Crystallize Haven is legitimately the best deck in the format at the moment. The deck has no clear counter, as it can adapt to almost any situation with the right hand and careful precautions. This current version of Crystallize Haven is also probably the strongest compared to past iterations. They are no longer as fragile as they used to be when things go wrong in the early game, as they have multiple endgame win conditions to rely on.
Crystallize has two main quests that they want to fulfill: the first one is the Crystallize quest, which revolves around playing Crystallize cards 5 times in the game to enable their strong payoffs. Notably Wingy, Chirpy Gemstone, which enables some powerful combos by giving the whole board the Storm ability.
The second quest is centered around Skullfane, the Defiled. The goal is to play its accelerate effect 4 times so that its cost can be reduced by 4. This reduced Skullfane cost allows you to turn around situations and win you the game very early when planned carefully. AOE for 4 damage and healing for 4 while popping amulets on field is simply too strong in any format. While players still can win without completing this quest, this quest is usually what makes Crystallize so scary to fight against.
Outside of these two basic quests, the presence of Jeanne, Worldwalker alone makes Crystallize Haven a threatening force on their turn 7. With some preparation, she can provide 5 damage to the AOE clear + a board that cannot be easily answered. She can immediately end the game if paired with another Storm follower like Meus Jester or Wingy. Jeanne also has Storm damage on her own, which allows her to still push damage even when Wingy is not active yet.
A stable decklist has been established since the early week of the expansion. While sometimes you can see variations of tech cards or different card ratios among players, I believe this basic list is the most consistent version of Crystallize, suitable for both casual ranked environments and competitive settings.
The power spike of the deck. It is the main reason why this deck has so much power in the meta. 3PP Skullfane is able to provide you the tempo swing that this deck needs to recover from early aggression while 0PP Skullfane enables so many combos that could end up doing lethal damage.
While having Skullfane in the opening hand is already a big advantage, the way players use their amulets to plan Skullfane’s activation will show the difference between an average player and a good one.
This is the key card for almost every major combo. You need to familiarize yourself with its effect really well if you want to succeed. It is your major source of damage, as it gives Storm to all of your low-cost followers (Sapphire Priestess, Azurite Maiden, and Diamond Master).
It is also a perfect card to combine with Jeanne as Wingy is a very cheap follower that fulfills Jeanne’s requirements. Wingy makes Crystallize Jeanne turn way more decisive compared to other Havencraft deck archetypes.
You don’t really want to see it during the early game, as it mostly does nothing, and playing it for tempo is rarely worth the sacrifice.
Diamond Master is a premium board clear and Storm giver. She is the major tempo swing during the midgame with her ability and the way to grant Skullfane Storm as a finisher during the late game.
There are two ways to enable this card:
Two or three copies, recommended at three
Azurite Maiden is the key card against aggressive decks. She is not really useful early but shines the most after Crystallize 5. She does the following to help:
On top of these utilities, her Enhance 8 can be really clutch during the late game. It doesn’t require any other combo cards and allows you to end the game with Storm from Tortoises.
Bejeweled Shrine is the way to increase the potential damage for each combo that you perform. It is +1 damage for every Storm + Ward follower on the field. As a bonus, +3 defense makes it harder for opponent to clear your existing board
Ideally, you want to play it a bit later in the game because it permanently occupies a boardspace. So you need to be extra careful when you play the card.
With the inclusion of Jeanne, Bejeweled Shrine is no longer a must-have for the OTK combo. But it is still a really good card regardless.
Sapphire Priestess is mostly known as another activator of Diamond Master outside of Wingy which is how she is being used most of the time.
But she can always be played simply for her draw ability. She allows you to dig your missing Jeanne or Wingy in the midgame after you finish your Crystallize quest.
On Jeanne’s turn, she is important to play if your damage is not enough for the OTK. She essentially refills your hand size so that you have another follow-up next turn.
Orchid technically doesn’t fit really well in Crystallize, as it doesn’t progress your Crystallize quest. Some people in the beginning don't play Orchid because of this reason.
However as the meta has developed, Orchid has pretty much become a necessary card for Crystallize to survive in current format because of its powerful effect—especially Mum’s or Plum’s against aggressive decks in the meta.
Its Countdown 2 also helps to plan your Skullfane better. This flexibility makes Orchid a really good card to slot in Crystallize.
One of the best early Crystallize cards and an important damage dealer for the deck. Setting her Crystallize on turn 4 helps you to win your Skullfane-less games as it opens an OTK opportunity with Jeanne.
She can also be played for full cost on your t5/t6 as part of your 2-turn kill setup. Combined with Bejeweled Shrine, it provides you more protection and ways to survive until the late game.
The lifeline of your hand size. This is one of the best Crystallize cards that you want in the early game.
One thing to note is that, unless you have Skullfane in your hand, playing her Crystallize later than turn 4 feels really bad since you only benefit from the draw after your expected win turn.
Her main body is generally irrelevant in the current meta.
This is one of the best anti-aggro cards while progressing your Crystallize quest at the same time. You really want to see it against aggressive decks and play it early because of the tempo swing and heal.
Make sure to plan your Countdown amulet carefully since you almost always want to make it auto-evolve for more tempo.
Be wary when playing it for late game as it occupies boardspace and might decrease your potential lethal damage with the Jeanne combo.
Arguably the best Crystallize follower in the deck. The way it recycles itself makes your Crystallize quest almost guaranteed to be active by your combo turn.
Enables an early broken combo with Skullfane while also helping deal with small early followers.
Its main body is also useful as part of a 2-turn kill setup, as it can hit face for 6 damage with an evolve point.
A simple 1PP 1-Countdown (CD) that draws a card. Pretty much needed to smoothen your Crystallize quest, especially when you don’t open with Holy Lightning Bird.
It's good enough on its own, but this 1-CD actually helps with your Skullfane accelerate if you topdeck it from cards like Emerald Maiden in the middle of the turn.
Its main body is rarely relevant, but there are some cases on turn 9 where you can use its big body to deal Storm damage with Diamond Master and Wingy.
Jeanne is the key to Crystallize Haven’s consistency, as it provides you a way to win without reducing Skullfane’s cost. Or when combined with Skullfane, it simply wins you the game in most situations.
It is an absurdly strong turn 7 play, and some decks simply can’t deal with Jeanne’s board. Synergizes really well with Wingy. And even Diamond Master + Sapphire Priestess is playable with her since Jeanne gains Storm + Ward on her own.
One thing to note is that you need to be really careful in planning when it comes to Jeanne turn, especially when it comes to boardspace. She requires at least three boardspaces for her AOE effect to be active.
Last but not least, let’s not forget that you can manually evolve Jeanne to gain her whole board auto-evolve effect.
Your rare early removal. It’s a bit awkward because ideally you want to play cheaper and longer CD Crystallize in order to plan your Skullfane.
But it’s really a clutch card against the likes of Lucius or Cassim, which can deal a lot of damage during the early game.
Its main body is also useful as the finisher after your Jeanne turn if you don’t have any combos left to perform.
The way you mulligan might change when it comes to the exact combination of cards that you have in your starting hand, but this chart should provide a general guideline on how you should approach the game.
You must keep a Skullfane in any kind of situation. Throwing Skullfane in mulligan is equivalent to throwing the game. It is the most powerful card in the deck if you can have it early. If you have multiple Skullfanes, simply keep one, as having too many Skullfanes without an actual Amulet to work with is a big risk.
The exception is that, if you have a Holy Lightning Bird and two Skullfanes, you might keep everything in your hand since it is a guarantee that you can progress your Crystallize quest due to its looping capability.
Those Crystallize payoffs + Jeanne work best after you finished your Crystallize quest. Playing them for tempo is rarely worth it, so there is no value in drawing them early. Please don’t keep them in the mulligan.
While Bejeweled Shrine looks fine and keeping a 1PP draw a card is good for most decks, it simply doesn’t progress your Crystallize quest. You need to maximize your chance to progress your Crystallize quest early. There are also ways to end the game without Bejeweled Shrine, so it’s always fine to not secure the shrine early in the game.
While Orchid effects are indeed good and can help with increasing your early hand size, there are so many better cards that you can play during early game that actually progress your quest. I think Crystallize cards should still be a priority when it comes to mulligan, so it's better to just toss this card.
All cards in these categories are your Crystallize cards. Cards in “safe keep” are generally safe to keep when you see them alone. However, when you have multiple copies of these cards + Skullfane in your mulligan, I think you should take more time to analyze what cards that you really need while also considering your plan for the matchup. There will never be a clear answer, as it always changes with the combination of the cards.
These cards are only kept against aggressive matchups and are not worth in any other matchups. Astolfo is actually a borderline toss. It's only worth it if you don’t have Skullfane yet and you are going against aggressive decks. When you have Skullfane, the only window to play his Crystallize is on turn 4, which is so conditional and usually ruins the planning. Even then, Divine Wolves is actually the better card compared to Astolfo in the aggressive matchup because it does heal and synergizes well with Skullfane planning. You should always keep Divine Wolves against aggressive decks.
The best starting hand for this deck is the Skullfane + Holy Lightning Bird due to its combo loop potential; please refer to the “Skullfane management” section for details.
Emerald Maiden is a good card in most situations, but it needs to be played early. However it does come with the loss of tempo. If you are against aggro decks, it is not advisable to keep more than one copy of it. The general rule is that if you don’t play Maiden by turn 3, it's not worth keeping in Mulligan.
Meus Jester is better against aggressive decks and can be kept in multiple copies. However, against non-aggressive decks like Haven mirror or Mysteria, keeping multiple Jesters can backfire because you will be lacking hand size.
Garuda is a safe keep when you don’t see your important pieces such as Skullfane or Holy Lightning Bird. However, there is a consideration to toss Garuda in the matchup where you need early Skullfane, especially when you are going second.
One last tip for the mulligan: if you believe in superstition, please check this post.
The early goal of Crystallize is to reach 5 Crystallize and 4 Skullfane Accel. There will always be games where you don’t draw your Skullfane, but you should maximize what you can do without it. If you do have Skullfane, I would recommend reading the “Skullfane planning” part of this article for more details.
While the early game is very important, there is less freedom to it since it will always be very dependent on what cards you get early after the mulligan. Having Skullfane means you're gonna focus on Skullfane, and no Skullfane simply means you focus on Crystallize and dealing with the opponent’s board.
Hence why the interesting plays and options usually come during the midgame. The most important aspect when playing Crystallize is to recognize your winning patterns. You can’t go blind with Crystallize and expect to always win on your turn 7 naturally. Good Crystallize players should always plan how they want to win the game from the early to the midgame.
There are three recognizable patterns for Crystallize to win, and you should aim for whichever suits your current situation. You should really think hard about which plan to focus on, usually as early as your turn 4/5. These are the factors that affect your decisions:
Your Crystallize and Skullfane Progression is usually the main decider for whether you go for a kill setup or a turtling strategy with Jeanne on turn 7. Your current hand state will determine whether you can go with an OTK setup or be forced to do a simple 2TK setup. Some matchup compatibility might prohibit you from doing certain things. For example, against Evo Portal, there is no way you can go for a turtling strategy as Shin single-handedly deals with your Jeanne board.
Note that these plans still work even if your Skullfane progression is nowhere because it didn’t come to your hand early enough. All you need to do is plan better and cope with it.
This is probably the most common pattern that Crystallize uses to win the majority of their games. The concept is simple: Perform your combo twice in a row. This is to make sure that the opponent spends all its resources reacting to your board and not giving them a window for healing or setting up more wards.
While Skullfane is usually involved in these kinds of kills since it usually provides the damage and tempo swing, there are patterns where Skullfane is not necessary. The key point is that you need to familiarize yourself with all possible damage combinations and plan the kill accordingly.
The most common pattern in the current meta is a turn 6 push into a turn 7 lethal.
If the opponent plays around your stuff or your draw luck isn’t that good and you are lacking some damage, Crystallize can still pivot into a turn 7 push, turn 8 lethal, which is way more reliable since there are way more patterns to it. On turn 7, either the Jeanne or Skullfane pattern will suffice. On turn 8, it's pretty easy since you can always push with one card combo, which is Azurite Maiden Enhance or Astolfo’s 8-cost fanfare. Those two cards should be more than enough to close the game if you lack burst damage on turn 7.
Last but not least, Crystallize Haven is Tier 1 for a reason. With some good RNG on their side, they have access to earlier lethal with turn 5 push and turn 6 lethal. Although, this kind of lethal action usually requires early Skullfane.
In this section, we are mainly talking about the Turn 7 OTK setup. An OTK setup isn’t that much different from a standard burst. It will always involve your standard damage dealer; the main difference is that you need to deal 20 damage or more. The main reason we want to pivot into an OTK setup is due to the opponent's healing capability. For example, a deck like Evo Portal or Mysteria Rune has ways to heal while progressing their quest and making their own big board. Which can ruin Crystallize's game plan as they run out of resources to deal more damage. Due to those reasons, it is safer from a Crystallize point of view to aim for 20 DMG OTK rather than a 2-turn burst damage.
Cards that you need to pay more attention to when doing an OTK are Meus Jester and Divine Wolves, as their countdown tremendously helps with the PP requirements needed for OTK.
First of all, let’s discuss the OTK without Skullfane (Skullfane simply makes it way easier). Jeanne is absolutely required for this combo, and you can break any Wards that have less than 5 defense.
For Meus Jester, it needs to be Crystallized on turn 4 so that it will pop off on turn 7.
For Divine Wolves, it needs to be Crystallized on turn 5 so that it will pop off on turn 7.
For some patterns, as you only consume 6 PP, you can actually spend the remaining 1 PP on Skullfane Accel to reduce the countdown faster if you happen to have it in your hand.
Here is an example of how you plan an OTK; this is the most common pattern with shrines.
The thing to note for the OTK setup without Skullfane is that it usually can still be blocked with Ward followers that have 6 defense, since Jeanne AOE damage only deals 5. Cards like Olivia & Sylvia, Shin, or even an evolved Gargantuan Ghost comes to mind. The way to mitigate it is to set up a Holy Lightning Bird or Mum’s Hall beforehand, albeit it is an RNG solution.
With a 0PP Skullfane or multiple 0PP Skullfanes, the OTK is borderline unstoppable with standard Wards, as it means they need to withstand big 9 damage AOE. The way anyone could stop this OTK is usually through Last Words, which provides a little bit of healing or transform effects, which ruin the combo—or via blocking boardspace, which is required for the OTK.
This is by far the easiest plan to execute, as it is the last resort. Some matchups in the meta fold to this plan because Jeanne is simply too strong to overcome for them. In this plan, the main focus is no longer your Crystallize or Skullfane plan. Your main focus is simply to survive as long as you can until you can perform your Jeanne turn. You can opt to play Orchid multiple times rather than pushing your Skullfane or Crystallize agenda simply because it's safer to reach turn 7 with that move.
Post–Jeanne turn, you need to still push the damage with a strong Enhance of Azurite Maiden or Astolfo’s powerful Fanfare. Basically, continuous Wards that the opponent is unable to deal with.
As you already learn about winning patterns, you should realize that a lot of patterns still can be pulled off, even without Skullfane. This is very relevant if you draw Skullfane a bit late and you realize that you can’t really reduce his cost low enough on time with your current hand, even though you already had some setup for it.
The key point to grasp in Crystallize’s early game is to maximize your Skullfane accelerate count. Balancing between surviving the early game and progressing your Skullfane is crucial.
First of all, this is the most broken early pattern for Skullfane that everyone should know because it has the simplest requirements.
Prerequisite: Holy Lightning Bird, Skullfane, and a Garuda/Astolfo (this can be drawn later on t4)
Turn 1: Bird
Turn 2: Skullfane on CD 1 Bird, replay the Bird
Turn 3: Skullfane on CD 1 Bird, replay the Bird
Turn 4: Skullfane on CD 1 Bird, play 1-CD Amulet, Skullfane on i
Alternatively if you have another copy of Holy Lightning Bird, it can be played on turn 3 so that it will have 1-CD on your turn 4
This sequence lets you have 4 Skullfane Accelerated by turn 4, so it would cost 0 on turn 6 for very early combos. Even if the opponent does not have followers on their board, it is worth destroying the Bird amulet anyway. While this combo is strong in most situations, there might be situations where you might need to abandon this sequence because the opponent's early threat might be more dangerous.
With that being said, most games will usually go without you having both Skullfane and Holy Lighting Bird right from the very first turn. Hence, you should adapt accordingly depending on what you have in your hands. There is no fixed rule for this, but here are some examples:
Here, a mistake can cost you the game. Notice that if you go without planning and play Orchid enhance this turn, you can't guarantee finishing your SF quest on turn 5, as you need to rely on drawing a specific amulet. If you only reduce your Skullfane on turn 6, it's just too late and you're gonna get overwhelmed. Planning with few resources is the key to strong Skullfane.
Planning Skullfane is not always straightforward. Having 2 Skullfanes in your hand can lead to interesting cases. Let’s take a look at this use case:
There are two play options here:
Option 1 looks better and feels more intuitive if we look from a resource perspective, and it's probably the better play in most situations. However, Option 2 might be better if you consider the opponent's threat and think about the bigger picture. We should always ask ourselves some questions:
Take some time to think about it—especially the last question, which usually happens in a Mirror match or against Shadow going second. Option 2 might be the key to winning those matchups.
When Crystallize doesn’t brick, I personally think Crystallize doesn’t have any bad matchups, especially when we are going first. However when we are going second, there’s a lot of room for other decks to win earlier due to their sheer tempo or power spike that they achieve when they are going first. Although, these going-second matchups can be swung by the power of an early Skullfane.
So rather than focusing on matchup compatibility, let’s focus on scenarios where you can win your matchup.
I think this matchup is very favorable for the player going first, but there is room for misplays and bad hands, which allows the player going second to have a chance.
It’s a simplification, but the main point is that the Jeanne turn is really strong, and the player who arrives at Jeanne’s turn first has a higher chance to win the game.
Skullfane does play an important role, but the way you use the Skullfane might be different depending on whether you are going first or second. Going first, it is a most reliable card that allows you to perform OTK winning patterns. Going second, it’s more of a reactionary card to prevent yourself from being 2TK by the opposing player or an opportunity to try ending the game on turn 6. Hence it is always important to track the opponent's Skullfane count.
Since both players should realize that Jeanne’s turn is really strong, they should look for the opportunity for boardlock and force Jeanne players to spend their evolve point instead. This board-locking opportunity usually results in a game that drags more than 7 turns and allows some interesting plays during the late game.
You should feel happy when you get this card because you are the one who controls the direction of the game. The main idea is that you should arrive at Jeanne's turn as safely as possible while minimizing the risk of boardlock. The player going second can only respond to Jeanne with their own Jeanne, which means they are not hitting your face. This creates a window on your turn 8 to close the game with the second burst of damage.
In order to avoid Boardlock, sometimes it's wiser to aim an OTK without relying on Bejeweled Shrine. Bejeweled Shrine increases the defense so much that it makes the player going second easier to boardlock your follower.
Having Skullfane is obviously a great thing because you can aim for an OTK pattern. If the player going second decides to pop off their combo on turn 6, Jeanne and Skullfane are able to overcome those high defense ward followers and resolve the game on the spot. The only thing that the player going second can do is play Divine Wolves, as its Last Words allow them to survive. But it is still not a good condition since they will still lose so much leader defense after that turn.
Going for 2TK might work, but it is a bit risky. First, it exposes you to boardlock so that you can’t follow up with Jeanne on turn 7. Second, they could actually recover with healing from Skullfanes, Plum’s Hall, and Azurite Maiden.
You basically need to react to every possibility that the player going first throws against you. The most prominent thing to do is prevent them from playing Jeanne's full combo on their turn 7. If they went aggressive with cards like Meus Jester, there’s usually a window for you to boardlock them by playing Azurite Maiden, which they cannot trade.
Another thing to hope for is to highroll your Skullfane. You basically need to set up a kill that lets you win on turn 6. Chip some damage on your turn 5 so that you can end the game on turn 6 with the Shrine + Skullfane + Diamond Master + Wingy combo.
Additional Mulligan: Divine Wolves
In general, taking early damage is inevitable due to their early aggressive turn. The most important thing against Ghost Shadow is to minimize early damage so that you will always be above their Lucius or Ghastly Banishment lethal range. As long as you can survive those, you can win with any of the winning patterns.
Another annoying card is Patchwork Pup because it might ruin our Jeanne turn. The countermeasure that we have against this card is mostly 0PP Skullfane, which needs to be played before we play Jeanne. Though when you don’t have your Skullfane, you simply need to hope it's not your Jeanne that gets affected by the transformation.
Crystallize has ways out against their Masquerade Ghost and Gargantuan Ghost with Diamond Master, Skullfane, or Jeanne (when going first), so it’s not a big issue, but you still need to prepare for it.
The cards that shine in this matchup are Skullfane, Divine Wolves, Orchid, and Azurite Maiden.
Skullfane is an obvious tempo swing and heal, and it is pretty crucial to win this matchup when you are going second. Going first is much more relaxed, and you can still win often even without drawing him. You still need an additional source of healing. With the development of the current meta, Skullfane is becoming more necessary against the list that played Patchwork Pup. Because you can’t just play Jeanne on your turn 7 if the opponent sets up a Pup. It is quite risky, and you would need a 0PP Skullfane to clear it beforehand.
Divine Wolves is one of the best turn 2 plays that you can make in this matchup. It sets up really well to answer their T3 Lucius and heals you as a bonus.
Orchid is either Plum’s or Mum’s in this matchup. While Turn 2 Bambietta is great, Orchid usually plays a more important role on later turns simply to make sure that you are not below their lethal range. The same case as Azurite Maiden, especially when going first after you finish your crystallize, as it makes sure that you are out of Lucius’ evolving lethal range.
While Astolfo is a clear removal against Lucius in this particular matchup, he can be really awkward to play. He’s mostly a turn-4 play and mostly only good if you don’t have Skullfane. Second, it's a bit awkward to play it to remove Lucius if you have Skullfane since you are not progressing Skullfane.
The key is to take it slowly and anticipate all the possible damage. You are the one in control when going first because you know you will have a really strong turn 7. Your turn 7 is so strong that the only way out to win for Shadow is to make sure you fall below Ghastly Banishment range. Hence, their focus is to kill you as early as turn 6 by having the advantage of evolving Lucius multiple times in this matchup. Lucius is actually scarier than Masquerade Ghost in this matchup.
While your focus is on mitigating the damage, you shouldn’t stray too far from your goals. You still need to end the game on turn 7 if you notice that you are not drawing your healing cards. Don’t let a momentary relief distract you from a game-winning plan with your combos.
You need Skullfane.
Going second is much more difficult because your ability to deny incoming damage when we are going second is very limited. Countdown Amulet takes time, and in that gap, they will be able to hit face with their early Cerberus or Lucius.
Divine Wolves are pretty crucial during the early game, as they are the best way to block most upcoming damage. But mostly, you should really focus on reducing your Skullfane because you either really need it on turn 6 or for your lethal on turn 7.
Skullfane is necessary because of their Masquerade Ghost and Gargantuan Ghost threat on their turn 6.
While we could answer this with Sapphire Priestess-Diamond Master, it means that we are not healing much that turn, and you might get deleted by Ghastly Banishment. In case you survived and are still out of Ghastly Banishment's lethal range, spending those two cards might delay your Jeanne turn even further because you might have already played all the small followers. Hence, Skullfane is very crucial here when going second.
Additional Mulligan: Astolfo
One thing is for sure with Evo Portal: you cannot go with Heal and Jeanne's winning pattern in this matchup. I feel like against the average Evo Portal, a 2TK win pattern is usually enough. More than often, Evo Portal is unable to recover from the early burst without Shin being active. Simply push early damage with Meus Jester or Holy Lightning Bird, then end the game with Jeanne and Wingy.
But of course, in an ideal situation for Evolve Portal, they should be able to recover from those aggressions with Shin healing back tons of health. That is why it is probably safer to aim for a full OTK winning pattern, which pretty much guarantees a kill, rather than relying on them not summoning Shin fast enough. Switching whether you want to go for 2TK or bank it on OTK is quite simple against Evo Portal, as you can track their evolve progress. If they miss their early Spinaria into Robodog combo, it means that you are probably safe performing 2TK as Shin T6 is pretty unlikely.
Sometimes, clearing Evo Portal’s board every single time can be difficult as we need to save your resources for our own OTK. You can at most spend 1 Diamond Master on average to clear one of their big boards. But since we cannot always do it every single turn before OTK, it’s inevitable that we need to let them create a big board and simply leave it intact. This is because boardlock does affect both Alice and Shin's progression, and you know that they can’t really deal out-of-hand damage before reaching 7 evolution. Leaving their followers on board also allows us to save some resources that we really need for the OTK turn.
To make this scenario viable, a card that you need to look out during early game is Cassim, as taking too much damage during the early game prevents you from attempting this midgame boardlock. That is why I feel Astolfo is quite important in this matchup: it can potentially stop their early Cassim highroll.
Most of the lethal against Evo Portal doesn’t really require you to have an early Skullfane. A non-Skullfane OTK is usually viable. But there are ways for Evo Portal to protect themselves, as both Shin and Olivia have 6 defense, which can withstand Jeanne’s AOE damage.
But in general, if you have Skullfane, the matchup seems to be really in your favor. They can’t really play Robotic Arm and Shin at the same time. If they play Robotic Arm Rescuer, then simply delay your OTK for 1 more turn and you should be fine.
Simply stick to your gameplan and aim for 2TK. You can always observe their progression. But if you notice that they play their Spinaria into Dog on turn 3, then you need to switch your plan to a harder OTK setup.
You kinda need to plan for OTK by default, but there is a chance for you to perform burst damage on your T5 followed by T6, especially with Skullfane. They don’t have enough early healing to recover, which allows you to safely lethal on your powerful turn 7.
This matchup is kind of like combo solitaire. Mysteria will try to kill you on turn 7, and so will Crystallize. Due to this nature, it is a first-favored matchup since the player going first can perform their combo first, and the other party simply has fewer ways to respond to it.
However, elements of distraction do exist, and Mysteria will try to delay you with every single tool that they have. One thing you need to be really careful of in this matchup is getting boardlocked with cards like Enchanting Spell or Greater Will. Once one of your followers gets locked, you won’t be able to perform the Jeanne combo, which allows Mysteria to win against you. Due to this boardlock issue, aiming for an OTK setup is the ideal gameplan rather than doing a 2TK.
Stick to your OTK Setup win pattern, and the matchup should be yours. Don’t get tempted to go for the 2-Turn Kill Setup when you are able to perform OTK because:
Going for a 2-turn kill can only be done if you don’t see any Jeanne on your turn 6. In that scenario, you have no chance to go for consecutive burst damage, as you don't have ways to delay the game even further as the clock keeps ticking.
Mr. Heinlein is the only card that you need to be wary of when performing a non-Skullfane OTK setup. It has six defenses, which might block your OTK. But with the previous setup of Holy Lightning Bird, it should not be a big problem, and most people on the ladder actually won’t think about stopping OTK with Heinlein.
OTK with Skullfane is unstoppable.
Even without OTK, going for Jeanne's turn and praying that Mysteria cannot clear can be good enough. Mysteria is actually able to clear your followers with a combination of Dual Barrier Enhancement and Winged Inversion. In that case, you can still seal the game on turn 8 with your second burst damage.
The distraction that is within your control against Mysteria is to force Mysteria to spend both evolve points on their turn 5 and turn 6. Mysteria doesn’t actually want to evolve Anne and Grea on their turn 5 because they will need it for lethal on their turn 7. So if you can force evolution, it is already the best thing that we could do.
One way to force the evolution is to set up a Meus Jester on your first turn, which will then pop off on turn 4. You want to aim for 5 crystallizes at this point and a bejeweled shrine setup. Evolved Meus Jester would have 8 defense stats, which would force Anne and Grea to evolve if they wanted to clear it.
If you fail to force an evolution from Anne and Grea, the next best thing that you can do is to play Meus Jester with 5 PP and ignore Anne and Grea to simply hit face. This is annoying from the Mysteria point of view because, on their turn 6, they want to evolve their Mysteria, Magic Originator. It doesn’t trade well into double Meus Jester, which will give you hope to delay their OTK as they are forced to evolve Anne and Grea instead.
But finally, the most common way is to just pray that they brick and they can't kill you on their turn 7, so you can kill them on your turn 7 instead.
Additional Mulligan: Divine Wolves
This matchup is quite similar to the one against Ghost, except that they really have fewer ways to deal with your late-game board. However, their early start can be even more aggressive than Ghost. You really need to prioritize your removals over any of your quests or gameplan setups. Let’s take a look at this example in the early game.
There is also a gimmick against Forest: their decks are getting stronger if you keep destroying their followers. I think the way to use Orchid in this matchup matters a lot. In the early game, Mum’s Hall is the way to go, as their follower will continue to chip damage if you don’t stop it. However, during mid-game, when they boardlock themselves with wide 1 attack followers, choosing Plum’s Hall is the way to go, as it really stops their Forest progression. Without Forest's followers progression, they have no way to clear your inevitable late-game burst with Jeanne or Skullfane.
For this matchup, I don’t think there is a difference on how you should approach it when you are going first and second. Obviously going second is much more difficult because their tempo is way higher, but all you need to focus is to survive, heal, and Jeanne. Arriving at Jeanne turn should be the goal and it should be your game from there. There is a pattern where Forestcraft can use Carbuncle making every single card in their deck costs 0, but if you have been boardlocking them with Plum’s, those 0PP cards won’t be meaningful as they can't be combined with Castelle’s effect yet.
In general, you can always do a 2TK plan against the rest of the meta. Here are some short snippets on what to focus on in each matchup.
Take the same precautions as in Forest matchup—except the boardlock part. Just clear everything.
Performing the 2TK is fine. Despite the naming, Heal Haven is actually not that good at healing in bursts. There's a risk in the OTK plan without Skullfane, as they can play tall Wards.
Make sure to save Sapphire Priestess + Diamond Master against Weiss. It’s your only way out. Outside of Weiss, they are quite simple to beat. But it’s better to go for the OTK since they have significant ways to heal and recover.
Just play normally, It’s actually difficult for their King to get past Diamond Master + Wingy board.
Drazael is actually a problem, as it blocks your Jeanne burst damage. You probably should aim for OTK with 0PP Skullfane. Saving evo points is important here. Play Skullfane first and evolve it to trade against Drazael. Then perform your usual Jeanne burst.
If you think Crystallize Haven is simply a high-rolling Skullfane deck, please reconsider. Initially, I did think it was, especially in previous iterations. However, after playing it for quite a while in this expansion, I just realized that this deck has such high skill ceilings and there are multiple ways to win without Skullfane thanks to the addition of new cards like Jeanne and Azurite Maiden. I think the deck is worthy of the spot as the number 1 deck in the current meta, and there is a lot to learn when you try to optimize your plays.
Special thanks to laif and Alphy for concept discussion and screenshots.