Posts from Shadowverse

How are things going for everyone? I logged in, took a look, and didn't understand anything, so I left. It's probably the most challenging expansion pack I've ever played; I don't know which class to play or what to craft. I might have played with the new class, but I didn't get any legendary items for it.

At first, I was still getting the hang of it, and I lost a thousand rating points. Then I plateaued, and now I've climbed back up with a win streak. I finally perfected my portal deck – I removed the golems, the random artifact amulets (for some reason, they didn't work), and brought back the flying swordsmen. I crafted a second Deus, and it took off. The dragon is also very good – I got daily quests for it, and it turned out that even my clunky deck with one Sah and one "still no match for Mr. Dragon" works well. Shadow and runes have some cool tricks to counter it – resurrecting Khavy and endless Professor A through 4/4 illusionists, but it seems like they only work against the dragon.
For the portal, you basically only need Deus from the legendaries; the rest are more like nice bonuses. Although I've seen a build with Chronos, apparently as a replacement for it. And Bahir also works well; sometimes it saves the day.

How are things going for everyone? I logged in, took a look, didn't understand anything, and left. Perhaps the most challenging expansion in my memory; I don't know what class to play or what to craft... I might play the new class, but I haven't gotten any legendary cards for it.

Everything is fine, everything is fun. I'm having fun with an unlimited aggro deck using blood of both types and a midsword (for some reason, it works better for me there). In my rotation, I play everything depending on my mood.

They say that mid-range beats ramp, which beats grayerune, which beats mid-range, but either my decks are off, or I or my opponents are playing strangely, because I'm getting the opposite results. But my win rate is positive, so it's okay.

And the most interesting thing is playing with Aegis and the elephant forest... I'm very glad that for once, Aegis is one of the most reliable decks!

amulets for random artifact mixes (for some reason, they didn't work out)

This amulet is an example of a card that looks good on paper but isn't quite as good in practice. In the mid/late game, it takes up space on the board and doesn't allow you to fully utilize it; if there's also an accelerator lying around, it gets even worse, especially if the artifacts don't come out. And if you play it in the early game, it's hard to get Deus to draw the right cards later, which is critical. So I also threw them out, and it got better.

Didn't get the best Swordsman in the leaderboards. I was upset. I didn't really play for about two weeks. The other day, I decided to play. I had an awful losing streak with my top mid-tier build. I was even more upset. I won't play for another two weeks.

Of those mentioned, the Aegis is interesting... I don't have this legendary item, but I have enough other legendary items from Haven, including the new ones. I should try it out.
The Grime Rune could also be useful...

You don't necessarily need to craft all three Aegis artifacts; you can manage with just two if you decide to do so. I'm currently playing that way, and usually, it ends up in your hand within 8 turns. I also have one White Gryphon in my deck for tutoring, just in case. You don't need more than that because even for a single target, it's preferable to have multiple targets in your deck. I'm using an Ancient Lion as an additional target. You could also use the new Knight, but I don't have him...

Jeannes are essential!

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.

This legendary isn't available, but there are plenty of other Heaven's legends, including new ones.

I have the opposite situation with Heaven – I have Aegis, but almost no other legends. That's why I always played Storm.
Actually, it's funny, I was recently complaining about the lack of dust, and then I went to my collection (I haven't played for a long time, I forgot what legends I had there) and was surprised to see full sets of Elf Queen, Anomalies, Fairy Princesses (normal legends would have dropped on Forest), Hulking Giants, two Beast Dominiks... I started slowly disenchanting this stuff – and that's when the dust appeared.

Since in the next expansion, Sahaz-Ryu, Bahamut, Ferwor, and Salamandra will already be rotated out.

For some reason, it seems to me that if Rune and Shadow are nerfed, then in the new expansion, we might see a "return of the living nerfed-2" – instead of the current Ectar and Catacombs, we'll have PDC paired with Sybil (although the latter never really left). However, without Ferwor and Salamandra, it might not be as good.
I agree about the Portal matchups – Rune also seemed like the most unpleasant one, but at my rank, they have all disappeared now, and the ladder consists of about half Shadow and – unexpectedly – Portal. And if before, Shadow spammed followers along the mana curve, polishing all this with the Prince and one of the "doctor 7" on the seventh turn, now there are some strange, slow builds, which have become easier to beat.

Some players are currently playing PDK, having copied a meme deck with Cronus and Dragoons from some streamer. They now have a girl unit that costs 2 mana, summons a 1-mana unit, and has a spell that summons 2-mana Storm units.

Ah, I saw that deck too, but only in unranked. I haven't encountered it in ranked for a while (looks like only noobs are left on my rank, lol).

Probably, because I have a lot of them. And a standard rampart defender (like me) is generally very vulnerable to such a paddle attack.

Okay. I tried Haven in rotation. There was one new Jeanne, one Aether, and one celestial knight. I added another Jeanne, two more Aethers, and another celestial knight. I didn't add any Snow Maidens. So far, it's going well: I lost to Dasharun once on A3, and won the other 7 attempts. I haven't had such stability in a while... At the same time, you don't get "brain dead" playing this deck; it's often amusing how Temple reduces your attack instead of increasing it.
And Dasharun seems to be a counter-deck. It's very difficult to fight against it.

I saw a strange combination recently: it had sigils, a golem (golemish? golemic?) assault, and enchanted blades. It was fun and unexpected, of course, but I don't think it's close to the usual modern meta. Although, I think I lost that game (on a neutral map or something like that).

Well, the "Galimian Storm" has been around since the last expansion in "Dungeon". And so have the "Sigils". Why not include them in "The Shadow of Death" as well? I saw "The Shadow of Death" with a mammoth, and that was a lot of fun.

I lost to Ginger several times in rune matches that week. It's a viable deck.