Gwent artwork for the Midwinter Update phoenix

After spending only a single day on the test server,s Gwent's Midwinter Update has just recently arrived with 100 new cards, a variety of new leaders, numerous quality-of-life improvements, and perhaps most importantly for everyone's sanity, a much quicker and smoother deckbuilder. First things first, if you're interested in seeing what all of the new cards and leaders are all about, you should head on over to the official website.

On the other hand, if you're more interested in all of the technical improvements and changes, you'll find what you seek in the recently posted developer preview. The video is a little bit on the lengthy side, but it'll at least give you a good idea of what's being changed and why. Have a look:

As you'll quickly discover by visiting either the Gwent subreddit or the official forums, the balance is currently out of whack as the new "Create" mechanic is capable of producing spies which can grant one player truly ridiculous card advantage. CDPR is most likely aware of problems like these, but since everyone is currently away due to the holiday season these issues are going to remain as they are until January. On the positive side, at least we have a whole bunch of new cards to play around with until the first balance patch arrives and reshuffles the faction power levels all over again.

If you're interested in all of the details, or at least most of the card changes, you should head on over to the patch notes. Just keep in mind that a fair few balance changes are missing from this list due to what I can only assume is CDPR's rush to get the patch out before Christmas, so don't be surprised if some of your cards don't work exactly like they used to. And with that said, I wish you the best of luck with your Keg openings!