Combo Forestcraft Takes Every 6-0 Lineup at SVO SEAO Preliminary 3
Midrange Abysscraft was the most-played deck, but all three undefeated players brought Combo Forestcraft.
Three players finished the SVO 2026 Season 2 SEAO Preliminary 3 at 6-0 on September 12, and all three played Combo Forestcraft. GC kaemra97 and selfOrder paired it with Ramp Dragoncraft, while zeronoyume brought Evolution Portalcraft as the second deck.
This is zeronoyume's Combo Forest list:
The event drew 292 players, with Midrange Abysscraft in 44.2% of the two-deck lineups. Four weeks ago, before Revenants of Azvaldt was released, it appeared in just 7.5% of them at SEAO Preliminary 2. Crystal Runecraft and Rally Swordcraft, the top two decks in Preliminary 2 at 43.0% and 42.5%, fell to 20.2% and 11.0% here.
The new-set decks also moved quickly into the field. Combo Forest was the biggest newcomer at 32.2% of players, and it didn't evolve from the old Forestcraft deck so much as replace it: Tempo Evolution Forestcraft accounted for 93 lists in Preliminary 2 and did not appear once here. Sephie Runecraft, Pirate Swordcraft, and Face Dragoncraft made up the rest of the new names near the top of the registration table.
After six rounds, 26 players finished at 6-0 or 5-1 and qualified for the next step toward the Season 2 Playoffs. The most-played deck wasn't the strongest one: Midrange Abyss was 22.7% of the decks in the field but only 9 of the qualified players had it. Combo Forest and Ramp Dragon tied for the most qualifying slots at twelve each.
Two decks missed almost entirely. Rally Sword, the second most-played from the previous SEAO, put none of its 27 lists into the qualifying bracket. Artifact Portal was only slightly better: 44 registered lists produced one qualifying slot, along with the lowest match win rate among decks with meaningful sample sizes at 40.6%.
The most interesting outlier came from the smallest category. Three players registered Kukishiro Haven, and two of them made it to the next round. That is a sample of three players and proves nothing, but it is the kind of result that gets a deck looked at before the next event.
We grouped the lists by how many cards they share and then labeled each group by hand, so names for a few off-meta lists may not be exact. Also, Combo Forest is also known as "Thestae" but I went with the label used in the Japanese meta.
Preliminary 2 closed with the question of whether anyone would find an answer to Crystal Runecraft and Rally Swordcraft. A new set answered it twice over: it replaced them, then put Combo Forestcraft at 6-0.
Source:
- Official public decklists: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LGtlcivR_PvaN6SImjHP951nZiJBw5Sj552DiXg8GxA/edit?gid=1841639058#gid=1841639058
- Standings: https://battlefy.com/shadowverse-open-tournaments/svo-2026-seao-season-2-preliminary-3/6a326e8d4e7295002f920921/stage/6aa4b290e3dd4100503a2f26/results