Freljord Buff Ideas

Given that Freljord isn't a key part of any meta deck (endure spiders doesn't really count as Frelyord) I thought of some buffs that might the region more playable

Catalyst of Aeons becomes 5 Mana "Gain an empty mana gem and heal your Nexus 5. Enlightened: Draw a unit with 5+ Power"

-This change would make Catalyst a lot better once you've reached 10 mana crystals, at which point the current Catalyst becomes "5 Mana Heal 3", which is awful and game-losing. The additional heal would help Freljord stabilize against aggro better without having to run Shadow Isles.

Troop of Elnuks becomes a 4 Mana 3/3 with "Play: Draw 2 Elnuks in the top 10 cards in your deck. Give all other Elnuks everywhere +1/+1.

-This change would make Elnuk shuffle decks a possibility, because it would give them access to more card draw and would make playing a ton of Elnuks a viable strategy, as they would grow bigger and bigger. I think this version would not be able to be run without shuffle support, but if it were proven too powerful, it could be changed to draw from the top 6 cards instead.

Kindly Tavernkeeper becomes a 3 Mana 2/4 with "Play: Heal an ally or your Nexus 4."

-This would make the tavernkeeper a consideration in Freljord decks, and would help make Freljord one of the Healing Regions, which could lead to it being incorporated in some decks that would have otherwise used Shadow Isles for healing.

Entreat becomes 2 Mana "Draw a Champion. Enlightened: Give it +1|+1"

-This change buffs up Entreat just a little bit, and contributes more to the buffing and Enlightenment archetypes, which do not currently seem to be working.

Unscarred Reaver gains Challenger

This change would make it easier to enable Unscarred Reaver, and make her more powerful when she actually does get damaged. This is helpful because without Challenger Unscarred reaver can stay as a 0/3 for a really long time, and even when she does get damaged she can get killed by a 2/1, making it almost impossible to successfully attack with her. With this buff, the Scars deck could become potentially viable. This could make her too good against 1/1s, in which case her health could be reduced to 2

Tarkaz the Tribeless gains Overwhelm

-This change would make Tarkaz better by requiring your opponent to actually block him instead of just using a 1/1. This change could possibly make him too good though, in which case his health could be lowered to 7.

So what do you all think about these changes? Would it be enough to make Freljord viable, or did I miss some key cards that need to be buffed? 

Feedback on your suggestions:

Catalyst of Aeons: I completely agree that this needs to do something more when you're at 10 mana. It can be hard to fit in during the mid game (especially thanks the addition of Wolfrider), so you often end up stuck with it well past when you need it. I would go simpler on this change, though. "Enlightened: Draw a card."

Troop of Elnuks: Seems like a bad change. Comparing it to Poro Herder, the body is weaker and draw condition is entirely out of your control. Comparing to Babbling Bjerg, it seems potentially a lot better, but the draw is still lower likelihood when it's scoped to the top 10 cards of your deck. Worse still, the things you'd draw are expensive (unlike a 1 mana Poro or Yeti), so you're gonna spend a lot of time and mana getting your Elnuks into play when you draw them. Sure, it buffs a little bit, you still have to pay for the units, which is a bummer.

Ultimately, I don't think this does a better job supporting the Elnuk Shuffle archetype - if you shuffle enough Elnuks, you should hit some when you play Troop, and getting them for free is a big deal. The nerf Riot made here is probably appropriate for making the Troop's value narrowly fitted to the Elnuk Shuffle archetype, but the archetype is bad. The best fix here is to print more interesting Elnuks.

Kindly Tavernkeeper: I'm fine with this change, but I'm not sure that this is a card I would target if I were trying to make Freljord a stronger "primary region" for a deck. There's still way more Nexus healing in Ionia and Shadow Isles, and burst speed buffs are often a better way to protect/heal your units.

Entreat: Tutoring out your champions at burst speed is already very powerful. I don't think this card needs buffing.

Unscarred Reaver: I don't think Challenger is a good idea here. First, I like the fact that the Freljord challengers are both wolves - I think it fits the theme/fantasy of the region well. The two biggest problems with her, as I see it, are her HP, and the ease with which your opponent can avoid triggering her. At 3 health, she rarely survives long enough to get two procs, and the first hit as an attacker/blocker typically means she deals no damage. She's constantly vulnerable to any 3 attack 2 drop (of which there are plenty), as well as P&Z and Noxus removal tools, and after taking one hit she's often vulnerable to a myriad of "deal 1" removal tools. And if your opponent doesn't help you proc her by attacking or blocking with a tiny unit, you have to spend time getting her online, which can often require developing another unit and spending mana on a spell.

With all that in mind, I think the fix for her is just to change the stats around. I'd probably make her a 0/4 unit with a +2|+0 effect. She grows a little slower, but should consistently stick around long enough to proc more than once.

Tarkaz the Tribeless: Tarkaz is already huge for his cost, and he exists to support the "survive damage" archetype, so I wouldn't focus on changing him specifically. I can imagine a deck that uses Tarkaz and various "survive damage" units along with Ursine Spiritwalker to make a wall of overwhelm units. What such a deck probably needs is some kind of board-wide heal like Citrus Courier or Sap Magic to keep your minions in play despite the damage, but if you wanted to make it work a little better without that, you could maybe buff Tarkaz so he curves out after Ursine Spiritwalker

A couple of my ideas:

Warmother's Call: Bring the cost down to 11. It's already the only card that costs more than 10, but getting to 12 mana is incredibly hard (especially given how inconsistent and/or unimpactful the ramp tools are), and if you're playing it in your deck, you're one Deny away from a miserable game.

Avarosan Marksman: Increase the play effect to 2 damage. There are several examples of dealing 2 being worth about 2 mana, with some variations on targeting and speed based on region. (Examples include Mystic Shot, Death's Hand - which can be thought of as bundling Mystic Shot with Blade's Edge, and Shunpo - which can be thought of as bundling Mystic Shot with Relentless Pursuit).

Making him deal 2 will make him much more relevant as an early game removal tool, and a 3/1 unit is probably worth about 1 or 1.5 mana depending on the match-up (since he dies to just about everything, but is useful against fearsome units like Elise).

I like where both your heads are at on this.   Specifically, I would recommend:

• Changing Avalanche to either 4 damage or to fast speed.  I spent a lot of time trying this month to make this card work, and even with a glut of P&Z / Noxus burn decks and Demacia bannerman decks it just stinks.  The burn decks will always open attack, the bannerman decks will mostly survive it, and if there's a Crimson Disciple on-board you'll probably lose as much health as you prevent.  It's just insane how much better Withering Wail is: for 1 more mana, the damage is fast-speed limited to your opponent's board and you heal.  
• Either buff Counterfeit Copies to shuffle more copies or make it guaranteed to put one on/near the top.  I know what you're thinking--that's a P&Z card, not a Frejlord--but its intended to be part of the Elnuk package.  Granted nobody wants a return to pre-nerf Elnuk madness, but it should be possible to build a Frejlord/P&Z deck that can contest a bannerman deck on turn 5 with some consistency.
• Remove the "if" clause on Poro Herder--he just always tutors you 2 poros.  Maybe also make Poro Snax add a random poro to hand?  Basically: poros should be an easily slottable package comparable to spiders in SI, Eye of the Dragon + spells in Ionia, or aggro / Can't Block in Noxus.
• Reduce the cost of She Who Wanders--maybe a 8 mana 8/8?  She's suppose to be a stabilization tool circa The Ruination, but whereas SI can bank mana and heal/stall until Ruination on 6, its nearly impossible for Frejlord to survive until 10 without already winning board anyways.

Quote From OldManSanns

I like where both your heads are at on this.   Specifically, I would recommend:

• Changing Avalanche to either 4 damage or to fast speed.  I spent a lot of time trying this month to make this card work, and even with a glut of P&Z / Noxus burn decks and Demacia bannerman decks it just stinks.  The burn decks will always open attack, the bannerman decks will mostly survive it, and if there's a Crimson Disciple on-board you'll probably lose as much health as you prevent.  It's just insane how much better Withering Wail is: for 1 more mana, the damage is fast-speed limited to your opponent's board and you heal.  
• Either buff Counterfeit Copies to shuffle more copies or make it guaranteed to put one on/near the top.  I know what you're thinking--that's a P&Z card, not a Frejlord--but its intended to be part of the Elnuk package.  Granted nobody wants a return to pre-nerf Elnuk madness, but it should be possible to build a Frejlord/P&Z deck that can contest a bannerman deck on turn 5 with some consistency.
• Remove the "if" clause on Poro Herder--he just always tutors you 2 poros.  Maybe also make Poro Snax add a random poro to hand?  Basically: poros should be an easily slottable package comparable to spiders in SI, Eye of the Dragon + spells in Ionia, or aggro / Can't Block in Noxus.
• Reduce the cost of She Who Wanders--maybe a 8 mana 8/8?  She's suppose to be a stabilization tool circa The Ruination, but whereas SI can bank mana and heal/stall until Ruination on 6, its nearly impossible for Frejlord to survive until 10 without already winning board anyways.

Agree with all your changes except the Counterfeit one.
There are other applications for this card outside the Elnuk combo.
i've been running Counterfeit Copies in a Purrsuit of Perfection + Heimerdinger deck and it works very well as it is.

Quote From Hellcopter

Agree with all your changes except the Counterfeit one.
There are other applications for this card outside the Elnuk combo.
i've been running Counterfeit Copies in a Purrsuit of Perfection + Heimerdinger deck and it works very well as it is.

I'm intrigued--what do you copy?  The Purrsuit?  Heimer?  Flash of Brilliance?

I just opened my third Heimer from vault today and am now looking for anything interesting beyond the standard Heimer/Vi midrange.

Quote From OldManSanns

I'm intrigued--what do you copy?  The Purrsuit?  Heimer?  Flash of Brilliance?

Mostly used to generate more Pursuit copies once his condition is met, but its also good to duplicate cards that works great against a specific MU.
Stuff like more draw, removals, EZ activators, extra healing, etc.

Quote From OldManSanns

I like where both your heads are at on this.   Specifically, I would recommend:

• Changing Avalanche to either 4 damage or to fast speed.  I spent a lot of time trying this month to make this card work, and even with a glut of P&Z / Noxus burn decks and Demacia bannerman decks it just stinks.  The burn decks will always open attack, the bannerman decks will mostly survive it, and if there's a Crimson Disciple on-board you'll probably lose as much health as you prevent.  It's just insane how much better Withering Wail is: for 1 more mana, the damage is fast-speed limited to your opponent's board and you heal.  
• Either buff Counterfeit Copies to shuffle more copies or make it guaranteed to put one on/near the top.  I know what you're thinking--that's a P&Z card, not a Frejlord--but its intended to be part of the Elnuk package.  Granted nobody wants a return to pre-nerf Elnuk madness, but it should be possible to build a Frejlord/P&Z deck that can contest a bannerman deck on turn 5 with some consistency.
• Remove the "if" clause on Poro Herder--he just always tutors you 2 poros.  Maybe also make Poro Snax add a random poro to hand?  Basically: poros should be an easily slottable package comparable to spiders in SI, Eye of the Dragon + spells in Ionia, or aggro / Can't Block in Noxus.
• Reduce the cost of She Who Wanders--maybe a 8 mana 8/8?  She's suppose to be a stabilization tool circa The Ruination, but whereas SI can bank mana and heal/stall until Ruination on 6, its nearly impossible for Frejlord to survive until 10 without already winning board anyways.

I've seen Counterfeit Copies run in Ezreal/Karma decks just to have more cheap burst, but I doubt the extra shuffle would meaningfully impact that deck's success.

I really want Avalanche to be better, and I like your suggested changes to it in general. 4 damage might be a little high for a card that can come down on turn 3, but it definitely needs either a speed or damage buff. I also like the Poro Herder change (I've been trying to make a Poro deck work recently), but I don't know that it will make for a major improvement to a dedicated Poro deck - if you don't have one or more Poros in play most of the game, you're probably losing. It would make running a small "Poro Package" feasible in some other deck, but I'm not sure it has the flexibility of the spiders package to be worth it.

Still thinking about this balance problem. One of the things that Freljord is supposed to be good at is tribal synergies. From a fantasy standpoint, the Freljord is a region made up of several ruling tribes. The Winter's Claw and the Avarosan are represented in the game, and I'd expect eventually the Frostguard will show up too. (They also have Tarkaz the Tribeless, which strongly reinforces the idea that tribes matter to the Freljord.)

Mechanically in the game, Freljord has three of the six major tribal tags (Poros, Elnuks, and Yetis, but no Elites, Sea Monsters, and Spiders). (I guess technically "Tech" is also a tribe, though it's exclusive to Heimerdinger.) They even had actual tribal buffs in the form of Pack Mentality, though it ultimately lost the tribal flavor. 

With all of this in mind, here are a couple of other changes I think would probably be a good idea

• Iceborn Legacy: Change it to be a burst spell with text "Give an ally and other allies of its group everywhere +1|+1". This would effectively be a "tribe neutral" Poro Snax.
  • The original version of this card was "3 mana burst give an ally and all copies everywhere +1|+1" with the thinking that it would fit into a cloning deck, but all it did was buff the Spider/Atrocity decks. On its face, restoring it to burst speed and focusing on a tribe rather than a specific unit would just return it to that sort of "out of context usage."
  • However, I expect leaving the high cost would mean it's still unappealing for decks that just happen to include tribes (like Spider/Atrocity or Demacia Bannerman), where the opportunity cost of running this buff would be too high. What it would do, however, is make earnest tribal decks (like Yetis and Elnuks) much more appealing.
• Pack Mentality: Change the text to "Give an ally and other allies of its group everywhere +1|+1 and 'Support: Give my supported ally Overwhelm this round if we share a group.'"
  • When Riot changed this card (it was originally "Give an ally and other allies of its group +3|+3 and Overwhelm this round"), they said they did it because the card was both ineffective and confusing. In my opinion, any confusing aspects of the card stemmed from the half-hearted support for tribal decks - it was the only card that referred to "groups," and they went the wrong way in an effort to clarify it.
  • My version offers a permanent buff and a permanent support ability. The buff is much smaller than any previous version of the card because my changes to Iceborn Legacy makes it easier to buff over time (and Freljord has deck buffs already) so you don't need the huge buff as a finisher.
  • The "Support" ability is intended to better reflect the fantasy of the card - when you attack as a pack, you overwhelm the enemy. While the support effect means its less impactful the turn you play it (because one unit won't get Overwhelm), it is available every attack moving forward. I can imagine a number of other ways to handle the Overwhelm aspect of the card, but I liked this because it leverages the Support mechanic - I find that mechanic to be novel to LoR, and think they should make more use of it

The second change there may be a little too wonky, but I do think it needs to change back to meaningfully supporting tribal synergies. The latest version not only throws out an important aspect of the Freljord, but also did nothing to improve its play rates.

EDIT: One last note - I could see a bigger change made to Ashe to further support tribal synergies. She's supposed to be a character whose mission is to unite the tribes of the Freljord, and having a champion that reinforces tribes could go a long way to making the synergies useful. That said, I don't have a clear idea as to what that revamp would be, and I don't think you'd want to change much about her - maybe just the Crystal Arrow spell since it's slow and a little unimpactful if you're not on offense the turn after she levels up.

Freljord saviour there. While I'm currently using a weird deck using Freljord and Piltover that is not centered around Teemo and Sejuani, I do notice value in certain cards that could see more play if they were buffed. May share the deck code for interested.

• Catalyst of Aeons is fine at least for me, but it could use a buff late game. Maybe introduce an Enlightened effect, but with healing you for 6. Drawing a card for that also seems alright. Maybe it could even be reverted to 4 mana, but that is a controversial change.
• Kindly Tavernkeeper also seems alright, but I'd raise his stats to 3/3 instead. That way, he no longer fears Fearsome units, which I think is actually a big think in matchups where the healing from this card matters more.
• I don't see a need to buff Entreat. It's already one of the best tutors in the game.
• Avarosan Marksman could be simply raised to 4/1. Still suspectible to removal like Vile Feast, but I see huge potential for this card in the current metagame, as it can kill an unbuffed Loyal Badgerbear by itself and prevent Grizzled Ranger from attacking. Buffing the Attack would let the Marksman kill an entire Ranger.
• Troop of Elnuks could see a rework yet again, because now it's trash, but if it gets the current ability buffed, it will cause frustration like before the change. Let it pull one Elnuk and give that +1/+1 buff everywhere.
• Warmother's Call is tricky to balance, because while Deny exists, if you aren't Ionia, you can pray your opponent doesn't have as many good stalling tools and as many finishing moves. Warmother Control with Shadow Isles may not be as popular, but it's still a decent deck that uses Warmother (so does mine with Freljord and Piltover xd). If too cheap, your opponent can easily overwhelm you. I ftoo expensive, it becomes a niche tool. I don't think this should ever be cheap enough, even if it didn't summon a minion at the time of cast, which is gating the power level of the card.
• Probably reduce the cost of Aurora Porealis to 6. That card is hella expensive and laughable, but same could be said about Poros in general.
• Maybe Braum to 6 Health. I also see value of him against midrange decks to tank some damage. He's not bad in that role already, but with a bit more Health, he could tank even a Badgerbear buffed by War Chefs. Wouldn't that be sweet?

Quote From meisterz39

I really want Avalanche to be better, and I like your suggested changes to it in general. 4 damage might be a little high for a card that can come down on turn 3, but it definitely needs either a speed or damage buff. I also like the Poro Herder change (I've been trying to make a Poro deck work recently), but I don't know that it will make for a major improvement to a dedicated Poro deck - if you don't have one or more Poros in play most of the game, you're probably losing. It would make running a small "Poro Package" feasible in some other deck, but I'm not sure it has the flexibility of the spiders package to be worth it.

I agree that 4 damage is a lot, but at the same time, I asked myself: besides making it fast speed, honestly how much damage would this card need to do to make me want to play it again?  At the least, it would need to be able to clear vanilla Crimson Disciple, L1 Fiora, Elise, and War Chefs; however even up'ed to 3 damage I still don't think I'd actually play it because it still doesn't clear cards like Loyal Badgerbear, Boomcrew Rookie or the aforementioned post-bannerman and it's easily answered by cards like Transfusion, Ranger's Resolve, barrier, and Deny. 

At slow speed AND hitting both sides of the board, it's play style is like a "lite" version of Ruination, so comparably it needs to have a significant impact on board.  Maybe if it also cleansed everything, or obliterated instead of killing?  Or keep at 2 damage but reduce cost to 3 mana so it could be played at the end of Round 2 or with pure spell mana?  Frankly, I think this card wants to be anti-aggro so making it fast speed is a superior answer but I was brainstorm other changes that maintained the card's original attributes.

Quote From Neoguli

• Warmother's Call is tricky to balance, because while Deny exists, if you aren't Ionia, you can pray your opponent doesn't have as many good stalling tools and as many finishing moves. Warmother Control with Shadow Isles may not be as popular, but it's still a decent deck that uses Warmother (so does mine with Freljord and Piltover xd). If too cheap, your opponent can easily overwhelm you. I ftoo expensive, it becomes a niche tool. I don't think this should ever be cheap enough, even if it didn't summon a minion at the time of cast, which is gating the power level of the card.
• Probably reduce the cost of Aurora Porealis to 6. That card is hella expensive and laughable, but same could be said about Poros in general.

Yeah, Warmother's Call is definitely hard to balance. I think it needs to be cheaper to be worth playing, so perhaps it needs a more radical change. I haven't thought too critically about this, but what if the text were "Whenever you attack, summon the top ally from your deck." There are rally effects that could make this problematic, but if you aren't running Demacia you're probably only summoning one unit every other round.

Regarding Aurora Porealis, it's certainly good at 6, but I'm not actually convinced it needs to be cheaper. Compare it to Progress Day! - another expensive burst spell that generates card advantage. With the cost reduction, Progress Day! is kind of like "5 mana draw 3," and Aurora Porealis is kind of like "7 mana draw 4." In a lot of CCGs, that's a fair difference in terms of cost. Now, you could argue that the former draws cards from your deck, while the latter gives you random cards, so the difference isn't actually fair. But we know that a) you're playing Poros, so all of those random cards are relevant to your win condition, and b) you have very high odds of getting cheap units, so if you have any leftover mana you can often play a Poro immediately.

It's not a good card today, but I think that's more because of how weak Poros are, not because the card is the wrong cost.

Quote From OldManSanns

I agree that 4 damage is a lot, but at the same time, I asked myself: besides making it fast speed, honestly how much damage would this card need to do to make me want to play it again?  At the least, it would need to be able to clear vanilla Crimson Disciple, L1 Fiora, Elise, and War Chefs; however even up'ed to 3 damage I still don't think I'd actually play it because it still doesn't clear cards like Loyal Badgerbear, Boomcrew Rookie or the aforementioned post-bannerman and it's easily answered by cards like Transfusion, Ranger's Resolve, barrier, and Deny. 

At slow speed AND hitting both sides of the board, it's play style is like a "lite" version of Ruination, so comparably it needs to have a significant impact on board.  Maybe if it also cleansed everything, or obliterated instead of killing?  Or keep at 2 damage but reduce cost to 3 mana so it could be played at the end of Round 2 or with pure spell mana?  Frankly, I think this card wants to be anti-aggro so making it fast speed is a superior answer but I was brainstorm other changes that maintained the card's original attributes.

I think I'd make it a "Slow 4 mana deal 3." Because it's symmetric, I don't think you gain a ton by making it fast - it's not like you'll be using it often as a combat trick, as it will kill your units before they can attack or block. In fact, I think making it fast will produce a lot of scenarios where a player misplays and blames the card/game for it (because they didn't realize their units would die before damage, or failed to account for how the lower HP would impact an Overwhelming attacker, etc.). It's just a lot safer and more straightforward to keep it slow.

Making it deal 4 damage for the reasons you describe seems to over-index the problems of the existing meta game. Boomcrew Rookie. for instance, is an overtuned card that needs to be nerfed, so I wouldn't use its 4 Health as my yardstick for measuring good balance.

I have one. Make it so Avalanche also gives everyone frostbite, your guys too, so you can combine it with Winters Breath for 11 mana and get a full board clear but not be able to fully capitalize on it till the next turn. So it will be a situational combo.

That seems like a cool idea, but also like it could be a little too good and consistent. What if Avalanche became 4 Mana Slow "Deal 2 to all units. For each unit that dies, Frostbite the Strongest ally and enemy"? This way, the combo would be a lot less consistent but still fairly powerful, especially if you set it up correctly. Also, it fits the flavor of an Avalanche, because the Avalanche destroys the weak units and then snowballs further to bury the strong ones. 

Quote From Vincent3383

I have one. Make it so Avalanche also gives everyone frostbite, your guys too, so you can combine it with Winters Breath for 11 mana and get a full board clear but not be able to fully capitalize on it till the next turn. So it will be a situational combo.

I don't think this is a change that would improve the play rate of the card. It needs to be playable as a standalone card, and not just a Round 8+ AOE combo piece. At the point that you're running a two-card board clear, you may as well run SI and The Ruination. Then you could play your AOE as early as Round 6, and it only costs you one card slot.

Quote From Vincent3383

I have one. Make it so Avalanche also gives everyone frostbite, your guys too, so you can combine it with Winters Breath for 11 mana and get a full board clear but not be able to fully capitalize on it till the next turn. So it will be a situational combo.

I considered that, but the big problem is that its still slow speed.  Decent players will almost always open-attack if they have an undisputed board advantage so the frost bite is a non-factor.  Meanwhile, it still affects your board, so putting down chump blockers to try to coax your opponent into developing their attack instead of open attacking is counter-productive.