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 June edition of the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot! This month has seen the release of the Academy of Ages mini-expansion, which introduced a plethora of fresh cards to play with. Burial Rite Shadow, which had already looked very strong before the mini-expansion, took it up a notch with the addition of Spectral Stomp, prompting an early nerf to Inn Ghosthound to keep the deck in check. Meanwhile, Haven and Forest, both of which had been languishing at the bottom of the meta for some time, received some key new tools in Garuda, Winged Radiance and Thicket of Gnarled Hands respectively, which are what Magachiyo Forest and Uneriel Haven needed to shine. Blood, Dragon, and Rune gained little of note but maintain their places in the meta; Portal unfortunately didn't get the push it needed from the mini-expansion, and remains unviable for now.
Let's take a look at some of the decks that have seen the biggest changes.
Burial Rite is an aggressive deck focuses on pushing damage with burn effects. The deck aims to Burial Rite five times, then take advantage of payoffs such as Septic Shrink, Leeds, Pining Witch, and the buffed Sin Hunter. Myroel, Death Enforcer grants a leader effect that can further push face damage while clearing the board, while the invoke effect of Lakandula, Purgatory Inn helps the deck to survive early aggression. Previously a strong Tier 2 deck, Burial Rite rose to Tier 1 with the mini-expansion, thanks to the addition of Spectral Stomp—which greatly added to the deck's draw power—and Mikael, which gave it some sustain. Even after the nerf to Inn Ghosthound, which hurt its consistency, Burial Rite remains at the top thanks to the sheer power of its swing cards.
With this mini-expansion's release, it seems the prayers of Haven players have finally been answered. Garuda, Winged Radiance, together with the earlier buffs to Orchid's Examination Hall, has given the deck the boost that it needs; Uneriel Haven now sits comfortably in Tier 2, boasting even or favorable matchups against everything except Blood. Uneriel Haven is an amulet-based combo deck that aims for a turn 7 OTK by combining Uneriel's burn with additional damage from Grace of Taurus, Meus Chef, and Skullfane, the Defiled. While its shaky matchup into Blood makes it a questionable choice in any 2-deck format, the deck may truly shine in 3-deck, 1-ban formats.
Rally Sword has been around for a while now, steadily collecting more tools for its arsenal; this mini-expansion, it got Mikael and Gawain, Oath to Glory. Though Mikael is being included in a number of this meta's decks, its impact in Rally is the highest, as the healing and free 3/1 body matter more in this deck than in any other. The general gameplan is to build a high Rally count by playing followers and create very difficult-to-clear boards, such as an evolved Weiss, Discerning Professor or Galdr, Heroic Headmaster. Once you have a high enough Rally count, you can finish the game with storm damage from Radiel, Valorous Enforcer or Agile Twinblader.
Magachiyo Forest is a pure combo deck that aims to OTK the opponent on turn 6 or 7. The aim is to reach four cards played every turn starting on turn 3 or 5, then use Condemned followers such as Budding Initiate and Warden of Recurrence alongside Magachiyo, Barbed Convict to burst down the opponent. In order to satisfy Magachiyo's condition, most cards in the deck cost only 1PP. It's an experimental deck with little representation in tournament play thus far, and though it could use more testing, it recently claimed a win in the SNC and shows a lot of potential.
Any Tier 1 or Tier 2 deck should be able to climb just fine in the current meta; each has some issues, but nothing stands clearly above the rest. Vengeance, Wrath, Mysteria, and Discard were all largely unaffected by the mini-expansion, so they're good options for those who want to save on vials or simply stick with the familiar. On the other hand, for those looking to try something new, there's Uneriel Haven, which has jumped in power and now plays somewhat differently with the addition of Garuda. In any case, laddering in this meta is more about picking a deck and piloting it well than about thinking too deeply about matchups and counters, so a lot is left up to individual preference.
Once again, we feel that recent balance patches haven't necessarily been hitting the right targets: while Burial Rite was undeniably very powerful at the onset of the mini-expansion, the nerf to Inn Ghosthound hurt the deck's key engine and consistency while leaving its more extreme powerplays with Ceridwen intact. It's a similar move to last month's decision to nerf Doomlord of the Abyss instead of a more swingy Vengeance card like Galom, and this style of balancing is prone to creating metas full of decks with major highs and lows and little consistency in between—which in turn leads to them having less room for skill expression and many unsatisfying games overall.
While it is good to see Haven and Forest around again, this isn't the most enjoyable environment to welcome them back to. Aside from Portal, which remains absent from the meta entirely, every class has at least one viable deck, but every one of them suffers from consistency issues. It's a meta where any given deck might lose to itself as much as it loses to the opponent, which is never a good thing. It's a difficult hole for the balance team to dig themselves out of, and going forward, future expansions will have to shore up holes in many classes at once if they're to improve the situation.
We'll have to wait and see how things play out. Until then, see you all in next month's edition of the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot!
Discard Dragon is essentially a ramp control deck with burn options, which makes it a formidable deck in this expansion. The deck focuses on ramping to get the most value out of its powerful cards, such as Drazael and Noir & Blanc, which are very powerful disruption tools. It run multiple cards that can discard your own hand because it has cards with discard payoffs—like Lumiore and Argente, which grant powerful effects after you play cards with discard effects multiple times. Lumiore is very powerful card that can control the game while pushing burn damage, which can be amplified with more discard cards.
You want to mulligan for ramp cards like Dragon Oracle and Waterwyrms's Blessing, or discard cards that draw like Dragonewt's Might and Augite Wyrm. Ramp your play points while progressing your discard quest. Recover your loss of tempo with healing and removal cards like Si Long, or refill your hand size with cards like Angel Blessing. Once your four-discard quest is ready, control the game with Lumiore as she pushes damage and deals with your opponent's board while blocking any potential combo with either Noir & Blanc or Drazael.
Discard Dragon's position in the meta is way better than it was before the mini-expansion, as it reaped multiple top spots in multiple tournaments and deserves to be placed in Tier 1. It has better matchups against aggressive burn decks, such as Vengeance Blood and Burial Rite Shadow, which are more popular now compared to last month. The lesser presence of Wrath Blood and Mysteria Rune also helps Discard Dragon's position.
This is still the best control-oriented deck in the meta, and it does fairly well against aggressive decks, on account of huge amounts of healing from Si Long and Drazael. The mini-expansion didn't really change the composition of Discard Dragon's decklist, as none of the new cards help this archetype. One of the popular techs is Greater Will, which is useful for the Mysteria Rune matchup. It effectively buys a turn, as they will be lacking a boardspace to perform their OTK. Another trend is adding a single Lainecrest Academy to tutor Lillium for late burst or minor healing to survive against aggressive decks.
The featured list is from Agunomu, who managed to get into playoffs during the RAGE Shadowverse Pro Tour. It's a very standard list, with Greater Will as Mysteria tech and Infiniflame Dragon for the mirror matchup to punish Noir & Blanc.
Burial Rite Shadow is a burn deck that aims to achieve five Burial Rites and trigger its payoffs, such as Myroel, Death Enforcer's burn damage that affects the whole board; Leeds, Pining Witch's free evolution; Septic Shrink's burn damage at end of turn; and the newly buffed Sin Hunter for 3 damage Storm while dealing with the opponent's board.
Ceridwen, Eternal Duality is used to reanimate a 4PP card later in the game for effectively 1 play point. The deck in the later stages of the game has quite a decent amount of burn damage, mostly done by Myroel, Death Enforcer's leader effect and by Reanimating Septic Shrink, the latter using either Myroel's evo effect or the early Ceridwen. Even though the majority of the damage often comes from Myroel's Leader Effect, the damage done by cards such as Cerberus and Sin Hunter cannot be understated. Lakandula, Purgatory Inn's Invocation at the end of the turn is very useful in the early game to survive aggression, which is important to keep in mind when planning turns ahead. Consider saving a cheap Burial Rite card for the following turn to be able to get the two Burial Rites in one turn.
The mulligan is aimed at finding cheap Burial Rite cards so that your early game goes smoothly: look for options like Ceridwen, Eternal Duality, Spectral Stomp, Cerberus, Infernal Hound while going first, and Huginn & Muninn while going first; another card that is often kept is Septic Shrink, because reanimating it in the mid to late game with Ceridwen's and Myroel's effects is crucial for your winning patterns. It is also important to keep Metatron when going second, to get the empty play point orb at the end of turn 4 so you can play Myroel on the following turn.
Burial Rite Shadow rose to Tier 1 status with the mini-expansion; even though it received a massive nerf to Inn Ghosthound, it still manages to remain in Tier 1 due to its extraordinary power cards.
The list chosen runs two copies of Huginn & Muninn for the early-game draw power while also enabling Cerberus, Infernal Hound's 5 Last Words effect later in the game. Another card choice is the one-of Ghost Town Apparition to make certain matchups, such as Mars Sword and Mysteria Rune, easier by essentially delaying or blocking their game-winning plan.
This list was used by あぐのむ in RAGE Shadowverse Pro Tour.
Vengeance Blood has powerful tools in all stages of the game and generally tries to overwhelm the opponent with repeated instances of burn damage, though it also holds OTK potential in the late game.
The core of the deck can be divided in two parts: Vengeance activators and payoffs. Waltz, Moonlight Wolf-King and Deceptive Shapeshifter are the activators; Room Service Demon is used to discard the Shapeshifter, and comes with the classic Festive package that includes Stay in Paradise and Itsurugi, Eager Admirer.
Once Vengeance is active, the deck can unleash massive amounts of damage via Mach-Speed Maron, Galom, Empress Fist, Vania, Crimson Majesty, and eventually Doomlord of the Abyss, which also provides complete immunity for a turn to win races against other fast decks.
Full-Moon Leap is a common inclusion in recent builds, increasing the deck's potential reach significantly by buffing and giving Storm to Vania or Galom. Some lists also run Arka, Sin Spinner as an additional target that can hit twice.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Vengeance rises once again with the nerf to Burial Rite Shadow, contesting the top spots in Tier 1, though it's mostly held back by a difficult Discard Dragon matchup.
Current lists favor a more burst-oriented playstyle, using Doomlord mainly to reduce handsize and enable Full-Moon Leap's Storm effect. The featured list includes two copies of Arka, Sin Spinner, both as a defensive measure and as a potential finisher with Full-Moon Leap, as well as Bad Girl Life to enable Arka and Doomlord with additional evolution points.
Wrath Blood is a midrange deck centered around self-damage; most of your cards become empowered once in Wrath (i.e., after dealing 7 instances of damage to your leader). The deck remains essentially the same as before the mini-expansion.
Steamrolling Tank, Devilish Flautist, Demonic Drummer, Vampire Queen's Castle, and Howling Demon all contribute to the deck's survivability, allowing it to activate Wrath and set up its finishers without sacrificing much health in the process.
Raging Commander is a potent board-control and draw tool, leading into the main win condition of the deck: Garodeth, Insurgent Convict. Enchanting Rhapsody provides a free Devilish Diva, which enables fast and easy Garodeth OTKs.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Wrath remains a staple in Tier 1 in Academy of Ages, with overall good matchups across the board, sans Mysteria Rune.
とんとこ won JCG last week with this build, using two Fell Transformations to increase Vania's burst potential.
Mysteria Rune is a combo deck that revolves around pulling off an OTK with Majestic Sorcery, a 20PP spell that summons a horde of Mysteria followers and gives them Storm ability, which can 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: Anne & Grea, Royal Duo—which is your only way to generate Majestic Sorcery—and 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 Majestic Sorcery OTK is your end goal, the interesting part of Mysteria Rune is how powerful the deck's midgame board presence can be. Anne & Grea, Royal Duo has a powerful evolve effect that can deal with wide boards, and Mysteria Magic Originator's evolve effect reduces the costs of cards in your hand; this cost reduction, combined with Craig, Mysterian Chanter and Grea, Crimson Promise, allows you to board wipe, heal, and exert significant board pressure that your opponent needs to deal with.
Always keep Royal Duo and Magic Originator in the mulligan, as they are your main key cards. Freyja and Hanna are also good keeps, since they can draw into our two important key cards. Going second, you want to evolve Magic Originator on turn 4 followed by Royal Duo on turn 5. Going first, its turn 5 Royal Duo, and turn 6 Magic Originator. Survive and go all-out with your 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 OTK on turn 7, while a turn 8 OTK is almost guaranteed.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Mysteria didn't get anything from the mini-expansion, but it managed to maintain its position, always qualifying for top spots in recent tournaments. Although, as this Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot was in production, the deck's popularity was decreasing slightly due to the rise of aggressive decks like Vengeance Blood, which brought back Doomlord.
The featured decklist hasn't really changed—but it's clear that Hannah is more popular than Freyja for tutoring the Mysterias. Some lists also include a 1-of Stay in Paradise for better cycle into Story of a Lifetime.
The featured decklist is from N, who managed to win the 5/28 JCG. It's a solid Mysteria list that trades a 1-of Magic Missile for Stay in Paradise for preferred cycle cards.
You might call it Unreal Haven because it's unreal that Haven is this viable. As seen much earlier in the expansion, the buff to Orchid's Examination Hall simply made it stronger for Amulet-based strategies, as opposed to the effluvia it was intended for. Alas, some things never change—as Garuda returns, so does Haven. 1PP Crystallize: Countdown 1 draw a card is excellent glue on its own, but Uneriel takes it to another level.
Uneriel Haven primarily aims for a turn 7 OTK by combining Uneriel's burn damage from Countdown 1 amulets with additional damage from Grace of Taurus, Meus Chef, and most notoriously Skullfane. It's a deck that can easily cheese out wins by drawing Skullfane early, although true soul mains of Havencraft believe you can still consistently win via properly setting up Taurus and healing with Crusader's Rallying Cry.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Uneriel Haven's matchup spread looks incredibly solid after the Ghosthound nerf, going even or better against the entire board aside from Blood. It's more than enough to land it a high Tier 2 placement, with the main factors holding it back being consistency and proven results. While the deck is undoubtedly strong, we live in a meta where many decks can be considered strong—for better or worse—and its weakness to Blood makes bringing Uneriel to a 2-deck tournament a hard sell. Unfortunately for us, as history has shown time and time again, SVO is where Haven shines.
The featured list is from Alpha's Uneriel Haven note article. This build includes Meus Chef to maximize reach with or without Skullfane and Spiritual Blow as flexible removal.
Rally Sword is not really a new archetype, but it makes its return with the new additions of Weiss, Discerning Professor, and Galdr, Heroic Headmaster, both being incredibly good control tools in the mid to late game; the new addition of Mikael helps the deck tremendously by giving you essentially a free 2 heal, 1 Rally, and 3 trading power.
The general gameplan of the deck is to get Rally, and make multiple very hard-to-clear boards with 1) Weiss protected by a Ward, such as Metatron, or 2) Galdr. The early and midgame are dealt with by cards such as Metatron, Taketsumi, Avant Lord, and General Maximus. If the opponent can deal with multiple boards, you can finish off the game with Radiel, who can attack three times once Rally 20 is reached, dealing a massive 18 damage by itself.
The mulligan should be aiming for a solid early game and possibly a midgame, so keep cards like Bumpkin Recruit, Warden of Honor, Wandering Knight, General Maximus, Avant Lord going second, and Metatron going second.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Rally Sword comes in at Tier 2; given the addition of Mikael, which boosts the deck quite considerably, the heal and body matter in this deck more than in any other current deck.
The featured list runs Warden of Honor, a Rally that cycles and preserves your handsize, while also enabling cards such as Lyrala, Luminous Cleric to get its full effect. It also runs Olivia & Sylvia, Wardens, who are great at dealing with enemy boards in the late game for very few play points.
The featured list was used by rogo to reach top 16 in the May 31 JCG.
Spellboost Rune is a combo deck that plays spells to draw a lot and reduce the cost of its Spellboost cards for high-tempo midgame turns. The major Spellboost payoff is Simael, which has the Storm ability and can be further buffed with It's Raining Blades. Combine with burn damage from Crushing Rain, and you have a nasty and powerful turn. Some build run Amaryllis to supplement their damage by increasing the value of burn damage or Yukishima to buff the Storm followers like Simael or Orchestral Mage to OTK.
You want to look for big Spellboost payoffs like Simael in the mulligan, a cheap cycle card, and a high-value cycle like Marie or Meltina. Lists that run Freyja or Azvaldt should keep those cards in the mulligan, since they are essentially another copy of Simael. Amaryllis is also a good keep for the deck that run it. Your focus is to simply draw more cards while Spellboosting for your Spellboost payoff. During the midgame, use your Chakram Wizard and Meltina to deal with threatening followers. Finally, when your payoffs card has been Spellboosted enough, play them and finish the game on the spot—and even if you can't, opponents generally can't answer a big and tall Orchestral Mage/Simael.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Spellboost Rune didn't receive any upgrades in the mini-expansion, so the deck's popularity dropped quite a bit; however, it is still one of the decks that is able to perform consistently in tournaments via access to early burst damage from Simael and It's Raining Blades.
Another reason to play Spellboost Rune is that it is usually the faster deck when it comes to the Rune mirror: Mysteria and Chess Rune usually need more setup.
One recent popular choice is Feline Magic to increase the damage reach of the deck. The featured list is from parachan, who managed a high winstreak and competed with it in RAGE Shadowverse Pro Tour. It utilizes Amaryllis as board clear and damage extension, increasing the reach from Crushing Rain and Magic Missile.
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. It has a pretty midrange playstyle, as Magical Pawns will constantly fill your board and be able to trade with opposing 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 multiple Checks in hand, or use some board manipulation with Winged Inversion to clear your own board and summon new Mystical Pawns with cards like Blitz or Magical Strategy.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Despite receiving new cards in the mini-expansion, Chess Rune's position in the meta hasn't really changed. It turns out that Magical Bishop doesn't really add much to the Chess gameplan—it actually delays the Chess progression due to its AOE effect. The recent Chess deck that managed to top JCG doesn't even include the Bishop, sticking to the build from before the mini-expansion. Some fancy builds do include Mikael, but they haven't really showed any results.
The presence of slower decks like Discard Dragon and Mysteria Rune does improve the deck's standing on paper, as they give time for Chess to reach its goal. However, it does struggle against aggressive burn decks like Vengeance and Burial Rite.
The list is from ゆず from the 4/6 JCG. He use a 1-of Magical Bishop as extra reach—and as a 1-of, it doesn't hinder Check's effectiveness too much.
Mars Sword is a deck that revolves around playing the newly buffed Mars, Belligerent Flame, and then burning the opponent down with small Rush followers via the Clash effect. It also packs the secondary plan of Enhanced Valiant Fencer on turn 7 to refill the hand and possibly close out the game on that turn with 0-cost Heroic followers—however, this secondary gameplan is becoming way more prominent in the recent environment.
The gameplan is relatively linear: try to curve out in the early game, then evolve Mars, Belligerent Flame to deal damage with every clash. If your opponent manages to stabilize and get out of range of your small Storm finishers, like Amerro, Spear Knight, you can always aim for the turn 7 Valiant Fencer and get multiple 0-cost Heroic Followers to hopefully finish off the opponent on that turn or the next.
The mulligan aims to maximize the chance of getting Mars, Belligerent Flame by the evolve turn, so the only cards to keep are Tony, Plucky Polliwog, Mars, Belligerent Flame, and Wayfaring Goblin.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Mars Sword stands in Tier 2: it is a very solid deck with very real threats, but it is not quite good enough to be in Tier 1.
The featured list is a very standard list—Quickblader is added to give more damage range in case the opponent doesnt provide targets for trades.
The list chosen was used by sun to reach top 16 in the June 7 JCG.
Magachiyo Forest is a pure combo deck that aims to OTK the opponent on turn 6 or 7. The objective is to reach four cards played every turn starting on turn 3 or 4, then use Condemned followers like Budding Initiate and Warden of Recurrence in combination with Magachiyo, Barbed Convict to burst down the opponent. Whirlwind Assault can be extracted from the deck repeatedly for added value and may add to the lethal burst by buffing Budding Initiate.
Freyja and Azvaldt can tutor the Condemned cards, while most cards in the deck cost 1PP to help satisfy Magachiyo's condition. Precocious Felpurr Kitten and Woodland Pest Control thin out the deck, along with Rayne, Divine Smith's and Mikael's invocations.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
As an experimental deck with little representation so far but significant combo potential, Magachiyo lands in Tier 3 for now due to its win in the SNC (Chinese championship).
Note the inclusion of Mikael to survive until the combo turn, as well as one copy of Azvaldt for consistency.
Inevitably, Garuda is such flavorful glue that there was no way Crystallize wouldn't see some sort of resurgence. The simple additions of Garuda and Azurite Maiden have catapulted Crystallize into some form of relevance, although Uneriel remains more consistent.
The core combo of Diamond Master + Wingy + whatever Haven players choose to play is still deadly, and although Azurite is no Gilnelise, having some form of healing outside of Skullfane was always crucial for the deck. Popular techs include Olivia & Sylvia and Spiritual Blow, with the remaining 36 slots being autocomplete viable.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Crystallize Haven returns to the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot in Tier 3 and, who could've guessed it, it has coinflippy matchups across the board. The coins are weighted, but often not in Haven's favor, since the deck is still too inconsistent relative to its power level.
The featured 12-win streak list from @Hu Jinsan has the typical 36-card skeleton, with two copies each of Spiritual Blow and Olivia & Sylvia. This is about as consistent of a Crystallize list as you can have.
Buff Dragon is an archetype that focuses on increasing the defense of Dragoncraft followers inside the deck to enable their payoffs. Cards like Coach Joe, Fiery Counselor, and Grand Slam Tamer allow you to dish out a lot of direct damage when that condition is fulfilled. Since their defense stats are buffed, they can present a very powerful board during the midgame. The major downside of this deck is that it needs a little bit of highroll, since the ways to buff the deck are limited.
There are two versions of Buff Dragon: The standard one is a midrange build that emphasizes buffing followers and dominating the midgame. The other version is more OTK oriented, with Dragon Queen's Castle's amplifying the damage of Coach Joe.
For the standard version, you want to mulligan for cheap cards that can buff your deck, such as Gunbein, Lofty Follower, Megalorca Rider, or Coach Joe, which allows them to gain more PP. You will need a lot of buff cards, as the payoffs will active after four buffs. Pressure the midgame with tall followers and chip some damage. At the endgame, use your Dragonborn Strikers and play Joe to remove any blocking ward while dealing burn damage. Finish the game by evolving Joe to deal direct damage.
For the OTK-oriented list, you should prioritize mulliganing for ramp cards in order to set up your Dragon Queen's Castle as early as possible. After the castle has been set up, your buffing effects such as Megalorca Rider or Tropical Rider will activate twice and allow you to buff quickly. End the game with an OTK by playing Dragonborn Strikers followed by Coach Joe. Coach Joe himself will deal 17 damage due to Dragon Queen's Castle's effect.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Buff Dragon received another payoff in the mini-expansion: Tarrasque. However, the addition alone doesn't really improve this deck's position in the meta, as Tarrasque is simply too hard to invoke and requires a really good start to the buff strategy. At most, its usage is restricted to using the Fanfare effect to deal powerful burst damage, which can be doubled by Dragon Queen's Castle after setup.
The featured list is list from ルーン, who managed to get into top 16 during the 5/26 JCG. This is a standard version of Buff Dragon, with the addition of Dragon Queen's Castle and Tarrasque for additional reach.
Aggro Forest runs almost exclusively low-cost followers to swarm the opponent and maximize its follower count. While some lists focus on Fairy synergies with Nobilis, Sable-Lily Queen, and Shining Valkyrie, some recent builds have capped their curve at 3PP with Tam Lin, Fey Knight as the primary finisher. This enables a powerful backup plan with Castelle, Budding Mage's reaching the '20 followers left play' condition fast enough to create unbeatable boards, in combination with Autumn Leaf Man.
The deck runs a plethora of 1-drops to flood the board, which include Aqua Fairy, Fauna Handler, and its related spell Fairy Funfact. Windflower Tiger and Salvia Panther go wide while pushing some early damage, and Tam Lin, Fey Knight makes the final push.
Rayne, Divine Smith is a powerful midgame engine that can outtrade most other decks and allows Verdant Lieutenant to draw multiple cards.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Forest doesn't see much play at the moment, so this is a niche Tier 4 build that has only seen some success with a top 16 placement in JCG so far. While it can present aggressive starts and has a strong late-game plan, most meta decks can survive with some healing and achieve their win condition on turn 7 just before Castelle is online.
Not much has changed for good old Machina Portal. It's still a deck that generally only wins when the opponent bricks, though recent trends have seen players move away from Goblin's Gratitude and toward more aggressive tempo plays with Cassim and Warden of the Trigger. If the only angle is to capitalize on a weak opponent, you might as well go all-out with the early curve in the hopes that your cute finishers of Gretina, Gullias on a sticking board, and Kyrzael are enough to win.
Mikael remains a contentious pick for the deck, with some players opting into it for the 'free' invoke benefit because Machina Portal is indeed one of the best decks at invoking him early. However, in a trait-focused deck with power plays being effectively timegated via the number of appropriate followers you can put out each turn, drawing Mikael instead of an on-trait follower is extra hurtful.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Despite a mini-expansion that at least initially buffed quite a few classes, Machina Portal has been forgotten and left to rot in Tier 4. We here at the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot take this to be good sign that Cygames is pivoting away from this archetype and will introduce a very fun and competitive Portal deck in the next expansion. I'm not coping, I'm just avoiding air pollution from the Quebec forest fires.
The featured 13-win streak list from Dimon returns to the unique Magna Saber package. At this point, why not, the deck isn't beating any real humans anyway.