OTAKU CLUB: Shadowverse Segments: No More Suicidal Vendettas

Hey there people. I liked the views on my posts so here I am again. Thanks for reading them. Ahem. Today I'll be talking about the new Bloodcraft cards from the Tempest expansion. There are quite a few of them so I'll be doing some of them later on. Here goes.

Vengeance? What's That?

Now lo and behold the card that breaks the whole "high risk high return" play style of Bloodcraft, the Blood Moon.

Yeah all the cards are going to be Black/White. I don't have them. Sorry. T-T

The ability description is short and sweet, "Vengeance is activated even if you're above 10 health points". That's it. But damn does this change a hell lot of things. The amulet in itself is a cost-3 but strategically, you might want to place it down at turn 6 or higher when you can place it along with some other vengeance cards. You know, in the event that something bad happens to the amulet.

So imagine that. No more "I have to deduct my own HP to activate bad ass abilities" and no more waiting for people to reduce your HP to 10 and below just so you can pull off your combos. This one card here just made Bloodcraft a hell lot faster and stronger than it already is.

The possibilities are endless. You can now use those cheap vengeance cards for an early power spike or go for a control deck without actually needing to damage yourself to activate those bigger effects that comes with playing them.

My Baphomet/Serpent Combo

One such card that goes really well with Blood Moon would be the Legendary card Maelstrom Serpent. Serpent has this scary effect of multiplying (YES IT PULLS A KAGE BUNSHIN) itself until the field is full if vengeance is active.

That's a lot of snakes. Yeesh.

However it has one huge drawback and that is its whopping cost of 8. This means that you can only play him late into the game when the enemy either has a Bahamut or a Themis's Decree or worse, that accursed Lightning Blast (which I will talk about later on a different post) in which all of those can wipe every single Serpent you have on the field.

I like him a lot. I just didn't get any of him yet. Probably need to craft him later.

"So how can I counter this?", you may ask, and the answer would be the new silver card, Baphomet. Yes, if played at a 5-cost, Baphomet becomes the first ever ramping card for Bloodcraft. Yes I know this is exactly the range of Themis's 6-cost but you just have to pray sometimes.

Its not only limited to Maelstrom Serpent. There are quite a few older cards that could benefit well from Baphomet like Abyss Beast or Frenzied Juggernaut. Do note that Baphomet only works with Bloodcraft followers. No neutrals allowed.

Damage Dampening Amulet

With the introduction of Blood Moon, some of the self-damaging cards might lose their utility value but I think if you're smart, you can still make use of them. This silver amulet will help you do just that.

I hate that mask. It creeps me out. A lot.

This card acts as both a safety net and a substitute if you're using self-damaging cards but you don't actually want to damage yourself. What it does is that any damage taken by the leader is subtracted to the countdown of this amulet. The amulet has 5 countdown so at most it would block 5 damage, right? Wrong.

The thing with Mask of the Black Death is that it reduces its own countdown based on the damage dealt. Say it has 1 countdown left, it can still block one attack that deals 5 damage. It doesn't deal the remaining damage to the leader.

People on the net is debating about this card and how it'd change a lot of things on Bloodcraft and to be honest, I think it will. You can play Dire Bond safely without any damage. You can stall aggro decks early on in the game. Block monstrous damage during the late game phases. The possibilities are endless.

People kept comparing this card to heals. I, for one see that they're looking at it wrong. This isn't a heal card. Its an immunity to damage. You can block a cost-6 Storm Black Dragoon Forte with this measly cost-2 card. Of course, there are ways of getting around this card but still, now people have to figure out how to do that first.

A Not-So-Cheap Azazel

Last one for today. A cheap alternative to sweet old Azazel. Belphegor is a cost-4 card with quite an intriguing effect.

First time I saw this card I kind of looked at her for 5 minutes just because I can (yes I have her in my alternate account)

At first I thought to myself, "Oh nice. It increases your hand while enabling vengeance". I mean, that is as handy as a Bloodcraft card can get. But then I got to thinking. If Belphegor was to be played when there's a Bloody Mary on my side of the field and vengeance is not activated for me, would that be an infinite loop of damage to the enemy? I tried looking at the net but I got nothing.