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 July edition of the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot! We've just seen the release of the Heroes of Rivenbrandt expansion, which has turned the meta on its head once more. The biggest benefactor of this expansion is Ghost Shadow, which gained a level in power and consistency thanks to the inclusion of Cerberus, Howl of Hades and Hellfire Strike. Also winning out is Crystallize Haven, which got Jeanne, Worldwalker. Meanwhile, Portal has finally returned to the meta in force with two archetypes—Evo and Machina—staking out a place near the top. Dragon, Forest, and Sword decks, on the other hand, struggle to find success and have been phased out. Though a Shadow deck once again reigns supreme, the meta has solidified into something overall more diverse than that of the previous expansion, and it's been uninterrupted by any early balance patches.
Let's take a closer look at some of the best decks Heroes of Rivenbrandt has to offer.
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. Extremely consistent and simple to play, Ghost is unquestionably the best deck in the meta right now.
It's been a long while, but Portal is back in the meta, and what a return it's made. This 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 three 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. Easily a Tier 1 deck, Evo Portal is both powerful and flexible, able to be tailored toward beating whatever you need it to.
While we're on the subject of Portal's return, Machina has finally come into its own. The main difference-maker is Robotic Rampage, a simple but effective bit of support that allows the deck to cheaply play a lot of Machina followers at once. Machina aims to flood the board with Machina followers to threaten a massive Gullian Aura, then close out the game with a variety of 10 Machina/Academic payoffs, including Gretina, Champion Fighter and Hoverbiker. The deck can struggle against opponents with the ability to deny it reaching 10 destroyed Machina/Academic followers, but otherwise is a solid and consistent option.
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—and building toward a massive swing turn with Diamond Master… all while hopefully drawing Skullfane, the Defiled, which greatly accelerates its combo potential. The deck has some new options thanks to Jeanne, Worldwalker, who enables some simple OTKs. As ever, the deck is high variance and heavily depends on drawing its key cards, especially Skullfane, which is why its matchup spread is difficult to pin down—but for those who believe in the heart of the cards, it's capable of some incredible things.
An amulet-centric combo deck, Uneriel aims to stall the game out and stay healthy until it can use Uneriel, Winged Enforcer to burst the opponent down by playing many Countdown amulets. Already a rising dark horse in Academy of Ages, Uneriel has found itself a special niche in Rivenbrandt: griefing Ghost Shadow as much as possible. Thanks to Sacrosanct Temple, which completely counters Shadow's ability to chip a player down with Ghosts, and the deck's high amount of healing, Uneriel's ability to answer Ghost ensures it has a place in the meta.
This month, the recommendation is clear: Ghost Shadow is the top pick for both climbing and competitive play. 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 finding success with it; its rule over the meta shouldn't wane unless it sees a nerf, and its aggressiveness makes it easy to grind out many games. For those who prefer decks that make more gran,d flashy plays, though, the various Evolve archetypes might be more appealing, especially Evo Portal and Evo Blood.
It looks like Cygames are giving the meta time to settle this time around, avoiding an early balance patch. We may see a nerf to Ghost further down the line, though, as its dominance over the meta seems clear and is unlikely to change otherwise. As far as possible buffs go, Forest, Sword and Dragon are the most in need of help: Fairy Forest's aggro gameplan can't measure up to that of Ghost Shadow, Rally Sword lacks the healing to deal with the aggressive meta decks and can't OTK fast enough to compete with the slower ones, and Dragon's control archetypes have greatly suffered from the rotation of anti-aggro tools like Si Long and Angel's Blessing. Until a patch or mini-expansion release, we can expect Ghost to remain the deck to beat, and the rest of the meta to ebb and blow around it; archetypes that do well into it, such as Evo Portal and Uneriel Haven, may pick up in popularity over the coming weeks.
Only time will tell—until then, see you all in next month's edition of the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot!
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, Baccherus, Peppy Ghostie Loyal Ghost Pup, Lucius, Travelled Trainer, and Freyja, while also keeping Masquerade Ghost going first, or situationally going second.
Ghost Shadow is the new best deck in the format, this is mostly due to the new addition to the deck, Hellfire Strike which helps the deck deal with boards it previously couldn't, and the meta changing very favorably to it with the new expansion.
The featured list runs 2 Fallen Shot which are becoming a more common addition to the deck recently, it mainly helps the deck spend mana on post Masquerade turns where you usually are locked out of using all of your play points, it also works really well against Mysteria Rune and to deal with certain untargetable followers you previously couldn't, and dealing 2 damage to the opponent's leader is never a bad thing with an aggressive deck.
The featured list is from もっちゃま who managed to win the July 9th JCG with it.
What a leap into relevancy Portal has seen in Heroes of Rivenbrandt, and spearheading that ascension is none other than breaker of shins, Evo Portal. This is a control-combo deck that can reach never-before-seen evolve counts, with an impressive 10 evolves being expected by turn 7 going first or turn 6 to 7 going second. The 10-evolve breakpoint is where Shin, Enemy of Chaos will destroy three random enemy followers, deal 6 face, heal for 6, and reduce the cost of all cards in hand by 3 at end of turn. As most people can attest to by now, this is truly a monstrous payout for hitting all those evolves and is as clear of a win condition as it gets. Against aggro or midrange decks, an early enough Shin will typically turn the game around completely on his own, while the cost reduction to assemble huge combos and potentially OTKs is what matters against control decks. Between Alice who draws more cards while recovering PP, additional copies of Shin, and Grimnir, Divine Stormspear, the damage output on a post-Shin turn has a massive range and will sometimes exceed 20.
The key to unlocking these absurd power plays is the self-evolve packages within the deck that grant multiple highly efficient evolves. Sisterly Bonds + Robopup is 3PP for two self-evolves and a couple of cycles that you will always want to see before your evolve turns. Robotic-Arm Rescuer takes any Portal followers as fusion material to generate self-evolving Assembly Droids. Robo-Arm cannot be fused into until your evolve turns, but generated Assembly Droids do not lose the self-evolve effect in your hand, so you can fuse every possible turn and cash in all your evolves in whatever sequence is the most efficient. To support all this fusing, especially since half the followers in Evo Portal are Neutral evolve support, use Sweeper Doll to generate Puppets, which are fused to become Assembly Droids, which then generate more Puppets.
Evo Portal is an undisputed Tier 1 pick for strong players across the globe, with its astoundingly powerful evolve payoffs and ability to navigate all sorts of matchups. It's a deck that can run many different techs specialized to weather through aggro or optimize the mirror and other control matchups, and the inclusion of these techs frequently comes down to player preference or the context of a whole tournament lineup. Evo Portal is a Tier 1 deck that is generally favorable against both the other Tier 1 decks, which in itself is an incredible advantage to have—though unfortunately it does struggle against a number of Tier 2 decks, namely Mysteria and Chess Rune plus any Vengeance Blood variants. While Evo Portal will occasionally experience unplayably bad bricks with all the expensive evolve payoff cards they need to run, in a practical sense, the deck still manages to win more consistently in the most relevant matchups than the vast majority of the competition can.
Featured here is Noire's Evo Portal list. It has the standard ratios of three Robotic-Arm, two Olivia, and one Mikael along with two Badb for greater late-game power that can be flexed as a follow-up for Cassim or Rosa, as well as one Elina as a defensive tech against Ghost Shadow and Vengeance Blood. For a list that specializes in the mirror and other control matchups, replace the third Grimnir with one Pandora, Plague Giver while reverting to zero Elina and three Rosa. Check out Noire's Evo Portal guide for a full breakdown of this top-tier threat.
As Haven wins, the people lose, or so the age-old saying goes. The focus of Crystallize Haven remains spamming Crystallizes to hit the Storm Ward combo payoffs while hopefully drawing Skullfane to make everything several times scarier. Jeanne, Worldwalker is the new 7PP bomb that enables a straightforward OTK of Jeanne + 0PP Skullfane + Diamond Master + Wingy with Bejeweled Shrine on the board. Sapphire Priestess evolve instead of Wingy can frequently get the job done as well with 18 damage.
The issue of course is simply drawing Skullfane, since the deck entirely falls apart without the looming threat of a massive Diamond Master combo. There are still strong plays that the deck can make with well-timed Meus Jesters and some combination of Diamond Master, Wingy, Azurite, and Sapphire Priestess—but without Skullfane, all of that is very beatable for most decks. For the infamous turn 7 OTK, Skullfane only needs to start reducing on turn 5, which is very doable... assuming you see his sorry mug at all.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Crystallize Haven is truly a terrifying Tier 1 deck not because it's always strong, but because it's only sometimes strong. While Ghost Shadow is consistently threatening, Crystallize fits the full range of losing by itself to inducing rapid pigment degradation of the opponent's hair. As per usual, most of Crystallize Haven's matchups hover around the 50:50 mark as a direct consequence of the Skullfane lifestyle.
The featured 14-win streak from @reve_ou_realite plays three of all the good cards, including the new Divine Wolves plus Jewel Shrine as a one-of tutor and small buff.
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 rotation of Angel Blessing and Story of a Lifetime forces Mysteria to adapt in the current meta. Instead of sticking with the classic 3-of Mysteria build (playing three copies of Mysteria followers), the current trend favors the 1-of Mysteria build in order to offset the lack of draw engine by playing more spells that draw other cards. This particular build also allows you to tutor your Royal Duo and Originator more consistently compared to the standard 3-of build. The clear weakness of this build is that it is more vulnerable to transformation effects and doesn't have access to burst healing from multiple Craigs.
The current meta and build pushes Mysteria toward the slower end: it's more common for Mysteria to focus on surviving for the first 7 turns, and only plan to OTK on turn 8. Turn 7 Enhance Royal Duo has become more common, as you need to preserve your heal in order to survive the opponent's turn 7 burst. Mysteria struggles against aggressive decks that can put on constant pressure, but excels against more control decks, as they are vulnerable to OTK.
The featured build is from Ideal | TBT, who brought this deck for his DSAL match. The list run a lot of draw and survival cards, such as Meltina, Dreams of Adventure, and Greater Will, to focus on surviving until the late game. It also has two copies of Dual Barrier, which can come in clutch with the Enhance 5 to summon two Mysteria names. The list also cuts off Hanna so that Freyja and Mysteria Exchange Party can guarantee either Originator, Royal Duo, or Craig.
Machina Portal received a tremendous amount of help in the past few months, starting with the massive buff that changed the Machina thresholds to Machina or Academic; now, they've received a simple but effective bit of support in Robotic Rampage. As an aggro-midrange deck, Machina Portal swarms the board while threatening a Gullian Aura board buff before closing with a wide assortment of 10 Machina/Academic payoffs, including 6 damage invokes from Gretina and 3PP 5 damage from Hoverbiker. Kyrzael, Killshot Enforcer rounds out most lists with a final Storm push for up to 13 damage with an evolution point and Gretina.
A major advantage of the change from Machinas only to Machina and Academic is the inclusion of Lyelth, Immaculate Idol, who not only adds a 0PP 2/3 Storm Ward—which is extremely useful in its own right—but does so via returning another card in hand back to the deck. Lyelth along with Cassim are crucial to keeping Machina Portal consistent, despite running a total of six invokes between triple Mikael and triple Gretina.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Machina Portal sits pretty in upper Tier 2 as a solid and overall consistent deck that sometimes gives the opponent too much opportunity for counterplay through purposefully denying 10 Machina/Academic. Machina Portal is reasonably well-rounded and has a fighting chance against every deck, though it lacks a decisive advantage against any deck. Sumo Mechanic becomes a fat Ward with healing, and Gioffre, Dilligent Engineer can enable a tremendous amount of cycling, so the deck does have some tools to deal with a variety of situations—though those tools individually are not especially compelling compared to the rest of the field.
The featured 17-win streak list from @Yuzakura1341 is an extremely clean and straightforward list, with three copies of every core and expected card with one Animal Puppeteer who excels in niche scenarios like clearing unattackable followers.
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 hovers in Tier 2 due to a limited amount of data against top-tier decks; if anything, it seems capable of challenging Ghost Shadow when going first, and can get under slower decks like Mysteria Rune and Evolution Portal.
Shiro/FoF won JCG with this list, opting for three copies of Let's Feast, in Style!, which add to the deck's consistency and reach, especially when combined with Fenrir. Kyrie, Fragment of Hope is another valuable draw source, which can also be combined with Vulgus for 5 damage and two draws after spending only 3PP.
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 has interesting support in this expansion, with the addition of Odin and Let's Feast, in Style!. These two cards provides Chess more avenues to go for the OTK kill with a low-cost Mystic King. Feast is quite straightforward, as it simply buffs the Magical Pawn with Storm. Odin is more interesting, as the combo with him usually involves banishing your own board of Mystic King + Pawns board, reducing him to 0PP, then restarting the attack with him or any Magical Knight or another Mystic King. These two cards can also be useful during the midgame, providing utility as draw cards or tools to escape early boardlocks.
In terms of the metagame, Chess does struggle against Ghost Shadow, which is running rampant. Ghost is simply too aggressive, and the Chess quest takes too long; it's difficult for Chess to break through Masquerade. However, Chess has an advantage against decks like Evo Portal or Mysteria Rune, being able to safely progress the Chess quest without being interrupted. Additionally, Chess's lethal turn is generally faster than those decks.
The list is from 比那名居 天子, who managed to get a top 16 during the 5/7 JCG. Instead of opting for chip damage like Crushing Rain for a late-game OTK, this particular list makes use of Kyrie to gain midgame tempo while also drawing important cards such as Mystic King and Magical Knight.
Heal Haven is a truly abominable control deck that aims to outgrind by repeatedly making fat boards alongside a continuous stream of heals and buffs. It's common now to only run a single Elluvia, as she can not only be searched by Kira but can also be directly summoned from the deck on turn 5 with the new Aether, Guardian of Light.
While Heal Haven generally opts for a grindy game plan, it's possible to OTK when Prayer Urn is not in play with turn 8 double Aether pulling Jeanne + Enhance Pureflame Lady. Lou remains the glue that holds the deck together by being a huge 1PP board swing and providing the self-evolves necessary for late-game Aether to trigger Jeanne's play point–recovery Fanfare.
Prayer Urn is still a common choice for the massive number of buffs across multiple turns, but it's typically very bad to draw after turn 3. Avaricious Altruist is an option to replace either Prayer Urn or Orchid's Examination Hall as a much more flexible card.
Alternatively, there is an evolve package with Metatron, the 3PP Jeanne, Olivia, and Badb Catha. This variant aims to quickly and consistently reach control power plays with both Jeannes and Badb's hand refill while giving up the raw buffing power from Prayer Urn and 1PP Monastic Holy Water.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Heal Haven is incredibly popular on ladder but doesn't see much success in high ratings or among the top levels of competition in general. It's good enough to be an upper Tier 3 deck, but its predictability and struggles against common threats like Shin and turn 3 Lucius leave gaping holes that are too frequently exploited by strong players. The very natural inclusion of Winged Inversion gives Heal Haven the illusion of a fighting chance against Ghost Shadow, but Masquerade can easily be evolve traded off into any buffed follower like Effluvia herself or destroyed with Night Terrors to secure the Last Words. Meanwhile, Lucius simply does horrific Lucius things as he does against Blood and Haven, and Heal Haven's early game is slow enough that Lucius on turn 3 going second will frequently end the game on the spot if Heal doesn't draw one of their very limited outs.
The featured 11-win streak GM list from @Sero_sv is a typical three of everything, one Effluvia build, but with Avaricious Altruist over Prayer Urn. They mention in their tweet that Blackened Scripture is an unironic consideration just to deal with turn 3 Lucius.
Evo Blood, as the name implies, aims to accumulate evolved followers as quickly as possible to enable its damage sources: Alice, Wandering Dreamer, Tevali, Demonic Cat, Signa, Sealed Madwolf, and Doublame, Seeker of Beauty. To that end, it makes use of efficient Neutral followers like Kyrie, Fragment of Hope and Blooming Dancer, as well as a class staple: Dancing Mini Soul Devil.
Since the core of the deck lacks burst, there are various options to close out the game; some people opt for the Raging Commander + Garodeth package while others rely on Vengeance cards like Galom and Vania.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Evo Blood lands in Tier 3 for now, having shown sporadic results on ladder and in competitive play but lacking conclusive results. While it shows some potential, it is difficult to argue for it over Evo Portal, which shares a similar gameplan but features a stronger top end.
うるなむ reached top 8 in JCG with this Vengeance-oriented build, using Galom to punish aggression and Gadel, Ravenous King to advance the gameplan while recovering from early damage.
With the advent of Jeanne being a 7PP card that is incredible in every Haven deck, Uneriel Haven—which has its own dedicated 7PP turn—has been relegated to being a pure Ghost Shadow–griefing deck that's chock-full of despicable healing and hate crimes like Sacrosanct Temple.
Holy Kitty is a great new addition as a simple 1PP self-evolving removal that easily clears up hand space so you can dig for more 1-Countdown amulets. Along with Blooming Dancer, Aether is quite easy to activate for Divine Wolves or as a turn 8 Uneriel.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Uneriel Haven is starting to see small spots of play including the latest JCG where it reached Top 16. The consistency and power level of the deck are really suspicious as it's difficult to address the wide range of matchups in the current meta all at the same time. However, what it can do is go all-in on making Ghost Shadow as miserable as possible which it can do a reasonable job at simply because of Sacrosanct Temple.
The featured list from the latest JCG Top 16 runs the classic grief options like Sacrosanct and Sacred Sheep along with Aether and a small evolve package to enable her.
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
While there is no direct new support for this archetype, Armed Dragon's position in the meta is actually better than it was in the previous expansion. Other than their aggressive capability, the biggest strength of Armed Dragon in this meta is their access to Laevatainn Dragon, Defense Form. Defense Form can singlehandedly win games if it doesn't get answered immediately. For example, Ghost Shadow only has one answer: Lucius. If they don't use Lucius wisely, Armed Dragon threatens to take the game with ease. The consistency of the deck also improved with the addition of Kyrie: a strong tempo follower that solves Armed Dragon's lack of draw.
The build for Armed Dragon varies depending on pilot preference. The classic and aggressive ones include both Fortes for late-game reach. Some versions opt for more defensive cards such as Drazael or for a more tempo-oriented build with good autoevolve cards. Some other builds focus on gathering enough damage to OTK with Masamune's leader ability. The featured build is from ヘリワード, who managed to get into top 8 in the 9/7 JCG. It utilizes card like Blooming Dancer and Sunderclaw Dragonewt for more tempo plays with auto-evolve.
Rally Sword is a deck that aims to get Rally count as fast as possible, then utilizing their cards with Rally payoffs to deal large amounts of burst damage.
The gameplan revolves around curving out, playing General Maximus on turn 5, then pulling Monika, Chronoswhft Admiral with the Evolve effect of Luminous Mage that was pulled from Maximus. After that, you aim to reach 15 Rally on the following turn while using Twilight and Silver spell to reduce the cost of an Agile Twinblader to make a big board while pushing 12 of damage on turn 6. There are other Rally payoffs in the deck that deal large amounts of damage, so if the ideal curve of Twinblader on 6 does not kill or is not acheivable, you can finish off the opponent with a Rally 20 Radiel or a combination of Agile Twiblader and Aggressive Advance.
The mulligan should aim to get low-cost followers that increase your Rally, such as Wayfaring Goblin and Wandering Knight, and also aim to get a turn 5 General Maximus for the ideal turn 5 play.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Rally Sword at the moment is a Tier 4 deck, due to not being able to compete very well with the rest of the meta, not having consistent enough damage, lacking a fast or consistent enough OTK to compete with the slower decks, and not enough healing to deal with the aggressive decks.
The list featured runs Lucius, which may help to destroy followers that might be hard to deal with otherwise, and has a good evolve effect against most of the popular decks.
The featured list is from the Twitter user @Coco_CERES, who managed to get a 16-win streak with the deck.
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 does not see much play at the moment, since it is essentially a weaker version of Ghost Shadow; hence its position in Tier 4.
There is a lot of room to adjust the decklist to your personal preference; Tam Lin, Fey Knight or Filly, Mythmaster are decent options, but they do not fix the deck's weaknesses.
Enhance Portal has seen brighter days, but truth be told, the deck itself is not terrible. It has simply fallen to the wayside as a result of two very strong Portal decks occupying the meta, and the brutal Judith nerf has made many classic lines impossible or far more awkward.
This is a control deck with some combo characteristics that's centred around Cutthroat, Discord Convict, whose leader effect restores play points upon playing Enhance effects—but this effect will only be granted if there are no duplicate cards in the deck aside from Condemned cards.
All the Condemned cards are still around, but some of the more notorious highlander picks like Jetpack Gunner have since left Rotation. In their place however are Faerie Marionette, who starts off some interesting burn combos with Draco Marionettes; Kyrie, who is an excellent evolve target; and Fallen Shot, which is generically useful for a deck with tons of play point recovery in a meta with many juicy transform targets.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Enhance Portal sees small amounts of play from enthusiasts, which is enough to put it on the radar in Tier 4. The deck is vastly overshadowed by Evo and Machina, and the Judith nerf remains incredibly painful, but the deck is capable of winning games despite requiring more effort to do so than in its hayday.
The featured 14-win streak list from @tt__ob plays two Blackrust Underling and generally the expected highlander picks from the classic Cassim and Arc to the new-school Faerie Marionette.
Dirt Rune is an archetype centered around Earth Sigils (Stacks) and Earth Rite mechanics. The early game focuses on building board presence while accumulating stacks, and during the midgame, these stacks will be converted into burn damage with powerful cards like Levi, Wizard of Ages and Levi, Sapience Supreme. Some of the cards also have additional abilities after consuming 7 stacks, which usually helps them to survive or present some form of late-game burst.
You want to mulligan for solid early-game cards such as Astrological Sorcerer, Fickle Tamer, and Multielemental Neophyte. A 1PP Earth Sigil, such as Ultramarine Witch, is also really valuable to keep in the early game. Aim to be aggressive during the midgame by evolving either of the Levis. Juno on turn 4 is also a very strong turn. Depending on your deck build, end the game ASAP with burn damage from Crimson Sorcery / Veridic Ritual, or burst damage from Colossal Summoning / Golem Lord.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
While this expansion has tried to push Dirt Rune, the deck is struggling. Dirt lacks both aggression when compared to Ghost and consistent damage output, with most of its damage coming from Levi. The deck also lacks a flexible draw engine.
The featured build is from @Shirakannba543, who managed to get GM solely by playing Dirt Rune. The build is quite unique because it incorporates more burn with cards like Fallen Shot and Crashing Rain with Amaryllis, which can boost their damage. In this particular build, consider keeping Amaryllis for early draw and Spellboost support.
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
Bahamut Dragon is one of your option if you want to play a control deck in the currrent meta. However, with the rotation of good cards like Si Long and Angel's Blessing from the previous expansion, they really lack a healing option during the midgame. The rotation of Si Long also means they are less consistent on ramping, making the deck feel even worse to play. It's rarely seen in tournaments but sometimes can be spotted on ladder.
The positive things about Bahamut Dragon's current list is the inclusion of Feathered Lizard, which is a strong early follower that features draw and heal effects during the late game. Infernal Meteor is also a new card, which proves useful against wide boards and helps fetch strong cards like Drazael or Ultimate Bahamut. The featured list from @syuriki523 managed to hit a 17-win streak during the early expansion.
The new age Artifact Portal received bits of key support in Retrafia, Divine Mother and Lazuli, Gateway Liberator, who fulfill various roles like being a pseudo-Acceleratium, shuffling 1PP Radiant Artifacts into the deck, and searching the all-important Cyclical Fate to get Deus Ex Machina's leader effect into play. Although many of the bones are there, and it's very easy to see how this iteration of the archetype could be good some day, currently it's too incomplete—Retrafia and Lazuli are incredible cards, but without a true win condition or something to consistently push the damage output over the edge, it's impossible to justify playing Artifact Portal over the other Portal archetypes, and indeed many other existing decks in general.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
One person got Top 16 with Artifact Portal many JCGs ago back on July 2nd and the deck basically does not exist on ladder. To put this deck in Tier 4 is doing it a great and undeserved service.
The featured list from the one JCG almost two weeks ago is a clean list that runs all the good Artifact support in Rotation, but with a very sad one-of Pandora as something that approaches being a win condition.