He's been a cool leader for the game, so it's sad to see him go.
Always makes me wonder what led to the decision - was it his choice or Riot's choice? But, we don't really have a right to know those kinds of things, so I don't dwell on them.
I think the game will go on and still be good. And I think it says something that he implies that he plans to continue playing the game, even though it's not his job anymore.
The most controlling deck I know of, in this game, is one that uses The Howling Abyss as the wincon. Literally endless value once you drop it. Some lists include early blocker units, like Avarosan Sentry, but you can also just play it with all spells, plus 1 landmark (which is functionally basically a spell as well). The full spells version looks like this. Go Hard means that you can never deck yourself out. Abyss gives value indefinitely. Spells let you kill basically anything. Also has healing.
This is the closest I can come up with, for what you seem to be asking for. Disclaimer- A deck like this is very hard to pilot in LoR, which is not really meant to support this type of deck. So, don't expect to win a ton. But I think you'll find it fun to play.
I think the closest to your first deck idea is probably a Deep deck, with Nautilus and Maokai. That being said, Deep is not very good in the meta right now, and it's a very punishing deck - if you make any mistakes, you pretty much lose. The basic idea is that it's a control deck, with little bodies to control the early game and act as chump blockers. Later in the game, you "go Deep" and then smack your opponent HARD with enormous units. A couple of decklists:
A Lee Sin deck might be similar to your second idea. It's a combo deck that focuses on leveling up Lee Sin, giving him overwhelm, and then winning the game with a literal OTK (where you get Lee to 10 damage, kick an enemy into their own Nexus, hitting it for 10, then the overwhelm attack goes through the block for 10 more). Of course, setting up a combo like that requires very controlling gameplay until you're able to set up the combo. By the way, you're only allowed to have Eye of the Dragon in your 2-cost unit slot, because it's your most important stalling unit while you try to get the combo online - you need to be able to use Gifts From Beyond and then Crescendum to summon it from your deck. Wounded Whiteflame can act as a backup wincon if you don't draw Lee Sin.
Lastly, if you just want full control, let the random dice roll, you could go with a The Howling Abyss deck. It's basically just all control, ramp, and healing tools, plus an infinite value generator. You can go quite a few different directions with this, maybe including Avarosan Sentry for an early blocker and card draw. You can also just go literally all spells, like this. Warning though - this kind of deck is not likely to get a ton of wins.
It appears that Riot doesn't publish that information for LoR. I have no idea why.
Apparently, the best the playerbase has gotten from Riot on this topic is that Platinum or higher counts as "high" rank.
The playerbase is apparently in the low millions, but no more than 2k make it to Masters in a given 2-month season (and lately that number is even lower than it used to be). I'm sure a significant percentage of the overall playerbase never really plays ranked mode.
Anyways, yeah - no official numbers from Riot. If I had to guess, the distribution is probably similar to LoL, with the majority of players in Silver and Gold. It's very easy to get Silver. Pretty easy to get to Gold. Significantly harder to get to Platinum than to get to Gold. And from there, you have to be genuinely quite good at the game in order to climb through Plat into Diamond and then into Masters.
I can second the recommendation of The Girl With All The Gifts, it's a very original take on the zombie genre with a very cool ending. I think they even made a movie based on the book but I haven't seen that one yet.
I've finished The Demon Cycle by Brett which I can't recommend enough. Rarely a series managed to increase in complexity so much without it feeling forced like this one did. Next in line is The Name of the Wind which has been waiting for its turn for far too long already.
For my fellow Sci-Fi lovers: Don't miss out on Paolini's To Sleep in a Sea of Stars!
I've read The Name of the Wind and the second book, The Wise Man's Fear, twice through. The story is very good. I have literally no idea how he can finish the series in one more book. Maybe he also has no idea how he can do that, so maybe that's why it's taking so long for the third book to arrive.
Realistically, there should be a book 3 to finish the backstory, and then there should be a book 4 to continue the plot in the "present" time. (The books are written as a man telling his own past story .. but they also include some small chunks of what is happening in the "present" as well. Book 1 is Day 1 of him telling his story. Book 2 is Day 2 of the story telling. Book 3 will be Day 3, and he promised 3 days. But there could easily be a book 4 that breaks out of the story-telling about the past and moves forward with the present, into the future.)
The purpose of Calculated Creations is to really make sure I get a Ballistic bot. And I don't mind having multiples. Practical Perfectionist serves a similar purpose, but it also helps me get the peddler, which I also don't mind having multiples of either. But there may be a better card for that, though I like having the effect come with a body I can block with. That's why I'm not running things like Conchologist. I'm not just looking for pure CA. I'm really aiming to draw specific cards.
The deck wins either with Peddler and Ava Achiever, or ambush + Ballistic bot, or a mix of both. Obviously, ballistic bot synergizes with the peddler.
Given that this is your plan, you should probably be running Trinket Trade. It gives you a way to find things you might need. Heck, it can even find you an Ambush. But most importantly, that one card activates Ambush all by itself, for two mana, if you choose Otterpus and then play it.
Head over to Mastering Runeterra for the full breakdown. Please note that all of this data comes from the competitive portion of the ladder - Platinum, Diamond, and Masters ranks. If you're playing at lower ranks, the decks you face will probably be a bit different down there.
Short summary of the report -
Darkness control has the highest playrate of any deck
Pantheon and Teemo/Tristana/Gnar are the two popular decks that have the best winrates
Scouts is still popular and still good
Lurk is still very popular for some reason (and it's not winrate)
The remaining popular decks do not have the greatest overall winrates-
Timelines Trundle/Gnar
Ezreal/Cait
Sivir/Akshan
Swain/Gnar (this one is below 50% winrate)
Best decks by winrate include:
Pantheon and Teemo (see above)
Scouts
Taliyah/Ziggs (shocker of the month)
Gnar/Ziggs
Draven/Rumble
Seems like a decent array of decks being played. Nothing has higher than about an 8% playrate, and nothing has higher than about a 55% winrate. It's still a very diverse meta with a wide range of viable options.
Mobalytics uses deck trackers for top ranked players.
Pretty sure the stats are fine...
But we can all find justifications for our delusions if we want to.
You find justifications for your delusions every time you post on this forum.
But that aside, Mobalytics uses the stats for basically everyone. Their raw data covers the entire range of ladder, from Iron IV to Masters.
So, yeah, their data is fine if you want a giant mixing pot of literally everything anyone is playing anywhere on ladder. But that's not a "meta." That's just everything any random person is playing, all mashed together. (And that's one reason why aggro always shows up in a favorable light - aggro works quite well in the very low ladder, where people mostly have no idea how to play properly against it. And then to make the data even worse, people in the upper tiers of the ladder don't really play aggro; but that's where aggro would be losing to balance out the overall stats. So, that means that the vast majority of the aggro stats come from the bottom of the ladder. Try playing aggro in Diamond tier and see how far it gets you up there.)
Back to the point. An actual "meta" (for anyone who cares to use the term properly) refers to the set of decks that are actually good and are actually being played by a reasonable number of players in higher ranks of the ladder.
So, if you want an actual meta report, you have to filter the data.
Sadly, Mobalytics doesn't allow us peons to filter their data unless we subscribe and pay up. Hence, us peons have to look to people who put out actual meta reports based on FILTERED DATA.
((I honestly don't know why I bother trying to reason with someone who is so completely unreasonable.))
Side note - Please provide names for these other superior card games. I'd love to know which ones are better than this pathetically subpar game we're taking time to talk about. (Please note the dripping sarcasm ... I normally wouldn't have to say that I was being sarcastic, but I figure with you, I'd better be completely clear.)
Yes, you could describe the LoR combat system as reactive. I'd prefer to call it interactive and tactical - you can't just do whatever you want on your turn. You have to anticipate what your opponent will do. Likewise, you don't just sit around and twiddle your thumbs on your opponent's turn - you have to prepare for how you will respond to them.
Everyone is different, and I don't really have a problem if you don't like the LoR system. But for me, I've played LoR for quite some time, and I played HS for two years before that ... and I've gone back into HS again recently and played for about a month ... and HS is just not nearly as engaging or interesting in the actual gameplay. Maybe in the deck choices and reading the meta and choosing the mulligan - there is some depth of strategy there. But once the mulligan is finished, the game is, like, 80% decided already before the first card is played. Not my style, personally.
OR, you could join up with Legends of Runeterra, which is basically all of that, but we know FOR SURE that you never, ever have to spend money on cards. Period. Full Stop.
Wouldn't compare the two, since Runterra has very different mechanics that not everyone might like (I, for one, don't like the combat).
Still not touching Skyweaver with a mile-long Pokey Stick because it uses crypto crap.
I mean, sure - not liking the combat is a good reason not to play LoR.
I just cannot really comprehend, personally, why anyone would not like the combat system of LoR. Assuming they take some time to get used to it.
I mean, sure, you can invest your energy in a new, mostly unknown card game that looks kinda like HS, but is more complex and more interesting.
OR, you could join up with Legends of Runeterra, which is basically all of that, but we know FOR SURE that you never, ever have to spend money on cards. Period. Full Stop.
I'm not sure how many times I have to point out to you that unfiltered stats don't tell you much about what is actually good. You have to use better websites. This will be the last reply I make to you until you stop using inaccurate information for your rants. For the last time - the mobalytics stats page is NOT an accurate representation of the current meta.
The only pure aggro deck that's actually on the charts right now is Gnar/Ziggs, both in terms of playrate and winrate.
The players certainly don't think control is dead, because Darkness is the most popular deck presently at higher levels. It shouldn't be, but it is.
You can very easily argue that Pantheon decks are combo decks. And incidentally, they also have a champion wincon - something you spent a couple of months whining about not being true about LoR. Two of Pantheon's decks are in the top 7 in terms of winrate.
Sivir/Akshan is also somewhat of a combo deck as well, and also has champion wincons.
Lastly, there is a hilarious combo deck out there that is probably making use of a bug - but I saw Freshlobster using it. It is a control combo deck that uses Plaza Guardian and Transposition in order to cheat out Corina Veraza for free in a board-wiping blowout. It was hilarious to watch. None of his opponents ever saw it coming. The skill ceiling looked pretty high, so it's not exactly going to take over the meta - but it was still pretty nutty. (Edit - for Transposition purposes, Plaza Guardian is considered 10 cost, so Corina can be played at zero cost, as an 8/8. Plaza Guardian can then be replayed for zero cost as well, due to his discount, and Corina's ability probably does 5 damage to the nexus. So, you get your opponent to spend their mana, then you wipe their board and deal a casual 19 damage to their nexus in a single turn ... completely ignoring anything else you have on the board or in hand ... just using the combo only and spending 4 mana for Transposition).
You'd have to know how many of each card you had before the reward was opened, in order to know if anything was added. Otherwise, I don't know of any way to see what was most recently added.
So basically there's no way to know? It might even have been lost? Damn this sucks. Tried to go through my epics for possible new ones but I can't be sure...
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any other way that you could know if you actually got the rewards or not. In the end, though, if your collection is at a point where you can't tell, it probably doesn't make much difference either way
*Shrug* I haven't played much HS in the last two years, but this sounds pretty much like ladder HS has always been.
A high percentage of the time, the match is already decided by the matchup (first) and mulligan (second). Everything else in the entire match is a very distant third, in terms of affecting the outcome.
You'd have to know how many of each card you had before the reward was opened, in order to know if anything was added. Otherwise, I don't know of any way to see what was most recently added.
He's been a cool leader for the game, so it's sad to see him go.
Always makes me wonder what led to the decision - was it his choice or Riot's choice? But, we don't really have a right to know those kinds of things, so I don't dwell on them.
I think the game will go on and still be good. And I think it says something that he implies that he plans to continue playing the game, even though it's not his job anymore.
The most controlling deck I know of, in this game, is one that uses The Howling Abyss as the wincon. Literally endless value once you drop it. Some lists include early blocker units, like Avarosan Sentry, but you can also just play it with all spells, plus 1 landmark (which is functionally basically a spell as well). The full spells version looks like this. Go Hard means that you can never deck yourself out. Abyss gives value indefinitely. Spells let you kill basically anything. Also has healing.
This is the closest I can come up with, for what you seem to be asking for. Disclaimer- A deck like this is very hard to pilot in LoR, which is not really meant to support this type of deck. So, don't expect to win a ton. But I think you'll find it fun to play.
Yeah, except baseball cards were for actual people who exist in real life and make their living by playing baseball.
I think the closest to your first deck idea is probably a Deep deck, with Nautilus and Maokai. That being said, Deep is not very good in the meta right now, and it's a very punishing deck - if you make any mistakes, you pretty much lose. The basic idea is that it's a control deck, with little bodies to control the early game and act as chump blockers. Later in the game, you "go Deep" and then smack your opponent HARD with enormous units. A couple of decklists:
Pretty much a standard list here.
A couple of unusual card choices in this one.
A Lee Sin deck might be similar to your second idea. It's a combo deck that focuses on leveling up Lee Sin, giving him overwhelm, and then winning the game with a literal OTK (where you get Lee to 10 damage, kick an enemy into their own Nexus, hitting it for 10, then the overwhelm attack goes through the block for 10 more). Of course, setting up a combo like that requires very controlling gameplay until you're able to set up the combo. By the way, you're only allowed to have Eye of the Dragon in your 2-cost unit slot, because it's your most important stalling unit while you try to get the combo online - you need to be able to use Gifts From Beyond and then Crescendum to summon it from your deck. Wounded Whiteflame can act as a backup wincon if you don't draw Lee Sin.
This is a pretty standard list
Here's a slightly different build that uses the minimal possible units
Lastly, if you just want full control, let the random dice roll, you could go with a The Howling Abyss deck. It's basically just all control, ramp, and healing tools, plus an infinite value generator. You can go quite a few different directions with this, maybe including Avarosan Sentry for an early blocker and card draw. You can also just go literally all spells, like this. Warning though - this kind of deck is not likely to get a ton of wins.
https://masteringruneterra.com/lor-meta-march-21/
It's actually mostly the same as last week. Darkness control still has the highest playrate.
Taliyah/Ziggs has not held up as a major contender.
Fizz Lulu has the highest winrate.
Aggro is slightly more playable than last week, but still has a lackluster winrate.
If you go read the article, take note:
PR = playrate
WR = winrate
It appears that Riot doesn't publish that information for LoR. I have no idea why.
Apparently, the best the playerbase has gotten from Riot on this topic is that Platinum or higher counts as "high" rank.
The playerbase is apparently in the low millions, but no more than 2k make it to Masters in a given 2-month season (and lately that number is even lower than it used to be). I'm sure a significant percentage of the overall playerbase never really plays ranked mode.
Anyways, yeah - no official numbers from Riot. If I had to guess, the distribution is probably similar to LoL, with the majority of players in Silver and Gold. It's very easy to get Silver. Pretty easy to get to Gold. Significantly harder to get to Platinum than to get to Gold. And from there, you have to be genuinely quite good at the game in order to climb through Plat into Diamond and then into Masters.
I've read The Name of the Wind and the second book, The Wise Man's Fear, twice through. The story is very good. I have literally no idea how he can finish the series in one more book. Maybe he also has no idea how he can do that, so maybe that's why it's taking so long for the third book to arrive.
Realistically, there should be a book 3 to finish the backstory, and then there should be a book 4 to continue the plot in the "present" time. (The books are written as a man telling his own past story .. but they also include some small chunks of what is happening in the "present" as well. Book 1 is Day 1 of him telling his story. Book 2 is Day 2 of the story telling. Book 3 will be Day 3, and he promised 3 days. But there could easily be a book 4 that breaks out of the story-telling about the past and moves forward with the present, into the future.)
Given that this is your plan, you should probably be running Trinket Trade. It gives you a way to find things you might need. Heck, it can even find you an Ambush. But most importantly, that one card activates Ambush all by itself, for two mana, if you choose Otterpus and then play it.
Head over to Mastering Runeterra for the full breakdown. Please note that all of this data comes from the competitive portion of the ladder - Platinum, Diamond, and Masters ranks. If you're playing at lower ranks, the decks you face will probably be a bit different down there.
Short summary of the report -
Best decks by winrate include:
Seems like a decent array of decks being played. Nothing has higher than about an 8% playrate, and nothing has higher than about a 55% winrate. It's still a very diverse meta with a wide range of viable options.
My strongest suggestion matches with Phaseshifter - an Elise aggro deck is going to be the most accessible to you right now.
Here's one of the standard lists. Also, that website is one of the best ones for knowing what the current meta is.
I agree with the suggestions that the other two people posted. I particularly like the idea of including Insider Knowledge.
And to respond to your specific comment - yes, Hexcore Foundry is VERY good in your deck.
You find justifications for your delusions every time you post on this forum.
But that aside, Mobalytics uses the stats for basically everyone. Their raw data covers the entire range of ladder, from Iron IV to Masters.
So, yeah, their data is fine if you want a giant mixing pot of literally everything anyone is playing anywhere on ladder. But that's not a "meta." That's just everything any random person is playing, all mashed together. (And that's one reason why aggro always shows up in a favorable light - aggro works quite well in the very low ladder, where people mostly have no idea how to play properly against it. And then to make the data even worse, people in the upper tiers of the ladder don't really play aggro; but that's where aggro would be losing to balance out the overall stats. So, that means that the vast majority of the aggro stats come from the bottom of the ladder. Try playing aggro in Diamond tier and see how far it gets you up there.)
Back to the point. An actual "meta" (for anyone who cares to use the term properly) refers to the set of decks that are actually good and are actually being played by a reasonable number of players in higher ranks of the ladder.
So, if you want an actual meta report, you have to filter the data.
Sadly, Mobalytics doesn't allow us peons to filter their data unless we subscribe and pay up. Hence, us peons have to look to people who put out actual meta reports based on FILTERED DATA.
((I honestly don't know why I bother trying to reason with someone who is so completely unreasonable.))
Side note - Please provide names for these other superior card games. I'd love to know which ones are better than this pathetically subpar game we're taking time to talk about. (Please note the dripping sarcasm ... I normally wouldn't have to say that I was being sarcastic, but I figure with you, I'd better be completely clear.)
Yes, you could describe the LoR combat system as reactive. I'd prefer to call it interactive and tactical - you can't just do whatever you want on your turn. You have to anticipate what your opponent will do. Likewise, you don't just sit around and twiddle your thumbs on your opponent's turn - you have to prepare for how you will respond to them.
Everyone is different, and I don't really have a problem if you don't like the LoR system. But for me, I've played LoR for quite some time, and I played HS for two years before that ... and I've gone back into HS again recently and played for about a month ... and HS is just not nearly as engaging or interesting in the actual gameplay. Maybe in the deck choices and reading the meta and choosing the mulligan - there is some depth of strategy there. But once the mulligan is finished, the game is, like, 80% decided already before the first card is played. Not my style, personally.
I mean, sure - not liking the combat is a good reason not to play LoR.
I just cannot really comprehend, personally, why anyone would not like the combat system of LoR. Assuming they take some time to get used to it.
I mean, sure, you can invest your energy in a new, mostly unknown card game that looks kinda like HS, but is more complex and more interesting.
OR, you could join up with Legends of Runeterra, which is basically all of that, but we know FOR SURE that you never, ever have to spend money on cards. Period. Full Stop.
I'm not sure how many times I have to point out to you that unfiltered stats don't tell you much about what is actually good. You have to use better websites. This will be the last reply I make to you until you stop using inaccurate information for your rants. For the last time - the mobalytics stats page is NOT an accurate representation of the current meta.
The only pure aggro deck that's actually on the charts right now is Gnar/Ziggs, both in terms of playrate and winrate.
The players certainly don't think control is dead, because Darkness is the most popular deck presently at higher levels. It shouldn't be, but it is.
You can very easily argue that Pantheon decks are combo decks. And incidentally, they also have a champion wincon - something you spent a couple of months whining about not being true about LoR. Two of Pantheon's decks are in the top 7 in terms of winrate.
Sivir/Akshan is also somewhat of a combo deck as well, and also has champion wincons.
Lastly, there is a hilarious combo deck out there that is probably making use of a bug - but I saw Freshlobster using it. It is a control combo deck that uses Plaza Guardian and Transposition in order to cheat out Corina Veraza for free in a board-wiping blowout. It was hilarious to watch. None of his opponents ever saw it coming. The skill ceiling looked pretty high, so it's not exactly going to take over the meta - but it was still pretty nutty. (Edit - for Transposition purposes, Plaza Guardian is considered 10 cost, so Corina can be played at zero cost, as an 8/8. Plaza Guardian can then be replayed for zero cost as well, due to his discount, and Corina's ability probably does 5 damage to the nexus. So, you get your opponent to spend their mana, then you wipe their board and deal a casual 19 damage to their nexus in a single turn ... completely ignoring anything else you have on the board or in hand ... just using the combo only and spending 4 mana for Transposition).
This definitely makes me want to buy the battle pass.
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any other way that you could know if you actually got the rewards or not. In the end, though, if your collection is at a point where you can't tell, it probably doesn't make much difference either way
*Shrug* I haven't played much HS in the last two years, but this sounds pretty much like ladder HS has always been.
A high percentage of the time, the match is already decided by the matchup (first) and mulligan (second). Everything else in the entire match is a very distant third, in terms of affecting the outcome.
You'd have to know how many of each card you had before the reward was opened, in order to know if anything was added. Otherwise, I don't know of any way to see what was most recently added.