Now this is the equivalent to Explore Un'Goro from hearthstone and hearthstone showed everyone how bad this effect is. Good for memes and dreams... and not much else
While this card proably won't be played outside of lurker decks, it certainly is a card that works very well for them because it gurantees often enough a lurk trigger and trades card neutral for 2 mana. I think it is really decent of a card
I don't know what to think of the lurker archetype because it is proably the most parasitic mechanic riot created so far.
And while it certainly makes it easier to build a lurker deck, it will cause lurker decks to play a large count of lurkers, that you only can achive by playing the same 5-8 viable lurkers making every lurker deck look VERY similar.
Is the lurk mechanic looking interesting? Not really it looks very much like the reputation mechanic from the latest set: it builds a solid tier 2 deck that is easy to pilot but not interesting or really toptier
if lurker decks work the way I imagine them this is a 5/6 overwhelm that get's greater by 1 attack with each attack, which is... still bad for 6 mana. Unless we see insane other lurk synergy cards that card won't see any play
At first glance this card looked decent because it allows to fetch combo pieces and creating multiples of them but will the ability to do that ever be worth it to get behind 1 card and 3 mana? I doubt we will see that happening so nope that's 1/5 stars card for me
Sure its free but also... It doesn't do anything so why would anyone consider this card ... unless you want a noncreature build to get going... maybe it will be a consideration for Xenotype Researchers decks... but that's pretty much it
I think that GarenTaric is a decent Taric list right now. It uses the well known TaricGolden Aegis combo that not only levels Taric up on the spot if you can support an ally with it but also allows you together with Garen to take that many extra attacks that even a slighly buffed Sparklefly or The Fangs can cause serious trouble for the opponent.
The deck is pretty much a midrange deck and has with the likes of Out Of The Way a decent way to go late (making the Taric invicibility permanent)
IreliaAzir is despite this deck having potentially large lifesteal units to leech from the blades a bad matchup but many aggro lists and also many control lists have trouble dealing with lifestealing units that attack way more often than they should.
The sad part is: when LoR was released people complained a lot of the game beeing too vanilla "boring" because there weren't that many unique decks (that warp the gameplay around their mechanics).
I told those complainers back then that this vanilla nature is what makes the game great and which is/was the basis for many even/only slighly favoured matchups.
Now we see what a diversification in playstyles and the creation in additional niche archetypes (that then also get pushed to be viable) lead to: very polarised rock paper scissor matchups, the need to run tech for specific threats, the resulting need for stronger more flexible/toxic removal like Hush and ultimately a game that is way less enjoyable.
I gurantee you: without Lab of Legends at least half of the current playerbase would have moved on playing another game because the core game got neglected quite a lot. Since call of the mountain they went quite the lazy road with expansions:
They devided expansions into 3 parts to keep up the hype (which doesn't work at all) so that the amount of added content is always rather small. Yet they always want at least 2 archetypes of these new cards to be competitive so they intentionally powercreep the game for the sake of "keeping the game fresh". This approach is simply not sustainable without balance powercreeping old content or nerfing new content.
Anyways: you will never reach unpolarised matchups with the likes of Asol, Riven, Irelia Azir, TLW, Noxus Burn, Soraka Tk, Targon's Peak, Nasus ...
All archetypes being released/buffed back to viability lately.
Riot has imo no grasp on how fundamentally different the game has become since rising tides and given RT was recieved very well by the community you might see why fundamental changes might be bad here...
In general I am convinced that Dunekeeper should become a 1/1.
The ability to shoot 4 damage on turn 1 + his ability to spawn 2 units to chumb/sacrifize for 1 mana is too much for a 1 drop.
I know this nerf is not specifical against azir irelia but shurima in general but it is justified.
The proposed fix is unintuitive and also is making blade dance's idea pointless so I disagree that it is fixing the issue properly.
If you want to fix the archetype higher it's curve by making Ribbon Dancer a 3 mana 2/2 and Flawless Duet costing 2 mana while givng irelia attune in return. the moment that bladedance comes at a higher cost it becomes comparable to rally and rally never was really unfair.
It still was a good archetype versus control but would leave many archetypes more room to breathe and proably kick the deck out of it's tier 1 spot.
It is very good for blade dance decks but that's it. I don't see it being op by any means or making waves in non - Irelia decks. If azir Irelia gets nerfed I doubt that we will see this card a lot anymore
When I saw that Video and was slighly shocked that Swim has such a strong confirmation bias that he claims his view of the meta and that his versions of decks are the only right/good ones.
He uses data from players with the mobalytics client aka his netdecking servants, he literally created his own LoR cosmos where he is the one and only star of the show.
Therefore I absolutely would not take his words as THE right way to look at the meta and I would not stop playing champions because swim says that they are bad.
Zilean and Malphite are decent champions and the only reason they (especially Malphite) don't shine is that almost every matchup is hyperaggro and that Malphite never gets to the point where he matters and that Zilean is imo the best in P&Z with Chirean Sumpworker and Insightful Investigator (which is a problem because p&z shurima lacks healing options)
Im terms of my latest brews I am currently working on a LeBlancZed build featuring the countless different tricks we currently have in noxus and Ionia to make it really hard for the opponent to remove LeBlanc and Zed and win of cloning Zed and LeBlanc after giving them double attack with Flurry of Fists
This is Weird... and if you compare it to the like of Doombeast worth at least 3 ?-Pings
The fact that Vilemaw can't attack the turn he is summoned makes this card very meh... yeah the typical trash epic as we know them
Now this is the equivalent to Explore Un'Goro from hearthstone and hearthstone showed everyone how bad this effect is. Good for memes and dreams... and not much else
I guess they planned to release this card for 2 mana until they saw what what Irelia Azir was of a monstrosity.. now this not that powerful of a card.
Edit: just realized aswell that this can target enemy units.
It's an okay card but I would prefer to have a fast speed recall over an slow speed recall with a gimmic
I smell some nasty otk decks coming up soon i mean giving double strike to any unit (with overwhelm/elusive) is potentially insane.
So yeah I can't imagine this card not making waves in the meta
While this card proably won't be played outside of lurker decks, it certainly is a card that works very well for them because it gurantees often enough a lurk trigger and trades card neutral for 2 mana. I think it is really decent of a card
I don't know what to think of the lurker archetype because it is proably the most parasitic mechanic riot created so far.
And while it certainly makes it easier to build a lurker deck, it will cause lurker decks to play a large count of lurkers, that you only can achive by playing the same 5-8 viable lurkers making every lurker deck look VERY similar.
Is the lurk mechanic looking interesting? Not really it looks very much like the reputation mechanic from the latest set: it builds a solid tier 2 deck that is easy to pilot but not interesting or really toptier
This concept looks really strong because it allows you to use attack buffs aggressively creating quite a monstrosity for the opponent to deal with.
Is it going to be competetive? Proably not until we have 3 different decent buff cards to run this card with in shurima
How much of the lurk archetype's powerbudget do you want to put in it's champions? Riot: Yes!
that is pretty much a 3 mana 3-4/3 with predict... not bad not too good a card we will see in lurker decks for sure
if lurker decks work the way I imagine them this is a 5/6 overwhelm that get's greater by 1 attack with each attack, which is... still bad for 6 mana. Unless we see insane other lurk synergy cards that card won't see any play
At first glance this card looked decent because it allows to fetch combo pieces and creating multiples of them but will the ability to do that ever be worth it to get behind 1 card and 3 mana? I doubt we will see that happening so nope that's 1/5 stars card for me
Sure its free but also... It doesn't do anything so why would anyone consider this card ... unless you want a noncreature build to get going... maybe it will be a consideration for Xenotype Researchers decks... but that's pretty much it
Am I the only one thinking of these guys right now?
I told you that P & Z is the way to go for Zilean and I think Riot just agreed with me on that
I think that Garen Taric is a decent Taric list right now. It uses the well known Taric Golden Aegis combo that not only levels Taric up on the spot if you can support an ally with it but also allows you together with Garen to take that many extra attacks that even a slighly buffed Sparklefly or The Fangs can cause serious trouble for the opponent.
The deck is pretty much a midrange deck and has with the likes of Out Of The Way a decent way to go late (making the Taric invicibility permanent)
Irelia Azir is despite this deck having potentially large lifesteal units to leech from the blades a bad matchup but many aggro lists and also many control lists have trouble dealing with lifestealing units that attack way more often than they should.
The sad part is: when LoR was released people complained a lot of the game beeing too vanilla "boring" because there weren't that many unique decks (that warp the gameplay around their mechanics).
I told those complainers back then that this vanilla nature is what makes the game great and which is/was the basis for many even/only slighly favoured matchups.
Now we see what a diversification in playstyles and the creation in additional niche archetypes (that then also get pushed to be viable) lead to: very polarised rock paper scissor matchups, the need to run tech for specific threats, the resulting need for stronger more flexible/toxic removal like Hush and ultimately a game that is way less enjoyable.
I gurantee you: without Lab of Legends at least half of the current playerbase would have moved on playing another game because the core game got neglected quite a lot. Since call of the mountain they went quite the lazy road with expansions:
They devided expansions into 3 parts to keep up the hype (which doesn't work at all) so that the amount of added content is always rather small. Yet they always want at least 2 archetypes of these new cards to be competitive so they intentionally powercreep the game for the sake of "keeping the game fresh". This approach is simply not sustainable without balance powercreeping old content or nerfing new content.
Anyways: you will never reach unpolarised matchups with the likes of Asol, Riven, Irelia Azir, TLW, Noxus Burn, Soraka Tk, Targon's Peak, Nasus ...
All archetypes being released/buffed back to viability lately.
Riot has imo no grasp on how fundamentally different the game has become since rising tides and given RT was recieved very well by the community you might see why fundamental changes might be bad here...
In general I am convinced that Dunekeeper should become a 1/1.
The ability to shoot 4 damage on turn 1 + his ability to spawn 2 units to chumb/sacrifize for 1 mana is too much for a 1 drop.
I know this nerf is not specifical against azir irelia but shurima in general but it is justified.
The proposed fix is unintuitive and also is making blade dance's idea pointless so I disagree that it is fixing the issue properly.
If you want to fix the archetype higher it's curve by making Ribbon Dancer a 3 mana 2/2 and Flawless Duet costing 2 mana while givng irelia attune in return. the moment that bladedance comes at a higher cost it becomes comparable to rally and rally never was really unfair.
It still was a good archetype versus control but would leave many archetypes more room to breathe and proably kick the deck out of it's tier 1 spot.
It is very good for blade dance decks but that's it. I don't see it being op by any means or making waves in non - Irelia decks. If azir Irelia gets nerfed I doubt that we will see this card a lot anymore
When I saw that Video and was slighly shocked that Swim has such a strong confirmation bias that he claims his view of the meta and that his versions of decks are the only right/good ones.
He uses data from players with the mobalytics client aka his netdecking servants, he literally created his own LoR cosmos where he is the one and only star of the show.
Therefore I absolutely would not take his words as THE right way to look at the meta and I would not stop playing champions because swim says that they are bad.
Zilean and Malphite are decent champions and the only reason they (especially Malphite) don't shine is that almost every matchup is hyperaggro and that Malphite never gets to the point where he matters and that Zilean is imo the best in P&Z with Chirean Sumpworker and Insightful Investigator (which is a problem because p&z shurima lacks healing options)
Im terms of my latest brews I am currently working on a LeBlanc Zed build featuring the countless different tricks we currently have in noxus and Ionia to make it really hard for the opponent to remove LeBlanc and Zed and win of cloning Zed and LeBlanc after giving them double attack with Flurry of Fists