They actually made another mistake - the bonuses from Labs is separate from the bonuses for actual PvP. So you can get the extra 400, 200, 100 in labs AND also get the extra 400, 200, 100 in PvP as well.
Oh for sure he's basically a better mountain scryer and your mileage will vary by the amount you like that card.
But even just going from unplayable trash set it on fire...to maybe I'll play this in a create a card deck is a huge improvement.
Update - Oh hey look mogwai agrees, he runs Viktor and mountain scryer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm6wI4OlGTk
Nicmakesplays has also been running Viktor in a nightfall Aphelios deck. Viktor is definitely not useless anymore, but I'm not sure yet that I'd say he's good
It's kind of hilarious to me that no one at Blizzard seems to have noticed this combo before they printed the card. It's clearly just about as busted as a combo can get.
I cannot fault RIOT for pretty much anything right now. They are doing an absolutely amazing job with LoR. I don't think they have any big need to have a flashy championship. The game is in a very healthy place without it right now.
They did get Kibler for casting at the last tourney. Maybe eventually they can get him streaming.
Noxus and P&Z have the best landmark removal spells of all the regions. They can easily be slotted into any deck with either of those regions, and they are very far from useless if your opponent has no landmarks.
By the way, regarding your winrate dropping over time - I'm fairly confident that the declining winrate of people who have been playing the game longer is due to the simple factor of increasing skill level of the playerbase overall. There are far fewer bad players now than there were 4-5 months ago. When the skill level of the entire playerbase increases over time, that means the winrate of all of the good players will decline (due to getting fewer easy wins because the opponent misplayed). It's a lot harder to maintain a 70% winrate when you have far fewer cases of winning to opponent mistakes.
He was "unplayable" at 6-cost when he had a terrible champion spell and no shell to work with.
If he got nerfed to 6 now, when he has a freaking perfect champion spell AND an absurdly good shell of other cards to work with, he'd STILL be playable and nearly as annoying as he is now. The deck (with Zoe) doesn't actually care much about Lee costing 1 more mana.
It's actually still better than the Shipwreck Hoarder treasure at 5-cost for dealing with the opponent's board (since it doesn't hit your side), and it's simultaneously better than Decimate for damaging the opponent's face.
I think the card is actually still not dead, even with such a massive nerf. Which is really saying something.
I played one test game, and this deck seems like the real deal. I didn't even draw The Scargrounds at all, and I still kicked the stuffings out of my aggro opponent (Teemo/Draven burn). Healing wins against burn aggro - and this deck proves it. He tried to go wide around me and burn me out - I healed up with a 2/3 Sparklefly along with Starshaping and Guiding Touch. He eventually just stopped playing without conceding, leaving me to play solitaire to finish the rest of the game. Having both of my other Sparkleflys earlier in the game to serve as blockers for Teemo was also pretty huge for that game.
I'm expecting number 2 the most but I don't think they'll nerf the damage. In my eyes, Go Hard as a card is fine, but the deck TF Go Hard makes it an issue. Spooky Karma that runs Go Hard or Ezreal Go Hard isn't that strong because they aren't running specific cards like Twisted Fate, Fortune Croaker, and Zap Sprayfin. Making it 4 Mana is probably the best nerf since other Go Hard decks can afford to use 3 more Mana but at the same time, it won't allow TF Go Hard to use it so freely especially with Zap Sprayfin unable to draw a Pack Your Bags. Nerfing the damage down to 4 seems unnecessary to me but I haven't played enough TF Go Hard to judge how much nerf it actually needs to get, just that it does.
I pretty much never play the "OP deck" because it seems like it never works for me. I know people say this all the time, but it actually almost always happens to me: 1) Opponent plays "OP deck" and has [key card] on perfect turn [x], causing me to lose spectacularly. This happens nearly every time I queue up against an opponent playing "OP deck." 2) I decide to play "OP deck" for three games in a row. I never even draw [key card] once, despite mulligan-ing for it, let alone have it on perfect turn [x].
I got sick of this happening to me, so I just don't play the "OP deck" anymore. I know that sounds really salty, and people probably don't believe me that this is possible, but it really does nearly always happen to me. Example from the current meta - Zoe. Opponent has Zoe in their deck, I assume they will have it turn 1. And they honestly almost always do. I actually get genuinely shocked when they don't. I play a Zoe deck - never get her in my opening hand at all. That's the curse of being me. So I play off-meta decks almost exclusively.
I played the Braum version several months ago, and I'm the one who posted about the Vi version on the CompetitiveLoR subreddit actually.
On the climb through Diamond, I was pretty surprised by the fact that I liked the version without champs better.
Braum is basically just an expensive Mighty Poro with a small upside. He never levels though, unless you build a very different kind of poros deck from this one.
Vi is basically just a removal spell who rarely, if ever, actually levels up.
So, yeah - I'm currently in the camp of not using any champions. It gives 3-6 extra slots for interaction or tech cards.
Thanks for this post! I don't really play HS anymore, but I did have a golden Brann lying around. So, if I ever go back, you guys earned me 3200 extra dust to work with! (Plus a bit more because I happened to have some of the other cards too).
Not gonna lie, their little apology thing did get me to log back in. I then played one little game of Tavern Brawl (the 4-card ban thing) and destroyed someone with token druid aggro (Mark of the Lotus, Power of the Wild, Dreamway Guardians, and Gibberling), and logged back out. Haven't been back in again since.
They actually made another mistake - the bonuses from Labs is separate from the bonuses for actual PvP. So you can get the extra 400, 200, 100 in labs AND also get the extra 400, 200, 100 in PvP as well.
Nicmakesplays has also been running Viktor in a nightfall Aphelios deck. Viktor is definitely not useless anymore, but I'm not sure yet that I'd say he's good
Aphelios is definitely a guy, not a lady.
I agree, all of these cards seem like they are going to have a relatively high impact.
"Grant" Regeneration?? "Grant" Double-Attack????? Holy cow, those are huge.
Are you meaning something like this article right here, from 5 days ago?
It's kind of hilarious to me that no one at Blizzard seems to have noticed this combo before they printed the card. It's clearly just about as busted as a combo can get.
Wow, thanks for the official mention in a site article! I have to admit, I never expected that :)
I cannot fault RIOT for pretty much anything right now. They are doing an absolutely amazing job with LoR. I don't think they have any big need to have a flashy championship. The game is in a very healthy place without it right now.
They did get Kibler for casting at the last tourney. Maybe eventually they can get him streaming.
@TrifarianGeneral
Noxus and P&Z have the best landmark removal spells of all the regions. They can easily be slotted into any deck with either of those regions, and they are very far from useless if your opponent has no landmarks.
By the way, regarding your winrate dropping over time - I'm fairly confident that the declining winrate of people who have been playing the game longer is due to the simple factor of increasing skill level of the playerbase overall. There are far fewer bad players now than there were 4-5 months ago. When the skill level of the entire playerbase increases over time, that means the winrate of all of the good players will decline (due to getting fewer easy wins because the opponent misplayed). It's a lot harder to maintain a 70% winrate when you have far fewer cases of winning to opponent mistakes.
There is a lot of burst in the meta right now. So Nopeify! is going to often be dead.
This has been working surprisingly well for me. I made a few changes:
-3x Nopeify!
-1x Deny
+2x Hush
+2x Greenglade Caretaker
EDIT: After continuing to play this a bit - yeah, this deck is actually very good, with the changes I made above.
He was "unplayable" at 6-cost when he had a terrible champion spell and no shell to work with.
If he got nerfed to 6 now, when he has a freaking perfect champion spell AND an absurdly good shell of other cards to work with, he'd STILL be playable and nearly as annoying as he is now. The deck (with Zoe) doesn't actually care much about Lee costing 1 more mana.
It's actually still better than the Shipwreck Hoarder treasure at 5-cost for dealing with the opponent's board (since it doesn't hit your side), and it's simultaneously better than Decimate for damaging the opponent's face.
I think the card is actually still not dead, even with such a massive nerf. Which is really saying something.
I played one test game, and this deck seems like the real deal. I didn't even draw The Scargrounds at all, and I still kicked the stuffings out of my aggro opponent (Teemo/Draven burn). Healing wins against burn aggro - and this deck proves it. He tried to go wide around me and burn me out - I healed up with a 2/3 Sparklefly along with Starshaping and Guiding Touch. He eventually just stopped playing without conceding, leaving me to play solitaire to finish the rest of the game. Having both of my other Sparkleflys earlier in the game to serve as blockers for Teemo was also pretty huge for that game.
I pretty much never play the "OP deck" because it seems like it never works for me. I know people say this all the time, but it actually almost always happens to me: 1) Opponent plays "OP deck" and has [key card] on perfect turn [x], causing me to lose spectacularly. This happens nearly every time I queue up against an opponent playing "OP deck." 2) I decide to play "OP deck" for three games in a row. I never even draw [key card] once, despite mulligan-ing for it, let alone have it on perfect turn [x].
I got sick of this happening to me, so I just don't play the "OP deck" anymore. I know that sounds really salty, and people probably don't believe me that this is possible, but it really does nearly always happen to me. Example from the current meta - Zoe. Opponent has Zoe in their deck, I assume they will have it turn 1. And they honestly almost always do. I actually get genuinely shocked when they don't. I play a Zoe deck - never get her in my opening hand at all. That's the curse of being me. So I play off-meta decks almost exclusively.
I played the Braum version several months ago, and I'm the one who posted about the Vi version on the CompetitiveLoR subreddit actually.
On the climb through Diamond, I was pretty surprised by the fact that I liked the version without champs better.
Braum is basically just an expensive Mighty Poro with a small upside. He never levels though, unless you build a very different kind of poros deck from this one.
Vi is basically just a removal spell who rarely, if ever, actually levels up.
So, yeah - I'm currently in the camp of not using any champions. It gives 3-6 extra slots for interaction or tech cards.
My coins are ready for the new event. Bring it on!
Very worth the watch. It was an awesome puzzle box!
Thanks for this post! I don't really play HS anymore, but I did have a golden Brann lying around. So, if I ever go back, you guys earned me 3200 extra dust to work with! (Plus a bit more because I happened to have some of the other cards too).
Not gonna lie, their little apology thing did get me to log back in. I then played one little game of Tavern Brawl (the 4-card ban thing) and destroyed someone with token druid aggro (Mark of the Lotus, Power of the Wild, Dreamway Guardians, and Gibberling), and logged back out. Haven't been back in again since.