Legends of Runeterra

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Bit of an experiment to see exactly how many subtypes you need for neko to be playable

The answer is 4, bird, cat, reptile, spider

That is also coincidentally where all the good cards are

Like sure we've seen the standard deck that bends over backwards to level neko even going so far as to run a poro, or an elite

Statistically that hasn't been great

Just give me a yummy three sisters all day long and the 7 mana for 6 mana finisher and I'm guchi

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Ever since doggo got nerfed elites have been in a bit of a tough spot

With the board vommit play style overall getting generally outplayed better by other regions

But using the new 5 drop and a healthy amount of burst elites can still be competitive in eternal

What that list eventually looks like we will see but for now this is good enough

Doesn't require ping spam or r and g

Has decent removal options

Better card variety

Not bad

Definately better than 42%

As Majin Bae mentioned 3 of the top decks are Evelyn decks

She has the most reliable removal, the best keywords, and the biggest numbers and the best finisher in standard

She is essentially an unstopable force that can not be controlled or beaten with the limited tools in the standard format

Also buff across the board to the new Champ archetypes would be good so they are actually playable statistically

If the goal of a new set was to A provide new competitive decks to play, and B not break existing decks the new set is currently failing on both counts

So a hotfix to make ladder playable isn't only necessary it's needed to stop players from abusing this broken balance state

So yes Riot Evelyn hotfix when?

So why exactly are Evelyn and Illoi dominating standard?

Poro king at 42% illoi or Evelyn at 60%

Thats a 18% winrate difference the largest we have ever seen in the history of LOR

It comes down to two thing tempo, and numbers.

without the appropriate numbers of spells and answers standard basically boils down to who can jam the biggest numbers faster

And no two champions do this better than Evelyn and Illoi right now

Getting those exodia 10/10 statlines to 20/20 is easily done with sirens song and spawn and no other deck can really compete with that or have reliable answers with our current card pool

You can run illoi with jarvan, or with Swain, you can run Evelyn with Kayla, or Lucian, or Nora

The point is the deck doesn't matter much

Sure the percentages vary by 2% but it's the archetype and the champion that's doing the heavy lifting

So what will Riot do?

Will they nerf spawn and Siren song?

Will they try to recapture the dynamic playstyle of LOR in a limited format

Or will they let the numbers slug fest continue with all the new champions perform 49% - 42% just because they are doing the normal LOR thing?

And right now normal is bad

Numbers good

Spawn or Siren song regardless of the winner numerically these are the two top tier decks right now

In fighting games Evelyn and illoi would be SSS tier characters

As in unfair and stupid to play much else

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Boy spirits unleashed, braum, scargrounds

Real decks, that play like masters level decks

Ohhhh baby that's better no xolani in sight

Gotta wait 3 months for ladder but I don't care eternal is soooooo much better for poros

You dont just jam 1 drops and pray you actually play the game!

See thats my problem I tried to make poros and ambush and all this stuff work in standard

And no in standard you play 1 10/10 body and thats is game over you win or two 5/5s 

In eternal you play 1 drop to stall, and then from there it's all synergy baby just all good stuff that you should be doing and make sense

In that world I'm unstopable

In a beater world I'm bored to death

70% of decks essentially boil down to some sort of beater list, xolani is everywhere, nobody bothers to level champs

I'll be honest I don't know if I can play this garbage for another 3 months

 It might just be a rerun of last time where I break for 3 months so I don't have to watch 5/5 beaters be a  miracle cure to deck building

let's jam Xolani into every deck cuz again answers don't exist and playing one body on curve is how you win

It's sad really the lack of skill expression, the lack of anything

I know when eternal ladder comes out that ambush, poros, zoo they will have a proper home

but right now it's beaters or bust, and that's sad

I'll let you know where the proper homes for this stuff goes in 3 months, but right now standard is assssss like it's always been

any deck that is champ reliant is roughly sitting at 45% any deck that just plays big dudes fast is at 60%

cuz again spells dont exist, so just do thing thing thing into xolani and do that for every deck everytime

no bounces, no removal, no flocks, no answers, no dissintigrates, just xolani.......alllllllll the time

This is the balanced format we chose?

Also why do I have to wait 3 months every time for eternal ladder the more competitive format?

I don't know, I can't even play braum with poro king, you know how much he will positively impact winrates on his own?

Probably 10% because poros without braum isn't poros, it's poros with Xolani once again cuz no answers

So how do you know in LOR if your meme isn't a meme?

Kind of obvious really it needs to beat all the top meta decks consistently:

1. Can it beat Swain illoi 62% (bad deck)

2. Can it beat demon boy (combo finish)

3. Can it beat Samaria? (Burn)

4. Can it beat heimer jayce (control)

5. Can it beat nasus

Again I can do this all day but all of these decks have something in common

They win 55% - 60% of games they are meta

So the only way for your meme to transcend is to beat these decks and only these decks

Nothing else really matters

So of the numbers you put out resemble 45% that's bad

If your deck is a one off surprise that's bad

If your deck isn't even worth playing by you that's bad

If you can't climb with it that's bad

Only once you can win consistently with your own lists and only once your lists that are "bad" can be proven good has your meme transcended

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look at mastering runeterra then back at me, then at mastering runeterra now back at me

this is the deck your deck should smell like

It's nuts honestly It'll beat anything definitely better than 49%

So it was pretty obvious to me that all the gooood bird lady cards were literally bird tribal cards

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giving birds quick attack and plus 1 is nuts

giving them plus 1 and impact is nuts

Again in standard context these things are horrible outside of that

But you know shadow isles giving you all those yummy on curve control cards is just how I roll

Kalista on curve allowing you to potentially resummon your big tribal pieces

I call it hitchcocks nightmare and once again it's better than the day 1 lists

I'm on a roll 3 for 3 with the new champs, because I am the master memer competitive players can't put their head around this stuff

https://masteringruneterra.com/meta-stats/

Every pre-release list is bad and has a sub 50% winrate don't use them

Use my ambush list in standard it's generally superior or run poro king in eternal where you have braum support troll chant etc

I even got standard poros figured out

3 yumis, 3 purifying flame, 3 hush let's you guarantee elusive dmg and let's you react to all in strategies 

Natalie is a standard terror, she generates free lazers like lux and is easy to level and can provide massive overwhelm dmg with buffs

But not only that she synergies well with vulnerable in her own kit while in quick attack mode, you factor in the ease and flexibility of maining 3 creature denies and you've got the makings of an absolute terror for this limited format

Poro king is gonna be great in eternal but can be flex swapped for standard playability. In eternal you run braum, troll chant, spirits unleashed and in standard its pale cascade, yumi, and purifying flames.

Either way leaning heavy into elusive poro, and overwhelm poro is the way to go and sled is gonna be your big beef, with lots of little dudes and chaff to trade off

So there ya go two very competitive standard and eternal decks day 1 by the master memer aka the eternal king aka nifty the forgotten 

--- pro tip---

Don't Natalie unless you can turbo her level up and with poro king it's kind of thr opposite

His level up doesn't really matter, like I know the first theory crafted list was like run alllll the poro 1 drops to turbo king but it's like great you got a 1 mana reduction in snacks....who cares just take normal snacks generation it's fine and play a better value version

Now if poro kings text read all your snax become special snax that might be worth the turbo. You aurora porialis for 6 and it's boom 2 special snax because you leveled poro king even on his death but just 1 special snax each turn? Seems kinda win more idk or don't win at all because both you and your opponent are 6 creatures deep on board.

Already competitive and playable as a standard midrange beater deck also works in eternal

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The only card we arent using the the big game poacher or whatever it's possible the card is amazing in the right deck but it doesn't feel great here

Eternal is nothing but pings and you want to capture a midrange creature with a mystic shot body? No you need synergy and buffs to keep it alive after

Does quicksand not work in quick attack?

Was that a bug?

Doesn't matter still easy deck easy wins 

----edit----

Do I need any spell other than desert strike when every ambush is a spell?

Naaaaah 6 spells only 3 prowl 3 desert strike then just curve ambush stuff overwhelm Champs and the allegience tutor easy easy easy God deck building is simple 

Obviously I can't test this on ladder yet

But this is basically what the deck should look like

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Poro king basically takes care of the one thing this deck suffered from

It's that you wouldnt draw enough tribal buffs

Now the deck has 12 tribal buffs, 15 if you count key words

yep it'll unga bunga just fine and you should be able to push enough dmg with impact, overwhelm and elusive

Easy peasy

Remember how much it sucked when they closed down ladder for 3 months when the new set released?

Turns out that's normal

So I appolgize to all the viewers who wanted to know which meme decks were competitive on eternal ladder at masters level?

I can't tell you now tell you till August

Troll Riot trolling again 

So let's preface by saying these are standard  decks so options are more limited, with that out of the way lets start with the comments:

https://masteringruneterra.com/8-decks-for-day-1-ranked-climb-patch-4-6-heart-of-the-huntress-expansion/

1. gnar ambush transform - basically just splashing for witch doctor and gnar, this feels kinda bad as someone with experience with this archetype. There's a lot of cards that don't really belong 

- pie toss why?

- concologist why?

- grandfather fae why?

so this is kind of what happens when good players try to play memes, they have to much trouble divorcing themselves from the "good cards" and embracing the good "deck theme"

So what you end up with is a confused beater deck with random pings and desert duel, again yes it's a standard deck which is why I hate standard, cuz I can guarantee this is not how this builds properly in eternal

2 swain illoi

- whaaaat this isn't even a new deck are you guys even trying at this point?

- like just replace yourself with another LOR expert at this point yeeeesh

3 Nora Neeko

- so once again the pro players are struggling to divorce themselves from good cards

- umm how do we play the new pheasant lady?

- shit I don't know just jam the zoo cards in a nora shell

- wait doesn't Nora already generate infinite board value and isn't that anti-synergistic with a tribal deck?

- don't ask me maybe she'll roll a random sub type or something

- what's the chances of that happening?

- idk 10% wait what were we doing again?

4. Fizz samara

- also not a new deck skiiiiiiiiiiip

5. poro deck

- okay you guys might be new to poros so I will excuse you

- but generally the most efficient way to run poros is to only run the goooooooooood one aka lonely

- and then just generate the rest

6. Kaisa 

- not a new deck

7. Temple frostbite midrange

- this one is actually good because all they had to do was take an established shell and jam one new card in it

okaaay so the lack of meming experience here is really evident here, we have 3 new champs and I would argue that all 3 were built grossly wrong like waaaaaay off likes miles off the mark

but that's good because when the set releases I can share the good versions of these decks for eternal :)

Wooooow so Riot did it, I take back everything I ever said bad about them ever.

Feel free to delay eternal ladder another 3 months after the new set I dont even care anymore

The best runeterra region is here!

The poro king

So why is pro king good?

Well typically in competitive poros you would have to splash bandle city just so you could run poro sled their good 5 mana card, or you would run pnz to guarantee elusive aka their good one mana card

Either way running a whole region for 1 card feels bad so now you just run Freijord Poro King problem solved.

Like I said genus, not only that it guarantees snacks generation and yes you could wiff on it before

Ngl as far as tribal decks go, where they typically aren't amazing in LOR, this one is pretty good now. Braum poro king will see heavy play just because of what it is more so than what it needs to be and thats awesome.

Also Riot I was kidding about delaying eternal again I want to be able to play braum poro king on ladder 🙏 

I'm already masters in eternal just like last season with nothing else to prove or do

So let's kill some time by theory crafting a new transform deck that doesn't suck.

So every ambush card can be played as a 2 mana 2/2

Which guarantees that you can play witchdoctor on 3 to buff your flipped transform unit

The big one is obviously butterfly when I transform for 4 mana I summon an additional 4/2 and then if you duplicate with Chamillion you should summon an additional 4/2.

So on mana 4 you should have 1 drop and then 4 4/2s how good is that exactly it certainly is an agressive and fast board state with the attack token

But what can other decks do to stop it literally just 2/1 spam a bunch that would suck

I'm not sold yet I really really want transform to be a thing and not a giant meme but here we are

Thats not even mentioning that if someone  goes for a big transform play can't you just mystic shot the 2/2? Like yes prey boosts your 2/2 to a 4/4 to counter mystic but you won't always draw it, so yeah I don't know if Nadalie goes in transform at all.

I dont know what she goes in, some cards seem like they are just good another deny on a cheap body is gross and it's a burst deny that cant be denied. That's money there obviously no duh

But beyond the burst deny why are you playing ambush, and Natalie herself seems strong but the rest of her kit looks meh?

So I'm one of the only players in the world who has played a decent number of games with old transform (bandle - freijord)

Basically you aim to combo ping bird with sejuani for infinite free lockdown. But the problem was there are no good transform cards in freijord.

So now instead of aiming for a strong champ effect  namely infinite frostbite you just build a beater deck with gnar Natalie?

Very hard to evaluate that on its own merits right now it will all depend in how strong the ambush followers are. Like do you want to buff them by 1/1 and give them impact, do you want to duplicate them with chameleon.

What's their transform effect or are they just beat sticks?

It will all depend but it's cool to see transform get support after gnar a first release champ for bandlewood

Last time we talked about Ionia being broken boo but yeah for those players.

Let's talk about some good stuff

1. Dragon Prince Grinzo - holly molly my little mermaid is gonna turbo so god damn fast. She already uses those bilgewater summon 1 mana creature spells now she attunes each time? Meeeeep

2. Snowy razor claw, I don't care I like this card. Gangplank Sejuani is such a boring deck now you can try to slip in a little late game value if you want. 

3. Neeko - good origin I don't care how strong she is, she let's you build new deck types thats what origins should do

4. Portal scholar - I hate Nora decks but this is exactly what she needed. The deck had a weakness on the 2 mana to 5 mana gap and this fits that perfectly

5. Age of dragons - targon freijord ramp was already my favorite version of ramp and this card is awesome...but Ionia will make it unplayable till nerfs

6. Sump monument - if you give your nexus tough does sump monument make you immortal? Kinda fun to play around with as a meme for highlights

7. Epic scrap traction - you guys know this card is great not much more to say

8. Siren song - 4 mana and now your husks can't be pinged not bad a bit expensive

9. Shiers - please stop giving hallowed support they don't need it it's like the most ubiquitous and powerful archetype in the game as far as keywords go

Overall I'm glad the set isn't just hey let's print the best Ionia cards ever on top of giving them their own tavern keeper last expansion.

At first thats exactly what it will be but when the dust settles we will be able to play a new Zoo archetype.