Game Review (2025 September)

Prologue

Shadowverse (as "SV" afterwards) is a digital Collectible Card Game (CCG) that was released by Cygames, a Japanese video game development studio, back in 2016. I met SV through watching some YouTube videos at the beginning of 2017, including those uploaded by もこう(Mokou). Comparing to another CCG namely Hearthstone that was already popular at that time, SV was more attractive to me because of its art style and animations. 

As a two-player versus game, there are no in-game teammates. Something many socialising players are unwilling to accept, but instead attracts players like me. As a hardcore player who focuses on the results, I just hate being dragged down by my "wonderful" teammates – sadly they are everywhere! Being frustrated by teammates is much harder to swallow than being humiliated by opponents, and SV is good in this aspect.

Additionally, SV is no where near pay-to-win. Although some initial investments are recommended for having a better experience, something I will discuss later. Although instead of picking on your wallet, SV as a card game is depending on your luck, something I will discuss later. Overall, SV is a pretty fair game to everyone. For someone like me back in 2017, SV did not have any lethal drawbacks.

Prophecy

One of my old school classmates, someone who is probably having a wonderful life in Mountain View right now, once told me to think twice before starting to “waste” my time with SV. We have the same hometown and same middle school, but anything else is too different to mix up well – we have not talked for years. He had played Hearthstone for some time by then, neither very casual or hardcore, probably somewhere in the middle – but I bet he had a good understanding of the game. He said playing those card games was like going downhill: "great, mid and then bad." Why? Because the card power will get inflated for sure as time goes by, and everything then becomes too chaotic to have fun.

Well, now thinking back, he was right, something hard to swallow. Different games with the same core, what happened to Hearthstone would happen to SV. I was too naive to understand that, believing it was only Hearthstone’s problem, not a systemic one for any other similar card games. And I even said that I would play till the end of SV, showing my confidence with the game and also myself. After some preparation, I started my journey in 2017 August.

Beginning (WLD – DBN)

As expected, the first few months went well. From Beginner to Master and then Grand Master. Everything was fresh and I kept learning everyday.

Soon after I started playing SV, the eighth class was introduced, which was the only one added till this day. Honestly, why did Cygames even do that? Perhaps 8, as an even number, is better for illustration purposes than an odd number 7? And SV was separated into 2 formats, Rotation and Unlimited. That was definitely a smart decision, Cygames knew it all. Otherwise, SV would have fallen down much more quickly.

By the end of this beginning period, I already kept a habit of playing SV everyday, with a fair amount of time. Cleared the daily missions, attempted every event, went for Grand Master every season, and spent some extra time with something else. I chose DBN as the final season of this period, a time that both formats were still quite balanced and playable. The DBN Rage tournament in Japan back then had 6 different classes out of 8 in the final, something very impressive and uncommon in such a card game. After DBN, the first painful season showed up, followed by the second and the third.

First Chest Hunt

This serves as an extra section. I believe most SV players have played Chest Hunt events or at least heard about them. Basically a kind of events for players to get some rewards in the ladder. However, I am pretty sure that only very few know the first ever Chest Hunt, which was held in 2017 September (WLD).

So, what made it so special? Suppose a chest had spawned back then after a row of consecutive wins in the ladder, you would have to win the next ladder match to claim the chest. If you lost the match for whatever reasons, the chest would disappear and you need another row of consecutive wins to see another chest! Imagine how stressful players felt in a chest match? Having consecutive wins in the ladder is not easy anyway, and there is no assurance of winning a chest match. Additionally, the appearance rate of chests was set to a preety low level in that event as well. A row of 2 consecutive wins was usually not enough and 3 was required. In some rare cases, no chests even after winning 3 in a row! That said, Cygames made this event a really evil one if you wanted to collect all 5 chests everyday.

• Imagine having a bad run and cannot even get a win in the ladder?

• Imagine seeing no chests after 2 wins or even 3 wins in a row and lose the next match?

• Imagine celebrating a spawned chest and lose the chest match due to disconnection?

When the chest event started, I was on a trip but decided to complete the event. During the trip, I played SV till early morning, slept only for a few hours, got up by an alarm forcefully and continued with the trip schedule – thanks to the great event – tough and stressful! I remember once in that period, it took me around 50 ladder wins to collect all 5 chests! I mean with that pace, I could fight for top contenders in the ladder!

Of course, the great Cygames realised the flaw. Around one week into the event and almost half in the middle, the rule was modified and Cygames announced an apology. After then, even though the appearance rate was still pretty low, once spawned chests would no longer disappear, which should be the normal rule from the beginning! Because of the change, the second half of the first Chest Hunt became much more smooth.

As time went by, the Chest Hunt became more and more lenient. While the median number of ladder wins required to see a chest got reduced from 3 to 2 or even slightly lower, sometimes you could see a chest after losing a match – 0 wins! That said, the first ever Chest Hunt in Shadowverse was special – specially evil!

Middle (BOS – WUP)

After DBN, SV started to become chaotic: Tenko's Shrine for BOS, Darkfeast Bat for OOT, Manaria and Satan for ALT. Thinking back, all seasons were tough in different ways, but there was a hidden similarity – closed the skill gap for casual players. The Tier 1 decks in all these environments were heavily depending on luck, where skills became less important. As I will discuss in a later section, this kind of cycle is vital for SV in the long run, but definitely a nightmare for those players who want to improve their win rates by playing better.

The next season STR was much better for Rotation, but it was the time when Unlimited really became unlimited and unplayable to me – after the introduction of Bestowal(機構の解放). Of course, Bestowal is only one of those guilty cards, but I just hate it too much. Since STR, most players either did not touch Unlimited or played it only for fun or rewards. That mode was not longer treated seriously, just like what happened to Wild Format in Hearthstone.

I did put some investments into SV by this time, otherwise it would be hard to enjoy SV thoroughly regardless of how much time and effort I put in. Thus, after I collected enough resources in SV, I found that I no longer needed to spend any real money. It was good to save my wallet, meanwhile, the passion started to decrease as I could easily open hundreds of packs every season with all the resources I had – traded by my time and effort.

I chose WUP as the final season of this period, a time that I already felt a bit tired and was waiting for a turning point. After being greatly frustrated from BOS to ALT, I already got used to that hidden cycle. From STR to WUP, forget about Unlimited, sometimes we had a bad environment in Rotation, but it would soon get improved, back and forth. Overall pretty managable as a daily activity, though I could no longer see much growth in myself.

Ending (FOH – ETA)

As my tiredness and frustratedness were accumulating as time went by, this final period was not lasting long – only around half a year. FOH started pretty well in both Rotation and Unlimited, where some slow and time wasting decks had not received popularity, the environments were relatively efficient. Since the second month of FOH, or simply 2020 August, everything started to go down – when Zelgenea joined the chat.

Oh the great Zelgenea(ゼルガネイア), the world! Such a fancy card visually with a nice voice, but its effect is so unforgivable. Given its existence, everything was forcefully slowed down and the environment was full of control decks – the worst possible situation for players like me. Fortunately, we still had solutions in FOH – some dirty solutions to counter the great Zelgenea. Just like how I disliked control decks and related cards like Zelgenea, some players really dislike the previously mentioned solutions. Anyway, I survived FOH and expected the next season to be better. Of course, I was totally wrong.

And then we had SOR, where Zelgenea became a must in almost every common deck but the solutions were no longer effective. Bloody hell! As a veteran player, I was shocked to see my win rate getting stagnated with whatever decks I played, while I could not figure out what to improve. Well, remember the previously discussed cycle, SOR was a season full of silly but powerful cards made for casual players. Lucky ones won, others suffered, simple as that. I had an extremely painful and torturous journey when going for Grand Master in Rotation, something I had not experienced for quite a long time.

• September 29: 3:21:33 / 13W-12L / 0~617

• September 30: 4:03:03 / 16W-9L / 1252~2346

• September 30: 2:19:53 / 9W-6L / 2485~2961

• October 1: 3:24:53 / 7W-8L / 3221~3374

• October 2: 2:27:41 / 9W-9L / 4106~4233

• October 2: 2:25:03 / 9W-6L / 4363~4901

• October 2: 1:49:36 / 8W-2L / 4901~5506

• October 3: 4:01:21 / 15W-15L / 5506~5564

• October 3: 2:58:17 / 17W-8L / 5564~6511

• October 3: 2:01:09 / 10W-7L / 6511~6815

• October 4: 3:17:25 / 20W-5L / 6815~8369

• October 4: 4:09:33 / 21W-14L / 8369~9094

• October 4: 2:46:09 / 12W-11L / 9094~9197

• October 5: 2:44:27 / 7W-13L / 9197~8597

• October 6: 1:38:17 / 8W-4L / 7697~8098

• October 6: 3:29:45 / 15W-13L / 8098~8303

• October 7: 3:25:51 / 18W-9L / 8303~9224

• October 8: 2:42:14 / 11W-9L / 9224~9515

• October 8: 3:05:05 / 12W-9L / 9515~9864

• October 9: 2:36:35 / 2W-0L / 9864~10000~GM0 / 1-2 / 1-2 / 0-2 / 1-2 / 1-2 / 2-0

Unlimited was not that fun to play in SOR either, but slightly better than Rotation. There is a saying about SV: "Whenever Unlimited is better than Rotation, there must be a huge problem with Rotation." The SOR period was so rough that I finally started to seriously consider retirement. Leave or stay, give SV another chance and see what the next season will be.

Unfortunately, ETA was just as bad as SOR. With the unstoppable inflation in card power, Rotation was already like Unlimited and Unlimited was a joke. I no longer felt myself as a card game player, but a gambler gradually losing his sanity. Without even finishing a Grand Master in ETA, I chose it as my final season in SV.

Soon after my decision, I heard that ETA was actually a season where the environments went back to accelerate, but that was no longer a matter to me. I left not only because I was unsatisfied with a specific card or season, but the whole cycle or typically SV itself. Maybe ETA was indeed a better season than SOR and the one after ETA could be even better, but so what? Finally, I saw the downhill trend and called it a day.

Farewell

There is a saying about SV: “The earlier you quit this crappy game, the earlier your life will get back on track.” SV was a huge part of my life during that period, and I spent a long time with SV everyday. After leaving SV, the first few weeks were honestly very strange to adapt, as all of a sudden I had a lot more spare time to spend or waste. But it did not take long, until I started to fill up the big hole with other smaller and more flexible games.

SV was also a turning point that I was determined to stop playing similar digital card games regardless of trading or collecting, as well as any other multiplayer games. With only singleplayer ones, I found myself becoming emotionally stabler. Well, the number of big excitements was decreasing, so was the number of extremely bad and angry moments. That said, yes, I have to agree with that saying at the beginning of this section.

Cygames

I thought SV would have a much different life cycle than Hearthstone and I was wrong, so I did try to blame Cygames a lot towards my final days with SV. Maybe everything would be better if Cygames took SV more seriously? Absolutely yes, but only to some extent.

Thinking from the player side, you can always find something to criticise, as no game is perfect. But from the operation side, now I start to think that Cygames were actually doing well. One rule at the top: you cannot make everyone happy, no way. 

• Tempo: Some players prefer aggro decks, where every match can be done in 5 minutes or no more than 10 minutes. Others prefer to control and win by draining their opponents' resources, though the matches will then take longer to end. This is a conflict.

• Skill: Some players prefer an environment requiring higher skills – the hardcore players. Others just want to have fun with some specific cards or decks, even better if they can win without any advanced skills – the casual players. This is a conflict.

• Pay: Some players prefer not to pay a lot, aiming to claim what they want in SV with time and effort. Others with a paying habit, would like to see some exclusive features that only accessible to them by money. And Cygames, of course, need profits. This is a conflict.

SV was actually moving in cycle, which is indeed a smart way to dynamically balance the needs of different players.

• Environment: Average -> Relatively Fast -> Fast -> Relatively Fast -> Average -> Relatively Slow -> Slow -> Relatively Slow -> Average -> ...

• Skill: Average -> Hardcore -> Average -> Casual -> Average -> ...

• Pay: New Features ABC Exclusive to Wallet Players -> Features ABC No Longer Exclusive -> New Features DEF Exclusive to Wallet Players -> Features DEF No Longer Exclusive -> ...

That is why my game experience with SV was changing season by season, which also made a complete quit harder, as a disappointing season could end with a hopeful light for the next one. However, the cycles were not moving on a flat surface, but rather downhill due to the unavoidable inflation of card power.

Specifically, the inflation of card power: "A Gold card released now, will probably lose to a Silver card released in one year." The newer cards must generally be stronger than the older ones, otherwise no one will give a shit about the new cards. As a result, as time goes by with continuously regular updates, the new cards will become more and more powerful, and in the end destroy the game itself in a chaotic way.

Well, Cygames could have done a better job to control the inflation. Thus, the downhill would still be a downhill in the long-term, perhaps a flatter angle, but never totally flat or an uphill. After seeing how everything evolved with other similar card games, Cygames definitely knew it from the beginning, probably the key reason they cared less and less about SV after the first 2 to 3 years. My old classmate realised this with Hearthstone, but unfortunately I thought he was a nut and decided to see everything myself. Enjoy the honeymoon and leave afterwards, or get ready to struggle with pain and chaos, lesson learned.

Luck

Another conclusion by my old classmate: “Card games are all just about luck.” Well, that is something I am unable to accept completely. Of course, card games cannot live without luck or randomness, regardless of board or digital ones. That said, if you really hate randomness, card games are not for you. Similar but better substitutes are very easy to find, for example chess, just pure skills without any randomness.

Assuming luck is always playing an important role in card games, is that a bad thing? Well, it depends on to what extent can luck affect the games. Using SV as an example, most of the environments when I was playing were relatively balanced in the middle. But sometimes the balance was leaning towards luck, when your skills became less important. So what, should we stop thinking then and just pray? Here is my answer to every turn-based game with randomness: Analyse the situation, propose the optimal solution and end the turn with a smile.

Now, back to real life. How many times when something, perhaps an important one, is decided by neither skills nor effort in the end, but luck or randomness? Sounds very similar to card games, right? Some of us may want the real life to work more like chess, where we can have a full control. Meanwhile, fortunately or unfortunately, the real life usually works more like card games, where a particular portion is always out of our hands.

Embrace the randomness, live with it. For those you may control, put in effort and break it out! For the rest, put in effort and accept whatever the outcome is. As long as you have tried everything, well done and be content with yourself!

Input

From 2017 August to 2020 December, not even 3 years and a half, much shorter than what I expected. Not a long period of time, but I did spend a big amount of time and effort grinding in SV. Almost 7000 hours of game time on 2 platforms (Steam and IOS) when I quit, well that was how much time you need to waste if you want to achieve something ;). And a fair amount of money, which is not a big deal for those regular spenders, but very unusual for someone like me who prefers retro games with emulators and hardly spends much with games.

Output

Am I regretting of how much I have "wasted" with SV? The answer is no, absolutely. Unlike others who were enjoying the real world with their friends or partners, the beginning of my 20s sucked a lot. Getting less and less interested with the real world, my life was in "shadow". Meanwhile, my inner world was only starting to get built, and I did need something like a good "verse" to brighten my life – SV was the solution. When I started to build my YouTube channel, SV covered most of my videos. The moment I left SV, my channel had been built to a good condition, so as my inner world. Not only a game, but more like a partner.

Epilogue

Back in 2017, when my SV journey just started, I thought I would play it till the end of its era. Sarcastically, SV is still operating normally at the moment in 2025 September, even after the launch of Worlds Beyond. It has been almost 5 years since I left SV, while i only spent not even 3 years and a half with it. Every story must have an ending. Thanks for being with me through my darkest period like a partner, I still feel appreciated to this moment.

Achievements in Detail

• Rotation: Best Rank 274 with 10000 MP, Grand Master 12 Times (CGS/DBN/BOS/OOT/ALT/STR/ROG/VEC/UCL/WUP/FOH/SOR)

• Unlimited: Best Rank 107 (64*) with 10000 MP (3603* MP), Grand Master 11 Times (SFL/CGS/DBN/BOS/OOT/ALT/STR/UCL/WUP/FOH/SOR)

• 2Pick: Best Rank 49

• Grand Prix: Champion of Winter Cup 2018, Champion of STR Rotation Cup