TAKE 2 AND OPEN 6 GUIDE

Take 2 v Open 6
Assuming your going 4 - 5 wins, take 2 has the possibility to go infinite and the
value generated per ticket/150 gold is higher. Open 6 while being less worth in
terms of value, it makes up for it by giving you the ability to target draw a specific
class’ cards and saves a lot of time compared to take 2.

How Take 2 Works

1. Spend 1 Challenge Ticket, or 150 rupies (x4 for open 6)
2. Pick 1 class from 3 random classes
3. Draft 30 cards
4. Play 5 Matches
5. Aim to finish with a score of 4-1

Class Mechanics
Forestcraft: Play[X], Impair, Token Generation

Play[X]​ cards require other cards to be played before an effect triggers, or scale
in effect based on the number of cards played before.
Evaluation: Requires multiple low-cost cards to be played on the same turn, thus
making it a somewhat unreliable mechanic due to its reliance on resource cards.

Impair​ cards reduce the effectiveness of enemy followers. They reduce their
opponents’ attack or render them unable to attack for the next turn. This allows
allied followers to trade effectively, improving the value of your cards.
Evaluation: Attack reduction is generally an underwhelming mechanic because it
does not actively remove the threat of your opponent’s followers; they mostly
require you to take advantage of them immediately. Preventing attack is much
more impactful, for it is unlikely for the enemy to have more than 1 threatening
follower on the board, thus buying you an extra turn. The impair cards have good
tempo and value, which makes it a good theme to have for a Forestcraft draft.

Token Generation​ cards generate tokens for you on the field or hand and
therefore acts as a support mechanic to the Play[X] mechanic. Additionally,
Forestcraft employs ‘buff’ cards, cards which increase the attack or defense of
allied followers. For example, this makes the weaker Fairies and Wisps more of a
potential threat.
Evaluation: Fairy/wisp generation is slightly underwhelming, for the value of fairy
without any combo/support is extremely low, the only use is to fill out a curve, but
most cards take a slight penalty in stats, thus slightly underwhelming. The new
expansion Verdant Conflict has introduced more cards based on holding fairies in
hand, which are normally very underwhelming cards, due to difficulty in activating
the effect.

Overview

These mechanics make Forestcraft difficult but rewarding to play. Resources

have to be expended and conserved with precise timing, to utilize each and
every card to its maximum potential. Greatly relies on the newer cards which
have less reliance on synergies and which has stand-alone value.

Difficulty Rating: 4/5

Power Rating: 4/5

Consistency Rating: 4/5

Swordcraft: Officer/Commander, Loot Generation,
Enhance/Accelerate, Levin

Officer/Commander​ cards apply synergistic effects based on officer and

commander traits. These synergies often involve increasing the allied followers’
attack and/or defense.

Evaluation: The buff provided is generally weak, but most of these cards don’t
get reduced stats for their Officer/Commander tags. Thus generally desirable,
due to occasional additional synergies.

Loot Generation​ cards produce 1 of 4 Loot cards at random, which are 1pp
spells with useful effects. These cards act as a good supportive backbone in
conjunction with your other cards, improving their effectiveness in battle.
Evaluation: Loot cards are extremely situational, for there is no control in which
loot is generated and the effects are minor as well. Thus while generally
desirable, the card should be evaluated as if the loot generated was unhelpful.

Enhance/Accelerate​ cards, while not limited to Swordcraft, fits right in with its
playstyle. As these cards have a low cost and high cost respectively, they allow
for flexible deck building, allowing you to play on-curve throughout the game.
Evaluation: Generally desirable due to the vast flexibility offered, however the
quality of the Enhance/Accelerate varies greatly, thus evaluate each card with
care.

Levin​ cards are followers with the Levin tag, only 1 new levin card in Verdant
Conflict, thus still extremely difficult in activating their effects consistently. Special
Open 6 note: Since you get only 2 packs, the chance of ever getting a good
amount of levins is low.

Evaluation: Most are fairly stated followers, however their effects all require a
Levin either in hand or play to trigger, thus extremely unreliable. Generally
desirable due to the off chance you might trigger the effects, but generally played
as vanilla.
Overview

Swordcraft plays on board and slightly above the curve, meaning that they build
an incremental advantage over the course of the game until the opponent cannot
deal with its value and tempo. The reverse is also true; Swordcraft is weak to
opponents that amass a strong tempo advantage against it.

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

Power Rating: 2/5

Consistency Rating: 5/5

Runecraft: Spellboost, Earth-Rite, Mysteria

Spellboost ​cards increase in power for each spell card played while the
spellboost card remains in your hand. These cards start out weak, but have
destructive potential. These cards primarily show their strength in the late game,
where you will have spell boosted these cards to turn the tide of battle.
Evaluation: Generally underwhelming for it is difficult to constantly draft
spells/good spells and all spellboost cards are overpriced because you are
expected to spellboost them. Especially some spellboost cards such as
[Despondent Chimera] and [Sweet-Tooth Medusa], which has a minimum
threshold of spellboost to fully utilize their effects.

Earth-Rite​ cards destroy an allied Earth Sigil in play for added effects. These
cards have a relatively easier activation requirement to meet than Spellboost
cards, making them effective in the mid-game.

Evaluation: Most of the cards take a penalty in stats for their effects, thus as
standalone cards most of them are under-valued. Nor is it reliable to constantly
get the Earth Sigil generators and earth rite cards in play/hand, hence potentially
dead cards stuck in hand. However, it is made up by its easier activation criteria.
Avoid in general, cards should be evaluated under the assumption the earth rite
effect is not activated.
Overview

While potentially strong, Runecraft has multiple archetypes that clash with one
another, making it inconsistent and difficult for an inexperienced player to draft
optimally. A good Runecraft draft balances the ratios of spellboost, earth rite and
mysteria cards well. Aside from the previously mentioned mechanics, Runecraft
uses powerful attrition cards like [Burgeoning Genius], [Palla, Student Teacher]
and [Lovely-Heart Monika] to overwhelm the opponent with endless evolution
points. The appearance rate of these game-changing cards, alongside its chaotic
drafting patterns, often means that Take 2 Runecraft has a powerful, but
inconsistent performance.

Difficulty Rating: 5/5

Power Rating: 4/5

Consistency Rating: 1/5

Dragon: Ramp/Overflow

Ramp​ cards add an empty play point orb. Thus the advantage of ramping is to
reach your endgame sooner to play big followers that overwhelm the opponent
quickly, but usually take on some sort of tempo penalty due to costing a card for
a play point orb.
Evaluation: Often takes a penalty in stats for the ramp effect, thus if the ramp is
not utilized you pay for a sub-par follower. Evaluate card as if it didn’t have the
ramp effect, for it is hard to properly utilize in Take 2.

Overflow​ cards go hand in hand with Ramp, unlocking additional effects upon
reaching the Overflow threshold of 7 pp. These cards are typically low-costed,
which means that your deck improves as you enter Overflow.

Evaluation: Often slightly under stated, but still tolerable. Usually offers a
significant Overflow effect, however due to the fact overflow is gated behind 7pp
some overflow effects do not provide a large enough impact in late stages of the
game. Generally desirable, but the card itself must be playable even without the
Overflow effect.

Overview

Dragoncraft’s core concept of abusing its ramp advantage. Lately the “dragon
tax” has been significantly reduced, high cost dragon cards are now fairly stated
for their cost most of the times, meaning your are no longer punished as hard for
not ramping up.

Difficulty: 4/5

Power Rating: 4/5

Consistency Rating: 4/5

Shadowcraft: Necromancy, Reanimate, Burial Rite

Necromancy[X]​ cards spend shadows, a resource gained from the destruction

of allied cards or playing spells (a.k.a gained from sending cards to the
graveyard). Since shadows are an auxiliary resource that you naturally generate
by playing cards, Necromancy is a particularly strong mechanic in the midgame
and late game. However, shadows are somewhat limited in actual gameplay,
thus they should be spent wisely on strong game-winning effects.
Evaluation: Unlike many other types of resources in the game, shadows are
gained naturally through the course of the game, it requires no additional
resource dedication to generate them, thus they are generally desirable.

Reanimate[X]​ cards summons the highest possible cost destroyed follower at

random capped by X, much like resurrecting a zombie from the dead. This
mechanic works at its best when high-quality followers had been destroyed, or
when supported by Burial Rite.

Evaluation: In Take 2 where we have little agency over what specific cards our
deck contains, inevitably we would have included some less powerful cards,
Reanimate occasionally dilutes this pool of cards, while 2pp Reanimates are
completely fine, due to the vast majority of 2pp’s being standard 2/2s, higher pp
reanimates often face the issue of lacking a good target to Reanimate. Thus 2pp
reanimates are welcome, while anything higher are generally undesirable.

Burial Rite​ cards allow you to sacrifice followers from your hand in order to
trigger an effect. While Burial Rite does not trigger Last Word effects, these
effects are often multi-purpose. For example, a Burial Rite effect that draws a
card, like [Soulsteal], essentially replaces a high-cost follower that is unplayable
in the early game, for another card in your deck.

Overview

Shadowcraft has some of the strongest tempo and value tools in Shadowverse,
from high quality followers, to removal options, and game-winning effects. Unlike
a few of the other classes, several of its cards can artificially apply similar effects,
making it both strong and consistent.

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

Power Rating: 4/5

Consistency Rating: 3/5

Bloodcraft: Vengeance, Self Damage, Handbuff

Vengeance​ cards have effects that only activates at 10 hp or lower, or when a
[Blood Moon] is in play.

Evaluation: Activating vengeance could be both hard and easy depending on

draft, but the one certainty is one can never get enough benefits from vengeance
being active. While on the surface it would appear the self damaging mechanic
works well together with vengeance, self damaging ideally wants to be dealing 1
damage to themselves each time, at most 2. This means in the most ideal
situation it would take 5 self damaging cards to drop you to 10hp, obviously too
slow if the deck was centered around being at 10hp. A bigger issue is the inability
to ensure heals/good heals can be drafted, this effectively means your opponent
only has to do 10 damage for the win. This is not even factoring the difficulty in
getting the useful cards from drafting. Avoid in general.

Handbuff​ cards increase the attack of other Bloodcraft followers in your hand.
Evaluation: Most handbuff cards are fairly stated and takes no penalty, thus it
can be treated as an additional perk. However the impact of handbuffing is close
to zero, because if it is a non-strom/rush follower that is buffed the increased
attack does not help with survivability of the follower, it can be easily
traded/destroyed by effects.

Overview

Bloodcraft has cards that rely heavily on synergy, often lacks individually good
cards to support its curve, and also lacks consistently efficient win conditions.
This disparity in power to other classes makes Bloodcraft undesirable in Take 2.

Difficulty Rating: 4/5

Power Rating: 3/5

Consistency Rating: 3/5

Havencraft: Amulet, Heal, Control

Amulet​ cards are delayed effects/summons, most have a last words effect which
triggers when the countdown reaches 0.

Evaluation: Generally packed with value, downside being most of them trigger on
last words making them really slow, however newer amulets tend to have fanfare
effects as well, which greatly increases their power. Those with good fanfare
effects are desirable.

Heal​ cards are those which restores HP to either yourself or followers.

Evaluation: Generally a super underwhelming mechanic, due to heals unlikely
affecting board state. While the heal trigger cards such as [Elana, Purest Prayer]
are far and few, thus extremely unreliable to draft heals hoping to get the trigger
cards. Generally undesirable.

Control​ cards are those with removal effects, while every class has them, haven
tends to have more premium removal cards than other classes.

Evaluation: 1 for 1 trading cards are generally desirable, but note that one should
not draft too many for they can’t deal face damage aka cant win games. While
AoE clear is highly dependant on activation condition/cost/effectiveness.

Overview

Haven is mostly carried by the few broken amulets, while heals are generally just
the thing to avoid. Some foresight on what future turns are likely to be is required,
for that will inform you whether it is the correct time to set up amulets.

Difficulty Rating: 4/5

Power Rating: 4/5

Consistency Rating: 4/5

Portalcraft: Artifacts, Puppets

Puppets​ cards are those who add puppets into your hand.

Evaluation: Puppets are just effectively 0pp 1 damage spells which makes it
super good in t2 where its primarily based on followers trading into each other
saves a lot of evo points, allowing easy kills on damaged followers. However
many of the puppet cards are understated, thus pick with caution, but generally
desirable.

Artifact​ cards are those who either add an artifact into the deck or those who
search for an artifact from the deck.
Evaluation: The artifacts themselves are slightly overstated cards which makes
them great in T2, however the problem is in drawing them and they are mostly
early game followers making them somewhat a terrible draw in the late game. It
is heavily reliant on the searches to draw them out to prevent possible brick top
decking in the late game. Generally undesirable due to potential late game
clunkiness, but few have great inherent value and this combo is relatively easy to
pull off.

Overview

Portal is mainly carried by the flexibility of puppets and the artifacts that gets to
be played early game. The lack of draw is a glaring weakness of the craft,
making it reliant on deck building to ensure balance of cards are kept making top
decking less crucial.

Difficulty Rating: 4/5

Power Rating: 5/5

Consistency Rating: 3/5

Neutral: Mechina, Evolution, Natura

Mechina ​cards refer to those with the trait tag of mechina.

Evaluation: Each class has their own mech cards with a mech neutral package,
the issue with this is that the mech synergies are extremely self contained and
has close to 0 synergy with any of the other mechanics of their craft. However
most mechs are fairly stated, but those mechs that relies on mech synergies
should be avoided. Generally desirable.

Evolution​ cards are which either has a way to self evolve without spending
evolution orbs or those that gain benefit for having X number of evolves during
the course of the game. (NOT to be confused with, those that gain effects from
evolving)

Evaluation: Each class has their own evo cards with a neutral evo package.
Generally those that can evolve for free are very desirable due to the board
centric nature of t2/o6. While those which gain effects for X evolved are less
desirable due to difficulty in drafting those with free evo effects, thus limited to the
initial 2 or 3 evo orbs. Generally undesirable.

Natura ​cards are those which either add a Naterran Great Tree or have effects
which requires the tree to be activated.

Evaluation: Vast majority of them are fairly stated, therefore the Tree is just an
extra resource given to you for the cost of 1 board space (aka close to none).
This gives a lot more consistency for every deck now gets a 1pp draw 1.
However the quality of the effects vary greatly, thus some classes benefits a lot
more from Natura, evaluate the cards as if they have no effect.

TLDR ranking
Portal, Dragon, Haven > Forest, Shadow> Blood> Sword, Rune

(NANI?!?! Blood isn't last place?!?)

General Drafting Tips

1. Aim to draft less bad cards, rather than more good cards. E.g. if we were to
numerically rate the cards, say Option A is 10 points + 100 points, option B
is 40 points + 60 points. You should be drafting option B, because drawing
the 10 points card is likely going to lose you the game.
2. You don’t need a “win con”, in the vast majority of T2 games one wins the
game via tempo and simply making a board that your opponent can deal
with.​ One doesn’t need some elaborate combo of cards to make some
fancy OTK.
3. Evaluate a cards stats, ease of activating effect and impact of the
effect. ​Never just assume you can activate the effect, please take care and
 think about how many cards in your deck of 30 can actually trigger the
effect, and how often those cards pop up in drafting (e.g. their rarity).

Open 6
The same concepts and theories of t2 applies to open 6 as well, but one can
generally expect a higher valued deck in o6, due to the addition of choice and
more legendary/golds.

Decks should be kept at 30 cards maximum. ~~The only exception is, assume a
numeric value was assigned to each card, the additional cards added over the
maximum should have a higher value than the average card value of the deck. IT
IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THIS TO HAPPEN.~~