Eightfold Retributions and Omens and Heirs, Part 2

Great Omens

BP20 marks the second return of one of Shadowverse's most iconic follower groups: the Omens, who bring a series of trials for the world to overcome. After their defeat in BP15, the Omens took on new trials to represent, leaving behind remnants of power now claimed by the Heirs. Each non-neutral faction (technically not class, since Rune contains two Omens) has an Omen, an Heir, and 3 worshippers in the form of a Devotee, a Supplicant, and a Congregant. Each faction also contains a spell and, except Truth, a "location" amulet. Lastly, the champions who defeated the Omens' trials originally are both represented as Leader cards in this set and by their own "heir" followers.

This set also introduces a new mechanic in the form of Crests. Crests are a class of Token that can only exist in the EX area that represent effects that linger beyond the card that created them. You can only control a single copy of any Crest in your EX area, and if a second copy of a Crest would be created, it is not created. Crests cannot be played from the EX area and cannot exist outside of the EX area.

While technically not the first set to care about two traits at the same time (Storm-Wracked First Mate (Evolved) takes that honor, I believe), a major theme of this set is for the Omen cards in each class to care about Omen and another trait at the same time, using a dash to represent this intersection. This distinction can be trivial for some combinations (there are no Idolatry cards that are not Omens) or crucial to track, such as the difference between Hunter and Omen–Hunter.

Without further ado, let's dive into the specific classes.

Forestcraft

Hunter Forest

Hunter is back and stronger than ever thanks to Izudia, Annihilation Manifest, with Krulle, Heir to Unkilling and the new Unkilling team backing him up. It's a bit of a tempo-burn strategy, using powerful removal effects and incremental bits of healing and damage to set up a flurry of Annihilating Onslaught to close out the game.

Eradicating Arrow is a very efficient removal spell that also contributes chip damage once enough Hunters are in the Cemetery. Because it costs 2pp, it works quite well with the new Izudia's discount effect.

Krulle, Heir to Unkilling plays a major defensive role in this deck, as she comes with -3/-3 removal when evolved, and a board-wide instance of it on Super-Evolve. Her fanfare can also generate a Crest that enables removal effects and a bit of extra healing to boot.

Izudia, Annihilation Manifest is the de facto win condition of this deck. He has a pretty annoying stat line as a 3/5 and effectively wins the game if he survives a turn. His ability to search an Omen–Hunter spell gives access to Erosive Annihilation, Eradicating Arrow, and even a one-of Mark of the Six and he generates the powerful Annihilating Onslaught when played after 6 Hunters are in the cemetery. His discount effect is what really makes him dangerous, and allows for the deck to play back into the combo theme of Forest.

Other

Plumeria, Serene Goddess is an interesting addition for decks that feature the Verdant trait, and one deck in particular that is known for this trait and evolving a lot is Togh Keyoh Forest. Plumeria can take the spot of some of the defensive techs in the deck to give the deck more damage from hand.

Bearer of the Fairy Blade is effectively a miniature Amataz due to her on evolve effect and a solid addition to Pixie decks, where early removal is at a premium. The extra bonus of buffing pixies being played make this card a menace if left alive as well.

Swordcraft

Loot Sword

On the heels of the debut of Barbaros, Briny Convict, Octrice, Hollowness Manifest returns to steal the spotlight (although she actually plays more of a supporting role now). Loot Sword in BP20 is an aggro-combo deck that looks to play for early chip damage and then go for explosive popoff turns, much like its BP15 incarnation, but with a stronger early game.

Barbaros, Briny Convict (Evolved) is a new cost reducer for your Loot cards out of the EX area, with powerful payoffs for playing each loot. She's a powerful tempo swing when played, and is part of a second burst damage combo in this deck when played alongside one of her crewmates.

Tidal Gunner is a new secondary win condition in this deck, as she turns Dread Pirate's Flag tokens into substantial amounts of extra damage. A common play pattern is to play Barbaros and one or two Tidal Gunners, and then unload a massive barrage of damage from the discounted flags.

Octrice, Hollowness Manifest is more of a consistency card in this deck. Her Crest is a potent search effect that gives your deck a solid amount of consistency, finding the card you need to advance your game plan once you've progressed it to 8 counters, or she can give you immediate access to Returning Slash, a powerful tempo tool that can also generate a Gilded Blade to push damage.

Sinciro, Heir to Usurpation is a notable exclusion from most lists. He comes with a powerful board wipe, but it's quite difficult to set up a lethal push from him on Super-Evolve and the deck instead would rather try to win with Barbaros and Tidal Gunner.

Runecraft

Idol/Destruction Rune

Lishenna, Melody Manifest now creates White Psalm, New Revelation and Black Psalm, New Revelation often dubbed "eggs" due to their shape in the artwork and how they have Last Words effects that you'll want to activate, kind of like cracking an egg. These low-cost amulets also have a side effect of being basically permanently present for the board-matters cards previously in the class, transforming this deck from a grindy control playstyle to an extremely aggressive burn deck.

Devastating Soprano and and the aforementioned new Lishenna are your entry point to creating White Psalm, New Revelation, which is the core engine introduced to Lishenna decks. The alternate modes on these cards are also nice to use when an egg is already in play, but sometimes, you can go for the really spicy "double-egg" line.

Wasteland of Destruction is another powerful amulet introduced this set, and boy is it a doozy. Since the deck is almost entirely Omen–Idolatry cards, Wasteland is a powerful card selection tool that sticks around to activate your eggs and enable your other payoffs. It can also clear itself off the board to extend your plays, and the other target you bury can be an egg to flip it, or another Idolatry card in order to free up even more board space.

Axia, Heir to Destruction (Evolved) is an incredibly overloaded card with a wide range of payoffs, provided you have another Idolatry card for her to pop. The ability to search for any Lishenna provides an entry point to your eggs, or the ability to follow up with Lishenna, Melodious Destruction. Her Super-Evolve is a large part of the burst damage potential of this deck, as pushing up to 5 damage in one go is nothing to scoff at when the deck does so much chip damage as part of its normal gameplay.

Mage/Truth Rune

Velharia, Heir to Truth is a powerful Mage follower who can be played in both Omen–Mage themed decks and more aggressive Mage pile decks, as she has a fairly resilient statline and has nice effects when evolved or Super-Evolved. These decks both have a good amount of overlap, relying on powerful discounts to pull ahead on tempo and Chain Lightning and Truth's Adjudication to deliver lethal amounts of burn damage. Ersatz Elimination tokens seem to be the theme here, using them to churn out multiple copies of Zealot of Truth in order to keep up the damage.

Dragoncraft

Disdain Dragon

Everyone's favorite insult-slinging dragon girl is back, with a whole slew of support that propels this strategy to a pillar of the format. The deck generally plays on Galmieux, Ardent Disdain (from BP15) to cheat up to 15 PP worth of plays out, while relying on Galmieux, Omen of Disdain (Evolved) (from BP05) to close out the game. The new development is that the support cards make this plan a lot more consistent and explosive.

Nation of Disdain is a very powerful consistency card that sits on the board as a banked "free ping" to activate your followers' effects.

Congregant of Disdain is a much-needed on-trait ramp effect for the deck, and when you're in Overflow, he pings the entire board, which can set off a large number of your powerful effects.

Ferocious Flame is a removal spell that also comes with the ability to ramp if a Galmieux is in play. This is pretty expensive as a way to get Ramp, but given that it comes with a lot of card advantage to boot, it's nothing to scoff at. Note that an opposing follower must be on the field as a target to play this card.

Galmieux, Ardor Manifest creates Crest: Galmieux, Ardor Manifest , which gives the deck more free pings. She also acts as extra damage once in overflow and a removal effect that helps keep the board controlled.

Azurifrit, Heir to Disdain is an on-theme follower who is currently a tech option for the deck. His effects are skewed toward dealing with big boards, which only really exist in the mirror, and he's rather poor at pushing face damage compared to other cards you could play in the mirror. He also costs 4 play points, which is a bit awkward when the deck revolves so heavily around BP15 Galmieux. He's definitely good at dealing with boards on bridge turns while conserving resources and has a pretty powerful Super-Evolve effect, so he's a nice option to consider for sure.

Abysscraft

Choice Abyss

"Entwining" is a new theme altogether, created when a refugee of the followers of Lust and Silence hid away in a cave and, via otherworldly influence, became the encroacher Sham-Nacha. Mechanically, Sham-Nacha gives you the ability to get all options on your "Choose" cards, and this plays really well with all the Abyss Omen cards in this set.

Sham-Nacha, Heir to Entwining (Evolved) is the capstone card of this deck. While she's not strictly required for the deck to function, her Crest turns a one-turn investment into a massive payoff for all the "Choose" cards in the deck. Her Super-Evolve works well at reanimating and then evolving out Congregant of Entwining (Evolved) or Rulenye & Valnareik (Evolved), whichever one better fits the game state you're trying to play.

BP20 introduces a wide variety of "Modal" cards for this strategy. Castle of Entwining is a much-needed consistency piece for a deck that revolves around finding a single follower. The Entwining worshipper trio and Screaming and Loathing all provide playable baseline effects that offer a tantalizing reward after you've invested in Sham-Nacha's Crest. Rulenye & Valnareik are notably missing from this sample list but are a powerful midrange option while this list leans into a heavier control direction.

Havencraft

Crest Haven

Crests may be a new mechanic, but they are Havencraft's entire identity in this set. Tying in to Repose's theme of "chilling out for a turn", Haven's Crests all confer end-of-turn effects, with Crest: Himeka, Heir to Repose and Crest: Marwynn, Despair Manifest granting escalating effects that offer board control and a win condition. In addition, some followers get stronger based on how many crests you have. Combine these end-of-turn effects with the effect of Erralde, Troth Convict that doubles your end-of-turn effects and you have an extremely powerful engine that can grind out the game after enabled, provided you make it there. Of note is there are payoffs for having at least 3 or 5 Crests active, but as of BP20, the fifth Crest can only be the one and only Crest: Mjerrabaine, Great Manifest.

Himeka, Heir to Repose creates a Crest that gives a removal effect to the deck and searches other Repose or Despair cards when evolved. Her Super-Evolve effect allows you to summon a follower directly in the relevant deck, generally aimed at summoning Marwynn in particular.

Marwynn, Despair Manifest is the primary win condition for this deck, as the Crest he generates is the one that can do face damage. As an alternative to creating his Crest (usually you're going to do this after setting up), he can be used to banish any opposing follower and heal.

Congregant of Repose and Supplicant of Repose (Evolved) also provide their respective Crests for this deck, rounding us to 4 Crests in class in the current set. They also come with nice supplemental effects when not used to generate their crests.

Erralde, Troth Convict makes a powerful showing in this deck, as all Haven Crests happen at the end of the turn, which means Erralde causes those effects to happen twice. Erralde himself also usually clears the board and gives additional healing, which plays well with a deck that's trying to grind out with gradual burn effects.

Other

Knight of the Holy Order is a solid card in Ward Haven decks, where several cards can summon her and therefore trigger her automatic evolve fanfare, resulting in a nice bit of healing and an extra card from her on evolve effect.

Neutral

Neutral cards in this set are also largely Omen-themed as Mjerrabaine, Great Manifest and Gilnelise, Voracity Manifest make their return.

Mjerrabaine, Great Manifest and Mjerrabaine, Great Manifest (Evolved) are largely played as the 5th Crest in Crest Haven, where discarding your hand is the cost of doing business to unlock the full power of Marwynn and Himeka's Crests. His Crest and associated spell (Greatness Ascended) help offset the discard cost to recover your hand size. Unlike his previous incarnations though, the fact that his Crest draws you cards actually makes him kind of awkward in Handless Abyss, another deck that sometimes plays his previous copies. Still though, being an extra card draw every turn is potentially a solid fit in more zoo-style aggro decks, so keep him in mind in those contexts.

Gilnelise, Voracity Manifest can be used for removal or to push more damage, and is most often used in Cutthroat decks to push damage. She also has a bonus effect to create her signature token when you have no Super-Evolution points left, which can help push for an advantage in scrappy games.

Omens and Heirs Apparent

BP20: Omens and Heirs vastly increases the power level of the game and restricts this power level to trait specific synergies. The Omen strategies in this set are all incredibly powerful and shape the landscape of the game in this format. Decks like Disdain and Loot manage to keep a lot of their original playstyle but with more speed and power, while Destruction has gone from a control strategy to a tempo burn one. With so many options added from our combined BP19 and BP20 set, which deck will you bring to events for this format?