The Secret Post Ionia Meta - How To Win - What To Play
Okay so it's no secret I took a bit of an LOR break to play Overwatch 2 but I'm back and man have people been asleep.
Time to delve into what is actually worth playing post Ionia and Akshan nerfs.
Theory - biggest change besides the removal of Ionias easy acess to the double bounce with added health potion benefit is the toning down of cycling Champs like akshan and Taylor Swift
So what that actually means is board presence, honest to God numbers on a freaking board aka vanilla Runeterra is exponentially better again.
This is countered by the value of honest to God hard removal, because soft removal has been toned down.
Here are some examples:
Deep - been around for ages numbers on board plus mill condition and solid pings should auto win for you
Thralls - free 8/8s are really good when bounces are bad
Tribal - Elites, yordles, and any either tribal synergy you can think of to pit numbers on board
Ramp - feel the 10/10s the deck the recent addition of shatter ups the flexibility of Freijord and makes it less reliant on shadow isles
Jayce/Lux - when bounces are bad you're essentially forcing hard removal answers and ever since the play priority change where you get Lazer at instant speed should be easy dub
Heimer/Nora - nothing really happened to stop this board swarmed do nothing deck from being good so why did people stop playing it?
Fated- they literally just hit the 1 drop fated card by one point and you want to tell me this deck is bad now? Are you actually dumb?
Darkness - again solid control option that does better in a post combo Ionia meta
Pirate aggro/scouts - I just played scouts its nuts just run the 4 mana rally instead of the nerfed 5 mana rally, plus there's that cool 1 mana strike card to try
Midrange - Archetypal midrange like Swain (nerfed) and Ash (super buffed) is valuable when nobody knows what to play
Master yi - that's right I think master yi is very strong in a post Akshan world got a lot of synergistic cards in the last set
Plunder - gangplank sejuani is still nuts and only gets better when there are no bounces
Jax/Orn - super buffed to the point of being game winning actually low key insane
Sion/heckarim - big game winning Champs that have unique build around conditions and swing 4 value are actually good now
Landmarks - oh yeah you better believe I didn't forget zigs or thaliyah
Mono shurima - sundisc is always viable and probably my biggest losing matchup to date
Riven/Fizz- yes elusive combo is good there is always one best version to run, but generally speaking the burst combo version has been better then the good stuff versions
Ezreal/Catarina- nothing is stopping ezreal from being good right now, in the absence of Lee Sin and low commitment 2 mana cycling Champs hard removal gets better
Evelyn/Viego - now Viego did get nerfed a little bit but the absence of cheap answers for him should compensate and bring this deck back to light.
Honestly, I could do this all day listing decks that I can or could pilot to a plus 50% winrate in the current meta rather then use these garbage lists and I'm bad, so my biggest recommendation right now is steer clear till people remember how to play LOR pre-Ionia
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Okay so it's no secret I took a bit of an LOR break to play Overwatch 2 but I'm back and man have people been asleep.
Time to delve into what is actually worth playing post Ionia and Akshan nerfs.
Theory - biggest change besides the removal of Ionias easy acess to the double bounce with added health potion benefit is the toning down of cycling Champs like akshan and Taylor Swift
So what that actually means is board presence, honest to God numbers on a freaking board aka vanilla Runeterra is exponentially better again.
This is countered by the value of honest to God hard removal, because soft removal has been toned down.
Here are some examples:
Deep - been around for ages numbers on board plus mill condition and solid pings should auto win for you
Thralls - free 8/8s are really good when bounces are bad
Tribal - Elites, yordles, and any either tribal synergy you can think of to pit numbers on board
Ramp - feel the 10/10s the deck the recent addition of shatter ups the flexibility of Freijord and makes it less reliant on shadow isles
Jayce/Lux - when bounces are bad you're essentially forcing hard removal answers and ever since the play priority change where you get Lazer at instant speed should be easy dub
Heimer/Nora - nothing really happened to stop this board swarmed do nothing deck from being good so why did people stop playing it?
Fated- they literally just hit the 1 drop fated card by one point and you want to tell me this deck is bad now? Are you actually dumb?
Darkness - again solid control option that does better in a post combo Ionia meta
Pirate aggro/scouts - I just played scouts its nuts just run the 4 mana rally instead of the nerfed 5 mana rally, plus there's that cool 1 mana strike card to try
Midrange - Archetypal midrange like Swain (nerfed) and Ash (super buffed) is valuable when nobody knows what to play
Master yi - that's right I think master yi is very strong in a post Akshan world got a lot of synergistic cards in the last set
Plunder - gangplank sejuani is still nuts and only gets better when there are no bounces
Jax/Orn - super buffed to the point of being game winning actually low key insane
Sion/heckarim - big game winning Champs that have unique build around conditions and swing 4 value are actually good now
Landmarks - oh yeah you better believe I didn't forget zigs or thaliyah
Mono shurima - sundisc is always viable and probably my biggest losing matchup to date
Riven/Fizz- yes elusive combo is good there is always one best version to run, but generally speaking the burst combo version has been better then the good stuff versions
Ezreal/Catarina- nothing is stopping ezreal from being good right now, in the absence of Lee Sin and low commitment 2 mana cycling Champs hard removal gets better
Evelyn/Viego - now Viego did get nerfed a little bit but the absence of cheap answers for him should compensate and bring this deck back to light.
Honestly, I could do this all day listing decks that I can or could pilot to a plus 50% winrate in the current meta rather then use these garbage lists and I'm bad, so my biggest recommendation right now is steer clear till people remember how to play LOR pre-Ionia
Also I don't think building 5 versions of the same Gwen deck makes you a brewer...trolls lol so bad