Shadowverse is still pushing new content for us to enjoy as we wait for the Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond release! The v4.5 update brought tons of new cards and 2 new Leaders to the game, shaking up the meta entirely!
Decks like Buff Dragons and Castelle Forest received a huge hit ending their meta dominance. New decks have claimed their Tier 1 spot, but things aren’t set on stones just yet, as players continue to explore the new meta and might find decks that break into Tier and change things up!
This article will showcase the top-performing decks in recent tournaments!
Wrath Blood
Deck Code: afn7
The Wrath Blood deck quickly became one of the top-performing decks in the new Shadowverse meta overtaking both Buff Dragons and Castelle Forest to reign as the new Tier 1 archetype.
This deck relies on damaging your own leader to activate both Wrath and Vengeance. You’ll have to damage your leader 7 times during your own turn to activate Wrath, and you’ll have to drop down to 10 or less defense for Vengeance to activate. Once activated, you’ll get access to stronger abilities through your cards, giving you an advantage over opponents.
Cards like Harmonic Wolf, Fear’s Disciple, and Weapon Tamer can damage your leader by 1 during your turn, slowly getting you to activate Wrath and Vengeance. Since damaging our leader can put us at risk of losing the game, especially if the opponent is aggressive, cards like Dice Devil can start healing us once we have Wrath activated.
Cards like Galom, Empress Fist, Garnet Rondo, and Diabolus Hedone benefit from Wrath or Vengeance, unlocking their true power and turning them into winning play to close out the game.
Machina Shadow
Deck Code: afxs
The Machina Shadow deck uses, well, you guessed it, Machina and Shadow cards! This deck is rivaling Wrath Blood in tier 1 and has been consistent in the current meta.
With Machina cards, you’re able to create more value and get access to powerful abilities once you’ve played 10 Machina cards. It uses shadows to set up bigger late-game plays.
This is a Shadowcraft mid-range deck with healing capabilities to prolong the game until your big damage dealers, Atem and Technolord: Origin carry the game.
Spellboost Rune
Deck Code: afyp
The Runecraft deck is all about generating spells and boosting their damage until you’re able to set up one powerful turn to win the game.
As you play specific cards, you’ll reduce the cost of certain cards like Ginger, Raging Word, letting you play them on earlier turns to take advantage of their powerful abilities. Amaryllis, the Princess is important for the late-game to spell boost the cards in your hand, setting the stage for that winning turn.
Rosy Court Magician is another threat your opponent doesn’t want to see on the board. She’s difficult to remove and will spell boost the cards in your hand.
Ladica Forest
Deck Code: afzi
This is an OTK deck that uses Ladica, Nature’s Claws as its main win condition. In the early turns, you want to put 0-cost Nature cards into your hand through cards like Beastfolk Gatherer and Loving Embrace.
On turn 6, you want to drop Ladica, Nature’s Claws and you get Back to Nature from her. However, you want to hold onto Back to Nature until the upcoming turn, where you’ll play another Ladica, Nature’s Claws and cast those Back to Nature for a lot of damage. Avatar of Growth offers extra ping damage
Evolve Blood
Deck Code: afzl
This deck has a lot of cards that can evolve easily like Metallic Bat and Hypodermic Devil. This unlocks additional abilities for your other cards once you’ve evolved multiple times. Cards like Doublame, Seeker of Beauty and Lian & Alfie, Hunters require you to evolve 5 times in a game to get additional value from them.
Ruler of Retribution is your strongest late game play, creating a Ruler of Retribution and once evolved, you can put a Ruler of Retribution into your deck that costs 1 and gains +5/+5.
Heal Haven
Deck Code: afzo
Heal Haven remains a powerful Tier 2 deck in Shadowverse meta! This deck focuses on winning through attrition by controlling the board and utilizing powerful late-game cards like Jeanne, Worldwalker and Regretful Apostle as win conditions.
Elluvia, Graceful Lady is an important part of this deck’s mid-game, allowing you to restore defense at the end of every turn. You want to evolve Elluvia and get access to the +1/+1 to all allied followers whenever defense is restored to your leader.
The list runs a lot of cards to restore defense to your leader, allowing you to prolong the game until your bigger followers start dropping.