Super good with any spell trigger units (Starlit Seer, Nami, Ezreal, Lee Sin), but most of those aren't compatible with equipment decks. Also good for buffing Varus' bow. Also a mostly inferior Mystic Shot for Kayn and Varus decks (can't target Nexus, gets shut down by Tough, only hits once until you play your first equipped unit, but better vs. Spellshield). Rating: 3 stars
A bigger Crackshot Corsair for Equipment decks. You won't activate its ability as easily as Crackshot's, but the extra stats are a huge deal on a 1-drop. The main concern is that you're not playing Plunder here, so these Nexus pings aren't a premium commodity in Equipment decks. Rating: 3 stars
Do equipment decks want this type of aggressively-statted Elusive unit? You'd think yes because it's a good unit to buff with equipment, but the problem is that most collectible equipment cards (the ones you can directly slot into your deck) are bad, only Improvised equipment is good and getting those onto this unit would be a big hassle. Still, never underestimate the power of the Elusive keyword. Rating: 3 stars
Pretty good value in an equipment deck, despite the inherent randomness. Do Kayn and Varus want to play for that value though? I think not, but we'll see. Rating: 3 stars
Quick Attack + Overwhelm is very scary with high power values, but Varus seems fairly tame at level 1 and his level-up condition doesn't appear to be very easy to fulfill, you can only have 3 copies of Momentous Choice in your deck. Could be decent with good support. Rating: 3 stars
Equipment decks kind of bombed with the first Darkin Saga expansion, they were only competitive when paired up with Concurrent Timelines shenanigans. If we get viable equipment decks now and you can combine this with Heedless Resurrection, that'll be a crazy strong champion protection package. Rating: 4 stars
Outside equipment decks, this is a vanilla 5|5 for 5 mana, which is unplayable. Viable equipment decks right now rely on Concurrent Timelines, which does not play well with this card. Sure, if you have a board full of powerful equipped units, giving them all Overwhelm with this guy could be pretty good... but that requires a LOT of setup, it will realistically almost never happen, and he doesn't buff himself. The Winding Light doesn't see a lot of play after it got nerfed, and this guy is a lot worse than that. Rating: 1 star
On equipment-heavy decks, this is like a Harsh Winds that costs 1 less mana but you can't choose its targets. Sounds like it could be alright... if you wanted to bring Harsh Winds on an equipment deck. Which you don't. Rating: 1 Star
I... guess Varus is gonna be in it? There's not much else to go on from the video. After the Bandle City animated videos, this trailer featuring a camera slowly zooming in and out of card art looks like they made this trailer on the cheap, and it shows.
A 2 minute developer update video with some talking heads in front of a camera, announcing the new expansion, would've been better.
As soon as they confirmed in a previous post that champions would also get rotated, Vlad immediately came to mind. He simply doesn't work.
Also happy to see Irelia go. Azir decks with Lucian and other champions were a lot more interesting and fun to play against than Azirelia. Azir + Hecarim could even be a thing.
In the case of TF, he's been too good for too long, and is very hard to nerf, so it's good that the game moves on, and TF does not.
Rotations seems like a good idea, the biggest issue with it is how Rito will handle purchased skins for rotated champions.
Very daring balance patch, with some big changes to Leona and Daybreak cards as well as Swain and Leviathan. The big buffs are to Iula, Swain, Sun Guardian and Sunburst. The nerfs are fine, but they have a Nami-sized hole in them.
To be honest though, I'm not excited for this patch. What I love to play in LoR is Freljord midrange, and small buffs to Mammoth Rager and Ornn are not enough to get them out of the gutter.
Been wanting a Viego nerf for a long time now, the champion does too much for 5 mana. Daybreak buffs are welcome, it's a straightforward midrange deck and the game could use more of those. Timelines, Sermon and Hate Spike nerfs are welcome; Decimate and Harrowing nerfs are surprising. Variety champion buffs are good to see, even though I don't play any of those. There seems to be an attempt to make big spiders viable with buffs to Shrieking Spinner, Twisted Treeline and Vilemaw.
The biggest miss seems to be not nerfing Nami decks
You want to play this card early, but it's a colossal tempo loss to do so. Remember all those competitive decks that used Out of the Way? Yeah, me neither.
Compared to permanent buff spells like Take Heart or Blessing of Targon, this seems largely superior. The fact that it's an equipment card you can play again if the original wielder dies, can provide a lot of value, which is welcome in a region with poor card draw options and only The Howling Abyss as a value engine.
Overwhelm units such as Scarmaiden Reaver could make good use of this, and this could have good Ornn synergies.
Glad Riot decided to implement Jax as a bit of a comical character, he works better this way than if they tried to play it straight with him. I expect him to be a menace, whether he fights with a fishing rod, a frying pan or a lamppost.
Super good with any spell trigger units (Starlit Seer, Nami, Ezreal, Lee Sin), but most of those aren't compatible with equipment decks. Also good for buffing Varus' bow. Also a mostly inferior Mystic Shot for Kayn and Varus decks (can't target Nexus, gets shut down by Tough, only hits once until you play your first equipped unit, but better vs. Spellshield). Rating: 3 stars
Crazy good in equipment decks. Rating: 5 stars
Synergizes with Varus' level-up condition, but tempo-wise this is pretty horrible, and the value she provides doesn't make up for that. Rating: 1 star
A bigger Crackshot Corsair for Equipment decks. You won't activate its ability as easily as Crackshot's, but the extra stats are a huge deal on a 1-drop. The main concern is that you're not playing Plunder here, so these Nexus pings aren't a premium commodity in Equipment decks. Rating: 3 stars
Do equipment decks want this type of aggressively-statted Elusive unit? You'd think yes because it's a good unit to buff with equipment, but the problem is that most collectible equipment cards (the ones you can directly slot into your deck) are bad, only Improvised equipment is good and getting those onto this unit would be a big hassle. Still, never underestimate the power of the Elusive keyword. Rating: 3 stars
Pretty good value in an equipment deck, despite the inherent randomness. Do Kayn and Varus want to play for that value though? I think not, but we'll see. Rating: 3 stars
Quick Attack + Overwhelm is very scary with high power values, but Varus seems fairly tame at level 1 and his level-up condition doesn't appear to be very easy to fulfill, you can only have 3 copies of Momentous Choice in your deck. Could be decent with good support. Rating: 3 stars
Equipment decks kind of bombed with the first Darkin Saga expansion, they were only competitive when paired up with Concurrent Timelines shenanigans. If we get viable equipment decks now and you can combine this with Heedless Resurrection, that'll be a crazy strong champion protection package. Rating: 4 stars
Outside equipment decks, this is a vanilla 5|5 for 5 mana, which is unplayable. Viable equipment decks right now rely on Concurrent Timelines, which does not play well with this card. Sure, if you have a board full of powerful equipped units, giving them all Overwhelm with this guy could be pretty good... but that requires a LOT of setup, it will realistically almost never happen, and he doesn't buff himself. The Winding Light doesn't see a lot of play after it got nerfed, and this guy is a lot worse than that. Rating: 1 star
On equipment-heavy decks, this is like a Harsh Winds that costs 1 less mana but you can't choose its targets. Sounds like it could be alright... if you wanted to bring Harsh Winds on an equipment deck. Which you don't. Rating: 1 Star
I... guess Varus is gonna be in it? There's not much else to go on from the video. After the Bandle City animated videos, this trailer featuring a camera slowly zooming in and out of card art looks like they made this trailer on the cheap, and it shows.
A 2 minute developer update video with some talking heads in front of a camera, announcing the new expansion, would've been better.
As soon as they confirmed in a previous post that champions would also get rotated, Vlad immediately came to mind. He simply doesn't work.
Also happy to see Irelia go. Azir decks with Lucian and other champions were a lot more interesting and fun to play against than Azirelia. Azir + Hecarim could even be a thing.
In the case of TF, he's been too good for too long, and is very hard to nerf, so it's good that the game moves on, and TF does not.
Rotations seems like a good idea, the biggest issue with it is how Rito will handle purchased skins for rotated champions.
Very daring balance patch, with some big changes to Leona and Daybreak cards as well as Swain and Leviathan. The big buffs are to Iula, Swain, Sun Guardian and Sunburst. The nerfs are fine, but they have a Nami-sized hole in them.
To be honest though, I'm not excited for this patch. What I love to play in LoR is Freljord midrange, and small buffs to Mammoth Rager and Ornn are not enough to get them out of the gutter.
Been wanting a Viego nerf for a long time now, the champion does too much for 5 mana. Daybreak buffs are welcome, it's a straightforward midrange deck and the game could use more of those. Timelines, Sermon and Hate Spike nerfs are welcome; Decimate and Harrowing nerfs are surprising. Variety champion buffs are good to see, even though I don't play any of those. There seems to be an attempt to make big spiders viable with buffs to Shrieking Spinner, Twisted Treeline and Vilemaw.
The biggest miss seems to be not nerfing Nami decks
You really think he's strong? At 7 mana, you'd expect him to be a really big deal, but he seems a lot less impactful than Viego at 5 mana.
You want to play this card early, but it's a colossal tempo loss to do so. Remember all those competitive decks that used Out of the Way? Yeah, me neither.
Score: 1/5
Compared to permanent buff spells like Take Heart or Blessing of Targon, this seems largely superior. The fact that it's an equipment card you can play again if the original wielder dies, can provide a lot of value, which is welcome in a region with poor card draw options and only The Howling Abyss as a value engine.
Overwhelm units such as Scarmaiden Reaver could make good use of this, and this could have good Ornn synergies.
Score: 3/5
Jax looks weak and uninspired
Glad Riot decided to implement Jax as a bit of a comical character, he works better this way than if they tried to play it straight with him. I expect him to be a menace, whether he fights with a fishing rod, a frying pan or a lamppost.
Can't muster any excitement for new cards when the meta is so un-fun, I don't feel like playing LoR at all right now