This is a full list of all Keywords from the description of the cards in Gwent Public Beta. CD Projekt Red changed a ton of things with this patch. With the introduction of Keywords, they answered one of the most popular demands from the community – to unify and simplify the description on the cards and make the text more easily comprehended.
And here is the full list of all Gwent Keywords introduced in Open Beta
- Ally – A Unit on your side of the Board
- Ambush – Play face down and only reveal when certain conditions are met
- Armor – Absorbs a given amount of Damage dealt to a Unit
- Banish – Remove the card from the game
- Bond – Trigger this ability each time another copy of this Unit is played on the same side
- Boost – Increase a Unit’s current Power
- Brave – Trigger this ability if your opponent is winning the current round
- Clash – Trigger this ability only if neither player has passed
- Consume – Destroy a card (or Banish it, if it is in the Graveyard) and Boost the Consuming Unit by its Power
- Counter – Reduce the counter whenever the given condition is met. When it reaches 0, trigger the Activation ability. Reset the Counter when the Unit leaves the Board
- Crewmen X – When a Unit with a Fresh Crewmen ability is played adjacent to this Unit, trigger that ability X times
- Damage – Decreese a Unit’s current power
- Deathwish – Trigger thgis ability when the card is moved to the Graveyard
- Demote – Convert the card to silver (or Bronze, if Bronze was the card’s original color)
- Deploy – Trigger this ability when the card is played on the field
- Destroy – Move the card to the Graveyard
- Discard – Move the card to the Graveyard from the Hand or Deck
- Doomed – Units: Banish when Destroyed; Special Cards: Banish after triggering the card’s ability
- Draw – Move the top card of cards from your Deck to your Hand
- Effort – Perform the specified action for every card targeted by the preceding ability
- Enemy – A Unit on your opponent’s side of the field
- Fresh Crew – Trigger this ability when this Unit is played adjacent to a Unit with a Crewmen ability
- Gamble – Guess whether the top Bronze or Silver Unit in your opponent’s Deck is Higher or Lower than 5. The consequences of winning or losing your Gamble are written on the card
- Heal – Restore a Damaged Unit to its base Power
- Highest – The Unit with the highest Power. Ties are resolved randomly
- Lock – Disable a card’s abilities. Disables and reveals Ambushes
- Lowest – The Unit with the lowest Power. Ties are resolved randomly
- Mulligan – Exchange a certain number of cards in your Hand for cards from your Deck including Golds (unless stated otherwise)
- Orders – Triggers this ability when your Leader card is played (but before the Leader’s ability is resolved)
- Promote – Convert the card to Gold
- Reload X – When a Unit with a Reloaded ability is played adjacent to this Unit, trigger that ability X times
- Reloaded – Trigger this ability when the Unit is played adjacent to Units with the Reload Ability
- Round End – Trigger this ability when the Round ends
- Retaliation – Trigger this ability whenever this Unit is Damaged, but not Destroyed.
- Reset – Reset the Unit to its base Power
- Resistant – A Resistant Unit is immune to the specified Weather effect
- Resurrect – Play a card from the Graveyard
- Reveal – Turn a card or cards in the Hand over, exposing them to both players
- Revealed – A Revealed card has been turned over, exposing it to both players
- Shield – Protects a Unit from the next Power-reducing effect
- Spawn – Add the card to the game and play it
- Spring – Reveal a face down Ambush card and trigger its ability
- Spying – A Unit is Spying when it is on the opposite side of the Board from the player who played it
- Stubborn – this card cannot return to the Hand
- Strenghthen – Increase a Unit’s base Power
- Summon – Play the specified cards from your Deck
- Timer – Reduce the Timer by 1 every turn while this Unit is on the Board. Trigger the ability when it reaches 8 (at Turn Start or Turn End). Reset the Tmer when the Unit leaves the Board
- Transform – Convert into a different card
- Trio – Trigger this ability when 3 Unlocked copies of this Unit are present on the same row
- Turn Start – This card’s ability triggers at the start of its current owner’s turn
- Veteran – Trigger this ability at the start of Rounds 2 and 3 when this card is in the Hand, Deck or Graveyard
- Weaken – Decrease a Unit’s base Power
This is a list of the most often used Gwent Acronyms. These short forms of popular cards, abilities and compos are often encountered on Reddit, Forums and Discord.
The list was compiled by Forum user Riven-Twain. Please, be sure to go over to their forum post for more details.
The Factions
NG – Nilfgaard
NR – Northern Realms
SK – Skellige
ST – Scoia’tael
The Cards
Aero – Aeromancy
ADC – Alzur’s Double-Cross
AR – Adrenaline Rush
BMC – Blue Mountain Commando
Borkh – Villentretenmerth
Dbomb or DB – Dimeritium Bomb
DShack(les) – Dimeritium Shackles
FL – First Light
Gaard/Aard – Geralt: Aard
Gigni/Igni – Geralt: Igni
HS – Hawker Support
JC – John Calveit
KoB – King of Beggars
Leshen – Alternative name for Woodland Spirit
Merc – Usually, Eleven Mercenary.
PFI – Poor Infantry (The F refers to The Witcher III version)
RNR – Ragh Nar Roog
‘Shrooms’/Mushrooms – Mardroeme
SS – Skellige Storm
VM – Vicovaro Medic
WHR – Wild Hunt Rider
WH – Water Hag
Whale – Spectral Whale spawned by Blueboy Lugos
WHW – Wild Hunt Warrior
Yencon – Yennefer: The Conjurer
Miscellaneous
Auto-Include – Card which is included in all decks, usually to counter another, or same, card
BM – Bad Manners
Buff – To strengthen a card’s ability or strength.
CA – Card Advantage
CCG – Card Collectable Game
CDPR – CD Projekt RED, developer of Gwent
Cheese – Easy, powerful strategy, considered unfair by some.
(Deck) Thinning – Tactic(s) for drawing desired/needed cards from the deck while playing, other than the initial card draw
F2P – Free to Play
Filtering – Method of determining which cards will be drawn.
GG – Good Game
GY – Graveyard
Meta / Meta-deck – Overall state of Gwent / popular deck based upon most effective and commonly used cards
MMR – Match Making Ratio/Rating
Nerf – To soften or otherwise change a card’s ability or strength (allusion to soft foam toy brand)
OP – Overpowered (also Original Poster on forums)
Res. – Resurrection
RNG – Random Number Generator (used in reference to shuffling system and drop rates for cards)
Snowball Cards – Cards which can progressively gain strength the longer they are on the board, or as a result of the number of other cards played on the board
STR – Strength
TA – Tempo Advantage: The pace of threats and board position affecting the match (e.g. Leshen is a huge TA play, because one Gold can make a 16 or more swing)
WX -Weather Effects
That is all for now. If I have missed any, let me know via a comment below and I’ll add them to the list. When CDPR introduces new mechanics and keywords, the list will be updated.