Today is the first in a series of articles we'll be covering the entire week. The Out of Cards staff wanted to share some of their favorite Runeterra cards with you and suggest decks to use them in so you can give them a whirl for yourself. We'll be talking about a different region each day, starting with the Shadow Isles today. Be sure and use our own Deckbuilder if you've got a perfect deck to share with us for any of the cards we discuss.
Warden's Prey
I like this card, not because it's amazing, but because of the artwork and the implied terror lurking around the corner. It's one of those cards where you only see a fraction of what's going on. Luckily, for us, we get to see the entire artwork for any available card from within the client itself, which is an awesome idea! And just in case you didn't know, when viewing card art in the LoR client, you can click anywhere on the image, except the X, and it will hide all of the text so you can see the full piece.
After taking a closer look we find out who this poor lost soul is hiding from. I noticed this individual seems to be the same guy from the Elise and Frenzied Skitterer artwork, unless all the guys around here carry roses with them everywhere. It's a real kick in the teeth to think he escaped Thresh only to be lured into Elise's lair (or vice versa). He also shows up in Arachnoid Sentry and Arachnoid Host, still blindly chasing after Elise. This guy is everywhere, and the dude has been completely terrorized!
There are several other pieces that share this same hiding concept. Be sure and check out the full artwork for Thresh and Mageseeker Investigator to find out who is lurking just around the corner.
The card itself can generate some amazing value considering you will get get a unit with Last Breath, which can, in turn, generate something else useful with its own Last Breath ability. I really like him in this type of deck below because you've got plenty of ways to kill him and bring him back over and over again. I think Thresh would really appreciate that.
I've always been a sucker for inevitability. There's something delightful about having a game plan which grinds inorexibly forwards, making it very clear to your opponent that their time is limited. That's a major part of why I like The Undying - it's a crystal clear message that you will win unless your opponent responds. Add to that the simple beauty of turning a weakness - Shadow Isles' penchant for sacrificing their followers - into a strength, and you have a very pretty card indeed.
Despite that, though, probably the best thing about this card is how it looks incredibly powerful - a minion you can't remove or block without making it even stronger?! - but is in fact entirely balanced, possibly even weak. Even at a basic level, a 2/2 for 3 is poor - factor in Can't Block and you're looking at a follower which is outvalued by the 1-drop Legion Rearguard. And while those issues can be circumvented with judicious use of Rally, the fact remains that The Undying is better suited to punishing slow, defensive decks and is easily outpaced by the aggressive decks of the current meta. The Undying isn't worried though; after all, it is Undying... and no meta lasts forever.
The below is a deck I put together during the initial alpha, tweaked somewhat for meta changes, specifically geared towards using the Undying. It still needs some playtesting, but helps to highlight the strengths of The Undying while mitigating some of the weaknesses.
Made it through the entire entry without making an 'If you strike me down' reference! Be proud, Internet!
Frenzied Skitterer
I think I first encountered this card in the Expeditions and it just stopped my entire game plan for the turn. A +1 Power for my opponent's board? The hell? Now each of their puny spiders can kill any of my units. That's not cool. To make things worse, now I won't even trade 1-for-1 anymore. What is this card?!
Ever since then, Skitterer proved to be just a really strong flip switch to change the flow of almost any turn it's played. It has good synergy with Fearsome keyword, since it can make the enemy 3-Power units no longer be able to block units with Fearsome, but it can just create a favorable trades for you regardless. This is especially amazing in a spider deck with Elise. Her leveled up form, Spider Queen Elise, gives allied spiders Fearsome and Challenger. So you can easilly remove the enemy board from the equation and just go face. Because face is what? Yes, still THE place.
Here is a deck I do my dailies with. Nice quick spider action to get that bonus pvp xp every day.
Stirred Spirits
Out of every card in the entire game, Stirred Spirits is the card that is my favorite in the game for a reason that doesn't involve its gameplay. This reasoning is the artwork. When I found this artwork while doing my concept art series, I found it amusing at first. The more I look into it now, the more I realize how deep and clever it is. From what I can gather out of it, the art represents the mind out of alcoholic (or whatever it is they drink in the Shadow Isles) drinking so much that their brain basically turns into that, and it seems to affect their entire body as well. It could also represent the monotony going through the same bar, drinking the same thing all the time that their mind entire fixates on that thing and the two combine to where the person becomes "that thing" in a sense, which the artwork happens to take literally.
Here is the highest rated deck on our site that utilizes this card. Might be pretty fun to try out.
Thanks to sinti, Demonxz95, and Bystekhilcar for sharing their favorite cards with us today!
Check back with us tomorrow when we keep it rolling with cards from Piltover & Zaun.
Comments
My favorite Shadow Isles card is [Hearthstone Card (Glimpse Beyond) Not Found].
I know that it is in every deck but I don't like it for the sacrifice synergy or the insane power of a 2 mana draw 2. [Hearthstone Card (Glimpse Beyond) Not Found] is the best value counter card in the game. I almost never use it not for a reaction. It should read "Makes your opponent discard removal and waste the mana.' It turns any of your opponents removal into draw 2 for you and if they have a enlightened [Hearthstone Card (Emerald Awakener) Not Found] it becomes sac your smallest minion to deal 6 to the opponent AND draw 2.
Sinti, how much luck are you having with that spider deck?
Most of the spider decks I've seen on the 'net will try to run faster--i.e., cutting the pranksters and Brood Awakening and often even the hosts in favor of trying to end the game sooner. He's my personal take (Darius is probably better than Kalista but I like a challenge):
Hosts are good, i often finish the game off their buff or at least do significant damage to follow up on that.
Pranksters r kinda crucial, since they are your only reach (except Overwhelm) when your opponent has a board. I have won many games on the backs of Pranksters.
Brood Awakenings i might agree with, like a week ago, they were still performing well, but lately, i just dont really find a way to play them in a good situation, since i almost always have 4 or more minions on the board and for the +1 buff, it is not worth to give your opponent an action in return. They are good as fodder for Pranksters or as a T3 play if you didnt have anything to play on first two turns, but im starting to feel like if that is the case, you might have other problems. From the three cards you mentined, this is the only one i think i might try and cut. Maybe i will try Rearguards instead, to accelerate early damage and to "guarantee" to have a T1 play.
That being said, i still win majority of my games, provided i play like 3-4 per day (just for the daily win bonus). I do play in Casual. I dont think it would be a very good deck to ladder with, but if you need some fast wins, it gets the job done.
---
About Kalista, i dont feel like it would do much, at least in my version. 2-health is just abysmal, so she would basically act as any of the 1/1 tokens that was buffed. I have Darius there as a reach, 10 dmg on Overwhelm can usually finish the job.
How are Arachnoid Sentries working out for you? I love that card, but often times just stunning something doesnt achieve a whole lot, since your opponent just plays another thing with his action that can block you instead )and ur where ur started. That being said, both decks play pretty much in a similar fashion, so i guess it is just matter of preference.
Definitely do Precious Pet over the rearguards: I think Pet actually does more average damage thanks to its fearsome, plus it synergizes with your spiders.
Kalista essentially acts as a mistwraith + brother's bond for 3 mana: sometimes she closes the game out fast, sometimes she just dies off. The only reason why I'm still using her is because I wanted my deck to be as aggressive as possible.
The sentries are definitely my least favorite card in my deck because they usually don't help me push damage. For your deck, I could make the argument that they can stall out your opponent a little bit (e.g., stunning a monk or Hecarim to buy another couple of rounds), but realistically you already have five 3-drops that you prefer so sentry is just going to feel awkward too often.
I already run Precious Pets, i switched them for Arachnoid Horrors, since i had too many 2-drops, but maybe i will add the 3rd one and will see what i do with the 2 slots. Maybe i'll add two Kalistas to see how they perform :d