In my personal opinion, lore doesn't seem to be the main priority of LoR when deciding "what region should this Champion be?". Also it's not like Yordles are the only ones who are multi-region, there are Faes and Poro Sled as well. I don't think it's impossible for them to make multi-region a Bandle City exclusive identity. So honestly, I'm down for making more cards multi-region.
However, I don't think they should give it to champions that NEED their current regions to work. Zoe is a good example of this. You could give her any region and she'd be making use of it appropriately. However, someone like Ashe having a second region is pointless. I also don't think that giving it to only bad champs because they are bad is justified. Good champions could also get it, even if the new way to build them is worse. It'd still be interesting for the most part.
Elise being in Noxus would finally make Spiders less linear in deckbuilding even if it would be "just run PnZ burn" or smth along those lines. It's always weird as well since Elise's cards are in Noxus and she's supposed to be a Noxian noble of some sort (idk LoR lore but I'm pretty sure this is true). Though I can't really find many champions that fit Elise's circumstances as well.
Maybe Nasus since he's death-related? I would be a bit more scared of this than Elise because it'd be giving him access to Atrocity without running a second region.
Hecarim I could see being in other regions, mainly because he doesn't strictly stay in SI and roams around Runeterra. Giving him a second region would help whether it's Ionia or Demacia. Still it wouldn't really pull him out of SI so I don't see a purpose to it.
I could see Vlad becoming more viable if you gave him a second region but I can't really see it helping him that much. Theoretically only Freljord or Bilgewater could make sense in deckbuilding. So perhaps giving him a multi-region card or two of Freljord/Noxus makes more sense in that regard.
Taric could go to Demacia and it would probably be the most impactful out of all these. Though his Targon cards are equally powerful in terms of supporting him that I can't imagine too many ways to deckbuild even if he is in Demacia.
Riven could go to Ionia since she's already in Ionia anyways but I can't find it helping her that much in deckbuilding. Her support cards are in Noxus after all. Though if they were to go to Ionia as well, that'd be a bit more interesting.
Other than that followers that make sense in other regions could go there as well. Ruined followers could make sense out of their intended region and fit in SI pretty easily.
That's about all I could think of. I don't think lore should be the deciding factor but rather their theme, nor should their strength be one as well. It should be whether or not that change will breed new decks, I think that's the most important thing.
I'm currently making it as full Mono but obviously you can cut down and add whatever you like to it. I suggest you can cut 1 Stress Defense because I only put them in against decks like Lee Sin, but it's hard to find its uses often. You could also try cutting 1 Poro Sled because it's not as good as I thought it'd be. 1 Fizz was added just for a faster The Bandle Tree wincon and I didn't want to get too heavy on 4 drops.
Regardless, this is the list I am currently running even if it's not fully effective and this has been doing pretty well. I've beaten most Darkness decks, most Nami Fizz, most Sion. Deck should only realistically lose to decks that A) out tempo it like Poppy decks or B) decks that can clear the board more than once reliably or C) Deny Yordles in Arms.
I've been playing solely Fizz Nami and Bandle City allegiance but I can't imagine Tristana being good. Sure the deck does well but Tristana is just a more expensive Fae Bladetwirler most of the times.
Also yeah Poppy Taric is pretty strong but I don't think it's tier 1 material since it relies so hard on the champs that the gameplan falls off pretty hard if you don't hit then. It's also not impossible to beat as well since they have a huge moment of vulnerability that it could just auto lose to a lot of removals.
Honestly, I'm surprised how well Darkness Control is doing right now. I knew that it won't be terrible, but I'm still surprised that it has a dominant winrate over other newer decks. I've played against it quite a bit but I've stomped it every time so I guess I just faced bad players.
Fizz Nami elusives feels like the new TF/Fizz. A lot of burst damage coming out of nowhere but a lot more unit based than burn. Deck feels like a hard deck to play so I'm actually not that surprised by a lower winrate. Also it loses pretty hard to removals and pings. Probably going to be tier 2 in the end.
Draven Sion is good but don't run it in SI that's kinda meme. PnZ discard with Poro Cannons and Get Excited!. The deck has a lot of grindy tools while having enough pressure early that it feels pretty good. Sion levels insanely quick as well, I've never seen it played as level 1.
Teemo Caitlyn is RNG-reliant but it can definitely steamroll if you don't have removal for their engines.
Poppy seems to be the most versatile champion and I dig it. A lot of ways to play it and they're similar in playstyle yet not too similar. MF/Poppy Scout Suppressor, Poppy Teemo Allegiance, Poppy Lulu, Poppy Zed, Poppy Taric (personally the strongest one). Poppy's pretty good.
Xerath is crying in a corner. Ziggs is being tested out a lot but yeah no solid decks thus far. I wonder if it's best to not run either and go for Taliyah/X again.
I know a lot of people build BC Allegiance using The Bandle Tree, but has anyone tried using Yordles in Arms? I've like smashed most matchups using a more aggressive swarm gameplan and slotting in Bandle Tree only as a secondary wincon. I'm... going for a huge prediction and I'm calling this deck tier 1. Just don't run Tristana lmao.
Man I've been so disensitized by bad removals at this point that I'm actually seeing this as potentially playable if you're planning to go for a non-SI/Freljord control gameplan that includes Bandle City. But they really could have made a Ruination that also destroyed landmarks and it would have made sense.
This card is honestly not that bad in Ezreal Draven. This card is pretty easy to enable in that deck after all. However, the question then becomes why run this over Get Excited! since those these two cards are enabled by the same things and I feel like the ability to hit face matters a lot. Unless we're going into a meta where dealing 3 damage is essential and Get Excited! is crucial, this may see some play. Not a bad card, just that its predecessors are already doing what it does except better.
4 Mana 4/2 Elusive is honestly not so bad, but the reason why I think it's probably gonna be unplayable is probably just going to depend on Bandle City's combat tricks because PnZ doesn't have any good ones. Ionia would've really liked this card but sadly it can't really trigger its condition as easily as PnZ could.
I feel like this card will probably see play in the Yordle deck when we finally see the tribe synergy but for now it's probably just an ok card. It gets enabled pretty easily with cards like Ballistic Bot. 3 Mana 4/4 is solid but it won't have any use if the decks doesn't really want to contest for the board like Demacia does.
They don't have a proper system set in stone because of how regions work. (They need to introduce more cards for the new regions but that's a lot of cards at once so they split it up) When they introduce a new region into the game, they split it up into three parts and these are called expansions whereas a set is a compilation of the 3. Each part consists of cards of the new region, and additional cards for 3 of the other regions while some other regions maybe get a card or two, and they do this three times. This is done usually over the course of 6 months.
So if you're counting "full" expansions it's about 2 per year. However if you're counting mini-expansions, there's about 6 of those per year and not to mention there are also champion expansions where they introduce a new batch of cards for a specific champion or two (kinda like the latest event). There's supposedly a lot of these sprinkled throughout the year so about 8 expansions introducing 40-50 new cards with 2 introducing 100+.
It's complicated and there are a lot of people who have shown clear disapproval of the system due to imbalance and "missing" cards when they introduce only 1/3rd of the full region. However, this system probably is not going to be set in stone because Bandle City is the 10th and final region in the game. So they'll probably scrap the system once this is finished.
I've been trying out a deck using Reaver's Row for a while now. It includes The Time Has Come as well. I feel like the issue with Reaver's Row is the fact that it's like a 5 mana do nothing for an aggro deck. If only it would summon a 1 cost when summoned it'd be considerably better.
People say The University of Piltover is bad but honestly I've kinda just slot it in Discard Aggro as a 1-of and it does a fine job. As long as the meta is slow that is. When you're fighting a deck with an insane amount of heals or board clear, University just gives more fuel than Jinx could. It can't be easily dealt with through normal means and provides 3 extra cards in a turn, albeit making your plays awkward. Otherwise, don't run it. You'd just want something to kill the Nexus faster rather than a 5 mana do nothing.
Also like minuano said, Hexcore Foundry is REALLY good in EZ Freezy. It automatically wins the games for you if they're a slow deck. It enables that specific deck pretty well.
I think the closest to being insanely good has to be The Veiled Temple, The Scargrounds and The Grand Plaza. They are not only good enough as slot-ins for a deck but also strong enough to create an archetype around it. I think that just having the right support for those landmarks are enough to make them viable in the meta.
As for the rest... I think the reason they are horrid is because they meant to be support cards for certain archetypes. The thing is, the finishers for those archetypes tend to be slow and doesn't actually finish the game. Landmarks are low tempo cards and are meant to be high value (some are clearly not). This means that the finisher needs to gain advantage with Landmarks through value. Though most of the time, they would try to rather try to go for the Nexus (when they're most likely at full health). Countdown decks either need a follower or a champion that immediately advance 1 to landmarks you summon, or make a finisher that relies not on Nexus beatdown but something else (like Star Spring).
There is a Singleton Gauntlet which allows you to build a deck with 3 regions instead of 2. I hardly ever see any decks for it and building a deck probably requires personal experience which I don't much of. There is a site that used to create Singleton decks however they are incredibly outdated and probably won't work as well anymore. Still, you can use them for inspiration.
But is the solution for releasing a new champions just to make it universally good at everything so it does see play?
Seems like Riot was maybe getting frustrated and thought it better just to overtune and nerf later.
Idk but it's not really an uncommon game design philosophy. It's easier to nerf than buff. I think most people can agree with that. So it's better to design a champion that's pretty good than one that can't be played. I don't mind it, it keeps the meta fresh. But when you get stuff like Azir and Irelia and not nerf them, that's when I get worried. This is still fine... for now.
I think I would say that Viego is pretty good as of now. Reminds me when Aurelion Sol came out where leveling him up would end the game but this happens a lot faster. I do like the fact that they pushed him as strong instead of weak. I don't really want another case of Taliyah, Zilean or Malphite where they are weak and since they don't have enough sample sizes due to low play rates, it becomes harder to see what cards to buff. I think that they are probably going to nerf him or at least his support cards because I do think that he levels up a bit too quickly and he has a tad bit too much stats. I'm predicting that he's going to be nerfed to 6 Mana but honestly I'm not even sure if that's going to change much.
I think it completely depends on what you'd define Combo decks as. I don't think Combo decks have the inherent stall that you mentioned, it's just that most of them do. The defining trait of a Combo deck is a specific set of cards that can either swing the game in your favor or win on the spot, and that means that most of the time the best way to do so is by using Control tools to stall or speed up your win condition. Some decks however don't really do that. Encroaching Shadows or Elusive decks are a good example of Combo decks that don't.
So you can't really say that one single card is a Combo. Running Atrocity in a Deep or Nasus deck doesn't make it a Combo deck because it uses different ways to win outside of Atrocity. Feel The Rush isn't exactly a combo deck when it's literally a single good card and in the same deck it's not only your win condition because you can play the champions on their own. Ezreal Combo decks lose if you literally don't draw an Ezreal, but the same can't be said for Draven Ezreal.
Honestly though, I do understand where you're coming from. LoR is a weird game where cards meant to be win conditions can be reused to build different archetypes at the same time. Thresh Nasus could be a Control or Midrange deck depending on how you build it. Fiora decks could be a Combo deck or a Midrange deck. Ezreal could be Control/Midrange/Combo. So yeah it just kinda depends on what you think can be considered a Combo deck.
Shielded Minibot is a too strong of a unit for tier 1 I feel. It would make fighting Guff/C'thun/Wagtoggle a bit insufferable if they get it early. Also it's a bit of an overlap with Deflecto which has a base stat of a 3/2 divine shield.
How's Flurry of Fists in that list? I imagine it'd be kinda bad since Double Attack is a pretty meh keyword if there's no Overwhelm. Like it attacks once fast and if it even attacks a second time, it probably just dies. Though, it does give cards like Rivershaper Quick Attack for value so I can imagine when it'd be pretty good, but Rush is usually better in my mind.
I think you can't decide to strike an ally if you don't have a target (just like how you can't cast a buff spell if you don't have an ally). My interpretation is that the entire point of the "or deal 3 to your Nexus" clause is to force you to take damage if you don't have a target. It's open for interpreation though, so we'll see when it comes out
This is kinda the main argument, I suppose. Though if they were trying to say that you have no choice, why not just make it To play me? I think Kindly Tavernkeeper is also a good example of this point. He's forced to heal Nexus/ally while being a fast play effect. I also think that since it says strike or deal, that also makes it a slightly different case. I'm either overthinking this or just really overthinking this lmao.
Ok wait, this is a tad bit random but if I'm reading this correctly, you can play this without an ally and not strike the Nexus right? It doesn't say "To play me" and is just a Play effect. So if you pick the strike an ally option without an ally, it should still be playable just as a 2 mana 3/2 Fury without doing 3 to your Nexus. Anyone can confirm? If my memory stands, you can play Blighted Caretaker without an ally, yes?
This set is amazing! I would love to see more of these kinds of posts in the future! A ton of fun to look at and I appreciate the effort that was put into making this! My favourites are Skye and Celeste but they're all really good!
Thank you very much! I'm planning to add more since there's a bunch of heroes I can still use but it doesn't seem like I have the time right now with how much fun LoR is right now. I'm also hoping that the next mini expansion that is in two weeks would drop first so I can see what works and what doesn't before I start designing the next batch.
In my personal opinion, lore doesn't seem to be the main priority of LoR when deciding "what region should this Champion be?". Also it's not like Yordles are the only ones who are multi-region, there are Faes and Poro Sled as well. I don't think it's impossible for them to make multi-region a Bandle City exclusive identity. So honestly, I'm down for making more cards multi-region.
However, I don't think they should give it to champions that NEED their current regions to work. Zoe is a good example of this. You could give her any region and she'd be making use of it appropriately. However, someone like Ashe having a second region is pointless. I also don't think that giving it to only bad champs because they are bad is justified. Good champions could also get it, even if the new way to build them is worse. It'd still be interesting for the most part.
Elise being in Noxus would finally make Spiders less linear in deckbuilding even if it would be "just run PnZ burn" or smth along those lines. It's always weird as well since Elise's cards are in Noxus and she's supposed to be a Noxian noble of some sort (idk LoR lore but I'm pretty sure this is true). Though I can't really find many champions that fit Elise's circumstances as well.
Maybe Nasus since he's death-related? I would be a bit more scared of this than Elise because it'd be giving him access to Atrocity without running a second region.
Hecarim I could see being in other regions, mainly because he doesn't strictly stay in SI and roams around Runeterra. Giving him a second region would help whether it's Ionia or Demacia. Still it wouldn't really pull him out of SI so I don't see a purpose to it.
I could see Vlad becoming more viable if you gave him a second region but I can't really see it helping him that much. Theoretically only Freljord or Bilgewater could make sense in deckbuilding. So perhaps giving him a multi-region card or two of Freljord/Noxus makes more sense in that regard.
Taric could go to Demacia and it would probably be the most impactful out of all these. Though his Targon cards are equally powerful in terms of supporting him that I can't imagine too many ways to deckbuild even if he is in Demacia.
Riven could go to Ionia since she's already in Ionia anyways but I can't find it helping her that much in deckbuilding. Her support cards are in Noxus after all. Though if they were to go to Ionia as well, that'd be a bit more interesting.
Other than that followers that make sense in other regions could go there as well. Ruined followers could make sense out of their intended region and fit in SI pretty easily.
That's about all I could think of. I don't think lore should be the deciding factor but rather their theme, nor should their strength be one as well. It should be whether or not that change will breed new decks, I think that's the most important thing.
I'm currently making it as full Mono but obviously you can cut down and add whatever you like to it. I suggest you can cut 1 Stress Defense because I only put them in against decks like Lee Sin, but it's hard to find its uses often. You could also try cutting 1 Poro Sled because it's not as good as I thought it'd be. 1 Fizz was added just for a faster The Bandle Tree wincon and I didn't want to get too heavy on 4 drops.
Regardless, this is the list I am currently running even if it's not fully effective and this has been doing pretty well. I've beaten most Darkness decks, most Nami Fizz, most Sion. Deck should only realistically lose to decks that A) out tempo it like Poppy decks or B) decks that can clear the board more than once reliably or C) Deny Yordles in Arms.
Tenor of Terror, Bandle City Mayor, Gruff Grenadier, and Bandle Commando are the definite standouts of the deck.
I've been playing solely Fizz Nami and Bandle City allegiance but I can't imagine Tristana being good. Sure the deck does well but Tristana is just a more expensive Fae Bladetwirler most of the times.
Also yeah Poppy Taric is pretty strong but I don't think it's tier 1 material since it relies so hard on the champs that the gameplan falls off pretty hard if you don't hit then. It's also not impossible to beat as well since they have a huge moment of vulnerability that it could just auto lose to a lot of removals.
Honestly, I'm surprised how well Darkness Control is doing right now. I knew that it won't be terrible, but I'm still surprised that it has a dominant winrate over other newer decks. I've played against it quite a bit but I've stomped it every time so I guess I just faced bad players.
Fizz Nami elusives feels like the new TF/Fizz. A lot of burst damage coming out of nowhere but a lot more unit based than burn. Deck feels like a hard deck to play so I'm actually not that surprised by a lower winrate. Also it loses pretty hard to removals and pings. Probably going to be tier 2 in the end.
Draven Sion is good but don't run it in SI that's kinda meme. PnZ discard with Poro Cannons and Get Excited!. The deck has a lot of grindy tools while having enough pressure early that it feels pretty good. Sion levels insanely quick as well, I've never seen it played as level 1.
Teemo Caitlyn is RNG-reliant but it can definitely steamroll if you don't have removal for their engines.
Poppy seems to be the most versatile champion and I dig it. A lot of ways to play it and they're similar in playstyle yet not too similar. MF/Poppy Scout Suppressor, Poppy Teemo Allegiance, Poppy Lulu, Poppy Zed, Poppy Taric (personally the strongest one). Poppy's pretty good.
Xerath is crying in a corner. Ziggs is being tested out a lot but yeah no solid decks thus far. I wonder if it's best to not run either and go for Taliyah/X again.
I know a lot of people build BC Allegiance using The Bandle Tree, but has anyone tried using Yordles in Arms? I've like smashed most matchups using a more aggressive swarm gameplan and slotting in Bandle Tree only as a secondary wincon. I'm... going for a huge prediction and I'm calling this deck tier 1. Just don't run Tristana lmao.
Man I've been so disensitized by bad removals at this point that I'm actually seeing this as potentially playable if you're planning to go for a non-SI/Freljord control gameplan that includes Bandle City. But they really could have made a Ruination that also destroyed landmarks and it would have made sense.
This card is honestly not that bad in Ezreal Draven. This card is pretty easy to enable in that deck after all. However, the question then becomes why run this over Get Excited! since those these two cards are enabled by the same things and I feel like the ability to hit face matters a lot. Unless we're going into a meta where dealing 3 damage is essential and Get Excited! is crucial, this may see some play. Not a bad card, just that its predecessors are already doing what it does except better.
4 Mana 4/2 Elusive is honestly not so bad, but the reason why I think it's probably gonna be unplayable is probably just going to depend on Bandle City's combat tricks because PnZ doesn't have any good ones. Ionia would've really liked this card but sadly it can't really trigger its condition as easily as PnZ could.
I feel like this card will probably see play in the Yordle deck when we finally see the tribe synergy but for now it's probably just an ok card. It gets enabled pretty easily with cards like Ballistic Bot. 3 Mana 4/4 is solid but it won't have any use if the decks doesn't really want to contest for the board like Demacia does.
They don't have a proper system set in stone because of how regions work. (They need to introduce more cards for the new regions but that's a lot of cards at once so they split it up) When they introduce a new region into the game, they split it up into three parts and these are called expansions whereas a set is a compilation of the 3. Each part consists of cards of the new region, and additional cards for 3 of the other regions while some other regions maybe get a card or two, and they do this three times. This is done usually over the course of 6 months.
So if you're counting "full" expansions it's about 2 per year. However if you're counting mini-expansions, there's about 6 of those per year and not to mention there are also champion expansions where they introduce a new batch of cards for a specific champion or two (kinda like the latest event). There's supposedly a lot of these sprinkled throughout the year so about 8 expansions introducing 40-50 new cards with 2 introducing 100+.
It's complicated and there are a lot of people who have shown clear disapproval of the system due to imbalance and "missing" cards when they introduce only 1/3rd of the full region. However, this system probably is not going to be set in stone because Bandle City is the 10th and final region in the game. So they'll probably scrap the system once this is finished.
I've been trying out a deck using Reaver's Row for a while now. It includes The Time Has Come as well. I feel like the issue with Reaver's Row is the fact that it's like a 5 mana do nothing for an aggro deck. If only it would summon a 1 cost when summoned it'd be considerably better.
People say The University of Piltover is bad but honestly I've kinda just slot it in Discard Aggro as a 1-of and it does a fine job. As long as the meta is slow that is. When you're fighting a deck with an insane amount of heals or board clear, University just gives more fuel than Jinx could. It can't be easily dealt with through normal means and provides 3 extra cards in a turn, albeit making your plays awkward. Otherwise, don't run it. You'd just want something to kill the Nexus faster rather than a 5 mana do nothing.
Also like minuano said, Hexcore Foundry is REALLY good in EZ Freezy. It automatically wins the games for you if they're a slow deck. It enables that specific deck pretty well.
I think the closest to being insanely good has to be The Veiled Temple, The Scargrounds and The Grand Plaza. They are not only good enough as slot-ins for a deck but also strong enough to create an archetype around it. I think that just having the right support for those landmarks are enough to make them viable in the meta.
As for the rest... I think the reason they are horrid is because they meant to be support cards for certain archetypes. The thing is, the finishers for those archetypes tend to be slow and doesn't actually finish the game. Landmarks are low tempo cards and are meant to be high value (some are clearly not). This means that the finisher needs to gain advantage with Landmarks through value. Though most of the time, they would try to rather try to go for the Nexus (when they're most likely at full health). Countdown decks either need a follower or a champion that immediately advance 1 to landmarks you summon, or make a finisher that relies not on Nexus beatdown but something else (like Star Spring).
There is a Singleton Gauntlet which allows you to build a deck with 3 regions instead of 2. I hardly ever see any decks for it and building a deck probably requires personal experience which I don't much of. There is a site that used to create Singleton decks however they are incredibly outdated and probably won't work as well anymore. Still, you can use them for inspiration.
Link to site: https://runeterraccg.com/5-proven-singleton-decks-updated-for-cosmic-creation-expansion/
There is a pretty decent RNG deck that relies on The Howling Abyss. A bit control heavy so it might not suit your preference.
Link to the deck: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c3e8rvaonmgv5533ieig
Idk but it's not really an uncommon game design philosophy. It's easier to nerf than buff. I think most people can agree with that. So it's better to design a champion that's pretty good than one that can't be played. I don't mind it, it keeps the meta fresh. But when you get stuff like Azir and Irelia and not nerf them, that's when I get worried. This is still fine... for now.
I think I would say that Viego is pretty good as of now. Reminds me when Aurelion Sol came out where leveling him up would end the game but this happens a lot faster. I do like the fact that they pushed him as strong instead of weak. I don't really want another case of Taliyah, Zilean or Malphite where they are weak and since they don't have enough sample sizes due to low play rates, it becomes harder to see what cards to buff. I think that they are probably going to nerf him or at least his support cards because I do think that he levels up a bit too quickly and he has a tad bit too much stats. I'm predicting that he's going to be nerfed to 6 Mana but honestly I'm not even sure if that's going to change much.
I think it completely depends on what you'd define Combo decks as. I don't think Combo decks have the inherent stall that you mentioned, it's just that most of them do. The defining trait of a Combo deck is a specific set of cards that can either swing the game in your favor or win on the spot, and that means that most of the time the best way to do so is by using Control tools to stall or speed up your win condition. Some decks however don't really do that. Encroaching Shadows or Elusive decks are a good example of Combo decks that don't.
So you can't really say that one single card is a Combo. Running Atrocity in a Deep or Nasus deck doesn't make it a Combo deck because it uses different ways to win outside of Atrocity. Feel The Rush isn't exactly a combo deck when it's literally a single good card and in the same deck it's not only your win condition because you can play the champions on their own. Ezreal Combo decks lose if you literally don't draw an Ezreal, but the same can't be said for Draven Ezreal.
Honestly though, I do understand where you're coming from. LoR is a weird game where cards meant to be win conditions can be reused to build different archetypes at the same time. Thresh Nasus could be a Control or Midrange deck depending on how you build it. Fiora decks could be a Combo deck or a Midrange deck. Ezreal could be Control/Midrange/Combo. So yeah it just kinda depends on what you think can be considered a Combo deck.
Shielded Minibot is a too strong of a unit for tier 1 I feel. It would make fighting Guff/C'thun/Wagtoggle a bit insufferable if they get it early. Also it's a bit of an overlap with Deflecto which has a base stat of a 3/2 divine shield.
How's Flurry of Fists in that list? I imagine it'd be kinda bad since Double Attack is a pretty meh keyword if there's no Overwhelm. Like it attacks once fast and if it even attacks a second time, it probably just dies. Though, it does give cards like Rivershaper Quick Attack for value so I can imagine when it'd be pretty good, but Rush is usually better in my mind.
This is kinda the main argument, I suppose. Though if they were trying to say that you have no choice, why not just make it To play me? I think Kindly Tavernkeeper is also a good example of this point. He's forced to heal Nexus/ally while being a fast play effect. I also think that since it says strike or deal, that also makes it a slightly different case. I'm either overthinking this or just really overthinking this lmao.
Ok wait, this is a tad bit random but if I'm reading this correctly, you can play this without an ally and not strike the Nexus right? It doesn't say "To play me" and is just a Play effect. So if you pick the strike an ally option without an ally, it should still be playable just as a 2 mana 3/2 Fury without doing 3 to your Nexus. Anyone can confirm? If my memory stands, you can play Blighted Caretaker without an ally, yes?
SI Dragons? Wait that's actually sick. You now have an incentive to go away from Targon/Demacia for dragons.
Thank you very much! I'm planning to add more since there's a bunch of heroes I can still use but it doesn't seem like I have the time right now with how much fun LoR is right now. I'm also hoping that the next mini expansion that is in two weeks would drop first so I can see what works and what doesn't before I start designing the next batch.