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:
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Heal Haven has fully transcended—once being a low-key niche pick that saw pockets of success, it is now by a massive margin one of the two most dominant decks in the meta along with Loot Sword. The best part about Heal Haven in the current expansion is that it didn't change much. By contrast, Crystallize was wiped off the face of the Earth with the elimination of Skullfane. With most of the remaining combo decks in the meta having issues against massive midgame boards or ridiculous Ward walls, it was natural that Heal Haven would take over with its now incredibly favorable matchup spread and high consistency. Heal lost the cute 0PP Fount combos without Prism Priestess, but in their place is Meus Gourmand with her double heal, free pings, and self-evolve that contribute tremendously to the crippling board swings the deck is known for. It's now even easier to activate Aether's 5-evolve effect that triggers Jeanne's Fanfare, to the point where the condition hardly needs worrying about.
Perhaps the most worrying trend in Heal Haven is the extremely popular adoption of triple Prayer Urn, which simply leads to more obscene spikes in variance. It's a result of the deck not having anything better to run and the meta's being largely composed of decks that can't do enough to punish Heal Haven for passing turn 3.
We could all use a bit of mental healing now that Heal Haven is solidly in Tier 1, but at least it's not Crystallize. As a Shadowverse player, you quickly learn that things could always be worse. At least Heal Haven can draw cards. The matchup spread is impressive this time around, with no truly losing matchups outside of Magachiyo with specific techs and Loot Sword with a big brain. This is a deck that will absolutely be terrifying at every level of play, and while there are some wild Heal Haven lines we've seen in Pro League, most people suffer too great a chance to be cruelly smited where they stand by the most pedestrian of Heal enjoyers.
Featured here is the most recent JCG winner. It has a ton of highroll power with triple Prayer Urn but a healthy amount of card draw between Fount, Pureflower, and Orchid's Examination Hall.
Loot Sword is a deck that aims to get 7 Loot cards played or fused and finish off the opponent with a combination of Storm cards and Burn damage with Dread Pirate's Flag Token.
The early game revolves around generating Loot cards with its multitute of early-game generators, while also drawing for the powerful Rogers, Ruler of The Sea that gives your leader the effect of recovering play points for the first Loot played in the turn and dealing 2 damage to the opponent's leader when the second one is played. When 7 Loots played or fused is reached, it is possible to start generating Dread Pirate's Flags, a powerful token that deals 3 damage to the board and to the enemy leader for just 1 play point; when combined with Barbaros, Briny Convict's Enhance effect or Tidal Gunner's pings, it is possible to deal massive amounts of damage, even surpassing 20 in one turn.
The mulligan for Loot should aim for a smooth early game and to find Rogers; keep 1 drops like Knightly Thief, Seeker of Love and Deep-Sea Scout.
Loot Sword is a top-tier deck once more; even after the balance patch to tone it down, it manages to stay as a very solid top-two deck. In rotation, the deck lost Illustrious Thief, Lyrala Luminous Cleric and Metatron while gaining new options such as Untold Kick, Dashing Duelist and Tears of Tribulation.
The list chosen runs one copy of Tears of Tribulation and one copy of Untold Kick, Tears can be used for early Rally, Wards, and healing later on; while Untold Kick got nerfed, its still a pretty good card when you reach the Rally condition. The lists out there still haven't reached a consensus on how many copies of Tony, Plucky Polliwog, Asuka & Shiori, Twins, or Tears of Tribulation they should run.
The featured list was used by 絶対服従魔人 to win the October 11 JCG.
Magachiyo Forest is a pure combo deck, aiming to play four cards per turn to fulfill its win condition, ending the game with multiple Condemned followers buffed by Magachiyo, Barbed Convict around turn 7.
Starting turn 4 (or turn 3 with the help of Winged Inversion), the deck can play four cards per turn to set up Magachiyo's effect while invoking May, Budding Spring Wind. With Rayne and Whirlwind Assault rotating, the deck needs more resources than in Heroes of Rivenbrandt, a problem solved by Sapling Steward and Asuka & Shiori, Twins.
Budding Initiate serves as a tutor for Magachiyo and Warden of Recurrence, as well as additional reach and Ward removal. A single copy can be used multiple times thanks to all the bounces available: Thicket of Gnarled Hands, Floral Breeze from Gerbera Bear, and the reprinted Nature's Guidance. Canon, Yearning Heart and Plumeria, Serene Goddess round up the core of the deck due to their low cost and healing capabilities.
Recent builds sacrifice the consistency of Freyja's tutoring or cut Freyja entirely to fit in Castelle, Budding Mage, and Fauna Handler.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Magachiyo Forest lands in Tier 2 in this first Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot of Order Shift. The deck is powerful and has a solid matchup spread, but it can be tricky to pilot and very punishing for less experienced players; as such, it sees limited popularity and success for now, but expect it to rise in the coming weeks.
This list topped JCG last week; note the inclusion of Angel of Darkness, a common 1- or 2-of in various decks now, to counter Heal Haven and answer Agent of the Commandments.
Aggro Blood is the definition of a glass cannon deck. It includes a lot of self-damage pings and combines damage payoffs from both Wrath and Vengeance to rush down the opponent very quickly, often ending games by turn 5 or 6. However, this reckless strategy leaves it exposed to high midgame burst, so the player has to keep a close eye on their own leader's defense.
Early game, the deck attempts to activate Wrath as quickly as possible while cycling to find damage, using Harmonic Wolf, Demon Maestro and the new spell, How to Train Your Bat. Vicious Blitzer keeps control of the board while pushing some damage and further progressing the Wrath condition. This enables Diabolus Hedone and Silver Snipe for massive damage around turn 4 to 5. With a few more instances of self-damage (or some damage from the opponent), you can then enter Vengeance and finish with Galom, Empress Fist and Mach-Speed Maron, or even Fenrir, Endbringer. Doublame, Seeker of Beauty is also a common inclusion despite its lack of keyword, as a generic good card at all stages of the game that guarantees some damage with Leopardion. Razory Claw rounds up the build to maximize the deck's damage potential.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Aggro Blood is one of the most popular decks in Tier 2 nowadays, though it only sees sporadic success as people learn to play against it and include tech cards to beat it.
This is a fairly common build, which includes a couple of defensive tools like Howling Demon and Demonic Drummer, especially useful in mirror games.
Castelle Forest is primarily a combo deck with some aggro elements. The deck has the lowest play point curve ever seen in Rotation, with every single card costing 2PP or less; the deck usually features 30 or more 1PP cards.
The goal is to constantly flood the board with cheap followers like Canon, Yearning Heart and Fauna Handler, to fulfill Castelle's condition of 20 Forestcraft followers leaving play. Salvia Panther and Windflower Tiger help you progress this quest while also putting pressure on the opponent and bouncing key cards, in particular to accumulate Castelle's token, Verdant Prayer, in hand.
Around turn 7, Verdant Prayer can be used to buff the board, either for protection—building a massive board of indestructible wards—or to OTK the opponent with Storm followers, namely Gerbera Bear, Frostborn Princess, and Fairies with Plumeria's leader effect.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Castelle Forest lands in Tier 2; while it clearly outperforms most other decks, it does struggle against the top two meta decks at the moment, so its results are somewhat inconsistent in tournaments.
めぐり* reached JCG finals with this streamlined build, opting to cut Aria completely to focus solely on Castelle. Budding Initiates are used to maintain handsize, remove big threats, and eventually tutor Verdant Lieutenant, which can easily draw 2–3 cards in the midgame to dig for combo pieces.
Many gamers expected Machina Portal to be among the decks suffering the most from the recent set rotation, but despite losing the explosive potential and flexibility from Gullias and Cassim, Machina Portal continues to be a stable deck that doesn't entirely lose to anything. This is largely off the back of Synthetic Eden, the latest member of the 'Slam on Turn 7' club that is all too familiar for veterans of this archetype. What Synthetic Eden brings to the table is a choice of massive health differential or hand refill with random combo potential, bundled together with a fat Ward statline and targeted hard removal. Machina Portal's historic lack of healing outside of the paltry Sumo Mechanic has always been one of several points of attack for its top tier competitors, but having the option now to massively heal for 7 while presenting a Ward and setting up lethal themselves has done an impressive amount of work in keeping the deck relevant.
Most Machina players are running multiple copies of Puppet Workout to maintain the threat of massive on-board damage so they can't be boardlocked for free, though there are adventurous gamers actually cutting Workout for Arriet to surprise ramp into their 7PP bombs.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Machina Portal sits soundly in Tier 2. The deck is fine at doing what it does, which is to say spamming the board, maintaining constant pressure, playing big cards, and sometimes scraping together a big combo. Denying Machina count is still an effective counterstrategy, and the deck remains extremely linear in general. Unsurprisingly, Machina Portal's matchups are very even, though it's important to remember they're even in the sense that the game is frequently out of your control. It isn't a deck like Loot Sword that, despite also having many roughly even matchups, can have a tremendous winrate in practice with the right pilot.
The featured 13-win streak 30000 MP list takes the unique approach of replacing all Puppet Workouts with Arriet. Most people do not expect Machina Portal to ramp, especially when Robotics Reporter is the go-to evolve target on turn 4 going second, but the sheer number of massive single-card turns between Kyrzael and Synthetic Eden could make ramping worthwhile.
Evolve Blood is a midrange deck that accumulates evolved followers quickly to enable its finishers: Alice, Wandering Dreamer, Grimnir, Divine Stormspear and Tevali, Demonic Cat. While it lacks massive burst potential, Evolve Blood makes up for it with powerful midgame boards that can be difficult to clear. Ruler of Retribution can be invoked as early as turn 6, and many decks will struggle to remove Lian & Alfie, Companions, one of the strongest Transmuted cards this expansion.
The deck makes use of multiple good Neutral followers, in particular Kyrie, Fragment of Hope and Asuka & Shiori, Twins for cycle, Blooming Dancer for evolution count, and Olivia & Sylvia, Wardens for EP recovery. Signa, Sealed Madwolf acts as both enabler and payoff for evolutions, and Gadel, Ravenous King fulfills multiple roles, including healing.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Evo Blood lingers in Tier 2, as its lack of powerful endgame somewhat holds it back—but it is capable of contesting meta decks. Recent developments see the inclusion of Goblin Genius, which helps the deck survive against early aggression and enables faster evo count with Blooming Dancer and Gadel.
Our featured list is from むらきた, who achieved a top 4 in a recent tournament. Owlcat Girl is included to toss Ruler of Retribution back into the deck, contest early-game boards, and take advantages of its minor synergy with Doublame. Other lists may also tech in Angel of Darkness to deal with Heal Haven.
Armed Dragon is one of the aggressive archetypes in this meta. The deck revolves around followers with the Armed trait and the 0PP amulet that grants said trait to followers without it. 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. Alternatively, Lævateinn Dragon, Defense Form is also a good option, as opponents will have a hard time removing it. If it survives, then you are guaranteed a win with burst damage on the following turn.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Armed Dragon was one of the decks used by many Grand Master speedrunners early in the expansion. However, as the meta developed and more tournaments were conducted, the deck's popularity steadily decreased. Armed Dragon doesn't fare well against the two most popular decks, Loot Sword and Heal Haven. However, Armed Dragon still fares quite well against any other deck in the meta—especially Aggro Blood, since Dragon can punish them really hard if they go into Vengeance.
The builds for Armed Dragon are getting more refined, as Gallant Dragonewt makes this archetype more consistent than before. Some lists still include Drazael for late-game focus, while others focus more on direct damage and add more Storm followers like Reinvigorated Dragoon. The featured build from ライチー, who managed to get top 16 during the 08/10 JCG, ignores Drazael and opts for more low-cost, aggressive followers.
If there's any deck that makes good use of the new Transmute mechanic, it would be Control Portal. Fiery Barrage is a 1PP spell that transmutes into Blazing Barrage when fused with a Portalcraft card in Resonance, changing from a Last Words and passive effect griefer to leader damage shield. There are countless use cases for the card, and frankly there has never been a better time in recent memory to be unironically excited about playing control in modern Shadowverse. Provisions Aplenty is essentially Neutral Story of a Lifetime, but the double cycle is optional, and Doll's Teatime is like a portable Keenedge. Combined with existing control tools in Arc, Asuka & Shiori, and Olivia, Control Portal has a surprisingly robust kit to work with. This deck isn't lacking in top-end value slams either with Interstellar Battlecruiser joining Odin in ruthlessly griefing Heal Haven. Pandora, Synthetic Eden, and reduced Odin round out Control Portal's grindy win condition, though they ultimately contribute to the deck's highly questionable consistency.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Control Portal is only seeing occasional play at the moment and remains largely unproven, thus it can't be any higher than Tier 3. In theory, it is simply the best deck to queue into Heal Haven, short of being a top Magachiyo player with Angel of Darkness. Although Control Portal has respectable card draw, it is still inherently inconsistent, with many cards that are either very expensive or are only useful in specific circumstances.
The featured list is from the top 8 of the most recent JCG. It's a top-heavy build as one might expect, but if you can hit an early Arc and draw removal when you need it, the deck stands a chance against anything that doesn't win too forcefully.
Rally Sword is a deck that aims to generate many tokens early to reach Rally 10 as fast as possible, then get the powerful Rally effects active, such as Monika, Chronoswift Admiral, Mikael, and Opulent Strategist. Finish off the game with Radiel, Valorous Enforcer's Rally 20 effect or after an opponent is unable to answer a board made by Galdr Heroic Headmaster.
The gameplan is to play cheap followers or followers that generate other followers early to reach the Rally 10 condition. In the midgame, your goal is to survive, draw cards, and make threatening boards so your opponent has to deal with them: Opulent Strategist, Twilight Protector, Dashing Duelist, and Galdr are great options toward this end. To finish off the opponent from full health, you can use Radiel's Rally 20 effect, an evolution point and a 1PP that adds 2 damage, that could come from Gilded Necklace or Seeker of Love.
The mulligan should aim to keep an early curve, with cards such as Seeker of Love, Tears of Tribulation, and Dashing Duelist. Also keep some card draw, such as Kyrie Fragment of Hope and Asuka & Shiori, Twins.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Rally Sword is Tier 3, as it is not as powerful as the alternative Sword deck of Loot Sword; however, it still manages to be decent enough to snatch wins off of some suboptimal hands from top decks that aren't quite able to kill through Sword's pre-Radiel healing and boards.
The list chosen is quite interesting: it forgoes cards that are very common, such as Despotic Pawnmaker and Gawain Oath to Glory. Those cards are replaced with more consistent heal sources and protection tools such as Twilight Protector and Galdr, making controlling until Radiel easier while making it harder to increase your Rally count in the early stages.
The featured list was used by むらきた to reach top 4 in the October 11 JCG.
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
It's not a good expansion for Runecraft when Chess Rune become the best archetype in the class, despite no new significant Chess cards. Checkmate is an unnecessary win-more card that simply ruins the consistency of the deck. The addition of Fate Hands does help a bit, as it usually acts as 0PP card that help you to draw into damage-dealing cards, like King or Check for late-game burst.
In terms of matchup, Elluvia Haven can be a really tough matchup: their followers are usually too tall to clear, and leaving one on board can be fatal. Chess Rune tends to do okay against other matchups, but it still relies on drawing early Magical Knights and having King ready to be reduced on crucial turns.
The featured list is from き, who managed to get into the top 4 during the 9/30 JCG. It runs a lot of draw, such as Fate's Hand and Provisions Aplenty, to draw into key cards like Magical Knights and Crushing Rain to get more endgame reach.
Burial Rite Shadow is a burn deck that aims to get leader effects active from both Memento, the Grim Teacher and Myroel, Death Enforcer, and then get a two-turn kill between turns 6 and 7.
The early gameplan revolves around drawing cards while also answering opponent's boards and setting up for later damage with Memento and Ceridwen, Eternal Duality's Crystallize effect. On turn 6, Burial Rite will ideally evolve Myroel and get its effect while building a threatening board, reanimating a 2-drop and Septic Shrink. On turn 7 the ideal play is usually Lovelorn Necromancer with both leader effects active, dealing massive damage and cycling through a big part of your deck while also recovering 4 play points—you can use those points to finish off the opponent with Septic Shrink or other followers.
In the mulligan, you should aim to get early card draw and Memento, the Grim Teacher.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Burial Rite Shadow stands at Tier 3 due to its inability to deal enough consistent damage against the top decks, or simply answer their pressure.
The featured list runs two Angelic Starsitters for a decent turn 1 play that's easy on your handsize, and three Mikaels for the healing it provides—otherwise, it is a very standard list.
The featured list is from moka, who managed to reach top 8 in the October 11 JCG.
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 consuming them for strong effects. Once you consume 7 stacks, cards like Colossal Summoning turn into powerful finishers. Pascale also allows you to build a really strong board, and the 1PP Undying Witch lets you gain PP with her leader effect so that you can play more cards in a turn.
You want to mulligan for solid early-game cards: 1PP Earth Sigils like Ultramarine Witch or Familiar's Pact, or 2PP followers like Astrological Sorcerer, Multielemental Neophyte, and Gruinne. Start consuming your stacks by playing Levi, Wizard of Ages or quick removal like Magical Augmentation. Once you reach 7 stacks, enable Undying Witch's leader effect so that to pull off combos like Pascale + Sweet Defender Golem or double Colossal Summoning at 7PP with Magical Augmentation's help.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Dirt Rune received a lot of new cards, but the deck still lacks ways to close the game. In fact, there are even less options for Dirt to deal direct damage now, and their focus is now more on playing defensively with Pascale and Sweet Defender Golem. This makes it difficult for Dirt to compete, but it might still win games against decks that are unable to clear big boards.
The featured build is from notable competitor @BLACK_Shadowv, who managed to get Grand Master on the back of a 15-win streak with Dirt Rune. This is probably one of the most refined lists out there: a 1-of Mirrored Summoned could create a really big board with Pascale, Radiant Oracle.
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 burn damage from Crushing Rain. Since the pure Spellboost payoffs lack the damage needed to end the game, the current trend is to mix the pure Spellboost deck with Earth Rite damage dealers such as Levi, Wizard of Ages to add more damage and Amaryllis to enhance the damage reach.
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. Your focus is to simply drawing more cards while Spellboosting your Simaels. In the midgame, you want to collect Crimson Sorcery by playing Levi, Wizard of Ages while chipping damage. In the late game, unleash your 0PP Simaels together with Amaryllis, which increases the damage of your Crimson Sorcery and Crushing Rain for lethal.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
The addition of Fate's Hand doesn't seem enough to make Spellboost Rune great again, and it still ended up in Tier 4 for this Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot. The rotation cut Spellboost's damage output, so a hybrid build with Dirt payoffs is pretty much needed for the deck to win.
The featured list is from pro player parachan, which he used in his Grand Master climb. The list utilizes two copies of Levi as damage reach, multiple 1PP Earth Sigils that can Spellboost while adding stacks, and three copies of Amaryllis, which can increase lethal damage with her evolved ability.
Buff Dragon is an archetype that focuses on increasing the defense of Dragoncraft followers in the deck to enable their payoffs. Cards like Coach Joe, Fiery Counselor and Grand Slam Tamer allow you to dish a lot of direct damage when their conditions are 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 with them,. The other version is more OTK oriented with Dragon Queen's Castle that can amplify the damage of Coach Joe.
For the standard version, you want to mulligan for cheap cards that can buff your deck, such as Militant Mermaid, Megalorca Rider, or Coach Joe, which allow your tall followers to gain more defense. You will need a lot of Buff cards, ideally four, since most of your deck's payoffs will activate after four buffs. Pressure the midgame with tall followers and chip in some damage. At the endgame, use your Dragonborn Strikers and play Joe to remove any blocking Wards while dealing burn damage. Finish the game by evolving Joe to deal direct damage.
For the OTK oriented, 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 setup, 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 effect.
WEEKLY META AND FEATURED DECK
Buff Dragon received two new buff cards in the form of Militant Mermaid and Wyrmcrafting. Those two are great additions and help Buff Dragon's consistency, but Buff Dragon still sadly lacks its own niche.
The featured list is from @umiusagixtu2, who managed to climb to Grand Master on the back of an 11-win streak. Dion, Scarlet Scion is now a common addition, as it's pretty easy to get consistent early buffs. Preserve evolution points as much as you can: you need them for Coach Joe's damage, and there's no evolution point recovery to be found.