Hail, Champions! Yesterday we looked at Zilean and Malphite, the first two champions for this week's Guardians of the Ancient expansion. Today we'll be looking at the final champion, Irelia, along with some other noteworthy non-champion cards from the expansion.
Irelia
We got a sneak peek of Irelia in action during yesterday's "early access" event, and this girl was FIRE. She was the most played champion of the event by a wide margin, and for good reason. Sure, her base stats aren't exceptional -- 3 mana 3|2 with Quick Attack looks like Zed but without the shadow generation. The secret to her success are those fleeting spells she creates. Flawless Duet acts similar to a 1-mana Make It Rain: you generate 2 blades that 1 damage each (possibly more if you have synergies), and it is so cheap that you can do it every round. She really starts to pop off when she levels, though: EVERY attack generates a Bladesurge, which means your opponent has to respect that any attacker (including the blades) could potentially transform into a 4|3 quick attack for zero mana. And this is Ionia, so even if they do pull off something tricky like a Frostbite or Barrier, you can just recall her and replay her for 3 mana (which also generates another Flawless Duet...)
Possible Applications for Irelia include:
- Azir and Emperor's Dais (summon additional attackers, plus summon synergies)
- Miss Fortune (attack synergies)
- Jagged Taskmaster or Professor von Yipp (1-mana synergies)
- Viktor (generated card synergies)
- Lee Sin, Fizz, and Vi (spell-spam synergies)
- General SMOrc -- e.g., Ionia elusives 2.0
Other Cards
We generally don't pay too much mind to the cards outside the champion packages; they tend to be either sidegrades to existing archetypes or just outright meme material. That said, there were a few cards we wanted to call your attention to which could potentially change the meta.
Bone Skewer is an interesting card: it's like a Single Combat that doesn't damage your own unit. That said, putting at the top of your deck not only removes it from the field but also delays you drawing any new cards. There are few cases where this would be considered a strong play, and you definitely don't want to include any card into your deck if it doesn't at least have the potential for a big payout. The first is Reputation -- there are a lot of cheap high-attack Noxus units (Trifarian Gloryseeker, Thorn of the Rose, a blocked Thrashing Snapper) that you don't mind paying for twice if they snipe something like an Azir or Maokai while also progressing Reputation. Streamer Scarzig brought the other major opportunity to our attention: Deep, where again you can discount your Sea Monsters through L2 Nautilus and/or Lure of the Depths. This is especially good if you can land it on a Devourer of the Depths or Shipwreck Hoarder, since you can greatly benefit from replaying those units.
People generally sleep on how good Leona is -- she's just not as splashy or "5-head" as her arch-rival Diana, but she still gets things done. While most people are already trying to figure out how to theorycraft new Yasuo decks around these new Daybreak cards (spoiler: they will all be horribly inconsistent), we're interested in seeing what broader new opportunities Leona's Daybreak package has in more general midrange decks.
One of the most controversial cards from the expansion is the new Ionia spell Syncopation. Mechanically it functions like the existing Stand United spell, but at 2 mana it has considerably more applications. You can use it to protect a Zoe from an attacking challenger, or to shift an attacking L2 Lucian over to an unblocked spot where he double-strikes the Nexus, to spoil an offensive targeting spell, or just to rearranged combat to better suit your interests after blocks have been committed and combat tricks have been played.
Finally, we have Shurima's new defensive tools, Soothsayer and Chronoshift. While ostensibly intended for Shurima sun disc decks, Streamer Swim has been very vocal about how he intends to instead incorporate these new tools into his "all-in" solo Fiora deck. Expect a lot of players to follow his example. For the uninitiated: these are decks that try to win exclusively through Fiora's alternative win condition of killing 4 enemies using a combination of buffs and direct-strike spells.
What will your first decks be? Share with us below!
Comments
I don't think that player are sleeping on how good Leona can be. Her problem is how linear her play style is. You want to play Solari Soldier turn 1, a Solari Shieldbearer or another Soldier turn 2, a Solari Priestess or another Shieldbearer on turn 3, Leona on the 4th then Rahvun, Daylight's Spear on turn 5. Daybreak as a mechanic is less flexible than nightfall, which why Diana is more popular.