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Legends of Runeterra | Posted by | 5 years, 11 months ago
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Ephemeral Keyword Rework Idea

In Legends of Runeterra, Ephemeral units have the problem of being great on offense, but only playable on defense to prevent an Attack. In order to make them better on Defense and more interesting to play with and against, the Keyword Ephemeral could be changed to:

 

"This unit dies when it strikes. When the round ends, recall it"

 

This would open up a lot of new lines of play, since you could play something like the 5/5 Lifesteal Ephemeral on defense and then your opponent is forced to choose between giving you card advantage by not attacking or board advantage by attacking and having one of their units trade with an Ephemeral. Also, as the player playing Ephemeral units you would also have to think more about whether or not to block or attack with them. This change would be mostly a buff, but it would also make it so that on-death triggers wouldn't happen with ephemeral units unless you attack or block with them, which makes combos with cards like Phantom Prankster or Neverglade Collector require attacks. 

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  • In Legends of Runeterra, Ephemeral units have the problem of being great on offense, but only playable on defense to prevent an Attack. In order to make them better on Defense and more interesting to play with and against, the Keyword Ephemeral could be changed to:

     

    "This unit dies when it strikes. When the round ends, recall it"

     

    This would open up a lot of new lines of play, since you could play something like the 5/5 Lifesteal Ephemeral on defense and then your opponent is forced to choose between giving you card advantage by not attacking or board advantage by attacking and having one of their units trade with an Ephemeral. Also, as the player playing Ephemeral units you would also have to think more about whether or not to block or attack with them. This change would be mostly a buff, but it would also make it so that on-death triggers wouldn't happen with ephemeral units unless you attack or block with them, which makes combos with cards like Phantom Prankster or Neverglade Collector require attacks. 

  • Also, it would make Ephemeral units synergize with Yasuo, which would be a fun little synergy that could make a Shadow Isles Ionia Stun deck hypothetically possible. 

    • Quote From CursedParrot

      Also, it would make Ephemeral units synergize with Yasuo, which would be a fun little synergy that could make a Shadow Isles Ionia Stun deck hypothetically possible. 

      What you see as a "fun little synergy," I expect would actually be a huge problem. It's not hard to generate lots of little Ephemeral units, so leveling up Yasuo would be super easy. He's one of the most frustrating L2's to play against, and the combo of Shadow Isles and Ionia would mean access to all of the most powerful control tools in the game. That deck would be miserable in the meta game.

  • I think you don't see many consequences of such change. Yasuo is not the only problem, some more examples:

    - Splinter Soul, Dawn and Dusk - you can combo it with any card that have strong Play effect.

    - Mark of the Isles - you can save a unit from death by spell damage for the next round,

    - Fae Bladetwirler - like... OPOPOP.

    In addition, there's a reason that Ephemeral units don't have too much defensive power. They are way cheaper than non-Ephemeral ones (similar non-Ephemeral unit would cost approx. 2 more) and they have many ways to generate additional offesive power (e.g. Shark Chariot, Hecarim). Thus, they win almost all battle trades when they attack. They have so much offensive power that an opponent is usually forced to sacrifice his non-Ephemeral units and key spells to prevent defeat. Thus, it's fair that defence is their weak side.

    And something I have to point out, because I heavily disagree:

    Also, as the player playing Ephemeral units you would also have to think more about whether or not to block or attack with them.

    Right now, there's no reason to put an Ephemeral unit on the field in offensive turn if I don't intend to attack with it, unless it has some additional non-battle effects. I don't think your change gives any serious reasoning to do so, maybe with an exception of mentioned Yasuo deck (usually, it gives even less options, as units won't trigger Last Breath). In defensive turn, it even trivializes tactic - right now, you have to think whether you play and waste a unit, when your opponent may intentionally not attack in answer. After change you just play it and if he doesn't attack - no problem, recall.

  • Your suggestion would fundamentally change how that mechanic works, it wouldnt be a small change. They would have to redo pretty much every card and adjust or completely remove some.

    Im not saying the mechanic as you suggest couldnt exist, but it would work very differently.

    Staff