Winning a game of Gwent depends on three factors – good cards, sound strategy, and a little bit of luck when it comes to drawing at the beginning of the round. The latter isn’t something that we can help you with beyond ensuring your deck doesn’t have any bad options, but the first two factors are ones that are within your control, provided you are willing to put in the work and complete the Gwent quests.
In terms of sound strategy, that’s only possible if you have the cards to back it up. Knowing what to do is one thing, but without the right cards to play you might as well forfeit at the beginning of the round. Luckily, we have already written about some strategies to help you understand the basics of Gwent, and you can find a link to that piece along the right side of the page.
Today, our focus will be on the best cards that you can add to any of your four decks. Each one we’ve chosen is neutral, which means that you can play them in the Northern Realms, Scoia’tael, Nilfgaard or Monster factions. In fact, you can play them in all four decks, which makes them even more valuable to your overall Gwent play style and strategy.
The Geralt of Rivia Close Combat Hero card is the most powerful in the game. It has a value of 15, and due to its Hero status is immune to any special ability cards or outside influences of any kind. To simplify this for you, just know that when you play the card, that’s a guaranteed 15 points on the board for you. Not even your own Commander’s Horn can change its value, giving it a killer combination of value and dependability. We’d advise that you play it in rounds two or three, depending on which one can seal the victory for you. You can win this card from Thaler during the Gwent Quest: Old Pals.
The Witcher 3 - How to Play Gwent
The Witcher 3 Viper School Gear
The Witcher 3 Griffin School Gear
The Witcher 3 Cat School Gear
The Witcher 3 Bear School Gear
The Witcher 3 - Best Armor and Weapons
Better known as Ciri, this card is identical in performance to the Geralt of Rivia card that we mentioned in our first entry. It has a value of 15, is a Close Combat Hero card that is immune to any outside influences, and as a neutral option can be added to each of your four decks. In terms of strategy, save this card for the game clinching round, ensuring that you have the firepower to send your opponent packing for good. If you can play it back-to-back with the Geralt of Rivia card, that’s 30 points on the board for you that your opponent cannot remove. Win it from the Scoia’tael trader in the Gwent Quest: Big City Players.
We initially thought that his card was useless, but more time using it has taught us that it’s brilliant. By far one of our favorites now, this card has a value of zero, but because it’s a Spy that is actually a good thing. You see, when you play a Spy card it goes on your opponent’s board and counts toward their total. The fact that this card has no value means that you get the benefits of it being a Spy, but your opponent gets nothing. Oh, and if you weren’t aware, A Spy card will draw two random cards from your deck and add them to your hand. This Hero card can be won during the Gwent Quest: Skellige Style.
After some thorough research on all the Gwent cards in the game, we decided that this one had to make the list. First of all, it is neutral, but it’s not a Hero card. This means it can be taken off the board by Scorch, or have its overall value of seven reduced to one by a Weather Card. What this card can do, however, is act as a Scorch toward your opponent’s Close Combat cards. The catch is their Close Combat cards must have a total (accumulative) value of at least 10, and this card cannot remove a Hero card.
For example, let’s say that your opponent has four Close Combat cards on the table, and each is a standard (non-Hero) card with a value of five. Play this card and you’ll wipe all of them off the board in a single turn. The only problem with this card is that it’s won randomly from a Merchant or Crafter, meaning you just have to play Gwent and hope you eventually earn it.
We were on the fence about this card, but the previous entry convinced us that this was a great option. It’s a Long Range Hero card with a value of only seven, but it’s also a Medic, meaning that when played it will allow you to choose a card from your discard pile and immediately put it on the board. For example, you could play it, then pull the Villentretenmerth from your discard pile and put it back on the board. You could even pull another Medic card from your discard pile, play it, then pull yet another card after that because the two of them stack. Just make sure that you actually have options in your discard pile before you play this or you’ll end up wasting its potential. You can win this card during the Gwent Quest: Playing Inkeeps.
As we mentioned earlier, be sure to scroll up and look along the right side of this page for links to other strategy articles for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
