#Shadowverse review

[ftalos]

[ORS] Order Shift: Portalcraft cards first impressions.

Order Shift is about to drop and the full set has been revealed, at a first glance, the set looks full of diverse support to already stablished playstyles and it brings a new mechanic, Transmute, where certain cards will change to different versions of themselves after fusing. The new wave of Portalcraft cards looks centered around Artifacts from early reveals, but will the rest of the set be like this?

It’s time to read them and see what will the new form of Portalcraft be.

Bronze Cards:

Dolls Teatime: A 4/4 Puppet is a good tool for removal, but at two-cost it will probably not be staple in most meta decks unless puppet portal revives entirely. Alright in puppet decks. 2/5

Plucky Toymaster: Not bad, not good. It does his work as a bronze card but there is more puppet support that can o better than this. Situational 1/5. Much better in Take Two.

Dreamer Puppet: This is the Puppet portal standard, good fanfare, comfortable cost, future staple in puppet portal, will it be from the get-go or will we have to wait until (at least) the mini? 4/5

Aimless Gunner: While not better than Satellite Invader in Enhance Portal, this card is not bad at all, it might see play, specially if the new meta is board based. 3/5.

Silver Cards:

Homunculus Advent: This wave of Artifact Portal support has a new side quest in order to obtain better effects. At base, this card is good, upgraded it gets better. Future Staple in Artifact Portal with a bit of resonance hints. 5/5

Mythril Messenger: At base it brings back an artifact into rotation that will help Retrafia a lot, either in her crystallize or fanfare form. After that, it will add Airstrike artifacts, one of your primary finishers. 4/5.

Shadow Ruler: This guy doesn’t fill Robopup shoes, but it might see play with that Strike effect, one option to consider if you’re playing Evo Portal or the Meta obliges. 3/5

Gold Cards:

Firey Barrage: Portal’s Transmute card is a primary option when playing control or midrange builds. The Resonance condition is not hard to achieve in Evolve, Enhance or Artifact builds, hence why I see it becoming a staple for, at least, the next three months. 5/5.

Disseminator of Wisdom: An Accelerate that works as a control tool, board clear, burn and ups your destroyed artifacts count, this card is a must have in Artifact Decks, as a follower, the ward and fanfare effects are not something to ignore, it might become an alternative threat in key moments. 4/5

Legendary Cards:

Synthethic Eden: The card at base is a double removal for 7 PP that drops a 0/10 Ward. No matter what end of turn effect you’d like to go for, this card is by default good, but it’s tricky to find a deck that won’t have to go out of their way to use it. 4/5 Take Two Staple question mark.

Agyll, Purelight Prototype: Another transmutable card, it is also two artifact names for a potential 14 damage burst on Retrafia’s Fanfare. Not only that, the evo effect of its transmuted form acts as a nerfed version of Augmentation Bestowal that is still good for what Rotation Artifacts wants to do, this is the new key card for Artifact. 5/5.

And that’s it, Artifact Builds got the strongest support and Puppet portal is being teased, Orchis rotating out makes you think of her replacement. Portalcraft is in a moment where the lack of Rosa, Casim and Robopup will have a lot of players thinking twice before picking it, but it is not the worst place to be overall. The new condition of adding 6 artifacts to the deck is quite doable thanks to card like Jet Powered Pugilist, Dimensional Crack and Gizmo Lion. But how the deck will end up looking is a topic for the future.

[jose92gt]

Shadowverse Flame Opening 3 Creditless

[chocochococoffee]

what are new games

[ecargmura]

PokeToons Episode 10 Review - The Angry Primeape Observation Diary

While this isn’t the first PokeToons I’ve watched, but I decided to review all of them after watching this one. PokeToons does an amazing job showcasing a different type of story different from the usual weekly show. Pokemon is never afraid to experiment and this is one of the many cases. This little short is animated by ZEXCS, the studio behind the Shadowverse anime with touchups from other studios like Wit Studio. I think it’s always nice that Pokemon always showcases what other animation studios can do with a Pokemon media.

Even if my Japanese is limited, all my years of watching anime has helped me get the gist of what the plot for this story is about. Basically, the boy keeping an observation diary about his partner Pokemon Primeape that he’s telling to his class. He’s always mentioning how angry it is and wonders if he could find a way to not see it so angry, so he does various activities to calm it down like meditation, watching a movie, and all sorts of relaxing stuff. Unfortunately, Primeape gets anxious when it’s not lashing out, so the boy realizes that what his Pokemon wants is to get stronger, so they switch from R&R to Pokemon battles!

A very interesting key detail about Primeape’s battles is that it uses Rage Fist on so many Pokemon, but if you count the amount of times it’s used, it equates to around 19. But wait, if you count the amount of Pokemon it hit, there’s only 18! You obviously forgot the first time it used Rage Fist on the boy’s popcorn bag, right? That means it had been used 19 times! The 20th time was when it defeated the Baxcalibur in the tournament they were in and that’s how it evolved to Annihilape! I think that was such a clever way to showcase its evolution method! Unfortunately for the boy, even after evolution, Annihilape is still angry, but he still loves it very much. It definitely has a face that only the boy could love.

For the characters, it’s mainly the boy and his Primeape. I do love how patient and loving the boy is towards Primeape. He never gives up on his Pokemon and always does activities with it. I do like that even if Primeape gets annoyed with whatever the boy does with it, it never attacks its Trainer. It shows a sign of trust the two have. Though, it is hilarious that the boy technically “killed” his Primeape and made it evolve by coincidence and he’s just there with a giant smile plastered on his face. I’m also surprised with the cast. The boy is voiced by Rie Kugimiya who’s practically a regular in Pokemon at this point—give her a main role in the weekly anime already! Primeape is voiced by Mitsuo Iwata, who’s also a prolific voice actor as well! They did a fantastic job!

This is my first time writing a review for the PokeToons series. If you want me to write reviews for the other ones, please let me know!

[yugaroad]

Finally back on Tumblr

Hi there,YugaSevens from Twitter here!

So,sorry I was innactive,but I lost access to Tumblr.Now that Twitter had problems again,I considered becoming a little bit more active here.I also decided to make some new content rather than Yugioh.I will do:

-Cardfight vanguard content.

-Buddyfight(?).

-Something for Shadowverse.

-Fanfiction.

Please also consider:

-Yugioh Go rush fanfictions(I forgot which ones I promised,so I will fest it and maybe write all of them.

-Episode reviews from me for Yugioh and Vangaurd-I don't watch Shadowverse Flame,I just play.-

[lioma-gaming]

My hidden gem of 2021: Shadowverse Champion’s Battle

Do you like Digital Trading Card Games like Blizzard’s HearthStone, but can’t stand having to pay for booster packs with real world money? Do you keep losing in PVP because you always seem to be unprepared? Would you like to experience a story mode, solve puzzles and do side quests as well play card battles? Well, this game’s probably for you.

Every once in a while I like to buy a more casual kind of game. Something I can still play even when I’m tired or not feeling particularly well. In the years before, Digimon: Cyber Sleuth fit well into that category. It was basically “Ok” all around and truly demanded very little effort on the player’s side.

I bought Shadowverse Champion’s Battle with the same idea in mind, but ended up being very pleasantly surprised.

For about 40€ you get a digital trading card game in which you can obtain all the basic cards of Shadowverse, plus two boosters (using only in-game money), have an optional online PvP mode, tons of NPCs to play against as you keep improving your deck(s), a decent story mode and overall good graphics and music. There are also anime-style cutscenes, which is a nice bonus.

Besides very HearthStone-like card battles, the gameplay offers an overworld set in a small city that expands as you progress the story, and side-quests that do not necessarily revolve about cards, but might require you to find an item or a person as well. Each of your NPC friends comes with their own line of quests, so you can get to know them better, and while I found neither of them to be particularly interesting, at least they were not awkwardly overdrawn (with the exception of Hiro, perhaps).

What surprised me the most was the difficulty of the game. Getting through C and B ranks was easy enough, but when I hit A rank I realized that just having one to two decks simply wasn’t enough. This encouraged me to combine other cards, try different classes and look really closely at the strengths and weaknesses of particular opponents. You know - the kind of learning you can hardly do when paired against a random person in online play.

I ended up putting beyond 100 hours into this game, beating the post-game boss, and am still playing the brain teaser “puzzles” on hard every once in a while - which means that this is might be an overlooked gem in the bargain bin of some stores.

[myanimethought]

Shadow Verse

The anime's first season premiered in April 2020. Crunchyroll streamed the show as it aired.

The anime features a completely original story, and features anime-only characters. The anime centers on Hiiro Ryūgasaki, a student at Tensei Academy. Through a strange incident, Hiiro obtains a mysterious smartphone. The smartphone has installed the popular digital card game "Shadowverse." Through the game Hiiro meets rivals, participates in tournaments, and forms bonds with others. The collectible card game launched for iOS and Android devices in June 2016 and for PC via Steam in October 2016. The game features both single-player and competitive multiplayer content, fully voiced stories, and the ability to evolve cards during battles. Shadowverse: Champion's Battle, the Nintendo Switch version, launched in November 2020 in Japan, and launched on August 10 in the West.

The game received a tutorial anime video as part of its second anniversary in May 2018.

[operationrainfall]

REVIEW: Shadowverse: Champion's Battle

REVIEW: Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle

Title Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle Developer Cygames Publisher XSEED Games Release Date August 10th, 2021 Genre Collectible Card Game Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating Teen Official Website I’ve been a fan of collectible card games for many years, but I have never played Shadowverse, despite seeing a lot of friends play it online. When I saw that Marvelous had announced Shadowverse:…

[animehajime]

Anime Hajime Review: Shadowverse

Check out the latest review from Anime Hajime, Shadowverse. See our own Odyssey's thoughts following a month-long saga. #anime #animereview #AnimeHajime #Shadowverse

Shadowverse Like all his friends, Hiro Ryugasaki lives and breathes the immensely popular digital card game “Shadowverse.” However, he has not had a chance to play it since he does not own a cell phone. That changes when Ryugasaki comes across an old phone his missing father left behind. Now, he can play “Shadowverse” to his heart’s content. And despite being a novice, Ryugasaki quickly…

[ftalos]

Lost Memory, Jasper (Carnelia) revealed during today's Magical Shadowverse 2-cost 2/2 (4/4 on evo) (Trait: Artifact) Fanfare: If at least 6 different allied Artifact cards have been destroyed this match, this card can evolve without using evolution points. Evolve: Add 2 random 1-cost Artifact cards from your deck to your hand.

It's... not a bad card, a new artifact name that tutors more artifact names and sinergizes well with the current artifact gamplan. And, best of all, it doesn't break UL Artifact decks. Only the legendary card remaining, please don't let it be a meme.

[chocochococoffee]

i am receiving reviews in my shadowverse fanfic from someone who is real interested in the anime

damn son im so happy

[dr4pos]

A “Shadowverse” Review

The free2play mobile and steam card game Shadowverse now made the Yu-gi-oh move. even if it is basically more fitting to call it the “Dual master-move” because of the Order in which those came out.

FUN FACT: the Yu-gi-oh card game developed from the anime and the Dual master anime developed through the card game.

To explain what happens in the Anime is simple.

A boy raised by His Grandpa just wants one thing, A smartphone to play with his friends the popular digital-only Card game Shadowverse and become the best at.

Plot:The story revolves around the Student Hiiro Ryugasaki who just wants to have a Smartphone to play the Game Shadowverse with them together. But his Grandfather isn’t buying him one no matter how often he asks. How convenient that he suddenly found an incredible modern smartphone in an old cabin next to their house that immediately registered him as the new owner and that it got Shadowverse already pre-installed.

Hiiro despite playing for the first time just to get someone else smartphone back turns out to be completely naturally skilled and manages to defeat the person who stole the Smartphone on the first try. Is He able to become the Greatest SHadowverse player there ever was? And are there some other Mysteries as well that need to be discovered?

We will find out!

The Shadowverse Anime is A new example of the, as I call them, Toy animes.

The most famous example is Yu-gi-oh. But technically the Pokemon and Digimon Anime would fit here either. But Examples I enjoyed a lot in My Childhood were Crush gear turbo, B-daman, and Bayblade.

I usually am kinda Disappointed at Cardgame anime because they have huge potential but don’t use it as Bakugan did. I mean the Cards themself often tell a huge Story but instead of visualizing that from a new angle they just literally create just a High-budget-advertisement that isn’t even following the real rules.

But Shadowverse is so far true to its rules, as far as I know, the game, and showed some hidden potential that I REALLY hope shows a bit of the actual world of Shadowverse within the Cards.

It sofar gets a 

6/10 

Because, YES, it is an interesting Anime so far, but it still is basically just a Storytelling Advertisement so far.

But I also have a lot of hopes for this one to be Probably the Cardgame Anime I waited for. (till Netflix releases it’s Mtg series)

I hope I was able to DRAW your attention

And that you liked it.

Your

DR4POS

[anime-scarves]

In a strange turn of events I actually finished two shows in two days. Not that I started them both in two days, but I actually finished them. So I will now review them because I haven’t done that in awhile. 

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis

This is a bit of an odd adaption to start with. The source material is a card game with not much story going for it which makes the anime a very dangerous game of showing off the cool world and everyone’s favorite characters and actually trying to have a story for the anime. I think it actually turned out pretty well. The story follows the lackadaisical scoundrel Favaro as he is pursued by his rival/friend the chivalrous knight Kaissar. I honestly have no idea if these characters are in the game since I didn’t play RoB, but they work really well as a lead pair. 

The show starts off as a fun romp through an exciting fantasy world of magic and wonder. Demons plot nefarious deeds as they float around in giant flying eldrazi fortress things, Angels scheme from heaven on how to keep the world balance in order, etc. etc. The show is really about showing off the world and the characters as glorified advertisement and it does a great job of that. After seeing it you can’t help but want to go learn more about the world and all the fun characters in it. 

The story isn’t anything to write home about in my opinion, but it works as a vehicle to move the main characters around and show the audience new things. It’s on the passable side and really is more than I ever expected from this kind of adaption. It had some twists and turns along the way, but when dealing with this sort of story you usually know what’s going to happen by the end before you get there. 

The main appeal of this show to me was the art style and character design. The character design stands out from contemporary designs because it lacks a lot of the moe influence and goes for a somewhat realistic approach to the designs. (Kaisser also has the best hair)

It’s also worth noting that in many parts where 3DCG was used it matched the frame rate of the rest of the show and didn’t look super clunky. Though it wasn’t consistent in doing this so a few things like Bacchus’s carriage and the forest dragon didn’t quite mesh as well. But those are small nitpicks. 

I also like that Cygames itself is producing the adaptions of their games which gives them control over what goes. They’ve made a Granblue Fantasy anime, and Rage of Bahamut currently has a second season airing (2 cour even!) that seems to be well received. 

All in all I gave it a 6/10. It’s an above average fantasy show with some exciting action and great art style/designs. It lacks in story so it doesn’t quite stack up to some of the better fantasy shows, but it’s definitely worth your time. S2 is supposedly shaping up quite well, so maybe it will deliver a bit more on the story. (Also more Cerberus please)

Next up is...

Humanity has Declined

This show stands as one of the most uniquely strange things that I have ever seen, but it’s in a wonderful way. The premise is that well humanity has declined and that the human race is on a one way ticket to extinction. However, the show does not focus on the impending doom of the human race but on the “new humanity” the fairies. Fairies are tiny little creatures of extraordinary power that will one day inherit the earth. For the most part they are harmless creatures that really only do things that they think are fun, and multiply in numbers when they are having fun. The show features Watashi who is a mediator between her village and the fairies that they encounter. 

The show is very surreal and it often gets really weird. A lot of different themes are explored through the misadventures of the fairies from figuring out who you are to satirizing society as a whole. What makes the substance of the show so great is that you can watch the show and be fully immersed in the experience and not once feel like you just had a theme pushed at you. They are supported by the show and are the root of the episodes, but the entertainment value is capitalized also. For me this is one of the best ways that entertainment can present themes and commentary. 

The art of the show is filled with bold bright colors that accentuate a lot of the bizarreness of the show. Lighting is done with sharp lines between different shades of light and dark creating a very stylized feel in shots with lower light. The backgrounds are often a little abstract, or at the least not cleanly defined which also help to build the surreal experience that is the show. 

The actual subject matter of the episodes is what makes the show truly bizarre, but also so wonderful. You can go from an episode where the characters are stuck inside the pages of a manga and have to write to the satisfaction of the fairies, to touring a factory that makes food that is run by sentient food. Humanity has Declined constantly goes out of the box (often quite literally goes outside of the bounds of where they are) and presents themes in ways that they aren’t typically. 

Humanity has Declined will likely stay high up on the list of strange things that I’ve seen for a long time. When all is said and done it’s a well made show that incorporates both strong entertainment value and good substance. I give it a 7-8/10. Definitely recommend giving this one a shot. I don’t think it’s the show for everyone, but if you want something uniquely strange and slower paced you’ll want to give it a shot. Also where else are you going to watch chickens jumping off a cliff all set to Ave Maria.

[bluespiritfire]

I’m Playing: Shadowverse!

Shadowverse is a CCG you can play on mobile or on Steam. I found it while I was looking for Rage of Bahamut, since I’ve gotten into the anime Shingeki no Bahamut:Genesis/Virgin Soul and I read that is was based off a game. Unfortunately the english version of RoB shut down last year some time, but from what I can tell, Shadowverse is the (spiritual?) successor to RoB.

I’ve been playing it for almost a week now and I gotta say, I’m liking it. A lot. Too much to be healthy, honestly. Every time I close it down, I find myself wanting to go back and play some more thinking ‘I gotta defeat this guy!’. I’ve played all the story available except for some of the last Forestcraft chapters. Havencraft was a nightmare.

One thing I don’t like is how gosh darn precise and unforgiving the AI is at times. And how awful my luck seems to be when I’m trying to get a good hand, but I feel like that’s because I’m still new and my decks are something awful.

The art is a massive lure for me. A lot of the card art is just gorgeous and there are different styles. 

If you’re a Hearthstone player it won’t be hard to pick up since the games have similar mechanics ie; mana crystals/point orbs, poisonous/bane, taunt/ward etc etc. Bear in mind, I have not played many CCGs, by any stretch of the imagination, so I can’t (and won’t) fairly rank it against anything.

I will say this: Shadowverse is pretty generous with its cards and more than helps you get what you need to make your own deck. I got 40-45 card packs in the first 1-2 days: 10 for each expansion + 10 for standard cards. Now’s a great time to start too since they’re celebrating 1 year and have card pack tokens in batches of 5 as daily login rewards. Each pack has 8 cards and you’re guaranteed one silver to legendary card. You can tell what’s what by their borders.

A lot of my card packs have given me multiple silvers and usually an Animated, one one I opened yesterday gave me two legendaries. Legendary Follower cards also give you a profile icon of that card, so you can use that if you want to change from the default profile pics available.

Card packs can be bought with Tokens, Rupies (gold) or Crystals. Tokens are basically free packs at a 1-1 ratio. Packs cost 100 Rupies per pack, and Rupies are earned by completing story chapters and earning achievements. Crystals are the pay currency and packs go for 100 crystals normally, but 50 with the daily deal.

You can also craft cards by Liquefying them and then using the Vials you get to make more. That’s what I did to get my Azazel because I just didn’t want to wait for him to show up in a card pack.

I’m not going to mince words, I would love to have some people I could talk about Shadowverse with and it would be great to play the game with some friends! I know that for some of you the art and the themes would be right up your ally.

If you’re a fan of Shingeki no Bahamut, this is also pretty cool. You’ve got cards of characters from the anime like Azazel, Hamsa, Jeanne d’Arc (she’s got three actually), Gabriel, Uriel and the big boy himself, Bahamut. Also Zeus and the ‘Prince of Darkness’ *cough* Satan *cough*.

If you’re interested and want to check this game out, keep reading for some of the basics, explained in the eyes of a newbie themselves.

Card Basics

There are Follower (monsters), spells and amulet cards. Amulets tend to be cards that stay on the field and have continuous effects (except in the case of Heavencraft which i’ll expand on later). The little gem at the bottom of the card changes colour based on class.

Followers can be ‘evolved’ in game. When they get evolved, their card art is flipped and enhanced/made fancier.

All cards have an Animated counterpart. They’re just like shiny versions that move. Animated cards are purely aesthetic. The image below is kinda bad cause I cobbled it together from my own collection, but the right one has pulsing light and her hair moves, plus there’s fire in the bottom.

You both have 20 defence (aka HP). Evolution points, which are a critical part of the game, are decided by who does first and second. First player gets two Evolution points and the second gets three (which really grinds my gears because dammit I love evolving). There’s one card (I know of) which can change your Evolution points to 3 and REFILL THEM called ‘Dark Angel Olivia’, but she’s a Legendary, so unless you’re rolling in Olivias, you gotta use those points wisely.

Your deck consists of 40 cards, with up to three copies of each card. You can mulligan at the start of a match.

Unless Followers have Rush or Storm, they cannot attack on the turn they are summoned.

The field can hold FIVE cards, including amulets, so when playing (Forestcraft and Havencraft especially) you do need to be careful not to overpopulated your field and waste cards.

Card Lingo/Glossary

This really threw me off because there was no index when I was starting out and I didn’t know you could click on bolded words in a card’s description. I’ll put Hearthstone counterparts as well

Fanfare (Battlecry): Effect occurs when the card is played. Last Words (Deathrattle): Effect occurs when the card is destroyed. Banishing a card bypasses Last Words. Enhance: Enhancement occurs when you have the number of point orbs in the brackets ie: Enhance (5): Rush: The Follower may attack another Follower on the turn it is summoned. Storm (Charge): The Follower may attack another Follower OR the enemy Leader on the turn it is summoned. Bane (Poisonous): Any Follower attacked by a Follower with Bane is destroyed, regardless of the targets defence. Ward (Taunt): This Follower must be dealt with before attacking anything else. You may Banish or use spells on other enemies though. Ambush (Stealth): This Follower cannot be targeted. Clash: Effect occurs when the Follower is hit by another Follower. Evolve: Boost the Follower’s stats to make them stronger or trigger an effect. Banish: Remove the Follower from play without directly hitting it. Important for troublesome Clash or beefy Ward enemies. Countdown: From what I’ve seen this is an amulet only thing. The number denotes how many turns must pass before the amulet’s effects take place. Earth Rite: This is something I don’t know for sure, but it’s a Runecraft thing, probably tied to a playstyle of that class. Drain: Seems to be an effect for Bloodcraft where a Follower with said effect will return the damage it deals as health for you.

Hearthstone effects that don’t have a present name in Shadowverse include Enrage, Divine Shield, Freeze, Silence, Windfury, Discover, Adapt, Immune. There are some cards with effects like that (eg: ‘Albert, Levin Saber’ can attack twice if he’s Enhance summoned and Mist Dragon can’t be attacked by enemies), but it’s not a ‘thing’ per say.

I’m sure there’s more lingo I can’t remember or haven’t come across. I’ll edit this if I find anymore.

Classes

Just like Hearthstone, Shadowverse has different classes you can use. Each class has a different character/Leader. There are seven classes/leaders, and each leader has a different route in Story mode to play. Story mode is generally what you would play to get a good grip on the class. You can get different Leaders in the store, and I think right now there’s a Tekken crossover promotion where you can get some Tekken characters as Leaders, but it’s purely a cosmetic thing to get a Leader and I don’t know if it’s used in Story mode.

The following on classes is just what I’ve gathered from playing them. I don’t know all the tactics, so keep that in mind!

Forestcraft Leader: Arisa Forestcraft is about playing low cost cards to amp up other cards to play later in the turn. The general low cost fodder are 1/1 1-cost ‘Fairy’. Basically you spend your first 1-3 turns laying down cheap Fairy producers like ‘Water Fairy’ and ‘Fairy Whisperer’ so then on your fourth you can pull out two ‘Fairy’ and a now buffed ‘Elf Guard’ or ‘Elf Metallurgist’, or something of the like. It just snowballs from there. A neutral card I really love having for Forestcraft is ‘Gourmet Emperor Kaiza‘ because he summons a ‘Gourmet Carrot’ which serves as a 2-cost eternally regenerating ‘Fairy’, since its Last Words effect is to put ANOTHER ‘Gourmet Carrot’ in your hand. The only way to stop this loop is to Banish the Carrot so its effect doesn’t kick in.

Swordcraft Leader: Erika Sumeragi Swordcraft is all about Followers working in tandem with each other. You’ve got ‘Officers’ and ‘Commanders’, and while Commanders tend to be the buff givers, I’ve seen some cards where Officers buff the Commanders instead. Amulets also seem to be important in this class. For me personally, Swordcraft is one of the hardest classes to play, but it’s very rewarding when I can pull off my Swordcraft deck. Swordcraft cards also seem to be the only ones with Ambush (Stealth, in Hearthstone speak). My favourite card for them is the ‘Vagabond Frog’.

Runecraft Leader: Isabelle Runecraft is all about playing spells to buff Followers (or other spells). They have a mechanic called Spellboost, which is exactly what it sounds like. Two examples of Spellboost are ‘Wind Blast’ and ‘Flame Destroyer’. ‘Wind Blast’ is a 2-cost spell that deals 1 damage to an enemy Follower. Spellboosting it adds 1 more damage to that. So if you played three cards, Wind Blast would then deal 4 damage. Spellboosts carry from turn to turn, unlike the Forestcraft’s ‘play X cards before using this card’ mechanic, so you could build up a Wind Blast that deals a solid 5-6 damage in a few turns. ‘Flame Destroyer’ is a 10-cost 7/7 follower, so it’s a card you want to have in your hand early-mid match to it benefits from the start. Certain Followers, upon being summoned or evolved, can also inflict Spellboost on the cards in your hand, like ‘Clarke, Arcane Scholar’.

Dragoncraft Leader: Rowen Dragespear Dragoncraft is (similar to the Druid in HS) about getting your point orbs early and quickly so you can dominate the game. What’s different about Dragoncraft is the ‘Overflow’ mechanic. Much like Bloodcraft’s ‘Vengeance’, your cards tend to do more when Overflow is active. One example is ‘Twinheaded Dragon’. This 3-cost Follower turns from a weak 1/4 to a 4/4, which may not seem like much, but can really deal some damage and tends to be more than enough to wipe out a troublesome card, since Followers with more than 4 health are usually Wards. if you know anything about me, you’ll know that this is my favourite class.

Shadowcraft Leader: Luna Shadowcraft is about gaining Shadows for your ‘Necromancy’ mechanic. Shadows are a sort of currency that, like Dragoncraft and Bloodcraft, trigger secondary effects on Followers and spells when you have enough. Shadows are automatically spent when you carry out the requirements, so you need to be careful you don’t miscalculate. Shadows are gained when an amulet or Follower of yours is destroyed, or by effects from other cards.

Bloodcraft Leader: Urias Formonde Bloodcraft works similarly to Warlock (in HS) in that you cause damage to yourself. What’s different (and better imo) about Bloodcraft is that reaching half health actually has a continuous payoff, because then something called ‘Vengeance’ kicks in, and having Vengeance active is a good thing because it causes a lot of your Followers effects to kick in. You also have certain cards like ‘Sweetfang Vampire’, who have the ability to drain HP from enemy Followers or the enemy Leader to keep your hovering at the 10hp mark.

Havencraft Leader: Eris Anthule Havencraft is all about Countdown Amulets. You slap one of these down and after the amount of turns dictated by the amulet passes, the amulet’s effect will pop in a ‘Last Words’ fashion. Most of these summon Followers (hello Holyflame Tiger) but some are effects, like ‘Death Sentence’. Followers summoned by amulets work the same as normal summoned Followers. They can’t attack on the same turn they’ve been summoned unless they have Rush or Storm, so it’s important you time your amulets. There are also other spells and Followers that can speed up or destroy the countdowns entirely, carrying out the effect sooner. Right now, Havencraft is the bane of my existence. I just don’t have a good grip on it.

Story

The story in Shadowverse is actually pretty good. It’s fully voice acted in English too, which is a pleasant surprise. There’s a story for each Leader and they (almost) all interweave at some point. Some characters have a history, like Rowen and Isabelle, and others have a future that’s bound to be full of mayhem, like Urias and Erika. It might be a little cliche, and some characters may be found to be a bit grating with some of their characteristics, but as the chapters progress they do grow on you. I was initially very unimpressed with Luna, especially when I met her in Arisa’s story, but playing along her route I really got a case of The Feels, and she’s become one of my more favoured characters so, despite the fact I can’t use Shadowcraft very well, I still want to go back and play it.

In the tutorial you play as Arisa and see the basics of the game. This also sets up her motive in the story, which becomes important at Chapter 9.

As of now (16/06/2017) Arisa, Erika and Luna are the ones with the most story chapters, at 14. Isabelle, Rowen, Urias and Eris are sitting pretty at 9, awaiting their expansions.

Completing chapter will earn your rewards like Rupies, Vials, Take-Two tickets (Take-Two is a multiplayer thing) and Cardbacks. Chapter 1 of each story is the introduction to that class and the difficulty of your enemies will increase as you go further into the story. Chapter 1 and 6 will give you cards beneficial to that class, and chapter 7 will award you with a Morning Star/class themed cardback. Chapter 14 will award Leader themed cardbacks for the three who have Chapter 14.

Also there are some free Rage of Bahamut and Granblue cardbacks in the store under ‘Customise’ and then ‘Sleeves’, so grab those if you want!

Overall

Shadowverse is a good game and I would recommend it to people who like CCGs, Hearthstone or a good multi-faceted story. The community around it seems to be kinda small, which is sad. The most frustrating thing I’ve come across is the AI in harder/later story chapters. Don’t go into Chapter 9 expecting to trounce the match, and don’t even think about it in Chapter 14. Play it careful. I haven’t done any multiplayer because I’m a wuss and not confident in my deck so my opinion there can’t be said.

I’m wrapping this up now because it got incredibly long and I had no intention of it getting to this point :,D

[operationrainfall]

REVIEW: Shadowverse: Champion's Battle

REVIEW: Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle

Title Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle Developer Cygames Publisher XSEED Games Release Date August 10th, 2021 Genre Collectible Card Game Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating Teen Official Website I’ve been a fan of collectible card games for many years, but I have never played Shadowverse, despite seeing a lot of friends play it online. When I saw that Marvelous had announced Shadowverse:…