After looking back at the evidence, I think it's much more open to interpretation than I initially remembered. This basically just confirms that they'll eventually add a multiplayer (possibly even 2v2?) Lab of Legends, but that could be in this next update or sometime far in the future. My interpretation is that the solo-player variant released first so that they could smooth out the systems and fix the balance before the multiplayer version (like how the 2vAI United Front came before the 2v2 version). I think that they'll likely rebalance the items, passives, and card offerings because some things work versus AI but are toxic against players (Like Katarina).
I think I remember an earlier roadmap saying that the lab would become PvP, so that’s probably what it is. Hopefully, they also update some of the champion selections and passives.
I'm actually kind of surprised that it finally died, I thought Valve would try a big push to get Artifact 2.0 to work but apparently they didn't think it was worth it. It makes sense to me though, with how much negative press it got and LoR already existing as a MOBA card-game, Artifact probably was never going to work.
Now he can be killed by challengers like Fleetfeather tracker. Also, now the Aphelios player has to cast Bastion to stop a Mystic Shot instead of something like a Get Excited, so even if Aphelios survives the trade is slightly more positive.
Well he is somewhat boring but he's still way better than champions like Leona and Diana. Plus, Fearsome makes him interesting because it synergizes with debuffs.
Honestly, I've been thinking a lot about it and I think the solution is to change Hush to be a more restricted card instead of a staple in Targon decks. Even though Deny is annoying, I'd honestly rather Deny be overplayed than Hush, it's just such a frustrating card and shouldn't be a generically good card. My suggestion is to change it to:
"5 Mana Burst Speed
Silence a unit this round. If you summoned a Soraka this game, this costs 3 less."
This way, Hush would be a powerful card to push the TK/Soraka archetype while not being a generically good card. Although TK/Soraka is kind of an annoying deck too, by limiting the card to that one deck it reduces the frequency with which you face it. Plus, it would make TK/Soraka feel more distinct and powerful and make Soraka/Braum and Soraka/Vlad a little less memey. I know that this would totally kill the card in constructed, but honestly I think that's preferable to Hush being played.
I think that people are kind of misevaluating this card. It’s definitely worse when you play it against the opponent when they have the Attack Token, but if you play it on a defending turn it’s like setting up a Burst speed Avalanche. Also, if the opponent open attacks then this is a better response than Avalanche because it prevents the opponent from developing more. Given that its effect is better than Avalanche in at least half of the rounds of the game, the main weakness that this has is using unit Mana, which is compensated for by healing your Nexus 2 and damaging the enemy Nexus (activating Plunder). Overall, I expect this to be about as good as Avalanche if not better.
Interesting deck! If I were to make any changes, I would probably cut some of the worse cards like Hibernating Rock Bear to fit in more of the good Bilgewater options. Salvage is just so good in TF decks that I don't think you can afford to not run it. It does make the Golden Ambassador a little worse, but if you add more of the Shurima Predict cards you can get a reliable turn 5-6 Golden Ambassador without sacrificing the essential TF cards.
Well her lore is a lot about freezing powerful creatures that will eventually thaw out, which I think is captured pretty well with the Frozen Thralls and summoning the Watcher. As for her league kit, her ability to deal area damage and put champions into "stasis" is captured pretty well, so I don't think it's a totally inaccurate portrayal. Her sort of "mind control" theme isn't really captured though, which I think is the only real big miss on her theme.
“Teen Spirit” is a skill not a spell, so Shurima has only 1 Landmark removal now. I expect it’ll be like playing against Ezreal Draven with Scorched Earth.
How is this not OP? It’s like a 2 Mana Deny against removals with a downside. Shurima decks can now just never tap below 2 Mana and perpetually threaten to deny a removal. The downside is that this card doesn’t let you use the ally that round, but being able to always keep it as an option for 2 mana makes it way more powerful
You've porbably already changed the deck a bit already, but there are a few cards here that you should try to find a replacement for:
1. Avarosan Marksman
2. Take Heart
3. The Undying
4. Scarmaiden Reaver
5. Revitalizing Roar
Other than that, all your cards have good synergy and are run in top tier constructed decks, which goes to show how few truly awful cards exist in LoR! A core card that I think you're missing is "They Who Endure" so I'd craft it if you have the resources.
Yeah this card is weak to an insane degree. If it did something like also gave the unit Challenger this round it might be somewhat playable, but slow speed buffs and 1-cost buffs are both inherently bad, so this card being both dooms it to unplayability.
I actually had an idea for reworking Heimerdinger to cost 3 but at level 1 his Turrets are Ephemeral (and his level up condition is reduced to 9). It would allow him to start affecting the board a little earlier while not making him too powerful (and it makes the level-up relevant).
Assuming that a champion level in in deck counts, wouldn't a Shurima Lulu deck with this be amazing? With all the support cards you can consistently level up Lulu in the first few rounds (and Ionia has some swarm cards).
Am I crazy or is this card actually kind of good? It's like Plunder Poro but with a requirement that in some decks can be quite easy (Katarina, Kalista, Riven) and it's a 2/2 when "leveled" with 3 keywords instead of 2. I actually think that the statline is the most important benefit because it makes the keyword actually relevant. Imagine getting something like Fury+Challenger+Quick Attack on this versus any 2 of those 3 keywords on a 1/1. I think this Poro might see unironic play in Shurima decks with easy-to-level champions, or maybe as part of the "level your champion" package.
I personally really like Runeterra, it has a the same mana system as HS (going from 1 to 10 Mana) but up to 3 excess mana you end each round with gets converted into spell mana that you can cast spells with. After playing with that system, it was actually kind of uncomfortable for me to play HS and Mythgard because saving excess mana just felt like such an intuitive and necessary feature (it allows you to miss parts of your curve without losing as much Tempo). LoR also has a lot of passing imitative back and forth between players, so it has a level of interaction more similar to Magic than HS. That being said, the interaction does much it a more attention-requiring game than HS or Mythgard (you can’t take a break during the opponent’s turn). I also played Mythgard once and the board system and mana system seemed very interesting to me, so I think that it’s a good option too. From my understanding, Mythgard is like HS but with more of Magic’s mana system and a unique board system, while LoR is like HS but with simultaneous turns and an improved version of HS’s mana system. I’d recommend watching a few videos of top players for each game to try to get a sense of what the game play is like before deciding which one to play.
Okay, I finally found the quote, it was actually in the article about the roadmap that they posted on their website. It reads:
"Legends Labs can be either single-player (think Journey to the Peak from Patch 1.11) or multiplayer"
After looking back at the evidence, I think it's much more open to interpretation than I initially remembered. This basically just confirms that they'll eventually add a multiplayer (possibly even 2v2?) Lab of Legends, but that could be in this next update or sometime far in the future. My interpretation is that the solo-player variant released first so that they could smooth out the systems and fix the balance before the multiplayer version (like how the 2vAI United Front came before the 2v2 version). I think that they'll likely rebalance the items, passives, and card offerings because some things work versus AI but are toxic against players (Like Katarina).
I think I remember an earlier roadmap saying that the lab would become PvP, so that’s probably what it is. Hopefully, they also update some of the champion selections and passives.
I'm actually kind of surprised that it finally died, I thought Valve would try a big push to get Artifact 2.0 to work but apparently they didn't think it was worth it. It makes sense to me though, with how much negative press it got and LoR already existing as a MOBA card-game, Artifact probably was never going to work.
Now he can be killed by challengers like Fleetfeather tracker. Also, now the Aphelios player has to cast Bastion to stop a Mystic Shot instead of something like a Get Excited, so even if Aphelios survives the trade is slightly more positive.
Well he is somewhat boring but he's still way better than champions like Leona and Diana. Plus, Fearsome makes him interesting because it synergizes with debuffs.
Technically the keg is an ally and it kills itself, so I think it logically should count.
Honestly, I've been thinking a lot about it and I think the solution is to change Hush to be a more restricted card instead of a staple in Targon decks. Even though Deny is annoying, I'd honestly rather Deny be overplayed than Hush, it's just such a frustrating card and shouldn't be a generically good card. My suggestion is to change it to:
"5 Mana Burst Speed
Silence a unit this round. If you summoned a Soraka this game, this costs 3 less."
This way, Hush would be a powerful card to push the TK/Soraka archetype while not being a generically good card. Although TK/Soraka is kind of an annoying deck too, by limiting the card to that one deck it reduces the frequency with which you face it. Plus, it would make TK/Soraka feel more distinct and powerful and make Soraka/Braum and Soraka/Vlad a little less memey. I know that this would totally kill the card in constructed, but honestly I think that's preferable to Hush being played.
I think that people are kind of misevaluating this card. It’s definitely worse when you play it against the opponent when they have the Attack Token, but if you play it on a defending turn it’s like setting up a Burst speed Avalanche. Also, if the opponent open attacks then this is a better response than Avalanche because it prevents the opponent from developing more. Given that its effect is better than Avalanche in at least half of the rounds of the game, the main weakness that this has is using unit Mana, which is compensated for by healing your Nexus 2 and damaging the enemy Nexus (activating Plunder). Overall, I expect this to be about as good as Avalanche if not better.
Interesting deck! If I were to make any changes, I would probably cut some of the worse cards like Hibernating Rock Bear to fit in more of the good Bilgewater options. Salvage is just so good in TF decks that I don't think you can afford to not run it. It does make the Golden Ambassador a little worse, but if you add more of the Shurima Predict cards you can get a reliable turn 5-6 Golden Ambassador without sacrificing the essential TF cards.
Well her lore is a lot about freezing powerful creatures that will eventually thaw out, which I think is captured pretty well with the Frozen Thralls and summoning the Watcher. As for her league kit, her ability to deal area damage and put champions into "stasis" is captured pretty well, so I don't think it's a totally inaccurate portrayal. Her sort of "mind control" theme isn't really captured though, which I think is the only real big miss on her theme.
“Teen Spirit” is a skill not a spell, so Shurima has only 1 Landmark removal now. I expect it’ll be like playing against Ezreal Draven with Scorched Earth.
How is this not OP? It’s like a 2 Mana Deny against removals with a downside. Shurima decks can now just never tap below 2 Mana and perpetually threaten to deny a removal. The downside is that this card doesn’t let you use the ally that round, but being able to always keep it as an option for 2 mana makes it way more powerful
You've porbably already changed the deck a bit already, but there are a few cards here that you should try to find a replacement for:
1. Avarosan Marksman
2. Take Heart
3. The Undying
4. Scarmaiden Reaver
5. Revitalizing Roar
Other than that, all your cards have good synergy and are run in top tier constructed decks, which goes to show how few truly awful cards exist in LoR! A core card that I think you're missing is "They Who Endure" so I'd craft it if you have the resources.
This seems pretty balanced unless you're running a deck with tons of Taunt minions.
The Tattered Flag token gives permanent challenger so I doubt confront will be played.
Yeah this card is weak to an insane degree. If it did something like also gave the unit Challenger this round it might be somewhat playable, but slow speed buffs and 1-cost buffs are both inherently bad, so this card being both dooms it to unplayability.
@TheTriferianGeneral
I actually had an idea for reworking Heimerdinger to cost 3 but at level 1 his Turrets are Ephemeral (and his level up condition is reduced to 9). It would allow him to start affecting the board a little earlier while not making him too powerful (and it makes the level-up relevant).
Assuming that a champion level in in deck counts, wouldn't a Shurima Lulu deck with this be amazing? With all the support cards you can consistently level up Lulu in the first few rounds (and Ionia has some swarm cards).
Am I crazy or is this card actually kind of good? It's like Plunder Poro but with a requirement that in some decks can be quite easy (Katarina, Kalista, Riven) and it's a 2/2 when "leveled" with 3 keywords instead of 2. I actually think that the statline is the most important benefit because it makes the keyword actually relevant. Imagine getting something like Fury+Challenger+Quick Attack on this versus any 2 of those 3 keywords on a 1/1. I think this Poro might see unironic play in Shurima decks with easy-to-level champions, or maybe as part of the "level your champion" package.
I personally really like Runeterra, it has a the same mana system as HS (going from 1 to 10 Mana) but up to 3 excess mana you end each round with gets converted into spell mana that you can cast spells with. After playing with that system, it was actually kind of uncomfortable for me to play HS and Mythgard because saving excess mana just felt like such an intuitive and necessary feature (it allows you to miss parts of your curve without losing as much Tempo). LoR also has a lot of passing imitative back and forth between players, so it has a level of interaction more similar to Magic than HS. That being said, the interaction does much it a more attention-requiring game than HS or Mythgard (you can’t take a break during the opponent’s turn). I also played Mythgard once and the board system and mana system seemed very interesting to me, so I think that it’s a good option too. From my understanding, Mythgard is like HS but with more of Magic’s mana system and a unique board system, while LoR is like HS but with simultaneous turns and an improved version of HS’s mana system. I’d recommend watching a few videos of top players for each game to try to get a sense of what the game play is like before deciding which one to play.