This tier list shows the best decks to play on the ranked ladder to maximize the chances of winning the game and climbing.
Here are the various components of the Tempo Storm Shadowverse Meta Snapshot:
Welcome to the August edition of the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot! This month, buffs were bestowed upon the least-played classes, Forest, Sword and Dragon: Plumeria, Serene Goddess was given a cost reduction, Aurelia, Glorious Saber given an additional attack per turn when evolved, and Antemaria, Huntress Convict was given a new Accelerate effect, plus Drain on top of her Storm. Although these buffs weren't significant enough to threaten the top tier of Ghost Shadow, Crystallize Haven, Evo Portal and Mysteria Rune, they did give their respective classes enough of a boost to be playable, making this month's meta somewhat more diverse than the last. Aside from this, the main shift has been an increase in the popularity of Crystallize, as more and more players have grown confident with the deck.
Let's take a closer look at the top decks and their recent developments.
Crystallize Haven is still around, and its gameplan still involves playing at least 5 Crystallize cards to enable its Storm/Ward payoffs, such as Sapphire Priestess and Wingy, Chirpy Gemstone, building towards a massive swing turn with Diamond Master… all while hopefully drawing Skullfane, the Defiled, which greatly accelerates its combo potential. The deck has fresh options this expansion thanks to Jeanne, Worldwalker, who enables some simple OTKs. With time and practice, players have generally become better at executing the Crystallize mulligan and gameplan—and have also realized just how dangerous the deck is when going first, which means terror in no-ban formats such as Ratings. Don't let the importance of Skullfane and the “go first” card fool you, though; the deck has a deceptively high skill ceiling, which is why it's only really coming into its own now.
Ghost Shadow is a highly aggressive deck that focuses on chipping the opponent down by summoning a high number of Ghosts, then playing Masquerade Ghost past turn 5 to create a board that most decks find tricky to deal with. Late game, the deck can finish off the opponent with Ghastly Banishment, which deals huge amounts of burst damage once you've summoned many Ghosts. Ghost grew in power this expansion thanks to the addition of Cerberus, Howl of Hades and Hellfire Strike, which allows the deck to deal with boards it couldn't previously. Ghost was comfortably the strongest and most popular deck last month, but Crystallize has since taken its place—not because Ghost has actually gotten any *weaker,* but because Crystallize has the potential for more explosive highrolls, and more players have learned to play it. Still, Ghost Shadow remains the clear second best.
Evo Portal, a combo-control deck, can reach Evolve counts never seen before, which is what allows it to take advantage of the tremendous payoff Shin, Enemy of Chaos: once you've evolved 10 times, he will destroy three random enemy followers, deal 6 damage to the opponent, heal you for 6, and reduce the cost of all cards in your hand by 3 at the end of the turn. Needless to say, in more aggressive matchups, the healing and board clear is often enough to win the game on the spot, and against control decks, the cost reduction helps to assemble huge combos that can be used to OTK. With its decklists largely standardized by now, Evo Portal poses a serious threat to any other deck if it can avoid passing away while building up to 10 evolves, which is why its biggest counters are decks like Crystallize Haven, which can potentially win the game as early as turn 7 going first. Crystallize's growing popularity has not been favorable to Evo Portal, but the deck remains solid enough across the board to remain in Tier 1.
Mysteria is a combo deck that revolves around playing the newly buffed Anne & Grea, Royal Duo and OTKing the opponent with the Majestic Sorcery they provide. The deck's other key card is Mysteria, Magic Originator, which can be evolved to change all cards in your hand and deck to Mysteria cards, greatly reducing the time it takes to OTK. The current build of Mysteria plays only a single copy of each of the key Mysteria followers, relying on tutor effects like Freyja and Mysterian Exchange to find them all—this makes the deck extremely difficult to play, as one mistake can easily cost you the game. Although the deck might look average at a glance, the fact that it has repeatedly shown up in tournament top cuts and even recently taken a JCG victory proves that it needs to be taken into consideration and respected as a top-tier deck.
Fairy Forest is an aggressive deck that aims to go wide and push damage with cheap followers in the early game, transition into the midgame with Nobilis, Sable-Lily Queen, then finish the opponent off with Storm followers such as Shining Valkyrie, Tam Lin, Fey Knight, and Aria, Dutiful Fairy. The deck has seen success here and there following the buff to Plumeria, Serene Goddess, which has made it slightly faster and more consistent. The addition of another 1-cost follower encourages a build focused on Castelle, Budding Mage and Aria rather than Filly. A copy of Carbuncle, Sacred Emerald can also be included to enable some late-game OTKs.
For those who are looking to climb quickly and easily, Ghost Shadow remains our top recommendation. Top tier strength wise, easy to learn, and very cheap thanks to the Ghost temporary deck available in the shop, there's little to stop anyone from finding success with it, and its aggressiveness makes it easy to grind out many games. If you're up for sinking time into a deck with more challenging lines, Mysteria, Evo Portal and Crystallize all fit the bill and are highly rewarding to master—though in Crystallize's case, you may also have to become quite skilled at drawing the “go first” card.
So far, this month's meta has not been a huge shift form the last, with the same decks reigning supreme, but the balance changes have been enough to ensure Sword, Dragon, and Forest are at least playable, so no class is truly relegated to the shadows. Decklists for the buffed classes haven't been refined yet either, so there is plenty of room for the meta to develop as players continue to cook, or even just as they gain experience with the decks, as has happened with Crystallize. Watch out for developments in tournament play by following @zhiff_sv on Twitter, and we'll see you all in next month's edition of the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot!
Oh how the people have lost. There is no winning when Crystallize is winning. As mulligans and execution have become tighter for players around the world, the stark realization that Crystallize Haven going first is frequently unbeatable has given rise to an arms race of freshly-hazed Haven mains clamoring over each other for Skullfane and the 'go first' card, looking like crabs in a bucket. And much like said crabs, Crystallize Haven is cantankerous and resilient—its winning or winnable matchups across the board keep Crystallize from receding beneath the low-tier waves with Uneriel, as it continues to pose what can only be described as an occupational hazard for card gamers and metaphorical fishermen alike.
Besides the obvious Skullfane lines, Crystallize has many possible setups between Meus Jester, its numerous Storm combos, and Jeanne to create winning patterns spanning multiple turns. Jeanne herself frequently demands such specific answers from the opponent that she wins a sizable percentage of games purely from neither player having an amazing hand.
Time ticks so slowly when Crystallize Haven is at the top. Especially in formats without a ban like Ratings and any Japanese tournament, Crystallize's sheer power level is simply unmatched. Crystallize has a deceivingly high ceiling in spite of the Skullfane casino reputation, which explains why it took until now for more players to actualize its potential.
Our featured list is from the SEAO July Cup champion, S5 Hotaru. This a standard list with triple Orchid, two Divine Wolves, and two Jeanne.
Ghost Shadow is an aggressive deck that utilizes, as the name implies, Ghosts and early-game pressure to deal large amounts of damage.
The gameplan revolves around dealing a large amount of chip damage in the early game, then aiming to play Masquerade Ghost around turn 5 to make boards that are very hard to deal with, while also increasing the amount of damage each Ghost does. And if the game is not over by then, you can play Ghastly Banishment to finish the opponent off.
In the mulligan, a common mistake is to only look for Masquerade Ghost; aiming for a stable curve is more important, so you should look for cards such as Metatron, Cerberus, Infernal Hound, Loyal Ghost Pup, Lucius, Travelled Trainer, and Freyja; Huginn & Muninn can be kept going first. Same with Masquerade Ghost going first, or situationally going second.
Ghost Shadow is no longer the best deck—now, it's only the second-best deck after Crystallize Haven. It's not a case of Ghost being worse, it's just that Crystallize Haven's highrolls are *really* good.
The featured list runs Cerberus, Infernal Hound, which is becoming an increasingly popular aggressive card to play in the early game: the 2/2 body and tokens it generates are very good in an aggressive strategy. Another addition is Huginn & Muninn, which adds card draw to the deck and a good turn 3 play going first, while also helping reach the 5 Last Words count sometimes for Cerberus' secondary effect.
The featured list is from W's｜たけぷぅ, who managed to win the July 30 JCG with it.
Since the previous Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot, Evo Portal lists became widely standardized—at least among top players and especially in Pro League. One Mikael, two Badb, two Sweeper Doll, and zero miscellaneous techs proved to be the most consistent build for a deck that, despite having myriad defensive tools, ultimately wants to fulfill its own game plan as its highest priority. Evo Portal remains an absolute menace when they stack ten evolves and activate Shin without passing away partway through, with its main counters being decks that can potentially win the game on turn 7 going first.
In a meta where most decks want to go first, Evo Portal stands out as a deck that is relatively good at going second, with turn 6 Shin being available more often than not—though it still performs well going first if only by denying the coveted 'go first' card from the opponent.
Some players on Ratings are teching Winged Inversion to cheese Mysteria players without losing any advantage in the Ghost Shadow matchup.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Crystallize Haven's soaring in popularity has not been kind to Evo Portal, but this deck remains solid enough across all matchups and sees sufficient play to remain in Tier 1. Evo Portal retains its niches as a soft Ghost Shadow counter that is also relatively consistent in general. It loses on paper against Crystallize and Mysteria, but the matchups are playable, and a lot rides on exactly how skilled each player is.
Featured is the current standard list for Evo Portal. Almost everyone runs exactly this, and for good reason—with the ratios of two Badb, two Sweeper, and two Olivia, the deck is well-rounded for every matchup, and the mulligan fits perfectly.
Mysteria Rune is a combo deck that revolves around performing an OTK with Majestic Sorcery, a 20PP spell that will summon a horde of Mysteria followers and give them Storm ability—they can then be buffed further with Mysteria Exchange Party. The cost of Majestic Sorcery can be reduced by Spellboost and by playing Mysteria cards. To achieve this OTK smoothly, the deck emphasizes two important cards: 1) Anne & Grea, Royal Duo, which is the only way to generate Majestic Sorcery, and 2) Mysteria, Magic Originator, which can change all the spell cards in your hand and deck into the Mysteria trait, which will effectively reduce the cost of Majestic Sorcery even faster.
While the Majestic Sorcery OTK is the end goal, the interesting part of Mysteria Rune is navigating the midgame with limited resources: players need to accumulate Mysteria names before playing Majestic Sorcery. Royal Duo and Originator are obvious cards that need to be summoned, but Craig, Palla/Miranda/Heinlein from Arcane Instruction, and the old version of Anne & Grea from Dual Barrier also need to be summoned for more names.
Always keep Royal Duo and Magic Originator in the mulligan: they are the literal win condition. Freyja, Hanna, or Mysteria Exchange Party are also good keeps since they can draw into the two key cards. Going second, evolve Magic Originator on turn 4 followed by Royal Duo on turn 5. Going first, evolve Royal Duo on turn 5, and Magic Originator on turn 6. Survive and go all out with spells and followers on turn 6 and reduce the cost of Majestic Sorcery as fast as possible, while adding more Mysteria followers into the destroyed-card pool. With the right hand, it is very possible to perform OTK on turn 7, while a turn 8 OTK is almost guaranteed.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
The current build of Mysteria is really challenging to play. With the 1-of Mysteria build, one single mistake can cost you the game. So it might look pretty average at a glance, but the deck's performance in top-tier tournaments cannot be denied: multiple top placements, and even a JCG victory after the latest balance patch. While it never reached the peak popularity of the other top 3 decks, Mysteria is always a force that needs to be reckoned with, especially when brought by top-level players.
The featured list is from pro player NTH Takumi, who managed to win the July 28 JCG. A tried-and-true list, it runs two Enchanting Spells, which is very useful to boardlock and delay the opponent's lethal setup.
Vengeance Blood has been reworked in Heroes of Rivenbrandt, focusing more on card draw and burn damage over multiple turns, at the cost of unreliable Vengeance activations.
Waltz, Moonlight Wolf-King and Vulgus, Infernal Headmistress are the only ways to trigger Vengeance without dropping to 10 defense or below. Mach-Speed Maron, Vania, Crimson Majesty and Galom, Empress Fist remain the major payoffs, while the rest of the deck focuses on cycling. More burn damage can be found with an old staple like Razory Claw, as well as new additions such as Doublame, Seeker of Beauty and Fenrir, Endbringer.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Vengeance Blood stands in Tier 2, as one of the competitive decks that can do well in a variety of matchups but still struggles against Ghost Shadow.
アオギリtopped JCG with this build, opting for a single copy of Raging Commander and Garodeth, which constitutes 12 burst damage on turn 6 combined with Vania's Gift for Bloodkin.
Fairy Forest is an aggressive deck that aims to go wide and push damage quickly in the early game, transition into the midgame with Nobilis, Sable-Lily Queen, and finish with Storm followers such as Shining Valkyrie, Tam Lin, Fey Knight, or Aria, Dutiful Fairy.
Salvia Panther and Windflower Tiger are the main power plays early on, increasing follower count while dealing damage and bouncing Fairy generators like Canon, Yearning Heart and Aqua Fairy. Nobilis and Valkyrie are the main evolution targets. If the opponent survives beyond turn 6, Aria and Castelle, Budding Mage can either set up high burst or strong defensive walls.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Fairy Forest lands in Tier 2, as it has seen sporadic success thanks to the buff to Plumeria, Serene Goddess, making the deck slightly faster and more consistent. This change encourages a build more focused on Castelle and Aria instead of Filly.
This list runs one copy of Carbuncle to recover evolution points and set up late-game OTKs; Verdant Lieutenant is an efficient draw engine when combined with Rayne, Divine Smith.
Machina Portal lives in that limbo state where there's very little reason to play it besides needing a third aggro deck, but even that role can be filled by the newly-buffed Fairy Forest. The matchup spread is realistically not good, and much of its success comes down not to how well you play, but to how poorly the opponent plays. While the deck can still pull off 'gotcha' moments where the opponent doesn't have an answer to a wide early board into Gullias, or when it has an obscene amount of damage from hand on the first Gretina turn, most of the time, the game does not pan out that way. The opponent may delay the Machina/Academic count long enough to win first, or they may reach a critical-mass winning position via Shin or a massive Craig turn, such that Machina Portal would need a truly fortunate hand to still pull out a lethal.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Machina Portal has fallen to Tier 3 where it belongs after peaking on hour two, while players continue to improve at Crystallize Haven and the other top tiers. Vengeance Blood's slight surge in popularity as a potent anti-meta aggro deck leaves even less room at the table for Machina Portal.
The featured 12-win streak list from @ouri___ has generally standard ratios, including one Animal Puppeteer but also two Puppet Workout as a surprise burst option with Gretina, Hoverbiker, and Lyelth's Marionette.
Chess Rune is an archetype that revolves around Mystic King and his Magical Pawns. The aim is to get eight Magical Pawns to leave play in order to reduce the cost of their big boss card: Mystic King. With Mystic King, every Magical Pawn will become more powerful and gain Storm and Ward: your main win condition. The deck has a pretty midrange playstyle, as Magical Pawns will constantly fill your board and be able to trade with opponent followers.
You want to mulligan for Chess-related cards—except for Mystic King because you only need the King for later turns. Prioritize keeping high-value cards like Check and Magical Knights. Start summoning pawns with cards like Magical Strategy or Magical Rook. Use your discounted Magical Knight to chip in some damage while progressing your quest. End the game with Mystic King's powerful board presence or wait for an OTK chance as you buff your Storm-Pawn with a combination of Check, Winged Inversion, or even Odin.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Chess Rune's position in the meta has worsened from last month, as both Crystallize Haven and Ghost Shadow are now the clear top 2 decks in the meta. While it has a rather good matchup against Evo Portal or Mysteria Rune, the popularity of the top 2 lists is just too much for Chess. Not to mention, more aggressive decks like Vengeance Blood and Fairy Forest can be difficult to deal with, requiring a lot of luck for Chess to win.
The featured list is from じゃぱないの who managed to reach top 16 during the July 30 JCG. The build is quite aggressive, as it runs two Fallen Shots and three Crushing Rains for more damage reach, allowing them to potentially race aggro decks.
As Ghost Shadow slightly dipped in play, so too has Uneriel Haven, though arguably a more pertinent explanation for Uneriel's slight fall is the rise of Vengeance Blood: the latter is a decidedly more effective anti-meta pick that covers more ground and has fewer weaknesses on paper. Uneriel Haven heavily relies on naturally drawing multiple key cards, including defensive options, Uneriel and/or Aether, and Holy Lightning Bird for reliable OTKs. Lacking any of these pieces spells certain doom for this Ghost-griefing deck. Compound that with the ever-present risk of the opponent simply winning too quickly on their own to begin with, and playing this deck is a significant risk, as Uneriel typically can't win until turn 8 or even turn 9. It becomes increasingly difficult to justify bringing Uneriel when the meta has more or less become a Crystallize bonanza.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Uneriel Haven drops to Tier 3 as the deck inherently faces severe consistency issues that are not backed up by its matchup spread. Now that Ghost Shadow is no longer the clear number one deck and Vengeance is the more prominent anti-meta choice, Uneriel has fallen out of favor for all but its most fervent of believers.
The featured 13-win streak list from @Arcandia1996 plays just one Luminescent Gem to create space for six total Uneriel-equivalents.
Heal Haven hasn't seen many developments, as most players have been focused on Crystallize. Heal remains somewhat effective on ladder but consistently falls apart at any level of competitive play. Whether the build has a more late-game-oriented control focus or brings more early-game clear to the table with Arriet, Heal Haven is too linear and too predictable without having any of the raw power to overtake these faults like Ghost Shadow does.
This deck is still capable of drawing a bunch of cards and seriously outgrinding some decks, but it's similar to Machina Portal in the sense that Heal Haven's success largely hinges on the ineptitude of the opponent.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Heal Haven can't escape Tier 3, which is simply to be expected when there are so many decks in the meta that can simply win solitaire style without letting the opponent have any say in the matter. With Heal Haven, you don't really win matchups between decks, though on ladder you might win matchups between players.
Rally Sword is a deck that aims to get the Rally count up as fast as possible, then utilize their cards with Rally payoffs to deal large amounts of burst damage.
The gameplan revolves around curving out into either an unclearable board or strong Storm followers. The ideal curve is to set up a Rally 10 Monika, Chronoswift Admiral on turn 5 into a Twilight and Silver on turn 6, then reduce the cost of Agile Twinblader with Rally 15, dealing 12 damage and builing a big board. If the ideal curve of Twinblader on 6 does not kill or is not acheivable, you can finish off the opponent with a combination of Agile Twinblader and Aggressive Advance or Twinblader and Forge Weaponry.
The mulligan should aim to get low-cost followers that increase your Rally, such as Wayfaring Goblin and Wandering Knight. Aggressive Advance is also a strong early-game play that should be kept in the mulligan.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Rally Sword at the moment is a Tier 4 deck—but it may move up a tier in the future, as the recent Aurelia, Glorious Saber buff helped it out quite a bit.
The featured list runs two copies of Weiss, Discerning Professor, to prevent the opponent from clearing a strong turn 5 of Aurelia into Weiss evolve. It also runs one copy of Forge Weaponry: combined with Twinblader, Forge can deal 18 damage or more with a previous Monika setup.
The featured list is from Stay, who managed to get to top 16 in the July 30 JCG.
Armed Dragon is one of the aggressive archetypes in this meta. The deck revolves around followers with Armed trait, and the 0PP amulet that grants said trait to followers without. The main gimmick of this archetype occurs when four Armed followers have left play: the rest of the Armed followers gain additional powerful effects, such as Storm or burn damage, to help end the game.
You want to mulligan for Armed followers—ideally the cheap ones, like Hammer Dragonewt or Draconir, Knuckle Dragon. Then simply play cheap followers and push early damage, and let your opponent answer your Armed followers. Once four have left play, look for burst damage with Lævateinn Dragon, Blast Form: it is the most powerful Armed follower combined with the other 1PP and 2PP burn sources in your hand.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
As the meta developed and lists got more refined, Armed Dragon's aggressiveness felt much weaker compared to other options in this meta. Ghost Shadow, Vengeance Blood, or Fairy Forest seem more suitable compared to Armed Dragon if the player wants to play an aggressive deck. Defense Form is also losing its edge, as players become more experienced and learn how to play around it by holding their removal for later stages.
Antemaria is a Storm card, which means it is suitable for an aggro deck like Armed Dragon. Antemaria is quite easy to use in Armed, as the only synergy that it needs is herself. The card also provides significant healing, which the decklist lacked before. The decklist featured is from 勉強しないと除隊, who managed to get top 8 in the July 29 JCG. The deck is quite heavy on the top end, with three big finisher options: Antemaria, Forte, and Lævateinn Dragon.
Bahamut Dragon is a control archetype that tries to survive until the late game until they can invoke Ultimate Bahamut and make the opponent run out of cards. Ultimate Bahamut is a follower that will be invoked from the deck after you play 50PP during the match. Since Dragoncraft has access to additional play points, they will be able to summon it faster than any other class.
You want to mulligan for your Ramp cards like Dragon Oracle and Waterwyrms's Blessing. Then focus on playing control cards midgame and recover enough defense to dodge the opponent's lethal with more heal cards like Drazael. Finally, boost up the 50PP quest by playing Terra Finis and Ultimate Bahamut on accelerate, as PP recovery does count for the quest. Finish the game with your invoked Bahamut.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
The buff to Antemaria makes her slottable in Bahamut Dragon. It is an additional quick removal and another source of healing, which is useful to buy more time until you can invoke Bahamut Dragon. This change increased the deck's ladder popularity, especially on the ladder—but in competitive settings, Bahamut doesn't bring anything new to the table. All the top-tier decks have ways to end the game before Ultimate Bahamut even matters, which places it in bottom-feeder tournament territory.
TK Sadfeeder brought the featured list for the recent JCG. The deck is a simple build: it aims to ramp as soon as possible, using cards like Giant Happy Pig to dodge an OTK and a 1-of Winged Inversion to minimize damage against decks that are weak to transform cards.