History YMMV / Shadowverse

* IKnewIt: [[spoiler:Some fans were quick to point out that Maisha happens to be one of the major antagonists in the Guild Wars story arch, noting there isn't much characterization of her alongside with various {{Foreshadowing}} from many of the characters in the Guild Wars story arch (in combination with her ''very'' suspicious NiceGirl personality). The Altersphere expansion featured various characters from the Guild Wars story arc as playable cards, but Maisha missing as a playable card until the Altersphere mini-expansion where she is featured as a Portalcraft card also adds hints about her role as the villain.]]

** Some say the strength of Neutral Blood laid in its powerful early game supplemented by the "Alice package," involving playing several good Neutral followers on curve followed by Alice to buff them if they were not answered at every opportunity. After Neutral Blood got nerfed off the ladder, the Alice package became the skeleton of Neutral Rune and then Neutral Haven in the subsequent months of the format before finally dying when Alice got nerfed. The Neutral support theme of ''Wonderland Dreams'' was agreed to be a bad move on the developers' part, as nearly every opponent having the same exact same opening plays regardless of what class they were got boring fast with the exception of Shadow and Dragon (mainly because the neutral synergy they have gotten was pretty bad).

** The ''Starforged Legends'' expansion is seen as this. After three months of the dominance of Neutral-oriented decks in ''Wonderland Dreams'', the cards introduced in ''Starforged Legends'' expansion is seen as an expansion of re-establishing unique class and traits identities that have long been forgotten (particularly for Swordcraft's Commander/Officer synergy and Forestcraft's identity as a combo class), on top of legendary cards that are not as blatantly overpowered as those in the past couple sets. Combined with the nerf to Alice's buffs to the Neutral package on September 2017, the ''Starforged Legends'' expansion was seen as a way to opening up different and diverging playstyles for each class.
** The introduction to Rotation format in the ''Chronogenesis'' expansion is this, mainly because the Rotation format only allows players to use cards from the latest five expansions, thus allowing a more dynamic and diverse meta as well as reinforcing class strengths and new mechanics for existing classes. The Rotation format is seen as a welcoming edition for control players as well, mainly because two combo decks that prey on control decks, Dimension Shift and OTK Roach, will be rotated out in Rotation, along with many aggro cards from Standard and Darkness Evolved expansions that will not be available in Rotation.

* IKnewIt: [[spoiler:Some fans were quick to point out that Maisha happens to be one of the major antagonists in the Guild Wars story arch, noting there isn't much characterization of her alongside with various {{Foreshadowing}} from many of the characters in the Guild Wars story arch (in combination with her ''very'' suspicious NiceGirl personality). The Altersphere expansion featured various characters from the Guild Wars story arch as playable cards, but Maisha missing as a playable card until the Altersphere mini-expansion where she is featured as a Portalcraft card also adds hints about her role as the villain.]]

** The change in Arisa's English voice actress has garnered mixed receptions. Some fans feel that the new voice acting's CuteButCacophonic approach makes Arisa sound more childlike and sounded more grating and prefer the older voice actress of Arisa (who sounded older, but maintain the upbeat and serious personality of Arisa). Others find the Arisa's new English voice acting to be appropriate for the NatureHero and forest guardian theme to the character.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Cornelius being really aloof and viewing his son as little more than an experiment is not too out of line for an abusive father, but ''raising his recently departed wife as his undead soldier'' is a new low, and would erase any doubt over why Lyelth hates him so much.]]

* GameBreaker: Chances are if a card got nerfed in its past, it was being too good at its job. Many such cards are also [[TierInducedScrappy/{{Shadowverse}} Tier-Induced Scrappies]] -- if that page records a nerf, the offending card is likely to classify under this trope too.

* ItWasHisSled: When the "Brigade of the Sky" expansion was released, a lot of ''Shadowverse'' players were spoiled with the GenderReveal that [[spoiler:Cagliostro is basically "a man's soul inside a cute girl's body"]], by the ''Granblue'' players no less.

** Hiro returns in episode 53 of ''Flame'', now a little more mellowed-out. When the haughty Mikado continues bragging about how he's better than the "talentless", Hiro bruises his ego by revealing his '''canonically near-unbroken win streak'''.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: In ''Champion's Battle'', Hiro is given more personality now that he doesn't have the PlotArmor from the anime adaptation. When he's not the InvincibleHero, the video game gets to show that he can cheerfully and gracefully accept any loss he takes, which makes his enjoyment of the card game more genuine. He's even shown to be addicted to the card game to the detriment of his life, and he undergoes some CharacterDevelopment and takes a little time off playing to tend to his sick grandfather.

!!YMMV for the game:

!!YMMV for the anime:

* ShockingMoments: [[spoiler:Portalcraft was subject to mockery for not being featured at all in the anime's promotional material. Cut to episode 23, where Leon and his Shadow Knights test the abilities of the main cast using the traditional Artifact Portalcraft archetype. Bear in mind the main cast is using cards with power levels scaled to those of the game's first three expansions; this scenario can easily showcase how decks from the game's early days would contend with ''Chronogenesis''.]]

** Illya as a Havencraft leader is made hilarious when players notice that Havencraft has access to [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/104733010 Tarnished Grail]]. [[spoiler:For those who are familiar with ''LightNovel/FateZero'', the Holy Grail was actually corrupted.]]

** The English dub in general garnered mixed receptions from fans. Some of the voice acting (particularly Creator/JoeZieja's take on Rowen[[note]]Although his take on the character did slowly improve in the later story chapters[[/note]], [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101241030 Tsubaki]]'s second voice prior the reversal back to her old voice, Arisa's new voice acting as mentioned above, and [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/900711080 Dream Rabbit]]'s old voice acting) has garnered mixed to less favorable receptions. On the other hand, some of the English voice acting such as Creator/BriannaKnickerbocker as Luna [[note]]particularly the story mode in several of the TearJerker moments[[/note]], Creator/SeanChiplock as Belphomet [[note]]for being a gloriously hammy villain with an amazing EvilLaugh[[/note]], Creator/EricaLindbeck's Erika, Albert's BadassBaritone, Owlcat, and Vania are generally well-received and praised by fans.

*** [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103241010 Albert, Levin Saber]] is relatively popular in both Japanese and English fandoms alike, mainly because of not only is Albert is a relatively strong card in many Swordcraft decks, but Creator/HikaruMidorikawa's voice acting of Albert and the English BadassBaritone voice acting are well-liked within the fandom. In fact, in one of the Japanese popularity polls, Albert is voted the top leader for Swordcraft when Cygames announced that they are introducing new leaders for each class to celebrate the game's 1st anniversary.

** Sky Knights! Prepare for battle! [[labelnote: Explanation]]The CatchPhrase of Albert on summon. His strength as a finisher led to him being very ubiquitous in ranked play, and western players got used to the BadassBaritone of the voice actor and they liked it. Ever since, most of Albert's [[https://sv.bagoum.com/cards/103241010 English lines]] were treated as memes, [[DoubleEntendre sexual innuendos]], or used in chain comment reactions whenever the character is being discussed in a Cygames-related western fandom including ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' and ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'' (games which some ''Shadowverse'' players also branched into). Many of his other lines were treated the same, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowverse/comments/60fff3/albert_is_love_albert_is_life_nsfw/ no thanks to the assistance of a Shrek copypasta]]:[[/labelnote]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: In ''Champion's Battle'', Hiro is given more personality now that he doesn't have the PlotArmor from the anime adaptation. While he still enjoys the game, he cheerfully accepts any losses he takes which makes him less of a BoringInvincibleHero. He's even shown to be addicted to the card game to the detriment of his life, and he undergoes some CharacterDevelopment and takes a little time off playing to tend to his sick grandfather.

** Due to Creator/{{Cygames}} various cross promotion crossovers of other works, there are fans of ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' and the ''[[Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} Fate]]'' series who are fond of ''Shadowverse'', as many of them have been promoted with characters as alternative leaders to several classes.

** The ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' leaders. People think they look out of place and want other leaders. It doesn't help that they were released so close to a crossover event with fellow Cygames title ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' and all they seem to be getting are emblems and sleeves.

** The Custom Rotation GP allowed players to pit decks of old Rotation formats against new ones, so you'd expect to see players experiment with a lot of decks from bygone eras. However, you're just as likely to see players who just ran decks that they used exactly three months ago, for two reasons: PowerCreep has inevitably led to greater card quality, and some players -- likely newer ones -- have a collection that would only contain cards from recent Rotation formats and lack the supplies to craft old cards.

*** Hozumi's Fanfare ability -- trading out the rest of the board for the highest-cost cards in your deck, but only when you've played 4 or more cards before her -- becomes ridiculously easy to pull off when combined with Portalcraft's 0-cost Puppets, and her Festive trait made it extremely easy to search for her and made for a consistent combo. Facing a big beefy board on turn 4 or 5 is nigh-impossible for most other decks in Cross Craft, leading to her being the second card to be banned

** Cross Craft is a game mode where players can mix and match cards from two crafts for their own deck, and it turns out Shadow's incredible ZergRush strategies synergize ''too well'' with the Rally mechanics for Swordcraft. Erika, who gains power for each allied follower entering play, became a game finisher such that Cross Craft was being dominated by Rally Shadow-Sword decks, and became the first card to be banned from a constructed format.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** After being reluctant to nerf legendaries for about a year since the beta release, Cygames made an announcement mid-July 2017 that they will consider looking into nerfing legendary cards in the balance patch at the end of the month. Given that the meta at the time was dominated by decks driven entirely by a few legendaries, this announcement was met with sighs of relief.
** After the super powerful cards of ''Tempest'' and ''Wonderland'' caused PowerCreep and created incredibly strong decks that were difficult to compete with, Cygames noticed the amount of nerfs they needed to check the reigning decks each time and decided, [[https://shadowverse.com/news/?announce_id=364 in their patch announcement at the end of August 2017]], that they will be reconsidering said design philosophy, dialing back on the power creep, and work towards encouraging a greater variety of deck types.
** A week into the 12 million download promotional events, players were not too happy about the randomness of getting bonus chests (see ScrappyMechanic below). Cygames caught on and ironed out this flaw in [[https://shadowverse.com/news/?announce_id=396 a patch note]], allowing players who lost their previous chest round to have another guaranteed opportunity on the next match, as opposed to needing to go on another win streak to see the next chest.
** Based on player feedback, the Grand Prix mode has been tweaked over time:
*** During the first Rotation Grand Prix, those who qualified for Group A Finals would get the unique emblem and card sleeve... if they had at least 1 win in the finals. There was a lot of frustrated finalists who lost their very first match due to unlucky draws or matchups[[note]]To rub it in, Grand Prix finals were single-elimination[[/note]] and only got the emblem. The next Rotation Grand Prix quelled this frustration by ensuring that Group A finalists would get both the emblem and sleeve even if they lost their first match.
*** After the 20 August 2018 patch, all subsequent Grand Prix finals are double-elimination, so that a poor first match will not deny you the chance to strive for greater rewards.
*** The first Rotation Grand Prix in 2019 also changed a rule for qualifying for finals, allowing a player in Group A Round 2 who's gotten at least 3 wins (but not the 4 needed for Group A Finals) to at least proceed to Group B Finals, letting them still have a chance at gaining some of the limited-time prizes instead of being completely screwed out for not qualifying.
** As mentioned below, many players were frustrated that the first ''Granblue Fantasy'' tie-in event only gave out sleeves and emblems when the ''Street Fighter'' collab event had actual leaders for sale. Years later, not only is an entire '''expansion''' released dedicated to ''Granblue Fantasy'', but leaders of popular ''Granblue'' characters were also released. Also, the emblems and sleeves from the first event return (with new Orchis sleeves and emblems for Portalcraft), and anyone who already got them the first time instead gets a hefty 50 rupies for each quest (which totals up to a potential 9 packs for those who got all the rewards the first time).
** The Chinese version of ''Shadowverse'' under Netease received two exclusive leaders upon release. Some months later, they were imported to the global version.
** Some of the technical complaints about the game is that it takes so much storage space. From mid-2018 onwards, Cygames has been slowly implementing updates that would optimize the game's disk capacity as well as conserving download bandwidth. In-game updates now show the download size before proceeding, and recorded voice lines for story cutscenes are optional, yet still downloadable on a per-chapter basis.
** With the launch of ''Verdant Conflict'' comes the [[BadLuckMitigationMechanic Card Pack Point system]], which slowly accumulates for each pack the player purchases. After opening a total of 400 packs from a single set, the player can redeem the Pack Points for a legendary of their choice from that set. This includes the coveted and incredibly rare leader skins, ensuring that all that investment will not be for nought.
** Normally, future leader skins would be decided by character popularity poll, and only the winner for each craft would then get a leader skin in the upcoming sets. As time went on and the game's own story mode cast began growing in number, the fanbase became increasingly split on poll winners, especially those who realized that story mode characters tended to get oveshadowed by other legendary cards. Following the introduction of the Battle Pass, it was made known that story mode characters who didn't win the popularity poll still had a chance of becoming a leader skin as a Battle Pass exclusive or in a later pack.
** For most of the game's lifespan, the daily missions frequently involve winning games, be it in Unranked, Ranked, or Arena. This however has led to players prioritizing decks that win over experimenting with builds, even in unranked where losing has no penalty. Solo Missions were implemented so that players with a lacking collection could still get a currency income without getting curb-stomped by opponents with refined decks, and by the sixth anniversary the game finally rolled out a whole series of new missions that don't favour winning so much.

* HighTierScrappy: You're bound to see some overly strong decks and strategies dominate formats. See [[HighTierScrappy/{{Sahdowverse}} here]] for more details.