying to guess how your opponent is going to strike and prepare for it. Gives me a lot of HOMM series vibe. Deckbuilding: Is one of the juciest parts of the game, where it feels like you're making some special delicacy. Each leader from every factions has a unique playstyle. Very low RNG: Usually wins the one who has built a better deck and can pilot it well, knows how to deal with every kind of opponent, not the luckiest. Much more balanced than any other card game, especially with the new update. The balance is achieved mostly due to the brilliant provision system, which by the way is one of the core sources of joy you might get from the game. Generosity(!) of devs: Very easy to obtain anything you need by not much playing. And you get a lot of free stuff pretty often. Cons: Slow and time consuming Hard for new players Not many cards yet after the update, and too many similarities between. You're almost forced to play certain cards to not fall of the ladder. Probably a temporary issue. TL;DR The game is fun, interesting and beautiful. Just a bit slow. Requires brainwork, which is, in my opinion, the main reason it divides its community into haters and fans. If you want to try the game just do it and don't pay attention to whiners, most of them are incredibly deluded. Previous version of Gwent was fun but incredibly unbalanced and the playstyle was autopilot. Not much decisionmaking compared to the Homecoming.

I first played this game about a year ago maybe more when it was still in closed beta didnt really go far back then, wanted to come back to it and asked a friend about it and he said alot has changed and i might not like it. I installed anyway and thought to give it a try, had some problems at the beginning since i was new to the game and its new mechanics and i definitely thought that RNG decides alot in it, anyways fast forward 3 days new update comes makes few changes and the game is very enjoyable.cant really list any pros and cons since im still learning about the games but its definitely fun

Coming from the Closed/Open Beta, Gwent HC is indeed a very different game, however the aesthetic and gameplay changes implemented are overwhelmingly positive, giving the game a more polished and finished-feeling tone. That coupled with regular game patches and hotfixes that address bugs, card balancing and gameplay issues, Gwent HC can only get better and has a very bright future.