Shadowverse

Why doesn't he want to be with me T___T I've been waiting for him for four months now and I've gone back to buying Chronogenesis packs... ALBERT, COME BACK, I'LL FORGIVE EVERYTHING. WAS IT ALL FOR NOTHING THAT I SPENT 5K VIALS ON YOU?





...sorry. I'll go suffer some more.

Albert is a thing of the past...

Albert is one of the best players.

I see this tournament as a "yay, free tickets" kind of thing, I'm not expecting much, I'm just playing for fun in my free time. I took my aggro-elf deck and started playing. I easily beat Portal, Haven, and two Swords decks, but I lost to Vengeance-Blood – I was just a little short on reach, literally 3 health points; maybe I shouldn't have gone too aggressively and pushed him into Vengeance, but oh well. Honestly, I didn't expect this; last time, I didn't even qualify for A, but now I'm doing it with ease.

To clarify:

I also qualified on the first try, with a 5-0 score using the good old portal strategy. It was surprisingly easy; the first three opponents conceded before the Sapphire stage. I faced three Priests, two of whom were using crystal lions (is this the new meta? I haven't played ranked in the last few days), and two Shadows. The Reanimate Shadow turned out to be the most challenging opponent – if he had struck with Zeus at the right moment instead of trading, I would have lost.

Well, there was a lot of talk about Lions at first, and I want to try them out, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. A lot depends on luck; there are only 9 cards in the deck that summon Lions, and to spam 4/4 creatures with Storm, you need to try hard to make it happen first.

on crystal lions

Garbage.

Yesterday, my attempts in the grand prix all ended with a score of 3-2; something always went wrong, so it didn't go very well... But today, I immediately got 5-0 with the Midsword deck, achieving a five-win streak in this mode for the first time. In fact, the Midsword deck gives the impression of being a good, reliable deck for this mode, even better than the Portal deck. As a reward, I received 280 rupees and a daily quest pack. Then I played another game with a 4-1 score and received 140 rupees and the same pack. There were no Portal decks against me. I really didn't encounter a single one.

The outcome of the last game:



It's so satisfying to defeat the Gigahimera just when it was about to destroy my board and reduce my health. Magnus was a real lifesaver! My opponent panicked, played two concentrations, and conceded.

Funny. I just needed to win once in the daily challenges for the portal. I wasted all my master points, had a terrible losing streak. I got frustrated and went into the Grand Prix. Easy 4-1, lost only once to a Knight who got lucky with high rolls, while I was playing without a Goddess. Oh, about Magnus, I don't really trust her that much. If you put her against Magnus, Rune Chimera, Left-Younger, or Bacon Jeanne, then yes, it can work. But when the opponent plays her on an empty board against an aggro Sylvan (played a duel on turn 1, what was he even hoping for?), it usually doesn't end well. Magnus needs to be played strategically. But Heme is a more reliable choice.

According to shadowlog, SNG is messing up the balance again. The numbers are completely absurd; welcome back to the first version of the game, with a 10-20% difference in win rate – how is that even possible?! Unlimited looks more balanced, even though only a handful of people play it, and the statistics should be even more interesting, in theory.
So, either shadowlog is wrong, or there will be a bloodbath at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, on Reddit: "great meta, great balance, everything is wonderful, there's nothing to complain about." Seriously, even Sylvan and Dungeon had a higher win rate in ToG and WoD than Shadow does now.

I also burst out laughing at the shadow, after which I coughed up blood. And who said that meta is great, the guy who creates these threads? He's a bit biased and narrow-minded, I wouldn't recommend taking his word for it.

If only that were the case. I don't keep track of all the nicknames, but based on my observations, at least half of the active users are talking about it. And there are almost no posts complaining on the main page, whereas in previous metas, it was a regular occurrence: "Wah-wah-wah, we're getting crushed by overpowered players with overpowered cards, wah-wah-wah, my favorite faction is garbage, wah-wah-wah, we're all doomed."
I used to complain about the balance myself, but now I'm doing fine because Sylvan is holding up well, unlike some others. But if we're being objective, the current meta isn't much better than the ToTG or WOD meta. Yes, there's more variety, but the win rates speak for themselves. Even taking into account possible manipulation, Dungeon and Dragon are in deep trouble, and Necropolis is barely recovering from the last meta.