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

This is another one of those cards that I love mostly because of what you find in the full art. You'll notice the Mageseeker has a piece of petricite in her hand, represented in the spell Purify. For a little background, Demacia is very suspicious of magic and those who use it and petricite dampens any magical engery. Who is she looking for?

You can see Lux hiding behind the door here. What makes this situation so awkward is that Lux is part of the ruling royal family and sister to Garen. She has tried to keep her abilities secret, but as you can see, it's not so simple. You'll have a chance to see her slinging spells with the assistance of Karma in the Control deck below.

Unlike the other cards I've picked as favourites this week, I'm picking Radiant Guardian this time around simply because it feels so phenomenally powerful. Its stats are nothing incredible - indeed, Demacia has access to a 5/5 with Tough already without needing to be activated and with the Elite tag to boot. But radiant Guardian adds the possibility of Lifesteal to that, and in doing so, completely changes the equation. Demacia is, as a region, already vulnerable to flooding - thematically appropriate for a region with a small but elite army - and can easily fall victim to simple attrition as it's continually assailed by too many threats to block at once. Radiant Guardian is extremely effective as a response to flooding, as well as using the Lifesteal tag to indirectly protect from other burn-adjacent threats like Elusive followers and puffshroom strategies.

Indeed, this card more than any other symbolises the discrepancy in costing between healing spells and Lifesteal. For the meagre cost of requiring activation (over the aforementioned Vanguard Cavalry), Radiant Guardian can deliver five healing every single turn until it's dealt with. By contrast, Ritual of Renewal costs two more mana for a one-off seven healing plus cycle - a vast gulf of cost difference. Certainly Radiant Guardian is potentially removable, but equally, it's not exactly easy to remove a 5/5 Tough without Vengeance.

Due to its two keywords, Radiant Guardian benefits heavily from stat buffs and can combine effectively with Barrier to provide healing without sacrificing itself in the process. To that end, the linked deck this time around is from Alanzq, posted by neonangel, and seeks to overwhelm opponents with value trades and Barrier, buffing an already powerful board with War Chefs and Vanguard Bannerman and distracting with the threat of a Fiora alternate win condition.

I love everything about this card. Not only is it a very playable 1-drop and has a nice synergy with the Elite mechanic, it is just a great character. Love the art, her voice lines and her innocence. She was told stories about great heroes her entire life and now when she's all grown up, it is her time to become one of those heroes. How appropriate to be one of the first cards you get to see in the game and can easilly identify with. Good job Rito! I'm not crying, you're crying!

If you're in a mood for some fast games, try out this Zed Elites deck.

Garen is a bit of a boring champion. He doesn't really need any deckbuilding and he levels up over something done normally over the course of every game. So, why do I like him so much if he's a boring champion? Well, actually I like him because he's a boring champion. Garen is the first card in the game you see when you open the game for the very first time (although he's slightly different there). Once you get into the meat of the game, Garen is found in your Demacia-Frejlord starter deck. I think Garen is a good champion in the game to have and he's simply a good starter champion when you begin the game. He levels up quite easily and his abilities are quite strong. When you level him up, you feel on top of the world like nothing can destroy you now. If he's left unchecked, he can do some pretty serious damage.

His viability does drop a bit when you get into higher ranks, but when you start the game up, he's a really nice starter champion that can dish out some wins for you. He's also really strong in Expeditions.

imDBRAZ has a Solo Garen deck which is pretty cheap to make. You can add more Elusive counters to get more leverage.