Welcome to the Monuments of Power, champions! Riot has once again given us an awesome lab with premade decks filled with new cards for us to play with, so again we're going to give you a quick overview of all 6 decks, mulligan guides, and some basic strategies. Please note that while we're providing the decklists, these probably aren't the most competitive forms for constructed play.
Before we get started though, here's the basic decklists that we're basing this whole article around.
Howling Abyss
What is it? A Freljord/Ionia ramp/stall deck.
Tagline: "Venture to the hallowed Howling Abyss, and fight alongside its legendary champions!"
Win Condition: Generate massive value from The Howling Abyss.
Strategy: Play this like a Warmother's deck -- early mana ramp, only safe attacks, and conservative blocks. Ideally you can play The Howling Abyss on curve. Note that Singular Will affects all landmarks -- both yours and your opponent's.
Mulligan Guide: Look for your ramp -- Faces of the Old Ones, Wyrding Stones, and Catalyst of Aeons. Also keep Kindly Tavernkeeper and Tasty Faefolk against the aggressive Jinx + Draven deck.
Noxkraya Arena
What is it? A Braum + Vlad battlescars midrange deck.
Tagline: "Combine the cold of the Freljord and the strength of Noxus to tackle your frostbitten foes."
Win Condition: Use Noxkraya Arena to take out chump blockers while utilizing combat-lovers like Legion Veteran and Scarmother VyrnnaBADCARDNAME.
Strategy: Our recommended strategy is to requeue with a different deck -- this one is honestly terrible! Note that despite the tagline, there are no frostbite effects; also for this particular deck Noxkraya Arena works for your opponent as much as it helps. When it's out, make sure to keep an eye for what your strongest unit is (i.e., the highest attack, highest HP as a tie breaker, highest mana cost as secondary tiebreaker) and your opponent's weakest (i.e., lowest attack with comparable tie breakers). If you do want to play this deck, try focusing on a typical tempo battlescar strategy and hold off on playing Arena unless you either have a giant Vlad or there are no better plays.
Mulligan Guide: Look for Omen Hawk, Ruthless Raider, Scarthane Steffen, and Braum.
The Slaughter Docks
What is it? A Deep deck with 3x The Slaughter Docks in place of Jaull Hunters.
Tagline: "Toss your deck and reap the rewards!"
Win Condition: Go deep and then beat down your opponent with Sea Monsters.
Strategy: Standard deep strategy -- focus on going deep ASAP. After going deep, The Slaughter Docks will generate a Sea Monster but not until the start of your next turn. Note that this particular decklist doesn't run Atrocity, so you'll need to win through either combat or Maokai's mill.
Mulligan Guide: Look for Dreg Dredgers, Thorny Toad, Deadbloom Wanderer, The Slaughter Docks, and Maokai.
Star Spring
What is it? A Tahm Kench + Soraka self-damage/heal control deck.
Tagline: "Devour your enemies and heal up your wounded allies!"
Win Condition: Most games will be won by satisfying Star Spring, but the Bilgewater followers have enough attack to threaten a traditional combat victory.
Strategy: Try to keep all your units alive as there's a lot of healing synergy that only works if there is something to heal. Don't worry too much about your health as Guiding Touch and Broadbacked Protector provide a lot of comeback material.
Mulligan Guide: Hard-mulligan for Star Spring, Soraka, and Tahm Kench -- their synergy with the rest of your deck is critical. Also keep Broadbacked Protector against the aggressive Draven + Jinx deck.
The University of Piltover
What is it? An aggressive discard deck featuring The University of Piltover.
Tagline: "Heimerdinger's preferred deck, now with lots of variables. For science!"
Win Condition: Burn your opponent down with early aggression if you can; otherwise flip Jinx and abuse her L2 ability to generate Super Mega Death Rocket!s, ideally with The University of Piltover which can also generate some additional threats.
Strategy: This will play like a standard discard aggro deck. Try to go wide and attack aggressively; Draven and Jinx worth preserving. Don't be afraid to use Zaunite Urchin and Sump Dredger proactively to cycle a suboptimal card rather than wait for a Jury-Rig or Flame Chompers!. The University of Piltover can be powerful if there's a Jinx on board; otherwise, though, prioritize aggression and burn over the University's value potential.
Mulligan Guide: Look for Draven (or Draven's Biggest Fan), Zaunite Urchin, and Arena Bookie.
Vaults of Helia
What is it? An SI/Demacia tempo/combo deck with a lot of death synergies.
Tagline: "Sacrifice units to grow in power!"
Win Condition: Literally grow your with Helia activations and rally effects until you outmuscle the board.
Strategy: Start the game with typical tempo plays until you can safely play Vaults of Helia. Then, let it grow your board Swiftwing Lancer (5) -> Genevieve Elmheart (6) -> The Rekindler (7) -> Tianna Crownguard (8) -> Commander Ledros (9). Note that the last 2 are single copies, so if you draw one it will kill the chain.
Mulligan Guide: Look for Barkbeast, Lucian, Kalista, and Senna, Sentinel of Light. For slower decks like Tahm Kench + Soraka and Trundle + Tryndamere, you should also keep Vaults of Helia.
Have you been enjoying the expansion so far?
Comments
I won three games quite handily with Slaughter Docks, and then lost the fourth...to Howling Abyss. Go figure.
I've been wondering: Does Vaults of Helia NOT kill your unit if there's nothing appropriate to draw? I assume that's what you mean by "kill the chain."
I do not care for this insanely unbalanced lab, so I don't feel like playing to find out for myself. =) <3
It only kills your unit if there is a N+1 unit in your deck. If there is nothing for it to replace the most expensive unit, it can "skip" if say your 2nd most expensive unit on board has an eligible target.
Also: if there are 2 Vaults of Helia out simultaneously, each will proc sequentially so you essentially get +2.
EDIT: apparently it can skip! I was basing my earlier statement on a game where my opponent must not have had any eligible targets left in his deck.
That's good to know. It makes it a lot less scary to use ... most of the time. Control's Helia deck seemed fun, for sure.
that howling abyss deck was a lot of fun in that lab