Sorry are we talking about credibility in the context of a card game?

I have a real job lol.

The most powerful control deck overall is the shadow list I provided for the current meta.

4/5 out of catylyn/ezreal, Overwhelm, and a number of other decks before losing to yoi for their infinite value.

Youre free to believe whatever stats you want.

But when we cross reference with mobalytics we also see 3 aggro decks with a 60% winrate.

Is that accurate not at all, but assuming that aggro is doing poorly in this meta when the majority of websites rank it highly is just dumb.

Not to mention Majin Bae's last video literally was: waaaah why does my aphelios deck suck

https://youtu.be/vWvqD4bqPlU

It couldn't possible be that slow value oriented cards are bad when compared to instant wincons, like aggro, Combo, and feel the rush.

Like go off meta and try running kegs, or Karma, or Asol, or Vlad, or braum, or garen, or tf, or Nami, or Fizz, or Lux...I can do this all day.

https://runeterraccg.com/meta-stats/

I count something like 8 viable aggro decks and yes I am including Viktor, and pantheon who are slightly more combo oriented.

Ezreal catlyn, jayce etc. are getting pooped on. 

Mastering runeterra is built by one high tier player by the name of Majin Bae.

His tournament experience setting would favor control in a unrealistic statistical sense where you can just ban aggro on sight.

Can't do that on ladder.

Not sure you've been playing ladder lately but everything is super turbo.

So yes big things, aggro things, tempo things, just go go go.

Removal is very expensive in this game relative to your ability to go from 20 - 0

Keep in mind in mtg it cost 1, 2, or 3 mana at most to vengeance. 

Here it is 6 freaking mana just to deny a big thing from existing.

With the release of the 3 mana shurima landmark you can guarantee that 4 mana Champs can't even be removed for 6. 

Every expansion we get aggressive, high value, high tempo units and 0 control cards that are good.

Not gonna do a card by card breakdown for this.

Suffice it to say Bilgewater got itself a Viego.

Which should help the control bilgewater archetype a great deal.

Something like TF makes a lot more sense when you can guarantee massive board presence over time.

I see a lot of this stuff as fairly playable.

Megatusk, stagehand, hunting boar, harbinger, the maker, blood in the water, chamber of renewal, are all very playable.

When you get into that 5 cost plus range its gets difficult to make firm calls in this kind of meta.

Let's card review woooo

Hey a nightfall finisher, ironically probably better in ramp targon

Infinitely worse than spectral matron but I like the flavor

Really good on like a Renekton, or Ziggs, or Thaliyah, or Xerath

Lurk is a scary deck and rally is gonna push it over the top 

Ionia get's a stun spider now, and it always wanted that, but it had to be worse.

Jin I don't actually care about a great deal

Thralls is awkward as hell to play right now, and this fixes that

If you're just gonna wipe on 4 anyway, now you get a crystal that's not bad

handbuff finisher that's fun

Trying to push the old wayfinder Ionia aggro archetype

Now this card is probably the best Ionia print since vanilla

Fun combo card blade tribal kinda thing

If you play this you need ways to buff his stats 

Interesting don't know where this gets played

So he mystics on play and all your pings are now lethal.

That's fun with like time bombs just full wiping

personally my favorite of the bunch.

There hasn't been a playable deep card in ages

So basically you chump then flip and he heals you and itself

Kind of a spelling slinger blue mage type of thing

Ephemeral support is great

---------

Overall 4 really strong options 6-8 playables that's not bad 

Deep is gonna be the first deck I try followed by Yassao, then Thralls

I'm not an alarmist, leave it to the streamers to say such and such a meta is toxic.

If anything I was more outspoken about the possitive impact of the last two patches than anyone.

Truthfully any issues people may have with the tightening of the meta will be resolved with the next expansion. But the meta is tightening to be sure, and the numbers reflect that.

It's pretty obvious to me that this is a tech list.

Really only good into the play scenarios I outlined above.

As soon as people start playing decks with non-linear styles darkness falls apart.

But yeah pantheon, Viktor, aggro, just a lot of the easy lists.

Its obviously a meme, like I built a second deck that  includes Zillian and while having instant acess to 3 mana removal and flocks to offset the incredible mana cost of playing Katarina is nice, it's still not "good"

Its just better then it used to be and it's fun to Play around with.

Playing on ladder lately has felt pretty repressive to midrange decks.

I wasnt entirely sure if it was a perception issue on my end so I pulled up the weekly stats.

https://runeterraccg.com/meta-stats/

Ezreal Catlyn - 50%

Sundisc - 50%

Riven Viktor- 55% still good

Yumi Pantheon - 54% still good

Darkness - 51% this is the same

Lulu Fizz - 55% don't know this deck

Sivir Alshan - 55% still good

Viktor Aphelios - 52% was never that good

Lurk - 50% wtf?

Yordles in arms - 56% yeah we get it

Scouts - 53%

Thaliyah - 53%

Azir Irelia - negative winrate

Targons Peak- negative winrate

Kindred - negative winrate

Ekko - negative winrate

Spiders - negative winrate wtf?

-------------

The point is that a looooooot of decks that are supposed to be good are getting creamed right now.

And I dont necessarily understand the cause.

Maybe you guys can guess.

Now that LOR essentially has perfect archetype balance now, and massive number of viable decks.

Its very hard to definitively say what buffs, nerfs, and changes need to happen.

Its easy to point to certain things like Freijord being the most underperforming midrange shell by pure numbers.

Or that Bilgewater might be the second worst control region with Kegs and TF and deep seeing very little play.

But how much of that is just the way the game is played right now, and how much is a matter of numbers tweaks?

I honestly don't know how Riot out does themselves after the 2 best patches in the games history.

Except hang back and play wack a mole when serious problems arise till the next card expansion.

Once again good job Riot, you took risks, you pissed some people off, but you leveled the numbers and thats no easy task.

I'll give another example opponent created an aggro discard shell with Heimer and just a million cheap pings.

Boom baboon, boom baboon, zaunite zauntie

Swing free 7 dmg due to double chomp.

Play heimer.

Then on attempt to remove just jam a million pings to re flood the board.

Now is this unbalanced, losing to Heimer Swarm, or would he have instantly lost to like vile feasts, or avalanches etc.

Its seem unfair when those 5 spells hit the stack, it seems uninteractive, but it just means you have to start building in deck counters.

Hey if I'm wrong and Heimer Swarm becomes the best deck in the game we'll review then but right now it's cool to see big brain win a few matches.

Yep for sure, LOR is becoming a game where brewing is very difficult proposition.

There's a lot of tech choices and ratio decisions so usually I just assume people will figure out what works for them :)

Imagine this play scenario, you have heimer on board:

1. You play an 8 mana production surge

2. Your opponent plays deny

Your opponent has played a 4 mana card to stop something like 13 mana worth of tempo of you include Heimer himself.

This is instantly game losing.

Now under the rules change:

1. You play production sirge

2. Opponent plays deny

3. You get 1 8/8 but their deny still trades up in 4 mana value

------

It is my oppinion that this isn't a skill gap issue its a champion balance issue.

Should of just played a champ that doesn't suck, and then you could climb.

Well under the rules change even low tier Champs like Heimer are now playable on a somewhat even playing field.

People will point to Ezreal and go see, see. 

But ezreal Catlyn went up like 2% total.

Its just whiny streamer players that are upset that deny isn't a catch all card anymore and that wincons ie. Champs that need to be good for the game to be fun.

Are now actually good again. Same as I've been saying for almost a year now.

https://app.mobalytics.gg/lor/meta-tier-list

They got rid of all the garbage Swim picks.

Now it's essentially exactly what it should be.

We have pirate aggro as tier 1 has been for 2 years honestly.

We have Jayce sentinels that Asian deck that is the strongest control list.

Viktor, Overwhelm, Scouts all good proven decks.

Tier 2 is equally strong, with Ezreal, Pantheon, Discard, yordle stuff, Ziggs, spiders

Tier 3: galio, sundisc, Lurk, darkness, Azir Irelia

-------------

This is a perfect tier list and I agree with every single pick.

Its also a very healthy brewing meta where you can build decks and pilot them effectively.

So very happy patch 1 and patch 2 giga edition both wins for the LOR team.

Good stuff guys 

Currently meta stats are far too volatile with small sample sizes to offer reliable data.

However early trends are rising up, namely control is receiving a numbers boost putting it on par with aggro for the first time ever in LOR.

This will be contentious for many players, but from my perspective if an aggro deck or tempo deck can reliably hit a 57% winrate why not control?

Thats how other card games work where these things are supposed to be balanced, and if anything gets too strong just nerf those cards individually. 

So the "cancer" rule change actually turned out to be a vaccine of sorts, creating true statistical number parity between archetypes at both ends of the spectrum.

The second prediction is that region balance remains mostly unchanged with Frijord performing the worst overall.

Third prediction the champ changes while nice won't lead to any new archetypes becoming top tier.

Thats it from me what do you guys think?

Yeah overall two amazing patches that have led to the game being more dynamic, and more balanced overall.

Pro synergy basically.

You can run bad Champs like Katarina and Garen, or spell activated Champs like Nami and Lux, and you won't feel like the game is against you.

Also I was super worried they would kill sundisc and they just put the clock back a bit, which for good shurima players won't matter.

Like you can nitpick that Freijord still needs a little help like Lisandra specifically, or how deep has been outscaled in terms of endgame potential.

But thats small stuff, and these last two patches have been so overwhelmingly possitive bad "streamers" have been quitting the game.

And like that's probably the best sign the devs are doing the right thing. Happy players = majority mad streamer = minority.

I had said the last balance patch was the best LOR had ever seen.

Necessary justified nerfs, buffs to bad archetypes like sundisc, and new cards that were actually playable and strong.

Now once again Riots nocked it out of the park.

This time the nerfs are again justified and not overbearing 

The new cards are very playable, elite card is flexible, reputation card is a 2 for one, stance card tutors for stance.

Champ changes are nice, I'm little worried about Waaaaaar but probably fine.

Ash can now work with Surima so giving her acess to quick sand is fairly gross, it does what harsh winds did but at 3 mana.

Garen is a genuine tribal card. Like you can run him with spiders if you want, or yordles, or yetis or poros.

Bad Champs like Karma, and Leblanc seem to be more worth playing.

Katarina is a ping machine now so she is kinda like gnar and that's awesome.

Malphite stuns on play now so he drops on play he's leveling and stunning on 7, so not a dead card.

The rest are just nice stat changes, and like I'm still sad that Lux, Jayce, TF and just general "control" champs are kinda bad 

"Tempo" equals good right now, and this patch won't change that.

Otherwise, I'm super happy with everything 

----edit---

They removed burst passing, and control Champs only leveling/generating value on spell resolve.

So now I play Jayce with one tick, putting a spell on the stack for tick 2 can't counter the level up he just pops.

Why does this matter?

Same reason why rummaging Jinx to level at burst to counter removal was her strongest tempo play.

And burst passing is dumb, endgame stalemates where "professional" player grind value and make optimal non plays for an hour wasnt them being "good" it was them testing patience and turning a video game into chess.

Percentages are just so healthy across the board, and increasingly even old archetypes and new are re-surfacing for proper evaluation.

Everyone knows scouts are great but pirate aggro is back at 58% possible never having left.

For everyone complaining that YOI is overpowered they are only 55% making them a strong but not thaaaaat strong midrange deck.

Sejuani gangplank, still 53% super healthy for the Oldman plunder archetype.

The only complaint you can have is that certain Champs are very bad picks right now.

Value midrange/control stuff, like Swain, Ashe, Heimer, Jayce, Lux, Karma, TF

There seems to be much better alternatives at the moment.

But the actual archetype balancing is phenomenal with more decks then we've ever seen being playable.

Region wise, Frijord needs the most help outside its ramp identity. With shadow being almost as bad outside its removal pkg.

But otherwise perfect.