A new champion, Xerath has been revealed! Check out his card and the other cards released alongside him down below.
Beyond the Bandlewood launches this week on August 25.
In addition to Xerath, several new Shurima cards were revealed.
Robert "Fluxflashor" Veitch is the founder of Out of Games. With over a decade of experience in gaming content, and being done with the exhaustion of corporate nonsense, he wanted to do something different with a focus on the community in this online world that tries so hard to just make everyone just another number. Robert is currently playing Path of Exile and World of Warcraft. He can be contacted via direct messages or on Twitter.
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It's probably because I used to play a lot of Xerath in League and I was expecting him to be very different but I just can't help but feel disappointed by how Xerath was translated into LoR. Ignoring his lvl 3 form (which tbh also doesn't look exciting to me regardless of how strong it turns out to be) he feels like a glorified follower, but even then he seems bland compared to a lot of very interesting followers we're getting this expansion.
I should mention that except for Xerath the reveals so far have been either very exciting or straight up mind-blowing to me so it's totally okay for one of them to be disappointing, I just kind of wished Xerath wouldn't be the disappointing one :p. I also am a big Sion and Veigar fan in LoL though and their LoR versions looks very exciting, and I'm an even bigger fan of Ziggs so I hope he will be done justice as well.
Isn't he a little weak? Ok, his Sun Disc form is pretty nuts and kills you in four turns, but Level 1 is very meh, and Level 2 is good but idk truly, i was waiting the "Landmark-destroyer" was Ziggs (i know Piltover & Zaun dont have Landmark sinergy, but being probably Bandle-PNZ he can scatter, also making a new archtype in that region who isn't aggro or aggro with potatoes) but being more open to the game, isn't so bad, he can find a place in some sort of Taliyah deck? with 1 copy of Malphite? idk. By the way, Xerath may not be the great thing, but his followers are NUTS. Example, Herald of the Magus in ANY Taliyah/Malphite deck is like a better Nasus stick cuz Overwhelm, really in any deck who uses some landmark like any Akshan deck, any Zilean deck + all the mountain of landmark support of previous expansions now make more sense. Obelisk of Power seems VERY good to me, the grant +2 ATK x2 is very powerful, Rite of the Arcane is very good (and flavorful) and Servitude of Desolation is the revive effect we never got in LOR until today. And it's in Shurima. *Screams in pain and happiness*
24 of August edit: Ziggs was the 2nd landmark-destroyer and the Senna to Veigar of Xerath, all my PNZ landmark dreams crumbled (?)
Xerath and his followers are looking to be pretty powerful but I don't think you run him in a mono Shurima deck despite being ascendant. With so many Fearsome/Overwhelm unit who can grow even bigger, I am pretty sure that you will be able to reliably finish the game before restoring the sun disc.
I've never viewed the sun disc as the primary win condition of those mono decks. With having to tech against aggro so much these days, the decks usually can win without it against aggro. Sun disc is really only used as a stalemate breaker in control matchups or versus some mid-range decks without a ton of reach (read: not many midrange/combo decks don't have a way to NOT have reach.)
I suppose, it's just to me the whole appeal of mono Shurima is the level 3 ascendant is if I just wanted to play with Azir, Nasus or Renekton there are other deck that can use them better.
For anyone who is not necessarily looking for the level 3, then yeah these cards will be a nice addition to that deck.
Oh for sure. I wasn't saying that wasn't the appeal of mono shurima. Just saying in the ranked games I've played with mono shurima, when I find myself in a winning situation, It's cause I'm up against either a greedy deck or a poor player. I find that I often don't need the sun disc/level 3 heroes to secure the win. Trust me, I'm all about the fantasy/theme of playing with the ascended level 3 heroes. It's one of the few reasons I love shurima. That being said, greedy decks don't last long in the meta these days so you always gotta tech against aggro and often that means building your deck semi-aggro-ish yourself.
Wait you play mono Shurima on the ladder? Respect man.
I tried to do so and... let's just say that I got eviscerated would be an understatement.
I try at least. I know it's not the best deck. So to say I'm excited about Xerath is an understatement. I'm hoping Xerath can allow mono shurima to exist (and be better) again. I'm also thinking about a Xerath/Malphite deck.
Oh my god, I'm legit excited about this champion. I love landmarks and Xerath was always one of my favorite casters in LoL. I'm liking the whole "anti-destruction" effects that Xerath embodies. (in the sense that destroying his landmarks actually helps him.)
To me your last setence sounds like:
" i love the fact that this archetype bypasses it's counterplay"
Sure, this is making sure that the archetype is doing it's thing regardless of what the opponent is doing but if that what the deck does is remotely strong/oppressive you have a receipe for Desaster with this kind of archetype.
Landmarks always had the issue of allowing little counterplay from the opponent in exchange for usually being very unreliable cards.
Playing against this archetype however will proably be a race where you eigther rush the deck down early or otherwise will have a hard time sticking units to the battlefield, aka classic control from mtg.
I thought LoR wasn't one of these games but I guess we are heading towards mtg style of control with the new set.
First off, please don't put words in my mouth by "translating" what I say. You act like landmarks are warping the entire meta, and the only deck I can think of that uses any of them egregiously is Azir-Irelia, which isn't even a result of the landmark, but the snowballing effect of the combined interactions between Azir and Irelia. (And it's been proven time and time again that the real culprit is Irelia. Azir and/or Dais (especially in mono-shurima) is a rather weak interaction. It's only combined with Irelia that together they become a broken powerhouse. F- blade dance.)
Secondly, you talk about "bypassing" counterplay. I'd argue that all the new shrooms support cards, not to mention the original teemo archetype and support has allowed "bypassing" of mechanics. In fact, a lot of the new bandle cards FORCE your opponent to draw. So if you are in drawn out match hoping to find some niche lethal against a Teemo/shroom deck, and you just hope that by not drawing too many cards you can find lethal before you get shroomed to death, guess what: the new bandle cards are gonna make sure you don't have a choice.
(As an aside, I also hate the fact that unlike in Hearthstone where you could play around bombs/bad cards inserted into your deck by keeping your hand full, even when your hand is full in Runeterra, you still get the shroom damage, but your card is burned anyways....wtf is that bullshit?)
You do realize this statement is....helping my side of this little debate right? I mean landmarks have very few removals (specifically most removals shuffle it back into your deck, and the others destroy it albeit at a high cost).
And this is different from the current meta....how? current meta is dominated by a lot of aggro decks already. You act like there's ever been a decent control meta except for when A-sol was originally released. Don't you worry you're pretty head over it. I'm sure aggro will continue to exist in the new set, and I'm sure control will continue to be stifled for the most part except in lower ranks. See? No problems.
See above statement: We aren't in a control meta. Haven't been for quite some time either.
Fine I'll stop putting words into your mouth. I wanted to state what your statements looks like to me but sure I could have misunderstood you.
What I mean by oppressive is not that the archetype will necessarily be oppressive and we won't know how good it is until release what I meant is: if the archetype should be very strong there won't be a good way to counter the strategy other than aggroing it down early (comparable to the Azir Irelia situation) and that would be quite a desaster for the gamd wouldn't it?
Afterall we should imo just take a minute wait and see if xerath is tier 1 material and complain when it is time for it. :)
Not what I was expecting at all, but could be interesting. That Ascended effect sure is nice; just have to get there.