Taznak's Avatar

Taznak

Joined 12/14/2020 Achieve Points 225 Posts 179

Taznak's Comments

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 1 month ago

    After how long it took for this balance patch to arrive, I find the actual changes pretty disappointing. The only serious nerfs are to Poro Cannon, Quietus and... Weight of Judgment, somehow. There's a couple of significant buffs, like those for Kayle and Shyvana, but the rest look mostly pointless; if you take a terrible card and buff it ever-so-slightly, it's still unplayable. If the goal was to shake up the metagame, then this patch is a swing and a miss.

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 2 months ago

    Not the LoR update I was expecting, that's for sure. Paying off the hackers only encourages them to keep on doing it, so I'm glad that they chose not to.

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    At first glance, this looks very strong: a good statline for its cost, AND a mana battery! It's not nearly as good in practice. If you play this guy on turn 4, it's hard to also trigger Flow for the next turn. His level of expendability is also awkward; generally speaking, on midrange decks you're happy to block with and trade away your expendable units, and you try to protect your champions and value engines like Eye of the Dragon. Do you sacrifice this guy as a blocker to protect your Nexus, or sacrifice Nexus health to protect this unit, when you're also not blocking with Master Yi and Seraphine... there's a reason why Wizened Wizard never saw any play, and it's because he's awkward as hell. Rating: 2 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    On its face, this looks very good: the weapon is identical to one of the Improvised weapons, as is the case for Great Hammers, only this one is also a Darkin Weapon which can be played as a lategame unit. That sounds pretty good... except Great Hammers are nearly unplayable, and Piltover can't make very good use of a weapon like this, and the Darkin unit is a little slow for a value engine; 8-mana units should be closing a game, not trying to accumulate value. Rating: 2 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    This sounds super strong because it reminds us of Eye of the Dragon, but it's not. It's a powerful value engine, but it's slow and it's easier for your opponent to deal with by round 6+. It's also poor tempo on the round you play him AND makes it hard for you to trigger Flow for the next round, so you can trigger his ability.

    Now let's look at his upside, how strong is his ability? You can summon an ephemeral Empyrean on turn 7, attack with it, summon another on turn 8... which is similar to just playing The Empyrean on turn 7. I guess summoning a new, ephemeral one every turn is better for blocking with it, IF you can keep the Flow going AND you can keep your Dragoncaller alive.

    Overall, too slow, too awkward, requires Flow but doesn't contribute to it. Rating: 2 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Crazy strong card, could easily see play outside of dedicated Flow decks as well in metas where attachments are common. Rating: 5 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Not impressed by this card. It could be a great turn 3 play, but it's hard to get Flow going so early on and this guy doesn't directly contribute to keep the Flow going into the next turn. He could be a good value play later into the game, but the 4|3 body without any keywords isn't worth as much by then. Maybe Flow decks want this card anyway, but I think it's more likely they'll pass on it. Rating: 2 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Arachnoid Sentry and Concussive Palm are very powerful cards, but they are situational and reactive which can be a mismatch for The Witness; maybe the turn you can play it for 2 mana you have no good targets for it or your opponent plays around it by open attacking, and the turn you want to play it for 2 mana, The Witness costs 4.

    That said, if you do play him for 2 mana, you're getting an overstatted 2-drop with a powerful effect that also gives you one of your two Flow triggers for the next turn, so you can keep it going.

    Overall, this card shouldn't be as ubiquitous as Arachnoid Sentry and Concussive Palm, but it should be good in Flow decks. Rating: 4 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    If this expansion launches without a simultaneous Nami + Lee nerf, ranked is gonna be Azirelia levels of awful

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Most meta-relevant card of this batch will be the Bandle landmark for sure. I wonder: If Rumble discards that landmark, does it grant him a random keyword?

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Yes, I think he just dies

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Discard fodder in discard decks is good, and granting a bunch of Keywords with a card you paid 0 mana for is exceptional. Rating: 5 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Like Ye Been Warned, only worse. Not even Plunder decks want this, I think. Rating: 1 star

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Pretty bad tempo-wise, but it's a decent value engine that doubles as a late-game bomb. Could see play. Rating: 3 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    This looks better for Nightfall decks than for Daybreak decks. Nightfall decks have more access to keywords like Elusive, Overwhelm and Fearsome, which means they can make better use of the stat buff. Daybreak cards often have huge stats and just get chump blocked. The main problem with this guy is that he's a 2-mana unit that you don't want to play on turn 2, which means he can be real awkward if you draw him early. Rating: 3 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Ok, now the buff to Mammoth Shaman makes sense. His main problem always was that he's in a region that has very few tools for pinging the enemy Nexus without spending unit mana. This is a good enabler for Murkwolf Shaman & Mammoth Shaman and it's good support for Scargrounds decks, in both cases adding some badly-needed redundancy to decks that were over-reliant on Ice Shard. When compared to Ice Shard, this is Slow speed, but costs less mana and has an alternate use for destroying equipment, which makes it very competitive overall. This is a good card and I want to give it a higher score, but the deck archetypes that want this card suck and they won't stop sucking just because they get this one new card. Rating: 3 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    EDIT: I'd given this guy 1 star, but I was unfair to him; he's not THAT bad, I realized, in the context of a Concurrent Timelines deck. Concurrent Timelines could make it easier to summon many units of different subtypes, and it allows Warden to trigger his on-summon effect AND then transform into a better unit, like Gorlith or Brightsteel Formation, with pretty good odds. I don't think this will be competitive, but it's not trash-tier either. Rating: 2 stars

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    I was worried that it could go off multiple times, but the wording of its ability is the same as for Crackshot Corsair, so I'm fairly confident that it's limited to one trigger per attack.

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    I'm very glad to see that Varus and Kayn share Cultist cards with their origins. This package of cards is also a big buff to Kayn, which is very much warranted. It makes Kayn's origin not seem so bad and pointless now.

  • Taznak's Avatar
    225 179 Posts Joined 12/14/2020
    Posted 1 year, 5 months ago

    Will equipment decks want a bigger version of Purpleberry Shake? My guess is no. Rating: 2 stars

  • ODYN
    0 Users Here