"The Ruination" is a horrible concept for a card. Balance issues.

The ruination as a concept in general is disgusting, all good players understand that setting up your field while diminishing the enemies is more important than constantly belittling the opponents hp, I can't count how many times I've played smarter than my opponent resulting in having a massive lead on field with close to equal cards in hand, then they play The Ruination, and suddenly we're only equal playing field, 6+ rounds of work to best the opponent successfully and its demolished entirely by a single card, it ruins the skill in every match that card is had, the opponent will often times win from the RNG of pulling that card, despite being bested every round up to him being able to play that card. It's beyond broken and a shitty concept in general, if its going to be in the game there has to be a condition for it to be met, maybe have to have a certain range of cards in hand, or requires you to have at least 3 allied units in play it shouldn't be this free card to just fuck your opponents entire setup, when you've been outwitted the entire game and have 0 allies in play. that being said, the majority of the spells in shadow isle are damage spells, and just about all of them are extremely over powered, doing absurd amounts of damage for very little cost, to be frank, almost all the spells in the game should be nerfed, in a game where you have only 20 hp, giving a full field +3/+3 (For Demacia!) is insane, that card alone adds 18 damage to a field, and it can be used as early as round 6 with a full field if you luck out with a nice draw, not to mention the Cursed Keeper, and Ravenous Butcher combo, at round 2 you can have a 3/2 and a 4/4 on the field, that's absurd, no other region has the potential for that strong of a field by round 2. It's possible I'm slightly biased, would love other's opinions, obviously it's a new game, so balance issues are to be expected, then again, Riot Games is known for not being able to balance shit.

Meanwhile Ionia gets to just cancel spells for basically no tempo loss (3-mana is a joke) while also having an insanely versatile arsenal.

LoR isn't really a game where you can just win the war of attrition if you don't have some sick lategame cards. Either you win fast and hard or you play the long game and have a deck built accordingly.

Spells are incredibly impactful, which is why they are also pretty high cost (compare to Hearthstone, where basically every comparable spell is at least 1-mana cheaper)

You're essentially complaining about Twisting Nether existing in another game, and much like Twisting Nether the best way to play around it is by not just throwing your minions out at will (or just trying to gain an advantage before that, it's a 9-mana spell after all). There are plenty of good minions that leave behind bodies after death (if they don'T just straight-up revive themselves). If Shadow Isles control becomes meta there will be counters.

I agree shadow isles are a bit overtuned, but ruination is a fair card, you aren't obligated to spam the board and you CAN play around it(by having more draw or more minions in hand, for demacia is also a balanced card in that it costs a lot, it's a finisher, if you can't control the board or have any answer it's kind of over.. it's good to have finishers so matches don't draw out forever...

The game has powerful tools to deal with most situations.. If you keep losing to shadow isles you need to adjust your deck accordingly, that's why the game gives you so many cards so fast.. so people can keep up.

There's data for everything: popularity,play rate, ranks played.. etc. if therer's something to balance be sure Riot will shortly nerf/buff it if needed.. the meta is still developing

I've personally never played hearthstone, I preferred Elder Scrolls Legends, the problem with The Ruination for me is that it can be played round 6 due to spell mana, which isn't necessarily late game. 

There are going to be some cards that do a lot by themselves, that is the entire point of big drops.

In my opinion, if there was zero chance of winning after getting behind on the board then THAT would be bad design. There should be a card to help you get out of any situation. Whether you are behind or ahead on board, life, or cards in hand there should be some way of turning things around.

Quote From riddari

I can't count how many times I've played smarter than my opponent resulting in having a massive lead on field with close to equal cards in hand, then they play The Ruination, and suddenly we're only equal playing field, 6+ rounds of work to best the opponent successfully and its demolished entirely by a single card, it ruins the skill in every match that card is had, the opponent will often times win from the RNG of pulling that card, despite being bested every round up to him being able to play that card. .

I would respectfully argue that from your opponents' point of view, they were the ones that played smarter.  They feinted out the minimum amount of minions to get you to commit to the board and reserved true threats until after the board reset.  Had you either reserved some of your big threats too or attacked more aggressively such that they weren't able to wait for the perfect time to play Ruination, then this strategy would not have worked as well.

I do agree that I find Shadow Isles a little awkward in that it has a great combination of aggro + control.  Flavor-wise I get it--they're the creepy death guys so they grow hordes of spiders and kill things and are empowered when things die--I'm just not comfortable with their overall power level relative to the other regions.

Twisting nether. Its broken bois. Sure i can say that u can play it at round 6 but u need to bank mana and tempo loss for that.

Anyways its simple if u facing a control Shadow dexk then u should force is hand by not spamming the board. Keep slowly hitting its nexus while holding back some cards. 

Board clears are a part of collectable card games, period.

More important, the statement that "all good players understand that setting up your field while diminishing the enemies is more important than constantly belittling the opponents hp" is very, very far from the truth.

There are multiple strategies possible in a game like this, and many different ways to win. In fact, a dominant control strategy has always been to allow the opponent to overextend on the board, then destroy everything and start fresh with the advantage.

When you are playing against Shadow Isles (or Noxus or Demacia, for that matter) it's important to remember that many factions have ways to wipe out your entire board with ease, so it's usually wise to hold some resources in reserve if you can. Sometimes you just can't possibly win without going all in, and that's just one of those decisions that separate the seasoned players from those with room to grow.

Identifying your opponent as control, midrange or aggro is your first step toward playing around such crushing strategies.

I don't even think The Ruination is that good of a card. It's 9 mana. If you really don't like it, play more card draw units to keep your hand full, or use Deny.

You can also play around it and not fill up your board - just create a board that is scary enough that they need to use it without putting out all of your resources. Often times, your clock to kill your opponent is pretty similar with less creatures because you will over-kill them.

Compared to other card games, this is a really expensive card. In magic the gathering, this card is often 4-5 mana for a similar effect (or even upside, like gaining life for all the creatures that died or not being counterable).

There's also a big opportunity cost to having this card in your deck - it sits in your hand and does nothing, so until you can play it, it's like having 1 less card than your opponent.

The card is fine.

'I am bad at card games and would rather assert that cards are busted than understand how I could or should have played around them: the thread'. Less snappy title, but I feel it's more descriptive.

As an aside, dear OP:

There you go, a bunch of blank space on the house. Please feel free to use it to separate out paragraphs in any future posts so that they're a little more readable.

I will agree with most other posters above in that I don't see the card as problematic. Sure, in the right situation, it offers incredible value. But its express purpose is to punish players who overcommit to the board. It's kind of a crucial catch-up mechanic for control decks, which need tools to come back from an early deficit during the late game.

I'd also like to point out that, with its 9-mana cost, The Ruination severely limits what else its user can play during the rest of the round. So assuming that you, as their opponent, don't spend all your mana early that round, you should be able to grow back a decent foothold on the board. And if you've already emptied your hand by that point, you're probably playing an aggressive deck that should've sealed the deal before it got that far.

Quote From BlueSpark

I'd also like to point out that, with its 9-mana cost, The Ruination severely limits what else its user can play during the rest of the round. So assuming that you, as their opponent, don't spend all your mana early that round, you should be able to grow back a decent foothold on the board. And if you've already emptied your hand by that point, you're probably playing an aggressive deck that should've sealed the deal before it got that far.

Moreover, the whole point of control is to beat aggro by surviving until aggro runs out of resources, so it's totally fine if a control card is what makes that happen. Aggro players sometimes assert that it makes control cards OP, but it actually means everything is working as intended.

Ruination is something every card game needs. There's nothing wrong with the concept, never.
You can discuss about being it over/under-costed, but I think it's fine tuned at 9 mana, meaning that you can't generally cast it until turn 6 at least.

The concept is simple and impactful, zero issues about it. You can argue that makes a strong value advantage, but it's not that easy, for example:

- If you clear 4 enemies, how many of them were really threatening?
- If you clear threatening enemies, how did you survive until then? You should at least have lost some blocker or other disadvantageous trades to survive
- If you're dying and it's opponent's turn, you're probably super dead, being it a slow spell
- If you clear advantageously in your turn, then opponent has 6+ mana to restart

Every other situation makes it a good/strong card, but as far as I remember good/strong cards always existed in every card game. And they usually are far stronger than a 9 mana spell.

Just 2 examples, much cheaper than 9 mana.

The Ruination is fine.

That's why you "don't put all your eggs in one basket" - or in terms of card games, don't continue playing stuff if you are already ahead when you anticipate the opponent has a board clear.

And the other parts of your rant... might I politely ask which rank you are playing at?