Review: Shadowverse (Japanese Hearthstone)

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

So can someone point me towards a guide that explains the nitty gritty of how the rank and level systems work?
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
User avatar
Whipstitch
Prince
Posts: 3660
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:23 pm

Post by Whipstitch »

Image

Nep on Nep violence is dumb.
bears fall, everyone dies
User avatar
maglag
Duke
Posts: 1912
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 10:17 am

Post by maglag »

Lord Mistborn wrote:
fectin wrote:I've noticed a weird pattern, and it seems to be repeatable: cashing in more tickets at the same time consistently produces rarer draws in each pack.

I haven't played much, so my sample size is fairly small. But it's a big enough difference to be noticeable, and it seems to be reproducible going forward.

On the other hand, this is exactly how people get caught in magical thinking. So, has anyone else seen this behavior?
It's probably just a psychological thing. If you open a bunch of packs obviously your're more likely to draw rares. Any when you open a lot of pack in succession you'll tend to go through the uninteresting packs faster and thus interesting ones will stand out more.
I just opened 4 boosters and the only pack where I didn't get one rare was the one where I got two.

Although last year I once opened like a dozen packs in a single go and nothing special seemed to happen.
Last edited by maglag on Thu Mar 16, 2017 4:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
FrankTrollman wrote: Actually, our blood banking system is set up exactly the way you'd want it to be if you were a secret vampire conspiracy.
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

What this game does right:
  • No mana screw. No need for mana fixing.
  • Faction Differentiation handled through "leaders" instead of mana colors -- opponents still have some idea what to expect at the start of the match.
  • The mulligan rule is quick and workable and makes a lot of "bad draws" seem like a consequence of player choice.
  • On top of the mana curve, single-color mana and mulligan rule: starting player handsize is notably smaller than maximum player handsize -- so being unable to play a card on the first turn or two does not put a player down on card ratios the way it does in MtG.
  • One overriding mechanic per faction (not quite unique per faction as Path to Purg counts Shadows) makes learning game in chunks easy.
  • Most of the faction mechanics enable tactical-in-game choices to effect game outcome a great deal -- thus the challenge is not merely pregame optimization.
  • Evolution points are another resource to manage that make in game tactical choices very meaningful.
  • Evolution points and additional card draw negate (and sometimes invert) first-player board and mana advantages.
  • Handing out unique "basic" cards for tutorials and solo play makes sure all players have access to many core tools.
  • Partitioning "Haste" into two abilities is really good design for a game with no out-of turn reactions nor defensive combat tricks
  • Only one evasion ability reduces complex interactions between abilities.
What the game does wrong:
  • Many Legendaries being better than you is pure pay-to-win.
  • Too many lengthy and pointless animations.
  • The lack of a way to pause turn timer even briefly during a match is pretty glaring. A once-per-game-per player "I need two minutes" pause button would literally double the amount of time I could play.
  • Starting life also being hard life limit reduces effectiveness of healing and increases effectiveness of direct-to-damage to the face.
  • Ability interaction still gets more complex than I would like in corner cases (Cost reductions don't apply to Enhance costs; Ward on a follower with active Ambush or 'Cannot be attacked"; simultaneous timing triggers resolving from left to right.)
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
User avatar
GreatGreyShrike
Master
Posts: 208
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:58 am

Post by GreatGreyShrike »

While I broadly agree with that assessment, I just want to mention one thing in particular that stood out because it's the only thing I unambiguously completely disagree with:
Starting life also being hard life limit reduces effectiveness of healing and increases effectiveness of direct-to-damage to the face.
This statement is true but I disagree that the effect is bad. Lifegain is already very strong in this game - in Haven, pure Elana decks are not that weak, Elana Seraph is good, Control Blood's vampiric healing is good, and many neutral cards that heal (including Unicorn Dancer Unica, Healing Angel, and Lucifer) are all used VERY often in many decks. If you could heal above 20, it would make a lot of already dominant strategies even better and would reduce other decks' effectiveness dramatically. The game is pretty balanced with the life maximum, and among other things it acts as a factor to make it less likely games will stall out to the 'play your topdeck every turn, you have no other cards in hand left' phase even playing against life-gaining decks. By having a hard maximum of life as it does, a lot of combo decks can plan around ways to deal with that maximum life, and things like Wolf Bolt decks are playable.

The rest of your points I either agree with or think there are legitimate arguments for both sides.
DSMatticus
King
Posts: 5271
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:32 am

Post by DSMatticus »

Josh_Kablack wrote:Many Legendaries being better than you is pure pay-to-win.
It's more "pay-to-win-as-a-control-deck." The cheapest legendaries are 3 mana, and most of the ones in the 3-6 range either suck or don't have an immediate effect on the board (or are Albert and are actually meant to be played with 9 mana) - which makes them a very bad play for an aggro deck that is supposed to be wrapping up the game around that time. You can really feel that in the total vial cost when trying to put together a control deck versus an aggro deck; a good control blood deck will have as many legendaries as a good aggro blood deck has golds (and the aggro blood deck won't run any legendaries at all).
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

The exception of course is Forestcraft, which is Pay-to-Win at all speeds. Forestcraft Aggro decks are full of Legendaries and Golds, and Forestcraft Control decks are... full of Legendaries and Golds. Fucking Forestcraft, it's really hard to make a deck that isn't a pile of ass without a playset of Ancient Elves, and that's 10,500 vials or buying the pregen deck three times just for that.

Anyway, they've released a lot more of the new set. Havencraft gets some weird stuff that has a place in some decks that are fringe now. Does Guardian Sun getting an Aegis as a win condition landing on turn 8 make that deck not suck? Elana's Prayer gets an archer that does face damage when you heal - giving the deck a much higher chance of getting value from incidental healing. Tarnished Grail is conceptually exactly Seraph in that you play it on Turn 8, then you play accelerants on Turn 9. but it damages all followers when you drop it (making turn 8 less of a "wait for death" turn) and when it goes off you "just" get a bunch of Satan cards, you don't straight up win. But basically it slots directly into Seraph, giving them a 4th, 5th, or 6th Seraph in their deck if that is what they want. So other than Storm, which appears to get a lump of coal in its stockings, all the Havencraft decks get new toys.

Forestcraft goes deep on Control. Jungle Wardens, new Crystal Fairies, Man Eating Groves, and the Elf Queen who resets your fucking life total once per game. I don't know if this archetype is going to be a thing, but it gets a lot of support. Roach decks get a perfectly decent Beetle Warrior to enhance the playstyle.

Swordcraft gets a bunch of support for the Commander Deck. It's a deck that uses the Support Cannon to get huge damage sprays when it plays commanders and then uses Luminous Mages to freevolve Gawain to make commanders cheaper while it has a hand full of Commanders. I don't even know if that's a deck that's going to work, but it looks like it has enough support that it might. Other than that it looks like just some Control Sword toys.

Shadow gets a bunch of support for midrange Necromancy with a sideline of Tyrant Combo. Necromancy aggro and Tyrant Combo were already decent, and I think this Necromancy midrange deck has legs. There's a thing they are trying to do with Death's Ledger for Nephthys decks, but I don't think Nephthys decks actually care.

Rune has some weird shit for Dirt Rune, which is hard to evaluate because Dirt Rune. A few spells that might end up finding places in various Daria or D-Shift builds, but nothing amazing. The big deal is Ginger, the Wordwielder. She, like Daria before her, is just a whole new archetype in a box. You drop her and then you can fill your play space with Lucifers and Zeuses and shit. It's a Neutralcraft Rune deck that did not previously exist in any form. Is it good? I have no idea. Ginger decks are supposed to attack the format from a completely different angle, and maybe it's going to work. My big problem is that I don't see how you make a Ginger deck for less than forty thousand vials, so it's going to be super hard to test.

Blood gets a nice 7 cost Storm finisher in the Soul Dominator. Also it gets the Blood Moon, which is an amulet that declares you in Vengeance for a few turns. That's a small boost for Storm Blood (which was good) and a huge boost for Vengeance Blood (which was bad). The big deal I think is Baphomet Combo. On turn 5 you can Baphomet and cost discount a 5 power creature. So you can play a Maelstrom Serpent on turn 6, which just puts 5 5/5 creatures into play, making you win the game instantly on turn 7. Is that gonna be reliable enough to be more than a meme deck? Maybe.

Dragon gets a lot of support for Neutralcraft Rampdragon. Israfil and the Warcyclone both really want there to be a Dragon Pendant in play when they go off and would like you to ramp them out quickly. They get a new Legendary that is a combination of ramp and Lucifer at 5 mana, which is very good. Also there are some more storm cards: a 2/2 Bane for 3 that Storms in Overflow and an Ultimate Carrot for 8 mana that is an 8/4 that faces your opponent for 3 every time you play or replay it. Storm Dragon was already good, so that looks good. Discard Dragon looks like it still sucks and all the cards that discard things are trap cards. And finally, there are more Orcas? I don't think they are printing enough dolphin based cards that you can make a Neptune deck, but we seem to be heading in that direction.

-Username17
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

Re:

I am in agreement that a hard life cap is good.
Where I have problems is that Piercing Rune Levi needed a nerf and that dual-silverbolt Forestcraft is so strong in the meta because that cap is at 20. I'd be much happier if you could have just a bit of overhealing.

Edit: Alternately, the game could add direct damage countermeasures such as making Timeless Witch's ability more common and stapling it on a couple of Ambush or otherwise resistant-to-targeting followers -- but that seems clumsy when there are already a bunch of healing cards extant is the game.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Sun Mar 19, 2017 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

Another point in my "done right" column:


Interaction between creature combat and removal has a pretty gosh-durn good cost curve and card ratios:
(subpoints:)
  • A lot of cheaper removal is damage-dealing or capped by remaining defense meaning that these effects synergize with attacking followers due to the game's ablative follower defense system.
  • A lot of followers have effects (fanfare, last word) that still give value against removal.
  • Most higher-cost removal gives value in addition to removal.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
User avatar
Whipstitch
Prince
Posts: 3660
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:23 pm

Post by Whipstitch »

I'm still slumming it and it's been hilarious. I've been running a janky slow paced blood deck that runs Yurius, a bunch of life gain and some high quality removal and it's kinda funny how many forestcraft players are clearly running according to some sort of internal script and cheerfully walk right into eminently avoidable haymakers. Like, I I keep having dudes durdle around as I peck at their life total and then the late turns come around and suddenly they realize they're behind on board control and start doing dumb shit like trying to ram their Rhinoceroaches and fairy bullshit into my Flood Behemoths for some dumb ass reason. There's no way this would work if I start playing ranked again but I don't care because it's still funny.
bears fall, everyone dies
User avatar
OgreBattle
King
Posts: 6820
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:33 am

Post by OgreBattle »

Any of y'all using Gourmet Emperor Kaiser?

I put 3 of them in my shadowcraft deck as a renewable source of shadows and sacrifices for necro-assassin. Also got 3 shadow reapers but only using 2 in the deck, maybe try a shadow weenie deck with it.

Are there any cornerstone "must craft" cards for each -craft?
Last edited by OgreBattle on Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
DSMatticus
King
Posts: 5271
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:32 am

Post by DSMatticus »

The Gourmet Emperor can sometimes slot into midrange/control decks, but without rush/storm/ward it's overall a pretty slow card.
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

I've seen Gourmet Emperor used in a number of decks. Shadowcraft more often than others, but I don't think that's a great fit. The Gourmet Emperor's Carrot parade makes sure that you always have something to spend 2 mana on, which makes it good in decks that otherwise might not have something to spend two mana on.

So basically the Ultimate Carrot is decent in a grindy control deck with a lot of high priced cards that might otherwise not be able to spend all their mana. I think people should consider using Gourmet Emperor Kaiser in like Control Blood and shit. Because sometimes you have a 7 mana play but 9 play orbs or some shit, and getting a carrot on the table is "better than nothing." Also, when most of your deck is removal effects, making sure you always have a body on the table threatening to chip away at your opponent's life force is a decent source of inevitability - even if that body is just a 2/2 Carrot.

I don't think that really sums up the way Shadow is played. The most controlling Shadow list is 3478 Nephthys (as opposed to the more midrange 23478 Nephthys), and that deck doesn't give a single rat's ass about mana efficiency or inevitability on turns 9+. Really it just needs to stay alive because turn 8 puts Mordecai into play one way or the other, and that's more inevitability than Ouroboros. For Ultimate Carrot to be good, you really have to be saying "Well, I'm good at killing all my opponent's stuff, but I still need a win condition" and that is not a Nephthys issue. At all.

As for mandatory crafting:
  • Rune: Levi. You need 3 Levi no matter what flavor of Rune you are playing. Daria and D-Shift want it because of the spellboost, Dirt Rune wants it because of the tempo, and if Ginger Rune turns out to be good, it's still going to run 3 for early board clearing.
  • Blood: Vania. Control? Aggro? Storm Midrange? Doesn't matter. You will have 3 copies of Vania. If Blood Moon and Maelstrom Serpent are enough to make Vengeance Blood good, it will also pack 3 Vanias.
  • Dragon: Forte. Whether she's the top of your curve in an aggro deck or the first hitter you play in a Satan deck, you still should be playing the full playset.
  • Forest: Ancient Elf. Also Tia. Purgatory, Silverbolt, Rose Queen, or Roach, you're still going to play the Legendary Walls, because they do aggro, combo, and control. And yes, the new Control Forest deck is going to play both of those as 3-ofs as well.
  • Sword: Albert. You don't actually need 3, some decks get by with 2. But he's the top of the curve for Aggro and he's a finisher for Control and a solid tempo play for Midrange.
  • Haven: There is actually very little overlap in gold or legendary cards between Storm Haven, Elana Haven, Seraph Haven, and Guardian Sun Haven. You're probably going to be running some number of Themis' Decrees and Tribunals, but it won't necessarily be 3 of either.
  • Shadow: Foul Tempest I suppose. There isn't a whole lot of overlap in card choices between Nephthys, Tyrant Combo, and Aggro. Aggro and Tyrant Combo both play Cerberus, but Nephthys has no use for 5 mana fanfare followers.
As you can see, the two cheapest competitive decks are Aggro Blood and Daria Rune. Both rely on class specific gold cards rather than Legendaries. You can do a mass liquefaction and netneck either one with a starting account. The most expensive faction is Forest, where even the leanest aggro deck is still over thirty thousand vials.

I expect all of the new decks from Tempest to be really expensive in vials. For fuck's sake, Ginger Rune runs two Legendary 4/4s whose text begins "The other Legendaries in your hand..." And Commander Sword runs a gold card whose text begins "For the rest of the game, when you play a Gold or Legendary follower..." Even the new Midrange Necromancy featuring Tyrant wants 3 Minty and 3 Cerberus.

-Username17
DSMatticus
King
Posts: 5271
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:32 am

Post by DSMatticus »

Control blood definitely does not need or even particularly want Vania. Control blood runs lifegain to offset the health cost of blood's discounted removal/draw and then makes their opponent cry with legendary neutrals like Bahamut, Odin, Lucifer, and Sahaquiel. Bats do not really fit into that paradigm; Queen Vampire may very well be the only card in a control blood deck that generates bats, and the only reason it's there is because it's a total 6/6 for 6 among three creatures, two of which have ward. Sure, it does extra chip damage if you have a Vania on the table, but who cares? It's turn 6 and you've virtually guaranteed yourself a turn 7, where you'll play something crazy like Sahaquiel into Odin and guarantee yourself a turn 8. Meanwhile, that Vania could have been a unicorn dancer with a stupid name, forcing your opponent to attack into random shit you don't care about while you ramp closer and closer to the motherfuckin' 13/13 that is Bahamut, or maybe "only" a Temptress Vampire.
User avatar
Whipstitch
Prince
Posts: 3660
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:23 pm

Post by Whipstitch »

While we're on the subject of bat shenanigans I'd like to take a moment to rep Veight, Vampire Noble. He's a 3/2 body for 3 with ward and unless he draws removal he's crapping out another cheap body before he hits the canvas. He's only a silver, so get 3, because he'll do just fine whether you're aggro or budget control.
bears fall, everyone dies
DSMatticus
King
Posts: 5271
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:32 am

Post by DSMatticus »

Veight is basically a must for an aggro blood deck - realistically 4/3 worth of total value for 3 mana and it synergizes with all the other bat shit you're running.

Veight is... awkward to fit into control blood, not because it isn't a great card (again, 4/3 worth of total value for 3 mana, ward), but because it's too close on the mana curve to important lifegain cards like Unicorn Dancer Unica and Healing Angel. The existence of those cards - and the need to avoid overstuffing your control deck with cheap creatures - make Veight damn hard to justify, and instead you end up grabbing "defensive" creatures from the 4-5 range like righteous devil (drain) and goblinmount demon (ward) which give your deck a better curve.

But I have seen budget control blood decks that basically drop a bunch of other stuff (lifegain, ward creatures, legendary finishers) in order to fit a sort of bat-based subcombo in; usually, vania, veight, night horde, and vampire queen. I'm not sure how I feel about that, other than "well, at least it's probably cheaper."
User avatar
Whipstitch
Prince
Posts: 3660
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:23 pm

Post by Whipstitch »

It's definitely cheaper, mostly because eking out extra damage here and there tends to be way more compatible with just throwing your randomly drawn 5+ cost rares into a pile and going to war--for better or worse "Budget Control" is often just code for "My Collection Has Too Many Holes To Run True Midrange." That's not great, but there are match ups where you can make it work well enough to get your dailies over without too much fuss. I wouldn't recommend spending vials with just that kind of thing in mind, but as we've already discussed Veight is also a worthy inclusion in aggro decks too, so I figured my boy was worth a shout out.
Last edited by Whipstitch on Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
bears fall, everyone dies
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

I think Aggro, Control, and Midrange all want to be running some amount of bat shit. It's too good to ignore and the synergies are too strong. The Vampire Queen gives Ward to the bats made by either of her kids. Vania does face damage for bats made by her brother or her mom.

I don't think you run the whole bat package in any deck. Control isn't interested in spending 2 mana for a 1/1 Forest bat and 3 points of face damage, so the Castle is not a thing they are going to want. They also aren't going to want Summon Bloodkin. I don't think Aggro is really that interested in a Vampire Queen.

-Username17
DSMatticus
King
Posts: 5271
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:32 am

Post by DSMatticus »

The problem with fitting bat shit into a control blood deck is the other shit you could have instead. Here's a basic "I need to survive until turn 7-8, when the fun really starts" framework a control blood deck might run:

Unicorn Dancer Unica (2/2 for 2, lifegain)
Healing Angel (2/3 for 3, lifegain)
Wardrobe Raider (3/4 for 4, evolve for removal and lifegain)
Righteous Devil (2/5 for 4, attack for removal/lifegain if in vengeance)
Goblinmount Demon (3/7 for 5, ward)
Queen Vampire (total 6/6 for 6, partial ward)

Vania is a 2/2 for 2 that provides chip damage when bats hit the field. Unica is a 2/2 for 2 that provides lifegain every turn. It's obvious why Vania makes it into aggro decks and Unica makes it into control decks. They are identical chassis at an identical cost, but one has a special ability which makes the game shorter and the other has a special ability which makes the game longer.

Veight and his bat are both one pump chumps (I have never had a game where an unevolved Veight got to attack twice, and I have never had a game where I felt good about evolving Veight), so they're going to dish out a total of 4 damage and then leave the board. But healing angel is a 2/3, and if played on curve will probably be able to attack twice for the same 4 damage total - except she also hits the table with lifegain. Veight makes it into aggro decks because he synergizes with Vania for extra chip, and Healing Angel makes it into control because she makes you die slower.

But you want to fit bat shit in your deck? Sure. You drop healing angel to make room for Veight. You cut some copies of wardrobe raider, righteous devil, and goblinmount demon to make room for Vania. That pushes your curve a little lower, but it's good synergy. You take three of your ~10-12 removal spells and replace them with night horde. You're already running Queen Vampire, because she's amazing. Was it worth it? In the end, I am inclined to say no. Vania is just straight up chip damage, and Veight's presence is only justifiable in the context of Vania.

While we're talking about bloodcraft decks, here are mine. Bloodcraft is pretty much the only faction I've invested enough in to that my deck composition reflects interesting choices instead of whatever I've been able to cobble together out of my packs.

Aggro Blood
3x ambling wraith
3x bloodwolf
3x vania
3x yurius
2x mini soul devil
3x veight
3x imp lancer

3x razory claw
3x summon bloodkin
2x angelic barrage
3x night horde
2x dance of death
2x demonic storm

3x bloodfed flowerbed
2x vampiric fortress

Notes:
*I'm running 6 one drops, but only three are creatures. I've seen people run more, but Cursebrand Vampire is awful and I feel like an idiot everytime I draw it.

*The 4 card slots currently held by Mini Soul Devil and Angelic Barrage represent my greatest struggle in building this deck. I've tried lots of different ways to fill those four cards; Lilith, Killer Devil, Midnight Vampire. I'm pretty happy with Mini Soul Devil. Angelic Barrage is an ongoing experiment.

*Vampiric Fortress continues to be a card that I have in the deck because I feel obligated to have it in the deck. It is occasionally useful, but just as often it seems to sit in my hand being completely useless because the conditions aren't there to trigger it. Which is weird, because the deck has plenty of bat shit going on. But the bat shit ends up being very transient; bats come and go.
Control Blood
3x unicorn dancer unica
3x healing angel
3x wardrobe raider
3x righteous devil
3x goblinmount demon
1x mastema
1x athena
1x medusa
1x sahaquiel
1x bloodhungry matriarch
1x lucifer
1x furiae
2x bahamut

1x blood pact
3x vampiric kiss
3x call of cocytus
3x diabolic drain
3x revelation

3x dire bond

Notes:
*Where's the Queen Vampire, you ask? Well, she's a fucking legendary. That shit's expensive. The plan is to swap out 2x of Wardrobe Raider/Righteous Devil/Goblinmount Demon (not sure which yet) and my 1x of Mastema for 3x Queen Vampire. That's what I'm working on right now.

*Those last 8 followers, the 6+ costed golds/legendaries, probably look like an assortment of random bullshit to you. That's because they are. Those are cards I've lucked into, and honestly it's not a bad collection. I'm not even sure what the end goal is, but it definitely includes 2-3x of Temptress Vampire; Medusa and Furiae are definitely the first two on the chopping block to make that happen.

*I want to point out that a lot of this deck's removal doubles as lifegain; Wardrobe Raider, Vampiric Kiss, Diabolic Drain. Diabolic Drain, in particular, is just amazing. I have seriously had individual turns where I bounced back from 8 staring at lethal to 16 staring at an empty board.

*If you wanted the moar bats version of this deck, you'd do something like swapping 3x Healing Angel, 1x Righteous Devil, 2x Goblinmount Demon, and 3x Call of Cocytus for 3x Vania, 3x Veight, and 3x Night Horde.
Last edited by DSMatticus on Wed Mar 22, 2017 2:51 am, edited 3 times in total.
User avatar
Whipstitch
Prince
Posts: 3660
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:23 pm

Post by Whipstitch »

I dunno, I hate Rhinoceroaches and Centaur Vanguards super bad, so it's hard for me to give up entirely on having a ward critter cheap enough to be thrown out there in the same turn as a Hungering Horde or whatever.
bears fall, everyone dies
User avatar
OgreBattle
King
Posts: 6820
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:33 am

Post by OgreBattle »

Just got a Vania, bloodcraft is still my weakest faction and the one I'm least interested in mechanically but it's a start.

Earthrite Rune has been my favorite so far. My deck's key cards are...
https://shadowverse-portal.com/deck/1.3 ... A79Q.6A79Q
Monsters:
-Olivia (9): lets me use evolution aggressively

-Anne, Belle of Mysteria (8): Helps clean out weenies, Grea helps clear weaker wards and deal damage next turn

-Juno's Lab (7): countdown 3 makes a guardian golem at end of turn, earthrite to start off with a guardian golem, I might craft another one


-Alchemical lore (7)x2: Clears battlefield, but considering swapping it out as by the time I have this card there may be multiple 4+ toughness foes. I don't fight forestcraft often and usually swordcraft doesn't make it to turn 7+

-Professor of Taboos (6): uses earthrite to destroy enemies at end of turn, destroyed enemies become my zombies, I might craft another one.

-Ancient Alchemist (5): 2/4 with earthrite put 3 conjure guardians in hand. Considering crafting more.

Remi & Rami, Witchy Duo (4) x2: a 3/4 for 4 is mediocre, but evolving lets me earthrite a guardian golem

Veteran Alchemist (4): 2/5 for 4 is durable and earthrite to restore 5, a defensive card that helps against aggressive decks

Uriel (4): 3/3 that fetches an amulet from deck into hand, stuck in because I drew this rare recently

-Dwarf alchemist (2) x3: 2/2 that puts a 1 point sigil in hand, evolving to search for earthrite is handy to have

-Levi (2): Just crafted one to see how good he is in an earth rite deck

-Unicorn dancer (2): guardian golems are wards so seeing if this could be useful for healing up damage


Spells:
-Golem protection (5): summon a guardian golem and earthrite to give all guardian golems of mine +2/+2. Seems like a 50% chance I get to buff two golems with this.

-Fissure Bomb (4) x3: deal 5 and earthrite to summon a guardian. Would replace with rarer cards but this is what I've got

-rite of exorcism (3): enhance 5 to destroy pesky amulets

-magic missile (2) x3: handy spell for spot removal or finishing a lucky foe off
Amulets:

-Alchemist's Workshop (4) x3: summons a guardian golem and leaves a sigil for earth rite.

-Price of Magic (3): banish enemy with 2 or less defense, handy against last words, especially mordecai

-Petrifaction (3) x2: earthrite to banish enemy followers/amulets, I like it but running out of earth sigils is a concern

-Red hot rituals (2) x2: deal 2, pretty straightforward and leaves a sigil

-Kaleidoscopic glow (2): use it to delay opponent or reuse red hot ritual

-scrap iron smelter(1): summons a 0/2 ward, mostly useful for the sigil and delying opponents a bit.
I want to roll over opponents with a horde of guardian golems, but the "deal 3 to all" rune and shadow spells hurt. I used to use Crafty Warlocks but found they got pinged to death by elf kids or magic missiles and I wound up with a clogged field. Juno's lab, Professor of Taboos, Ancient Alchemist, and Golem protection seem like cards I should get more of.
Last edited by OgreBattle on Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

Hrm, I have yet to earn my rupees for the "Complete a Private Match" assignment -- if anyone wants to beat up on my collection of cards I oughtta liquefy into something cohesive my player ID is 308 602 204,
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
User avatar
GreatGreyShrike
Master
Posts: 208
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:58 am

Post by GreatGreyShrike »

If you want to grind through the 20 Private Matches thing fairly fast, check the reddit thread and you can find opponents.

In general I can't really suggest you liquify stuff en masse right now, when we're not long from the expansion dropping - most anything you liquify now could conceivably turn out to be useful, depending how things shake when ToG hits.
DSMatticus
King
Posts: 5271
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:32 am

Post by DSMatticus »

OgreBattle wrote:Just got a Vania, bloodcraft is still my weakest faction and the one I'm least interested in mechanically but it's a start.
Yeah, vengeance is kind of underwhelming. Part of it is that the mechanic itself is kind of limited, and part of it is that there are a lot of badly designed vengeance cards - sort of like the developers weren't sure how the mechanic was going to play out and just needed a bunch of filler.

I mean, let's be honest; if you go into vengeance, you are probably about to die. It's most likely turn 5+ so people are playing scary things, your enemy just put you below 10 health so they presumably have some kind of board presence, and your life total is dangerously low. Under those circumstances, there are very few abilities you actually give a shit about. You care about storm and face damage, because you can use those to kill your enemy before they kill you. You care about rush and removal, because you can use those to clear your opponent's side of the board and buy yourself another turn. You care about ward and lifegain, because you can use those to negate a bunch of damage and buy yourself another turn. And... that's pretty much it. You know what you absolutely do not give a shit about? Abilityless cards with fanfare: +X/+X if in vengeance. To get any value out of vengeance, you have to play those cards while dying, but they do absolutely fuck all to stop you from dying on the turn you play them. They hit the board slightly bigger, do nothing, and then you press end turn and die. Unfortunately, this describes a fuckton of vengeance cards.

I think it's clear they imagined the mechanic as some kind of "get incremental value for riding the line between life and death," but that did not work the fuck out and realistically was never going to work the fuck out. In the end, the only vengeance cards people seem to care about are Diabolic Drain, Revelation, Righteous Devil, and Alucard.

Diabolic Drain does 4 damage to an enemy follower and heals you for 2. It normally costs 5, but only costs 1 (one!) in vengeance.

Revelation does 8 damage to all followers. It normally costs 8, but only costs four in vengeance.

Righteous Devil gains bane and drain if played while in vengeance. This makes him an incredibly sexy outlet for evolution points. Here's a hypothetical turn 5; play righteous devil, play diabolic drain, evolve righteous devil, attack. You should kill two creatures, gain 6 life, and be left with a 4/X. Very comparable to wardrobe raider, where'd you dish out 10 damage total, gain 4 life, and "probably" be left with a 4/Y where Y is smaller than X.

Alucard is a 4/4 for 7 with storm who gives you 4 life if played while in vengeance.

Notice what all of those cards do? You're losing, which is how you ended up in vengeance, and then those cards make you stop losing. There are basically no aggro vengeance cards, and that's not really surprising. A card that is only economical in the mid-late game after you've taken a bunch of damage is fundamentally not an aggro card. The best you could do is add "fanfare: gain storm if in vengeance" to a bunch of cheap blood cards OR make a gold version of imp lancer that's something like 4/5 for 6, gain +1/+1 and storm if in vengeance. That's the only thing that would make aggro blood look at vengeance like it's worth betting on. I guess you could make a gold, 3-point razory claw that does more damage in vengeance but is less economical out of it; razory claw is already a solid finisher, so a finisher that specifically gets bigger when you're trying to close out the game would probably be tempting. But at that point, I'd be seriously concerned about giving blood too much direct oomph.
Last edited by DSMatticus on Thu Mar 23, 2017 6:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
OgreBattle
King
Posts: 6820
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:33 am

Post by OgreBattle »

I figure vengeance could'e worked in a way like shadows, but instead of graveyard cards it's how much damage you've taken. Call it 'blood'

So somebody crimson sorcery's you in the face, you gain 3 blood and now cards that are "Blood (3)" will activate and spend your 3 blood.
Last edited by OgreBattle on Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Post Reply