While we’re waiting for Legends of Runeterra to return for closed beta during Q1 we’ve got some time to go back and take a closer look at the different regions that are currently in the game. If you haven’t done so already make sure you register at the LoR website for your chance to join the game when it’s available again.
For the first region we’ll look at the Shadow Isles. It used to be a nice place to visit, but after a magical catastrophe it is now filled with death and doom. Anything alive will slowly wither and eventually join the army of spirits and ghouls that toil the cursed land. The Black Mist that covers the isle is tireless and always ready to welcome the next unfortunate soul to its ranks.
Elise just wants to be your friend. I'm sure there's nothing nefarious going on here.
As you would expect, the Champions for this region serve as a grim reminder of what happens to those who linger too long in this dying land.
And just so you can see how terrible they can become when they are living up to their full potential take a look at these upgrades.
Surrounded by so much darkness it’s no surprise that the mechanics of this realm focus on killing things and then bringing those things back from the dead. The primary keywords you’ll find for the Shadow Isles are Fearsome, Ephemeral, and Last Breath. You’ll find an adequate arsenal of removal spells for your opponent, but also quite a few that require sacrificing your own followers to further your devious schemes. There are a handful of Ephemeral critters that pop up for a turn before retreating to the darkness. Lastly, any place as gloomy as this wouldn’t be complete without a swarm of spiders to remind you the whole area should be nuked from orbit.
In the video below you’ll get to see CHARM3R in action trying to abuse the Ephemeral mechanic as much as possible.
Here we’ve got one of the decks played during the last Preview Patch which focuses on spider tokens to overwhelm your opponent.
Deck ID Not Found
If you’re looking for a good partner for the Shadow Isles you can take Noxus for some additional spiders and the ability to help you push through with your Fearsome units. Ionia contains several more Ephemeral cards if you would prefer to go that route. Freljord has quite a few Last Breath cards to add to your arsenal if you’re interested in killing and reviving your own stuff.
Nothing suspicious here. Just a couple of spears stuck in me, but nothing to worry about.
What was your favorite deck for the Shadow Isles? You can use our Runeterra Deckbuilder to create your best deck or theorycraft something new. Be sure and share your experience in the comments below!
Comments
I really like your articles about runeterra @neonangel. They are great for showcases about the upcoming game and includes useful information about mechanics of the game etc. I am looking forward to other region-themed articles.
By the way, thanks for mentioning my deck in the article. I had some connection issues and couldn't write in time. I really did not think that one of my decks can be a part of article of first page tho. :)
The deck that I've made needs some tinkering in my opinion but represents some core mechanics of Shadow Isles. I've built that because I saw a lot of Shadow of Isles decks but didn't see a deck like this. Almost all first/second preview players used the region for Zed/hecarim aggro/midrange, Some kind of Sacrifice deck and She Who Wanders decks. I wanted to show people that they can build a token deck with Elise + Demacia and without Noxus. It acted well but needs some tinkering tbh. I will update all of my decks when the beta begins because of some bad parts of the deck and I think that they will bring some changes with the closed beta release.
That was great for me to see the deck in the article really. Thanks for that again. :)
I'm glad you are enjoying the articles. Thanks!
Nice article! I'm glad this site is showing some love for this game. Pretty sad they poorly nerfed (imho) Kalista : the flavor of the card has waned for me... But it is still beta so wait&see!
This surprisingly became my favorite deck of the preview patch as well as the expeditions patch.
It's also tokeny like the one from almanarria, but it's more geared towards control, with lots of removal and more epmphasis on dawnspeakers that are supposed to accrue a lot of stats on your followers before going in for a finisher. Aside from glimpse and haunted relic, there's not many ways to kill your own stuff. But why bother - spiders can chump block and are perfect expendable attackers. It's super hard to not have stuff dying, so all the cards that are active once something has died are basically always active. Rhasa and Dawnspeakers are value machines, and Vanguard Redeemer keeps you going for a while.
Great write-up and it has piqued my interest. How does one get into the beta?
Visit here to pre-register, and hope that you are allowed into the closed beta when it opens sometime in Q1 2020. It's that or wait for the open beta, sometime later in the year.
Some of us sadly didn't make it into the preview patches, and are stuck waiting :(