This is a bit of a large topic to tackle, especially for a first post on this blog, but I’ll do my best and cover as much ground as I need to about it.

I do intend to update this guide as new meta developments and new sets come up for the game, so be sure to check back every once in a while.

Introduction

Midrange Sword (MidSword for short) can be seen as the true flagship archetype for Swordcraft and is probably one of the most iconic decks in Shadowverse history. It is a deck that takes pride in its dedication to gimmick-free, interactive, and flexible gameplay. While these qualities don’t always equate to a strong, powerful deck in Unlimited’s metagame, they are still very important for the deck to uphold in a land where much more “degenerate” strategies run rampant, for diversity’s sake at the very least.

I’ll first give you the quick list of properties that can be found in the deck’s flow of gameplay. If you enjoy any of these traits in your Shadowverse deck, be sure to enjoy the rest of the guide!

You’re likely to enjoy Midrange Sword if you like:

Constant board-vs-board gameplay with a heavy focus on combat

Having a deck that functions more as a toolbox than a pile of cards to randomly draw from

Being able to change your deck’s route and choice of win condition on the fly

Cute sword girls.

There are definitely more qualities than that, but I will let you discover them yourself with your own gameplay. So with that summary of qualities established, let’s get into these concepts in detail.

Core Concepts

I’ll go ahead and give further elaboration on each of those properties I listed above here, one at a time.

Constant board-vs-board gameplay with a heavy focus on combat

Swordcraft’s card pool does not have very many efficient options of direct removal that also doesn’t include any followers of your own. To compensate for this, many of the most commonly used followers in this deck contain the Rush or Storm keyword or even the ability to evolve themselves or evolve manually at no cost. This is the most clear indicator to this combat-focused gameplay mentioned here. Your deck will usually have very few spells or amulets in it, and the spells and/or amulets you do include in your list will just summon followers anyway. No spellslinging here!

Having a deck that functions more as a toolbox than a pile of cards to randomly draw from

MidSword’s lack of pure efficient draw power compared to decks in other classes like Bloodcraft and Runecraft is one of its commonly known weakness. However, in exchange, Midsword has access to some of the most focused search cards in the game. Many of those searchers grab cards from the deck based on play point cost, Commander/Officer trait, or even specific spells or amulets provided you’re not running too many different kinds of those. This contributes to the deck’s extremely high levels of consistency and makes running one-of tech choices a deck-building gimmick no longer.

Being able to change your deck’s route and choice of win condition on the fly

Many of the game-winning cards in MidSword possess the Storm keyword (as it goes for most decks), but each one gives a different flavor of that instant face damage. It is all up to the player to decide which Storm win condition to push for as the turns pass each game. Even if Storm isn’t working out in a particular scenario, winning by pure board dominance is still the way to go. There’s no picking or choosing your one-and-done plan to victory for this deck.

Cute sword girls

If Lounes, Levin Apprentice‘s flavor text and voice lines aren’t enough to tug at your heartstrings, then what are you even doing here?????

Essential Cards

The previous version of this guide used to have this section titled as “staple cards”, but due to the everchanging landscape of the Unlimited format and adjustments of the MidSword core essence, this section will no longer call these cards definite must-haves. Instead, I will expand the scope of this section and list out important cards that are commonly used across multiple variants of the deck and what roles each card tends to fill. These cards will be sorted by cost, lowest to highest. There’s going to be a lot of cards to cover here, but it all plays into how open-ended this archetype is in its structure. I ain’t telling you to run everything I list here, but I will give you the insight needed to be able to make the best decisions possible for your own MidSword deck.

Theme-specific essentials like the Levin and Natura archetypes won’t have their insights here, but will be listed separately as actual staples for those themes. Cards that fill more niche or meta-dependant roles will be noted simlarly as well. Remember that niche does not mean weak, and that especially goes for a class and deck archetype as freeform as Midrange Sword.

1-cost Essentials





Quickblader / Ta-G, Katana Unsheathed (welcome to the cool kids club if you have her)

Likely the most versatile 1-cost early game follower in the game, many Midsword decks opt for a set of these if they are looking for a build that won’t mind sacrificing a bit of card efficiency in exchange for instant pressure and damage. Stat-buffed based decks like Natura Sword also enjoy having access to these as a low-cost finisher to stack all their buffs onto. Slower variants more focused on board control and the grind game should look elsewhere for their lower curve, however.

As far as individual synergies to note of, Quickblader/Ta-G is the premier 1-cost follower of choice for evolving Lecia, Sky Saber in those faster, more aggressive builds. Those builds may also enjoy grabbing a copy of them from Magnolia, Battlefield Muse‘s Evolve ability if a brewer is brave enough to use her seriously. Either way, despite their reputation in daily mission clearer deck Aggro Sword, Quickblader/Ta-G can easily find a home in a MidSword deck should it need the speed and immediacy it commands.

Kagemitsu, Matchless Blade

If Quickblader/Ta-G are considered the best 1-cost followers for the early game, Kagemitsu should be just as highly regarded for his insurmountable potential for the mid and late game. He is often compared to Havencraft’s Princess Snow White, but those comparisons honestly severely undersell how ridiculously out-of-hand he can get as the turn counts grow higher and higher. The number of important ways he can be utilized is incredibly high, and possesses some of the most explosive synergies Swordcraft has to offer, especially when the ability to give him the Storm keyword is in the cards. Players will find themselves playing him with his Enhance to ensure a minimum two-for-one play across two turns, but using his base cost to evolve Lecia, Sky Saber early is as valid a route as any.

Not only that, despite his pitiful 0/1 statline at base form, Kagemitsu is a potent and confident turn 1 play, as he can freely attack into any follower that can destroy him. This would allow him to return the next turn, evolve himself, then start making highly favorable trades against early game threats turn after turn. It’s best not to go for this play every matchup, however, as a single Angelic Snipe or any other 1-cost removal option from your opponent will stop this sequence entirely and cause you to waste an incredibly valuable resource.

With all that said, Kagemitsu‘s insanely good and fun to use, so run him if you can. He’s a bit awkward to handle at first, but his results will be more than worth the investment.

Theme-specific staples:

Niche choices

2-cost Essentials

Veteran Lancer / Holy Bear Knight





The 2-cost 2/2 Ward archetype of followers has evolved a couple times over the years. Swordcraft used to be the only class that had access to this type of follower, but now it can be seen in Forestcraft’s Guard of the Machina Tree, Bloodcraft’s Hellblaze Demon, and so on. One would think powercreep has left Veteran Lancer and her pet Holy Bear Knight in the dust in favor of these newer additions in other classes, but this is absolutely not the case. The original 2/2 Ward in Swordcraft is still often used in MidSword builds of all forms not only because of its no-frills design, but for its ability to enable various Commander/Officer and other follower-based synergies while lightly protecting them behind the Ward keyword they provide. Arthur, Knight King, for example, would grab both Veteran Lancer and Holy Bear Knight with his Fanfare, instantly grabbing 2 Wards for increased protection if a list chooses to run both. Lecia, Sky Saber won’t mind the Ward protection either after her evolve trigger happens as a 6-play point play (I sure talk about her a lot, don’t I?). Veteran Lancer and Holy Bear Knight are as vanilla as followers can get in the current game, but they get the job done in any MidSword deck you want to pursue.

When it comes to which of these two cards to run first if not running both, Veteran Lancer is generally recommended as she doesn’t have an Enhance cost that can get in the way of midgame and lategame play sequences.

Lux, Solar Lancer

Known as Maid Leader‘s stronger, better, cuter counterpart, Lux is the go-to follower for enabling MidSword’s Commander consistency and card advantage. Her Commander-only search pool being split between her regular and enhanced Fanfare abilities not only greatly reduces the randomness of the search, but has a potent capability to salvage awkward opening hands with a noticable gap in the curve during the early game. Few other 2-cost searchers have this level of filtering in their abilities (RIP pre-nerf Baphomet), so be sure to take full advantage of it in your MidSword builds when possible. She’s less recommended for MidSword builds with tighter, more aggressive curves due to her below average statline of 1/2 and her low Enhance cost of 4 potentially getting in the way of some play sequences, but either way, she’s an invaluable addition to the Swordcraft card pool who lets the decks she’s used in flow seamlessly.

Sky Commander Celia // Celia, Hope’s Strategist // Celia, Despair’s Messenger

Each of Celia‘s modes may feel kinda middle-of-the-road individually, and to be honest, they very much are. However, the ability for her to access any of these modes at any given moment of a game while only taking one to three deck slots is what makes her a valuable asset to many MidSword decks.

Not only can you play her within the first few turns of the game to establish your curve as a vanilla 2 cost 2/2 (a statline that is getting more and more coveted by the day), you can even play her Hope’s Strategist version to make a quick board fill during the midgame where evolution points get spent left and right. And if that’s not enough, she still has her Despair’s Messenger side to either close out games or recycle all the followers your opponent was kind enough to leave on the field for you.

With that said, in practice, the most common form Celia will be played as will be either as her vanilla 2-cost form or her Hope’s Strategist form. This is because both of these plays are the most non-committal when comparing to other plays of similar cost, and the midgame is the longest phase of an average Shadowverse match. The Despair’s Messenger form is also a potent option as a pressure play during this game phase should the board state allow for it. Even bouncing back a single follower allows her to have the same level of damage output as the original Storm finisher icon Albert, Levin Saber, so be sure to take that into consideration when the opportunity comes.

Either way, Sky Commander Celia is a card that maintains a notable presence early game, midgame, and lategame all at a fairly affordable play point cost for each of her modes. This is a level of flexibility that really cannot be ignored as an option for any Swordcraft deck.

Leod, the Crescent Blade // Veiled Reckoning // Assassin







A stealthy boy whose guts everyone hates, Leod has been the forefront of some of Swordcraft’s most degenerate strategies revolving around the notorious Ambush keyword. While MidSword generally won’t abuse Ambush to the same extent as those strategies, stat buff-based builds can and will use him as a standard choice for a buff sink. Heck, even traditional builds have enjoyed putting Enhanced Ivory Sword Dance on him as a way to both board clear and escalate pressure to obnoxious levels. With all these qualities in mind, it gets pretty clear how strong and oppressive of a card Leod can be.

However, Unlimited is a format filled with non-targeting interactions, meaning being in Ambush isn’t nearly as safe as it is in Rotation. As such, Swordcraft players have found themselves having to invest more resources into Leod just to gain about the same level of awards as before. And because Unlimited can only continue to gain more and more ways to answer Ambush, he becomes less and less effective of a card by the set. Despite this decline, Leod, the Crescent Blade is still a centerpiece for MidSword’s many forms of aggression and pressure, and is a threat that every opponent needs to respect. Run him if your MidSword build wants access to cheap, repeatable, and abusable doses of degeneracy.

Valse, Champion Deadeye

Yeah, “Champion” about sums up Valse as a follower to a T. Wielding both the power of his trusty Fatal Spellbomb and Holy Purebomb but without the extra steps his older version has to go through, the Champion Deadeye is as perfect a board control-based follower as one can get in the modern game. In fact, with access to an evolve and 6 play points, Valse can remove three threats of varying shapes and sizes all by himself. Not to mention he’s a 2-cost Officer, so all synergies I mentioned in previous sections apply to him as well. The amount of board interactions and control he gives to Swordcraft is downright absurd, and the only downside to him is the fact that you’re left with him as a lone 4/X follower if he survives his own rampage and one less evolution point available. Valse, Champion Deadeye is one of the best 2-cost followers in the entire Shadowverse card pool, and any MidSword deck would do well to include him in multiples in the 40.

Ivory Sword Dance

Rotation players everywhere have been traumatized by the existence of this card since its debut in Steel Rebellion, but here in Unlimited it is one of the few cards available that allows Swordcraft as a class to attempt to do what the higher tiered have been doing for ages: clear and pressure simultaneously. While its effectiveness greatly varies based on matchups and metagame, there is little doubt that Ivory Sword Dance is still among the best 2-cost removal spells in the game. Its Enhance ability is especially potent in board extensions and further punishing opponents for not fully clearing board. Versatility is one of Swordcraft’s greatest strengths when it comes to the class’s reactive options, and this card is one of the largest contributors to that. Ivory Sword Dance is highly recommended in metagames where removal is light and board presense is wide and fragile, but this card is still plenty strong in all other environments, so one really can’t go wrong dedicating deck space to this card for any MidSword list.

Elegance in Action

With the arrival of the clumsy maid brigade, the days of Swordcraft having the least efficient forms of card draw in the game are one step closer to coming to and end. This card is an utter godsend for slower, grindy versions of MidSword for not only being essentially an enhanced Staircase to Paradise without the turn delay when played with 5 play points, but for also coming with a Heavy Knight or three, greatly reducing tempo loss that tends to come with draw-only spells. Even the non-Enhance version is solid, as it can serve as extra copies of Lux, Solar Lancer in a pinch or an Awakened Ragna that refunds itself in spell-oriented builds, RNG be damned.

One can still find it tricky to use either of its effects in more aggressive matchups, but this makes it all the more important to make sure the rest of your MidSword build can handle the aggro before considering this card in your list. Regardless, Elegance in Action is tool for decks that want to stick around for the long haul. Just keep in mind that this card is run as a safe draw option, not to hope for the random effects that come with it. It’s a total flavor win though, so I’d say the design team did pretty well on this one.

Theme-specific staples:

Niche Choices:

3-cost Essentials

Aether of the Warrior Wing

Boasting one of the most gorgeous pieces of art in the game as well as being a more-than-worthy alternate and successor of Aether of the White Wing, this card single-handedly revolutionized the Swordcraft deck-building process and wrote a whole new definition to her class’s identity. Thanks to that, she is seen as a three-of in every single Swordcraft deck imaginable with Aggro Sword as the sole exception.

Aether, for such a simple fanfare searcher, enables Swordcraft to function not only as a true toolbox craft, but enables never-before-experienced levels of deck consistency other classes can only dream of having. Playing her at any point in a game alone guarantees that you will have your next strongest on-curve play available on the upcoming turn and step of your curve.

If you’re on the draw (going second) and you drop her on the field turn 3, your turn 4 Evolve play is all but ensured. As if you weren’t seeing Lecia, Sky Saber, Frontline Cavalier, and Floral Fencer often enough already.

If there is a one-of tech option or win condition in your deck that you don’t want to use more than once per game (Axe Destroyer being one of my favorite choices as a tech), have that card be the only Swordcraft follower on that part of your deck’s curve and let Aether search for it the turn before. If you need more cards to fill that curve slot, look to Swordcraft’s many summon spells and the various options available in the Neutral kit.

As I gushed about before, Aether of the Warrior Wing has fully established herself as one of the front figures of current Swordcraft deck design. If you could only afford to craft one playset of Legendary cards towards MidSword or any Swordcraft deck in particular, craft three Aether before anything else. She’s that good. She is as close to staple status as MidSword cards can get.

Pecorine, Peckish Princess

One of the main characters of the Japan-only Princess Connect franchise, Pecorine has quickly established herself to be one of the most efficient cards in the game for both board control and tempo swings. On curve, she acts as a pseudo 3-cost 3/3 Rush follower when running her into 1-attack followers, already making her stellar in regulating aggressive matchups compared to her competition Blitz Lancer and Lancer of the Tempest. But then when late game approaches and her Union Burst ability becomes active, she instantly transforms into a card takes Swordcraft’s otherwise slow powercreep levels into the stratosphere: a 3-cost 6/5 Rush follower that also nukes an opponent’s follower for 5 damage as a Fanfare. If that doesn’t sound bonkers as-is, even with her utility in the early game, I don’t know what will.

Decks less focused on the Evolve mechanic will definitely see Pecorine‘s power unlock at a much slower rate than Evolve-centric builds, but with Lecia, Sky Saber‘s near-universal status as a MidSword staple, players will have no trouble activating her Union Burst before turn 10 either way. She’s tied with Aether for being the best 3-cost follower in Swordcraft, and she looks to stay that way for a very long time.

Theme-specific staples:

Niche Choices:

4-cost essentials

Lecia, Sky Saber // Nano, the Dawnblade // Twilight Blade

While more theme-specific versions of MidSword tend to skip using Lecia entirely like Machina Sword or Neutral Sword, all other MidSword decks that regularly utilize Officer followers find her to be the most impactful and most easily accessible midgame power source available.

Her power and accessibility reach their peak in the MidSword variant centered around Ironwrought Fortress. This is thanks to the amulet allowing Lecia to evolve for free the moment she’s played, but she’s still the go-to 4-cost follower of choice overall for any other variant. This is thanks to a number of other things she has going for her:

Unlike the previous mentioned 4-cost Evolve followers Frontline Cavalier and Floral Fencer, Lecia is able to reap her full benefits with only a modicum of external support and no evolution point cost, be it by an Officer-producing amulet or playing an Officer manually from your hand. In these cases, she’s basically a 5-6 cost 5/5 follower with Rush with a number of extra goodies included, which is still a strong and versatile play on its own.

Even if the Nano she summons on attack gets removed or crashes into an opposing follower, she will keep coming back for more for as long as Lecia lives and keeps attacking. The sheer potential for that repeatable access to Bane puts Lecia at near the top of many players’ threat assessments on Swordcraft followers.

Lecia, Sky Saber is definitely one of the best Swordcraft followers in terms of outward strength and threat level, and I don’t foresee that to change anytime in the near future. Best friends with a turn 3 Aether of the Warrior Wing or turn 6 Twinsword Master.

Theme-specific staples:

Niche choices:

5-cost essentials

none yet

Theme-specific staples:

Niche Choices:

Higher-cost Essentials

Honored Frontguard General // Shield Guardian





Classic and well-loved “Great Wall” Frontguard General has undergone further training and has returned bulkier and stickier than ever. While he retains his already respectable 5/6 Ward statline from his older version, he also gains an ability that has been largely absent from Swordcraft’s follower pool: target immunity. This alone already makes him an utter headache for many matchups to get through, but even his Last Words ability got upgraded to summon a Shield Guardian whose statline will always be bigger than the original Fortress Guard as long as at least 2 Evolves were done beforehand. In longer matches and in Evolve-centric decks, it’s not uncommon to see this summon be even larger than Honored Frontguard General himself.

Aside from this Shield Guardian‘s new weaknesses to Kaleidoscopic Glow and Seraphic Blade due to it originally being a 1-cost follower (compared to Fortress Guard being 3-cost), Honored Frontguard General is a near-full upgrade from his original and is the safest 7-cost follower to use in MidSword and is the go-to choice for builds looking to focus on the lategame and beyond.

Regal Wildcat

Steelclad Knight // Heavy Knight // Knight







Every new set that enters Unlimited makes the Storm keyword more prevalent and cheaper to access, and Regal Wildcat is the prime example of that, granting Swordcraft the ability to get two separate Storm keywords on the field for the price of a single 7-cost follower. It even comes with a bonus 4-cost Accelerate version that not only helps the player meet the “10 followers destroyed” condition on his Fanfare for future copies, but also instantly floods the board to instantly establish pressure and extend advantage.

When the Fanfare’s condition is met, Regal Wildcat becomes live as a dangerous finisher that provides a minimum of 6 Storm damage the moment it enters the field, easily closing out many matches that MidSword would have no business winning otherwise. If Honored Frontguard General is considered the safest 7-cost follower to run in MidSword, Regal Wildcat would easily take the title of being the most explosive. Both of these followers are top-class late game options for any MidSword deck, and can even be run in the same list because that’s how freeform Swordcraft is. If you want a true win condition for your MidSword deck, look no further than Regal Wildcat.

Theme-specific staples:

Niche choices:

Deck Examples

I mentioned a few times in this guide that MidSword comes in multiple variants. Well, this is the place to have a look at a few of them and briefly introduce how they each play. Decklists provided here will be made on the official Shadowverse Portal platform and can be reached by clicking the deck names, so you can quickly copy deck codes and give them a shot. None of them are optimal by any means, so edit the lists to your liking.

Ironwrought Fortress MidSword

The gameplan of this deck is relatively simple, but is the least consistent variant among all the ones listed here. Begin the game with playing the earliest Ironwrought Fortress you can find, then proceed to continuously flood your field with Heavy Knights and low-cost Commander followers. Obtain Latham, Honorable Knight‘s leader effect when entering lategame to grant every follower that is summoned with Ironwrought Fortress Storm. Sky Commander Celia and Kagemistu, Matchless Blade gain an immense boost of finishing power when combined with this leader effect. Endless board pressure is the name of this deck’s game here, and stands as the most popular variant of MidSword in Unlimited to this day next to Evolve Sword.

Arthur MidSword – Levin

A deck that basically does Albert, Levin Champion‘s job, but faster and wider (Albert‘s still in the deck though!). Both of the main Levin followers Jeno, Levin Stalwart and Levin Archer are 2-cost followers, which make them fantastic targets for Arthur, Knight King to summon from your deck. This play instantly enables a free evolution for your Levin Archer, granting a potent swing of board tempo while conserving evolution points for further lategame plays. You also thin your deck out of lower cost followers, letting your draws become much more consistently lategame focused. Features not only the iconic Arthur, Knight King into Sky Fortress curve from the Dawnbreak Nightedge Rotation meta, but also a Shiva tech choice, allowing your turn 7 Arthur board to gain +1/+0 from turn 6 Shiva‘s leader effect.

Natura MidSword

Natura Sword is more of a combo deck than a traditional MidSword deck, but it’s still worth talking about here as it still holds many midrange properties. Unlike the Rotation version of this deck that focuses on board dominance through large numbers generated from repeated triggers of Bayleon‘s leader effect, the Unlimited version aims to perform a combo finish involving the Unsheathed Blade + Dionne, Dancing Blade combo supplemented with Mirror Image or multiple copies of King’s Might. Fox Lancer and Quickblader are used here in case this set of cards doesn’t assemble, opening the ability to Storm out games the old-fashioned way.

Loot MidSword

A culmination of Swordcraft’s most supported secondary mechanic in Loot cards, this deck wants to play a game of intensive resource management and hope to outvalue the opponent at every turn. Use Gilded Boots in combination with Legendary Fighter to simultaneously grant him Rush and Bane. Talk money and business with Ernesta, Magic Dealer to trade in unneeded Loot cards for real cards. Extend your Regal Wildcat finishers with Gilded Necklace. Loot cards enable MidSword to move toward a multitude of directions, and the RNG nature of the mechanic allows both fresh variety and utter frustration. It’s definitely a less popular variant of the archetype, but the Loot mechanic has consistently gotten new cards every set since its debut in Omen of the Ten, so the potential of this deck can only grow as time passes should this support continue.

Evolve Sword – GM0 Edition

This was my personal decklist that I used to reach Grand Master 0 rank during the first week of Ultimate Colosseum’s meta. One of the biggest reasons why this list was so successful during then was due to its multiple card choices specifically made to counter the current meta at the time. The environment has since changed drastically, so this current list may not produce the same level of effectiveness as before. Regardless, this is still my favorite deck as of the time of this guide update, and if you want to know more about how it works, feel free to head over to my post here talking all about it.

Castle Toolbox MidSword

Everlasting Castle has mostly been used as a consistency booster for less interactive strategies including Ambush and Aggro Sword, but that doesn’t mean those traits can’t be used elsewhere. Its role in this build is to further expand on the toolbox nature of MidSword that Aether of the Warrior Wing originally brought into being and adopt a control sub-identity in its playstyle. With six copies of cards that grab cards from your deck based on play point cost, you’re not too far off from saying that your deck is now your hand in this variant. Axe Destroyer is an incredibly powerful follower to access with Aether and Castle, enabling near-universal removal with a 7/6 rush follower included to maintain tempo. Ernesta, Magic Dealer is here to provide additional hand filtering and discard extra copies of Everlasting Castle, and Sky Fortress is a perfect follow-up play to the new and extremely sticky Honored Frontguard General. Just don’t Castle the Fortress out unless you absolutely have to.

Synergies, Tips, and Tricks

Here, this section will put various gameplay tips and card combos/synergies in list form for easy reading and quick access. Feel free to contribute your own tips in the comments, and I’ll add them here.

Tip: Don’t be afraid to use Ernesta, Magic Dealer ‘s Fanfare to discard real cards from your hand if you have no extra Everlasting Castles or Loot cards available. At worst, you are still discarding the worst card in your hand for a chance to get a better one.

Don’t be afraid to use ‘s Fanfare to discard real cards from your hand if you have no extra Everlasting Castles or Loot cards available. At worst, you are still discarding the worst card in your hand for a chance to get a better one. Tip: When using Celia, Despair’s Messenger ‘s Fanfare effect to return all other followers on your field to your hand, all copies of followers that are transformed from a Choose or other card effect do not return to their original form when put back into your hand.

When using ‘s Fanfare effect to return all other followers on your field to your hand, all copies of followers that are transformed from a Choose or other card effect do not return to their original form when put back into your hand. Tip: In order to maximize the amount of damage dealt to your opponent’s field with Latham, Honorable Knight ‘s leader effect, make sure every other follower attack you declare is done with a Knight summoned with that leader effect and is attacking an enemy follower that can destroy that Knight within that combat.

In order to maximize the amount of damage dealt to your opponent’s field with ‘s leader effect, make sure every other follower attack you declare is done with a summoned with that leader effect and is attacking an enemy follower that can destroy that Knight within that combat. Tip: Evolve Sword doesn’t have its namesake just because it evolves followers a lot. The deck also can conserve raw evolution points to well into the lategame phases. A basic method to enable this conservation is to play Lecia, Sky Saber followed by Twinsword Master on turn 6. This allows both followers to evolve without using evolution points, carrying them into turn 7 and later.

Evolve Sword doesn’t have its namesake just because it evolves followers a lot. The deck also can conserve raw evolution points to well into the lategame phases. A basic method to enable this conservation is to play followed by on turn 6. This allows both followers to evolve without using evolution points, carrying them into turn 7 and later. Synergy: If your deck is using Legendary Fighter , using Gilded Boots on him also additionally gives him Bane by his own effect. And since Gilded Boots gives Rush permanently, all that’s left is to evolve another follower to meet all of his conditions to grow +8/+8 on your next turn!

If your deck is using , using on him also additionally gives him Bane by his own effect. And since gives Rush permanently, all that’s left is to evolve another follower to meet all of his conditions to grow +8/+8 on your next turn! Trick: If you have Latham, Honorable Knight ‘s leader effect active and Ironwrought Fortress is on your field, Perseus becomes 1-cost follower that enables 3 points of Storm damage to your opponent’s face, or 5 points of Storm damage spread across your opponent’s field, assuming correct attack sequencing.

If you have ‘s leader effect active and is on your field, becomes 1-cost follower that enables 3 points of Storm damage to your opponent’s face, or 5 points of Storm damage spread across your opponent’s field, assuming correct attack sequencing. Trick: Rapier Master has multiple Enhance effects that scale with how many play points you want to invest into her, but she is still a 1-cost follower at base. This means she will be able to get Storm from Latham, Honorable Knight‘s leader effect no matter what Enhance level you play her on. Kagemitsu, Matchless Blade also gets to join the fun for the same reason.

Closing Thoughts and Future Updates

Future updates will usually involve things like updating staples and lists to keep up with new sets added to the game, but if there’s enough interest I can add more sections to this guide that talk about things like:

General class matchup insights

Play-by-play walkthroughs, discussing mulligans and other advice

Feel free to suggest other kinds of MidSword content I can add here. I want to make this guide as comprehensive as possible.

This guide is my first venture into Shadowverse content creation, so any feedback I can get on this and potential future articles is greatly appreciated. I hope you were able to learn a few things about my favorite deck archetype and maybe even gained enough interest to invest into it too.