Best Cards from Cookie Run: Braverse — A Game of Truth and Deceit

Every Cookie Run: Braverse set so far has handed you a row of legends to collect. A Game of Truth and Deceit (the official BS9 booster, out January 29, 2026) does something nastier: it hands you a villain, and prints him five times. Shadow Milk Cookie - the jester Beast of Deceit - shows up once in every color, and the trick is that each version is a completely different card built for a completely different deck. There is no "the good Shadow Milk." There is the Red one, the Yellow one, the Green one, the Blue one, and the Purple one, and which is best depends entirely on what you're trying to do.

This is the set review: what the booster actually adds, the standout cards ranked off the official card-database text, and a straight answer on what to chase whether you're collecting or building. Quick notation refresher before we start - the {R}/{Y}/{G}/{B}/{P} symbols are each color's resource, {N} is any color, a number after an attack name is its damage, and "FLIP" is the face-down-HP mechanic the whole set leans on (full breakdown in our FLIP mechanic guide). All costs, HP, and skill text below are quoted directly from the official database. One honest rarity note up front: the database labels these five Shadow Milks as SUR (Secret Ultra Rare) and most of the other chase cards as SSR (Secret Super Rare / Super Rare) - we'll use those labels rather than the plain "UR/SR" some community trackers use, because that's what the official data says.

What A Game of Truth and Deceit adds

Three things define this set as a product.

First, the five Shadow Milk Cookies. This is the marquee: the Beast-keyword villain printed one per color (BS9-010 Red, BS9-030 Yellow, BS9-055 Green, BS9-079 Blue, BS9-102 Purple), each a Secret Ultra Rare and each its own build-around. They aren't reprints of one effect with a recolored frame - the Red one rewards your Cookies fainting, the Yellow one is a FLIP engine, the Purple one is a 20-trash mill payoff. Five villains, five decks.

Second, the "truth and deceit" theme running through the commons and uncommons: cards that manipulate HP stacks directly. The set is full of effects that add cards to a Cookie's HP, move HP between Cookies, and add cards from your opponent's hand face-up into your Cookie's HP - a genuinely new angle on the FLIP system. This isn't flavor text; it's the mechanical spine that makes the rare cards work.

Third, it's a returning-Ancient set with a single Soul Jam. Unlike Age of Heroes and Kingdoms, which printed five Ancients and five Soul Jams at once, Truth and Deceit reprints fresh versions of the legendary Ancients (Hollyberry, Golden Cheese, Pure Vanilla, White Lily, Dark Cacao all appear) but ships only one Soul Jam - Soul Jam: Light of Deceit (BS9-092) - tied specifically to Shadow Milk. For the broader Ancient context, see our best Ancient cards ranking.

How we ranked these

Same three-axis discipline as our overall card ranking: rarity (where it sits on the ladder), raw effect impact (what the official text actually does on the board), and competitive relevance (how reliably it fires and how many decks want it). A card has to score on more than one axis to climb. A splashy Secret Ultra Rare that needs a whole deck built around a 20-card trash count ranks below a Cookie that's just good the moment it hits the table. As always, this is our read, not an official tier list - Devsisters publishes none - and nothing in this set is on the ban list.

The headliners: the five Shadow Milk Beasts

The five Shadow Milks are the face of the set, so they lead. Ranked among themselves by how easily they actually win games:

1. Shadow Milk Cookie (BS9-030, Yellow, Secret Ultra Rare, 6 HP, Beast, LV.3). The best of the five and a FLIP payoff engine. His Journey Toward Truth is an EXTRA play - discard 3 {Y} Cookies that have FLIP from your hand to put him down - and his Light of Truth attack deals 3, then lets you discard a Cookie with FLIP to activate that card's FLIP effect on demand. That's the whole point: he turns FLIP cards, which normally only fire defensively when you get attacked, into effects you fire on your own terms. A 6-HP body that also draws/buffs/pings through your FLIP suite is the cleanest engine in the set.
2. Shadow Milk Cookie (BS9-102, Purple, Secret Ultra Rare, 6 HP, Beast, LV.3). The mill finisher. Spectacular Finale is an EXTRA play that can only happen once there are 20 or more cards in each player's trash, and once he's down his Once Per Turn skill forces the opponent to pitch a card from a full hand. His False Persona attack deals 2, then 1 more if the opponent's trash is 20+. The biggest body in the set tied with the Yellow one, and the obvious top-end for a Purple "trash matters" deck - but he's a payoff, not a starter, so he ranks behind the engine.
3. Shadow Milk Cookie (BS9-010, Red, Secret Ultra Rare, 4 HP, Beast, LV.2). The aggro sacrifice payoff. Time for Deceit can be played if 2 or more of your Red LV.1 Cookies fainted during the opponent's previous turn - so he rewards an aggressive Red board that trades bodies. On play he buries a card from the opponent's hand into his own HP, and Puppet Theater of Fear deals 2 then steals an HP card off an opposing Cookie. A genuinely scary cheap finisher for a deck already throwing Cookies away.
4. Shadow Milk Cookie (BS9-079, Blue, Secret Ultra Rare, 5 HP, Beast, LV.3). The Extra-Deck combo piece. He has no skill - his whole identity is the attack, Ahh, welcome, welcome!, which deals 3 then reveals a Shadow Milk Cookie from your Extra Deck and activates that Cookie's attack effect. A second attack trigger stapled to a swing, which is explosive in a dedicated Shadow Milk shell and dead weight outside one. High ceiling, narrow floor.
5. Shadow Milk Cookie (BS9-055, Green, Secret Ultra Rare, 5 HP, Beast, LV.3). The ramp-engine version. Stage Opening is an EXTRA play gated behind the opponent having 3+ Support cards and you having trashed 2+ Support this turn, and his skill recycles Support when you're low. It's a fine Green engine body, but it asks the most setup of the five for the least immediate payoff, so it's the one to chase last on power.

The honest read: like the Age of Heroes Ancients, all five are playable, which is rare - but unlike that set, they're not equal. The Yellow and Purple Shadow Milks are real archetype centerpieces; the Red one is a great aggro top-end; the Blue and Green ones need a built deck to shine.

The Soul Jam and the returning Ancients

This set's Soul Jam is a single, focused card rather than a five-color cycle:

• Soul Jam: Light of Deceit (BS9-092, Blue, Item, Secret Super Rare). Pay {B}{N} and discard 2 cards to deal 2 damage to an opposing Cookie, then equip it to your Shadow Milk Cookie; while equipped, if you have 5 or fewer cards in hand, that Cookie takes -3 damage on your turn. So it's a removal spell and a near-unkillable shield for whichever Shadow Milk you mount it on - and the "5 or fewer cards in hand" clause lines up perfectly with the discard-heavy decks Shadow Milk already wants to play. It's the glue of the archetype, and a real card before it's ever equipped.

On the Ancient side, Truth and Deceit reprints the legendary lineup with new numbers and tweaked text. The two worth knowing:

The Ancients here are good cards, but they're returning faces, not the set's identity. If you're chasing this booster for the legends, the Age of Heroes set is still the cleaner Ancient product; Truth and Deceit is the Beast set.

The best support Cookies and role-players

Below the headliners, this set is genuinely deep in cards that fill out a deck:

• Black Sapphire Cookie (BS9-100, Purple, Secret Super Rare, 4 HP). The mill enabler that makes the Purple Shadow Milk reachable. Stage Broadcast mills 5 off your deck and 5 off your opponent's on play, and Showtime! deals 3 then mills 3 off both decks. The single best card for hitting the "20 cards in each trash" gate. If you build Purple mill, this is a four-of before you even think about the Beast.
• Truthless Recluse (BS9-035, Yellow, Secret Ultra Rare, 5 HP, LV.3). A control hate-piece. Truth Seeker discards a card to stop your opponent from adding HP to their Cookies via effects for the turn - a hard counter to the entire "add to HP" theme this set is built around - and Shadow of Despair deals 3 with a removal rider when your Break Area is stocked. A nasty answer card with real stats.
• Black Raisin Cookie (BS9-077, Blue, Secret Super Rare, 3 HP). Clean card filtering: Reconnaissance Time draws 1 and tucks a card on top, and her cheap attack can put her back on the deck. A tidy Blue cog for any draw-cycle plan.
• Wind Archer Cookie (BS9-050, Green, Secret Super Rare, 4 HP). Green's Support-recursion piece - Crow Storm reactivates a Support card when you've trashed 2+, and Arrow of Darkness pings the whole opposing board for 1 at the cost of trashing Support. Exactly the fuel the Green engine wants.
• Candy Apple Cookie (BS9-014, Red, Secret Super Rare, 2 HP) and Parfait Cookie (BS9-015, Red, Secret). Two cheap Red enablers - Candy Apple buries an opponent's HP card into her own stack, and Parfait replays a Cookie from hand when she faints, feeding the Red Shadow Milk's "Cookies fainted" trigger.

None of these are the box art, but the depth is the point: this is a set you can build three different decks out of (Yellow FLIP, Purple mill, Red sacrifice-aggro) and have each one feel distinct.

The FLIP package this set runs on

The thing that makes the Yellow Shadow Milk engine actually function is the wall of cheap FLIP-type cards this set prints. Because the Yellow Beast discards FLIP Cookies to fire their effects on demand, the set gives you a deep menu of FLIP triggers to feed him:

• Draw-on-flip commons in every color - Cherry Blossom (BS9-007), Burnt Cheese (BS9-026), Butter Roll (BS9-051), Candy Diver (BS9-071), Prophet (BS9-104) - all read "Draw up to 1 card from your deck." These are the bread-and-butter fuel: a FLIP card that draws is good defensively and good when Shadow Milk discards it for value.
• HP-buff FLIP cards like Macaron (BS9-005), Financier (BS9-042), Matcha (BS9-048), and Crunchy Chip (BS9-110) discard a card to give the Cookie they're attached to +1 HP - cheap, reusable defense.
• The standout FLIP commons are the ones with a rider when fired on your turn: Pistachio Cookie (BS9-041) draws then pings a Cookie for 1, and Yoga Cookie (BS9-032) draws then sets one of your Cookies active. Those "if activated during your turn" clauses are written specifically for the Shadow Milk engine that activates FLIP on your own turn.
• Apple Faerie Cookie (BS9-037, Yellow, SSR) ties it together - when she faints, she returns up to 2 {Y} FLIP Cookies from your trash to hand, refilling the engine's ammo.

The takeaway for builders: Truth and Deceit is the first set where the commons are the engine. You don't chase the FLIP commons, but you absolutely run a stack of them, and the Yellow Shadow Milk is only as good as the FLIP suite you feed it.

Who should chase what

If you're collecting, the five Shadow Milk Cookies are the obvious targets - they're the set's signature Secret Ultra Rares and the debut of a major Cookie Run villain in the TCG. After the Beasts, the reprinted Ancients (especially the Blue Pure Vanilla, BS9-088) and Soul Jam: Light of Deceit round out the prestige pulls. For the full rarity ladder, see our rarities and collecting guide.

If you're building to win, chase by deck. Yellow FLIP wants the Yellow Shadow Milk (BS9-030), Apple Faerie, and a deep FLIP-common suite. Purple mill wants the Purple Shadow Milk (BS9-102) plus Black Sapphire (BS9-100) as the engine that gets you to 20 trash. Red sacrifice-aggro wants the Red Shadow Milk (BS9-010) and the cheap fainters that turn it on. Blue Shadow Milk is for players who want to build the dedicated Extra-Deck combo and nothing less. Pick the plan you like, then grab that color's Beast - and leave the other four for the binder unless you're switching decks.

The honest read on A Game of Truth and Deceit: it's the most deck-focused set Braverse has shipped. Age of Heroes was about collecting five legends; this one is about picking one villain and building the machine around him. The Yellow and Purple Shadow Milks are the real centerpieces, the FLIP commons are secretly the most important cards in the set, and Soul Jam: Light of Deceit is the glue. It's a builder's set first and a collector's set second.

Quick Action Checklist

• The Yellow Shadow Milk (BS9-030) is the best card in the set. A FLIP engine that fires your face-down effects on your own terms - chase it first if you're building to win.
• The Purple Shadow Milk (BS9-102) is the best finisher. A 6-HP mill payoff, but he needs 20 cards in each trash, so he's an endgame, not an opener.
• Black Sapphire (BS9-100) makes the Purple plan work. Mill 5 off both decks on play; it's the engine that reaches the Purple Beast's trash gate.
• Soul Jam: Light of Deceit (BS9-092) is the archetype glue. Removal plus a -3 damage shield that equips to any Shadow Milk.
• The FLIP commons are the real engine. Run a deep suite of draw-on-flip Cookies; the Yellow Beast is only as good as its FLIP fuel.
• Truthless Recluse (BS9-035) is the set's best answer card. It shuts off "add HP" effects - the exact thing this set tries to do to you.
• Collect for the Beasts, build for one villain. Chase the five Shadow Milks if you're collecting; commit to one color's plan if you're winning.