GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

Before I begin, I want to say that this achievement is VERY DIFFICULT because of RNG. It took me like 10-15 tries to put together a decent enough deck to win. I got to the 6th arena battle 3 times and failed before finally succeeding.

I am going to break the discussion up into three parts:
- How to select cards
- The cards I used (not super helpful because of RNG, but hopefully it will give you some idea of what kinds of cards to choose)
- How to play the arena battles

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PART 1: SELECTING CARDS

The second important thing is to know the cards in Gwent well, play a few ranked or casual matches to get used to it, work through the tutorial, etc. [You'll need to do this anyways to save up ore for all the tries at the arena. The first arena attempt is free, every other time it is either $2 or 150 ore. By the time I went for the achievement I had about 1500 ore, but when you lose you can get around 60-100 more.] Knowing the cards well is important because you want to know what the best cards to select from each pack when choosing your arena deck.

Try to know the power levels of the cards you are selecting, you won't know it for all of them, but for the higher up ones you should know them. When I won, the majority (around 16) of the cards in my deck were power level 10+ (power level is different from the attack/defense level on creature cards.

The way to think about the game is how many points can a single card give you, you really want to try and get cards with abilities that continually repeat. Cards like Eskel, which get +1 every turn without condition. Other good card types are ones that let you play an extra card beyond their own ability, creatures that let you search for cards are great because they give you card advantage over your opponent, which is important.

You also want to try and get cards that give you options, I had two cards that let me select creatures from my deck and another one that let me select a creature from my opponent's graveyard, these are really powerful because they let you select the best option for you current situation. Maybe you need to pick a slightly smaller creature because its ability helps you get rid of an annoying card. In my first few tries I ignored these cards, but when I saw they were high on the power list I started adding them and they worked out well.

Finally, you will probably want some game management cards, things that deal damage to creatures, destroy large creatures (the destroy an enemy 8+ is pretty common), lock creatures (to stop annoying abilities), etc. I also had a couple of boost cards to make sure my creatures could stand up to other decks.

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PART 2: MY WINNING DECK (LOST ON THE 9TH BATTLE OF ARENA)

Below I am going to list my deck list, it worked really well since I had two Germain Piquants which created 5 creatures and then I had a couple of cards which bumped them all up by 2 or 3. I also had a couple of big cards (the 13-size creature, plus a +10 buff) which I would hold onto until the very end and hope they had nothing to counter with it. If you play those too early they have time to whittle them down.

I also lucked out with two Vigo's Muzzles, they steal cards with character power 5 or less. Again, I thought these were not that great because you can only steal medium to small creatures, but then I realized that they are potentially +10 power level since you steal a creature from your opponent they can lose up to 5 and you can gain up to 5. It is also a nice way of getting rid of pesky creatures with abilities that are hounding you.

DECK LIST
Leader: Morvran Voorhis (not my preferred leader, I like Usurper, but this one is a +6 at the end of the game, which is on par or a bit below most other leaders)
- Old Speartip (13 creature, try to play last so he doesn't get picked off by last creatures)
- Commander's Horn (+3 to 5 creatures, worked well with Germain Piquant)
- Golden Froth (+2 to row creatures, worked well with Germain Piquant)
- Royal Decree (Get a unit from your deck, useful choice card)
- Vigo's Muzzle x 2 (Steal opponent creatures)
- Dragon's Dream (Basically stops them from putting stuff on the row, combos nicely with Impenetrable Fog or another row card)
- Garrison (+10 boost, another good game ender)
- Triss: Butterflies (doesn't have repeated ability, but is a +9 - 5 on the field and +4 to a unit in hand)
- Germain Piquant x 2 (These saved me, 5 creatures that are easily boostable)
- Merigold's Hailstorm (Nice idea, damaging 5 creatures, but I never really used it)
- Alzur's Double-Cross (Good for getting my +13 or +7 into play when I didn't draw them)
- Manticore Venom (Good removal, 3 damage to 3 creatures)
- Hanmavyn's Blue Dream (Take a unit from an opponent's grave, they usually have at least one decent one)
- Leo Bonhart (remove 8+ creature)
- Aguara (6 creature + lock ability)
- Impenetrable Fog (row effect)
- Ice Giant (7 creature)
- Yoana x 2 (Not my preferred one, but they are 5 creatures with some continued heal ability, which is nice)
- Zoria Runestone (Not great, but offered choice)
- Hideous Feast (+3 boost, -3 enemy, weak but it is a +6 card overall)
- Mahakam Ale (+4 boost and unlock, works well with Vigo's Muzzle)
- Kaedweni Knight (not a great card, but the search through the deck for a creature worked well for it, I usually shuffled this back into my deck so I could use it later)
- Siege Tower (best of the worst packs, +3 with a potential +2, not bad for the worst card)

Some more notes, don't be discouraged if you have bad cards, there were 3-4 out of the 15 odd times I felt like I had strong decks. So maybe a fifth to a third of the time you will make a deck. Also, don't feel discouraged if you feel like you built a really strong deck, but don't get the 6 wins. I built a deck with 3 Eskels and 2 Dandelion poets (yeah, super OP, I don't know how I messed that up), along with some strong other cards (Yennefer deal one damage to highest creature, etc.), and I got to the 6th battle without any losses and then lost three times straight. Keep at it and you will eventually get it.

Also, surprisingly I had no cards that got rid of artifacts, I lucked out that I didn't face too many, but be weary as some can really hose you. I like the creature that is 6 strength with a deploy ability to get rid of an artifact, but I didn't get him this time.

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PART 3: HOW TO PLAY

I won't spend to long on this, since I assume if you are trying for this you have already played a decent amount of Gwent. The basic strategy is to manage points and cards. At the beginning of the match there is some coin flip to determine who goes first and they get a +5 card boost.

The first round, don't over commit, especially if you didn't get the boost. Play at least 3 cards (so your hand has 7) and see if you should pass or play. Basically, if you are far ahead or far behind you should pass. If you are far ahead the opponent might play a few cards to win, but they will be hurt by your card advantage and usually give up the second round on the first card to catch back up.

If you win the first round, but are losing in terms of card advantage, you should probably pass the second round as well to catch up. Remember you can only have 10 cards in your hand, so play each round to at least 7 to see where you are at, otherwise the cards you pick up will be discarded. I was at 9 cards once when someone passed, so I played two junk cards so I wouldn't throw away good cards. I also had a strategy for how I was going to play my cards, always keep big game enders till the end and try and manage the enemies based on size and number (one medium one, steal it; lots of enemies, row effect, etc.)

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Hope that helps, good luck! Please let me know if there are other tips or tricks to help out.

Hi guys,

I fully agree with the solution above and will just add a few tips which may help you with this hard, skill and luck based achievement.

1 - When you select the cards, if you're wondering the power of the cards, press RT to check. There is sometimes a significant difference of power between cards, and high power cards are generaly better.
2 - Combos are difficult in this mode, so it is crucial that you chose your cards considering the cards YOU ALREADY HAVE IN YOUR DECK.
3 - As BlinkFandangoII said, you have to balance your deck. At least one card to lock, to draw, to heal, to destroy high level units / artifacts, to boost units in your hand. Try also to balance between special cards, units, and a few artifacts.
4 - I personnaly didn't play with row effects in this mode. it's hard to put because your opponent generally counter on the other line, and all the row effects cards have not enough strenght as finishers.
5 - With the last update, Commander's horn is not a +3 anymore, but +2 to 5 lines units => too random for me. I don't recommend it anymore.
6 - And the last you're wondering : the 10 most polyvalent cards I would recommend (of course I was not enough luck to get them all at the same time...):
Phenix (very useful but be careful, can be stolen)
Old Speartip
Garrison
Dandelion Poet
Geralt : Profesionnal (the best of "Geralts" for me)
Shupe's day off (a winning card only if you have singleton in your deck, but you should play it in casual mode before, because it could be quite confusing during Arena)
Korathi heatwave (better than Scorch for me but scorch is ok as well)
Leo Bonhart
Saessenthessis
The Great Oak
Vigo's muzzle



My first winning deck up to rank 6 (it's to give you an idea, because I lost at rank 6):


My second winning deck up to rank 7 (and the achievement !): You can see that I didn't have a lot of high power cards (max power 11) but my gold / bronze ratio was quite good (17 vs 9). My gold cards were not so strong but each of them often enabled synergy.

This achievement is very difficult and will probably be the last skill-based achievement you will unlock in the game. I managed to win this achievement on my first arena run in standard arena mode. However, I had played the game for hundreds of hours on Gog and was thus very well acquainted with the game and the cards. That is the only way you will get this achievement, to learn the cards and how to play. As in Gwent's arena, good players can win with bad decks, and bad players will lose with great decks.

I am sorry that there is no silver bullet for this one. But I want to try and give some pointers. Near the end of each and every season and expansion, you usually get a nice increase in players new to the game, so your best chance to snag easy wins is to go for this achievement a week or two before or after a new expansion. If you wait till post-expansion release you may be able to learn the cards well or find a yet to be patched card exploit and fly through the arena. This is what happened to me, I came back to the game before the crimson expansion when you could exploit the game by picking all item cards and avoiding all damage from the opponent until the last round then you play your cards and avoid all the damage and boost like crazy after spending the whole game burning your opponents cards and wrecking his strategy and watch as he discards half of his hand he can't even use. I only did this strat as it allowed for high win rates with very little kegs, and I didn't know the cards well after a year away from the game, but it was great. You might get lucky like this if you are willing to practice like crazy and wait for the next expansion.

Other than that, you might just get really lucky. I don't know of an arena specific event that makes this easier, there probably isn't one as arena tends to be balanced and highly dependant on your cards. I even quit halfway through my card picks if I get trash picks and don't think I will make my ore back. And the game changes so often that any guide up here that isn't updated to keep up with each and every change will be useless other than this and the guides above that try to prep you with card knowledge, play skill, deck composition, and best window to attempt this.

Good luck.

This is so dependent on getting the right cards and also knowing which cards to choose. I was only winning 1-2 games each run until my 5th run I went 9-1... I was crushing everyone and these were my most important cards:

-MUST have a defender (can’t target Your other cards on that row)
-a card to play one of your cards from the graveyard in order to play that defender in more than 1 round
-fisher king to make sure you can draw your defender or the graveyard summoner the next round
-a couple cards to protect your defender. So something that can reset, add a shield or add armor to your defender is helpful
-a couple cards that purify. Purify can counter someone else using a defender by removing its defender status
-a couple cards with the lock ability
-a card that can destroy your opponent’s high value cards (like Geralt) is helpful

Side-note: try to stay away from adding too much power to your defender so they can’t use a card like Geralt against them. Instead use your boosts on the other cards in the row the defender is defending since they can’t be targeted.