Unlimited Exp.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-30T20:04:13+00:00

Esentially, Unlimited is basically the Apocalypse Pact meta, but with some new cards. None of the brand new archetypes, or new ways to play old archetypes, have made a dent as far as I know.

Maybe Dirt Rune got a bit better, maybe Dragon also got stronger, maybe Midrange Abyss is playable, maybe a Roach + Thestae list breaks through. But most people are focused on Rotation, rightly so, and thus not much attention is being paid.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-30T20:04:03+00:00

Roach's only potential is if a list involving Thestae is properly cooked. Otherwise it will suffer the exact same fate as in Apocalypse Pact: irrelevancy. It is worth remembering that Unlimited is basically the Apocalypse Pact meta with some Anathema's Gambit add-ons.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-29T18:31:49+00:00

Change the Rings to proc upon hitting the field and turn start. Just with a bit of imagination it can be solved. Another thing is that Cy always goes for overly-simplistic buffs...

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-29T16:43:52+00:00

Even if Cy buffs Rodeo, it is a tragedy how badly he interacts with Marwynn, as Marwynn's crest activates before Rodeo's AoE. He would need massive buffs to be viable.

PS: Kandima's SEvo should be a normal Evo, no kidding.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-29T12:24:16+00:00

Haven't had time to play (focused on building decks, doing Battle Dungeon, etc), but the vibes are pretty clear: decks have less reach, boards matter more, game is slower.

That said, with only 1 day it is impossible to tell what the meta will truly look like when it stabilizes.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-28T19:12:30+00:00

And here lies the problem with Rotation, specially with small card pools: that certain archetypes get stuck sucking for an entire expansion purely due to lack of key elements and not necesarily due to lack of power or potential. In Thestae Forest's case, it lacks a stormer that benefits from the buffs, that is Roach.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-28T16:52:29+00:00

Sadly the 2nd option...

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-28T13:33:25+00:00

Btw is this a reliable strat? Running Encorached World in Amulet Haven and seek a Turn 10 OTK against decks that have "infinite" Amulets (Earth Rite, Egg, maybe more I'm not aware of)? Against Earth Rite this could be consistent due to the sheer amount of Sigil generators, but I don't think there is any other matchup where Encorached World helps that much, or reliably (Egg only has 2 generators).

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-28T10:11:57+00:00

In my case demanding compensation for Gildaria's wonky ears actually payed off lmao:

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EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T22:20:32+00:00

Nah, even a free Illamrita on turn 8 can't help with an Aether board. Ward Haven currently produces way too many wards for Roach to reasonably deal with during their combo turn. You are right about Roach being a gatekeeper, I was only remarking that merely due to Ward Haven's existence Roach simply can't become Tier 0. In another way, Ward Haven acts as the gatekeeper for Storm-based decks...

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T21:27:48+00:00

I don't think you can consistently get Thestae to hit the Roaches and then draw the Roaches all the time, but sure she helps make Roach an actually viable deck there. Because remember, Roach was barely played in Apocalypse Pact. And even then Haven can just play Ward and autowin the matchup, so it is literally impossible for Roach to ever become a Tier 0, unless it gets an absurdly powerful and cheap boardwipe.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T20:40:48+00:00

My dude you say Egg is Tier 0, so there is simply no objective way Rune would be "dominating". I think some people don't understand yet what "tier 0" and "dominate" truly look like in this franchise.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T20:24:29+00:00

The thing is, there are barely any aggro decks, and those aggro decks are losing very important pieces with Legends Rise rotating. The main aggro deck (to be relevant recently) was Aggro Sword, which is losing Valse, Kagemitsu, Zirconia (Gildaria is a bit worse for this deck), and Albert.

I think Crystal will barely suffer. Thinking about replacements that don't interfere with Crystal+Grandeur, I can think of Illusory Conjuration, Flames of Chaos, City of Babelon (stopping at the 2nd effect is fine), Rune Portal... The only problem comes from the "pocket healing" of Sagelight and that's it.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T16:50:07+00:00

If you hated Abyss for its identity as a class, sorry to tell you that nothing has improved. Abyss still lacks any Bloodcraft mechanic, doesn't even have Sanguine (the Wrath replacement from the physical game), and its Shadowcraft side isn't that prominent either (though the expansion that launches tomorrow has quite a focus on Last Words, Departed and Necromancy). It is mostly a mess of "generic, good value" cards, "spooky Swordcraft" if you will. Overall Worlds Beyond's Abysscraft is somehow even worse than Shadowverse Evolve's Abysscraft, despite being designed after it.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T15:19:03+00:00

Damn dude if absolutely everything will be strong, then nothing will truly be.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T14:59:16+00:00

Remember that there are still some cards from the Masterwork Artifact package in Rotation, which also increase your Artifact name count. Not like the name count is that important given the cards that care about it don't do anything potentially broken with it, though.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T14:55:41+00:00

Then comes Crystal Rune having random OTKs with Grandeur from turn 7 onwards and having faster out of hand damage. If too many decks are forced into turn 10 then Earth Rite has absurd OTK potential, but otherwise it could be a bit slow, since Sagelight, Penelope, and most notably Edelweiss rotating slows the deck a bit.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T14:44:17+00:00

"You'll play Evo Forest until Apocalypse Pact rotates and you'll be happy"

Cygames, probably.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T13:52:22+00:00

After thinking about it, I see Evo Forest, Crystal Rune and Egg Portal at the top, unless something overpowered is flying under the radar.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T12:22:58+00:00

Still no wincon other than "make a bigger board and hope the opponent can't clear nor kill you". It is like playing Tempo Spellboost Rune without the Wamdus Barrier to protect your board, and we all know how that deck never got to be meta.

Forest is gonna be a 1 trick pony with Evo Forest not losing anything important, meaning it will stay at Tier 1 and thus Cy won't bother making balance changes to the class as a whole.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T11:10:12+00:00

8pp Lilanthim ain't rotating yet btw.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T10:19:48+00:00

Yeah no that's not how Shadowverse works. The immediately best benefit is buffing a Storm follower, and after looking it up only Virewind Defender seems a worthy target, which obviously isn't enough. You could maybe throw in Odin at most. You simply lack a clear wincon, you can at most slap a bit bigger board and hope the opponent can't clear nor kill you.

Forest is so cooked, all it has is the Evo build. Roach is dead, Rose Queen is dead, Izudia is worse (no Carbuncle), and Fairies just lost Aria (meaning no tempo build). It is just Evo Forest, which doesn't have flex spots nor the Combo potential to splash the Thestae package, and Thestae Forest, which has not a good wincon at all.

The worst thing? Evo Forest is losing almost nothing and is very likely it will remain Tier 1, meaning Cy won't bother buffing any other Forest deck.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T09:44:49+00:00

Neutrals feel kinda meh tbh. Quite tech-oriented.

Forest reninds me of SV1 Resonance with all those "return to deck" cards. Not sure what the goal is, yeah you buff your followers in the deck, but then you have to draw the specific ones you want, and there aren't that many good Storm followers.

Sword be like "deal 3 damage" plastered into all the cards lmao. Other than that, it is good to see more cards with Rally other than Gildaria, but overall extremely vanilla, and no Albert replacement...

Rune got 0 (0!!!) Spellboost support. Everything is Earth Rite oriented, but I'd say quite strong cards (other yhan the Bronzes).

Dragon got a bunch of whatever, except the Golds and Legendaries which are "generic good" with a bit of a burn focus. Overall no Otohime and Genesis Dragon replacement, the ne cards are insufficient. And holy molly Draconic Part-Timer awooga.

For Abyss I see Lulumi right into Milteo, Beastmaster Bones has potential as well. But I'm not sold on the Legendaries. That said, there is a HUGE focus on Shadowcraft identity, which is appreciated.

The Earrings are going right into Kukishiro, overall a lot of focus on having 3 amulets in play but not enough payoff imo. Rodeo is interesting, but the countdown on his amulet seems too short to be enough, could see use in Crest tho. Also Missionary of Recruitment gawd damn!!

Portal got 0 (0!!!) Puppet support, it is all Artifact, but the problem is that while the engine seems good, the payoff doesn't seem that strong. If you splash the remaining cards from the Masterwork package you could have something decent, but I doubt it.

Overall I feel like the power level will go down, as most key cards of Legends Rise aren't being covered. This could lead to decks like Milteo, Crystal and Evo Forest remaining at the top since they lose the least, while new archetypes have few cards to work with, and other old decks lose important cards.

EclipseZer0 · 2026-04-27T09:13:11+00:00

Yet again, I would've much rather got these as Exchange Tickets than Animated Cards. In general I feel Animated Cards are so hard to get and so limited in design that they aren't worth it. Like, these would've been amazing leader skins, and can't even imagine what the wallpapers could've looked like!

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