Call of the Mountain expansion releases tomorrow, and we've been theorycrafting up a storm of awesome deck ideas to try as soon as it does! Here are the top 12 that we're excited to see how well they do.
A quick note before you craft anything: if this expansion is comparable to the last, you'll get a free copy of Nocturne, Trundle, and Lulu at the respective Level 28 region reward so take that into consideration if you're close to that level and/or short on resources.
1.) Enter Sandman, featuring Nocturne & Diana
Hypothesis: L2 Nocturne and Diana are easy to level and each has the potential to close games.
Execution: An aggressive SI + Targon deck totally dedicated to Nightfall synergies.
Why it could work: Between SI and Targon, there are a lot of Nightfall units--not to mention Fading Memories, which can be used to trigger the Nightfall condition and give you a Nightfall unit to play on the same turn.
Why it might not: Diana and Nocturne have fantastic value when they are alive and leveled up, but it might be a case of "putting all your eggs in one basket".
2.) Woodland Critters, featuring Lulu and Lucian
Hypothesis: Ionia support + Demacia aggression = new hyper-aggro.
Execution: Lulu's support package combined with the usual suspects from Demacia and a couple Relentless Pursuit.
Why it could work: We've already seen what War Chefs can do for Demacia in general; now there are even more powerful support cards.
Why it might not: Lulu's support ability is fixed, so its value will fall off dramatically the longer the game goes on.
Bonus: Who doesn't want to see the opposing nexus annihilated by Swole Squirrel?
3.) What an A-Sol!, featuring Aurelion & Braum
Hypothesis: Celestial cards are going to be fantastic.
Execution: A Targon allegiance deck that uses Dragon's Clutch to tutor Aurelion Sol and splashes some Freljord ramp and survival tools.
Why it could work: The value in some of the Celestial cards is mind blowing.
Why it might not: The main deck cards themselves provide very meager board presence, so you are extremely dependent on invoking good affordable celestial cards early to shore up your defense.
4.) 1-800-TRUNDLE, featuring Trundle & Tryndamere
Hypothesis: Behold will make control archetypes like Warmother's Call decks really strong.
Execution: A Freljord + SI Warmother's framework substituting out Anivia for Trundle.
Why it could work: Behold could take this archetype's biggest weakness -- that so many cards are unplayable until late game -- and turn them into assets.
Why it might not: Even with Behold, this is still a very slow deck that is highly dependent on drawing well.
5.) CuddleFish, featuring Lulu & Fizz
Hypothesis: L2 Lulu + Fizz are a spectacular combo -- for 1 mana, you can give her Barrier and turn him into a 5/5 Elusive.
Execution: A vulnerable-heavy Bilgewater + Ionia deck from streamer Wigglytoph.
Why it could work: Support units excel when they also take away good blocks, plus both Lulu and Fizz are very easy to level.
Why it might not: Moving out of Freljord means the loss of Fury of the North and Battle Fury, and we haven't seen many successful Fizz decks without those 2 cards yet.
6.) No Equal, Featuring Taric & Fiora
Hypothesis: Targon uber-Supports want Challengers to protect them.
Execution: A Fiora framework that swaps Ionia for Taric and a few of Targon's perma-buff support units.
Why it could work: Demacia already excels at controlling the board, and units that grow in stats every attack escalate danger quickly.
Why it might not: Fiora has been in a slump for a while, and its not clear that Bastion plus some support will be enough to pull her out.
7.) Sibling Rivalry, featuring Leona & Diana
Hypothesis: Daybreak and Nightfall will synergize with each other.
Execution: A Targon-heavy deck build around Leona and Diana with Ionia for Deny and Recall.
Why it could work: If you can start the round playing a Daybreak card and then follow up with a Nightfall card, it creates insane value.
Why it might not: It's a very linear deck that hates to open-attack. I added Ionia to give it a few tricks, but will that be enough?
Bonus: Leona and Diana have a lot of fun voice lines if they are both on the field at the same time.
8.) Big Big Buffs, featuring Taric & Braum
Hypothesis: Permanent buffs have exponential value when combined with keywords like Challenger, Regeneration, and Overwhelm.
Execution: A marriage of Targon's Support package with Freljord's beefy durable units.
Why it could work: Braum and Stalking Wolf provide Challenger, which could give the Support units enough survivability to see the coveted Mountain Sojourners chain.
Why it might not: Those Challengers are the only direct interaction with the opposing board -- all the spells are single-target buffs to try to maximize Taric's value -- plus it's very vulnerable to silence effects.
Bonus: People might finally stop looking at me funny when I say Scarmaiden Reaver is actually a really good card!
9.) Who You Gonna Call?, Featuring Kalista and Darius
Hypothesis: Risen Mists and Stalking Shadows are the last elements to make Mistwraiths a threat again.
Execution: An SI allegiance deck that seeks to maximize Wraithcallers and Mistwraiths with Darius splash for a finisher.
Why it could work: The biggest limitation of this archetype was how inconsistent it is to generate Mistwraiths, and now there are 50% more cards that generate one immediately plus a spell that let's you dig for a free copy.
Why it might not: This deck is going all-in on the Mistwraiths, a unit who only has 2 HP.
Bonus: You can taunt newcomers with "this is what the first month of open beta felt like!"
10.) Championless Encroaching Shadows Burn
Hypothesis: Encroaching Shadows bestows outrageous buffs which should allow us to burn our opponent quick.
Execution: An SI + Ionia aggro deck looking for cheap, difficult-to-block units and ways to multiply Shark Chariot.
Why it could work: The potential upswing is huge--for 1 mana and Nightfall, you can summon a 5/3 fearsome Stygian Onlooker who will also re-summon all your Shark Chariots.
Why it might not: Giving all your future units Ephemeral tag means you're on a clock.
Bonus: You get +100 hipster points for playing a championless deck on launch day.
11.) Swain 2.0, featuring Leona & Swain
Hypothesis: Combing Leona with Swain allow you to bully board and potentially connect Swain to the nexus a lot quicker.
Execution: A deck from steamer BruisedByGod that takes the existing Swain archetype and substitutes out Bilgewater AoE for a Leona Daybreak package.
Why it could work: All the Daybreak units provide a lot of board presence.
Why it might not: The synergy between the Leona's Daybreak package and Swain's progress / L2 skill is tenuous.
12.) Championless Swole Squirrel OTK
Hypothesis: That Woodland Critters deck from earlier didn't have enough Swole Squirrel.
Execution: A championless Noxus + Ionia deck from streamer BomberTV that seeks to maximize squirrel power.
Why it could work: It has Swole Squirrel.
Why it might not: It is possibly a meme deck.
Bonus: Did I mention this deck can get Swole Squirrel from 3/4 to 36/4 in a single attack round?
What decks are you looking forward to playing? Have you pre-made yours in our deckbuilder yet? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
"Why it could work: It has Swole Squirrel."
There are so many things to try!
I was theorycrafting a Targon -Damacia with Diana and Taric as champions, the deck runs 12 nightfall cards, but Taric can copy the 2 mana spell one for an ally, buffing them, drawing an extra card and progress Diana level up even further.
The deck has some gems generation that i feel are very good with tough units, and with Damacia we have some great ones, Taric works too.
Radiant Guardian with gems and other permanent buff supports become very hard to kill and keeps you alive, i even play Silverwing Diver because it has both elusive and tough so it's great when permanent buffed. The deck runs the 2 mana 2/3 with nightfall: elusive, because she progressess Diana's level up and is a great unit to buff.
Crescent Guardian is another nightfall unit which in my opinion is great with Taric, because tough will make the guardian survive against 3 attack enemies, even spells generally have an hardtime dealing 4 damage instead of 3; basically Taric helps the guradian to surpass that health threshold when a unit is much safer.
The spell that grants +3/+3 for 5 mana is big with Taric and the elusive units.
Overall i felt the deck was kinda good, too bad it requires 6 new champions, so it's pretty expensive for something that maybe is bad
I have a big feeling leona/diana will be great they complete each other.
Nice, thank you for the ideas. I was expecting some kind of Demacia/Targo Dragon deck though !
Me too! I honestly gave it the ol' college try, but at the time of drafting this article, I couldn't seem to make Dragons work and I wasn't finding any community decks I felt confident in. Since then, I've seen a few to restore my confidence. My favorite so far has been this one:
Oh, also, well played on that A-Sol pun.
This is amazing, thank you.
I have 15 Champion wildcards burning a hole in my pocket, so that's actually less of a problem than the rares and epics.
But this dude is begging to be crafted ASAP.
Between all these and the new Lab coming tomorrow, this will really help when deciding where to spend my precious wild cards first.
Thank you for the effort on this one!
Very interested in the Leona decks, except I don't own Swain (or Leona herself, of course). Also curious about the premade Leona + Aurelion Sol deck being offered in the shop; I'm not interested in spending the coins, though.
I want to hold off on crafting as best I can to see how the decks shake out, but I also really want Leona and the Daybreak cards...I'll probably break down and make them anyway: I've been hoarding supplies since the beta, so what will I splurge on if not my favorite character?
Awesome job on this! I can't wait to try them out tomorrow!