With Shadowverse already hitting 2 million downloads, people are consolidating the meta and preparing some pretty powerful decks. And some of those decks belong to a complicated class called the Havencraft.
Out of all the crafts of Shadowverse, Havencraft tends to be the most strategic. You can play either to win or lose the game, leading to decks like Control Havencraft and Countdown Havencraft, plus a unique deck called Laelia Havencraft.
But this type of deck can be hard to master. That’s why we’re giving you some tips on how to build and play a Havencraft deck for Shadowverse. Now, let’s get started and learn about the power of the Countdown Amulets!
How to Play the Havencraft
I personally believe these are among of the most amusing decks to play. As my friends like to say, your opponents are literally waiting for the clock to run out. Havencraft, like Dragoncraft, has access to heavy-hitting creatures — but there’s a slight catch.
Can anyone tell me what these four creatures have in common? Yes, they are pretty badass looking, but more important is the fact that you can’t just summon these guys.
Out of all the Shadowverse classes, Havencraft has access to the most number of Amulet cards and cards that affect the Amulets. For those new to Shadowverse, Amulets are spell-like cards that take up a space for a minion but continually provides an effect until it is destroyed or removed. In the case for Eris and her Havencraft deck, most of her Amulets only come into effect when they are destroyed at the end of their Countdown.
Now, let us return to those majestic creatures. As you can probably already guess, to summon those powerful creatures, you need to play their respective Amulet cards. Fortunately for Havencraft players, the basic Amulet cards are low in cost to offset the wait time — plus you have access to more powerful Amulets with additional effects like shorter wait time, damage to opponents, and summoning multiple minions, though it costs more to play them.
But it would be a foolish thing for your opponents to just wait for their death, so decks like Swordcraft will rush you as soon as they can — before the clock hits zero. Thankfully, Havencraft has some powerful support.
Eris is the high priestess of the church, and that mean she’s got some pretty powerful allies. The spell card Hallowed Dogma and Sister Initiate both have the affects of reducing the Countdowns of the Amulets. While these are pretty basic cards, they are a staple in Havencraft decks. There are also other cards with Countdown reducing effects, so look around and experiment.
But even in the light, there is darkness — and for those of the Havencraft, it’s some powerful darkness. Havencraft is the only class that can easily gain access to Banishment effects, with one of the most used cards of the class being Blackened Scripture. Instead of most cards that “destroy” enemies and tuning them into shadows, Banishment completely removes the opposing card from play.
What’s the difference you say? Well, now effects like “Last Word”, which activate when destroyed, isn’t activated as the opposing card was technically never destroyed. The only other class that has access to banishment would be Runecraft, and that’s only if they are running Earth Sigil decks — gifting Havencraft a pretty unqiue control ability.
Control and Countdown Havencraft
These two deck types conform most to the designed play of Havencraft decks. By using Countdown Amulets to summon powerful creatures, while using destruction spells and banishment effects to clear the opposing board, Havencraft players can decimate the opponents.
As for the difference, Control tends to focus more on powerful creatures and spells to control the board, while Countdown focuses more on Countdown effects and cards to reduce the wait time to activate them faster.
Laelia Havencraft
This deck is pretty amusing — and when playing against it, it’s simply outrageous if you’re not prepared. Laelia Havencraft decks are unique in that they don’t use Countdown Amulets. Instead of devoting space to cards that don’t benefit from Arch Priestess Laelia, they fill the space with high defense Ward minions.
You see, Laelia has no attack power, making a her a pretty useless minion — except her effect changes all that. When she is in play, your minion’s attack power is of no matter. as all allied followers will do damage equal to their defense — including her. With most Ward Minions focusing more on defense, now your minions will hit as hard as they can block.
Card of the Craft
Instead of offering less than perfect card recommendations, I’d like to highlight one card that frustrated me the most from this craft — that might give you a better idea of what mechanic you could build a decent dec around. I present to you…Hare of Illusions.
The Hare of Illusions is a 1-Cost, 3-Countdown Amulet that summons an amusing rabbit, called the Dream Rabbit. The creature himself doesn’t seem remarkable, but that’s because you can’t see his effects. The Dream Rabbit comes with Ward (that’s Taunt for you Hearthstone players) and a Last Word (when destroyed) effect that creates another Hare of Illusions Amulet.
A really annoying deck will keep forcing you to attack these rabbits while recreating them through their effects. All the while, Eris will be building up an army of Holywing Dragons to completely annihilate you. Ugh….
Look for more Shadowverse guides in the future. Visit the Shadowverse website for more details about the game, or visit the Shadowverse Portal for more information on specific cards.
Till next time!
