Starting with Patch 1.5 (in about 4 weeks), we’re updating Vault unlock timing to put it more safely after our patch timing. Vault unlock will move back from Tuesday to Thursday at 8 AM (local time based on shard). The week we move the Vault, we’ll have an extended, nine-day Vault to make the transition.
I'm actually a little sad about this. Sure, it's a quality-of-life improvement over-all. My thing is: there have been so many Tuesdays when I've woken up, started in on my humdrum weekday routine and then suddenly realized "oh wait it's Vault Day--I should go see if I got anything good this week!" It was a nice little mid-week bit of excitement. Thursday is almost the weekend--it just won't be as emotionally impactful then.
Pretty good decklist--it's actually really close to the current most popular deep decklist.
Ruination is a bit odd--there is only a small window between when you have enough mana to cast and when you're deep and wouldn't just prefer a sea monster
Since you're new I assume you're resource-constrained, but definitely triple up on Nautilus and Jaull when you can
Lure is OK as a budget-minded placeholder, but it just isn't a strong card. Pre-deep you'd prefer something that will help you toss and/or survive; post-deep you just want Nautilus and sea monsters.
This is pretty much the optimized burn deck; some cards are potential side-grades but it's practically impossible to make anything more aggressive. Part of your problem is this deck was extremely popular last month so everyone knows how to mulligan and play against it--and you're essentially running an inferior version of it.
If you DO want to homebrew, try some champions with the potential to generate more value e.g. Swain, Miss Fortune, Kalista. Jinx isn't a very strong champion ATM so I'd avoid her, but if you do insist then I'd recommend netdecking a Draven + Jinx deck with heavy discard syngeries.
I know he's not the best champion, but I just can't get enough Maokai. The deck attack, the saplings, the fact they have ephemeral and challenger tags--he just has so many facets! Here's a mill deck: level up Maokai, then use Pilfered Goods to draw their final 4 cards:
Mill-kai
A Runeterra Deck created by
OldManSanns. Last updated 3 years, 10 months ago
I know you say they are core, but I'd cut from 3x Rummage 1x Progress DayBADCARDNAME to 3x Salvage 1-2x Pick a Card. The former just aren't very strong cards ATM.
Continuing on theme: careful not to dedicate yourself too much to TF. Yes, he's cool, but everyone and their brother knows how deadly he is once he levels so they will try hard to remove him. Plus in these colors you have no options for protecting him. Think of him less as a tent-pole to build your deck around and more like a alt-win condition that will punish if they don't remove him ASAP (e.g., like Fiora)
As others have said, Make it Rain is awesome with Ezreal. Along that line: Dreadway Deckhand and Petty Officer will provide kegs to synergize with your AoE (Rain + TF red card) and provide much-needed early-game bodies
Also agree with Yordle Grifter: 100% it gives a warning shot, 50% of the time it also gives a free card
In general, you'll prefer cheap costs, cards that active plunder, cards that level Ezreal, and things that control early board:
Parrrley should be a consideration. It's 1 mana, it can target units, and in a pinch it can go straight to nexus (e.g., to enable a Round 8 Rex if you're missing Warning Shot)
Frosty's suggestion of Trail of Evidence is good: I completely forgot that card existed, but I think it could do well here.
Other things I thought of but are probably too greedy:
Augmented Experimenter would give you card draw AND target, but due to the discard requirement his value is going to be very coin-flippy.
Slotbot has some potential synergies with all your card draw, but he's more of an investment card and you're already betting hard on TF and Ezreal level ups.
I wouldn't hate substituting 1x Ezreal for 1x GankplankBADCARDNAME. It depends entirely on how fast this deck plays--if its fast and you need to guarantee an early Ezreal then keep 3x, but I know slower Ez decks of the past would often only run 2x Ezreal because they wouldn't want to play him until he was leveled and they were ready to use him a finisher. It also would justify running The Dreadway which I imagine is terrifying with either Ez or TF.
My question is, does it fully disengage them and let you do whatever with the 2 units? If 2 units both being challenged are targeted, does it disengage them both? If so, that IS pretty busted and sounds buggy...
It does disengage them both, that is exactly my point. I don't mind them swapping places, just the fact that they can completely avoid my attacks OR even block other units that I thought were safe to attack without being blocked (since there were no other blockers on his board).
Every remark the other posters made is completely fine, they are talking about swapping targets, which is NOT what I'm complaining about. The point is that it disengages from combat your units which is technically not part of the effect.
Sorry, I missed that point when I first read this thread.
That might be an unintended bug. I want to say I've done this in the past expeditions and the swapped unit went in place of the challenged unit without the option to rearrange. Ionia is my least played region by a mile so I can't speak too confidently about it.
I found out just now that using Stand United on two units which have been targeted by opponent's Challenger attackers completely negates the Challenger effect. I mean I guess it is intended, but still I don't really find it fair that just by swapping two units' places you can basically disengage them from combat or even use them to block any other attacker. The card already disrupts your plans by swapping them (and giving them barrier), why should it even have this further interaction? I might also just be a bit salty over losing to an opponent who used this trick 3 times in a row, but still...
I actually like that interaction--it's a unique mechanic which can adds a lot of potential depth, and Ionia is the perfect region for it. FYI its not just challenger--e.g., if someone is trying to pick off your backline unit with a Single Combat, you can drop Stand United and not only barrier the original target but also swap in a high attack unit which can kill off the combatter. Sure, its powerful, but as TriMay points out its 6 mana. Compare to other 6 mana spells like Back to Back and Frozen Winds.
I dislike that its paired almost exclusively with Demacia win-board decks and I'm really tired of Demacia win-board decks, but that's a separate topic.
Does anyone know if the decklists for the AI opponents are available? I just came across a deck called, "Tortured Souls" (Kalista & Thresh) that really intrigued me - as it crushed me as well.
I've only begun playing this game, but I really like it.
Welcome to Runeterra!
No idea about the AI decks specifically, but here's the Kalista + Thresh deck I was running around with pre-Rising Tides. The goal is to get either a Darkwater Scourge or The Rekindler in your rez pool and then just beat down with Kalista. Take it as a guideline and not gospel--it's an old list that could probably use some updates for RT and for the current meta.
control variants are the only archetypes worth playing mid range and aggro are dead
So no bannerman, no noxious anything that isn't swain
Region diversity will appear healthy, but deck archetypes will all be very slow
Bannerman still feels REALLY strong. Sure Ranger and Badgerbear chip a 1 less damage/ea, but the bears still have 4 HP so they survive most attacks giving bannerman, war chefs, single combat, and ranger's resolve a lot of value. Yes on paper all the cards are strictly worse now, but in practice I think none of the nerfs are going to significantly lower the winrate or playrate of this deck, just like the nerf to bannerman from last patch had an almost negligible impact 4 weeks ago. Therefore I absolutely disagree with the first half of your 2nd prediction; I think this archetype is going to continue to dominate ladder and tournaments. I'll also say that the noxus/P&Z burn archetype will continue to be popular but for the opposite reason: the units have less health so it will be less consistent, but if you can still punish slow opponents with a lot of early damage. I could see the decklist changing up a little, but overall I think the archetype will remain very popular--especially since its one of the few that can get ahead of bannerman. I would agree that Noxus won't see much play outside of this archetype and Swain.
As a corollary to the above point, I predict almost the exact inverse for your 1st prediction: the meta will continue looking much like it does now, with a bevy of midrange and aggro with control practically nonexistant. Control is in a very bad spot right now--all of the AoE are either very expensive or moderate cost but only do 1 damage, so as a result they are too slow for aggro and too light for midrange. The one deck that was treading water was Corina, and that archetype is probably hit the 2nd hardest out of all by this patch. Any viable deck needs to be able to fight board against the existing bannerman and burn decklists, and even post-patch that requires putting your own units on the board so more midrange and aggro decks.
Finally, I think Demacia, Bilgewater, and P&Z will remain overly popular and Frejlord and non-burn Noxus will remain least popular by a wide margin. SI might dip--depends greatly on if someone invents a clever Hecarim deck to supplement the hits to Corina and spiders. Ionia will remain where it is in the middle.
Pride poro: I can't see a use for this, no wonder they give it for free G tier for what it represents.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're referring to the pointlessness of the animated gesture rather than a sleight against LBGTQ people. With that: I think I actually like the Teemo emote better than the Ezreal emote, but I'd agree that I can't really envision any scenarios where I personally would prefer to send the pride poro emote (he's throwing his cards in the air out of joy?) over any even just from the standard 6 free emotes.
Maybe? Personally I have huge FOMO, so I've always been reluctant to spend common/rare wildcards right before Tuesday or a big region reward chest, but I really appreciate the logic behind your argument here.
I would say ultimately, it probably doesn't matter too much. E.g. say "hypothetically" you were sitting on 161 common wildcards. Scenario A: you convert them all just to fill out your collection; Scenario B: you do never use them. After a long enough time period, Scenario B would get exactly those 161 commons for free whereas Scenario A converts them to 15 shards/ea; any duplicates after those 161 would generate the same 15 shards/ea to both. That means the total difference between the two scenarios is 2,415 shards i.e. 80% of a single champion craft. And of course that's contingent on receiving an additional 161 non-wildcard commons of exactly the type you crafted; if they aligned perfect that could be ~5 weeks but in practice it will look more like an exponential decay graph where Scenario A nets fewer and fewer additional shards over Scenario B each week--probably months before even hitting the 2,000 mark.
I forget the refund rate for rares, but I imagine its not too much better. I interpret this all to mean that I shouldn't our hypothetical friend shouldn't feel at all reluctant to spend common and rare wildcards on any cards he actually intends to play, but spending them just to spend them only has a minimal strategic shard advantage and that you definitely want to have some in reserve by the time the next expansion is released.
In honor of his buff in the upcoming patch, I thought I'd share what I think is the best Vlad deck. Note that it is an evergreen deck with no Rising Tides cards--not by intention, but because I honestly don't like any of the new cards in this decklist.
Cards I considered but ultimately cut:
Ember Maiden has some potential, but I don't like the downsides: you can't stop it, it hurts your own nexus, it triggers opposing Crimson Disciples, and it usually only lives 1.5 rounds.
Kindly Tavernkeeper is popular in other decks but I just hate the slow speed and meager effect. Even with the upcoming attack buff, I think he's just too underwhelming
Mogwai loves Noxian Fervor in this archetype. For me, I just really hate dealing 3 to my own units here: it usually means the unit will die, and this deck succeeds or fails based on maintaining board presence.
An earlier version of this decklist ran Noxian Guillotine. While its definitely an underrated card in general, I think this deck needs units and buffs a lot more than it needs a conditional removal spell.
I played a little with Stalking Wolf: it often can kill its own rabbit for free progression, and a 3-attack challenger threatens many key backline units. Ultimately I cut it because I didn't like its lineup against P&Z/Noxus burn, but that may no longer be a factor
I'd love to incorporate Avarosan Hearthguard--everything in this deck really loves buffs--but its just too greed. The current 4-6 drops all have more immediate impact due to synergies and the 1-3 drops and buffs are necessary to contest early game.
Cards currently in which I could reconsider:
Starlit Seer is in mostly to provide a couple more 2-drops in case we miss Crimson Disciple. This was necessary with the prevalence of Noxus/P&Z decks; if aggro's popularity goes down, I could see cutting it.
I have a 1-of Bloodsworn Pledge carried over from my original list. There are times when it wins me the game--e.g., land it on a regenerating unit, or a disciple which my opponent assumed was going to die. Other times, it just feels like worse version of Take Heart. As a result, I don't feel strongly for or against it.
Babbling Bjerg is a similar carried-over 1-of. He tutors the Vlad, which means you can either play Vlad on board (which is usually a good thing) or if you have an existing Vlad he's a Transfusion (which is always a great thing). In practice, though, he feels slow: there's almost something more interesting I'd rather do with my mana.
I'm actually a little sad about this. Sure, it's a quality-of-life improvement over-all. My thing is: there have been so many Tuesdays when I've woken up, started in on my humdrum weekday routine and then suddenly realized "oh wait it's Vault Day--I should go see if I got anything good this week!" It was a nice little mid-week bit of excitement. Thursday is almost the weekend--it just won't be as emotionally impactful then.
Pretty good decklist--it's actually really close to the current most popular deep decklist.
As much as I HATE netdecking: with this archetype, the closer you look like this, the more successful you're going to be.
This is pretty much the optimized burn deck; some cards are potential side-grades but it's practically impossible to make anything more aggressive. Part of your problem is this deck was extremely popular last month so everyone knows how to mulligan and play against it--and you're essentially running an inferior version of it.
If you DO want to homebrew, try some champions with the potential to generate more value e.g. Swain, Miss Fortune, Kalista. Jinx isn't a very strong champion ATM so I'd avoid her, but if you do insist then I'd recommend netdecking a Draven + Jinx deck with heavy discard syngeries.
Figuratively Unplayable:
OK on Paper but in practice Inferior to Other Options and Never Played:
Memey Card that's technically viable but could use a Buff:
I know he's not the best champion, but I just can't get enough Maokai. The deck attack, the saplings, the fact they have ephemeral and challenger tags--he just has so many facets! Here's a mill deck: level up Maokai, then use Pilfered Goods to draw their final 4 cards:
In general, you'll prefer cheap costs, cards that active plunder, cards that level Ezreal, and things that control early board:
Other things I thought of but are probably too greedy:
Sorry, I missed that point when I first read this thread.
That might be an unintended bug. I want to say I've done this in the past expeditions and the swapped unit went in place of the challenged unit without the option to rearrange. Ionia is my least played region by a mile so I can't speak too confidently about it.
Had much more fun doing this than I expected--thank you!
I actually like that interaction--it's a unique mechanic which can adds a lot of potential depth, and Ionia is the perfect region for it. FYI its not just challenger--e.g., if someone is trying to pick off your backline unit with a Single Combat, you can drop Stand United and not only barrier the original target but also swap in a high attack unit which can kill off the combatter. Sure, its powerful, but as TriMay points out its 6 mana. Compare to other 6 mana spells like Back to Back and Frozen Winds.
I dislike that its paired almost exclusively with Demacia win-board decks and I'm really tired of Demacia win-board decks, but that's a separate topic.
From what I've read, the only known crash right now is the tag for monospacing ("mspace")--if you stick to colors and icons you should be fine.
I haven't been browsing the subreddit much lately; apparently this was discovered a few days ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/gtwb00/psa_you_can_use_html_codes_for_formatting_deck/
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/gu4315/all_the_46_sprites_you_can_add_in_your_deck_title/
Just be careful--apparently there are a few invalid combinations that will cause your client to repeatedly crash until you reinstall.
Welcome to Runeterra!
No idea about the AI decks specifically, but here's the Kalista + Thresh deck I was running around with pre-Rising Tides. The goal is to get either a Darkwater Scourge or The Rekindler in your rez pool and then just beat down with Kalista. Take it as a guideline and not gospel--it's an old list that could probably use some updates for RT and for the current meta.
Good luck!
My thoughts:
P&Z? Nah; I believe you want to go either Demacia or Bilgewater. Need to create ways to kill 'em off!
I was going to respond to your numbered list but Hellcopter and DoubleSummon wrote basically what I would so I'll just speak towards your predictions.
Bannerman still feels REALLY strong. Sure Ranger and Badgerbear chip a 1 less damage/ea, but the bears still have 4 HP so they survive most attacks giving bannerman, war chefs, single combat, and ranger's resolve a lot of value. Yes on paper all the cards are strictly worse now, but in practice I think none of the nerfs are going to significantly lower the winrate or playrate of this deck, just like the nerf to bannerman from last patch had an almost negligible impact 4 weeks ago. Therefore I absolutely disagree with the first half of your 2nd prediction; I think this archetype is going to continue to dominate ladder and tournaments. I'll also say that the noxus/P&Z burn archetype will continue to be popular but for the opposite reason: the units have less health so it will be less consistent, but if you can still punish slow opponents with a lot of early damage. I could see the decklist changing up a little, but overall I think the archetype will remain very popular--especially since its one of the few that can get ahead of bannerman. I would agree that Noxus won't see much play outside of this archetype and Swain.
As a corollary to the above point, I predict almost the exact inverse for your 1st prediction: the meta will continue looking much like it does now, with a bevy of midrange and aggro with control practically nonexistant. Control is in a very bad spot right now--all of the AoE are either very expensive or moderate cost but only do 1 damage, so as a result they are too slow for aggro and too light for midrange. The one deck that was treading water was Corina, and that archetype is probably hit the 2nd hardest out of all by this patch. Any viable deck needs to be able to fight board against the existing bannerman and burn decklists, and even post-patch that requires putting your own units on the board so more midrange and aggro decks.
Finally, I think Demacia, Bilgewater, and P&Z will remain overly popular and Frejlord and non-burn Noxus will remain least popular by a wide margin. SI might dip--depends greatly on if someone invents a clever Hecarim deck to supplement the hits to Corina and spiders. Ionia will remain where it is in the middle.
Am I the only one who's a little frustrated that the 2 most annoying decks pre-patch (bannerman and burn) are still super-popular post-patch?
Sweet!
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're referring to the pointlessness of the animated gesture rather than a sleight against LBGTQ people. With that: I think I actually like the Teemo emote better than the Ezreal emote, but I'd agree that I can't really envision any scenarios where I personally would prefer to send the pride poro emote (he's throwing his cards in the air out of joy?) over any even just from the standard 6 free emotes.
Maybe? Personally I have huge FOMO, so I've always been reluctant to spend common/rare wildcards right before Tuesday or a big region reward chest, but I really appreciate the logic behind your argument here.
I would say ultimately, it probably doesn't matter too much. E.g. say "hypothetically" you were sitting on 161 common wildcards. Scenario A: you convert them all just to fill out your collection; Scenario B: you do never use them. After a long enough time period, Scenario B would get exactly those 161 commons for free whereas Scenario A converts them to 15 shards/ea; any duplicates after those 161 would generate the same 15 shards/ea to both. That means the total difference between the two scenarios is 2,415 shards i.e. 80% of a single champion craft. And of course that's contingent on receiving an additional 161 non-wildcard commons of exactly the type you crafted; if they aligned perfect that could be ~5 weeks but in practice it will look more like an exponential decay graph where Scenario A nets fewer and fewer additional shards over Scenario B each week--probably months before even hitting the 2,000 mark.
I forget the refund rate for rares, but I imagine its not too much better. I interpret this all to mean that I shouldn't our hypothetical friend shouldn't feel at all reluctant to spend common and rare wildcards on any cards he actually intends to play, but spending them just to spend them only has a minimal strategic shard advantage and that you definitely want to have some in reserve by the time the next expansion is released.
In honor of his buff in the upcoming patch, I thought I'd share what I think is the best Vlad deck. Note that it is an evergreen deck with no Rising Tides cards--not by intention, but because I honestly don't like any of the new cards in this decklist.
Cards I considered but ultimately cut:
Cards currently in which I could reconsider: