What can you do as a free member?

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and unlock all our premium features and tools to enhance your gaming experience.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save articles to your watchlist and get notified when they're updated with new information.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save your favorite games for quick access later, synced across all your devices.

Member benefits illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you'll receive instant notifications when someone replies to your posts.

Comment rating feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can make use of convenient features in the comments section, such as rating and sorting comments.

Premium archive feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can access Premium articles that are exclusively available to members.

Site Interface

Guest
Free Member
Article Watchlist
Game Bookmarks
Cross-device Sync
Light/Dark Theme Toggle
User Profiles
Direct Feedback
Comment Rating
Premium Articles

Game Tools

Guest
Free Member
Interactive Map Access
Interactive Map Pins
Interactive Map Comments
Interactive Map Pins Cross-Device
Check List
Event Choice Checker
Deck Builder Cross-Device
Message Board Notification
Message Board Cross-Device
Build Planner
Stat Calculator
Diagnostic Tool
Weapon/Armor Wishlist

Want more information?Learn more

The Witcher 3

Best Nilfgaardian Empire Gwent Deck

Add to Watchlist

Looking to get more ability points? See the locations for all Places of Power here:
Place of Power Locations
Trying to make more coin as quickly as possible? See our Money Making Guide!
How to Make Money Fast
Want to know the best early game builds and skills to invest in? We've got you covered!
Best Early Game Skills and Builds

Best Nilfgaardian Empire Gwent Deck

The best Nilfgaardian Empire Gwent deck in The Witcher 3 makes use of individual high power units. Find out which cards are included in the deck and how to play the deck here!

Nilfgaardian Empire Deck List

Best Nilfgaardian Empire Deck
Emhyr var Emreis: His Imperial Majesty Leader Geralt of Rivia Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon Yennefer of Vengerberg
Mysterious Elf Villentretenmerth Gaunter O’Dimm Gaunter O’Dimm: Darkness
Gaunter O’Dimm: Darkness Gaunter O’Dimm: Darkness Menno Coehorn Morvran Voorhis
Letho of Gulet Tibor Eggebracht Stefan Skellen Shilard Fitz-Oesterlen
Vattier de Rideaux Heavy Zerrikanian Fire Scorpion Black Infantry Archer Black Infantry Archer
Etolian Auxiliary Archers Etolian Auxiliary Archers Siege Technician Biting Frost
Biting Frost Biting Frost - -

How to Play Nilfgaardian Empire Deck

Gain Card Advantage Using Spy Units

Use Spy Cards

First, you can use the Spy cards in your hand to add more cards to your hand. While Nilfgaardian Empire Spy units have high power that add to your opponent's point total, the amount of cards they'll have in hand for the next round will be much less than yours, allowing you to take a round just from card advantage.

How to Play Gwent

Use Your High Power Units to Quickly Gain Points

Use High Power Units

Nilfgaardian Empire revolves around individual high power units that add a lot of points to your point total. After drawing cards using your Spy units, play these high power units on the field along with your Hero units and immediately gain a point advantage.

Revive High Power Units Using Medic Units

Use Medic Units

Your opponents may target your high power units with Scorch, so use your Medic units to bring back your high power units from your discard pile. Alternatively, you can bring your powerful units in the following round instead.

Use Biting Frost to Reduce Your Opponent's Points

Use Medic Units

None of your non-Hero units are Close Combat units, so you can safely place a Biting Frost on the field to reduce your opponent's point total without affecting your own. Biting Frost also reduces the value of your high power Spy cards since they are all Close Combat units.

Alternatively, you can use Villentretenmerth's Scorch ability to destroy a Close Combat Spy unit instead.

Reuse Spy Cards Using Your Leader Card

Nilfgaardian Empire Leader Card

Your leader card, Emhyr var Emreis: The Relentless, allows you to draw a card from your opponent's discard pile, and this includes Spy cards that you used in a previous round. You can use this to gain card advantage in Round 2 or 3. Alternatively, you can take your opponent's strong units or Special cards to use for yourself.

The Witcher 3 Related Guides

Gwent Partial Banner

Gwent Guide

Gwent Guides

List of Gwent Quests
All Gwent Cards All Gwent Players
How to Play Gwent Gwent Card Effects
How to Get The Best Gwent Cards Easy Gwent Opponents
List of Random Gwent Cards How to Get the Guide to Gwent Book

Best Gwent Decks

Best Northern Realm Gwent Deck Best Nilfgaardian Empire Gwent Deck
Best Monsters Gwent Deck Best Scoia'tael Gwent Deck

List of Gwent Cards by Faction or Type

Northern Realms Scoia'tael Nilfgaardian Empire Monsters Deck
Skellige Clans Special Cards Weather Cards Neutral Cards

Comment

8 Anonymous Anonymous about 2 years

Also, highly recommend sticking as close to 22 cards as possible. No reason to make it harder to draw all your spies.

7 Anonymous Anonymous about 2 years

IMO the best use of a spy deck is to make sure the spies are your only meaningful close combat units. When the AI gets a certain point advantage over you, it's very likely to pass on its turn; at this point you've likely inundated its frontline with your spies, and a single Biting Frost can potentially ruin its score and your ranged/siege troops can make up the difference to win the first round. After that, you typically have a ridiculous card advantage for the second round.

Author

    Please participate in our site
    improvement survey
    03/2026
    Would you assist in
    improving Game8's site?
    ×
    This survey will take about 1 minute.
    Your answers will help us to improve our website.
    We are listening to our users' valuable opinions and discussing how to act on them.
    The information collected through this survey will be used for the purpose of improving our services. In addition, the information will only be disclosed a part of a statistic in a format that will not allow identification of personal information.
    Begin Survey

    All rights reserved

    Guide Index