I get what your saying, I still think that some of the Bandle unit's like Stone Stackers and Lecturing Yordle are overstated for their price but overall it's easier to climb with non meta decks.
This my personal opinion but I don't think that Minimorph is the reason why most high cost followers don't see play. I think that has to do more with the following :
- In meta that feature so many cheap unit's that can quickly swarm the board, you don't want to brick your hand by running too many cards that can't be played before turn 7.
That aside Lee sin definitely does need nerf because in his current form he is just gonna keep abusing burst speed spells. I am not sure however that nerfing his level 1 is the solution because most good Lee Sin players don't play him until his level up anyway.
That card can be really good against certain match ups (Lee Sin) but also really bad against other ( Aggro) overall I find it more frustrating than powerful which why I didn't include it in my personal list. I wouldn't be mad to see nerfed to fast speed or 7 mana tho.
That's definitely suspicious, the only way that I know for a P&Z/Bandle City deck to find a single combat is either with The University of Piltover or by cloning it from your hand with Curious Shellfolk.
There are plenty of ways to build a Leona/Demacia deck, the most successful one is Leona/A.Sol. Your basic gameplan is to stale with Daybreak unit's like Leona, Solari Sunhawk, Solari Sunforger and cheat an A.sol ( who now levels very quickly ) on turn 8 with Eclipse Dragon effect. The deck can also withstand early aggression and put pressure on slower midrange deck with Solari Soldier and Solari Shieldbearer.
- Next event being centered around dragons is highly unlikely, as we already saw with KD/A and Sentinels of Light. Riot like to have the same event across all of it's games. Since League and TFT are confirmed to have an Arcane related event coming around that time, it's safe to assume that it will be the same for Runeterra.
- I disagree with the assessment that this patch is mediocre, they hit all the top tier decks, Draven and Twin Blade for Draven/Sion, Nami and Sparkfly for Nami/Zoe , tenor of terror and stone stackers for Yordle burn, relentless pursuit for rally elusives and gave some love to day break and lux.
- I do agree that however that the buffs to dragon, the overwhelm on dragon clutch's especially, could make them overpowered.
- "The patch notes on twitter don't have half the repercussion of the previous one 4 months ago" there is a bit of confirmation bias here, during that time we had Azir/Irelia and Watcher Control two of most oppressive decks that this game has ever saw so naturally the community was very happy to see them gone. None of the current top tier are as strong ( or hated ) as those two.
- Yes there are still some cards who could use some nerfs ( looking at you Bandle City mayor and Poppy ) but since Bandle City have less cards than other regions they need a couple of OP cards to be competitive.
Teal Red has always been on the innovative side, but bringing a Viktor/Glorious evolution deck to tournament? That take some serious guts.
Darkness and Sentinel control continue to perform well, which just continue to prove that Azir/Irelia was mistake and nerfing that deck to the ground was the right thing to do.
Outside of that not much surprise in this seasonal. We had the usual suspects in Poppy/Ziggs, Nami/Zoe, Draven/Sion, Gankplank/Sejuani and Lee Sin.
That's a sentiment that I also share. I always play Lab of Legends anytime I get tired of the ladder but for Saltwater Scourge I must played the mode a couple of times ad never returned to it since then.
You can't compare Runeterra numbers to League, MOBA's are way more popular than card games and are always going to bring bigger numbers. It's like expecting a drama to have the same box office numbers of summer blockbuster just because they are produced by the same company.
Stat wise the event peaked at a 44k during the finals with an average of 23k viewers, so not only is the game growing in popularity but it's already surpassed both Magic and Gwent in term of views with only Hearthstone being more popular.
The tournament featured lot's of deck diversity and most matches were pretty close. Like Fenrir said they was lot's of underdog stories going on Yamato Darkness control deck went undefeated in the tournament even beating it's worst match up in Akshan/Sivir. Szychu managed to secure 3 rd place even thought he wasn't playing a single meta deck, the guy was playing a Heimerdinger control deck for God's sake, if that wasn't out of the left field I don't know what is.
Gotta give it to Szychu it takes massive balls to bring a a Heimerdinger deck to one of the most stacked tournament of the game. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Darkness control doing so well.
Finally if your like me and hate Nami/Zoe, do yourself a favor and watch the second match between WhatAmI and AlanZQ during the semi finals, The match features one the best outplays I ever saw.
In the last expansion alone we had Sivir/Akshan and Lulu/Zed rally and those decks were not just decent they were top tier. As for the nerfs to The Fang and Starshaping, with everyone busy hating Azir/Irelia, it's easy to forget that both Zoe/Vi and Shyvana/A.sol were also tier 1 decks during that time. In fact Zoe/Vi had the biggest winrate of any deck in both Europe and America seasonal tournament that took place prior to patch 2.11 .
The Viktor/Draven deck actually managed to reach rank 1 in NA masters. I am definitely giving that one a try.
I get what your saying, I still think that some of the Bandle unit's like Stone Stackers and Lecturing Yordle are overstated for their price but overall it's easier to climb with non meta decks.
This my personal opinion but I don't think that Minimorph is the reason why most high cost followers don't see play. I think that has to do more with the following :
- In meta that feature so many cheap unit's that can quickly swarm the board, you don't want to brick your hand by running too many cards that can't be played before turn 7.
- Most high cost followers are pretty garbage, even in the early days of the game the only 7+ card that saw play were limited to Corina Veraza, Brightsteel Formation, Commander Ledros, Captain Farron, They Who Endure, The Leviathan and Riptide Rex.
That aside Lee sin definitely does need nerf because in his current form he is just gonna keep abusing burst speed spells. I am not sure however that nerfing his level 1 is the solution because most good Lee Sin players don't play him until his level up anyway.
That card can be really good against certain match ups (Lee Sin) but also really bad against other ( Aggro) overall I find it more frustrating than powerful which why I didn't include it in my personal list. I wouldn't be mad to see nerfed to fast speed or 7 mana tho.
I didn't have any issue but I saw lot's of people complaining about the same problem on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/qf5726/its_been_almost_an_entire_week_with_lor_crashing/
Edit: If the official twitter is be believed it looks like they finally found a solution to the problem:
https://twitter.com/PlayRuneterra/status/1452704458392092676
That's definitely suspicious, the only way that I know for a P&Z/Bandle City deck to find a single combat is either with The University of Piltover or by cloning it from your hand with Curious Shellfolk.
After Patch 2.18.0 you guys might wanna give Lurks a try. Dragons a popular on the ladder after the recent buffs and lurks smash them.
There are plenty of ways to build a Leona/Demacia deck, the most successful one is Leona/A.Sol. Your basic gameplan is to stale with Daybreak unit's like Leona, Solari Sunhawk, Solari Sunforger and cheat an A.sol ( who now levels very quickly ) on turn 8 with Eclipse Dragon effect. The deck can also withstand early aggression and put pressure on slower midrange deck with Solari Soldier and Solari Shieldbearer.
- Next event being centered around dragons is highly unlikely, as we already saw with KD/A and Sentinels of Light. Riot like to have the same event across all of it's games. Since League and TFT are confirmed to have an Arcane related event coming around that time, it's safe to assume that it will be the same for Runeterra.
- I disagree with the assessment that this patch is mediocre, they hit all the top tier decks, Draven and Twin Blade for Draven/Sion, Nami and Sparkfly for Nami/Zoe , tenor of terror and stone stackers for Yordle burn, relentless pursuit for rally elusives and gave some love to day break and lux.
- I do agree that however that the buffs to dragon, the overwhelm on dragon clutch's especially, could make them overpowered.
- "The patch notes on twitter don't have half the repercussion of the previous one 4 months ago" there is a bit of confirmation bias here, during that time we had Azir/Irelia and Watcher Control two of most oppressive decks that this game has ever saw so naturally the community was very happy to see them gone. None of the current top tier are as strong ( or hated ) as those two.
- Yes there are still some cards who could use some nerfs ( looking at you Bandle City mayor and Poppy ) but since Bandle City have less cards than other regions they need a couple of OP cards to be competitive.
- Dragons are looking scary now.
- Nami/Zoe just took a huge blow with the nerf to Sparkfly. Draven/Sion is weaker but I still expect it to be top tier.
- I didn't understand why Tristana couldn't grant herself impact in the first place but as the saying goes, better late than never.
- Freljord got a little bit of love but I don't think that would be enough to put the region back on the map.
- Lux got two big buffs, so hopefully all the Lux stan's can shut up now.
Teal Red has always been on the innovative side, but bringing a Viktor/Glorious evolution deck to tournament? That take some serious guts.
Darkness and Sentinel control continue to perform well, which just continue to prove that Azir/Irelia was mistake and nerfing that deck to the ground was the right thing to do.
Outside of that not much surprise in this seasonal. We had the usual suspects in Poppy/Ziggs, Nami/Zoe, Draven/Sion, Gankplank/Sejuani and Lee Sin.
The European one is staked. I will definitely be watching it.
That's a sentiment that I also share. I always play Lab of Legends anytime I get tired of the ladder but for Saltwater Scourge I must played the mode a couple of times ad never returned to it since then.
Only one new level up animation? That's disappointing. Anyway I Like the followers cameo's on the champion's splash art :
-Lux (Cithria of Cloudfield)
-Ezreal ( Academy Prodigy and Crimson Aristocrat)
-Caitlyn ( Corina Veraza)
-Leona ( Boomcrew Rookie)
You can also see Darius and Jayce on Katarina' art.
Seeing deck like turbo thralls having 100% win rate really make wish that the ladder followed tournament format.
You can't compare Runeterra numbers to League, MOBA's are way more popular than card games and are always going to bring bigger numbers. It's like expecting a drama to have the same box office numbers of summer blockbuster just because they are produced by the same company.
Stat wise the event peaked at a 44k during the finals with an average of 23k viewers, so not only is the game growing in popularity but it's already surpassed both Magic and Gwent in term of views with only Hearthstone being more popular.
https://escharts.com/tournaments/lor/legends-runeterra-world-championship-2021
The tournament featured lot's of deck diversity and most matches were pretty close. Like Fenrir said they was lot's of underdog stories going on Yamato Darkness control deck went undefeated in the tournament even beating it's worst match up in Akshan/Sivir. Szychu managed to secure 3 rd place even thought he wasn't playing a single meta deck, the guy was playing a Heimerdinger control deck for God's sake, if that wasn't out of the left field I don't know what is.
Good news, the new art is decent but the old ones are so much better, at least in my opinion.
Gotta give it to Szychu it takes massive balls to bring a a Heimerdinger deck to one of the most stacked tournament of the game. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Darkness control doing so well.
Finally if your like me and hate Nami/Zoe, do yourself a favor and watch the second match between WhatAmI and AlanZQ during the semi finals, The match features one the best outplays I ever saw.
You can also run him in Shadow Isles using Spectral Matron to cheat him out on turn 8 or even 7 if you discounted matron with Oblivious Islander.
In the last expansion alone we had Sivir/Akshan and Lulu/Zed rally and those decks were not just decent they were top tier. As for the nerfs to The Fang and Starshaping, with everyone busy hating Azir/Irelia, it's easy to forget that both Zoe/Vi and Shyvana/A.sol were also tier 1 decks during that time. In fact Zoe/Vi had the biggest winrate of any deck in both Europe and America seasonal tournament that took place prior to patch 2.11 .