Yeah this one's a bit more complicated. From my experience of playing this, I felt like you can slot it in pretty much every deck as a countdown clock. The only counter to it is simply landmark removal which doesn't even stop it if they have another in hand. I think the nerf needs to slow down the gameplan or make it have a higher deckbuilding cost. Maybe make it so that you need to play a Yordle or Multi-region follower to make it create a card from another region.
Mana nerf is also good though.
Quote From TheTriferianGeneral
Minimorph: 6 mana-> 5 mana, permanent-> until round end
Reason: make it good at stopping all in strategies but not the death sentence for those
Well there's a lot of takes on how to nerf Minimorph, this one's pretty standard but I don't expect to see it come through. My take on what they should do is that Minimorph should be reworked so that it can no longer silence Champions but still turn them into a 3/3 statline, but for followers, they would also silence them.
Reason: it provides too much value even for a 6 drop
That's a good nerf. My take is that making the copied card cost 1 more instead would also be good, but I have no idea what the implications of that would be.
But also in my mind, when Riot mentions that they have "a huge patch note" they always include a lot more buffs than they do nerfs. So I expect that half of the cards mentioned won't even get a single change, but I think I would honestly almost prefer it that way. I'm hoping that one day Ephemeral would get buffed, maybe its archetype or just the keyword. Elites would get a better payoff card or rework to make it so that its current cards don't entirely rely on units dying. Malphite actually does something pre-level. Evidently, all of these are written after taking a huge dose of copium.
Nyeh, at this point I might as well just make custom cards for it.
Honestly, I do feel for BBG. I would be pretty devastated if you created a deck that basically shifted the tone of the meta and then for it to get hotfixed when there was almost no precedent. Swim also said the exact same thing when they hotfixed Zephyr Sage. But otherwise, they are very deserved nerfs that needed to happen regardless of their final standings in the meta. Kennen Ezreal less so because honestly Zephyr Sage abuse wasn't entirely intended and more annoying, but even then I think Kennen needed a nerf. Kennen Ezreal was honestly not that strong, you had a lot more ways to counter it than you'd expect, it's just that Kennen Ezreal had more ways to counter said counters. Also it was really slow to play against and frustrating even if you're winning so I can understand the hate for it. I don't think Kinkou Wayfinder should have been the nerf target even though it was the perfect card to hit because Kinkou Wayfinder isn't even that strong or played as much and this rendition finally made it useful. Still a good nerf though, God-Willow Seedling nerf after that might have been a bit overkill but nyeh.
Also, holy shit stop advocating for OP decks to return just because we have an OP deck that is equally or even more annoying to deal with than the previous ones. If EvErYtHiNg Is BrOkEn ThEn NoThInG wIlL bE. This is a statement I think I would have agreed upon, if it were possible. In theory, it is a fun and interesting concept. However, in reality, it'd be impossible and create the opposite effect intended. If you made everything OP, then there will always be something more OP than others. It'd be the exact state of a tier 0 meta, but worse. Because now, you would match up against OP decks a lot more often, and if you're using a shitty deck then obviously it'd feel like "Why don't I just use that deck?".There'd be less room for experiments and creativity when I consider that LoR is already doing that pretty well.
I don't think there's anything in this current meta that requires huge sweeping nerfs or anything outside of maybeWounded Whiteflame which probably needs to be a 2/3 or a 3/3 and maybe an adjustment or two for Lee Sin. I just think they need more buffs to low tier cards and strategies to be mid tiers.
I have just realized that you didn't mean specifically mean Shadow Isles + Freljord, my bad. Regardless, you can build most of these decks and you'd find that they are all playable within a certain margin. I expect that you can find combos within the regions you intend to play and build a deck around it and fare pretty well with it so you don't have to worry much about what is good and what is bad.
This deck may seem quite simple to play but it is one of the hardest decks to play with and leaves little room to misplay. I don't suggest this one as it requires a high skill cap, but it is faster than most of the decks I had suggested previously.
This deck is super straightforward. Play cards and get to deep and play giant creatures, then finish with Atrocity. Make sure that there's no way you can get interrupted when you do so though.
This is a solid deck and has a lot of combos. It's easy to play but you need to understand what the cards do to play it well.
Sorry if this is a bit too long. I tried to make a short summary of what the decks are but it may come off as confusing as well. Most of these decks are also a bit outdated but they should still be fine. Try refining your decks, remove bad cards and include good cards. It doesn't really matter if you're right or wrong as long as you're learning the game.
Freljord + Shadow Isles isn't incredible as of right now. The best deck that I can think of is a Feel The Rush control deck and if you're a new player you probably won't be able to craft it immediately as it does require a fair amount of Epics as well as the Champions themselves. It's a slow deck that seems up your alley if you do prefer decks that require one card to swing the match in your favor.
Other than that, there's also decks such as They Who Endure which has not been very good for a long time (I don't suggest this but it is very easy to play as a new player) and there's Trundle Lissandra which plays similarly to the Feel The Rush deck mentioned above but it's harder to pilot.
Though if you are a new player, I would suggest not going for these decks yet until you have most of the key cards and instead using these budget decks. (These aren't good decks by any means but they are free.)
Also I'm not sure if any has mentioned this to your but the best way to get some cards quickly is by playing the Expeditions for a bit. It does give you a lot of cards. If you don't particularly like that game mode, that's also fine! Each week you can get an Expedition token from your Weekly Vault and you can just trade it in for an expedition run and immediately retire it for a free Epic capsule. There's also the Path of Champions which also gives you champions for free but it might be confusing for newer players.
Ysera only being A tier and not S tier is another shocker. The build it strives for is great and consistent, but maybe that makes playing around it easier, or easier enough to drop it a tier?
I think their reasoning was the opposite of that. Ysera has too high variance with the highest 1st place rate (25%) and one of the highest 8th place rate (22%). (You can see it at 3:18:57 of their video.)
2 cards for a more expensive burst speed Concussive Palm? Idk but that doesn't sound like good value. This needs at the very least something from Ahri to be decent.
I mean as someone who used to play a crap ton of The Time Has Come, it is definitely not as bad as I thought it would be albeit it was still pretty bad. It would honestly be decent at 4 Mana. This card still has the same issues. It has arguably better stats than 2 2/2s on average and requires less of a condition to proc. However, Palm is just significantly better I'm pretty sure. Often times a stun is just better than 2 blockers especially when its cheaper. Ionia also doesn't really need burst blockers mainly because they have Eye of the Dragon. You're most likely going to use this as a Burst speed open attack card.
Also, please do not consider running this card with Recall synergy for a 5 Mana Burst Jailbreak.
On another note, Veigar's Level 2 was apparently changed into a Mech-Yordle as well but they still haven't shown how relevant it is just like the normal Yordle sub-type.
I faced a similar issue but on the PC. I sometimes have Out of Cards in the background and often I hear an incredibly loud sound (sometimes a melody). I think it is because of an ad too. It stopped around the time I got Premium so I'm pretty sure it came from the ads unmuting for half a second.
What do you mean by that? Do you mean that they deserve to be a Champion rarity, or do you mean that they are interesting enough to see them be an original Champion card. Like give them a level up effect and all that? If so, I would say that Corina Veraza or Corina, Mastermind deserves this treatment if they would ever make original Champion cards. There's hardly any champions that deal with deck interactions and most of the decks that run Corina Veraza does build around her like most Champions cards are.
I think I'm having the same issue and it's not just for Mercenaries only but also other portals. I'm not sure why but if you go to one of the portals it shows the decklist of whatever portal you were in before.
My original intent with Mirroring Shadow was to create exactly a better Mirror Entity as I never felt like Mirror Entity was a "Mage" card and more of a Priest card. Nevertheless, I tried replacing it again because it felt out of place. Focused Healing is now 15 health instead of 12. I do think it's still weak, but not because of how much it heals but often it would heal for said amount.
Feedback
R
United We Stand is a bit on the weaker side but honestly its fine as is. Also I'm not too sure about Outcast secrets although it is an interesting idea. Also they do fairly similar things so I would be more likely to change one of them at least.
linkblade91
I like the current cards better. Also yes, I forgot that Wrenchcalibur was RoS, because I only remembered Bomb being introduced in Boomsday.
grumpymonk
Sudden Deluge imo is a bit strong but it's probably fine. Explosive Devolution is also really strong, I would make it just target one minion instead.
FieselFitz
I like Shields Up! It fits what Warrior wants. I don't like the other two as much though. Goblin Bombs are a lot more Hunter than they were Warrior. Dr Booms Boombox is also pretty much the same thing.
Neoguli
I'm not too sure about Maledict Shadow being a permanent -2 Attack. Other than that, the other two cards seem pretty good to me. Demonic Presence could probably a When effect and not an After as well.
It's been a while since I've asked and given feedback. I made my cards on the basis that I imagine Priest secrets would be akin to Mage ones where they'd annoy more than they destroy. I'm not too sure about the name Spell Ward but I feel pretty good about the other cards.
Edit: Changed Focused Healing from full Health to 12 to make it in line with Greater Healing Potion.
Quick Feedback
Demonxz95
I like the resemblance to Paladin cards but I'm not about Deception mainly because it's just a way better Noble Sacrifice and can occasionally summon a 2/1 as well. Other than that, seems fine to me.
linkblade91
Product Recall is really weak imo, often times it would hit a 1/1 or something insignificant or not hit at all. (Alternatively, you could maybe try a Bomb direction with the card. Engage Defenses! is cool but if I had to complain, it feels odd that its searching for 4 attack+ minions rather than Mechs. Scrap For Parts is good, I like the design.
No... this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you think the meta isn't as fun or how the games play out wasn't up to your tastes.
First of all, I don't think it's a "failure" as you say it is. They had compiled the biggest amount of viewers for Legends of Runeterra since beta. You also say it's 15k but it's definitely more than that as I wasn't even watching the main stream but rather the watch parties of it. Not to mention they had split the streams into multiple different languages, and into different platforms as well. It was more around 40k at its peak.
Also, Legends of Runeterra just doesn't have as much marketing power compared to its predecessor League of Legends. League of Legends had music videos, they had animations, fuck they got a stadium to rent so players can play in them and not just online. Their budget is just simply not the same. 200k USD prize pool while a lot by itself is nothing compared to LoL Worlds which had at least 10x the amount. I would say that 40k peak viewers for the tournament itself is already pretty good. They also don't have as much players compared to LoL which is much more well known by the public, so the total amount of viewers would have been different.
Finally, the meta in tournaments and what you experience in ladder is vastly different. The powerhouse decks may still exist but it's not like no one made 0 changes to them. No, the players tried to predict what the others are bringing and they brought curated decks to the tournament to maximize their odds of winning. That's why tournament decks are really strange sometimes. They run 1x copy of X to counter popular Y deck or bring decks with similar strategies while banning out the decks that counter them. Alan brought an Ezreal Shellfolk deck that literally got 1 game because everyone banned it every time. Szychu brought out of meta control decks like Feel The Rush and Heimer/Zoe. They picked those decks not because "well they're fun to play" but because they thought they can win with them. No matter what the meta is, most of the players will bring the decks they're comfortable with, not a complete meme deck. Not only that but players would often ban decks they're not familiar with, so even if a player brings something super spicy, it's unlikely that it will not see play.
Also those "big swings" "underdogs" "out of left field plays"? All of them happened. If you didn't pay attention to them that's fine, but don't discredit the players from playing their best.
I like how they didn't really hold back with any nerfs this time around. Some of these cards were really on the edge of being too strong to exist category so I'm glad that they didn't just give them a slap on the wrist.
Doomsayer nerf is probably one of the best examples. It's practically a Demon Djinni that not only gives more but is also at tier 3. It even powercreeps the new card Witchwing Nestmatron. So I'm really glad they made it tier 4 (making it hard to get early) and avenge 4 (making it give less tempo compared to the other cards). Demons are probably still playable though since Mal'Ganis is now tier 3.
Pirate buffs aren't gonna do much but they won't be as feels bad to pick up anymore especially early on.
Rattler nerf really needed to happen because that card by itself just allow Beasts to beat Poison comps in the late game. Not only that, Maexxna + Rattler was really stupid, it was basically a perfect Amalgadon.
Master of Realities is now playable (probably?) but I still think Lil Rag comp needs more of a buff.
Quilboar buffs were completely expected. They were the weakest comp by far and it wasn't even close. Quilboars needed to go 6 to hit a wincon while other comps had them on tier 3/4/5.
On that note, I was hoping they'd buff menagerie. That comp suffered as much as Quils did and I'm hoping they won't be as horrible compared to other comps now.
Well Nami nerf is definitely going to happen but I expect a mana nerf above all. Stat changes probably won't do enough and nerfing it the same way as Veiled Temple is just going to make her unplayable.
Sparklefly probably needs a health nerf. Same with how a health buff made Young Witch playable, a health nerf to Sparklelfy should do the trick. Though I think that nerfing Sparklefly would hurt Targon as a region even further when they have almost nothing outside of cheesy combo decks.
Aloof Travelers probably just needs a mana nerf and stat adjustments along with it. Like 6 mana 4/5 or smth. The fact that you can play it so quickly is a bit annoying but it's understandable to have a card like that. I just don't really want it to be so good that aggressive decks can afford to run it.
Hidden Pathways is kinda tricky. Any nerf to it is going to cripple its viability. A 4 mana nerf is probably going to happen sometime in the future but I would prefer it if they made the requirement more trickier rather than 'oh sick it's 3 mana now'.
Otterpus. Honestly I'm not too sure about this one. Probably a good nerf but idk. If it does get nerfed though, removing Attune should remove it from all decks.
Lost Soul nerf is a bit tough to test and work out so it's not probably gonna happen. I think the best way to nerf it is to remove stats from it and make it similar to Mistwraiths where it gets stronger the more you play it.
Hot take: I think almost all 2 mana combat tricks needs to be adjusted to 3 mana. Too many of them are too efficient. A single change would make X 2 mana combat trick become too strong so nerfing all at once would almost definitely fix the problem.
Also Bandle City Mayor and Loping Telescopes are very strong. 2/1 BC Mayor should make it easier to remove while Loping Telescope as a 1/1 would make it less good of a card on tempo. These two cards are almost definitely the strongest cards in multi-region decks.
I think part of the reason why Bandle City is good is because they designed the set properly this time. It doesn't feel like anyone's missing X to make them good. Similarly none of the new champions feel bad to play. I think all of them are viable in this meta and their playstyle (even if they are slotted in old archetypes) feel unique in their effects. This has by far been the best expansion. Sure a couple things need nerfs but the meta feels fresh that I don't really mind much. I'm more optimistic of the next two expansions of the set now.
Aren't people playing Caitlyn with Draven or is that just my experience? I've seen a lot of them more than Draven Ezreal tbh so I thought that was how you play Caitlyn now.
I don't think Otterpus in particular warrants a nerf but that is a fair nerf regardless. Would effectively kill the card outside of Prank decks.
Honestly, prefer it if they were both 1/2 or 1/3 which I don't think is better than a 2/2.
Interesting nerf, probably not as impactful as making it 3 mana or making it slow though.
Yeah it's either this or make it so mana reduction won't go below 1.
100% agreed.
I agree, just unsure if 4 instead of 3 is overkill.
Yeah this one's a bit more complicated. From my experience of playing this, I felt like you can slot it in pretty much every deck as a countdown clock. The only counter to it is simply landmark removal which doesn't even stop it if they have another in hand. I think the nerf needs to slow down the gameplan or make it have a higher deckbuilding cost. Maybe make it so that you need to play a Yordle or Multi-region follower to make it create a card from another region.
Mana nerf is also good though.
Well there's a lot of takes on how to nerf Minimorph, this one's pretty standard but I don't expect to see it come through. My take on what they should do is that Minimorph should be reworked so that it can no longer silence Champions but still turn them into a 3/3 statline, but for followers, they would also silence them.
That's a good nerf. My take is that making the copied card cost 1 more instead would also be good, but I have no idea what the implications of that would be.
But also in my mind, when Riot mentions that they have "a huge patch note" they always include a lot more buffs than they do nerfs. So I expect that half of the cards mentioned won't even get a single change, but I think I would honestly almost prefer it that way. I'm hoping that one day Ephemeral would get buffed, maybe its archetype or just the keyword. Elites would get a better payoff card or rework to make it so that its current cards don't entirely rely on units dying. Malphite actually does something pre-level. Evidently, all of these are written after taking a huge dose of copium.
Nyeh, at this point I might as well just make custom cards for it.
Honestly, I do feel for BBG. I would be pretty devastated if you created a deck that basically shifted the tone of the meta and then for it to get hotfixed when there was almost no precedent. Swim also said the exact same thing when they hotfixed Zephyr Sage. But otherwise, they are very deserved nerfs that needed to happen regardless of their final standings in the meta. Kennen Ezreal less so because honestly Zephyr Sage abuse wasn't entirely intended and more annoying, but even then I think Kennen needed a nerf. Kennen Ezreal was honestly not that strong, you had a lot more ways to counter it than you'd expect, it's just that Kennen Ezreal had more ways to counter said counters. Also it was really slow to play against and frustrating even if you're winning so I can understand the hate for it. I don't think Kinkou Wayfinder should have been the nerf target even though it was the perfect card to hit because Kinkou Wayfinder isn't even that strong or played as much and this rendition finally made it useful. Still a good nerf though, God-Willow Seedling nerf after that might have been a bit overkill but nyeh.
Also, holy shit stop advocating for OP decks to return just because we have an OP deck that is equally or even more annoying to deal with than the previous ones. If EvErYtHiNg Is BrOkEn ThEn NoThInG wIlL bE. This is a statement I think I would have agreed upon, if it were possible. In theory, it is a fun and interesting concept. However, in reality, it'd be impossible and create the opposite effect intended. If you made everything OP, then there will always be something more OP than others. It'd be the exact state of a tier 0 meta, but worse. Because now, you would match up against OP decks a lot more often, and if you're using a shitty deck then obviously it'd feel like "Why don't I just use that deck?".There'd be less room for experiments and creativity when I consider that LoR is already doing that pretty well.
I don't think there's anything in this current meta that requires huge sweeping nerfs or anything outside of maybe Wounded Whiteflame which probably needs to be a 2/3 or a 3/3 and maybe an adjustment or two for Lee Sin. I just think they need more buffs to low tier cards and strategies to be mid tiers.
I have just realized that you didn't mean specifically mean Shadow Isles + Freljord, my bad. Regardless, you can build most of these decks and you'd find that they are all playable within a certain margin. I expect that you can find combos within the regions you intend to play and build a deck around it and fare pretty well with it so you don't have to worry much about what is good and what is bad.
Nevertheless, more decks that are good.
Lissandra Thralls: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c6pnearsag25bho88hbg
This deck requires a lot of planning ahead but if successful can be a very dominant.
Nightfall: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c0suo3982pp88vjntlc0
This deck may seem quite simple to play but it is one of the hardest decks to play with and leaves little room to misplay. I don't suggest this one as it requires a high skill cap, but it is faster than most of the decks I had suggested previously.
Deep: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c1rq9tejlsq50fc7c6tg
This deck is super straightforward. Play cards and get to deep and play giant creatures, then finish with Atrocity. Make sure that there's no way you can get interrupted when you do so though.
Lucian/Hecarim: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c033i1o71lkrsarbodgg
This deck is easy to play but hard to master. Pretty fun and fast. I highly suggest this if you don't like slow games.
Go Hard: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c6p84f6h4ke4k4mhek3g
This is a solid deck and has a lot of combos. It's easy to play but you need to understand what the cards do to play it well.
Sorry if this is a bit too long. I tried to make a short summary of what the decks are but it may come off as confusing as well. Most of these decks are also a bit outdated but they should still be fine. Try refining your decks, remove bad cards and include good cards. It doesn't really matter if you're right or wrong as long as you're learning the game.
Freljord + Shadow Isles isn't incredible as of right now. The best deck that I can think of is a Feel The Rush control deck and if you're a new player you probably won't be able to craft it immediately as it does require a fair amount of Epics as well as the Champions themselves. It's a slow deck that seems up your alley if you do prefer decks that require one card to swing the match in your favor.
Feel The Rush Deck: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c5u6huaq4g5dikdeist0
Other than that, there's also decks such as They Who Endure which has not been very good for a long time (I don't suggest this but it is very easy to play as a new player) and there's Trundle Lissandra which plays similarly to the Feel The Rush deck mentioned above but it's harder to pilot.
Trundle Lissandra: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c3bnv4rrgua49cd18410
They Who Endure: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bvfpdoautoean1mct880
Though if you are a new player, I would suggest not going for these decks yet until you have most of the key cards and instead using these budget decks. (These aren't good decks by any means but they are free.)
Braum/Lux: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c59qqu63mbgukuvqact0
Elise/Darius: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c59r7ppba4ffpr2gking
Yasuo/Leona: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c59mtqu9bn0kgk7of16g
Also I'm not sure if any has mentioned this to your but the best way to get some cards quickly is by playing the Expeditions for a bit. It does give you a lot of cards. If you don't particularly like that game mode, that's also fine! Each week you can get an Expedition token from your Weekly Vault and you can just trade it in for an expedition run and immediately retire it for a free Epic capsule. There's also the Path of Champions which also gives you champions for free but it might be confusing for newer players.
I think their reasoning was the opposite of that. Ysera has too high variance with the highest 1st place rate (25%) and one of the highest 8th place rate (22%). (You can see it at 3:18:57 of their video.)
2 cards for a more expensive burst speed Concussive Palm? Idk but that doesn't sound like good value. This needs at the very least something from Ahri to be decent.
I mean as someone who used to play a crap ton of The Time Has Come, it is definitely not as bad as I thought it would be albeit it was still pretty bad. It would honestly be decent at 4 Mana. This card still has the same issues. It has arguably better stats than 2 2/2s on average and requires less of a condition to proc. However, Palm is just significantly better I'm pretty sure. Often times a stun is just better than 2 blockers especially when its cheaper. Ionia also doesn't really need burst blockers mainly because they have Eye of the Dragon. You're most likely going to use this as a Burst speed open attack card.
Also, please do not consider running this card with Recall synergy for a 5 Mana Burst Jailbreak.
On another note, Veigar's Level 2 was apparently changed into a Mech-Yordle as well but they still haven't shown how relevant it is just like the normal Yordle sub-type.
I faced a similar issue but on the PC. I sometimes have Out of Cards in the background and often I hear an incredibly loud sound (sometimes a melody). I think it is because of an ad too. It stopped around the time I got Premium so I'm pretty sure it came from the ads unmuting for half a second.
I'm using Google Chrome and Windows 10.
What do you mean by that? Do you mean that they deserve to be a Champion rarity, or do you mean that they are interesting enough to see them be an original Champion card. Like give them a level up effect and all that? If so, I would say that Corina Veraza or Corina, Mastermind deserves this treatment if they would ever make original Champion cards. There's hardly any champions that deal with deck interactions and most of the decks that run Corina Veraza does build around her like most Champions cards are.
I think I'm having the same issue and it's not just for Mercenaries only but also other portals. I'm not sure why but if you go to one of the portals it shows the decklist of whatever portal you were in before.
My original intent with Mirroring Shadow was to create exactly a better Mirror Entity as I never felt like Mirror Entity was a "Mage" card and more of a Priest card. Nevertheless, I tried replacing it again because it felt out of place. Focused Healing is now 15 health instead of 12. I do think it's still weak, but not because of how much it heals but often it would heal for said amount.
It's been a while since I've asked and given feedback. I made my cards on the basis that I imagine Priest secrets would be akin to Mage ones where they'd annoy more than they destroy. I'm not too sure about the name Spell Ward but I feel pretty good about the other cards.
Edit: Changed Focused Healing from full Health to 12 to make it in line with Greater Healing Potion.
For all of you that's still stuck with the Runeterra "Broken Glass".
No... this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you think the meta isn't as fun or how the games play out wasn't up to your tastes.
First of all, I don't think it's a "failure" as you say it is. They had compiled the biggest amount of viewers for Legends of Runeterra since beta. You also say it's 15k but it's definitely more than that as I wasn't even watching the main stream but rather the watch parties of it. Not to mention they had split the streams into multiple different languages, and into different platforms as well. It was more around 40k at its peak.
Also, Legends of Runeterra just doesn't have as much marketing power compared to its predecessor League of Legends. League of Legends had music videos, they had animations, fuck they got a stadium to rent so players can play in them and not just online. Their budget is just simply not the same. 200k USD prize pool while a lot by itself is nothing compared to LoL Worlds which had at least 10x the amount. I would say that 40k peak viewers for the tournament itself is already pretty good. They also don't have as much players compared to LoL which is much more well known by the public, so the total amount of viewers would have been different.
Finally, the meta in tournaments and what you experience in ladder is vastly different. The powerhouse decks may still exist but it's not like no one made 0 changes to them. No, the players tried to predict what the others are bringing and they brought curated decks to the tournament to maximize their odds of winning. That's why tournament decks are really strange sometimes. They run 1x copy of X to counter popular Y deck or bring decks with similar strategies while banning out the decks that counter them. Alan brought an Ezreal Shellfolk deck that literally got 1 game because everyone banned it every time. Szychu brought out of meta control decks like Feel The Rush and Heimer/Zoe. They picked those decks not because "well they're fun to play" but because they thought they can win with them. No matter what the meta is, most of the players will bring the decks they're comfortable with, not a complete meme deck. Not only that but players would often ban decks they're not familiar with, so even if a player brings something super spicy, it's unlikely that it will not see play.
Also those "big swings" "underdogs" "out of left field plays"? All of them happened. If you didn't pay attention to them that's fine, but don't discredit the players from playing their best.
I like how they didn't really hold back with any nerfs this time around. Some of these cards were really on the edge of being too strong to exist category so I'm glad that they didn't just give them a slap on the wrist.
Doomsayer nerf is probably one of the best examples. It's practically a Demon Djinni that not only gives more but is also at tier 3. It even powercreeps the new card Witchwing Nestmatron. So I'm really glad they made it tier 4 (making it hard to get early) and avenge 4 (making it give less tempo compared to the other cards). Demons are probably still playable though since Mal'Ganis is now tier 3.
Pirate buffs aren't gonna do much but they won't be as feels bad to pick up anymore especially early on.
Rattler nerf really needed to happen because that card by itself just allow Beasts to beat Poison comps in the late game. Not only that, Maexxna + Rattler was really stupid, it was basically a perfect Amalgadon.
Master of Realities is now playable (probably?) but I still think Lil Rag comp needs more of a buff.
Quilboar buffs were completely expected. They were the weakest comp by far and it wasn't even close. Quilboars needed to go 6 to hit a wincon while other comps had them on tier 3/4/5.
On that note, I was hoping they'd buff menagerie. That comp suffered as much as Quils did and I'm hoping they won't be as horrible compared to other comps now.
Well Nami nerf is definitely going to happen but I expect a mana nerf above all. Stat changes probably won't do enough and nerfing it the same way as Veiled Temple is just going to make her unplayable.
Sparklefly probably needs a health nerf. Same with how a health buff made Young Witch playable, a health nerf to Sparklelfy should do the trick. Though I think that nerfing Sparklefly would hurt Targon as a region even further when they have almost nothing outside of cheesy combo decks.
Aloof Travelers probably just needs a mana nerf and stat adjustments along with it. Like 6 mana 4/5 or smth. The fact that you can play it so quickly is a bit annoying but it's understandable to have a card like that. I just don't really want it to be so good that aggressive decks can afford to run it.
Hidden Pathways is kinda tricky. Any nerf to it is going to cripple its viability. A 4 mana nerf is probably going to happen sometime in the future but I would prefer it if they made the requirement more trickier rather than 'oh sick it's 3 mana now'.
Otterpus. Honestly I'm not too sure about this one. Probably a good nerf but idk. If it does get nerfed though, removing Attune should remove it from all decks.
Lost Soul nerf is a bit tough to test and work out so it's not probably gonna happen. I think the best way to nerf it is to remove stats from it and make it similar to Mistwraiths where it gets stronger the more you play it.
Hot take: I think almost all 2 mana combat tricks needs to be adjusted to 3 mana. Too many of them are too efficient. A single change would make X 2 mana combat trick become too strong so nerfing all at once would almost definitely fix the problem.
Also Bandle City Mayor and Loping Telescopes are very strong. 2/1 BC Mayor should make it easier to remove while Loping Telescope as a 1/1 would make it less good of a card on tempo. These two cards are almost definitely the strongest cards in multi-region decks.
I think part of the reason why Bandle City is good is because they designed the set properly this time. It doesn't feel like anyone's missing X to make them good. Similarly none of the new champions feel bad to play. I think all of them are viable in this meta and their playstyle (even if they are slotted in old archetypes) feel unique in their effects. This has by far been the best expansion. Sure a couple things need nerfs but the meta feels fresh that I don't really mind much. I'm more optimistic of the next two expansions of the set now.
Aren't people playing Caitlyn with Draven or is that just my experience? I've seen a lot of them more than Draven Ezreal tbh so I thought that was how you play Caitlyn now.
These are some of the biggest changes I have seen for LoR in a while, yet somehow it's a hotfix? Well, I'm not complaining.