While he’s not out and about admiring The Continent in The Witcher 3, chances are Geralt is putting off his world-saving quest to battle merchants with a classic popular game in the Continent; a round of Gwent. Within the first 30 minutes of a new game playthrough, you are thrown into a quick tutorial on how to play this card mini-game.
Your first Gwent match in The Witcher 3 may have been a loss, but things get easier and easier as you battle more merchants and build a stronger deck of cards. With five different factions to choose from, building the ultimate Gwent deck requires careful planning and a sound strategic play style. These fantastic Gwent cards are the best cards in the game, and these will help you become the ultimate Witcher card master you are destined to be.
10 Bovine Defense Force
Players trying to farm gold in White Orchard may have resorted to killing cows and selling hides for easy crowns and unexpectedly met this terrifying beast. An exploit that involves killing six cows will surprise you with a battle against a chort. This feature, added in Patch 1.05, is called the Bovine Defense Force Initiative.
Interestingly, using a Cow unit card will allow you to summon the Bovine Defense Force card once the Cow card is removed from play. You can summon this fairly strong card with 8 strength repeatedly by using a medic ability on the initial Cow card and a Decoy card for the Bovine Defense Force. The Cow card can be found, which will allow you to summon the Bovine Defense Force, in a barn in Brunswich.
9 Schirru
The Northern Realms Gwent deck heavily relies on Siege units, so having Schirrú on your Scoia’tael deck gives you a fighting chance. His ability to Scorch the strongest siege units makes him a threat to any deck. Schirrú also has a strength of 8, which makes him the second strongest in the Scoia’tael deck.
As the only Siege card in the whole elven deck, Schirrú can also be revived multiple times due to the nature of the Scoia’tael deck. This deck contains a lot of medic cards that can be used to bring this card back into the battlefield. You can obtain this card by defeating a merchant located at the circus near Carsten.
8 Villentretenmerth
Villentretenmerth’s first appearance in the books was not in his dragon form, but rather in his human form and is called Borch Three Jackdaws. You can see this difference between the artworks of his Gwent cards; one shows his magnificent dragon form, and another, his human form. Villentretenmerth is considered one of the best cards in the game due to his ability to destroy the enemy’s strongest Close Combat units.
If played correctly, Villentretenmerth can annihilate a whole row of units with the same strength as long as the combined strength total is 10. Moreover, Villentretenmerth is a neutral card, which makes him versatile, and he can fit into any deck. You can only obtain the card through random rewards from defeating merchants in a Gwent game. Save your game before a Gwent battle, and then reload if Villentretenmerth isn’t the reward.
7 Milva
One of the strongest Scoia’tael unit cards can be obtained by winning a match at the masquerade ball in the Vengelbud Estate during the quest A Matter Of Life and Death. Boasting a strength of 10, Milva has a special ability called Morale Boost that adds 1 strength to all the units in the Ranged Combat row.
It means that if you’re lucky to pull out all Elven Skirmisher unit cards, your opponent will have a hard time fighting back and will likely pass for the round. Milva is also a unit card, which means she can be revived and redeployed for the rest of the Ranger unit cards in the Scoia’tael deck.
6 Olgierd Von Everec
Just like his ability to influence others and his exceptional leadership of the Redanian Free Company, Olgierd’s Gwent card ability can turn the tide in battle if need be. His Morale Boost ability strengthens all the units within his row. While it may seem normal for all unit cards with this ability, Olgierd’s card takes it up a notch by having a Special Ability called Agile, which lets you add him on either Close Combat or Ranged Combat row.
You can obtain his card by beating Shani in a Gwent game. If you missed the opportunity to play with the medic, you can get the card by visiting Shani’s Clinic in Oxenfurt. It is found glowing on top of the table.
5 Catapult
Exclusive to the Northern Realms Gwent deck, only 3 Catapult cards are in the game, and for a good reason. The Catapult has a massive 8 strength, and with the Tight Bonds ability, you can easily win any rounds with this card in hand. This ability causes any unit with the same name to double its strength if placed side by side.
That’s a total of 32 strength with only two Catapults in play. Adding a Commander’s Horn to the Siege Combat row will result in a whopping 64 strength — more than enough to win a single round. You can easily purchase the Catapult from the merchant in White Orchard and the madame in Passiflora. A third card can be obtained in the Hearts Of Stone expansion from a merchant in Carsten.
4 Geralt Of Rivia
Of course, the White Wolf’s Gwent card is as ferocious as his combat style. With a massive 15 strength, Geralt’s Gwent card has the highest base strength in the whole game, along with Ciri. Spending so much time killing monsters while full of potions and mutations will definitely make you fearsome. Playing a Geralt card in the first move will always make your opponent pass in the first round.
You can obtain this card by beating Thaler on either the Gwent: Old Pals quest or Gwent: Playing Thaler quest. In the most recent next-gen patch, another Geralt card with a new ability was added to the game. This new version of the card has the Muster ability, which automatically summons the new Roach card into play once the Geralt card is added to the battlefield, resulting in a total of 18 strength.
3 Yennefer
Yennefer’s Gwent card is a Hero card with the Medic ability. Furthermore, she is a neutral card, which means you can add her to any deck. Her Medic ability is particularly useful when playing with cards that need to be added back onto the battlefield for further utilization and damage. The Monsters deck has tons of unit cards that have the Muster ability, which allows them to summon all unit decks with the same name and play them instantly.
This ability is balanced by only having one Medic ability in the whole deck, and that is by using the Eredin: Bringer Of Death leader card. Having Yennefer in your Monsters deck will let you revive more units and add more strength, resulting in a favorable battle. You can obtain the beloved sorceress’ card early by beating Stjepan in the Gwent: Playing Innkeeps quest.
2 Mysterious Elf
Considered to be one of the best cards in the game for a much more tactical reason, the Mysterious Elf card is a Spy card with 0 strength. Spy cards can be placed on your opponent’s side to obtain two more cards from your deck. This meant that any strength from your Spy card would be added to the opponent’s total strength.
The Mysterious Elf has zero strength and is a Hero card, which means that he is useless for your opponent while giving you two more cards. You can obtain this card by beating Gremist in the Gwent: Skellige Style quest.
1 Cerys
Undeniably the strongest and most useful card in the whole game because of the units within the Skellige deck, Cerys has the ability to summon all Clan Drummond Shield Maidens, which in turn has the ability called Tight Bond. That’s a total of 26 strength when Cerys and two Shield Maidens are together on the battlefield.
One good tactic is to play one Shield Maiden in the first round and use the Crach En Craite leader card ability to revive the shield maiden in the second round. This way, you can use Cerys’ ability in the second round to deal the final blow. You can obtain Cerys’ card by defeating the innkeeper of The Barrel and Bung Inn, which is located in the beautiful region of Toussaint.