[Shadowverse archive]

Shadowverse is a digital card game for mobile devices made by Cygames available on Google Play or the Apple App Store. If you are familiar with digital card games, Shadowverse basically Hearthstone with less RNG and more anime. At it’s core, Shadowverse is a nice mix between Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering, making it one of my favorite game out right now.

– Gameplay video –

– Distinct Classes and Mechanics –

Unlike traditional card games like Magic the Gathering, digital card games such as Hearthstone and Shadowverse have specific classes with specific cards. For example, a Shadowcraft card can never be used with other cards from a Bloodcraft set. By separating the card pools, cards can be balance according to a smaller pool so unexpected card combinations cannot be abused as easily as Vampire Hexmage and Dark Depths from Magic the Gathering.

In Shadowverse, each character not only has class-specific cards but also different mechanics such as Overflow and Vengence, making each class feel unique.

The official Shadowverse game guide has a nice list of the classes and their cards. Common strategies and playstyles will be discussed here briefly.



– Rerolling Your First Free Packs –

The first thing to do in Shadowverse is to play the in-game tutorial. It is a rather decent tutorial with some not-bad story and voice-acting. Play through it the first time and enjoy the story as much (or little) as you want. There is a skip button on the upper right hand corner for easy skippage. Finishing the tutorial rewards with with a good number of packs, which can be complemented by free packs Cygames gives out all the time. Each class also has its own tutorial for its unique mechanics in the story mode.

The best start you can have for your Shadowverse collection is opening Legendaries and Golds in your first opening packs.

Shadowverse is a mobile game, so you can clear the application data extremely easily (usually Settings > Application Data > Shadowverse > Erase Data). This resets your game as if it was freshly installed. You have to play (or skip) the tutorial again, but you get a fresh set of free packs to open up again.

Pro tip: you can press Skip at the upper right hand corner at any time, even after opening the last pack, to get a neat little summary of all the cards you opened up.

Rerolling is not essential to enjoying this game as Commons and Uncommons alone can make powerful decks. However, this option does exist for competitive players. Or you can do what I did and put in like $7 to open up the daily 50 crystal (half the normal price) packs. You get a decent of them for a cheap price over time.

– Single Player Story Mode –

The first part of the story for each class is an introductory tutorial to the class’s mechanics. Get a feel for every class so you know what class Legendaries and Golds you want to obtain.

Once you have an idea for the classes you enjoy, finish their story to be rewarded powerful Uncommon cards. While their rarity are low, every class’s story reward is staple in most of their decks and well worth your time. Plus, the voice acting and story isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen. Also keep in mind, you can skip the dialogue and only play the duels if you want.

You’ll also level up your class very easily, earning you free Rupies to buy more packs.

Your story progress restarts when you clear your saved game, so don’t try to finish too many (if at all) until you decide to not reroll anymore.

– Shadowverse Portal –

Shadowverse Portal is the official card database and deck builder website for Shadowverse. Not only is it comprehensive, but the deck builder can also be directly imported into your mobile game via the deck code. Simply generate a temporary deck code on your computer or mobile web browser and input it into your deck creator and vice versa! The game will put in the deck list with the cards you own. This makes it extremely easy to try online builds or craft new ones. How extremely convenient!

– Closing Thoughts –

Hopefully this introduction has enlightened you on some pre-game tips for Shadowverse and given you a first look at what to expect! This continuously evolving card game is a delight to play due to its interesting mechanics, such as Evolve. The next article will cover more gameplay tips along with how Evolution is the key to winning. Let’s meet next time on the battlefields~

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