Le Gwentleman Suprême Part Deux

I swear spending days trying to learn Gwent had been so intense, it might have compromised my ability to exercise my creativity. One thing I notice so far is some kind of blogger's block where I just can't come up with a decently good opening statement. I know I sound like a politician, but trust me when I say the only thing political about yours truly is that my brain functions like Tokugawa Ieyasu minus the presence of Oai. And besides, it's already depressing enough to see my nation weirdly resembling a world where there is no God but only monsters, greater monsters, and Gaunter O'Dimm.

In other news, one of my friends actually shared an interesting Google via Facebook. I have to say it's unexpected though since I'm convinced I'm likely the only person in Singapore insane enough to post stuff like this, this, and that. This is further confirmed by my two friends. Dori Dori assumed the Ainu resembled more like the Taiwanese aborigine people when I asked her whether she saw any during her trip to Hokkaido but I didn't try explaining the details. Frontline Bro didn't know who was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, let alone Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. In other words, my friends are never stupid, yet I was hanged by the educational system despite doing nothing wrong. I'm not physically stateless but definitely emotionally stateless. Maybe that's why I would never recommend Gwent to my friends. Maybe that's why I actually choose to play Gwent. Maybe that's why nobody would understand why I like scenes like this and that.

In this post, I'll be doing random ramblings on my experience playing the game so far. Trust me when I say you don't need your government telling you the virtue of failure once you've played enough Gwent.

Certain things were terribly wrong

In the previous post, I made certain big errors in judgement. Factors include...

1. My brain was most likely sleeping. Seriously, playing a trap during the turn before playing a Scout unit card? The mistake was so epic, it's not funny.

2. I was more about learning via messing around. After all, no one taught me to learn things like a normal human being. And no, I didn't Google search for deck builds because I happened to be a local Singaporean donkey instead of a local Singaporean talent in this game.

3. I actually assumed seasonal ranking was only about the snake.

As you can imagine, the previous Gwent post was a horrible mess. If Ryan knew about what I've been doing, he'd be laughing like a Lambert.

Sandboxing

Right now, I have two sandbox decks fashioned after Season of the Viper format. The first was Monsters and the other being Scoia-tael. The ride through Letho's funhouse was definitely rough for the latter since there was only one instance where I used my Monsters faction deck. Needless to say, that one match's worth of using Dr Frankensteiner's combination science (i.e. Overwhelming Hunger with the Deathwish, and Thrive mechanics) got me a win. The process was definitely much easier so long I didn't face a Nilfgaard player using Lockdown. That'd have done me in. Thankfully, no such thing happened. At the same time, it must be stated that the sandbox decks were actually modified versions of what I've used in the previous seasonal ranking. Granted I'm doing this for fun (that or I'll be testing either or both if there's a next Season of the Viper), but there are certain things to be learnt despite having no chances to try them out at the moment. As for my Nilfgaard deck, I'm using it for the current Season of Magic. Seriously, you'd be surprised at how useful Yennefer's Grab app can be without Tactical Decision. Unfortunately, this is a hijack and disrupt tactic instead of the more orthodox hijack and counter approach. Simply put, please don't try this out at home unless you're willing to limit Yennefer's GrabYen usage (Note: When I say GrabYen, I'm equating the cards with the Japanese currency. No Trump jokes and Grab brand parody please).

Firstly, let's talk about how/why I modded my Monsters faction deck. This actually got a lot to do with my seasonal Nilfgaard deck where Lockdown ends up working surprisingly well for me so far (the tactical stunts I could pull is nothing short of insane). In short, I was planning the deck based on the scenario where the opponent actually chose the Lockdown ability. After all, you're most likely screwed if you choose Overwhelming Hunger without having the chance to trigger the full number of charges.

The contingency plan is quite simple: Just play unit cards that devour allied units in play. Unfortunately, I don't have enough such cards. The only ones I can afford to include in the sandbox deck would be Celaeno Harpy, Desert Banshee, and Barghest. For now, however, I'd be waiting to see whether this works. After all, it's better to limit the self with a 25 card deck instead of going like 1-2 cards more. I've tried that and the difference it makes can affect your game via card draw probability (i.e. you can't afford to rely on the RNG when it comes to your hand). Worst come to worst, I'd just get myself stuck with a dummy Harpy Egg or two. Not a good way to play any match if you're to ask me.

The modded Scoia'tael deck is where the fun part comes, the reason why being that I was playing this faction for like 99% of the previous seasonal ranking matches. To learn to play my Scoia'tael, I needed to get my deployment game right. It's not that easy. In fact, my initial decision to use a hybrid deployment of token units and deck units soon turned into a nightmare. Granted I was able to win games, but the entire deployment momentum would always risk getting itself jammed. The reason why? There were moments where I got myself stuck in a tactical limbo between a token unit spawn and an actual unit card deployment. If I chose not to play either a Half-Elf Hunter or Dwarven Chariot, I'd risk getting myself lagging behind the opponent's deployment game. If I chose not to deploy a non-token unit, it means I have to decide between token spawn and playing special cards. It's a no man's land situation no matter how I looked at it. Once I started building up the deck post-Letho season, that's where things started becoming interesting.

We all should know by now that Skellige cards thrive on dealing damage. To use this faction properly, though, would require a balance between damage dealing in the long run and buffing. Classic examples of this would be Gutting Slash, the very unorthodox Svalblod Priest, and that one and only son of a Bran. Would there be other ways to play this faction? I'd say yes because I once came across a crow spawn player who clearly knew what he/she was doing (Spoiler: The person deservedly won the match). But it remains to be seen whether the so-called beast spec deck belongs to a sizeable minority because deck building in this game is all about knowing what you want and trying to get things actually working. I add the word actually because I doubt I'm the only person planning a deck only for things to go Titanic south.

So why did I mention the Skellige faction even though the only thing two factions have in common would be animals and trees? The reason is very simple: High power sniping. There are unit cards able to snipe an enemy target for either 2 points of damage or 1 unless you want to include a buffed-beforehand Wardancer for a 3 pointer. This isn't something I'm exactly most comfortable with though since I'd require Invigorate and either a Hawker Smuggler or Vrihedd Saboteur. The latter if I'm to do a pure elf deck, something which I'm still not good enough to pull off unless I have at least Isengrim in the deck. But because my Scoia-tael deck consists of one ethnic majority and like two to three ethnic minorities complete with the Harmony buff mechanic, there's no point going that far (no, they're not exactly pro-multiracial because everyone else is a dh'oine and that includes your non-partisan church pastor).

Cards like Milaen, Toruviel, and Yaevinn are good options for power sniping. In particular, Yaevinn does work decently well if you have Deadeye Ambush. Three tokens summoned in a single row and place this guy at the same row. That'd be 4 points of damage. Unlike Milaen whom you can afford to pull off a snipe early in the match, Yaevinn's sniping game would be more useful when you're at least 5 turns into the match. This would be where Vernossiel comes in. She is definitely my favourite card of the faction so far due to the high-end damage game if the match is set up properly like in the last 3 turns of the match. Of course, it's not that easy. To maximise her deploy damage trigger, you'd most likely need to use Ele'yas to friendly stab and spawn two Deadeye Archers so that you can do a 2+3=5 in one turn and play Vernossiel on the next turn. Either that or doing the triple Deadeye Ambush in the same turn you play Vernossiel (i.e. possibly the better option). Discounting other sources of Deadeye unit spawn, that'd give you 10 points of damage. Play Yaevinn on the following turn and that'd be at least 14 points of damage.

Note: This strategy will likely fail if you're playing Season of Magic due to the double-casting ouch more than capable of taking out 2 Deadeye Archers in a single go. 3 if it's something like Devil's Puffball or Lacerate. A better alternative would be either using Vernossiel's ranged deploy to spawn two more Deadeye Archers or just fire away for 6 points of damage in a single turn. You can still afford to deploy Yaevinn in the next turn for the damage, though. Be warned that double-casting remains a major hazard, so please deploy with caution.

As cursed as a Clan Brokvar

The story of Clan Brokvar was one of sorrow, guilt, and unexpected redemption come the very end. The reason why I enjoy plot and characters of the dark fantasy genre was that while fiction is never a substitute for reality, a great story can teach us a lot. I won't go that far to say something like this as the absolute truth, but in every great story lies a semblance of truth.

So why am I saying this? Well, Gwent goes by the auto-matchmaking system. What this means would be that the system won't take into account the quality of your deck. If you're lucky, it'd be around two to three evenly matches out of five. If you're unlucky like yours truly at times, make that either four mismatches out of five or a full fiver bummer. In this sense, you can see that technology has no humane factor. Yet, defeat does give you XP. Whenever I lost the match due to severe mismatch of deck quality (that formed like 80-90+% of my total losses), I did gain XP. Interestingly, the amount I gained would only be slightly lesser than how much I'd gain from a win. This may (or may not) imply that the system isn't dumb. The XP welfare treatment may be universal, but I doubt so because that'd discourage gamers from spending actual money. Unfortunately, an actual revenue system is the likeliest cause of any mismatch scenario. Can't blame CD Projekt Red for this since there's a reason why prominent F2P Marvel MMO titles like Marvel Heroes and Marvel: Avengers Alliance had to fold.

A likely situation would be the game having specific servers for the decks. When you create a deck, what you're creating is data. And since we're talking about data, that kind of thing has to go somewhere. Assuming the system is actually more humane than my country's educational system, what this means is that when the auto-matchmaking kicks in, deck data from both players would be registered and processed. I don't know... I may be wrong here. But considering the seemingly illogical XP gain mathematics, I won't bank against it.

Before you think this is a cool possibility, allow me to point out that getting either four mismatches out of five or a full fiver bummer is sheer torture. The reality is always about the loser having an inferior deck. At the same time, luck plays a very vital role during every round. You may know whether luck favour you, but you wouldn't be able to know whether the same goes for the other player. There were moments where I won games due to the luck factor (there were two particularly surreal episodes with one of them resulting in a draw despite me having an inferior deck), there were moments where I lost due to the same reason (albeit as I've said earlier, the vast amount of my losses was due to the opponent having a superior deck capable of playing gold cards consistently in any round). In every sense of the statement, Gwent isn't for those faint in the heart. You'll need to have the mental fortitude to be prepared for the worst (i.e. deck mismatch+BM) and second-worst (i.e. deck mismatch). In a certain sense, Gwent actually captured the brutal nature of the Witcher world without the need to kill or to be killed. But let's not forget the XP welfare. That is provided you're mentally resilient enough.

Then there's this question of whether a mismatch based on the player level is possible provided you happened to be less than a month or two into the game. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case considering Gwent is more for those used to the system due to Witcher 3. If so, then best of luck in trying to be the next Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Note: Torturing yourself via consistent mismatching en-route to levelling up is possible. That happened to me just now. In the event of anguish, please know that Dr Sawano and his assistant Aimer are always around to help.

Add note: Because even a mismatched loss can fill up at least near one-quarter of your XP bar, any combination of victory and self-torture amounting to five matches or so in total should be enough for you to log off and cool down.

Deck rules: Live by it, swear by it, and die by it

Believe it or not, the greatest online influencer is never the likes of Nas Daily, Noah Yap, Xiaxue, or even Eden Ang. Assuming you're actually crazy enough to play Gwent without going through Witcher 3, that'd be your deck. How do I know this? By noticing certain consistencies whenever after I tweaked the deck(s). I don't know about you or a certain Mr Lee genetically unrelated to Mr Lee Hsien Yang praising my analytical ability, but it's not that hard for me to realise this while on the go.

This is very vital because there's such a thing called copy deck. The deck copy property isn't just there for you to do a U-turn in the event things don't turn out correct. It can also be an effective reference in case you're left wondering why certain cards serving you so well had gone weirdly MIA despite having a decently high draw chance in the past. If there's a reason why you shouldn't chop and change what works at least decently well for you, the relationship between your deck and card draw probability is definitely it.

Apart from whatever stated above, there's nothing for me to say.

Currently messed up right now...

Due to what I mentioned in the second last part, I doubt I can write anything coherent for the day. This has got plenty to do with the fact that unlike what Dr Tommy Koh said about the likes of Alfian Sa'at, I don't consider myself as a loving critic due to traumatic experiences effectively destroying my future and emotional health. Granted I don't hate my country, but I do regard my case to be similar to either one of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Imagawa clan or Date Masamune and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Thankfully, I do have a taste for music. This resulted in the ability to be soothed by the correct songs and themes. So yeah, below are a few songs capable of doing so.

P.S: On a super weird note, there's a reason why I need to Google search on how to forfeit a match. For some funny reason, there were rare moments of an opponent doing a forfeit after I played my first turn. Seriously, I never recalled accumulating some kind of street cred.

Le Gwentleman Suprême

Important Note:

It has been a very long time since I blogged and plenty of things have gotten so rusty, I suspect I need a capable proof-reader to do the job free-of-charge.

It's true. The post title has got nothing to do with toxic masculinity or equally toxic feminism. Assuming otherwise is to believe in, to quote a certain Nebraskan senator from the state of Nebraska, total hogwash.

In other news, I really need to get myself started on the current edraft/drafit of A Requiem From Winter Past. In the first chapter, I forgot which song I was listening in order to stay focused although I wouldn't be surprised if it's this one.

For the second chapter, I still remember what I listened to.

It's really weird to see this scene off the back of Fate/Zero.

As for chapter 3, I still remember what I listened to.

The Supreme Gwentleman?

Now let me explain myself here on why the post title. This has got nothing to do with the tragic 2014 Isla Vista killings because as a pro-lifer, I don't believe in the justification of murder regardless of men, women, children, or unborn lives since that'd be like telling me Berserk is actually a moral tale of dark fantasy. Again to quote the very same Nebraskan senator from the state of Nebraska, it's total hogwash. Simply put, it's an expression of creativity not intended to mock your socio-political sensitivities. If you still think I'm a right conservative knave, I can only say Tokugawa Ieyasu was never guilty of partisan politics where Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were concerned.

Recently, I started playing Gwent. Now, this was a case of breaking character since I'm never a fan of PvP. It's like cultivating the online habit of not disclosing your home and current cities to those outside your innermost Facebook circle only to undo the lockdown where all your Facebook friends know your current location. In storytelling, the breaking of character is a taboo. In real life, it's deliberate.

Now if you're such a person, rest assured that I'm the same as well. So why did I choose to break character? The reason was that... well, I got nothing better to do. There's a reason why my current Twitter user name is Great Bird Kamuy and it has got nothing to do with my weirdly Ainu facial features. Yes, Everquest 2 was fun. And it still is. Before Gwent, I started playing Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. That's idly fun. More specifically, it plays like an alternate version of Football Manager where you deploy people in a specific formation. It's some really weird fun since it felt like getting paid for doing little or nothing.

As for Gwent, it's because I decided to get a cerebrally engaging alternative. I still remember my friend Ah-Kiat playing Sanguosha. Despite the hanyu pinyin, Sanguosha is quite kid-friendly. Hence, Ah-Kiat being the responsible Christian he has always been made the right choice. As for me, anything is possible because my brain functions like Batman rather than Superman. Thankfully, this means I'm no John Constantine. On the flip side, this means Ah-Kiat would never touch Gwent and it got nothing to do with grappling with different mechanics, rules, and the three times blah.

Unintentional consequences and the other side of the coin

Those who played Witcher 3 (e.g. another of my friend Salted Fish) would know the game is all about killing monsters, never mind the fact that people were always the bigger monsters in the most famous dark fantasy world outside Westeros. I don't know about you, but I like series not for Henry Cavill or the *bleep* *bleep*. Because my brain functions like Batman, this means my appreciation lies in the characters and storytelling.

[Note: Source of my information comes from the wiki site because I don't think like a normal person]

There's a beauty in dark fiction. Without the darkness, we'd just be either deluded idealists or disappointed idealists. Without the negativity, we'd never be able to truly appreciated the positive. Without the cynicism, we wouldn't understand both sides of the same coin. Maybe that's why Mr Lee (i.e. Lee is a very common surname in the same way Li Shimin and Li Dian were clearly unrelated) once said I was a capable analyst even though I happened to be a self-taught one bereft of paper qualifications.

When we talk about unintentional consequences, the bad would always come to mind. If you're a liberal, it means the conservative ideology. If you're a conservative, it means the liberal ideology. If you happened to be G.K Chesterton, that'd be both. If there's anything CD Projekt Red has taught us, it wouldn't be whether the GTA hot coffee machine resulted in some kind of consequences. Rather, I'm sure no one in the studio (i.e. not those American rock stars) actually intended Gwent to be another cash cow.

Progress so far

I'll just go straight to the point. One of the most important things about playing Gwent is this: If you want things to be done the Singaporean way, this game is NOT for you.

Why did I say that? It's not because Singaporeans are stupid. I happened to know someone who is smart enough to be given the chance to learn Dutch because she has to spend twelve months in England and two to three years in the Netherlands. If that's not called smart, I don't know what else is. Instead, Singapore has been known to subscribe to what I call a fast-food mentality. We always demand pace and efficiency as if this is a match made and ordained in heaven. Sadly, reality tells us a different story. Singaporeans may say it's effective but exceptional individuals like Thomas Edison, Liu Bang, and Tokugawa Ieyasu would tell you that's not the case. If Edison functioned like a stereotypical Singaporean, we wouldn't have the light bulb. If Liu Bang functioned like one, there wouldn't be a Han dynasty. As for Tokugawa Ieyasu, the stereotypical Singaporean would have called him the Moron of Mikawa for retreating. Ironically, the stereotypical Singaporean mindset would have doomed the nation had the founding fathers believed in such a thing.

The progress was rough, to say the least. And I suspect it's going to be so in the short run. I spent days messing around with the decks, crafting the cards, and burning the ores because I didn't want to use actual money to buy the faction card kegs. Intuitive approach says start from the Monsters faction, my brain reacted like a rebellious Ainu by insisting on Nilfgaard. Was that a mistake? There's a reason why plenty of players I played against (and lost 99.99999...%) were either using Monsters or Northern Realms. Eredin's fake Sildenafil potion made the Monsters more ferocious via mechanics like Thrive, Dominance, and Deathwish. As for the Northern Realms, the Order mechanic is all you need to feel like a Radovid V. I'm not saying that if you're a Monsters faction user, you're an idiot. Neither am I implying only a bald moron would use the Northern Realms. Fact is, your brain is definitely good enough if you're good enough to be a Gwentleman/lady. Even if you find the difficulty too damn high like your housing rent, it doesn't mean you're dumb.

To play Gwent, you must learn fast. In the classroom, you're taught the value of success. In Gwent, you're taught the value of failure. There's only this much your country's government could do in encouraging failure. I find that the best way to learn is to play against players in seasonal mode. Right now is the Season of the Viper inspired by none other than Letho the Lethal Weapon. The offensive aspect wasn't that lethal, though. One thing I learnt the hard way was that relying on damage and bleeding was never the best idea. The core half of the rules lies in the buffing. Get buffed by X and get X turns of vitality status. Sniping is merely disruption via taking out the smaller units (either that or concentrated fire) and that's possibly why only a crazy fellow would use Nilfgaard. Scoia'tael? Only a suicidal fellow would do that. But there's a problem. After being ridiculed and treated like an evolved animal in the schoolyard gangsta land, I became the nearest Singaporean to a Scoia'tael. If Mr Lee's words of affirmation were real, it means I should have an English name. Not something like Claude but Iorweth.

Okay, that joke is way overboard. Mr Lee wouldn't be amused.

Final parting... for now

I'm just going to list a few thoughts on how to convert yourself from a suicidal son of a Scoia'tael bow (i.e. they're too retro to use guns) into somewhat of a moron from Owari. In the Battle of Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga decided to pull off the most stunning reversal of his time. Being the Fool of Owari people mocked him as, the smart approach wouldn't be mobilising 3000 dudes against Imagawa Yoshimoto's 25000 men. Long story short, Yoshimoto wasn't prepared for a sudden assault of 3000 dudes since he got 25000 men at his disposal. The Imagawa clan lost and Yoshimoto got cut down in a fight.

DISCLAIMER!

Please read the text because there's no fine print here. Below portion is due to my personal observations. They're meant to make you think, not to make you believe. If I'm wrong, it means I'm wrong. If I'm right, it only means Mr Lee was possibly correct about me instead of absolutely. I don't claim to be a descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu or the Singaporean equivalent of Guo Jia.

So what did I learn? The rules are like the terrain. In fact, they're the terrain. You don't burn them down, you use them against the opponent. The key lies in how many defeats it'd take for you to make sense out of the seemingly nonsense. The dumb part about the Scoia'tael faction lies in a flat two-turn buff. No matter how you look at it, it's a flat +2. This means the Scoia'tael could never go head to head against the Monsters faction and the Northern Realms where vitality can stack like an indestructible Jenga tower.

[Note to self: Overwhelming Hunger can become another Dr Frankenstein's monster if used with Deathwish and Thrive]

It is like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Thankfully, Gwent is all about learning via defeat. The best way to learn? Get yourself into a fight with another player of the same faction and observe what he/she can do. Each faction works in a specific way, so it's not that hard. Or at least that's the case for me. Depending on which faction you're using, the probability of learning would vary. If you're using Scoia'tael or Nilfgaard, you'd need to make the most out of every round. Stay sharp for what worked for the opponent and against you because you really need every bit of your analytical DNA.

Since spreading the boosts won't ever work for a Scoia'tael user (i.e. Monsters will overrun you, Northern Realms will outbuff you, those sons of a Viking from Skellige will out-artillery you, and Nilfgaard will just ninja you), there's only one option left bar losing a match by passing twice: Target no more than 2 units and pump every bit of +2 boosts possible. Don't use spells, they're too risky since they'd just clutter up your deck. Use traps and make sure you got one Scout in your deck for the buffing (i.e. +2 with 2 stacks of vitality without breaking a sweat so long you place the trap during the turn before playing the Scout). Invigorate is useful, but somehow strategically predictable (i.e. if I see a player having that ability, there's a very real chance he/she is going to use it in the first round unless it's a poor hand). The key lies in winning the first round. Do it and you have a chance. Lose and... well, either you fold in the second round or you can push it to the third. The latter option is doable, believe it or not. I've done that before but there's a catch: The opponent would still win anyway (Latest update: I managed pulled off a Great Escape once and it's all Geralt's fault).

Oh, and one more thing: You may want to consider Geralt in your deck. Expensive, yes. Dude's card cost is a whopping 10. I wouldn't be surprised if 80% or so of the Scoia'tael faction gameplay would most likely rely on taking risks and chances. If you're not prepared to do that, then you may want to go north.

Card draw is a case of probability in proportion to your total number of cards in the deck. It's tempting to use up every bit of your provisions, but that's a dangerous thing to do. The higher the number of your cards in the deck, the higher the chances of you getting a sub-optimal hand. I don't have to analyse things like Iorweth to tell you that. Gwent isn't the kind of game where more is better. Neither is this game about more expensive the better. Minimum card count in any deck is 25. While this means you can have as many cards in the deck as possible, I recommend a card count between 25 to 29. I made the mistake of using every bit of the deck provisions and that really messed up my hand. The cards I needed got stuck in the deck and Gwent isn't about drawing one card from your deck per round unless you have cards that enable you to do so. If you have a poor hand, you might as well fold it.

So how did I find that out, one may ask. Because there were moments where I drew a superior opposition and there's such a thing called common ground. Apart from higher chances of them playing a gold card, the number of cards in the deck listed happened to be less than 20 or so.

Maybe Mr Lee was right about me after all.

P.S: Stennis has to be one of the most dangerous guys in the game. No, you're not reading this wrong. It's not a typo, it's really Stennis.

Add P.S: In case the likes of Ah-Kiat and Salted Fish don't know who is Iorweth, they don't have to know. One person more dysfunctional than the rest is always worse than one such less.

Final P.S: Hawker Smuggler. Either you know what I'm referring to or you don't.