All Comments

Standard: Pretty good, it's basically 1 mana deal 2 but it also deals with divine shields and those are popular because of mech paladin and handbuff paladin. Also with spell damage this might create an OTK eventually.

Wild: Talking about spell damage, Malygos will love this 1 mana deal 12 dmg. Still, i'm not sure how good that deck will be, but Malygos druid is a classic staple old school deck, so any love for it is nice.

Here is the new cheap board-buff for Druid. This card is compareable to Pride's Fury. Pride's Fury costs 1 morem but gives +1 health and has no requirement of playing a nature spell. That being said, druid has plenty of nature spells, so that's no problem. After all, token druid has Composting, Thorngrowth Sentries, Living Roots and Sow the Soil as some cheap and good token-y nature spells. Token druid in standard needed a card like this since Arbor Up rotated, so maybe token druid is back.

Oh wow, 3 years already - time flies - Happy Birthday OoC!
Long live Out of Games !!

This card is pretty good in a more aggresive druid deck i guess? Still not sure about it though.

That being said, i think in wild Untapped Potential druid might experiment with it at the very least.

Hmm im on the fence with this card. It seems good for aggresive warlock decks because they can slam this down when their opponent is low hp in order to prevent them from playing certain cards. And it seems good in abyssal curselock, because you can slam this down and then fill their empty hand with curses.

But that's the best case scenario. Most of the time your opponent can probably use the free mana cheat in order to win the game. Playing against a OTK deck and they have their combo + enough life to play it? Well gg, your dead. Honestly i'm baffled with how much their currently crapping on warlock in terms of giving them weak cards, only to step in and buff them later. I guess The Demon Seed fiasco REALLY made them scared of printing good warlock cards.

That or i'm really overlooking how strong this card actually is. Yet again, still on the fence. I've seen plenty of people calling this Millhouse Manastorm #2, and other saying this will be very OP. 

Looks good for defensive warlock decks, very strong against slower decks because when played on tur 4 it will destroy any 7 or higher cost cards in your opponents hand. This seems very good. But still, lets not overvalue this effect, because cards like this often get "overhyped", just look at Glide. Also Sir Finley, Sea Guide exists and hardcounters Immolate. 

Very good at dealing with divine shield, which is very popular because of mech paladin and handbuff paladin. However this is mostly a aggro card, and i just don't see the synergy... The only warlock deck that uses a bunch of shadow spells is abyssal curselock, and i don't think Herald of Shadows fits in that deck. Additionally this seems more like a "zoolock" card, which is weird, considering the fact that murlock is heavely pushed this expansion.

Honestly i feel like Herald of Shadows is more of a teaser card, teasing a more shadow spell synergy archetype for warlock in a future expansion. 

Edit: Double checked, the best "aggresive" and cheap shadow spells rn for a deck with Herald of Shadows are: Final Gasp and Curse of Agony. All other current shadow spells are more defensive cards, like Dragged Below. Herald of Shadows really wished Raise Dead was still in standard.

4 mana 6/6 AND it dredges, this seems solid for any murloc shaman. Not the most OP AF thing, but still very solid nonetheless. This probably will see play in standard murloc shaman, because there aren't that many good murlocs, and in wild Murloc shaman it might see play because it has some pretty good stats for a murloc. Also hitting something like Old Murk-Eye, Scargil or Underbelly Angler is pretty good.

Hmm, this card seems super strong. It's unnerfed Faceless Corruptor, which saw play in pretty much every deck. However it does have Overload:1 preventing you from playing Snowfall Guardian next turn. (Which i like tbh) I think this will see some play, because shaman has a lot of spell school stuff going on right now, and 5 mana 10/8 of stats with rush is pretty good.

SUPER good murloc for any murloc shaman. Wow this is so good, especially because it says "next murlocs", which means the discounts are usable in your next turn(s). Any murloc shaman deck will run this.

Hard to say, Deep and Thralls became viable again just by offering more support.

So believing Yassao or Kindred is similar isn't crazy so much as wishful thinking.

That being said the new double stun in noxious and stun spider are great for him, they just aren't amazing op.

In a world with massive buffs, insane burn, and giant tentacles.

Seju GP works because you have 6 champion cards and you have tutors for them (dreadway and babbling bjerg)  decreasing the odds to not draw them significantly.

Oh and no, Jhin is not Yasuo version 2 because in order to resemble that he would have damage stunned units on the opponent's attack turn aswell.

The best versions of GP/Sej didn't run Babbling Bjerg because that card increase the chance of you missing allegiance on Yordle Grifter.

https://mobalytics.gg/blog/lor-deck-guide-sejuani-gangplank-sentinels-of-light/

https://masteringruneterra.com/gangplank-sejuani-deck-guide/

https://runeterraccg.com/gangplank-sejuani-deck-guide/

Also champions don't need to have identical effects for the deck to work, Gangplank was definitely not Sejuani version 2. They just need to have synergy.

Yasuo has plenty of champions that can synergies with him (Kennen, Swain, Leona, Malphite) and even a champion with similar effect (Jhin) and yet he can't even get a tier 2 deck.

It's something of a running gag seeing Yasuo fans claiming that he will be finally viable any time a good stun card is released only for them to be wrong each time. 

Looks really neat! I especially like the idea of the Bake mechanic and imagining how it would shape the game. Sort of like DH's sigils, only more widespread (and one turn longer)

Bit disappointed that there was no Gordon Ramsey expy (at least none I spotted).

I mean I can pinpoint exactly why Yasuo is bad compared to other champion centric decks.

The main reason being is that you're not actually doing much with him until he's played on board and sticks, not drawn but played. I think that's one big misconception people have with him. His effect is slow, meaning that you have to play another card after you play him for his effect to work. Engine type champions are fine and all but he literally sits there doing nothing. Compare it to another engine type champion like Aphelios or Udyr that does something when played and you see why he's not good. Another champion to compare it to is Jhin, but the fact that Jhin doesn't need to be played for him to have The Virtuoso proc is really nice.

He's a champion that also doesn't work well with his package. He's a 4 mana 4/4 Quick Attack but that's really it. Yasuo as a champion is meant to slow down your gameplan and having a 4/4 Quick Attack doesn't really help much if his main game plan is not pushing damage on the enemy Nexus. If you want to argue that the other stun cards like The Stagehand, Fae Bladetwirler or Legion General are there as big stats to push damage, then why are you running Yasuo in your deck? You're running literally a champion that doesn't help you stun or recall.

tldr; Yasuo would be a lot better if he himself stuns a unit or smth on play. If you're running Fae Bladetwirler and Legion General, don't run Yasuo and vice versa.

The main reason why the stun/recall archetype never worked imo is that it lacks a second unit like Yasuo to make it consistant. 

I know it doesn't quite compare but when I played Blue White Magecraft in MTG standard the deck never was that competetive because it relied so much on stormchaser drake to be drawn that whenever you would not draw the drake  you would run out of cards fast.

The release of the latest expansion brought illuminator virtuoso as stormchaser drake version 2 and out of the sudden the deck totaly slaps other decks because the gameplan is almost always coming together.

Seju GP works because you have 6 champion cards and you have tutors for them (dreadway and babbling bjerg)  decreasing the odds to not draw them significantly.

Oh and no, Jhin is not Yasuo version 2... in my opinion Jhin himself is actually not that good of a champion given he needs a lot of support and resemles a Yasuo at home when he is in play.

The main reason Yassao doesn't work is that his deck struggles when he isn't drawn.

That goes for any champion centric deck, like Gangplank/Sejuani couldn't win without it's champs and the only tutor was an 8 drop, yet the deck still managed to be tier 1, we have been getting plenty of good stun cards for 3 expansion now and there is not even one viable Yasuo deck.

spirit of the tides doesnt elevate itself just once. its a perma effect

The main reason Yassao doesn't work is that his deck struggles when he isn't drawn.

So you want to go Targon to tutor, but now you're not getting access to noxious which has his best support cards.

So generally speaking I think right now the double legion general setup is correct

I might be wrong but those 9/9 legion generals are a pretty solid oh no no Yassao but I still win option

Decks we are not seeing:

Yassao, despite all these amazing stun tools we just aren't seeing this guy played much. Possible because he has a 3 region spread and Jhin is a terrible stun card so more like 4 regions.

Are people still pretending that Yasuo is not a garbage champion and only need good support?

Old school Malygos Druid! (if you can choose the target, that is)

Bard with Aphelios is more spooky imo. You get tons of healing to sway any aggro matchup in your favor, and Aphelios can give you tons of value and flexibility with his weapons, on top of Chimes themselves giving him protection.

Saying that Bard has to be played with Zed in ionia seems a bit off to me.

Any list that can make sure you draw the chimes you plant in your deck and hold off early aggression is good with Bard.

It doesn't matter weather it is Zed who for sure profits well from extra stats or if it's a Sparklefly, Maokai an Insightful Investigator even a Trifarian Assessor... everything works as long as it's not going too greedy

So the expansion has been out long enough that we can start talking about the best new decks and their optimized variants that are winning 56% plus to make them top tier.

1. Annie always run with Jhin turns out that the only optimization that this deck needed was having stagehand and sun hawk on 2 for tempo stun so your turn 1 play can guarantee dmg.

2. Illoi probably the scariest and most versatile new card with 56% winrates with Jarvan, Lux, Thresh because it doesn't really matter Illoi is cracked tentacles are good, Overwhelm is good etc, everything else is just control and delay.

3. Bard, always run with Zed but you also do the handbuff stuff with inspiring mentor and greenglade elder which I figured if it wasn't freijord it would Ionia for thr turbo level. Everything else is payoff cards like the maker and highway men.

4. Thralls at 56% percent again thanks to their two new cards sand of time, and the extra 2 mana dude. That's all it takes sometimes.

5. Deep also at 56% thanks to the 4 mana healer, and the 3 mana removal both great cards into aggro.

Decks we are not seeing:

Yassao, despite all these amazing stun tools we just aren't seeing this guy played much. Possible because he has a 3 region spread and Jhin is a terrible stun card so more like 4 regions.

Are any of the old decks bad?

No you can still run your pantheon, your feel the rush, your traditional pirate aggro or scouts. It's just that you're going to feel more competition on ladder now, and more things to play around.