History VideoGame / Shadowverse

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/102411020 Mushussu]] played just before evolves become available is magnet for removal, as its +2/+0 buff each time something evolves can result in an unanswered Mushussu hitting for a whopping 8 damage.

** ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' characters [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDHryCE1gJo are available as leaders]] and as alternate art for existing ''Starforged Legends'' and ''Altersphere'' cards to promote the ''Anime/FateStayNightHeavensFeel'' movies. [[note]]Cygames also have close business ties with Aniplex, seeing that ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' anime was done by Aniplex themselves. [[/note]]

* '''Forestcraft''', represented by the Elf guardian '''Arisa''': Forest focuses in putting out [[ZergRush cheap, and low play point cards into the field as quickly as possible]]. Many of their followers [[FragileSpeedster don't hit as hard, nor are they durable, but have low play point costs that allow them to be played quickly]]. However, some of her more powerful followers and spells reward the player for playing multiple cards in a single turn and some of her cards reward players for having cheap Fairies in the hand, thus allowing some form of [[{{Combos}} synergy with her more powerful cards]]. Her deck has a NatureHero theme with followers being elves, fairies, or forest-related creatures. [[SkillgateCharacter Her deck is used as a tutorial deck for newer players]].

* SkillGateCharacter:

''Shadowverse'' is a free-to-play CardBattleGame developed by Creator/{{Cygames}}. Orginally released in Japan, it was later released in iOS and Android devices in June 17th, 2016 in the U.S., and later in Mac and Windows in October 28, 2016 available at UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. Shadowverse is very similar to ''VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft'', but according to WordOfGod, unlike Hearthstone, RandomNumberGod has a smaller impact in match outcomes.

* ArcherArchetype: Arisa happens to be this, in addition, some of the Forestcraft cards are archers themselves.

* '''Forestcraft''', represented by the Elf guardian '''Arisa''': Forest focuses in putting out [[ZergRush cheap, and low play point cards into the field as quickly as possible]]. Many of their followers [[FragileSpeedster don't hit as hard, nor are they durable, but have low play point cost that can be placed quickly in the field]]. However, some of her more powerful followers and spells reward the player for playing multiple cards in a single turn and some of her cards reward players cheap Fairies in the deck, thus allowing some form of [[{{Combos}} synergy with her more powerful cards]]. Her deck has a NatureHero theme with followers either elves, fairies, or forest-related creatures. [[SkillgateCharacter Her deck is used as a tutorial deck for newer players]].
* '''Swordcraft''', represented by the [[NinjaMaid Samurai Maid]] '''Erika Sumeragi''': Sword decks use a "trait" characteristic. Many of their followers have two different "traits," "Officer" and "Commander." The "Officer" followers are low play point cards that encourage early aggression (such as Ambush or Storm effects), while the "Commander" followers are higher play point cards that boost the "Officer" followers when played or when they are evolved (and vice versa with some "Officer" followers). Some follower cards can deploy another follower card when played, while others can boost the Attack and Defense of another follower. Gameplay wise, Swordcraft [[AttackAttackAttack encourages a more aggressive playstyle]]. The "Officer" followers usually tend to [[GlassCannon hit hard, but usually don't last that long]], while the "Commander" cards tend to be a more supportive or defensive in nature. Her followers are themed around ninjas, knights, military officers, and even [[NinjaMaid maids]].
** ''Chronogenesis'' introduces some synergy with the Enhance mechanic -- a mechanic introduced in ''Rise of Bahamut'' that allows a card to be played at an increased cost for additional effects. Swordcraft is the class that has received the most number of cards with this mechanic.

** ''Chronogenesis'' goes on to introduce the Mysteria trait, retroactively adding this trait to any and all characters associated with the AcademyOfAdventure. Mysteria cards are capable of generating unique spells that also possess this trait, and typically offer bonuses when played alongside other Mysteria cards.
* '''Dragoncraft''', represented by the knight '''Rowen Dragspear''': Dragon decks specializes in Overflow, which triggers upon reaching 7 or more play points, allowing many of their followers or cards to become stronger in the late game with an additional effect. Most of the cards and followers [[MightyGlacier are very strong, durable, and powerful, but have a high play point cost, thus encouraging a slower playstyle when compared to the other decks]]. However, to compensate, some cards can reward additional play point orbs in order to play costlier cards sooner and achieve Overflow faster. As the name suggests, the followers are focused around [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]].

** ''Chronogenesis'' introduces two new mechanics to Shadowcraft. Reanimate is followed by a number, and it revives the player's highest-cost follower that was destroyed this game, so long as its cost is equal to or lower than that number. For instance, "Reanimate 2" will only revive 2pp followers and no higher. Burial Rite lets the player pick a follower in their hand, after which that follower is immediately summoned and destroyed without triggering Fanfares or Last Words. This puts an expensive follower in an optimal position to be Reanimated.
* '''Bloodcraft''', represented by the ancient vampire '''Urias Formonde''': Blood focuses around Vengeance, which will activate when the player's health drops down below 50% HP (10 HP or less since each player starts with 20 health). When activated, Vengeance [[CriticalStatusBuff will provide another powerful effect for his cards]]. Some cards involve damaging oneself in order to get Vengeance activated and LifeDrain to keep himself alive. The deck encourages a high-risk, high-reward playstyle. The followers are themed around vampires, demons and [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horrors]].
** ''World Uprooted'' formalizes two mechanics for Bloodcraft into keywords: Avarice and Wrath. Avarice activates on turns when at least two cards are added to the hand durring the turn (including the card drawn at the start of every turn). Wrath activates after the leader [[CastFromHitPoints has taken damage durring their own turn]] at least seven times.
* '''Havencraft''', represented by the priestess '''Eris Anthule''': Haven focuses on Countdown and healing. Instead of placing followers directly into the board, it commonly instead places down amulets in the board with a timer effect. When the timer reaches zero, the amulet is destroyed and a more powerful follower will be summoned. Some of their cards have healing effects, while many other other cards can reduce the countdown timer to help the followers appear sooner. Haven focuses around [[MagikarpPower control and late game dominance]], where one needs to play passively and defensively at the start with self-healing, while trying to clear out enemy followers that come into play. The followers are based around priests, nuns, angels, and various Judeo-Christian religious creatures and animals.

* '''Steel Rebellion''' (March 2019): A futuristic/sci-fi themed expansion that takes place in the Gears of Rebellion storyline. This set introduces a new trait, Machina, a trait accessible to all classes. Machina cards puts emphasis on specific Machina card synergy and [[ZergRush encourages board flooding and creating unique Machina tokens]]. This set's leader cards are Wizardess of Oz and Filene.

* OurHippocampsAreDifferent: A hippocampus card is included in the ''Tempest of the Gods'' expansion. The main visual difference between its default form and its evolved form is that the evolved form has wings. It belongs to the dragoncraft class and the description reads that "[it] defends dark, icy waters" and that it is one of the most beautiful kinds of horses in the world.

** PowerCreep with each expansion can lead to old cards being completely eclipsed by newer ones, even if nerfs and buffs can counteract this trope. For instance, compare [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101441010 Fafnir]] with [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103041010 Bahamut]] and [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103434010 Breath of the Salamander]]. Bahamut costs 1 more play point than Fafnir, but straight-up destroys all other followers instead of just doing 2 damage. Breath of the Salamander, when Enhanced at 6pp, does Fafnir's work without hitting your own followers and for cheaper. And this is only ''within'' Dragoncraft's card library in the first three expansions -- over time the accessibility and strength of board wipes have grown such that a current-day player would be puzzled at why a legendary like Fafnir has such a pathetic effect.

** Any deck archetype in Unlimited has to contend with the format's incredibly fast pace. If it can't stabilize against aggression or massive board value that threatens lethal by turn 7 it won't see any play on the ladder, even if it were a contender in Rotation.

* RocketTagGameplay: Relative to other card games, matches in ''Shadowverse'' are very fast, and the devs strictly enforce this. Often their method of doing so is to have late-game cards be absurdly powerful. Many of them have ways to deal direct face damage or be extremely difficult to remove, only requiring filling a condition to get that level of damage. The other way it's enforced to to have extremely high-tempo mid-game cards, where failing to catch up or immediately counter it snowballs into a quick loss, or permanent leader effects that gradually overwhelm the opponent. These kinds of cards outnumber strong defensive options. The Unlimited format, where you can use cards from all across the game's lifespan, exaggerates this trope because of PowerCreep -- don't expect a typical Unlimited match to last beyond turn 7.

* SerialEscalation: As per PowerCreep procedure, cards have simply gotten more complex over time, such that a recent card you'd see will have an entire paragraph of text describing what it does. You can sometimes see cards transform into entirely different cards or have a significantly different effect written into their evolved text box! Keywords and Tokens also contribute to the amount of mechanics you have to look into to fully grasp a card's abilities, and without any tutorial for newer mechanics, these can make it difficult for newer players to understand a card at a glance.

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/106011020 Mr. Full Moon]] is a humble 3/3 6pp Neutral follower where he reduces the attack one of the strongest followers to 1. While it isn't much, Mr. Full Moon is one of the few effective counters for control decks to deal with giant lategame threats with high attack such as [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104741020 Heavenly Aegis]] and many of Dragon's lategame followers. Across from that, his low stat line is considered to be very bad and is incredibly useless against aggro decks since many aggro decks usually don't run followers with incredibly high attack value and is seen as more of a tech card in Take Two or in tournament play rather than a card that anyone would normally put to climb in ladder.
** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105541010 Dark Alice]] is a 7pp 5/5 legendary Shadowcraft who revives herself on death, but at the cost of banishing all other Shadowcraft cards in your hand, deck and field when it happens. There is a strategy to help filter out excess cards to easily access your Neutral win conditions, but outside of that, Dark Alice is straight-up detrimental.

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104013010 Test of Strength]] when initially released was meant to function as a mechanically unusual way of giving followers temporary Ward, forcing followers to battle before they can hit the enemy leader. This works by applying its effects to followers in the form of a debuff that limits their attacking options. However, one particular control Haven deck utilizes [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104741020 Heavenly Aegis]] with Test of Strength, resulting in a devious combo -- Aegis is immune to any effect that isn't a stat change, so it is unaffected by Test of Strength and can hit the opponent with impunity, while the opponent is forced to attack into the invincible Aegis if they wanted to attack. This was rectified with a change to Test of Strength outright giving followers Ward instead, performing its original purpose in a way that Aegis could not capitalize on.
** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103011030 Goblin Mage]] was intended to give players some sort of card draw that techs into any 2pp followers. However, there were several Forestcraft decks that utilize her because she always guarantees [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101131020 Rhinoceroach]] which led to Forestcraft decks having Rhinoceroach as their only 2pp follower. Combined with [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103021020 Fortunehunter Feena]]'s evolve effect of giving a 0pp Goblin Mage into the player's hand, this gave the Roach combo deck an uncanny consistency, and games would end as soon as turn 7 with an optimal Roach combo. Cygames has taken note of Goblin Mage's potential with Forestcraft decks, leading to the nerf where Goblin Mage can draw any follower that is 2pp ''or less'', forcing players trying to replicate the Roach deck's consistency to give up more of its early game.
** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105641020 Spawn of the Abyss]] was introduced for control Bloodcraft decks as a source of game-ending burst damage akin to the likes of Albert. However, he is often used in many neutral-oriented midrange and even aggro decks because [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104621020 Baphomet]], when played for its enhance cost, draws Spawn of Abyss and reduces its cost to 5, allowing it to be played a good two turns earlier than intended. This has lead to a nerf where Baphomet's Enhance effect was removed and the effect changed where he tutors ''any'' Bloodcraft card. Similarly, Spawn of the Abyss's damage when attacking out of Ambush and Last Words effect was reduced from 6 to 5 (and remains the same when evolved) which puts Spawn in a reasonable level while it still maintains the card's original purpose.

** Swordcraft aggro is one of the cheapest decks to assemble as a good portion of it consists of cheap bronze, silver, and even some basic cards. It allows a player who may not have had good pulls to easily win many ranked games, until they reach B0 or A0 ranks where they start to see many decks that can easily halt aggro's progress.
** Although it depends on how long Cygames intends to support the archetype, Mysteria Rune since ''Omen of the Ten'' manages to be even cheaper and simpler than Aggro Sword. More than half its core cards are Bronze rarity with ''zero'' Legendaries, and their game plan basically boils down to "Play Mysteria cards to draw or generate other Mysteria cards until you can play [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/900334040?lang=en Anne's Sorcery]] on turn 10 to hit them for more than half their their health".
** In a similar vein to Mysteria Rune, Daria Spellboost Rune ([[ArtifactTitle albeit without Daria]]) is one of the most cost-efficient Runecraft decks to play, and can be constructed for less than 9000 vials (compared to the tens of thousands you need for other decks). This, again, is helped by the fact that the deck needs no legendary cards and a majority of its muscle is bronze.

*** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/108441010?lang=en Jerva of Draconic Mail]] is a 5/5 9pp follower that grants the player a permanent Support Cannon like effect that deals 5 damage to an enemy follower or deal 5 damage to the enemy leader if no enemy followers are on board. On the other hand, Jerva permanently set your maximum defense to 10 for the rest of the match, which can be very detrimental against classes that have access to strong Storm followers (for example, Sword) or followers that can potentially kill you in one turn (i.e. [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/900441020?lang=en Iniquitous Lindworm]]). On the other hand, Dragon as a class have access to some of the strongest board wipes in the game, which almost guarantee a proc of Jerva's effect into the enemy leader, hence preventing the follower from being AwesomeButImpractical.

** Several basic cards are efficient enough to stay as staples even a few years (with corresponding PowerCreep) into the game's age. For instance, Runecraft has Insight and Magic Missile, which are cheap spells with draw effects; Bloodcraft, Havencraft, and Forestcraft each have an efficient 2pp removal spell; Goblin gets used in nearly any aggressive deck because he's being a non-rotating Neutral 1pp follower.

* '''Order Shift''' (September 2023): Introduces the '''Transmute''' keyword that causes a card to transform into something entirely different, usually after being Fused with enough other cards. Features Barbaros and Ceridwen as leader cards.

* JustForPun: Some cards are named in this manner, such as Eggsplosion.

A RecursiveAdaptation of the anime titled ''Shadowverse: Champion's Battle'' released in Japan for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch in November 2020 and is set to be published by XSEED Games globally in August 2021. Set in the universe of the anime, the game follows a customizable player-controlled protagonist joining the anime's main cast in an original storyline. Gameplay is identical to the original ''Shadowverse'' and features 662 cards from ''Classic'', ''Darkness Evolved'', and ''Rise of Bahamut'', including 52 exclusive cards not present in the mobile game. The game is not compatible with the original ''Shadowverse'' and is a fully-fledged one-time-purchase game with its own local and online multiplayer features.

A direct sequel, ''Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond'' was announced on December 10th, 2023. ''Worlds Beyond'' will feature many new expansions to the world of ''Shadowverse'', including new playable characters, new cards, new mechanics, and a new 3D hub world packed with side activities.

In retrospect, ''Shadowverse'' is considered to be a CreatorDrivenSuccessor to ''VideoGame/RageOfBahamut'' after the English version failed to be successful in the west (mainly due to numerous ScrewedByTheNetwork moments with dropping many events). Regardless, the game still has the anime style graphics and cards, with even English voice acting to boot. Unlike ''VideoGame/RageOfBahamut'', Shadowverse has succeeded in the U.S., in addition to being one of the top played {{Collectible Card Game}}s in Japan.

* '''Renascent Chronicle''' (July 2021): An expansion based on the characters from the Isunia, Aiolon, and Naterra arcs, bringing back Machina and Natura synergies. Due to effectively merging three sets into one, the cards have more condensed themes. The mini-expansion also features the original 8 leaders as playable cards. Aiela, Belphomet, and Elana are this set's leader cards.

** The player can toggle the ability to receive Solo Daily Missions, which are much easier to complete due to only needing to battle with a much easier AI that has an untuned deck. This lets newer players still earn rupies without needing the best deck on the ladder or for most other players to complete all their Missions without spending too much time. However, Solo Missions yield fewer rupies than normal.

** Several basic cards are efficient enough to stay as staples even a few years (with corresponding PowerCreep) into the game's age. For instance, Runecraft has Insight and Magic Missile, which are cheap spells with draw effects; Bloodcraft, Havencraft, and Forestcraft each have an efficient 2pp removal spell; Goblin gets used in nearly any aggressive deck due to him being a non-rotating Neutral 1pp follower.

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/106021020?lang=en Purehearted Singer]]: A neutral 3pp follower with a mediocre 1/2 statline, but draws a card on Fanfare and Last Words. This follower saw play in many decks due to providing card draw for decks that lacked it.

* CharacterSelectForcing: Most chapters in Story Mode restrict your craft selection based on the point-of-view character of the current chapter. Some give you a little more freedom due to multiple protagonists joining forces at that moment. This incentivizes the player to develop decks for each craft as opposed to [[CripplingOverspecialization focusing their resources into one deck]].

** Some decks can have so much overlap with other deck archetypes that it's hard to classify them in a specific deck archetype. This is more common with Rotation decks than with Unlimited decks due to a more dynamic meta where cards are rotated out. A good example would be pre-nerf Puppet Portal [[note]]After the nerf to [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/107821060?lang=en Puppeteer Noah]], Puppet Portal shifted more towards a control playstyle with [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/110841010?lang=en Lishenna]] as their win condition.[[/note]] and Arcus Shadow, where both are often played like midrange decks in the early game, yet play more like a combo deck in the lategame. Some other decks that don't fit into the traditional deck classification in card games include most ramp Dragon lists, Giant Chimera Rune [[note]]a control/combo mix[[/note]], Darkfeast Bat [[note]]aggro/combo[[/note]], and Holy Mage Haven [[note]]Which doesn't fit into any deck archetype at all.[[/note]]

** The Runecraft theme for ''Shadows Over Vellsar'' heavily involves banishing cards directly from the deck to reduce its size. Its key cards, Anne and Grea, both give token spells that become stronger when the deck is half its starting size, and reach full power when the player is left with ''five or fewer'' cards in the deck -- a few mere turns away from losing due to deck-out.

** Portalcraft as a class is considered to be the hardest class to play (even ''harder'' than Forestcraft during Forest's early days) due to having a small card pool to work with (since it's a recent class introduced in the ''Chronogenesis'' expansion, which makes Portalcraft the weakest class in the Unlimited format) and utilization of Resonance effect that involves manipulating the player's deck size. Artifact Portal has a specific mention due to the mechanic of putting Artifacts into the player's deck and manipulating Resonance in order to maximize [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/107841030?lang=en Deus Ex Machina]]'s effect to get as much advantage without needlessly discarding resources or running out of cards in the deck.

** In a similar vein as Mushussu, [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104421020 Venomous Pucewyrm]] is a magnet for damage and removal due to it gaining 2 in both attack and defense each turn making him a priority before he snowballs out of control, and unlike Mushussu, Pucewyrm is also pretty beefy right out of the gate making him even harder to answer without hard removal.

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/102743010 Enstatued Seraph]] functions as one for Havencraft. Being playable on turn 8 at its earliest, the Haven player must defend themselves for 4 more turns (or less, if they speed the countdown along) before the Seraph takes effect and causes them to win the game. Due to how Countdown and Last Words interact, destroying the Seraph is the ''last'' thing one would want to do (although it can be stopped if you can [[DeaderThanDead Banish]] it).
** Forestcraft have access to the follower [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104141020 Deepwood Anomaly]] that, when it successfully manages to land a direct attack, will do enough damage to deplete the opponent's health (as long as they don't have damage reduction effects).

** An entire deck archetype - the "midrange" deck - is designed to have a balance between early aggression and late-game strength. This makes them very versatile and difficult to counter, but in exchange they do not have an overwhelming advantage in any matchup. They also excel a bit in ConfusionFu due to vaguely resembling either aggro or control and affecting their opponent's early decisions.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Decks focused around certain combos are termed "meme decks" by some of the playerbase due to the inconsistency in getting the combo together. When the stars align, they are near unstoppable, but the rest of the time -- and most of the time -- they are weaker than others.

** When Score Rewards was still a thing, the final reward earned at 100,000 accumulated ranked points was a Legendary Pack (previously a large number of Classic packs). Reaching that meant about 1000 wins in the space of a month before the monthly reset. While the game was generous with Score Rewards shortly after a reset, the score intervals between subsequent rewards only get wider, reducing motivation to continue. Many players chose to stop grinding after they've gained the unique emblem and card sleeve of the month (at 8000 and 12,000 points respectively) due to the lowering returns for raising ranked score.

** Several Dragoncraft cards offer great effects in exchange for having to [[DiscardAndDraw discard your low-cost cards first]]. However, what isn't immediately noticeable (due to needing to read between the lines in the card text) is that the player doesn't ''need'' to have anything to discard to get the effect to work. Crafty Dragon players utilize this quirk to bypass the "costs" of these effects and minimize loss in card advantage.

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/108714010?lang=en Holy Lion Crystal]] initially spawns a 2/2. As you cast more of it, the token it generates slowly upgrades to a 4/4, and then a 4/4 with Storm. Due to the sheer quantity of Crystals you need to cast to reach maximum strength, the Crystal can regenerate itself for 5pp, on top of a slew of other cards automatically putting a Crystal in your hand.

* MasterOfNone: Due to having several important cards lost to rotation, Shadowcraft in Rotation after the ''Dawnbreak Nightedge'' update has dropped from a powerful JackOfAllTrades class with the best midrange deck to the worst class in the meta to the point where two of its class cards were the first ever instance of card ''buffs''.

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103011030 Goblin Mage]] was intended to give players some sort of card draw that techs into any 2pp followers. However, there were several Forestcraft decks that utilize her due to the fact she always guarantees [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101131020 Rhinoceroach]] which led to Forestcraft decks having Rhinoceroach as their only 2pp follower. Combined with [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103021020 Fortunehunter Feena]]'s evolve effect of giving a 0pp Goblin Mage into the player's hand, this gave the Roach combo deck an uncanny consistency, and games would end as soon as turn 7 with an optimal Roach combo. Cygames has taken note of Goblin Mage's potential with Forestcraft decks, leading to the nerf where Goblin Mage can draw any follower that is 2pp ''or less'', forcing players trying to replicate the Roach deck's consistency to give up more of its early game.

** This trope is actually [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Cygames themselves when [[https://shadowverse.com/news/?announce_id=665 they announced the nerfs]] to [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/102531010?lang=en Ceridwen]], which she was originally designed to pull followers that are 4 play points or less. However, due to the added consistency of Lord Atomy and the introduction of the Reanimate and Burial Rite mechanics that will allow the player to pull LightningBruiser [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104041010?lang=en Zeus]] around turn 5 with Ceridwen, leading to the nerf of her where she only Reanimate followers that are 8 play points or less:

** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104013010 Test of Strength]] originally prevented followers from attacking the enemy leader as long as there are enemy followers that can be attacked. [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104741020 Heavenly Aegis]] completely breaks this rule. Not only can it freely attack the enemy leader, it also completely blocked off enemy followers.[[note]]This was due to how Test of Strength used to work -- it applied a "must attack other enemy followers if possible" debuff to followers entering the field, but Aegis is immune to this debuff.[[/note]] With the release of ''Wonderland Dreams'' came a change to Test of Strength, which gave all followers Ward instead. This behaves the exact same way it did except in two cases: Ward-ignoring followers can ignore Test of Strength, but more importantly, Heavenly Aegis could no longer attack through enemy followers, nor can it block off enemy followers.

* PoorPredictableRock: One piece of contested advice for newcomers is to essentially copy a tournament-winning deck and liquefy every single card from the crafts they're not playing to get the resources to put it together. While it can jump-start the player's early-game experience, it's detrimental to their collection as a whole and can lead to disastrous results when the one deck they've poured their resources into gets weakened or overshadowed.

* RocketTagGameplay: Relative to other card games, matches in ''Shadowverse'' are very fast, and the devs strictly enforce this. Often their method of doing so is to have late-game cards be absurdly powerful. Many of them have ways to deal direct face damage or be extremely difficult to remove, only requiring filling a condition to get that level of damage. The other way it's enforced to to have extremely high-tempo mid-game cards, where failing to catch up or immediately counter it snowballs into a quick loss, or permanent leader effects that gradually overwhelm the opponent. These kinds of cards outnumber strong defensive options. The Unlimited format, where you can use cards from all across the game's lifespan, exaggerates this trope due to PowerCreep -- don't expect a typical Unlimited match to last beyond turn 7.

* SchmuckBait: [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101131050 Robin Hood]] is frequently cited as an example of "why you should read the card", with anecdotes of entire fields of Fairies or Skeletons being annihilated by his effect due to the opponent futilely trying to take him out in combat. Forestcraft has other cards that can employ this trope, usually in the form of things like [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104123010 Man-Eating Mangrove]] and [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105123010 Wood of Brambles]] intercepting attacking minions or [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105141010 Beauty and the Beast]] shrugging off a hard removal.

* SixthRanger: Portalcraft behaves like this in comparison to the other seven crafts. It's introduced much later than the other crafts and its smaller card pool, scaled for a lower power level, made it ill-suited for the faster games of Unlimited at release. Its representative character Yuwan is a dimensional traveler from another world, unlike the other seven representative characters. When the other seven crafts tend to receive good representation in cosmetics, promotional material and exciting cards, Portalcraft frequently draws the short end of the stick in these regards.

* TooLongDidntDub: The ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' leaders retained their Japanese voices in the English version and did not have any English voice lines (as opposed to the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' leaders that kept the English voice lines). This is most likely due to union issues, as the voice acting for the ''Fate'' series's dub was done via union while Shadowverse English dub is non-union (this may also be the reason why this trope was averted for Street Fighter leaders since the Street Fighter games' dub was non-union).

* {{Feelies}}: To coincide with the Japanese release of the game, a limited-time campaign where you could buy physical ''Shadowverse'' card packs with real cards inside was held in Japan; you got 3 random cards in a pack. Some of the cards were designated "Premium Rare Cards" with a colored icon at the bottom and equipped with NFC chips in a similar fashion to {{Toys/amiibo}} cards, and can be scanned into ''Champion's Battle'' to obtain special card packs. The Premium Rare Cards function is still available in the English version of the game despite no English versions of the cards being released.

See the [[Analysis/{{Shadowverse}} Analysis]] page for a more in-depth look at the current meta decks in Shadowverse.

* '''Dawn of Calamity''' (September 2021): An expansion featuring cards from the anime, with effects and stats scaled to the power level of the current game (as opposed to the anime and ''Champions Battle'' game, where they're scaled more towards the early expansions). This expansion also introduces the "Stack" keyword that brings a BalanceBuff to Earth Rite, allowing certain Sigils to consolidate their other Earth Sigils into a single board slot, creating room for more powerful multi-Earth Rite effects. Many past Earth Rite cards would also be errata'd to work with this keyword. A total of six cards are available as leader cards -- Sekka, Milteo, and Psychopomp Tour Guide (Amy) are reprints, while new cards Brilliant Fairy, Ignis Dragon and Dark Emperor have leader alts.

* '''Eightfold Abyss: Azvaldt''' (December 2022): Introduces Azvaldt, a prison in hell themed after the circles of hell in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''. The featured characters include a convict and a warden, and the overarching theme is the new Condemned trait. Features Katya and Wilbert as leader cards, then adds Piercye in the mini-expansion.
* '''Academy of Ages''' (March 2023): An expansion themed around the magical academy Lainecrest and features characters from the corresponding story arc alongside returning characters from Mysteria academy. It introduces the Academic trait and supplants Mysteria synergies.

--->"[[http://sv.bagoum.com/voice/e/vo_103021040_1.mp3 Bow to the gourmet emperor.]]"
--->"[[http://sv.bagoum.com/voice/e/vo_900021010_3.mp3 Crazy amazing, that's me!]]"

---> Ceridwen was first designed for Darkness Evolved when the Burial Rite keyword didn't exist yet. We originally intended for Ceridwen to summon a 4 or lower cost follower into play when evolved on the fifth turn. When Burial Rite was introduced with the release of Chronogenesis, we considered adjusting Ceridwen's evolve effects if it caused balance issues in the game environment. However, during this period Ceridwen Shadowcraft didn't hold a win or usage rate high enough to warrant changes.\\
\\

* RatedMForManly: It's not hard to find any card that falls into this category (since many of the male Swordcraft and Dragoncraft followers usually fall into this), but the most exaggerated example is neutral follower [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/105021020?lang=en Gruff Mountaineer Captain]], which can more or less be seen as a parody of this trope.

''Shadowverse'' is a free-to-play CollectibleCardGame developed by Creator/{{Cygames}}. Orginally released in Japan, it was later released in iOS and Android devices in June 17th, 2016 in the U.S., and later in Mac and Windows in October 28, 2016 available at UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. Shadowverse is very similar to ''VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft'', but according to WordOfGod, unlike Hearthstone, RandomNumberGod has a smaller impact in match outcomes.

A physical TCG version of ''Shadowverse'' called ''Shadowverse EVOLVE'' was released in Japan in April 2022. The game is currently Japan-exclusive.

** A tie-in event with ''LightNovel/ReZero'' took place in July 2019, with Emilia, Rem and Ram as leader skins, and a themed Grand Prix in that same month.

* BadassBaritone: A good number of cards (especially from older male Dragoncraft and Swordcraft cards) spot deeper voices. Special mention to [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103241010 Albert, Levin Saber]], who is considered to have one of the deepest voices of Swordcraft followers and is pretty badass for a 5 play point follower.