Legends of Runeterra

So I'm on the fence about trying either Miss Fortune or Fizz--both look really fun but for totally different reasons, and I'm 0/3 on both.  Meanwhile I've got 3/3 TF and 2/3 of Naut & GP.  Then I notice that I'm at Level 16 for Bilgewater rewards so I figure: I'll push that region, pick up the wildcard at L18 and the champion capsule at L23, then if I likely get either my first MF or first Fizz from the champion capsule then I'll use that wild card to craft another which will give me 2/3 and that will be enough to at least craft a deck and play a little before I commit to crafting the third copy.

Good plan, right?  Totally works around my crippling indecisiveness.  So I do all that, and I grind XP for the weekend and I finally hit L23 last night and I anxiously open my champion capsule to find...

Which is good, right?  Except to my twisted mind, it feels worse.  :-P

What about you guys?  Have you ever had any illogical feelings about something in-game?  Or alternatively: advice about whether I should craft Fizz or MF first?

Guess what, we get to talk about everyone's favorite stealthy list, and how to fix it.

- The solution was simple, just splash frejord. Now every wayfinder can pull out omen hawks and buff all future elusive draws.

- The evaluation works like this, if a wayfinder pulls out 2 hawks that's 4/5 strength plus 4/4 strength into future draws.

- That is 8/9 stats on turn 4 so consider me converted, all the list needed was a tier 1 splash. Not to mention the deck thinning potential.

- You also get access to burst speed spells that keep your elusives alive like fury of the north and elexir of iron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWrJ5QXpOVU&lc=z23nwr0xutf5hznzm04t1aokg25qqapueelyifqzmnoqrk0h00410

This is the first deck I created.

I won one game and lost 5 with it so far.

I'm not sure if early game aggro decks are viable in the game, as low cost removal is limited and finding blockers isn't difficult. 

Something as simple as a House Spider can ruin my board position. And I cannot deal with late game cards. I'm still not sure about 

Legion Rearguard. Having it do something on turn 1 is mostly up to luck and attacking first.  And I'm wondering if a 1 cost 2/2 isn't better than a 3 /1 that can't block. I also recently learned that allies that can't block can still be forced to block. (Would have been nice if it had a narrow upside)

Once the enemy has blocked a few, or traded,  they overtake me with larger threats.

Obviously, some card choices are not optimal as I'm still building my collection.

So I just started playing last week.

I was talking with my brother today, and he has a pre-constructed deck that I don't, and vice versa. But I completed the tutorial and challenges and there doesn't seem to be a way to unlock more. Are some of the unlocked decks random?

Also, what does it mean when a wild card in my rewards is labeled "Upgrade"

Lastly, anything a new player should avoid?  I tried building a full aggro deck with "Legion rearguard" and "Patrol Wardens" among others. But I'm not sure if these type of deck are viable in this game.

Please nerf burn aggro - today I lost two games against it with even with him not even touching my face with direct attacks - just last breath deal dmg and burst spells. Total bulls*** not fun to play against + most of the players even rope deliberatly

How many of you would want a Weekly custom Runeterra card creation competition, just like the one for Hearthstone? I know LoR has a smaller presence on this site than HS but I think it’d be fun.
Upvote this if you would want to participate in that, so the mods can see if it would be worth investing time and forum space in

Hi,

I just build a deck with Powder Kegs and Grasp of the Undying.

I had 4 powder kegs and Grasp said it will drain *7*. It actually did:
I killed my own 2/2 unit with it and it gave me 7 life (to survive a Decimate (my opponent had no units)).

But after Grasp resolved, I still had all 4 powder kegs even though I already benefited from them.

That can't be intendet, right?

I have a habit of designing reworks for cards, and since I don't want to fill up the forums with lots of individual posts, I've decided to make this thread and the just comment whenever I have new ideas. Here's the first batch!

The idea behind this change would be to make Braum more powerful, especially in Poro Decks. The first change would be to halve his level up condition, which means that he would be able to level up in 2 turns instead of 3. This would make it much easier and more reliable for a Poro deck to level up Braum. To compensate for this, I made Braum's level 2 form create the Mighty Poro in hand instead, making the Poros he creates only really worth playing in a Poro deck. Poro Decks in general struggle with spending all their Mana in the late game, so I don't think this is much worse in a Poro Deck than his in-game version.

The main issue with Undying Spirit is that it doesn't allow for counterplay by the opponent. This version is fast speed, meaning that it can be responded to by another removal spell. Also, because the buff is only for that round, it must be reapplied every round, meaning that the opponent is forced to always keep 4 Spell Mana open, and so that if you ever get 2 removal Spells in hand, you can kill the unit. Also, the fact that each is a separate spell could make it have interesting uses with Spell Synergy cards like Lux. This version could still be a bit too powerful, in which case it could become a 5 Mana Spell, but at that point it might become too weak. 

My main issue with Make It Rain is that it randomly hitting the Nexus or not can determine whether Plunder will activate, which often decides games. My change would be to make it cost 1 more and deal guaranteed damage to the enemy Nexus and 1 damage to three random enemies. This change would make Make It Rain much more consistent, and by having 1 less random target for the 3 random damage, it would also make this card less random against bigger boards. My object was not to nerf Make It Rain, so if this seems too weak feel free to suggest a better change.

My aim with this card was both to make it viable in a Catastrophe deck, and to make it less random. This version has +1/+1 over the real Back Alley Barkeep, which makes him less of a Tempo loss and therefore potentially playable. Compared to something like Babbling Bjerg, it has +1/+0 (and synergy with playing multiple copies of him) at the cost of the cards being random, and therefore less useful. I made the cards revealed to both players so that he becomes a little bit less powerful to compensate for the stat buff, and also to allow the opponent more counterpart. If "create random cards in hand" were ever viable, the lack of ability to play around it would make it a frustrating deck to play against, so I think this sort of change would be necessary to make it a healthy deck. 

Please fill free to discuss the cards you feel are broken or overpowered in any mode of play. I'll start of with unyielding spirit. If you are playing expedition mode where you are limited to the picks you get for your deck, the chances of having a single card that will counter unyielding spirit is slim. Even if you manage to get 1 or 2, there is a high chance that you will not draw them. So, if this happens to you, you are just SoL if you get put up against it because its incredibly overpowered. I cannot believe Riot thought hmm this seems okay...

 Don’t know if anyone else has run into this, but I’m curious how you report a hacker. I was playing with a guy, and he started playing cards that look normal, but with the effects changed.

One was a Vile Feast, which normally drains 1 from an opponent, but he had changed it so that it drained three.

My goal is to build a Twisted Fate/Ezreal deck that relies on Riptide Rex to charge most of the procs.

Here goes the core cards i don't want to change:

Thoughts?

I am brand new to the game, less than 2 weeks played, but I did some looking around and decided on Sea Monsters as my first real deck. It took some serious learning and experimentation with the list before I got it to a point that I feel comfortable with. Since I'm so new and my collection is lacking, I incorporated the must-haves and other things that I happened to already have, along with copious amounts of removal, and wound up with a bit of a frankenstein monster of a deck. But it has been working, so I thought I would share and see if anyone else around here is playing this deck and if they have any pointers.

I haven't been browsing the subreddit much lately; apparently this was discovered a few days ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/gtwb00/psa_you_can_use_html_codes_for_formatting_deck/

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/gu4315/all_the_46_sprites_you_can_add_in_your_deck_title/

Just be careful--apparently there are a few invalid combinations that will cause your client to repeatedly crash until you reinstall.

So the pros have weighed in, let's see what predictions I got wrong.

Tier 1 - Deep, Sejuani, Heimer

So deep was obviously a contender for best deck when things slowed down after the patch, we see a Frej list tier 1 as predicted, and 1 thing I got wrong.

If you'd ask me if Heimer was tier 1 I would have laughed, and been like tier 3 at best

So we'll put the score at 2/3 pretty good, but not perfect calls.

Frej also shows up in tiers 2 and 3 frequently

Dem bannerman has seen a huge drop in play rate, but there is a new version that runs Fiora with spells to help provide an alternate win con.

It's also dropped badger bear, no duh.

The deck is still good it's just different, and harder to play overall.

Karma lists are down to tier 2 that's the other big change, along with burn.

It's worth noting that things are so balanced right now that there is only a 5 percent win rate difference between the best lists and the worst.

So you should honestly just play what you want, if you want to be hardcore play frej if you don't then play whatever you want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxZvtsfe_CI

I found out just now that using [Hearthstone Card (Stand United) Not Found] on two units which have been targeted by opponent's Challenger attackers completely negates the Challenger effect. I mean I guess it is intended, but still I don't really find it fair that just by swapping two units' places you can basically disengage them from combat or even use them to block any other attacker. The card already disrupts your plans by swapping them (and giving them barrier), why should it even have this further interaction? I might also just be a bit salty over losing to an opponent who used this trick 3 times in a row, but still...

I really like the monkey idol. It goes with the idea I had some time ago to add a bit more personal flavor into Freljord. One of the Freljord cards mentions making an enemy into a fine totem. So I was thinking of having a few totem like cards for Freljord that acts like the monkey idol. They can't attack or block but take damage every turn but provide some kind of area of effect buff for you or your unites.

Like Totem of Spirit: As long as this totem is in play your Nexus can't be targeted by spells or abilities. Totem of Might: As long as this totem is in play your unites have Overwhelm. Totem of Endurance. As long as this totem is in play your Nexus has Tough.

Stuff like that and since they take up a unite slot and can't attack or block it's probably best to limit your deck to having only one totem. The one that best fits what your deck is trying to do.

Yesterday I was playing a game and had three Leviathans on board and won. So I didn't think to much into it until today when I was messing around with the deck and saw something odd. The deck only has two Leviathans and no way to get a third. So how exactly did I pull into a third Leviathan? O_o

Need - I was thinking about how hard it is for Crimson Decks to set up due to there being close to 0 1 drop units for Crimson Decks, the only viable options are unscarred reaver and plucky poro, neither of which belong to noxus, with the latest update all noxus 1 drops are left with 1hp I believe. That leaves Crimson decks in a weird position where any viable option sacrifices late game value, mainly due to Noxus running with very very little hand replacement or card draw, trifarian assessor, and crimson curator being the only way noxus has to refill their hand... That being said I feel that the Crimson Cult could use a 1 drop, useful to the cause.

Crimson Flagellant  

1 cost - regeneration 

Red Lashing (play skill)

play - deal 2 (1) damage to me and 1 to a unit (not nexus)

1dmg               3hp   (2hp)
                              

Balancing - I feel like this is a good trade off, it doesn’t replace the value of blade’s edge, but it creates a value of its own instead, one that doesn’t threaten balance, but does allow crimson decks to start building an early game without requiring crimson disciple to be in your starting hand, it’s also decently counter-able, as a play skill it gives the victim time to respond, similar to black powder bomb (I really hate that black powder bomb isn’t instant, but balance is important) it isn’t impossible to defend against. Note that the skill says and, not then, so this separates the value of the skill into 2 connected instances, if the skill is denied it stops 2(1) damage to the Flagellant, which could be positive, or negative depending on your circumstances, on the other hand there are ways to meditate value on the victims side, any positive hp boosts will nullify the effects.

Synergy - This card synergies very well with crimson decks especially as it was intended, since it is a crimson card it can be created by the crimson curator, however, I do recognize that a 1/3 with regen isn’t especially useful in this game, which is why I wanted to push the 1 damage to A UNIT, not an enemy unit, so it can be used to reactivate crimson curator for a different card. However this card does have positive synergy with other cards and decks aswell, it works kind of like a worse 1 cost noxious fervor, but it guarantees value so long as the Flagellant survives till the end of the round, that being said, this card synergies well with Vlad, bc it starts his level up requirement with at least 1 surviving unit, it synergies with Swain, bc it starts his level up too with 3 damage, It also can be used to activate other cards that require units be pre damaged, like Aurok, Flock, and Guillotine, I don’t think this works with gp very well tho, similar to black powder bomb it risks killing a unit rather than damage, but for freljord it would be able to activate scar cards, reaver and warmother would be if it a great deal from a low cost unit that could activate their requirements, an early game activated reaver would be a great help to freljord scar decks that frankly don’t see much play.

Wrap up - In conclusion, this card would be a viable 1 cost starting card for noxus decks like Vlad and Swain, especially crimson decks that desperately lack early game options. The card has value with some planning necessary, and offers an activatee and an activator for the crimson cult and alike. It also fills out some level up requirements, And gives late game value, something that is rather lacking in many 1 drop units, pretty much any poro that aren’t in poro decks, Any 1 cost unit with 1 health or below 3 damage. BUT most of all CRIMSON FLAGELLANT fills a void in noxus, the need for early game starters with more than a 1 time use (Ahem, legion sabatour, Ahem), and it finally gives Crimson decks a starting card that isn’t just crimson disciple again.

thanks!

If you got to masters by using some meta net deck that someone else made did you actually achieve anything? Be honest. Can you honestly refer to yourself as a Master player?

The times they are a changing boys.

Assumptions made by streamers and pro players prior to the release of the patch have been proven false.

The sooner you accept this, the better you will do on ranked ladder.

So which regions were the big winners.

Tier 1 - Frejord

 Yup from meme to dream, slow rolling is how the game is played now and this region is the best at that style of play

It turns out that early game pressure doesn't exist to keep this faction in check anymore

You can pair it with Noxious, or Shadow or Ionia or Bilge

It honestly doesn't really matter, you can even go pure allegiance

Expect to see an obnoxious amount of Sejuani over the next month

Tier 2 - Bilgewater

This faction is just a card advantage control machine and in a meta where healing doesn't matter this is very very strong

You can run any champions that generate additional value but TF is the best at this.

What else is there to say plunder effects are very good right now

Tier 3 - Shadow Isles

Healing's decreased importance see's Shadow drop down a bit but the sheer flexibility of the faction means it's still very strong.

Run keg control, run ephemerals for fun, probably not spiders anymore, but sea monsters and they who endure are fine.

Tier 4 - Ionia

Stun effects, will of ionia, counter spells these things are naturally good in a slower meta

But we can't pretend that this faction wasn't nerfed decently hard

Ironically, enlightened decks with Fejord are okay now, again no early game pressure

Stun decks with mr samurai were designed to deal with aggro and midrange and they don't exist anymore

Tier 5 - P And Z

The burn nerfs hit harder than anyone else predicted and Temo is not a good sub for rearguard

He is too R And G and he doesn't interact well with transfusion

Ezreal is fine, but P and Z struggles to deal with huge creatures, 3 thermos will only get you so far

Heim has similar issues where his turrets don't deal with overwhelm

Tier 6 - Noxious

The aggro noxious identity isn't really a thing now, but the Vlad list is so strong that it almost makes up for it

Swain is a little worse by proxy, in a game where you can't bring the nexus health down to 0 by turn 6

Tier 7 - Demacia

Oh how the mighty have fallen bannerman are nowhere to be seen, or missfortunes scouts, or Fiora thanks to the stand alone nerf

That really just leaves Lux, who again 4 damage removal  is less valuable when every list has unlimited card advantage and huge dudes

I look forward to all of the angry trolls in the comments and the silent confirmation that this list is accurate in the next two weeks.