Shadowverse Evolve Master

BP07 Release Event - Natura Crossover

In just a few weeks time, the BP07 Release Events will kick off. Only cards from BP07 can be used, but it is a Crosscraft format. Today's article will discuss one of the optimal Natura Builds for this event, Sword/Dragon Hybrid.

It should come as no surprise that the two brothers, Valdain and Bayleon actually work exceptionally well together. The decklist is as below:

Reasoning behind card choices

First of all, it seems immediately obvious to me that Natura should be built with the Sword and Dragon package together. These two packages don't require particularly dedicated builds to function as they rely upon heavily overstatted effects and followers. While Natura Dragon loses access to finishers such as Forte and Oguri Cap, does it really matter if they have access to Mistolina!?

Natura Sword has one of the strongest board control tools available in the format. Slotting in Sword ensures dominance in the early game, as well as access to early removal via Princess Strike/King's Might. Bayleon himself is basically an Alice for the Natura Archetype, which is obviously great.

One of the biggest reasons to use the Dragon package is access to Pteradon and Valdain. Pteradon is broken in all formats, curving something like Confectioner > Pathfinder > Pteradon may as well be an instantaneous concede from the opponent. Valdain is similarly broken, as it searches you cards, clears boards, sets up permanent burn, and requires the opponent to answer it. If you manage to ramp with Pteradon, you have access to turn 5 Mistolina lmfao. How to lose!?

In this format, we have many options when it comes to archetype specific aethers and 2-costs. We've opted for the Sword Aether as this is the least conditional ability and a card we'd like to cast on turn 1 when we don't open Colorful Cook. Lupine is obviously the best 2-cost as well. It summons us a tree and helps us contest the board at all stages of the game. I think the Forest 2-cost is also okay, as burst heal 3 is usually pretty good, but space is tight, and the Sword follower saves us more hp on average due to controlling the board.

Aside from these choices, the rest are no brainers. Viridia Magna and Tyrannosaur both fit very well into our overall strategy and help us control the board. The longer we stay alive, the better it is for us, as we are spamming Corrosion and Mistolinas to face.

Game plan

Take first. Evo points aren't very useful for our list since Bayleon is the only card that benefits from them. In addition, we want access to the broken curve of any 1-cost > Any 2-cost natura > Pteradon.

Hard mulligan for Pteradon!

Your early game will focus on playing on curve (1-cost, 2-cost, Pteradon [!!] ). Control the board early as we should win the mid-late game naturally once our Valdain/Mistolina Combos go online.

In addition, this will help us mitigate the impact of tempo evolves from the opponent (such as from Blossom Spirit or Displacer Bot). Our tempo evos tend to come later in the game, in the form of Valdain. Until this point, it is not easy to deal with the aftermath of giving the opponent highly favourable trades. Try to set up at least two trees on the board going into the mid game, as most of your Sword cards will require this to function well.

Once you reach 6pp, I think it's totally fine to just start slamming Mistolina if your opponent has a weak board or you have princess strike in cemetary. It's not easy for them to clear it, not to mention it's just straight up 7 damage to the face.

Find opportunities to set up Valdain as well. Since every single card in our deck is Natura, it should not be hard to get to 10 cards in cemetery, meaning 2 damage per turn. Most of the time, Valdain is going to take a huge amount of their resources to deal with, and you can just chain Valdains and once you have 2 corrosions, it's sort of just over. Sword has so many removal options, not to mention Mistolina to close the game out.

Conclusion

From what I can see, the deck should be practically unbeatable if you open with the 1-2-Pteradon curve, making it a very strong pick for the release event. I think there's no point considering Ladica, since Mistolina does the same thing for far less work, and doesn't require you to build a deck around it. I think this should be the best Natura deck of the format.... But what about the best Machina deck?

Well, let's see if I can become a colorful cook for Machina too (laughs).

November Update + Raffle Results

Firstly, winners of the Raffle this month:

Young Cat Tier: Avaltus
SVM Tier: Geralf

As always, winners can DM me on Discord to organise a coaching session. BCS should be upcoming for many of you, so make sure to set something up!

This month has been a little slower than the other months and this is because I have been very busy with travelling across the world! As many of you know, I placed top 8 at BCS Vietnam and Top 4 at BCS Yogyakarta respectively.

Afterwards, I played at the Dragon Ball Fusion World Nationals in Melbourne, where I placed 3rd overall.

Next week, I will be flying out for One Piece/SVE double header weekend. Considering I also work full time, finding the spare time to get everything done has been rough. Luckily, everything calms down for me after this weekend, so less interruptions are expected.

That said, there is a private issue that is outside my control... Depending on how it plays out, I will let you know of any impacts on my future plans.

I put out a Tier List video for BP07 yesterday. I found the feedback on this video to be quite interesting. Many people don't seem to think Natura Dragon/Natura Forest very good, but I can assure you guys, those decks are very good. Obviously, Natura Sword is a frontrunner for BDIF, but I don't think people should feel uncomfortable with bringing those other two decks, they are very strong. I think Mono could have been put in Tier 1, but aside from that, I think the tiering is pretty accurate right now.

To be honest, BP07 is not the type of meta I like a lot. Generally, these types of formats are far too wide for their own good, and they create rough situations where you can get ruined by matchup variance. Power creep is much higher in this set, and there's a reliance on hitting specific card combos, which provide significant advantages. Examples include Pathfinder -> Pteradon or Mistolina + Princess Strike. It's sort of the problem that happened with Digital SV, where eventually you got so much card draw you were supposed to hit the combo most games, but if you simply didn't.... then you just lose and it's not even close.

It may also just be a bad feeling on my end, but the card prices don't seem too healthy right now either. As expected, Technolord and Viridia Magnas are much more expensive than the other legends, but 5 USD for the others seems very low. I wasn't under the impression that BP07 was a heavily sold out set like BP05, but perhaps I am overthinking it. Compared to BP06, it's quite surprising.

I also think it's a little concerning that Grand Showdown Gilnelese is selling for 800 USD, and Kuon has multiple confirmed sales at ~500 USD. In and of itself, the secondary market will do what it wants but it's a little rough when, in the case of BCS events, the travel cost will surpass the amount of money you can make, outside of winning the whole thing (and in the case of Kuon + Unsponsored invite, even if you win the whole thing).

Overall though, I don't think this is necessarily concerning for SVE as a whole, as I believe that it runs at a fairly low cost. The distribution networks and BCS events would exist irrespective of SVE (due to Vanguard/Weiss etc), and afaik, SVE product is print to order. In addition, with Worlds Beyond potentially coming out next year, it's unlikely it would be canned, if only due to optics. Perhaps the main factor is simply that they don't even need to spend money on developing the game, as the card sets were already developed in Japanese.

At some point in the future, I want to write an article about what I think is the most solid investment when it comes to SVE. And I use the term "investment" fairly loosely, haha.

In any case, see you guys next time, and as always, thanks for the support.

BCS Vietnam Vlog - Trip so far and meta breakdown/walking through my thoughts going into the event/deck choice

Hey guys, as some of you know already, I'm currently in Vietnam for the BCS! First time being here, definitely a.... unique experience so far, have been scammed once so far!

I chat about a few of my tourist experiences, but also cover the CP02 meta and my thoughts on why I'm picking the deck I'm bringing tomorrow and why I opted against the other meta decks.

There will be a bunch of content out for BP07 over the next few weeks (meta summary/deck guides/bp07 release tournament, especially as people cash in their coaching sessions ^_^.

BP07 Preliminary Look - Grand Prix Osaka

First look at the new set with Grand Prix Osaka top 4 deck lists.

More content to follow as we get closer to the release!

10-28 Idolmaster 3-1 Locals Run

Today, we are showcasing a non-Kuon deck with the cute variant of Idolmaster.

So I think this deck has a set of very polarising matchups - when it's good, it's good, but when it's terrible the games feel sort of unwinnable. Ultimately, I think it's an excellent deck to have in your wheelhouse, as it can occasionally be one of the best decks into certain metagames.

I go through each of the games, reviewing a couple of the lines and sharing my thought process.

I've been thinking about how to optimise the build, but I think the one thing this deck truly lacks is a "real win condition." Kirari is pretty good at closing games where you are really far ahead, but it's a little awkward because you can't reasonably run more than 1 copy of her due to being a 9-cost passion follower and vs some matchups, you simply cannot stick a board long enough for it to matter.

So I can probably improve a bunch of matchups like 10-15% in either direction, but I cannot see a way for it to beat its truly hard counter matchups, which is unfortunate.

Raffle Results - October

Please see the Raffle Results for this month below.

Note that I added an extra raffle this week for the Supporter Tier, which would not normally be held this month.

Young Cat Tier - Avaltus

Shadowverse Master Tier - Mobe the King

Supporter Tier - Ruxter.

Congratulations. As always, you may DM me on our Discord to organise a session.

This month's recap 

Idolm@ster just launched, and to my surprise, there are certainly more viable decks than just cool im@s and Kuon. Supposedly, in the most recent BCS event, the winner was Cool Im@s but the top cut consisted of Fairy Forest, Control Abyss, Kuon, Play Point Haven and Cool Im@s.

This month we released a couple of YT vids, Framework's Cool Im@s Guide, and the first of my new written series around securing value in the SVE Marketplace.

I would have liked to have done more this month, but I fell sick at a very inopportune time (sick as of writing this, too, for what it's worth), but I expect to be better over the coming few days...

I currently intend to play BCS Vietnam in November (which is iM@S format), and then it's full steam ahead with Set 7.

I've also been thinking about some content ideas, and I've seen the concept of a "masterclass" floating around recently in other card game communities. Is that something that you guys might be interested in? Conceptually, it'd be around a week before one of my major events and I'd be sharing some of the tips and tricks around the deck I'm most considering piloting before the event. It would be a bit of a lecture style, while giving people in the class a chance to ask question in between each section.

As always, thank you for your support, and I'll see you guys next month.

SVE Economics #1: Idolm@ster starter decks.

This is designed to be an irregular series of posts around how to maximise your value when spending on SVE. A lot of these ideas I don't want to be too public, but I'm cool with sharing it with you guys, as I want you to get as much of your money back when subbing to SVE Master.

Oh, also, obviously, this is NOT financial advice, DYOR etc.

One of the things I've been thinking about a lot recently is the release of the Idolm@ster Starter Decks. For context, when you buy one of these starter decks, there is a promo pack of 3 cards, which has a small chance of containing 1 SL or Leader Card.

As per the picture below, you can see that the SL and Leader cards are worth a lot. Although your RRP in the United States is 22USD, the big hits go between 50 USD to 100USD. For context, in Australia, a Starter Deck is around 35-40AUD (25 USD). Surprisingly, this is one of the few products that Australia does not pay a ridiculous premium compared to the U.S.

The most important question any value-chaser has to ask is the following:

"What is the hit rate of a SL or Leader?"

Based on my research, the possible hits are 2 SL 0 Leader or 1 SL 1 Leader per display box (6 starter decks per display box). The Leader is not guaranteed in the case, from what I have heard, it's roughly 1 in every 2-3 display boxes.

In other words, your odds of hitting one of the chase cards is approximately 33%. This is our starting point for any analysis. Of course, let me know if my assumptions are incorrect too ~_~.

Let's use the Cute Starter as an example on if this might be worth gambling on. The two SLs and leader all appear to be going for roughly 100 USD (this seems crazy at first glance, but recall that Cool is the meta aggro deck, which means higher supply in circulation + foil commons drag down the price of the other high value cards.)

This means that if you bought all six starters, you would on average see 200 USD (two hits), ignoring literally everything else about the starters. 200/6 = 33USD. Clearly, if the RRP of a starter deck is 22 USD in the US, but the average value of a starter deck is 33 USD based only on the SL/leader hits... Hey, you know what that means, right?

Actually, this product prints money, at least at current market values.

The advantages of a physical card game store

You have two choices when it comes to buying the product:

1) You purchase from the supplier directly (this means you pay less money per starter deck)

2) You purchase from a store (this means they charge you a higher amount to make a profit - they are a store, after all)

At first glance, 1) seems like the best option - but is it really? In reality, 2) is the better choice, at least in my opinion

Have you guys ever played Blackjack? Or heard of the term, "counting cards?" I think many of you subconsciously consider such concepts, but if your store has a fresh display case of Cute Idolmaster Starter Decks, isn't it a no brainer to purchase it if the price is the RRP of 22 USD? After all, we earlier confirmed the average expected value to be at least 33 USD.

Now, suppose we failed to hit on the first try. Now we know there are only 5 Starter Decks left. There are 2 big hits left, so there is 200 USD of value in the remaining 5 starters. Therefore, each starter is now worth 40 USD (up from 33 USD). Of course, if it was worth it to buy it when the expected value was 33 USD, it's obviously worth it to buy it now that it's 40.

Suppose you miss again.... Now it's 200 USD over 4 starters. The expected value is now 50USD. Naturally, you buy it again. And so forth.

Essentially, as long as the expected value is within the green section, you gain value on average by purchasing the starter deck. The only thing that's necessary is that you walk in with the resolve to buy all six if you get unlucky.

To explain why I think purchasing from a physical card game store is ideal - it's because you can walk away the moment the EV becomes negative. For example, you hit the SL on the first starter deck? Great, now you walk away, and enjoy your $$$. When you buy from a card game store, you have flexibility.

Another common scenario is that perhaps you see someone purchase a starter. They open their promo pack in front of you. If they hit? Cool, now you know the EV in that store is down a lot. If they didn't hit... Well, maybe it's time to go in?

Imagine, on the other hand, you purchase a display for yourself. If you hit a SL on the first starter, it's going to be difficult to sell the rest of the loose starters. You are almost committed to opening the rest, even though you killed the value on the first Starter Deck.

Final thoughts

The analysis presented in this article has taken a number of assumptions.

1) That the cards outside of the SLs/Leaders are worth zero (but in reality, they are definitely worth something)

2) That the cards can be sold at the current TCG Player prices

3) That the average hit rate is 2/display box

Nevertheless, I think this idolmaster starter deck represents some excellent value. Many of the starter deck exclusive cards are actually extremely strong. Although Cute is the best Idolmaster deck, both Passion and Cute are definitely viable during CP02. Hope this helps you guys out.

Open 8 Guide CP02

Overview

Want to win the exclusive super rare Magical Dress token? Look no further than this drafting guide to make sure you get the best of your 8 packs every single time.

Once again, Bma here with card evaluations for every single card in the set. The Open 8 guide this time will be for $5 subs and above.

Note that we also have a version on the website that will be up between 0-2 days.

How to use this guide

In general, drafting in Open 8 will become very easy when using my guide. On average you will run into two situations after opening 8 packs:

1) You drafted too many good cards

This is a great problem to have. It means that even if you do make some slight mistakes with deckbuilding, you will still be able to win. Just cross-reference with my list and pick only the cards that I consider to be strong. Ideally, you want to reduce your deck size to 30.

2) You drafted too few good cards

This resource helps you pick the 25 or so good cards that you do have, so long as you can cross-reference or memorise the material below. You then find the 5 or so cards in your pool that are the "least bad" and boom, deck is done.

That's all there is to it. Most of the time, "synergy" is overrated, just pick good cards and it'll work itself out (outside of the specific synergies I mention within the article).

I drafted a good deck but I lost, why? 

Reason 1: The variance factor 

This is the nature of BO1 formats with high variance. Sometimes you can draft the best deck in the room but not win the event. For example, imagine if you pulled 2 Israfil in BP04 Open 8. This is an insane advantage over practically all of your opponents.

But the odds of not drawing a single one in your top 15 cards? 24%.

In 24% of your games, it doesn't even matter that you drafted the most broken card in the set!

Reason 2: The piloting factor

Drafting a good deck is not the only component to winning an event. Sometimes, an inferior draft can beat a better draft due to player skill. Suppose you make a subtle misplay that the opponent capitalises on. Sometimes, that's all it takes to lose the game.

CP02 general draft thoughts

First of all, I don’t see any downside to choosing an idolm@ster themed leader for the pre-release, as you gain 5 magical item tokens for free. These cards will typically be used for your Lesson (X) effects, but it's worth noting that you can also just hard cast it for 4 to heal 1 and draw 1, surprisingly relevant as it means you cannot run out of resources, and makes control decks more viable (Have too much pp and no followers? Just draw a card while you're waiting.)

Second, this format has a huge amount of powerful removal options and quicks. For example, there's a 5pp quick that just straight up destroys two followers. There's a 2pp quick that gives a follower +1/3. So in this format, you want to always keep an eye out for how much pp they have and not get hard punished by it.

Third, although aggro decks CAN be good, control decks are surprisingly viable and draftable too, and games can go very long.

Fourth, I also don't think the whole cute/cool/passion synergies matter that much overall. Occasionally, you'll get some cards that search out specific synergies or have bonus effects if you meet certain criteria - do not bait yourself with these. Take the small advantages if they're relatively easy to obtain, but don't ruin your deck quality in the process.

For the most part, I recommend being flexible with your draft, and being critical with what direction you want to go in (i.e. sometimes 1-drops are very good, sometimes, you should absolutely just skip them. It all depends on the card quality and pay-offs you have available).

Forest

Aiko Takamori

No point considering this card without the evolve. 3 cost 2/2 is understated for the cost and the fact that you can whiff makes it even worse. That said, if you have the evo, I think it makes sense to partially draft around it (that is, play more passion cards)

Miku Maekawa

Very strong. 3 play point 3 damage storm, not to mention it can also deal 2 damage to an enemy follower for free. Can trade into 5 def follower or clear 2 for 1 by using 1pp for rush.

Yuzu Kitami

Pointless without the evolve in my opinion. 1/1 ward isn’t very good in my opinion, and the lesson effect is generally pointless, even with Brand New Beat. Decent card with the evolve effect though, as it can get rid of opponent’s early tempo then force them to trade into a 2/2.

Anastasia

Very strong card. Although a 3pp 2/4 seems average on the surface, the card can remain standing after it is initially played, and then on following turns, if it was not cleared by the opponent, will give you 2pp a turn, and in many cases, can allow for 5 cards to be played, which then gives you a buff to the entire board and an unlosable game state (you will need a Spell to accomplish this due to board space though).

Brand New Beat

Exceptional card, after thinking about it. You can play this at any time you have free play points available (probably turn 1, but you’ll usually find some kind of timing). Then this card can literally just give any follower +1/1 for 1pp? This is kinda insane, no? For example, you can buff your follower then trade over opponent’s follower. Or you can just buff it and swing face, making it higher than their current turn’s threshold (forcing them to trade 2 followers in while they take face damage). Not to mention that you can time this with when you use your lesson effects so it draws a card too.

Shinobu Kudou

This is where it starts making sense to play cards like Yuzu Kitami (even without the evo) because this card is essentially 4pp for 4/4 in stats minimum + a free amulet, while thinning your deck by 3 cards. Of course, the pre requisite is that you are actually able to consistently tutor that many cards from deck.

Yumi Alba

Not sure how reliable the Fanfare is, but 3/3 stat line is fine for a 3-cost, and the evolve effect is excellent if you managed to pull it.

Goddess by the Morning Sea

Excellent with Anastasia in particular, otherwise it’s okay as a deck thinner. Still, you would generally choose not to run this without some form of combo synergy or Anastasia if you have better cards.

Honoka Ayase

2/1 is pretty good in general for a 1-cost and the fanfare is not bad (representing 1pp value from not needing to give follower rush). Synergises well with cards like Shinobu Kudou.

Azuki Momoi

Good card in my opinion. Leave a follower standing, then on your next turn, play 2 followers then this for 1pp, give this rush, trade into something (with this living on 1 or 2 hp), then you are in a super strong tempo position.

Kana Imai

Play it if you have the evolve. The evolve effect is obviously excellent.

Otoha Umeki

Delayed value card but I think it’s fairly strong, especially with a deck that can swarm the board. Basically Archer at home.

A Single Vessel

I think this card is worth playing simply as removal. The activate (2pp) effect is also fine, as it basically lets you trade any card in hand to be a 3-damage removal.

Swordcraft

Kyoko Igarashi

Playable even without the evolve. Heals for 3, draws 2, has huge stats and ward. In reality, you play this, give it rush and it wins you both tempo and card advantage. If you’re ahead, just leave it standing and you threaten lethal with it. No brainer to include with the evolve, broken boss monster at that point.

Nagi Hisakawa

If you draft a lot of 1-pp cards, Nagi Hisakawa is INSANE. 4/4 stats is solid, the ability to just straight up kill any follower is ridiculous in this format. The second choice doesn’t really matter (2 damage or draw 1 + discard 1 are both fine)

Rin Shibuya

4/4 ward is fine for 4-cost followers in general. Thus, the rest of its effects are essentially just bonuses. The best effect is definitely the combo play with Uzuki Shimamura, but it’s still possible to get value with it without the Evo version of Uzuki (simply becomes a 6pp play, which is still good). The Mio Honda combo is also kinda insane lol, 8 damage to leader is super XD.

Mio Honda

Playable even with no other synergies. 2/1 storm is always fine. Obviously, it works even better if you got Rin/Uzuki.

Uzuki Shimamura

This card is straight up good regardless of no other synergies and even without the evo. 3/3 is fine for 3-cost and it has random flexibility to heal for 1 (Could come in handy, you know). Obviously, the evolve effect is where the card is truly insane, as it represents a huge tempo swing against the opponent.

Anzu Futaba

It is a skip in a majority of situations. While it looks like it might be okay to push 3 damage in, it also effectively costs 3pp to do so, which is not very efficient and will prevent you from doing other plays. I can see it being playable in drafts that go wide very frequently, but otherwise, it is underwhelming (although it has interesting card design).

Karen Hojo

Only playable with the evolved version also drafted. In which case your ideal scenario is to play this with 2 existing followers to get 1/2, then when it evos, it becomes a 2/4 and lives as a 2/1 after pinging enemy follower.

Heart Pounding Impulse

For 1pp, it's okay as a tutor. If you're running a lot of "Cute" cards, I'd probably skip this, as missing means you're going -1 and that's just awful.

Nao Kamiya

Very good 2-drop. You can just slam it early game as 2/3 is already a good statline, but in the mid/late game, being able to ping followers for 2 is very great for tempo.

Mayu Sakuma

One of the best cards in the draft. Why does she randomly have Assail, Bane, and Drain lol? 3/4 stats, and it can be given rush as well which allows it to take full advantage of all three key words while potentially surviving.

Kirari Moroboshi

The way I see it - if your deck was going to play 1-costs anyway, then this card is fantastic. However, if you need to include 1-drops in order to include this card, it's probably a skip. The main thing is, there's a lot of removal in this set, so despite 9/9 stats, it will probably die. You definitely need to cast it for 6pp and not 9, so you also need to reliably have 1-costs on board or in hand to run it. Therefore, I think this card is good with the right cards around it, but skippable otherwise. I also wouldn't deliberately make my deck worse just to accommodate this card.

That said, this card's effect is very strong (although definitely a bit of a "win more" type of card). As far as I can tell, if your followers stick from the previous turn, you can attack with them, then play this to attack with them again...

Miho Kohinata

Obviously very strong with evolve, skip otherwise... I don't think you need to draft heavily into the cute pool either, 2 damage ping is more than sufficient.

Angelic Maid

Very strong card if you are drafting any type of follower-tempo deck. It will also randomly win you games if your opponent isn't familiar with the format. If your opponent swings into your follower when you have 2pp open and it results in their follower dying and yours living..... The game is over lol.

This is also commentary as to how you should avoid getting owned by this card when opponent leaves 2pp up. You might want to swing face, or just leave your follower standing.

There's also an angle where if you believe your opponent is good and you have no other plays, then sure, you can just play it during your turn instead. This is also potentially optimal if you are playing against specific forms of removal (for example, trying to avoid specific 3 damage pings etc).

Runecraft

Mizuki Kawashima

Decent boss monster, obviously you will never get the 7 damage effect off, but 3 aoe damage while forcing opponent to deal with a 7/7 isn't the worst. It's also... not that great either tbh. It's good when it's good, and horribly average when it's average.

Shiki Ichinose

Pretty good card even without the evolve, I think. Basically draws a card on fanfare, and then you can spend a card to clear a card on enemy board, while leaving behind a 2/5... Of course, if you have the evolve too, the card is insane, as most of the time, whatever life you end up paying, you should be able to get that returned from tempo.

Syuuko Shiomi

For 3pp, you discard three cards to draw 2, get a 3/3 on board and clear one of their followers. This is pretty good in my opinion. It's also possible to reach an end game state where you can just play this for 9pp (to not be forced to discard).

Kanade Hayami

3/3 is ok if you need that particular curve slot (but I think this is unlikely with this card pool). The Evolve is VERY strong though.

Center of the Street

Just a generically good removal spell, with potential upside of draw a card (perfectly playable even if you do not draw a card).

Hina Araki

With evolve, an autoinclude. I don't think you need to specifically get good value from the evolve effect, simply the fact that it can be evolved into a 3/3 can be sufficient.

Frederica Miyamoto

Worth playing if your deck has many 5-costs or higher and no better 2-costs. Card is underwhelming early game but gets progressively stronger and a magnet for enemy removal the longer the game goes. On turn 4 onwards, leave it standing going into the enemy turn and watch them panic...

Precocious Scamp

I think with how many great removal cards there are in this set, this card is not as good as it would usually be in Open 8. Still a good card, but might be a 1-2 of tops

Sarina Matsumoto

I don't think there are enough spells in the pool for it to get value, and 1/5 is not a particularly strong stat line.

Rika Jougasaki

Honestly, I think this card is a skip, even if you do have the evolve. It costs too many play points to effectively "draw 1 card," especially since it's only a 2/2.

Sae Kobayaka

Very good card! 1pp to buff something by +1/1 is usually very strong and can force breakpoints that opponent cannot easily clear. Also, if searched from deck, it still gets the fanfare, so keep that in mind.

Tomoe Murakami

This card is pretty great. It has very good stats (5/5) and can be cheated out for 4pp (if the game is very slow, you can try to play conservative and play for 6pp, but most of the time, you are slamming this turn 4). Then you search Full Bloom Panorama, swing 5 to the enemy leader, then clear their two followers and force them to deal with a 5/5.

Dragon

Akari Tsujino

Just a standard auto-include in your draft if you have it. Good stats, has ward, heals your leader, can ramp your leader and can even burn the enemy leader at 10pp onwards...

Yui Ohtsuki

Good card even without the evolve, can basically be viewed as "removal". With the evolve, being able to play certain spells/amulets for free is kinda insane.

Fumika Sagisawa

A PDK-esque effect that demands the opponent to answer it. If you have a deck with good 3-costs and 1-costs, probably an autoinclude. I do think it's skippable otherwise, it's one of those cards that is extremely good when it's good, but don't force yourself to play it.

Akira Sunazuka

Hooooly moly, good card. Basically, a majority of the time you're using only the discard cool card effect to improve your hand - but when you need healing/damage, you'll know, and you'll be glad the option is there. Also, if the game does go long, drawing two cards is... not negligible at all.

Tsukasa Kiryuu

It ramps!? Okay, in all honesty though, going from 6pp -> 8pp isn't necessarily game winning, but the stats are fine so you'll be pretty happy playing this from a neutral board state for sure. Obviously, with the evolve available, it's just broken and auto include. Depending on your deck, you might also consider evolving this card WITHOUT the lesson effect, as lesson (3) can be quite expensive if other cards are competing for the same resource.

Arisu Tachibana

The conditions for playing this card are:

1) You have decent 1-cost spells/amulets in deck

2) You have a 1-cost synergistic deck

Otherwise, it's honestly quite underwhelming

Yuka Nakano

Play if you have the evolve available, otherwise skip. Note that this card does not get +2/2 on evo despite costing 2 to evolve.

Explosive Emotion

LMFAO why does this card exist in Open 8? Broken reset card, basically Themis' decree but more flexible. Just note that its cost increases based on YOUR followers too.

Tokiko Zaizen

Very strong card! It's overstatted aggressively (4/3) and it does extra burn damage as a bonus, depending on how far ahead you are...

Noriko Shima

One of the best 2-costs. Good stats, can heal your leader, and even gives itself rush and +1 attack in the mid/late game.

Yukari Mizumoto

Great card from neutral game state. 4/4 and draw a card is great. This format also has a bunch of amulets that stay on the field and can get value by cracking them for pp later on, so you can also get value by killing enemy amulets.

Nao Takamine

Fantastic with the evolve, obviously, as it's essentially a 5 damage ping minimum on evolve.

Mode Estival

What does Pot of Estival do? In all seriousness, 4pp to draw 3 cards is kinda expensive, so I am not sure where I stand on this card! In a lot of situations, I'd unironically prefer Yukari Mizumoto over this. If you're playing this from Neutral, you're fine, but if you're playing it from behind, you just... die lol. So I think it's ok if you run a heap of removal spells and you are sure you have a better late game than the opponent, but uh... I think I would probably skip this rather frequently, as there are a lot of other cards that can generate resources for you.

Abyss

Ranko Kanzaki

Pretty good, even without the evolve. Decent stats when you consider that it can do 6 split damage to enemy followers while giving you a 3/3 body.

Sachiko Koshimizu

Frankly, I'd play this card even if it didn't have storm/bane when your Leader's defence is at 10 or less. So yeah, you play this card if you get it.

Takumi Mukai

I think 3/3 is a fairly underwhelming statline for this particular expansion, so realistically, autoinclude if you have the evo, otherwise this card most likely doesn't make the cut.

Chitose Kurosaki

Like, the card is obviously overpowered because of its activate (1pp) lesson (1) effect. A mild stat penalty (2/2) is completely fine when you consider the fact that it clears a lot of early board threats singlehandedly. The whole "doesn't take damage" effect is just a small bonus.

Whispering Dreams

Good early game but gets progressively worse over the course of the game. Maybe draft 1-2 copies max.

Chiyo Shirayuki

Err.... isn't this card just op? It's a 3/3 that draws you 2 cards for only 3 mana. Like sure, you take two damage, but who cares.

Aki Yamato

With evo, strong high-end boss monster in the late game. Holding this in hand will generally make you feel like you are in a very comfortable position, as even if the opponent does something totally outrageous, you can full clear it with the evo.

Without evo, still playable, but obviously not as good. 5/5 ping 5 is sort of average, it's ok if you need top end.

My life, my sounds

Pretty exceptional removal card. Kills anything for only 3pp, even does burn damage to enemy leader under sanguine (whatever, small bonus, cool).

Ryou Matsunaga

Overstatted follower with ward that is potentially a +1. Good card to include if you have spells in deck.

Mirei Hayasaka

Pretty easy to get the Rush effect, not to mention 4/3 is an aggressively overstatted follower that, when it has rush, can clear a lot of followers. Besides that, it also helps improve your draws in the following turns. Worth running, though skippable depending on competition in the 3pp slot.

Rina Fujimoto

This card is pretty ridiculous if you have a lot of cards that can activate Sanguine. Otherwise, a skip.

Syoko Hoshi

LMAO this card is such a skip without evo it's not even worth talking about. I don't even know if this card is particularly good even with the evo to be honest, but I guess it can potentially do like 5-6 damage to enemy leader if they have no removal? Like, because of the flexibility, we will run it if we have the evo... But yeah, it's kinda underwhelming, isn't it?

Last Daylight

Decent removal, but it is notably not a quick spell. It has good value if you have a lot of 1pp followers, though.

Haven

Kaede Takagaki

This card is sooooo good. Not much else to say about it, really, it's just great value and good at all points of the game.

Shin Sato

Even without the evo, it's a 3/3 3-cost that draws a card. That's totally fine to include in a lot of decks, nothing exceptional but definitely passable in most cases. The evolve though.... Damn, this card can create some really interesting game states. Even if you don't have the evo, your opponent has to respect the fact that the evolve exists. if you slam it on turn 5 and draw a card, they're going to feel obligated to remove it if you have a good threat in the cemetery...

Nana Abe

I don't like this card very much without evo. I don't think you should be drafting that many amulets outside of Psychic Maiden, so you're probably going to whiff the fanfare most of the time. With evo, it's a great card, you can even justify running more amulets than you normally would, cause this card is cheating tempo for you.

Akane Hino

The card's an auto-include in any draft. Ideally, you want to save it for the Storm effect on turn 7+ for 7 face damage, but it's totally fine to answer the opponent's board with rush & assail when you need it.

White Lily of the Classroom

Believe it or not, I don't really like this card much. I think it costs too much for what it does and represents a large minus in tempo, that is only really offset by cards like Akane Hino (so yeah, you can draft this card if you have the appropriate support, I guess).

Risa Matoba

I like this card in theory, but whether to include it depends on the density of 2-costs and lower within your deck. Can be essentially a 4/4 or 4/5 in stats for 3 mana. If your odds of hitting are low based on your deck's construction, then cut this card.

Haru Yuuki

Great card with evo, otherwise pretty underwhelming. Without evo, not sure I'd include it even if I had Risa Matoba in the deck, MAYBE if I had multiple.

Psychic Maiden

One of the best cards in the format. Removes practically everything early game, then sticks around for a hard removal option in the mid and late game. Would be very happy running multiples of these (3+).

Natalia

This card sucks. I wouldn't be convinced on it being good even if your deck mainly consisted of passion followers. 1/3 stats just sucks to much, and the fact that it doesn't count itself as a passion follower makes this card so bad.

Shizuku Oikawa

This card.... It's so close to being good, but it's just not. 2/5 stats are not good (sure it avoids psychic maiden hahahaha), 2 attack just doesn't pressure the opponent enough.

Layla

Pretty great card with evo, otherwise, I'm sure there are better 4-cost followers you can run.

Sanae Katagiri

Like the card is fine to run at the top end, but just be aware it's probably dead to hard removal the following turn.

Winter Night Prayer

4pp banish quick.... Yep, it's pretty great. The heal 3 effect with a cute follower is incidental, and probably hard to pull off in reality (nor would you really play around it unless you desperately needed healing).

Neutral

New Generations

Like honestly, if your deck is able to support it, I guess it's fine? But I think it comes down too late in most games, and even if it does, it's not like it instantly wins you the game or anything. Kinda skippable.

New Wave

Okay, now this card is very good. It's a little awkward because of the lesson (5) needing literally all of your magical items, but fully clearing enemy board while slamming a 7/7 is pretttty good. You can also just play it as a 7/7 tempo drop that can rush for 1 mana/evo point anyways.

Master Trainer 

I think this card is pointless most of the time as it's completely dead until you have 8pp - and in many cases, you simply will not use that many Magic Items in the first place. That said, this card specifically synergises with New Wave.

Veteran Trainer

Okay, this is probably the more viable magic item recovery option in general. 4/4 stats are fine for a 4-cost, and there is a world where your draft could be hungry enough to want 7 Magic Items over the course of the game.

Trainer

Busted 2-cost follower in this format. Bane and Drain are both very powerful key words, and the fact that this comes as a 2/3 just makes in an autoinclude.

Rookie Trainer

2/2 1-cost, enough said.... But it also has an upside as well that gives another follower +1 attack... Which you would only use if you played this card and it had summoning sickness... But yeah, you're ideally looking to just slam this turn 1 and build immediate tempo.

Coaching Raffle Results September and general thoughts

The end of another month is upon us, and with it, a coaching raffle!

The winners for this month were as follows:

Young Cat Tier: Avaltus

SVM Tier Roll: Geralf

Supporter Tier Roll: KR

As always, you may contact me via Discord to organise a coaching session.

This month's summary

September marked the kick-off of the Worlds Qualification season, including the first major tournament, the U.S Grand Showdown, with 250 players participating in the event. It's a pretty promising sign for the game, indicating a fairly decent amount of growth in the U.S market in particular. It was also nice to meet some of the Patreon members as well, including Ruxter, Hung, and Framework.

You can check out my tournament report which all Patrons can access. In addition, we have something like 4 tournament deck profiles of the top finishers in the event coming out over the next few days on our public YT channel.

In terms of content, we pushed out an almost excessive amount of Kuon material, didn't we? Between a guide, gameplay videos, and even a coaching session for it, it's probably time for a hard reset with the release of CP02. Supposedly, we get our boxes for the unboxing video in a few days time, so we are going to be starting content sooner than expected, including the regular Open 8 Guide as well.

We also pushed out the interview with Red Zone Rogue earlier in the month. Notably, we'll also have a giveaway of his tokens once Bushiroad send us some.

In addition, the podcast should be resuming in due course as well. The co-host will be changing, as the previous one, EveAZN, is taking a break from the game. You can take a guess at who the new one might be!

As always, I'm rather invested in helping out the people on our Patreon, so if you need any advice you can can always shoot me a message in the SVM Patreon Discord Chat. That's all for this time, and I will see you guys next month too for some idol girls ^_~

Grand Showdown Tournament Report

So initially, I had no intention of attending this event, as the flight cost is extremely high, and the format is very unforgiving (have to have very good breakers for 5-2 or place X-1 or higher) into single elimination top 32, which is awful.

However, a week ahead of the event, the local Chinese whale decided he wanted to sponsor my trip for an 80% cut of prizing, which I agreed to. Naturally, I let him know that I didn't think it was worth it for him, but I think he wanted to gamble (lol) and also because it's naturally easier to purchase the prize cards in person than to deal with it online later.

The bad news? I finished 5-2 with bad breakers (but wait until you hear the story of round 6!)

The good news? Well, we did, in fact, manage to pick up a playset of every prize card and a playmat for my friend, the Chinese whale, so at least we still met our base obligations!

Deck Choice

I still stand by Kuon as the best deck in the format.

I made only a single change to the decklist presented in the guide, which was Angelic Snipe > Wind Blast. The reason for this change is that I expected Egg Haven to be somewhat popular, and Angelic Snipe is very important for that matchup, especially when going first. It's a pretty small change overall though.

Tournament

Roughly 250 players with 7 rounds, meaning 16 5-2s make top 32 and the other 30 5-2s don't make it.

Round 1 - Bye card

Round 2  

Kuon Mirror. I lose the dice roll, opponent chooses to go second. He misses the Penguin Wizard opener on turn 2 (as do I, for that matter), but he draws into it for turn 3 and it's just downhill from there. Although I clear it, he is able to repeatedly flood the board with Curse Crafter and Demon Caller, and reaches Kuon threshold significantly earlier. I drew 0 Curse Crafter compared to his 3 + penguin wizard + double trail of light. On turn 8, I leave enough pp open for Rimewind, but I lose regardless as he has double Kuon Dshift Merlin.

The very sad thing is that I had to play Penguin Wizard on turn 8 to cycle + get to Kuon threshold. I did not have the Trad Sorc in hand to start the turn, and after drawing into it, I was semi-board locked due to having a 2/2 on-field + penguin that could not trade into anything, which meant that I could not play Trad Sorc + Kuon to get the ward on Celestial.

Very unfortunate game, but it is what it is.

Round 3  

Yokai Abyss. I win the dice roll, go second. I play as if it's Silence, but after a while, it becomes clear the man is cooking with Yokai/Demonlord Eachtar package. From turn 6 onwards, he starts chaining Eachtars on me and pushing ridiculous boards on me, but due to me leaving my Curse Crafter standing and refusing to swing his face with my followers, I am able to leverage them to clear his board. Importantly, on one turn, I was able to use my standing Curse Crafter's effect for 4 damage, by playing Shikigami Summons play a second Curse Crafter, evo it for 4 damage, use its effect for another 4 damage etc.

I also drew multiple Merlins, which combined with the standing Curse Crafter allowed me to out his board repeatedly, until I eventually had the combo for game.

Round 4 - Egg Haven

I choose to go first, he opens with the standard aggro curve which I clear. I play Demoncaller on turn 3 to make the Alice play more awkward (surefire bullet in hand for huge tempo swing), but he plays Tin Soldier instead, which I cannot easily clear. On my turn I evo demon caller and push face, which is where it gets interesting.

Of course, I'm aware the entire time that Surefire Bullet is invalidated by Andromeda. He plays Alice on turn 4 and I ask him "trading into my Demoncaller"? He says yes.

He does his search and he goes into his movement to swing and when he sees I have a response he's like oh actually I want to play Andromeda first. I think by the rules he's not really able to take it back, but since I had Rimewind, I just let it go.

Rimewind on Tin Soldier there is actually super effective, and then I clear the rest of his board pretty easily. He never draws/play Humpty, so there's practically no real burn threat the entire game despite him putting up a few challenging board states. I eventually find time to chain heal with concentrations/merlin and it becomes impossible for him to close the game out before Dshift Kuon combo.

Round 5 - Aggro Rune

I made the mistaken assumption he was on Kuon, but it becomes super obvious when he starts playing 1-drops and Charming Gentlemouse that he's on something else.

I have Penguin Wizard but it's actually a very awkward game state where Gentlemouse's evo effect lets it do 5 damage together with the swing. So I trade the Penguin into his 2/2 so make it 2/3, thus making the Gentlemouse trade very awkward (as it will ping it to 1 hp, but he's going to be reluctant to trade from there).

I take quite a bit of damage but ultimately stabilise. In the penultimate turn, he plays Truth's Adjudication and he's like "ping your follower" and I'm like cool, then he's like "and also ping your leader". And I have to pause for a second and check his field and he actually has two mages.

He drops me to 6, and I have the option to Curse Crafter to full clear him, or I can go Trad Sorc + Kuon, heal to 8 and presume he can't clear the board easily.

I opt for the latter, and he plays Zodiac Demon, discards Kuon and burns me for 7, putting me down to 1hp. He doesn't have the final damage from there and I win the following turn.

Round 6- Kuon Mirror

This entire match was super cringe from the very beginning.

We start with shuffling our decks, and then passing to opponent to shuffle. I take his deck and I shuffle his deck as I do for many of my other opponents, slanted diagonally so I cannot see the cards, while performing a few cuts and a few mid air riffles. While this is happening, my opponent drops one of my cards onto the floor. I'm in the middle of shuffling his deck, so I'm simultaneously switching my focus between watching him pick up my card, and shuffling his deck (which I obviously need to look at because I'm shuffling the cards at a 45 degree diagonal angle.

He calls a judge after he picks up my card from the floor, and what he says next is shocking. He goes "I think my opponent is stacking my deck, can you please shuffle my deck for me"

And I'm just sitting there thinking "what the fuck" lol. This guy drops my card onto the floor so he potentially gets info on my deck (I can't see if the card dropped is face up or face down) and this guy is calling a judge to accuse ME of cheating!? Supposedly his justification was that my eyes were shifting between his deck and him while I was shuffling, but that was obviously because this motherfucker dropped my card on the floor. Not that.... having shifty eyes is indicative of stacking in the first place???

Judge finishes shuffling the deck and passes back to me to cut. I do the same shuffle I did before in front of both of them (lmao).

In any case, he passes my deck back to me, and then I notice immediately that my outer sleeves are fractured. Like some of them had not only peeled off, but had been outright damaged to the point where a quarter of the sleeve had peeled inwards, rendering it completely unusable. I then noticed that a few other sleeves were the same and had obviously been handled with zero care by him while shuffling my deck. This also takes time for me to literally unsleeve my Evolve Deck cards to replace the outer guard sleeves. So yeah, the game starts probably 5 mins in, and I was too shocked by the whole chain of events to ask for a time extension from this bullshit. I play a lot of card games, and even in sweatier games like One Piece, I've never had an opponent like this guy. Also the first time I've ever been accused of stacking ha ha ha.

In any case, game plays out like a fairly standard Kuon Mirror. I drop a big board on him (can't remember if this was a Kuon on just a random wide board), he gets forced to Merlin + Crimson Meteor Storm to clear. I drop Trad Sorc Kuon, he goes for his Kuon + Shift turn. It gets to the point where he has 1 Kuon left in deck and Dshift in hand and a wide board which I answer using Merlin Witch Bolt etc. I have second Kuon + Trad Sorc to swing face and the hp total is around 14-6 HP, with me being vastly in the lead (probably like 90-10 odds to win, esp cause i have Merlin + Adjudication still in deck), even with him topping 3rd Kuon with Shift, there's no chance he has enough resources to close out the game.

Time gets called, we're probably around 5 mins away from finishing the match (which is very sad if you consider the bullshit he pulled at the start of the round). As is normal behaviour, both players show hand, it's very obvious I'm ahead and I would win the game if it progressed. I ask him if he can just give me the win, he goes "no, I'm going to give you the double game loss".

For context, double game loss is almost always wrong. It's better for one of the players to win because if you are going to lose anyway, then it's better if your opponent has higher tiebreakers. This is why most people are fairly reasonable about this and will give the opponent the win if it's clear that they would have won the game if it continued on.

In any case, I ask him directly "What have I done to you to deserve this?" and he goes "it's nothing personal, I just think that I'll have a higher chance to make top 32 if you are out of the running for it, than the extra 2% tiebreaker from you having the win." I try to explain to him that it's almost always (if not outright always) better to have the 2% TB in this scenario, but he's pretty steadfast and reports it as a double loss.

When he said it wasn't personal, at first, I was like, okay, I guess it's OK if he genuinely believes this. But then I was like, he's literally killing my run cause my TBs are not very good, and he's almost definitely wrong in his reasoning from an objective viewpoint. So at this point, I assume the bridge is burned already and I just give him the final ultimatum, which is that if he reports it as a double game loss, I'll just scoop round 7/drop cause I cant make it anyway, which would therefore make it a 4% penalty to his TBs (basically run-ending in most scenarios).

It's unsuccessful in changing his mind so it's like cool, my tournament run is over in the most stupid way possible.

He queues into Bella in round 7 and loses to her, so it doesn't even matter. Also, according to Bella, he tried to shark her in round 7 as well, so obviously, he's just an all-around cunt and it probably wasn't actually personal lol.

Round 7 Control Haven

I can't top at this point anyway, but regardless, we play it out. He has Marwynn Evo turn 4, leaves it standing, and has Boost Kicker on his next turn (thankfully not Jeanne). This let me clear out his board and relieve the pressure. Although he drops me fairly low, I am able to clear his board on every turn afterward. I am eventually able to set up two d-shifts over separate turns, and this is enough to close the game with only 1-2 cards left in deck.

Thankfully, Bella literally rolls my r6 opponent in record speed, so there's no need to consider conceding round 7 and I get to just finish 5-2. I also did confirm it with my opponent, but he also wouldn't have made it with his TBs, so it was ultimately a meaningless match, as expected.

Final thoughts

I can't really regret my choice of deck for the tournament because, realistically, I should have finished the Swiss round 6-1 or potentially squeezed in with a 5-2 record (as TB is inherently better, as I would be losing to a 6-1 player in R7).

While Kuon had a target on its back, I didn't expect the field to be dominantly Kuon. The deck is somewhat expensive to build and requires a decent amount of pilot skill. In addition, a lot of people were scared of the Amataz matchup, so with all things considered, it makes the choice of Kuon quite acceptable, as it's much harder to target if it's not a super popular deck.

It was definitely pretty annoying to match into a guy like that in Round 6 though, I'm not going to lie. Definitely soured what was otherwise a pretty enjoyable event, meeting a lot of people (including some of the Patrons on here) and checking out LA for the first time again in nearly a decade.

Thankfully, my sponsor wasn't too disappointed about the outcome. He knew the format didn't really make it too likely for a single individual to place well, and the round 6 story is genuinely just unfortunate. I still managed to pick up the prize cards for him at a pretty good price point, so I guess he still got what he wanted, even if it wasn't me who won it for him ~_~!

Thinking out loud: Supplementary material for Kuon Guide

I go through my thought processes in a 3-0 Locals with Kuon, reinforcing the concepts that I highlighted in the guide, with a match against Amataz (first game) and Ginsetsu Abyss (third game) in particular. If you're still brushing up your Kuon play, make sure to give this one a watch.

BP06 Kuon coaching session

For some reason every time I record a coaching session there's always at least SOME kind of issue with the recording. This time, it's the echo in the recording from the person being coached. One of these days, I will get a perfect recording in, but I figured it would still be a good thing to upload this vid as a reference for people that have won coaching already, and are looking to cash in their session soon.

There was also an issue in the second game where the sim stopped working properly (lol), but that one, at least, is not my fault.

So ignoring the technical issues specific to the recording, I think the session itself went pretty well and I am hoping that the person being coached felt the same. When I coach people I try to improve how they think, so that they can take away what they learn from the session and apply it to other games. This is because ultimately, SVE is a game where when you enter a tournament, there's going to be a bunch of situations you haven't come up against before - but as long as you have the right framework to think about the game, you can still come up with the best play.

This is just one form of coaching that can be provided, and arguably, perhaps the most standard one if you can't think of what other coaching you're after.

I've also done sessions on deckbuilding/set reviews etc. But obviously, I play a bunch of different games, and I can offer coaching on a surprisingly wide range of topics.

4-0 Kuon run (online locals)

My opponents seem to have lowrolled very hard in this tournament, but hey, a win's a win.

I've been trying out various builds of Kuon, and at the moment, I'm testing the CP02 iteration with Demoncallers. Frankly, I think I do prefer this build - it allows you to pick second against every deck in the format and gives you a perfect tempo curve with Penguin Wizard, Demoncaller/Cursecrafter/Merlin.

In addition, it punishes weak early starts from opponents, which you would see in this tournament run as a prime example. Slamming a 4/4 + 3/2 on a turn 3 board gives you a ridiculous amount of flexibility for future turns. Your opponent can hardly ignore 7 damage to the face, even if you're not "supposed to be the aggressor."

It also means that you have a lot less pressure to set up high damage lethals with Dshift, and you can find opportunities to win simply through tempo.

But to be honest, the main reason I like it is that I don't have to worry about lowrolling against aggro/midrange decks like before. I had my fair share of games where cards like Sorcery Cache do literally nothing versus early aggression, and even though 2 mana for 2 spells is good, there are a lot of times when it's awkward as hell and incentivises risky gambles.

Once I'm finished testing the build, I will publish the Kuon guide.

08/20 Raffle Results

As always, thank you for your continued support of SVE Master. First thing's first, the rafffle winners for this month:

Young Cat Tier: Avaltus
Shadowverse Master Tier: Ruxter

As always, you may contact me on either Patreon or Discord to organise a session.

On a personal front, I have been busy moving apartment this month, followed by a short trip out of state. Once I am back from that, it's back to playing locals (and BP06), at which point the Kuon Guide will be created for you guys to dominate your local scene with.

This month we released several content pieces on the public and Patreon fronts respectively, including the BP06 Tier List, the BP06 Open 8 Guide, the BP06 unboxing video, and the BP05 Usurpation Sword guide. We also have another great piece of content in the works for the entire SVE community, which you will hopefully see early next month.

Apart from that, how time flies. Some of you will soon be competing in the Grand Showdown in L.A. For others, it may be the upcoming BCS events. If I can be of assistance to you in terms of preparation, please do not hesitate to reach out to me on our official Patreon discord channel.

Until next time!

- Bma

BP06 Open 8 Guide

Overview

Want to win the hotstamped Ginsetsu? Look no further than this drafting guide to make sure you get the best of your 8 packs every single time.

Once again, Bma here with card evaluations for every single card in the set. The Open 8 guide this time will be for $5 subs and above.

How to use this guide

In general, drafting in Open 8 will become very easy when using my guide. On average you will run into two situations after opening 8 packs:

1) You drafted too many good cards

This is a great problem to have. It means that even if you do make some slight mistakes with deckbuilding, you will still be able to win. Just cross-reference with my list and pick only the cards that I consider to be strong. Ideally, you want to reduce your deck size to 30.

2) You drafted too few good cards

This resource helps you pick the 25 or so good cards that you do have, so long as you can cross-reference or memorise the material below. You then find the 5 or so cards in your pool that are the "least bad" and boom, deck is done.

That's all there is to it. Most of the time, "synergy" is overrated, just pick good cards and it'll work itself out (outside of the specific synergies I mention within the article).

I drafted a good deck but I lost, why? 

Reason 1: The variance factor 

This is the nature of BO1 formats with high variance. Sometimes you can draft the best deck in the room but not win the event. For example, imagine if you pulled 2 Israfil in BP04 Open 8. This is an insane advantage over practically all of your opponents.

But the odds of not drawing a single one in your top 15 cards? 24%.

In 24% of your games, it doesn't even matter that you drafted the most broken card in the set!

Reason 2: The piloting factor

Drafting a good deck is not the only component to winning an event. Sometimes, an inferior draft can beat a better draft due to player skill. Suppose you make a subtle misplay that the opponent capitalises on. Sometimes, that's all it takes to lose the game.

BP06 general draft thoughts

One thing you'll notice is that there is a distinct lack of low rarity removal. This means that on average, your followers are more likely to die through combat rather than through other means.

This also creates a large premium on cards like Petalwink Paladin as significant threats in the mid game. Legendaries are also stronger in BP06 compared to BP05. Cards like Ginsetsu with Evo are significant advantages over many other cards in the set, for instance.

Playing for board seems like a solid option in this meta, especially if you have the stronger draft. If you have the weaker draft, you can consider playing hyper aggressive (leaving followers standing and praying they did not draw enough removal)

Forest

Lymaga, Forest Champion - I think with the sheer volume of Hunter cards in the pool, this card is very strong. 4 damage storm is pretty good considering it has bane (meaning opponent can't value trade into it after. Also, the Hunter follower you get will come into play standing, which represents additional tempo and threat against the opponent. Very strong, regardless of evo.

Amataz, Fairy Blader - Another autoinclude into your draft. regardless of synergies The card is fundamentally strong as it gives you a 2/2 in stats for 2 mana, and also a 2/2 in stats for 1 mana. When drafted with synergies (such as Fairy Dragon), you will pretty much win every early game.

Greenbrier Elf - I think 2/3 in stats is good enough to play, but the fanfare effect is probably a bait.

Wildwood Matriarch - I'd only play this if I either got Lymaga or if I got this card's evolve. It's a bit of an awkward card if you don't have the right draft though.

Fairy Dragon - How strong this card is depends on if you got cards like Amataz and Spiritshine in particular. A 0/4 ward is pretty average, if we're being real, but its synergy with the above cards can push it over the top.

Woodland Cleaver - Include this card if you drafted Lymaga, Wildwood Matriarch with Evo, Woodland Cleaver Evo, or other sufficient Hunter synergies. Basically, if the card fits in your deck, it's fine to play. Otherwise, it's understatted for 2 mana.

Spiritshine - Generally an excellent card that activates many different synergies. Paying 1 mana for 2 1/1s is generally okay, though it can be skipped if you didn't pull many pixie synergies.

Assault Jaguar - I think the card is fine to include without any hunter synergies, but you'd need to treat it as removal (3 mana 4 damage to an engaged follower). Still, I think it's skippable if you have better cards and weak hunter synergies. If you drafted a lot of Hunter cards, then obviously, you should play it.

Greenwood Guardian: Pretty much always very playable. 3/2 is a pretty reasonable statline for a 2-cost follower, especially as it has ward as well. This is not to mention that it works well with other Hunter cards.

Crossbow Sniper: Only ever play this if you have legitimate hunter synergies.

Mallet Monkey: Only play this if you drafted the evolve. 2/1 storm for 3 mana is a rip off. Even 5 mana for 2x 2/1 storms is still not a fair price. Don't get baited.

Elven Sentry: I get the impression this card is usually not good unless you drafted a lot of fairy related support cards. Can be skipped due to low stats, high cost and average effect.

Synchronized slash: Garbage. Not sure it's worth playing even if you draft a lot of hunter cards.

Sword

Kagemitsu - Very strong in this format as you can stack up your evos without needing the corresponding base card (in open 8, you can flip any card over to give a follower rush). Thus, it may be a good idea to go 2nd for the three evo points when you have Kagemitsu, making it at least a 1 mana, 4/4 rush + assail with almost total certainty. Getting to x=7 will probably take too long in practice, so feel free to drop it when it seems like the tempo swing of a high-statted 1-drop will allow you to snowball a win.

Ralmia - 3/2 rush is a solid stat line for a 2-cost, so you don't even need the evo. Obviously, the evolve makes this card even better, but it's not needed.

Steadfast Samurai - Considering the lack of hard removal in the format, this card is probably one of the best 1-cost followers in the format. If you play it turn 1, you just buff it turn 2 and swing face, opponent can't clap back on it. In a sense, it's almost permanent value from the moment you put it down on the board as you no longer have to worry about value trades from opponent (outside of the few bane cards in the set).

Hero of Antiquity - Very strong "boss monster". 6/10 basically makes the card invincible, especially with all its protection effects. It also impacts the board immediately due to rush. Goes without saying that if you get the evo version of this as well, you will probably win if you can ever drop this card with a safe hp range on your leader.

Courtly Dance - Generally a skip as your deck will usually consist of multiple different classes, and whiffing a 6-cost spell is too high a risk.

Quickdraw Maven - 3/3 stat line is playable for 3-cost. If you got the evo as well, this quickly becomes one of the best cards you can pull, considering its very powerful tempo evo effect, and how rare hard removal is in this set.

Twinsword Master - Seems pretty bad, 1/3 stat line is pretty shit, even if it can hypothetically attack twice per turn, or attack once and restand to protect itself.

Grand Acquisition - Don't bother with this card, it's basically just a -1.

Samurai Outlaw -  Again, 3/2 stat line is perfectly valid for a 2-cost. That said, I think this card is hilarious in that you can run it even without the evo, and your opponent will be forced to respect the fact that it can potentially become a 6/5 on evolve.

Adept Thief - 3/2 stat line with slight upside. You will usually use the draw 1, discard 1 effect where possible.

Petalwink Paladin - Exceptional card, one of the best in the entire set. It is no exaggeration to say that whoever drafts the most of this card has a massive edge over everyone else in the tournament.

Levin Scholar - 3/3 for 3-cost is fine in general. Keep in mind that if you have multiple of these in your deck, it can search itself.

Breakneck Draw -  Another very strong card due to the lack of hard removal in the format. You need to adjust your deck and playstyle to be able to use thie card, but IMO, it's worth it. Unless you got very few Sword cards in your packs, I'd run this and add a bunch of sword followers in to make it work, even if that has to be like Twinsword Master, which is ironically kinda good with this card (You can deliberately leave him standing every turn and poke for 1 damage only, so that he can always be available for Breakneck Draw).

Rune

Kuon - I'd carefully consider whether it is possible for you to discount this card to around 8pp by turn 8 before deciding whether or not to play it. As strong as this card is, it's pointless if you can't actually play it.

Mysteria, Magic Founder - Probably a skip in almost every circumstance outside of having the evolved copy. It's the only academic follower in the set.

Curse Crafter - Very powerful card with, or without the evo. Once again, removal comes at a premium this expansion, and it can either be used to get 4/4 in stats on board, or to get a 2/2 that kills an enemy follower, draws 1 and discards 1. With the evo available, this card is a no brainer inclusion.

Hulking Giant - A 5/5 for 5-mana is playable, even without the Earth Rite synergies. That said if you drafted Passionate Potioneers, it's an obvious autoincluson.

Shikigami Summons - Seems good enough to me. 2/2 isn't a great stat line, but since Paper Shikigami can fix your hand, it seems fine.

Demoncaller - Can be played without the evolve due to 3/3 statline, but obviously an autoinclude if you got the evo copy.

Traditional Sorcerer: Generally a skip, 1/4 ward isn't very good and it's hard to pull enough Onmyoji support to make it useful (maybe if you got Kuon, I guess).

Crimson Meteor Storm: Spellchain 10 seems.... very unlikely. Nevertheless, I think it's playable as a 7pp card as it should clear almost everything other than Mammoth and Hero of Antiquity, while burning face.

Talisman Disciple - I think this is playable if you drafted 2 copies of Shikigami Summons. If you drafted 1 copy of Shikigami Summons, but other ways to summon Paper Shikigami, you can just discard this card via Paper Shikigami instead.

Charming Gentlemouse - 2/2 is pretty weak unless you have the evolve. Even if you pulled multiple copies, paying 4pp for 2x 2/2s isn't particularly great...

Passionate Potioneer - Good stats and has particularly strong synergy with Hulking Giant.

Golem's Rampage: Garbage. Hulking Giant is the only real target, and if your opponent can't answer it on the first turn it comes down, they are probably gonna lose anyway.

Mirror of Truth: The only real synergy is with Passionate Potioneer, which doesn't really lead to anything. A skip every time.

Dragoncraft

Garyu, Supreme Dragonkin - I think this card is actually not worth playing at all without evolve. 3/4 stats for 5-mana is way too low, even if it does draw you a card. With evolve, definitely worth playing, considering 4/5 rush is barely acceptable, but if you have dragon followers, it's actually very strong tempo.

Whitefrost Dragon Filene - Pretty great card. Best use case is to hold it until you really need it. For example, using this on one of their larger followers, leaving it engaged, then dealing with it next turn with a bigger Evo, while being able to go face. Obviously even better if you have Whitefrost Whisper, but in general, an include in all drafts.

Phoenix Empress - I suspect this card is very, very strong. In reality, there is no way your opponent can actually find a viable way to kill this card repeatedly without costing so much tempo that the pp loss is essentially irrelevant. That said, do be careful if you legitimately need to play higher pp cards, as your opponent may deliberately keep you at certain play point thresholds to avoid your big tempo swing cards.

Wyrm God of the Skies - 4/4 4-cost is playable on its own. With evolve available, this card is exceptionally good in my opinion, making a single standing follower into a boss monster the following turn.

Whitefrost Whisper - Very strong removal option, autoinclude.

Ice Dancing Dragonewt - Strong card with, or without evolve. You can play it early game, or you can hold it for late game as a 3/3 storm.

Jadelong Tactician - Strong card when you have control over the board. Don't greed too much with hitting face, it can often be correct to use this card to value trade.

Aquascale Stalwart - Useless card, avoid.

Swordwhip Dragoon - I think this is quite a good card. The ability to choose where the damage goes makes it flexible, and you can go face without worry of getting value traded on.

Dragonblader - I like this card a lot, it's a 5/5 4-cost. Even though they also get a dragon in their EX Zone, this card having 5 attack means they can't value trade over him anyway. Also, his evolve makes him a 6/6 lol. Very good.

Trident Merman - 8/8 in stats for 5 mana. Great card.

Dragon Chef - 3/4 stats for 3 cost AND it heals you for 2 at a minimum. Exceptional.

Flamewinged Might - I think this card is great, especially when going on the offensive. If your opponent doesn't have the removal in hand, they have to trade into it, effectively giving you the tempo lead. I don't think I'd draft more than a few copies, but I think I'm happy to include them in most decks.

Abyss

Ginsetsu - Garbage without the evo. Obviously an autoinclude (and possibly auto-win) if you can play it and resolve the evolve.

Aragavy - Broken legendary. Easily one of the best finishers in the pool with massive tempo swing.

Shuten-doji - I think this is playable with just the base copy despite 1/4 not being the best statline. It can value trade early game using its bane. Goes without saying the card is very good with evolve.

Bear Pelt Warrior - Exceptional card. 5/4 is very strong, also comes with rush built in. Essentially reads: Heals 3 hp, does 1 damage to enemy leader.

Yuzuki - Again, very strong card. Especially the 3pp effect to discard and deal 5 damage instantly, as there is not that much removal in the set. The main body is not too bad either, if you can snipe something big on their field, they need to deal with your 5/5 standing bane follower. Necrocharge 10 also isn't that difficult to achieve in later stages of the game.

Kasha - 1 hp is a little vulnerable but it's still worth playing. The ping damage can be flexible, the ability to give it rush makes this a potential 4 damage trader. Occasionally, you may also get value from the Yokai recursion effect too. Playing it as a standing 3/1 is a little vulnerable, but you can do so if you have no other options.

Cougar Pelt Warrior - Don't bother without drafting the evo. It's fine if you have the evolve, you don't even need a 2nd copy of the base in deck.

Unleash the Nightmare - It's a little expensive for what it does, but 3 1/1s and drawing 2 cards is fine for 4pp. Don't run too many copies of it though, can brick your hand. Rookie Succubus is a vampire, so it can make the card cost only 3pp.

Zashiki-Warishi - Probably only play this with the evo (or significant amounts of other Yokai synergies).

Antelope Pelt Warrior -  Good card, doesn't matter that it does 1 damage to your leader since tempo usually matters way more.

Rookie Succubus - Pretty good card, instant 2/2 in stats, but delayed 3/3 in stats upon death.

Demonic Procession - Just skip this most of the time (unless heaps of Yokai synergies or Ginsetsu + evo). Basically, you don't want to take a -1 for no reason if unlucky. On the other hand, if you do have Ginsetsu + evo in deck, I think it's fine to risk the -1 if it means you automatically win the game by hitting Ginsetsu.

Berserker's Pelt - This is way too clunky to play. Its best usage case is with Cougar Pelt Warriors, but if you fail to draw the cards in the right order, you sort of just... lose.

Haven 

Wilbert, Grand Knight - His stats are fine even prior to gamble. If you hit practically any other ward off this card's effect, he is very strong. Probably wouldn't ward him on the first turn usually, 4/5 isn't that great compared to possible 5/5s coming down. Usually included in your draft.

Karula - I mean, 3/3 is fine and you can include him in your deck as your 3-cost, but I think the effects cost too much without having the evolve version, so you'd just be playing him a 3/3 in that situation.

Saintly Leader - Pretty good if you got a lot of cards with wards and can actually use its banish effect. Otherwise, slightly subpar.

Phantom Blade Wielder - Without evo, this card can still see some upside by pinging their 2-cost 2/2 (bad luck if it's 2/3 lol) and you failed to draw a 3-cost. But tbh, this seems kinda weak, so I'd skip this card without evo. With evo, the card is very good.

Manifest Devotion - Skip

Holy Lancer - Extremely good with evolve. Otherwise, only play it if you have sufficient ward pool density, as 3/4 for 5-cost is very bad.

Boost Kicker - This card is very good. You are supposed to play it in the late game, where it can do 4+ AOE damage.

Feather Sanctuary - Skip

Winged Staff Priestess - It's fine if you got multiple copies of it, and it synergises well with the ward package.

Gravity Grappler - One of the best float package cards that can be played without any synergies within the deck. You are more than happy to pay 2pp for a Mystic Artifact.

Barrage Brawler - Useless without evo and even with evo... Probably a skip unless you somehow drafted a full on float deck... which is still bad lol.

Holy Counterattack - Card is actually very good if you got a lot of ward cards. It's basically your "payoff".

Focus - Generally a skip even if you draft a couple of Gravity Grapplers or Karulas, the card is sort of dead without drawing them.

Neutral 

Sentry Gate - Garbage.

Bazooka Goblins - I think this card comes down too late to really be useful on a consistent enough basis, considering its low stats and the fact that it really does need to kill something on the opponent's board to be worth 4pp. If you get the evo version, he has a respectable 5/5 rush on evolve while potentially clearing two cards. IMO, skip if you only have base form.

Sweet Tooth Sleuth - Card has really nice stats and the effect is very useful if the card comes down on turn 3. Definitely run.

Biofactrication -  Decent cantrip with occasional upside if it flips over a follower you have multiple base copies of but only 1 evo copy. The draw a card effect will be live relatively early due to the Open 8 rules allowing you to give any follower rush by flipping any card in your evo deck face up for only 1pp. Generally skippable, but if you need to make up a 30 card deck, it''s fine.

Clash of Heroes - Card seems playable enough and helps you get out of some sticky situations where opponent leaves their follower standing. Due to the low volume of hard removal in this expansion, I think it's fine to include a few copies in your deck to stabilise and catch opponent off guard.

Chaht, Ringside Announcer - Card is fine as a 3/3 3-cost follower. Even better if you have its evolve form, as it searches a huge amount of cards in the set.

Colosseum on High - A card to be avoided in general. No point introducing variance that can cost you the game instantly when you want to win every game in the tournament to win the prize card. I would only run this if my draft were so bad that I may as well gamble with this to steal wins away. And even then...

Fall from Grace - Great card due to low amount of hard removal in the format. It's fine to give them two health and a draw if you kill off a follower that's like 5pp, you will make that back in tempo easily.

Mithra - LMFAO, fuck this card man. I feel like I would not run this card unless my draft sucked. Same logic as Colosseum on High. The only thing is, someone is going to play this against you and they're going to draw 2 cards while you discard 2 and uh... the game is over. Cool.

Badb Catha - Excellent card with or without the evolve. Each of the effects can be very strong depending on the context, but most of the time, you should use the effect to buff another follower, especially when going first. If you have the evo, I think the third effect to put a card in EX area is usually the best one, though situationally, you can go hard on aggro with the burn, or engage their followers if the situation is juicy enough.

Mammoth God's Colosseum - This card is very strong in this format and you do not need Colosseum on High to use this card (in fact, it's probably better if you don't include it even if you have it). For the main part, feel free to slam it down on 7 mana as a 7/8 to forcibly downsize their board to 1 card. Obviously, if you have the board lead, then you can just hold it until later. Common scenario is swinging everything to face, let them get value trades in, then drop Mammoth the turn after to hard punish.

First BP06 Guide Poll

Polling the userbase on the first BP06 guide.

The first option will be Kuon, and the second will be Amataz. Both are expected to be tier 1 decks for the upcoming format.

Bma's thoughts: Sideboard in BP05

With Igni's 500 USD tournament featuring a 10 card sideboard, it's worthwhile thinking about what implications this will have on the best decks on the format.

Note: We've testing a new feature on the site where these articles can also be viewed at svemaster.com if you are logged into Discord with appropriate Patreon links

The biggest implication is its impact on Egg Haven in particular. Egg is a fantastic deck in the bo1 format, where even if people do want to tech for it, they still have to consider their other matchups. They can't go 3x Urd, 3x Urd Evo, 3x Lyrial JUST to beat a single deck in the meta. However, with a sideboard, it's practically an inevitability that every player will sideboard at the very least, 3 Urd + 3 Urd Evo. This means that Fable counter stacking becomes practically impossible, and your Tin Soldiers will spend more time in the Banish zone than anywhere else.

In addition, players can use any number of strong anti-egg tools, including Lyrial, additional early game removal (angelic snipe etc) to make it very challenging for Egg Haven to thrive in the meta. Even if a player were to play zero anti-egg tools in game 1, the ability to sideboard into it for game 2 and 3 gives the non-egg player a significant advantage.

My view is that Egg Haven is therefore unviable for the bo3 sideboard tournament. However, just because it's theoretically wrong to play Egg Haven doesn't mean that people won't play it anyway (lol). Which means that the players well prepared with sideboard will have a great time vs the Egg Haven players.

In a world where it's a closed-invite tournament, let's say the world championship, it would be reasonable to assume egg would have a very low play-rate in this kind of format. This would allow you to get away with not teching for Egg in main deck and side deck. However, because it's an open tournament, I do believe that teching for Egg is completely necessary.

Other decks in the meta

Usurpation Sword

All this being said, it's actually a little awkward when we consider decks like Usurpation Sword. Evo deck space is very tight, which actually limits the type of tech you can use. It's not actually possible to run 3 Urd due to too many compulsory evo targets (Floral/Leonidas/Octrice/Apostle etc). Of course, Sword can opt to run cards like Lyrial, but is that actually enough?  Sword's best shot is probably teching in 3x Angelic Snipe, a few surefire bullets and some Lyrials. I do believe that Sword's weakest matchup in the meta is Egg Haven, so potentially this is a good way to hedge. It's also worth considering if Egg will be popular enough to merit so much hate in the side board. There's definitely a world where you try to tech vs the other decks in the meta with the expectation of less Egg Haven.

One of the matchups that Sword can sometimes become a little unbearable is Aegis Haven, especially when they hold banish to prevent Leonidas from dropping Resolve. There are, of course, ways to deal with this. Examples include Armor of the Stars or simply running additional copies of Leo in the main + evo deck.

That said, decks like Sword are not that easy to tech against, nor do I think it'll be at the top of anyone's radar really for the limited sideboard space. As a result, I do believe there is some potential here.

Aegis Haven

Speaking of Aegis Haven, this is where it gets quite interesting IMO. Of course, the first thing is how you tech to ensure you have the right types of removal for specific matchups. For example - opponent doesn't go wide? Take out Jeanne/Themis. Opponent's on Egg? Bring in the Urds and Lyrials.

I think as the Aegis Haven player, you should feel pretty good about your odds of beating Egg in Game 2 and 3, so you could probably take out almost all of your Egg Haven tech in the main deck and focus primarily on the rest of the field.

3 Marwynn in the evo deck is surprisingly good in certain matchups, so I'd definitely consider putting this into the sideboard too. I also think Aegis Haven is likely to be popular in this format, so 100% you'd want to tech for the mirror. There's probably a world where you tech the 10pp Hare of Illusions, for instance.

Overall, Aegis Haven has the most space to play with in the sideboard, as both the Evo deck and the Main deck can make various adjustments to optimise against different matchups. Definitely one of the best options for the tournament.

Forest

Forest is probably one of the decks that has real options against Aegis Haven. Combo (5) Homecoming is very strong against Heavenly Aegis in particular, and I would expect to see this at 3 copies combined within the main + sideboard.

As Harvest Festival is imperative against control matchups, I also expect to see Starry Elf as a common sideboard target to ensure you can hit it consistently vs Aegis Haven.

Aside from that, Forest has a lot of wriggle room in terms of tech options. You can play around with all of the various ratios within the deck, even test options such as Mark of the Six against mirror and Uma Musume, for instance. The standard Urd options vs Egg still exist too.

Forest is in my opinion one of the major winners of the sideboard format, but I also don't think Forest is particularly popular in the West. This is one of the biggest opportunities for sure.

Uma Musume

I think this deck also has a lot of potential in this type of format. At the moment, one of the biggest weaknesses, in my opinion, is that sometimes you are forced to run somewhat dead cards vs certain matchups. Who hasn't run into excess removal vs decks like Aegis Haven, or run into unplayable cards like Rice Shower, for instance. We also frequently run into the issue of "do we even run 7cm ahead?". Well now we can just slot them in when we actually need them!

For example, we can run turbo 7cm ahead vs Aegis Haven if we want to now. We can run cards like King Halo to never run out of resources vs slower matchups. We can even run healing (heal 5/heal 2 respectively)!

We can run cards like Narita Brian to close out Forest games (leave 2pp up for Raindrop to seal Elephant).

Egg Haven is the only deck I don't think we can really tech for, outside of getting rid of... Rice Shower? But that's okay, right? It's supposed to go down in playrate anyway!

Tier 2 decks with potential 

There are three other decks I'd look out for with potential, Lishenna, Ramp Dragon, and all Abyss variants. They are all similar in a certain way, their weakness is that the meta is too wide. They currently have to tech against Egg Haven while simultaneously needing to tech VS the rest of the meta, which is simply impossible with their current card pool.

However, with the ability to sideboard, they can get rid of the weak cards against their active matchup, and side in the strong cards. Think stuff like Urd vs Egg Haven, Alchemical Lore/Conflag vs aggro, siding out stuff like Surefire vs control, but slipping them in vs Aggro.

Being able to target the specific deck they are facing allows them to more consistently play their main game plan without losing on the spot to Aggro. Now, that said, is this necessarily enough to make them worth playing over the other decks? Maybe not, but I think people who like these decks are going to see way more success than in bo1 tournaments.

Conclusion

These are my unpolished thoughts on the upcoming BP05 bo3 sideboard tournament. Of course, my opinion may change over the coming days and week, but I do think I have some pretty good thoughts here, and they should help you if you choose to participate in the tournament.

BP05 Usurpation Sword 4-0 Tournament Run

Full Commentary of the match from Bma (because he lost the audio of his opponent in the recording).

For people playing Sword this expansion, I definitely recommend giving this a watch as there's some challenging game states (esp in game 1 for the mirror).

Match 1: Mirror

Match 2: Storm Haven

Match 3: Lishenna

Match 4: PDK Dragon

Next guide is for Usurpation Sword.

July Coaching Raffle Results

This month's winners are Siege, Geralf and Rize, contact me directly to organise a coaching session!

July was a busy month for SVE Master, especially with regard to BSF Sydney (which we came 3rd in) and organising the SVE Master Championships.

We are currently working on an Usurpation Sword Guide for the Shadowverse Master Tier and above. In addition, we're currently finishing off deck builder feature for Japanese sets, as well as Gloryfinder on the website.

The BCS structure has also been announced. It's definitely an improvement over what we had before, although I really do wish they'd do bo3 top cut, considering how much is on the line for each successive win from top 8 onwards.

Although the BCS season doesn't really start for the SEAO region (my region) until Set 7, I'm happy to provide support to our Patreons who have major events like Grand Showdown/BCS during set 6 or Idolmaster. Make sure to let me know what type of decks you're interested in seeing content for!

BP05 Uma Musume

We have updated the BP04 Uma Musume guide to be relevant for the BP05 format. Though some of the content is the same, I have added notes to the decklist and matchups.

Uma has always been strong since its release, and it is arguably a Tier 1.5 deck right now. It is likely to fall to the wayside in BP06, so this is the last chance to pick up some tournament wins.

Notably, the deck has a strong matchup into decks like Usurpation Sword and Midrange Forest, with an average (or slightly unfavoured) matchup into Aegis Haven and Egg Haven respectively.

Overview

Uma Musume is a strong mid-range deck with a large number of removal options and strong tempo plays throughout the entire game. Utilising cards like Agnes Tachyon, Eishin Flash and Daiwa/Vodka to control the board, before finishing them off with Oguri Cap, Narita Brian (we no longer run this), or Outrunning the Encroaching Heat.

One of the key strengths of the deck is that the opponent is heavily incentivised to clear your board on every single turn, due to the risk of losing to Daiwa + Vodka combinations. The deck is also highly consistent due to many draws, tutor abilities and recursion from the grave.

Decklist

After the release of BP05, the prevalence of Egg Haven and Aegis Haven in particular necessitate the usage of the Outrunning the Encroaching Heat package. If you allow either of these decks to complete their game plans for free, you will definitely lose.

Outrunning the Encroaching Heat allows your Tachyons to become 4/4 storms and your Sakura Chiyonos to become 5/5 storms. It is also difficult for the Haven player to prevent you from getting a Daiwa + Vodka storm combo in the later game (typically turn 7).

Against every normal board based matchup, you will have a fairly good time due to your many quick removal options and constant ability to pressure the board.

Alternative cards in the deck that can be considered:

7cm ahead - If your meta consists heavily of control decks, this card can be considered. It's particularly good against decks like Ramp Dragon and Aegis Haven, which can eventually run you out of resources and put out huge statted threats. Generally, I don't like this card without tailoring the build to run several mill cards, as it is too slow vs faster decks like Egg Haven.

Although you will have games where you think "if only I had 7cm Ahead", and this will psychologically stick out in your mind, it's probably a small amount of games in reality where the card will actually matter. I think to run 7cm Ahead, you need a build different to this one. This one is more aggressive and aims to finish the game relatively quickly via storm damage, while a build using 7cm ahead would run more mill cards and aim to "outresource" the opponent. So I do not believe it is a "41st card" for this particular build.

Maruzensky - Excellent against aggro decks in particular. Shuts down decks like Aggro Abyss and Hero Sword early, and has additional strength after 10 Necrocharge. The main issue is that the 3-cost slot is highly competitive and tech card space is limited. Considering the current meta, Sakura Chiyono is preferred due to her role as a storm option in the late game.

Mejiro Dober - One of my favourite 2-cost uma cards which barely doesn't make the cut. Often, I find myself wanting just one extra 2-cost follower so I can mulligan more aggressively, and this card's performance is quite good, given its ability to become a 3/3 with racing and being one of the only forms of chip healing in the deck.

Mulligan Strategy

Here's the variety of mulligans I recommend:

Any hand with Daiwa AND Vodka in it except vs Dragon, Egg Haven and Aegis haven. Even if there is no playable early game drops, I would still keep it in hand and just pray to top out due to the heavy upside.

Any hand with Special Week - this is generally the safest mulligan strategy. It fully covers you for turn 2 and draws you a card. 2-cost is often that chokepoint where sometimes you might sort of "brick", as the deck runs so many 3-cost followers and above that, you're usually "set" after you have the turn 2 play.

Against aggro: Agnes Tachyon with Lamplit: The killer of aggro. It is not particularly easy to remove for most decks, and it can recur the same removal spells to continuously control the state of their board.

Against control decks going first (it's actually good vs every deck except Forest due to Elf Child May): Mayano Top Gun with Special Week is an exceptional opener against many control decks. You can generally get in 4-6 poke damage off the 2/1 continuously swinging face if they do not open with perfect spot removal on every turn. For many decks, they don't have great ways to clear multiple followers until at least turn 3. If they don't have it, all the Themises in the world aren't going to save their hp total.

Early game strategy

Turn 1:

Trial initiation: Using this to guarantee a curve is always fine, especially if you have no other turn 1 play.

Mayano Top Gun: Good vs every deck that doesn't have efficient poke damage (mainly Forest with Elf Child May). It can chip enemy leader quite a bit while trading efficiently with 2/2s.

Lamplit: The main thing with this card is what you do when going second. In some cases, you might deliberately take their first 2/2 hit and then save lamplit for the potential end-phase upside of clearing a 2/2 or 3/2 2-cost follower that wants to evolve the next turn. This requires matchup knowledge to pull off effectively though!

Turn 2:

Almost always Special Week if you have it available. Pre-evo going second is also fine, but only if there's actually upside to a 3/3 (against some decks, it doesn't matter at all).

Turn 3 tip:

Don't get too fixated on saving your 3-cost followers for evo effects. For example, it's perfectly valid to curve a 3/3 and force the opponent to clear it or risk you evolving it and hitting the face for 4 damage. Just be mindful of situations where you have no turn 4 plays if they do clear your board.

Early game tips:

Against some matchups, it can be worthwhile not to attack the enemy leader with your followers in the early game. For example against Sword, if you are going first, you might deliberately choose not to attack the enemy leader with your Special Week on Turn 3 with the expectation that they may opt for a Floral Fencer Evolve on their turn 3. This way, their Floral can't trade into Special Week, and you can follow up on Turn 4 with an Eishin Flash evolve on their Floral Fencer, making it harder for them to process your board on their Turn 4. You could even opt to leave your cards standing on turn 4 and threaten Daiwa Vodka on turn 5.

It is therefore worth assessing questions like: What is my opponent likely to play on the following turn? What are my likely plays if I leave my follower standing rather than not? This is a useful framework to follow against decks that require follower combat to clear your board.

Mid game

Your key objective in the mid-game should be to take control of the board and chip away at the enemy leader until you create space for an Oguri Cap lethal. Uma is a deck that places followers down every turn and demands the opponent to have an immediate answer. If they don't have it, boom, 4 damage to enemy leader.

Your mid-game will usually follow 4 distinct patterns:

1) Daiwa Vodka Combo on Turn 5: One of the ideal play patterns. If you had any followers on board before this combo, you could potentially win the game on the spot. In other cases, using Lamplit for free to clear their follower and holding a 4/5 + 4/4 is too difficult for the opponent to clear both, leading to unavoidable damage on the following turn.

2) Rice Shower to ping off an enemy follower. THEN leave Rice Shower standing. The reasoning is that it isn't easy for most decks to clear a standing 3/5 follower. You are forcing them to make a choice. Do they ignore Rice Shower and develop board as per usual? If so, then next turn, they take 3 face damage at minimum AND they risk you buffing her with Vodka. In addition, if you clear their board using something like Eishin Flash + Make Some Noise -> Then they have to clear a 4/4 and a 3/5 ward. The problems on their end just keep stacking up!

3) Against passive decks: Storm face using cards like Outrunning the Encroaching Heat to force the issue. If the opponent doesn't have play points open, it allows you to hit their face safely. This can then be recurred using Agnes Tachyon to repeatedly push damage. Very relevant against decks like Control Haven

4) Develop board/hand while clearing enemy board: Very boring, but it's usually just racing your 3-cost Umas and using removal spells to clear. This can sometimes happen multiple turns in a row - you are really just "checking" if they have an answer - and if they do not, nice, you get the damage on their face and advance your lethal condition

Late Game

There are four main ways to finish the game in the late game.

1) Oguri Cap - 10 damage poggers. Just be careful of quick spells - based on their deck, you will know how likely or unlikely it is for them to have an out to this. In particular, watch out for cards like Acolyte's Light (4pp), Execution (4pp), Lightning Blast (5pp), Rimewind (2pp), Raindrop (4pp/2pp), Mark of the Six (1pp). It is game-losing to run into any of these cards while going for lethal. As such, you usually do not play this card if they have enough play points open to stop you.

Tip: It is not necessary to play this "only" when aiming for lethal. Vs some matchups, if the opponent is tapped out, it might be the best option to "cash in" your 10 damage early, as it doesn't matter when you damage them.

2) Outrunning the Encroaching Heat - The damage you can get off this is usually pretty low, but it can get the job done. You can search for this with Daiwa and recur with Agnes Tachyon.

3) Narita Brian (we do not run this, but it is worth consideration in board based metas with lots of Forest (And also Rune) - Many decks don't have healing, so sometimes you can make a very aggressive play to drop them to 5 or less health. This allows you to pick up an uncontested victory against any decks with limited healing (but many wards)

4) If your opponent can't answer your standing followers, you can just kill them the normal way

5) This is fairly unlikely in practice, but Daiwa + Vodka + 3 spells can also be lethal

This phase is where all of your poke damage translates into actual lethal conditions. When making plays in the late game, try to assess which win condition you are trying to achieve. For example, you might play much more aggressively when your opponent is close to the 10 hp threshold for Oguri Cap. If you have no real lethal options in hand, you might aim instead to grind out the opponent in a resource game. It is essential to consider what is realistically possible considering your hand and game state.

Tip: Special Week is especially strong from Turn 7 onwards. Its evolve effect buffs your field by +1/1. This is especially powerful in any scenario where your opponent failed to fully clear your board on the previous turn. In this scenario, aim to build a wide board and buff it with Special Week. This can often be game-winning!

Matchups

*Just go first in every matchup. To be honest, though, Uma is a deck that can win regardless of going first or second.

Mirror - Even. I prefer to go first in this matchup, as I highly value the option to tempo aggressively in the early game and access Turn 5 Daiwa Vodka before the opponent can. Although their Turn 3 play may involve Eishin Flash, the turn player is always able to answer back with it on turn 4, allowing you to reset all of their evolve point advantages. I highly recommend watching the analysis I did of my Worlds match as I provide thorough insights on how many matches can play out.

Ramp Dragon - Unfavoured. I prefer to go first as you can poke significant damage in with a Mayano Top Gun opener curve - and you also get extra time before conflagration is an issue. In a typical game, you want to get as much free damage in as possible, while being careful of their Dragon Warrior turn. Conflagration is the main enemy of this matchup, and if they fail to draw it, they will often lose. The issue since BP04 is that they now run a significantly higher amount of healing (Dragon's Nest being a key culprit), as well as Israfil, which heals and also clears the board by itself. Therefore, a long game is often unfavourable to Uma, who will eventually run out of resources and lethal range options due to the onslaught of healing and Olivias.

That said, it is possible to win this matchup by teching 7cm ahead. This is one of the matchups where you can reach 20 cards in the cemetary, and this card can then be searched by Daiwa and looped via Agnes Tachyon. This means that in the end game, they will be unable to keep a board, and your hand will be replenished repeatedly.

Egg Haven - Even/Slightly unfavoured. Go first, make it hard for them to drop Alice safely - and force them to use Humpty Dumpty on turn 4. The current Uma build runs more storm damage, which means that you can still push damage through even if they clear your board via the Egg. The main issue with this matchup is Andromeda. When coupled with Humpty Dumpty, facing off against a 4/4 and 2/2 is very annoying, but not completely unbeatable. The deck doesn't run many ways to prevent you from killing them via Oguri Cap, as their only wards are Bellringer and Snow White, which can be cleared easily in the end phase.

As for BP05 Egg Haven, the addition of Epitaph and Feena is not as bad for you as other decks. Epitaph is easily cleared with Make Some Noise (if you go first) and you don't run enough 1-costs for Feena to blow you out (it's probably still worth slamming Mayano Top Gun early tbh). With the new build of Uma, once you do have a tempo lead, Outrunning the Encroaching Heat puts repeated pressure on the Egg Player, unless they happen to draw the Humpty Dumpty + Andromeda combo.

Midrange Forest - Favoured. Go first as it prevents a majority of early-game snowballing options. The key to this matchup is Agnes Tachyon and Eishin Flash, which can clear even the most challenging boards from the Forest player (Eishin Flash clears Crystalia Eve in particular!). Despite its buffs, Forest still lacks answers to Daiwa + Vodka on turn 5 (if both are standing), which can snowball a victory by itself. Previously, it was possible for the Forest player to chain Silver Bolts for lethal, but to fit King Elephant, this has been cut to 1-2 copies. This means that their primary victory condition is King Elephant, which cannot be safely played by the opponent as long as you have 2 play points open (due to raindrops). In general, this means that unlike other decks, you can afford to take a little bit more chip damage against Forest, because at the end of the day, they can't rely on Elephant for lethal.

BP05 additions don't change this matchup too much. Spinaria can be a bit of free tempo for them depending on the situation (if they hit an early Elven Princess Mage), but they still lack great answers to turn 5 Daiwa Vodka (as Cassio is rarely enough to do 9 ping damage on turn 5) and you can generally snowball wins from there.

Most players don't run stuff like Mark of the Six, so it's still reliable enough to use cards like Oguri Cap to secure lethal after getting the first couple of swings in. Of course, the Forest player will start to use cards like Spinaria and Ancient Elf to prevent this outcome, but the thing is - if you are playing normally, you are also building boards that typically have to be answered by large pp investments that seal off their ability to play a ward on the same turn. Eventually, the opportunity will come.

Hero Sword - Favoured. All aggro decks have issues against Uma, due to the heavy amounts of removal and the existence of Agnes/the Daiwa Vodka combo being practically unanswerable by all aggro decks. All you need to do is survive, and then eventually, the Hero Sword player runs out of gas and you can develop a board that threatens lethal with Oguri Cap or Narita Brian.

With the addition of the Usurpation package in BP05, I recommend being careful of Disciple Of Usurpation's 5 damage storm (can be countered with lamplit) and Leonidas evo on turn 6/7 repsectively.

Usurpation Sword - This matchup is generally pretty good for Uma. You have plenty of outs to their early game tempo as well as their late game storm. They don't have any real ways to clear Daiwa Vodka early, and them putting cards into your grave for you is typically good due to your high amounts of recursion (Sakura Chiyono grabbing you the Daiwa Vodka combo because of their milling is so, so delicious). As long as you don't run into Leo or Disciple of Usurpation, both of which are easily played around, it's very smooth sailing.

Lishenna Rune - Favoured. It can be difficult to close the game if they open heavy removal and never give you a chance to build a board. The reason why we are favoured is because of the Daiwa Vodka combo. There still remain very few answers to this, and Uma is one of the decks that will heavily punish a Turn 4 Lishenna (for example, if you have a 4/4 on board and they play Lishenna, then you drop Daiwa Vodka, they lose instantly). Just be careful of cards like Craving's Splendor, but honestly, with how much storm and tempo you have, as long as you don't brick early game, should be a good matchup.

Control Haven - Even/Slightly favoured. This is one of those matchups where you want to go first for sure, as this makes their curve significantly harder to play. For example, Evoing Marwynn going second vs Uma is potentially suicidal due to Daiwa Vodka getting multiple buffs and massive face damage.

You are on the clock to win but it is doable. Save Daiwa Vodka for turn 7 so you can go for the 3-spell storm effect. Generally, the way you want to play this matchup is to force them to use their pp during their turn, which allows you to safely use Encroaching to poke damage. If you can Daiwa Vodka on turn 7 or 8, they will be forced to use something like Themis, which puts them to 3pp, allowing you to finish with Oguri Cap. Just be careful with the Guardian Sun + Aegis Combo, but you are generally aiming to win before then.

In the ideal scenario, you are aiming to curve out your board in the early game to force them to have removal. If they don't have it, this is great news, as it gives you free early chip damage (making it far easier to secure lethal later). But overall, this is a winnable matchup with the decklist in this guide.

Gameplay footage (BP04)):

https://youtu.be/Uv2R6Hd5MUE - Uma vs Midrange Forest

https://youtu.be/N_1IO5mfOEs - Uma vs Dirt Spellchain

Final thoughts

Uma is a fun deck with a variety of different game plans and options. With the unrestrictions in BP05, the Storm Recursion build is in my opinion the strongest, as it has access to the always powerful Daiwa Vodka Combo, and access to multiple storm tools to close the game. This may be the last expansion where Uma is competitively viable, after which, you'll need to play the Eng edition of the Uma Musume app for that horse girl fix.

For those in the Shadowverse Master and Young Cat Tiers, feel free to ask me for Uma advice that isn't already explained within the guide!

BP05 Egg Haven Guide

Egg Haven probably got the most broken card in the entire set, lol.

Yeah, we're talking about Demonic Epitaph. Quite possibly the strongest aggro card in the entire game, it buffs Egg Haven into a true Tier 1 deck that every other class needs to tech against in order to win!

Despite how it looks on the surface, Egg Haven is primarily an aggro deck with the option to play a longer game via its EX Area and stacking damage via Eggsplosion.

Decklist

Typically, there are two main builds for Fable Haven, one which runs Eggsplosion, and another that all-ins on early tempo with Goblins > Eggsplosion. Both are viable options, and the difference is effectively early strength (and consistency) vs late game potential. It is worth noting that in the case of this deck, early game strength reduces the amount of late game potential you actually require, so they end up being similar in reality, and therefore a preference choice.

The list above is the one that I currently use (and the basis for this guide). Feel free to consider other build, as the guide will still be applicable in those scenarios.

Some card choices to discuss:

• Some builds run 2 Alice Evo and 2 Pinion Prince Evo. Personally, I have yet to play a game that has required two Pinion Prince Evo, though I could see such a scenario eventually. Conversely, I have played games where I needed 3 Alice Evo. Neither is particularly likely to occur in the average game, but you can adjust between the two as per your own experiences

• 2 Odette: Some lists forego this card altogether, I think it's good. It can be cheated early via Teatime (and can really snowball certain game states), but it's also hard castable in certain situations, such as when you are already ahead of the opponent, and also as one of the only forms of healing. It can also be given Assail and Rush via Alice's Adventure. The final point is that it can also be used to buff Egg to 4/6, which allows it to survive its own effect

• 2 Snipe or 3? Snipe is just a generically good card in the current format. Two copies seems fine so far in practice, the opponent is usually the one being forced to answer your board anyways. That said, it's rather essential in the mirror match to prevent the disadvantages in tempo associated with going second. It can be worthwhile to run 3

• Other tech, such as Lyrial? Keep in mind that whenever you slot in tech, they are usually not fable cards, which means they can't be searched via Alice, Teatime etc. There needs to be a base level of consistency which your Fable engine, which is why I currently prefer a list that runs cards like Eggsplosions and Odette

Go first or second? 

In my opinion, this deck should always go first versus every deck. Of course, if my opinion changes, I will update the guide, but I personally think first is the most reliable choice.

The main reason for this is because of how much more damage can be chipped on the opponent in the early game when going first compared to second, allowing you to win the game from as early as turn 2 against certain matchups.

Demonic Epitaph is a major reason for why going first is especially good. Turn 1 2/2s require the opponent to also have a 1-cost removal or follower to clear, and if they miss this early-game check, they are taking a lot more damage over the course of the game. When a single 2/2 can push in 6-8 damage into the opponent simply because it was played on Turn 1, how can any other card be worth more?

Supposing that they are able to answer this, Epitaph is unique in that it requires no play points to evolve. Usually, evolves are supposed to be tempo reversal tools to assist the player going 2nd in getting access to stronger followers to offset the loss in play points. However, in this case, the player going first gets a 3/4, basically impossible to answer for any class that does not draw turn 2 Surefire Bullet.

This, of course, opens the Epitaph player to swing for 3 damage on turn 3, and due to its 3/4 bane stats, the opponent's 3-cost + evo point answer generally has to trade into Epitaph, which lets you develop Alice evo on turn 4 without any contest from the opponent. After this is all said and done, your opponent typically takes at least 2 damage from your turn 1 2/2, and at least 5 damage from your Epitaph. Your opponent is down to 13 hp and the game has barely even begun.

Conversely, in a world where you go second, your turn 1 2/2 and turn 2 3/4 are significantly easier to clear. Your opponent can hold a play point to clear your turn 1 2/2 (unless it's andromeda), or play their own 2/2. On their turn 2, they play their own 2-cost follower. Now, if you play Epitaph, their turn 3 can be far more types of removal outside of Surefire Bullet, for example, Splendor's Craving, Serpent's Wrath, etc. You can see that when you go first, it's a lot easier to get unavoidable damage into the opponent, whereas when you go second, the opponent takes a lot less damage in general.

It's for this easily replicable reason that I think going first is generally the best option, as you can unironically claim that a turn 1 2/2 into Epitaph curve is where the game is decided against many decks.

What about the benefits of evo point going second? 

Now, to be clear, going second is still good for Egg Haven. It's one of the few decks in the game that the evo point can create otherwise inaccessible and very strong curves. For example, access to Cudgel and Alice on Turn 4. The ability to play March Hare Teatime on Turn 4 and still be able to evolve Alice. The ability to evolve Pinion Prince on curve. Yes, these are all very strong plays with Evo Points, but again, even though this is smoother, getting free damage on the enemy due to going first is essentially equivalent to setting up a better EX zone, wouldn't you say?

Mulligan 

The mulligan strategy is fairly simple, your primary target is any 1-cost 2/2 and Demonic Epitaph. If you draw these two cards, you are generally very far ahead of your opponent.

Andromeda is very strong going 2nd against decks that run angelic snipe and its equivalents. Keep in mind that if you play this on Turn 1 going second, end phase, snipe does zero damage and your opponent probably loses on the spot.

Once you have secured your first two turns, that's when you can consider cards like Alice or Teatime to start your pipeline of EX Zone followers.

Despite Epitaph being strong, I do not keep Epitaph going first if I do not have a playable 1-cost follower. I consider a 1-cost follower to be extremely important, especially going first. However, if going second, I think you can take the risk, as your deck runs many 1-cost followers and your have a little bit more leeway due to the turn 3 evolve option (Alice/Cudgel).

Another card that can be considered going first is Feena against decks that are likely to curve 1-costs against you. For example, opening with a 2/2 on t1 and then shooting their 1-cost with Feena on Turn 2 gives you 2 free damage into the opponent and also leaves you with 3/2 and 2/2 into their next turn.

Some players will ask, should I mulligan for Alice, Wonderland Explorer? The answer is typically "no". Your deck runs a very large amount of starters, such as 3x Teatime, 3x Alice, Wonderland Explorer, 3x Alice's Adventure and, against Usurpation, 3x Pinion Prince. So in reality, you are statistically likely to draw into Alice eventually.

What's more important is to secure the early curve, because this is what gets you your first 7+ damage. If you miss the early curve, you won't have the opportunity to get that free damage again. Whereas if you miss Alice early, you still have a chance to draw into one of nine outs on every single turn.

What do I discard with Epitaph? 

Most of the time, discard excess combo pieces first, such as Tin Soldier, Humpty Dumpty, Eggsplosion. Otherwise, assess your upcoming curves and try to work out what card you are least likely to play over the next few turns.

Early Game 

It's already been covered to an extent, but your turn 1 should almost always be 2/2, or Angelic Snipe going second.

Your turn 2 play should be curving out your hand. So this is either Epitaph, or 2x 2/2s from hand. Both Feena effects are also fairly strong here, though I'd caution you to play it after you attack with your followers on board first, and consider the risk of it being killed by Angelic Snipe in the end phase. It is never Alice's Adventure unless you have no tempo play available at all.

Your turn 3 play is also typically a curve-angle. If you are going first, you can tempo out any 3-cost, such as Cudgel/Alice/Tin Soldier/Humpty Dumpty (no evo). I generally hold Alice in hand if I only have one copy and it's risky to curve her, but it's a case by case basis. Your ideal curve after an aggro start is Tin Soldier on 3 and then Alice Evo (give counter to your tin soldier) on turn 4.

When going second, you will typically aim for a tempo evolve with either Alice Evo or Cudgel Evo as your primary targets. Consider leaving them standing depending on the opponent's deck (do they have easy ways to clear standing 4/4s?). In addition, consider if it's possible to go for a Humpty Dumpty + Andromeda angle the next turn.

On turn 4, going first, it's typically an "evo your 3-cost" angle. If you have no better options, then Teatime is generally OK, but you can't evolve anything that you search off it. Nevertheless, if they clear the Alice or whatever you pick off Teatime, you can always bring it back for 2pp on turn 5 and evo it then.

On turn 4, going second, Teatime is always a safe play, as you can evolve anything you hit off it, and you can cheat out Pinion Princes or Odette, both of which are solid options.

Mid game 

The ideal position in the mid game is that your opponent has already taken 10+ damage due to your early aggression. Ideally, you will also have set up your EX Area to some extent.

The cards you should typically prioritise in your EX Area, in no particular order, are as follows: Tin Soldier, other Alices, Teatime, Humpty Dumpty and Eggsplosion. These cards typically secure your plays for the mid and late game.

Once you have secured a decent Ex Zone, this is typically when you can consider using Humpty Dumpty Evolves. Discarding your hand no longer matters, as your real hand is in the EX Area.

The ideal scenario is having Andromeda on the same turn you have Humpty Dumpty, although this is merely a plus, not a necessity. Keep in mind that Odette can also be used to buff followers by 2hp, which allows them to survive a Humpty Dumpty evolve.

Tip: Don't forget that Alice's Adventure can be used to give a follower rush and assail

Tip: Keep track of what cards you have seen in the mulligan phase and your Alice/Teatime searches. This can be very helpful in determining when to play Feena to try and hit Andromeda.

Tip: Don't stack your EX Zone Tin Soldiers too much against decks that are likely to tech Urd.

Late game 

This is typically the part where your opponent is desperately trying to find healing to avoid being lethalled through your burn damage. In some cases, it may come down to top decking for lethal outs, but in general, consider factors like leaving your followers standing instead of trading (to force them to have answers).

I also think it's generally important to space out your evolve followers. For example, suppose you have two cards with evolve in hand, Alice and Pinion Prince. You may have another play in your hand that doesn't utilise an evolve but is slightly better in the current turn. However, if you do not use one of your evolves, you are still stuck with two evolve followers the next turn, and this will end up punishing you if you are forced to use a Humpty Dumpty later on.

The only other thing I'd caution is to consider what happens if your opponent truly does have the healing options or, god forbid, cards like Lyrial. Sometimes, it is possible to play safer and still secure a win, rather than rushing into things and getting blindsided by tech from the opponent.

Apart from that, the late game is typically rather straightforward, due to limited resources after discarding your hand via Humpty Dumpty. Just make sure to assess what type of burn damage you have and play towards the lethal plan your EX Zone tells you is possible.

Typically, if your early game went well, then this "late game" component is extremely easy to navigate.

Matchups

I'll be honest, I haven't actually felt like any deck beats Egg Haven so far, nor do I think there's any real reason not to go first against any deck. Nevertheless, here's some generic pointers vs different decks.

Usurpation Sword: Note that Pinion Prince is effectively a tutor in this matchup, as the opponent is milling your entire deck for you. Track the cards that you have mulliganed and the cards in your graveyard to assess the odds of "hitting" with Alice/Teatime/Feena (for Andromeda). Generally, you will have the tempo lead against Usurpation Sword in the early game. Early game, there's not many cards that can deal with standing 4/4s, but note Swordsman as their main out. Apostle of Usurpation's evolve effect does 4 damage as well, so consider this when transitioning in the mid game.

In the late game, watch out for 5/2 storm via Disciple of Usurpation (which can be cleared via snipe). I would play around Leonidas - try to put them in a situation where even if they use Leo, they will take too much damage the following turn. Otherwise, consider leaving your followers standing to prevent them from getting a free Leonidas turn (they need to be cautious of an Egg + Andromeda setup).

Disdain Dragon: Played against this deck a bunch and in general, Egg Haven has all the tempo advantage. The only card worth fearing is Draconir in the early game. Since it can deal 4 damage on evolve, in some situations, you do need to prioritise clearing their followers to prevent them from getting this play off. Otherwise, you typically have superior followers on every single turn in the early game, and Oracle is so expensive to play on turn 2 if they're facing down a board of 2/2 + 3/4.

In the later stages of the game, I would be cautious of their removals (Blazing/Serpent's Wrath), noting that Andromeda can negate effect damage on your turn. The other card to give ample consideration is Riko Kashimoto. It having 6/6 in stats can force awkward trades from the Egg Haven player. Sometimes, it can be correct to not swing with a 2/2 if it means not giving them a free Riko angle with 3 burn damage.

Midrange Forest: You can actually run into trouble if you can't close out the game relatively quickly vs this deck. They're one of the few decks that can tech Lyrial without any issues, and this is quite tough to deal with in the latter stages of the game, particularly in conjunction with Marvelous Sunday healing.

However, they do have specific weaknesses in the early game. For one thing, they typically run very few ways to contest you on turn 1 and turn 2 respectively. Most of the time, your 2/2 and 3/4 are uncontested, so you can almost always get early face damage in. The other positive is that all of their early game power plays can be answered by Humpty Dumpty, particularly if in conjunction with Andromeda and existing followers. Leave your followers standing before attacking face if you can, but be careful from turn 5 onwards via Cassiopeia.

Overall, the matchup is fine for Egg Haven, but just be sure to maximise your early game advantage because if you give them a free early game, you will lose.

Versus Control Decks:

The strategy vs every control deck is the same in principle - play an early, aggressive curve and force them to have the answer.

Turn 1, play Goblin - Force them to have angelic Snipe.

Turn 2, Play Epitaph/2 1-costs/Feena - Force them to have more removal

Turn 3, Play Tin Soldier or any of your 3-costs - Force them to have the correct removal.

If they missed their removal, they take so much face damage that their later healing and removal just simply won't be enough. If they managed to draw all of it, then they get to play the game and have a chance of winning, it is what it is.

In the late game, be cautious of Gilnelese (noting that when they go first, GIlnelese drain is only 3 on turn 7). And also, a majority of control decks tend to play Craving's Splendor, so 4hp followers are much more vulnerable in these matchups.

The other thing to be cautious of is Urd Evo. Many control decks run this to prevent you from stacking Tin Soldier. Which is fine - just don't overcommit to stacking Tin Soldier and just utilise the burn damage when you can.

Lishenna Rune: The main callout for this matchup is that they want to drop Lishenna in order to start getting their permanent healing online. That's why your goal in this matchup is to make it as hard for them to play Lishenna as possible. They can play it if they want, but you want them to pay their life as a resource to do it. Generally, this matchup has felt pretty good for Egg Haven, the only thing to really fear is Merlin turbo healing with Concentration for 6, and even then, you can mitigate this if you don't let them play it for free (that is, by having a field that they can't clear while healing).

Aegis Control Haven: The main thing to consider is that this deck has access to Themis and other AOE board clear. As a result, just focus on hitting their face as much as you can. This deck can brick pretty hard, so sometimes they will miss one crucial component. Marwynn Evo is pretty annoying, but remember that you have an extra turn. If you have Andromeda, you can set up a backbreaking play by using Humpty on the second turn, for instance.

The deck also has access to a lot of burn damage, which means that you might need to be careful of playing Tin Soldiers on the board if the banish is going to be an issue later (locking you out of recursion).

Everything else: Haven't really played extensively vs the other decks, but the matchups generally play out the same way. Egg Haven is forcing the enemy to play a different version of Shadowverse Evolve, so in reality, the opponent is generally adapting to you, and you play roughly the same game of Shadowverse every time.

Conclusion

Egg Haven is almost certainly one of the best decks of the format in BP05. It's not unbeatable, but it undoubtedly will have one of the highest win rates of any deck in this format and is a solid pick for any tournament. It's possible that people will tech against you, but there's no tech that just automatically beats Egg Haven, as it's a fundamentally strong deck that can answer even cards like Lyrial.

With a guide like this by your side (idk why it's only $5 lol, maybe I just love my patreons too much), it should be free wins for the entire expansion. Cool deck.

Coaching Raffle Results - June

The Coaching Raffle for June has just been conducted on the members' Discord channel.

The winners for this month are Ruxster and Siege. The actual raffle draw can be viewed via Discord. If you won the raffle, please contact me directly to organise coaching.

____

As always, a big thank you to everyone for their ongoing support. June has been a big month for us. We were able to do our first early unboxing video thanks to Bushiroad and Cygames, and we were able to publish the Ignideus and DifferentFight interviews on our website. In addition, the Tier List for BP05 was recently updated, with the BP05 Open 8 Guide published on our Patreon.

In a few weeks time, we will also be hosting a major online tournament, with a $500 USD cash prize pool. The next guide will also be on Egg Haven for BP05.

Once again, it's thanks to this community that this is all possible. Please stay tuned for additional updates in the coming future.

Commentary of 4-0 locals run BP04 Unrestricted Uma

Pretty sure the list is good in BP05 as well. I forgot to turn on mic when I recorded the original footage, so instead you get to hear my thought process across the entire 4-0 run, which is arguably better ~_~

Feel free to ask me questions about the gameplay.

BP05 Open 8 Guide

Overview

Want to win the Deus Ex Machina playmat? Look no further than this drafting guide to make sure you get the best of your 8 packs every single time.

Once again, Bma here with card evaluations for every single card in the set. The Open 8 guide this time will be for $5 subs and above.

How to use this guide

In general, drafting in Open 8 will become very easy when using my guide. On average you will run into two situations after opening 8 packs:

1) You drafted too many good cards

This is a great problem to have. It means that even if you do make some slight mistakes with deckbuilding, you will still be able to win. Just cross-reference with my list and pick only the cards that I consider to be strong. Ideally, you want to reduce your deck size to 30.

2) You drafted too few good cards

This resource helps you pick the 25 or so good cards that you do have, so long as you can cross-reference or memorise the material below. You then find the 5 or so cards in your pool that are the "least bad" and boom, deck is done.

That's all there is to it. Most of the time, "synergy" is overrated, just pick good cards and it'll work itself out (outside of the specific synergies I mention within the article).

I drafted a good deck but I lost, why? 

Reason 1: The variance factor 

This is the nature of BO1 formats with high variance. Sometimes you can draft the best deck in the room but not win the event. For example, imagine if you pulled 2 Israfil in BP04 Open 8. This is an insane advantage over practically all of your opponents.

But the odds of not drawing a single one in your top 15 cards? 24%.

In 24% of your games, it doesn't even matter that you drafted the most broken card in the set!

Reason 2: The piloting factor

Drafting a good deck is not the only component to winning an event. Sometimes, an inferior draft can beat a better draft due to player skill. Suppose you make a subtle misplay that the opponent capitalises on. Sometimes, that's all it takes to lose the game.

Forestcraft 

Izudia

Base form: Obviously, this card sucks without the ability to consistently have 3 or more hunter cards in your cemetery. However, if you do have that ability, this is effectively 5pp removal with 4/4 body, which is good.

Evolve form: IF you drafted both the base and evolve form, you're gaming. This can effectively be seen as a 6 damage storm with 5/5 body, which is fairly strong in this type of format for only 6 mana. That said, I'd caution against being too greedy with this effect. In some cases, you might be better off trading with their board over using the burn effect.

Spinaria

You will need to have drafted a pretty large amount of forest spells and followers for it to be worth slotting in a 3/5 5-cost ward. In this type of format, reaching Combo 3 will probably need you to be on 7 or 8 mana, at which point it's not even that good.

Apostle of Unkilling

Base: Barely playable as a 3/3 body (slightly understated).

Evolve: If you drafted both the evolve and the unevolved version, it probably makes the cut simply cause you can evolve it turn 3 going 2nd for a 4/4 rush. That said, if you drafted Servant of unkilling in particular, this card becomes a 6/6 for 4 mana, which is very good!

Morton the Manipulaor

This card is great, just play it if you draft it. All of the effects are very annoying to deal with, and the slight stat penalty is more than justified.

Fairy Torrent

Garbage. There are no pixies in this set lol.

Disciple of Unkilling

1/3 is a pretty weak stat line, and the ability to get a free hunter card is far too inconsistent. Only playable if you drafted a lot of hunter synergies.

Vengeful Puppeteer Noah

Pretty good. You can get 4 storm damage on turn 7, even without an evolve or any synergies. 3/6 stat line is not bad when considering the puppets can be used flexibly.

Mark of the Unkilling

I think this card is a skip without any Hunter or Puppet synergies. I think with puppets, you can afford to play 1 copy of this. The reason I don't like it much is because it works in such a way that your opponent will be able to attack with their follower first before you can answer it with Mark + Puppet. Due to the pp expenditure, you generally need to kill a big follower for this to get the right level of value.

Servant of Unkilling 

1-cost 2/2s are very strong in Open 8 and it forms the basis of any hunter-synergy deck.

Mechanical Bowman 

I think this card is very strong as long as you draft any efficient ways of generating EX zone cards. 5 damage while giving a 4-cost is broken in this format.

Flower Doll

Great 2-cost follower, that can be drafted regardless of whether you have the evolve or not. Puppet flexibility is always appreciated and allows this unevolved card to trade into 2/3 or 3/3 for 1 extra mana.

Automaton Soldier

Excellent 3-cost follower. 3/4 with Ward is slightly above par, and the flexibility of 2 puppets is fantastic.

Mark of the Six

This card is surprisingly very playable! It lets you play more risky/aggressively and can catch the opponent off guard (baiting them into lethal if they don't have card pool knowledge). This can also help you "delayed engage" the enemy follower, and negating 5+ hp for 1 mana is insane value.

In some ways, this card will warp the format and the way people play. I think you should pretty much always aim to clear the enemy board before going face if they have 1pp open.

Swordcraft

Octrice, Omen of Usurpation

I think without the Evolve version, you would usually not play this card. The main reasoning is that it's understated, milling 2 cards doesn't achieve anything, and you will probably never be allowed to use the 8pp effect. Conversely, with the evolve available, this card is fantastic and acts as a +1 and can even cheat tempo/play points if the opponent has 8 or more cards in the grave.

Magna Legacy

The "downside" of this effect hardly matters if you are getting 4 AOE damage and an 8/8 on top of it. Very strong card.

Apostle of Usurpation

Do not play without the evolve effect. However, very strong if you do have it, as 4 damage ping with 4/5 body is fairly strong.

Empyreal Swordsman

Fantastic card for this format. 5/4 stat line while hitting any follower for 4 damage and 2 to the leader is great tempo. If they can't clear it, you can get the effect multiple times...

Confront Adversity

Mildly understatted (2/2) but comes with ward, which can be challenging to clear in some game states. In addition, scales very well into the late game and punishes the opponent for playing a 6-cost. Therefore, I think this card is worth playing due to the potential upside.

Disciple of Usurpation

It's a 3-cost 3/2 storm follower at the minimum, which you should generally be quite happy with. In addition, in the late game, it does 5 damage instead. As such, it's an insanely powerful card that should be put into any deck.

Fervent Machine Soldier

3/4 statline is generally good for a 3-cost follower. Effect can search Empyreal Swordsman (very good) and Captain Meteo. The only other commander is Machine Artisan, Geno. I think it's worth considering adding Genos even in situations where it would otherwise not be played if you can search Empyreal Swordsman off Fervent.

Machine Artisan, Geno

In general, there are not enough amulets in the format to make use of this card's effect. As such, you should only really play this card if you also have the evolve (due to being 3/3 on evo).

You can also consider playing this card if you drafted both Fervent Machine Soldier and Empyreal Swordsman.

Servant of Usurpation 

This card is great! At minimum, it's a 2/2 1-cost, which is always worth playing, but with enough luck on your side, this card can even become a 3/2 or more, which can win the game singlehandedly.

Captain Meteo 

Strong boss monster, with, or without the evolve. As it immediately does 4 burn damage, it can be used as a finisher in some situations. In addition, considering the format, you can also use 1pp to give it rush, so yeah, it's a good card.

Gravikinetic Warrior

4/4 isn't the worst in the world, but I would only play this with a deck that can reasonably play token followers (in which case this card can be a huge swing on turn 4).

Usurping Spineblade

3 damage 2-cost quick spells are always welcome, especially when it comes with upside.

Avaritia

Considering there are a lot of good thief cards, it can be worth including this depending on your pulls. Usually will be one of those 29th/30th card inclusions.

Runecraft 

Raio, Omen of Truth

There's a pretty decent amount of "Mage" cards in the Rune pool, so technically, a 7/7 on turn 7 that effectively clears any follower is certainly not bad (2 with 1pp rush or evolve). Evolve being drafted too would necessitate its inclusion due to being a potent finisher.

Lishenna, Omen of Destruction

Puts the opponent on a clock for the rest of the game. I think this card is good, but the main issue is that it doesn't help you if you're behind due to what is quite frankly, a very pathetic 2/4 stat line. If your deck looks like it's going to have issues stabilising the early game, this might be a cut, despite how bad it might feel to do so.

Apostle of Truth

The fanfare may as well not exist. If you have the evolve card, go ahead and play it, otherwise, ugh, maybe it's ok for Raio fodder, but otherwise this card kinda sucks.

Safira, Synthetic Beast

I think you want to draft this when you can reasonably expect 2 rune followers to be in the grave before playing this. 4/6 rush is very good, maybe even 3/6, frankly. But anything less and it's underwhelming.

Destructive Refrain 

A card that is literally only playable if you pulled Lishenna, and drastically increases the consistency and the ability to stabilise when going for the strategy.

Iron Staff Mechanic

Pretty exceptional if you drafted 1-cost 2/2 followers, as this then becomes a 6/6 minimum for 5 mana. With Evolve, it's 6 mana for 9/9 in stats lol, pretty insane. Is also a mage, for what it's worth.

Truth's Adjudication

I think this card is playable, mainly due to its flexibility. I think it's rare to have two mages on the field, but any one of these effects is workable in a vacuum. Draw 2 is likely going to be the most common usage type, but it can open up lethal patterns or clear followers in an emergency.

Monochromatic Destruction

It costs too much for what it does.

You might consider it with Lishenna, but even then, it's not great. The best scenario for this card is when it kill Disciple of Usurpation.

Disciple of Truth

Understatted garbage. Only play with Raio, pretty much.

Disciple of Destruction

I don't know how often you are ever getting off his draw 2 effect. However, he is definitely playable due to 3/4 stats with ward.

Servant of Destruction

Another card that's only really playable with the evolve version. It can be used even without any Idol synergies, as the evolve effect is actually quite strong for 4pp (one of which can be cheated via evo point).

Honest Cohort

This card is playable simply on the basis of being a 3 damage, 2-cost quick spell.

Metaproduction

I think this is a skip in most cases. The odds of missing is too high to justify playing, regardless of how many spells you run, I think.

Dragoncraft

Galmieux, Omen of Disdain

Sadly, you have to draft both the base and the evolve for this card to be particularly useful. Actually an insane card if you manage to though, since it represents a massive tempo swing due to being able to replay any 2-cost or lower omen card while clearing enemy board and pinging leader.

Electromagical Rhino

3/7 storm for 5 mana is actually fine, maybe even good (this is basically what this card is). The only way to pull more than 1 copy of this is if your box happens to have the LG version AND the SL version at the same time (exceptionally rare).

Apostle of Disdain

There's two components here, let's tackle them separately.

1) If you draft the evolve version of this card as well, this card is worth playing. There are a lot of Omen Cards in this set, so being able to search top 5 cards and adding two to hand is actually very strong. Plus, when it trades, it becomes 4 attack.

2) Is this card worth playing without the evolve? I think the answer is, that it depends specifically on if you drafted cards like Disdainful Rending in particular. I don't think a 3/4 storm is that good anyways when considering the hoops.

My current thought is that this card is a -skip- IF you do not get the evolve and/or multiple rendings.

God Bullet Golem

What a weird card! A 7/7 for 6 cost is not necessarily bad, but half the advantage is lost as it can't attack leader. And activating the effect actually represents negative tempo in most cases too!

I believe this card is a skip. It's also vulnerable to the opponent's Confront Adversity.

Disdainful Rending

The "cost" is trivial and can snowball games irreversibly in the early game, while still finding opportunities to clear followers in the mid and late game. Exceptional.

Disciple of Disdain

You might run this if you drafted enough Disdain cards, but only in that scenario, as a 1/2 for 1-cost is not good in most cases.

Cursed Stone

Slightly understatted but one of the better 2/2s to play (without evo).

If you do have evo, as is usually a rule, it's an auto-include in your deck.

Amethyst Giant

I suspect this simply costs way too much mana to be good. If it manages to come down, it's obviously game-winning but turn 9.... Seems like it's simply too much.

Servant of Disdain

One of the best 2-cost followers in this format. Answers all 2/2s while drawing a card. Also has an overflow effect to ping a follower and also draw a card, which is very relevant!

Silver Automaton

Wow! 4/5 ward with 2 puppets (in EX) for only 4 play points!? This card will feel sooooo good slamming it going first. Great card.

Airship Whale

5/5 isn't the worst for 5-mana, but usually a skip without evo.

With evo? BROKEN! You will rarely "miss" with the evolve effect, which gets you maybe 9/10 in stats lol.

Colossal Construct

Strong "boss monster". Effectively cost-less "clear a follower" while creating a 6/7 on board. A little expensive, so probably don't want to run too many copies, but definitely one of the best common boss monsters to cap out your curve.

Total Domination

I think I need to actually try this card in Open 8 to evaluate its true strength. Obviously very playable if you pull a lot of the disdain package, but unsure if you can run this without it. I think my default answer is "no", due to consistency issues, despite the occasional upside.

Bloodcraft 

Valnareik, Omen of Lust

Technically under-statted, but playable regardless, provided you draft any amount of sanguine synergy. Unless your opponent sees you playing this throughout the day, it's unlikely they will play around the strike effect, which can be lethal out of nowhere.

Worst case scenario, you can just play it as a 2-cost follower on turn 2, sometimes you don't get punished for having under-statted 2-costs.

Ruleneye, Omen of Silence

Slightly under-statted, with slight upside by making opponent spells cost more (probably not relevant, in most cases).

The main thing is that his Necrocharge 10 effect, which will come live in the latter half of the game, is actually fairly strong.

Auto include if you managed to draft his evolve as well.

Apostle of Lust

Although he engages himself to do so, he represents potentially 6/7 in stats depending on what 2-cost he brings back with his effect, which is very strong.

Apostle of Silence

The "under 3 cards" effect is sometimes relevant, especially if the opponent goes first or if you drafted a bunch of the silence package. However, there are many games where it will never proc. Nevertheless, a 4/4 for 4-cost is okay, even if it doesn't do much else.

Card is exceptional with the evolve version, as it can then also ping the enemy follower for 3 (and, in some cases, destroy it outright).

Disciple of Lust

There's only really two cards that would make this card playable in my eyes. The first is Valnareik, the second is Servant of Lust evolve. I would skip this in almost every other scenario (unless my draft necessitated full aggro)

Masked Puppet

I think based on how many early games play out, it's actually a little underwhelming as you can't play the puppet on turn 3 going first, which automatically makes their 3/3 turn 2 evo value trade unpunished.

However, this card is very strong with evolve, as it gives you massive amounts of control on the board while potentially threatening a scaling 5/4.

Wings of Lust

Honestly a pretty good 1-cost spell. Even though you can rush your followers for 1pp anyways, sometimes, you might use that effect anyway cause you don't have the spare pp for rush and you want to do 2 damage to a follower. The cycle effect is also good to use when the rush effect isn't relevant.

Silent Purge

Excellent card that synergises with the other Silence omen cards. 4 mana hard removal that forces a discard can easily win you games!

Servant of Lust

I would be very careful when using this card without the evolve. It's definitely playable as a 3/1, but you might consider using this to trade with the enemy followers rather than going face. The reasoning is that there's a lot of puppet generators in the format, which makes you vulnerable to tempo swings.

The evolve effect is great though, even without the lust package, it does 2 damage to an enemy follower...

Servant of Silence

You might sometimes get her effect off which is nice. But for the most part you'll play her simply cause she's a 2/3 2-cost.

Hamelin

I quite like this card. 3/2 statline is exceptional when going first and the opponent doesn't open with a 1 cost 2/2. It can also be used to copy (most commonly) puppet cards, which makes this card have even higher potential upside.

Embracing Wings

HARD REMOVAL FOR ONLY 3 MANA. Play as many copies as you pull!

This card's existence is why value trading is probably the main approach to BP05 gameplay. Also gives you free Valnareik if it happens to be in cemetary.

Thunderous Roar

This card is great. Even without Necrocharge, 3 damage 2-cost removal is usually not bad at all. And you can also just make them discard a card if you happen to have the mana floating. Obviously in late game, being able to do both at the same time is very strong.

Also helps enable Apostle of Silence.

Havencraft

Marwynn, Omen of Repose

With evolve, auto-include. It's so hard to clear an 8/8 with aura and ward, even if they do get an extra turn. In some cases you can just leave it standing, then pose the question during your next (unskipped) turn after hitting them for 8 damage.

Without evolve, 4/4 for 4 mana is okay but probably skipped under most drafts.

Deus Ex Machina

Is one of those cards that ensures you never lose a resource war. 4/6 is a decent statline for a 5-cost too.

It's funny cause this card can definitely be skipped if your draft is very strong. However, I would still expect this card to see play in most situations!

Apostle of Repose

Definitely a skip without evolve, but fairly strong with evolve point, even though you have to let them engage their follower first in order to kill it.

Hakrabi

The rare 4/3 3-cost statline WITH ward. Warding this on turn 3 going first means practically nothing can trade into this and survive, preventing the concept of the value trade. That said, in most cases you are probably still not warding this so you can secure 4 damage on turn 4 and then have it warded after.

For the most part, I would consider the fanfare to not exist in this format.

Ancient Protector

Errr, this is a skip lol. You can't afford to waste 3 play points, and if they can drop you to 0 hp in the first place, they can probably do it again.

It's basically a win-more card.

Disciple of Repose

I really like this card's effect. Makes it pretty flexible and you can also leave it standing for recurring value.

Unidentified Subject

I'd probably only play this card if I got the evolve version (draw 2 cards is nice). Otherwise, it's too restrictive with how it gains stats, and a 3/7 is not particularly good.

Silver Cog Spinner

Very nice 4 cost follower with a strong 5/4 statline. Both of the effects are pretty good in my opinion, either you tempo 7/6 (or 7/7) worth of stats, or you draw a card with the 5/4.

Servant of Repose

Pretty playable simply because it's a 2/3 with slight upside. Gaining 1-2 hp can sometimes make the difference.

Demon's Epitaph

Worth playing with or without the Evolve. With the evolve, the discard is not steep when you consider that this practically guarantees 5 damage to the enemy leader (but more likely 8+ lol).

The Saviors

Especially good with Marwynn, as tutoring him will set up a very strong turn 4 power play - however, the banish effect is also rather playable (though sometimes a bit awkward). Can be skipped or included as a 29th/30th card type of thing.

Ancient Amplifier

This card is pretty great in my opinion. While a 2/3 ward is understated for 3 mana, you need to consider the following:

A) It draws a card

B) You are supposed to leave the card standing on turn 3, then spend 1pp on turn 4 to make it a 4/3, which is VERY good.

Of course, you could just also draw it on turn 4 onwards, in which case it's a 4pp 4/3 that draws a card.

Neutral

Mjerrabaine, Omen of One

5/5 rush is fine. I don't think it's particularly easy to proc his other effects without opponent helping you discard (nor would I build my deck around it). If you can proc his other effects, cool, just consider it a bonus (only possible in the late game usually).

With Evolve, the fact that he refreshes himself makes him twice as good, allowing him to clear an enemy follower and THEN refresh and force an answer from the opponent.

Gilnelise, Omen of Craving

Drain is so rare to see and is a very powerful keyword. The 3/5 statline is quite difficult to clear on turn 4.

I think the burn damage effect is sort of whatever, but the ability to search Apostle of Craving/Craving's splendor is pretty good, specifically if you have Craving's Splendor in deck.

The effect to draw 3 cards will almost never happen, but all the more power to you if you pull it off.

There's an argument that this card could be skipped if you draft neither the Apostle of Craving nor the Craving's Splendor if the rest of your deck is already good enough.

Apostle of Craving

Useless without either Gilnelese or the evolved version of this card.

Otherwise, it is a dramatically understated card, where you can already give rush to your followers for 1pp in Open 8.

Lyrial, Archer Throne

Very good on curve, as there's very few 5 attack followers on turn 3/4 in particular. However, later in the game, this will just get autocleared. So overall, I think the card is worth playing, but it does have these tradeoffs.

Feena, Dynamite Devil

3/2 2-cost with upside. This is actually one of the ideal 2-costs to have as it cannot be value-traded over by most 2-cost evos (of course, does die to 1 cost 2/2s but can't win em all)

Rosa, Mech Wing Maiden

Quite good with the evolve, but I think is a skip in every other circumstance, as 1/3 is too unimpactful, even with ward.

Enlightenment

I think this card is actually really good! Leaving the Mjerrabaine synergy aside, the +1/1 effect is very good in the early game. Making a 3/4 3-cost into a 4/5 is extremely difficult to deal with, for example, and lets you snowball really hard.

Craving's Splendor

This card is very strong. 4 damage removal for 3 mana AND 1 healing is very useful. It's even a quick spell!

Obviously, it's even better if you manage to pull Gilnelese.

Cat Cannoneer

Skip without evolve.

Absolutely insane with the evolve effect. It's a 4/4 you can leave standing while using the 3/1 to trade off their board... You could even just leave the 3/1 standing and go for 7 damage the next turn, if you should so be inclined to race.

Steel Demolitionist

2/3 2-costs followers are always playable. The ability to banish a card in the EX area can definitely come up later in the game, specifically with puppet generators.

Gliesaray

1 mana, 2 damage ping is always playable (though possibly one of your last 5 cards to put into your deck).

Obviously insane with Gilnelese on board, but can't really count on that, considering she's a legend rarity card.

Coaching Raffle Results - May

Hello, thank you all for your support of SVE Master!

The raffle was conducted earlier on the Shadowverse Master Discord (https://discord.gg/7DpgXuSP7p)

If you haven't joined our discord server already, please consider doing so, as many announcements will be posted on the Patreon Discord Channels. Your Discord details, when linked with Patreon, will also enable special cosmetics on SVE Master, when you are logged into the site.

Below are the winners of May's Coaching Raffle: 

Young Cat Tier 

Ruxter

Shadowverse Master Tier 

Geralf

Supporter Tier (It was a 50-50 on who won this)

Framework

______________

The next Raffle will be held in June for the Young Cat and Shadowverse Master Tiers. The next raffle for the Supporter Tier will be in July.

My current intention is to alternate between written guides for the Supporter Tier and Shadowverse Master tier and above.

_______________

For convenience:

Q: What type of coaching is available?

 A: Coaching sessions will typically be 1 hour long. If you win the coaching session, please indicate what type of coaching you would be interested in:

• VOD Review

• Deck review

• Card game fundamentals

• Chatting about life

• 1v1 over webcam

• Shadowverse Digital Card Game coaching (instead of Shadowverse Evolve)

• Chatting about the SVE market and potential opportunities

• Chatting about future sets

• Open 8 strategy

 Note that these coaching sessions may be recorded and uploaded to help fellow patrons. If you would like to opt out of this, please let me know beforehand.

Q: Can I save my coaching sessions for future sets?

A: Yes. In general, coaching sessions can be saved for up to two months, but if you DM me, we can extend this timing if it makes sense to do so.

BP04 Umamusume Guide

Despite the nerfs in the English edition of Shadowverse Evolve, Uma Musume remains a viable deck in the BP04 environment due to its strong matchups against board-based decks such as Hero Sword and Midrange Forest (!!). It struggles against decks with excessive board clear and healing, such as Ramp Dragon and Egg Haven, but there are ways to mitigate these disadvantages through various tech options.

Note: Originally, I intended to keep guides only for the Shadowverse Master Tier and above. However, I want to test a format where I alternate between guides for the Supporter Tier and the tiers above it. I will land on a final decision sometime in the future.

Overview

Uma Musume is a strong mid-range deck with a large number of removal options and strong tempo plays throughout the entire game. Utilising cards like Agnes Tachyon, Eishin Flash and Daiwa/Vodka to control the board, before finishing them off with Oguri Cap, Narita Brian, or Outrunning the Encroaching Heat.

One of the key strengths of the deck is that the opponent is heavily incentivised to clear your board on every single turn, due to the risk of losing to Daiwa + Vodka combinations. The deck is also highly consistent due to many draws, tutor abilities and recursion from the grave.

Decklist

While the Smart Falcon list was a sleeper pick in BP03, I do not find it suitable for play in the current metagame, especially due to the faster metagame and the deck's lack of storm finishers.

I currently favour a list with a strong early and mid-game that can chip away at the opponent until Oguri Cap can be used to finish the game.

My Solo Drawn to Raindrop Drums was cut in BP03 due to the lack of threats that required hard removal, but in BP04, this is once again essential, as King Elephant's existence necessitates it. In the late game, you will definitely have 10 cards in the cemetery, so holding onto 2 play points is sufficient to prevent any King Elephant plays from the opponent (and should they ever run into it, they will lose).

Seiun Sky is a card which I think has great performance in BP04. Situationally, it can be very difficult for the opponent to answer efficiently due to its intimidate ability, and the damage stacks up significantly throughout the game. If it is not immediately answered, the threat of it gaining stats from Flowers for You and Vodka is particularly painful for the opponent to clear, and can create win conditions that no other Uma card is able to pull off.

Alternative cards in the deck that can be considered:

7cm ahead - If your meta consists heavily of control decks, this card can be considered. It's particularly good against decks like Ramp Dragon which can eventually run you out of resources and put out huge statted threats. Generally, I don't like this card without tailoring the build to run several mill cards, as it is too slow vs faster decks like Egg Haven and Hero Sword

Smart Falcon - This card is good in heavily board-based metagames where the opponent has limited ways to clear this. I do not consider it in this list because you need to specifically tailor your entire build to running cards like Systematic Squats and Will to Overtake.

Maruzensky - Excellent against aggro decks in particular. Shuts down decks like Aggro Abyss and Hero Sword early, and has additional strength after 10 Necrocharge. The main issue is that the 3-cost slot is highly competitive and tech card space is limited

Matikanetannhauser - Was essential in previous metas where Leonidas and Discard Dragon were prevalent. There are too many decks in the meta now that do not run amulets, so this card is not useful enough for inclusion at present.

Silence Suzuka - The biggest weaknesses of this card is how difficult it is to find evolve deck space and its overall vulnerability as a storm card with only 2 health on evolve. Its upsides are obvious, but it has always been a somewhat risky inclusion.

Mejiro Dober - One of my favourite 2-cost uma cards which barely doesn't make the cut. Often, I find myself wanting just one extra 2-cost follower so I can mulligan more aggressively, and this card's performance is quite good, given its ability to become a 3/3 with racing and being one of the only forms of chip healing in the deck.

Mejiro Ardan - An underrated Uma card that is particularly strong against aggro decks like Hero Sword. Playing this early can completely shut down early chip damage, and can be used in the late game as an emergency ward tool against cards like Forte and Genesis Dragon. The reason we do not opt to play this is simply due to a lack of deck space.

Mulligan Strategy

Here's the variety of mulligans I recommend:

Any hand with Daiwa AND Vodka in it except vs Dragon. Even if there is no playable early game drops, I would still keep it in hand and just pray to top out. The upside is just way too high as few decks have efficient outs to the combo.

Any hand with Special Week - this is generally the safest mulligan strategy. It fully covers you for turn 2 and draws you a card. 2-cost is often that chokepoint where sometimes you might sort of "brick", as the deck runs so many 3-cost followers and above that, you're usually "set" after you have the turn 2 play.

Against aggro: Agnes Tachyon with Lamplit: The killer of aggro. It is not particularly easy to remove for most decks, and it can recur the same removal spells to continuously control the state of their board.

Against control decks going first (it's actually good vs every deck except Forest due to Elf Child May): Mayano Top Gun with Special Week is an exceptional opener against many control decks. You can generally get in 4-6 poke damage off the 2/1 continuously swinging face, as for many decks, they don't have great ways to clear multiple followers until at least turn 3. If they don't have it, all the Themises in the world aren't going to save their hp total.

Early game strategy

Turn 1:

Trial initiation: Using this to guarantee a curve is always fine, especially if you have no other turn 1 play.

Mayano Top Gun: Good vs every deck that doesn't have efficient poke damage (mainly Forest with Elf Child May). It can chip enemy leader quite a bit while trading efficiently with 2/2s.

Lamplit: The main thing with this card is what you do when going second. In some cases, you might deliberately take their first 2/2 hit and then save lamplit for the potential end-phase upside of clearing a 2/2 or 3/2 2-cost follower that wants to evolve the next turn. This requires matchup knowledge to pull off effectively though!

Turn 2:

Almost always Special Week if you have it available. Pre-evo going second is also fine, but only if there's actually upside to a 3/3 (against some decks, it doesn't matter at all).

Turn 3 tip:

Don't get too fixated on saving your 3-cost followers for evo effects. For example, it's perfectly valid to curve a 3/3 and force the opponent to clear it or risk you evolving it and hitting the face for 4 damage. Just be mindful of situations where you have no turn 4 plays if they do clear your board.

Early game tips:

Against some matchups, it can be worthwhile not to attack the enemy leader with your followers in the early game. For example against Sword, if you are going first, you might deliberately choose not to attack the enemy leader with your Special Week on Turn 3 with the expectation that they may opt for a Floral Fencer Evolve on their turn 3. This way, their Floral can't trade into Special Week, and you can follow up on Turn 4 with an Eishin Flash evolve on their Floral Fencer, making it harder for them to process your board on their Turn 4. You could even opt to leave your cards standing on turn 4 and threaten Daiwa Vodka on turn 5.

It is therefore worth assessing questions like: What is my opponent likely to play on the following turn? What are my likely plays if I leave my follower standing rather than not? This is a useful framework to follow against decks that require follower combat to clear your board.

Mid game

Your key objective in the mid-game should be to take control of the board and chip away at the enemy leader until you create space for an Oguri Cap lethal. Uma is a deck that places followers down every turn and demands the opponent to have an immediate answer. If they don't have it, boom, 4 damage to enemy leader.

Your mid-game will usually follow 4 distinct patterns:

1) Daiwa Vodka Combo on Turn 5: One of the ideal play patterns. If you had any followers on board before this combo, you could potentially win the game on the spot. In other cases, using Lamplit for free to clear their follower and holding a 4/5 + 4/4 is too difficult for the opponent to clear both, leading to unavoidable damage on the following turn.

2) Rice Shower to ping off an enemy follower. THEN leave Rice Shower standing. The reasoning is that it isn't easy for most decks to clear a standing 3/5 follower. You are forcing them to make a choice. Do they ignore Rice Shower and develop board as per usual? If so, then next turn, they take 3 face damage at minimum AND they risk you buffing her with Vodka. In addition, if you clear their board using something like Eishin Flash + Make Some Noise -> Then they have to clear a 4/4 and a 3/5 ward. The problems on their end just keep stacking up!

3) Against passive decks: Storm face using cards like Outrunning the Encroaching Heat to force the issue. If the opponent doesn't have play points open, it allows you to hit their face safely. This can then be recurred using Agnes Tachyon to repeatedly push damage. Very relevant against decks like Control Haven

4) Develop board/hand while clearing enemy board: Very boring, but it's usually just racing your 3-cost Umas and using removal spells to clear. This can sometimes happen multiple turns in a row - you are really just "checking" if they have an answer - and if they do not, nice, you get the damage on their face and advance your lethal condition

Late Game

There are four main ways to finish the game in the late game.

1) Oguri Cap - 10 damage poggers. Just be careful of quick spells - based on their deck, you will know how likely or unlikely it is for them to have an out to this. In particular, watch out for cards like Acolyte's Light (4pp), Execution (4pp), Lightning Blast (5pp), Rimewind (2pp), Raindrop (4pp/2pp). It is game-losing to run into any of these cards while going for lethal. As such, you usually do not play this card if they have enough play points open to stop you.

Tip: It is not necessary to play this "only" when aiming for lethal. Vs some matchups, if the opponent is tapped out, it might be the best option to "cash in" your 10 damage early, as it doesn't matter when you damage them.

2) Outrunning the Encroaching Heat - The damage you can get off this is usually pretty low, but it can get the job done. You can search for this with Daiwa and recur with Agnes Tachyon.

3) Narita Brian - Many decks don't have healing, so sometimes you can make a very aggressive play to drop them to 5 or less health. This allows you to pick up an uncontested victory against any decks with limited healing (but many wards)

4) If your opponent can't answer your standing followers, you can just kill them the normal way

5) This is fairly unlikely in practice, but Daiwa + Vodka + 3 spells can also be lethal

This phase is where all of your poke damage translates into actual lethal conditions. When making plays in the late game, try to assess which win condition you are trying to achieve. For example, you might play much more aggressively when your opponent is close to the 10 hp threshold for Oguri Cap. If you have no real lethal options in hand, you might aim instead to grind out the opponent in a resource game. It is essential to consider what is realistically possible considering your hand and game state.

Tip: Special Week is especially strong from Turn 7 onwards. Its evolve effect buffs your field by +1/1. This is especially powerful in any scenario where your opponent failed to fully clear your board on the previous turn. In this scenario, aim to build a wide board and buff it with Special Week. This can often be game-winning!

Matchups

*Just go first in every matchup. To be honest, though, Uma is a deck that can win regardless of going first or second.

Mirror - Even. I prefer to go first in this matchup, as I highly value the option to tempo aggressively in the early game and access Turn 5 Daiwa Vodka before the opponent can. Although their Turn 3 play may involve Eishin Flash, the turn player is always able to answer back with it on turn 4, allowing you to reset all of their evolve point advantages. I highly recommend watching the analysis I did of my Worlds match as I provide thorough insights on how many matches can play out.

Ramp Dragon - Unfavoured. I prefer to go first as you can poke significant damage in with a Mayano Top Gun opener curve - and you also get extra time before conflagration is an issue. In a typical game, you want to get as much free damage in as possible, while being careful of their Dragon Warrior turn. Conflagration is the main enemy of this matchup, and if they fail to draw it, they will often lose. The issue with BP04 is that they now run a significantly higher amount of healing (Dragon's Nest being a key culprit), as well as Israfil, which heals and also clears the board by itself. Therefore, a long game is often unfavourable to Uma, who will eventually run out of resources and lethal range options due to the onslaught of healing and Olivias.

That said, it is possible to win this matchup by teching 7cm ahead. This is one of the matchups where you can reach 20 cards in the cemetary, and this card can then be searched by Daiwa and looped via Agnes Tachyon. This means that in the end game, they will be unable to keep a board, and your hand will be replenished repeatedly.

Egg Haven - Unfavoured/Slightly unfavoured. Go first, make it hard for them to drop Alice safely - and force them to use Humpty Dumpty on turn 4. The current Uma build runs more storm damage, which means that you can still push damage through even if they clear your board via the Egg. The main issue with this matchup is Andromeda. When coupled with Humpty Dumpty, facing off against a 4/4 and 2/2 is very annoying, but not completely unbeatable. The deck doesn't run many ways to prevent you from killing them via Oguri Cap, as their only wards are Bellringer and Snow White, which can be cleared easily in the end phase.

Midrange Forest - Favoured. Go first as it prevents a majority of early-game snowballing options. The key to this matchup is Agnes Tachyon and Eishin Flash, which can clear even the most challenging boards from the Forest player (Eishin Flash clears Crystalia Eve in particular!). Despite its buffs, Forest still lacks answers to Daiwa + Vodka on turn 5 (if both are standing), which can snowball a victory by itself. Previously, it was possible for the Forest player to chain Silver Bolts for lethal, but to fit King Elephant, this has been cut to 1-2 copies. This means that their primary victory condition is King Elephant, which cannot be safely played by the opponent as long as you have 2 play points open (due to raindrops).

BNB Forest - Slightly unfavoured. Ah, another shameless plug for my pet deck. many of Uma's biggest advantages are significantly weaker against BNB Forest. Cards like Flower Princess allow them to control the board from the early game, while Lilac is one of the few perfect answers in the game against Daiwa + Vodka on turn 5 (token from Alice in EX or Woodland Band). It's also much more challenging to leave 2pp open for Raindrops, as the Aura from BNB completely ignores all removal, so they don't need to rely on King Elephant at all.

Hero Sword - Favoured. All aggro decks have issues against Uma, due to the heavy amounts of removal and the existence of Agnes/the Daiwa Vodka combo being practically unanswerable by all aggro decks. All you need to do is survive, and then eventually, the Hero Sword player runs out of gas and you can develop a board that threatens lethal with Oguri Cap or Narita Brian.

Spellchain Rune - Even/Slightly Favoured. It can be difficult to close the game if they open heavy removal and never give you a chance to build a board. The reason why we are favoured is because of the Daiwa Vodka combo. There still remain very few answers to this, with the most effective one being RNG based (Heinleinn and milling enough spells for the PP to clear). All Uma needs is a single turn to snowball the match. With all that being said though, the current build of Spellchain runs a lot of healing, which can make it difficult to find lethal opportunities. In addition, by leaving 2pp up, the Spellchain player can threaten Rimewind, which can bounce Oguri Cap back with only 2pp. As a result, this matchup can be surprisingly difficult to win.

Control Haven - Slightly to straight-up favoured. You are on the clock to win before Aegis + Guardian Sun combo, but you can frequently win before this point on Uma. If they don't open perfectly, they will usually take face damage from your tempo curve. You can answer every single one of their early and mid-game plays. You can play around with their open pp count and storm when it's safe to do so. One of the big power plays is waiting until turn 7 for Daiwa + Vodka to storm the enemy face (You can play 3 1-cost spells and Daiwa + Vodka on turn 7 to get 8+ storm damage to face). Even if they do have Acolyte's Light, they always take at least one of these to the face. Be wary of their AOE (Themis/Jeanne), and also take advantage of its predictability. For example, if you have Daiwa + Vodka storm combo, deliberately flood the board on turn 6 to force them to Themis. With only 2 play points left over, you can storm their face for 8 and they won't have the pp available to clear it. For them to clear Daiwa + Vodka on the following turn, it opens them up to Oguri lethal! This is why Uma does totally fine into most variants of Aegis Haven.

Eachtar Abyss - Favoured. The early tempo is practically non-existent and one of their best ways of preventing aggression, Surefire Bullet, doesn't work properly on Uma followers as racing followers are not considered evolves. Any game where you open Daiwa Vodka should be a fairly free win, as there are practically no real answers to the combo on turn 5. In addition, Uma has so many ways to clear a standing Azazel, that turn 7 OTK is very hard to reach for Abyss. The only combo that would really threaten you is an extremely early Israfil cheated via Death's Breath, and even then, that isn't necessarily a lost game (you can just Eishin Flash it or Raindrop)

Gameplay footage:

https://youtu.be/Uv2R6Hd5MUE - Uma vs Midrange Forest

https://youtu.be/N_1IO5mfOEs - Uma vs Dirt Spellchain

Final thoughts

Uma is a fun deck with a variety of different game plans and options. I don't think it'd be strange to see an un-nerfing of the deck in BP05, which means its longevity might be extended for 1-2 more sets as well. I think it's well placed in the BP04 meta, with a relatively strong matchup spread into popular decks of the format.

For those in the Shadowverse Master and Young Cat Tiers, feel free to ask me for Uma advice that isn't already explained within the guide!

Raw Video 4-0 Locals with BnB

Played an online Australian local with BnB. Went 4-0, making it 8-0 over two weeks with the same list.

In the final round, played against Justin Mao, who was the 3rd place finisher at this year's World Championship.

I like this list a lot. I think it has a favourable matchup against every deck in the meta except for Egg Haven.

Full Open 8 Card review in BP04

Overview 

Note: The BP04 card review has been released for free, as a reference for what you can expect for the paid article for BP05 Open 8. If you want to win the Deus Ex Machina playmat, make sure you are subscribed to the Patreon!

I have played a total of 6 Open 8 Events of BP04, and have won four Mars Playmats, while coming 2nd in two others (losing to Juliet topdecks in both, funnily enough). This article represents the culmination of all my knowledge relating to card strengths within the format.

On a personal note, it's been hard to publish content like this on YouTube or as an article due to the nature of the content. Of course, I like helping people, but I also don't want to give out all of my knowledge for free and then become unable to win my own Open 8 events because of it. Patreon is the perfect gateway for me to provide knowledge to our most dedicated supporters who literally help keep our site and activities running.

How to use this guide

In general, drafting in Open 8 will become very easy when using my guide. On average you will run into two situations after opening 8 packs:

1) You drafted too many good cards

This is a great problem to have. It means that even if you do make some slight mistakes with deckbuilding, you will still be able to win. Just cross reference with my list and pick only the cards that I consider to be strong. Ideally, you want to reduce your deck size to 30.

2) You drafted too few good cards

This resource helps you pick the 25 or so good cards that you do have, so long as you can cross-reference or memorise the material below. You then find the 5 or so cards in your pool that are the "least bad" and boom, deck is done.

That's really all there is to it. Most of the time, "synergy" is overrated, just pick good cards and it'll work itself out (outside of the specific synergies I mention within the article).

Forest 

Cassiopeia/C.C Woodland Witch

Exceptional performance when drawn on curve in particular. Clearing their board while gaining 4/5 in stats is very challenging for most decks to deal with and is essentially an extra bomb card. Auto include if drafted

Deepwood Anomaly

Auto include regardless of if you have the evolve. Opponent requires hard removal to clear, as 8 hp is far too much for any normal deck to deal with. Can randomly win you games you have no business winning.

King Elephant

Have a strange feeling this card is a little overrated in the format. It's a great finisher when it works but it can be hard to tempo unless you are ahead. I think you include this card if you draft it but it's not as good as it seems.

Nelcha

Auto-include. Good stat line for a 2-cost follower in BP04, and has an easily usable ability even if drawn later in the game.

Spring Green Protection/Inviolable Verdancy

Since the effect is only usable on Forest followers, it is generally a skip. There are rare situations where you draft cards like Star Priestess where this card gains some additional value, but I have generally skipped this in my runs.

Sukuna, Brave and Small

Only include this card in your deck if you also got the evolve version of this card. A 1/1 for 1-cost is terrible without the evolve version.

Dolorblade Demon

Autoinclude. Especially when going first, the opponent will frequently trade over your followers using their evo point, with their HP values usually being at 1. As such, this allows you to irrepairably snowball the game.

Keep in mind that it does 1 AOE damage when you play it and also when it dies.

Elf Song

Useless a majority of the time sicne it only buffs Forest followers.

Starry Elf

If you run any amulets in your deck, this is a great option to include (especially Starry Night and Dragon's Nest), as 3/3 is only mildly understatted but this provides you with essentially a card draw.

Fita the Gentle Elf

Only run this if you drafted the evolve card too.

Dryad

2/3 stat line with bonus effects are typically good in this format. This card is surprisingly annoying to deal with in practice, worth playing in a majority of drafts.

Beetle Warrior

Very good card for obvious reasons. 3/4 on turn 3 is great, but 4/5 storm in the late game is even better.

Ivy Spellbomb

In practice kills almost every follower in the early game (except Octobishop!). Scales into the late game due to the 3 damage combo effect, which is a lot of damage! I would run as many copies of this as I can draft.

Sword

Mars Silent Flame General

Do not play without the evolve unless you have nothing better to slot in. With the evolve, it's good enough due to the 0 evolve cost and situational ability to call out Flail Knight, Pollux, and Tristan.

Gawain of the Round Table

5/5 rush follower for 5 mana is not the worst. Pretty average card with mild upside if you draft synergies. It's simply "okay", nothing more

Barborossa 

Even without drafting the evolve, still worth playing. 6/5 is a strong stat line, and the assail ability is easily usable due to the ability to pay 1pp to give it rush in Open 8.

Perseus

1-cost 2/2s snowball very hard if drawn on turn 1. Worth playing for that reason alone.

Cyclone Blade/Chivalrous Charge

I don't think I'd consider this unless I drafted exactly Barbarossa. It's just too dead if you don't draw this in the exactly right circumstance too.

Shrouded Asassin

It has bane, it's worth playing. If you draft the evolve, it's an auto-include.

Lord General Romeo

3/4 stat line with ward is worth playing in most situations. Has synergy with Juliet too!

Princess Juliet

Simply having Storm makes this card quite good. In addition, it has a very strong combination effect with Romeo, although most drafts, you won't see both at the same time.

Pollux

One of the most broken cards in the pool. It is not hard to have access to a non-sword follower, which means most of the time, this card is just straight up a 6/6 with rush.

Round Table Assembly

Pretty great if you draft Tristan + Tristan Evo. Otherwise, generally a skip.

Tristan

Should only be played with the evolve copy available.

Armor of the Stars

I think this card is worth playing BUT just be careful of overcommitting to this because bane is fairly common in this format. Can instantly win you a game if they don't have bane access.

Flail Knight

One of the best 2-cost followers in the format, especially when drafted in conjunction with 2/2 one-costs. Basically has a huge target on its back while allowing you to trade extremely favourable (also one of the few outs to standing serpents)

Rune

Wordwielder Ginger

I would only play this if I drafted very high statted followers (cards like Scaled Berserker, Octobishop come to mind).

Giant Chimera 

Generally a skip as the fanfare effect is not possible to activate and comes down way too late, even as a 7/7.

Star Reader Stella

Fantastic card. 3/3, instantly draws you a card and makes your next draws way better.

Europa

Card is playable only with the evolve version. 3/5 storm, ward, rush for 4pp is extremely strong.

Chain of Calling

I misread this originally as being able to search any follower but actually it cannot. Which means this card is probably not worth playing most of the time.

Freshman Lou

The stats are too low for a 2-cost. Would only consider if I drafted a lot of Venomous Bites.

Magic Illusionist

Is fine if you draft the evolve as it becomes a 4 mana 4/4 (which can be cheated out with evo point). Even if you do draft this, I probably still wouldn't put in telescope unless I just had a really good Earth Rite draft.

Concentration/Show of Loyalty

Bait card in most situations. 3 mana to draw 1 card is game losing. Heal 3 is okay, but wouldn't you just save 3 hp by just.... using 3 play points to play anything else?

Dazzling Healer

Despite the slight stat penalty, the healing can make up for it. If you draft the evolve version, it's an autoinclude.

Mage of Nightfall

You can actually play this card even without the Earth Rite effect. A 3-cost 3/3 with intimidate is not easy to deal with in this meta.

Astrologist of the Mist

I never personally put this card in my deck, but 5-mana 5/5 is not the worst. I don't think the earth rite effect is particularly relevant.

Magic Owl

Bait card, 1/1 stat line is too weak to see play.

Starseer's Telescope

Bait card. Usually results in your hand size being 1 less for no real reason. That said, if you drafted a lot of Earth Rite OR amulet OR cards played synergies you can maaaaybe use it.

Dragon

Sibyl of the Waterwyrm/Kallen,Crimson ksha

3/4 3-cost follower with upside. You'd almost expect more from a Legendary, but you always play this in your deck regardless

Python

SURPRISINGLY GOOD CARD. If you draft the evo effect, this card is insane, as it gains +2/2 stats for no reason! Even without it, banishing up to 10 cards can be very good, as it improves the quality of your deck significantly, allowing you to win the late game.

Defence Form/Blast form - Useless cards, for obvious reasons.

Prime Dragon Keeper

Usually bait. Takes too long to reach over flow, and usually not enough playable dragon followers to use the effect. Only consider if you are given a huge amount of the PDK package (very rare)

Star Phoenix

If you got the evolve one too, then slam it into your deck. Otherwise, there's only two dragon spells in the format, so if you didn't draft a lot of them, don't even bother.

Lightning Blast/Guren Revolt

Often serves as a "win-more card", but is very useful in that role. Prevents you from getting blown out by cards like Deepwood Anomaly, and also just randomly huge statted followers the opponent leaves standing.

Venemous Pucewyrm

I have mixed thoughts about this card. It's a win-more card in my mind, it's very good when you're ahead, and you don't mind losing 2 cards in hand to do 6 damage in such scenarios. However, when you're behind, you can't use this to swing their face, which means that you keep bleeding cards in hand as long as it's alive. It also sucks when they just 1-card out it. I think this card gains a lot of value if you drafted cards like Night's Way, but this card is often on the cusp of inclusion.

Cetus

Broken card with evolve. Otherwise, 5/5 isn't the worst, but will often not be used.

Dragonewt Fist/Divine Tiger

Generally strong card as you will often find use-cases for a 3 damage 2-cost spell. Also comboes with cards like venomous pucewyrm/magic owl/star phoenix to mitigate downsides.

Dragonrearer Matilda

1-mana 1/2 is so close to being good enough, but in reality, I would just never play this unless I also drafted a full PDK deck.

Aqua Nereid

This card is exceptional in performance. While a 2/2 in the early game is vulnerable, it still comes with a 0/1 ward, which is sort of hard to deal with. In addition, the storm effect in overflow is highly relevant and makes it one of the best cards in the late game.

Hippocampus

Only draft when you also have the evolve follower. 1/5 ward is too weak, but the ability to play this turn 3, and then evolve on turn 4 for 7 damage to face is game winning

Scaled Berserker

Easily one of the strongest cards in the entire set. Due to the nature of how this card works, it almost always gets at least a 2 for 1, and demands very specific methods of how they answer it, as it gets buffed even during their turn.

Dragon's Nest

Very high-performance 1-cost. Most games go to turn 7, and this card lets you "bank" mana and draw cards while healing for 2. I would avoid engaging this card until you are in overflow, unless you are in danger of death. Also comboes extremely well with Calydonian Boar

Abyss

Venomfang Medusa

Very powerful in this format. Play it on curve turn 3, and watch your opponent squirm unless they have cards like Dolorblade Demon available to them. Usually, you just want to make serpents and not use medusa's other effect. In this format in particular, you can rush the serpents with evo points, which allows it to clear any engaged follower.

Howling Demon

Great card with, or without the evolve version. It can be pretty hard to set up sanguine in this format, but frankly, you don't need it.

Demonlord Eachtar/Lelouch

Worth nothing that the card always has Rush, making it a 5/6 7 cost rush at worst. Generally strong if you drafted a few 2-cost abyss followers!

Stheno

Exceptional with evolve, decent without it. It's a bit of a bootleg version of Medusa, where you can play it and give the serpent rush to clear an engaged follower.

Trial of the Gorgons

If you draft enough of the cards required, then sure?

Fenrir

Powerful with or without the evolve effect. Helps control the board while presenting a threat for them to clear.

Euryale

One of the strongest 2-costs in the game as it suffers a slight stat penalty in exchange for a serpent token in EX that can clear any engaged follower.

Grave Desecration/Emperor's command

Would generally skip this but you can at least consider it if you drafted a heavy synergy Eachtar deck.

Demonic Drummer

Generally not worth playing as the stat to mana ratio is not good.

Castor 

3/4 3-cost follower with upside is usually good enough to play! Don't get too fixated on the effect, as your opponent will often play around it. The effect is generally only great when you are trading it with rush into a bigger follower, or if you are trying to set up lethal.

Frogbat

Only play this card if you are playing Eachtar or have the evolve version. The evolve version of this is extremely strong, as this becomes a 3/4 on the turn it's played (this is 1 defence more than the standard baseline for 2-costs)

Scorpius

One of the best 2-drop followers. Is impossible for opponent to value trade into this, is great when ahead, and can answer big threats even when behind.

Venemous Bite

1-mana bane token is very strong in this format as paying an extra 1pp gives it rush!

Haven

Aether of the White Wing

The best combo is with Calydonian Boar plus Dragon's nest to immediately proc it. However, it's totally fine even if you drafted Dark Jeanne or Octobishop as well. It's just so much stats for 7 mana!

Zoe, Princess of Goldenia

Don't think this is ever worth playing without the evolve effect. Clearly exceptional if you do have it though.

Andromeda

Play this card simply because it's a 1 mana 2/2 and it can snowball game wins out of nowhere.

Globe of the Starways/Dark Charisma

This is usually one of those cards which I might put in to finish the deck... It's good with cards like Night's Way. Much like the issue with a lot of resource cards in this format, blanking 2 mana is pretty hard to do without putting yourself behind.

Star Priestess

It's one of those cards that makes you consider suboptimal deckbuilding to get a high payoff. I'd generally only play this if I drafted at least the evolve of this card, and also strong amulets like Dragon's Nest and powerful enablers like Aether of the Whitewing

Calydonian Boar

Especially powerful with Dragon's nest and Aether of the White Wing

Star Torrent

Can catch opponents off guard and is surprisingly useful.

Starchaser Sprite

Don't worry about its effect, 3/4 stat line is fine for a 3-cost.

Sister of Punishment

Most of the time the effect is irrelevant outside of Dragon's Nest. 2/3 stat line is good for a 2-cost follower.

Mist Shaman

Only play with the evolve follower.

Octobishop

Broken card, usually best in slot at 4-mana. If you go first and slam it on turn 4 without warding it, you will be so far ahead, just like that!

Candelabra of Prayers

Skip.

Neutrals

Zodiac Demon

It's okay. You'll play it cause it's a 6/6 for 6-mana with slight upside, but the fact that it gets run over by Scaled Berseker is hilarious (and sad)

Israfil

In my opinion the strongest Legendary in the format. 4 healing is absurd, and even without drafting the evolve, you can just give it a rush token instead. Is a free get-out-of-jail card.

Grimnir, War Cyclone

Worth playing simply cause it's a 3/4 with Ward. Opponent won't know if you have the evo, and will be forced to use all their resources to clear, or risk losing instantly.

Arriet

The ultimate snowball card on turn 5 going first. Play any 4-cost follower, then swing and play this. Game is typically over on the spot.

Staircase to Paradise

This card sucks, takes way too long to trigger for a lackluster effect.

Purehearted Singer

Decent resource card. You are still setting yourself behind, but drawing 2 cards + 1/2 stat is fine.

Goblin Princess

Only play it if you have the evo. A 6/6 4 cost is extremely overstated and hard for most cards to deal with at that point in the game.

Mystic Ring

Typically I wouldn't draft this, but sometimes you could be forced into it if your pulls are really poor.

Owlcat

Another one of those cards you should only play if you hit the evolve card (which is actually really goo since it allows you to reverse value-trades and kill off random troublesome followers like Serpents)

Mr. Full Moon

Very strong card in the format. One of the few efficient outs to cards like Octobishop.Combining its fanfare/last words and your ability to rush it with 1pp, it's a formidable card both when behind and when ahead.

Night's Way

The ultimate resource card. If you have this card, you cannot run out of cards for the rest of the game, forcing your opponent to race you or die to being outresourced.