11. Evolve Blood

"I suppose I'll dance with you" - Mono, Garnet Challenger

Bloodcraft is a class known for thriving in pain. Whatever hurts you, makes you stronger but in this case, it is evolving followers that matter.

In Shadowverse, players only have two or three evolution points based on who has the first turn. Whoever goes first gets two evolution points while the player that goes second gets three. For this deck, it saves the player great trouble from using too much of it as long as they fulfill its condition.

For Evolve Blood, it’s just a Tuesday for them.

Evolve Blood is a combination of Machina cards from the latest set and cards that are about evolution from previous ones. Evolve Blood relies on evolving followers without relying on the player’s evolution points due to its limited uses.

Evolve Blood’s strengths are: 

• Easy Evolution
  One of the most important tactics Evolve Blood follows is evolving as many followers as possible. For this deck, some followers have easy conditions that will allow them to evolve immediately. That follower is Metallic Bat.
  
  Metallic Bat is a one-cost Bronze Bloodcraft Follower that will add an Assembly Droid to your hand when it’s destroyed. But, whenever defense is restored to the player, Metallic Bat evolves. 

  Metallic Bat is a simple but effective card that allows it to evolve for free during the player’s second turn. This card goes best when Ruins of Aiolon grants the player the Recovery card token so that the player can play it when a Metallic Bat is in play.

• Supportive Cards
  Evolve Blood’s second strength revolves in synergy with Machina and non-Machina cards. One such card is the amulet, One Reminder.
  

  One Reminder is a one-cost Bronze Bloodcraft Amulet that can fuse with other Machina Cards in your hand. Once played, if it is fused with at least one card, its Countdown is increased to two.

  One Reminder’s effect activates based on the start and end of the player’s turn. If it’s the end, it restores one defense to the player. If it’s the start of the turn, the player draws an additional card.

  One Reminder is an efficient card refilling your hand and restoring a small amount of defense to the player. It also helps that it has a lot of Fusion materials to be used to fuse to it such as Recovery and Assembly Droid from other Machina cards. With these strengths, this card will ensure that you’ll reap those benefits with ease.Chain Reaction

• Chain Reaction
  Finally, Evolve Blood’s greatest strength is the power to create a chain reaction to evolve two or more followers in a single turn. And look no further than Blooming Dancer.

  
  Blooming Dancer is a two-cost Golden Neutral Follower that when summoned, will automatically evolve as long as there is another evolved allied follower in play. In her evolved form, the player draws a card when she’s destroyed.

  Blooming Dancer is an example of playing the right cards at the right time. As long as an allied evolved follower is in play, Blooming Dancer can destroy any enemy follower without sacrificing any of your other followers on the field.

With these strengths in mind, the top three cards for an Evolve Blood deck are:

Mono, Garnet Challenger

With her elegance and strength, Mono is the Resistance’s strongest fighter and the eldest of her two sisters, Tetra and Aenea.

Mono, Garnet Challenger is a two-cost Legendary Machina Follower that grants the player Garnet Release if five allied followers have evolved in this match. Although she cannot be evolved by normal means, her evolved form’s effects are very potent.

In her evolved form, she gains Storm and Strike. Whenever she attacks, if ten allied followers have evolved this match, all allied evolved followers gain Storm like her.

Garnet Release is a two-cost Legendary Bloodcraft Token Spell that simply evolves all allied Machina followers that haven’t been evolved.

Mono has been a household name when it comes to Evolve Blood since her introduction in 2019. Her spell lets the player evolve her and other Machina followers, allowing the player to utilize her Strike effect to give all other evolved followers Storm.

Lian & Alfie, Hunters/Lian & Alfie, Companions

While Bloodcraft is mostly about bloodthirsty monsters and demons, it is also home to its hunters who stalk their prey in the dead of the night. For these two, their prey are the beastly monsters that dare to hunt innocent people. Their names are Lian and Alfie.

Lian & Alfie, Hunters is a two-cost Legendary Bloodcraft Follower that has Ward and Clash. Clash is an ability that activates whenever the follower with Clash battles the enemy follower, regardless of who attacked first. For the Clash effect, it deals one damage to an enemy follower, before battle damage is done.

Then, if another allied follower evolves, Lian & Alfie also evolve, increasing their Clash effect to three damage.

They also have a Fusion effect that allows them to fuse with any card in the player’s hand. The effect only activates if five allied followers have evolved. And when the conditions are met, their card is Transmuted into Lian & Alfie, Companions. 

Lian & Alfie, Companions is a one-cost Legendary Bloodcraft Follower that has the same effects as an evolved Hunters except it gains the effects of reducing all damage from effects to zero and immunity from any effect that destroys them, including Bane (an effect that any amount of damage from a follower with Bane will instantly destroy a follower).

Lian & Alfie is another card that helps in reaching ten evolutions. Their Hunters and Companions forms are important as shields that can destroy followers with weak defense or weaken followers with defense higher than them.

Ruler of Retribution

Born from death and rebirth, this monstrous demon seeks nothing but rage and vengeance for all of humankind.

Ruler of Retribution is a five-cost Legendary Bloodcraft Follower that has Rush and restores three defense to the player. It has Last Words that places another Ruler of Retribution to the deck that costs one play point and increases its attack and defense to ten. It also has a unique effect called Invocation.

Invocation is an effect that sends a copy of a certain follower to play when the card’s conditions are met. But, if the invocated follower has a Fanfare effect, that effect won’t activate because it was summoned from the deck rather than being played from the hand. For Ruler of Retribution, it will invocate another Ruler of Retribution with five attack or less if five or more allied followers have evolved this match.

The Ruler of Retribution is a powerful card that is used to sacrifice itself to destroy enemy followers. But, if the player managed to summon its one-cost form, he/she must evolve it and play Mono and her token spell to give it Storm.

This tactic is mostly used in finishing the game where the player is confident in destroying any follower the enemy has and dealing twelve to twenty damage to the enemy player.

Other Notable Cards:

• Asuka & Shiori, Twins

• Doublame, Seeker of Beauty

• Gadel, Ravenous King

• Aluzard, Linked Vampire

• Oceanus, Shifting Grace