I don't think this will be an extremely successful card (i.e., in terms of winrate), but I do anticipate it being a very fun card. Random L2 champions are probably good enough to consistently win Expeditions but not Constructed, so you'll need a bit of luck on your side too.
If anything, I'm sad that they made this an Epic as it seems like it would be a fun memey deck that casuals would enjoy.
Deny and SpellShield are pretty womp-womp, though.
Nah -- it's a 2 mana fleeting spell you got for free; you're more than happy to trade it for either Deny, Bastion, or popping an existing SpellShield. You gained mana advantage and card advantage for the former 2 cases, and my understanding is that if SS kills your Single Combat then neither unit takes damage so I'd expect the same effect here. Plus, you can always just try again for 2 mana next Round.
Bigger scare cards are things like Twin Disciplines or Mystic Shot. You really hate to pay a total of 6 mana just to see your TK die before it even gets the Detain effect off.
Not sure if you knew or not, but we actually have another forum with all the new cards including this one. That's sort of the designated space for these types of conversations. Plus you can rate them 1<->5 stars and see how other players are rating it.
...or if you go to any of Flux's card reveal articles, underneath each card there's a "Discuss this Card" button that hotlinks to the corresponding discussion page.
I'm curious how this will work when it kills a unit and you don't have another unit with 1 cost higher than that unit. Will it even kill the unit? Or will it just summon the next highest? The way it's worded makes me think it will just kill the unit entirely.
My interpretation is:
If there is an N+1 cost unit in the deck (where N is most expensive ally on board), kill the ally and summon that unit
Else: do nothing
I think the key word is "Kill your most expensive ally to summon an ally...". In other words, it's like a contract where killing is the price and summoning is the reward; you either get both or nothing. Plus from a game design POV it just feels really bad if you pay 5 mana for something that automatically kills of your best unit for sometimes no benefit and then you can't even block with it.
As much as I love the flavor, it's not a good card unless there's either great synergy (Vlad rework?) or really affordable healing. It's vanilla stats are horrible, and dealing 1 damage to each ally in exchange for +1/+0 is essentially a wash. I could almost see it working in a either a Frejlord or Noxus battlescar deck where you get additional value for having things hurt, but then they had to make this card even worse by giving it vulnerable. I'm just not seeing it.
And what's with his followers? There is 0 synergy between them. They take damage for what reason? Has nothing to do with how Tahm works. I guess maybe he can heal them by eating them and spitting them out? But why do all this contrived stuff and not just play good statted followers right away. All these guys would be better as Vlad followers than Tahm, at least there would be a payoff for playing them.
Specifically regarding the followers, I foresee 3 major synergies:
Vlad because of the self-harm; this will be mostly an aggressive strategy where you're just using TK for control and never expect him to flip
Swain because of damage; again you don't really expect TK to flip, you're just using him to progress Swain and maybe create an opening for Swain
Soraka because of healing, which is hard to predict because she hasn't been revealed yet
I would like this card so much more if only it was fast speed!
At slow speed, I'm struggling to see the advantages. If you have an expensive unit that's about to die, you can heal it back to full. You can repeat any summoning effects, so maybe The Rekindler or Tianna Crownguard? There's also the obvious benefits of the stat gain and progressing Kench, but I'm just not sure that's enough for a card slot unless there's an added synergy with the captured unit itself.
I'm a new player. Please, tell me if my assumption is correct: the difference between a stun from Leona and a stun from Swain is the fact that Leona's stun is tied to the Daybreak keyword which i assume is classified as an ability (thus, it's negated by spellshield). There's a lot of interactions that i still need to learn.
The important thing is whether it "goes on the stack" or not (e.g., shows a circular icon on the middle of the screen). Both Leona's "Play" effect and her L2 passive ability will put a Solar Flare icon on the middle of the field and pass priority to your opponent to respond, at which point they can play Deny, Bastion, or other clever tricks to interact with the stun before it resolves. Swain's stun just happens instantly, though -- no icon, no passing priority -- therefore it can't be Deny'ed or Bastion'ed and hits through SpellShield.
Unfortunately the game doesn't telegraph which skills are instant versus which go on the stack in the cards text, so you kinda just need to play them and remember.
Correction: Lamparci placed 3rd at the Aretuza Invitational; Fresh Lobster placed 2nd and Stan placed 1st. It doesn't impact the narrative of the article at all but that's been bothering me all morning. >.<
Hopefully he'll still be doing his own thing in the background like he has been since I religiously watch his content pretty much. Whatever he chooses though, hope he's able to do well with it.
My interpretation is that he's still going to be playing HS full-time and streaming and making YouTube videos; he just won't participate in any more competitions (e.g., Grandmasters). If anything, he should have more time/energy for content creation now.
Big Firebat fan here. Even though this news makes me a little sad, I think it's for the best. I could go into how he's making way more money in content creation than competitions anyways, but honestly: he always just seemed so stressed out and unhappy when competing, and that's a problem. Especially comparing him to how happy and chill he seems when just doing his own thing. I think he's going to enjoy post-competition life very much.
I'm going to guess this card is going to get a fair amount of play. The video showcased an extremely powerful Anivia -> The Rekindler synergery -- I know Anivia isn't in a great spot right now due to Hush and obliterate but if you can resummon enough maybe it gets to a point where it just doesn't matter.
And contrary to what the article says, there is an option to continue your run after you lose.
Ack! Thanks for the correction, Nevin. If I'm being honest: I've run it 9 times now and never lost, so I just assumed from the description any lose terminated. I totally should have confirmed this assumption in game for the article, though.
I'm curious: do you get infinite continues or is it just a 1-shot redemption circa Expedition?
Is there any other site besides this one that provides good information about decks? Or a good content creator that can provide information and help me learn more about the game?
Oh boy -- where you begin?
I'm working hard on making some newcomer guides for this site. Obviously they aren't up yet but when they are I'm covering extensively is how to build your first few decks
Streamer Saucy Mailman has a series of YouTube videos intended for new players; those are indexed at his site https://www.saucymailman.com/guides
Speaking of YouTube: that's my favorite source for decks because you get context plus to see them played and in-game explanations. I'm especially partial to:
I don't think this will be an extremely successful card (i.e., in terms of winrate), but I do anticipate it being a very fun card. Random L2 champions are probably good enough to consistently win Expeditions but not Constructed, so you'll need a bit of luck on your side too.
If anything, I'm sad that they made this an Epic as it seems like it would be a fun memey deck that casuals would enjoy.
Given how nutty Zenith Blade has proven to be, I foresee a lot of innovations. Permanent overwhelm can make a lot of difference on the right unit.
ARAM time, baby!
https://outof.cards/mythgard/1917-rings-of-immortality-launched-on-friday-heres-free-pack-codes-for-new-and-old-mythgard-players
...and he has it? With 3 comments already?
If you want to conduct meaningful conversations over the internet, you might want to spend more time reading what others write.
Tahm Kench = https://outof.cards/forums/legends-of-runeterra/card-discussion/6014-new-bilgewater-champion-tahm-kench
Agreed -- vulnerable as a debuff is so underrated; good to see more opportunities to make use of it.
Nah -- it's a 2 mana fleeting spell you got for free; you're more than happy to trade it for either Deny, Bastion, or popping an existing SpellShield. You gained mana advantage and card advantage for the former 2 cases, and my understanding is that if SS kills your Single Combat then neither unit takes damage so I'd expect the same effect here. Plus, you can always just try again for 2 mana next Round.
Bigger scare cards are things like Twin Disciplines or Mystic Shot. You really hate to pay a total of 6 mana just to see your TK die before it even gets the Detain effect off.
Not sure if you knew or not, but we actually have another forum with all the new cards including this one. That's sort of the designated space for these types of conversations. Plus you can rate them 1<->5 stars and see how other players are rating it.
Forum = https://outof.cards/forums/legends-of-runeterra/card-discussion
Tahm Kench = https://outof.cards/forums/legends-of-runeterra/card-discussion/6014-new-bilgewater-champion-tahm-kench
...or if you go to any of Flux's card reveal articles, underneath each card there's a "Discuss this Card" button that hotlinks to the corresponding discussion page.
My interpretation is:
I think the key word is "Kill your most expensive ally to summon an ally...". In other words, it's like a contract where killing is the price and summoning is the reward; you either get both or nothing. Plus from a game design POV it just feels really bad if you pay 5 mana for something that automatically kills of your best unit for sometimes no benefit and then you can't even block with it.
2 mana 3/1 challenger would be good enough on its own, but the damaged bit opens up even more possibilities (Swain, healing, resummon, etc).
As much as I love the flavor, it's not a good card unless there's either great synergy (Vlad rework?) or really affordable healing. It's vanilla stats are horrible, and dealing 1 damage to each ally in exchange for +1/+0 is essentially a wash. I could almost see it working in a either a Frejlord or Noxus battlescar deck where you get additional value for having things hurt, but then they had to make this card even worse by giving it vulnerable. I'm just not seeing it.
Specifically regarding the followers, I foresee 3 major synergies:
I would like this card so much more if only it was fast speed!
At slow speed, I'm struggling to see the advantages. If you have an expensive unit that's about to die, you can heal it back to full. You can repeat any summoning effects, so maybe The Rekindler or Tianna Crownguard? There's also the obvious benefits of the stat gain and progressing Kench, but I'm just not sure that's enough for a card slot unless there's an added synergy with the captured unit itself.
The important thing is whether it "goes on the stack" or not (e.g., shows a circular icon on the middle of the screen). Both Leona's "Play" effect and her L2 passive ability will put a Solar Flare icon on the middle of the field and pass priority to your opponent to respond, at which point they can play Deny, Bastion, or other clever tricks to interact with the stun before it resolves. Swain's stun just happens instantly, though -- no icon, no passing priority -- therefore it can't be Deny'ed or Bastion'ed and hits through SpellShield.
Unfortunately the game doesn't telegraph which skills are instant versus which go on the stack in the cards text, so you kinda just need to play them and remember.
Correction: Lamparci placed 3rd at the Aretuza Invitational; Fresh Lobster placed 2nd and Stan placed 1st. It doesn't impact the narrative of the article at all but that's been bothering me all morning. >.<
https://twitter.com/TeamAretuza/status/1313195599228006400
My interpretation is that he's still going to be playing HS full-time and streaming and making YouTube videos; he just won't participate in any more competitions (e.g., Grandmasters). If anything, he should have more time/energy for content creation now.
Big Firebat fan here. Even though this news makes me a little sad, I think it's for the best. I could go into how he's making way more money in content creation than competitions anyways, but honestly: he always just seemed so stressed out and unhappy when competing, and that's a problem. Especially comparing him to how happy and chill he seems when just doing his own thing. I think he's going to enjoy post-competition life very much.
I'm going to guess this card is going to get a fair amount of play. The video showcased an extremely powerful Anivia -> The Rekindler synergery -- I know Anivia isn't in a great spot right now due to Hush and obliterate but if you can resummon enough maybe it gets to a point where it just doesn't matter.
Ack! Thanks for the correction, Nevin. If I'm being honest: I've run it 9 times now and never lost, so I just assumed from the description any lose terminated. I totally should have confirmed this assumption in game for the article, though.
I'm curious: do you get infinite continues or is it just a 1-shot redemption circa Expedition?
Oh boy -- where you begin?
Good luck!