Legends of Runeterra

So with the release of the newest mini set Lor has been kind of a mess.

A lot of the interesting and worth while play patterns that defined the game are increasingly being ironed out for what works.

Turbo strategies, do nothing strategies, general malaise and lack of interest/intrigue

Topped off now with what can only be described as streamer migration.

It began small by Swim and BBG quitting the game but now even Mogwai has left for a competitor.

I have to say that the future of Lor is looking darker then it has for quite some time.

I would say personally that the only real fix is going to be archetype support, hard buffs for freijord, and legitimate reasons to play midrange again.

Beyond that what is it that makes Lor truly appealing when compared to its competitors because I'm starting to forget.

The new champions obviously have found their competitive homes in rather straightforward pre-determined decks.

Vayne - provides extra attacks thats good, has a equipment angle that's also good

Beyoncee - just add Ionia for a cheaper and better karma

But what I haven't seen is archetypes framed around the new Darken equipment.

Demacia got a understated equipment come 5 mana challenger and bilgewater got a endgame draw payoff for casino decks.

We also got a host of new followers that don't see much play.

Most importantly we saw very little archetype support.

Where my big scary frostbite payoff or super spell, where's more ramp incentives, how about a new invoke card for slow targon?

Print more Elites?

Noxious allegiance?

I dont know it just feels like this set out of every LOR expansion to date made me want to try one Vein deck and I was like huh neat...done.

So first impressions of the new expansion is just more of the same:

https://youtu.be/EyhxuZ9Yk38

Is this Akshan list top tier? 

Yes because it's a card cycle champion that levels faster and more reliably then TF and he's also great.

The whole just add cycle champion, plus stall, plus deny thing, then you have your one win con is just kinda boring for me.

Like out of all the new possibilities for the new set and you settle in mini karma and not even with ezreal to like do something, but again akshan...it's brutal man.

So yeah views seem low for the mini expansion, interest similarly non remarkable, so I'm gonna be playing Overwatch 2.

Which has been sick honestly, team pushing the momentum of an entire game from thr back lines just by forcing people to try to solo que you is great, and then they forget how to play the game.

I think I have that effect in shooters as well as card games.

Ultimately, there are two play patterns in LOR currently.

You either play your hand out like diarrhea from a dog's *** or your essentially play nothing at all.

Trying to level or develop unique wincons is essentially pointless, aka playing the game.

We saw this pretty heavily at seasonal and we see it on ladder, and everywhere else.

The only problem with that is, it doesn't actually matter what you're playing does it if everything you're playing is played the same?

Pretend you're playing mtg for 5 seconds you have a deck with cards, that do a thing.

Then there's a thing you're trying to do.

Then do that thing.

I know it's a lot to ask, but humor me.

You might remember how card games are supposed to work again

Freijord remains the absolute best region in the game, I think we all know that.

You can spend somewhere between 3-5 mana to frostbite something which is a strictly worse stun or bounce

You can spend 4 mana to possibly mystic shot more then one thing

and you can overpay on ramp

All that with your only hard removal option buried in ice being an astounding 9 mana

Even if you play the list optimally and run something proper like captain arnika at 8 you're still basically instantly loosing on tempo, or on control.

Essentially the worse case scenario.

So how do you fix the objectively best region in the game?

Give them wincons that win?

Give them control tools that control?

Give them tempo tools that tempo?

Basically anything really that would allow it to compete on the try hard scale that we seem to be inundated with in this game.

Don't get me wrong two years ago avalanche may have been okay, frostbite may have been okay, but by todays standards unplayable.

I want to say that a 2 mana ice shards is a step in the right direction and it is, but everything else is a joke.

Having both blighted ravine and avalanche on 4 has always felt exceptionally awkward in Freijord and no amount of careful ratioing or tweaking solves the fundamental problem. The number of players that have felt comfortable just 1 drop, 2 drop spawn two bodies, jam a bunch a one drops on 3 and swing into this region is insane, and to be fair they were right to do so, because blighted wont land, and avalanche is a bad card. Well now you have ice shards for 2 that's amazing, and bam if it's late game destroy an equipment instead, instant 3 of for any ramp deck thank god.

Daybreak is already a really good grindy deck where you just play stuff until your opponent runs out of steam, and now they have another cheap tool, but to be fair I've never not seen leona level on 5 anyway, but I would probably drop the 4 mana life steal now, or the stealcorn.

Rumble is awesome, probably the most do something champ in LOR, and the added spellshield cuts down on interaction.

This provides a discard outlet that can also grant him elusive so he kinda does the husk nonsense now and that's great nobody is gonna say Rumble is op because it's not in pink region

Jhin buff which is nice he needed it, just more cheap skill procs all day long in case you whiff on annie 

Riots worried about TF being op but honestly this is fine, TF doesn't level in most top tier decks he's just a low commitment cycle play like Akshan, or Nami, or just anything that's top tier right now.

Very problematic, pantheon fiora, or akshan pantheon are already amazing deck, low commitment, low interaction, high value like all the best decks and now they can burst protect for 2 mana. I think they must have printed this before that deck got meta because yeah its bad news.

Pushing that old school TF casino deck, where you hyper draw fleeting cards to level TF in like 1 turn, and now it has a late game pay off.

This is less hey lets rotate TF and more hey lets actually level TF for a change like he's a gold rarity card.

Instant 3 of in bandle, big problem with why mayor or Nora don't see as much play is because it's just food for your opponents challenger.

Now if you drag you better get ready to trade when that owl with spellshield instantly turns into a 5/5

P and z control is suffering in the face of ionia, where stall and denying interaction is more valuable then removal, and dmg based removal worst of all.

Flock, disintigrate coming in at 1 and 2 mana being hard to beat in this regard.

So yes give them more junk absolutely

As a freijord main this card is very good. Because usually copy effects are fleeting this is not.

So you get your frostbite one turn, and then get it the next this is awesome I would run 3 of this with 3 of three sisters.

more p and z control tools great.

If you jam catalyzer this will do 4 for 2 that's almost as good as flock without the dmg requirement but you need the equipment still good card.

remember when striking was a thing and you didn't just pressure your opponent with do nothing plays that forced interaction as a means of draining resources but legitimately represented a tug of war between players and wincons...yeah neither do I.

Basically pink region exists, so spending 5 mana to give your combat cook overwhelm only for your five drop to get bounced and your combat cook to get blocked by a low value card that also gets bounced and replayed means you already lost.

That being said in a perfect world this card would be great and useful

Like you can play him with targon and protec your swings and he can attac

but again pantheon already kinda does that and is in the right regoin

It could be that Varus represents better one shot potential that you can guarantee a swing win with enough tools to deny interaction again mostly in targon, or ionia. 

The non removal based regions because at the end of the day denying interaction is better then interacting, and not doing anything is better then doing thing as the game plays currently at higher levels.

So overall yeah freijord got two good cards, and p and z got 2, and bandle got 2

On the boo side both Bilgewater and Targon got 2 good cards.

With the death of aggro we notice some pretty clear play patterns emerging in LOR:

1. the over abundance of Ionia representing something like 75% of top tier decks

2. Play patterns that once again shy away from actually accomplishing anything

For me this is personally problematic because nobody wants to watch someone play without ever committing anything to board

Even me personally I sleep pretty hard right now at how people are playing without ever actually doing anything

Like anybody can just stall and open swing, like is that the game now?

Without the pressure of burn or actual wincons stall is all there is, and to be honest is bores me to tears

When is the last time you saw someone flip a champ that wasn't just a vague cycle tool?

Wake up LOR viewership's are declining, so is the player base, because yeah things are pretty glacial right now, and the worst part is people  think that makes them good at the game? Legends of testing patience, this is why you don't ask your pro players to build out your patches for you it's game breaking.

With the talk of rotation recently, and Vlad being mentioned by the devs for a big reason why cards need to be shifted in and out of the game. I wanted to see if I could build a highly competitive and new Vlad deck.

Here's the list its very powerful and wins non stop into certain regions and matchups. Is it just worse then Fiora, Pantheon with strikes challenges and purple equipment - maybe but not everything needs to be a binary equation.

The point was that old champions are exceptionally viable, old champion pkgs (supporting cards) are not however every single crimson card is kinda awful.

So rather then rotating and redesigning viable champions out of standard they should be patching and updating followers to be viable.

Adding tough for example to his followers without the need to draw one specific landmark in freijord etc.

But yeah still not sold on rotation as this brew proves vlad in a vacuum is a great card, it's just everything else supporting him is under the power curve and had to be replaced with recent awakening followers. 

Very little of interest to talk about here:

1. Swain got buffed he is now a top meta deck, really no surprise all the tools were they just needed to buff the big man himself and his boat 

2. A fiora deck is feeding on this matchup ^ in combination with pantheon and eula to deny interaction and eat the little things while opening up for lethal

3. Tf Nami and Akshan Lee Sin are still doing their thing to represent pink region.

Thats it that's the meta that's all folks.

Doo doo doo de doo 

But in all seriousness outside of woooosh being a 1 mana infinite card engine for pink region, swains boat being too damn cheap at 7, and pantheon fiora existing as a counter to A fast speed interaction and B board flooding the games actually in a great place.

Recently I was going like 6 and 0 with vlad scythe boy because it really is that even and balanced.

https://playruneterra.com/en-sg/news/dev/rotation-in-legends-of-runeterra/

Official news here, LOR is becoming like other CCG's now.

So lets list pros and cons and try to be civil.

Pros:

Balancing old archetypes and regions namely Bilgewater has been like a two year commitment on the part of the devs, and it's something they have to spend constant time and resources on.

Cards like TF while interesting and unique as far as champions are concerned are constantly ending up in some of the best decks in the game (tf swain, tf nami, tf fizz)

It's possible with rotation that newer champs will be seeing more play

Broadens the design space so the devs don't have to balance around legacy interactions

Less time spent updating old champs to be viable again with re-designs

Cons:

The main thing that makes LOR unique is the evergreen state of the meta and how every champ and every card remains playable and somewhat viable in the competitive space in terms of a deck building consideration even if not in terms of the power curve.

Updating old archetypes, followers, and champs is what makes patches so interesting in LOR

Your favorite deck/playstyle potentially getting rotated out of ladder, unless there is a separate equally competitive ladder for the evergreen mode

Personally I weigh in on the con side as the entitled gamer I am saying devs just keep doing amazing comprehensive balance patches forever - just do it.

But again easier said then done, especially as the card pool continually expands over the years and there's more and more to balance.

So yeah Swain has more stats huge body for his cost, great key words  great champ spell all around good guy.

Gonna be played by 99% of the player base early on because people like to win.

And originality is hard vs bandwagoning on what been pushed at this moment.

But if I had to guess what the revert for this patch is, just like hate spike and kenin was last patch.

It would be boat, having double stun lockdown availible to Swain on 7 feels insanely strong right now, almost too strong for what it's achieving.

You look at something like orn (recently buffed) or malphite or asol and those cards are just never swinging again.

Like they buffed a champ which was pretty solid, and also deleted him at the same time which is pretty saj to me.

So yeah lethiathan back to 8 with Swain keeping his current stats seems to me to be the obvious revert for this patch so I would enjoy it while it lasts.

A really common fallacy I see in LOR players is the idea that if you can jam your wincon as hard as possible as fast as possible that makes you a strong player.

This is a ladder playing philosophy and the problem with this two dimensional playstyle is that you're essentially letting yourself get read.

Its like okay all I have to do is play a deck that's sufficiently fast enough to deal with opponent jamming their hand and I'l win guaranteed because there is no fall back plan, no nuance, no what the hell is that.

Honestly, it's sad really.

Anyway here's my new region rankings after the patch:

1. Ionia

2. Shadowisles

3. Bilgewater

4. Shurima

5. Noxious

6. Demacia

7. Targon

8. Freijord

9. Bandle city

10. Runeterra

Personally I love that pirates is getting shot in its big dumb aggro face.

The nerfs to both decimate and Riptide sermon make it difficult for aggro decks to justify running both cards.

Like yeah pass pass Riptide sermon is still a super viable play pattern for a control deck, but the aggro deck now needs to decide okay well if I want to flood the board, play Riptide, and decimate for 6 two times I might not have the spell mana to do all of that.

And honestly thank God

The second deck hit is plunder pirates but not as much because they don't run decimate. Like I don't love the deck because it's kinda ping ping ping blah here's my gangplank narf.

But people enjoy it thats good.

Massive Fiora buff to a 4 mana 4/4 honestly they did this for one reason and one reason only. Going wide became the only viable way to play LOR even the best control deck was Heimer grandma, and it just floods. Nami Tf just floods, aggro just floods, it was too easy and reliable and uncounterable.

So if you want to que into a tournament, or ladder with 3 decks that all do the same thing but just represent aggro vs control wincons then that one edgy Fiora player will wipe you and honestly that's okay.

Umm as for the buffs to daybreak and nightfall all good with me, same thing with master Yi being the worst card of the expansion actually doing something now.

The nerfs to high variance decks equally great I don't like peak, and I certainly don't like Concurrent time lines.

The buff to orn is nice, he was already on the edge of viability.

Swain is good, it used to be that Annie tf was undoubtedly the better deck by far, now it's a valid consideration between the two.

They didn't nerf anything that didn't need it like hate spike and ninja, and they didn't buff anything that will break the game but revitalizes low playmate champions.

Overall I can't wait, I literally won't que again till pirates gets murdered, and it's been several years in the making.

Just gonna go through every card that was listed.

Nerfs:

Viego - Yeah like you can hit his initial stats and it won't matter too much because he's a grower not a shower.

Hate spike - mystic shot for 1 might have been an overstep

Thousand tales - too much card advantage with no down side could just cycle and it would be fine

Riptide sermon - yeah 1 face dmg is fine for this card and it will still be great

Concurrent timeliness - rasa fraza hurmergurd sorry little freak out there for nerfing this meme

Harrowing - yeah one card shouldn't be so game winning

Mark of the storm - once again the fact that a one drop wasn't only mystic shooting and stunning he was get exciting was probably a bit much

Rite of calling - yeah particularly problematic when the card tutors for bontu big o dog God at 22 stats, so a nerf here is nice

Decimate - back to back decimate is literally been a game defining play pattern for as long as I can remember at 6 mana its a little more taxing for the aggro player.

Buffs:

Leona - yeah haven't seen daybreak since its literal release great buff target

Tahm Kench - yeah soraka tahm shouldn't feel so bad to play and win with

Nocturn - honestly this deck is really close to being competitive with Diana so this buff might really matter

Master Yi - God yes 12 dmg in Ionia is impossible, and if you run him in noxious as a combo piece the deck suffers on the control spectrum so making him easier to turbo is good

Fiora - Grapler gonna be happy that she goes back to a 3/3 and at those stats is legitimately frightening and thats good she should feed on grandma bunny to keep the deck in check

Swain - probably gonna make it easier for him to land on 5 leveled so it's more of a gangplank level threat

Sun guardian - really hard for daybreak to close put games so big overwhelm plus stun is a good combo

Illoi - honestly still a really good card, and reverting her nerf will make her great again, but the tenticle smash nerf will remain for balance I personally don't play that card in Illoi anymore

Morning light - more daybreak stuff

Ohrn - once again he's a damn good card already but has weaknesses to stun and bounce say 8 levels off 8 dmg swing then he's guaranteed to come down on 7 pre leveled and threatening overwhelm

Solari Steilacorn - hasn't been a card but might be a valid healing choice for daybreak into aggro.

Vilemaw and twisted tree line - Kalista fearsome with the ghosts hadn't been a deck so absolutely throw it a buff

Eula, paper tree - kinda the meme portion of thr patch but every great patch need meme buffs so that makes me happy

Shireking spinner - I love this card for flavor give actual spider tribal a threatening follower and it wasn't that bad to begin with

Ritual of renewal - can be 6 mana and then you try to double cast with karma worth experimenting 

Rippers bay - it's the only bad lurk card so absolutely make it do something

Lethiathan - 8 drops in this meta need to be game winning and its initial overwhelm stats of 5 is too low for where thr game is right now

Magical journey - its the Bard grandma card that defined the archetype, except it was bad and nobody played it maybe now it cycles?

Realms caretaker - more meme buffs which is good

Rock bear - midrange landmark hasn't been a deck for a looooong time probably a yeti now and that's very strong

Fun Smith- pushing the new equipment synergy to jam up your spell dmg

Mammoths- these are the bad freijord transform cards and while transform is better than people think it could use a finisher

Wind singer - units that bounce is a very blue magic mtg kinda card and it's over priced in LOR

And thats it for the patch

I would pre-rate it a 8 for very good. Hits what it needs to, buffs underplayed Champs, and followers, and some fun meme stuff.

Not sure what Majin Bae is basing that on other them pirate aggro, and pirate plunder being the two best decks in LOR since rising tides and only gets better with each patch.

As for me having fun with my memes as always.

Hallowed blade dance feeling pretty sick beat the Azir Irelia mirror.

Jarvan Illoi still doing tenticle things the proper way as opposed to just jamming the 6 cost spell into every deck.

Overall I have to say that besides bilgewater, r and g grandma, and r and g spell things are pretty strong and balanced meta wise.

1. Pirate aggro (burn)

2. Plunder midrange (gangplank)

3. Nami Tf (combo)

4. Scouts (rally)

5. Annie/Swain TF (control)

Thats five top tier decks in one region identity with the last of which only recently having been nerfed but it still very strong and playable in my opinion just getting pushed out by shadow  grandma bunny a little bit.

Regardless even with the current count at 4 (5 for me ) top tier decks all coexisting within the Bilgewater region identity it begs the question is it just too good, and has it been too good for too long and will it ever stop being so pervasive?

Like its possible everyone is okay with Bilgewater and the Rising Tides expansion being the face of LOR but personally I do find that it exists as too much of a one stop shop at the moment.

Here are a few of its current problems that make it the best/easier region in the game to succeed or pilot right now:

1. Burn potential - six mana deal 4, spawn 3 deal 2 is a little too strong (3 of in pirate aggro, and plunder, can probably go in scouts, and is a 3 of in my Annie tf list)

2. Card draw potential 5 mana draw 2 spawn 2 I literally run as a 3 of in deep for God sakes, because it can burst block, burst attack while maintaining card advantage

3. Tempo, 1 mana summon a 3/3, 2 mana summon 4/2 of stats across 2 bodies, 4 mana scout and a million cycle bodies.

4. Elusives, way back in the day you used to run this archetype in Ionia but now it's Nami as your one stop shop

5. Amazing Chmpions, this is the real nail in the coffin or the Z Virus gene that keeps the oldest region in Runeterra evergreen in the meta to the point of dominating the meta. Mf, Tf, Gangplank babeeee never gonna die.

I think its probably time the LOR devs to think to themselves yes rising tides was an awesome expansion, people liked it, good times had by all, but has it been played out. 

Can we start exploring the dominance of other regions, like what about poor targon? I won't say Shurima cuz it does a few things so well that it's actually a pain to play against, and finally I like bandlewood there I said it sue me.

As a brewer I make it a dedicated mission to create decks with every champion that can in fact win and put up a solid fight against meta decks.

This is why I can chose to climb with things like Ohrn Jax, as easily as something listed on mobalytics.

But man does Jhin just suck right now. I hate to say it but if he is ever going to be competitively viable again he needs to A (be a brew around stun card) with lotus traps procing stun or be a dedicated burn card with lotus traps doing 2 dmg like a mystic shot (still costs 3 skill procs) or buff his synergy girl to do 2 dmg. 

As it stands right now he is an aggro card with a 50% winrate which by aggro standards is atrocious and as a control card sees zero play.

Plz re-work Jhin Riot because he is actually pretty baller voice lines etc.

Lor has always been a game that has been balanced on a strict design curve.

 No new set whether it be awakening, world waker, bandlewood, shurima or Targon can be or should be better then Bilgewater.

But this creates one very big design problem, aka pirate aggro, always statistically a top tier deck, it has only gotten better and more consistent with time.

Riptide sermon being both an amazing tool for control, burn, and agressive decks and the value of equipment namely fisher girl allowing you to say play an on curve threat but then give mf quick attack.

It can be too much for even the best deck brewers and players to deal with, unless you tech in a crap ton of healing.

So if you ever want to play Lor in a world where pirate doesn't exist say 2 years from now, and as a secondary almost draft environment I don't think that necessarily a terrible idea.

On the flip side however to make rotation the new standard does spit in the face of what makes this game unique which is an ageless power curve.

Tf is a good card, MF is a good card, gangplank is a good card, they will never stop being good cards for as long as there are people willing to play them, that is LOR it's not a card game so much as a permanently viable competitive landscape similar to League of Legends for better or worse thats the game and I love/hate it.

She decided she might as well go for Sloth.

(She killed a Dusk but no evolve, first time I experience that ô.o)

So I was able to get to rank 1 Diamond and maintain a pretty healthy winrate with entirely off meta decks.

But it takes a pretty hard-core person to deal with the onslaught of tryhards in what is turning out to be a pretty unpleasant line up of top tier decks.

Still waiting to see what the next balance patch will bring with things so turbo right now, it's very rare that it feels like you're actually playing a card game and more so Russian roulette where you want to brain yourself.

Still memes are memes and I did pretty well despite all those factors. I'll try again next meta after a very healthy patch.