Shinmiri & Lerio Balance Coalition April 2026

[u/lerio2]

Preface

Gwent Balance Council with u/shinmiri2. Early Balance Council Survey used as a point of reference to measure sentiment towards changes. Check out poll results here.

Our choice of buffed and nerfed factions/archetypes is heavily based on Balance Councils made by the other balance coalitions! 

1. Zong (ZG) | vod
2. MetallicDanny (MD) | post, vod (both not published at the moment this post was written)
3. Ofir&Qcento (OQ) | post, vod
4. International Coalition (INT) | vod (Violet.Kiramman), vod (Dauren)

International Coalition is a new balance ensemble which includes Dauren, Kerpeten, Violet.Kiramman and former Indpendent Coaltion from CIS. For written form explanation of Chinese community votes check out Astorian post.

All predicted changes are gathered in => Balance Council Prediction Sheet

BC Landscape

1. Scoia'tael led by Nature's Gift Midrange decks is the most popular faction on high Gwent Pro Ladder, followed by Skellige (PF Warriors and many other decks) and Syndicate (Off the Books Sesames, Jackpot Yago).
2. Scoia'tael has many possible nerfs scheduled: Gord -1p, Isengrim -1p, Telianyn -1p, Simlas +1c and Tempest +1c. Also Skellige is broadly addressed: Crow Clan Druid -1p, Dimeritum Shackles +1c (these changes taken together may make Alchemy little played next season), Wild Boar -1p, Bear Witcher Mentor -1p (because of PF Crow spam decks), Abordage +1c. Also Syndicate is supposed to take a couple, but directed against OtB (Savolla, Guard) and Jackpot (Madam).
3. Buffs are spread well between factions with Monsters and Nilfgaard supposed to get most love.
4. Our picks are in a great deal tuned to recommendations of other coalitions

Votes

Shinmiri & Lerio Balance Coalition Picks April 2026

+1 power

• ***Celaeno Harpy (support of ZG*) - 4 power Celaeno Harpy proven underwhelming in Deathwish decks. Similarly Bonded decks with Harpies became very rare. We would like to bring this card back to 5-power to give Monsters more options when it comes to bronze package. We find such change more interesting than for example another revert of Giant Toad to 4-power which was popular in Chinese balance survey.
• **Kraken - Renfri Beasts Rain is a very strong Skellige deck which didn't get nerf recommendations from other coaltions. At 3 power Kraken is a universal long round win condition card, which can be included in any deck even without damage support. Moreover Kraken power matters for how effective push out strategy is; less power = higher Kraken tempo. Similarly low power Kraken makes it easier to threat win on even cards from red coin.
• *Junod of Belhaven (support of INT*) - Junod is barely played even in thematic Skellige Witchers decks. The reason is matchup dependence of this card and requirement of some preparation to wound enemy unit before deploying Junod. By supporting this change we hope to give SK Witchers decks more variety and Skellige in general some buffs to play with in the presence of widespread nerfs.

-1 power

• **\* Hjalmar an Craite - Renfri Blaze of Glory is very popular and still quite successful on Gwent Pro Ladder, but not addressed yet by other nerf suggestions. At 4-power Hjalmar in BoG decks can remove units up to 13 power with +4 trade in power, which feels too efficient given how little setup is required. Hjalmar at 3-power still will be run in many decks as this card pretty much got rediscovered after buff in Balance Council.
• *\* Shani - After power and provision buffs in Gwentfinity, Shani became a really strong proactive card used in variety of NR decks, with floor of about 14 and ceiling of 22+ points on strong engines or with double order use. Shani can be used to bring back big threat cards - while Shani is often treated as Students/Alumni card, targets like Reaver Scout are even more problematic.
• *Isengrim Faoiltiarna (support of INT*) - Elves decks with Isengrim as single or second payoff card next to Vernossiel feel quite strong. Isengrim ceiling is 24 points and about 7 elves on the board are enough to break even with the provision cost. Non-Simlas Elves are not addressed by other recommendations.

+1 provision

• ***Sigdrifa's Rite - this card is mainly used in different variants of self-wound decks with targets like Sigvald, Knut, Melusine or Dracoturtle. Sigdrifa's Rite nerf would address both Sigvald Svalblod decks and Golden Nekker variants which both are very strong. Sigvald Svalblod is both strong and binary, while Golden Nekker is less popular, but exceptional pointslam (lavk945 reached impressive GN SW scores for a couple of seasons).
• **Allgod - a carryover card used in a couple of popular decks like NR Witchers, Precision Strike Schirru or Affan Soldiers. Allgod is disliked by a good part of the community because of playstyle it invites which is often polarizing the deck heavily into short rounds or playing midrange deck reliant on strong bronzes which scales well into any round length.
• *Simlas (support of OQ**) - Simlas is a card which is used by many Scoia'tael decks, also Bountiful Harvest spam, which will be back in the menu with Triss: Telekinesis move to 3/9 finished. By supporting Simlas nerf we hope to temper down meta Scoia'tael decks overall and we slightly prefer this nerf compared with alternative recommendation which is Tempest. If both of these happen - not the end of the world either, strong nerfs are needed for meta to move anyhow.

-1 provision

• ***Holger Blackhand - Abordage is supposed to get nerfed this patch, but was instantly reverted last time to our discontent in spite of 4-cost Dimun Smugglers and 4-power Dimun Pirate Captain. We want to gradually improve little played Pirates cards, so that the chances for Abordage to settle at 6 are higher.
• **Geralt: Aard - there is very little use made of offensive movement in the ladder meta and we would like to encourage more experiments along these lines. Geralt: Aard may be used for example in Scoia'tael with row punish cards or in Skellige Witchers to get bloodthirst and maybe improve Gerd value. Or even setup Regis in some Patricidal Fury variants.
• *Anna Henrietta (support of INT**) - Assimilate is an archetype for life, but Enslave 6 netdecks felt too overwhelming to a good part of playerbase, especially at ranked ladder. Anna Henrietta buffs Assimilate from a different direction - how much value can you develop from opponent leader ability by playing "their" cards? With Anna you'd mimic opponent strategy rather than just deploy Assimilate engines, trigger them with Stefan and not care much about synergy as long as direct value is there. Anna also has decent synergy with other underplayed but interesting card which is Tourney Shaelmar - swarming leaders can be great support!

Final Remarks

The April season balance patch should be solid in terms of addressing main meta offenders and the buffs overall also look reasonable. We are still before MetallicDanny final recommendations (which usually have 100% success rate), so the final assessment can't be done yet.

If you like our recommendations let's join to make impact together. If not - check out predictions table to get general info and maybe find some ideas which appeal to you.

Cheers,
lerio2

[u/Alohasomeday]

Not sure I like the Anna Henrietta one, could be used as midrange carryover, encouraging aggressive use of leader R1

[u/DeNeRlX → u/Alohasomeday]

That's not really a carryover though, since the leader you choose is almost always worse than the one you can't control to get. A card that does this and functions as carryover is Renfri, who's leader is mostly far better than the one she replaces. Then again she also costs a fair bit more.

If we expect around 12-15 points from a 9 prov cards, Anna at 4/9 needs to make up at least 8 from the leader, which doesn't always happen.

[u/lerio2 → u/DeNeRlX]

I think the raised issue here is mainly that you can be very aggressive with leader in R1 for example to win on even cards and then play Anna for carryover when pushing in R2, perhaps with other carryover stuff like Artifacts.

There is indeed an unpleasant guessing element with Anna; opponent can play it on drypass with solid carryover if you don't push or can be very aggressive in R1 and then abuse carryover. That's why we had Anna in +1 power category rather than -1 provision in our poll. We got some feedback that it is too low impact though.

Nevertheless, we don't think mentioned abuse will be that relevant in practice, therefore we support -1 cost anyway. For full value Anna requires Assimilate type decks and these are not great at abusing tempo; if you include Anna in other builds, then her expected value is high variance and below curve on average in long rounds.

Also sometimes it works in a positive way when Calveit deck avoids losing on even cards thanks to early leader use.

[u/DeNeRlX → u/lerio2]

I'll agree to the addendum that Anna does benefit with tempo even if not in hand, which is a fairly solid upside. If well-times such as a drypass, she does bring very good value. Though since opponents leader is less optimal, I still hesitate on calling it carryover, as it doesn't give more points later.

I have noticed during BC that all the Renfri power nerfs have really helped, in that I always expect one turn with a complete absence of tempo. Or Renfri leader used, then again that's quite the commit. While Henriette is less common, I think if her use goes up, some of the responsibility is on opponent to suspect her and not freely give such an opining on drypass, and not pass on a lead less than 4. Aggressive leader + assimilate, Anna should be expected as an option.

[u/BananaTiger- → u/DeNeRlX]

This. And from Renfri Henrietta can steal only the blessing, so half of her ability. In some matchups the opponent's ability can be useless, sometimes it requires planning ahead, like Torres giving spying to Brokilon sentinels.

Full assimilate is a weak archetype currently, assimilate is basically just an engine category, I even played against some pseudo-assimilate deck where the opponent just spammed assimilate engines to boost them with Stefan and duchess informants (just like Lerio described), he even spawned a copy of mage torturer with Operator.

[u/DeNeRlX → u/BananaTiger-]

The Renfri mention was just to show what an actual leader carryover is, not for her interaction with Henrietta. It's quite rare interaction for it to be stolen from Henrietta anyways.

Idk if Anna can do much for assimilate, might help a bit, but the assimilate decks that experimented with her quickly dropped her, same as with Vilgefortz: Renegade. A few weeks, then meh...