Thanks to the prerelease event for Verdant Conflict coming up later this week (or now even), we were able to get news about the upcoming balance changes about a week earlier than usual. All the changes the game announced were Unlimited-focused, too, so we got plenty to sift through. I’ll break each change down based what it does for the craft first, then how the change will potentially impact the metagame as a whole.

Dark Dragoon Forte

Well, that didn’t last long. The original announcement for the restriction of Dark Dragoon Forte was posted as part of the June 2019 patch, accompanying the release of Rebirth of Glory. This would make it the shortest time a card has stayed on the Unlimited restricted list by far. Hilariously enough, many Unlimited players were in agreement that the original choice to hit her was a pretty bad call, as Forte’s winrates were quite inflated thanks to its matchup spread versus the rest of top tier despite having mostly average matchups against decks in tier 2 and below. The problems we had with the metagame back then stemmed from the decks Forte was winning against, not Forte herself. Either way, let’s have a look at what this does for Dragoncraft and the metagame as a whole:

For Dragoncraft: This lifted restriction will likely put Disdain Aggro Dragon back to being the best Dragoncraft deck in Unlimited, with Ramp Dragon not too far behind. Class diversity will be upped by a good amount, as now there’s at least four solid Dragoncraft decks to pursue instead of the two we had during Rebirth of Glory. Along with Ramp Dragon and Roost Dragon, Storm Ramp Dragon and Disdain Aggro Dragon are now back on the map as potent choices for the class. While Forte had her fair share of unhealthy contributions toward the Unlimited metagame in the past, there’s no denying that she was still at the forefront of Dragoncraft deck direction as a whole. Either way, this should be a well-received change for the class.

For the metagame: Disdain Aggro Dragon was previously at the top of Steel Rebellion’s metagame due to its fantastic matchups against Artifact Portal, Spartacus Sword, and Old Roach Forest while mostly breaking even with Daria Rune. While Spartacus Sword and Old Roach Forest have mostly faded away, the remaining two decks still see common play as solid tier 1 and tier 2 choices respectively. I don’t expect the Artifact Portal matchup to change much, as Forte being an unattackable win condition still gives that deck plenty of nightmares. However, Daria Rune’s newfound option in Twinblade Mage may shift that matchup towards her favor. Old Roach Forest has pretty much been fully superceded by Whirlwind Roach Forest as well. Due to that deck being able to consistently secure turn 6-7 wins, it may be difficult for Forte to keep the same level of presence as it did before. Whirlwind Roach Forest plays a much deeper and varied removal package than Old Roach Forest as well, so establishing a wide, resilient board may prove to be a challenge for Disdain Aggro Dragon moving forward. Regardless, the return of Forte at the full three copies also means the return of Artifact Portal’s Achilles heel, and that alone can command a relevant presence in the Unlimited metagame.

Shield of Flame

This card was part of a much older set of balance changes that centered around weakening the speed and non-interactive nature of Ambush Sword, or more commonly known as Frog Sword during the Starforged Legends metagame. In hindsight, the choice to change the extra damage condition to an Enhance ability is a very strange one, but it later proved to be the world’s least efficient answer to the once oppressive Prime Dragon Keeper, a card that previously held the exact same cost and pre-evolve statline as Yurius, Traitorous Duke. So uh, thanks, I guess? But now that the Enhance has been traded back for the Ambush condition, let’s see what that entails for the near future:

For Swordcraft: The current form of Ambush Sword in both Rotation and Unlimited are now led with the abuse of Leod, the Crescent Blade, with Vagabond Frog and Veteran Vagabond Frog occasionally being used as possible backup plans. The return of the Ambush condition on Shield of Flame won’t necessarily raise the ceiling of the deck, but it does nicely expand the removal options the deck has, especially against decks that build incredibly large followers like Elana Haven. As for other decks, Leod sees frequent use in multiple variants of Midrange Sword thanks to his flexibility on both offense and defense in the early and midgame. Shield of Flame here provides a bit of additional option coverage for those decks, with Ivory Sword Dance as its most direct competitor for that removal slot. But since Leod is usually the only source of Ambush that MidSword opts for, this option will likely prove to be less consistent than the former or even Usurping Spineblade. As such, this change is honestly nothing too crazy for Swordcraft, but it’s still better for the card to be this way instead of remaining as an almost strictly worse Seraphic Blade.

For the metagame: While a change like this would strike fear and despair into the Rotation playerbase, I can’t imagine any similar movements to potentially occur in Unlimited at all. Ambush Sword may see a brief uptick in usage for the first few days, but will likely quickly fade back into obscurity again due to the weaknesses of the deck still being the exact same as before, with Verdant Conflict’s release only making those weaknesses even easier to exploit. Other Swordcraft decks won’t get too much mileage from this change either, but it’s still welcomed as a newly revived removal option in the card pool should the need arises. The shortcomings of the class as a whole will take much more than this to be able to fix. Very marginal impact.

Chromatic Duel

Admittedly, I have the least amount to say about the history of this card, as I was not active in the game during Dawnbreak Nightedge and Brigade of the Sky’s metagames. Supposedly it was the period where MidSword reached its peak reputation of being a “braindead” deck, but it’s likely that is the Rotation playerbase talking about it and not Unlimited. But now with this return to an Enhance 6, we are on the road to restoring the cards and strategies that dominated that era. And with recent new mechanics at Swordcraft’s disposal thanks to Verdant Conflict, there’s a bit more to this card than meets the eye, especially after this unnerf.

For Swordcraft: Natura Sword raises an eyebrow, now that there’s more than just Mistolina, Forest Princess to fill in the 6-cost slot for play point recovery cards. With Chromatic Duel added to the mix, Natura Sword can take advantage of both it and Meet the Levin Sisters! to easily trigger Bayleon, Sovereign Light‘s leader effect each turn. And for Chromatic Duel‘s case, one can play either half of it, then instantly buff it using King’s Might with the remaining play points. However, for other MidSword decks, the effect this change will have is uncertain. The problem with Chromatic Duel in more generalized MidSword decks isn’t that its Enhance went live too late, but rather that both of its Choose options are notably weaker than what Dragon Knights and Meet the Levin Sisters! can provide. Queen Magnus the Black is a fantastic tech option to think about though, and being able to access her with a bonus Queen Hemera the White in hand two turns earlier than usual should prove very useful for Ironwrought Fortress variants in particular, gaining access to two additional Commander followers to trigger the Fortress with. Enhanced Dragon Knights is also now considerably slower than Enhanced Chromatic Duel, so perhaps that niche of speed is enough for the card to see play again in more specialized MidSword variants.

For the metagame: Honestly, given the somewhat below average performance of the card even when played without Enhance, Chromatic Duel isn’t looking to rewrite entire matchups on its own. Queen Magnus the Black is plenty strong versus Spellboost Rune, Whirlwind Rhinoceroach Forest, and some Bloodcraft variants, but she was already capable of influencing these matchups well before the Enhance ability even becomes live. Queen Hemera the White is at her best when going first and played on turn 4, but her usefulness severely dwindles on every turn afterward. And that’s the thing: while the Enhance of 6 is great to have back, Chromatic Duel is still at its best when played earlier than turn 6. The card still lacks the win condition potential Dragon Knights has and doesn’t provide a tempo swing on the same degree as Meet the Levin Sisters!, especially when Jeno, Levin Stalwart gets involved. However, as mentioned in the previous section, Natura Sword may get a ton of mileage from this Enhance, so if that deck takes off in Unlimited, this card is well worth paying attention to.

Council of Card Knights

This absolute unit of a card, spawned from the notorious Wonderland Dreams set, was once heralded as one of the best 5-cost cards to ever be printed at the time. And its power really showed across all forms of Swordcraft conceivable. The sheer versatility and board presence this card commanded was utterly unmatched and was practically a Swordcraft staple during its heyday. As such, its cost was previously nerfed together with Ephemera, Angelic Slacker to mainly curb the dominance of Aggro Sword in particular. But with this upcoming return to its 5-cost glory, now is the time to see how well these card lads have aged.

For Swordcraft: A massive weight has been lifted off Celia, Hope’s Strategist as there now is a card that can do her pinch board fill role, but better and with less opportunity cost outside of deck space. The 5-cost slot for Swordcraft has been in a somewhat strange state, as none of the options there have the same level of impact or efficiency as anything lower or higher on the curve. I’m unsure if Council of Card Knights will be able to have that impact the class is looking for, but it’s a new option to be tested and it has promise at the very least. If it works out, the card will be back on near-staple status for many Swordcraft lists to come. Otherwise, the search for the optimal 5-cost card continues as usual. And interestingly enough, it now competes with the Enhance ability of the upcoming Elegance in Action for being the best 5-cost card available. The Heavy Knights that card summons don’t carry the same neat keywords as the Card Knights, but the draw power it provides may prove invaluable to more grind-based decks. It’s really not easy being a 5-cost card in Swordcraft.

For the metagame: The board fill with the quick summoning of the 1/3 Ward follower will prove to occasionally be a mild annoyance for the Whirlwind Rhinoceroach Forest deck, making it more difficult for them to Pixie Mischief or Predatory Might themselves out of rough situations. Another neat thing about the followers it summons is that they’re all 3-cost tokens, letting them dodge non-Enhance Seraphic Blade with ease. The 3/5 statline post-evolve on each token also ensures Whirlwind Rhinoceroach won’t be able to evolve and run over them safely. With all this in mind, Council of Card Knights is looking to be a pretty nice defensive measure in that specific top tier matchup. Unfortunately, the card will only serve to be Acceleratium fodder against Artifact Portal, is weak against multiple Bloodcraft builds, and is only somewhat average against Elana Haven thanks to Spade Raider requiring an evolve or Gilded Boots to be able to address large followers. It’s a volatile card to use against the top tiers, but considering the other 5-cost options available, there may not be a whole lot that can be done about it.

Shadow Reaper

If I could name a single card to be the most influential Ambush follower in the history of the metagame, it would be this spooky lad. By feeding on the dead bones that the once 3-cost Prince Catacomb spread all over the Midrange Shadow player’s board, Shadow Reaper grew to insane levels of stats in an incredibly short amount of time, and will only continue to grow if the opponent failed to remove it after it left its Ambush state. It being originally 2-cost made it a simple task to play multiples of it in a single turn as well. The card singlehandedly combined the wide, sticky, swarmy style of Midrange Shadow with the big, tall, and dangerous life of Lord Atomy, resulting in one of the most iconic top tier decks of all time. As a result, the hand of the balance team was forced, nerfing Shadow Reaper to 3-cost, causing almost all of its potency to vanish into thin air. But with that change now undone, let’s see if this return to its original 2-cost state can bring back those good old tier 0 memories for Shadowcraft.

For Shadowcraft: This class regains its original incentive to pursue their iconic sticky board playstyle. While Prince Catacomb and Skull Ring still remain at their nerfed state at 4-cost each, alternative options such as Helio, Sacrosanct Spirit, Fran, Monster Girl, and Bone Chimera are likely the next go-tos for supplementing Shadow Reaper. Prince Catacomb is still a potent choice even after his cost increase, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the curve of turn 3 Catacomb turn 4 double Reaper isn’t possible quite yet. Nevertheless, the potential return of Shadow Reaper and the threatening presence of Thoth‘s Fanfare effect provides multiple win conditions for Midrange Shadow to take advantage of, each with a different route in mind to pursue. The main challenge here to consider would be budgeting the extremely crowded state MidShadow’s 2-cost options, but I don’t foresee that to be too much of an issue in the long run after some adjustments of the deck’s overall gameplan.

For the metagame: With the potential return of sticky MidShadow in mind, Artifact Portal’s (probably) easiest matchup becomes something for Artifact Portal to possibly respect when Shadow Reaper hits the field across from thier Acceleratium. The continuous board clears only serves to make the Reaper stronger, and due to the complete absence of life gain and hard non-targeting removal in the standard version of Artifact Portal, it becomes a primary concern for that deck to not clear more of MidShadow’s stuff than is necessary, as the return strike could prove lethal. An evolved Reaper can also act as a fantastic check against an early Kel, Holy Marksman, as all the followers his ability clears only feeds the Reaper. Havencraft decks using Kel, Holy Marksman would have increase the number of heal triggers used on that turn in order to fully remove Shadow Reaper, which means less heal triggers available for other plays. A board state of evolved Reaper and Lurching Corpse is the ultimate board state that declares: “Kel my board, I dare you” to achieve in that matchup. Versus Whirlwind Rhinoceroach, however, Reaper unfortunately will often end up as a dead card due to Predatory Might and Pixie Mischief being able to hit it out of Ambush. A low-investment Aria’s Whirlwind is also more than enough to not only board clear, but destroy Reaper before it gets a chance to grow. Same goes for Bloodcraft and their access to Entrancing Blow, Evil Eye Demon, and Calamity Bringer. In other words, the standard counters to the Ambush keyword still affect Reaper all the same, but in the matchups where those counters aren’t in play, Shadow Reaper absolutely shines and demands the same kind of fear it once instilled in its opponents in the past.

Little Soulsquasher

This card has always been known to possess one of the most play point efficient removal abilities in the game, but what really puts it on top was it also having the long-coveted 2/2 statline. This not only allowed her to be played safely on turn 2 to establish curve, but also lets her battle during Evolve turns much more efficiently and once again surviving all the trades she previously couldn’t while the nerf was in place. It’s very reminiscent of the effects Valse, Magical Marksman‘s statline nerf had on Midrange Sword while it lasted. While I don’t predict this change to have nearly the same level of impact as Shadow Reaper‘s or Gremory‘s changes, Little Soulsquasher‘s return to her original statline still makes her once again one of the top choices to consider for the early curve of any Shadowcraft deck.

For Shadowcraft: The largest takeaway from this change is that MidShadow finally gets back their solid alternative 2-cost 2/2 option for its early curve next to Belenus. More ways to deny Magic Missile is always appreciated after all. This is far from unknown though, as plenty of other 2-cost 2/2 followers exist in both the Neutral and Shadowcraft card pools. However, the added bonus of her Fanfare ability preserves her value throughout all stages of the match. This is something none of the other standard 2-cost MidShadow followers can boast for themselves aside from Lurching Corpse. And speaking of, her Fanfare should also greatly reduce the reliance on Lurching Corpse for quick and cheap removal. Having another 2/2 to summon off of Lady Grey, Deathweaver is also more than welcome for when those scenarios matter. In short, the unnerfing of the Lara-before-she-was-named-Lara provides Shadowcraft not only a much needed alternate source of removal to more consistently control board, but also serves to improve the class’s quality of life in the early game with the return of her precious 2/2 statline. Just make sure your shadow economy can afford the additional Necromancy effects.

For the metagame: Now here’s where things get a little awkward for this card. With the very recent push for more frequent free evolves and evolves through abilities, Little Soulsquasher should have no shortage of amazing targets for her Fanfare to snipe. Yurius, Traitorous Duke and Lecia, Sky Saber are among her juiciest targets especially. The restoration of her 2/2 statline also means she can safely be played in front of things like Forest Bats and Quickbladers. No, this is not where the awkwardness lies. Instead, the Necromancy cost is the main point of contention here. Reaching 4 shadows can prove to be a tricky task to do, particularly during the early game before manual evolves get enabled. So in the matchups where Little Soulsquasher is most useful, MidShadow may end up having to commit to somewhat suboptimal lines of play in order to hit that shadow count in time. This isn’t a new problem for the class in the slightest, but it’s one to still think about now that the card in question is back to her original 2/2 state. And eventually, those 4 shadows spent will cost future Demonlord Eachtar plays. Do keep these factors in mind if you are wanting to update your MidShadow decks with these reverted old cards.

Gremory

Out of all the nerfs that got reverted on this day, Gremory‘s is the one I expected the least. Turn 6 Gremory into turn 7 Eachtar is still one of the most powerful curves in the Unlimited metagame, and the fact that the decision was made to give MidShadow this option back speaks volumes about the state of the format. In fact, Gremory is still a somewhat used option in MidShadow even before this change, which really begs the question of how weak MidShadow became in such a short amount of time. Thanks for nothing, Whirlwind Rhinoceroach and Augmentation Bestowal. But the fact of the matter is that Gremory is back to her original ridiculous state, and now with even more methods for her to go nuts than before.

For Shadowcraft: It’s pretty much clear at this point with both the Shadow Reaper and Gremory changes that a hard reset of the function and identity of Midrange Shadow will be due quite shortly. These two cards along with Prince Catacomb have shaped the core of the deck for quite a long time, and I can’t help but get excited for this deck’s return to form in the future. Gremory‘s near-busted synergy with Eternal Vow gets even more ridiculous with this change, allowing 3-cost followers to join the Gremory evolve party much easier than before. Remember that Helio summons a Lich with his evolved Last Words ability instead of the regular Zombie. Working towards Thoth‘s Fanfare condition gets much more streamlined now that Gremory no longer has to compete with Demonlord Eachtar for the turn 7 play of choice. This is a route that MidShadow has missed for a very long time, and the number of ways to take advantage of it has dramatically increased.

For the metagame: All other midrange decks in Unlimited now have their old and well-known standard to try and meet again. While Gremory doesn’t look to make MidShadow’s bad matchups that much better, she’ll be the one to reestablish it as the best midrange deck in Unlimited. This return to (mostly) unnerfed MidShadow can also introduce a pretty simple way to gauge the strength of an unknown deck. As in, if a deck doesn’t have a consistent way to combat or at least last through the Gremory -> Eachtar curve, it’s likely it will struggle against the rest of the Unlimited metagame. The gameplan against MidShadow of keeping their board empty as long as possible still stands, but now that sense of urgency to stick with that plan is greatly amplified and with less time to succeed. With all the mentioned changes here, Shadowcraft got the most impactful ones of them all, and it should not be much of a surprise for MidShadow to be near the top of popularity stats like it once was before.

Final thoughts

All these Swordcraft unnerfs and still no love for my boy Blazing Lion Admiral. I’m unsure what the balance team is afraid of at this point, as their new Regal Wildcat is looking to have an even greater splash than him in his debut, but I guess I have to be patient just a little longer. Shadowcraft on the other hand, got the biggest hookup with this patch, getting almost every card that was nerfed for MidShadow restored to their former glory. Oh, and welcome back Dark Dragoon Forte. More seriously though, I don’t expect the Unlimited meta to be flipped upside-down with these changes, but this is a good first step towards the revival of board-based strategies as a whole. All that’s left for the full comeback is to delete Artifact Portal from this cruel world. Keep it up.