My first card with a 5/5 rating for this expansion. It's a 2-mana unit that gives you a card, which makes me think of Fortune Croaker and Avarosan Sentry. The former needs another unit on your board it can damage (and hopefully not kill), while the latter needs to die before he gives you your card; this new guy has no such limitations.
Manifest is an extremely versatile mechanic, so unless you're playing a combo deck, I value this Manifest a little higher than I would value drawing a card from your deck. It gets even better if its Yordle tribal tag is worth something. Expect to see a lot of this guy.
3/5. This unit is versatile in that it can pressure your opponent's Nexus, generate some extra value, and block larger enemy Elusive units. It's not phenomenal at any of those roles, but it looks solid enough.
2/5. This card is reminiscent of Chump Whump, they have the same cost and stat line and both give you two copies of a 1-mana spell. However, where Chump Whump significantly advances your win condition, this guy just messes with your opponent's hand. Maybe this guy sees some play in decks that revolve around spellcasting synergies, but otherwise I expect to see him gathering cobwebs in players' card collections.
Today's standout reveal is Prank. On first impression, it looks very powerful; all decks will care if you mess up their mana curve by increasing the mana cost of a card by 2, for instance. Just showing you a couple of cards in your opponent's hand has value.
On the other hand, maybe your opponent just plays their other cards instead, and the mana you spent on Prank just messes with a card that doesn't get played for a long time anyway. Maybe on turn 1 you get to mess with a key defensive card in Eye of the Dragon, but you get offered a useless prank like -2 attack or -1 attack and can't block. An Avarosan Sentry with -1 Attack and Can't Block sounds pretty useless, but if you're offered -2 attack or -1 attack and vulnerable, it's the Prank that sounds useless. Pranking a spell for +2 mana cost sounds useful but spell mana makes the prank less impactful.
One final, significant example I want to cover is: imagine it's turn 7, your opponent has 2 cards in hand, and you Prank him. You get offered two options: Increase the mana cost of Noxian Fervor by 2, or increase the mana cost of The Leviathan by 2. Smirking, you choose the latter. But it turns out one of your opponent's 2 cards in hand was a champion (immune to Prank), and you just pranked a card in your opponent's deck that he'll never even draw. Or if your opponent has only 1 card in hand and you Prank him, maybe you can't tell which option allows you to mess with his hand, and which one is comparatively useless by messing with his deck.
As a mechanic, Prank seems more suited for control and midrange decks than for aggro. Its utility seems widely applicable, which is key and why I think it's a strong mechanic overall. It's also a good fit to level up Fizz.
The big reveal today has to be the Manifest keyword. It's a direct copy of the Discover keyword from Hearthstone, which was a big change for the better in that game. One of the bigger dangers in card games, is having very stale metagames: As the meta gets figured out and decks get refined into more consolidated lists, matchups become increasingly stale- you know your opponent's decklist, he knows yours, you both know what each other's key cards are in the matchup, and you just go through the motions, playing out a well-known matchup where the luck of the draw determines the winner.
Enter discover- or Manifest here in LoR. You'll often be offered bad cards, that are exactly what you need in a specific situation. Maybe you get offered an Avarosan Marksman when you need to pop a Spellshield, or a Soulgorger when playing vs. Azirelia. Other times, you will have plenty of mana crystals but be out of steam, you try to manifest a big threat- and the only big creature you're offered is something like Horns of the Dragon, so you try to win with that.
Manifest is a powerful tool in that you can find answers that your main deck doesn't even contain. It brings much greater variety, because the metagame stops just being about the top 20% of cards showing up over and over, and you can potentially have any card in the game show up in your matches. And it rewards skill, because knowing the value and utility of obscure cards becomes a new form of skill expression. This should be good for LoR.
2/5. The spell gives good stats for its mana cost, but as far as competitive decks go, permanent stat buff spells only see play in cheesy decks that aim to win the game off of the back of a unit that gets really unfair with stat buffs, like Fiora, Braum or Sparklefly. It sounds like a good complement to Taric, except Taric can't replicate it. The fact that it allows for counterplay, whereas most buff spells do not, also makes it harder to make this work.
1/5. At that mana cost, you expect units to be major threats or value generators, like Rekindler or Invasive Hydravine. The Leviathan only costs 1 more. This card does represent a legitimate threat, just not enough to justify its large mana cost. The fact that it asks you nearly as much as Gangplank and Sejuani ask you for their level-ups just to get to that underwhelming place, and you need to fulfill that condition before you summon it, makes this unit completely unsuited for competitive play
3/5. Reminds me of Island Navigator, with more flexibility in mana cost but without the Scout keywords. The mana flexibility is a big deal, especially in slower decks that don't want a lot of cheap, low-value followers; it could be the difference between having something to play on turn 3, vs. having nothing. This could see play in a role similar to House Spider.
4/5. Very solid early game follower for slow decks, that don't want to put a lot of cheap, low-value units in their decks: this is an early game unit that gives you more early game units to beef up your board, it doesn't require any support, and it doubles as an Elusive blocker.
Text is not super clear. Not sure if it can give you a Celestial or Epic spell, or if this can only give you a follower card.
3/5. Reminds me of Avarosan Sentry, except you get to invok- I mean, manifest a card out of 3 possible choices. If the meta wasn't quite so fast, I'd give this 4 stars, because this can find you clutch cards for specific matchups.
3/5. 2/2 + Tough is strictly superior to being 2/3, and the impact ability is also worth a bit. Looks pretty playable, especially if the Yordle tribal tag is worth something
Aloof Travelers is the standout card in the bunch. Forcing a draw synergizes with puffcaps strategies, forcing a discard can disrupt combo decks, it gives you card advantage, it comes with a body that's not too bad for its cost, and it's multi-region.
3/5. Decent early game stats, and if your opponent draws the card this generates it hits him for 2 more damage and wastes his draw on a card you don't want to draw in the mid or lategame.
My first card with a 5/5 rating for this expansion. It's a 2-mana unit that gives you a card, which makes me think of Fortune Croaker and Avarosan Sentry. The former needs another unit on your board it can damage (and hopefully not kill), while the latter needs to die before he gives you your card; this new guy has no such limitations.
Manifest is an extremely versatile mechanic, so unless you're playing a combo deck, I value this Manifest a little higher than I would value drawing a card from your deck. It gets even better if its Yordle tribal tag is worth something. Expect to see a lot of this guy.
3/5. This unit is versatile in that it can pressure your opponent's Nexus, generate some extra value, and block larger enemy Elusive units. It's not phenomenal at any of those roles, but it looks solid enough.
2/5. This card is reminiscent of Chump Whump, they have the same cost and stat line and both give you two copies of a 1-mana spell. However, where Chump Whump significantly advances your win condition, this guy just messes with your opponent's hand. Maybe this guy sees some play in decks that revolve around spellcasting synergies, but otherwise I expect to see him gathering cobwebs in players' card collections.
Today's standout reveal is Prank. On first impression, it looks very powerful; all decks will care if you mess up their mana curve by increasing the mana cost of a card by 2, for instance. Just showing you a couple of cards in your opponent's hand has value.
On the other hand, maybe your opponent just plays their other cards instead, and the mana you spent on Prank just messes with a card that doesn't get played for a long time anyway. Maybe on turn 1 you get to mess with a key defensive card in Eye of the Dragon, but you get offered a useless prank like -2 attack or -1 attack and can't block. An Avarosan Sentry with -1 Attack and Can't Block sounds pretty useless, but if you're offered -2 attack or -1 attack and vulnerable, it's the Prank that sounds useless. Pranking a spell for +2 mana cost sounds useful but spell mana makes the prank less impactful.
One final, significant example I want to cover is: imagine it's turn 7, your opponent has 2 cards in hand, and you Prank him. You get offered two options: Increase the mana cost of Noxian Fervor by 2, or increase the mana cost of The Leviathan by 2. Smirking, you choose the latter. But it turns out one of your opponent's 2 cards in hand was a champion (immune to Prank), and you just pranked a card in your opponent's deck that he'll never even draw. Or if your opponent has only 1 card in hand and you Prank him, maybe you can't tell which option allows you to mess with his hand, and which one is comparatively useless by messing with his deck.
As a mechanic, Prank seems more suited for control and midrange decks than for aggro. Its utility seems widely applicable, which is key and why I think it's a strong mechanic overall. It's also a good fit to level up Fizz.
4/5. This little guy does a lot for 1 mana: Shows you some of your opponent's cards, messes with his hand, and gives you a chump blocker.
The big reveal today has to be the Manifest keyword. It's a direct copy of the Discover keyword from Hearthstone, which was a big change for the better in that game.
One of the bigger dangers in card games, is having very stale metagames: As the meta gets figured out and decks get refined into more consolidated lists, matchups become increasingly stale- you know your opponent's decklist, he knows yours, you both know what each other's key cards are in the matchup, and you just go through the motions, playing out a well-known matchup where the luck of the draw determines the winner.
Enter discover- or Manifest here in LoR. You'll often be offered bad cards, that are exactly what you need in a specific situation. Maybe you get offered an Avarosan Marksman when you need to pop a Spellshield, or a Soulgorger when playing vs. Azirelia. Other times, you will have plenty of mana crystals but be out of steam, you try to manifest a big threat- and the only big creature you're offered is something like Horns of the Dragon, so you try to win with that.
Manifest is a powerful tool in that you can find answers that your main deck doesn't even contain. It brings much greater variety, because the metagame stops just being about the top 20% of cards showing up over and over, and you can potentially have any card in the game show up in your matches. And it rewards skill, because knowing the value and utility of obscure cards becomes a new form of skill expression. This should be good for LoR.
2/5. The spell gives good stats for its mana cost, but as far as competitive decks go, permanent stat buff spells only see play in cheesy decks that aim to win the game off of the back of a unit that gets really unfair with stat buffs, like Fiora, Braum or Sparklefly. It sounds like a good complement to Taric, except Taric can't replicate it. The fact that it allows for counterplay, whereas most buff spells do not, also makes it harder to make this work.
1/5. At that mana cost, you expect units to be major threats or value generators, like Rekindler or Invasive Hydravine. The Leviathan only costs 1 more. This card does represent a legitimate threat, just not enough to justify its large mana cost. The fact that it asks you nearly as much as Gangplank and Sejuani ask you for their level-ups just to get to that underwhelming place, and you need to fulfill that condition before you summon it, makes this unit completely unsuited for competitive play
3/5. Reminds me of Island Navigator, with more flexibility in mana cost but without the Scout keywords. The mana flexibility is a big deal, especially in slower decks that don't want a lot of cheap, low-value followers; it could be the difference between having something to play on turn 3, vs. having nothing. This could see play in a role similar to House Spider.
4/5. Very solid early game follower for slow decks, that don't want to put a lot of cheap, low-value units in their decks: this is an early game unit that gives you more early game units to beef up your board, it doesn't require any support, and it doubles as an Elusive blocker.
Text is not super clear. Not sure if it can give you a Celestial or Epic spell, or if this can only give you a follower card.
3/5. Reminds me of Avarosan Sentry, except you get to invok- I mean, manifest a card out of 3 possible choices. If the meta wasn't quite so fast, I'd give this 4 stars, because this can find you clutch cards for specific matchups.
The existence of Treasured Trash is mistifying to me. It's like whoever designed it forgot Deny and Rite of Negation exist in this game.
4/5. Card draw is always good.
1/5. Random effect. Also, Deny and Rite of Negation exist.
2/5. Academy Prodigy with a +1 to attack, health and cost.
3/5. 2/2 + Tough is strictly superior to being 2/3, and the impact ability is also worth a bit. Looks pretty playable, especially if the Yordle tribal tag is worth something
1/5. "I will put this card in my deck", said no one ever.
1/5. Poros are not going to be a thing, and a big part of that is that they don't mesh well with champions. No, not even Braum.
In non-poro decks, Avarosan Hearthguard is preferable to this.
Aloof Travelers is the standout card in the bunch. Forcing a draw synergizes with puffcaps strategies, forcing a discard can disrupt combo decks, it gives you card advantage, it comes with a body that's not too bad for its cost, and it's multi-region.
3/5. Decent early game stats, and if your opponent draws the card this generates it hits him for 2 more damage and wastes his draw on a card you don't want to draw in the mid or lategame.