[Ultimate Colosseum Official Art] Taken from the Official Shadowvese Website

Since Ultimate Colosseum’s official release in December 2020, Shadowverse’s 15th card set is truly a set for the books. Some of these new cards introduced entirely new mechanics that played to most of the classes’ strengths, some existed purely to advertise their anime RPG Princess Connect! Re:Dive, and some straight-up nerfed their classes a little more than they were meant to, at least in Rotation. Included in this list are not necessarily the legendary cards that a deck rotates around, but rather the cards that today’s decks can’t live without.

10. Paper Shikigami & Demonic Shikigami

[Paper Shikigami] Taken from Bagoum

Yes, these are two separate cards, but we think that they both represent the start of the cards with “magic numbers” – Those whose attack might not be much, but become a hassle, simply because most main board wipes (e.g. May, Inori, Shinobu, etc.) come in even numbers. And we all know there’s nothing worse than failing to clear your opponent’s potentially lethal board.

Naturally, the spellboost they give when they’re destroyed is just what the doctor ordered to revive Spellboost decks.

9. Kaya, Draconine Brawler

[Kaya, Draconine Brawler]

Ever since the introduction of Shadow’s Corrosion in the Verdant Conflict expansion, mirror matches between two Dragoncrafts became a delicate balance of who could ramp more, who could heal more, and who could destroy more Naterran Great Trees in any given turn. Once Kaya is played with her Union Burst active, that balance is thrown out the window, dealing up to 8 damage to the enemy leader.

Otherwise, her follower strike (+2/+2) is great for removing the enemy followers that prove to be the largest threats.

8. Gravity Grappler

[Gravity Grappler] Taken from Bagoum

The “float” mechanic isn’t all that new, it was actually introduced in Magic: The Gathering. However, of all the Portalcraft cards that support the float mechanic, Gravity Grappler must be the best one. It feels counterintuitive that one could create a field by NOT using play points, but by simply leaving 3 play points alone, Gravity Grappler summons two different artifacts, one of which is a ward.

Having a full field so early in the game means a lot when it comes to tipping the scales of victory, but it also supports cards that deal damage depending on the amount of destroyed artifacts with different names like Absolute Modesty or Vertex Colony.

7. Illya, Queen of Night

[Illya, Queen of Night] Taken from Bagoum

Before you start to complain that Bloodcraft is trash or overpowered (not many people have in-between opinions), think about this. Her Union Burst doesn’t seem like much at face value: deal 3 damage to enemy leader, restore 3 to own leader, and deal 3 damage to an enemy follower.

If you can imagine that kind of skill in tandem with Azazel’s evolved skill, against a burst-damage opponent, possibly with healing from a Sanguine Core, it is infuriating, thrilling, entertaining, and somehow awe-inspiring. It’s comparable to watching a burning car run over someone, and somehow stay in piece.

6. Phantasmal Fairy Dragon

[Phantasmal Fairy Dragon] Taken from Tempo Storm

Introduced in Ultimate Colosseum’s mini-expansion on February 19th, this seemingly harmless 1/1 was created to wreak havoc. Similar to the “magic numbers” mentioned earlier, when an evolved ward with at least 7 defense is destroying your field, you’d think it wouldn’t happen more than twice a turn, right? Wrong.

Since it only costs one play point, this fairy dragon is only limited by the amount of available cards that bounce it back to hand, and play points. Before you know it, an enormous, unstoppable Zeus will appear on field, likely with lethal damage. Good luck killing fairies and avoiding gods.

5. Greenbrier Elf

[Greenbrier Elf] Taken from Shadowverse.com

If you didn’t think Greenwood Guardians were much of a threat when they were first released, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Although their mechanic was new, their opponent was almost free to do as they pleased while awaiting Lymaga to be invoked. After the mini-expansion though, it added the ever-needed aspect of dealing damage to followers.

True, it could have done passive damage to the leader instead, but that might have turned the tables a little too quickly, giving rise to too many salty players at once. Anyway, we’re glad that these Amazonian warriors got the support they deserved.

4. Forbidden Darkmage

[Forbidden Darkmage] Taken from Shadowverse.com

As wonderfully aggressive as Earth Rite decks are, they simply had to be removed from the meta game for a while, as they just didn’t have the proper defense to stay alive long enough to end games consistently. With burst-damage decks increasing in popularity, all Earth Rite had to do was cancel out some of that damage by reducing damage taken or heal some of it back. Forbidden Darkmage’s crystallize skill did exactly those things.

By limiting damage received to 4 at a time and restoring 1 defense to the leader, Earth Rite suddenly became a competitively viable option again.

3. Athena, Divine Shield

[Athena, Divine Shield] Taken from Shadowverse.com

When players started to highlight cards that would support Haven’s “ward cancer,” no one expected this Neutral to play such a big role. Granted, she gives all ­other­ allies the 0-damage effect, but her base stats are 6/7, why wouldn’t you attack it? That 0-damage effect is great for stall-turns – not unlike Dawn’s Splendor – but when you combine it with Wilbert’s skill, it suddenly becomes perfect a trap for the aggro opponent with <10 health and little to no removal spells/effects.

Furthermore, in the builds that include Elana, it diminishes all hope of manually removing gargantuan followers without killing yourself first.

2. Steadfast Samurai

[Steadfast Samurai] Taken from Shadowverse.com

For a 2-point Gold follower, this is quite worth the investment. If your opponent doesn’t have removal spells or a bane follower in time, they’ll have to rely on dealing clash damage, which will always be 0 for him. This works the other way too, where he’s a free 1/1 or 3/3 “trade” without having to sacrifice a follower.

Obviously, his enhance skill to self-evolve is great support for an Evolution build, but its Storm on evolve has Swordcraft written all over it.

1. Princess Knight

[Princess Knight] Taken from Shadowverse.com

Ultimate Colosseum marks the introduction of new mechanics, most notably, Union Burst. The base concept, regardless of class, was that if it was late enough in the game, certain cards could gain additional skills to accelerate the course of the game. That being said, Princess Knight must be the accelerants’ accelerant – if you evolve him, you’re essentially decreasing the Union Burst effects in your hand by 3, which equates to rapidly approaching wins!

Ideally, this card would be #1 in all current decks, but at the time of writing, there is no clear, established meta yet, and so not everyone has the same opinions about this card. Some don’t run Union Burst cards by choice, and so have no need for Princess Knight. On the other hand, for those that do, there’s no downside to this card.