Well, how many gold cards can you think of that you actually want to kill after they are played? Right now I can think of Triss: Butterfly, Yenn: Con, maybe Old Speartip, Cerys (in dire situations), Kambi, and that's about it.

I think even if gold cards become targetable, Renew will stay what it is - a gold card used only in all-in strategies that really hinge on a single gold card, be it Avallach or Yenn: Con etc.

If I understood this correctly, this change also means that Gold cards are now vulnerable to effects like Scorch, Igni or others. So yeah, Tibor/Hjalmar/Consume took a hit.

Renew could be useful if you want the second Igni or something. Not sure it'll see play though since you can't Renew leaders.

Artifact Compression can also hit golds. The fact that AC exists is stupid. The card gives every deck a hard to counter to a lot of strategies. Being able to banish any card in the game is absurdly powerful. Playing mill? Okay AC your Avallac'h. One of the things that made Gwent fun was you could rely on single cards for your strats because of deck size. Neutral removal this strong goes a long way to invalidate this. Scorch, Igni etc require a condition be filled before they work and they don't target (the strongest target removal we have is Alzur's off the top of my head). You get to pick any unit on the board with AC and simply remove it from the game. I'm willing to wait and play on the new patch to see how it goes but I must admit I'm not a fan of some of these changes so far.

Going back to Verts point about Scoia'Tael/Control not being able to rely on gold power; I think it balances out because there is also now no gold power counter to control. I mean what is there to hold control back now that carryover is being nerfed (unknown harpy nerf/resilient units reset to base power in new round) and there is literally nothing they can't remove? Enya can cast AC twice and target draw/play it with Nature's Gift. Control also got other neutral tools: gold Eskel kills an unbuffed unit (including golds)... control seems like it could be very strong.

One thing I haven't seen is a change to Unseen Elder which is worrisome. Sure you will still get your consume triggers but you're basically removing units and creating a massive target with 'Scorch Me Daddy' written all over it.

EDIT: Patch has been confirmed to hit on 27th and there are actually 30 new cards not 20, so there are quite a few spoilers still to come.

I'm not convinced AC is stupid. It acts as a safety valve since it can answer everything. It's not absurdly powerful - you still trade 1-for-1, opponent deploy effects still trigger, and they still get a 3-power body afterwards. AC your Avallach, too bad; on the other hand it's already triggered once, and besides it's not that different from the case where you don't even draw Avallach in the first place. At most, AC just means you can't go all-in on the mill plan. I'm willing to reserve judgment on it till I've seen it in action.

I hope carryover doesn't get hit too hard. Resilient units being reset to base power might be too much really. The play-resilient-unit-and-buff-it plan should be genuinely viable, and getting reset would kill an entire archetype.

Also, anyone else feel Blueboy Lugos is oppressive? He's not worth much value the turn he's played, but he generates value fast. Not that unlikely he hits for 2+ damage a turn even against few-unit decks, and he often hits for a lot more against normal decks. The effect is like pre-nerf frost except it has fewer counters. Weather clear or move effects don't do it, which leaves locking it (Lugos decks often run counter-lock ...) and returning it to hand to play on the opposing side (a rare effect). In the axemen deck I feel like Lugos is far and away the best silver card to have, beating even Octvist, and a card that is that good might be too good.

Blueboy is a solid card but it's not like answering the Whale is impossible. If you can't, though, then it can definitely hurt a lot.

With the changes to gold card immunity, I have a feeling that Alzur's Thunder will start to be a lot more common, and maybe even Arachas Venom could start to see some play. Although inefficient, these cards can counter the Whale.

Outside of Axemen I don't think people will run him so his viability also hinges on the Axemen and they're very likely to be changed.

Alzur's Thunder is a terrible answer to the whale though. First Blueboy is still on the other side of the table, second you've used a card to kill the whale but haven't added to your board, and finally the whale would already have triggered once. If gold cards become vulnerable, Blueboy also gets better - you can no longer temporarily delay damage by playing gold cards.

Although come to think about it I missed destroy effects like Bloodcurdling Roar as a counter. Might try running one of those.

It can also be consumed by things like Ekimara or Vran Warriors. They are several ways to deal with annoying disloyal creatures.

Beyond that, you can just kill the Axemen. The whale on its own rarely hurts much more than unchecked weather and you can often simply just power through it, especially if the payoff is just 1-2 big Axemen you could insta-kill with Mardroeme/Scorch/Igni.

Realize that as everything else seems to be powering up, the single threat of the Whale is usually the least of your pressing concerns.

That's something that's unique to consume though. They're not applicable enough against other matchups (except Nilfgaard) to justify including into non-consume decks.

I dislike Lugos because of how much value he generates over time, and because of how random he can be. Having the Whale on your side incentivizes you to play as few creatures as possible, or to leave a row empty. That means that every 2/3 turns you get a "please move to the empty row" kind of prayer, which I frankly find quite silly. It's not so much the Axemen archetype I dislike (the archetype is clearly beatable as well), but Lugos and Lugos alone.

Looking at the spoilers so far how do you guys feel each faction is fairing?

Discard has taken a hit: they've lost a discard trigger (Donar) and an effective finisher (Coral) but the deck still has tempo and the golds have immediate effect. Doesn't care if the opponent can kill Cerys because it will just be res'd again. Skirmisher buff means it can kill the likes of new Yen with Madman. Seems like it will still be a contender. Xmen also lose Coral but gain a buffed Yen and new Birna (Skellige Storm not being blocked by golds makes Birna pretty good IMO). The fact that gold value isn't a counter and they can damage everything seems like Xmen could be real strong.

For monsters I'm surprised they haven't shown the Caleano Harpy change and there has been nothing on Foglets. The change to Thunderbolt potion doesn't bother me, as I was using Immune boost anyway and it will still tank one tick of weather; IMO swarm still looks strong at this point. Utility synergy changes to frost don't do enough to combat point losses on Eredin, Caranthir, Hound and Ge'els. I still don't think a pure Wild Hunt variant is viable even with Longboat which is a shame, it's something I would've liked to see. Gold changes make Unseen Elder a liability.

Dorfs look dead, but I'm not sure. Strengthening synergies aren't enough to counter point losses on Thunderbolt Potion, the removal/unknown change to Immune Boost and new resilience nerf. But Coral isn't a thing now and while they won't gain full carryover they could dry pass round two and still leave the opponent with 20-30 points to chase if they had a good round one. Very little so far for Enya, but she still comes out ahead: introduction of AC along with gold immunity loss means control looks strong. Ciri doesn't care if you kill her, but Borkh and Avallac'h take a hit. Schirru is a f*cking baller now - assuming they have something over 10 strength lol. I can't wait to Scorch my own gold in error. It's going to happen.

NR. No nerf shown for Reaver Hunters which surprises me. Neither Henselt or Foltest give a f*ck about gold changes being bronze value decks. They lose Quen on Keira but John Natalis being able to play Reinforcement will make Nenneke variants more consistent. Stennis seems good in terms of stats but could screw up your hand because it isn't target draw. Muster still looks very strong. Seems like there could be something coming out of machines but I'll need to see more before I make even a snap judgement on that.

NF: Will need to play as there are a lot of new interactions. Definitely buffed, I just can't tell by how much.

Yeah, but if the harpy gets hit, my deck could sub in earth elemental. Harpy is a huge loss for consume decks, but then Unseen Elder is now a sitting duck anyway so I don't know if I'd want to play consume to begin with.

Xmen nerfed; now only trigger on hits from units on the opposite row plus Blueboy is now 7 strength. I said Xmen might be strong given golds can't block damage now but in conjunction with the Coral nerf they've been gutted. I'm struggling to see how the deck is even viable now. Meanwhile discard gets a new bronze with a discard trigger, go figure.

Ballista, Trebuchet and Seige Support have all received buffs. I'm thinking NR machines might be one of my deck choices for next patch.

And the last thing I think worth mentioning; it seems golds (at least some) will be given armor in compensation for losing immunity and Borkh cannot scorch itself.

Did anyone watch day 1 of the Gamescom open today? I'm at work but I managed to take enough time to watch Superjj vs. Hanachann and it was awesome. Day 2 is tomorrow, semifinals and finals. I recommend checking it out.

It's a Gwent tournament? What's the prize pool?

$25k.

There have been some super close games that gave me a little appreciation for the complexity I didnt have before. Everyone calling JJ for his cards out against the Borkh was awesome when he had the cluch res. Great games so far.

Competitive Gwent is super-fun to watch. There's so much nuance to the game as far as knowing the matchup, sequencing, positioning, when to pass, etc. You just don't see or appreciate that stuff on ladder.

From watching JJ so far, it's quite clear that he has mastered the art of the pass, that whole series was amazing. Can't wait to check out the rest of the matches after work.

That one pass from JK was amazing. Though if I've learned anything from the games so far is that Skellige has sh*t draws. I thought Dagon was bad, Jesus.

best way to improve is to watch stuff like this, glad you guys are watching. Very cool

Link for those not paying close attention (like me): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/169644802

Watching a bit right now

Nothing I've seen that was really any higher level thinking than is typical at the high levels of the ladder tbh.