Understanding Gwent: Tips for Playing the Monsters Faction

If you’re learning how to play Gwent, one of the most important things to understand is how the five Gwent factions work. Each faction’s strengths and unique abilities will influence your deckbuilding strategy and gameplay.

Every faction in Gwent: The Legendary Card Game has its own identity, strategy, and gameplay strengths. Knowing the differences between these factions is the foundation for building better decks, winning rounds and ultimately, the game. Moreover, if you want to win Gwent tournaments, you’ll need to master playing with at least three factions, as you need to win best of three games using different factions to claim final victory.

In this article, we’ll introduce you to the five major factions and what makes each one unique. By the end, you’ll have a better understanding of which faction suits your playstyle best, which in turn will help you build better decks. It is important to note, Gwent: The Legendary Card Game is faithfully inspired from the version of Gwent in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with similar cards, abilities, and battlefield placements.

PLAYING MONSTERS FACTION IN GWENT

The Monsters faction thrives on relentless pressure and overwhelming board presence. As Monsters, your army unleashes beasts, necrophages, and terrifying creatures that multiply faster than your opponent can remove them. Monsters are known for their aggressive tempo and their knack for taking up space on the battlefield if left unchecked by bad weather or a well-timed Scorch.

MONSTERS FACTION ABILITY

When playing as Monsters, your unique faction ability enables you to keep a random Unit Card after each round. To do so, take out all cards that are NOT Unit Cards (i.e. Hero cards, special ability cards). Flip the cards face down and shuffle, then draw one to keep on the battlefield before starting the next round. If this random Unit Card has a Muster ability, the ability cannot be used again, as this card has already been played and is simply remaining on the battlefield. You are not playing this card and its ability as you do when playing a card from your hand.

MONSTERS STRATEGY: STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES TO CONSIDER

• Many cards have the “Muster” ability. Playing one “Muster” card will allow you to play the other cards in the horde in one turn. This enables you to increase your overall Strength score by playing multiple cards in one turn.
  
  
• Commander’s Horn is extremely powerful with Monsters. As mentioned in the point above, many Monsters cards can be invested in one row, notably in melee range. While this could pose a potential weakness if bad weather is present, it can also be incredibly powerful when paired with a Commander’s Horn. This special ability doubles the strength of all Unit cards on that row. It is best played when you have the most cards on the row, or you’ve mustered into play your strongest horde.
  
  In this scenario, the Commander's Horn doubles the strength of the three Crones - but not of Draug as this is a Hero card. 
  
  
• Beware of Biting Frost. Since many monsters play in the melee row (also called Close Combat) in close range to the opponent’s board, you will be investing a lot of cards in one row. If your opponent plays Biting Frost, creating bad weather for all Unit Cards on the melee row, all Unit Cards on this row will reduce to 1 Strength point. You can counter this by playing Clear Weather to cancel Biting Frost or baiting your opponent to play Biting Frost early before you play all your melee range cards.
  
  
• Beware of Unit Scorch ability cards. Some Unit Cards carry a Scorch ability, which looks like the Scorch ability with horns added. If your opponent plays a Unit Scorch card and your row on that range has a total Strength of 10 or higher, the Unit Card(s) with the highest Strength are sent to the discard pile.
  
  For example, if your opponent plays Villentretenmerth, the Unit Scorch ability affects your melee row only. Because the total strength of your row is more than 10, your highest strength Unit card will be scorched. In this case, since all three Unit cards are the same value, all three Crones get scorched and sent to discard.

In short, the Monsters faction rewards players who enjoy applying constant pressure and building massive melee rows. Their powerful Muster ability and faction ability to keep a Unit Card on the battlefield give Monsters a natural edge in game, but their strengths can become their vulnerability. Mastering Monsters means learning when to push aggressively and how to bait your opponent’s cards early. If you enjoy overwhelming your opponent with pure strength and maintaining board presence across rounds, Monsters might be your main faction in Gwent.

Do you think we missed something about playing Gwent with the Monsters faction? Leave a comment with any additional tips for players looking to level up their Gwent strategy!