Be responsible, don't do a bailout (unless you're Minamoto no Yoshitsune)
Bad news for those who care for me but nevertheless unable to understand me: I noticed a long time ago that I can use my ATM card for Steam walletting because it happened to be a debit card as well.
If there's a way to teach impressionable kids how to be irresponsible, my mutant ability to learn fast through the risk of getting hanged would be it. Simply put, it's called money spent purchasing the card kegs. If there's a reason behind this, it'd be a 30% off on specific factions. If only the discount applies to ore burning as well. Of course, we all know CD Projekt Red won't do that. They're not running a charity. If only my mutant ability was like that of Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, Vesemir, or even Letho and his bros. But that'd mean Singapore would have to be part of the Witcherverse and as someone understanding the moral (?) nature of dark fantasy, it's anything but positivity. Note that I said positivity, not blind positivity. Now if you'll excuse me for a while...
I really need to do some planning ahead. This is due to me playing Everquest 2 as well and there's no way I can do a two-timing here. Am I rich enough to pull this off? No. Am I poor enough to make a decision? Yes. And this is why I said I got the mutant ability to learn fast through the risk of getting hanged. Seriously, it's nothing good to boast about because one might as well say living a life full of foes and strangers is a good thing. No, it's not. Because this was the life I was forced to live from primary school to ITE.
So what I'm going to do now? I believe I've spent enough on four factions out of six. My current challenge on the scale of Gaunter O'Dimm would be trying to get my Northern Realms deck working. The theory has been fuzzy with the practical side yet to be proven. Just because I burnt 800 pieces of cloth scraps for Dandelion's girlfriend doesn't mean I got the combination right for a formation usage+charge building deck.
Note: Will I be burning ore and cloth scraps in an attempt to create a decently average Skellige deck? I don't know because I need to make sure of certain things involving my Scoia'tael deck. Interesting times ahead?
Add note: No Syndicate deck for me. Building a La Cosa Nostra like a Pacino or De Niro is too costly and I don't want to set a bad example like a merchant from Novigrad. Now if you excuse me for a while again...
Nigh rage-quitting and worst dad ever
It was a recent wretched run at the highest order a week ago or so. The reason why being that going on a losing streak like a local loser was never the best way to train your mental fortitude. Just because I'm as mentally calloused as Isengrim Faoiltiarna, Iorveth, or Emhyr var Emreis doesn't mean the pain would go away. Thanks to persistence on a witcher's scale, I realise how real the danger of a Nilfgaardian nerf can be.
No one ever said Fergus var Emreis was a good dad. In fact, the Nilfgaardian culture is so pro-Darwinian, it makes the East Asian dog-eat-dog education model look like... well, a dog. There are certainly shades of wartime Japan, something which I believe was a case of unintentional consequences considering the fact I've played against Korean gamers and there seems to be a Skellige version of the Korean Flash in the top 25 of Asia.
Heed the advice of Dr Carl Jung Shin-Ri because moderation isn't an obscenity.
So what am I talking about in terms of persistence? To be honest, things came to a boiling point where I actually contemplated the rage-quit option. The reality of dealing with rank 20 and above is that...
1. You have a good enough deck in terms of the number of gold cards.
2. This means the same for others.
3. Chances of getting owned instead of owning would increase, perhaps even exponentially.
4. That's because every opponent's deck is of actual strategic quality instead of just decent, hence resulting in opposition of higher tactical quality.
5. Chances are that the opponent is smarter than you at least for 2-3 rounds' worth of time.
6. Got a sub-optimal hand? Might as well pass two rounds in a go and throw it.
So what occurred was that the opponent who did that happened to be a fellow Nilfgaardian player. In Gwent, you learn things faster by playing against better opponents on the same faction basis when it comes to deck building. The reason why being that disjointed synergy is the cause of every defeat unless the opponent clearly has more gold cards than you. But that'd only mean anywhere from unranked to rank 21 at the very most. Long story short, the other player actually played a blinder synergy involving spying units. More specifically a spy conversion game. This was where the worst dad ever came in. This might even be the closest thing to Tokugawa Ieyasu versus Takeda Shingen. Come to think of it, Ieyasu never had a good dad as well.
Spy conversion can be insane when it comes using a pure Nilfgaardian deck. The Devotion aspect of Master Mirror means pure faction decks become a viable option, not to mention as well motivation. Ask me how I view a spy conversion deck and my opinion would be this: Go pure, not hybrid unless you don't mind using the worst dad ever to spy convert only one target.
Of course, this isn't the entire story. Saying that is like a politician telling the people one side of the coin without talking about the other. You need to maximise the usage of status inducing. And that's the fun part about using Nilfgaard right now. You have units that lock, poison, and spy-convert. You have units self-boosting via debuff effects. Thirsty Dame at power 4 goes +1 every time an enemy unit got a status effect. Master of Disguise can be a decent tactical option at power 3 which goes +1 per turn end so long there's an enemy locked unit. Playing spawn units or from-the-deck summoning ones (actually, only Impera Brigade would work in this context) may well be that decision making life easier for me. Either way, any first-turn deployment would always carry the risk of getting an alpha strike from the opponent depending on the unit played. That's a given, so tactically correct foil units are important. Mass spy-conversion and play a democratic aristocrat afterwards? And that's not to mention The Usurper having Veil status since the term "enemy unit with spy status" also applies to your Disloyal units. A reverse deployment order involving one foil unit>Seditious Aristocrat>The Usurper+total recall is 100% doable. In fact, assuming the guy got locked during an opponent's first turn was the dumbest thing I've done so far. I never got my agents back. Deploy him between two units or at the same row as a Defender status unit to prevent an Assassination takedown. Do this right and you can set the pace in three turns. That's assuming the opponent doesn't have Vincent van Moorelehem because we all know what's going to happen next unless there's a Defender unit covering the row (i.e. imo better not try this against a fellow Nilfgaardian because Vincent's autokill can target any unit with any status unless it's an Invulnerable unit). Playing fast has never been so insane since Jürgen Klopp inexplicably mentioned a broomstick (it's a long story, don't ask). Apart from a hand containing the correct van Moorelehem, if there's an actual weakness to this deck (and there is for every because playing Gwent means you're never in the position to play God like a puny god. The powers-that-be would ban you for that), it'd be the question of whether you can effectively manage the boosting in a pace slow enough to ensure no unit gets a power value of 9 or above. This means having a combination of democratic aristocrats and Lestat de Lioncourt's thrice-damned cousins thrice removed can result in an auto-destroy at the hands of Geralt of Rivia or Leo Bonhart. In fact, that happened to me once. In this aspect, such a strategy can be the Nilfgaardian version of Deathwish plus the Overwhelming Hunger leader ability. Minus, of course, the more insane boosting pace.
Note: Philippe van Moorlehem can be an effective alternative to a buff-centric status deck so long you deploy him during the middle third of the round. You wouldn't want to risk getting him sniped just because you don't have enough units to cover him. Ever heard of sniper tactics? I'm sure the likes of Ah-Hean, Ryan, Patrick, Frontline Bro, and my cousin KJ would know. Unlike me, they never went PES E because they never lived my kind of life.
Add note: Personally speaking, any spy-conversion deck should involve no more than two types of statuses. Spying and *fill in the blank*. Please understand that I don't earn commission like a social influencer, hence it's 100% possible that I'm wrong here.
The Great Escape
This is now possible in two ways instead of one. The typical manner is a matter of card draw probability. But there's a problem: You're subjected to the element of luck in the sense that how the opponent plays his tactics would decide whether you can pull off a Geralt of Rivia or Leo Bonhart. Effective boost management means you'll end up with a dud in hand. Trust me, I did that before more than a few times.
Before Master Mirror, there's no such card as Oneiromancy. Not only is this an actual card now, but it's also an actual word all the while, believe it or not. The process doesn't involve seven cows or seven heads of grain, only a reversal as unavoidable as the reprisal of Fragarach according to the words of Irish gods and Mór-Ríoghain. The moment the reversal comes out, that's it. You're dead, nailed to an oaken tree where you shall feed the crows and wolves.
This results in additional unpredictability in the current expansion where reversals are no longer subjected to a case of chance. Instead, one more possibility of chance would be involved due to the obvious mathematics dealing with whatever probability algorithm enforced. Got that card in hand and the correct card in your deck? You'll need another type of correct card. Got Oneiromancy in hand and two reversal cards in your deck?
Note: Oneiromancy is a neutral card. This means you'll be running a major risk if you're to use cards like Auberon and Usurper where Devotion is a vital ingredient to efficiency. That is unless your strategy is to use such cards in the first round.
Add note: The irony involving the risk of getting auto-destroyed in this manner? Vincent van Moorlehem.
Trying to get the Nordling machine working
Test running my Northern Realms deck has to be the weirdest experience ever. I don't recall a time where total defeat never resulted in frustration. That was until I did a trial-and-error on my Northern Realms deck. The entire scenario was quite funny. There I was building a deck with more gold cards than my other three matured decks and yet nothing positive came out. In my most bizarre moment of playing Gwent so far (this was really weirder than forcing a draw against an opponent with superior deck quite some time ago on a 10-10 third-round score), the deployment momentum felt smooth despite having little to no synergy from start to finish. It's like a wagenburg moving safely along the path minus the driver. It's that weird. Uprising may not be the leader's ability for me, though. Mobilisation? TBC.
Note: Before self-proofreading this post, I decided to go one level up since Wednesday=Gwentsday. Latest match score? Draw with 41-41 in the first round and 18-18 for the second. And my opponent was a rank 18 compared to my 19. This actually sets the current Guinness record for my weirdest moment in Gwent so far.
Trying to make sense of Isengrim's counsel
Originally, I didn't feel like using Isengrim. After tweaking my Deadeye Ambush deck and trying to make some tactical sense out of a multi-racial deck, I decided to say rage-quit it like Trey Gowdy and Bill Haslam. I settled for a dual-racial deck, as untypically Singaporean I may sound here (wait, who am I trying to kid since no sane Singaporean would ever play Gwent without playing Witcher 3 first?). Using Isengrim means an ethnic supermajority was needed. By the way, this statement shouldn't be an excuse to condone racism and moral bias.
The tricky part lies in deciding when to use his self-boost ability. +1 for every allied elf unit played afterwards? Sounds good until there's a need to make a tactical call since he boosts every other allied elf units by 1 upon being played. Either deploy him during the start or at the very end? The only way for me to make sense out of choosing between two options apart from a unit card with Defender status would likely be Isengrim's Council. That's provided you draw this guy and use him with a +2 self-boost. The only catch? It'd make less sense to use Water of Brokilon and more sense to use Feign Death instead. Again, a racial supermajority. If you're gunning for a 50-50 or 60-40 majority, then maybe you'd want to deploy the Mahakam brigade first.
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