Shadowverse is a tough game where you will fail as a blind fool at the beginning.
The gameplay is pretty simple, but the large amount of knowledge you need to have and the absence of a big card collection at the start is the reason new players are feeling overwhelmed. In this guide I will try to teach players who are new to the CCG genre how to start their Shadowverse carreer.

At the start of each match, the game will randomly decide which player goes first.
The player who goes second gets an additional Evolution Point, can Evolve their followers one turn before their opponent and draws an extra card at the start of the first turn.
Then the match starts, with both players having one Play Point.
Play Points are used as a currency for your cards; each card you play will subtract it's cost from your Play Points. Each turn, you will gain an additional Play Point, until you have 10 Play Points.
Both players then proceed to take turns, playing followers, spells or amulets with their Play Points. They can then use their followers to attack enemy followers or the enemy leader.
Also, a minor thing to note is that cards generate Shadows in certain ways.
Amulets and Followers generate one Shadow when they are destroyed, while Spells instantly generate one Shadow when they are played. Keep in mind that when a Follower or Amulet is banished, it doesn't generate a Shadow. Shadows are only relevant in Shadowcraft, where they use Shadows for their Necromancy mechanic, or in Path to Purgatory Decks, which need 30 Shadows to activate Path to Purgatory's effect.

At turn 5 (or turn 4 if you went second), you have the ability to Evolve your Followers.
Doing so empowers your follower and gives it Rush (meaning that it can attack immediately when it's played, but it can only attack enemy followers.) if it wasn't on the board beforehand.
This empowering buff usually means a +2/+2 buff to it's stats, or it gives a +1/+1 buff if the follower has an Evolve effect, which will then activate. An example of Evolve Effect Followers is Rose Gardener, who returns a follower to the owner's hand when Evolved.

Followers have 2 important stats; Attack and Defense. Attack means the amount of Damage the follower will do when attacking or when attacked. Defense is the amount of Damage a follower or Leader can take before it dies. All Followers have a base Attack and Defense, but their Attack and Defense can be influenced through buff cards like Royal Banner. Also, some cards have the ability to restore Defense to a follower or leader, Curate for example. Leader's only have defense, and when their Defense reaches 0, the other Leader wins.

There are many effects that a Follower or Amulet can have; most are very unique and exclusive to certain cards. However, there are a set of standard effects, most of them identifiable by the graphical effects or symbols on a card. These standard effects are listed below.













Followers with Bane instantly destroy any followers they attack, or any followers that attack them. Attack and Defense don't matter in this case. For Example, a 2/1 Spectre can kill a 13/13 Deathly Tyrant, even though it only has 2 attack while the Tyrant has 13 Defense.
Followers with Bane can be recognized by the purple scythe icon in the bottom middle of the card.













The opponent is forced to attack followers with Ward. This is only true for enemy followers however, meaning that the opponent can still target other followers with spells. When you have multiple Ward followers in play, the opponent can choose which Ward follower to attack with his followers. Followers with Ward can be recognized by the glowing Shield in the middle of the card.












Followers with Drain restore damage they do when attacking as health to their leader. For example, a 1/3 Sweetfang Vampire attacks the enemy leader. It will not only deal 1 damage to the enemy leader, it also restores 1 Defense to your own leader. Keep in mind that Drain only works when attacking, meaning that when a follower with drain is attacked, it doesn't restore Defense. Followers with Drain can be recognized by the red blood of drop in the bottom middle of the card.














Followers that have the Storm ability are able to attack the turn they're played. Evolving the follower doesn't cause it to lose the Storm Effect. However, this doesn't mean that they can be used to Play->Storm Attack->Evolve->Attack. Also, The Storm Attack is bound to a card, meaning that if you play the Storm follower and attack with it, and then use Urd on it, you can attack again with the resummoned Storm follower.














Followers that have the Rush ability are able to attack the turn they're played, but they can only attack enemy followers. Evolving a follower will automatically grant it the Rush ability, except when it has the Storm Ability. Followers with Rush can be differentiated from followers with storm by the glowing yellow border around the follower.














Followers with Ambush are unable to be targeted by the opponent's followers and targeted spells, until the follower attacks. Keep in mind that although the follower with Ambush can't be targeted by targeted spells, it can still be damaged/removed by using untargeted spells or effects like Fire Chain or Necroelementist's Last Word effect. Followers with Ambush can be recognized by the fog surrounding the card art.














Followers and Amulets with Last Words have an effect when they are destroyed. This effect can vary from summoning other followers, to dealing damage to the opponent's leader. Keep in mind that these effects only trigger on destruction of the follower, meaning that Transforming or Banishing the follower will not trigger the Last Word's effect. Followers with Last Words can be recognized by the skull in the bottom middle of the card.













Followers with Magic Immunity are unable to be targeted by targeted spells and follower effects. Keep in mind that, like with Ambush, the follower can still be damaged/destroyed by untargetable spells and follower effects, like Fire Chain and Necroelementist's Last Words effect. It is also fully affected by AoE spells and random targeted spells and effects.
Followers with Magic Immunity are recognized by the yellow diamonds in the card art.













Followers with Can't Attack are unable to attack. It's really as simple as that. Some of them can attack when Evolved, but most of them have an ability or other feature to compensate for not being able to attack. Followers with Can't Attack are recognized by the chains in the card art.













Followers with Can't Be Attacked are unable to be attacked by other followers. Keep in mind that these followers can still be killed by spells or follower effects. Most followers have a reason why they are unable to be attacked, most of the time because of weak Defense. An example of this is Dark Dragoon Forte, who is a 5/1 with Storm who can't be attacked; She has low Defense, so they gave her Can't Be Attacked to compensate. Followers with the Can't Be Attacked ability are recognized by the golden steam in the card art.













Countdown is used to indicate the duration of an Amulet. Not all Amulets have a Countdown; especially Havencraft utilizes Countdown. When the Countdown reaches 0, the Amulet will be destroyed. There are cards that can speed up the countdown, Hallowed Dogma for example.
Amulets trigger their Last Words effect when destroyed by Countdown, making Countdown Amulets very effective in Havencraft. Keep in mind that Countdown Amulets with a Last Words effect will also activate if the other player destroys it. However, if the Amulet is banished, it does not trigger the Last Words effect.









Followers and Amulets with Fanfare trigger an effect when they are played on the board. These effect can vary from healing yourself to damaging your opponent to summoning followers. There is a wide variety of unique Fanfares. For example, the Healing Priestess immediatley restores 1 Defense to all allies when played.













Followers with an Evolve effect trigger an effect when they are Evolved. This comes at a cost however, since most followers with an Evolve effect only gain +1/+1 instead of the standard +2/+2. These effects again can vary a lot. For example, Sky Dragon Ethica grants an empty Play Point when Evolved.













Followers and Amulets with an consistent effect trigger their effect when a certain condition is met. The most used are End of Turn/Start of Turn effects, which trigger at the start of your turn or at the end of your turn. An example of this is Path to Purgatory, which deals 6 damage to all enemies at the end of your turn (when you have 30+ Shadows). However, there are also other conditions for these kind of effects. For example, Banner of Command gives each Officer you play +1/+0. Followers and Amulets with an Consistent Effect are recognized by the green flag at the bottom middle of the card.

Elf Girl Liza's Effect makes your followers completely immune to damage from all spells and follower effects until your next turn. This allows you to play valuable followers and have a higher chance of them surviving. Keep in mind that your followers can still be destroyed by spells that destroy or banish enemy followers, or just by getting attacked by enemy followers.










Medusa's Effect destroys the enemy follower when attacking it, before it deals any damage in return. This allows Medusa to effectively trade with much bigger threats, because she can attack huge followers without taking any damage. Keep in mind that Medusa only doesn't take damage when SHE attacks, meaning that if she IS ATTACKED she still takes damage.










Cards with Spellboost gain a boost whenever you play a spell while they are in your hand. These boosts can vary from reducing the Play Point cost, like with Dimension Shift and Fiery Embrace, to gaining additional damage or Stats, like with Summon Snow or Windblast. Aside from playing spells, there are certain follower who can grant Spellboost as well; for example Evolved Spectral Wizard and Merlin.










Cards with Necromany effects trigger an effect when they are played while having the required amount of Shadows or more. The amount of Shadows required is indicated after the Necromancy keyword. These cards then subtract the required amount from your pool of Shadows. The effects of Necromancy can vary between summoning other followers, like with Apprentice Necromancer, to gaining additional stats, like with Deadly Widow or Skeleton Fighter.










Cards with Enhance effects are basically two cards in one. The card has a normal PP-cost, but when you play it when you have enough PP to pay the Enhance cost or more, it will use those PP but it will also gain additional effects. For example, Albert can be played for 5PP to get a 3/5 Storm. However, he can also be played for 9PP to gain the ability to attack twice, while he also can't be damaged till the end of the turn that he is played. Enhance makes cards very flexible, allowing you to use them early when necessary, but also in later stages of the game to make them more powerful.










Followers with Clash have an effect that is triggered everytime an enemy follower attacks them, or when they attack an enemy follower. It does not trigger when attacking an enemy leader. Clash makes it so you get something even when the opponent trades an enemy follower into it. The effects can vary from drawing cards to dealing damage to enemies. Keep in mind that the opponent can still use spells to remove a Clash follower without triggering it's effect.










Followers with Reanimate randomly resummon the highest cost friendly follower that has died this game, which has a cost lower or equal to the number of the Reanimate effect. For example, using a card with Reanimate(10) summons a Mordecai when Mordecai was the most expensive allied follower that died this game. Keep in mind that because the follower is summoned, Fanfare effects won't trigger.










Followers with Burial Rite require you to destroy an allied follower from your hand in order to gain the benefit of their effect. You are allowed to choose which follower will be destroyed from your hand, giving you some control over the effect. The chosen follower is summoned onto the board, and then destroyed. However, Fanfares, Last Words and other effects are not activated for the follower. The follower does generate a Shadow.

Cards with Accelerate have the option to be played as a spell with certain effects for less PP. If you play an Accelerate card when you have enough PP for the Accelerate, but not enough for the full card, the Accelerate effect will trigger. If you play this when you have enough PP for the full card, the full card will be played.

Cards with Choose will present several options for you to pick from when played. You can then simply press the 'Select' button under the card you want.

Cards with Invocation will be played directly from your deck if you satisfy the necessary condition of the Invocation and have an open board space.

Decks in Shadowverse follow one of the four main Archetypes; Aggro, Midrange, Control and Combo. These deck archetypes determine the playstyle, win condition and structure of the deck.
These 4 main archetypes have several class-specific sub archetypes, that have more detailed guidelines about the win condition and deck structure.

Aggro
Aggro Decks are decks that utilize a lot of cheap followers to gain early board control. They will then proceed to attack the opponents leader. The dream scenario for aggro decks is that the enemy leader doesn't have enough time to stabilize the board, and you can kill him before he plays powerful followers. These decks also tend to run light removal, in the form of cheap damaging spells, in case the enemy does manage to play followers early.

Midrange
Midrange Decks are decks that are based around gaining board control and keeping it. They tend to play a lot 'on curve', and use follower trading to ensure board control. Midrange Decks are well-rounded and have a lot of followers, as well as plenty of removal. These decks are esentially the middle ground between aggro and control decks; they are stronger in the midgame than aggro decks, but are weaker in the lategame than control decks. This means that when you're facing a control deck, it is essential to end the game before they can reach their powerspike.

Control
Control Decks are decks that are based around clearing the board early and preventing damage to your leader as much as possible. The goals for these decks is to reach the late game where they can play powerful cards to win back the board and destroy their opponents. To reach the late game without suffering too much damage, control decks use a wide variety of removal, Ward followers and self heals. Most control decks have some kind of win condition where they work toward; for example Mordecai the Duelist/Nephthys for Nephthys Shadow or Heavenly Aegis for Aegis Haven.

Combo
Control Decks are decks that are based around clearing the board early and preventing damage to your leader as much as possible, similar to Control decks. The difference between combo and control is that combo decks use a certain package of cards to win, instead of just playing huge followers your opponent can't deal with. In order to play their package, they need card draw and tools to survive until they can play the combo pieces. To reach the late game without suffering too much damage, combo decks use a wide variety of removal, Ward followers and self heals. Examples of combos are Dimension Shift+Flame Destroyer combo for Spellboost Rune, PtP for PtP Forestcraft or Seraph + Countdown reducers for Seraph Havencraft.

Shadowverse uses a class system to add variety and strategical depth to the game. There are currently 8 classes, each with their own unique mechanics, class cards and style of play.















Forestcraft is a class that utilizes Fairies, cheap 1-cost 1/1 followers that synergize with a lot of other cards in their arsenal. Forestcraft has cards that scale with the amount of cards in your hand, cards that scale with the amount of cards played earlier this turn or cards that gain an effect when at least x amount of other cards were played the same turn. The constant flow of cheap followers makes this class very well-suited for a Zoo or PtP deck. Forestcraft is notorious for their OTK combos, either using Rhinoceroach, King Elephant or B&B+Arriet to deal huge damage out of nowhere to finish their opponent.
















Swordcraft is a class that utilizes the synergy between Officer and Commander Cards to gain board advantage and keeping it. They have multiple ways to buff their cheap Officers, allowing them to trade up against more expensive followers. Not only that, but they also have a lot of followers that summon other followers, like Floral Fencer and Oathless Knight. Swordcraft is also well known for their huge amount of powerful individual followers. A lot of their followers also have either Storm or Rush, allowing them to easily win the board against other classes. This way of play makes the class very well-suited for Zoo or Midrange decks.
















Runecraft is a class that utilizes the Spellboost mechanic and Earth Sigil/Earth Rite combos to build a strong and big board while also removing opposing threats. Spellboost is a very powerful mechanic that empowers cards by playing spells. These empowerment can either be a cost reduction or an improvement to a certain effect. Daria Runecraft uses Spellboost as a way to reduce the cost of their followers and spells, allowing them to flood the board and overwhelm the opponent. Giant Chimera Runecraft uses Spellboost to increase the damage of Giant Chimera's effect, effectively allowing to OTK their opponent once it is enhanced sufficiently. Alternatively, Earth Rite Runecraft uses Earth Sigils and Earth Rite cards to either rush down the opposition or build a large defense that the opponent can't break through.
















Dragoncraft is a class that uses their various options to gain empty Play Points and their powerful Overflow mechanic to dominate the board. Overflow is reached when gaining 7 Play Points, which would mean to wait till turn 7, but it can be sped up by certain cards. This allows them to play big threats earlier than their opponents, while also working towards that Overflow powerspike. When Overflow is reached, many of the Dragoncraft's cards are empowered, gaining additional stats and effects. Dragoncraft is also very notorious for their huge amount of stalling cards, which either remove enemy threats or heal themselves. This style of play makes Dragoncraft very well-suited for either Storm (overwhelming the opponent with big threats too early thanks to the ability to gain Empty Play Point) or Control Decks, because of the powerful Overflow followers and Dragoncraft's ability to quickly reach 10PP.
















Shadowcraft is a class that utilizes Shadows as a way to empower their cards. Cards with Necromancy consume a certain number of Shadows to empower themselves.
They have very good early and midgame presence thanks to powerful cards that use the Necromancy ability, like Phantom Howl and Playful Necromancer. They also have good late game options when you consider cards like Deathly Tyrant and Mordecai the Duelist. Not only that, they also have powerful removal and board building options thanks to cards like Phantom Howl, Deathbrand and Death's Brand. The class is also very notorious for their ability to destroy their own followers for benefits. These benefits can range from drawing cards to removing enemy followers. Shadowcraft also has access to the Reanimate ability, which allows them to resurrect their followers. Shadowcraft is one of the most versatile classes, being capable of playing Aggro, Midrange and Control effectively.
















Bloodcraft is a class that utilizes self-damage and the powerful Vengeance mechanic too either dominate the board early, or make a comeback through Control. The Vengeance mechanic empowers many of the Bloodcraft's cards when they are below 10 Defense. Not only that, Bloodcraft also has access to very powerful followers (Undercosted stat-wise) because they also damage their own leader. This allows them to fill the board with powerful early followers, while also working towards the Vengeance Powerspike. This makes the class very well-suited for aggro decks. However, Bloodcraft also has very powerful lategame cards, like Temptress Vampire and Bloody Mary, as a way to regain the board in the lategame and then overpower the opponent. This makes Bloodcraft also a very good suit for Control decks.


















Havencraft is a class that utilizes self-healing and powerful Countdown Amulets to dominate the board and make it hard for the opponent to contest it. Countdown Amulets fill the board with powerful, undercosted followers. These followers can be used to either go aggressive and deal face damage, or to play a control game by clearing the opponents side of the board. Havencraft can also use many removal tools to keep the enemy side of the board clear, especially thanks to their access to Banish effects. Banish counters followers with powerful Last Words, as they will be destroyed without triggering them. Havencraft can be played as a Storm deck, which means overwhelming the opponent with undercosted followers that utilize Storm early on, or as a Control Deck. There are many Control Havencraft decks available, for example Aegis or Seraph Haven. These are made possible thanks to the many removal options and self-heals the class has access to.

















Portalcraft is a class that utilizes Resonance, alongside Artifacts and Puppets to achieve victory.
Resonance is activated whenever your deck contains an even amount of cards, and can grant special abilities to certain cards. Artifacts are strong followers that can't start out in you deck, but are put into it by other cards. Portalcraft has a lot of cards that interact or empower Artifacts.
Puppets are cheap 0PP 1/1s. Portalcraft has several cards that either put these Puppets into your hand, or enhance the Puppets in your hand. Since these Puppets have Rush by default, they are a great way to improve your trades. As of now, both Artifact and Puppet have their own separate deck archetype revolving around them.

In Shadowverse there are three types of Cards:

• Amulets
  
• Followers
  
• Spells

Each type of card is recognized by it's unique card border.
These three types of cards each have their own pros and cons.
Each class has it's own Class-Exclusive Amulets, Followers and Spells. There is also a set of Neutral Followers, Amulets and Spells, which are available to all classes.
I will explain each type more in-depth.

Amulets
Amulets are passive cards that you can put on the board. There are two types of Amulets; Standard Amulets and Countdown Amulets. Standard Amulets will remain on the board till they are destroyed or banished by a player. Countdown Amulets have a timer, after which they will automatically be destroyed. Most Countdown Amulets in Havencraft have a Last Words effect, which results in the Havencraft player intentionally destroying their own Countdown Amulets in order to trigger the effect. Amulets are unable to attack or be attacked by followers. The only way to destroy Amulets are by playing cards that have the ability to remove, destroy or banish Amulets (Odin for example). Keep in mind that playing an Amulet fills one of your five slots on the board. This can become irritating when you played a weak early game amulet, which doesn't have a Countdown. This essentially means you will be playing with four board slots until one of the players manually destroys it.

Followers
Followers are the base of every CCG. Playing a follower allows you to deal consistent damage until the followers is destroyed. Followers usually need to wait a turn to attack after they are played, but some Followers can do so because of a Rush or Storm ability. Followers can also have other effects, like the ones listed earlier in this guide. A follower fills up one of your five board slots, meaning you can have a maximum of five followers or amulets on the board. Knowing when to trade your followers into enemy followers or use your followers to damage the enemy leader is very important in this game. As said earlier, followers can attack other followers and the enemy leader, but not Amulets. Each follower has Attack and Defense values, which are important for trading with enemy followers. For Example, an 2/3 Apprentice Necromancer can trade with a 1/2 Ivory Dragon and live. The Apprentice Necromancer will become a 2/2, but the enemy Ivory Dragon is destroyed.

Spells

Spells are cards that have an effect which will be triggered upon play. The spell will then be discarded and thus be turned into a Shadow. Spells can have a wide variety of effects, varying from drawing cards to dealing damage. It should be noted that most damaging spells cannot target the enemy leader, only enemy followers. There are exceptions to this; for example Demonic Strike and Angelic Snipe can target the enemy leader.
Aside from just the usual things a spell can do, spells activate Spellboost for Runecraft.
Runecraft has Class-Cards with the Spellboost ability, which are activated when a Spell is played while the Spellboost card is in your hand. The Spellboost Effect can vary from reducing the Play Point cost of the card to dealing more damage with every spell casted.



Cards have one of four Rarities; Bronze, Silver, Gold or Legendary. These Rarities have an impact on the power of the card, the chance of getting it from a card pack and the amount of Vials it requires to craft. The Rarities can be differentiated from each other by the border of the card.
Below are all four Rarities with their respective card borders (from left to right: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Legendary).












You can liquefy and create cards in the Card section. First go to Cards->Cards to see your collection. An example of a collection is the image below.
As you can see, there are colored cards and cards that are black and white. Colored Cards are the cards you own, while colorless cards are cards that you don't own. Aside from the Standard cards, you also have Animated versions of cards. These Animated versions CANNOT be crafted, meaning that when you want one, you'll have to pray to the gods when opening card packs.
These Animated versions
When you click on a card, the following screen will show up.
You can choose to Liquefy a card; meaning that you destroy the card to gain a certain amount of Vials. Or, you can choose to Create a card; meaning that you create the card in exchange for a certain amount of Vials. The amount of Vials you get from Liquefying or lose from Creating a card are dependent on the Rarity of the card.
Below is a table of the rarities and their Vial amounts.

The game has currently two gameplay formats you can play; Unlimited & Rotation.
These formats each have their own meta game and card pool.
The gameplay experiences and the decks that you will encounter will vary between the formats.

This format is the prime format for the competitive scene, and as such the more popular format.
Rotation has access to the latest 5 sets of cards, and every new expansion the oldest one of them rotates out. Basically, you can only build decks with the cards of the latest expansion and the 4 expansions before it. Because cards will eventually become unavailable to the format, the meta in this format is fresh and changes (at least a bit) every new expansion. Some decks disappear completely from the format, while others stay but need to make major changes to their decklist.

This format has a massive variety of cards and decks. You can use all cards to build decks, which can make for insane combinations and synergies between cards that are not possible in Rotation.
The power level of this format is way higher than Rotation, since for every PP cost or effect there are a lot of cards competing with each other for a spot in your deck. The pace of the game in this format is a lot higher than in Rotation; games are usually decided on turn 8, which makes including 9+ drops in your deck a big risk. Another thing to note about this format is that the amount of removal in this format is massive, especially single target hard removal. This makes decks that rely on things like infinite value Last Words followers or amulets a lot riskier than in Rotation.

Take Two is a gamemode where you can choose one of three randomly given classes to build a deck with. The way you build a deck is by selecting one of two randomly generated pair of cards.
The best way to draft a deck is to look at the cards individually. There is a reason why Runecraft and especially Forestcraft are way weaker in Take Two than in Constructed. The reason for this is that synergy between cards is not guaranteed thanks to Take Two's random card system.

This makes combo reliant classes like Forest and Rune, who depend on Spellboost/Earth Sigils or cards that are dependant on cheap cards for their effects, generally bad options for Take Two. Instead, look at the individual power levels of the cards you are presented with. Also, keep in mind that you must pay attention to the curve of your deck. If you get presented with a lot of powerful lategame cards and a lot ofbad early game cards, it might be wise to include some of the bad early game cards to make sure you don't have a 'dead hand' (meaning your hand is full of card you can't play until later). You keep selecting pairs until you finally have a deck with 30 cards. You can then enter matchmaking and get matched against other Take Two players.

You need to play 5 matches with the deck you created. Each game you win will increase the reward you gain at the end of your 5-game Take Two run. The rewards is basically a Card Pack + Rupees depending on the amount of wins. Below is a table with the rewards u can expect (on average) depending on amount of wins. Keep in mind that you can also get Rupees+Vials, but then the amount of Rupees you'll get will be reduced.

The Ranked System in Shadowverse utilizes a combination of Ranks and Points (to some known as MMR). Every game you win gains you points, and every game you lose loses you points. However, if you are Beginner Rank, you don't lose points when you lose a game.
After you reached a certain number of points (which are listed below for each rank), you are promoted to the next rank. Additionaly, you can get Winstreak Bonuses (bonus points) if you have won 2 or more games in a row. Winstreak Bonuses are only available up to rank B3.
When you have enough points to enter A, AA, B rank you will be put on a trial. This means that you will have to play Bo3 or Bo5s (dependant on which rank) to determine if you can continue to the next rank. Your rank does NOT reset at the end of each month, however if you are Master, your Master Score will be reset.
Playing Ranked and reaching certain scores in Ranked will give you rewards. These rewards can vary from Rupies to Vials to Card Packs. You can check the rewards for each score milestone at the Missions->Score Rewards. The Score Rewards will reset every month.

I hope this guide helped you to start your competitive Shadowverse experience.
If you need advice on crafting decks, you can read my guide below for a list of cheap decks to start your Shadowverse carreer with or post questions in the comment section.

http://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=795423761
If you have suggestions or comments, feel free to post them in the comment section below. U can also add me if u want to conversate about this guide or other things.