I guess the majority of you hasn't been playing a taric deck yet and the majority hasn't been playing with arbiter yet.
The thing about this card is: once it's cost gets reduced by at least 1 mana he becomes invisible in your hand. That means you still get to see him when hovering over him and you still can play him as a card but its very confusing when you notice that your hand has "hole" that is created by the "invisible one" and it can ruin your game in case you should have an arbiter on the left side of your hand, and forget that you have one over the cause of the game.
I just hope that riot fixes that bug because its not 1 time thing but occours ALLWAYS
About the resources problem: its quite easy to story enough resources during an expansion to buy the next expansion completely. However i did not quite manage to do that since I crafted every card pre expansion and had only 20k shards to craft in mountain.
But its not like i had to craft many cards for now. I just crafted taric, his support tribal, 3 copies of hush, bastion and the spellshield dragon...
there we have it 80% winrate because current decks can't deal with it
As stated in the caption this treat is about (permanent) Spellshield and Hush not targon in general.
Lets start with spellshield.
Why is spellshield in my oppinion a problem while barrier is perfectly fine?
1. It is permanent
2. there is not a single deck that can afford trading 2 spells for 1 unit (and keep in mind that most LoR spells arent even leathal for units)
3. it protects from global spell effects like ruination
4. spellshield units are hardly more expansive than non spellshield units
Meanwhile hush is devestating for:
most of the champions
the majority of elusive decks
the majority of buff decks
for frostbite
and in general synergy driven decks
Tell me guys: who enjoys this massive swing from an interactive synergy driven game to a game that is just about denying the opponent the opportunity to play the game?
Edit: i changed the title of this article to make it more clear what it is about
It turns out that this card actually has Swim terrified to the point that he posted a half-hour-long rant about it on YouTube. He says he's worried that it will destroy meta diversity. I think he's just upset that it's going to curb the polarizing, degenerate play style that he tends to favor.
Every deck that gets utterly wrecked by this card is a deck that didn't have enough counters in the first place. Most of the time, it only gives you a fighting chance against decks that were heavily favored against you.
Listen, I am very used to argue against Swim and I question his role as the swarm intelligence of the LoR community whenever i can but in this single case he is absolutely right.
Its easyly the majority of championcards that loose their purpose when they get silenced its a great number of more expansive buff cards that lose their purpose, its a counter for frostbite, lets units survive deathmark ...
the list of uses is insanely long the number of devalued archetypes is almost as long as the list of meta viable decks.
What that means is that once hush gets widespread enough we get a meta where raw unit stats matter more than clever combos and deck build around certain cards what was one of the core ideas of LoR so far.
Hush is literally META BREAKING the way it works and forcing a demacia bannerman style meta on everyone once it gets widespread.
Its... not what the majority of skilled players would like to see.
I am very certain that hush won't take more than 2 weeks to draw the hate of the majority of players and get nerfed during the first 4 weeks of targon expansion because play enjoyment actually matters to riot.
You also have Miss Fortune, her 1/1 version and plenty more.
The cost for dealing 1 damage to nexus is really low these days.
The reason why the pilfer package is so good is because all the pilfer cards are so low cost plunder payoffs. 2 mana for card- (and sometimes also tempo-) advantage - Who would not want that in an agressive list?
Cost nerfs on the other hand will make the whole package questionable since as I said the low cost is the key feature about pilfering.
I think nerfing goods to 3 mana is reasonable but it could be too much for the archetype to keep it's presence, what would actually not a bad thing.
Pilfer decks become extremely opressive against decks who play comparable gameplans (like in my case I play a Sejuani-deck therefore Pilfer Sejuani is stomping me expecially well while pilfer tf is not a big deal for me)
If you really want 2 mana goods still be a thing: than change it from actually drawing 2 cards to drawing copies of the top 2 cards or make them fleeting
I've played since open Beta so I'm not sure if they've changed something with the official launch, but after completing the tutorials you had three different pre-constructed decks: Ionia/Piltover&Zaun (with Jinx & Zed), Noxus/Shadow Isles (with Elise and Darius), and Demacia/Freljord (with Braum, Garen, Lux, and Tryndamere). During the launch celebrations, you were also rewarded with a fourth deck, Freljord/Shadow Isles (with Braum, Ashe, and Tryndamere). I haven't heard of any other preconstructed deck existing. As far as I know, the decks should be the same for everyone.
Topandito already explained upgrades: the card was supposed to be a regular copy of that rarity but randomly upgraded into a wildcard. And as they mention, chests/capsules can upgrade as well but I don't think you can see the upgrade text then (or maybe I just click through everything too fast).
I don't think there's anything special you should avoid as a new player. I fully recommend playing through all the tutorials as they teach all the mechanics but after that you're free to play what you want. Aggro is very much viable, and you've chosen a good region combination for that. Here's an example of a top tier aggro deck:
Burn AggroA Runeterra Deck created by neonangel. Last updated 1 week, 2 days ago
Speaking off, how does it work when you Toss a card with puffcaps on it? Does it fizzle out or does it damage your Nexus?
Shrooms are not actually connected to cards. What means that created cards can have shrooms on them and tossed cards never have shrooms on them. So no toss doesn't counteract puffcap
However be aware of the fact that if you draw from the empty deck of the opponent YOU are going to loose because it doesnt matter from which cardless deck you drew
Lol that's hilarious--I don't even need to actually see it I can just picture in my mind some cock-sure kid doing it out of sheer BM and then literally speechless as the "defeat" screen pops up. Thank you for making my day.
Guess what happened to me... (and by that i mean that I won because of that :D)
To all who plan to go for Nautilus i gonna tell you that all Nautilus decks that i faced so far were a complete trash piles of of big greedy creatures that cant defend the nexus, are unreliable removal (Devourer of the Depths yes you sir) and do not even win the game when you get to the depts because it still goes like heimer turrets > Monsters.
I know I wont stop you from crafting Nautilus and the deck around him i just want to warn you guys that he proably wont be good.
Maokai however is preety strong and especially with Twisted Fate you easyly can kill the opponent the turn Maokai levels up, stealing the rest of the opponent's deck.
However be aware of the fact that if you draw from the empty deck of the opponent YOU are going to loose because it doesnt matter from which cardless deck you drew
I saw it been used in heimerdinger Vi and if you are unprepared for that card you just loose.
I mean Ionian decks will very surely keep Ionian will in their lists, detain is a good but unreliable removal and obliterate is more exclusive for bilgewater so far making it hard for the majority of decks/regions to do anything against the unstopable unit (champion).
However it is very reliable now to win even before turn 10 with any unstopable kill combo @KarmaEzreal so that the invicibility comes in that late that it is actually "balanced".
I did face this deck pre Kalista buff but bofore Rekindler and Hecarin was nerfed and i thought it performed just ok-ish. Here are my thoughts:
Pros: - strong early offence; - extremely cost-efficient nexus damage; - easy to swarm (blocking all its units may prove difficult); - good lethal range; - has a late game win condition that can beat control decks, despite being an aggro deck;
Cons: - 0 defensive options. - slower and less consistent then the average aggro deck; - requires some setup; - combos can be disrupted; - too centered on Kalista being leveled; - Rekindler combo is powerfull but too slow for the current meta.
How to counter as: 1- Aggro decks: most aggro decks should not have a problem against it, as this deck loses tempo/board control when setting stuff like shark, relic and prankster. Ignore trades until either player is in lethal range, then block with everything available. 2- Control decks: Disrupt combos, save removals for Kalista, play a big Life Steal minion and finish the game before the Rekindler loop. Or just the old good: kill him before he can kill you. Easier said then done, i know.
Now lets adress the Rekloop: it requires 2 main conditions: 1- Kalista has to level up and preferably be dead by the time Rekindler is played; 2- Rekindler has to die before Kalista attacks;
If those 2 conditions are met, the deck most likely will win the game.
You can deny the combo by either preventing Kalista from leveling up or finishing the game before T9. Seriously, Rekindler is a 7 mana play and it also needs to die in order to be ressurected by Kalista. It should be enough time to close the game before that happens. Now, if your deck can't finish games by T9, then Ez decks are a much bigger concern.
About the cons you brought up:
0 defensive options is not entirely right since Used Cask Salesman and Haunted Relic also work for a 1 turn chumbblock what can definetely matter
While it is slower I would not aggre with it being less consistant.
It needs an amount of setup that is clearly doable
You dont have to play around Kalista its just an strong option to win the game. This deck has more than one way to overwhelm you on board (especially Hecarim should not be underestimated in ephemeral decks)
While it is certainly true that The Rekindler combo is not likely to go off its not by any means the ONE goal of the deck that it has to reach, its just an strong lategame option
Kalista definitely has a lot of upside potential once leveled and attacking, but she's fairly vulnerable otherwise. Single Combat, Get Excited!, Thermo Beam Whirling Death, and roughly half the challengers take care of her nicely.
Oh and I forgot to mention that killing Kalista wont solve your problem since this deck also uses The Rekindler to do the well known kalista loop
If you think that this sounds already quite hard to stop i got to remind you that this deck also has Mystic Shot and Get Excited! to finish you WHILE also having always the option to blow up the board with The Ruination since they dont really have a board to loose
I personally dont see a way to control this deck and it seems to me that you only can rush that deck down
I might oversee a way to stop that but thats why I'm asking you folks
You missed the fact that Kalista now only requires three allies to die to level up.
Also that katarina buff now basically makes her a 4/2 quick attack but flexible. A way more interesting buff than just a stat increase or a mana cost reduction in my opinion. Looks pretty good.
So you unleash the souls once and she is leveled? That makes no sense and really is just to push her into the meta that she should not be a part of...
Well the Frenzied Skitterer nerf seems not impactful to me (power is way more important than toughness in fearsome decks and this just makes it die to avalance or mystic shot)
The Brightsteel Formation nerf is small but meaningful since p&z can now kill it with their big creature burn spell as response and that it triggers 1 less barrier for shen
The Katarina buff is interesting but i doubt it will make her much better on her own but i could see Ezreal decks now considering to play her
The Yasuo buff actually does not change too much since he was above 3 health when he leveled anyways and thats what matters (for Brittle Steel)
The Vanguard Bannerman nerf was to prodictable and wont reduce the power of the card too much it just has to be played along with 3 units instead of 2 to be worth it and thats fine
However it is sad to see that Riot wants to keep Iceborn Legacy as it is. It only finds a home in that scribe meme deck that you cant call consistant or ranked viable imo
Have you guys noticed how swim tried to make Iceborn Legacy work in the spider endure list and did not manage to pull it of once in multiple hours of playing?
I think that pretty much proves how useless that card is right now...
In MTG, it is a bit different. You draw 7 cards, if you don't like them, put all of them to your deck and draw new 6, you can mulligan it again but draw 5 cards and 4 and 3 and 2 and 1 same with physical version. After a bit they changed that system for digital version (MTG:A) but i left the game so really don't remember how they changed it.
Btw, When you mulligan, it doesn't give the same card to you, it gives another copy of it I believe and only Highlander decks can protect you from this kind of situation which are the decks that you can only put 1 copy of a card to your deck which isn't really a thing and supported in Runeterra.
Mulligan has its own balance in my opinion. It is same for your opponent too and if there is no RNG factor in card games, it won't be so different than chess-like games and in those games, all players are equal and shares same resources which isn't valid for card games. In card games, like you said in your OP, there are archetypes as Aggro, Control, Combo, Midrange. If mulligan and card drawing RNG are not in games, most of the games will be same and you will know that you will win or lose when you face a countering archetype so you will basically concede at turn 1 which will cause game to death, I mean, noone will continue to play that game. Mulligan and drawing is all same in card games. Some card games like Pokemon TCG has some tools to abuse it. There is a card in Pokemon TCG for example, put cards in your hand to deck and makes you draw same amount. That game's system let's you do that and that abuse doesn't really matter because of its system but it will matter in games like Runeterra and Hearthstone. Btw, There is also a card in Hearthstone as Plot Twist, but in Pokemon TCG, there is a different system with trainer cards etc. so you don't spend same resource for playing that card like Hearthstone. There is a different system which might confuse you more right now and takes some time because i need to explain whole system here to make you understand but there is no point for doing that. :D
So, in my opinion, In games like Runeterra, Hearthstone and MTG:A, this card draw and mulligan system is a must that lets archetypes help to recover in rough situations sometimes because of bad mulligan of your opponent.
That being said, any deck that has god-draw and mulligan can beat any deck. That is true mostly and here comes mulligan and RNG on card draws to balance it.
These are half my opinions and half some explanations. I hope you understand my explanations and the points of my opinions. You don't need to embrace them tho. :)
About the MTG Mulligan Change it works kinda as it did before just that you draw always 7 cards and chose which cards to be placed under your deck, making it less awkward to deal with landscrew/flood
I guess the majority of you hasn't been playing a taric deck yet and the majority hasn't been playing with arbiter yet.
The thing about this card is: once it's cost gets reduced by at least 1 mana he becomes invisible in your hand. That means you still get to see him when hovering over him and you still can play him as a card but its very confusing when you notice that your hand has "hole" that is created by the "invisible one" and it can ruin your game in case you should have an arbiter on the left side of your hand, and forget that you have one over the cause of the game.
I just hope that riot fixes that bug because its not 1 time thing but occours ALLWAYS
No I will say: "nice try to compete with elusives when hush is going to end your career on the spot" (especially because its a buff + elusives list)
About the resources problem: its quite easy to story enough resources during an expansion to buy the next expansion completely. However i did not quite manage to do that since I crafted every card pre expansion and had only 20k shards to craft in mountain.
But its not like i had to craft many cards for now. I just crafted taric, his support tribal, 3 copies of hush, bastion and the spellshield dragon...
there we have it 80% winrate because current decks can't deal with it
As stated in the caption this treat is about (permanent) Spellshield and Hush not targon in general.
Lets start with spellshield.
Why is spellshield in my oppinion a problem while barrier is perfectly fine?
1. It is permanent
2. there is not a single deck that can afford trading 2 spells for 1 unit (and keep in mind that most LoR spells arent even leathal for units)
3. it protects from global spell effects like ruination
4. spellshield units are hardly more expansive than non spellshield units
Meanwhile hush is devestating for:
most of the champions
the majority of elusive decks
the majority of buff decks
for frostbite
and in general synergy driven decks
Tell me guys: who enjoys this massive swing from an interactive synergy driven game to a game that is just about denying the opponent the opportunity to play the game?
Edit: i changed the title of this article to make it more clear what it is about
Listen, I am very used to argue against Swim and I question his role as the swarm intelligence of the LoR community whenever i can but in this single case he is absolutely right.
Its easyly the majority of championcards that loose their purpose when they get silenced its a great number of more expansive buff cards that lose their purpose, its a counter for frostbite, lets units survive deathmark ...
the list of uses is insanely long the number of devalued archetypes is almost as long as the list of meta viable decks.
What that means is that once hush gets widespread enough we get a meta where raw unit stats matter more than clever combos and deck build around certain cards what was one of the core ideas of LoR so far.
Hush is literally META BREAKING the way it works and forcing a demacia bannerman style meta on everyone once it gets widespread.
Its... not what the majority of skilled players would like to see.
I am very certain that hush won't take more than 2 weeks to draw the hate of the majority of players and get nerfed during the first 4 weeks of targon expansion because play enjoyment actually matters to riot.
You also have Miss Fortune, her 1/1 version and plenty more.
The cost for dealing 1 damage to nexus is really low these days.
The reason why the pilfer package is so good is because all the pilfer cards are so low cost plunder payoffs. 2 mana for card- (and sometimes also tempo-) advantage - Who would not want that in an agressive list?
Cost nerfs on the other hand will make the whole package questionable since as I said the low cost is the key feature about pilfering.
I think nerfing goods to 3 mana is reasonable but it could be too much for the archetype to keep it's presence, what would actually not a bad thing.
Pilfer decks become extremely opressive against decks who play comparable gameplans (like in my case I play a Sejuani-deck therefore Pilfer Sejuani is stomping me expecially well while pilfer tf is not a big deal for me)
If you really want 2 mana goods still be a thing: than change it from actually drawing 2 cards to drawing copies of the top 2 cards or make them fleeting
Dude, do me a favour and don't be a bad role model teaching kids to play burn.
We don't need any more of these silly decks on ladder right now
Wow their ability to deal damage was massively gutted : rookie can no longer attack twice when dropped turn 2 and rearguard got removed.
Too bad that both of them are less of a problem than than THE ACTUAL BURN
like burn is the last interactive mechanic in LoR and require to play certain regions to have meaningful heal (and btw tavernkeeper sucks at his job)
Shrooms are not actually connected to cards. What means that created cards can have shrooms on them and tossed cards never have shrooms on them. So no toss doesn't counteract puffcap
Guess what happened to me... (and by that i mean that I won because of that :D)
To all who plan to go for Nautilus i gonna tell you that all Nautilus decks that i faced so far were a complete trash piles of of big greedy creatures that cant defend the nexus, are unreliable removal (Devourer of the Depths yes you sir) and do not even win the game when you get to the depts because it still goes like heimer turrets > Monsters.
I know I wont stop you from crafting Nautilus and the deck around him i just want to warn you guys that he proably wont be good.
Maokai however is preety strong and especially with Twisted Fate you easyly can kill the opponent the turn Maokai levels up, stealing the rest of the opponent's deck.
However be aware of the fact that if you draw from the empty deck of the opponent YOU are going to loose because it doesnt matter from which cardless deck you drew
I saw it been used in heimerdinger Vi and if you are unprepared for that card you just loose.
I mean Ionian decks will very surely keep Ionian will in their lists, detain is a good but unreliable removal and obliterate is more exclusive for bilgewater so far making it hard for the majority of decks/regions to do anything against the unstopable unit (champion).
However it is very reliable now to win even before turn 10 with any unstopable kill combo @KarmaEzreal so that the invicibility comes in that late that it is actually "balanced".
About the cons you brought up:
0 defensive options is not entirely right since Used Cask Salesman and Haunted Relic also work for a 1 turn chumbblock what can definetely matter
While it is slower I would not aggre with it being less consistant.
It needs an amount of setup that is clearly doable
You dont have to play around Kalista its just an strong option to win the game. This deck has more than one way to overwhelm you on board (especially Hecarim should not be underestimated in ephemeral decks)
While it is certainly true that The Rekindler combo is not likely to go off its not by any means the ONE goal of the deck that it has to reach, its just an strong lategame option
Oh and I forgot to mention that killing Kalista wont solve your problem since this deck also uses The Rekindler to do the well known kalista loop
Hey folks,
New patch is out and there were many reasonable changes made which tuned down bannerman and fearsome spiders quite decently.
While I like that the meta is changing I encountered a sort of aggro deck that I have no clue how to stop:
Ephemeral burn (SI + P&Z) with Kalista and Hecarim as the Champions.
Since Kalista got buffed it is laughable easy for ephemeral decks to level her right when she is played using Haunted Relic, Shark Chariot, Used Cask Salesman or simply Hecarim and once you have flipped her she and hecarim spawn free ephemerals on attack who feed nicely into their Phantom Prankster
If you think that this sounds already quite hard to stop i got to remind you that this deck also has Mystic Shot and Get Excited! to finish you WHILE also having always the option to blow up the board with The Ruination since they dont really have a board to loose
I personally dont see a way to control this deck and it seems to me that you only can rush that deck down
I might oversee a way to stop that but thats why I'm asking you folks
So you unleash the souls once and she is leveled? That makes no sense and really is just to push her into the meta that she should not be a part of...
Well the Frenzied Skitterer nerf seems not impactful to me (power is way more important than toughness in fearsome decks and this just makes it die to avalance or mystic shot)
The Brightsteel Formation nerf is small but meaningful since p&z can now kill it with their big creature burn spell as response and that it triggers 1 less barrier for shen
The Katarina buff is interesting but i doubt it will make her much better on her own but i could see Ezreal decks now considering to play her
The Yasuo buff actually does not change too much since he was above 3 health when he leveled anyways and thats what matters (for Brittle Steel)
The Vanguard Bannerman nerf was to prodictable and wont reduce the power of the card too much it just has to be played along with 3 units instead of 2 to be worth it and thats fine
However it is sad to see that Riot wants to keep Iceborn Legacy as it is. It only finds a home in that scribe meme deck that you cant call consistant or ranked viable imo
Have you guys noticed how swim tried to make Iceborn Legacy work in the spider endure list and did not manage to pull it of once in multiple hours of playing?
I think that pretty much proves how useless that card is right now...
About the MTG Mulligan Change it works kinda as it did before just that you draw always 7 cards and chose which cards to be placed under your deck, making it less awkward to deal with landscrew/flood
LoR is meant to be fair for free to play players and it actually lives up to that promise.
However i feel like it supports staleness if everyone can play tier 1 decks on the spot and everyone who wants to play meta can do so.
Maybe its just my disgrace about netdeckers but I am up for any barrier that prevents people from copypasting the best decks.
Maybe I am completely wrong on that end since it is also easiert to build non meta decks without giving up the opportunity to build t1 decks.
All I know is that I wont be the netdecker and that I like to have access to any deck I want to create.