The standalone version of Gwent recently entered Open Beta for both PC and consoles, thus opening its doors to a large amount of players. Combine this with a massive amount of balance changes and reworks that happened between the Closed and Open Beta and it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that the current version of Gwent suffers from quite a few problematic cards. The end result is that Nilfgaard decks are everywhere on the ranked ladder, Northern Realms only has one viable archetype that's incredibly predictable, most Scoia'tael decks only use three units and just throw out weather cards like they're going out of season, and the list goes on.

Well, you'll be glad to hear that all of this will be changed in the near future! According to the recently updated Chinese test server (whose patch notes have been translated by tonyunreal over at Reddit) many of the problematic cards will be slightly toned down, while the previously useless archetypes such as Consume Monsters or Machine Northern Realms will be getting some much needed buffs. The patch notes are rather large, so allow me to just share a couple of highlights with you:

NEUTRAL

• Drought - damage lowered from 3 to 2.

• Ragh Nar Roog - damage lowered from 3 to 2.

• Biting Frost - now only damage the highest unit(s) and the lowest unit(s) on the row.

MONSTERS

• Nekker - base strength upped from 2 to 3.

• Kayran - base strength downed from 10 to 8.

• Vran Warrior - base strength upped from 4 to 5.

• Arachas Behemoth - base strength upped from 5 to 6.

NILFGAARD

• Hero: John Calveit - base strength downed from 4 to 3.

• Hero: Emhyr Var Emreis - base strength upped from 3 to 4.

• Imperial Golem - base strength downed from 3 to 2.

• Peter Saar Gwynleve - base strength downed from 6 to 4.

• Vicovaro Novice - base strength downed from 3 to 1.

• Tibor Eggebracht - base strength downed from 10 to 8.

• Vicovaro Medic - now has "doomed".

NORTHERN REALMS

• Hero: Foltest - base strength upped from 4 to 5, excluding spies.

• Reinforced Ballista - base strength upped from 4 to 6.

• Reinforced Siege Tower - base strength upped from 5 to 6.

• Kaedweni Sergeant - now has "crewman 1".

• Blue Stripes Scout - now has "crewman 1".

SCOIA'TAEL

• Dol Blathanna Protector - base strength downed from 4 to 2, boost ability no longer triggered by golden spells.

• Mahakam Guard - now boosts dwarven units by 4, downed from 5, non-dwarven units still boost by 3.

• Vrihedd Officer - base strength upped from 5 to 6.

• Vrihedd Sappers - base strength upped from 6 to 7.

• Ele'yas - base strength upped from 8 to 9.

SKELLIGE

• Donar an Hindar - base strength upped from 5 to 6, now has "veteran: strengthen self by 1".

• Clan an Craite Warrior - base strength upped from 8 to 9.

• Savage Bear - base strength upped from 4 to 5, ability now triggers AFTER enemy deploy effect.

• Clan an Craite Warcrier - effort effect now only weaken self by 1.

• Clan Brokvar Hunter - no longer has veteran ability.

While these changes are official it is worth noting that CDPR has said some of these tweaks will be further adjusted by the time the patch reaches a full release. In other words, don't start milling or crafting any cards based on these patch notes. Chances are most of this will go through, but its still better to be safe than sorry... and without any scraps!

[Edit]: You can find an updated version of the patch notes over here. There's a couple of strange new buffs and nerfs, most notably in the Skellige faction, but otherwise the changes are the same.