Ionia has always had acess to the best costed "removal" in the game in the form of bounces.
It remains the only way to simultaneously deal with big units, equipment, and attachments and buffed stats instantly under curve.
So with the huge surge of Illoi and Jax decks who specialize in big pp units with infinite value its no surprise that the answer is 4 mana boops back to hand.
How do I feel about this personally?
As a mtg player I like removal, I like control, I like hard answers to plays. Ionia specializes in being able to soft answer everything while delaying for their wincon.
Turns out tho that's very good right now.
The meta circle will look like this.
Big PP midrange > aggro
Ionia > midrange
Aggro > Ionia
I dont find rock paper scissors metas super compelling so I hope we see some interesting decks and developments break this stalemate soon.
Spoiler alert there is 1 card from Kayle's kit in this entire deck.
The rest is utilizing Ionia board Swarm and buff tactics. Things like keeper of masks and squirel on 3 to give everything 1 + 1 and go as wide as possible as fast as possible.
In reality this is a Zed Swarm deck sometimes called (zoo) in hearthstone for having lots of small agressive creatures you buff.
So again I would say I'm right the best Kayle deck isn't a Kayle deck with hand buffs as the card is intended but just uses her as a "garen" with up side to buff your wide board.
Spoiler alert it mostly has to do with her kit and the lack of substantial benefits for hand buffing right now.
Mana 1: a 2/1 that can have life steal...like okay but I'd rather play a 2/1 that either puts a chime in my deck or adds hallow power. Hell even omen hawk is a better Kayle card then Kayle's card.
Mana 3: you can have a big elusive dude in a game full of possible big elusive buff targets.
Mana 4: literally a better card in a dragon deck
Mana 5: we will get into this in a second but even if you purifying flame mihira you need to hit a chime on her too. You know what else has elusive and life steal? Sparklefly
Mana 7: not even dignifying with a response.
So okay Kayle's followers suck big dick, but kayle is good, how about her spells.
She has purifying flame...and a invulnerability champ spell...and that's it.
So she literally has less viable cards in her "kit" then a runeterra champion now that's not the end of the world you don't need to play her kit LOR has a massive card pool.
It just seems like a lot of work to run her right now, when there are better options. Specifically if you want a stat stick deck Jax Orn just got buffed and that decks is A easier to build B easier to pilot C less fragile and D more consistent.
Poor kayle I feel like Fox Mulder from the X-Files right now, I want to believe but I can't yet.
Attrox got nerfed Jinx got nerfed but more importantly a ton of cool decks got massively buffed so what the hell do you play?
Reading patch notes to understand what's viable and what isn't is a tough skill to master, even a ton of pro players are notoriously bad at it.
So I'm gonna help you out and list the top winners from the patch:
1. Illoi 3 mana tenticle smash is nuts and she got eye of God equipment before in the expansion making this deck a must play
2. Jax another good deck that got pushed over the edge of awesome with the recent buffs.
3. Thralls just that one change to lissandra makes this deck wprth revisiting on curve it's the same as playing a thrall on 1 so you're 10 times more likely to turbo out
4. Master yi leveling in deck is nuts first he gained a mana reduction passive now hes a guaranteed flip how great for Ionia!
5. Shivana while this deck is in need of some new support cards if you want to run ramp shivana into asol or shadow shivana it will be okay but not great.
6. Lucian heckarim is looking good with the challenger landmark ephemeral combo. Lucian outside of combo deck is worse where his mana reduction and statline is a liability. Play for the flip.
7. Sion duplicate - so everyone saw the new card and though anivia enabler that's small brain big brain is 3 sions with infinite rally. Only trouble is that discard Sion is kind of a bad aggro deck so you need to rely on shadow isles to help stabilize a bit.
8. Kayle not a huge fan of the champ design but I think this mana reduction will help bring bard back. They curve together now and you can hit your free 1 mana, 2 mana chimes to buff her easily then use spells to get her the rest of the way.
So there you have it the meta shift before it happens Jax and Illoi looking like the top contenders for new competitive lists. Jinx and attrox moving down to make room for new exciting possibilities. Gj riot
‐------extra note-----
I forgot about the hallowed Katarina nerf because that deck is so idiot proof I'd rather imagine it doesn't exist.
So yeah ruined reckoned (5 mana no blocks) was nerfed before and now Katarina got nerfed the deck will still be very playable because Katarina gets extra attack so her base stats don't really matter.
That being said, the more nerfs to hallowed the better its just too consistent on both the aggro play, and the closer. So still S tier I guess because easy = winrate but in reality I say A tier along with all the other meta nerfs.
Once again Riot hits it out of the park with its patches proving that they are generally far more exciting then the expansions themselves.
Also no rotation yet thank God, my boy vlad gets to still draw breath.
So big changes Kayle gets to actually be a card.
Whenever a champ goes down 1 mana its a big deal for those who remember Kindred used to be 5 mana and it was awful, then it became 4 mana and has seen meta play.
So Kayle going down from 6 to 5 is huge. Will I player her? Maybe as a Bard finisher because he's underplayed right now.
Katarina nerf. She went from unplayable to meta and now she's just good in the decks that want her. The free flock activator plus free rally combo is still strong.
Quietus nerf: people are overselling this a bit but I will tell you where the big difference is and thats malkai and veigar. When your 4 mana champ dies to a 1 mana spell and your deck revolves around them you insta lost. So big props for darkness being a deck again, generally cooler then like Nora shadow or heimer shadow.
Illois pkg buff: Illoi Jarvan, and Illoi Healing are cool decks that deserve to be playable. Very happy with these buffs l.
Weapon master pkg: Ash freijord midrange was always challenging to run competitively so Orn Jax was meant to be our savor. It kinda was but it needed buffs and it got it. Solid B+ tier deck now I say.
Yi buff: yi is gonna be the new Ionia staple control card no doubt. Very good buff here where he levels in deck, so you can bounce to protect ans retain value.
Lissanda buff: thralls playable again, hot Take I like thralls it's a tribal deck in a game where card piles are often better then archetypes. But the devs have taken strides to reverse this.
Shivana buff: levels in deck so going all in on shadow, demacia dragons might be worth revisiting. Remember that deck?
Lucian 1 mana: I think kenin has showed us that this stat line when properly built can be insane in a combo deck. So you definately want to slow roll him now. Setting up his level up on swing and playing him last. Or you just play him like temo and don't care if he dies.
Shurima control: weight of judgement and castigate, gives the region some flexibility for a slow game plan outside of sundisc. Don't get me wrong I think sundisc is "good" for the game. I just personally find it boring as hell.
So once again great patch Riot we practically got 1 brand new champion, and 1 ruinate and a ton of big balance stuff. Going to be very impactful overall. Archetypes over card piles all day!!!
People who know me are familiar with my love of Freijord.
Often times the absolute worst region in the game suffering in the midrange and control archetypes vs stronger alternatives with aggro not existing in that color.
So I was pleasantly surprised to see Graplr streaming a Braum Freijord list not once, not twice, but three times.
I like everything I see here from the way he's playing.
Basically get a Big Nora board going then buried in ice for your wincon for open swing.
Use freeze, deny, and braum to delay the game and tavern keeper for healing.
For board presence you have the Nora pkg creatures, and she supplies draw as well.
I love it, while the "best" players are thinking of which meta champions to 3 way split into a card pile meta vomit "optimal" strategy...
The real players are like hey here's a deck I like, I gonna win with it.
I'm not gonna sit here and say ramp good, Gwen good, attrox good, plunder good.
Because I have a high confidence in everyone that plays LOR will have a decent understanding that "archetypes" > "card piles" right now and that the deck stats are quite even.
Also midrange good, when everything else is balanced...duh.
Instead I'm gonna talks about the sneaky decks nobody knows about and why they are significant and possitive indicator of the overall balance of LOR right now.
1. Ekko - somebody once said that if Ekko was ever a good card LOR would be unplayable. Turns out that's stupid because when a high synergy, champ dependent deck is swinging a 53% winrate when he used to be F tier that is very good for the overall health of your game.
2. Elites - often viewed as the absolute worst deck in the game but if you can climb and win with Garen granted at 51% that's a healthy meta. You can take the absolute worst champion in the game right now to masters if you grind enough...that's amazing!
3. The unknown - when you see every single deck in the game performing at 54% and lower with key powerhouses like pirate aggro only hitting 51% that means pro players have no idea what the hell they should be playing.
Graplr - my man
Majin - no Ionia sir
Mogwai - abandoned
Sunny - his lists are just for fun
The point is that if you can build your own list that performs up to a 51% winrate standard according to mastering runeterra you are essentially as good as pirate aggro.
I can do that **** in my sleep and so can you. Death to card piles, long live archetypes.
Okay so now that the hot fix has landed and we can safely say we've moved past the stupid card pile phase, which happens every now and then, and pro players are like man this 3 champion split deck is 100% the best deck in the game, we can talk about what people are actually playing.
S tier:
1. Lulu Jinx - that right now the game is more or less balanced you can just play sneezy bigger dust and win fun deck that has stood the test of time in S tier
2. Pirate aggro - nerfed into the ground and still S tier its never going anywhere
A tier:
1 hallowed - yep another deck that has stood the test of time with the competitive use of the "recently" reworked Katarina showing that any low tier can become top tier.
2.hemier shadow - there's always some version of heimer control that is playable this does not change its universal
3. Ramp - ramp is probably the strongest its been in a long time in the latest expansion, I would call it almost unfair and all the best decks are.
4. Attrox decks - I'm just gonna lump these together cheap value equipment plus a big boy, sometimes you play for value and you go Kayne sometimes you play for thr extra attacks with Vayne, good flexible champ.
5. Swain Tf - one of the oldest viable control decks in LOR revitalized by the buffs to Swain and boat. Once again any low tier deck can be A tier.
6.plunder - even the nerf to gangplank can't keep this powerhouse midrange deck down.
7. Annie Jhin - kinda the worse version of aggro right now mainly because Jhins champ spell is the worst in the game. Change that and this aggro deck might hit S tier one day.
8. Seraphine Ezreal - still a good combo deck due to the spell priority change where spell procs happen instantly and you can just stack 10 spells for lethal, the nerd to barkeep didn't change a ton
9. Rumble - kinda just a scary card and obviously vayne let's him attack extra but I don't think she's necessary
Personal addition:
10. Shurima - I don't care if it's mono shurima or ziggs thaliyah landmarks this deck did not go from S tier to D tier with a 1 mana nerf.
B tier:
Lurk & deep - I'm gonna lump these together as the good bilgewater tribal decks I think they are both very playable
Yassao - yep if you're not brain deck this deck can put in the work
Zed Heckarim - got a very strong tribal card eith the latest expansion which makes it quite playable but not without weakness
So there you have it, actual archetypes and actual decks. I wouldn't be surprised if there's eay more thats viable that people just aren't playing.
The card pool is massive at this point and I kinda like that.
I'm gonna hate rotation, and I kinda hate these one hit wonder Champs Lor keeps releasing when Swain and Sejuani have been A tier for like the entirety of the lifespan of the game.
Right well based on numbers pirate aggro is the best deck so setting that aside what just happened in the last hotfix?
The incredibly lame attrox scout deck got nerfed, and seraphine barkeep got nerfed.
So once again I do recommend people play real decks, real archetypes.
God knows I basically just steam roll people.
You have to understand the only real thing separating a "meta" list vs a non "meta" list in LOR is piloting.
Swim used to pilot poros to a 54% winrate and then it was "meta."
So when I say that yes ramp, sundisc, yassao, deep, have piloting potential, I am referring to their ability to win in the right hands under the right circumstances.
As opposed to straightforward lines of play where you hit face like elusive good stuff, pirate aggro, attrox scouts, hallowed which are mostly idiot proof.
-----example----
Graplr just went 6-1 with starspring now you say that's a small sample size, statistical anomaly yatta yatta, I don't care he was kicking butt with a freaking healing deck:
LOR is a card game that is increasingly not only having superficial similarities with magic the gathering, but is also running into similar problems.
Namely, there are too many "set mechanics" being introduced into the game.
Culminating into perhaps what has been one of the biggest failures of an expansion to date, housing the first instance of dead champions.
Both Exodia (Rhyze) and empower (Kayle) don't really work or make sense in LOR as a game.
Like you could say we'll Bard exists and he can hard hand buff all your empower cards. Deck buff exists in freijord and a worse version of handcuff exists in Ionia, and now Targon has buff cards too.
So you should say that Kayle is amazing, she has more cross region support then any other champion in the game, but there in lies the problem.
If none of the synergies are worth pursuing then none of them will be played.
Similarly Rhyze isn't the first exodia card introduced into lor, fiora exists, healing fountain, and bandle tree.
So many of the most exciting cards in the expansion aren't actually the new champions but the pre-existing archetype support.
More ramp, more hallow (eww but yes good), more elite, more spawn for Illois, more self dmg and yes the list goes on.
For the first time in LOR history I'm more interested in crafting epic cards then champions as a free to play player because honestly who cares about this new garbage when you can play better designed decks with more support?
So what is the fix here longterm for LOR? For the first time ever I want to see more in archetype champion support. I want a 3 mana vlad enabler, I want a scout, I want a elite, I want a deep champion, a lurk champion, a daybreak nightfall champion.
In short take that massive league of legends roster you want to feed down our throat and just slam them in as an additional option for an already good deck.
Boom now everyone is a consideration and nothing is dead. While LOR believes the solution to its longterm health is just to delete old champions, I belive the opposite supplement them and stop churning out these one hit wonders.
Just my 2 cents feel free to hit me up in the comments.
For a second I want to imagine that you're a card game designer, creating a design document that outlines the creation of a game.
You start by listing out all of the different factors that might decide winning a match or losing, and then creating logical and relavent design decisions as a direct result.
Scenario A: the person with the biggest number on one side wins.
1. Will there be spells that can influence the math represented by a creatures attack - no?
2. All spells effects will be integrated into creature text
3. Cards get played at the same time
4. There will be 3 locations which will provide a small degree of variance and decision making where none would exist otherwise
So what this effectively means is that the decks that present the strongest one sided board states invariably win...period
Scenario B: The person who goes from 20 to 0 life loses
1. Well you can cast spells to decrease life, so you need healing and counter spells to compensate
2. You have creatures, but you also must be able to block attacks so you don't die
3. You have buffs that are temporary that can only be played at the moment of combat interaction, but also permanent buffs for tribal decks
4. You can cast spells to kill units one at a time or all at once.
5. You have special wincons that don't involve life manipulation
You see the addition of a life total in a card game creates opportunities for spiraling design opportunities.
Games that don't have life Totals are simple a matter of bigger number wins, and without the means of direct interaction there is never a reason to play a deck that presents lower numbers then bigger ones unless you're just locking the opponent down so they can't play.
What you end up with is a dumb game by design, and it shouldn't be a surprise it was in the design document all along.
So just played 2 games of marvel snap because I was stuck on a train.
1. Deck number 1 patriot mystique
2 deck number 2 cerebro
Effectively they are the same deck, they both provide aura buffs for units, or are "tribal" decks without any inherent synergies or intrigue beyond buff math because math wins
Even worse this is an evolution of the pool 1 Swarm decks that used blue marvel and Tarzan. But instead of having your big auras cost 5 and 6 they cost 3.
3 is better then 5.
Marvel snap is such an complicated and interesting game!
I hate to be that guy but these takes are kinda hot garbage.
Pirate aggro was swinging around 60% winrate because killing opponents is better then not killing opponents.
Vayne has seen similar sucess with Atrox because he's a big boy with regen that gets to equip and attack for free with Vayne (aka killing the opponent)
Hallowed will continue to do hallow things present on curve threats that deny removal value.
So the best counter decks in the meta inevitable will be able to deal with small to medium sized threats while staying alive.
Tf Swain (sure)
Ezreal Seraphin (absolutely)
Ramp (you betcha)
Does that mean that there aren't any other control decks worth playing?
No you can play sundisc for sure, you could probably make Ionia work, different shadow isles brews, P and Z is nuts, Bandle and Freijord got hard buffed.
So really the only hot Take that matters is would you rather be the one doing the killing with whatever is the top aggro or midrange deck or do you want to be the one doing the living by effectively building slower counter decks.
Yeah glad to know it's not just me with decisive feelings about Snap because of all the excellent points made above ^
Talking specifically about the slow pace of LOR its true. When I look back on particularly difficult to play around lists sundisc is a prime example.
Do a bunch of stuff that delays the game and doesn't matter, flip sundisc, win game. It's still very much a valid strategy.
But they also did a lot to speed things up with the Ionia nerfs without that the game would still be unplayable.
So maybe Snap will start to release more interesting archetypes and strategies with time who knows. Give us old school card players something to sink our teeth into.
I waxed poetic quite a bit before about how wild mysticism is the single best Freijord card since lisandra and three sisters.
Single handedly elevating the region to the likes of druid from hearthstone which was always the intention (midrange freij still saj)
But another card came out that no seems to be talking about and boy is it a doozy.
Back in the day of shurimas release people used to talk about the uber deny, and how toxic it was deleting a chain of spells for a mana crystal.
But nobody is saying anything about the cycle deny in bandlecity. You see the thing about deny is that its kind of a "bad card" ie. It's verrrry high value the turn you play it and kinda gets worse with subsequent uses.
So having deny simultaneously thin your deck and get you to your wincon is insane.
It's good too because the region needed another pillar card like pokey stick so they got pokey deny and it makes bandle city a valid control region consideration once again.
Good job Riot I'l admit I thought Darkin saga pt 2 was kind of a mess and I criticized Part 3 for being low impact but you really take a closer look there are some game changers.
I got to vibranium with an equal card pool and equal footing with opponents.
Just maximizing the gambling mechanic by knowing exactly every card the opponent could have because they had the same cards as me.
Then I got to pool 3 and the game changed. Instantly it just became about mashing as much math into the opponents face in the 6 turns alloted and nothing else mattered.
So very quickly I started to miss things like instant speed interactions, fast speed interactions, removal, board cleares, like actual "counter play" beyond location locking, movement and killmonger/chang chi which are the exception not the rule.
So for the first time ever I'm regressing back a game, I'm back maining LOR because I disagree with Mogwai I think Snap kinda sucks.
When Ben Brode took out everything in card games that was "anti fun" he also took everything out of card games that was "pro smart" and that kinda sucks.
So yeah Snap you have a lot of growing up to do in my mind to match the perfection of LOR
Just my 5 cents feel free to fight me in the comments.
People are very quick to flock to strategies that are simple and effective in LOR.
Zoe elusive, hallowed card pile, bilgewater aggro, not realizing that with the release of part 3 of the darkin saga that a massive number of good cards hit the table.
We got elite support, we got ramp support, we got acess to the full playset of darkin weapons which are all broken.
We got new spells, new followers, we got poros, and the list goes on.
Yet everyone is just like durrrr hallowed 1 drop, hallowed 2 drop win game plz durrrr?
Meanwhile I'm like boom quadruple ramp 8 drop what chu do now do nothing deck?
Play actual archetypes, play actual decks with actual wincons, actual champion level ups, and actual reason to play and win.
Don't just play the 54% winrate card pile vs the 52% winrate archetype.
Because you will ironically lose against anyone who isn't hedging their bets against mediocrity as hard as you are.
Ionia has always had acess to the best costed "removal" in the game in the form of bounces.
It remains the only way to simultaneously deal with big units, equipment, and attachments and buffed stats instantly under curve.
So with the huge surge of Illoi and Jax decks who specialize in big pp units with infinite value its no surprise that the answer is 4 mana boops back to hand.
How do I feel about this personally?
As a mtg player I like removal, I like control, I like hard answers to plays. Ionia specializes in being able to soft answer everything while delaying for their wincon.
Turns out tho that's very good right now.
The meta circle will look like this.
Big PP midrange > aggro
Ionia > midrange
Aggro > Ionia
I dont find rock paper scissors metas super compelling so I hope we see some interesting decks and developments break this stalemate soon.
https://masteringruneterra.com/deck/CQDACBIKW4AQCBICAYBAGCJQLABAMAQME4BAMCIIEMCQCAQJCQNCUNAAAEAQIAQH
Spoiler alert there is 1 card from Kayle's kit in this entire deck.
The rest is utilizing Ionia board Swarm and buff tactics. Things like keeper of masks and squirel on 3 to give everything 1 + 1 and go as wide as possible as fast as possible.
In reality this is a Zed Swarm deck sometimes called (zoo) in hearthstone for having lots of small agressive creatures you buff.
So again I would say I'm right the best Kayle deck isn't a Kayle deck with hand buffs as the card is intended but just uses her as a "garen" with up side to buff your wide board.
Spoiler alert it mostly has to do with her kit and the lack of substantial benefits for hand buffing right now.
Mana 1: a 2/1 that can have life steal...like okay but I'd rather play a 2/1 that either puts a chime in my deck or adds hallow power. Hell even omen hawk is a better Kayle card then Kayle's card.
Mana 3: you can have a big elusive dude in a game full of possible big elusive buff targets.
Mana 4: literally a better card in a dragon deck
Mana 5: we will get into this in a second but even if you purifying flame mihira you need to hit a chime on her too. You know what else has elusive and life steal? Sparklefly
Mana 7: not even dignifying with a response.
So okay Kayle's followers suck big dick, but kayle is good, how about her spells.
She has purifying flame...and a invulnerability champ spell...and that's it.
So she literally has less viable cards in her "kit" then a runeterra champion now that's not the end of the world you don't need to play her kit LOR has a massive card pool.
It just seems like a lot of work to run her right now, when there are better options. Specifically if you want a stat stick deck Jax Orn just got buffed and that decks is A easier to build B easier to pilot C less fragile and D more consistent.
Poor kayle I feel like Fox Mulder from the X-Files right now, I want to believe but I can't yet.
So a new balance patch just hit.
Attrox got nerfed Jinx got nerfed but more importantly a ton of cool decks got massively buffed so what the hell do you play?
Reading patch notes to understand what's viable and what isn't is a tough skill to master, even a ton of pro players are notoriously bad at it.
So I'm gonna help you out and list the top winners from the patch:
1. Illoi 3 mana tenticle smash is nuts and she got eye of God equipment before in the expansion making this deck a must play
2. Jax another good deck that got pushed over the edge of awesome with the recent buffs.
3. Thralls just that one change to lissandra makes this deck wprth revisiting on curve it's the same as playing a thrall on 1 so you're 10 times more likely to turbo out
4. Master yi leveling in deck is nuts first he gained a mana reduction passive now hes a guaranteed flip how great for Ionia!
5. Shivana while this deck is in need of some new support cards if you want to run ramp shivana into asol or shadow shivana it will be okay but not great.
6. Lucian heckarim is looking good with the challenger landmark ephemeral combo. Lucian outside of combo deck is worse where his mana reduction and statline is a liability. Play for the flip.
7. Sion duplicate - so everyone saw the new card and though anivia enabler that's small brain big brain is 3 sions with infinite rally. Only trouble is that discard Sion is kind of a bad aggro deck so you need to rely on shadow isles to help stabilize a bit.
8. Kayle not a huge fan of the champ design but I think this mana reduction will help bring bard back. They curve together now and you can hit your free 1 mana, 2 mana chimes to buff her easily then use spells to get her the rest of the way.
So there you have it the meta shift before it happens Jax and Illoi looking like the top contenders for new competitive lists. Jinx and attrox moving down to make room for new exciting possibilities. Gj riot
‐------extra note-----
I forgot about the hallowed Katarina nerf because that deck is so idiot proof I'd rather imagine it doesn't exist.
So yeah ruined reckoned (5 mana no blocks) was nerfed before and now Katarina got nerfed the deck will still be very playable because Katarina gets extra attack so her base stats don't really matter.
That being said, the more nerfs to hallowed the better its just too consistent on both the aggro play, and the closer. So still S tier I guess because easy = winrate but in reality I say A tier along with all the other meta nerfs.
Once again Riot hits it out of the park with its patches proving that they are generally far more exciting then the expansions themselves.
Also no rotation yet thank God, my boy vlad gets to still draw breath.
So big changes Kayle gets to actually be a card.
Whenever a champ goes down 1 mana its a big deal for those who remember Kindred used to be 5 mana and it was awful, then it became 4 mana and has seen meta play.
So Kayle going down from 6 to 5 is huge. Will I player her? Maybe as a Bard finisher because he's underplayed right now.
Katarina nerf. She went from unplayable to meta and now she's just good in the decks that want her. The free flock activator plus free rally combo is still strong.
Quietus nerf: people are overselling this a bit but I will tell you where the big difference is and thats malkai and veigar. When your 4 mana champ dies to a 1 mana spell and your deck revolves around them you insta lost. So big props for darkness being a deck again, generally cooler then like Nora shadow or heimer shadow.
Illois pkg buff: Illoi Jarvan, and Illoi Healing are cool decks that deserve to be playable. Very happy with these buffs l.
Weapon master pkg: Ash freijord midrange was always challenging to run competitively so Orn Jax was meant to be our savor. It kinda was but it needed buffs and it got it. Solid B+ tier deck now I say.
Yi buff: yi is gonna be the new Ionia staple control card no doubt. Very good buff here where he levels in deck, so you can bounce to protect ans retain value.
Lissanda buff: thralls playable again, hot Take I like thralls it's a tribal deck in a game where card piles are often better then archetypes. But the devs have taken strides to reverse this.
Shivana buff: levels in deck so going all in on shadow, demacia dragons might be worth revisiting. Remember that deck?
Lucian 1 mana: I think kenin has showed us that this stat line when properly built can be insane in a combo deck. So you definately want to slow roll him now. Setting up his level up on swing and playing him last. Or you just play him like temo and don't care if he dies.
Shurima control: weight of judgement and castigate, gives the region some flexibility for a slow game plan outside of sundisc. Don't get me wrong I think sundisc is "good" for the game. I just personally find it boring as hell.
So once again great patch Riot we practically got 1 brand new champion, and 1 ruinate and a ton of big balance stuff. Going to be very impactful overall. Archetypes over card piles all day!!!
https://youtu.be/mbDFH9Pz3us
People who know me are familiar with my love of Freijord.
Often times the absolute worst region in the game suffering in the midrange and control archetypes vs stronger alternatives with aggro not existing in that color.
So I was pleasantly surprised to see Graplr streaming a Braum Freijord list not once, not twice, but three times.
I like everything I see here from the way he's playing.
Basically get a Big Nora board going then buried in ice for your wincon for open swing.
Use freeze, deny, and braum to delay the game and tavern keeper for healing.
For board presence you have the Nora pkg creatures, and she supplies draw as well.
I love it, while the "best" players are thinking of which meta champions to 3 way split into a card pile meta vomit "optimal" strategy...
The real players are like hey here's a deck I like, I gonna win with it.
Game on Graplr keep the brews going strong buddy!
I'm not gonna sit here and say ramp good, Gwen good, attrox good, plunder good.
Because I have a high confidence in everyone that plays LOR will have a decent understanding that "archetypes" > "card piles" right now and that the deck stats are quite even.
Also midrange good, when everything else is balanced...duh.
Instead I'm gonna talks about the sneaky decks nobody knows about and why they are significant and possitive indicator of the overall balance of LOR right now.
1. Ekko - somebody once said that if Ekko was ever a good card LOR would be unplayable. Turns out that's stupid because when a high synergy, champ dependent deck is swinging a 53% winrate when he used to be F tier that is very good for the overall health of your game.
2. Elites - often viewed as the absolute worst deck in the game but if you can climb and win with Garen granted at 51% that's a healthy meta. You can take the absolute worst champion in the game right now to masters if you grind enough...that's amazing!
3. The unknown - when you see every single deck in the game performing at 54% and lower with key powerhouses like pirate aggro only hitting 51% that means pro players have no idea what the hell they should be playing.
Graplr - my man
Majin - no Ionia sir
Mogwai - abandoned
Sunny - his lists are just for fun
The point is that if you can build your own list that performs up to a 51% winrate standard according to mastering runeterra you are essentially as good as pirate aggro.
I can do that **** in my sleep and so can you. Death to card piles, long live archetypes.
https://app.mobalytics.gg/lor/meta-tier-list
Okay so now that the hot fix has landed and we can safely say we've moved past the stupid card pile phase, which happens every now and then, and pro players are like man this 3 champion split deck is 100% the best deck in the game, we can talk about what people are actually playing.
S tier:
1. Lulu Jinx - that right now the game is more or less balanced you can just play sneezy bigger dust and win fun deck that has stood the test of time in S tier
2. Pirate aggro - nerfed into the ground and still S tier its never going anywhere
A tier:
1 hallowed - yep another deck that has stood the test of time with the competitive use of the "recently" reworked Katarina showing that any low tier can become top tier.
2.hemier shadow - there's always some version of heimer control that is playable this does not change its universal
3. Ramp - ramp is probably the strongest its been in a long time in the latest expansion, I would call it almost unfair and all the best decks are.
4. Attrox decks - I'm just gonna lump these together cheap value equipment plus a big boy, sometimes you play for value and you go Kayne sometimes you play for thr extra attacks with Vayne, good flexible champ.
5. Swain Tf - one of the oldest viable control decks in LOR revitalized by the buffs to Swain and boat. Once again any low tier deck can be A tier.
6.plunder - even the nerf to gangplank can't keep this powerhouse midrange deck down.
7. Annie Jhin - kinda the worse version of aggro right now mainly because Jhins champ spell is the worst in the game. Change that and this aggro deck might hit S tier one day.
8. Seraphine Ezreal - still a good combo deck due to the spell priority change where spell procs happen instantly and you can just stack 10 spells for lethal, the nerd to barkeep didn't change a ton
9. Rumble - kinda just a scary card and obviously vayne let's him attack extra but I don't think she's necessary
Personal addition:
10. Shurima - I don't care if it's mono shurima or ziggs thaliyah landmarks this deck did not go from S tier to D tier with a 1 mana nerf.
B tier:
Lurk & deep - I'm gonna lump these together as the good bilgewater tribal decks I think they are both very playable
Yassao - yep if you're not brain deck this deck can put in the work
Zed Heckarim - got a very strong tribal card eith the latest expansion which makes it quite playable but not without weakness
So there you have it, actual archetypes and actual decks. I wouldn't be surprised if there's eay more thats viable that people just aren't playing.
The card pool is massive at this point and I kinda like that.
I'm gonna hate rotation, and I kinda hate these one hit wonder Champs Lor keeps releasing when Swain and Sejuani have been A tier for like the entirety of the lifespan of the game.
Yeah like even Mogwai has been pretty quiet lately with his uploads and he was this games biggest cheerleader.
The problem is that the game just doesn't have "reactive plays."
Like if your opponent is playing patriot you could counter with enchantress. But that means you have to be playing that exact card.
There is no "removal" no "burst" no "combat phase" there's just tech cards really.
Right well based on numbers pirate aggro is the best deck so setting that aside what just happened in the last hotfix?
The incredibly lame attrox scout deck got nerfed, and seraphine barkeep got nerfed.
So once again I do recommend people play real decks, real archetypes.
God knows I basically just steam roll people.
You have to understand the only real thing separating a "meta" list vs a non "meta" list in LOR is piloting.
Swim used to pilot poros to a 54% winrate and then it was "meta."
So when I say that yes ramp, sundisc, yassao, deep, have piloting potential, I am referring to their ability to win in the right hands under the right circumstances.
As opposed to straightforward lines of play where you hit face like elusive good stuff, pirate aggro, attrox scouts, hallowed which are mostly idiot proof.
-----example----
Graplr just went 6-1 with starspring now you say that's a small sample size, statistical anomaly yatta yatta, I don't care he was kicking butt with a freaking healing deck:
https://youtu.be/louvgSQSd9E
LOR is a card game that is increasingly not only having superficial similarities with magic the gathering, but is also running into similar problems.
Namely, there are too many "set mechanics" being introduced into the game.
Culminating into perhaps what has been one of the biggest failures of an expansion to date, housing the first instance of dead champions.
Both Exodia (Rhyze) and empower (Kayle) don't really work or make sense in LOR as a game.
Like you could say we'll Bard exists and he can hard hand buff all your empower cards. Deck buff exists in freijord and a worse version of handcuff exists in Ionia, and now Targon has buff cards too.
So you should say that Kayle is amazing, she has more cross region support then any other champion in the game, but there in lies the problem.
If none of the synergies are worth pursuing then none of them will be played.
Similarly Rhyze isn't the first exodia card introduced into lor, fiora exists, healing fountain, and bandle tree.
So many of the most exciting cards in the expansion aren't actually the new champions but the pre-existing archetype support.
More ramp, more hallow (eww but yes good), more elite, more spawn for Illois, more self dmg and yes the list goes on.
For the first time in LOR history I'm more interested in crafting epic cards then champions as a free to play player because honestly who cares about this new garbage when you can play better designed decks with more support?
So what is the fix here longterm for LOR? For the first time ever I want to see more in archetype champion support. I want a 3 mana vlad enabler, I want a scout, I want a elite, I want a deep champion, a lurk champion, a daybreak nightfall champion.
In short take that massive league of legends roster you want to feed down our throat and just slam them in as an additional option for an already good deck.
Boom now everyone is a consideration and nothing is dead. While LOR believes the solution to its longterm health is just to delete old champions, I belive the opposite supplement them and stop churning out these one hit wonders.
Just my 2 cents feel free to hit me up in the comments.
For a second I want to imagine that you're a card game designer, creating a design document that outlines the creation of a game.
You start by listing out all of the different factors that might decide winning a match or losing, and then creating logical and relavent design decisions as a direct result.
Scenario A: the person with the biggest number on one side wins.
1. Will there be spells that can influence the math represented by a creatures attack - no?
2. All spells effects will be integrated into creature text
3. Cards get played at the same time
4. There will be 3 locations which will provide a small degree of variance and decision making where none would exist otherwise
So what this effectively means is that the decks that present the strongest one sided board states invariably win...period
Scenario B: The person who goes from 20 to 0 life loses
1. Well you can cast spells to decrease life, so you need healing and counter spells to compensate
2. You have creatures, but you also must be able to block attacks so you don't die
3. You have buffs that are temporary that can only be played at the moment of combat interaction, but also permanent buffs for tribal decks
4. You can cast spells to kill units one at a time or all at once.
5. You have special wincons that don't involve life manipulation
You see the addition of a life total in a card game creates opportunities for spiraling design opportunities.
Games that don't have life Totals are simple a matter of bigger number wins, and without the means of direct interaction there is never a reason to play a deck that presents lower numbers then bigger ones unless you're just locking the opponent down so they can't play.
What you end up with is a dumb game by design, and it shouldn't be a surprise it was in the design document all along.
So just played 2 games of marvel snap because I was stuck on a train.
1. Deck number 1 patriot mystique
2 deck number 2 cerebro
Effectively they are the same deck, they both provide aura buffs for units, or are "tribal" decks without any inherent synergies or intrigue beyond buff math because math wins
Even worse this is an evolution of the pool 1 Swarm decks that used blue marvel and Tarzan. But instead of having your big auras cost 5 and 6 they cost 3.
3 is better then 5.
Marvel snap is such an complicated and interesting game!
I hate to be that guy but these takes are kinda hot garbage.
Pirate aggro was swinging around 60% winrate because killing opponents is better then not killing opponents.
Vayne has seen similar sucess with Atrox because he's a big boy with regen that gets to equip and attack for free with Vayne (aka killing the opponent)
Hallowed will continue to do hallow things present on curve threats that deny removal value.
So the best counter decks in the meta inevitable will be able to deal with small to medium sized threats while staying alive.
Tf Swain (sure)
Ezreal Seraphin (absolutely)
Ramp (you betcha)
Does that mean that there aren't any other control decks worth playing?
No you can play sundisc for sure, you could probably make Ionia work, different shadow isles brews, P and Z is nuts, Bandle and Freijord got hard buffed.
So really the only hot Take that matters is would you rather be the one doing the killing with whatever is the top aggro or midrange deck or do you want to be the one doing the living by effectively building slower counter decks.
Yeah glad to know it's not just me with decisive feelings about Snap because of all the excellent points made above ^
Talking specifically about the slow pace of LOR its true. When I look back on particularly difficult to play around lists sundisc is a prime example.
Do a bunch of stuff that delays the game and doesn't matter, flip sundisc, win game. It's still very much a valid strategy.
But they also did a lot to speed things up with the Ionia nerfs without that the game would still be unplayable.
So maybe Snap will start to release more interesting archetypes and strategies with time who knows. Give us old school card players something to sink our teeth into.
Until then Mogwais still wrong, sorry Miguel :)
So they printed two new self dmg cards in the most recent expansion.
Here to help, and blood Pigeon.
Both are very strong in Vlad
But guess who's number one on the rotation chopping block?
Thats right the self dmg champion
Forget about rotation Riot you'll ruin your amazing game.
Oh and this deck is actually pretty good now BTW.
Is it a meme yes, but it's a strong meme and isn't that what card games are all about?
I waxed poetic quite a bit before about how wild mysticism is the single best Freijord card since lisandra and three sisters.
Single handedly elevating the region to the likes of druid from hearthstone which was always the intention (midrange freij still saj)
But another card came out that no seems to be talking about and boy is it a doozy.
Back in the day of shurimas release people used to talk about the uber deny, and how toxic it was deleting a chain of spells for a mana crystal.
But nobody is saying anything about the cycle deny in bandlecity. You see the thing about deny is that its kind of a "bad card" ie. It's verrrry high value the turn you play it and kinda gets worse with subsequent uses.
So having deny simultaneously thin your deck and get you to your wincon is insane.
It's good too because the region needed another pillar card like pokey stick so they got pokey deny and it makes bandle city a valid control region consideration once again.
Good job Riot I'l admit I thought Darkin saga pt 2 was kind of a mess and I criticized Part 3 for being low impact but you really take a closer look there are some game changers.
So like many of you I swap cards games now and then.
Hearthstone -> gwent -> shadowverse ->mtg arena -> lor -> snap
Early impressions were good in pool 1 and 2.
I got to vibranium with an equal card pool and equal footing with opponents.
Just maximizing the gambling mechanic by knowing exactly every card the opponent could have because they had the same cards as me.
Then I got to pool 3 and the game changed. Instantly it just became about mashing as much math into the opponents face in the 6 turns alloted and nothing else mattered.
So very quickly I started to miss things like instant speed interactions, fast speed interactions, removal, board cleares, like actual "counter play" beyond location locking, movement and killmonger/chang chi which are the exception not the rule.
So for the first time ever I'm regressing back a game, I'm back maining LOR because I disagree with Mogwai I think Snap kinda sucks.
When Ben Brode took out everything in card games that was "anti fun" he also took everything out of card games that was "pro smart" and that kinda sucks.
So yeah Snap you have a lot of growing up to do in my mind to match the perfection of LOR
Just my 5 cents feel free to fight me in the comments.
People are very quick to flock to strategies that are simple and effective in LOR.
Zoe elusive, hallowed card pile, bilgewater aggro, not realizing that with the release of part 3 of the darkin saga that a massive number of good cards hit the table.
We got elite support, we got ramp support, we got acess to the full playset of darkin weapons which are all broken.
We got new spells, new followers, we got poros, and the list goes on.
Yet everyone is just like durrrr hallowed 1 drop, hallowed 2 drop win game plz durrrr?
Meanwhile I'm like boom quadruple ramp 8 drop what chu do now do nothing deck?
Play actual archetypes, play actual decks with actual wincons, actual champion level ups, and actual reason to play and win.
Don't just play the 54% winrate card pile vs the 52% winrate archetype.
Because you will ironically lose against anyone who isn't hedging their bets against mediocrity as hard as you are.
So what you just said is that silver surfer isn't the best card in the silver surfer deck
Do you see the problem with that?
Aka yes obviouy mystique into patriot is better because you are stacking a 3 location buff for less mana then captain marvel.
And youre stacking it twice