“Meta Insight” are a series of articles covering the differences between various Shadowverse deck archetypes, matchup statistics, common play patterns and their role in the metagame.

Rune Sword Blood Portal Shadow Forest Haven Dragon Stats corner

Spellboost Rune Identifying cards: Shikigami Summons, Chaos Wielder, Kyoka, Demoncaller, Fiery Embrace, Kuon, Founder of Onmyodo. What does Spellboost Rune do? Spellboost (a.k.a. Runie, a.k.a. Shikigami) Rune is a reactive midrange deck that utilizes Spellboost-based synergies. Prior iterations of the archetype used to be a lot more tempo-oriented with cards like Zealot of Truth and Clarke that could be used to capitalize on the tempo lead created by Kuon by burning the opponent out, however, the current build of Spellboost Rune is closer to a control deck than it is to a tempo deck, and due to the fact that in certain matchups (e.g., against Item Shop/Dirt/Roach decks), Spellboost Rune can occasionally perform the beatdown role with an early Kuon. Aside from matchups against fast combo decks, the general game plan of Spellboost Rune against the more “fair” sector of the meta is to loop Runie: ideally, once you get to 10 Spellboost on a Runie and clear up some hand space (6 or fewer cards in hand), then follow up Runie with a Kuon, which can Spellboost the newly copied Runies 5 times by itself, you only need 3 other Spellboost triggers to “restart” the chain (2 triggers for the first 2 copies to deal face damage, and then an additional trigger to get the next part of the chain). This setup requires you to carefully manage somewhat unorthodox resources: board space (as Kuon takes up to 4 board slots by itself), hand size (a fully Spellboosted Runie puts 4 cards into your hand, and burning extra copies of Runie slows down your clock and requires you to have more Spellboost triggers if you need more damage) and deck size (every new Runie draws a card, and against healing-heavy attrition decks like the more control-oriented UB/Burn Blood lists or Ra Haven, you have to be mindful of decking yourself, which sometimes makes it correct to play the 0-Runie to avoid drawing extra cards). The dichotomy between going “infinite” with Runies and playing for tempo with Kuons/Demoncallers/Fiery Embraces/etc., which usually depends on the matchup (“Does the opponent’s deck win before turn X?”) and the expected damage breakpoints (“Do I have enough damage with my current resources if the opponent heals for Y?”), makes Spellboost Rune quite complicated to play optimally in a macro sense: the archetype has a bit of a learning curve when you’re trying to figure out the proper balance between these 2 lines of play. When playing against Spellboost Rune, it is important to keep track of how many Runies the opponent is holding (and how many times they are Spellboosted), and, to a lesser extent, the early- to mid-game Kuon breakpoints (for example, if the Rune player kept 2+ cards in their mulligan and has had 7-9 Spellboost triggers on turn 5, you have to hold up efficient removal cards to answer a possible t6 Kuon if you can afford to do so). One of the statistics I’ve personally kept track of in my testing is the Kuon timing, and the median Kuon turn is 7, so turn 7 is an important bottleneck to be aware of if you’re playing any sort of midrange deck against Spellboost Rune. Skeleton

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Parachan Spellboost Rune skeleton Spellboost Rune (median top 16 decklist from week 7 JCG finishes) Source Spellboost Rune (median top 16 decklist from week 8 JCG finishes) Source Spellboost Rune Source Spellboost Rune Source Spellboost Rune Source Spellboost Rune Source Spellboost Rune Source Spellboost Rune Source Spellboost Rune Source

Mulligan priority

Always keep Chaos Wielder , Kuon and Authoring Tomorrow .

, and . If you’re keeping Chaos Wielder/Kuon , keep a proactive turn 2 play, with the general priority against proactive classes (Sword/Blood/Portal/Shadow) being Authoring/Sorcery in Solidarity/Shikigami Summons/Magic Missile . Against classes with weak early game (Haven/Forest/Dragon/Rune) the priority is generally Solidarity/Authoring/Magic Missile/Shikigami Summons , it is also pretty safe to keep a cantrip with an Authoring (as a turn 3 play) if you have an early Spellboost payoff in slower matchups.

, keep a proactive turn 2 play, with the general priority against proactive classes (Sword/Blood/Portal/Shadow) being . Against classes with weak early game (Haven/Forest/Dragon/Rune) the priority is generally , it is also pretty safe to keep a cantrip with an (as a turn 3 play) if you have an early Spellboost payoff in slower matchups. If you’re keeping 1 or more cards, keep Insight, also keep Kyoka if you’re specifically going second.

The general mulligan strategy for Spellboost Rune invoves trying to hit an impactful Spellboost payoff as early as possible, and then find some early game action if you already have a payoff. Authoring Tomorrow is generally just good in every matchup, as you can play it on 2 if you’re getting pressured and on turn 3 if you’re not, so it’s generally the best non-payoff card to look for. One card that I wanted to specifically mention in the context of Rune’s early game is Shikigami Summons: it’s not good in the Rune mirror or against Forest, as playing it on turn 2 makes the opponent’s removal come online (e.g., Roach+Barrage in Forest, or things like Augmentation in Rune), so it can be detrimental to play it in the early game, hence its low priority despite in reactive matchups despite the card’s high (theoretical) efficiency. Another thing that I should address before the “Insight on 1 Council” gets on my case is that keeping Insight (with a payoff effect) doesn’t mean that you’re playing it on turn 1: the reasoning is similar to 3-keeping a double Angelic Snipe+Fate’s Hand opening in Unlimited, where you generally pass on 1, then you either double Snipe on 2 if you’re drawing heavy cards, or play a 2-drop on 2 into double Snipe (or Snipe with another 2-drop) on 3. Putting it simply, unconditional 1-drops in Spellboost Rune have a lot of utility in oiling the wheels of the deck on turns 3-5: they’re effectively “free” with how your curve usually ends up looking, and the more cards you manage to Spellboost, the more mileage you’re going to get out of them.

Optional inclusions and tech cards

Daria, Infinity Witch is an optional inclusion that saw a lot of play in the early builds of the archetype. As the archetype got more refined, Daria started showing signs of consistently being the worst card in the deck, and current optimized Spellboost Rune lists trend towards exactly 0x Daria . The issue with Daria is that the card is at its best when your deck is functioning badly (as in, you can’t find Kuon/Runie , so you need card draw), and that it can get incredibly clunky in the midgame: with how starved Spellboost Rune can get for hand size, having a Daria spin into 2-3 new cards is a huge detriment to the archetype’s Runie -oriented game plan. With these factors in mind, Daria is generally the most overplayed card in Spellboost Rune, and while I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s an aggressively bad inclusion, available data from the tournament results I have access to at the time of writing leads me to believe that Daria is just bad and you should have a very good reason to include it in your deck.

is an optional inclusion that saw a lot of play in the early builds of the archetype. As the archetype got more refined, started showing signs of consistently being the worst card in the deck, and current optimized Spellboost Rune lists trend towards exactly 0x . The issue with is that the card is at its best when your deck is functioning badly (as in, you can’t find , so you need card draw), and that it can get incredibly clunky in the midgame: with how starved Spellboost Rune can get for hand size, having a spin into 2-3 new cards is a huge detriment to the archetype’s -oriented game plan. With these factors in mind, is generally the most overplayed card in Spellboost Rune, and while I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s an aggressively bad inclusion, available data from the tournament results I have access to at the time of writing leads me to believe that is just bad and you should have a very good reason to include it in your deck. Clash of Heroes and Magical Augmentation are cards that you can discard from your hand for 1 mana to Spellboost your hand once. Clash has a higher ceiling (as it has the utility of killing off your Shikigami tokens on command, and can hit for 4-5 damage with Spellboost followers in the midgame), while Augmentation does a lot of work against early-game X/1 followers, making it somewhat important against Sword and Portal in particular. Generally speaking, any split between 2/3, 3/2 or even 3/3 appears to be optimal, with the exact number of copies depending on the rest of your early-game Spell package. The best-performing split is 2x Clash /3x Augmentation at the time of writing, but the differences between the three are fairly marginal.

and are cards that you can discard from your hand for 1 mana to Spellboost your hand once. has a higher ceiling (as it has the utility of killing off your Shikigami tokens on command, and can hit for 4-5 damage with Spellboost followers in the midgame), while does a lot of work against early-game X/1 followers, making it somewhat important against Sword and Portal in particular. Generally speaking, any split between 2/3, 3/2 or even 3/3 appears to be optimal, with the exact number of copies depending on the rest of your early-game Spell package. The best-performing split is 2x /3x at the time of writing, but the differences between the three are fairly marginal. The Mysterian Project is an optional inclusion that is primarily intended to copy Kuon , but can also hit Demoncaller or even Kyoka to have a smoother curve in the eary game. If I could run 5-6 Kuons , I probably would, but Project is about as close you one can get to having the gas to go the distance against healing-heavy decks. I would personally consider at least 2x Projects to be necessary, but it’s possible that 3 copies could become the standard configuration if the format has a lot of Haven.

is an optional inclusion that is primarily intended to copy , but can also hit or even to have a smoother curve in the eary game. If I could run 5-6 , I probably would, but is about as close you one can get to having the gas to go the distance against healing-heavy decks. I would personally consider at least 2x to be necessary, but it’s possible that 3 copies could become the standard configuration if the format has a lot of Haven. Wind Blast and Traditional Sorcerer are low-cost Spellboost effects that have vaguely defensive functions and particularly shine against Sword/Blood/Shadow. Unlike Daria , these cards can be dumped from hand with little opportunity cost, so even if they don’t always make the cut, these cards can be added or excluded depening on the prevalence of Sword/Shadow.

and are low-cost Spellboost effects that have vaguely defensive functions and particularly shine against Sword/Blood/Shadow. Unlike , these cards can be dumped from hand with little opportunity cost, so even if they don’t always make the cut, these cards can be added or excluded depening on the prevalence of Sword/Shadow. Sudden Showers, Mystic Absorption and Disintegration are all broad tech cards against follower-heavy decks (e.g., Sword/Portal/Blood), which have primarily seen play as an answer to Alyaska in Sword lists. With that said, the banish condition can certainly pick up a good bit of value against Portal (by denying the Portal player from having uncommon Artifacts in the Modesty/Scan/Duplicator pool) and Shadow (where it can deny Milteo card draw, among other things), however, both Absorption and Disintegration are somewhat contingent on drawing through your deck, which is not always possible when these effects are really needed.

Spellboost Rune is one of the best-performing decks in the mini-expansion Rotation meta: the archetype generally deals well with fair midrange decks, but can struggle against Yukari decks, Item Shop Rune (which has a faster win condition) and Baal Burn Blood. The archetype is certainly not without its flaws (as it can have issues on both sides of the spectrum: it can get burned out by faster decks, and there are also decks that can outlive its damage), but it’s still an incredibly well-rounded ladder deck and would be the first deck I’d recommend to someone trying to be competitive in the Rotation format, all while allowing to transition to one of the best-performing Unlimited decks with little to no vial investment.

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JCGW1 Item Shop Rune skeleton Item Shop Rune (median top 16 decklist from week 2 JCG finishes) Source #1 Source #2 Item Shop Rune (median top 16 decklist from week 1 JCG finishes) Source Item Shop Rune Identifying cards: Travelers’ Respite, Sudden Showers, Arcane Item Shop, Arcane Aether. What does Item Shop Rune do? Item Shop Rune is a combo deck that consists of 97.5% Spells and Amulets, and utilizes Arcane Item Shop mana refunds to chain low-cost cards and deal up to somewhere in the realm of ~30-36-ish damage to random targets on the other side of the field. Against decks that can’t put up a thick enough board going into the Shops Rune player’s turn 7, this can effectively represent a turn 7 OTK. The combo has 3 setup requirements: firstly, you need to draw into Arcane Item Shop in your first 15-18 cards (which has a hypergeometric probability to fail of 15.59% – 23.28%), secondly, you need to find one of your Sorceries in Solidarity or a Vergewalker (which has a probability of whiffing of 8% – 13.84%), and lastly, you need to draw at least 2 out of 9 mana-refunding cards, which include Travelers’ Respite, Spellbinder’s Preparation and Arcane Aether (which is the most trivial requirement assuming you don’t use any of the pieces prematurely, and has a failure rate of 2.29% – 6.68%), and at least one of those enablers has to be a non-Aether card to start the chain (which it is 91.67% of the time), so that you can actually, well, play your cards after playing the Item Shop on 7. What I’m alluding to here is that while Item Shop Rune is technically an out-of-hand turn 7 OTK, it is important to be aware of the fact that there is non-trivial (30.44%, using the more optimistic estimate of drawing 18 cards by turn 7) probability of the combo whiffing entirely, which places an upper constraint on the archetype’s theoretical peak performance: Item Shop Rune can’t have a winrate of over 70% in any of its matchups, even against a deck that literally doesn’t play any cards. But enough about how Item Shop Rune loses games, let’s briefly go over how the archetype actually wins. In the early stages of the game, your objective usually involves cycling through your deck with various cantrips and draw spells, trying to sculpt a hand of Arcane Item Shop, 2 or more “chain starters” (Preparations, 0-cost Trees from Travelers’ Respite and Arcane Aether, with at least one of them being one of the former two), and to either have a Vergewalker Magician in hand or in the “played cards” tab. After getting to turn 7, you play Arcane Item Shop and start climbing up the discount chain to get to 2-3 open mana, and play as many cards as you can, ideally until you only have a Madcap Conjuration with 2 other Spells, which can then be used to reload and get some more damage. It is important to note that you have to use your removal cards first (while they still have targets in play), which includes things like Magical Augmentation and Sudden Showers, as well as the less obvious examples like Mirror of Truth (which can nab a 2-drop that you can hopefully use to deal 3-4 damage to one of the opponent’s followers) and Magic Missile (which can go face, of course, but if your opponent is on an even life total and has a follower with an odd amount of health, it’s going to do an extra point of damage if you can Missile a follower). In addition to that, against slower decks, it is occasionally possible to save a Vergewalker until turn 7, so if you manage to evolve it post-Item Shop, it’s obviously going to (effectively) deal a lot of extra face damage, and you have to fire it off while wasting as little damage as possible. While this is pretty obvious, it’s also important to not board lock yourself, as you need to have a board slot open for Trees, which means that you should be careful about playing too many Sigils without an Augmentation, Veridic Ritual or a Vergewalker to open up some room, and you should be similarly careful of discarding 2 or more Amulets with Madcap Conjuration if you don’t manage to draw into a Sudden Showers to get rid of one of the Golems (which you won’t, ~66.24% of the time, though it obviously depends on how many cantrips and Sudden Showers you have left in your deck). As a rule of thumb, if you can clear the board before playing Madcap Conjuration post-Shop, you should have enough damage to close out the game.

When playing against Item Shop Rune, the game can be divided into 3 stages: the “early game” stage involves trying to play around Authouring Tomorrow, Sudden Showers, Augmentation and Magic Missile, which is then followed by the “bait out Vergewalker Magician” stage, where you have to commit enough to the board to force the Rune player’s hand while still keeping back some cards to reload afterward (e.g., in Shadow lists, this usually means playing Milteo #1, in Sword, this means playing Amelia or some sort of Levin Beastmaster/Stroke of Conviction or Alyaska+Thief lines, and so on), and the final “coast is clear” stage, where you put as much toughness into play as you can going into the Rune’s player turn 7 (in Shadow, this means trying to line up the invocation of Aisha and Fieran with your Fatal Order/Bonanza Necromanca swing, in Dirt Rune, this means resolving Adamantite Golem and praying for 3/3s, in Sword lists, it means avoiding Enhance costs on your cards and playing out tempo Mirror Images/Pecorine, which should ideally line up with Fieran invocation, and so on). Some decks are better at these 3-stage setups (e.g., Elana Haven) and some are a lot worse (e.g., Control Forest or UB/Burn Blood), but most midrange decks in the format have lines of play that make the turn 7 Shops “OTK” a lot more difficult or outright impossible to pull off.

Mulligan priority

If you don’t see a Madcap Conjuration , keep Authoring Tomorrow , Magic Missile , and either Sorcery in Solidarity or Vergewalker Magician , prioritizing Sorcery over Vergewalker if you’re offered both.

, keep , , and either or , prioritizing over if you’re offered both. Keep Mirror of Truth against Blood. If you’re keeping Mirror , also keep Cauldron .

against Blood. If you’re keeping , also keep . If you see a Madcap Conjuration , keep it and toss Vergewalker / Sorcery . Keep Mirror/Cauldron in a set with Madcap .

, keep it and toss / . Keep in a set with . Don’t keep Arcane Aether, Travelers’ Respite, Arcane Item Shop or Prep.

Shops Rune mulligans are a bit convoluted, with the main decision point being based on whether you have a Madcap Conjuration or not. If there is no Madcap in your future, it’s often correct to simply keep your 2-mana cantrips like Magic Missile, Authoring Tomorrow and Solidarity. I prefer to not keep Insight, as an early Insight negatively impacts the deck’s winrate in my testing, which is likely primarily caused by the card being a quasi-combo piece, and there is no real value to cycling Insight on 1, as you can more or less play it at any point in the game. Generally speaking, the best early-game card in my testing has been Sorcery in Solidarity, followed by Magic Missile and Authoring Tomorrow. It should be mentioned that Authoring is a better play on turn 3 rather than on 2 in slower matchups (e.g., against Midrange Shadow, Blood or Discard Dragon). The Mirror of Truth line of play follows the same reasoning as in Dirt Rune, and there is a slight added benefit to it in Shops Rune: if you curve out Cauldron into Mirror, you’re not giving the opponent information of what Rune deck you’re playing, which doesn’t really make a huge difference, but is a slight upside.

The early Madcap lines of play are somewhat more confusing: ideally, you don’t want to discard your “big” combo pieces (Item Shop itself, as well as Vergewalker and Solidarity), and ideally you don’t want to waste too many of the “small” combo pieces (Respite, Aether, Prep), so keeping Madcap Conjuration always carries with itself a risk: if you keep it and then topdeck Item Shop into Solidarity (or in the more stressful case, double Solidarity or double Shop), then you can’t actually play Madcap in the early game, as you’re shooting yourself in the foot in terms of your actual combo setup. In that sense, Madcap Conjuration is a very difficult card to play: if you’re just discarding a bunch of garbage, it’s your best card draw spell, but if you’re discarding one of your big combo pieces, you’re basically throwing the game. The reason for keeping non-combo Amulets with Madcap is that ideally you’d want to fire it off as early as possible (in order not to increase your chances of drawing into more combo pieces), and since the deck has a ~ 2.25/1 ratio of Spells to Amulets, finding the 2 Amulets to get your 2/2-s is a lot more difficult than finding the Spells, and ideally you don’t want to tunnel vision on Madcap by wasting combo pieces with Aether/Respite/Prep. In a similar fashion to playing Discard Dragon, it’s important to keep track (ideally, write it down somewhere if you’re a boomer like myself, or just keep a mental note of it if your brain hasn’t turned into mush from old age yet) of what you discard if you play an early Madcap: not necessarily of every single card, but at least keep track of your combo pieces (Respite/Prep/Aether), Item Shops and Solidarities/Vergewalkers. My general recommendation to players new to Item Shop Rune is to try to never play Madcap if you’re discarding either 2 or more of your “small” combo pieces or 1 or more of your “big” combo pieces, and attempt to gradually increase how much risk you can take based on the matchup you’re playing, once you’re more familiar with the archetype. Long story short, you don’t always have to play Madcap early if it lines up poorly with the rest of your game plan.

Optional inclusions and tech cards

Item Shop Rune is an archetype that doesn’t have a lot of room for tech cards because of how restrictive its construction is, however, the third copies of Sudden Showers , Authoring Tomorrow and Magic Missile are theoretically something one could try cutting to slot in some number of cards. In a more practical sense, there is no real merit to straying from the build of the archetype listed in the JCGW2 tab. Looking at a decklist from the second week of July JCG events, one would think that it could potentially be a bit outdated, but with the way Item Shop Rune is constructed, even in the distant future, after a round of balance changes and a whole mini-expansion, these exact 40 cards are still the optimal Item Shop Rune decklist in competitive play. Crazy how nature does that.

, and are theoretically something one could try cutting to slot in some number of cards. In a more practical sense, there is no real merit to straying from the build of the archetype listed in the JCGW2 tab. Looking at a decklist from the second week of July JCG events, one would think that it could potentially be a bit outdated, but with the way Item Shop Rune is constructed, even in the distant future, after a round of balance changes and a whole mini-expansion, these exact 40 cards are still the optimal Item Shop Rune decklist in competitive play. Crazy how nature does that. Silent Laboratory is a card that has seen fringe play as a 1-of in early builds of the archetype. The issue with Lab in the current format is that it gives Rune targets for Clash/Augmentation in the early game, and the card also has some unfortunate board space implications in the post- Item Shop phase of the game.

is a card that has seen fringe play as a 1-of in early builds of the archetype. The issue with in the current format is that it gives Rune targets for in the early game, and the card also has some unfortunate board space implications in the post- phase of the game. Gourmet Emperor’s Kitchen and Mystic Absorption are cards that have seen play as 1-ofs before the Sword nerf, however, the awkward part of costing 3 makes these cards more or less unplayable in the post-Item Shop stage of the game (by the time you get to 3 open mana, there’s often no good targets for these cards), and these damage breakpoints are simply not particularly relevant against neither Dirt Rune, Midrange Shadow or Discard Dragon (the very midrange decks that you’re trying to target by running these 3-mana removal spells).

Dirt Rune Identifying cards: Juggling Moggy, Earth Sorceress, Lhynkal, the Fool, Aetheral Golem, Creative Conjurer, Adamantite Golem, Forbidden Darkmage, second and third Vergewalker Magician. What does Dirt Rune do? Dirt Rune is a midrange deck with a combo finisher that revolves around Earth Rite synergies. The archetype has 2 primary win conditions: on the one hand, naturally churning through your Sigils over the course of the game, when combined with chip damage from early game followers, Adamantite Golem, Mirrors, etc., can allow you to set up for a Darkmage that does somewhere in the realm of 13-16 damage. This approach primarily applies to tempo-based matchups and obviously doesn’t really work against decks with damage prevention effects (e.g., Azazel, Darkmage, Yukari, etc.) or decks that have a lot of healing (e.g., Sword), so Dirt Rune has another angle of attack: the inevitability package of Lhynkal and Karyl. An early Lhynkal can potentially set the opponent’s health total low enough that they can’t actually heal out of Darkmage range, and against Azazel decks and in the Dirt Rune mirror, a double Lhynkal setup (or Lhynkal into non-UB Karyl, if the opponent has a slower draw) can set up for a 13 damage Karyl + Veridic Ritual combo (which is a bit telegraphed, but goes through most combo-prevention effects). While Dirt Rune has a combo approach to closing out games, what puts the archetype on its figurative pedestal is its midgame interaction package: Vergewalker Magician, Magical Augmentation and Madcap Conjuration can put a damper on any board-based midrange deck attempting to proactively develop the board, and the archetype can also play a fair game with midgame threats like Adamantite Golem and cards like Imperator of Magic, which is supported by the draw engine of Darkmage, Earth Sorceress and, to a lesser extent, cards like Augmentation and Witch’s Cauldron, that allow the deck to curve out smoothly. Dirt Rune is an archetype that has a proactive gameplan (with an inevitability engine), efficient answers to a lot of decks in the format, and a fair bit of flexibility in terms of tech choices, making it the one of the better midrange deck of the Rotation format. After the mini-expansion (in which Dirt Rune didn’t get any playable support), the archetype has fallen out of favor to a pretty significant extent, with the main reasons for that being the prevalence of archetypes that can push chip damage (e.g., Artifact Portal, Baal Blood, Midrange Sword) in ladder play and the unfortunate fate of sharing its class slot with the perceived best-performing deck of the format, Spellboost Rune, in tournament play. These factors combined make tech cards like Zelgenea valuable and push Dirt Rune in a more control-based direction. Dirt Rune is a pretty well-refined archetype and there isn’t really a lot to iterate on as far as optimizing the deck goes, and while it’s certainly not particularly popular at present, it has been showing decent results in tournament play despite its minuscule representation. Dirt Rune is certainly not a deck I’d expect when queueing up into a Rune player on ladder, but it’s still a surprisingly decent archetype for how many players are sleeping on it. Skeleton

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たらこ Dirt Rune skeleton Dirt Rune Source Dirt Rune (median top 16 decklist from week 3 JCG finishes) Source Dirt Rune Source Dirt Rune (median top 4 decklist from week 2 JCG finishes) Source Dirt Rune Source Dirt Rune Source #1 Source #2 Dirt Rune Source Dirt Rune Source Dirt Rune Source Dirt Rune Source

Mulligan priority

Always keep Lhynkal and/or Juggling Moggy .

and/or . Keep Vergewalker Magician against Sword/Blood/Portal/Shadow.

against Sword/Blood/Portal/Shadow. Keep Mirror of Truth against Blood. Going second, also keep Cauldron if you’re already keeping a Mirror .

against Blood. Going second, also keep if you’re already keeping a . Keep Prep or Cauldron if you’re already keeping Moggy .

or if you’re already keeping . If you’re not keeping a proactive 2-drop ( Lhynkal/Moggy ), keep Creative Conjurer / Silent Lab , in order of priority.

), keep / , in order of priority. Don’t keep Adamantite Golem.

Dirt Rune is a bit different from other midrange decks in that a lot of its early developments are not particularly mulligan-reliant, since the deck runs somewhere in the realm of 15-21 2-drops, and although some of the 2-mana cards are better saved for later (e.g., Vergewalker and Madcap Conjuration), and you can certainly milk some of the deck’s 2-drops for more value (e.g., Earth Sorceress/Mirror), there is no real way to curve out badly with Dirt Rune. Lhynkal is the best 2-drop in the deck since it allows you to start the Lhynkal setup early, and Moggy is an extremely efficient early game follower (especially if you pair it up with Prep or if you manage to mise an Adamantite Golem on turn 1), so those cards are what I’m usually looking for in the early game against most decks.

Vergewalker Magician is extremely important to have for the Sword/Portal boards around turn 5-ish, but the card is often a dead draw in the Rune mirror. Mirror is pretty medium in most matchups, but copying a Bloodbinder is really good value (though it’s important to be aware of the fact that you can’t play Mirror on 2 when going first). In my testing of the archetype, I’ve noticed that the best-performing early game cards on average are Preparation (+16.67% relative winrate, ~50% played rate) and Darkmage (+10.89%, ~54% played rate), followed up by Vergewalker and Lhynkal (which are both +4.17% winrate, and around ~34% played rate). There could be some merit to blindly keeping Darkmage or Preparation, but it’s important to be aware of the fact that those cards are somewhat conditional, and I don’t believe that they’re correct to keep without any support pieces (not to mention that playing an early Darkmage makes it less likely to find another one in matchups where the damage prevention effect is relevant, e.g., against Terrorformer Forest). Cards with significant negative correlations include Imperator of Magic (-8.33%), Aethereal Golem (around -22%, but the played rate is very low) and, to a lesser extent, Creative Conjurer (-1.19%), which is why I generally do not prioritize keeping these cards.

Optional inclusions and tech cards

Lhynkal and Karyl were an optional package in the earlier builds of the archetype that has transitioned to be a staple in the post-Sword-nerf meta, since there has been a significant uptick in Dirt Rune and UB/Burn Blood. Even outside of meta-dependant shifts to the format, the Lhynkal / Karyl package opens up an alternative win condition to the archetype, and available tournament data (as well as my personal testing) leads me to believe that this is the best-performing midgame package one could feasibly include in the archetype, and omitting these cards makes the deck perform significantly worse.

and were an optional package in the earlier builds of the archetype that has transitioned to be a staple in the post-Sword-nerf meta, since there has been a significant uptick in Dirt Rune and UB/Burn Blood. Even outside of meta-dependant shifts to the format, the / package opens up an alternative win condition to the archetype, and available tournament data (as well as my personal testing) leads me to believe that this is the best-performing midgame package one could feasibly include in the archetype, and omitting these cards makes the deck perform significantly worse. Madcap Conjuration is primarily a tech card against Midrange Shadow, and, to a lesser extent, other midrange decks that generate tall boards that don’t die to Vergewalker (e.g., Midrange Sword, Haven, etc.). The big challenge of Madcap Conjuration is that activating the Follower and Amulet conditions is pretty trivial in Dirt Rune, however, having enough spells to not be completely out of action after clearing the board is the tricky part. In order to enable Madcap Conjuration , some Spells that can be ran include Mystic Absorption , Mysterian Wisdom and Authoring Tomorrow . The issue with all of these cards is that they don’t have particular synergy with what the rest of your deck is doing. An alternative to these medium Spell cards includes cards that convert themselves into Spells, with Lhynkal , Mirror of Truth and Creative Conjurer being chief examples, which I personally believe to be a better alternative to cards like Absorption . The reason for that belief of mine is that in matchups where Madcap is bad (e.g., Item Shop Rune or Terrorformer Forest), you also don’t have a bunch of other similarly bricky cards (e.g., Absorption has no targets against Item Shop Rune, and Authoring similarly doesn’t do a whole lot), but instead have 2-mana 2/2-s that at least provide some proactive tempo. In that sense, there is a pressure for Dirt lists to run Madcap Conjuration because of how popular Shadow is, but the support package for Madcap often includes mediocre cards, so the main bottleneck to optimizing Dirt lists likely involves making the Madcap package more consistent. Recent JCG results point towards Creative Conjurer being a possible solution, and I’ve personally had better results with Conjurer (than Absorption ) in Madcap lists, but it’s possible that a better support package might be uncovered later down the line.

is primarily a tech card against Midrange Shadow, and, to a lesser extent, other midrange decks that generate tall boards that don’t die to (e.g., Midrange Sword, Haven, etc.). The big challenge of is that activating the Follower and Amulet conditions is pretty trivial in Dirt Rune, however, having enough spells to not be completely out of action after clearing the board is the tricky part. In order to enable , some Spells that can be ran include , and . The issue with all of these cards is that they don’t have particular synergy with what the rest of your deck is doing. An alternative to these medium Spell cards includes cards that convert themselves into Spells, with , and being chief examples, which I personally believe to be a better alternative to cards like . The reason for that belief of mine is that in matchups where is bad (e.g., Item Shop Rune or Terrorformer Forest), you also don’t have a bunch of other similarly bricky cards (e.g., has no targets against Item Shop Rune, and similarly doesn’t do a whole lot), but instead have 2-mana 2/2-s that at least provide some proactive tempo. In that sense, there is a pressure for Dirt lists to run because of how popular Shadow is, but the support package for often includes mediocre cards, so the main bottleneck to optimizing Dirt lists likely involves making the package more consistent. Recent JCG results point towards being a possible solution, and I’ve personally had better results with (than ) in lists, but it’s possible that a better support package might be uncovered later down the line. Creative Conjurer is a support piece for the Madcap Conjuration package, however, the card can also be included in non- Madcap lists if you’re trying to go a little more aggressive. The cards that compete with Conjurer include Aethereal Golem , Silent Laboratory and The Mysterian Project . I have already listed some of the results that I’ve gotten with Aethereal Golem in the mulligan section, but, to reiterate the point, Aethereal Golem was one of the worst-performing cards in the deck. Silent Lab falls into a similar space, and while there are some functional differences between the two, Conjurer is generally more flexible than Lab in a lot of its applications. I am not a fan of Lab/Aethereal Golem , but Project is a card that certainly deserves some consideration, as copying an extra Karyl (or even Lhynkal ) can speed up your clock considerably against slower decks by giving you more threats. The toss-up between Conjurer and Project mostly depends on which direction you want to take the archetype: if you’re trying to be more proactive, Conjurer is generally better, but if you’re trying to beat healing-heavy decks (e.g., Sword/Haven), then Project is the correct tech card in the slot.

is a support piece for the package, however, the card can also be included in non- lists if you’re trying to go a little more aggressive. The cards that compete with include , and . I have already listed some of the results that I’ve gotten with in the mulligan section, but, to reiterate the point, was one of the worst-performing cards in the deck. falls into a similar space, and while there are some functional differences between the two, is generally more flexible than in a lot of its applications. I am not a fan of , but is a card that certainly deserves some consideration, as copying an extra (or even ) can speed up your clock considerably against slower decks by giving you more threats. The toss-up between and mostly depends on which direction you want to take the archetype: if you’re trying to be more proactive, is generally better, but if you’re trying to beat healing-heavy decks (e.g., Sword/Haven), then is the correct tech card in the slot. Zelgenea is a tech card against grindy decks like UB Blood and, to a lesser extent, slower midrange decks like Elana Haven and Artifact Portal. Dirt Rune does have a bit of healing, but the healing it does is either tied to Adamantite Golem RNG or is generally not very significant ( Darkmage ), so having a reliable healing card that lets you get out of range of Blood burn is invaluable. In addition to that, in midrange matchups where you’re under too much pressure to rely on resolving Karyl (e.g., Midrange Sword), having 1-2x Zelgenea in your deck allows you to have an additional 4 damage if the game drags out until turn 10, and since the damage is applied at the end of turn, it works with either Karyl or Darkmage . Zelgenea has a lot of utility and has been gradually seeing more and more play in midrange decks of the Rotation format, and Dirt Rune is certainly no exception, especially due to its tendency to get burned out.

is a tech card against grindy decks like UB Blood and, to a lesser extent, slower midrange decks like Elana Haven and Artifact Portal. Dirt Rune does have a bit of healing, but the healing it does is either tied to RNG or is generally not very significant ( ), so having a reliable healing card that lets you get out of range of Blood burn is invaluable. In addition to that, in midrange matchups where you’re under too much pressure to rely on resolving (e.g., Midrange Sword), having 1-2x in your deck allows you to have an additional 4 damage if the game drags out until turn 10, and since the damage is applied at the end of turn, it works with either or . has a lot of utility and has been gradually seeing more and more play in midrange decks of the Rotation format, and Dirt Rune is certainly no exception, especially due to its tendency to get burned out. Imperator of Magic is an optional 1-of in some lists, primarily aiming to provide value against follower-heavy midrange decks such as Midrange Sword, Artifact Portal and Discard Dragon. The card has some extra utility in the long grindy matchups, since it enables the turn 8 Imperator into Vergewalker line of play, which can be occasionally relevant against Sword in particular. The weak point of Imperator is that some decks in the format can sidestep the whole “play a follower” condition because they don’t play a lot of actual followers (e.g., Item Shop Rune), and even follower-heavy decks like Midrange Sword have cards like Mirror Image/Courtly Dance/Elegance in Action that delay the activation until turn 6 and make this 4-mana 2/2 look really silly. In my testing, Imperator has been one of the worst cards in the deck and I wouldn’t recommend running it.

Addendum: Adamantite Golem probability distribution

Adamantite Golem is yet another addition to random Shadowverse cards that follow the multinomial probability distribution in its outcomes. The more enfranchised Shadowverse players are likely already familiar with this probability distribution based on the time period when Orichalcum Golem was a prevalent card of the Rotation format. Unlike its Orichalcum counterpart, Adamantite Golem doesn’t have any overlap in its effects, so each of the outcomes follows the same probability distribution, the summary of which is shown in the image below. A more detailed breakdown of the exact configurations can be found in this spreadsheet.

Midrange/Rally/Evolve Sword Identifying cards: Shield Phalanx, Kagemistu, Matchless Blade, Gelt, Resolute Knight, Amelia, the Silverlfash, Honorable Thief, Regal Wildcat. What does Midrange Sword do? Midrange Sword is a blanket term for a midrange archetype that utilizes efficient Swordcraft followers (e.g., Kagemitsu, Gelt, Amelia, Alyaska, etc.) to generate proactive tempo, with an emphasis on Evolve synergy. The archetype also features a variety of Rally pay-off effects, such as as Honorable Thief, Shield Phalanx and Fieran. As there is a significant amount of overlap between the synergy packages available to Sword, the archetype has been described as “Rally” or “Evolve” Sword during the earlier stages of the expansion, although the distinction between the two is obviously quite unclear. The archetype has a quasi-inevitability engine with Zelgenea, which can deal 20 damage on turn 10 when combo-ed with Regal Wildcat, which can obviously be stopped with Wards and damage prevention effects like Azazel/Forbidden Darkmage, but still forms an important facet of Midrange Sword’s playstyle: even if you manage to deal with various combinations of efficient midgame followers over and over, if the game drags out until turn 10, you have to be aware of the Zelgenea/Wildcat setup, by either trying to go under it, or saving critical tech cards (e.g., Wards in general, or things like Yukari/Chanteuse) for the Sword player’s turn 10. After the mini-expansion, Midrange Sword has adopted Alyaska, and the power level of the card naturally pushes the deck in a more Evolve-based direction, which can partly be attributed to the fact that even before the mini-expansion, slower builds of Sword generally performed better in tournament play. It is no exaggeration to say that Sword got some pretty pushed cards not only in the set that introduced the evergreen Sword-specific keyword (Rally), but in the mini-expansion as well, and with the balance changes specifically affecting one of the other prevalent midrange decks at the time (Midrange Shadow), this patch has been the perfect storm for Sword: Cygames seem to have really wanted for Sword to see play, and they certainly succeeded in that goal. Mulligan priority Always keep Gelt and/or Kagemitsu .

and/or . Keep a proactive 2-drop, this includes Oathless Knight , Shield Phalanx or Levin Beastmaster , in order of priority.

, or , in order of priority. If you’re keeping 1 or more cards at this point, also keep King’s Welcome .

. Keep Mirror Image if you’re already keeping a Kagemitsu .

if you’re already keeping a . If you’re not keeping 2 3-drops or Mirror Image , keep Stroke of Conviction going first.

, keep going first. Don’t keep Invocation cards. Skeleton

JCG-W8

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とうや Midrange Sword skeleton Midrange Sword (median top 16 decklist from week 8 JCG finishes) Source Midrange Sword (median top 16 decklist from JCG 14-34) Source Midrange Sword Source Midrange Sword Source Midrange Sword Source Midrange Sword Source Midrange Sword Source

Sword mulligans are fairly straightforward: the general goal is to curve out (to start working towards your Rally thresholds) and hit your good cards (Gelt and Kagemitsu). The priority for 2-drops is that you’re trying to play your cards in order from worst to best: a lot of Sword 2-drops do the same thing on turn 2 in terms of tempo, but Phalanx and Beastmaster have actual utility in the later stages of the game, so it’s better to save them for later use when given the option. Steadfast Samurai and Thief are too vulnerable to incidental 1-damage pings (e.g., Augmentation or Magic Missile out of Rune decks and Rockback Ankylosaurus out of Discard Dragon being chief examples) and also trade unfavorably with 1/X-s, not to mention the obvious factor of saving better cards for later stages of the game, for when they can pick up some extra value. Pairing Mirror Image with a Kagemitsu is about as good as Sword’s early game synergies get: not only does it add +2 to your Rally count, it also contributes to evolve synergies and is generally a decent tempo play. After the Wildcat nerf, Sword decks really hate going first, as the archetype doesn’t really have anything productive to do on 4, so if you can’t manage to find a second 3-drop or a Mirror Image for your turn 3 Kagemitsu, a turn 4 Stroke of Conviction for 2 Quickbladers definitely looks ugly and quite sad, but it does help reach Rally thresholds, so it’s usually correct to grind your teeth, look away from the screen and play it to develop proactive tempo, even if it’s pretty painful to look at. King’s Welcome improves your odds of a turn 5 Amelia, which is where you generally want to be, but in most MidSword lists, it has a ~58% to miss and only get a Alyaska (which is still decent when played on curve, but obviously not particularly efficient), so I personally wouldn’t blindly keep a Welcome, but try to have some turn 2-3 follow-up at the very least.

Optional inclusions and tech cards

Resolve of the Fallen is an optional inclusion in Sword lists that I would personally consider a core card. Resolve is incredibly easy to activate for Midrange Sword, and while you’re not necessarily going to draw 2 cards from every Resolve you cast, a 1-mana removal spell is a necessity against Rune and Discard Dragon. Based on tournament data and my personal testing, the only viable replacement for a playset of Resolve of the Fallen in Sword lists is an animated playset of Resolve of the Fallen .

is an optional inclusion in Sword lists that I would personally consider a core card. is incredibly easy to activate for Midrange Sword, and while you’re not necessarily going to draw 2 cards from every you cast, a 1-mana removal spell is a necessity against Rune and Discard Dragon. Based on tournament data and my personal testing, the only viable replacement for a playset of in Sword lists is an animated playset of . King’s Welcome has been a fairly prevalent flex slot in Midrange Sword lists after the mini-expansion due to Alyaska being a card that you want to play as often as possible. Most Sword lists only run 7 total Commanders (3x Amelia , 3x Alyaska , 1x Wildcat ), and Welcome serves double duty with such a lineup of Commanders: in the early- to midgame, you’re generally happy to reliably fetch Amelia or Alyaska , and in the late game, if your Gelts still haven’t managed to find a Wildcat , King’s Welcome has higher odds of finding a Wildcat . Early MidSword lists defaulted to 3 King’s Welcome to help enable Lady of the Lance , however, with LotL getting less prevalent and with the archetype getting more threat-dense, it is difficult to justify running King’s Welcome as anything more than 1-2 copies.

has been a fairly prevalent flex slot in Midrange Sword lists after the mini-expansion due to being a card that you want to play as often as possible. Most Sword lists only run 7 total Commanders (3x , 3x , 1x ), and serves double duty with such a lineup of Commanders: in the early- to midgame, you’re generally happy to reliably fetch or , and in the late game, if your still haven’t managed to find a , has higher odds of finding a . Early MidSword lists defaulted to 3 to help enable , however, with getting less prevalent and with the archetype getting more threat-dense, it is difficult to justify running as anything more than 1-2 copies. Lady of the Lance , Tsubaki and Pecorine are cards that more or less do the same thing, with some minute differences: Tsubaki and LotL are Officers, while Pecorine is a Commander, so you can’t use evolved Amelia into Pecorine , but you can do so with Tsubaki/LotL . With the adoption of King’s Welcome in a significant portion of Sword lists, Pecorine has obviously started to see a lot less play than before the mini-expansion, so the competing cards in this slot are generally LotL and Tsubaki . I’ve personally found that Tsubaki is a bit better against Rune than LotL , since its activation often lines up with the turn when Fieran gets invoked, and Spellboost Rune has a hard time dealing with a 5/4 Ambush (since it survives a 3-damage Runie shot). Lady of the Lance is better against Sword/Portal, but I’ve personally found it to be pretty inconsistent in the early game, as you can’t expect it to be consistently active on turn 3 with 7-9 effective Commanders (counting King’s Welcome ).

, and are cards that more or less do the same thing, with some minute differences: and are Officers, while is a Commander, so you can’t use evolved into , but you can do so with . With the adoption of in a significant portion of Sword lists, has obviously started to see a lot less play than before the mini-expansion, so the competing cards in this slot are generally and . I’ve personally found that is a bit better against Rune than , since its activation often lines up with the turn when gets invoked, and Spellboost Rune has a hard time dealing with a 5/4 Ambush (since it survives a 3-damage shot). is better against Sword/Portal, but I’ve personally found it to be pretty inconsistent in the early game, as you can’t expect it to be consistently active on turn 3 with 7-9 effective Commanders (counting ). Mirror Image is an optional inclusion that enables a great number of Sword synergies in combination with Kagemitsu . If you’re trying to go more aggressive, it’s possible that running Mirror Image isn’t really that necessary, but if you’re trying to go for a more value-oriented midrange approach, running at least 2 copies seems correct, especially if you’re running other cards that work well with Mirror Image , such as Courtly Dance . I should note that Mirror Image also got a bit of a power boost with Alyaska around, as it can both do shenanigans if the opponent lets an Alyaska stick around for a turn, or even simply when combined with the Exterminatus Weapon if you can trade into something that kills the 6/6 off, so Mirror Image is a lot more versatile than it used to be.

is an optional inclusion that enables a great number of Sword synergies in combination with . If you’re trying to go more aggressive, it’s possible that running isn’t really that necessary, but if you’re trying to go for a more value-oriented midrange approach, running at least 2 copies seems correct, especially if you’re running other cards that work well with , such as . I should note that also got a bit of a power boost with around, as it can both do shenanigans if the opponent lets an stick around for a turn, or even simply when combined with the if you can trade into something that kills the 6/6 off, so is a lot more versatile than it used to be. Stroke of Conviction is an aggressive tech card that helps against specifically Rune, either by summoning 2 Quickbladers or pumping your team in the early game, or by punishing the opponent for leaving you with any semblance of board presence with its Enhance mode. A more midrange-y alternative to Stroke is Courtly Dance (which is obviously incompatible with Ernesta ) that can be used to tutor out Kagemitsu on turns 4-5 (with Mirror Image or the Honorable Thief token).

is an aggressive tech card that helps against specifically Rune, either by summoning 2 or pumping your team in the early game, or by punishing the opponent for leaving you with any semblance of board presence with its Enhance mode. A more midrange-y alternative to Stroke is (which is obviously incompatible with ) that can be used to tutor out on turns 4-5 (with or the token). Luxblade Arriet is a tech card against Blood/Rune. The main purpose of Arriet is its utility as a high-tempo healing card. I value healing a lot in the current Rotation meta, as a lot of decks tend to win through incremental damage, and I find it difficult to justify not running a full playset of Arriets if you want to have a decent shot at beating Rune.

is a tech card against Blood/Rune. The main purpose of is its utility as a high-tempo healing card. I value healing a lot in the current Rotation meta, as a lot of decks tend to win through incremental damage, and I find it difficult to justify not running a full playset of if you want to have a decent shot at beating Rune. Steadfast Samurai is an optional inclusion that particularly shines against Rune in the midgame and can pick up a decent amount of value against Blood as well. Samurai is a pretty mediocre 2-drop in the early stages of the game against all variants of Rune and Discard Dragon, but the damage prevention effect (and Storm) on its evolved body are invaluable against damage-based finishers like Darkmage/Karyl/Garnet Waltz/Razory Claw /etc. I personally do not value Steadfast Samurai particularly highly, as it feels pretty mediocre in a lot of matchups, but it can certainly run away with games if left unchecked against decks that don’t run Bane followers and/or damage-based removal.

is an optional inclusion that particularly shines against Rune in the midgame and can pick up a decent amount of value against Blood as well. is a pretty mediocre 2-drop in the early stages of the game against all variants of Rune and Discard Dragon, but the damage prevention effect (and Storm) on its evolved body are invaluable against damage-based finishers like /etc. I personally do not value particularly highly, as it feels pretty mediocre in a lot of matchups, but it can certainly run away with games if left unchecked against decks that don’t run Bane followers and/or damage-based removal. Oathless Knight and Ernesta are optional cards that have seen some testing in an attempt to improve the deck’s Rally timings. Oathless Knight is a fine 2-drop, and Ernesta has some cute synergy with Honorable Thief in the midgame. These cards work particularly well in tandem with Stroke of Conviction and Fieran if you have an aggressive early curve, but obviously don’t bring a lot of value to the table. An alternative to these options in slower Sword lists is Ilmisuna , which improves the archetype’s early- to mid-game curve and can bring some late-game value as well, can serve as a bad Valse if you’re getting overwhelmed, and adds another playable officer for Amelia and Alyaska .

and are optional cards that have seen some testing in an attempt to improve the deck’s Rally timings. is a fine 2-drop, and has some cute synergy with in the midgame. These cards work particularly well in tandem with and if you have an aggressive early curve, but obviously don’t bring a lot of value to the table. An alternative to these options in slower Sword lists is , which improves the archetype’s early- to mid-game curve and can bring some late-game value as well, can serve as a bad if you’re getting overwhelmed, and adds another playable officer for and . Fieran has gotten a lot less important with Midrange Sword going into a more Evolve-centered direction, so the rule of thumb for Fieran is that if you’re not playing a list that is particularly good at curving into an early Fieran, you can get by with 1 copy, however, if you’re playing a more aggressive Sword variant, it’s fine to run 2 copies. The problem with Fieran in current Sword lists is that you generally really don’t want to ever draw it, as it’s not really playable in a lot of matchups, but the free value is hard to pass up. Zelgenea, on the other hand, is a lot more playable out of hand, and with the current prevalence of Rune, healing is quite valuable, so it’s difficult not to run at least 2xZelgenea, even if the rate at which you’re getting the healing itself isn’t particularly great for a class so heavily specialized in healing as Sword. But of course, when I think about swords, healing is the first thing that comes to mind, that’s what swords do, naturally.

Midrange Sword is one of the three most popular archetypes in the current Rotation format, and in a similar fashion to Spellboost Rune, performs decently well against most decks in the field, with the only decidedly unfavorable matchup being Spellboost Rune. Due to having this unusual matchup distribution (unfavored against Rune, heavily favored against most “fair” decks of the format), Midrange Sword is a surprisingly highly-polarized archetype, so while it’s technically the best-performing of the “big 3” decks of the Rotation format, it is also the most meta-dependant of them, as performance of Sword heavily depends on the popularity of Spellboost Rune and overall meta diversity. For that reason, I believe that Midrange Sword is likely to be on a positive trend as experimentation with currently fringe decks starts to pick up, as Sword does well against a lot of the current Rune “counters”. Long story short, if players are trying to target Rune, it’s going to have a positive impact on the performance of Sword, and Midrange Sword itself isn’t exactly an archetype that is easy to target with the current understanding of the meta.

Baal Burn/Aggro Blood Identifying cards: Leraje, Nightprowl Vampire, Hellspear Warrior, Tyrant of Mayhem, Baal. What does Baal Blood do? Baal Blood is an archetype that I would personally categorize as aggro-control: the archetype has an aggro element of efficient Bloodcraft 1- and 2-drops, accompanied by a significant amount of reach, between Razory Claw/Garnet Watlz/Hellspear Warrior/etc.; as well as a control element of Io and Ravening Corruption, which can keep the opponent’s board developments in check while setting up enough burn damage to close out the game. A key element of the archetype is the synergy between Ravening Corruption and Baal, which can allow you to potentially deal a lot of face damage if the opponent’s board is clear, in a similar fashion to the Unlimited Ravening Blood archetype, which utilizes the combo of Ravening Corruption and Altered Fate to much the same effect. The opponent’s board can be cleared in 2 main ways: either with Io into Baal for 3, or with just a Baal for 6 (despite what the card text says, Baal does the AoE damage before the Ravening Corruption triggers go off), with the latter obviously requiring a lot more setup (as you can’t really get to 7 cards in hand without using Blood Pact-style effects, cards like Yuna, or a Baal on a prior turn). Baal Blood is a more aggressive evolution of the UB/Burn Blood archetype that can still play the control game plan with its card draw engine and interaction, but also has the ability to curve out aggressively and punish greedy decks and/or decks that lack healing. Baal Burn Blood has been showing some excellent results in recent tournament and ladder play, and while the archetype can struggle against Sword due to the amount of healing Sword has, it does fairly well against a lot of other decks in the format, particularly, against decks that hate seeing aggressive 1-drops and lack healing, such as Rune. Mulligan priority Always keep Vampiric Bloodbinder or Corrupted Bat .

or . Going first, keep Silverbolt Hunter/Lucius , with Silverbolt having priority over Lucius . Against Rune/Forest/Dragon, keep a 1-drop even when going second.

, with having priority over . Against Rune/Forest/Dragon, keep a 1-drop even when going second. If you’re not keeping a 1-drop, keep Confectioner / Tyrant of Mayhem . If you’re keeping a 1-drop, keep Tyrant of Mayhem/Bear Pelt Warrior , in order of priority.

/ . If you’re keeping a 1-drop, keep , in order of priority. Keep Io going second against Sword/Portal/Blood. Skeleton

Plachta

Making

病叉丸

スイスイ

こめこめ

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かなりあ

Zenobia Baal Burn Blood skeleton Baal Burn Blood Source Baal Burn Blood Source Baal Burn Blood Source Baal Burn Blood Source Baal Burn Blood Source Baal Burn Blood Source Pain Blood Source UB/Burn Blood Source

The mulligan priority for Baal Blood generally depends on whether you’re trying to be aggressive or reactive, which in turn depends on the matchup you’re facing (e.g., against decks that lack early interaction, such as Rune/Dragon, it’s generally correct to be aggressive), whether you’re going first or second and/or have a 1-drop. Silverbolt has priority over Lucius as it does more in the early game. Keeping Confectioner is correct if you’re trying to take things slow, but if you’re having an aggressive early curve, something a bit more substantial than a 1/2 goes a long way to establish a tempo lead. Due to how Baal limits your deckbuilding to have a lot of 2-drops, it’s hard to truly brick with Baal Blood, and while I certainly wouldn’t be as happy playing Leraje/Hellspear Warrior/Blood Pact/Permafrost Behemoth on turn 2 as I would be with a Vampiric Bloodbinder, they’re all decent proactive developments, so long as you can avoid the t2 Razory Claw of shame. Io is an important card to have if your opponent develops a wide board in the early turns, which is primarily relevant against Sword/Portal and in Baal Blood mirrors.

Optional inclusions and tech cards

Razory Claw is a card that surprisingly took a bit of time to settle into being a staple of Baal Blood. There is no question as to whether you want to run Garnet Waltz if you’re trying to build a Blood in any constructed format, but Razory Claw is a bit more cuttable if you’re trying to build a slower Baal shell, but in anything other than the greediest Baal Blood lists, I would personally consider Claw as a 3-of. Claw does have a bit of an opportunity cost in Baal lists, since you can’t fuse it to Baal , but it’s cheap enough to the point where it’s usually possible to dump it before playing Baal in most cases, and the value of having efficient burn spells in an aggressive Blood deck can not be overstated.

is a card that surprisingly took a bit of time to settle into being a staple of Baal Blood. There is no question as to whether you want to run if you’re trying to build a Blood in any constructed format, but is a bit more cuttable if you’re trying to build a slower Baal shell, but in anything other than the greediest Baal Blood lists, I would personally consider as a 3-of. does have a bit of an opportunity cost in Baal lists, since you can’t fuse it to , but it’s cheap enough to the point where it’s usually possible to dump it before playing in most cases, and the value of having efficient burn spells in an aggressive Blood deck can not be overstated. Confectioner , Corrupted Bat and Creeping Madness for a quasi-tutor package for Ravening Corruption . Madness has synergy with Hellspear Warrior , but so does Bloodbinder , Leraje , Blood Pact -style effects, and so on, so the Confectioner “package” has been phasing out of Baal Blood lists, gradually getting pushed out by more aggressive early-game options like Tyrant of Mayhem / Bear Pelt Warrior/Swarming Wraith/ etc..

, and for a quasi-tutor package for . has synergy with , but so does , , -style effects, and so on, so the “package” has been phasing out of Baal Blood lists, gradually getting pushed out by more aggressive early-game options like / etc.. Permafrost Behemoth and its budget-friendly version, Blood Pact , are an alternative draw engine to Alchemical Confectioner . Apart from the whole “3 is more than 2” argument, generic card draw has the advantage of being better at finding critical midgame cards (e.g., Io/Baal ) and burn spells (e.g., Garnet Waltz/Razory Claw/Hellspear Warrior ), most of which don’t have the Natura tribe tag. Generally speaking Permafrost Behemoth is strictly better than Blood Pact in most circumstances, as you get the card draw right away and only have to pay the life cost two turns later. In addition to that, while it’s certainly not the main goal of the archetype, with 3x Bloodbinders/Silverbolt Hunters/Razory Claws and some number of Creeping Madnesses/Tyrants/Bear Pelt Warriors /etc., in games that drag out for a long time, you can occasionally get to the Wrath threshold and have an additional 10-damage bomb with Permafrost Behemoth . The weak point of both of those cards is that they can make Baal a little bit worse at churning through your deck, but conversely, they also making reaching the 6-fusion Baal threshold easier.

and its budget-friendly version, , are an alternative draw engine to . Apart from the whole “3 is more than 2” argument, generic card draw has the advantage of being better at finding critical midgame cards (e.g., ) and burn spells (e.g., ), most of which don’t have the Natura tribe tag. Generally speaking is strictly better than in most circumstances, as you get the card draw right away and only have to pay the life cost two turns later. In addition to that, while it’s certainly not the main goal of the archetype, with 3x and some number of /etc., in games that drag out for a long time, you can occasionally get to the Wrath threshold and have an additional 10-damage bomb with . The weak point of both of those cards is that they can make a little bit worse at churning through your deck, but conversely, they also making reaching the 6-fusion threshold easier. Zelgenea is an optional tech card that helps against specifically Rune (by providing healing) and Sword (by being an answer to Alyaska ). While Baal Blood is certainly not just a control deck, having more healing is very valuable in the current Rotation meta, especially in a deck with a fair bit of self-damage. Due to synergy with Lucius and Io , Zelgenea is a lot less clunky than one would expect: sure, you can’t fuse Zelgenea to Baal , but it can often be a fairly efficient midgame threat when combined with other low-cost interaction. Yuna is a similar card to Zelgenea that has seen some play in early Baal Blood builds, and allows for a 2-turn 6- Baal setup: you start off by fusing everything you can to Baal , then refill with Yuna , and then run out the 6-fusion Baal on the following turn. The issue with Yuna is that it’s a bit clunky without Baal , and Zelgenea generally seems to be the better card for this type of functionality, since it also brings healing.

is an optional tech card that helps against specifically Rune (by providing healing) and Sword (by being an answer to ). While Baal Blood is certainly not just a control deck, having more healing is very valuable in the current Rotation meta, especially in a deck with a fair bit of self-damage. Due to synergy with and , is a lot less clunky than one would expect: sure, you can’t fuse to , but it can often be a fairly efficient midgame threat when combined with other low-cost interaction. is a similar card to that has seen some play in early Baal Blood builds, and allows for a 2-turn 6- setup: you start off by fusing everything you can to , then refill with , and then run out the 6-fusion on the following turn. The issue with is that it’s a bit clunky without , and generally seems to be the better card for this type of functionality, since it also brings healing. Nightprowl Vampire is an optional 1-of in non-Confectioner lists. If your deck contains no other Natura cards other than Ravening Corruption, Nightprowl can consistently fetch for it, enabling a few miscellaneous synergies along the way (e.g., activating Hellspear Warrior on the following turn, or the Fanfare of Ravening Corruption if you already have one, so when going first, you can Nightprowl into Corruption on 4, and then still have a Corruption to evolve next turn).

Regarding Control/UB/Burn Blood

Identifying cards: Azazel, the Depraved, Burning Constriction, Illya, Queen of Night, Archangel of Evocation, Lunatic Aether.

The more control-oriented versions of UB/Burn Blood have seen some experimentation after the mini-expansion, with the main impetus being Archangel of Evocation, which potentially added an additional big healing card to the archetype. Aside from generally getting overshadowed by its Baal-based counterpart, Control Blood has a lot of trouble outvaluing Sword and generally does worse against Rune and Portal than Baal Blood. For that reason, the archetype has rapidly declined in popularity after the first week of the mini-expansion and has seen little to no competitive experimentation. With the emergence of Ra Haven, Control/UB Blood has another awkward matchup, and as it stands currently, it is difficult to justify playing a grindy control deck that loses to a lot of the common competitive archetypes, which is further exacerbated by the long game duration that Control/UB Blood tends to have, which is a big downside for ladder play.

Regarding Pain Blood

Identifying cards: Nightscreech, Antelope Pelt Warrior, Darhold, Whiplash Imp, Sontemptous Demon, Vampire of Calamity, Luzen, Temperance.

Pain Blood has gotten a good toy in the mini-expansion in Nightscreech, which can churn through your deck, all while enabling evolve synergies (such as Io) and Avarice triggers (e.g., Nerea and Bear Pelt Warrior). What I’m trying to say is that Pain Blood is starting to approach a critical mass of synergy to where it can actually be a competitive archetype with a bit of additional support, and most of its current shell is going to remain Rotation-legal for 2 more set releases. Even with a very medium early curve, the deck can pretty consistently reach the Wrath threshold by turn 5, and while I’m certainly not hoping for another Valnareik/Flauros-level of payoff, Pain Blood is only 1-2 playable cards away from being an archetype to be reckoned with in the Rotation format, so it could very well be that this year’s WGP (if it’s still going to happen in December) could turn out quite similar to what we’ve had in 2018, where a majority of players were playing the exact same 40-card DFB list. We’re getting there, but we’re going to need a new layer of paint to cover up the dents in current self-damage-based Blood decks; the “t” is silent, of course.

Artifact Portal Identifying cards: Artifact Scan, Robotic Engineer, Vertex Colony, Android Artisan, Magic Gunsmith, Absolute Modesty, Rebel Against Fate, Ironsting Archaeologist, Artifact Duplicator. What does Artifact Portal do? Artifact Portal is a midrange deck that generates Artifacts and utilizes various Artifact pay-off effects, including cards that generate Paradigm Shifts tokens, Technomancer, Absolute Modesty, Artifact Duplicator and Artifact Scan. The basic game plan of Artifact Portal usually involves trying to get a few Paradigm Shifts in the early game, then start generating Artifacts, and ideally have a swing turn on 6 with the discounted Paradigm Shifts to set up for Duplicator on 7. Somewhere along the way, evolving Absolute Modesty can help generate incremental value/tempo by pinging the opponent (or their board), and the late-game setup against other midrange decks usually involves Vertex Colony on 9, which coupled with an Absolute Modesty ping, does somewhere in the realm of 10-14 damage. Before the end-of-August patch, the inevitability package of Awakened Ragna and Zelgenea was starting to become a lot more prevalent, which was a major development of the archetype, in that it allowed you to have a proper inevitability engine against grindy decks like Sword/Haven. After the mini-expansion, the addition of Lucille made the archetype a lot better at pushing face damage in the midgame, and also allows for unusual Spinaria setups (often enabled with the combo of trading off Lucille‘s Radiant Artifact and then copying Spinaria with Technoman, which generally gets you to the 6-Artifact threshold with just 3xParadigm Shifts and a random Artifact, such as from Gunsmith or Ironsting, for example). With the addition of Lucille, there is less of a need to include the Ragna package (although Zelgenea still has decent synergy with the Vertex Colony setup, which is in turn made more consistent if you’re running Lazuli). Long story short, Artifact Portal may have lost some of its late-game bite, but it is now a lot better at pressuring the opponent’s life total and setting up powerful Duplicator and/or Artifact Scan tempo swing turns. Mulligan priority Always keep Syntonization , Robotic Engineer and Android Artisan .

, and . If you’re keeping Syntonization , also keep Technomancer .

, also keep . If you don’t have an Artisan as a 2-drop, keep Vertex Colony .

as a 2-drop, keep . If you have a turn 2 play ( Colony , Artisan or Syntonization + Technoman ), keep Rebel Against Fate going first and Ironsting Archaeologist or Absolute Modesty going second, prioritizing Modesty .

, or + ), keep going first and or going second, prioritizing . If you don’t have a turn 1 play, keep Focus/Magna Giant. Skeleton

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シバ Artifact Portal skeleton Artifact Portal (median top 16 decklist from week 8 JCG finishes) Source Artifact Portal Source Artifact Portal Source Artifact Portal Source Artifact Portal Source Artifact Portal Source

The mulligan strategy of Artifact Portal isn’t too different from the pre-expansion iteration of the deck: you’re primarily trying to look for Paradigm Shift cards while curving out and setting up for your midgame. Focus and Magna Giant are 1-mana cantrips, which are not particularly impressive in a proactive midrange deck, however, due to the fact that Magna Giant has a high chance to fetch Paradigm Shift cards, and because Focus is delayed card draw, they’re generally better when played in the early game.

Optional inclusions and tech cards

Mugnier is a tech card against primarily Shadow/Blood/Dragon, and has the utility of getting rid of various Last Words effects on Shadow cards (e.g., Milteo , reanimated He Who Once Rocked , etc.). Mugnier can also pick up some decent value against Rune (getting rid of Last Words on Shikigami tokens), as well as Blood and Dragon (against Bloodbinder and Rockback Ankylosaurus / Eternal Whale ), which makes it a broad enough inclusion to be a common 1- or 2-of.

is a tech card against primarily Shadow/Blood/Dragon, and has the utility of getting rid of various Last Words effects on Shadow cards (e.g., , reanimated , etc.). can also pick up some decent value against Rune (getting rid of Last Words on Shikigami tokens), as well as Blood and Dragon (against and / ), which makes it a broad enough inclusion to be a common 1- or 2-of. Lazuli is a tech card that helps against specifically Sword by effectively being an extra copy of Vertex Colony in the late game. An important aspect of Lazuli in the Sword matchup is that if you’re going second, it sets up 2 Wards going into the Sword player’s Zelgenea + Wildcat turn, and while there are certainly some combinations of cards that can still kill you (e.g., a Resolve of the Fallen with a Thief , Ilmisuna or a second Resolve ), the Lazuli setup at least gives you a decent out if you’re going second against Sword. Outside of the Sword matchup, Lazuli is a pretty medium card, but I personally believe that the opportunity cost of running even a single copy is very low, and it still increases the consistency of your late-game finisher setups by a non-negligible margin, however, it gets a lot more clunky in multiples than cards like Mugnier , so there are some diminishing returns, and as such I wouldn’t ever recommend running a full playset, and even running 2 copies seems optimal only if you’re specifically expecting to see a lot of Sword.

is a tech card that helps against specifically Sword by effectively being an extra copy of in the late game. An important aspect of in the Sword matchup is that if you’re going second, it sets up 2 Wards going into the Sword player’s + turn, and while there are certainly some combinations of cards that can still kill you (e.g., a with a , or a second ), the setup at least gives you a decent out if you’re going second against Sword. Outside of the Sword matchup, is a pretty medium card, but I personally believe that the opportunity cost of running even a single copy is very low, and it still increases the consistency of your late-game finisher setups by a non-negligible margin, however, it gets a lot more clunky in multiples than cards like , so there are some diminishing returns, and as such I wouldn’t ever recommend running a full playset, and even running 2 copies seems optimal only if you’re specifically expecting to see a lot of Sword. Zelgenea is a tech card against primarily Blood, that can also pick up some value against slower midrange decks like MidSword and Elana Haven. Artifact Portal has a fair bit of healing, especially if you manage to roll a bonus Drain Artifact with Scan or Duplicator , but having some more healing to stabilize against a burn-heavy deck like UB Blood is quite valuable. In addition to that, Portal can get to turn 10 fairly consistently in grindy matchups, and having a “free” turn 10 bomb in your deck can set up some unusual lethals when combined with Vertex Colony and/or Airstrike Artifacts .

is a tech card against primarily Blood, that can also pick up some value against slower midrange decks like MidSword and Elana Haven. Artifact Portal has a fair bit of healing, especially if you manage to roll a bonus Drain Artifact with or , but having some more healing to stabilize against a burn-heavy deck like UB Blood is quite valuable. In addition to that, Portal can get to turn 10 fairly consistently in grindy matchups, and having a “free” turn 10 bomb in your deck can set up some unusual lethals when combined with and/or . Zelgenea isn’t quite enough to close out games in and of itself against decks with a lot of healing, and Awakened Ragna has become a fixture in current Artifact lists as a tech card against Elana Haven during the pre-mini-expansion patch (and to a lesser extent, UB Blood and Midrange Sword), as it allows you to play the Ragna token on 10, then attack with invoked Zelgenea (to stack the end-of-turn triggers properly), which is effectively a 1-card OTK. The Zelgenea/Ragna package has a relatively low opportunity cost, as Zelgenea generally does a lot of things that Artifact Portal is interested in, and Ragna is a decent card in and of itself even when the Enhance mode isn’t relevant in that specific matchup, however, Ragna has little defensive utility and does compete with Lazuli for its functionality as a piece of redundancy for your late-game quasi-finisher, so the Ragna package has started to fall out of favor after the mini-expansion patch.

isn’t quite enough to close out games in and of itself against decks with a lot of healing, and has become a fixture in current Artifact lists as a tech card against Elana Haven during the pre-mini-expansion patch (and to a lesser extent, UB Blood and Midrange Sword), as it allows you to play the token on 10, then attack with invoked (to stack the end-of-turn triggers properly), which is effectively a 1-card OTK. The package has a relatively low opportunity cost, as generally does a lot of things that Artifact Portal is interested in, and is a decent card in and of itself even when the Enhance mode isn’t relevant in that specific matchup, however, has little defensive utility and does compete with for its functionality as a piece of redundancy for your late-game quasi-finisher, so the package has started to fall out of favor after the mini-expansion patch. Ameth, Dream Emissary is a tech card against primarily Midrange Shadow, primarily useful due to its utility as an on-demand Ward, that can replace itself with another card in the midgame. In my testing, Ameth has not been particularly great, and it seems more like a broad “filler” tech card: if you’re unsure of what exactly you want to run in that slot and you don’t find a lot of value in Mugnier or Lazuli, Ameth is a very safe 1-of that has defensive utility and makes the deck run slightly better.

Artifact Portal is one of the most popular decks in the post-mini-expansion Rotation format, however, among the “big 3”, it is the least competitive archetype of the group. Artifact Portal is generally moderately unfavored against Spellboost Rune and Midrange Sword, however, it does quite well against most of the other decks decks on the fringes of the format, including Discard Dragon, Item Shop Rune, Ra Haven, Midrange Shadow, Control Forest and Blood across the board. This matchup configuration makes Artifact Portal a well-rounded and decently consistent ladder deck, however, it has generally been underperforming in tournament play compared to Sword/Rune, due to tournament meta having a lot more, well, Sword and Rune than the ladder environment. By no means does this imply that Artifact Portal is a bad deck in tournament play (especially in 3-deck formats), and with the recent uptick in Blood/Haven/Shadow, it could start seeing a bit more success, but the fact that Portal is generally unfavored against the most common BO3 lineup (Spellboost Rune/ MidSword) means that most deck lineups comprised of Artifact Portal and any other decks are going to perform worse than lineups that include some of the 2 other decks in the “trifecta”, but exclude Artifact Portal. This is a pretty convoluted way to say that Artifact Portal is unfavored against the current tournament field, but has its niche in the meta.

Midrange/Burial Rite/Reanimate Shadow Identifying cards: Bonenanza Necromancer, Helio, Sacrosanct Spirit, He Who Once Rocked, Aisha, Underworld Sovereign, Fatal Order. What does Midrange/BR/Reanimate Shadow do? Midrange (a.k.a. Reanimate) Shadow is a midrange deck that utilizes the Burial Rite synergy package and attempts to put He Who Once Rocked and Conquering Dreadlord into the destroyed followers pool, and then bring back He Who Once Rocked with either Fatal Order or the Enhance ability of Bonenanza Necromancer. In midrange matchups, it is often correct to trade off He Who Once Rocked, as the tempo lead of getting a 4-mana Conquering Dreadlord (which is at its worst a 14/14 across 3 bodies) is enough to grind out other midrange decks in the format, especially when supported by 7-8 invoke cards included in the deck, which create incremental tempo advantages “for free”, starting from turns 5-6. At its core, Midrange/Reanimate Shadow is a “fair” midrange deck that has a lot of “unfair” tempo-generating payoff effects. It’s similar to how Dredge is a “fair” deck in terms of how it wins (mostly through creatures and combat damage), but “unfair” in terms of how it generates its tempo: through milling itself using the combination of “discard-then-draw” cards (and natural card draw) and Dredge cards, and then bringing back Prized Amalgams with Narcomoebas, and in more recent times, with Silversmote Ghouls activated by Creeping Chill or Smiting Helix. The recent direction of Midrange Shadow has been towards a construction that is similar to PtP builds: the more common build of Midrange Shadow often includes the Gremory/Legendary Skeleton/Shuten-Doji/Sarcophagus Wraith “package”, and occasionally even includes a 1-of Hades, further blurring the line between Reanimate and PtP Shadow. This process has been exacerbated to some extent due to the fact that the “hybrid” build is less affected by the Sacristan nerf, which specifically makes Shuten-Doji and Legendary Skeleton a lot more valuable (since the deck’s midgame interaction has gotten weaker). Aside from this factor, Mirange/Reanimate Shadow is still showing decent results in tournament play (though it’s certainly played less after the mini-expansion) and neither the overall construction or play style of the deck is particularly different from its prior iterations. Just because Sacristan has been nerfed, it doesn’t mean that you’re suddenly cutting the best 2-drop in the deck, and just because Nephthys is a card, it doesn’t mean that you should be gimping your deck in order to enable bad 6-drops. On a metagame level, Midrange Shadow can have some issues against Sword if you lose tempo in the midgame, and the Ra-based Haven decks can be difficult to face if you don’t play around their banish/transform-based removal; but aside from Sword/Haven, when everything changes, everything stays the same: the Portal/Rune/Blood matchups aren’t actually too different (despite being represented by somewhat different decks for the latter 1.5 classes), and both the complete obliteration of Terrorformer Forest and the decline of Dirt Rune are favorable changes for Midrange Shadow overall. For that reason (and based on the archetype’s recent tournament performance), I have reason to believe that the knee-jerk reaction to the Sacristan nerf has been somewhat overblown, and player interest towards the archetype is likely to get reanimated in the near future. Skeleton

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あぐのむ Midrange Shadow skeleton Midrange Shadow Source Midrange Shadow Source Midrange Shadow (median top 4 decklist from week 2 JCG finishes, also coincides with Rus's list) Source #1 Source #2 Midrange Shadow Source Midrange Shadow Source PtP Shadow skeleton PtP Shadow Source PtP Shadow Source PtP Shadow Source PtP Shadow (median top 16 decklist from week 1 JCG finishes) Source PtP Shadow Source PtP Shadow Source PtP Shadow Source

Mulligan priority

Always keep Milteo , Spirit Curator , Demonic Procession and up to one Cloistered Sacristan .

, , and up to one . Keep Savoring Slash against Sword/Blood/Portal.

against Sword/Blood/Portal. Do not keep cards with the Invocation keyword in their text box.

After doing extensive testing, I’ve found that the only cards with a positive winrate correlation in Midrange/Reanimate/Burial Rite Shadow are cards with the Burial Rite keyword in their text box, with the only exception being Bonenanza Necromancer (which mentions Burial Rite in its text box, but doesn’t actually have Burial Rite itself). The big “payoff” effect for Burial Rite cards in the early game is Sacristan, however, there is a bit of finesse with Sacristan: you generally don’t want to pop the Amulet before you get to evolve Sacristan, so it can be correct to stagger the Sacristan when going first (e.g., by playing it on 3 if you don’t have a Curator). Other midrange decks in the format have this silly tendency to play proactive 2- and 3-drops, however, in my testing, Bonenanza Necromancer, Jackshovel Gravedigger and Helio all have significantly negative winrate correlations (with Jackshovel Gravedigger being the best of the 3 and bringing down winrates by only 8.22%, and both Helio and Bonenanza Necromancer boasting a winrate delta of less than -20%), which leads me to believe that these cards aren’t actually ran in the deck to play them out of your hand (or at least, in the case of Bonenanza Necromancer, until you get to its Enhance cost). The only tricky Burial Rite card is Savoring Slash: you don’t want Slash against decks that don’t play followers in the early game, so it’s generally a clunky card against Discard Dragon, in the Shadow mirror and against Item Shop Rune (and occasionally against Dirt Rune, although Rune is obviously a bit of a toss-up). Shadow mulligans are a bit unorthodox as far as midrange decks go: you don’t really want early game tempo, and the deck’s optimal curve involves setting up for the big tempo swings on turns 5 and 6.

PtP/BR Shadow

Identifying cards: Sarcophagus Wraith, Hades, Father of Purgatory, Gremory, Death Teller, Friends Forever.

What does PtP Shadow do?

PtP/Burial Rite Shadow is a midrange archetype that relies on the Burial Rite synergy package to amass a sufficiently high number of Shadows to activate Gremory, which can then allow it to cheat mana costs with Legendary Skeleton and eventually close out the game with Hades damage and the tempo lead generated by mana refunds. The archetype is functionally very similar to Reanimate/BR Shadow, in that it utilizes a lot of the same early-game cards, however, the pay-off is that you get to utilize Necromancy cards with high Shadow costs (Skeleton Man, Shuten-Doji, Friends Forever) a lot better than its more midrange-y Reanimate counterpart. As such, PtP Shadow is generally slower and more reactive than Midrange Shadow, so it does better against grindy midrange decks (e.g., Elana Haven), but struggles against anti-Amulet tech cards (e.g., Resolve of the Fallen or Mugnier) and faster inevitability engines (such as, against Rune across the board). For that reason, while there are some reasons to play PtP Shadow over Midrange Shadow, the two archetypes are more or less two sides of the same coin: their win condition and game plan have differences, however, they utilize a lot of the same tech cards, which is why I am going to discuss the optional inclusions of the two archetypes in tandem.

Optional inclusions and tech cards

Legendary Skeleton is a tech card in Midrange Shadow for the MidShadow mirror and other board-based midrange decks, such as Elana Haven. Skeleton Man somewhat interferes with Aisha , as both cards compete in their role of being a Shadow sink, and as such, the inclusion of Skeleton Man usually means cutting Aisha . In PtP Shadow, Legendary Skeleton is the best card in terms of Shadows/mana cost, so it is a key enabler for the archetype’s strategy, and as such, is unequivocally a 3-of. The recently prevalent build of Midrange Shadow often cuts Jackshovel Gravediggers altogether for a playset of Legendary Skeletons , as well as cards like Aisha and the third Fieran getting cut for 2x Gremory , which effectively means that there are the two main Midrange Shadow shells: the “conventional build” ( Jackshovels/Aisha/Helio ) and the “hybrid Gremory build” (with 2x Gremory , 3x Skeleton and Sacrophagus Wraiths in the Helio slot). Gremory builds have a weaker midgame (since the 2-4 Milteo split gets weaker without Jackshovel , and due to Fieran being harder to invoke), but have the upside of enabling high-tempo turns around turns 7-8 with Gremory refunds, either using Legendary Skeleton or Shuten-Doji as Necromancy outlets.

is a tech card in Midrange Shadow for the MidShadow mirror and other board-based midrange decks, such as Elana Haven. somewhat interferes with , as both cards compete in their role of being a Shadow sink, and as such, the inclusion of usually means cutting . In PtP Shadow, is the best card in terms of Shadows/mana cost, so it is a key enabler for the archetype’s strategy, and as such, is unequivocally a 3-of. The recently prevalent build of Midrange Shadow often cuts altogether for a playset of , as well as cards like and the third getting cut for 2x , which effectively means that there are the two main Midrange Shadow shells: the “conventional build” ( ) and the “hybrid Gremory build” (with 2x , 3x and in the slot). Gremory builds have a weaker midgame (since the 2-4 split gets weaker without , and due to being harder to invoke), but have the upside of enabling high-tempo turns around turns 7-8 with refunds, either using or as Necromancy outlets. Shuten-Doji is a tech card against Sword, Portal and other midrange decks, which is primarily played in PtP lists, but also crops up in Midrange/Reanimate Shadow. Shuten-Doji trades exceptionally well in the Shadow mirror, as the 3/6 Bane statline is very annoying for a deck that runs a bunch of 4/4s, in addition to that, it also activates Jackshovel Gravedigger to be a cheap on-demand removal spell for 2, and allows you to push a lot of extra damage with Legendary Skeleton if you’ve reached the Shadow threshold or to be another efficient removal spell if you haven’t. In addition to that, Shuten has the slight upside of activating Demonic Procession , and makes for a good Reanimate target from Milteo (which is relevant with how the Milteo probability distribution is skewed towards the 4-2 and 3-3 outcomes). I am personally of the opinion that Shuten should be at the very least a 2-of in PtP lists (with 3 copies being preferable if you’re trying to target midrange decks), and the recent performance of the card in Reanimate lists leads me to believe that it could have potential in that archetype as well, although it does compete for Shadows with Aisha , in a similar manner to Legendary Skeleton , which means that it primarily shines in Midrange lists running the Gremory package.

is a tech card against Sword, Portal and other midrange decks, which is primarily played in PtP lists, but also crops up in Midrange/Reanimate Shadow. trades exceptionally well in the Shadow mirror, as the 3/6 Bane statline is very annoying for a deck that runs a bunch of 4/4s, in addition to that, it also activates to be a cheap on-demand removal spell for 2, and allows you to push a lot of extra damage with if you’ve reached the Shadow threshold or to be another efficient removal spell if you haven’t. In addition to that, has the slight upside of activating , and makes for a good Reanimate target from (which is relevant with how the probability distribution is skewed towards the 4-2 and 3-3 outcomes). I am personally of the opinion that should be at the very least a 2-of in PtP lists (with 3 copies being preferable if you’re trying to target midrange decks), and the recent performance of the card in Reanimate lists leads me to believe that it could have potential in that archetype as well, although it does compete for Shadows with , in a similar manner to , which means that it primarily shines in Midrange lists running the package. Friends Forever is a tech card against Blood and and to a lesser extent, Spellboost Rune, primarily run in PtP lists. Healing is fairly valuable in PtP lists, as Shadow only has Sacristan and Sarcophagus Wraith to get out of burn range, neither of which is particularly efficient. The tricky part of PtP Shadow is that you don’t really want to run too many high-Shadow cards, as they can be “bricks” in the midgame, where if your Shadow count is just enough to, let’s say, activate Shuten-Doji , but not high enough to activate Gremory , they get stranded in your hand, as you can’t afford to play them without sabotaging your game plan. The issue with Friends Forever in that context is that while the other 2 cards in this category ( Skeleton Man and Shuten-Doji ) are followers, you can’t Burial Rite Friends Forever , so it is the biggest brick of the three. With that factor in mind, Friends Forever is rarely ran as anything more than a 1-of. A comparable card to FF in Midrange Shadow is Zelgenea , which not only has the upside of being a follower, but also has the additional utility of having an extra threat (or, if nothing else, 4 damage) in games that drag out, although 5-drops are obviously not particularly exciting in decks that try to resolve as many Milteos as possible.

is a tech card against Blood and and to a lesser extent, Spellboost Rune, primarily run in PtP lists. Healing is fairly valuable in PtP lists, as Shadow only has and to get out of burn range, neither of which is particularly efficient. The tricky part of PtP Shadow is that you don’t really want to run too many high-Shadow cards, as they can be “bricks” in the midgame, where if your Shadow count is just enough to, let’s say, activate , but not high enough to activate , they get stranded in your hand, as you can’t afford to play them without sabotaging your game plan. The issue with in that context is that while the other 2 cards in this category ( and ) are followers, you can’t Burial Rite , so it is the biggest brick of the three. With that factor in mind, is rarely ran as anything more than a 1-of. A comparable card to in Midrange Shadow is , which not only has the upside of being a follower, but also has the additional utility of having an extra threat (or, if nothing else, 4 damage) in games that drag out, although 5-drops are obviously not particularly exciting in decks that try to resolve as many as possible. Lara, Soul Taker is an optional inclusion that works particularly well with Sacristan , but often competes with Milteo on curve. Lara enables some really unfair swings, which in essence makes it comparable to a 4th copy of Fatal Order , which is a bit more conditional (needs to be paired up with a Burial Rite effect on the same turn as it’s played), but can potentially provide a lot more tempo that can generate even more tempo than Milteo (since it comes with a 4/4 body, and the tempo swing of evolving Sacristan on 5, dumping Dreadlord into the bin, and then Lara for a 12/12). Lara is a sweet card, and there isn’t that much opportunity cost to running it as 1-of (as you can always Burial Rite it if your curve doesn’t line up to get it online), but it’s also not exactly necessary in any specific matchup and it’s only really at its best when the deck is functioning poorly (read: doesn’t have Milteo on curve), and the turn 4 Sacristan highroll doesn’t really happen too often.

is an optional inclusion that works particularly well with , but often competes with on curve. enables some really unfair swings, which in essence makes it comparable to a 4th copy of , which is a bit more conditional (needs to be paired up with a Burial Rite effect on the same turn as it’s played), but can potentially provide a lot more tempo that can generate even more tempo than (since it comes with a 4/4 body, and the tempo swing of evolving on 5, dumping into the bin, and then for a 12/12). is a sweet card, and there isn’t that much opportunity cost to running it as 1-of (as you can always Burial Rite it if your curve doesn’t line up to get it online), but it’s also not exactly necessary in any specific matchup and it’s only really at its best when the deck is functioning poorly (read: doesn’t have on curve), and the turn 4 highroll doesn’t really happen too often. Guilt, Existential Blader is an optional inclusion in Midrange Shadow that helps dig through your deck with the help of early-game followers like Jackshovel Gravedigger and accelerated He Who Once Rocked . Guilt has the important utility of popping Milteo if the opponent chooses to let it stick in play, as well as allowing you to clear up space if you’re board-locked, both of which are surprisingly relevant applications of the card. The big downside of Guilt is that it’s not a follower, or rather, it’s not a follower that you want in your Reanimate pool (as you usually want He Who Once Rocked to represent a Dreadlord ), so running more than 2 copies can get clunky with Burial Rite cards in the early game. PtP Shadow doesn’t run Fatal Order or He Who Once Rocked , so it can get away with running Guilt , and due to the synergy between Soul Conversion -style effects with Gremory , it is a staple 3-of in PtP lists and only a fri