Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Ciri artwork

The Witcher 3 is one of my favorite RPGs of all time, and while I've done my share of exploration and monster slaying I'm fairly certain that I spent more time in taverns than out in the wild. If you've played The Witcher 3 you know fully well why this is the case, but if you haven't the reason is Gwent - one of the most addicting and exciting mini-games I've encountered in quite a while. Such was its popularity that CDPR decided to make an entire, fully featured card game out of it!

As you can probably guess from the title alone, the closed beta for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game has now arrived, so if you've previously signed up for the newsletter/beta I would recommend you go and check your email right now. CDPR has already sent out two waves of beta keys, so who knows, you might just be among the lucky few that got in. And if you're interested in what the standalone version of Gwent looks like, here's the brief trailer:

I've been playing it for a couple of hours now and I can quite comfortably say that the standalone Gwent is a better and more polished version of The Witcher 3's Gwent. There's plenty of new cards to toy around with, the overpowered dragon of bullshit has been severely neutered, the spies are no longer as overpowered, and overall the whole thing feels much nicer to play. Its still early to call out any balance issues, but the Monster decks feel a bit too powerful given their ability to garner card advantage, though I wouldn't be surprised if someone figures out a hard counter in the next few days. Either way, its looking quite promising so far!

If you haven't received a key just yet, worry not as CDPR will be sending out a whole bunch more over time, but until then you can read up on Gwent over at the official website. On the other hand, if you just want to check out all of the cards and the decks people made with them, head over here. Have fun with the deck building!

Biting Frost card from the standalone Gwent Witcher 3 card-game