1. Kat Gwen - got the new landmark so a good deck got a little better- obvious weaknesses and a little dusty but it's aight
2. Kayne Vayne - meh Kayne is absolutely buffed in the latest patch bit Vayne is probably the least interesting way to run him
3. Elusive Good stuff - yup still here being unremarkable
4. Annie Tf - just buffed but at a 50% winrate people aren't building the list right
5. Timeliness- I had mentioned ramp is in a good position but again 50% the deck is better then that try getting out of shadow isles
6. Sophie Viktor - sub 50%
So other then elsuvie good stuff, Gwen, and Vayne these list are failing to obtain a positive win rate.
So basically my point still stands whether it's Swims old website Mobalytics (rip) or Majin Baes new website nobody has figured out how to play after the auto build Ionia meta.
Jesus I'm running the table with an elite list that's how absolute dog poop peoples current meta expectations are right now. Again, I can do a post and talk about what decks out of our massive card pool are worth considering and what isn't.
Elusive good stuff and Viktor card pile are S tier?
Like I know I haven't played the game for a while and they nerfed all the broke stuff namely Ionia tellstones and mildly tweaked the overstated Swain but I guaranteee there's better decks to play then just elusive good stuff.
So let's talk about what good from a brewers perspective who never plays S tier stuff anyways and still does fine.
Discard - they buffed Jinx obviously in a big way but I might actually give Draven Sion another look just jamming that 7 drop when people aren't running 9 bounces and stuns makes a big difference.
Landmark - just good midrange junk man, now that you're not getting instantly fed on by every single Swain deck in the meta you can just do your landmark things and win
Bandlecity - with the pirate aggro nerf a while back and the tweaks to Nami go wide decks yordlea are looking like a far more serious deck option
Daybreak - the Leona buff wasn't that long ago and once again midrange decks that aren't Swain are playable again, even less rallies to worry about.
Jayce/Lux - P and Z control that isn't ezreal or Taylor swift is gonna work far better after the death of Lee Sin and combo decks in general
Raaaaaamp - yeah the troll buff actually matters, allows feel the rush to exist outside of shadow isles naturally
Frostbite - wait is freijord good again cuz now we got Ash playable again too, I know people forgot this region exists but it's there
Deep - deep didn't go anywhere it was always strong and in a bounce less world its even better
I could do this all day and list decks potentially under looked in LOR right now because it honestly looks like after the major Ionia nerfs people forgot how to play this game.
Aaaaaah I can't just jam Akshan and cycle champions in 20 of my decks anymore aaaaaah.
Basically, an exceptionally condescending way of saying that we don't want to listen to player feedback because we believe you to be misinformed and inarticulate.
So I'm going to try my best to communicate as if I was writing LOR's design document:
LOR is a card game where you attempt to satisfy unique questing conditions in order to level up (flip) your preffered champions.
These "quests" should guide the player towards certain "archetypes" and deck building decisions in a organic and non intrusive manner.
The implications being that these quests are powerful while also remaining mutually distinct and worth pursuing (this is where the fun is.)
Deck break downs:
Actual constructions of decks are comprised of reactive plays (fast speed spells) pro active plays (burst speed spells) and creatures wrapped up in a compellingly unique turn based pkg.
The Problem:
When decks become too homogenous, when champion level up conditions don't feel game winning, when reactive plays like stuns and bounces out weigh the value of playing high cost followers (5 plus) the game starts to lose that fun factor.
The conclusion:
People including popular streamers start to migrate from your game, you start introducing low impact expansions and nobody plays those cards, you also dangle the threat of rotation so people can't even play the decks they want to play and your game loses popularity.
The solution:
The same thing it's always been heavy handed comprehensive balance patches that nerf what's reducing viability and buff what's not viable. It's unfortunate, but it's the only way you can commit to keeping LOR a compelling and fun experience and get those streamers playing again.
Rather then say write a massive blog post about how your players are inarticulate trolls who can't speak "designer" when it's your own choices and decission making drawing your game and community into question.
I've gotten out of touch with the competitive scene as well.
But thats only because this.is the first mini set that felt legitimately low impact.
Almost the mtg thing where you have impactful cards being the champions, and then just bulk.
Like hey new Draken equipment that nobody uses, new followers that nobody uses, new spells that nobody uses.
Instead it just akshan, tf, the rally deck, the Ionia deck, the otk deck. Nothing really new or exciting here and I actually feel like foe the first time.ever I wasted all my dust for this sets additions.
Are they even getting re-tuned like if I was a streamer I would be dreadfully bored of LOR right now and leave too.
So with the release of the newest mini set Lor has been kind of a mess.
A lot of the interesting and worth while play patterns that defined the game are increasingly being ironed out for what works.
Turbo strategies, do nothing strategies, general malaise and lack of interest/intrigue
Topped off now with what can only be described as streamer migration.
It began small by Swim and BBG quitting the game but now even Mogwai has left for a competitor.
I have to say that the future of Lor is looking darker then it has for quite some time.
I would say personally that the only real fix is going to be archetype support, hard buffs for freijord, and legitimate reasons to play midrange again.
Beyond that what is it that makes Lor truly appealing when compared to its competitors because I'm starting to forget.
As far as I can tell there are essentially two decks in the meta.
Seraphin which are the do nothing decks and Vayne that are the do something decks.
They each have something like 3 decks a piece.
Wouldn't call that wide open personally so much as a victim of the mini set release formula but I'm optimistic that when the last part of the Drakin Saga releases and gives Freijord something to do there might be some balance.
Yes because it's a card cycle champion that levels faster and more reliably then TF and he's also great.
The whole just add cycle champion, plus stall, plus deny thing, then you have your one win con is just kinda boring for me.
Like out of all the new possibilities for the new set and you settle in mini karma and not even with ezreal to like do something, but again akshan...it's brutal man.
So yeah views seem low for the mini expansion, interest similarly non remarkable, so I'm gonna be playing Overwatch 2.
Which has been sick honestly, team pushing the momentum of an entire game from thr back lines just by forcing people to try to solo que you is great, and then they forget how to play the game.
I think I have that effect in shooters as well as card games.
You're pretty much better playing anything other then a Freijord dominated list, and certainly not a Freijord control list most of all
There is a Tahm Kench list that isn't awful where you just Aram and then hope you R and G into a better region wincon like Lee Sin but wait I kinda just proved my point
Freijord remains the absolute best region in the game, I think we all know that.
You can spend somewhere between 3-5 mana to frostbite something which is a strictly worse stun or bounce
You can spend 4 mana to possibly mystic shot more then one thing
and you can overpay on ramp
All that with your only hard removal option buried in ice being an astounding 9 mana
Even if you play the list optimally and run something proper like captain arnika at 8 you're still basically instantly loosing on tempo, or on control.
Essentially the worse case scenario.
So how do you fix the objectively best region in the game?
Give them wincons that win?
Give them control tools that control?
Give them tempo tools that tempo?
Basically anything really that would allow it to compete on the try hard scale that we seem to be inundated with in this game.
Don't get me wrong two years ago avalanche may have been okay, frostbite may have been okay, but by todays standards unplayable.
I want to say that a 2 mana ice shards is a step in the right direction and it is, but everything else is a joke.
More variety reveals but mostly wamt to talk about Taylor Swift and her champ spell.
2 for 2 at fast speed is already okay 2 on one target and 1 on a second target is an amazing effect to double up on.
Essentially 6 dmg across two bodies for two mana, imagine if freijord got spells that good because honestly this will remake p and z control and ezreal by extension.
So yeah Seraphine amazing card, amazing champ spell that you actually want to 3 of in deckbuilding even without her.
Still sad Frijord remains the worst control region in the game by a growing margin.
Oh well that significantly worse. Typically you just want to frostbite one thing and then you lose the game because you chose to play a control region with 0 good card advantage tools.
Anyways speaking of good control regions let's look at more amazing pink region cards:
Unworthy soul - hey you know what would be good guys a will of Ionia for 3 mana that destroyed equipment and attached champions like kitty...yeah Riot that would be pretty good it would just be broken.
The witness: Hey guys let's print stun spider for 2 mana in Ionia as a 3/3 won't that be good?
Like the biggest problem in LOR right now at a competitive level is that swinging with potential wincons is impossible without spell shield period full stop, and they just keep doubling down on this at Riot.
Now you may say Nifty frejord has frostbite, yes but now imagine carefully that if instead of spending 3 mana to (remove) a card from the (game) you just kinda tickeled it so it kinda didn't want to attack anymore.
Having both blighted ravine and avalanche on 4 has always felt exceptionally awkward in Freijord and no amount of careful ratioing or tweaking solves the fundamental problem. The number of players that have felt comfortable just 1 drop, 2 drop spawn two bodies, jam a bunch a one drops on 3 and swing into this region is insane, and to be fair they were right to do so, because blighted wont land, and avalanche is a bad card. Well now you have ice shards for 2 that's amazing, and bam if it's late game destroy an equipment instead, instant 3 of for any ramp deck thank god.
Daybreak is already a really good grindy deck where you just play stuff until your opponent runs out of steam, and now they have another cheap tool, but to be fair I've never not seen leona level on 5 anyway, but I would probably drop the 4 mana life steal now, or the stealcorn.
Rumble is awesome, probably the most do something champ in LOR, and the added spellshield cuts down on interaction.
This provides a discard outlet that can also grant him elusive so he kinda does the husk nonsense now and that's great nobody is gonna say Rumble is op because it's not in pink region
Jhin buff which is nice he needed it, just more cheap skill procs all day long in case you whiff on annie
Riots worried about TF being op but honestly this is fine, TF doesn't level in most top tier decks he's just a low commitment cycle play like Akshan, or Nami, or just anything that's top tier right now.
Very problematic, pantheon fiora, or akshan pantheon are already amazing deck, low commitment, low interaction, high value like all the best decks and now they can burst protect for 2 mana. I think they must have printed this before that deck got meta because yeah its bad news.
Pushing that old school TF casino deck, where you hyper draw fleeting cards to level TF in like 1 turn, and now it has a late game pay off.
This is less hey lets rotate TF and more hey lets actually level TF for a change like he's a gold rarity card.
Instant 3 of in bandle, big problem with why mayor or Nora don't see as much play is because it's just food for your opponents challenger.
Now if you drag you better get ready to trade when that owl with spellshield instantly turns into a 5/5
P and z control is suffering in the face of ionia, where stall and denying interaction is more valuable then removal, and dmg based removal worst of all.
Flock, disintigrate coming in at 1 and 2 mana being hard to beat in this regard.
So yes give them more junk absolutely
As a freijord main this card is very good. Because usually copy effects are fleeting this is not.
So you get your frostbite one turn, and then get it the next this is awesome I would run 3 of this with 3 of three sisters.
more p and z control tools great.
If you jam catalyzer this will do 4 for 2 that's almost as good as flock without the dmg requirement but you need the equipment still good card.
remember when striking was a thing and you didn't just pressure your opponent with do nothing plays that forced interaction as a means of draining resources but legitimately represented a tug of war between players and wincons...yeah neither do I.
Basically pink region exists, so spending 5 mana to give your combat cook overwhelm only for your five drop to get bounced and your combat cook to get blocked by a low value card that also gets bounced and replayed means you already lost.
That being said in a perfect world this card would be great and useful
Like you can play him with targon and protec your swings and he can attac
but again pantheon already kinda does that and is in the right regoin
It could be that Varus represents better one shot potential that you can guarantee a swing win with enough tools to deny interaction again mostly in targon, or ionia.
The non removal based regions because at the end of the day denying interaction is better then interacting, and not doing anything is better then doing thing as the game plays currently at higher levels.
So overall yeah freijord got two good cards, and p and z got 2, and bandle got 2
On the boo side both Bilgewater and Targon got 2 good cards.
With the death of aggro we notice some pretty clear play patterns emerging in LOR:
1. the over abundance of Ionia representing something like 75% of top tier decks
2. Play patterns that once again shy away from actually accomplishing anything
For me this is personally problematic because nobody wants to watch someone play without ever committing anything to board
Even me personally I sleep pretty hard right now at how people are playing without ever actually doing anything
Like anybody can just stall and open swing, like is that the game now?
Without the pressure of burn or actual wincons stall is all there is, and to be honest is bores me to tears
When is the last time you saw someone flip a champ that wasn't just a vague cycle tool?
Wake up LOR viewership's are declining, so is the player base, because yeah things are pretty glacial right now, and the worst part is people think that makes them good at the game? Legends of testing patience, this is why you don't ask your pro players to build out your patches for you it's game breaking.
Honestly I was even winning into Fiora Pantheon, which is the big bad meta deck designed by the galaxy brain try hards.
So I would say deck just fine, like don't get me wrong pale cascade, healing touch are very easy value generators, but 4 mana one way strikes are pretty good.
Like if you want run vlad in freijord or targon, the cards fine just don't run the crimson pkg because the followers will let you down everytime in regards to the current power curve.
-----side note-----
A lot of what is considered good in this game is easily exploitable play patterns resulting in a rock paper Scissors meta.
I play a 5/7 boat, hahaha I play my 7/7 spellshield with single combat, win game...like yeah you did but what happens when your opponent has brain cells and isn't playing the overstated Swain deck for there is only one.
Or haha I'm gonna flood the board with Nami, and boom there's my Fiora to harass your garbage nothing plays.
And now you have a meta deck...Rock paper Scissors. Meanwhile anyone with a brain can turbo out interesting wincons and play patterns with under utilized archetypes and all of a sudden the rock paper Scissors goes out the window and you auto win.
Competitive or meta players are essentially marchup wizzards but outside of that not really great brewers or players.
With the talk of rotation recently, and Vlad being mentioned by the devs for a big reason why cards need to be shifted in and out of the game. I wanted to see if I could build a highly competitive and new Vlad deck.
Here's the list its very powerful and wins non stop into certain regions and matchups. Is it just worse then Fiora, Pantheon with strikes challenges and purple equipment - maybe but not everything needs to be a binary equation.
The point was that old champions are exceptionally viable, old champion pkgs (supporting cards) are not however every single crimson card is kinda awful.
So rather then rotating and redesigning viable champions out of standard they should be patching and updating followers to be viable.
Adding tough for example to his followers without the need to draw one specific landmark in freijord etc.
But yeah still not sold on rotation as this brew proves vlad in a vacuum is a great card, it's just everything else supporting him is under the power curve and had to be replaced with recent awakening followers.
1. Swain got buffed he is now a top meta deck, really no surprise all the tools were they just needed to buff the big man himself and his boat
2. A fiora deck is feeding on this matchup ^ in combination with pantheon and eula to deny interaction and eat the little things while opening up for lethal
3. Tf Nami and Akshan Lee Sin are still doing their thing to represent pink region.
Thats it that's the meta that's all folks.
Doo doo doo de doo
But in all seriousness outside of woooosh being a 1 mana infinite card engine for pink region, swains boat being too damn cheap at 7, and pantheon fiora existing as a counter to A fast speed interaction and B board flooding the games actually in a great place.
Recently I was going like 6 and 0 with vlad scythe boy because it really is that even and balanced.
Mastering runeterra is a little better:
1. Kat Gwen - got the new landmark so a good deck got a little better- obvious weaknesses and a little dusty but it's aight
2. Kayne Vayne - meh Kayne is absolutely buffed in the latest patch bit Vayne is probably the least interesting way to run him
3. Elusive Good stuff - yup still here being unremarkable
4. Annie Tf - just buffed but at a 50% winrate people aren't building the list right
5. Timeliness- I had mentioned ramp is in a good position but again 50% the deck is better then that try getting out of shadow isles
6. Sophie Viktor - sub 50%
So other then elsuvie good stuff, Gwen, and Vayne these list are failing to obtain a positive win rate.
So basically my point still stands whether it's Swims old website Mobalytics (rip) or Majin Baes new website nobody has figured out how to play after the auto build Ionia meta.
Jesus I'm running the table with an elite list that's how absolute dog poop peoples current meta expectations are right now. Again, I can do a post and talk about what decks out of our massive card pool are worth considering and what isn't.
https://app.mobalytics.gg/lor/meta-tier-list
Elusive good stuff and Viktor card pile are S tier?
Like I know I haven't played the game for a while and they nerfed all the broke stuff namely Ionia tellstones and mildly tweaked the overstated Swain but I guaranteee there's better decks to play then just elusive good stuff.
So let's talk about what good from a brewers perspective who never plays S tier stuff anyways and still does fine.
Discard - they buffed Jinx obviously in a big way but I might actually give Draven Sion another look just jamming that 7 drop when people aren't running 9 bounces and stuns makes a big difference.
Landmark - just good midrange junk man, now that you're not getting instantly fed on by every single Swain deck in the meta you can just do your landmark things and win
Bandlecity - with the pirate aggro nerf a while back and the tweaks to Nami go wide decks yordlea are looking like a far more serious deck option
Daybreak - the Leona buff wasn't that long ago and once again midrange decks that aren't Swain are playable again, even less rallies to worry about.
Jayce/Lux - P and Z control that isn't ezreal or Taylor swift is gonna work far better after the death of Lee Sin and combo decks in general
Raaaaaamp - yeah the troll buff actually matters, allows feel the rush to exist outside of shadow isles naturally
Frostbite - wait is freijord good again cuz now we got Ash playable again too, I know people forgot this region exists but it's there
Deep - deep didn't go anywhere it was always strong and in a bounce less world its even better
I could do this all day and list decks potentially under looked in LOR right now because it honestly looks like after the major Ionia nerfs people forgot how to play this game.
Aaaaaah I can't just jam Akshan and cycle champions in 20 of my decks anymore aaaaaah.
https://playruneterra.com/en-sg/news/dev/giving-feedback-like-a-game-dev/
Basically, an exceptionally condescending way of saying that we don't want to listen to player feedback because we believe you to be misinformed and inarticulate.
So I'm going to try my best to communicate as if I was writing LOR's design document:
LOR is a card game where you attempt to satisfy unique questing conditions in order to level up (flip) your preffered champions.
These "quests" should guide the player towards certain "archetypes" and deck building decisions in a organic and non intrusive manner.
The implications being that these quests are powerful while also remaining mutually distinct and worth pursuing (this is where the fun is.)
Deck break downs:
Actual constructions of decks are comprised of reactive plays (fast speed spells) pro active plays (burst speed spells) and creatures wrapped up in a compellingly unique turn based pkg.
The Problem:
When decks become too homogenous, when champion level up conditions don't feel game winning, when reactive plays like stuns and bounces out weigh the value of playing high cost followers (5 plus) the game starts to lose that fun factor.
The conclusion:
People including popular streamers start to migrate from your game, you start introducing low impact expansions and nobody plays those cards, you also dangle the threat of rotation so people can't even play the decks they want to play and your game loses popularity.
The solution:
The same thing it's always been heavy handed comprehensive balance patches that nerf what's reducing viability and buff what's not viable. It's unfortunate, but it's the only way you can commit to keeping LOR a compelling and fun experience and get those streamers playing again.
Rather then say write a massive blog post about how your players are inarticulate trolls who can't speak "designer" when it's your own choices and decission making drawing your game and community into question.
I've gotten out of touch with the competitive scene as well.
But thats only because this.is the first mini set that felt legitimately low impact.
Almost the mtg thing where you have impactful cards being the champions, and then just bulk.
Like hey new Draken equipment that nobody uses, new followers that nobody uses, new spells that nobody uses.
Instead it just akshan, tf, the rally deck, the Ionia deck, the otk deck. Nothing really new or exciting here and I actually feel like foe the first time.ever I wasted all my dust for this sets additions.
Are they even getting re-tuned like if I was a streamer I would be dreadfully bored of LOR right now and leave too.
So with the release of the newest mini set Lor has been kind of a mess.
A lot of the interesting and worth while play patterns that defined the game are increasingly being ironed out for what works.
Turbo strategies, do nothing strategies, general malaise and lack of interest/intrigue
Topped off now with what can only be described as streamer migration.
It began small by Swim and BBG quitting the game but now even Mogwai has left for a competitor.
I have to say that the future of Lor is looking darker then it has for quite some time.
I would say personally that the only real fix is going to be archetype support, hard buffs for freijord, and legitimate reasons to play midrange again.
Beyond that what is it that makes Lor truly appealing when compared to its competitors because I'm starting to forget.
The new champions obviously have found their competitive homes in rather straightforward pre-determined decks.
Vayne - provides extra attacks thats good, has a equipment angle that's also good
Beyoncee - just add Ionia for a cheaper and better karma
But what I haven't seen is archetypes framed around the new Darken equipment.
Demacia got a understated equipment come 5 mana challenger and bilgewater got a endgame draw payoff for casino decks.
We also got a host of new followers that don't see much play.
Most importantly we saw very little archetype support.
Where my big scary frostbite payoff or super spell, where's more ramp incentives, how about a new invoke card for slow targon?
Print more Elites?
Noxious allegiance?
I dont know it just feels like this set out of every LOR expansion to date made me want to try one Vein deck and I was like huh neat...done.
As far as I can tell there are essentially two decks in the meta.
Seraphin which are the do nothing decks and Vayne that are the do something decks.
They each have something like 3 decks a piece.
Wouldn't call that wide open personally so much as a victim of the mini set release formula but I'm optimistic that when the last part of the Drakin Saga releases and gives Freijord something to do there might be some balance.
https://runeterra.ar/stats
OW 2 is great by the way but they cut two characters on launch due to bugs...so still waiting on that.
So first impressions of the new expansion is just more of the same:
https://youtu.be/EyhxuZ9Yk38
Is this Akshan list top tier?
Yes because it's a card cycle champion that levels faster and more reliably then TF and he's also great.
The whole just add cycle champion, plus stall, plus deny thing, then you have your one win con is just kinda boring for me.
Like out of all the new possibilities for the new set and you settle in mini karma and not even with ezreal to like do something, but again akshan...it's brutal man.
So yeah views seem low for the mini expansion, interest similarly non remarkable, so I'm gonna be playing Overwatch 2.
Which has been sick honestly, team pushing the momentum of an entire game from thr back lines just by forcing people to try to solo que you is great, and then they forget how to play the game.
I think I have that effect in shooters as well as card games.
Ultimately, there are two play patterns in LOR currently.
You either play your hand out like diarrhea from a dog's *** or your essentially play nothing at all.
Trying to level or develop unique wincons is essentially pointless, aka playing the game.
We saw this pretty heavily at seasonal and we see it on ladder, and everywhere else.
The only problem with that is, it doesn't actually matter what you're playing does it if everything you're playing is played the same?
Pretend you're playing mtg for 5 seconds you have a deck with cards, that do a thing.
Then there's a thing you're trying to do.
Then do that thing.
I know it's a lot to ask, but humor me.
You might remember how card games are supposed to work again
Wow you guys are really proving my point with this whole lets build a shurima deck and jam Aram
Like yeah we already mentioned that you can pull better cards out of other regions with r and g.
You can even buff those cards from other regions
But are you winning with frejiord at that point at all.
What is your wincon ask yourself that...idiots
dude everyone knows freijord is terrible it's like a meme.
like just objectively ******* awful
Like omg even the best players in the world can just manage to swing a minority of games with this over costed garbage
Like this is coming from the guy defending vlad so you know its true
You're pretty much better playing anything other then a Freijord dominated list, and certainly not a Freijord control list most of all
There is a Tahm Kench list that isn't awful where you just Aram and then hope you R and G into a better region wincon like Lee Sin but wait I kinda just proved my point
Freijord remains the absolute best region in the game, I think we all know that.
You can spend somewhere between 3-5 mana to frostbite something which is a strictly worse stun or bounce
You can spend 4 mana to possibly mystic shot more then one thing
and you can overpay on ramp
All that with your only hard removal option buried in ice being an astounding 9 mana
Even if you play the list optimally and run something proper like captain arnika at 8 you're still basically instantly loosing on tempo, or on control.
Essentially the worse case scenario.
So how do you fix the objectively best region in the game?
Give them wincons that win?
Give them control tools that control?
Give them tempo tools that tempo?
Basically anything really that would allow it to compete on the try hard scale that we seem to be inundated with in this game.
Don't get me wrong two years ago avalanche may have been okay, frostbite may have been okay, but by todays standards unplayable.
I want to say that a 2 mana ice shards is a step in the right direction and it is, but everything else is a joke.
More variety reveals but mostly wamt to talk about Taylor Swift and her champ spell.
2 for 2 at fast speed is already okay 2 on one target and 1 on a second target is an amazing effect to double up on.
Essentially 6 dmg across two bodies for two mana, imagine if freijord got spells that good because honestly this will remake p and z control and ezreal by extension.
So yeah Seraphine amazing card, amazing champ spell that you actually want to 3 of in deckbuilding even without her.
Still sad Frijord remains the worst control region in the game by a growing margin.
Oh well that significantly worse. Typically you just want to frostbite one thing and then you lose the game because you chose to play a control region with 0 good card advantage tools.
Anyways speaking of good control regions let's look at more amazing pink region cards:
Unworthy soul - hey you know what would be good guys a will of Ionia for 3 mana that destroyed equipment and attached champions like kitty...yeah Riot that would be pretty good it would just be broken.
The witness: Hey guys let's print stun spider for 2 mana in Ionia as a 3/3 won't that be good?
Like the biggest problem in LOR right now at a competitive level is that swinging with potential wincons is impossible without spell shield period full stop, and they just keep doubling down on this at Riot.
Now you may say Nifty frejord has frostbite, yes but now imagine carefully that if instead of spending 3 mana to (remove) a card from the (game) you just kinda tickeled it so it kinda didn't want to attack anymore.
That would be kinda terrible right?
Having both blighted ravine and avalanche on 4 has always felt exceptionally awkward in Freijord and no amount of careful ratioing or tweaking solves the fundamental problem. The number of players that have felt comfortable just 1 drop, 2 drop spawn two bodies, jam a bunch a one drops on 3 and swing into this region is insane, and to be fair they were right to do so, because blighted wont land, and avalanche is a bad card. Well now you have ice shards for 2 that's amazing, and bam if it's late game destroy an equipment instead, instant 3 of for any ramp deck thank god.
Daybreak is already a really good grindy deck where you just play stuff until your opponent runs out of steam, and now they have another cheap tool, but to be fair I've never not seen leona level on 5 anyway, but I would probably drop the 4 mana life steal now, or the stealcorn.
Rumble is awesome, probably the most do something champ in LOR, and the added spellshield cuts down on interaction.
This provides a discard outlet that can also grant him elusive so he kinda does the husk nonsense now and that's great nobody is gonna say Rumble is op because it's not in pink region
Jhin buff which is nice he needed it, just more cheap skill procs all day long in case you whiff on annie
Riots worried about TF being op but honestly this is fine, TF doesn't level in most top tier decks he's just a low commitment cycle play like Akshan, or Nami, or just anything that's top tier right now.
Very problematic, pantheon fiora, or akshan pantheon are already amazing deck, low commitment, low interaction, high value like all the best decks and now they can burst protect for 2 mana. I think they must have printed this before that deck got meta because yeah its bad news.
Pushing that old school TF casino deck, where you hyper draw fleeting cards to level TF in like 1 turn, and now it has a late game pay off.
This is less hey lets rotate TF and more hey lets actually level TF for a change like he's a gold rarity card.
Instant 3 of in bandle, big problem with why mayor or Nora don't see as much play is because it's just food for your opponents challenger.
Now if you drag you better get ready to trade when that owl with spellshield instantly turns into a 5/5
P and z control is suffering in the face of ionia, where stall and denying interaction is more valuable then removal, and dmg based removal worst of all.
Flock, disintigrate coming in at 1 and 2 mana being hard to beat in this regard.
So yes give them more junk absolutely
As a freijord main this card is very good. Because usually copy effects are fleeting this is not.
So you get your frostbite one turn, and then get it the next this is awesome I would run 3 of this with 3 of three sisters.
more p and z control tools great.
If you jam catalyzer this will do 4 for 2 that's almost as good as flock without the dmg requirement but you need the equipment still good card.
remember when striking was a thing and you didn't just pressure your opponent with do nothing plays that forced interaction as a means of draining resources but legitimately represented a tug of war between players and wincons...yeah neither do I.
Basically pink region exists, so spending 5 mana to give your combat cook overwhelm only for your five drop to get bounced and your combat cook to get blocked by a low value card that also gets bounced and replayed means you already lost.
That being said in a perfect world this card would be great and useful
Like you can play him with targon and protec your swings and he can attac
but again pantheon already kinda does that and is in the right regoin
It could be that Varus represents better one shot potential that you can guarantee a swing win with enough tools to deny interaction again mostly in targon, or ionia.
The non removal based regions because at the end of the day denying interaction is better then interacting, and not doing anything is better then doing thing as the game plays currently at higher levels.
So overall yeah freijord got two good cards, and p and z got 2, and bandle got 2
On the boo side both Bilgewater and Targon got 2 good cards.
With the death of aggro we notice some pretty clear play patterns emerging in LOR:
1. the over abundance of Ionia representing something like 75% of top tier decks
2. Play patterns that once again shy away from actually accomplishing anything
For me this is personally problematic because nobody wants to watch someone play without ever committing anything to board
Even me personally I sleep pretty hard right now at how people are playing without ever actually doing anything
Like anybody can just stall and open swing, like is that the game now?
Without the pressure of burn or actual wincons stall is all there is, and to be honest is bores me to tears
When is the last time you saw someone flip a champ that wasn't just a vague cycle tool?
Wake up LOR viewership's are declining, so is the player base, because yeah things are pretty glacial right now, and the worst part is people think that makes them good at the game? Legends of testing patience, this is why you don't ask your pro players to build out your patches for you it's game breaking.
Honestly I was even winning into Fiora Pantheon, which is the big bad meta deck designed by the galaxy brain try hards.
So I would say deck just fine, like don't get me wrong pale cascade, healing touch are very easy value generators, but 4 mana one way strikes are pretty good.
Like if you want run vlad in freijord or targon, the cards fine just don't run the crimson pkg because the followers will let you down everytime in regards to the current power curve.
-----side note-----
A lot of what is considered good in this game is easily exploitable play patterns resulting in a rock paper Scissors meta.
I play a 5/7 boat, hahaha I play my 7/7 spellshield with single combat, win game...like yeah you did but what happens when your opponent has brain cells and isn't playing the overstated Swain deck for there is only one.
Or haha I'm gonna flood the board with Nami, and boom there's my Fiora to harass your garbage nothing plays.
And now you have a meta deck...Rock paper Scissors. Meanwhile anyone with a brain can turbo out interesting wincons and play patterns with under utilized archetypes and all of a sudden the rock paper Scissors goes out the window and you auto win.
Competitive or meta players are essentially marchup wizzards but outside of that not really great brewers or players.
With the talk of rotation recently, and Vlad being mentioned by the devs for a big reason why cards need to be shifted in and out of the game. I wanted to see if I could build a highly competitive and new Vlad deck.
Here's the list its very powerful and wins non stop into certain regions and matchups. Is it just worse then Fiora, Pantheon with strikes challenges and purple equipment - maybe but not everything needs to be a binary equation.
The point was that old champions are exceptionally viable, old champion pkgs (supporting cards) are not however every single crimson card is kinda awful.
So rather then rotating and redesigning viable champions out of standard they should be patching and updating followers to be viable.
Adding tough for example to his followers without the need to draw one specific landmark in freijord etc.
But yeah still not sold on rotation as this brew proves vlad in a vacuum is a great card, it's just everything else supporting him is under the power curve and had to be replaced with recent awakening followers.
Very little of interest to talk about here:
1. Swain got buffed he is now a top meta deck, really no surprise all the tools were they just needed to buff the big man himself and his boat
2. A fiora deck is feeding on this matchup ^ in combination with pantheon and eula to deny interaction and eat the little things while opening up for lethal
3. Tf Nami and Akshan Lee Sin are still doing their thing to represent pink region.
Thats it that's the meta that's all folks.
Doo doo doo de doo
But in all seriousness outside of woooosh being a 1 mana infinite card engine for pink region, swains boat being too damn cheap at 7, and pantheon fiora existing as a counter to A fast speed interaction and B board flooding the games actually in a great place.
Recently I was going like 6 and 0 with vlad scythe boy because it really is that even and balanced.
The only concern would be that evergreen won't have a permanent ladder from their statement.
Thats probably a mistake.