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Also some updated or new decks from my side:
with the recently buffed Mama Fiend and Bloodthirst

With Transcendence

A twilight deck

With the recently buffed Wrathgazer

Frost

Fire

Nature

Shadow

Here are some of my favourite unusual decks:
Plaguestrike:

Wormditz:

Rifle Cultist Spam: (Ideally you play this with 2 people, where one player plays the first, the other the second deck)


 

Here are the 2 decks i use for rPVE. I think both of them are as strong as it gets.

First deck is a Batariel deck, with Nature start.  



Second deck is the Bandit Banzai lord

I was asked to throw these 2 in here. The trick is, use Disenchant before using a rooting abillity


 

I may offer some idea for anyone who already has a mate to play battlegrounds with.
The decks are constructed and tested in/for 4 Player rPvE 9.
They were cooperatively constructed by Abylon and me.
The friendly Magma Fiend

Catching Comets

Lingering Souls 

Swamp Drakes 

Construct 

Primeval Watcher 

 
 

Here's a few more from myself and _empty_
Worms


 
Conwarp Plague (_empty_)

 
Double Jorne (_empty_)

 
Turtles

For RPvE I recall Radicals thornbark video: https://youtu.be/Sxm3mYpSUNw
As said by @DefAnske root network has been changed so Id assume not everything Radial says in that video is still accurate. The deck should still roughly play the same though I guess.
 
 
 

a PvP Guide by RadicalX
 
 
 
 
-General talk-

Since some people asked me to do this I decided to make a small guide regarding Shadow T1. This guide provides information for every type of player (from new to experienced). I will try to explain every single matchup and I hope this is going to be helpful for some of you, who want to improve their gameplay when we get to play again. 
Note: Every statement refers to 1v1-PvP since 2v2 doesn't always works in the same way. 
First of all: What makes Shadow T1 so attractive?
Shadow T1 & Fire T1 were the most played T1's in the game for a simple reason: Both of them haven't got any major weaknesses. Frost T1 often loses Map control due to the lack of swift units and  Nature struggles seriously against towers or can get entirely ruined by an instant T2. Meanwhile Shadow doesn't have these issues and it doesn't lack in strenghts either. The early T1 is the strongest out of all colours. 
- the Deck - 

(This is just a short list without in depth explanation. For some more detailed information take a look at Eirias'  Deck building guide: [http://forum.bfreborn.com/index.php?/topic/917-how-to-build-a-pvp-deck-guide/])
Group 1 - The "must have" Units (you won't be able to compete on a high level without them):
Dreadcharger 
Forsaken  
Nox Trooper 
Nasty
Group 2 - Strong additional cards, which provide safety for some matchups:
Motivate
Skeleton Warriors
Phasetower
Nightguard
Group 3 - Cards, that are only useful for higher Tier combinations:
Embalmers Shrine
Life Weaving
Group 4 - Cards that are only useful in a single certain scenario (usually not viable):
Snapjaws 
Witchclaws (both affinities)
Wrathblades
Soulsplicer (green)
Decomposer
Lifestealer (For specific information ask @Hirooo)
Executor
 
Group 5 - Trash
Offering (both affinites)
Soulsplicer (red)
You should make sure that your T1 has a good synergy with the rest of your Deck. 
Some examples:
- If you play Shadow Nature, Life Weaving would be a trash card, but in a Bandits-T2 Life Weaving is essential to support your skyfire drakes.
- Phasetower gets even stronger in a shadow/frost deck, because you can support them in T2 with Kobold Trick & Glacier Shell.
- Shadow Nature has a nice synergy with nightguard because the cheap cc allows you easily to catch the enemies units / you can prevent the nightguard from escaping after she used her ability.
The average Shadow T1 includes 6-7 cards (I usually played Dreadcharger, Forsaken, Nox-Trooper, Skeleton Warriors, Nasty & Motivate (+ Life Weaving in Bandits & Pure Shadow). In theory Phasetower has to be included since this card is a little bit OP (especially against nature), but Phasetowerspam doesn't require any micro and these dirty wins weren't really satisfying. 
- Matchups -
Shadow vs Fire
Lets start with this matchup since it's the most popular one.
Most important cards in this matchup:
Shadow:
1. Dreadcharger -  2. Forsaken - 3. Nasty - 4. Motivate
Fire:
1. Scavenger - 2. Sunstriders - 3. Thugs- 4. Sunderer - 5. Eruption
Core strategy:
Your first unit is Dreadcharger. Apparently this should be your starting unit in every single matchup, because the Dreadcharger is fast and has the shortest spawn animation out of every T1 swift unit (werebeasts are equal, but they weren't really popular). This means you will always reach important positions like middle orbs on random maps before your opponent.  The first thing you have to notice is your map. As long as you play on a large map you are allowed to take a power well without any concern, but on smaller maps like Elyon for example you shouldn't take anything, otherwise you are going to lose immediately against a Sunderer rush. On smaller maps you have to go for a dazed fight. So lets take a look at "How to play dazed fights": 
1. Spawn a dreadcharger, walk towards the position you intend to capture.
2. Spam mass forsaken and split your units (as long as your units are dazed you shouldn't have multiple ones at the same position, otherwise the can get erupted. If your Units reach full hp it's okay to have 2 Forsaken-squads close to each other). If you got multiple units in position you are ready to fight!
3. Your opponent will use Scavenger, Thugs & Sunstrider. Your first focus should be the scavenger, Sunstriders may have next to no health and are very vulnerable, but the scavy can slow your unit -> your opponent will kite you to death. The Fire player on the other hand has to focus your dreadcharger, because he won't reach your forsaken with his 540hp Scavenger, who has got inferior stats compared to dreadcharger, but a superior ability and aslong as they focus each other they are even in terms of strength.  
4. If your units are close to death try to get them out of combat and heal them up later. Save as many units as you can and always try to have a good focus to catch out your opponent's Sunstriders as long as the scavy is out of the fight. If one of your Forsaken squads is out of position close to your enemies units just frenzy them to force your opponent back to get a positional advantage or - in the case where your opponent doesn't retreat - deal tons of damage (Frenzy Forsaken are devastating for Fire) and motivate them afterwards to get an even bigger damage boost.
5. Many people play thugs since their micro isn't good enough to win a dazed fight against frenzy Forsaken. The most important thing to notice is that Thugs are more expensive than Forsaken, which means the focussed forsaken squad can just run away, the thugs have to chase them, but your opponent has 10 additional bound power which creates an advantage for you. But be careful! Don't get lazy with your micro against thugs, because otherwise they can delete your forsaken and their passive will give your opponent even more power. Your micro has to be on point in this situation. EDIT: Since there was some discussion about thugs I want to expand this paragraph. It's very important to note that 2 Forsaken can kill Thugs, that are played in your backline before they get out of daze. So a very important tip against Thugs is to avoid early engagements and get up a decent amount of Forsaken (at least 4-5). This allows you to burst down dazed squads & full hp thugs from the other side will be easier to kite. Thugs are powerful, but onedimensional cards, so this strategy works with a high consistency to prevent them from destroying and zoning your backline and ensures you to win the early dazed fight. 
6. If you get an advantage take a super aggressive power well to gain map control. If you lose the dazed fight try to take a safe position and buy time to recover your temporary disadvantage (but be careful, if your opponent tries to abuse this and starts spamming power wells. Pure Fire benefits heavily from this.). If you get a good amount of practice with this, you should win at least 90% out of your dazed fights against Fire T1. 
Important notes: 
Even if Nasty and Eruption can be game changing in the perfect moment they are usually not efficient in dazed fights! They are only good to punish mistakes, aside from that spawning additional units is the better choice. Sometimes you can spawn a single squad Skeleton Warriors with their tank ability they can easily reach good nasty positions, but you still shouldn't rely on the use of Nasty to win the fight. 
NEVER use lifeweaving on your Dreadcharger. It's just not good to spend 70 power to support a unit without substantial damage. Your opponent can just run away or change his focus and would always win the trade. If you think you really need a tank in your fight choose skeleton warriors. They do have got even more effective hp (1.5k) with their ability and you have to spend only 50 power which is fine.
Fake Frenzy is pretty funny ^-^ You have to wait a split second until Frenzy gets activated which means you can easily cancel the animation by walking around -> sometimes your opponent thinks you really activated your Forsaken and retreats immediately.
Always try to play at your power limit. It's pointless to hold anything back since the only useful spell in your Deck is Motivate which costs next to nothing.
 Here is a replay that shows how a dazed fight between two good players looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cm1gRHwA0U
Hirooo made some small mistakes but that was an overall well executed T1. Sadly the commentating isn't always on point since Farrock doesn't have the same game knowledge as the top players (No offense against him, I respect his work & effort alot). 
The dazed fight is pretty much the most important thing to master in this matchup, because even on alot of the bigger maps you will fight under the same conditions after taking a power well. 
But lets take a look at another very common scenario: The close well fights
This fights are way more aggressive, because Forsaken & Thugs are way more efficient in these situations. The reason for that is very simple: As a fire player you can't just run away from Frenzy Forsaken because otherwise they will just focus your well and delete it in no time. Thugs are super strong to support the fire players' defence. But keep in mind you got the early advantage in this matchup, so play as aggressive as you can. The power of fire scales proportionate with gametime as long as no wells go down, because Sundererspam can get really dangerous in the later stages of your T1. If you have to defend a Sunderer just use a Dreadcharger to block its walkpath as fast as you can (this slows the unit down severely) and focus it as much as you can before it's able to reach your power well (Use Nox Trooper + overload if you need a little bit more burst to finish it of when your opponent retreats). You have to keep calm in these situations, because if you panic and go for something like "mass frenzy" your opponent just walks away, waits 20 seconds and returns with a second Sunderer and this is ... lets say it's not good ... 
I also found a replay that shows how to abuse the early power of Shadow in a close well fight. Very nice decisionmaking by killroy in this game (he didn't waste any units). He does a really good job in terms of snowballing the game by attacking 2 spots at the same time, it's worth it to watch this game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD_n3CbbbMk
This is a pretty rare scenario, but some maps do have big well distances and promote passive play (Simai does this because the Shadow player doesn't take the middle since he's scared of cliffdancer, meanwhile the Fire player prefers high well distances). Nox Trooper gets more valuable on maps like this. Usually they are inferior compared to forsaken in this matchup but they can create a high amount of burst and on this maps you don't have to deal with such a high amount of Sunstriders. The Overload-ability does 487,5 damage -> 1 hit + overload kills a scavenger in 6 seconds for sure and creates a little temporary power advantage for you. Just abuse this and take another power well, your opponents' attacks will be predictable since the map is big which allows you to defend well against sunderer. You can create a small, but reliable lead like this and this allows you a safe transition into your T2.
[I didn't find a good replay for this, but I'm going to add one as soon as I got one]

- Map Advantages -
This matchup is the least map dependend one (Shadow mirror doesn't count ^^), but there are still some maps that give you advantages or disadvantges.
Elyon: Small map, fast and early T1 fight -> it's easy to secure map control and sometimes you will be able to prevent your opponent from his T3.
Yrmia: This is a very small map aswell with close wells next to each other, but the map isn't as fancy for you as it looks. The passages on this map are really really small, you won't be able to split your units unless you attack from multiple areas! Keep that in mind, otherwise Eruptions can be a threat at this map.
Haladur: This matchup is pretty balanced on this map and very entertaining aswell. Pretty much one of the main reasons why Haladur was such a popular map in the community. 
Simai: As explained this map promotes a slow & passive T1. It's usually a solid map for you, but be careful against these nasty pure fire player, who abuses this to get into a high powerlevel T2.
Lajesh: Weird map for casual ranked games, since you always have to pay attentions at your walls + it gets really easy to turtle with wallspamming. In tournament maps this can be one of the greatest maps in the game as long as both players agree to play without walls.
Whazai: This map is fine for T1 action, but has some risks for you. It has a very small passage before you reach the middle which is a dangerous eruption spot and the small area gives you a hard time microing against thugs at the same time. But if both players take a well in the middle you are at a clear advantage. It's very easy to let your Forsaken attack the well & the main base at the same time and since there is a cliff next to the main base thugs & scavenger can't reach the Forsaken in time. But careful! This map gets really nasty against pure fire, especially if you decide to take that well in the middle.
Uro: The most dangerous map for you. Wells are so far away from each other, it's even hard to move your units between your own wells to defend properly against Sunderer without a disadvantage. Sometimes you get forced to trade wells - you can't just sit back and play passive. Calm decisionmaking is even more important on this map.
Generated maps: Small maps usually favour you a little bit since they are mid centered and you will most likely win the dazed fight, big maps are really shitty to be honest. T1 doesn't really matter, the better T3 usually wins.
Shadow vs Frost

The second matchup will be against Frost. I think a very important thing to notice is that this matchup is very map dependend.
Most important cards in this matchup:  
Shadow:
1. Dreadcharger 2. Nox Trooper 3. Motivate
Frost: 
1.Master Archers 2. Ice Guardian 3. Ice Barrier 4. Home Soil

Core strategy:
Playing against Frost is always a little bit tricky. You will start with your Dreadcharger as fast as you can! Don't waste time, you have to reach your opponent as fast as possible to force a dazed fight, because Shadow will win that dazed fight against Frost every single time. Dreadchargerspam will always beat Masterarcherspam, just be careful with wintertide. If your opponent plays it just stop any move command and micro your units very carefully. Aslong as you don't suicide your Dreadcharger, Wintertide won't have any impact on the game. If you catch your opponent before he takes a power well, you can deny him access to the entire map, which is litereally game over. But lets get over to the interesting part where you can't deny the power well:

1. Your opponent has to take a well: You get a 100 power advantage and now it's your turn to use that to attack (unless you play on a super big random map). Your core units in this situation are Dreadcharger & Nox Trooper. That's everything you need since Forsaken are very weak against Master Archer (sometimes you can play a single squad, but be careful with the use of Forsaken against Frost).
2. It is very important to notice which starting unit your opponent got. If it's a Lightblade just go for 2 Dreadcharger + Nox Trooper spam. If he got only Master Archers you should think about more Dreadcharger.
3. After that you have to react to your opponents' unit composition. If he chooses to play ice Guardians, play more Nox Trooper - against Master Archers you have to get more Dreadcharger. In the perfect scenario the Dreadcharger take out the Master-Archers without beeing hit by the Ice Guardians, who get smashed by your Nox Trooper in the meantime. But this doesn't always work out perfectly.
https://youtu.be/F-uawwk6hRg?t=23m5s At this game it worked out pretty well, even if it's a 2v2 match. That would've worked on a small 1v1 map aswell.     
4. If one of your units starts to get very low just pull it out of the fight. It's easy to micro the fast Shadow units. Sometimes you won't be able to kick the power well, but you can take out so many units without losing a single one. 
5. If you get around 4-5 low hp units just take your own power well, heal your units and continue to pressure. Your temporary advantage is still massive and even if your opponent got a good amount of power thorugh his extra well he doesn't have that much extra power, because he lost many units already and only 90% of the power returns back into the void. 5 power lost per unit and this adds up pretty fast in this matchup. Especially if you continue your attacked with your healed units. Now it's your time to get a massive advantage.
6. If you think you can take your opponents' power well you can use motivate to give your units some extra punch, but be careful. Frost has already access to Glacier Shell, you have to deal around 3,8k damage in a very short time. It's usually wise to go for the units first & take the well down later when you got an overwhelming amount of units.
Important notes:
Nasty is usually not very useful against Frost units, because they have just too many hp. In addition to that Ice barrier can be used to block alot of the damage in dangerous Situations. You need at least T2 units like Lyrish Knight for example to make some effective nasties.
If you have to wait for some units to heal up or something like that, try to tease a little bit with your Dreadcharger to force a early home soil or maybe even a frost glyph.
You need godly reaction to entirely dodge a well placed Frost Glyph, but keep in mind that it's not that bad when you get hit unless your opponent has already 5+ units, which shouldn't be the case as long as you are aggressive. Otherwise just use the focussed unit as motivate-food ^-^ 
Many people don't consider attacking as the best choice, but that's just a huge mistake. If you just take your own well against frost, the power level will rise and your opponent benefits from that since Frost T1 Units are very cheap and have very good stats. Back in 2011 I lost so many games, because I wasn't aggressive enough in this matchup. Double Ice Guardian + MA spam + homesoil will be way to efficient at some point, there is not alot you can do against then after you played a passive early T1.

-Again I would love to add a replay at that point, but I didn't find a decent one. If anyone knows some good Shadow vs X replays on youtube send me a pm please.-
Ok lets get through the Map part. Frost is super map dependend due to the lack of a swift unit, so it's really important to abuse your map-advantages.
 
Haladur: The more common "Scavy-spam" works on Haladur aswell with Dreadchargers. Your opponent takes a well in the middle, but the distance between the well & main base are incredible high. So you just have to spam Dreadcharger and run down to the main base, attack there and if your opponent spawns alot of units just walk back to the well in the middle. The Frost units will be to slow to follow and you can overwhelm your opponent. Motivate is essential to this strategy! Aside from that Frost even has an advantage on Haladur if your opponent gets his position in the middle since the power wells are very close to each other and Frost T1 excels at that scenario. So try to zone him from the main entrance to the center of the map.
Elyon: One of the easier maps for you. You can get control over the middle wells & orbs, which denies your opponent a T3 spot. You don't even have to take anything there. Just use your units to prevent the Frost player from reaching the area. Later on you just need to stall for T3 and win basically without taking any risks. 
Yrmia: Very difficult map. Power wells are really close to each other, there is no way to get superior map control or something like that. At least it is a really small map which allows you to attack very early with a strong rush. But if you fail to control the early game you may end up beeing at a bad spot because Frost T1 results nearly every time in a Timeless One based T3 which is very powerful. 
Simai: Slow Map, you can make an aggressive push to deny your opponent control over the wells at the top of the map. Aside from that the well distances are very high unless you take any stupid power wells which makes it a low pressure map. But if your opponent takes a well at the start you actually get to zone him from his T2, which gives you control over the early game though. 
Whazai: Great Map for you, you can get immediate control over the mid spot and in addition to that nox trooper can attack 2 of the power wells in the base over cliffs, which makes it sooo difficult to defend against this with Ice Guardians. Keep in mind that Frost can spawn dazed Iceguardian with an active (!) Shield behind the cliff at their main base, so don't rely on a simple Dreadchargerspam.
Uro: The best map for you. It's important to do a quick start, because you have to walk very far. This map is litereally an autoloose for Frost because you can deny your opponent every position on the entire map. You will be able to force a dazed fight, that shadow is going to win without any Problems. 
Lajesh: With walls again very weird to play. Very slow and passive gameplay. If both players agree to play without walls the game gets really great. Small map with alot of potential for aggression, but potential close wells on the other hand.   
Generated Maps: small maps are nearly a freewin since they are usually mid-centered (as I said before) and you will be able to control the mid-wells. Large maps will be boring & usually end up in a T3 fight, which is not so good against Timeless One decks. 
 
Shadow vs Nature

The matchup with the potential to be the greatest out of all, but 2 cards influence the balancing in a negative way (Phasetower & Treespirit).

Most important cards in this matchup:

Shadow without Phasetower:
1. Dreadcharger 2. Nox Trooper 3. Nasty Surprise 4. Motivate 5.Forsaken (!)

Nature without Treespirit:
1.Spearman 2. Windweavers 3. Ensnaring Roots 4. Surge of Light

Core strategy:
There are 2 ways of playing the matchup Shadow vs Nature and I'll start with the easy one. It includes the use of Phasetower, a card that is ridicilously broken in this matchup for multiple reasons:

1. Phasetower has insane stats (900/1200) and is even with his teleport debuff stronger than any unit nature can offer (Primal defender can match him in terms of strength, but Phasetower has his insane teleport ability which makes him way more versitile). His strength is so overwhelming that his transition into T2 is still amazing (especially for shadow frost that can protect the turrets with kobold trick and glacier shell).
2. Phasetower has splash damage which allows him to finish off windweavers squads very quickly (The Nox Trooper for example has to shot at every single unit at the end to kill the entire squad)
3. Buildings are uneffected by crowd control which is a huge advantage against nature, that usually relies on Ensnaring roots in this matchup. 
4. Nature doesn't have a counter unit against phasetower (apparently Sunderer is the only unit with Siege damage in the entire T1 -> no nature Unit, that can threaten buildings.). 
5. I do consider Treespirit as a ridicilous card, that needs a rework and destroys the beauty of nature T1. But Phasetower is the perfect counter against them, because of superior stats  and the fact, that they are unaffected by the poison. 
6. Since nature is forced to play slow units against shadow it is possible to take a well on mid centered maps and defend it successfully with a Phasetower to gain map control for free, which is devestating on maps like Elyon. 

Just overall: Phasetower is op and I will just show a short replay that demonstrates the power of Phasetower without any micro-effort.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1x8GEMpyAI (Game 3 of a showmatch series between Elendil & Sarlesch - german cast by JMCW)
Sarlesch wanted to go instant T2, that's why he started with amazon. He changed his mind after 30 seconds and played 2 Windweaver squads (I guess the reasoning behind this was the fact, that elendil was able to rush his instant T2 in the previous game). And after that his chance of winning went down to litereally 0%. Elendil realized immediatly Sarlesch couldn't go T2 anymore, built up some phasetowers and won the game with no effort. 
The matchup gets way more interesting without Phasetower or Treespirits (btw. I recommend instant T2 against Treespirit as long as you play without Phasetower) included. 
The start is pretty interesting against nature because nature has different starting units against different colours. Swiftclaw, which is usually the best choice, is just awful against Nox Trooper and against shadow in general. So as long as your opponent doesn't know you play Shadow T1, you can try to play some mindgames. Just don't play a single unit in the first 10 seconds and see how your opponent reacts. Some people will get impatient and start with the swiftclaw  which gives you a massive advantage. Nature needs 4+ units (Spearmen + Windweaver spam) and around 100 extra power to be able to use crowd control and surge of light. If he plays an aditional useless 80 power unit it takes such a long time for him to reach a state where he is able to fight you. A time window that can get abused heavily. At that point you can just go ahead and beat your opponent with a nox trooper spam. If he retreats you can use your temporary advantage to secure map control with an aggressive T2, which is litereally "gg" beacuse nature struggles really hard against T2 since its units are super expensive with low dps.
If your opponent doesn't fall for the bait just go ahead with your Dreadcharger and look for an immediate fight because at late T1 stages Ensnaring roots & Surge of light provide way to much power. On the other hand Shadow has the early fight advantage beacuse you've got cheap high dps units, that can overwhelm the nature player easily. Dreadcharger and Nox Trooper are your core units at this stage. 

How to play a dazed fight against nature:

If you get to fight your opponent before he gets a critical amount of units you have to play around 2 things:

1. Ensnaring roots
This is why you need at least 2 dreadcharger to run around your opponents' slow units and attack from multiple positions with them and multiple nox trooper. Otherwise your entire army gets rooted and 3+ windweaver squads can easiliy take out 2-3 units in those 15 seconds with a 45 power spell. If your opponent tries to kill the rooted units the other army can attack without interference (maybe even with a motivate boost).

2. Surge of light
It is very important to notice, that nox troopers don't finish 6 unit squads immediatly. They have to shoot at every single unit once to kill it. It is really important to finish off the windweaver/spearmen squads immediatly to prevent efficient heals. There are many ways to do this:
- Dreadcharger can use his "stomp" to finish them off since it does a small amount of damage when you knock back units
- If your opponent plays with Spearmen it's fine to have a single forsaken squad added to your unit composition. They can finish off squads very fast, but be careful with your positioning, Forsaken are really squishy in this matchup - Windweavers can take them out really fast. And don't play 2 squads at the same position otherwise hurricane is going to hurt you 
- Nasty surprise can outclass heal in this matchup. If your Dreadcharger is in a good position and you can finish a single unit + damage other ones, just go for it. Your opponent can't make an efficient heal against that (150 vs 110 power). In addition to that the power of nature decreases tremendously with every unit loss since this just lowers the efficency of crowd control. 
How to play if your opponent takes a power well:
Just attack at 2 positions at once with the compositions of 1 dreadcharger, 1 nox trooper & 1 forsaken squad. There is no way nature can match this even if you built up your own power well. Just spawn additional Dreadcharger/Nox Trooper over time and apply as much pressure as possible. If one of your attacks seems to go down, just use motivate to start the big push on the other side. You can kick a power well for sure. After that just go immediatly T2 to negate your opponents temporary advantage due to a superior amount of left units. Nature can't use cc at multiple positions, playing around this is your main win condition. 

Important notes: 
- This doesn't work against Treespirit! So be careful if you don't know your opponents' playstyle.
- You can force your opponent to take a well as long as you play with phasetower, because shadow can just take a power well and defend it without any problems due to phasetower. If your opponent then decides to take his own well you have 2 places to attack, even if he is a smart player who tries to avoid unfavourable early fights.

Map specific information:

Haladur: Great Map for you! You can split your army really well and threaten the main base & the middle position at the same time. Haladur is really troublesome for nature, your opponnent may think about an instant T2.
Elyon: With phasetower an absolute freewin. Without Phasetower it can get a little troublesome because the main base it protected through the wall. Your main approach is winning an early fight in the middle since there is alot of space to play around ensnaring roots. Afterwards you can secure map control with an early T2
Yrmia: Great map to attack from multiple positions, but can get sometimes a little bit tricky because there isn't that much room to split your units that well. But since the map is really small you can apply an insane amount of early pressure. With phasetower it's nearly a freewin.  
Simai: Very slow map that doesn't really promote early fights unless both players try to go for the middle immediatly. At that point you have a good shot at beating the nature player with a good nasty if you play well around ensnaring roots. 
Whazai: Ridiculous phasetower map. You need 2 ports from your base to be able to attack your opponents power wells. Without Phasetower it's important to use the side ways to surround your opponent. If you are only focussed on the middle you will get serious trouble against roots.
Uro: You can run around your opponent due to the fast Dreadcharger. But keep in mind, Uro is a really big map and it takes time to reach the enemies base which favours the nature player. Your advantage: An early T2 at a good position can be devastating for your opponent.
Lajesh: Favours Nature heavily. The Walls just block every kind of early aggression. On lajesh without walls you have a better shot since the map is really small and you can play more aggressive. But there is a wellcluster pretty close to the main base which is easy to defend for the nature player. Pretty balanced map aslong as both players agree to play without walls.
Generated Maps: Small maps favour Shadow with Phasetower heavily, because you can just take the middle, build a turret and ... it's gg (okay to be honest Phasetower-Shadow T1 has an advantage on every map). Without Phasetower you can get problems on mid centered maps, but atleast there is alot of space to play around Ensnaring Roots. Large generated maps favour you a little bit, because you can just play super aggressive without anything to worry about. Even if you mess up, your opponent won't be able to reach you in time, because it sometimes takes around 50-60 seconds for remaining windweavers & spearmen to reach their destination. Enough time for your void to come back to you.                                     
Shadow vs Shadow
The mirror matchup is pretty interesting since small mistakes can get punished super hard (especially with high dps units like Forsaken). 

The Most important cards for the mirror matchup:
1.Dreadcharger 2.Forsaken 3.Skeleton Warriors 4.Motivate 5.Nasty Surprise
Core strategy: 
In theory this matchup consists mainly of Dreadcharger + Forsaken spam vs Dreadcharger + Forsaken spam and the guy with better micro (or the one who hits the clutch-nasty) wins the game since both players use the same cards. If you want to reach the highest ranks you should practise the mirror match opening, because the first skirmish is super important since you can't avoid it unless you go instant T2. You can't just take an additional power well unless the distance between you and your enemy is incredible big. If your opponent gets greedy and takes a well you can just attack, destroy it and the game is pretty much over.
And this is how the rush works:
Spawn 2 Dreadchargers to prepare an attack from 2 spots. Your opponent loses his opportunity to defend with a huge nasty. Spawn additional units and focus the power well. There is nothing your opponent can do against this since he just spent 100 power more which is massive in the early game (you can play 2 additional Forsaken squads, which adds more than 2.000 dp20s). 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u965vcN2cug  Here is an example of a T1 rush against the strongest defence shadow can offer (Phasetower + wrathblades). I made some horrible mistakes in the early T2 stage, but if you can destroy a power well that early in the game you get such a massive advantage. The game was just over. My opponent was more than prepared for an attack (I used the same strategy to beat him in the first game in this bo5 series) but there is nothing you can do to stop the rush.
If your opponent doesn't go for a power well things will get a little bit harder. Micro management gets super important, but also the decisionmaking. The way you use the Frenzy ability of your Forsaken often decides who wins the fight. You can increase your dps in the skirmish, but if you activate to many Forsaken your opponent can just retreat and wait for them to die for nothing. 
More important notes:
- Always be aware of nasties. Dreadcharger is very fast and if you leave it at full hp you can get in trouble if your units aren't well positioned
- Motivate can be massive. The amount of additional damage you can deal for literally no power is very good for any kind of skirmishes. Use it on the first Forsaken squad that is close to die.
- Phasetower can be super useful on maps like Whazai, but usually isn't the best choice, because Shadow has got high dps Units to deal with it. 
But lets go ahead and talk about one of the most important cards in this matchup. Skeleton Warriors are monsters against Shadow. 50 power and 1,65k effective hp with their ability is huge. Shadow just hasn't got anything to deal with them. They can tank against Forsaken forever, they beat Dreadcharger with their ability and the most dangerous thing: You can't just ignore them and kite because they are a massive nasty threat aswell.
Many players would just think of Wrathblades as a solution. But here is the problem: Wrathblades have got only 600hp and can get killed super fast by Forsaken and even if you don't focus them Wrathblades get a dp20s of 1512 against S units with their ability. If you compare the stats (1512dmg/600health vs 600dmg/1650health) you will realise, that Skeleton Warriors win the 1v1 against the Wrathblades. This is why Wrathblades are pretty useless, at least for dazed fights.
If you managed to win the first skirmish you can use your temporary advantage to take a power well at a position that gives you map control. Try to make a gameplan from that point, maybe you can use your position to deny a T3 spot, or maybe try to get close to your opponent to push your advantage. 
If you are even after the first small fights you can also try to take a power well, but maybe at a safe spot. If the power level gets higher it is unlikely to get rushed that easily, because you can spam more units to intercept your opponent. In addition to that nasty gets way more effective at that point since it's harder to split the high amount of units well enough to prevent nasties from beeing power efficient. 
How to play when both players aquired a power well:
Try to play as aggressive as possible. Never be passive, that will lose you the game for a simple reason. If the enemies Forsaken manage to reach your base you'll get a problem. At that point your opponent can just activate frenzy and you can't get rid of them, because it's super bad to frenzy your Forsaken in a defensive position. Even if you kill the enemies units, your own Forsaken will die aswell and you will just sit there with a low power well. You can play more units, but the next attack will finish the well most likely and if you decide to repair your well you won't have enough power to play any units. This is why you have to force skirmishes on an open ground and if you get an advantage due to superior micro just play as aggressive as you can. If you get pressured at some point just don't lose your nerves and activate your Forsaken. You will lose your chance to use a temporary advantage for a counterattack. Attacking at multiple positions is always a good choice. It is just way more difficult to react properly if you apply pressure everywhere even if your opponent has got enough power in theory. If you manage to control and micro your units well you can gain massive advantages because so many players struggle with multitasking especially when they have to react fast and have to prevent you from reaching their power wells.
A common strategy: If you get an overwhelming amount of units just go ahead, and frenzy all of them. Just go for the wellfocus, but go T2 at the same time. This will allow you to deal with the counterattack (Darkelf Assassins, Shadow Phoenix, CC vs Frenzy, AoE damage spells like lavafield or lyrish nasty).
There aren't many map specific advantages because both players have got access to the same cards so i won't make a map list for this matchup. Just keep this in mind:
- Phasetower is super effective on Whazai (I mentioned this earlier aswell)
- Big generated maps are just awful, you can't be aggressive on these maps, because if your opponent takes a well you just have to take one aswell.  You need atleast an entire minute to reach him, which means your opponent can build up a good defense and even gets around 30-40 power back even before you applied any sort of pressure. 
But this is just an exception. So keep in mind: Good micro and the ability to be proactive are the most important things you need to master the shadow mirror.
Okay, this is the end of my Shadow T1 guide. I hope this will help some of you in the upcoming future. Since I've got some requests I will write something about different colors at some point too, you can find my Frost T1 guide in the new player section and I almost finished Nature T1 too which will be released soon. So thank you for reading this, enjoy your day and stay hyped.
 
Best regards,
RadicalX  

Here is what I typically used for PvE (of course depending on map it would change) this setup only requires 2 shadow orbs allowing for a lot of versatility when swapping in/out cards. This leaves 2 spots open for whatever you want.

T1: Snapjaws being optional. I found them very handy with maps with an end boss; a 50% bonus to all damage sources is awesome.
T2: Viridya can usually keep Shadow Mages (and Cultist Masters) healthy thus eliminate a lot of downtime, and her summoned units are a very durable front line.  Moving a phase tower could also fulfill this role, but is cumbersome.
T3: Cultist Masters, summon about 4 (or more) Masters use 'Call Horrors' and 'Motivate' on the Nightcrawlers before pushing a point, and you'll have 11 super strong Nightcrawlers (with a fully upgraded Cultist Master summoning 3 crawlers at a time).  They'll destroy about everything on the ground while the Mages, Nox, and Masters will clean up any flying units.  Necroblaster can be fed by Cultist Masters and it's activatable ability can be used on the summoned Nightcrawlers or Nether Crawlers from Grim Bahir for a heal.
T4: Don't forget about the Rifle Cultist 'Dark Grenade' ability.  A well placed grenade can do wonders.  Or a poorly placed grenade can....well, I don't wanna talk about that.  Also, the Nether Crawlers spawned by the Grim Bahir help to feed the Overlord, and add some damage mitigation due to the fact enemy units will be attacking the Nether Crawlers as opposed to your other units.
~Variations
Shadow
T2:
-Harvester is a very strong (expensive but strong) especially if you have him fully upgraded. 
-You can use Knight of Chaos (shadow affinity) his ability has some niche uses; using Shadow Mages 'Foul Play' ability on him before having him charge in solo with 'Tainted Chaos' activated was so much fun, and could do a ton of damage for very little power investment as long as there were no towers. 
-Resource Booster for shorter duration maps.
T3:
-Fallen Skyelf is great if you could utilize her +200% damage debuff properly. 
-Ashbone Pyro and Mutating Frenzy (with Deathwish activated) also worked well with Viridya as she could keep them healthy. 
-Satenael (red) is also a strong ranged XL counter pick which allows you to remove Snapjaws from T1.
T4:
-Death Ray is stronger than Grim Bahir but is slow until you get its last upgrade, which is also an XL counter. 
-Necrofury can one-shot a lot of bosses with 'Bone Shards' when used while under the effects of the spell 'Unholy Hero'. 
-Unholy Hero is also good if you can nullify it's negative effect (I liked using Dark Grenade with Unholy Hero to take out large portions of an enemy encampment than using Offering on the Rifle Cultists to replenish my T4 card charges).
 
Lost Souls
T2:
-Swap out Shadow Mage for Lost Shade (I preferred blue affinity) summon 3+ of these for an unstoppable front line (especially with Viridya backing them with her regen); however, this method requires a fair amount of bound energy. 
-Juice Tank can be useful if it is a longer duration map. If i remember correctly as long as it extends a power orbs life by 100 seconds for 1 well (50 seconds if it covers 2, 33 seconds if it covers 3) it will have paid for itself anything beyond that is extra energy.  If you factor in destroying the building after depleting the power well thus refunding 90% of its power to void, that number is reduced to 10 seconds of extended life. (I could be remembering these values incorrectly, please correct me if I am wrong) 
T3:
-Lost Grigori or Lost Horror (I preferred green affinity for the cleave) were both viable options to replace or work in conjunction with Cultist Masters. 
-Lost Vigil is also a good option for maps that require static defense.
T4:
-Lost Warlord could replace Overlord netting an increase in overall damage; however, I preferred Overlord in solo play due to his inherent tankiness due to 'Flesh Feast'; however, if you are in a group with someone playing Wheel Of Gifts or using a lot of heals Lost Warlord is usually the better pick. 
-Lost Spirit Ship would replace Grim Bahir as the AOE from LSS's is amazing. 
-Lost Dragon (either affinity) can be used, but fulfills more of a support role due to relatively low damage and the debuffs it applies (either 50% damage reduction to target shadow affinity, or disabling ranged/special attacks nature affinity both in a 15 meter range of target) so usually only 1 or 2 should be summoned, but can be very effective if used properly. 
Pros great pushing power early on with Lost Shades, and strong cleave mechanics with Horror and LSS, and crowd control if you bring freezing spells.
 
Bandit
I'd keep the deck the same until T4, but at T3 Gunner, Corsair, and Soulhunter are all viable options to swap in.
T4:
-Swap out Overlord for Bloodhorn (shadow affinity) because his Stampede ability in conjunction with his Tainted Purge are awesome in clearing any structures.
Pros amazing at taking out enemy bases at T4
 
Nature
T2:
-Swap Shadow Mage for Amii Phantom, her slam ability is very good in certain situations, and withering spear is always good.
-Burrower is also good if the map calls for early siege damage.
-Breeding Grounds as long as you're going to spend 280 power (fully upgraded) in its aura if you leave it constructed.  You only need to spend about 30 power in it's aura (as 90% of its bound power goes to void once destroyed) if you are going to destroy it after summoning your units. 
T3:
-Deepcoil Worm is always a solid pick for this tier.
-Wheel of Gifts is always good.
T4:
-I actually like to play Primeval Watcher at this tier.  His ability to cleave down groups is nice; however, his single target damage is abysmal.
-Grimvine can be used over the Overlord for more base damage and siege damage.
-Giant Wyrm is also always a solid pick at this tier, although it brings an expensive power cost (personally I'd use Grim Bahir over Giant Wyrm).
Pros healing/sustainability/utility
 
 
However it all boils down to what you enjoy playing, so whatever kind of deck you build make sure you like playing it  

This will be a summary mostly of special theme-decks i have played with passion.
Important Note: Some cards in the decks might be just "fun-cards" and cards rarely to very rarely played by players, means there were stronger to much stronger and faster alternatives i could put in but did not do it because i always hated the fact maps are way too easy to manage with an overpowered deck. Embalmers Shrine, Shadow Phoenix, ashbone pyro, lost souls ship, shrine of war, voidmanipulating and many other cards/tactics are for example extremely overpowered in PvE/rPvE and sadly never got nerfed.
So if you like to play a weaker playstyle than others but in exchange for a lot of more fun and challenging aspects you are right here.
With all of those decks every expert map and with most of them rPvE 9 and even 10 (-> some of the decks are not made for a lost souls randomised map in 10 though) are possible to defeat. (ofcourse at defending maps or other situational points there might be some keycard/building edits but still it let it be an extraordinary themedeck)
 
 
I will edit this thread from time to time.
Have fun with the inspirations and see you in the forge soon!
 
Greetings
 
Cy
 
Worms                                                                                              Bandits

Stonekin                                                              Twilight

Lost Souls                                                           Pure Shadow

Root Network                                                    Constructs

Pure Nature                                                         Ultimate Defense

Pure Frost                                                            Pure Fire

Ships                                                                     Allmighty Dragons

S-Units                                                                dmg Spells

Stonekin Deff                                                     Fire Deff

Pure Frost Deff                                                   Pure Shadow Deff

Pure Nature Deff                                                Legendarys

Ultimate Deff 2                                                   Pure T4

Rainbow                                                               Batariel rPvE Lost Souls 10

No XL Ultra UP                                                    Frost Fire

Shadow Nature                                                 Pure Fire rPvE Lost Souls 10

Pure Shadow rPvE Lost Souls 10                     Lost Souls rPvE Lost Souls 10

 
 

Weird. I restarted the game thinking it might be a language issue. But even after switching back to german it worked again.
So restarting game weirdly seemed to fix it.

Interesting - for me , it works fine

Very good attitude imo

Hey everyone, I was looking for a place where I can find multiple RPvE decks for inspiration for new decks, but I did not find it. The first thing that came to mind was to just create a place ^^
Below you can find a couple of my favorite RPvE decks that can do (at least) difficulty 9. 
 








I would love to see your own favorite or unique decks as well!
 

For rPvE 9:
Support:


"Standard" t4 decks:



T3 decks:


Weird stuff:

For rPvE 10:

Forsaken/Nox Trooper with Soul Splicer (Nature) and Motivate is still the go to start for most players starting with Shadow, so nothing has changed here in that regard. Phase Tower got a bit out of flavour due to a nerf it received for PvP. But I still see it, albeit rarely. There are new cards that may be interesting for you, namely Amii Paladins as Majora mentioned or Transcendence, which is a T4 spell card that debuffs a target of your own but buffs all surrounding ones substantially or you can heavily buff one enemy target but weaken all surrounding ones in the process.
As for units, T2 the general culprits are Shadow Phoenix, Harvester or Burrower, T3 you may opt for Ashbone Pyros, Swamp Drakes or Deepcoil Worm or any neutral XL unit if needed.
Void Return with Furnace of Flesh and Cultist Master is the usual way and Resource Booster.

Do you plan to stick with Lost Spirit Ships in T4? If not, Death Ray with the new Transcendence is a great strat. There were several changes to Shadow T4 ground units. You can obviously go Overlord as the staple Shadow T4 unit, try the reworked Necrofury or improved Void Maws.

Depending on your T2 strat and further plans, Surge of Light, Curse of Oink, Equilibrium/Regrowth are pretty much the standard spells to take. Offering with Rifle Cultists, too.
Frenetic Assault is a popular CC spell and if you go 3 Shadow, the reworked Plague is high recommended. Befallen's Curse got changed slightly, so it too is a consideration along with Soul Shatter. If you want to trade your organs, may take Infect as well.

If you stick with Lost Spirit Ship, Maelstrom, Coldsnap and Lost Horror may be good additions.

Here's an example of a Shadow/Nature deck. I'd say build a deck, maybe share it and I think everyone can give you some advice on how to continue.
 
 

@Majora Lets settle this ! 

Oh its on!

Hello everyone, 
As everyone knows, the in-game economy shifted massively after the advent of the Reforging system. This has led a number of players to express concerns about the health of the economy, and as such we would like to share some relevant economic data with the community. 
Some important information on the data: When it says "Fire Pool" it includes every card in the game which includes a Fire Orb. The data was collected and presented in this manner because this is how Reforging works when it tells you that the output card has an X% chance of containing a Fire Orb. Additionally, all price information presented is an average of actual sales in the auction house over a given period. While some extreme outliers were removed from the data set, such as 5 bfp Harvesters and 400 bfp Northguards, in 99% of instances the data was accepted as-is without tampering from our side.
Control Data Set: Contains data prior to the release of Reforging, from June to September 2021.

 
Post-Reforging Data Set: Contains data from two weeks after the release of Reforging, approximately December 25th 2021 to January 5th 2022.

Initial Analysis of Data Set:
At first glance, you can quickly see that after the update the following changes occurred:
The average, median, and minimum prices of Common cards increased across the board.  The minimum and median prices of Uncommon cards increased across the board, while the maximum and average prices decreased. The decrease in average prices can be attributed to 1-2 outlier cards in most factions, such as Frost Mage and Shaman, which substantially increased the average price of Uncommon cards in their respective factions. The same thing happened to Rare cards as happened to Uncommon cards. Average, median, and max price of Ultra-rare cards decreased across the board while minimum price increased.  General booster worth decreased from 378 bfp to 311 bfp. Given booster prices are still discounted by 100 bfp until January 18th, this means it is actually more worthwhile to open boosters after the update than it was before. On average, the daily discounted booster will profit a player 61 bfp post-update versus 28 bfp pre-update. How this data will move after the discount is removed remains to be seen, but we expect a slow creep up in prices for cards across the board. Reforging established a minimum base worth for all cards dependent on rarity that did not exist prior. For now this seems to be: Common: 4-5 bfp Uncommon: 14-16 bfp Rare: 62-64 bfp Ultra-rare: 153-165 bfp  Neutral Cards - A Control Set
Control Data Set: Neutral card prices;

Post-Reforging Data Set: Neutral card prices

Neutral cards were purposefully excluded from the Reforging feature. As such, they can only be put into the Reforging system but can never come out. This makes them a good control for examining the data because their prices should only increase when combined with Reforging. While this happened with the Common and Uncommon cards, the same is not true for Rare and Ultra-rare cards. The only increases to Rare and Ultra-rare cards seem to be in-line with those cards increasing to match the base value of other cards of their rarities. This can be seen with Curse Well and Curse Orb and partially in Queek Queek, though it is possible due to the low trading volume of QueekQueek the numbers were simply erratic in the period examined.
This decrease in the value of Rare cards and the value stagnation of undesirable Ultra-rare cards we see in Neutral cards was a consistent trend among all card values pre-update. If you look above, you will see that the maximum price of Shadow Pool cards in the control data is shown as 3865 bfp. As many of you might have guessed, this data point refers to Infect. Now if you were active in the weeks before the update, you will also know that the price of Infect at the time was actually in the 4500-5000 bfp range. In only a 2-month period, the average price of Infect inflated by between 700-1200 bfp. This trend was not confined to only Infect but to every desirable Ultra-rare card in the game.
The market trends pre-update (not shown here) were that Common cards were largely worthless, Uncommon cards were following the same trend, Rare cards were steadily decreasing in price (even among sought after cards such as Overlord, Bloodhorn, and Amii Monument), and desirable Ultra-rare and promo cards were increasingly inflating. This was because Ultra-rare and promo cards were the only remaining sources of value left in the economy. Reforging changed this by condensing the total price range of the market and by giving each card in the game a base level of value. 
 

Greetings Skylords!
Every three weeks, we give an update on the things going on behind the scenes of Skylords Reborn. Welcome to another Community Update!

• Small Patch
We are hard at work on our new content patch, which will still take quite a while. However, we plan to release a small patch this weekend including some small features and bug fixes. We have also added a much requested feature: you will now be notified when a friend comes online. 
Below, you can read about two highlighted changes from this patch. The patch also includes various bugfixes, for example being able to queue into yourself in PvP.
 
• Adjustments to the booster images
During our anniversary patch, we noticed that the booster images in the game had plenty of issues. First of all, the ratios are all over the place, with some boosters being tall, where others are wide. Additionally, the positioning angles and BattleForge logo placement is not consistent and some images had shadows where others didn't. We gave them some touchups and have added new images for the boosters. 
Old booster packaging:

New booster packaging:

 
• Winter Forge
While the holidays are over, winter is still here. We thought it would be fun to give the Forge a different look during winter, spring, summer and autumn, so we have updated it to a snowy theme! For the spring, summer and autumn Forges we plan to include the Community, so stay tuned for that!
In a previous patch, we added powerwells and monuments into the forge for testing. We are curious to hear if you enjoy changes like this, even if they are purely cosmetic. 

Is the new look too cold for your taste? Feel free to swap it back to the neutral forge with the new slider on the top right.
 
• Current State of the Economy & Reforging
On the 18th of December we released both Reforging and a 100BFP booster discount. As expected, this heavily impacted the economy of Skylords Reborn. Now that the dust has settled and the booster discount has expired, we can slowly start looking at the state of the economy. Windhunter has shared some statistics and thoughts on this topic.  
"The market trends pre-update (not shown here) were that Common cards were largely worthless, Uncommon cards were following the same trend, Rare cards were steadily decreasing in price (even among sought after cards such as Overlord, Bloodhorn, and Amii Monument), and desirable Ultra-rare and promo cards were increasingly inflating. This was because Ultra-rare and promo cards were the only remaining sources of value left in the economy. Reforging changed this by condensing the total price range of the market and by giving each card in the game a base level of value." 
You can read the whole post and check the stats for yourself here. 
 
• Deep Dive: Towers
As we continue to work towards the release of DRPvE, a topic of much discussion has been the current state of towers in the game. While some towers over perform, most are not worth a deckslot.
In this Deep Dive, we take a look at the different kinds of towers in Skylords Reborn, their strengths and weaknesses, and how we plan to make changes to them in the future. Please note we are still in the early stages of our tower rebalance; ideas are not final and these changes will take quite a while to implement once they are finalized. Either way, we hope you enjoy this insight into our current philosophy regarding Towers in Skylords Reborn, and that it provides you with the necessary information to join the discussion in our balance discord.
DeepDive_Towers.pdf
The next design document you can expect will be our in progress Nature Deep Dive. You can find all our Deep Dives and other documents here.
 
• Changing the size of buildings
While working on the above topic, we came across a new possibility for the game: resizing towers. We are now able to change the size of a building (visual and collision-shape-wise), which will be very relevant for cards like Rocket Tower, that take up way more space than you would expect from its model. This will be another helpful tool in adding some QoL changes to Skylords Reborn! 
Please note: the image below is an example, there are currently no concrete changes to Tunnel planned. 


• Art Timelapse
With our anniversary patch, it was revealed that the artwork of the new bandit cards combine into a single art piece: the new Bandit loading screen. If you are a frequent reader of the community updates, you have seen the work that went into each different new bandit cards over the last few months, including sketches of early iterations. However, if you are interested in more behind the scenes, we have a nice treat for you. Tweeto has actually recorded his design process, and we created a time-lapse video showing all the steps that went into this latest art piece. Did you know Bandit Sniper is actually standing on a dead Burrower? Find out everything that was added (and removed) in the video here. 
Big thanks to Tweeto for his hard work and jabbyay for helping to create this video. Tweeto is already hard at work on the next art piece, which we will show off in a later community update. Like this kind of content? Please be sure to let us know!
 
 
• Advanced Filtering
We would like to take a quick moment to thank everyone for taking our survey about your use of advanced filtering. We are working on a full documentation for the filters that are currently available in the game. If you don't want to wait for that, you can find a Work in Progress version in the game files under BattleForge/docs/advanced_filtering.txt once the patch hits. 
We have also added a few new filters and a lot of alternative words for current filters. 
 
• Tournaments & Events
• NEW - Toggy's Tome Tournament - 30.01.2022
It's time for another Tome Tournament! In Tome you play 1vs1 PvP but with a twist; your deck is build right before the tournament from the content of a number of boosters. This results in wacky decks and a very different PvP experience, so be sure to check it out. The tournament will be streamed live, check out the full rules and sign-up here. 

• NEW - CCC #2 The Besieged Forge - UNTIL 05.02.2022
Kapo has started another Crappy Community Contest! Participating in it will result in a reward for the entire community, so be sure to check it out. In this contest, players are playing on a new map created specifically for this contest! Check out the full rules here. 

• ALMOST ENDING - Official 2p rPvE Contest#2: The Bandit alliance UNTIL 31.01.2022
You only have a few days left to compete in this event! For this challenge, we want to see your adaptability in unique situations.
We are looking for the fastest time with only one rule: each player may only spawn one single unit with ground presence through the whole run!

• COMING SOON – Community 1p PvE Contest – early February
Hope you didn’t hide your warm clothes yet! To celebrate the end of winter, we will pay a visit to another Frost themed map. This time the challenge will be for a single Skylord, so bring your best deck and face the unknown. All the details should be published next week, stay tuned.

• Host your own event/tournament
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers Hiko and/or Metagross to have your event prizes sponsored by us. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you. 
 

 
• We need your help!
Now that we are able to implement voicelines and audio into the game (thanks to some great voiceactors helping us out!), we are looking for someone to help us with audio post-production and quality control. Unfortunately we currently do not have enough volunteers to continue implementing any further voicelines and sound effects into the game.
• Open Position: Audio Editor
We would love to continue adding voicelines for more cards and narration for new maps. As an Audio Editor, you will be responsible for selecting and extracting the best takes, doing post-production and making sure the overall quality is high enough to be implemented into the game. If you have more skills, you will also be able to design new sounds for the game as Audio Producer. Click here to read more and apply.
 
• Team changes
We are excited to finally add a marketeer/outreach coordinator to our team! Runeseeker will help us out with promoting the project and attracting new and old players alike. We appreciate the help and are happy to have him on our team! 
We also have various potential team members doing their trial tasks. In the near future we hope to add more balance developers, moderators and an artist. 
 
• In Conclusion
And that's it for this Community Update, thanks for reading! 
As is tradition, this community update comes with a scratch code. 
The code will reward you with a mini-booster: COMM-UNIT-YNEW-S18B
The code is valid till February 19th, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
As always, we are open to feedback, so please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments! 

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• Community Update #17

Hey all,
I'm always on the lookout for fun and interesting deck ideas or combo's, so let's share with each other! For this I'm not looking for anything that's good per se, but fun! So hit me up with your weird ideas, silly combo's or convoluted ideas that don't have to work that well, but are fun to play.
I will share some of my favourites.
Kirov Reporting (Constructs)
The deck specifically focuses around creating Constructs and walking down the enemy base. I will usually summon 1 Overlord to go in first with an attack move (Q + Click) while the Constructs waltz in with a single move command (Right click) as they auto-attack anyway. The other spells are mainly to support the Constructs (Unholy Hero/Infect/Stone Shell). The rest of the deck is mostly filler until I get to T4.
Optionally you can put in Rifle Cultists + Offering to churn out more constructs, but I find that's not really necessary.
Main idea: Constructs + Overlord + Support spells
Orbs: P -> P -> B -> G 

Moloch Bomber
This deck revolves around a single unit, namely Moloch. Since it's a Fire T4 unit we have to Enlighten it into the game. In the meantime at your base you have 3 Cultist Masters and a Furnace of Flesh that are sending minions into your Altar of Chaos (usually I build 2) to feed the bombs. You send your Moloch into the enemy base, cast a Life Weaving on it, and start dropping bombs. More often than not your Moloch doesn't even have to stop walking as the bombs blow up the base and the Life Weaving spreads even more damage.
This deck became a little better after the update to Altar of Chaos where the bombs can be dropped regardless of enemy presence!
Main idea: Moloch + Altar of Chaos
Orbs: P -> P -> G -> G

Spirit Link
Although not super original, I like the idea of a moving base. Basically you make sure you can always have at least 7 linked units walk around, and support them with small buildings on choke points or prior to a base siege. Heal and CC where needed while your units deploy and you have a slow moving but robust siege throughout the game.
Main idea: 7 Spirit Link units + Support buildings
Orbs: G -> G -> G -> G

 
Let me know what your favourite ideas or combos are and how you built around these!

You made me to log in for first time for a while, congratulation!
Your Altar of Chaos deck is really nice, I may try it once ^^


This is my Construct deck, unfortunately I had to get rid of one Construct charge to get Giant Wyrm, to fight TWilight Dragons in rPve, but overall it works well.



This deck I call "The Plague Lord", T1 and T2 are oriented at spells for buffing Harvester. The idea is to cast all buffs on Harvester, teleport it behind enemy wall and cast Befallen's Curse on Harvester.
There is something very satisfying to watch all enemies die from desease spread by Harvester, and then Corpse Explosion rest of the foes.

PS. I usually do not use Motivate on Harvester, since Befallen's Curse, Mind Weaver and Corpse Explosion are main damage sources.

UPDATED to match 1y-patch from 18.12.21
Hey all,
since we have many requests here, but few decks are shown pro-actively, I would like to show some of my RPVE decks (deck kits) over the next few weeks.
Each of the decks will be limited by a "theme", they will prolly not all be end-to-end meta approaches - especially since they are relatively simple to get to the point in the BG: Bata = Meta
And the rest will run behind. But since I'm a little bored with the Batariel right now - let's take a look at what other fine decks for rpve are out there. This first will touch the meta hard anyways 😄

Theme/Scope: In any row , as much meta as possible and as independently as possible from other players help/heals.

Playstyle: Micro > Macro
Budget: most expensive
Addresses to advanced/expert players

Core Deck: 
- Unity (B) and Bloodhealing give the needed sustain
- Heavy spell dependent - the meta makes dmg, distracts enemy via Frenetic, Infect gives dmg and meatshield, the  dmg spells clean up most of the units

- heavy voidmanipulation via Shrine of War or Cultist Master/Furnace of Flesh enables you to perma use of your spells and abilities
- strong T4 options unit wise, with mass Bloodhorns as main carry
- T3 is carried by spells and can handle ANY situation
- T1/T2 is very flexible and can be designed according to taste

T1 - Either or
Fire: Nomad (G), Mine, Eruption (possible BG10 addons are Blaster Cannon, Suppression or Sunstriders if needed)
Shadow: Forsaken, Soul Splicer (G), Motivate (possible BG10 addon is a good mate supporting your t1 with fire :P)

T2 - in any case
No matter what your t1 has been, your want a shadow orb as your second. If you started fire you want now to move asap to your double shadow, if you started shadow you want to raise your Boosters NOW 🙂  Isn't shadow T1 better then? Perhaps sometimes but not in general. Every start has its own pros and cons, the pros of a fire start is that it is lean, fast, self healing, team-friendly and due to its spells strong and flexible. I often prefer to run into a BG9 T3 camp with 3 nomads and my fire spells rather then having a few Forsaken and almost no support.

Cool-kids-t2-stuff is
- Best-in-Slot solution is probably Shadow Phoenix/Embalmers Shrine (almost mandatory for BG10)
- Gladiatrix (Gladis shine only really with Green Support, but mass Gladis with good positioning can do the job, more an advanced players solution I assume)
- Windhunter is the T2 alternative to Gladiatrix now (Bithday Patch) and outshines Gladiatrix in stats
- Firestalkers (nice siege, cheap throw-away t2)
- Harvester or Shadow Mages can be pure Shadow options if that suits, Undead Army can scale quite ok'ish with Bloodhealing into T4)
- Skyfire Drake is not big carrier, but can do an insane job on some maps
- Bandit Minefield is okish, but usually not worth the slot in this meta approach. If you come from Fire T1 to Shadow T2 you already bring your mine and if you start Double Shadow ... you get it 😄
- Undead Army shines with Blood Healing and is almost a must-pick for harder situations. This combo is way more flexible as the Grim Bahir option that I posted in the first run
Be aware that map depending is one of the weakest (not weak, only in relation) options aviable but usually not much of a problem.

T3 - you want to have now - time to shine!
At the T3 stage Void Manipulation and your -spells kick in the door! Though some nice T3 units are aviable the only options for this deck are imo Cultist Master (if you prefer Culstist/FoF over SoW) and Fallen Skyelf (as boss-killer support in T4).
T4 Camps can be taken out with Nomads/Forsaken and spells and so can be handled a possible close camp.

As far not mentioned interesting T3 cards are:
- Incredible Mo (not really needed here but always nice to have one)
- Soulshatter (if there is a possibility to take it, do so! You want to have as much dmg-spells as possible)
- Amii Monument (only for solo, but there very handy)
Last word on t3: No, I did not oversee Sandstorm - not worth a slot 🙂

T4 - finally

Carrier is the Bloodhorn (BH) - fast, strong dmg, heals nice via stampeding buildings. Get out 2 and play more as soon it is possible, if you play a second unit get it in the mix after the second BH. Always let 250+ energy left to have spell energy.
Before engaging a camp bind your units together with a Unity (b)
First spell when engaging is either Frenetic or Cluster (Amok can do the job too), the other second, asap Infect then further according to the remaining priorities. I like to use Bloodhealing on Undead Army skelletons or Grim Bahir crawlers - that a reason for the Grim Bahir for me, though ofc this is not mandatory.
Bloodhealing does a nice job too on a BH with Unity running, it does not loose much HP.
Earthshaker is a nice skill, but does not perform as stong as we know it in this deck due to the mass BH spam 🙂 If you have room it can prolly clean up last buildings, but I tended to cut it.
Just to say it: OFC you can do various T4 units in the mix here, but naming them all would go beyond the scope of this. Though this is more a deck-kit then a deck, I want to give ideas how to play a faction not to give an overview over the faction as a whole.

Any more options:
- The classic shadow buffs (Life Weaving, Unholy Power & Hero) do a great job on BH!
- Never go out without your Disenchant
- Warp is always nice to have
- Offering (g) can resett your stong spells, if you decide to do so, prolly cut the Cluster (P) (this will get an even nicer option with the comming Grim Bahir changes (Test Server))
- purple Amok gives a nice damage buff and can either replace one Frenetic or be added. Beware to play it not on your units, as they will take friendly-fire then. Also be aware not to play it on your teammates units (same reason) and this is grief play.

Bosses you struggle with ... none that comes to my mind.
Any other dangerous situations for this deck: Engaging Twilight Dragons with a spell-protected (Twilight Negator) Willzapper nearby (a ugly situation for most decks). Play your Unity as late as possible and strike HARD with the first engage!

If more questions come, please feel free to ask or discuss this, I will edit this "guide"

Personal, tested(!), samples of my decks are
BG9 allrounder for random maps with random groups:

 
BG10, adapted for 1Player-MOTM 2021-06

BG10, 4player, random maps with random groups, assuming SoW by Mate btw one Joker slot

 
Replays deleted as they are broken due to patches.
I attach a few replays to see it in action. Be aware, non of this replays is "perfect" or aim to be that. This are raw takeouts to give you an idea how this can be played.
I played this deck a lot in the last weeks and can assure that it can work in ANY BG9 situation completly independent from other players heals and can even carry a group. Even the BG10 performance was not as bad as you may think without the perma present green splash 😄

BG10solo_pureBandittest
A random BG10 solo in below 23min, easy Bandit map, but still not bad I think. Lost my t4 orb in the second last camp that forces me to retreat. This was my first test in BG10. Here a pure BH T4 w/o Grim Bahir

BG10_4player_Pure_Bandit_Test
Super nervous played mess - my first group attempt in BG10. In 14min I ran sleeping into a dragon = thx for the rescure group ^^ But hey, this is normal BG10 random group gameplay, nobody is perfect.
Really not a carry here, but neither a total fail. Straight average BG10 shit

BG9_Bloodhealing Showcase <- recommended!!!
A quite strong performance in a 4player BG9 with Command Walker Boss in the End (for me alooooooone) 🙂

BG10_SOLO_MOTM_ PureBandit_rank7
And as last one the current 1player MOTM. This is a first try, I swear, and far from clean, but still a good perfomance I think and at least for now it is a top10 time.


Finally: You have feedback, suggestions, nice replays or storys about this deck, please feel free to post below! I am looking forward to your reactions 😄

Is this helpfull? Want more of this?
 
 
 

Map Editor [Activation Guide]
If you ever wanted to use the BattleForge Map Editor and make some of your own cool maps or just to play around with it while Battleforge is off, well here's how:
To be able to instal the map editor you will need a program that will extract zip files. WinRAR or z7 free software are 2 examples of free programs capable of doing that.
Step 1: Download the MapEditor zip file and extract the files. If you were wondering about viruses: Scan results.
Step 2: Open the "Map Editor" folder and place the "Battleforge" folder inside your documents (Computer>Documents). The other files will be placed somewhere else later in this guide (Step 4).
Step 3: Go to Computer>Local Disk (C:) and check if you have a folder called "Battleforge" in there. If you don't, make one.
Step 4: If you downloaded Battleforge without the map editor or just created a new folder, then you must place all the remaining files from "Map Editor" in the "Battleforge" folder in your Local Disk (C:). Replace any existing files with the new ones from the "Map Editor" folder.
Step 5: Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/o4ov83foag0s1tj/bf-base-pak-1st_300-files.rar?dl=0 and https://www.dropbox.com/s/kf65cp9mzvo3dgb/bf-base-pak-rest-of-files.rar?dl=0. Make a folder (if you didn't have one) called "base". In the "base" folder make another folder called "pak". Extract everything from these 2 links in the "pak" folder.
Or all in one link : BattleForge from sylar.
Step 6: If you already had Battleforge in your Local Disk (C:) this step is most likely not needed for you. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/j9tnfubsviog2ux/BattleForge-all-but-base-folder.rar?dl=0 and extract everything into your "Battleforge" folder located in your Local Disk (C:).
This should be it. To open the Map Editor you must go to Computer>Local Disk(C:)>Battleforge and click on "pluginbasededitor".
I also made a short video showing you were to place the files from the "Map Editor" folder. This is it MapEditor. I also made some simple instructions in Notepad: Instructions.txt .
Note: Important to mention that you must have a Battleforge folder in your Local Disk (C:) (not the one in Documents) which must contain a folder called "base" with a folder called "pak" with the pak in it (Step 5). Without the pak the editor can't function because that's where it loads its resources and assets from. You must have a folder called "Battleforge" in your Documents as well as in your Local Disk (C:).
Common issue: The map editor will most likely not work as a stand alone so you have to download the full Battleforge folder, with the base/pak folders and every thing else unpacked properly for it to work, so put all the files, excluding the folder "Battleforge" from the "Map Editor" folder in the Battleforge main folder in your Local Disk (C:) and then try it.
Thanks Sylar for providing me with the "pak" files and the main Battleforge folder from your post: How to.
Feel free to ask me any questions or issues you might have while attempting my guide.
Thanks to Ladadoos for simplifying the guide.

This is actually on our to-do list 🙂 Might be a while before it gets implemented though, since some other topics currently have priority.