Ionia Spotlight - Our Favorite Cards & Decks from the Legends of Runeterra Region

Buffing things is fun and I think it's only appropriate that a "buff" card received an upgrade itself. Being able to give a unit +3/+3 permanently is quite powerful and it can be devastating to your opponent if you manage to put it on any of the Quick Attack units like Zed or even something as small as a Nimble Poro. I love the artwork for this piece and it makes me want to ride a crystal kitty myself, provided he didn't try to eat me. However, his ruby mane does not look like it would make for a comfortable ride at all. I guess I'll just have to enjoy this Elusive deck instead.

Something of an unusual card, this one, in that it's a Quick Attack card with bottom-heavy stats. The reason I like it, though, is that it's something of a sleeper threat. It doesn't really draw much attention initially... but one or two Stun or Recall effects go through and suddenly it's looking absolutely terrifying. In a Yasuo-centric deck it's far from uncommon to see her pushing 11+ attack values - and at 3 health, any removal she draws is going to be more expensive than she was to play.

The other major positive for this card is that it gives Ionian decks an alternative build-path rather than Elusives. I'm sure many of you are getting tired of the Elusive keyword by this point, and would welcome a different approach being taken - and yet, Quick Attack is something of a parallel to Elusive, as in one case you can't easily block them and in the other you don't want to! Overall, Fae Bladetwirler is a card which starts off as a modestly statted blocker (and indeed, can be used in that role), but can quickly snowball to become virtually unkillable without spell intervention - and every spell your opponent uses dealing with her is one they're not using for your other threats.

Bladetwirler of course fits in neatly alongside Yasuo, but is also very appreciative of effects which let her attack repeatedly to make use of her heavily buffed Quick Attack. That's why the linked deck for today is one from CzechCloud, posted by Flux, utilising both Yasuo and Katarina to push for far more early aggression than a Yasuo deck can usually muster.

Katarina.

I was never a big fan of Karma in League of Legends, but in Runeterra, oh boy. I guess it is her uniqueness, since no other card can do what she can, for now anyway. Having double cast on spells opens up so many crazy stuff you can do, it's awesome! She is a great champion in all formats - Ranked, Casual and Expeditions. Play her early to generate some extra value via random spells and then come T10, unleash her true power. Oh man, she saved my bacon so many times in Expeditions in situations I had no business getting out of, definitely give her a try if you get her offered!

For ranked play, how about this Heimerdinger Karma control deck by Wrapter?

Inspiring Mentor is simply just an amazing, flexible 1-drop for Ionia with so many good targets. Ionia is a region chock-full of Elusive units, where this buff only gets stronger. This into turn 2 Greenglade Duo is simply a classic play. Zed is an amazing early-game target for it as well. Even late game, he can fit so easily into your turns. Outside of Ionia, he's really good with just about anything as well. Any Elusive or Quick Attack unit benefits from him amazingly.

He has sadly dropped in viability a bit after he was changed to only grant Attack instead of both Attack and Health. That said, you can probably still find him to be very useful.

AllNewBagels reached Master rank with this Fiora-Elusive deck, and of course Inspiring Mentor is great in it.