I can't really speak to the Hearthstone side, but on the Runeterra side I will downvote a deck if I think there's something wrong with it: i.e. if it's a clearly inferior version of a meta deck, or a meme deck that just took things too far and isn't viable. There's nothing malicious about this act; it's just that the OoC lists are based on numbers and I want the more competitive and/or novel decks towards the top because it makes the site more useful to other readers.
Don't get me wrong -- I only use downvotes sparingly and focus more on upvotes, constructive comments, etc; I also think blanket downvoting is just trolling behavior that shouldn't be encouraged. But yeah: I think overall having a downvote function is pretty important.
Demacia and Frejlord go OK together for expeditions or when you are just starting, but unfortunately we don't see a lot of that combination in constructed once collections are larger. There's a lot of overlap between the two regions, so most constructed decks will either splash a different region that can add a different toolset to the deck or just try to make an allegiance deck.
For Demacia, there are a few decks I could point you to but the best is probably Elites, especially if you like Garen. The below decklist requests 3x Cithria the Bold and 3x For The Fallen: you should have 1x copy from your starting collection, and you'll want at least a 2nd for this deck. If you have any copies of Genevieve Elmheart, you can substitute her in for your missing Cithria. For The Fallen plays the roll of an "insurance" card to refill in case of board wipe -- again 3x copies are ideal but you can get away with as few as 1x and substitute in either Concerted Strike or additional Reinforcements in a pinch.
For Frejlord / Braum, the best deck I can offer you is Hodor of the North. It's a somewhat memey combo deck, but it is effective. The idea is that you make a big attack with overwhelm units, wait for your opponent to declare blockers, then play Decisive Maneuver to remove one of their blockers from combat (if it was blocking an attacker with overwhelm, that attacker will now deal all its damage to nexus) as well as give everything +2|+0. And perhaps best of all about this deck: no epic crafts at all, and the other champion is Trundle who is extremely versatile.
Finally, I'll give you this Braum Poros deck. It's the only Masters-level competitive Braum deck I know of so probably the best out of all 3 here, but it's also the most expensive. Hopefully you managed to get the free 3x Give It All before the event expired; otherwise I'm not sure I'd advise crafting it as its an extremely niche card (as is Aurora Porealis). Still: if you've got the cards, its a fun and unique deck to play.
I always give Live Design the benefit of the doubt -- they do fantastic work -- but I'm really scratching my head how this can be a 3 mana slow speed spell in a world were RubinZoo thinks Ravenous Flock is well balanced at 1 mana fast speed.
Horrible doesn't start to describe this card it's so bad.
If Ionia had more cards, I'd say: I bet they have a big recall synergy coming up -- just wait and see! I think this is it for Ionia Set 3 cards though. The only thing I can think of: perhaps there will be a recall synergy from another region (Riven?), as the Ionia landmark also looks out of place. Otherwise I tend to agree -- it essentially looks like Will of Ionia with a big condition for the relatively minor benefit for being able to target a landmark which your opponent can replay, so the only net benefit is resetting a Star Spring.
I think discard aggro is going to stay largely as-is -- many decks are already only running 2x Get Excited!, and the utility of landmark destruction just isn't worth the speed reduction for that aggressive of deck.
I'm still very excited for this card, though: it's going to give some utility which I think P&Z midrange and control decks really need right now, similar to how Scorched Earth has largely replaced Noxian Guillotine.
Some spoiler-ish thoughts on champions and archetypes, assuming the datamined leaks are true:
Show Spoiler
The more I think about it, the more I think Zoe + Viktor will be the new archetype – I expect Zoe will be highly based on celestial cards, and there should be a high synergy between celestial cards and Augment. I just don't know where that leaves Riven, though. Perhaps she'll end up like ShyvannaBADCARDNAME: a general SMOrc unit that upgrades into a win condition if you can flip her. I could definitely see her synergizing with Noxkraya Arena; that landmark just seems too convoluted and expensive to justify without a big payout.
Whizbang is still wild-only right? Meaning you're handicapped playing standard decks in the wild format. Or did they actually relent and let him be evergreen like he deserves?
When this lab first went live, there are a few bugs with the lab.
Although the instructions say only singleton decks are allowed, the client only required that the deck include a single copy of a single champion.
Several players are reported scenarios where the game locked up.
If you discarded your champion through a card like Poro Cannon or Get Excited!, it would spawn the Jailer/Jailed Champion and give you a path for summoning your champion without ever playing it (e.g., cheating out Aurelion Sol)
Tri-region decks were allowed
They were patched the next day to eliminate these exploits.
On another note, why does Gauntlets get so few changes? There are so many different possibilities (max 2 copies, unlimited champions, 3 Regions, all regions) and all they’ve done is singleton and pick-and-ban.
Expect them to go back to more experimental gauntlets after the Dec 4-6 "Last Chance" gauntlet. Right now, they are using gauntlets and Prime Glories as a means to qualify for the seasonal tournament, so they probably don't want to deviate much from the classic formats while that's going on.
As a super casual player I’m feeling more pressed than the last event simply because some of these cards feel necessary. Personally it feels grindy but like I said I’m a super casual. I don’t like that if I am unable to finish I might be handicapped but if you can buy the cards with shards and wild cards after the event it won’t matter.
i play enough to have a large amount of wild cards and shards.
If you have the time, I'd recommend at least trying to make the push this weekend for as many cards as you can -- the final card is 3x Give It All at 190 hearts. If nothing else: it will lock out those cards as a random reward thanks to duplicate protection so you're more likely to get epics you'll use. A lot of players are doing the AI matches -- you need 5 wins instead of just 3, but the AI is almost a guaranteed victory so on average you'll play fewer games.
I hit my 260/260 hearts today to finish my K/DA rewards. Honestly, I was a little worried at first, but it ended up being not even close -- I have over a week to go and I'm only 9:9 on the epic quest and still had some of the diva-specific 2:2 quests when I completed. I didn't do much to "grind" beyond playing daily for a minimum of 3 games/day and picking certain decks based on my active quests -- not much different from my normal schedule to be honest.
How is everyone else fairing? Anyone worried they won't complete as much as they want by Nov 24?
My feelings are almost exactly in line with Flux's post above. Hearthstone is 'expensive' but so are card games in general. As far as digital CCGs it has set the standard. MTGA is no less expensive. Not sure about LoR but it doesn't look that different to me.
It's somewhat apples-to-oranges, but the F2P rewards in LoR are roughly analogous to 6-9 HS packs plus a wildcard redeemable for 1 legendary of your choice every week in exchange for about the same amount of effort as clearing your daily quests in HS.
Most of LoR's revenue comes from cosmetics: you can buy emotes, boards, card backs, and in-game pets which are all very popular but don't alter game play. You can also buy crafting resources, but that's usually only for brand-new and/or impatient players -- if you're playing regularly then you can craft pretty much whatever you want after your first ~2 months.
It's definitely a bit weird, but that is how the effect is intended.
FYI, if you give Unscarred Reaver Tough (e.g., through Chain Vest) and then ping her for exactly 1 damage, she still gains +3|+0 despite her health not changing.
I argue that dragons have to be weak to combat tricks to be a fair deck.
If you buff dragons so much that combat tricks do not really harm them anymore they become lowkey op as one of the most basic and boring to play/play against archetypes.
I could see that in general, but with Shyvana in particular : you want to be able to flip her at least 50% to justify her inclusion in your decklist, and since her quest requires her to see and survive ~3 dragons striking she feels really bad when she dies to an early trick. Building off what Sykomyke writes below: being able to kill more things or build card advantage is never bad, but at the same time -- if you aren't flipping her more consistently, why not just cut down on the dragons and build a more consistent Demacia/Bannerman style deck instead?
It's interesting to me that they increased Shyvana's attack and not her health. The biggest problem I find playing her is that her L1 form is so easy to kill off -- it's risky to block with her due to tricks like Pale Cascade / Sharpsight / Riposte, and since she doesn't have Fury yet on the attack it's usually pretty easy for your opponent to chump block for 2-3 damage and then challenge / Mystic Shot / etc for the rest.
For what it's worth: I assume the "one [that's] become meta already" refers to Feel The Rush -- that's only 20 hearts, which should be quite achievable. I would encourage everyone to try to get at least that even if they don't intend to play it since their is duplicate prevention for epics.
No Subpurrsible?
I could also see thinning out Starry Scamp to 1x to make way for 1x Pale Cascade and 1x Guiding Touch -- I think you'll want draw.
I can't really speak to the Hearthstone side, but on the Runeterra side I will downvote a deck if I think there's something wrong with it: i.e. if it's a clearly inferior version of a meta deck, or a meme deck that just took things too far and isn't viable. There's nothing malicious about this act; it's just that the OoC lists are based on numbers and I want the more competitive and/or novel decks towards the top because it makes the site more useful to other readers.
Don't get me wrong -- I only use downvotes sparingly and focus more on upvotes, constructive comments, etc; I also think blanket downvoting is just trolling behavior that shouldn't be encouraged. But yeah: I think overall having a downvote function is pretty important.
Welcome to Runeterra!
Demacia and Frejlord go OK together for expeditions or when you are just starting, but unfortunately we don't see a lot of that combination in constructed once collections are larger. There's a lot of overlap between the two regions, so most constructed decks will either splash a different region that can add a different toolset to the deck or just try to make an allegiance deck.
For Demacia, there are a few decks I could point you to but the best is probably Elites, especially if you like Garen. The below decklist requests 3x Cithria the Bold and 3x For The Fallen: you should have 1x copy from your starting collection, and you'll want at least a 2nd for this deck. If you have any copies of Genevieve Elmheart, you can substitute her in for your missing Cithria. For The Fallen plays the roll of an "insurance" card to refill in case of board wipe -- again 3x copies are ideal but you can get away with as few as 1x and substitute in either Concerted Strike or additional Reinforcements in a pinch.
For Frejlord / Braum, the best deck I can offer you is Hodor of the North. It's a somewhat memey combo deck, but it is effective. The idea is that you make a big attack with overwhelm units, wait for your opponent to declare blockers, then play Decisive Maneuver to remove one of their blockers from combat (if it was blocking an attacker with overwhelm, that attacker will now deal all its damage to nexus) as well as give everything +2|+0. And perhaps best of all about this deck: no epic crafts at all, and the other champion is Trundle who is extremely versatile.
Finally, I'll give you this Braum Poros deck. It's the only Masters-level competitive Braum deck I know of so probably the best out of all 3 here, but it's also the most expensive. Hopefully you managed to get the free 3x Give It All before the event expired; otherwise I'm not sure I'd advise crafting it as its an extremely niche card (as is Aurora Porealis). Still: if you've got the cards, its a fun and unique deck to play.
Good luck!
I always give Live Design the benefit of the doubt -- they do fantastic work -- but I'm really scratching my head how this can be a 3 mana slow speed spell in a world were RubinZoo thinks Ravenous Flock is well balanced at 1 mana fast speed.
If Ionia had more cards, I'd say: I bet they have a big recall synergy coming up -- just wait and see! I think this is it for Ionia Set 3 cards though. The only thing I can think of: perhaps there will be a recall synergy from another region (Riven?), as the Ionia landmark also looks out of place. Otherwise I tend to agree -- it essentially looks like Will of Ionia with a big condition for the relatively minor benefit for being able to target a landmark which your opponent can replay, so the only net benefit is resetting a Star Spring.
Even though it's probably completely meme, I want to make a deck combo'ing this with Karma so bad...
I think discard aggro is going to stay largely as-is -- many decks are already only running 2x Get Excited!, and the utility of landmark destruction just isn't worth the speed reduction for that aggressive of deck.
I'm still very excited for this card, though: it's going to give some utility which I think P&Z midrange and control decks really need right now, similar to how Scorched Earth has largely replaced Noxian Guillotine.
LOTS of potential synergies here -- e.g., Hexcore Foundry + puffcaps, Nyandroid + Mentor of the Stones. Love to see that!
Some spoiler-ish thoughts on champions and archetypes, assuming the datamined leaks are true:
Whizbang is still wild-only right? Meaning you're handicapped playing standard decks in the wild format. Or did they actually relent and let him be evergreen like he deserves?
When this lab first went live, there are a few bugs with the lab.
They were patched the next day to eliminate these exploits.
Expect them to go back to more experimental gauntlets after the Dec 4-6 "Last Chance" gauntlet. Right now, they are using gauntlets and Prime Glories as a means to qualify for the seasonal tournament, so they probably don't want to deviate much from the classic formats while that's going on.
If you have the time, I'd recommend at least trying to make the push this weekend for as many cards as you can -- the final card is 3x Give It All at 190 hearts. If nothing else: it will lock out those cards as a random reward thanks to duplicate protection so you're more likely to get epics you'll use. A lot of players are doing the AI matches -- you need 5 wins instead of just 3, but the AI is almost a guaranteed victory so on average you'll play fewer games.
I hit my 260/260 hearts today to finish my K/DA rewards. Honestly, I was a little worried at first, but it ended up being not even close -- I have over a week to go and I'm only 9:9 on the epic quest and still had some of the diva-specific 2:2 quests when I completed. I didn't do much to "grind" beyond playing daily for a minimum of 3 games/day and picking certain decks based on my active quests -- not much different from my normal schedule to be honest.
How is everyone else fairing? Anyone worried they won't complete as much as they want by Nov 24?
It's somewhat apples-to-oranges, but the F2P rewards in LoR are roughly analogous to 6-9 HS packs plus a wildcard redeemable for 1 legendary of your choice every week in exchange for about the same amount of effort as clearing your daily quests in HS.
Most of LoR's revenue comes from cosmetics: you can buy emotes, boards, card backs, and in-game pets which are all very popular but don't alter game play. You can also buy crafting resources, but that's usually only for brand-new and/or impatient players -- if you're playing regularly then you can craft pretty much whatever you want after your first ~2 months.
It's definitely a bit weird, but that is how the effect is intended.
FYI, if you give Unscarred Reaver Tough (e.g., through Chain Vest) and then ping her for exactly 1 damage, she still gains +3|+0 despite her health not changing.
I could see that in general, but with Shyvana in particular : you want to be able to flip her at least 50% to justify her inclusion in your decklist, and since her quest requires her to see and survive ~3 dragons striking she feels really bad when she dies to an early trick. Building off what Sykomyke writes below: being able to kill more things or build card advantage is never bad, but at the same time -- if you aren't flipping her more consistently, why not just cut down on the dragons and build a more consistent Demacia/Bannerman style deck instead?
It's interesting to me that they increased Shyvana's attack and not her health. The biggest problem I find playing her is that her L1 form is so easy to kill off -- it's risky to block with her due to tricks like Pale Cascade / Sharpsight / Riposte, and since she doesn't have Fury yet on the attack it's usually pretty easy for your opponent to chump block for 2-3 damage and then challenge / Mystic Shot / etc for the rest.
Thank you for brewing and sharing such a fun and competitive deck!
What Frosty said.
For what it's worth: I assume the "one [that's] become meta already" refers to Feel The Rush -- that's only 20 hearts, which should be quite achievable. I would encourage everyone to try to get at least that even if they don't intend to play it since their is duplicate prevention for epics.