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Isn't he a little weak? Ok, his Sun Disc form is pretty nuts and kills you in four turns, but Level 1 is very meh, and Level 2 is good but idk truly, i was waiting the "Landmark-destroyer" was Ziggs (i know Piltover & Zaun dont have Landmark sinergy, but being probably Bandle-PNZ he can scatter, also making a new archtype in that region who isn't aggro or aggro with potatoes) but being more open to the game, isn't so bad, he can find a place in some sort of Taliyah deck? with 1 copy of Malphite? idk. By the way, Xerath may not be the great thing, but his followers are NUTS. Example, Herald of the Magus in ANY Taliyah/Malphite deck is like a better Nasus stick cuz Overwhelm, really in any deck who uses some landmark like any Akshan deck, any Zilean deck + all the mountain of landmark support of previous expansions now make more sense. Obelisk of Power seems VERY good to me, the grant +2 ATK x2 is very powerful, Rite of the Arcane is very good (and flavorful) and Servitude of Desolation is the revive effect we never got in LOR until today. And it's in Shurima. *Screams in pain and happiness*

24 of August edit: Ziggs was the 2nd landmark-destroyer and the Senna to Veigar of Xerath, all my PNZ landmark dreams crumbled (?)

If a landmark finish it's countdown would that count toward Xerath's level up? Because the countdown keyword description does say " Round Start: Count down 1. At 0, destroy the card with Countdown and activate the effect."

If that's the case leveling Xerath would be very easy and you got yourself a powerful removal machine on board.

Is this the card that's finally going to make Malphite viable? One can always hope. 

Depending on how frequently you can trigger it's effect this card has the potential to become a finisher which pretty insane for a 3 drop.

Good stat line for a 5 drop and potentially draw 2+ cards. Pretty solid.

The first card that comes to my mind when seeing this is Mistwraith, with an effect that is much harder to trigger but with a much bigger payoff since your also gaining health. That can potentially put them beyond the range of anti-aggro removal like Avalanche, I really want to experiment with this one.

A bit hard to evaluate the initial 2/1 for 3 is pretty bad, but with proper set up it can potentially trigger the effect of one of the new landmarks and give one your overwhelm unit's 4/2 which is devastating.

It will be hilarious to play this after an opponent The Ruination.

Solid removal spell that also trigger the new landmarks effects. In many ways it reminds me Ground Slam it won't fit into every Shurima deck but it will work well in landmarks centric one.

It was shortly after launch. It was free, and I had enjoyed both MtG and WoW off and on, so I figured why not?

I spent a very long time completely ignorant of the meta or even how to play well. Eventually, I decided to try to get good at Arena, which improved my skills a lot. (Any amount would have been a lot.) I got tired of Arena before getting super good, but at that point I could at least play Ranked without completely embarrassing myself. I remember loving Druid the most, I think? The versatility of the class always appealed to me.

I think what I liked about the game overall was the possibility of coming up with new ways to use underappreciated cards and pushing classes in unexpected directions. Now, of course, I see how such efforts are actively thwarted by the game's design, but I still like to mess around with off-meta stuff once I've ranked up as far as I care to go in a given season. (Yes, I'm the guy you run into at Diamond 5 or 10 trying to make Sheldras Moontree work. Spoiler alert: It doesn't.)

Fine I'll stop putting words into your mouth. I wanted to state what your statements looks like to me but sure I could have misunderstood you.

What I mean by oppressive is not that the archetype will necessarily be oppressive and we won't know how good it is until release what I meant is: if the archetype should be very strong there won't be a good way to counter the strategy other than aggroing it down early (comparable to the Azir Irelia situation) and that would be quite a desaster for the gamd wouldn't it?

Afterall we should imo just take a minute wait and see if xerath is tier 1 material and complain when it is time for it. :)

I try at least.  I know it's not the best deck. So to say I'm excited about Xerath is an understatement.  I'm hoping Xerath can allow mono shurima to exist (and be better) again.  I'm also thinking about a Xerath/Malphite deck.

Most ppl (like myself until now) are not aware it is an achievement. Moving on I will let them win if I see it and remember

Wait you play mono Shurima on the ladder? Respect man.

I tried to do so and... let's just say that I got eviscerated would be an understatement. 

Oh for sure.  I wasn't saying that wasn't the appeal of mono shurima.  Just saying in the ranked games I've played with mono shurima,  when I find myself in a winning situation,  It's cause I'm up against either a greedy deck or a poor player.  I find that I often don't need the sun disc/level 3 heroes to secure the win. Trust me, I'm all about the fantasy/theme of playing with the ascended level 3 heroes.  It's one of the few reasons I love shurima.  That being said,  greedy decks don't last long in the meta these days so you always gotta tech against aggro and often that means building your deck semi-aggro-ish yourself.

I suppose, it's just to me the whole appeal of mono Shurima is the level 3 ascendant is if I just wanted to play with Azir, Nasus or Renekton there are other deck that can use them better.

For anyone who is not necessarily looking for the level 3, then yeah these cards will be a nice addition to that deck.

Wow this set. I wish it was being made. A lot of those cards are really exciting. I think all of these would fit nicely into the game as is and push some very fun archetypes. Amazing work, Grondaia!

Why do people play aggro even in casual?

At this rate, I will start playing aggresive solitaire to have fun...

I've never viewed the sun disc as the primary win condition of those mono decks.  With having to tech against aggro so much these days, the decks usually can win without it against aggro.  Sun disc is really only used as a stalemate breaker in control matchups or versus some mid-range decks without a ton of reach (read: not many midrange/combo decks don't have a way to NOT have reach.)

Quote From TheTriferianGeneral

Let me repeat your last sentence in other words:

" i love the fact that this archetype bypasses it's counterplay"

Sure, this is making sure that the archetype is doing it's thing regardless of what the opponent is doing but if that what the deck does is remotely strong/oppressive you have a receipe for Desaster with this kind of archetype.

First off, please don't put words in my mouth by "translating" what I say.  You act like landmarks are warping the entire meta, and the only deck I can think of that uses any of them egregiously is Azir-Irelia, which isn't even a result of the landmark, but the snowballing effect of the combined interactions between Azir and Irelia.  (And it's been proven time and time again that the real culprit is Irelia.  Azir and/or Dais (especially in mono-shurima) is a rather weak interaction. It's only combined with Irelia that together they become a broken powerhouse.  F- blade dance.)

Secondly, you talk about "bypassing" counterplay.  I'd argue that all the new shrooms support cards, not to mention the original teemo archetype and support has allowed "bypassing" of mechanics.  In fact, a lot of the new bandle cards FORCE your opponent to draw.  So if you are in drawn out match hoping to find some niche lethal against a Teemo/shroom deck, and you just hope that by not drawing too many cards you can find lethal before you get shroomed to death, guess what: the new bandle cards are gonna make sure you don't have a choice.   

(As an aside, I also hate the fact that unlike in Hearthstone where you could play around bombs/bad cards inserted into your deck by keeping your hand full, even when your hand is full in Runeterra, you still get the shroom damage, but your card is burned anyways....wtf is that bullshit?)

Landmarks always had the issue of allowing little counterplay from the opponent in exchange for usually being very unreliable cards.

You do realize this statement is....helping my side of this little debate right?  I mean landmarks have very few removals (specifically most removals shuffle it back into your deck, and the others destroy it albeit at a high cost).  

Playing against this archetype however will proably be a race where you eigther rush the deck down early or otherwise will have a hard time sticking units to the battlefield, aka classic control from mtg.

And this is different from the current meta....how?  current meta is dominated by a lot of aggro decks already.  You act like there's ever been a decent control meta except for when A-sol was originally released.  Don't you worry you're pretty head over it.  I'm sure aggro will continue to exist in the new set, and I'm sure control will continue to be stifled for the most part except in lower ranks.  See? No problems.

I thought LoR wasn't one of these games but I guess we are heading towards mtg style of control with the new set.

See above statement:  We aren't in a control meta.  Haven't been for quite some time either.

Xerath and his followers are looking to be pretty powerful but I don't think you run him in a mono Shurima deck despite being ascendant. With so many Fearsome/Overwhelm unit who can grow even bigger, I am pretty sure that you will be able to reliably finish the game before restoring the sun disc.

Am I missing something or is this card utterly bonkers? Even the base 3/3 that eventually gives you a 5/3 is something that just seems really good without even using landmark synergy.

To me your last setence sounds like:

" i love the fact that this archetype bypasses it's counterplay"

Sure, this is making sure that the archetype is doing it's thing regardless of what the opponent is doing but if that what the deck does is remotely strong/oppressive you have a receipe for Desaster with this kind of archetype.

Landmarks always had the issue of allowing little counterplay from the opponent in exchange for usually being very unreliable cards.

Playing against this archetype however will proably be a race where you eigther rush the deck down early or otherwise will have a hard time sticking units to the battlefield, aka classic control from mtg.

I thought LoR wasn't one of these games but I guess we are heading towards mtg style of control with the new set.

Is there a reason this is Odd without Baku?

Oh my god, I'm legit excited about this champion.  I love landmarks and Xerath was always one of my favorite casters in LoL.  I'm liking the whole "anti-destruction" effects that Xerath embodies. (in the sense that destroying his landmarks actually helps him.)