I've been wondering how they intend to "curate" the collection. E.g., let's say the first expansion launches on September 1st and they introduce 2-6 new regions: what happens to the existing 6 regions at that time? Is it 6-in, 6-out? Do the current 6 form an evergreen set and that each expansion expands upon? Do all regions come and go each season a la HS Battlegrounds heroes?
My gut tells me that the current 6 regions need to somehow act as an evergreen set because it's just too much work both for the developers and the players to completely reset every season. Based on that: I could see them having all players do something like the following:
Complete the "Prologue" reward road once
Complete all 6 evergreen region roads once, in any order
Complete a special season-specific road which gifts cards from the new expansion; resets every expansion
I agree with everything on your list except for the Minotaur change. At least, I'd reduce his attack to 5 along with the cost decrease.
I could see that. My main thought was: how could we help out Yasuo without just super-buffing him? And honestly, now that I'm remembering Mogwai's fae spinner / katarina deck which ran minotaurs but no Yasuo, I'm not sure that's the right play.
Agree to disagree. If it was really that hard to use, I wouldn't be seeing so many Ionia/SI decks running 3x of it. Contrast that fact against Blood for Blood or Pack Mentality which I don't think I've ever seen in constructed, and I don't feel bad at all about limiting the upswing on DM.
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Do you really want to buff shiraza? 5 hp is a lot.. you add might to her and she is OTKing people everywhere.
Yes. Again: she gets no play right now, and the big reason is because you're lucky if you can connect once with her. 3/5 for 4 mana is reasonable IMHO--it means she can survive a block from a Chump Whump or Bull Elnuk so you can at least try to get 2 attacks out of her.
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Jae Medarda - you do NOT want this card buffed.. it's an elusive unit with card draw..
Sure I do. :-) Keep in mind: he's P&Z, not Ionia, and he's not going to integrate nicely to existing Kinkou decklists (only synergy is Twin Discipline, plus even at 7 he's a lot slower than they want). He'll play more like old-school Miracle Rogue in classic HS: stall until you get him on the board, then pop off with a series of small spells/draws and one big swing. That's new and different--I like new and different.
I don't think you still don't know about Whirling Death/Single Combat - Katarina interactions but for new players and players who doesn't know these interactions yet, you can level-up Katarina with those combat tricks as well.
Does she need to "survive" the single combat, or can you cast it against anything?
Definitely do Precious Pet over the rearguards: I think Pet actually does more average damage thanks to its fearsome, plus it synergizes with your spiders.
Kalista essentially acts as a mistwraith + brother's bond for 3 mana: sometimes she closes the game out fast, sometimes she just dies off. The only reason why I'm still using her is because I wanted my deck to be as aggressive as possible.
The sentries are definitely my least favorite card in my deck because they usually don't help me push damage. For your deck, I could make the argument that they can stall out your opponent a little bit (e.g., stunning a monk or Hecarim to buy another couple of rounds), but realistically you already have five 3-drops that you prefer so sentry is just going to feel awkward too often.
Sinti, how much luck are you having with that spider deck?
Most of the spider decks I've seen on the 'net will try to run faster--i.e., cutting the pranksters and Brood Awakening and often even the hosts in favor of trying to end the game sooner. He's my personal take (Darius is probably better than Kalista but I like a challenge):
The YoD card absolutely is NOT Elysiana. They only reason going from 8 to 9 was relevant was because it disabled Seance and Baleful Banker shenanigans, and they are both rotating out of standard. And that combo is irrelevant in wild.
It's most likely one of the Shaman cards--my guess would be Sludge Slurper.
Honestly? Still needs a little refinement, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. It's definitely not a Tier One deck, but it destroys Ezreal Combo decks and aggro decks and is OK against Hecarim and Karma. Elusives are a crap-shoot: I need to race them, and if they get lucky on either Omen Hawks or Will of Ionia its usually a loss. But it just loses hard against any control deck that run The Ruination, and there's not much to be done about it.
I feel (and I might be wrong) that Elusive in constructed is just solid against everything if both players draw well. And is just horrible racing them to going face. Feels awfull to play control and not draw well enough to deal with they board, and feels awfull to play midrange and get outvalued.
Maybe is just me. And don't get me wrong, I play Elusive decks sometimes, just feel overwhelming.
No, I think you're right. Looking at the popular deck lists right now, I think the bigger problem is that the current card library lends itself to a beautiful curve moreso than any individual card. You've got 6 one-drops, 6 two-drops, 6 three-drops (choice of either Zed or Monk), 6 four-drops, plus if you do go off-curve you've got some great cheap support from Elixir of Iron and Twin Disciplines. You also get fantastic synergizes: both one-drops love being picked up by Navori Conspirator, Greenglade Duo gets extra damage from Zed, everything loves the buffs from Omen Hawk, etc. The whole thing is just a little too efficient for my taste.
Incidentally.. I've been poking fun at it, but it would be pretty sweet if levelled Lux generated Finales Funkeln instead of Final Spark :3
My native language holds many sweet alliterations ;). Although, just in case you're interested: The meaning of "funkeln" is somewhat different from "spark." It's a verb which roughly means "glitter" or "sparkle".
It just sounds cooler. How is it pronounced? fin-aal-is fun-keln ?
Honestly: I actually like him if he intentionally is "whenever" instead of "only if before summoned". With the latter, he feels nonviable (how often do you play a 6+ spell before Round 5?), but with the former I could see playing him early and hoping for an opportunity to enable him later.
It has 3 Fiora, 6 burst-speed barrier spells, 7 barrier-giving units, and 3 Single Combats. It may not be as "all-in" as the original Fiora decks you're referencing, but that's more than enough to threaten an insta-win.
I get a lot of value out of Braum, but my deck is also very different. He only levels up ~10% of the games, but he's controlling the early board and baiting out early removal. Plus if he gets even a little attack value, he becomes a great threat.
For reference, this is my latest decklist (still a bit of a work-in-progress):
Shadow Assassin go from 2/2 to 1/2 (drawing is huge in this game; you shouldn't also get decent attack)
Solitary Monk's recalling changed from whenever she's summoned to whenever she attacks (if you're going to commit to using her as a strong offense, you should be more vulnerable on defense)
Glenglade DuoBADCARDNAME increased from 2 mana to 3 (too easy to get a perfect 1->2->3->4 curve right now using only elusives)
Relentless Pursuit changed to slow (opponent should have 1 chance to play a blocker)
And if you want to try a control deck then by all means go for it--the most successful decks on ladder right now are either Karma + Demacia(Lux)/P&Z(Heimer)/SI or Frej+SI Warmothers Calling. I just suspect you're going to find those decks even more frustrating than the aggro decks.
I'll give those a look. Why would you suspect that? I have always been more a fan of control decks. Even in my Hearthstone days I pretty much always laddered with slow/control decks.
Because your previous comments led me to assume you're having difficulties piloting the aggro and Yasuo decks, and these decks will be more complicated. If I am underestimating your abilities, I apologize.
so....mindless aggro or nothing? Kinda seems like I either need to play mindless aggro or......uninstall the game.
I would argue that no deck in Runeterra is mindless--even aggro decks need to weigh what to mulligan, when to open attack, when to trade, how much to hedge against board wipes, etc.
And if you want to try a control deck then by all means go for it--the most successful decks on ladder right now are either Karma + Demacia(Lux)/P&Z(Heimer)/SI or Frej+SI Warmothers Calling. I just suspect you're going to find those decks even more frustrating than the aggro decks.
Regarding The Rekindler, I don't think it would be appropriate to nerf it unless you can come up with a couple of other decks where it's truly oppressive.
If Hecarim is pretty much the only time Rekindler is a problem, that points to the real problem being Hecarim. In fact, Rekindler could make a good canary in the coal mine for detecting troublesome Champions in general.
I've been trying desperately to dream up a way to combo Darius -> The Rekindler -> The Harrowing into a board full of 10 attack overwhelms, but I just can't do it.
Surely you can get at least two or three?
The problem with Hecarim is that you need only two to create a full board of attackers with extremely high Power.
For Darius, Dawn and Dusk is the more common way to close out a game.
The issue is more that, unlike Hecarim, Darius is a fairly big tempo loss until he levels up. And he's fairly difficult to level up on curve unless you build your deck aggressively, and then the deck is just trying to do too many things at once.
I like your suggestion of Dawn and Dusk a lot more.
Very interesting; thanks for sharing.
I've been wondering how they intend to "curate" the collection. E.g., let's say the first expansion launches on September 1st and they introduce 2-6 new regions: what happens to the existing 6 regions at that time? Is it 6-in, 6-out? Do the current 6 form an evergreen set and that each expansion expands upon? Do all regions come and go each season a la HS Battlegrounds heroes?
My gut tells me that the current 6 regions need to somehow act as an evergreen set because it's just too much work both for the developers and the players to completely reset every season. Based on that: I could see them having all players do something like the following:
I could see that. My main thought was: how could we help out Yasuo without just super-buffing him? And honestly, now that I'm remembering Mogwai's fae spinner / katarina deck which ran minotaurs but no Yasuo, I'm not sure that's the right play.
Agree to disagree. If it was really that hard to use, I wouldn't be seeing so many Ionia/SI decks running 3x of it. Contrast that fact against Blood for Blood or Pack Mentality which I don't think I've ever seen in constructed, and I don't feel bad at all about limiting the upswing on DM.
Yes. Again: she gets no play right now, and the big reason is because you're lucky if you can connect once with her. 3/5 for 4 mana is reasonable IMHO--it means she can survive a block from a Chump Whump or Bull Elnuk so you can at least try to get 2 attacks out of her.
Sure I do. :-) Keep in mind: he's P&Z, not Ionia, and he's not going to integrate nicely to existing Kinkou decklists (only synergy is Twin Discipline, plus even at 7 he's a lot slower than they want). He'll play more like old-school Miracle Rogue in classic HS: stall until you get him on the board, then pop off with a series of small spells/draws and one big swing. That's new and different--I like new and different.
Does she need to "survive" the single combat, or can you cast it against anything?
Definitely do Precious Pet over the rearguards: I think Pet actually does more average damage thanks to its fearsome, plus it synergizes with your spiders.
Kalista essentially acts as a mistwraith + brother's bond for 3 mana: sometimes she closes the game out fast, sometimes she just dies off. The only reason why I'm still using her is because I wanted my deck to be as aggressive as possible.
The sentries are definitely my least favorite card in my deck because they usually don't help me push damage. For your deck, I could make the argument that they can stall out your opponent a little bit (e.g., stunning a monk or Hecarim to buy another couple of rounds), but realistically you already have five 3-drops that you prefer so sentry is just going to feel awkward too often.
Nerfs:
Buffs:
Sinti, how much luck are you having with that spider deck?
Most of the spider decks I've seen on the 'net will try to run faster--i.e., cutting the pranksters and Brood Awakening and often even the hosts in favor of trying to end the game sooner. He's my personal take (Darius is probably better than Kalista but I like a challenge):
The YoD card absolutely is NOT Elysiana. They only reason going from 8 to 9 was relevant was because it disabled Seance and Baleful Banker shenanigans, and they are both rotating out of standard. And that combo is irrelevant in wild.
It's most likely one of the Shaman cards--my guess would be Sludge Slurper.
Honestly? Still needs a little refinement, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. It's definitely not a Tier One deck, but it destroys Ezreal Combo decks and aggro decks and is OK against Hecarim and Karma. Elusives are a crap-shoot: I need to race them, and if they get lucky on either Omen Hawks or Will of Ionia its usually a loss. But it just loses hard against any control deck that run The Ruination, and there's not much to be done about it.
I like Silverfuse's Ashe deck better. It's probably doesn't have as high of winrate as this Ezreal/Elnuk deck, but it's a lot more novel.
No, I think you're right. Looking at the popular deck lists right now, I think the bigger problem is that the current card library lends itself to a beautiful curve moreso than any individual card. You've got 6 one-drops, 6 two-drops, 6 three-drops (choice of either Zed or Monk), 6 four-drops, plus if you do go off-curve you've got some great cheap support from Elixir of Iron and Twin Disciplines. You also get fantastic synergizes: both one-drops love being picked up by Navori Conspirator, Greenglade Duo gets extra damage from Zed, everything loves the buffs from Omen Hawk, etc. The whole thing is just a little too efficient for my taste.
It just sounds cooler. How is it pronounced? fin-aal-is fun-keln ?
Honestly: I actually like him if he intentionally is "whenever" instead of "only if before summoned". With the latter, he feels nonviable (how often do you play a 6+ spell before Round 5?), but with the former I could see playing him early and hoping for an opportunity to enable him later.
?
It has 3 Fiora, 6 burst-speed barrier spells, 7 barrier-giving units, and 3 Single Combats. It may not be as "all-in" as the original Fiora decks you're referencing, but that's more than enough to threaten an insta-win.
I get a lot of value out of Braum, but my deck is also very different. He only levels up ~10% of the games, but he's controlling the early board and baiting out early removal. Plus if he gets even a little attack value, he becomes a great threat.
For reference, this is my latest decklist (still a bit of a work-in-progress):
Personally, I'd like to see:
Because your previous comments led me to assume you're having difficulties piloting the aggro and Yasuo decks, and these decks will be more complicated. If I am underestimating your abilities, I apologize.
Example Karma + Lux : https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bpe2oul0ofdd203qh5r0
Example Karma + Heimer : https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bp5mdn1j7f7j396n7qrg
Example Karma + SI: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bpba33lp8n76vpn9v0m0
Example Warmothers: https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bp69t83ljjke5i9panjg
Good luck!
I would argue that no deck in Runeterra is mindless--even aggro decks need to weigh what to mulligan, when to open attack, when to trade, how much to hedge against board wipes, etc.
And if you want to try a control deck then by all means go for it--the most successful decks on ladder right now are either Karma + Demacia(Lux)/P&Z(Heimer)/SI or Frej+SI Warmothers Calling. I just suspect you're going to find those decks even more frustrating than the aggro decks.
The issue is more that, unlike Hecarim, Darius is a fairly big tempo loss until he levels up. And he's fairly difficult to level up on curve unless you build your deck aggressively, and then the deck is just trying to do too many things at once.
I like your suggestion of Dawn and Dusk a lot more.
No Twin Disciplines?