Tag: featured

With Tempest of the Gods now coming to end many cards that we have grown to know,  love and fear will be saying their last goodbye to rotation. Below is a List of all the classes and the With Tempest of the Gods now coming to end many card that we have grown to love and fear will be saying their last goodbye to rotation. Below is a List of all the classes and the most impactful cards that will be going away. most impact cards that will be going away.



Neutral: TOTG has a pool of solid neutral cards but many of them were not needed cores of their decks. The biggest cards here to go are likely Ariette, Strix and the big legendary drops.  The loss of these cards will directly affect decks like Neutral Forest, Ginger Rune, Ramp Dragon and some variants of Phantom Cat Blood.

Wise Merman: Wise merman leaving only really hurts the most aggressive of Neutral based decks. Since the onslaught of Wonderland Dreams nerfs that style deck became much less common. I do not think many decks will miss this one much anymore.


Wandering Bard Elta: A solid 2/2 for 2 with a less solid half evolve. Elta has a very powerful effect on evolve but I can’t help but feel that its lack of full evolve stats really hurt the potential of what Elta could do. Mostly the card only saw fringe success in Ginger being used as a nil in the coffin after a Ginger turn.


Grimnir, War Cyclone: Gone are the days where Grimnir ended 80% of games. After the nerf Grimnir was not the 3 of in every deck like he used to be but he was always quite reasonable. The rotation of Grimnir is a big deal to me because I feel it shows the beginning to the end of an era of design philosophy.


Impartial Strix: Strix is the best 4 drop on 4 for most Neutral based aggressive and midrange decks. When you can trigger it the game is just flat out massive, evolving into a 4PP 7/7 that demands an answer.

Arriet, Soothing Harpist: The only times this card would get played is in decks only looking to gimp its opponents. Of those decks Queen of the Dread sea and Beauty and the Beast Forest made the most use out of this (Frustrating) card. The card would often put the defending player into the bind of either full clearing a board of large threats every turn or not clearing and risking being dead from a massive damage swing. Ariette only allowed for degenerate things to happen and I think Rotation will be healthier with her gone.  


Israfil: Since the rotation of her sister Sahaquiel, Israfil did not get to see much play however she was such a format all star 3 months ago she had to make the list. The decks that will miss Israfil the most will be Ramp dragon and Ginger Rune, a deck that will not survive TOTG leaving.

Zeus: Big Daddy Beat stick. Zeus is just a solid 10 drop. Ends the game, walls you up, and bane to clear off anything big and pesky. Much like Israfil Zeus gets played in ramp dragon and Ginger rune. At the moment the best target shadow has for reanimate is Zeus too so there will be a few classes that feel the impact of Zeus leaving.

     
Forest: With this rotation Control and Midrange Forest lists will be taking quite the hit. Currently many forest lists interested in taking the game long rely on Crystalia Aerin and Jungle Warden to survive and close the game out. For the most part Aggro Forest gets out unscathed other than the loss of Beetle Warrior, but this card did not even make the cut in many Aggressive Forest lists.

Cybele: Cybele is a great was to snowball a board. In combination of something like an elf song the increased HP can turn your fairy’s into very beefy threats that can dodge some AOE’s like Force of the Dragonewt or Nova Flare. Cybele was never a popular pick since many decks could not make much use of her buff.

Beetle Warrior: Forest Albert is going away. Beetle Warrior is a good way to push damage while developing a reasonably powerful board. The Beetle was never a staple for forest but would always up up every now and then.

Jungle Warden: Goodbye King Monkey. Warden is something forest lacks. A powerful effect on a single card in forest. No combos needed, just enhance on 10 and ward up. Warden is great at ending the game on turn 10 and stalling the game until turn 10. I hope the new king monkey can fill the void Jungle warden leaves.

Crystalia Aerin: I’m not ready for her to go. Great heal. Great Ward. Great stats. Plus a free Evo? What more can you want? Control and mid-range forest is going to feel the sting of Aerin leaving for time to come. Funny enough one thing Aerin was fantastic at was stalling the game out until Jungle warden could come down.

Elf Queen: Queen was a great option when all you cared about was gaining HP. Nothing can heal you up quite like she can. Queen is an interesting card because she let a non Shadowcraft card make use of its Shadows, an otherwise dead resource. Queen occasionally made her way into a deck as a 1 or 2 of as tech against HP based matchups.

Deepwood anomaly: Rest in peace everyone’s favorite meme 2017-2018


Sword: A lot of the power in Swordcraft at the moment comes from its raw card quality. Sword will be losing some of its very strong tools but the cards that will be going away are not mandatory for a functional Sword list. Sword has been top tier all of Dawnbreak Nightedge and will likely continue to be a powerful deck even with the loss of some of its best cards like Gawain and Luminous Mage.

Vagabond Frog: It’s time to settle down my dudes. Frog is the king of pushing uncontested stealth damage. Vagabond Frog was a staple in aggro sword for quite a while even after getting nerfed from 3PP to 4PP. As time goes on Frog will likely fade away as he gets outclasses by other cards but he will always hold a place in my heart.

Gawain of the Round Table: This guy saw 0 play for almost a year. Then one fateful day Swordcraft got multiple good commanders and everything changed. Gawain has a reasonable stat line, a clean enhance ability and most importantly his cost reduction lets him cheat out powerful commanders early like Arthur, Knight King, Sky Fortress or Mars, Silent Flame General. I have a feeling as time goes on this guy will stay quit relevant in unlimited for time to come.

Luminous Mage: My sword brings hope! Luminous mage is flat out Flexible. For 5 PP you get a 2/3 a 2/1 and a free Evo. The Luminous Knight is a great way to help push damage or to trade up. It’s hard to put into words how great the Mage is but the main thing to keep in mind is she just hits many powerful keys. She may continue to see play in unlimited for time to come since she refunds an Evolve.


Support Cannon: What was once a meme is now living as a dominant force in today’s metagame. Support cannon is incredible at grinding out a game if you can safely land it. Cannon is probably too slow to make its way into unlimited but if we ever got a singleton format with I could see Cannon being a staple for sword.

Roland: Did this card ever see play? Roland was neat because she gave you Durandle. Unfortunately that’s about all Roland did and at 7 PP you need just a bit more than a 4/5  Ward. Sword will not miss her much but I can’t help but feel a bit sad that this card never even became close to playable.

Rune: With TOTG Rotating out Rune will be losing quite a bit of power. Quite a bit of the staple cards used in Aggro Dirt will be rotating out leaving the Dirt style Rune decks once again trying to find a new identity. Along with the hit to Dirt, Runecraft will be completely losing the Ginger Archetype. Moving forward Rune may need to look past the loss of Chimera and fall back on its tried and true spellboost style archetypes.

Magic Illusionist: Good Riddens. Dirt Rune has not been very dominant lately but Illusionist used to carry the deck pretty hard. Back then Illusionist was a 2/2 and removing 3 or 4 Illusionists could often be hard to do (Especially since your spending resources to deal with an illusionist while your opponent only spent 2PP for it and a couple of Earth Sigils.


Mage of nightfall: 3PP 4/3 with Ambush. Mage pushed tons of face damage and all she asked of you was a single Earth Sigil. She was a staple in the aggressive Dirt Rune lists that used to dominate the format but lately she has not quite been enough.


Halo Golem: The last of the Dirt package to be rotating in TOTG. Much like Magic Illusionist and Mage of Nightfall, Halo Golem converts your Earth Sigils in to raw damage. Halo golem is comparable to a turn 4 evo card (Such as Priest of the Cudgel or Dragon Warrior) but has 2 major differences. It demands an Earth Sigil rather than an evolve and it gets full stats on evo. Halo Golem has pushed tons of damage for Burn Dirt Rune and the card will certainly be missed.

Mutagenic bolt: Mutabolt has fallen out of favor lately but this card is disgustingly powerful. Muta is like a strange fancy Dance of Death. It can be used to just remove a single big threat or can stifle a full board and turn everything into Flame Rats. A lot of Mutabolts power comes from the powerful swing turns that Wizardess of Oz can create. The rest of Muta’s power comes from the fact that it is a Transform effect and not a kill effect. This allows it to get around last word effects such as Jormungand, Spawn of the Abyss and Tutankhamun. I think one of the main takeaways of Mutabolt is that it is not intended as  board clear, it is intended to be used as a win condition.

Chimera: Chimera is one of the strongest cards in spellboost Rune decks. After just a few spells cast Chimera becomes a hyper efficient removal spell with a free threat to boot. Chimera is reasonably statted as a 4/4 too making it a great evolve target if you re trying to get over a larger body such as a 4/5. Spellboost Rune based decks will greatly miss old chimera but they are still keeping Giant Chimera and are getting a new Despondent Chimera so I think they will find a way to get by.

Wordwielder Ginger: The Herald of the end is meeting her demise. Ginger excels at ending the game in a similar fashion to how Queen of the Dread Sea would. She allows the player to cheat dozens of play points into play and create a board that threatens to instantly end the game. Oftentimes a good ginger turn (Something like 2 Zeus and an Israfil) simply cannot be answered. In the current format the only way to beat a strong Ginger would be burning someone out for lethal, Mutagenic Bolt or an obscene amount of cheap removal.


Dragon: Dragon loses quite a few strong cards this time around. Of the cards leaving most are not deck defining, more like strong options that Dragon will be sad to lose. The loss of Sibyl and Dragons nest means Dragon will have to work harder for its healing. Of all the cards to go Phoenix Rider Aina will have the biggest impact, drastically impacting the earth reach dragon can have. 

Dragon’s nest: Up until the printing of both Somniferous Whitewyrm and Lindwyrm Dragon was not very interested in a card like Dragons Nest. The loss of Dragons nest likely wont affect dragon much but Lindwyrm will not be happy to leave the nest.

Dragoon Scyther: RIP one of the best Bane cards in the game. The combination of Bane and Storm on a single card allowed her to instantly remove anything scary. She also slots perfectly into PDK decks since she cost 3 and helped push face damage.

Wrath Drake: Wrath Drake made its way into enough Dragon lists to warrant getting on the list. At the moment Ramp Dragon will play Wrath Drake to help clear board in the Mid to Late game. The thing is Wrath Drake never really excelled at clearing boards and I imagine Ramp Dragon will happily take Proto Bahamut over Wrath Drake.


Sibyl of the Waterwyrm: The day has finally come. Sibyl will be leaving us after her very dominant run making her way into nearly all Dragon variants for a time. Nowadays Sibyl is actually a reasonable card to play against but she used to be a 4/5 for 5 that still both ramped and healed. She hard carried the class for quite a while. Since her nerf Dragon has started getting frisky, occasionally cutting her from the deck all together. I am very interested to see how Ramp Dragon will fare after the loss of Sibyl.


Phoenix Rider Aina: The amount of raw damage this card can pump out often times can be pretty absurd. Getting a 4 or 5 attack Aina seems to be pretty common and sometimes she can get upwards on 6 damage…. And that is before evolves happen. Aggressive Dragon decks at the moment rely pretty heavily on Aina and Azi Dahaka to close games out so losing Aina may be a devastating blow to those decks unless they get a good replacement.

Ouroboros: Did you know this guy used to heal for 3 every time it died? It has been a while since Oro has been a staple in Dragon decks (or even just a 1 or 2 of) but I remember those days fondly. Oroboros could lock someone out of a game, removing a weak follower, leaving behind an 8/4 that demanded an answer then it heals for 3 before doing it all again. Ouro was a very interesting way to give Dragon a Play Point sink and for quite a while, it worked.


Shadow: Shadow is losing some pretty powerful cards with the rotation of TOTG. I think its worth pointing out how many of the Shadow cards that made the list got nerfed. Many of the cards that did get nerfed continued to see play in Mid Range Shadow up until the bitter end. TOTG was very nice to Shadow and with it rotating Shadow may struggle unless there are new cards to help fill the void TOTG will leave behind.

Little Soulsquasher: I have PTSD because of this card. Little Soulsquasher has Squashed the souls and hopes of many players. Since the nerf She has gone from a 2/2 for 2 to a 2/1 for 2. The nerf was surprisingly impactful because ever since it happened players started shaving on her numbers, some go as far as to not include her anymore. Moving forward Shadow will have Big Soul Hunter around to do the best Soul Squasher impression possible.

Zombie Party: V A L U E  P A R T Y. 2PP to deal 3 is the golden standard for removal. That combined with Zombie Parties insanely powerful enhance ability you get a Grade A Shadow staple. What else is there to say? Zombie Party will leave a hole in many players heart until something comparable returns.

Prince Catacomb: What are you hiding inside? Catacombs excelled as both a way to farm shadows and as a way to create a very sticky board. Catacomb used to cost 3PP and those were some crazy days. A curve of 1 / 2 / Catacomb on the play could end the game by itself back then. Today we see Midrange Shadows hover around 2 and 3 Catacombs since its still a great way to build a resilient board even at 4PP.

Demonlord Eachtar: This head has finally been taken. Eachtar saw the Rise and fall of Shadow as a whole, surviving nerf after nerf of his friends and family until the day he himself got hit. Even after this Shadow still played 3 Eachtar without question, he was simply that strong. It took until his dear brother Thane to get nerfed before Eachtars warpath really started slowing down.

Immortal Thane: How many of you readers heard his laugh echo in your mind when you read Thanes name? Thane provides a ton of stats for his cost. It seems standard for a 4/5 to cost 5PP, a Whight itself costs 2PP and a White King costs 4. Today Thane costs 8PP but he used to cost 7 making him incredibly efficient for his mana cost. The Whight King he give you is incredibly strong too (much like most 0 cost cards) since you could save the ward for when it would be most useful.


Blood: Bloodcraft has been in a strange spot ever since the great nerfs of 1812 Wonderland Dreams. Up until Dawnbreak Nightedge came out much of the support blood got was lackluster. With the rotation of TOTG blood will be losing some of its best 2 drops as well as some strong vengeance activators / payoffs. I believe Cygames will address the issues blood has moving forward but if this doesn’t happen blood may be in trouble.


Spiderweb Imp: One of the best 2 drops blood has gotten to date. Spiderweb is overstaffed at a 1/4 for 2 and she comes with the incredibly relevant ability of ward. She can eat up small followers in the early game and protect your stronger followers or face.

Baphomet: Baphomet got a pretty hard nerf and still remains one of Blood’s best 2 drops to date. A 2PP 2/1 isn’t the best stats for its cost but Baphomet also had the added benefit of drawing a Blood card. Baphomet is very similar to Dragon summoner but they have flipped stats. The extra attack is really appreciated by blood since blood decks tend to be on the aggressive side.

Mask of the black death: This card is the biggest Jebait in Shadowverse. You lull your opponent into a false sense of security, make them think they have you on the ropes then boom, Mask. Mask is a very interesting card that can fade tons of damage for a cheap price. Since it has a countdown of 5 it can stick around for a while and as long as it has any counters on it the mask will block the full hit (Ex. countdown 2 mask will negate a Giant Chimera for 48). Cygames has been printing cards that add amulets to your hand more and more lately, it would be exciting if there was a follower that added a Mask of the Black death to your hand.

Blood Moon: Blood Moon is a sweet card that is not exactly rotating. Waltz, Prince of wolves will be replacing Blood Moon before it even gets the chance to go. This helps solve the issue that blood can have where it is sometimes hard to get into Vengeance. If it were not for Waltz staying around blood would likely struggle after losing both Blood Moon and……..

Belphegor: The other Vengeance activator. Belph is an overstated 4/4 for 4 with a free Blood pact that also puts you in Vengeance. Belph does so much for her cost and smooths out your game plan by bringing you into vengeance (sometimes a bit sooner than you wanted to be). What made Belphegor so nice is how she would reward you for taking a risk and getting closer to vengeance unlike some other cards that try to encourage you to take damage (Im looking at you serpent charmer)

Dark Airjammer: Airjammer is like Blood Arthur. If you can get into vengeance and play it on curve things are going well for you. Air Jammer provides tons of stats for its cost while letting you cheat out helpful effects like ward from a Spiderweb imp or the now rotated Blood Wolf.


Haven: Of the cards Haven will be losing this expansion none of them were really staples. Most of these cards would occasionally pop up but did not define the deck that they were in (except for maybe Aegis). Once again Haven gets off a rotation pretty unscathed and likely won’t feel much pain until the rotation of Wonderland Dreams.

Holy Bowmen Kel: It seems as though Cygames is pushing Tenko’s Shrine as an archetype so it seems like Kel may be rotating just a bit before his time. Kel is a well statted 2/2 for 2 with an effect that can get in some alright chip damage. The main reason he made this list is because he is leaving too soon, not because he saw any notable play.

Octobishop: Another card that people have been experimenting with in Tenko’s Shrine. It is hard to say if Octobishop would have made the cut in Tenko decks moving forward but what can be said is once rotations happen it will not be possible.

Judge of Retribution: 6PP Cudgel. Judge is a solid card that would make his way into decks on occasion. The card is just flat out solid. He is removal, card draw and a reasonable body all in one package. Haven has plenty of Blackened scripture style effects so Judge rotating should not be the end of the world.

Dark Jean: Dark Jean has been making her way in and out of Haven lists for as long as she has existed. Now that Summit Temple is one of the stronger Haven builds Jean has fallen a bit out of favor since her attack buff actually doesnt help anymore.

Heavenly Aegis: The most baller win condition in Shadowverse is on its way out. Aegis is an insanely cool card but he comes at the cost of being very frustrating to play against. Aegis for many decks was just lights out. In the Aegis Haven mirror often the person to land the first one won the game. Against slower Ramp Dragons Aegis was GG. When Aether of the whitewing got printed Aegis got quite a power spike. Haven players were able to cut down to 1 on their Aegis’s but by playing 3 Aethers it was like they were playing 4. Aegis has had its time and it has been a good run but now heaven rebukes him.

When Brigade of the Skies hits everything is going to change. Classes will be losing Staples, Others will lose supporter cards and some wont be losing much. Brigade will be bringing in all new cards that will open up many new archetypes. What cards will you miss the most? Did I miss a card that you like? Let me know in the comments.

Honorable Mentions

  
  

How to Become a Better Player by Drawing Better Cards (A Deckbuilding Guide)
(Written by HSK MLAQTS)

How do good players always topdeck the perfect card at the perfect time? Besides heart of the cards and just being plain better than you, they probably also have the right numbers of the right cards in their decks. Believe it or not, you also can topdeck like a pro more frequently by actively considering draw probabilities when deckbuilding.

The Mulligan

Let’s start with the basics. A shadowverse deck has 40 cards, with a maximum per card limit of 3, disregarding rarity.

In the mulligan, you are shown 3 cards to keep or redraw. You cannot immediately redraw the cards you throw back, though you can draw them on your first turn (even on the play).

The probabilities for drawing a copy of any particular card by your first turn are shown below.

Copies in Deck	1	2	3
First	10.0%	19.2%	27.7%
Second	12.5%	23.7%	33.8%

Note that the same probabilities apply to any set of 3 or less cards.

In some decks, such as Aggro Sword, the main concern in the mulligan is drawing a 1-drop. In such cases where the desired set is larger than 3 cards, this site (more on how to use this in “Generalization and Conclusion”) is a great tool for analyzing probabilities.

The Curve

The best thing for some decks to draw is just followers to play every turn while efficiently spending all available mana. “The Curve” can refer either to such a sequence of draws, or the distribution of followers in your deck that allows you to draw it.

Of course, the later the game progresses, the more cards each player has drawn, so most decks that value playing cards on curve run many low-cost followers. Many decks have a spike in the 2-mana slot, since 2-mana cards tend to be versatile through the evolve turns and can be played on spare mana even in the late                                                  game.

12-15 is a typical amount of 2-drops for most decks, because running 12 2-drops produces a 93%/96% chance of drawing a 2-drop by turn 2, if you hard mulligan for one. The probability drops by about 5% if you don’t mulligan, so decks that need to prioritize other cards in the mulligan, such as Deus Ex Machina for Portal, Belphegor for Vengeance Blood,  Daria or D-Shift for Rune, and Arthur for Sword, tend to run more 2pp cards.

Based on the same considerations, 7-9 3pp cards is a typical amount for most decks. Though the probability for drawing a 3-drop by turn 3 is lower than that of drawing a 2-drop by turn 2, the ability to play 2-drops on turn 3 without too much detriment allows for fewer 3-drops to be run, even in decks for which curving out is important, making more room for different pp-cost cards that are more valuable toward furthering a deck’s gameplan.

Since more cards are drawn as the game progresses, and low-cost cards can be played even on later turns, most decks run even fewer copies of higher-cost cards. Draw consistency for specific mana-slots matters less beyond 3pp, so card quality and usefulness toward the deck’s gameplan becomes a much greater consideration than cost, even in decks with many high-pp cost cards, such as Ramp Dragon and Ginger Rune.

One other consideration for card distributions in curve decks is the quantity of efficient evolve targets to run. Having followers that grant benefits upon evolution in the midgame is not as great a consideration as just having followers to play in the early game, since evolution orbs can be used on any follower, and it is not always correct to evolve special-evolve followers even when possible.

Thus, the quantity of special-evolve followers varies widely across decks, but most decks tend to run three copies of at least one special-evolve 2pp follower, perhaps in part because the number of high-quality fanfare or innate-effect 2pp followers is currently low.

Key Cards

Many decks in Shadowverse have a certain card or combination of cards that is critical to their gameplan. I have already given the prominent examples of Deus Ex Machina, Belphegor, Daria, D-Shift, and Arthur. There are other more subtle examples as well, such as Ramp Dragon’s ramp cards, or Aggro Sword’s one-drop.

In fact, a crucial assessor of a deck’s viability is its capacity to draw its key cards when they are needed; so how do we maximize this capacity?

Most of the time for decks with a single key card, it’s right to just run 3 copies, and to keep or even hard mulligan for the key card in any matchup that is slow enough. However, this is not always the case, and the decision also becomes more complicated when a deck has multiple key cards.

In such cases, the most important factors to consider are what turns the key cards are necessary, optimal, and viable through, and the probability of drawing the card by those turns. Some key cards, such as Dragon’s low cost ramp cards and sword’s 1-drop followers, also get progressively worse as the game goes on, so it is ideal to run as few copies as possible while still ensuring that they can be drawn when they are needed.

Let’s take Aggro Sword’s 1-drop followers for an example. It’s extremely important for Aggro Sword to have a follower on turn 1, but 1-drops are also playable, especially in duplicate, even on turn 2 and 3. Past the first evolution turns, however, every 1-drop follower except Quickblader becomes a very lackluster draw. So what is the right number of 1-drop followers to run in Aggro Sword?

This is a graph of the number of 1-drop followers in a deck vs. the probability of drawing at least one by turn 1 with a hard mulligan. While the numerical probabilities are different for going first vs. second, the general shape of the curve looks almost the same. Notice that the curve rises steadily at first, but rapidly tapers off around 11 1-drops.

Since we want to practically guarantee drawing a 1-drop by turn 1, but without excessively polluting our deck, we can conclude that 11 is the optimal number of 1-drops to run in Aggro Sword, since running any more does not significantly increase our chances of having a 1-drop when we need it most.

In decks like Ginger Rune, the high amount of card draw in the deck must also be taken into consideration. In such decks built around powerful late-game win-condition cards, it is often correct to run only two copies, since typically no more than one is ever necessary per game, and a high volume of card draw diminishes the need for running a third copy.

Tech Choices

A tech card is a card which is included to help improve a particular matchup or set of matchups, but which may not be as generally useful as another option. When is it right to include tech cards, and how many is appropriate to include?

The probability calculations for tech cards are the same as those of any other card. However, the turn range a given tech card is useful through is more often determined by your opponent’s gameplan than your own. Also, tech cards should not be thought of as crucial pieces of your gameplan; the best tech cards are useful against a                                              wide range of matchups, and remain somewhat useful even outside                                        of the situations you included them for.

For example, I like to tech two copies of Lethal Blade in my Rotation Vengeance Blood because of the prevalence of  floody board-centric decks like Artifact Portal, Midrange Sword, and Tempo and Aggro Forest. It is great as a board clear for small followers when vengeance is active, but never is significantly worse than Snarling Chains, which would be run in the deck anyway.

Another example is teching a single copy of Support Cannon in a standard Midrange Sword list, especially if the list already runs a copy of Barbarossa. The card significantly improves the mirror matchup, and is playable in any matchup slow enough that passing a single turn would not lose the game. However, it is rarely a good idea to include more copies of support cannon without significant modifications to the rest of the deck. Support Cannons beyond the first become increasingly hard to play, and typically do not contribute as much without a specialized deck. Also, a single copy enables alternative plays every turn, even if the card is dead in your hand, but multiple copies makes a deck more susceptible to bad draws in which the whole hand is useless. Therefore, the risk vs. reward of running additional copies must also be considered when deciding how many of a tech card to run.

Generalization and Conclusion

Certainly draw probabilities are important to consider while deckbuilding. But where have I been getting my numbers, and how can we calculate the probability of drawing any given card in any given situation? Well, it just so happens that the probability of randomly drawing successive cards from a deck, as we do in Shadowverse, is closely modeled (excepting the mulligan) by the cumulative hypergeometric distribution, and that there exists on the internet a handy calculator for hypergeometric distributions right within our grasp.

-The population size is the initial size of the deck at the point from which you want to start calculating a probability, which will usually just be 40 for the beginning of the game. (37 after mulligans)

-The number of successes in population is the number of cards which you are interested in drawing that are left in your deck, which at the beginning of a game is just the number that you included in deckbuilding. (Ex. you play 3 Lancer and already drew 1. There are 2 successes left in your deck.)

-The sample size is the number of cards you expect to draw, including one per card that you can mulligan. For example, on turn 4 going second, the sample size would be 8 with no extra card draw, since you can mulligan 3 cards, and will have drawn an additional 5 by turn 4. Since you can later draw back cards which you mulliganed away, this is only approximation, but it is a very close one, good enough for our deckbuilding purposes.

Now, the only relevant probabilities for deckbuilding are “Cumulative Probability: P(X > x)” and “Cumulative Probability: P(X > x).” The former is the chance that you will draw at least one copy from the set of cards you considered in “population size,” while the latter is the chance that you will draw more than one copy. As discussed above, you will often want to maximize X > x while minimizing X > x.

So go on and try it out yourself! Actively considering draw probabilities with the help of a calculator will help you to maximize your chance of drawing the cards you need just when you need them most. You may not have learned to use the Heart of the Cards, but this is probably the closest you’ll ever get in this game.

With Dawnbreak Nightedge just around the corner I figured it would only be appropriate to make a top 5 list of my favorite cards in the set. I would like to point out that these are the cards that I am most excited about playing, I don’t necessarily think these are the strongest cards in the set. Dawnbreak Nightedge came out the gates announcing the choose mechanic and let me say, not only is this mechanic exciting, it is also very powerful. It allows for so many more decisions to be made in a game and adds an extra layer of mindgames to Shadowverse. I can’t wait to play with it and without further ado, here are the 5 cards I am most excited to play with in Daybreak Nightedge.

1: Yggdrasil: I love Forest so It’s no surprise that the card I am most excited for is the new Forest Legendary. There are so many things about this card to love. Forest is pretty great at stalling a game with powerful options like Cassiopeia and Aerin. The drain on Yggdrasil helps forest stall that much better, but the real draw to Yggdrasil is the spells she gives you. On one half you have Blessing of Creation, a 0 cost draw 2 that also makes it easier to hit your “if you cast x cards” triggers. The other half is a 0PP buff spell that gives a follower you control +1/0 and rush, but here’s the kicker (I hope you magic players got that) if you play Wrath of Nature for 4 you give your whole board +1/0 and storm. Yggdrasil just does so much good for Forest’s kit and I can’t wait until I get to play with the card (and search for it with Grasshopper Conductor)

2: Dragoncleaver Roy: I legitimately think this is one of the best ramp cards in the game at the moment. This card is most comparable to 3PP Aiela, it has the same stat line but with 2 major differences. 1) You have to pay for the ramp effect on Dragonlife Blade. 2) The card is not a totally dead draw in the late game thanks to Dragonstrife Blade. Considering Dragon is losing Breath of the Salamander and Draconic Fervor with the Rotation of ROB this card really pulls weight by being a follower in the early game, A 5PP Ramp spell that lets you pay for it at your own leisure and a Removal spell. The card even has incredibly relevant trinket text since Dragonstrife Blade hits Dragon cards extra hard. Both a flavor win and a good way to give the card extra oomph in what tends to be a big follower matchup.

3: Mysterian Wyrmist: Before we even pretend Mysterian Wyrmist has any effects lets just look at the stats of all 3 sides. 2PP 2/2, 6PP 5/6, 6PP 6/5. The Sheer fact that you can flips The Wyrmist’s stats on 6 is already very powerful and that is on top of it having premium stats on every side of the card. Now that we got that out of the way let’s take a look at its effect. On one half you are given a Mysterian Missile that does 1 extra damage to face and allows for all your other Mysterian spells to deal 1 extra damage to face too. On the other side your given a Mysterian Circle and give all of your mysterian spells “draw a card”. So let’s take this from the top. Premium stats. A choice between Mysterian Circle and Mysterian Missile. A great bonus to all of your mysterian spells. Plus this thing just has nice art. This thing is just VALUE in caps lock.

4: Buller, Blood Maiden: This card is so incredibly flexible it’s wild. In the early game you can play it as a 1PP 1/1 to get in some chip damage or to trade with a 1HP follower. In the midgame you can use her as a decent 5PP 3/5 ward with some added life gain, or you can play her as a 5PP 4/4 that gives your board +1/0. This card is just good in so many different versions of blood. It allows for a more controlling blood deck to contest the board in the early game in 1/1 mode. It gives a more aggressive blood the option to slow the game down with its ward mode. With all of the bat support coming out in Dawnbreak Nightedge this will just give that deck more reach. The important thing is that while Buller may not be the best follower on curve she makes up for it with flexible and impactful options.



5: Suttungr: There are alot of things I think this card does right.I want to start by saying when Cygames announced the Bahamut change they did so with the intention to make amulets better. Dawnbreak Nightedge has what looks to me like quite a few strong amulets and one thing worth noting is the more decks that play slow amulets the harder it is to get punished for taking your turn developing a slow amulet. Now let’s talk about Suttungr. This guy is one of the few neutral amulet removals in rotation, along with Fall From Grace and Burley Axe Wielder. I think Suttungr is a great example of how a tech card should work. When he has an amulet to hit he does it while leaving behind a reasonable body. When he doesn’t have a good target he becomes a beefy 6PP 6/5. I feel like a lot of the time card games have incredibly punishing tech cards that are too strong when they work and not strong enough when they don’t. Suttungr just does a good job at not being embarrassing to play for tempo. This is where Odin fell short. He was able to leave behind an okay body but it was okay at best and unless you were getting good value off of his banish effect he just wasn’t enough. I hope Suttungr ends up being a strong option for all classes and believe he has the potential to be just that.


When Dawnbreak drops it will herald the death of Rise of Bahamut. Many powerful cards will be leaving, leaving a void to be filled. Dawnbreak Nightedge has a ton of very interesting (and very powerful) cards and honestly this article barely scratches the surface of how excited I am to play with the expansion. If I missed any cards your excited about let me know in the comments! Have fun with the new expansion and get those sweet sweet pack pulls.

In just a little while Rise of Bahamut will be rotating away and with it leaves Many powerful cards that have Shaped the metagame we lived in. Soon Dawnbreak Nightedge will be stepping into the shoes ROB left behind…. And they are some big shoes. I wanted to say goodbye to all of the toys ROB brought us and to talk about the most impactful  ones. Its hard to really know what the game will look like in a few weeks but its nice to know what will be going to prepare for the future ahead of us.

To start I wanted to talk about the neutral card pool.  The cards going away for neutral all tend to be heavy on tempo or strong card advantage tools. The most important card for neutral going away in the expansion is probably Sahaquiel, since she enabled so many other powerful cards and basically any class could get away with playing her if they tried hard enough. That was what made neutral cards as powerful as they were.

These two have seen play in the format for as long as they have existed. Having the ability to throw around a single point of damage may sound small but ends up being very impactful. These two are great at cleaning up trades or pushing a little extra face damage. Since the effect of a single ping ends up mattering so often and both of the angels are neutrals they both saw tons of play.

Could this be the end of the Ultimate Carrot? Khaiza is great, the carrot he gives is an infinite value 2PP 2/2. There have been plenty of decks in the past that have made use of The Ultimate Carrot. An unchecked carrot can take over some games by itself if its able to get enough good trades in. Somehow I feel as though it won’t be long before we have another carrot back in rotation.

Goblin mage is great it providing a decent 2/2 body while keeping your hand full and finding specific cards such as Rhinoceroach or Baphomet. She got herself nerfed a while back because at the time she only searched for 2 drops making her incredibly consistent. Now she still finds herself in some roach decks and neutral decks




Much like bahamut, this card ruled the format since its inception. Saha has always been one of the best turn 7 plays in the game and likely will continue to be just that in unlimited. In rotation where the card pool is even smaller Sahaquiel (with the help of Israfil and other strong neutrals) has very little stopping her from being a dominant force and I would like to see what the format looks like without her. It’s possible cards like Israfil just may not be good enough on her own.

Much of what is true about Sahaquel is true about Bahamut. Bahamut comes down on 10PP and messes things up. This card is so incredibly strong its very existence impacts the way people need to build their decks. Back when Bahamut broke amulets and was a 13/13 he really did do everything. Even after his change Bahamut remained a very powerful card in the format thanks to his versatile Fanfare. Now it’s his time to go. Much like carrot, I think Bahamut will be back.

While Forest did not lose too many important cards this time around they did lose a very important one, White Wolf. White Wolf is a very powerful card that may have been limiting design space for forest since cards that enable busted combos often do that. Forest has always been able to get away with beating face as a halfway reliable win condition and Combo kills as another one. I am very excited for Yggdrasil and think she will really help round Forest out moving forward.

Lily is great, She’s a 2PP 2/2 or a really strong removal. What makes her so good is that she transforms instead of destroying the target, this lets her get around last words effects.  There are lots of powerful 2PP 2/2’s in forest so Im sure forest will find a way to survive without her. Plus with the recent announcement of Forest Whispers I believe everything will be okay.

This is a powerful one. White Wolf lets forest do some crazy things, Like draw the best card in your deck and make it cost 0. A White Wolf proc usually spells doom for your opponent and without this card forest will have to find another way to OTK. This card would force people to not leave strong followers on board when playing against forest because of the threat of a White Wolf killing itself.

Full disclosure, at the moment I am worried about Sword. Sword as a class does a lot of very fair things and in Shadowverse the strongest decks tend to do unfair stuff. With the loss of Swords best tempo cards and their most reliable win condition the class may struggle with staying ahead on board and closing out games. I really hope that Daybreak Nightedge gives Sword the tools it needs to work. I also would not mind if Gawain of the Round Table becomes strong before he rotates away.

Jeno is a Classic. On the play he can come down and eat pretty much anything on turn 4. His enhance lets him double as a 6 drop that’s also a sticky minion, something that’s hard to come by in Sword. There are lots of similar cards in sword but none fill quite the role Jeno does.

The Sky Knight himself is rotating away and honestly I am kind of sad about this. Albert has always been a huge part of swords game plan being the most reliable way to get massive burst damage and finish the game . With Albert going away I think Sword will start using Barbarossa as a replacement, though there are quite a bit of 5 drops for Sword to choose from.

Another great card who has been seeing play since its release. Fangblade is great at pushing face damage while clearing a path for your other followers. The body Fangblade leaves behind also needs to be answered since Fangblade can threaten to push face damage while clearing followers.

Rune may be getting the hardest hit with the Rotation of Rise of Bahamut. On top of losing almost half of the the daria shell, Rune is also losing some powerful options for its Dirt style Decks.

Dwarf Alchemist is like the oil to a lot of dirt rune deck engines. He provides a solid 2/2 body, an Earth Sigil and if you evolve him, he draws you a card with Earth Rite. Though the Dwarf Alchemist is going away recently Dirt rune has been getting lots of ways to make Earth Sigils so I believe the deck will find a way to survive.

The king of board flips is leaving with the come of the new expansion. What made this guy good was that he evolved into a pretty beefy body and threatened to kill something and generate value as long as he was alive and you had Sigils to spare. Its a shame he never did get to save his daughter before he rotated.

Efficient removal and burn damage. Piercing Rune is an overall strong card that gets incredibly strong when your able to get its evolve trigger off. Many games have been won off the back of this card and that will likely continue in Unlimited.

Daria is finally going away! After dodging nerfs for a year The dimensional witch will take a vacation from rotation (as well as her entire package). Rise of Bahamut created an entire Archetype for Rune that was beloved and behated by many, and for good reason, It was a very powerful deck that could end games by creating a single explosive board that was so beefy nothing could answer it.

Dragon is getting smacked with this rotation. On top on losing 2 very powerful class cards with Breath of the Salamander and Draconic Fervor, Dragon is losing its most iconic class card, Bahamut. Dragon has relied on ramp into unanswered Bahamut as a reliable way to win the game since Bahamut got printed The same is true for Sahaquiel, another of Dragons strongest cards. So far there are still alot of cards to be spoiled for Dragon in Daybreak Nightedge and the cards that they have gotten have looked promising so I am not too worried about Dragons future.

Breath of the Salamander has been a staple when it comes to removing single target threats and wide boards. Most Dragons won’t leave home without 3 of these, and for good reason. There aren’t too many 2PP deal 3’s with as much important text stapled on it as this one. Luckily for Dragon, Daybreak Nightedge seems to have some nice ways to help with Salamander rotating.

Draws 2 cards. Ramps. Gains HP. This card does so much and is very aggressively costed. The loss of fever is going to hurt but dragon does have other tools that can make up for it. One specifically that dragon will be getting Is Galua of two Breaths, who gives you the choice between destroying a follower for 4PP or to draw 2 cards for 2PP  on a 4/4 body for 5PP. While this does some different things than fervor it comes down on the same turn and does a pretty good job at filling your hand up and getting something strong into play.

Imperial Dragoon never really dominated any metagames but he would occasionally find his way into some strong Dragon decks. Chronos with Imperial Dragoon was actually a pretty strong win condition if you could get it off and I am a little sad it never got that dominant but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Shadow lost a very important card this expansion in Lurching Corpse. On top of it they ended up losing a lot of the other strong removal options they had; Necroassasin and Khawy. I think because of this unless Shadow gets some good replacements Shadow may end up really struggling to remove big followers.

Lurching Corpse has been a staple in shadow for a long time. Its Last Words effect can make board clears like Israfil or Bahamut incredibly awkward just by existing and can 1 for 1 large followers. Sometimes it will stick around for a few turns and you can use it as a sacrifice to a Demon Eater or Necroassasin. Necroassasin has a similar style effect as Lurching Corpse and is rotating with it. This may leave Shadow looking for new ways to remove strong followers.

How could Shadow Reaper not be on this list? Back in the Rise of Bahamut and Tempest of the Gods days Shadow Reaper used to Cost 2PP. This guy with the help of 3PP Prince Catacomb was able to become a 6/6+ pretty often. Gone are the days of 2PP Shadow Reaper but at 3PP still isn’t bad. Occasionally the reaper will find a home as a 1 or 2 of in a deck, but Shadow Reaper has really fallen from where he once stood.

Sometimes i’ll be playing against a Shadow and ill think I got this one and then I hear it. “Judgement for heretics like you” then my hope will start to fade. Kaway does a lot of good things for Shadow. He is a ward, heal, follower removal, and a good target for reanimate and Nephthys. That said, Shadow has always been able to get by without Kaway and now will have to. 

Nep is a fan favorite for many and understandably so. She is a powerful build around legendary who would always find a way to pop up every now and then. I want to believe that one day Nephthys will be a powerful deck in Unlimited. A world where Shadow has so many cards to choose from Nephthys will work like a well oiled machine.

Blood lost some strong tools this time around, fortunately most of the cards moving out Blood already has replacements for. For a while now Blood as a class has been in a pretty weird spot with its best decks getting by using Bloods strong reach and powerful neutral cards. I hope the rotation of powerful cards like Bahamut and Sahaquiel will help Blood moving forward.

Yurius is a deceptively strong card. While he is just a 1/3 his ability to pile on chip damage while making value trades is what made Yurias such a powerhouse. Yurius had a home in most aggro and vengeance  lists. If two of these stick the damage they push can get out of hand. Blood however has plenty of other 2 drops to use in place of Yurius.

While Blood has a lot of 2PP deal 3’s none do quite what hungering horde does. Hungering Horde is great for cleaning up boards full of skeletons and fairies. That said it’s still a 2PP deal 3 and blood has lots of those.

Matriarch did not see play often but it was still always a pretty strong card that could swing games hard. Since the loss of Revelation Blood has not had many AOE’s and Matriarch was one of the few decent ones left.

As far as Rise of Bahamut leaving I think Haven got off the easiest. The most important card for them to be Rotating is Tribunal considering it was a staple in many different styles of Haven, however the rest of the Haven cards leaving rarely saw play.

Tribunal is a 1 for 1 one now and you can save a 1 for 1 for later.  You can time the countdown to disrupt your opponents swing turns. This is one of the most creative 2 for 1’s I have seen on a card and It will definitely be missed.

Lion Spirit is a strong way to AOE a board and is stapled to a pretty reasonable body. It can also be tutored by Aether of the White Wing. Lion spirit was a strong tech card but now Haven will just have to keep evolving its Cudgels.

Honorable Mentions

While I think the cards listed above are the most important cards in Rise of Bahamut there are many other cards that do see some fringe play and it would have felt wrong to not include them somehow in the article.

 

Chronogenesis gave forest many new toys, several of which have yet to impact the metagame. Some are completely neglected, with no testing at all. When Chronogenesis came out, I (like in all previous expansions) set out to try all the new forest cards. This time, I noticed a new sub theme in Chronogenesis, small buffs. In previous expansions there have few cards that are able to buff a follower or AOE buff your field (7 to be exact). Of those 7 cards there was not really any consistency between what those buffs did, some did attack, some HP, some both. In Chronogenesis however, there are 6 cards in the expansion that give your followers +1/+0, possibly hinting in a direction forest may go down in the future. Below, I have listed every Chronogenesis forest card along with my my own personal opinions on each card.

Insect Lord: Removal roach, the card -this card can do some incredible things. What makes it so powerful is its flexibility, as a small removal in the early game or as a massive board clear when used with cheap cards (such as Fairy, Fairy Wisp or a White Wolf card) and bounce spells. It also leaves behind a 1/1 body that demands either an answer or an opponent who does not respect the bounce spell. I want to take this time to say 0-cost King Elephants are pretty crazy, by itself it can end a game. In combination with insect lord(s) however it can turn a sticky situation into a very powerful board flip.

8.5/10

Firesprite Grove: Have you seen this animated? Incredible art for an incredible card. Firesprite Grove is some kind of mix between Elf Child May and Fairy Circle. However, it’s much slower than both of them. It supplies you with a steady stream of fairies, and my favorite thing about it is that it’s something you can play on turn 1. The 1 damage ping is also quite powerful, being able to kill off a weak/injured follower or setting you up for some efficient trades (especially with Wood of Brambles). For OTK Roach you can play this instead of 1 drop followers so that your goblin mage can have a 100% roach pull rate.

8/10

Aria, Guiding Fairy: A Legendary upgrade to Elven Princess Mage. EPM has always been a strong card for enabling powerful combo turns with her 0 cost fairies, but as a consequence felt bad to play without an evo point.

Aria does not have that issue, because she gives you one fairy wisp on fanfare. Additionally, Aria’s wisps are an INSANE upgrade to 0-cost fairies. They ended up being so powerful in combination with Rhinoceroach that Aria was limited to 1 copy per deck in Unlimited just a few weeks after release. She isn’t nearly as busted in Rotation, without Rhinoceroach, but but is still good at keeping your hand full and triggering combo effects such as Maahes and Beetle Warrior.

Unlimited: 10/10
Rotation: 7.5/10

 

Rayne, Elf Smith: A 2PP 2/2 and in my opinion, one of the more powerful ones available. However, Forest already has an abundance of powerful 2/2/2’s and not enough space for them all. It’s hard enough to pick between Lily, Fita, Leaf Man, and Rayne,and that’s not even including neutrals, other 2-drop followers, and spells.

Rayne is a powerful card that can swing a board hard, almost comparable to Old Man Levi. I am curious whether she will see more play after Lily rotates out.

7.5/10

Crimsonbow Elf: Crimsonbow Elf is pretty strong in some matchups like Forest, Sword and Shadow. What this card can do against those classes should honestly be illegal, wiping a board and leaving behind a halfway reasonable body. However, against decks with big followers like Dragon or Haven, this card is rarely anything more than just a 3PP 2/3.

One of Crimsonbow Elf’s biggest downside is that she costs an Evolve. When your deck doesn’t have space for too many of these mass AOE’s, Cassiopeia just tends to be better, activating on fanfare and maintains your hand size instead of reducing it. Another strike against Crimsonbow is that she needs to be played in the same turn as other cards if you want her effect, this is not always possible and even when it is can be a hindrance if other cards in your deck care about your own hand size.

7/10

 

Fairy Torrent: After playing with this card I learned one thing. Bounce effects are strong. Period. Any bounce spell effectively says “1PP, draw another copy of the best card you currently have. *Insert random bonus effect here.*” The thing is, we forest players have been spoiled by incredible cards like Nature’s Guidance, Airbound Barrage, and Ancient Elf. In comparison, Fairy Torrent just seems unappealing.

One criticism that Fairy Torrent often gets is that its enhance effect is too expensive. Yes, ancient elf did it for 3 AND gave you stats, but the thing is, you don’t HAVE to use the card for its mass bounce. Think of that as just a bonus (that can sometimes be clunky to play).

The HP swing can be massive in a close game, the resources you rebuy from a mass bounce are huge, and with forest’s powerful cheap amulets (Im looking at you Spring Green Protection), you will often have something you can keep on board to bounce.  

To me, Fairy Torrent is one of the most interesting cards in the set. While I don’t think its time has come yet, I believe Fairy Torrent is a sleeper waiting for its time to shine.

 

8/10

(Now I know what your thinking, 8/10? I know, I gave this card a VERY ambitious rating. Before I decided to call this writeup finished I wanted to make sure HSK PancakeReaper (one of our most trusted forest mains) agreed with my evaluations. But When it came to Fairy Torrent he profoundly disagreed, and I understand where he is coming from. There are times when Fairy Torrents enhance effect will screw you up. There are times where the HP you get from torrent won’t matter and there are times where a bounce effect just will not get the job done. And in his opinion, those chances of inconsistency makes it not worth running when there are plenty of other cards out there that can do the same job much better. I am personally excited to see what this card may do down the line but I want to leave you wonderful readers with both mine and pancakes ratings.)

Pancake’s rating: 4.5/10

Furious Elder Weedman: The Forest version of Palace Fencer. He’s a cheap follower that can help push 1 damage. However, he’s 2PP and that makes him much harder to combo with cards like Elf Song and bounce effects. When I first saw this card, I thought maybe it could be pretty good, but I dont think Forest has the same tools sword had that made Palace Fencer good ( at least at the moment).

6.5/10

 

Leaf Man: Oh look! Another 2PP 2/2! Where were my notes on Rayne again…? Leaf man is the love child of  Elf Girl Liza and Blessed Fairy Dancer, having both of their effects stapled onto a 5PP Enhance effect. The thing is 5PP is expensive for an effect that is intended to protect and buff your board, it’s hard to do that if you spent all of your PP for the turn developing the enhanced Leaf Man instead of other followers. Thankfully forest has a lot of tools to get mileage out of its followers between things like Wood of Brambles and Elf Song. Because of this its not unreasonable to have powerful Leaf Man turns.
One thing to note is that both Blessed Fairy Dancer and Elf Girl Liza’s effects are valued at 2PP.  Unfortunately this card is not as flexible as Liza and Fairy Dancer. It is worth noting however that giving followers protection from spells and effects is an incredibly powerful effect and that alone may bring leaf man into some powerful decks.

6.5/10

Fairy Saber: I’ve heard people call this card Forest Eachtar, but I think that’s far too generous. Fairy Saber has proved useful or even game-winning a few times, but more often than not I would rather just have any other high-end forest card. Since forest can’t develop sticky boards like shadow, he usually just buffs one or two fairies and feels underwhelming.
6/10

 

 

Weald Philosopher: This was a strange card to put in the same set as Aria as they both perform similarly on turn 4.  The main difference between the two is how they instantly impact the board. Aria allows you to hold or play your 0 costs while the Philosopher tells one of your fairies to beat just a little harder. One thing I’ve noticed about forest is it has a few 4PP 3/3’s, most of which see no or only fringe play. I find it hard to imagine the Philosopher being able to compete with similar cards like Aria, Ariana, and Fairy Driver.

5/10

Instincts Unleashed: I want to like this card, but there just are not enough cards right now to make it worthwhile. If you want this to clear a strong follower, you need a strong follower yourself, and forest is not really known for having big followers. The main thing is that the card is so expensive for what it actually does and is so linear that it just feels clunky to use. Maybe there will be more cards down the line that can make use of this effect, however at the moment the only card that Instincts Unleashed feels remotely close to being playable with is Fita the Gentle Elf and to put it bluntly, she doesn’t reward you enough to be playing such an awkward card.

4/10

 

Adept Archer: So I look at this and the first thing I think is “3PP 3/2. I like those; they beat down hard (if they live(things do not often live in Shadowverse)).” So then I read the effect and I think “oh cool, I can use this to clear stuff too.” And then I use the card, and it just does not work like that.

Most of the time you play it you can’t even trigger her. Other times you will get her buff trigger but your opponent won’t have anything on board. So you have to jump through all these hoops for….. 1 random damage? Oh boy that will help me deal with that 4/3 on the other side of the board.

I don’t know, I think Forest Spirit has a much more relevant effect and that card never saw play.
3/10

I wanted to leave those who read this far with something they could take to the ladder, so I present to you the deck that inspired this write up. While I dont think its by any means an incredible deck I had a lot of fun testing and tweaking it. The deck went through lots of changes since I first started with it, initially having many more of the buffers that came in Chronogenesis as well as Adept Archers. In the end I found that there was not enough reward to be going so deep on a synergy and much of it did not make the final list. I did however find that Fita is an incredible card and rewards you pretty heavily for building around her. Due to this I would not discredit the buff Forest archetype and am curious to see what future expansions will bring to the table.