GWENT Glossary
A comprehensive dictionary of competitive terminology, card keywords, game mechanics, and strategic concepts curated by Team Aretuza.
Terms starting with A
A keyword introduced in the Way of the Witcher expansion. The keyword is written as "Adrenaline X" and means that the card effect following this text activates only if the player has X or fewer cards in their hand. For example, "Adrenaline 3: Also gain Immunity" works only if we have 3 or fewer cards in hand. Note that Adrenaline checks for the number of cards in the player's hand at the time the effect activates. For deploy abilities, the card itself is deducted from your hand count and activated abilities check the number of cards in your hand when they are selected.
A keyword and card mechanic that flips a card face up.
Ambush is the keyword associated with Trap artifacts, meaning that the card is played face down and flips face up after certain conditions are met. This procs the artifact’s ability.
“Area of Effect.”
In numerous CCGs, AoE refers to abilities that target multiple cards, either randomly or in a specific manner. There are two varieties of AoE cards in Gwent. The first directly affects multiple units, either allies or enemies, such as Manticore Venom or Golden Froth.
The second AoE variety to be found in Gwent is called a row effect.
A concept that describes how a deck works.
An archetype takes a deck type and builds upon it using specific game and card mechanics as well as synergies. While there are different ways to turn an archetype into a specific deck, all decks of an archetype revolve around a core set of cards that use these mechanics and synergies. These core cards are often what make an archetype strong or weak when matched up against other different archetypes, and this usually decides an archetype’s place in the meta.
A game mode in which players draft a deck from randomly selected cards. This mode has been replaced by draft mode.
The deckbuilding rulesets for Constructed do not apply to Arena; players can draft multiple copies of cards from any faction, and there is no provision limit. An Arena run is finished with 9 wins or 3 losses against other players, whichever comes first. Players collect a reward according to their performance, with 9 wins rewarding a legendary card. Entry into Arena is paid with real currency or ore.
To help you with drafting the best cards in Arena, check out our Arena Tier List and Card Picker.
A card mechanic introduced with Iron Judgment that protects units from damage. Its value does not count towards the player’s score or the unit’s power.
Armor is represented as a number in a shield in the top-right hand corner of the card. It does not count as a status and therefore cannot be Purified. It is also important to note that Bleeding goes through Armor.
A type of card that has no power but occupies a place on the game board.
Artifacts are signified by the chalice in the top left-hand corner of the card. They are placed on the game board like units, but they will not contribute any power to the player’s point total. Instead, artifacts generate value only when procced, potentially functioning like an engine, after certain conditions are met or when the player chooses to activate an artifact’s ability.
Engine artifacts are often equipped with the Zeal, Order, Charge, and Cooldown keywords, gaining a player value by boosting allies or damaging enemies while they remain on the board. Powerful engine artifacts such as Sihil may also have additional abilities to increase the amount of value gained.
Trap artifacts, unique to the Scoia’tael faction, are placed face down on the board and flipped over using the ambush keyword when certain conditions are met. Traps also have spring abilities that go off when the card is flipped manually, making them find value even when their Ambush condition is not met, and also allowing the player to gain more control over the board.
A keyword and card mechanic that boosts a unit by 1 or specified amount whenever you play a card that is not from your starting deck.
For the purposes of Assimilate, not from your starting deck refers to all cards that are Created or Spawned. As long as you play them, as opposed to Summon, any unit on board with Assimilate will proc.
A description given to a card that is good enough to be included in most, if not all, decks.
Cards or card packages are considered auto-include not just if they are strong enough but also if they are a logical stand-alone card that can be fit into a wide range of potentially very different decks, usually across a certain faction but sometimes across the entire meta. They often have a lot of utility; that is - they add something to the deck that will almost always be useful.
Terms starting with B
Getting an opponent to play one or more high-value cards through deception.
When a player baits their opponent, they force them to play a specific high-value card or series of cards prematurely that might have been better value at a more important stage of the match. For instance, a player may give the indication that they are trying to two-zero their opponent and then pass as soon as their opponent plays a high-value card or leader.
Adjusting a card's strength to be closer to that of others in the same cardpool.
If a card is too weak or too strong compared to the other cards in the game, its card power, ability, or provision cost can be adjusted via balancing. In this case, the card receives a buff, a nerf, or a complete rework. Additionally, balancing refers to the overall harmony of the cardpool of a game – it can be balanced or imbalanced.
A keyword and card mechanic removing the selected card from the game.
When a card is banished, it is not sent to the graveyard and its Deathwish abilities, if it has any, do not proc. The card is then removed from the game and cannot be used in any remaining rounds.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an effect if a given unit has Armor.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an effect when a unit's power reaches the specified value or lower.
A keyword and status that damages a unit by 1 on turn end.
Bleeding is a status most often given to a unit by a unit belonging to the opponent. The status is recognisable as a red banner under the unit’s power. The number inside the banner indicates how many more procs the status has before it disappears.
It is important to note that Bleeding and Vitality are mutually exclusive statuses that cancel each other out. If a unit with 5 Bleeding is given 1 Vitality, it will be left with 4 Bleeding. Similarly if a unit has 3 Vitality and is given 6 Bleeding, it will be left with 3 Bleeding.
Playing low-value cards and forcing the opponent to play cards, ideally of higher value.
When a player bleeds their opponent, they aim to trade their lower value cards for their opponent's cards of greater value. Additionally, a player can also try to force a Round 3 that is the optimal length for their deck while denying their opponent the same. For example, a player could bait their opponent into playing their win condition, such as a strong finisher or leader, or play a long Round 2 to reduce the length of the last round against hazard decks. If a player has won Round 1, they can choose to bleed their opponent in Round 2 instead of dry-passing. They could also fully commit to the round and try to two-zero the opponent. While bleeding in Round 2, it is important to keep up with the opponent’s points so as to not lose card advantage. However, it can sometimes be the right choice to bleed the opponent and lose card advantage in the process in order to have a better chance at winning the third round.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs when a number of enemies are damaged.
Bloodthirst is unique to the Skellige faction. The keyword is often associated with an ability that procs when the specified number of enemy units are damaged. In game, it is presented on a card as “Bloodthirst X.”
For the sake of this mechanic, a unit counts as damaged if its current power is lower than its base power.
A term that refers to going first in a match.
A holdover term from the days of Gwent's Beta (when the coin was color-coded to show which player was in control of the current turn), the Blue Coin simply means that the player in question is acting first in the first round of the match. In contrast, the Red Coin refers to a player who acts second in the first round.
This is also often referred to as "losing the coin flip," as there are risks associated with going first (such as losing the round with the same number of cards in hand as the opponent) and the player must provide several plays without sufficient targets on their own board or the opponent's board.
“Bad Manners.”
“BMing” your opponent consists of behaviour designed to distract them from their game, show off or treat them poorly after they have defeated you. Examples of BMing are repeatedly sending emotes to your opponent in rapid succession, continuing to play when your opponent has passed to give you a victory and refusing to shake an opponent’s hand after a live tournament match. It is generally seen as bad sporting behaviour to BM your opponent.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an ability if a copy of the Bonded card already exists on your side of the board.
It is important to note that a Bonded effect of a played card will only proc if you currently control a copy of the card on board when it is played.
A keyword and status that gains Coins when a unit is destroyed.
When a Bounty is applied to a unit, it will have no immediate effect, but when that unit is destroyed, the player responsible for destruction will gain Coins equal to that unit’s base power.
A card which will be weaker than expected.
A card is bricked when its ability does not activate or activates with a very poor outcome. In Gwent, this can, for example, happen with tutors. More generally, bricking also refers to drawing into an unusable hand.
Increasing the strength of a card compared to others in the same card pool. Increasing a unit's card power during a game.
If a card is underpowered in terms of value compared to the other cards in a card pool, it might receive an increase to its card power, an improvement to its ability or a decrease to its provision cost. This is referred to as a buff. The opposite of buffing a card is nerfing it, which is also a balancing tool.
The card mechanic called boosting is also sometimes referred to as buffing.
Terms starting with C
Having more cards in hand than the opponent.
Gaining card advantage is generally regarded as an important winning strategy or win condition in Gwent, especially for the last round. Having card advantage means that this player will have the last say in the match. However, some archetypes might not care about card advantage or they may have the ability to overcome card disadvantage by generating a lot of value with very few cards
A small collection of cards that synergize well together to accomplish a set goal.
Unlike an archetype, which is more conceptual, a card package is smaller and often made up of a specific group of cards. Card packages might function in a single deck or many, and it might be that when one of these cards is nerfed, the package does not work as efficiently, or at all.
The number of points a card contributes to a player’s total, ignoring abilities.
In Gwent, only units have card power. This number is printed in white in the top left-hand corner of the card. The number is also referred to as card strength, or simply power or strength.
The number printed on the unit is its base power. A unit can be boosted so that its power increases. If a unit is boosted beyond its base power, the number will appear green while that unit remains on the board. A unit can also be damaged so that its power goes down. If a unit is damaged below its base power, the number will appear red while that unit remains on the board.
A way of distinguishing a card’s crafting cost.
There are four card rarities in Gwent, each with a set crafting cost. Rarities are also colour-coded and indicated by a small triangle in the top left corner of a card.
Common cards cost 30 Scraps (one such premium also costs 30 Meteorite powder on top of the Scrap cost),
Rare cards cost 80 Scraps (plus 80 Meteorite powder for the premium),
Epic cards cost 200 Scraps (plus 200 Meteorite powder for the premium),
and Legendary cards cost 800 Scraps, with additional 800 Meteorite powder for the premium version.
Card rarity colours - white for Common, blue for Rare, purple for Epic and yellow for Legendary.
A card’s type defines the general way in which it works.
A card’s type is the broadest way of describing a card by what it does. In Gwent, there are currently four card types: units, which provide card power, special cards, which proc an immediate ability; artifacts, which provide players with a different way to gain value; and stratagems, which are Order effects that start on the board and are available to the player going first in the first round.
Points that will matter in later rounds.
Investing points in future rounds is referred to as carryover. The most straightforward type of carryover are resilient units, which, when played in one round, remain on the board into the next, such as Gabor Zigrin. Additionally, carryover includes resurrecting units, consuming them from the graveyard, or boosting units in hand with cards such as Freya's Blessing, Ghoul, or Triss: Butterflies respectively.
“Collectible Card Game.”
CCG refers to games such as Gwent or Hearthstone in which the player begins with a limited number of cards from a much wider cardpool and must invest either in-game or real-world currency in order to complete their collection. In Gwent, these in-game currencies are ore and scraps.
A keyword and card mechanic determining how often an Order ability can be procced.
An Order card may have multiple Charges attached to it when it is played. Other Order cards may give another unit, often an ally, additional charges which will allow an allied Order to be replayed, for example Priscilla.
Note: This only works on cards that are printed with “Charge: X.”
Charge is found on cards across all of Gwent’s factions, though is commonly associated with Northern Realms.
Determines who goes first in a match.
In Gwent, going first is commonly referred to as “receiving the blue coin”, “starting on blue,” or “losing the coin flip” (as it is generally seen as a disadvantage to go first). A player wins the coin flip by “receiving the red coin” and, thus, going second. The red/blue coin terminology is a vestige of beta Gwent. Going first grants that player one extra mulligan as well as the card Tactical Advantage which can be played for five additional points in the first round only.
A game mechanic exclusive to the Syndicate faction that activates a number of card effects.
Coins work like an additional resource that may be gained and spent by certain cards to proc a variety of different effects. A player may have up to 9 Coins and at the end of a round, the total halved, rounding down. The number of Coins available to a player is depicted in the bottom-left corner, above the leader Charge counter, represented by a number in a gold sack.
While Coins are currently exclusive to the Syndicate in Constructed decks, they can be used with any leader in the Arena.
Available Fees appear on cards in gold. If you don't have enough Coins to spend, they appear in red, and if the Fee is otherwise unavailable, it will appear in bronze.
Your Coin balance is depicted next to your leader on the battlefield.
A tournament format where a player uses multiple decks and must win one game with each to win the match.
Conquest is a form of tournament play in which a player is expected to win with each of the decks they have brought to the tournament once in order to win the match. After a player wins with one deck, it is not allowed to be played again. If a deck loses a game, it can be played again, but must not be played straight away. This format is in contrast to King of the Hill tournaments.
The Conspiracy keyword provides an additional effect (described in the card text) when targeting a unit with the spying status.
A game format in which the player creates a deck using their collection and a deck-building rule set.
Constructed is a game format used in CCGs and TCGs wherein players may build a deck using any card from their collection as long as it is in line with a deck-building rule set defined by the game’s competitive authority.
For Gwent, the Constructed game format is used for casual games, friendly games and on the Ranked ladder, as well as in practice matches against the AI. A Constructed deck is built in the Deck Builder and must have only two of each bronze card, one of each gold card and use no more than 169 provisions (depending on your chosen leader). Currently, Gwent’s only other game format is a Limited draft in the Arena game mode.
A keyword and card mechanic that destroys a unit and boosts another by its power.
When a unit’s Consume ability is procced, another unit will be destroyed and the consuming unit will be boosted by the target’s card power. If the consumed unit was on the board or in hand, it will be sent to the graveyard. If it was already in the graveyard, it will be Banished.
Gwent's in-game achievement system.
Contracts reward the player for various things and with various prizes, mostly reward points and vanities. There are contracts for different actions like spending resources (General), winning with different leader abilities (Mastery), collecting specific cards and leader skins (Collection), progressing on ranked ladder (Ranked), playing in ranked/pro rank during specific seasons (Seasonal), reaching level 60 multiple times (Levels), playing Thronebreaker (The Witcher Tales), progressing in Journey and using its cosmetics (Journey), and using expansion-specific cards and mechanics (Expansions). Up to 5 contracts can be "tracked" and up to 3 displayed in one's player profile.
A deck type focused on disrupting the opponent's gameplan rather than generating lots of points itself.
Control’s tools include the removal of engines, removal of points, and manipulation of the opponent’s deck, hand, and graveyard with cards such as Alzur's Thunder or Assire var Anahid. While having an advantage in matchups against greedy decks, control decks are often weak against point-slam decks.
A keyword and card mechanic attached to some Order cards that means the Order may only be reused after the number of specified turns.
A keyword and card mechanic that spawns a random card.
When a Create effect procs, a player will be shown three randomly selected cards, usually from a specified faction and from the neutral card pool, and select one of them. This card will then be spawned.
The first official expansion for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game
Released on 28th March 2019, Crimson Curse saw the addition of 101 new cards to the Gwent cardpool, themed around Detlaff van der Eretein’s attempt to summon his kin and cause havoc across the world of the Witcher. Among the additions were new Vampires, Svalblod cultists, Cintrian mages, Brokilon dryads and agents from the Nilfgaard region of Toussaint.
Points that determine which players compete in Gwent Masters tournaments.
Players earn Crown Points by being in top positions on Pro Rank and by competing in Gwent Masters tournaments.
Gwent has several different in-game currencies to be used for purchasing different in-game items. Currently, these currencies are:
- Ore (used for purchasing kegs)
- Scrap (used for crafting new cards)
- Meteorite powder (used for transmuting normal cards into animated versions called Premiums as well purchasing other cosmetics from the shop)
- Reward points (used in the Reward Book to obtain ore, scrap, meteorite powder, kegs, faction kegs, leader skins and other cosmetics)
Scrap is primarily earned by milling cards, while Meteorite powder can be gained by milling premium cards, or purchased in the in-game shop. Kegs can be earned either by purchase, or by exchange for Ore. Ore and Reward points are also rewards for completing daily quests. Reward points can further be obtained by completing contracts or leveling up in Journey.
From left to right: Kegs, ore, meteorite powder, reward points, scraps.
Terms starting with D
A keyword and card mechanic that allows a card to proc an ability when it destroys a unit.
For the purposes of Deathblow, destroy a unit means to remove a unit from the board. Deathblow is not a keyword limited to units, but may also appear on special cards and artifacts too.
A keyword and card mechanic that allows a card to proc an ability when it is sent to the graveyard from the board.
It is important to note that when a card is Banished, it is not sent to the graveyard, and so the Deathwish keyword is not triggered. Additionally, there are cards that can activate Deathwish abilities without destroying the unit on which the keyword appears, such as Maerolorn and Ritual Sacrifice.
Deathwish is a card mechanic most commonly associated with the Monsters faction, but it is not unique to them, also appearing as a keyword on Crow's Eye and Sabrina Glevissig.
An in-game tool where players make Constructed decks.
In order for a deck to be playable in constructed it must consist of at least 25 cards. There is a limit of one copy of all gold cards per deck and two copies of all bronze cards per deck. It also can use no more than 169 provisions, depending on your chosen leader.
A broad classification describing a deck's goal and win condition.
Deck type is the fundamental concept of what a deck attempts to achieve as part of its win condition. There are three basic deck types in Gwent: control, point-slam, and greed. As a general rule, control decks beat greedy decks, greedy decks beat point-slam decks, and point-slam decks beat control decks. In practice, however, it is not this simple, and many archetypes use more than one of these concepts in order to be viable.
A keyword and status that blocks other units on the row from being targeted by abilities as long as the Defending unit survives.
As a status, Defender can be removed from a unit using Purify. Other units cannot be targeted by any special card, artifact or unit abilities until the Defending unit has been removed from the row, but they may still be hit by random effects.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs a unit's ability upon playing.
If a unit is printed with the Deploy keyword, the ability that follows the keyword will proc when the card is played, as long as all necessary conditions on the card are met.
An ability that triggers only if the player's starting deck began the game with no Neutral cards. Note that in Draft Mode the player may have cards in their deck from different factions so long as none of them are Neutral.
A keyword and mechanic that moves a card from a player’s hand to the graveyard.
Discarding a card from a player’s hand to the graveyard may be done manually or as an effect of the Discard keyword. Discarding a card due to the keyword may trigger additional abilities, such as that of Tuirseach Skirmisher. Discarding manually will not trigger these abilities. Neither discarding manually nor by using the keyword will end the player’s turn. The Discard keyword is near-exclusive to the Skellige faction.
Cards with the Disloyal keyword will be placed on the opponent's side of the board when played.
A keyword and card mechanics that allows an effect to be procced if you control the highest-strength unit on the board.
Dominance effects will only proc if you control the highest-strength unit on the board when the effect is assessed. This is important to note for Orders with Cooldown as well as Deploy effects. If the Dominance effect is attached to a unit on the battlefield, the unit will count itself for the sake of assessing the effect.
A game mode in which players draft a deck from randomly selected cards.
The deckbuilding rules for Constructed do not apply to Draft Mode; a player can draft multiple copies of gold cards, more than two copies of bronze cards, or cards from multiple factions. There is no provision limit either.
The draft starts with choosing one out of three leader abilities, followed by a choice of one out of three “core” cards. The rest of the deck is built by choosing one out of three card packages, each also containing three cards. There are multiple types of such packages: Defense - cards that boost, give armor, etc.; Offense - cards that deal damage; Value - vitality, engines, etc.; Thinning - packages of cards like Dun Banner; Tribal - cards with the same category; Mechanical - create, charge, etc.; Special - special cards, cards that synergize with them; Coin - cards that generate and spend coins; and Wombo Combo - packages such as Etriel and double Muirlega or Letho of Gulet, Serrit and Auckes. After choosing eight packages, the player will get a choice of one out of three stratagems, and the deck is complete.
The symbols of Draft Mode card packages. From left to right: Defense, Offense, Value, Thinning, Tribal, Mechanical, Special, Coin, Combo.
A Draft run is finished with 7 wins or 3 losses against other players, whichever comes first. The mode is currently in a stage of early access; entry costs nothing, but there are also no rewards for finishing runs. Likewise, contracts focused on Draft Mode are yet to be introduced.
A keyword and card mechanic that transfers card power from one unit to another.
When a unit’s Drain ability procs, the player will select a target which will be damaged by a specified amount. The draining unit will then be boosted by the same amount. Currently, the only card with this keyword is Regis: Higher Vampire.
Passing a round without playing a card.
In Gwent, the only reasonable moment for a player to dry-pass is in Round 2 after they have won the first round. Players typically dry-pass to ensure that their opponent must play one more card than them during this round. The other options are bleeding the opponent or two-zeroing them. A dry pass is sometimes also referred to as an "open pass."
A keyword and card mechanic that forces two units to deal damage to one another until one is destroyed.
When a unit’s Duel ability is procced, it will deal its card power in damage to a target unit. If the target unit is not destroyed, it will then deal its remaining card power in damage back to the dueling unit. This will continue until one of the units is destroyed.
Terms starting with E
An effect which moves a card from the Graveyard to the top of the deck (while adding Doomed) at the beginning of a round. With the Master Mirror expansion, each faction received a Special card with the Echo keyword and there was one Neutral card (Oneiromancy) added.
A card that generates points over time, rather than getting all of its value immediately, is called an engine.
With the Master Mirror expansion, each faction received an Evolving Card. These are powerful units which change form and grow more powerful at the start of Rounds 2 and 3. The final form of each Evolving Card may only be achieved if the player's deck meets the devotion requirements.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an ability when a unit loses its Armor.
Terms starting with F
Gwent is split into six factions: Monsters, Nilfgaard, Northern Realms, Skellige, Scoia'tael and Syndicate. A Constructed deck can only be assembled from the cards of one of these factions in addition to a wide range of factionless cards called Neutral cards.
The Novigrad expansion also introduced a number of dual-faction cards that can each be used with Syndicate and up to one other, additional faction.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an effect when a specified number of Coins are spent.
Fee effects can be triggered on the same turn the card carrying the effect is played and, unless the card has Cooldown, may be triggered more than once on a given turn. The effect may be manually procced any number of times as long as the card carrying the effect remains in play and you have enough Coins to afford it.
A card whose main use in a deck is to fill out “the curve”.
Filler cards in Gwent are usually low-provision cost cards that, while playable, do not contribute any kind of synergy or other major advantage to the deck in which they are placed. They are often mulliganed away when they are drawn, or played early or after a pass so they do not clog up the deck.
In CCGs with a mana system, the equivalent cards are usually low-mana cost cards that ensure you are stuck with nothing to do on a given turn.
A strong final play, ideally made so the opponent cannot respond to it.
A finisher is a card or combo that is played at the last possible moment in Round 3 and generates a lot of value or tempo in the span of one turn. It is played last in order to give the opponent the least amount of time possible to answer.
Short for Faction Matchmaking Rating, a player's MMR with a single faction.
fMMR is a player’s MMR with a single one of Gwent’s factions over the course of a competitive season. A player gains access to fMMR for all factions when they reach Rank 25 on the Ranked ladder. A player starts with 1250 fMMR for each faction - their current fMMR will go up and down as the player wins and loses matches, while their peak fMMR will be set to the highest score achieved by the player throughout the season. A percentage of this peak fMMR contributes to the player’s total MMR depending on how many games the player has played with that faction. With each game played, regardless of whether they are wins or losses, more fMMR is unlocked, reaching 100% at 40 games. This means that if the player has 1250 peak fMMR with a faction but has only played 4 games, this faction contributes 125 points to the player’s overall MMR. If the player has played 20 games, it contributes 625 points and if 40 games have been played, it contributes the full 1250 points. It is only the peak fMMR of a player’s four top performing factions that contributes to their total MMR.
Terms starting with G
“Good Game.”
After a match, you can send your opponent a GG. This gives them a small currency reward of ore or meteorite powder. Sending your opponent a GG is generally seen as good competitive behaviour.
Common name of a player’s discard pile in CCGs and TCGs.
In Gwent, a card is most commonly sent to the graveyard when it is destroyed (its card power is damaged to zero) by an enemy unit. This removes the card from the board and puts it in the player’s discard pile. Cards are also sent to the graveyard when the player overdraws or decides to discard from hand. There are many different types of cards that can interact with the graveyard, such as Assire var Anahid, Freya's Blessing, and Xavier Lemmens.
Cards that are designed to counter decks or disrupt gameplans focused on graveyard interactions are referred to as graveyard hate, such as the card Xavier Lemmens.
A deck type that gains points aggressively at the risk of disruption.
Greed is a deck type that focuses on playing as many points as possible as aggressively as possible, without paying attention to the opponent’s gameplan and win condition. They have a very high point ceiling if they are not disrupted. Greedy decks often use engines, which scale over the course of one or many rounds. All of this makes greedy decks very vulnerable to removal through control decks.
See Gwent Masters.
Gwent's official esports series.
Gwent Masters is the name of Gwent’s official e-sports series organized by CD Projekt Red. Thus far, there have been three seasons of Gwent Masters: Season 1, starting in May 2017, consisting of 8 Open tournaments and 5 Challengers, all held in person except for the finale - Gwent World Masters - that after much delay finally happened in June 2021; Season 2, spreading through 2020 and held entirely online, divided into 4 Opens, with its World Masters tournament taking place in December that year; and Season 3, which is currently ongoing in the same format as Season 2.
Gwent Masters tournaments are all held in best-of-5 Conquest formats, in which each player is expected to bring four different decks from four different factions and one deck per series is banned, i.e. the player is not allowed to select it for play during that tournament series. For additional information see here.
See Gwent Masters.
See Gwent Masters.
Terms starting with H
The maximum number of cards allowed in hand.
A hand limit is a game mechanic often added to a card game to limit the bonuses provided by card advantage. In Gwent, there is a hand limit of 10 and going over this means overdrawing.
The practice of boosting the cards in your hand before they are played.
Handbuff strategies are largely employed by Scoia’tael decks as a form of carryover. Boosting a card in your hand, as opposed to on the board, means this value is largely non-interactable - that is, your opponent can do very little to stop you from keeping it. This value is then used later when the card is eventually played.
A keyword and card mechanic that boosts a unit by 1 or specified amount when a Scoia’tael unit with a unique primary category is played.
For the sake of Harmony, a Scoia’tael unit is any unit printed belonging to the Scoia’tael faction, and a unique primary category refers to the first tag printed on that card. For example, Dryad Ranger will proc its Harmony effect when any Elf is played onto the board for the first time. Unless that Elf is removed from the board, when another Elf is played, Harmony will not proc again.
A keyword and card mechanic that increases a unit’s damaged power up to its base power.
When a card’s Heal ability is procced, the card power of a target unit, which can be the healing unit, will be increased by the amount specified if it is currently lower than the unit’s base power. If there is no specified amount, the unit will immediately be restored to its base power.
A hero pass occurs when a player passes in a situation where losing the round would lose them the game, but they are so far ahead that they believe it is impossible for the opponent to overtake them with the number of cards the opponent has remaining.
See Singleton Deck.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an ability when the specified number of Coins have been collected.
While effects attached to the Hoard keyword will only trigger when you have collected the specified number of Coins, those Coins will not be spent to activate the effect, which means that if an effect is ongoing, it will continue to proc as long as you have that number of Coins.
Decks made independently by players rather than taken from another source are referred to as a homebrew. The opposite of a homebrew deck is a netdeck.
Formally "Gwent: Homecoming," a large-scale project in 2018 to renew Gwent ahead of its official release.
Homecoming was a project completed by CD Projekt Red before release of Gwent on PC on October 23, 2018 and on consoles on December 4, 2018, to revamp and revitalise the game after struggling development and misalignments with community expectation throughout Gwent’s beta. The project was set to focus on improving the game’s atmosphere, fixing underlying problems with the game’s mechanics and putting more agency on player skill.
Terms starting with I
A keyword and status that makes a card unable to be manually targeted.
Immune cards may not be manually targeted by any kind of direct ability, be it damaging, boosting or movement. A limited number of cards come with the Immune keyword printed on them, such as Milva and Saesenthessis. Cards that are Immune from manual targeting may still be destroyed by untargeted and AoE abilities, such as Scorch.
A keyword and card mechanic that changes a card’s ability depending on whether playing it was the player’s first action that turn or not.
Initiative abilities only proc if the card with this keyword was played as the very first action that turn. If the player uses a tutor to play such card, or if they use any order (including leader) abilities beforehand, the Initiative ability will no longer be available.
This keyword was introduced as a way of balancing cards that benefit from 1-turn setup with leader or order abilities, such as Scorch or Regis, and specifically as a way to nerf Geralt: Igni after extensive community feedback regarding this card.
A keyword and card mechanic that damages a unit by the number of Coins required by its Fee effect.
Insanity is exclusive to the Syndicate faction units that have a Fee cost. Regardless of whether you want to proc the Fee effect, if you do not have the Coins to pay for it, the unit will be damaged by that Fee amount.
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an ability if a unit's current card power is higher than its base power.
This keyword is usually linked to Order and Deploy abilities and enhances them in some way when Inspired is procced. While the keyword is currently unique to Northern Realms, a similar effect does exist on cards outside of this faction.
The third official expansion for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
Released on 2nd October 2019, Iron Judgment saw the reintroduction of key mechanics and characters from Gwent’s Open Beta, including Armor, Shani and King Radovid V as a new leader skin for Northern Realms. The expansion is themed around Radovid’s war in the North, and additions included Redanian units, Insectoid monsters and the Salamandra criminal organisation.
Terms starting with J
Progression system in Gwent.
First implemented in April 2020, Journey is an alternative to the previously known daily progression of gaining in-game resources for round wins in online modes. Divided into levels, each Journey has a standard and a premium path, the latter offered for purchase, filled with various rewards. The standard path offers mainly currencies, while the premium path comes with a neutral leader skin and many additional vanity items. Due to that, and typically for Gwent, Journeys are always themed around a primary and a secondary character from the Witcher universe and accompanied by a story accessible in-game. Additionally, there is always a number of contracts to complete for more rewards.
Terms starting with K
Gwent's version of card packs in other CCGs.
Each keg has a total of five cards in it that a player adds to their collection upon opening it in the shop. The first four cards are always random. For the fifth card, the player can choose from three different, randomly chosen options of the same rarity. Kegs can be purchased in the in-game shop in exchange for ore or real money. Additionally, kegs can be earned through the Reward Book.
A mechanic or status specifically defined in-game.
A keyword is specifically defined in-game to make it clear what a card does and how it works. If a mechanic or status is attached to a keyword, that keyword will appear on all cards sharing the mechanic or status so that a player may easily search for them in the Deck Builder and understand patterns and synergies between cards. Keywords are recognisable as written in red on a card’s description and briefly described below it.
The mechanic keywords currently defined in Gwent are: Adrenaline, Ambush, Armor, Assimilate, Banish, Barricade, Berserk, Bloodthirst, Bonded, Charge, Conspiracy, Consume, Cooldown, Create, Crew, Deathblow, Deathwish, Deploy, Devotion, Discard, Disloyal, Dominance, Drain, Duel, Echo, Exposed, Fee, Formation, Harmony, Heal, Hoard, Initiative, Insanity, Inspired, Melee, Order, Profit, Purify, Ranged, Reach, Reset, Resupply, Reveal, Seize, Spawn, Summon, Symbiosis, Thrive, Tribute, Veteran and Zeal.
The status keywords currently defined in Gwent are: Bleeding, Bounty, Defender, Doomed, Immune, Lock, Poison, Resilience, Rupture, Shield, Spying, Veil and Vitality.
A tournament format where a player must win a certain number of games with one of their decks to win the match.
King of the Hill is a tournament format in which a player is expected to win with one of the decks they have brought to the tournament a number of times in order to win the match. When a player wins with a deck, they must continue to use it in the next game. If a deck loses a game, it is not allowed to be played again. This format is in contrast to Conquest tournaments.
Terms starting with L
Gwent's season-based competitive leaderboard, so named because players go "up" or "down" it based on their results.
A ladder or ladder system in a game is a term often used to describe the game’s competitive mode of play. This is because the player will move up or down the ladder as they win or lose games in this mode. The competitive ladder is often split up into different ranks or tiers. The colloquial term for playing competitively is “climbing the ladder.”
A game format in which players must build a deck from a limited card pool.
Unlike the Constructed game format, Limited requires a player to build a deck from a restricted number of cards from the card pool, often without using the player’s collection and using a different deck-building rule set to the game’s Constructed formats or no deck-building rule set at all. Currently, Gwent’s only Limited format exists as a draft format in the Arena game mode.
Card type and category introduced in the Way of the Witcher expansion. Every Location is an artifact and has a deploy spawning ability, an order ability, and resilience. Locations are generally meant to support faction-specific archetypes added with the aforementioned expansion.
A keyword and status that disables units' abilities and removes other statuses.
When a unit is Locked, any ability it has, whether active or passive, will be disabled. Cards printed with the Lock keyword will target another unit to lock. Additionally, other cards may remove a unit’s lock. When a unit’s lock is removed, its ability will be reactivated.
Terms starting with M
The fifth official expansion for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
Master Mirror, a set of over 70 cards released on June 30th 2020, introduced significant new designs such as Echo and evolving card, as well as crucial cards for long-lasting archetypes. Drawing from the Witcher books, the theme of this expansion puts a dark spin on past events of this universe concerning characters and cards like Usurper Officer, Eithné Young Queen or Auberon King.
How one deck fares against another.
Matchups are the measurement of one deck against another. These are often used to determine a deck’s place in the meta. Whether or not a matchup is (un)favoured for a deck often depends on its primary deck type but can also be influenced by tech choices.
The rules that define Gwent or a card within the game.
The foundation of any CCG, or game for that matter, are its mechanics. A difference must be made between card and game mechanics. The latter describes the basic tools and restrictions of the game; in Gwent, these are e.g. passing, row placement, or mulliganing.
Card mechanics are defined by card abilities then activated through the playing of a card. Examples of such mechanics are Revealing a card or Consuming a unit. Some mechanics, either game or card, may be defined as keywords within the gam.
A keyword that specifies a unit's ability can only be used on the Melee row.
The Melee keyword is often attached to an ability on a unit. This ability will only proc if the unit is played onto the Melee row of the player’s board, regardless of whether it is an active or passive ability. A card may have two different abilities, one that procs on the Melee row and one that procs on the Ranged row.
The fourth official expansion for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
Released for iOS on the 9th December 2019 and for PC on the 10th, Merchants of Ofir saw the introduction of stratagems and scenarios to Gwent, as well as bolstering deck archetypes with more than 70 new cards themed around Ofir, Specters and other groups of mystery from around the Witcher-universe Continent.
In MMOs, meta was originally an abbreviation for “Most Effective Tactics Available.” While it is no longer thought of as an acronym, the use of the words remains the same. In Gwent, and TCGs and CCGs in general, the meta refers to a definition of what works well with the game in its current state and what does not. The strongest deck types, archetypes and tech choices are said to be the meta, whereas cards that do not see play are said to be weak in the current meta.
The meta evolves as game developers balance or add to the game, and as players continue to discover new synergies and archetypes or specific deck builds that work well competitively.
Team Aretuza's Meta Snapshot tracks the strongest decks and archetypes in the current meta.
A type of deck that strives to combine other deck types in a way to perform well against all of them.
While as a general rule in deck type theory, greed beats point-slam, point-slam beats control and control beats greed, midrange decks attempt to combine these types to perform as an all-rounder deck that can potentially perform well against all of them. Midrange decks often work in any length of round, contain card packages instead of focusing on an archetype and contain a lot more general utility than more focused deck types.
An archetype focused on deck manipulation; or, destroying cards in the Deck Builder.
Mill is an archetype that focuses on the control tool of deck manipulation by making their opponent draw all their cards, bricking their card combos and tutors in the process. Mill’s ultimate goal is milling the opponent to zero cards, reaching a point where they will still draw cards, e.g. between Rounds, and thus, gain card advantage over their opponent. Additionally, a player can accidentally mill themselves when their deck thins too much in combination with the three draws in Round 2 and 3.
Another definition of mill is the act of destroying unneeded or duplicate cards in the Deck Builder. This process deletes that copy of the card from the player’s account and gives the player a certain number of scraps in exchange, which can then be used to craft new cards. If a player mills a premium version of a card they are also given a certain amount of meteorite powder.
If two players who use the same or a very similar deck face each other in a match, it is referred to as a mirror match or simply mirror.
“Matchmaking Rating.”
MMR is the measurement of a player’s performance over a given time on a game’s competitive ladder, usually called a season. In Gwent, this value determines a player’s position on Gwent’s leaderboards, which is important for Pro-Rank players, whose positions on the leaderboard determine how many Crown Points a player receives when the season ends.
Swapping a card for another before the start of a round.
After the initial hand is drawn from the deck, a mulligan gives the player the opportunity to swap a card for another in their deck before play begins. In Gwent, each player is given two mulligans per round, with the player who goes first getting an additional mulligan in the first round.
In the second and third round, if the player draws more cards than is allowed by the hand limit, the additional cards are not drawn and instead, for each card not drawn, the player receives an additional mulligan. For example, if a player has 8 cards in hand at the end of round one, they will only draw two cards instead of three and receive one additional mulligan for a total of three mulligans at the beginning of round two.
Terms starting with N
Decreasing the strength of a card compared to others in the same card pool.
If a card is overpowered in terms of value compared to the other cards in the card pool, it might receive a nerf to its card power, ability or an increase to its provision cost as a form of balancing. The opposite of nerfing is buffing.
Playing a deck created by another person with few or no changes.
If someone is playing someone else’s deck without making their own changes to it, they are netdecking. The opposite of netdecking is playing a homebrew deck.
The second official expansion for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
Novigrad was themed around the city from the Witcher universe of the same name, introducing players to the new, shady underworld faction of Syndicate. The expansion brought a host of new mechanics to the game, including the ability to gain and spend Coins, as well as the concept of dual-faction cards. The expansion was released to Gwent on the 28th June, 2019.
Terms starting with O
See: Price of Power.
The first part of the Price of Power expansion.
OP stands for "overpowered" and refers to dominant, i.e. imbalanced, cards, decks, or mechanics in the game that have a high likelihood of getting nerfed or reworked in the future.
See dry-passing.
Order is a keyword and card mechanic that means the card’s ability may only be procced manually by the player. By default, a unit that has an Order ability must wait one turn before that ability can be triggered. A card that also has Zeal may use its Order immediately. Alternatively, if a card has Formation, its Order ability can be used immediately, provided it has been placed on the Melee row.
Lyrian Arbalest with its Order not ready yet, holding 2 Charges and Charges depleted.
Drawing a card when a player is already at the hand limit.
If a player draws a card when they already have 10 cards in hand, they will overdraw. In normal game circumstances, the overdrawn cards are discarded into the graveyard; however, they do not proc the discard mechanic.
If cards are being drawn at the beginning of a new round and would put the player over the hand limit, the draws are instead converted into extra mulligans.
Cards that might force overdraw are Isbel of Hagge and Birna Bran.
Terms starting with P
A keyword exclusive to the Northern Realms faction added in the Price of Power expansion. At the end of your turn, if you haven't used the card's Order ability, then Patience causes the card's specific value to go up by 1. In the case of Gerhart of Aelle, it causes his created spell's provision cost to increase by 1.
A term that pertains to Pro Rank (Rank 0) gameplay and describes the first 25 games played with a particular faction each season.
In Pro Rank, players must "unlock" their fMMR score by playing at least 25 matches with the faction in question. Upon completion of each of these matches, the player's fMMR will increase to a larger percentage of their maximum score. This score will be equal to the player's Current fMMR times the number of matches played and divided by 25. Once the 25 matches are completed, the player will unlock their full fMMR score and can continue to play in order to improve it.
A.K.A. Calibrations
The maximum number of points achievable for a card or deck.
Decks with the highest point ceilings are often greedy decks, while control decks often have the lowest point ceilings. A card reaches its point ceiling when the player gains maximum value out of the card after all effects and abilities have been procced, and it is generally thought of as the best-case scenario. The opposite of a point ceiling is referred to as the point floor.
The minimum number of points achievable for a card or deck.
A card hits its point floor if it achieves the minimum amount of value but nothing more. With units, this is the case if the card can be placed on the board, but no effects proc or the card otherwise bricks. For a special card or artifact, the point floor can be 0 if there are no units to effect with the card’s ability. The opposite of point floor is point ceiling.
A keyword and status that removes a unit from play if it receives a second Poison status.
Poison is a two-step mechanic; the first time a Poison effect targets a unit, the Poison status will be added to that unit, but there will be no other effect. However, if the same unit is targeted by another Poison effect, it will immediately be destroyed.
Every 60 levels, a player earns one prestige. Every prestige grants a player a permanent benefit to their account. The prestige progression system can be viewed here.
The seventh official expansion for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
This expansion has been divided into three separate releases; the first, titled Once Upon A Pyre, came out on June 8th 2021, while the second part is scheduled for August and the final set will be added in October. The theme present throughout the entire expansion is magic and mages. Price of Power brought the Patience and Sabbath keywords to the game.
When players climb above the highest rank (Rank 1) on the Ranked ladder, they are automatically placed into Pro Rank, a separate ladder used to determine who earns Crown Points and qualifies into upcoming Gwent Masters tournament events.
A term that denotes a need to generate points independent of the opposing board state.
This term can take several forms but it is typically used to describe 1.) a situation in which the player must make a play onto an empty (the opponent has no units in play) or nearly empty board, 2.) the state of going first in a given round, or 3.) a classification of plays that focus on the player's own side of the board, such as developing an engine or in some cases boosting another allied unit.
Often, players will describe cards as a "proactive play," which simply means that the unit may be played as one of the first few cards of a round before the opponent has developed their gameplan.
Contrast proactivity with "reactivity," which describes the opposites of the above list. This is often considered to be desireable in Gwent, as it allows the player to react to what the opponent does, thus opening up their potential play options.
‘Proc’ originated as the acronym for “programmed random occurrence.” However, its meaning has changed, and in Gwent, proccing is a synonym for an ability or effect triggering or activating.
A keyword and card mechanic that gains the player the specified number of Coins.
The number specified after the Profit keyword will be added your Coin balance after the unit carrying the keyword is played.
The system Gwent uses to balance deckbuilding and leaders.
Each card in the game is assigned a recruit cost, commonly known as provision cost, that it costs to put into a Constructed deck. Currently these costs range between 4 and 15. When a card is added to a deck, its recruit cost contributes to the deck’s recruit cap, leaving a player with limited space in their deck.
Recruit cost is an important balancing mechanism for Gwent. Controlling the number of points a card provides for its provision cost defines how efficient a card is and therefore how likely it is to be played.
A keyword and card mechanic that removes all statuses from a given target.
For the sake of the Purify keyword, a given target may be one unit, a collection of units or even the entire game board. A Purified unit will then have all active statuses removed from it, though it’s current strength and any abilities it has will remain unaffected.
Terms starting with R
A keyword that specifies a unit's ability can only be used on the Ranged row.
The Ranged keyword is often attached to an ability on a unit. This ability will only proc if the unit is played onto the Ranged row of the player’s board, regardless of whether it is an active or passive ability.
A card may have two different abilities, one that procs on the Melee row and one that procs on the Ranged row.
The Gwent competitive ladder, split into 30 ranks with Pro Rank above it.
Ranked is the name of the Gwent competitive ladder, named as such because it is split into 30 different ranks. A player starts at Rank 30 and works their way to Rank 1. Each rank is split into 5 tiers, represented in-game by a stain-glass-style mosaic shown in the player’s personal profile.
While playing in Ranked, winning games will gain a player mosaic pieces. When a mosaic has been completed and the player wins one more game, they will advance to the next rank. If a player loses games, mosaic pieces will be lost. However, during a season, a player will never drop down to a lower rank if they lose too many games.
When the player wins a game after completing the Rank 1 mosaic, they are put into a special rank referred to as Pro Rank.
Predicting what cards or strategy an opponent has based on what and how the opponent has already played.
Similarly to Poker, reading (or hand-reading) describes the ability of a player to infer which cards their opponent has in hand or what strategy or they are looking to employ based on the cards that have already been played and the way in which the player played them. Additional things can go into hand-reading, such as the amount of time a player takes to play a certain card.
The maximum number of provisions allowed in a deck.
A Constructed Gwent deck has a base recruit cap of 150. This means that the recruit cost of the cards in the deck must not exceed a total of 150. While a Constructed Gwent deck must have a minimum of 25 cards, this maximum number of provisions limits the number of cards a deck can use.
Each leader in the game adds a number of provisions to this base recruit cap. Leaders currently add between 10 and 19 provisions to the deck recruit cap.
Recruit cost is the official term for provisions.
A term that refers to going second in a match.
A holdover term from the days of Gwent's Beta (when the coin was color-coded to show which player was in control of the current turn), the Red Coin simply means that the player in question is acting second in the first round of the match. In contrast, the Blue Coin refers to a player who must act first in the first round.
This is also often referred to as "winning the coin flip," as reacting to the opponent's plays without risk of losing the round with the same number of cards in hand as the opponent is generally considered a positive.
The process of finishing a card’s effect once it has been procced.
A card has been resolved when all of its effects have been procced and the consequences of those effects have been shown on the game board. Special cards that have been resolved go to the graveyard (unless they are Doomed) while resolved units and artifacts remain on the board, having no further effect on the board except for their strength level (always 0 for artifacts).
A keyword and card mechanic that procs an effect on a unit in play when a Warfare card is played.
Currently, this mechanic is unique to the Northern Realms faction.
A keyword and card mechanic that shows a card to both players, then hides it back in the deck from which it was revealed.
The Reward Book is an in-game progression system that allows players to use their earned Reward Points and convert them into different types of currency, unlock leader skins, and learn more about each faction and leader. Additionally, every Ranked season has its own seasonal Reward Tree with unique rewards.
"Random Number Generator" (or "Generation"), randomness in Gwent or an instance thereof.
In Gwent, high RNG cards, such as Zoria Runestone, are seen as bad by some players as they come with high variance and their value can fluctuate widely. This makes them unpredictable. Another instance of high RNG in CCGs is draw RNG during the mulligan phase which can culminate in a topdeck battle.
A player letting all or nearly all of their time for the turn expire.
The term roping was coined in Hearthstone, where, as the turn timer ticks down, a physical rope will appear on screen and burn down, reminding the player that they are running out of time.
A card ability that targets a row of the board instead of a card.
Row effects in Gwent are a type of AoE ability that is played on a specific row of the game board instead of targeting one or more cards. Row effects often act as engines, affecting one or more units on that row for a number of turns or while the effect remains in play. However some Row Effects also provide the player with potential burst damage, ‘going off’ after a number of turns have passed. Examples of engine row effects are Ragh Nar Roog and Biting Frost, while Dragon's Dream is a burst row effect.
Veteran players of Gwent might refer to Row Effects as Weather (due to many of them being related to changes in weather) or Hazards when the effect is negative and Boons when the effect is positive.
A balancing tool used to limit certain effects to either the Melee or Ranged rows.
When a card is rowlocked, it means that its effect will only proc when the card is played on a specific row. The card description indicates whether or not a card is rowlocked, with (Melee) or (Ranged) following the keyword that indicates the card’s effect.
A strategy that sees a player place many cards on one row.
This strategy prioritises playing more units on one row than the other, and is sometimes desired to unlock further synergy between units or to avoid playing into cards that target specific rows. It may also happen accidentally when a player does not consider placement. Rowstacking may play into wide removal.
A status added with the Master Mirror expansion which damages the unit in possession of the status by its Base Power on turn end. Previously, this effect damaged units by their current Power, but this is no longer the case.
Terms starting with S
A keyword exclusive to the Monsters faction added in the Price of Power expansion. Sabbath triggers at the end of your turn as long as one of your rows has a total of 25 or more power. Note that a card with the Sabbath keyword does not have to be on the same row, you simply have to be in control of a row with 25 or more power.
A type of progressable artifact that rewards players for completing objectives.
A scenario is a special type of artifact that triggers each time the player completes the objective described on the card, with rewards that change on each proc. Each works with a different faction archetype and encourages archetypal deckbuilding.
Scenarios were introduced in the Merchants of Ofir expansion.
A scrim, short for scrimmage, is a practice or training match between players.
A period of time over which players may play competitively. In Gwent, a season lasts one month. When a season is over, players’ competitive rank and MMR are reset depending on their final position. Each season has its own trees in the Reward Book associated with it, where the player can unlock season-specific rewards. There are also in-game contracts for completing certain milestones within a season.
Each season is named and themed after a specific part of the Witcher universe:
January - Season of the Wolf
February - Season of Love
March - Season of the Bear
April - Season of the Elf
May - Season of the Viper
June - Season of Magic
July - Season of the Griffin
August - Season of the Draconid
September - Season of the Dryad
October - Season of the Cat
November - Season of Mahakam
December - Season of the WIld Hunt
A keywords and card mechanic that moves an enemy to the opposite row.
For the sake of units with a Seize ability, the opposite row means the same row on the opposite side of the board. This means that if an enemy unit is placed on a player’s ranged row and is Seized, it will move to the Ranged row on the opponent’s side. This will also give the seized unit the spying status.
A specially built deck containing no duplicates of any card.
Singleton decks exist across a variety of card games due to cards with mechanics such as Shupe's Day Off and Radeyah that require the deck-building restriction of including no duplicates in order to proc. While these decks can be inconsistent and weaker than others due to the relative strength of the cards that must be included to ensure no duplicates, this disadvantage is paid off by the ‘highlander’ card (Shupe or Radeyah in Gwent) delivering a powerful effect to compensate.
Singleton decks are also known as highlander decks (after the Highlander franchise, which had the tagline ‘There can only be one’) as well as being called by the key card the deck is built around, e.g. Shupe NG or Radeyah Pincer Maneuver.
Spawn is a keyword and card mechanic that adds a card to the game.
A Spawned card did not exist in the game previous to the point when it is spawned. A Spawned card may be played immediately or summoned to the board. This is usually decided by the card proccing the spawn.
A type of card that procs an immediate ability without playing a unit (unless specified otherwise).
Special cards are signified by the flame icon displayed in a card’s left-hand corner. Special cards include a large variety of abilities.
A keyword and card mechanic that allows the player to manually turn face-down traps and trigger their alternative effects.
Spring abilities are less strong, yet still useful versions of Ambush abilities that can be triggered by the player if the card’s Ambush condition would never be met, to prevent the Trap from being removed, or to employ advanced strategies and gain more control over the board state.
A status effect that occurs naturally when a unit is played on the opposite side of the board. Spying also can be granted by a few cards in the Nilfgaard faction.
A keyword that changes a unit's behaviour.
A status may be printed on the card itself and come into effect immediately, or be added to the card by another ability. These effects are referred to as statuses because they change how the card behaves as opposed to what it does.
Statuses currently used in Gwent are Bleeding, Bounty, Defender, Doomed, Immune, Lock, Poison, Resilience, Rupture, Shield, Spying, Veil and Vitality.
A type of card that allows each player a bonus Order for the first round.
Strategems are non-interactable (they cannot be removed by your opponent) Order cards that are selected during deckbuilding, and start a Gwent game on the board if you go first. Otherwise, they make no appearance in the game by default. Each deck has exactly one stratagem, which will remain on the board until it is used. Each has a different effect that works with different kinds of deck. There are a number of neutral stratagems, as well as one built specifically for each faction.
Stratagems were introduced in the Merchants of Ofir expansion, building on Tactical Advantage, which existed previously.
Playing against a streamer while watching their stream is known as stream sniping. This gives the player an unfair advantage of knowing the streamer’s hand and is thus considered cheating.
A keyword and card mechanic automatically moving a card to a player’s side of the board.
A card is most commonly summoned to the board immediately after it was Spawned as a result of another card’s ability, such as Arachas Drones Spawned by Arachas Behemoth. However, there are also cards that can be Summoned from the graveyard or from the deck, such as Cerys an Craite. When a card is Summoned, it is not considered to be played, which means Deploy abilities on that card will not trigger.
A strategy that sees the player play, Spawn or otherwise create a large number of units on their board in a relatively short amount of time.
Swarm strategies are generally seen as greedy and have the potential to play into wide removal. However, when left unpunished, they can also be worth an incredible amount of value.
A keyword exclusive to the Scoia'tael faction which causes a [card]Wandering Treant[/card] to be spawned on a random allied row with Power equal to the number of units the player currently controls with the Symbiosis keyword whenever a card with the Nature tag is played by the player.
Abilities or mechanics complementing one another.
Cards have synergy with other cards if their abilities complement each other or proc other card abilities. Synergistic cards are thus often preferable over vanilla cards as they are able to generate more value. Cards that synergize with each other generally are the basis of any archetype.
Terms starting with T
Further defines what type a card is.
Tags, or categories, are used to further define what type a card is - they are often subcategories of unit, special card, or artifact. They are often important for different card synergies and mechanics.
The categories currently available in Gwent are: Agent, Alchemy, Aristocrat, Bandit, Beast, Bomb, Cleric, Construct, Crime, Crone, Cultist, Cursed, Demon, Dragon, Druid, Dryad, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Human, Insectoid, Knight, Location, Machine, Mage, Mutant, Nature, Necrophage, Ogroid, Organic, Pirate, Plant, Raid, Relict, Salamandra, Scenario, Ship, Siege Engine, Soldier, Specter, Spell, Tactic, Trap, Treant, Vampire, Warfare, Warrior, Wild Hunt, Witcher and Witch Hunter.
Gwent’s Novigrad expansion also introduced 5 gang categories, to highlight those cards belonging to one of Novigrad’s five major gangs. These categories are: Blindeyes, Crownsplitters, Cutups, Firesworn and Tidecloaks.
“Trading Card Game.”
TCG refers to games such as Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, or Artifact, where the player is not limited only to collecting cards as in CCGs, but can also trade cards with other players, usually trading for one or more different cards or money.
A card chosen for its strength against a certain matchup or mechanic, as opposed to synergy.
A tech choice is a card used in a deck not because it is synergistic but because it can help against a specific matchup or card mechanic that is unfavorable for the deck. This is often done when a particular deck or card is popular or OP in a meta or when a player targets a specific deck or archetype during tournaments. An example is teching a row effect clear if row effects are widely used in the current meta.
Tempo is a measurement of the immediate impact on points a card has when it is played and its ability is resolved. A high-tempo play can be a single card with a lot of immediate value or a card that allows players to chain abilities and effects that usually would not occur in one turn.
See: Price of Power.
The second part of the Price of Power expansion.
Thinning is a card mechanic that reduces the number of cards left in the deck. In Gwent, players most commonly thin by using tutors but also by cards like Roach.
A keyword and card mechanic that boosts a unit when units with higher card power are played.
Thrive is a keyword unique to the Monsters faction. Units with the Thrive keyword will boost their card strength by 1 every time a unit with a higher card strength is played on the player’s side of the board for as long as they stay on the board. Note: The Thrive mechanic triggers after Deploy. This means that if a Deploy ability boosts a unit’s card power, it will count as stronger for the sake of Thrive units.
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a singleplayer point and click RPG set in the Witcher universe, centered around Queen Meve and events from Witcher books. It was released together with Gwent when the latter stepped out of beta, on October 23rd 2018 for PC and December 4th the same year for consoles.
All battles and puzzles in Thronebreaker take the form of Gwent matches, as the former was originally intended to be just a single-player mode of the latter. A connection still exists between the two, however, because assuming they’re played from the same account, there are cosmetics to be earned and contracts to be completed in Gwent for progressing in Thronebreaker.
And lastly, Thronebreaker is also a unique set of 20 cards in Gwent, premium versions of which are likewise only obtainable in the singleplayer game.
Perceived divisions of the meta describing how strong an archetype is in competition.
The meta is split into tiers that describe how strong an archetype is in the competitive game. Tiers are usually listed from 3 (the lowest) to 1 or sometimes 0 or S tier, the highest. The higher tier an archetype is placed in, the more favourable matchups an archetype has.
A card that has been drawn or summoned from the top of a player’s deck is called a topdeck.
A keyword and card mechanic that may be manually procced on the turn a unit is played, with a Coin cost.
When a unit with Tribute is played, you will be given the option either to pay Tribute or not, and if you do, then the specified number of Coins will be deducted from your balance in order to proc the effect. This makes Tribute effects effectively like optional Deploy abilities with a cost, which are single-use and only trigger when a card is played, not Summoned.
A card that, when played, plays another card from the deck is referred to as tutor. This has the advantage of thinning the deck, but is also vulnerable to bricking if there are no more valid targets in the deck. In Gwent, a commonly used tutor is Royal Decree. The term “tutor” is an adaption from Magic: The Gathering.
Playing deep into Round 2, having won Round 1, with the perceived or actual intent to win in two rounds.
If a player wins Round 1 and continues to play Round 2 instead of dry-passing, the player can either bleed their opponent or attempt to two-zero them. A player two-zeroes their opponent when they have won the second Round as well as the first, and the third round is thus not played. Two-zeroing can be a viable strategy if a player either has card advantage or if their hand can generate more value than their opponent’s hand. Two-zeroing the opponent is also referred to as "two-oh’ing," "two-rounding," or, more colloquially, "denying dailies."
Terms starting with U
A type of card that contributes card power to the player’s total score.
Units are the staple of a round of Gwent; played onto the board to make up a player’s score. A vanilla unit has no ability, but many more units have some kind of ability to add to the card’s value either immediately or over time as an engine.
Terms starting with V
How many points a card is worth.
A card’s value may be visible immediately or it is generated over time with an engine. Thus, a high-value play does not necessarily equate to a high-tempo play. A card’s full value is not reached when its ability does not proc or it is prematurely removed if it is an engine. Additionally, a card’s value is relative to the game’s overall value spectrum which is defined by vanilla cards.
Cards that do not have a cardtext, i.e. an ability, are referred to as vanilla, like Primordial D'ao. They are the baseline of value in the game.
A status effect that prevents the unit from gaining any additional status effects.
A keyword which causes the unit in possession of the keyword to gain one Base Power at the start of Rounds 2 and 3. This keyword is exclusive to the Skellige faction.
A keyword and status that boosts a unit by 1 on turn end.
Vitality can be an effect printed on the card or given to a unit by another effect. The status is recognisable by a green banner in the top-left-hand corner of the unit. The number inside the banner indicates how many more procs the status has before it disappears.
It is important to note that Vitality and Bleeding are mutually exclusive statuses that cancel each other out. If a unit with 4 Vitality is given 2 Bleeding, it will be left with 2 Vitality. Similarly if a unit has 2 Bleeding and is given 6 Vitality, it will be left with 4 Vitality.
Terms starting with W
The sixth official expansion for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
Released on December 8th 2020 and adding 70 new cards to the game, this expansion focuses on the in-universe origin of witchers. The card of this expansion's title character, Alzur, was released prior to the rest of the set. Way of the Witcher also introduced the keyword Adrenaline and the card category Location.
A card, combination of cards, or a broader strategy within a deck that it depends on in order to win. A deck can have one or multiple win conditions which also might change during the course of the game.
Win trading is the mutual agreement of two or more players to intentionally lose in Ranked or Pro Rank matches when they face each other so that the winning player can climb the ladder more easily. This is against the Terms of Service of CD Projekt Red and is thus a form of cheating. Players who participate in win trading can be banned.
Terms starting with Z
Zeal is a keyword and card mechanic that is typically used in conjunction with Order. Zeal allows the player to proc a card’s Order ability in the same turn that the card is played.