Regions current situation

Hello,

I have started playing Legends of Runeterra about ~2.5 months ago, got all 3 copies of each card, reached Masters and i'm pretty exited about the official release of the game, I have played many card games before (Hearthstone, Eternal, Yugioh, Faeria, Gwent, etc...) they are all great games with their unique play-style, but there is always that 1 game decision by the makers that turn if from "Great" to "hm...yeah" sometimes "ok...that's it for me", be it card balance, card release frequency (slow-fast), massive change of game design, or even games switching business models altogether (f2p ->p2p).

Now back to LoR, during those 2.5 months I have seen many kinds of decks and strategies and i would like to share my 2 cents regarding each of the 6 Regions currently available starting with a personal ranking of their popularity:

1- Shadow Isles (fighting one Every other game)

2- Piltover & Zaun (If =/= "Shadow Isles" then = "P&Z"; )

3- Ionia (There are Elusives in one side and then there is Deny)

4- Demacia (Or should I call it "BannerMacia" ?)

5- Noxus (Go face or go home!)

6- Freljord (No comment...)

This just shows how even if there are a few different decks, they tend to use the same "Main" regions with slight variations in the supporting ones.

Giving all regions equal answers for specific strategies, could help diversify the decks (for example, dealing damage and/or killing enemy units shouldn't be reserved to two or 3 regions, same for card draw "some have 6+ ways to draw cards, others have 1").

I really hope these new 120+ cards have some of these "Answers" for the regions that needs them most.

Interesting topic subject, just a shame you screw yourself over posting some BIAS meta report.

1- Ionia is the most played region, not SI;

2- Piltover is good with basicly any region since it has tons of efficient card draw, direct damage and single target removal. It lacks Healing, AOE and big followers;

3- Elusives are strong right now thats why they see so much play. Also Ionia has good spells but lack good minions. BUT not every Ionian deck uses full elusives; (Fiora / Karma + Ez / Heimerdinger / etc)

4- Before Banner, Demacia was heavily used for Relentles Pursuit, Back to Back, Stand Alone and Fiora. All those decks are still viable;

5- Noxus is designed to go face. Just a few control decks that use Noxus: Ashe, Vladimir and Yasuo. Remember Trifarian Assession?

6- Freljord is not competitve? Kinkou elusives was a tier S deck for a loooong time. I got rank master 13º last month playing Freljord + SI. Lets not forget Warmother, Ashe and Ez freeze decks. Seriously, this "Freljord is weak" nonsense is getting old already.

I made sure to put the word Main between quotations to draw attention toward that part of the problem.

you can't say Kinkou elusives is a Freljord deck when you are running 6 support freljord cards and 34 ionia :) it's the same as saying bannerman deck is ionia when there is only 1/2 copies of deny and 38 demacia's cards.

The reason why i placed Ionia 3rd and not first is again, it is mostly played as a support region and not the main one, in your examples it is X other region main champion + karma support (EZ, Heimer, Lux...) and i think that's a problem.

Of course you will always see all kind of decks played in ranked, but you will see some of them pop up WAY more often then others because of how efficient their "answers" are in comparison to the less represented regions.

Quote From Voidium

I made sure to put the word Main between quotations to draw attention toward that part of the problem.

you can't say Kinkou elusives is a Freljord deck when you are running 6 support freljord cards and 34 ionia :) it's the same as saying bannerman deck is ionia when there is only 1/2 copies of deny and 38 demacia's cards.

The reason why i placed Ionia 3rd and not first is again, it is mostly played as a support region and not the main one, in your examples it is X other region main champion + karma support (EZ, Heimer, Lux...) and i think that's a problem.

Of course you will always see all kind of decks played in ranked, but you will see some of them pop up WAY more often then others because of how efficient their "answers" are in comparison to the less represented regions.

This is a good post and all your points are valid.

All regions have different mechanics, weakness and strenghts. It feels very natural to me that some regions like Ionia, wich lacks good minions but have strong cost-efficient spells, will mostly take a support role to other regions. While i don't think this is a problem at all, i would also not mind if those regions get more options to build around either.

Freljord in my deck does all the heavy lifting. My plan is to build a big Who they Endure and then finish the game with Atrocity. All SI with the exception of Ledros are supportive/stall cards.
Babbling Bjerg is also a key card versus banner/Fiora/Ez decks to tutor Ledros, and its the best ressurrection target for Kalista.

When I was talking about "Answers" I was referring more to those cards that can help you respond to enemy threats OR make him think twice before he even commit his actions, as an example, Deny vs those big slow game changing spells OR ruination vs a units centered deck.

Not all regions have these kinds of "Answers" and even if they have something, it require certain conditions that can be played around in many ways.

I'm just hoping for more diverse options and multiple answers, as long as they are equally represented between all regions and not get focused on a select few which limits deck-building.

Here are a few examples of what I'm looking forward to:

• Deny 2.0: 1 to 3 mana Fast / Stops a Fast spell. / Region, other then ionia.
• Deny on steroids: X mana Slow / The enemy player can't play Spells Next round. / Region ?
• Purify 2.0: 4+ mana Fast / Silence a Unit. / Region ?
• Purify on steroids: X mana Fast / Silence a Follower and All copies of it in hand and deck. / Region ?
• Culling strike upside down: 3 to 5 mana Fast / Kill a Unit with 5+ attack. / Region ?
• Will of ionia 2.0: 2 mana fast / Recall a Follower. / Region ?
• Freeze!: X mana Slow / The enemy player can't summon units This round. / Region ?
• Cyclone: 7+ mana Slow / Recall All units. / Region ?
• Take a break: X mana Slow / The enemy units can't attack this round. / Region ?
• Protective aura: Skill / Can't be targeted by spells.
• Everyone get excited!: 3 mana fast / X condition relative to Region mechanic -> Deal 3 damage to a unit. / Region, those who don't have.
• Contamination: 1 to 6 mana Fast / Set a unit's health to 1 this round. / Region ?
• Mass spread: 7 or 8 mana Slow / Set All units health to 1 this round. / Region ?
• Roar!: 5+ mana Fast / Recall a unit and put it on the bottom of the enemy's deck. / Region ?
• bug fix: X mana Slow / Kill All Tokens. / Region ?
• Supernova: 12-13 mana Slow / Obliterate All Units, then deal 1 damage to both Nexus for each unit that died this round. / Region ?
• Final Attack !: 10+ mana Burst / Give All your units +4/+0, overwhelm and Ephemeral, Discard your whole deck and hand. / Region ?
• Deflect: 4+ mana Fast / Redirect the attacking unit's damage towards the enemy's Nexus. / Region ?
• Banished: 4 mana fast / Deal 2 damage to a unit, If it is an Elusive, Kill it instead. / Region ?
• Jealousy: X mana Fast / An enemy unit strikes another enemy unit. / Region ?
• Gossip: X mana fast / Two enemy units Strike each others. / Region ?

If we go with the top 7-ish decks
Ez-Karma Control - P&Z / Ionia (Good mix of both regions)
Heimer Karma - P& Z / Ionia (Good mix of both regions again)
Elusive Burn - Ionia / Demacia (Good mix of both regions)
Bannerman - Demacia with a hint of Nox or Ionia
Spiders Aggro - SI and Noxus
Corina Control - SI and P&Z
Kinkou Elusives - Ionia with a hint of Frejord

Seriously Frejord is very weak or they would appear more on the top tier lists. You might see them on the odd deck like Warmother's Control, Yasuo Control, Ashe Deck, Yetis, and Vlads, but let's face it they are just supporting. The one deck they are in top tier with. They run 2 cards, Elixir of Iron and Omen Hawk.

You also have to consider Frejord is a scaling region, you have to get to late game to win and the meta is very midrange focused right now.