[Top 5] Shadowverse Best Swordcraft Decks

Shadowverse Best Swordcraft Decks
Updated:
24 Aug 2020

[Top 5] Shadowverse Best Swordcraft Decks

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This is a review of the Top Five Swordcraft decks in Shadowverse. The review will be based off a deck’s primary strengths and weaknesses.

5. Hour of the Banquet

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Hour of the Banquet is the fifth deck in our lineup, made up of cards primarily from the Classic and Darkness Evolved card packs, packs released when the game was first launched. It may be an older deck compared to the others, but it’s easy to create on your own without crystals and does well against storyline opponents in general.
 

Deck Review 

  • The deck has officially been updated with ward cards such as Dragonewt Charlotte and Frontguard General (not currently pictured), making this deck an excellent defense choice. Paired with the other powerful ward, Aurelia, Regal Saber, defense is suddenly well balanced in a deck that used to be primarily concerned with speed alone
  • Many cards in Hour of the Banquet allow you to draw powerful commanders or officers that will enhance followers you already have in play. Cards such as Maid Leader and Pompous Princess have those abilities, allowing you to put followers in your hand or in play. One of Swordcraft’s main strengths is that it utilizes the relationships between its Officers and Commanders to win, something this deck takes advantage of.
  • The deck itself can be unpredictable to certain opponents, as Swordcraft is primarily known for being purely offensive with not much defense on its side. This means that most opponents will have decks suited to taking out offensive Swordcraft strategies, therefore this deck’s wards will be a sure fire distraction that can allow you to slip past normal shots that would easily defeat you.
  • However, this deck is made up of older cards that could easily be taken out by newer legendary cards and more modern strategies of today. It could easily be destroyed by an experienced online opponent, meaning that in order to really make use of this deck in an online fight, you would have to be fairly experienced yourself.
  • While the deck is well balanced in offense and defense, it can be easy to get caught up in only one aspect of it. For example, if you’re used to primarily speedy Swordcraft decks, it’s easy to forget that the defensive aspect of Hour of the Banquet exists.

Deck Power: 87/100

 

4. The Heroes Four

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The Heroes Four is the fourth deck in our lineup, made up of cards primarily from Chronogenesis, Brigade of the Sky, and Dawnbreak Nightedge. It’s primary strength resides in its ability to give followers certain effects by playing said followers at specific points. There are also a fair amount of spells in The Heroes Four, making it easier to support your followers in play if you don’t want to waste an important follower you might need later.

 

Deck Review 

  • The Heroes Four focuses primarily on giving followers special effects when brought into a play at a specific moment. These are called Enhancements. For example, if the ward, Holy Bear Knight, is brought into play during your fifth turn, it will gain two points of defense and two points of offense. This allows him to remain on the field for a longer period of time, meaning that it will take longer for your opponent to take him out. When Enhancements are activated, they can easily turn a match around when things might have gone south otherwise. This makes The Heroes Four extremely useful.
  • This deck is strong in its healthy amount of powerful low cost cards. For example, the Homebound Mercenary heals itself every turn that it isn’t destroyed, meaning that it's kept on the field for an extensive amount of time with the ability to be a major inconvenience to your opponent. With low cost cards such as this one, it’s easy to take control over the field early on.
  • The Heroes Four also has a perfect amount of its heavy hitting cards in its ranks such as Chromatic Duel and Lancer. Most Swordcraft decks, and even most Shadowverse decks in general, don’t necessarily have the decent number of heavy hitting cards to balance out your strategy. It can be that since they don’t show up often enough, you have to create a completely different strategy without them, making their presence in your deck pointless. The Heroes Four doesn’t do that, and that makes your battle planning easier and smoother.
  • However, while this deck’s strength is found in its enhancement powers, it can be considered a weakness as well. Many enhancement effects don’t activate unless the follower is played on a certain turn, meaning that they could be potentially useless until then. These cards also cost more play points in order to activate them, so your timing has to be on the dot. The Heroes Four is full of these cards, making the battle slightly more stressful.
  • This deck can be so intense that if you take your eye off it for a moment, you could be in serious trouble. This means that this deck should be utilized by intermediate players only, as enhancement effects can be a time consuming to grasp when you first start the game.

Deck Power: 89/100

3. Unsheathed Fury

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Unsheathed Fury is the third deck in our lineup, and is made up of cards primarily from Brigade of the Sky, Altersphere, and Omen of the Ten. Unsheathed Fury is a Gilded deck, meaning that effective spell cards such as Gilded Boots and Gilded Blade are essentials to victory. They can be applied to your leader and your followers to either heal, raise attack and defense, or even affect their general attack status. Swordcraft decks are fast in general, but this one can blow them out of the water.

 

Deck Review

  • This deck doesn’t leave you too reliant on high cost cards to secure a win. In fact, you can easily snag a victory using only three play point cards. This makes play point counting in general less stressful in general.
  • Unsheathed Fury is especially a good match for Aggro Dragoncraft or Aggro Bloodcraft, as it can maintain a steady speed against them. Regardless of what spells or tricks they may have up their sleeves, it still takes a few turns to either reach Overflow or Vengeance. This is the perfect time to strike, and the speed of Unsheathed Fury allows you to do that.
  • Similar to Hour of the Banquet, Unsheathed Fury is also a more ward focused Swordcraft deck, only better as it’s a quicker mover. These wards, such as Holy Bear Knight and Rapier Master, throw the enemy off their guard if they aren’t used to Swordcraft ward decks. These cards themselves are also on the low cost side, meaning protection can come early.
  • However, with its incredible speed, Unsheathed Fury can be very overwhelming, and the Gilded spell cards are easy to utilize at the wrong time if you weren’t paying attention before. If you play them too soon or too late, you drew them for nothing. For casual players, this deck would not necessarily be for you.
  • Speaking of Gilded cards again, it’s easy to use them up too quickly if you assume you have an easy win ahead of you (which in general Shadowverse tips is never a good idea). Regardless, if you use them all too soon, Unsheathed Fury is suddenly useless, as it is a Gilded deck. It takes concentration and even some number skills. If you aren’t into those, I recommend you use something else. 

Deck Power: 93/100

 

2. Break of Twilight 

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Break of Twilight is the second deck in our lineup, made up primarily of cards from Altersphere and Steel Rebellion. Break of Twilight is a Swordcraft Machina deck, the only primary Machina Swordcraft deck made. This deck primarily focuses on invoking cards in order to activate their effects. Invoking means that once a certain requirement is met, the card will automatically bring itself out of the deck and put itself into play. This means you won’t be wasting play points and have the opportunity to make a combination of powerful moves. Break of Twilight is a powerhouse that no one saw coming.

 

Deck Review

  • One of its biggest strengths is its ability to add attack and defense to in play followers or to give them Rush before they even attack. This means that you have a better shot of taking out enemy followers that were standing in your way from attacking the enemy leader. This leads to the fact that if you already had followers on the field, you don’t have to waste their potential on anyone other than the enemy leader.
  • In order to take care of Invocations in this deck, such as with the Blazing Lion Admiral, you have to destroy a certain amount of Machina followers. Luckily, cards such as Hoverboard Mercenary and Ilmisunia, Arms Dealer, allow you to draw plenty of low cost Machina cards that have every ability to be played on the same turn and be taken out at the same time. This is a crucial strategy and should not be underestimated.
  • Machina is a recent type of card, meaning that this deck has strategies that can keep up with the new Fortunes Hand cards that just came out. While the other decks can keep up to a decent extent, this one has more modern strategies that allow for compatibility card wise. You’re more likely to have an advantage when it comes to modern decks versus the others.
  • However, the main issue with Break of Twilight is that it can be slower than most Swordcraft decks. Invocation isn’t always as quick as it seems, and sometimes getting the Blazing Lion Admiral out on the field takes too long. Actually, without the Invocation cards, Break of Twilight can be difficult to gain momentum with on the field. Your leader can plunge deep into the low health spectrum before you can really make the effects work.
  • One of the biggest problems of this deck is actually the Blazing Lion Admiral, as it remains a blessing and a curse. It’s one of the heavy hitters that the deck relies on as one of the important Invocation cards that make the deck what it is. However, there’s only one of it, and here’s where it becomes problematic. If you end up drawing it at any point in the game, the card will never get Invoked and will have to waste your play points on it. Since there’s only one, you have no chance of drawing another one like it, messing up any general strategy you might have had before.

Deck Power: 96/100

 

Top Deck Out Of Five: Gallant Gourmand

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Gallant Gourmand is the final deck in our lineup and the best out of the best. It is made up of the Rebirth of Glory, Ultimate Colosseum, and Verdant Conflict card packs. It’s strength lies in that it is the most recently created Swordcraft deck, meaning that it can be used in Online Rotation battles and can easily square up against the modern decks of today. This is another deck that focuses on regaining play points, but with a Natura twist, making it all the more powerful than a normal Swordcraft deck. You’ll see exactly why that is when you take in it’s strengths.

 

Deck Review

  • It has cards with Rush that allow followers to attack on their first turn, meaning that it can be easy to jump around followers already in play and attack the enemy leader head on. These followers are a mixture of low cost and mid range in terms of play points, meaning that using Rush followers isn’t limited to one part of the game.
  • It’s primary hitter, Bayleon, Sovereign Light, is only four play points. This card's effect allows you to put a King’s Might into your hand each time you regain a play point. This new spell allows you to add offense and defense to a particular follower whenever you play it. In fact, if a Naterran Great Tree is in play at the same time, it will add an extra number to the original. This card, along with Mistolina, Forest Princess, are what make Gallant Gourmand such a powerhouse deck.
  • Gallant Gourmand’s strength lies in the fact that it’s a mixture of more than one type of Swordcraft deck. It is a mixture of Levin, Gilded, and Natura. The mixture of these three allows for powerful combinations that can create a battlefield that completely dominates the match and can confuse your enemy. This especially works because they give you opportunities to gain the upper hand regardless of whether you go first or second, a huge advantage. 
  • However, since Bayleon is a staple card of the deck and often makes it especially strong, the deck can fall weak if he isn’t drawn in time. If you don’t have another strategy up your sleeve it can feel as if you have no options left. Adding to that, there’s also only two of him in the deck, making the drawing chance even more unsure.
  • Sometimes it can be difficult to tell when to play certain followers. Many followers in this deck help you to regain play points, and it can be tough to decide what to put in play if you’re waiting for that Bayleon. If he happens to be taking longer than usual and refusing to show up, you have plenty of followers in your hand that are collecting dust when they could be on the battlefield. It takes a lot of concentration and wise decision making overall.

Deck Power: 100/100

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Gamer Since:
2012
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RPG
Currently Playing:
Shadowverse
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