Freljord Spotlight - Our Favorite Cards & Decks from the Legends of Runeterra Region

I tried to avoid picking any Champions for this, because it seems like everyone expects us to do that. However, I just couldn't resist on this one. When I started playing LoR during the first Preview Patch 1) I got completely spoiled by having a TON of Wildcards to freely craft everything and 2) Ashe was the first character I started with. She has a special place in my heart because I had a lot of fun with her. My one complaint is that she is pretty vulnerable without support, so you've always got to be looking over your shoulder for a Grasp of the Undying or a Get Excited! to take her out. The deck below is my own creation and I'm sure I've got more changes down the road, but this is where I've landed for the time being.

You might think this is something of a boring card to pick as a favourite. It's just a chunky ball of stats, after all, albeit one which imparts some of that same quality to the rest of your deck. I am, however, interested in the design philosophy behind the card. Imagine if this card were printed for Hearthstone - it would be pretty much broken. The Mistcaller wasn't great, admittedly, but that's at one more mana and 1/1 less stats, while also being Legendary. Hearthguard, on the other hand, has solid vanilla stats while also being playable en masse - so why isn't it broken?

Aside from meta concerns, I would argue the answer lies in its size and in Runeterra's design in general. Being a 5-drop means it can be fairly statted because you're going to be using it as board presence - wheras if this was, say, a 2 mana 2/2 it would be immediately run with Ionia and bounced back to hand repeatedly. As far as design principles are concerned, LoR has very little card draw - much of the time you're relying on generation to refill rather than pure draw, or at most simple cycling. These two factors allow this card to exist as it is without being overpowered... yet. But if Control hits back in the meta, we could well still see the card being nerfed, because even with those factors it feels a little stronger than it should be.

Until then, though, why not take advantage of its chunky statline with a solid deck? My illustration this time comes from streamer Merchant, with the decklist posted by Flux last month. It combines the inevitability of puffshrooms with the stalling tools available to Freljord, while the Hearthguard itself adds weight to the solid statlines of the puffshroom support cards.

This doggie is quickly becoming one of my favorites in Expeditions, I tend to gravite to Freljord Frostbite decks lately and Rimefang Wolf(s) are basically carrying those decks on their shoulders. Frostbite is certainly a powerful mechanic on its own, but it can sometimes feel wasteful when you need to stop an attack, but don't have a way to actually deal enough damage to kill off the minion, so you could be in a same position next turn again. Well, wolfie has no problem with that, he will get the job done. Even through the Barrier no less! Challenger is just a perfect way to round this card up, you can pick and choose which enemy will go to slaughter. woof-woof!

Rimefang Wolf can fit pretty much into any Frostbite deck, so how about trying one from Wrapter?

Alpha Wildclaw will probably seem like a weird choice to a lot of people. After all, Frejlord has some really cool champions, and a 7/6 French Vanilla doesn't seem that interesting, does it? The card may not be an all-star player in Constructed, but in Expeditions, this thing is an absolute beast! If you see this card suggested to you in Expeditions, pick it! It's super strong there.

Merchant's Teemo Dots of Doom that Bystekhilcar already provided is similarly the highest-rated Constructed deck that utilizes this card. Where this card lies in its strongest though is, again, Expeditions. Basically an auto-pick in that mode.

We're halfway through all the regions and will continue tomorrow with our Noxus favorites. Thanks for joining us!