When it comes to card reveals I always like to look at the miscellaneous offerings and see how they impact eternal. Without going over everything let's talk about a few that caught my eye.
1. Scrutinizing Sargent- 5 mana summon two 3/3 bodies sometimes a 4/4 this is very good it does everything elites want at a very cheap price. Could single handedly bring back the archetype in eternal
2. Rejuvenating breeze - okay so Ionia gets an eye of nakaboros. Draw 2 heal 3 health at burst this is now the best draw card in the game and is probably broken and needs to be focus speed. Ryze will be unstopable now so good for Ryze players because he was awful before, but now will be super OP.
3. All seeing oracle - so you now get to counter decimate for 1 mana right? Not sure how that isn't going to single handedly destroy aggro, like I know they were like 60% winrate but jeze they just got shot in the head.
I see Ionia being very very very very strong after this expansion, and unfortunately when Ionia is super strong it generally leads to people leaving the game. So expect post expansion nerfs like a month in.
Yeah I've yet to see much that can beat the combined climb of turbo pirate aggro and elusives. Like there is tech that exists where those matchup tables overlap.
But honestly, it's scary how fast and effective it is if you just want to casual weekend climb to masters.
Meanwhile everyone else has to bend over backwards to counter you like it's a tournament or something. Kinda funny
1. Bot spam - good deck that I'm increasingly less impressed with as time goes by. Song spinner can high roll or low roll on 7, you can level Samara to give bots rally or you can wiff...so basically an average ping heavy combo deck
2. Jax Orn - got one new card otherwise it's just your Archetypal midrange beat stick deck. Easily countered, easily beaten.
3. Timelines - not S tier or even on the tier list. Timelines I still think should be on banablaster, mtg teaches us that having a body that kills on 4 is good and it's no different in LOR
4. Aphelios - gravatum! Pretty sure the deck does other things but I haven't seen it so it's the bide your time and gravatum and ping till everything is dead deck...not A tier I don't think
5. Pirate aggro - putting pirate aggro as the top aggro deck of eternal is correct. But they aren't using my S tier build so it's only A tier.
6. Temo Zoe - love this deck it's very sneaky and counters what's good. Don't forget to open pass till turn 3 and then buff temo Zoe, and play at the same time for the attack.
7. Temo Tristana - has a tiny tiny play rate to the point you won't see it. But atrocity tristana is a deck just not one anyone is playing.
8. Lux - doing very poorly right now
9. Draven - people gave him like a 5 second chance when the new card was released and he immediately plummeted in win rate.
10. Ryze - ryze is doing worse than he ever has in eternal right now, play anything else
So in conclusion I don't believe Majin or Mobalytics are presenting a complete picture of the eternal meta right now.
They mostly bounce between meme lists that are overperforming and then bounce off them when they get countered.
Bot spam isn't a big deal, Jax isn't a big deal, timelines isn't even on the map.
Want to know what's a big deal?
Aggro decks with a 60% climb rate thats right 60% the highest aggro has ever performed in LOR history.
I do notice that the one thing you struggle with that prevents you from getting to masters is that you don't really "win" games.
You kind of look at okay I lost that last game what is the exact line of play that isn't going to "win" me the game but counter what just happened to me.
And its like okay great how do you win the other 100 now?
You dont know what they are playing and you're not going to beat them.
You see winrate climbing means clobering everyone!
You dont know their deck, their tech, their cards, their strategy, you just have to be better and I am
So when I say people have been meeming too hard in eternal I mean the following.
Thresh Nasus was seen as the best deck in the game...why? Because it board spammed and then it atrocitied for lethal.
People ran deny and that one smart deck running decision took theesh Nasus from 58% in eternal to 50% meaning it wasn't tier 1 it was an average average average deck - a solid meme nothing more
Now bot spam, it spams pings and then it spams bots. Can we find a decent solution for doing nothing into blah board vommit? I really want to hope so for the playerbase and for the format.
We beat thresh nasus, we beat poppy ziggs, we beat every meme that this format had to throw at us so let's beat bot spam. Cuz this format deserves it
1. Bott spam - it's a deck where you play cheap spells and then you play free 6/6 quick attackers. Wins 55% of games but a lot of that is the misplay and annoyance factor. I don't think it's the top 1% deck of the format more so just the best ping spam deck right now
2. Jax Orn - one of the best midrange decks in the game it does midrange things at 56%
3. Jayce lux - only sporting like a 51% winrate there are better control lists for sure
4. Ryze - down to 47% it is not a 4th place deck anymore it's not even a top 10 deck anymore when you high roll
5. Annie jhin - down to 53% compared to pirate aggro 58% it's bad
6. Elusive Spam- 54% winrate has good tech and good matchups but also big flaws
Honestly, pretty much everything else is down to sub 50% so you're better off playing your own decks for this meta
Because we aren't in a two deck eternal meta it isn't Jax or ping spam that's stupid
It's Jax, ping spam, elusive spam, aggro spam, and every single actually good deck people have found yet cuz they keep trying to find that next big meme list
Eternal is in a very balanced and strong position right now. Lots of deck, lots of variety and nothing that's screams nerf now. Like what are they gonna do nerf bot? Nerf pings? Nah ping spam ain't going anywhere but there's lots of other actual interesting stuff to play
So for those that don't know burst passing used to be when you'd burst to bank value then pass to pressure your opponent to committing resources.
Now it's more accurate to say that while burst passing is riskier pass bursting is very strong.
It's hard to imagine playing any aggro deck right now without a strong pass burst.
Pirate aggro can take free passes off control in order to draw cards at burst and improve board.
Elusives can take passes to bank stats on unblockable bodies.
Playing an aggro deck that cant do that like Annie Jhin feels bad to me.
So when I said that it's not a great deck in Eternal thats more so what I meant.
Obviously you can just run your linear optimal hand and win, but it can't really do anything beyond that and is very inflexible in terms of play pattern so objectively it's a little worse than last season for climbing I think
As for poppy ziggs I don't even know what happened to that deck? Majins attempt at creating a new persistent aggro deck fell off the planet? Oh well we all have our specialties.
Each deck has its merits one deck has very strong burst passes basically allowing you to bank 5/5 stats on your elusives on turn 3 so this devalues pings.
The other deck is just super fast and has good pings to clear 2/1 spam, and a stun for higher value blocks.
So once again the eternal king doing his own thing and winning casually like a lot!
So I dont know I'd you guys want to take this as a sign that I was right Nifty Aggro is a strong and consistent climbing deck or if you want to say I was wrong because I had to climb with one other deck to correct it's weaknesses.
I would say I was right, I very rarely mono climb anyway usually using a 2-3 deck rotation and that works for me. Last season was elites plus my own ramp deck. This season its elusives and my own aggro list.
When it comes to card reveals I always like to look at the miscellaneous offerings and see how they impact eternal. Without going over everything let's talk about a few that caught my eye.
1. Scrutinizing Sargent- 5 mana summon two 3/3 bodies sometimes a 4/4 this is very good it does everything elites want at a very cheap price. Could single handedly bring back the archetype in eternal
2. Rejuvenating breeze - okay so Ionia gets an eye of nakaboros. Draw 2 heal 3 health at burst this is now the best draw card in the game and is probably broken and needs to be focus speed. Ryze will be unstopable now so good for Ryze players because he was awful before, but now will be super OP.
3. All seeing oracle - so you now get to counter decimate for 1 mana right? Not sure how that isn't going to single handedly destroy aggro, like I know they were like 60% winrate but jeze they just got shot in the head.
I see Ionia being very very very very strong after this expansion, and unfortunately when Ionia is super strong it generally leads to people leaving the game. So expect post expansion nerfs like a month in.
Yeah I've yet to see much that can beat the combined climb of turbo pirate aggro and elusives. Like there is tech that exists where those matchup tables overlap.
But honestly, it's scary how fast and effective it is if you just want to casual weekend climb to masters.
Meanwhile everyone else has to bend over backwards to counter you like it's a tournament or something. Kinda funny
https://mobalytics.gg/blog/lor-best-eternal-decks/
1. Bot spam - good deck that I'm increasingly less impressed with as time goes by. Song spinner can high roll or low roll on 7, you can level Samara to give bots rally or you can wiff...so basically an average ping heavy combo deck
2. Jax Orn - got one new card otherwise it's just your Archetypal midrange beat stick deck. Easily countered, easily beaten.
3. Timelines - not S tier or even on the tier list. Timelines I still think should be on banablaster, mtg teaches us that having a body that kills on 4 is good and it's no different in LOR
4. Aphelios - gravatum! Pretty sure the deck does other things but I haven't seen it so it's the bide your time and gravatum and ping till everything is dead deck...not A tier I don't think
5. Pirate aggro - putting pirate aggro as the top aggro deck of eternal is correct. But they aren't using my S tier build so it's only A tier.
6. Temo Zoe - love this deck it's very sneaky and counters what's good. Don't forget to open pass till turn 3 and then buff temo Zoe, and play at the same time for the attack.
7. Temo Tristana - has a tiny tiny play rate to the point you won't see it. But atrocity tristana is a deck just not one anyone is playing.
8. Lux - doing very poorly right now
9. Draven - people gave him like a 5 second chance when the new card was released and he immediately plummeted in win rate.
10. Ryze - ryze is doing worse than he ever has in eternal right now, play anything else
So in conclusion I don't believe Majin or Mobalytics are presenting a complete picture of the eternal meta right now.
They mostly bounce between meme lists that are overperforming and then bounce off them when they get countered.
Bot spam isn't a big deal, Jax isn't a big deal, timelines isn't even on the map.
Want to know what's a big deal?
Aggro decks with a 60% climb rate thats right 60% the highest aggro has ever performed in LOR history.
That sounds S tier to me...just maybe idk
Just to give an example Annie Jhin is probably the most basic aggro deck in LOR from a playstyle perspective.
In standard this is the best deck in the game and will stay that way possible forever.
In eternal its just "a deck" an aggro deck in a sea of other aggro decks many of which statistically out perform it.
Thats just one "genre" of deck where we have gone from 1 possibility to 3 or 4.
Now multiply that across midrange control, and combo and the possibilities are endless if you don't suck.
I guess the one good thing about standard is deep and lurk is more competitive?
Hurray for lurk players bleh!
I never found climbing in LOR to be hard.
Like standard sure the format is a joke.
But in OG LOR it's win 4 games lose 1
Take a break rinse and repeat for an easy climb.
People will try to start hard countering you, because of course they will any good original deck needs a hard counter
But if you take health breaks they will have to climb against everyone else and then you just break out the op again a day later.
Now hitting rank 1 masters necessitates meta decks and I dont want to do that it isn't fun for me and its not playing to LOR's strengths.
I've always had this problem in LOR
Essentially you climb from stone to masters with your off meta lists and then you're done.
You've proved yourself...you've won.
There is no more counter play, no more I told you so, no more anything
I've done this twice now where I did what people thought couldn't be done and I did it in a way people said shouldn't be done.
So what's next?
What challenge remains for me?
Idk
Ooooh big update the meta do nothing ping deck just lost to my ramp list.
Like zzzzz easy they lost
Even with the nuts
Get owned by a good deck rofl
Ooooh alshan varus that is a good deck
But one I'm built to own sorry
Yeah no I get it you can hard counter with your own bad deck, but the thing is I actually climb with my decks.
Not pull them out for 1 bad game rofl
Anyone can meme only good players can meme and climb see the difference?
I do notice that the one thing you struggle with that prevents you from getting to masters is that you don't really "win" games.
You kind of look at okay I lost that last game what is the exact line of play that isn't going to "win" me the game but counter what just happened to me.
And its like okay great how do you win the other 100 now?
You dont know what they are playing and you're not going to beat them.
You see winrate climbing means clobering everyone!
You dont know their deck, their tech, their cards, their strategy, you just have to be better and I am
Yes ping spam is a deck we've established this well more a lack of a deck masquerading as a deck
Now fortunately most ping spam shells are ******** awful like literally the worst deck you could play.
Unfortunately there is one variant that is currently competitive and nobody wants it to be.
Maybe that one will get cracked too eventually we will see
Cuz if LOR ever gets to the point where open pass spam is the entire game nobody wants that, it can be exactly one deck and one deck only thats it
Gg indeed my tripple mystic shot friend
Even the perfect hand won't make you suck less against nifty aggro the proven masters level aggro deck
Damn nifty aggro is good boys let's just say there's that tier list than there's meeeee
You see we have been through this before you all line up with your swinging big dicks and I clobber u
It's always the same
Can we stop pretending now?
I'm a masters eternal player with a unique playstyle and unique decks that can not be replicated.
You cant stop me and you'll never be like me and that's okay :)
Gg troll is right lol do you think you consistently get to masters with my own decks by being bad?
No that's u
So when I say people have been meeming too hard in eternal I mean the following.
Thresh Nasus was seen as the best deck in the game...why? Because it board spammed and then it atrocitied for lethal.
People ran deny and that one smart deck running decision took theesh Nasus from 58% in eternal to 50% meaning it wasn't tier 1 it was an average average average deck - a solid meme nothing more
Now bot spam, it spams pings and then it spams bots. Can we find a decent solution for doing nothing into blah board vommit? I really want to hope so for the playerbase and for the format.
We beat thresh nasus, we beat poppy ziggs, we beat every meme that this format had to throw at us so let's beat bot spam. Cuz this format deserves it
1. Bott spam - it's a deck where you play cheap spells and then you play free 6/6 quick attackers. Wins 55% of games but a lot of that is the misplay and annoyance factor. I don't think it's the top 1% deck of the format more so just the best ping spam deck right now
2. Jax Orn - one of the best midrange decks in the game it does midrange things at 56%
3. Jayce lux - only sporting like a 51% winrate there are better control lists for sure
4. Ryze - down to 47% it is not a 4th place deck anymore it's not even a top 10 deck anymore when you high roll
5. Annie jhin - down to 53% compared to pirate aggro 58% it's bad
6. Elusive Spam- 54% winrate has good tech and good matchups but also big flaws
Honestly, pretty much everything else is down to sub 50% so you're better off playing your own decks for this meta
Because we aren't in a two deck eternal meta it isn't Jax or ping spam that's stupid
It's Jax, ping spam, elusive spam, aggro spam, and every single actually good deck people have found yet cuz they keep trying to find that next big meme list
Eternal is in a very balanced and strong position right now. Lots of deck, lots of variety and nothing that's screams nerf now. Like what are they gonna do nerf bot? Nerf pings? Nah ping spam ain't going anywhere but there's lots of other actual interesting stuff to play
Also shout outs to Mogwai and Swim they taught me how to play the game and now the student had become the master.
Also shootouts to the trolls and snipers that try to stop me. Making me work for it only ends up showing off my superiority so I appreciate it.
Final List after stone -> masters
3 - pigeons
3 - elegant edge
3 - butchers
3 - rearguard
1 - house spider
3 - demolisionists
3 - make it rain
3 - pirouette
3 - Samara
3 - miss fortune
3 - noxious fervor
3 - zap sprayfin
3 - eye of nagakboros
3 - decimate
Check is next season when I pilot another off meta homebrew deck from stone to masters on eternal ladder just because that's what Nifty does
So for those that don't know burst passing used to be when you'd burst to bank value then pass to pressure your opponent to committing resources.
Now it's more accurate to say that while burst passing is riskier pass bursting is very strong.
It's hard to imagine playing any aggro deck right now without a strong pass burst.
Pirate aggro can take free passes off control in order to draw cards at burst and improve board.
Elusives can take passes to bank stats on unblockable bodies.
Playing an aggro deck that cant do that like Annie Jhin feels bad to me.
So when I said that it's not a great deck in Eternal thats more so what I meant.
Obviously you can just run your linear optimal hand and win, but it can't really do anything beyond that and is very inflexible in terms of play pattern so objectively it's a little worse than last season for climbing I think
As for poppy ziggs I don't even know what happened to that deck? Majins attempt at creating a new persistent aggro deck fell off the planet? Oh well we all have our specialties.
So mixed climb with elusive spam and Nifty aggro.
Each deck has its merits one deck has very strong burst passes basically allowing you to bank 5/5 stats on your elusives on turn 3 so this devalues pings.
The other deck is just super fast and has good pings to clear 2/1 spam, and a stun for higher value blocks.
So once again the eternal king doing his own thing and winning casually like a lot!
So I dont know I'd you guys want to take this as a sign that I was right Nifty Aggro is a strong and consistent climbing deck or if you want to say I was wrong because I had to climb with one other deck to correct it's weaknesses.
I would say I was right, I very rarely mono climb anyway usually using a 2-3 deck rotation and that works for me. Last season was elites plus my own ramp deck. This season its elusives and my own aggro list.
Okay you high rolled your kaisa and you quit cuz you didn't get overwhelm or scout
Try playing the game!?