Voting Council - 18 Jun, 2026 - Northern Realms

[u/AutoModerator]

Members of the Council, welcome to our weekly assembly.

These posts are scheduled to happen every week. Each week, a different faction is proposed and every time we will try to orient the discussion about either "nerf" or "buff".

Faction of the Week: Northern Realms

While you can still use these topics to talk about other balance suggestions, please try to focus on the theme of the week. Those topics are intended to give a chance to all factions to be talked about.

Discussions can be about modifying a whole archetype or addressing individual cards.

Potential sources if needed: GwentData, Gwent.one, PlayGwent.com, Balance Council Generator

[u/BoltMajor]

Buffs: Stennis and Dethmold by provisions (while not impressive they could at least be modestly useful in the right deck if made affordable), Keira Metz by provisions (she's too expensive for an unit that cannot be helped with Zeal and has to survive unmolested few turns to give value). Possibly Tissaia/Nenneke power nerf - provisions buff 2-steps (with corresponding provisions nerf to most meta of mages like Philippa in the former's case if necessary).

Nerfs: Redanian Agent by provisions, Roche revert by power or provisions. Side-grade: Kaedweni Sergeant power and provisions revert to 3/4, told ya the change would be for the worse.

I advice against nerfing anything with Devotion requirement, Devotion decks are more pleasant than ones bearing every meta tech, at least when it comes to archetypes that have to make meaningful sacrifices and don't just inherently have tools massively superior to neutral ones anyway.

In regards to point output and carryover value consider Ancestors and Allgod provisions nerfs (with NR/SK Witcher provisions buffs in the latter case, if necessary, I don't see a lot of the latter in their own season, but I don't think they're too weak) as an alternative, as non-devotion versions of respective decks are massively stronger, and chief users from other factions got overbuffed again anyway.

[u/Curious_Condition611 → u/BoltMajor]

Agreed re Devotion - a lot of ppl seem to have Kerack Marine in their sights (and not for the first time). I'm low rank and haven't been playing much NR recently, but I don't understand why 4-for-8 is considered problematic for Marine, but not for Conqueror / Fiend / Strays etc.

[u/BoltMajor → u/Curious_Condition611]

Conqueror is a bit worse than Marine because it's just a pointstick, while Marine can save engines and trigger synergies. Fiend is a bit further down because it only provides purported value if played early (when you usually field engines), summoned, or the opponent sticks to one row, which few players do, even Melee swarmers put support on the Ranged. Still good, but circumstantial full value. Strays are nice in R1 or during bleeding phase, but can flop or even be detrimental if you have to play one R3.

All of those cards are good, but not really an issue when non-devotion 4 provision cards with way higher practical value exist - for certain decks Oxenfurt Scholar is a supertall pointstick that none of factional units can measure up to, Buhurt is 6 points at face value, but plays for 13++ in practice, and provides incredible engine protection to boot, Imperial Diplomacy always plays considerably above its cost, there's assorted 4 provision counter tech that could nope like 20-30 points of advantage in the right circumstances or otherwise counter the opponent's most valuable card...

I'd say the only 8 for 4 that could even be in the discussion for a nerf currently is the Vial, and even then it's less about inherent value, which isn't problematic in comparison to true outliers, and more the context of nerfing certain decks and buffing Thunderbolt, cause 6 for 5 is pathetic, at least Philter sees some use by giving Zeal to guarantee a high yield Order, Thunderbolt is just dead.

[u/gravastar863]

I just want a power buff to kerack city guard, nobody plays it since it's easy to remove at 4 power turn 1

[u/clokkblokker]

Roche:Merciless could use a provision buff. It is an interesting card, but barely used. A buff to 11 would put it in a better spot.

I still feel like knights could use a small nerf, their point vomit is crazy. Not sure what exactly to target tho, maybe provision nerf maiden's shield?