There are many ways to build decks in Gwent Rogue Mage, and beginners should stick with the basic deck that focuses on boosting card strengths. Gwent Rogue Mage is the newest Witcher spinoff game from CD Projekt Red designed as a single-player version of their Gwent online game. Unlike the Gwent game in The Witcher 3, this single-player version functions more like the multiplayer Gwent game. There are only two fields of play: ranged and melee. Additionally, many cards in Gwent Rogue Mage can be played either as ranged or melee cards, completely changing the strategy and how decks should be built.
The basic premise of Gwent Rogue Mage is that the world is suffering from the Conjunction of the Spheres, an event that led to the merging of multiple worlds, putting elves, humans, and monsters together in one world. Men took arms to fight back, but were doomed. Two mages emerged to try to understand a deadly new magic, Mutagens, which would later go on to form the Witchers. The story of Gwent Rogue Mage, although not considered canon, is set well before the time of Geralt and the Witcher series. Players control one of the mages, Alzur, as he travels throughout the world trying to find out more information on Mutagens, while his partner Lylianna assists. To progress through the game, players use decks of cards to defeat enemies and travel across the map, collecting mutagens from the monsters they defeat.
As a card-based strategy game, there are endless combinations of cards to put in four main decks. This game also encourages players to play through it several times, as there are pathways to choose on the map and players cannot engage in every battle in one sitting. Therefore, certain Witcher cards are only obtainable through multiple playthroughs of the game. However, for beginner players who have not yet earned or unlocked high-level cards, there are some basic pointers for creating a strong, early, beginner-level deck in Gwent Rogue Mage.
The Best Decks for Beginner Players in Gwent Rogue Mage
There are some important things to know about basic deck-building in Gwent Rogue Mage. After winning a match, players earn cards as rewards. These rewarded cards can be upgraded, and its level is symbolized by either white, blue, purple, or gold. After each round, players can choose to add or remove one card from a deck; not all cards are going to be worth saving, so read them carefully to choose the best one. At Places of Power, players can choose to remove one card from the deck if necessary, or permanently boost a card; the rewards at Places of Power are randomized. There will also be opportunities to improve the combat power of Gwent cards, so there are a lot of elements to consider while playing Gwent Rogue Mage. After each round, players will earn XP that will lead to leveling up, which is important to access different decks. There are four decks in Gwent Rogue Mage:
- Bulwark: the deck players start with; it includes cards mainly from the Northern Realms
- Savage Fury: unlocks on level 15
- Hive Mind: unlocks on level 25
- Chaos: unlocks on level 45
While it's the first deck players encounter in Gwent Rogue Mage, the Bulwark deck is the best choice for beginning players, even past level 15. It focuses primarily on boosts, like the Temerian Drummer card that increases the strength of the card to its right by 1 each turn. Another example of boosting in this deck is the deck leader card, the Witcher universe sorceress Lylianna. Every time players use magic through Alzur, Lylianna will add 3 strength to a random card on the table. Boosting helps players multiply strengths, and when played with the right strategy, can yield some impressive point victories.
Gwent Rogue Mage is available on PC, iOS, and Android.
