Legends of Runeterra

The big problem with having mobalytics curated by essentially 2 people is that you can run into issues where personal bias plays a big role into how tier lists are designed.

https://lor.mobalytics.gg/meta-tier-list

I'm speaking specifically of thr Poppy Swarm style decks currently listed on the tier list.

They aren't registering on stats meaning they either loose so often you can't find the stats or nobody is playing then for much the same reasons.

The reality is there are much strong Poppy Swarm style decks as soon as you realize you can cut bandlewood.

You can run Poppy in scouts with 1 cost synergy and its actually very scary when there isn't a lot of wither whail or avalanches

You can run her in demacia so you can take advantage of elite synergy

Like dont get me wrong lulu into fleet feather tracker is strong but thats a one trick ponny and it basically stopped working after a week.

Experiment, evolve try new brews!

There are very few situations where regions feel powerful on release.

Shurima used to be an aggro focused mess that was designed to be high synergy but wasn't. Only being addressed recently.

Targon on release was underpowered in the beginning, overpowered with Aphelios, and now is kind of being carried by Zoe which is a little sad.

But man bandlewood is just coming out of the gate swinging. The number of playables vs non playable isn't something we've seen since vanilla, or the release of bilgewater.

Pranks are viable, shromes are viable, landmarks are viable, darkness is viable, and when you start to get creative you realize there are very few limitations.

Bandlewood Yassao sure why not you can hexplosove minefield into safety inspector.

Bandlewood Ezreal oh you bet all those free poison darts hyper level him.

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get a poppy elite list rolling, which I haven't seen tried yet.

Veigar without shadow, that's easy he levels himself if you can keep him alive, you can try targon or freijord.

This is a great time for deck builders and a really bad time for meta slaves.

Aka why I always win the temo mirror match.

I've said this before and people disagree with me but temo is a burn card. 

You control out the opponent either in a midrange shell, or a stall shell and then you play catorina and the nexus goes pop. If it doesn't go pop, mystics and get excited will do the rest 

Catlyn is a control card and as such playing her along side temo does very little. You'll say oh you can hyper level her thats so good, but like if you have a deck full of 30 shromes and an opponent with a bunch of burn a leveled champ will do nothing for you.

You can say the same thing about facing an opponent with an overwhelm 10/10 on turn 7.

So what does catalyn do well? The obvious answer is control the board, she's like if Zillian and Darius had a baby. If Zillian is seeing a resurgence in play due to the increased value of free pings catlyn is good too.

Once I free to play my way to having enough of her expect a competitive version that makes sense for her.

So two big things happened that killed decks that went all in on uninteractive sticks backed up by burst spells.

One we got a lot of value followers and spells from bandlewood, but more importantly they nerfed the largest offenders in a hotfix you can't even find notes for.

Shaped stone now only give 2/1 which puts it more on par with elixir of iron/wrath.

Merciless hunter is a 4/2 putting it more on par with the likes of sand spinner.

Most importantly ruin runner only has 3 health meaning your 5 drop will now trade with even an inkeeper.

All good stuff, and Ionia even gets to keep twin disciplines for those who like burst decks, and Sivir is still playable in high synergy lists.

So what are the "decks to beat" now...the answer is that there isn't any and that's amazing.

Poppy for example can absolutely run you over with her bannerman style value, but she was also released in a set with a million free pings.

Sion can be a turn 7 auto win, but freezes exist, hush exists, polymorph now exists, or you can just pop him when they don't have the attack token, sure eating 8-10 dmg is scary but they are no longer an effective aggro deck, so you should have lots of life.

Pirate aggro is still strong, but people seem to have forgotten it exists and that's just fine with me, and it probably has bad matchups.

Lots of elusive stuff running around...but again free pings, free mystic shots, more healing, new pressure tools and wincons.

Darkness has started to drop a little from 55% - 53% which isn't surprising you just remove veigar and senna and now their deck doesn't do anything. Or alternatively you have so many infinite value tools it doesn't matter or Sion or shrooms.

As such for the first time you can grab a tier 3 deck and be pretty happy with that, or be like me and only run your own lists. If I were to say what I thought worked and what I thought didn't for deck builders?

The biggest thing to keep in mind right now is that most decks have very scary 1, 2, 3 curve or 2, 3, 4,. You basically need answers for these things if you like controlling game flow like me.

For example Sion will play, urchin, into surgeon dude, into Draven. If you don't answer these plays with your own you will effectively loose when Sion lands if you arent teching in counters to him. 

So let's say I'm playing ezreal Temo, I could play my stinky 1 drop trade into thr two drop ping the urchin with pokey stick, and thermo the Draven. Now we have a winnable game, but if I pass pass ezreal I've already lost, it's true I won't loose till turn 7 but thats a forgone conclusion.

So yeah as a deck builder have answers for midrange curves or play a deck that's just as threatening or you'll have a bad time.

The best surprise of the badlewood expansion has been its ability to give existing Champs a new lease on life as long as they are "cute" enough.

Massively opening up deck building possibilities.

I hope to see this trend continue with part two and three of the expansion and I'll name some Champs I think should feel free to go multi-region, but limited to bandle city.

Elise: once upon a time Elise was a terror an aggro staple, now she's just kind of okay. Opening her up to new decks would make sense and spiders crawl in a forest.

Braum: The thing about braum is that he's actually a good card, but he's stuck in freijord and if you're running a midrange deck you would want Ash 100% But now let's say you can run bandlecity demacia with braum that would be interesting.

Taric: another case of a potentially good card being limited in a region that doesn't really want him. The good buffs/tricks aren't in Targon but if I could use shaped stone on Taric that's cheap and powerful.

Katarina: I love Katarina unfortunately she doesn't love us back. We've long since past the days where battering ran was good enough to get her going, so let's open her up see if we can break her.

Tf: every region has draw the only prerequisite for playing this card, so there's nothing locking him to bilgewater, certainly not his power level.

Asol: That's right he's 10 mana and nigh unplayable at the moment but if you open him up he might find the stall tools necessary to get there.

Karma and Lux: I'll lump them together as expensive spell engines that have long since been outpaced.  Again nothing in terms of deck building is forcing them into their respective regions.

Vlad and Garin: once again these cards are bad, and don't have specific region deck building g costs just open them up.

What do you guys think? Maybe taking bad Champs and making them multiregion is all they need to be competitive?

So I've been vocal that I think this expansion is pretty great.

We had a big issue where the meta was entirely dominated by burst spells and decks 

While statistically those lists are still strong, more then ever it feels like we have the necessary value tools to combat quick attackers, elusive, and other buff sticks.

So I figured I'd go over some off meta decks that I believe offer some very strong potential in meta matchups.

Ziggs Zillian, Thaliyah is statistically the best landmark deck on mobalytics with an astounding 51% winrate.

Now their version runs bandlewood, so you get what? A 1 mana 2/1 that is worse than treasure seeker, a stun at slow speed instead of the better fast speed option, and a 8 mana finisher that's slower than the 6 mana finisher.

Solution just cut bandlewood, run the good targon cards, and you even have room for the champion tutor which a 3 champ distribution  needs.

Possible the fastest aggro deck in the meta if a little high rolly. Go wide early, burn them out late game. Bonus points for landing butcher on the 0/1 on turn 2 or lulu on turn 3 transforming it into a 4/4.

Go Hard Senna is bad it has a 50% winrate on mobalytics and is just worse than the bandlewood version, instead we run go hard Viego, which gives us a much better late game wincon, along side Ezreal.

Speaking of infinite value, Anivia is a beast right now alongside Kindred. Which is largely the result of two factors, not a lot of pure aggro, and two not a lot of 3 mana answers being run like Blackspear and harpoon.

Your line of play here is to play the 3 mana follower and get your darkness. Then bring him back and get your darkness again, this is all just to delay to getting to the good stuff.

Ie free kindred kills, and anivia sweeps.

I think everybody loves Heimer, he's just a fun champ, and while I won't claim this is an amazing deck, it does have the privilege of being the best Heimer deck.

Having acess to bandlewood value engines alongside targon stall, and a few extra "silences" means that there is a possibility that Heimer will actually get to do his thing.

If cheap spell triggers are good for fizz they are also great for Lee Sin. Here we double down on his control potential because he's no longer the best combo stick, and he was never really designed for that anyway. 

Up the cost of your opponents answers, play leveled Lee Sin backed up by yassao and kick everything, it also helps that hidden pathways is just better than deep med for digging through your deck.

Its no secret that regions that appear "off set" ie. Not featured as part of the initial champion release in the first part of the expansion can end up feeling a little weak.

But never before had this felt so clearly the case as with Bandlewood. There are arguments to be made that Ionia and Targon aren't seeing a lot of play right now, however these regions do have strong arguments for deck inclusion. 

Ionia has Lee Sin, it has counters, it has token generation, and stuns/recalls. Targon has invoke and hush, and daybreak, but what about Frejord?

Ramp strategies are unviable, landmark decks are better in other regions, midrange identity is playable but not great, and control is definately one of the worst choices right now.

Don't believe me? Graplr just posted a video poking fun at how Freijord is the most underrepresented region at the moment.

https://youtu.be/DoEZF7vsXT0

Since I've done similar threads for numerous events (like last expansion's Shurima event) I'm just gonna continue the tradition. Hopefully someone will find this useful.

List of regular Runeterra daily quests can be found here.

Repeatable Quest (3 Acorns)

• Explore the Bandlewood
  
  • Win a matchmade or AI game (matchmade counts double) (0/6)

Event Questline (3 or 4 Acorns)

1. Bandlewood Adventures
   
   • Slay enemy units while exploring the Bandlewood (0/30)
2. Aggressive Whimsy
   
   • Go on the offensive by dealing damage with created cards (0/30)  OR
   • Attack or block with units that have 6 or more power (0/20)
3. Bandlewood Blessings
   
   • Spread joy through the Bandlewood by playing Yordles (0/25)  OR
   • Deal non-combat damage (0/35)
4. Magicify!
   
   • Feeling frisky? Play 2+ spells in the same round (0/10)
5. Guerilla Tactics
   
   • Start attacks 5 times in a round in a matchmade game (0/1)  OR
   • Deal damage with units (0/240)
6. Out on a Limb
   
   • Lighten your load by discarding cards (0/20)  OR
   • Draw cards (0/65)
7. Whimsical Experiments
   
   • Play Labs for some lighthearted fun (0/10)
8. Bandle City Pranksters
   
   • Plant mushrooms or flashbomb traps in the enemy deck (0/125)  OR
   • Summon units (0/60)
9. Rollicking Rascals
   
   • Slip past the enemy's defenses to deal Nexus damage (0/80)
10. Marvelous Mana-festations (4 Acorns)
    
    • Spend 20+ mana in a round in a matchmade game (0/1)  OR
    • Overkill enemy units (0/210)

Second Event Questline (3 or 4 Acorns)

Possibly unlocked by Acorn progress.

1. Surprise Antics
   
   • Surprise your opponents by playing cards from Beyond the Bandlewood (0/50)
2. Devilish Tomfoolery
   
   • Use your wits to slay enemies with Bandle City units (0/15)  OR
   • Deal damage with spells (0/90)
3. Magical Discovery
   
   • Manifest cards to unlock hidden magic (0/25)  OR
   • Win games vs AI (0/9)
4. Rompin' & Stompin'
   
   • Go bonkers! Strike enemy units (0/50)
5. Bandle Builders
   
   • Summon or destroy 15+ landmarks in a single matchmade game (0/1)  OR
   • Play 3 or more cards in a round (0/15)
6. Highjinks & Horseplay
   
   • Attack with 4 or more units at once (0/15)
7. A Curious Magic
   
   • Keep the magic alive by spending spell mana (0/55)
8. Fruitful Escapades
   
   • Have units in play from four or more regions in a matchmade game (0/5)  OR
   • See 5 or more units die in the same round (0/25)
9. Frolic in the Bandlewoods - 4 Acorns
   
   • Cut loose by spending mana on cards from Bandle City (0/270)
10. Roughhousing Gone Wild - 4 Acorns and Puffcap Pup icon
    
    • Attack with more than 75 combined power at once in a matchmade game (0/1)  OR
    • Win games with extra Nexus health to spare (0/165)

Special Quests (3-10 Acorns)

Seems like there will be one special questline every week, as usual.

• Tristana's Troops (1 of 3) - 3 Acorns
  • Help Tristana train her troops by raising the power of allies in play (0/10)
• Tristana's Worldly Recruits (2 of 3) - 5 Acorns
  • Play multi-region units to gather new recruits (0/25)  OR
  • Cast spells (0/70)
• Tristana's Bandle Gunners (3 of 3) - 7 Acorns and Tristana icon
  
  • Level up Tristana to secure Bandle City's entrances (0/4)  OR
  • Level up champions (0/25)
• Ziggs' Demolitionists (1 of 3) - 4 Acorns
  • Countdown, destroy, or Obliterate landmarks (0/120)  OR
  • Block or get blocked (0/150)
• Ziggs' Shenanigans (2 of 3) - 6 Acorns
  • Deal damage with unit skills and activated effects (0/170)  OR
  • Have allied units survive damage (0/85)
• The Yordle Bomber (3 of 3) - 10 Acorns and Ziggs icon
  
  • Level up Ziggs, the Hexplosives expert (0/6)  OR
  • Deal damage with champions (0/290)
• Poppy's Aid (1 of 3) - 4 Acorns
  • Raise the health of allies in play to keep them safe (0/40)  OR
  • Play units with equal power and health (0/75)
• Poppy's Impact (2 of 3) - 6 Acorns
  • Deal Impact damage to thwart enemy invaders (0/50)  OR
  • Strike the enemy Nexus (0/105)
• Poppy's Expedition (3 of 3) - 10 Acorns and Poppy icon
  
  • Level up Poppy to help her find her hero (0/6)  OR
  • Slay enemy champions (0/20)
• Veigar's Master Plan (1 of 3) - 4 Acorns
  • Play created cards to help Veigar achieve world domination (0/30)
• Veigar's Dark Intentions (2 of 3) - 6 Acorns
  • Deal damage with Darkness to unleash Veigar's power! (0/155)  OR
  • Summon units or landmarks (0/125)
• Veigar's Sorcery (3 of 3) - 10 Acorns and Veigar icon
  
  • Level up Veigar to command the dark fury of the stars (0/6)  OR
  • Play 2 or more champions in a game (0/20)

Major egregious problems with LoR still remain.  So much so that I honestly can't say it's any better than Hearthstone's meta at the moment.  Both games appear to be in major balance dumpster fires at the moment.

(for those unaware, Questlines in Hearthstone were just released a few weeks ago and have been creating huge game winning conditions that are almost uncounterable as early as turn 5-6 on a consistent basis).

Anyhow, my two main issues with LoR (and this patch) at the moment:

Problem 1: Ooh Shiny!

Newer champions are being pushed hard, while older champions are eschewed and forgotten.  Any competitively viability from older champions was either nerfed into the ground.  Not only that, but instead of creating creative cards that could be potentially used in multiple archetypes with clever deckbuilding and play, they create forced archetype inclusions. One such example is Caitlyn Bombs/Teemo Shrooms.  Forced inclusion archetype cards that without makes those heroes suck.  Yes, I know to some degree all champions have those.  For example Ashes needs Frostbite, but technically you could build an Ashe deck without any other cards and eventually she would level up on her own...

But when is the last time you saw Garen, Lux, or hell even Hecarim used? (and no bronze/iron does not count).  I understand not *every* champion can be competitively viable at the same time, but it says something when nearly all the old champions are eschewed for newer ones.  This isn't hearthstone.  There is no yearly rotation (yet), and Champions are supposed to be more of a build around/win condition than Hearthstone legendaries.  So why does it seem like Riot is just pushing newer champions for the last year with little to no support for older champions? The only time I can recall "older" champions making a huge comeback was when Scargrounds landmark was released it revitalized Vladimir/Braum style decks for a small period of time.  

To put problem #1 in a nutshell: I think that we are being put on the "new expansion" train where the latest and greatest is pushed (as with any card game) so that way you either use up your wildcards, or you buy more coins to build all the new shiny decks. Most decks feel like they are "on rails" being pushed with new cards, and have very low skill caps to be effective. (Which is not what drew me to the game in the first place.  If I wanted a low skill cap card game to play, I could go play Hearthstone.)

Problem 2: Ionia and beyond!

I truly believe at it's heart Ionia was created with great intentions, but very poor execution balance wise.  In addition the biggest issues with deck building in general seem to come from 3 things:  Elusive units.  Rally effects. And too much draw. (A problem I believe is also plaguing Hearthstone at the moment as well, as too much draw effects allows decision making to be trivialized because you have multiple options and answers available)

I actually saw someone else point this out on reddit today in the competitiveLoR sub, and they got downvoted to hell.  Granted, I understand gamers can be mercurial; and maybe the way they presented it wasn't the most contructive, but still...

I feel like the region identities are fine, but there's currently some very broken decks and cards out there that still haven't been touched (or if they were, the wrong thing was nerfed.)  For anyone aware, I'm mainly referring to Sivir, and their respective region cards as being markedly broken.  (Ruin Runner, Merciless hunter for Shurima as well as Ionia's usual cadre of Elusive cards and counter spells available.)

Maybe I'm looking at things wrong, but I'd love for some constructive feedback to see if I'm just drinking too much Kool-aid or of I'm on the money with my assessment of things currently. Thanks!

Frankly the numbers are super early and I don't think there's very much firm Intel to gain, but we can have some fun for sure.

https://lor.mobalytics.gg/stats/archetypes

1. Ziggs as it's being built right now is doing badly its somewhere between 40%

2. Darkness control is very good 56%

3. Fizz has a 51% winrate

4. Temo Catalyn has a 41% winrate

5. Burst meta decks are strong, Sivir, Zed, Akshan, Lu Lu, Azir Irelia

6. Draven Sion is probably worse than Draven Jinx, but they are both good

7.  Poppy and Tristana are good at 56%

8. Pirate Aggro still does aggro things 

So based on my previous predictions I was wrong there are solid control, aggro, midrange and combo lists so overall things feel healthy. 

We're never gonna have a state in this game where all champions and decks are equal, but as long as there are valid archetypes that represent each playstyle that's good enough.

So while I won't claim that these concepts are wholey unique, these champs will be played they just won't be in the brews I made.

I've always approached card games differently from most people, it isn't about finding the simplest, fastest way to build a list, it's about surprising opponents and winning games I shouldn't and climbing that way.

With that said here are the lists:

Elusive cancer but instead of going all in on burst like the old versions used to you have pranks, and board presence and something of a midrange play pattern. 

Temo Catlin is the obvious choice where you go all in on the six drop that triggers all traps in top 5 cards, but then people just start running deny and you loose.

Ezreal Catlin can take its time, it can stall, it doesn't need to rush, and it just plays good cards. Wouldn't be surprised if this is the best version long term once the meta starts adjusting.

Poppy banerman has the potential to be the king of midrange once again, which is what Demacia deserves. The exact ratioing might change but the concept is simple, value value value. 

Go Hard darkness. We have some varied control tools availible, but I think you still run Elise. Legends is a game where loosing the early game to aggro is auto conceed, and that means you can't climb in Plat 

Really looking forward to the destroy your landmark archetype and this version should be good enough to play day 1. Have fun!

Now that we've gotten a lot of reveals at this point and the direction of the set is starting to become clearer let's do a quick rundown.

Ziggy: A 3 mana 3/4 that has both a weak MF effect and serves as an agressive value engine. This guy could end up being pretty scary. Keep in mind that he's also living in the same region as a lot of vulnerable synergy so you can challenge what you want.

Xerath: 4 mana 3/3, you basically have to hold him till leveled and that's when his control effect starts getting strong. He's a slow card compared to Ziggs but if you have the stall tools he can do well, better than lux probably.

Nami: Seems like a natural friend to elusive decks, keep in mind her buffs can trigger as many times a turn as you want. I can already tell she's gonna be gross, her 2/3 body doesn't die to mystic which is good enough.

Sion: Strikes me as the card malphite wanted to be, you play for his gameplan and then you win the game, he's a better tyndamere, not much else to say except that he's got a great support package.

Tristana: 3 mana quick attackers are never not good. She gets bigger she makes your followers bigger, she's like a banner man on steroids, only thing is she has a high deck building cost but so do a lot of Champs in this set.

Senna: Same akward statline as Kindred, however unlike kindred she "cycles" and gives you a darkness right away. That's probably good enough, and if she does live obviously you'll do nutty control stuff.

Veigar: 4 mana 1/4 so like azir you just let him sit there, gives you the darkness right away which is nice, and buffs the dmg for all future spells afterwards. I want to say that Veigar is good, you're gonna need a pretty solid control list to deal with all the aggro bs.

Catalyn: Possible the strongest champ in the set, with her what if Draven and Temo had a baby approach. 3/3 quick attack for 3 and late game value to close things out. Hard to level is the balance for her, but than again if you add shroomes now it's easy.

Poppy: soo poppy looks bad when you read her as a 4 mana 4/3 with no keyword that has to swing for value. But than you realize as soon as they pass turn priority she's a 5/4, so all you need is sharp sight in hand to guarantee value, and buff your board. Second swing she's a 6/5 etc. Basically punshishes decks that don't have any hard removal and even then you still have to deal with her little things that got very big.

If I had to guess right off the bat, Xerath, Veigar and Senna will struggle the most when the set releases because A control is the worst performing archetype in Legends right now, and B control is the worst performing archetype in Legends right now 😅

Have I seen anything that suggests this will change...maybe there are enough unique and interesting followers that there are too many variables to consider, but the spells themselves aren't great and that's kind of important.

Leads me to think that burst speed combo decks of either the elusive or all in variety will be strongest, than aggro, than midrange, with us try hard controllers still doing our best to make things work out.

A new Epic Bandle City Unit, The Arsenal, has been revealed!

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Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!

A new Common Bandle City Spell, Pokey Stick, has been revealed!

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Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!

A new Common Bandle City Unit, Bomber Twins, has been revealed!

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!

Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!

A new Rare Bandle City Unit, Safety Inspector, has been revealed!

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Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!

A new Common Bandle City Spell, Yordle Contraption, has been revealed!

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Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!

A new Rare Bandle City Spell, Mega Inferno Bomb, has been revealed!

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Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!

A new Common Bandle City Spell, Bouncing Bomb, has been revealed!

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Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!

A new Common Bandle City Landmark, Hexplosive Minefield, has been revealed!

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Learn more about Beyond the Bandlewood

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Beyond the Bandlewood!