Shadowverse

I was stuck at 0 points on the portal for about 10 days, but now I have some Japanese stats on win rates and the usage of crafted decks for the last two weeks, and it shows a win rate of 38-40%. In general, this is what it feels like when you play it in Master rank. After playing several hundred games, I can summarize that the current crafting is super random. If you play with artifacts and Deusk, everything depends on: - first, whether you can play it on the sixth or seventh turn; - second, what's up with Sapphire. Three Sapphires in your starting hand = loss; discarding Sapphire during the game = loss; not drawing Sapphire when you've already killed a lot of artifacts = loss; literally, there's nothing to finish the game with unless the opponent messes up all their removals, hand, and board and concedes, Radiant artifacts are an even more unreliable strategy; - third, the matchup. Considering that the most played (and annoying) crafted deck is Sigil Rune, it's possible to win against it, but it's really difficult. Because there are practically no heals - I play with three Cog Spinners, and that's sometimes not enough, even when all three come out. It's almost impossible to win through board control - a newbie LeVay and Mutabolt destroy your entire low-HP board while dealing tons of damage to your face. It's also hard to win through resources - one Ozina, and the opponent has a full hand again, and if it's not full, then dealing 6 damage infinitely with Chain Lightning to the face is still a thing. By this point, you're left with only a few hit points. And if you put another creature on the board, you'll get Mutabolted. In short, you can only win if the Rune draws very poorly, and you play decently, if not like a god. Dragon is also a very unfair matchup - you need to have a perfect start with meta-production, Icarus, Rose, Fervent, and Halamedes, and you just go face with evolves like an agro deck, praying that they brick and countering Salamander with an evolve as best you can. It's almost impossible to win if they ramp up and stabilize their health - they spam Sahasras and Bahamuts, which destroy your entire board, and you can't really stop or counter it with anything, and they can deal one-shot damage from the fog of war with Storms for 16. Heaven and Neutral Blood are demo versions of Dragon and Burn Rune; you face the same problems against them. Shadow (the third annoying crafted deck) is difficult. I tried playing with Puppeteers (still with Icarus and Fervents, but without Deusk) - Shadow becomes a pretty easy matchup, it's almost enjoyable to bully noobs, and sometimes you can, with some effort, snatch a victory against Dragon in the late game, but Rune and Dragon still don't become easier, but overall, it's even harder to play because it's very easy to spend your entire hand on something pointless and not get Noah or two. So, I was stuck at 0 points, and then I gave up, and after another daily quest for Dragon, I stayed there. Luckily, I can afford everything it has. I decided to climb with it as long as I can, since in the next expansion, Sahasra, Bahamut, Fervor, and Salamander will be rotated out, especially since playing against Burn Rune is very stressful. Dragon doesn't "counter" it as such, and it's still easy to lose when you don't draw well and go second, but at least you can also beat it with heals and clearing all the garbage from the board with Bahamut. And overall, the matchup depends on what you draw, not on what you both draw. Against Shadow, yes, it's almost an auto-loss. Against Dragon, it's a gamble, but overall it's a sort of fair duel. Against Heaven, it's a gamble, and not in your favor. As for Rune, it only needs one legendary and a couple of gold cards, so every broke player plays it, and it's the most usable deck. I really hope they nerf it at the end of the month - in particular, I want a nerf to Ozina and Chain Lightning first. If they offer LeVay, I'm also fine with that. Let's be honest - this crafted deck has always brought only frustration to opponents and has always been cheap in terms of vials. Disht, RoboDarya, Burn Rune - all of this is poorly balanced, fundamentally flawed, and badly designed, which makes matchups against it even more unfair. I would personally be very happy if this crafted deck was properly buried. Since the developers lack the imagination to give it a more fair and competitive mechanic. I'm not sure how to nerf Dragon without killing it, but if they do it together with Rune, then you can play normally on the portal. However, there's still Heaven with Aegis - also super annoying garbage, but I guess we just have to wait until it's out of rotation.

You don't have to craft all three Aegises; you can get by with two if you decide to do it. I'm doing that now; usually, it comes into your hand by the 8th turn, but I also have one White Wing in my deck for tutoring, just in case. You don't need more than that, because even for one, it's preferable to have several targets in your deck. I have Ancient Lion as an additional target. You can also use the new Knight, but I don't have it... Jeannes are a must!

I tried playing with Aegis in the first few days and sucked terribly. And now it's a very strong deck, but yes, I've also heard that you can't do without new Jeannes, so I don't play it myself. White Wings (which I also don't have) are the second priority, and the new Knight also plays, but without Summit, it's pretty garbage and not even needed in an Aegis deck.

Also, is anyone playing Sigil Rune right now? What do you think, is there a place for Mystery (the 5-mana legendary) in this deck? At first, I liked playing with Solmir and throwing Chain Lightnings for 4-5 damage at the opponent, but then I decided that it's quite rare to implement Mystery effectively. Unless you play through the new legendary golem, which I don't have.

I've played against it a few times, and it just looks like a worse version of Grinder Rune, which bricks and skips turns instead of destroying the opponent's face.

Added 17 minutes ago
Sorry for the wall of text; I just summarized my suffering, in case anyone reads this.