When I unlock my final card. (Which is iceman because the game hated me), until I unlock my first pool 3 card, will I be matched against pool 3 players with my pool 2 cards?

Just a quick reminder, that Arena still exists and can actually be fun! - Though I understand why you shouldn't spend your gold right now, with the new expansion looming!

***

After quite some time I decided to give Arena another shot. I actually didn't even know there was a Dual-Class event ongoing still.

Long story short:

I drafted a Warlock/Demon Hunter with Cairne Bloodhoof, Ragnaros the Firelord and Ysera, plus decent early game and quite some draw.

And damn, this deck seems unfair! (Although I don't know the meta). It definitely helps me being reintroduced to Arena.

EDIT: Went 7-3 but I immeditately started the next run. :)

A new Common Warlock Minion, Infantry Reanimator, has been revealed!

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A new Rare Warlock Spell, Twisted Tether, has been revealed!

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A new Epic Warlock Spell, Shallow Grave, has been revealed!

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A new Rare Hunter Minion, Silvermoon Farstrider, has been revealed!

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A new Rare Hunter Spell, Eversong Portal, has been revealed!

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A new Common Hunter Spell, Ricochet Shot, has been revealed!

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A new Legendary Hunter Minion, Halduron Brightwing, has been revealed!

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A new Rare Hunter Spell, Conjured Arrow, has been revealed!

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Playing non comital decks that say simple cycle with every card but don't present valid wincons are bad

Not only because they can be countered by a single card, but because playing them actually degrades your ability to be a good player

I see this mistake a lot with taylor swift, why not just play prank cards with her and fill up the board with cycle garbage?

Well because your deck isn't doing anything, it is in fact exceptional in it's ability to do nothing.

It presents zero wincons, it has zero answers, it has zero alternate approaches to play, it is in fact a gaping hole an absence of play.

The same thing can be said about playing an elusive good stuff deck.

Its like yep here we go how many avalanche effects do you have in hand?

Are we going to take advantage of the fact that you may be bricked or that lodestone exists so it doesn't really matter if you get board cleared

Yes that is one approach, but what happens when youre forced to actually play the game

Play in a meta where decks that actually do something are good?

Well you might very well be garbage?

We saw this in the post Ionia patch, people who were just like well shiiiit wtf do I do now that I can bounce everything?

Idk engage with the games mechanics, think, exercise pass priority, not suck?

Long story short try to brew decks that actually accomplish a set objective, it will make you a better player.

A new Rare Rogue Spell, Potion Belt, has been revealed!

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A new Common Rogue Minion, Concoctor, has been revealed!

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A new Epic Demon Hunter Minion, Brutal Annihilan, has been revealed!

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A new Rare Demon Hunter Spell, Unleash Fel, has been revealed!

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So the best deck in the game elusive good stuff is only pulling a 53% winrate.

So realistically you can play whatever you want and win 47% of the time.

Thats less of a meta, and more of a wide open play arena.

Want to play Ecko Zillian time bomb printer go for, all those pings would actually be pretty gold right now.

Ionia is strong but not toxic so that means nobody is playing it.

Obvious overperforming cycle Champs have been tuned down, Tailor Swift is still nuts but you actually have to build around her which nobody will do but me.

Idk, it's pretty much perfect play what you want, when you want, don't suck, win games.

I can't wait for the 3rd part of the Darken saga to break things all over again so streamers know what to play again.

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

A new Rare Druid Spell, Chitinous Plating, has been revealed!

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A new Rare Druid Spell, Beetlemancy, has been revealed!

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A new Legendary Druid Minion, Anub'Rekhan, has been revealed!

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A new Epic Mage Minion, Prismatic Elemental, has been revealed!

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A new Legendary Mage Minion, Grand Magister Rommath, has been revealed!

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A new Epic Mage Minion, Energy Shaper, has been revealed!

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Every now and again I just can't fathom why I've lost the game.

https://app.mobalytics.gg/lor/meta-tier-list

Elusive good stuff and Viktor card pile are S tier?

Like I know I haven't played the game for a while and they nerfed all the broke stuff namely Ionia tellstones and mildly tweaked the overstated Swain but I guaranteee there's better decks to play then just elusive good stuff.

So let's talk about what good from a brewers perspective who never plays S tier stuff anyways and still does fine.

Discard - they buffed Jinx obviously in a big way but I might actually give Draven Sion another look just jamming that 7 drop when people aren't running 9 bounces and stuns makes a big difference.

Landmark - just good midrange junk man, now that you're not getting instantly fed on by every single Swain deck in the meta you can just do your landmark things and win

Bandlecity - with the pirate aggro nerf a while back and the tweaks to Nami go wide decks yordlea are looking like a far more serious deck option

Daybreak - the Leona buff wasn't that long ago and once again midrange decks that aren't Swain are playable again, even less rallies to worry about.

Jayce/Lux - P and Z control that isn't ezreal or Taylor swift is gonna work far better after the death of Lee Sin and combo decks in general

Raaaaaamp - yeah the troll buff actually matters, allows feel the rush to exist outside of shadow isles naturally 

Frostbite - wait is freijord good again  cuz now we got Ash playable again too, I know people forgot this region exists but it's there

Deep - deep didn't go anywhere it was always strong and in a bounce less world its even better

I could do this all day and list decks potentially under looked in LOR right now because it honestly looks like after the major Ionia nerfs people forgot how to play this game.

Aaaaaah I can't just jam Akshan and cycle champions in 20 of my decks anymore aaaaaah.