Legends of Runeterra

I'm assuming by now the novelty of standard has worn off.

The limited deck builds and selections.

The premeditated leaning towards pro-players and number crunching vs creativity and memes.

It's all exceptionally boring and limited.

So I wonder how long till play rates drop, views drop, all the metrics people care about diminish.

Because I'm not playing, a lot of people I respect aren't playing, because we all had to wait 2 months just to play the format we like, aka eternal, aka og real Runetera.

Frankly this is unacceptable eternal ladder should have been established the minute rotation happened, anything else is just lazy.

Another 30 days to go on top of the 30 I just waited yeeeeeeah woooo how fun Riot!

So Jack one of the worst champions in standard currently actually shares new dialog with Trundle.

Now 90% of players will never experience this content, and they will never know that the new Champs were actually built with rotated Champs not only "in mind" but literally based content around their interactions.

I'm curious to see how much dialog there is with rotated Champs and new Champs, because pro players are making it sound like Riot didn't balance the new content with existing content in mind.

But clearly they did, Jack was always meant to team up with Trundle due to the massive synergy inherent between them.

Now standard players will never know this interaction was not only intended but is genuinely amazing.

Just another reason why eternal is the real LOR in a growing list of reasons.

----big rant---

I gotta be honest I'm a little pissed that pro players like Majin gutted half the game so.they can have an easy ladder climb.

Because not only have they messed with the pre-existing core experience, they literally neutered Champs pre-release!

Jack was a champion designed for Trundle and ramp, and pro players decided pre-release that this archetype was irritating and killed Jack before he could be played.

Thats balls man, that's giant fucking.balls to say stfu Riot I know you designed this champ with Trundle in mind and recorded dialog and everything but I'm pro player x y z and I think ramp is annoying.

Thats not an objective standpoint, here's an objective standpoint make eternal everygreen so I can play the game the way the devs fucking.designed it.

Jesus

In my quest to get ready for Eternal ladder I've been pre-scouting what the new set brings to existing deck interactions.

There is some insanely broken stuff here, infinite draw with tf, hyper burn aggro, and my favorite otk ramp.

What other amazing mysteries does this red headed step child format have to offer?

How will it develop long term?

And who will be the new pro players of this format?

All these secrets will be revealed in time and my God are things gonna get broken.

But I'd rather that than a standard season that gets solved in a day comprising of things that are obviously good because they survived rotation.

See you next time runeterra dragon out!

There's a bit of an ongoing trend you will see with the new Champs where their power lies in their base form more so than their level up condition.

First up is Sett - really strong as a natural upgrade on shen Fiora, because he has natural barrier built into his kit.

So its possible to challenge on the left, level shen on the attack, proc your barrier dudes to boost attack all at once, very cool.

Samara - obvious upgrade for pirate aggro, enabling you to say play a 1 drop, play Samara, and on 3 ping and play 2 plunder 1 drops which depending on your opponents deck is very hard to stop.

Jack - the problem with Jack isn't Jack, he's actually pretty decent as a card, but all of the coin support is actually in Ionia not bilgewater which makes Jack very difficult to run in a flexible way, like say ramp Jack which could be a thing otherwise.

I hate to say it but Jack should be a runeterra champion with the simple text that says I can run all coin cards, problem solved. But again you would run into rotation problems that way.

-----huge edit----

Sorry I lied jack Trundle is broken not only does ice pillar turbo level him, of you spend 12 mana on dance dance combo, it counts as 12 mana spent to instant level 10/10 jack.

Then you can play ice pillars after for 8 points of free attack.

Isn't eternal 10 times more interesting than standard where smart players can just break the game in half?

Remember if everything is broken nothing is thats how modern works in mtg

So before I showcased one of the best aggro decks in the eternal format.

Essentially hard core pirate aggro that makes the old versions look like joke when it comes to pure speed and responsiveness.

But how do you beat it?

Well its actually exceptionally easy I'll list the cards for each region:

Feijord: 3 of blighted ravine, 3 tavern keepers, 3 avorosan, and 3 catalyst (ramp) you're basically guaranteed any slower freijord deck will manage okay sometimes in the aggro matchup

Ionia: got its own 4 drop tavern keeper in the new set, you have your standard ryze tools essentially burst followers and dragonlings.

But I think low key the best Ionia tools are the simple ones people sleep on like palm and face smash. It pound for pound punishes development more than anything else.

P and z: really shouldn't struggle into aggro ever, it's the ping region it's all pings

Noxious: better at dealing with midrange threats but flock is still the best one mana card in the game

Bandle: goes wide better than any other region

Shadow: its again the cards that people don't use, 5 mana deal 2 to two followers is big value, or maybe it's just tripple vile tripple go hard.

The point is that eternal has a massive card pool with so many good cards to chose from and given the diversity of the format the relative power of "Bad cards" is much higher.

With each new set released the complexity of the core LOR experience (eternal) increases.

More variable, more interactions, more champions, old decks get better, new decks are born and everything in between.

But standard is just that, literally a handful of 4 decks that are top tier, will always be top tier, and there are no balance changes that can freshen up a rigid format because there aren't enough variables to work off of.

The reality is that standard is an experiment, an attempt to appease pro players doing there 3 deck rotation ladder grind, and a way of bringing back snap players who get scared by complexity.

But you see core LOR still exists, it didn't go anywhere, it didn't stop functioning, and it didn't dissappear.

And any attempts to turn a blind eye to the superior core format of the game will only end up hurting it in the long run.

CIDACBQGDYAQMAZJAIAQGAQMAIBAGAYEAMDQGBYIBYCAEBQWEYWTUAABAEAQGKA

So let's break this down I'm tired of winning so I'll open myself up to snipers ^ then inevitable switch decks and go right back to winning again.

- 13 high value one drops every single one has 2 health or more to devalue pings like vile feast

- mana 2 is all spells and burn. So make it rain plus pirouette is gonna seal the mirror

- you have your burn pkg obviously noxious, demo, decimate

- you have your standard draw so you can sustain in longer games so tenticle and elusive dude

What makes this deck different?

It's basically the simultaneously anti control and anti aggro considerations.

How do we beat vile, how do we best the mirror we have big answers for both, and we don't fall into the trap of mirrai warden, it's a great card but it's not what we want necessarily.

So yeah the only good answer is the hard counter basically freijord shadow that has teched specifically with nothing but chump blockers.

Then once you face the counter you off match and go with a slower counter deck.

So this is how I thought about and built one deck ^ all my decks go through this scrutiny and are similarly sucessful.

Two aggro decks enter one leaves.

No mismatching no shenanigans.

Just my aggro built custom for Eternal as a hyper burn deck and meta Samara daybreak.

Who wins, the crowd waits with bated breath!

Well its obviously me, because I understand the format and I built custom

And the opponent lost because those standard play patterns are boring, predictable, and downright underpowered by eternal standards.

I remain the king of that format always, until Riot formally adopts it, and then the pro players pool their resources to make a tier list.

Even then however with this many decks and card choices I will still rain Supreme.

I love that people keep trying to one up me, I saw someone who was all in on burn literally precious pet nothing but one drops, but he lost too. You can try to counter me, you can try to one up me, you can try to beat me.

But it won't work, I'm the eternal master.

How long will it take before you all get that through your heads?

Eventually you'll all give up and start asking for advice, Nifty how is it that you build different and play different.

You'll get your answers from the eternal master, the only one in LOR right now.

I can't say enough about this format.

I went like 10/0 last night all with my own decks.

Illoi (midrange) 

Pirates (aggro)

Asol (ramp)

Ryse (combo)

It doesnt really matter what you play, as long as.you have that advanced concept of deck building you will win.

Doesn't matter if an entire army of people try to stop you, they can be the best players, or the worst players.

At the end its all the same to Nifty.

So here's hoping Riot does the right thing and formally adopts this format long term because honestly standard is for grade schoolers at this point.

I really wish Swim didn't get canceled because he's bad with women. Because his oppinion on this debate would be the only one I'd listen to with our play styles being very similar.

Like how many people do you know can hit insane winrates with absolute trash? 

I can count those people on one hand, there's me and then there's him.

Streamers will pretend that hey time bomb printer is the best deck ever! I face it and it crumbles to me in two seconds.

Hey why don't you go peddle your garbage brews to someone else and leave the house cleaning to the professionals?

Man I absolutely destroy in eternal.

And pretty soon this format is gonna have a legit ladder and then the pro players can complain about the meta all over again.

Well sorry but some people like to play optimized lists that do things instead of aggro jank.

Adapt or fail, because eternal is here to stay and I'm the big dragon baby.

Standard is already done and decided, there's nothing really interesting to talk about there.

Let's move on to the cool format instead, eternal and how it might shape up in 30 days when ladder unlocks:

1. Ryze - obviously it's a very good deck into anything slow, it will be cool to see how the list adapts to new card additions 

2. Elites - will always be the best midrange list for now, just because battle Smith into three 3/3s on mana 3 is bonkers

3. Aggro - I think it's pretty fascinating to ask how the new aggro tools work in a world of pings. My response I would definately consider running Samara over TF in pirate aggro, that sounds super broken.

4. Shromes - I play a lot of Temo and the eternal version is definately better, thermo, the one of landmark, but you can do better in this format for sure.

5. Ramp - doesn't have any new tools yet but when the new set makes its way to this region boy howdy I can't wait to make the most busted ramp list possible

6. Jack - eternal jack sounds awesome because the card isn't doing anything in standard eight now, literally the opposite. 

7. Sett - being able to play Sett with Lee Sin is obviously better than Karma because Karma doesn't really do anything without ezreal or go hard thats why the standard version is barely playable right now.

This is all early speculation but man when we start getting official eternal ladder in 30 days this format is gonna be nuuuuuts...not just aggro good, beat stick LeBlanc good, zzzz

Yep I can't be beat in eternal, it's basically mtg masters aka for grown ups, little kids need not apply. I'm sorry guys but my eternal win rate is insane, I literally climbed with garbage last season you can't take me with your weak *** open attacks this ain't standard.

Eternal ladder when Riot?

Nobody cares about standard, it's a very simple meta with very well defined best decks.

You know what's way up in the air and unknown right now?

Eternal, no tier lists, no deck lists, just you and your opponent and the best player wins.

Usually me.

Sorry I don't want to play which standard aggro deck is best...ooh who will it be Samara sunbreak or Samara Fizz?

Or will midrange frostbite the only playable midrange deck left, remain the only playable midrange deck left?

Will control decks all still suck?

Are combo decks non existent?

The answer to all those is yes.

So yes Eternal is where the good players go and we want ladder.

While I've generally come to accept that LOR will be an aggro slug fest, and there's nothing you or I or anyone can do about it.

There are a number of people still confused by the choices:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/12btv6u/this_is_what_i_got_out_of_the_dev_feedback_stream/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Roughly 150 people on the main reddit are generally baffled by some of the design choices.

Freijord not having acess to healing anymore, so no blighted or tavern keeper to help sustain in agressive metas and deal with 1 drop spam.

Good removal cards like flock and vile feast and pokey are gone so once again aggro has less to fear and can openly board spam no problem (barely had enough to stop them in eternal)

Entire archetypes were gutted but not the good ones and seemingly for no reason. 

Overall it seems like rotation is very much for the hearthstone players and that seems to be the overall sentiment after listening to the devs talk about rotation.

How players are worried that this direction is overall wrong, and not good for the game.

But hey Mogwai is back so whatever, I and 150 other people don't need to be happy with LOR if the streamers are pleased.

Like personally I can't really play too much standard and enjoy it. I would be super interested to know how that holds true for everyone else as well.

Aggro slug fests are so fun, like man so glad we killed half the card pool so lurk could be better than it already was. Totally worth.

Like I do understand better than you think, Marvel Snap told the LOR devs that doing things is more fun than not doing things.

But LOR is much closer to MTG in terms of its balance than a Ben Brode game. There needs to be the give and take.

The opponent says I do this and you need to be able to say nope. Well there is no more nope in LOR it's just do and get run over, or you run over faster. I hate it, but hey at least trournament line ups got a whole lot simpler.

So I'm not going to keep on harping on rotation, people are enjoying the general lack of all purpose responses in decks and familiar play patterns.

1. Play an akshan it would get mystic shotted

2. Play scissor lady that's a thermo

Now you can play those things and they will essentially always survive the turn now to swing. Good for proactive players bad for responsive players.

Well I'm in the second camp, my joy of LOR came from looking at ladder and coming up with decks that countered what people played (responding)

Now there are no responses only statements so for me that leaves me in a weird position where I basically have to wait for Eternal to turn into a real competitive format before I can play the game my way again, and that might never happen.

So long story short Marvel Snap is a pretty fun game eh?

----the fun---

So all rotation did was make aggro decks more aggro? Fuuuun and balanced and interesting

So dynamic having all decks have to run 12 1 drops so cool and interesting

Glad we have that now as the face of competitive LOR

So every single one of my decks is now outlawed in standard. Not one or two or three.

But something like 20 seperate decks are now unplayable for me.

I dont know if I can recover from that.

I dont know if I want to.

I will say Marvel Snap is looking a lot better now as much **** as I give that game.

At least it didn't invalidate 3/4 of my collection and all of my hard off meta deck building work.

I guess the pro community is happy, no longer losing to stupid stuff like insta ramp asol, but I also think the game is worse off because of it.

Like they took their tree house and kicked off the ladder for everyone else.

99% of players have no idea how to play off meta Champs and archetypes in runeterra.

Ask Majin Bae the last time he played yordal tribal and he'll say yordles have a tribe?

Ask Nifty the last time he played yordal tribal in master ladder and he will say 5 minuites ago.

So we end up in situations where poppy and her entire archetype get rotated?

Why yordles aren't competitive, they aren't good, they aren't broken, they aren't even cheesy 

Now you could say Taric Poppy infinite rally was a deck at one point, kind of like how star springs Tahm Kench was a deck at some point.

Are they good decks now? No....not even close, not even in the same God damn solar system as what is considered good and playable right now.

Want to know what's good?

Annie, Annie is pretty good.

Elites are pretty good.

Yassao? Not so much.

Sundisc meh kinda but also no.

Want to know a really good one?

Thresh, when is the last time Thresh tutored a champion and that was some how good?

Or you jammed 6 anivas?

But no killing these bad decks will some how slow the game down?

When they weren't actually being played in the first place?

No this rotation list reeks of arrogance.

Nah you weren't playing those decks anyways right? I dont see them in the top 20 meta list so you don't need those decks, they didint exist 

So yes I blame the runeterra community for not expressing the importance of the extended card pool.

But when you get locked into the next rigid meta where only Sett is meta or whatever, you're gonna wish you could jam Rumble to blow off some steam.

Too bad ya can't now, he dead.

Board spam is a pretty big design issue in LOR.

Removal is over costed.

So by design the person who clogs the board with more stuff faster is usually the winner.

There's only one instance where this isn't true.

And that's burried in ice.

The only one sided board clear that properly exists in lor, unless you count broadmane which is a follower.

So having that ability to laugh at your opponents garbage as you go right over their head with asol level up into burried in ice.

Thats the true LOR for me, that's the you were never on my level play.

And boy will it always be satisfying.

Yeeeeeah if you have to hard tech your entire deck to counter me I'm doing something right like usual.

Let's discuss the champ rotations and what they mean for LOR's future "new format'

I'm gonna play legacy still but its no doubt that most LOR players will be in standard:

1. Ziggs - midrange landmarks is a deck I hate to see die I really dont think the mountain man is gonna get it done

2. Poppy - literally sees 0 competitive play although I think she is decent and I run her in yordal tribal

3. Rumble - having a uninteractive all in one style champion is important for the game so let's kill him too?

4. Gangplank - like yeah midrange plunder is one of the best decks since rising tides so obvious rotation choice, but again people like that deck and now it's dead

5. Tf - this one they said already but he's the only champion that levels off draw ans now he's dead

6. Tahm kench - he has some combo brews that aren't fun to play against but once again he's an "important" card in lor

Note: not MF aka the pirate aggro super star???

7. Fiora - another important card that doesn't see a ton of competitive play a little here and there

8. Lux - umm k well 6 cost decks are gone hope you didn't enjoy that play pattern

9. Aniva - wow got that 1 hard core aniva player since vanilla rip that guy I guess

10. Braum - poros too strong confirmed I guess I heart of the fluffed 1 too many pro players

11. Trundle - once again I'll wave as the 1 hard core ramp player left in LOR rip me

12. Lee Sin- that was obvious I already said he can't exist when coins are a thing but its a shame I like his design

13. Irelia - people actually play her a lot and she didn't really need to be rotated so rip azir irelia fans I guess

14. Lulu - lulu Jinx too strong confirmed cuz you know I've seen the discard challenger combo once this year?

15. Yassao - okay this format is dead to me yassao is LOR - not because he's good but because he isn't and that's the point

So without going into any more of the leaks I had said that rotation was gonna be a shit show and man the show has been pooped hard.

I feel like this rotation list was chosen by the pro players who got mad at off meta but niche effective list and decided to kill them.

Like hallowed is still a thing right?

Because it's competitive cancer?

But noooo yassao too strong boys I don't like losing to bad decks cuz it makes me look like a bad player.

Well guess what hypothetical LOR player you are bad, like really bad and killing half the well designed Champs in the game won't change that.

----bold prediction---

This is the gold card phase of LOR for those familiar with Gwent.

Where a perfectly amazing and well balanced card game gets killed because the pro player community gets whiney when the linear set of plays and decks doesn't work under new circumstances.

Well guess what this ain't chess card games evolve, they change, they become something new. Just because you were top 50 one year and now you're only rank 0 masters doesn't mean the game is broken it means you're set in your ways and killing LOR to satisfy your competitive ego won't change anything cuz the game will just die and then where will you and your hard-core ego driven ass be? 

On the road looking for a new game like the rest of us.

----more leaks---

1. Zoe yeah cuz you know I tried bard zeo lately and it is in fact aaaaa deck like there are cards in a pile that you can play no she isn't too strong so she has to die

2. Taric ummm what? He isn't even niche good like he's just straight bad

3. Aphelios - come on I know gravitum spam is annoying but he's a cool card let the meme stars meme Jesus

4. Katarina - yeah rally spam I understand that since all rallies became 4 mana Katarina is literally better than all rallies but she dies to mystic so let people have her I say

5. Ezreal - literally non competitive for a while now I know the spell play priority change made him frustrating but he's well designed now after 20 balance changes

6. Vi - again what does P and Z not get bad challenger champions now?

7. Viktor - he's a bad card for bad players so let's kill him? Again why so many non competitive cards?

8. Vlad - I knew this and guess what I still don't like it shockers. He is a well designed bad card and I like that he exists

9. Draven - he's as LOR as Yassao and now Draven doesn't have his fan and I'm no longer a fan of LOR simple as that

10. Xerath - yep niche competitive decks like sundisc have no place in the new LOR it's too uninteractive and frustrating for the hard cores sooooryyy

11. Zillian - what's the deal with time bombs he just gets infinite draw thats sooooo broken? Sarcasm

12. Sivir - spellshield too op guys you mean she doesn't get vengenced kill the card too broken

Okay now it's just wtf? 

I went from incredulous, to frustrated, to just defeated and sad reading this list.

The more competitive the champion the more likely it survived rotation.

The more niche and intriguing the more likely it dies.

Hearthstone players ruling the dev team I see?

Don't get me wrong it's not great into elites and Annie, cuz you know hand vommit is cheaper then removal.

But man into everything else this deck puts in the work and it's my favorite list going into the expansion for that perfect balance between memes and competitive play styles.

1. Removal heavy makes the deck durable and responsive

2  follower curve gives you some resilience with chump blockers

3. Lots of burn in case your shrome play patterns get responded to

4. Otk combo obviously your primary win conditions of doubling traps or procing 5 cards deep

5. Easy catlyn level for an additional burst wincon

6. Lots of puffcap peddler fuel

7. The one of hexcore foundry is just perfect more than one is a liability and you have your draw card anyways

I gotta say I'm proud of this you can measure the weight of an LOR player by his Temo and my furry bastard is strong.

---expansion talk---

Where does flashbomb peddler fit in? He might actually exist in a different deck where you also run the 4 mana card and now you're not a combo deck you're full on flashbomb control.

And then you're combining it with a champion that likes free removal maybe Kindred? Maybe something different who knows. There is an interesting world where you hit a critical mass of flashbombs to hard lock opponents into ladros atrocity. That would be funny.

----edit---

Okay I'm gonna say this again my brews I easily go 30 games over two weeks against everything.

Jamming a bunch of aggro and burn into a list without cohesion doesn't make a deck that you can actually play into any relavent matchups where the opponent isn't drawing you cards.

Like if your deck is good if you're confident in its performance actually play it! That's the only test. Not oh I one off memed and that matters somehow in your own mind.

Good decks are playable into the meta for months and months on end. My diamond dragon deck has seen play since the last expansion, I modify I tweak but the deck stays the same, do your brews see play on ladder or anywhere actually outside of a one day binge?

I even see players mirroring my decks now because they are confused why I keep winning. Well be confused you're not me, you never will be but you can try to emulate or counter me if you want. It just won't work for long.

So Set is a new Lee Sin champion for LOR he challenges, he kills a unit on level up, and he has a spell casting level up condition.

Now I don't know for certain but I assume Lee Sin can't exist in the same rotation as Set because coins cost 0 mana essentially.

So you just play 10 coins to level Lee Sin by 5, and then you can play Set later on if Lee dies.

I assume that's totally bonkers broken.

It has to be better than Akshan in that deck 100% of the time.

--- small rant---

If you're playing jhin Annie in casual que you better be in masters cuz otherwise you're awful and you're cancer.