help with expeditions

 so I started to play open play EXPS for the XP but i having such a  hard time against noxus agro decks  if i dont draw my early game i get crushed by   my OP  non blockers and legion mauraders katarina is so hard to deal, and i dont feel like my non SI decks have the healing to keep up, so lets make this thread the EXP  tips and tricks central , deck building and gameplay tips to survive agro, i need help but i sure other will appreciate it too.

This video by Saucy Mailman might help you with your deck building at the very least; it also has a few gameplay tips: https://youtu.be/RfDjkOehk5k

The info comes from a guest speaker -- the mailman acknowledges that he is not an Expedition master himself.

Quote From greenhatjynx78

 so I started to play open play EXPS for the XP but i having such a  hard time against noxus agro decks  if i dont draw my early game i get crushed by   my OP  non blockers and legion mauraders katarina is so hard to deal, and i dont feel like my non SI decks have the healing to keep up, so lets make this thread the EXP  tips and tricks central , deck building and gameplay tips to survive agro, i need help but i sure other will appreciate it too.

I'm below-average, but here are my thoughts:

• Sometimes you're going to face an opponent who got perfect offerings, and there's just not much you can do about it.  Accept that as a quirk of this game mode and soldier on
• Avoid the trap of thinking any one strategy is best strategy.  Every champion pair has multiple paths to seven wins, and the trick is spotting which is most viable based on the particular offerings you get.
• Don't accept a trade just because its offered.  Sometimes you're better off keeping what you have.
• Try to keep a decent curve.  It's not as important as constructed, but you can still get punished hard if you don't have a few early blockers.
• Try to keep 1-2 late game bombs.  Usually this will be your champions, but cards like The Harrowing, She Who Wanders, and The Empyrean will do the trick too.
• Try to keep a good balance between your combat tricks & spot removal to your physical units--you don't want too many, but at the same time you want to be able to stop an things like an early Zed or a 6/6 Crowd Favorite.
• Like HS Arena, some cards are just GREAT expedition cards.  Radiant Guardian and Kinkou Lifeblade in particular come to mind.

Some advice from Almaniarra:

Quote From Author

Mono decks are just powerful in expeditions. Try to make mono decks in expeditions. Mono Demacia, Mono Shadow isles and Mono Noxus are good choices for at least 4-5 wins. Other mono decks are fine too but most poweful ones are these 3.

Demacia is one of the good choices for every run. Mostly for challenger units. Don't be trapped with the idea "if i can get elusives, i can win more." Elusives are good when you can buff them.

I got my 5+ wins with Demacia mostly so suggesting you to do the same.

Also, if you can get Heimerdinger in first choice, just grab him. Heimerdinger is one of the greatest champions in Expeditions. Grab some Demacia stuff with Heimerdinger and you will be around 4-5 probably if you are a good pilot.

I've had success in expeditions with very different deck strategies: Anivia control decks, Noxus aggro decks, Demacia army decks, Lux/Ezreal/Heimerdinger spell decks - even a Teemo deck with a heavy poison shroom focus worked pretty well (5 wins, I believe). I think a lot of different strategies can thrive in this format, because the handful of dominant meta decks can't easily be replicated in Expeditions.

You're right, though - if your opponent drafts a very strong assortment of aggressive early-game minions, there's not much you can do. As Sanns said, that's the RNG nature of a draft mode. Don't worry yourself too much about it; chances are your next opponent won't have a perfect lineup like that.

Coming off the back of a 7/7 double win (which, admittedly, is not the norm), I can't say I've ever really had issues with Noxian aggro decks in Expedition. I have struggled with Lucian-centric Demacian variants, though, which play similarly - just dependent on keywords rather than stats. I would actually say that early game is something you need only so much of and no more - I find aggro decks don't make it very deep in.

In my experience lately, the vast majority of decks wind up roughly in the 'midrange' camp, so you need a couple firm late-game win conditions or just sheer superior value to carry through.

thanks for the vid it is really informative, i feel more confident with expeditions now :D

i not finding much sucess with Heimerdinger his high cost and small body make him a bad curve play, also  it  goes off the board like a brezze, i guess i still not a good pilot XD  i will pick him when  I get some better tips on him he is fun trough.

i was crushed at my final battle against a jynx/draven deck believe me agro finds it way.

I try to avoid Champions that need a lot of support -- unless I know that specific kind of support is frequently offered in the buckets for that region.

For example, even though Fiora absolutely requires support, you know Demacia will offer you plenty of combat buffs.

On the other hand, you would have a hard time convincing me to pick Shen, as Barrier is not super easy to come by.

Quote From FortyDust

I try to avoid Champions that need a lot of support -- unless I know that specific kind of support is frequently offered in the buckets for that region.

For example, even though Fiora absolutely requires support, you know Demacia will offer you plenty of combat buffs.

On the other hand, you would have a hard time convincing me to pick Shen, as Barrier is not super easy to come by.

I found when I picked shen/fiora I had access to a massive amount of barriers. But that was the one time the champ pool worked out that way for me.

Greenland duo is the main strength of elusives imo. And more and more people know not to let that card stay on the field for any length of time.

Personally I would recommend pairing ionia with champs offered that you want to play with. Zed grants a lot of early/mid game presence. Kharma works out really well in anivia enlight rush decks. Yasuo pairs well with kat in a stun/recall deck. The problem is the RNG of the champ pool itself I find, but either way its fun, and if you don't have the perfect deck, chances are the other guy doesn't either.

And I would second the consider every trade carefully. Some of those are just bad.

Quote From Chillum

Kharma works out really well in anivia enlight rush decks.

I've played 2 or 3 Expedition runs with Anivia so far, but I believe I've never been offered either of the game's mana-ramp cards. So the viability of an "enlightened rush" deck seems questionable to me. Which isn't to say that Anivia decks don't work at all - it had a decent amount of success with mine.

In the same vein, I don't quite get the point of the Freljord card bucket that's supposed to let you clone your units for extra benefits - I'm consistently getting offered Iceborn Legacy, but no cards that actually help me get more copies of individual units.

Quote From BlueSpark

Quote From Chillum

Kharma works out really well in anivia enlight rush decks.

I've played 2 or 3 Expedition runs with Anivia so far, but I believe I've never been offered either of the game's mana-ramp cards. So the viability of an "enlightened rush" deck seems questionable to me. Which isn't to say that Anivia decks don't work at all - it had a decent amount of success with mine.

In the same vein, I don't quite get the point of the Freljord card bucket that's supposed to let you clone your units for extra benefits - I'm consistently getting offered Iceborn Legacy, but no cards that actually help me get more copies of individual units.

i get some ramp  on my anivia Karma deck so it  i think it can work if you get lucky enough.

do you think anivia is good in general ? I had sucess with her in EXPS but I rarely see her in constructed and after the nerf i was under the inpression the  community consesus on her was that she  isnt worth a slot, but i personally really like her even if I dont own any yet XD.

Well, I didn't follow the game at all pre-beta, so I don't even have a clear concept of what the champion was like before this apparent nerf. To me, Anivia feels like a strong late-game card that will dismantle the opponent's army either instantly or within 2-3 attacks at most (in addition to putting some additional pressure on the opponent's nexus). Her Last Breath ability makes her very hard to take out permanently, so you can usually attack with her every other round.

She's obviously a dead draw during the early-mid game, but once you're up to 10 mana, I think she's a force to be reckoned with. The only reason I'm not running her in my Freljord-Ionia control deck is because I own exactly 0 Anivias :P.

me too :p, i really like her ability and design but the high cost and weak stats made me on the fence with her in EXPS  but after i picked her once i fell in love , she is so much power after round 10 she is amazing for me but i never open her but get all the braums possible XD  did you know that  if the egg get destroyed she doesnt come back ? i learned that in EXPS when a OP mystic shot it i was under the impression she was imortal  and there was no way she would really die but i was silly, the game devs wouldnt make her impossible to remove or she gets too OP.

Quote From greenhatjynx78

did you know that  if the egg get destroyed she doesnt come back ?

Yeah. I've never actually seen an Anivia egg get destroyed (neither my own nor my opponent's), but I've always assumed that's how she was designed. Hence my comment that she's "very hard to take out permanently" - your opponent either has to eliminate her in battle and then hit her with a damage spell, or they need to use 2 removal spells in the same turn. But making her fully indestructable surely would've been too much.

Quote From BlueSpark

Quote From greenhatjynx78

did you know that  if the egg get destroyed she doesnt come back ?

Yeah. I've never actually seen an Anivia egg get destroyed (neither my own nor my opponent's), but I've always assumed that's how she was designed. Hence my comment that she's "very hard to take out permanently" - your opponent either has to eliminate her in battle and then hit her with a damage spell, or they need to use 2 removal spells in the same turn. But making her fully indestructable surely would've been too much.

Yes, that is how it works, and it can be extremely difficult to kill the egg if you don't save some removal for endgame. If the Anivia player has Deny, it's pretty much impossible.

Quote From sinti

Kindly Tavernkeeper can heal Nexus, i guess not that surprising, but i havent been picking it cause the wording didnt imply it, i didnt think Nexus would be considered "an ally", that makes the card much better.

You're right, it's not very intuitive at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it makes sense: if it didn't work on the nexus, it'd read "an allied unit." Just like how "Deal X damage to anything" differs from "Deal X damage to a unit".

Luckily, I found out about Tavernkeeper being able to heal the nexus early on. It makes him quite versatile, especially since healing from other sources (spells) tends to be more expensive in comparison.

Quote From BlueSpark

Quote From greenhatjynx78

did you know that  if the egg get destroyed she doesnt come back ?

Yeah. I've never actually seen an Anivia egg get destroyed (neither my own nor my opponent's), but I've always assumed that's how she was designed. Hence my comment that she's "very hard to take out permanently" - your opponent either has to eliminate her in battle and then hit her with a damage spell, or they need to use 2 removal spells in the same turn. But making her fully indestructable surely would've been too much.

Never? :o

Aside from removal, Rally with Challengers works fine as well. Popped an egg last night thanks to Fiora with a Relentless Pursuit.

On topic : At this point I've gotten to 7 wins with most strategies at one time or another (not bragging - I play a LOT of expeditions, it's going to happen sooner or later). My pointers:

- Demacia and Freljord tend towards the most splashable followers that can fit into any deck archetype, so picking one of those regions' champions early is wise

- Fiora win conditions almost never work unless they're Judgment-reliant, but what they do do is force your opponent into extended spell trades which is often beneficial to the Demacia player, who will typically have better follower statlines

- Certain champions are really good if you can put together a deck emphasizing their effects, but this is very hard to do early on; look to build a solid foundation with your starting deck and transition to supporting those champions properly over time. Notable examples are Ezreal and Yasuo

- Heimer decks are actually surprisingly strong in Expedition. I wasn't expecting it to be the case, but so long as you either bait early removal or run cards that can deny the kill (or revive him after the fact) you can ride all the way to value town. 

- Hecarim is honestly pretty crazy even as a generalist in Expedition. Belonging to the region that gets Rekindler means you can freely revive him over and over while flinging him at face Nexus with reckless abandon. Add a Shark Chariot or two and he becomes pretty obnoxious.

My top five champions to pick - Tryndamere, Hecarim, Garen, Katarina, Braum

My worst five champions to pick - Ezreal, Teemo, Darius, Draven, Shen