Tech Tuesday #1
Welcome to a new weekly series here at the Gwentlemen! Each week we’ll be highlighting tech cards that are both gaining and losing popularity in the meta.
This week, we’ve seen rapidfire shifts in the meta at an extraordinary pace. The top meta decks are still developing into standardized lists, and as such it can be difficult to tech appropriately. However, we have seen trends on several cards that are giving players a leg up on their competition.
Below, you fill find the tech cards which are Rising in the current meta - and those which are Falling out of favor as their efficacy wanes.
RISING
Villentretenmerth
Villentretenmerth is a card that needs no introduction. A powerhouse throughout Closed and Open Beta, he recently saw his effect get reduced from 2 triggers to only one. However, this came with a doubling in his strength. This has made him a potent tempo play that can also help control the board. Thanks to a meta that has seen many decks attempting to stack strength into a key unit or two, Villentretenmerth has fallen into the perfect spot as a tech card. TGO July champion Vaysh had Villentretenmerth in both his Scoia’tael and Nilfgaard lists, using it to great effectiveness throughout the tournament.
Mardroeme
Mardroeme is a versatile card that is at its best when decks like to stack buffs. In the current meta we’ve seen cards like Vran Warrior, Impera Brigade, and Mahakam Defender rise in dominance. These powerful cards often require a significant investment of resources and are a key part of a deck’s victory plan. Mardroeme foils this plan effectively and efficiently, while also being versatile enough to have uses outside these matchups. As it both resets to base strength and then buffs it, it can be useful in either removing damage from one of your own units and giving it a small boost, or in giving additional strength to a unit you’ll reuse later like Morkvarg or Foglet.
Immune Boost
While the recent changes have helped to mitigate the dominance of weather effects in Gwent, we still see many high level decks relying on weather as a major part of their strategy. Enter Immune Boost. On its own it provides a 9 point boost across three bodies, only slightly worse than Thunderbolt Potion. However, the addition of 3 armor per unit is a huge boon to the card. This effectively negates a weather effect across multiple turns on each unit, rendering the effect near useless. It also provides additional protection against area of effect removal like Lacerate. The card has seen play in both Dwarf strategies that rely on their resilient units to carry through multiple rounds, as well as Dagon strategies.
FALLING
Geralt: Igni
A staple of many competitive decks, Geralt: Igni has seen a decrease in his playrate of late. While he carries a powerful effect, it is conditional and can be played around by an opponent. Additionally, the lack of strength makes it difficult to create tempo. Other tech options have arisen that fulfill the same function as Geralt: Igni but without many of the drawbacks.
Succubus
The changes to Succubus and Renew have not been kind, seeing the card quickly go from a Monsters staple to being replaced. While the effect is powerful, it can be avoided by many of the decks in the current meta. Along with that, the doubling of the timer on her effect has left Succubus in an awkward spot where you are required to play her sooner than you would like. Gold cards like Old Speartip and even Draug have quickly stepped up to fill the void Succubus once filled.
Morkvarg
Once a key win condition of Skellige, Morkvarg has taken a turn for the worse. His effect now halves his strength upon resurrection instead of removing a set point total. Previous strategies that revolved around stacking buffs onto him are no longer effective, as there are very quick diminishing returns. This has forced Skellige players to return to other, more traditional archetypes for the faction, like Queensguard and Discard, where Morkvarg is either a non-essential piece or absent entirely in favor of higher-impact Silvers.
