The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent
vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums
here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules
document is now in effect.
[Legends of Runeterra] Definitely not Neeko! Nope!
Posts
Picked up some of the new Demacia Elites stuff with my vault winnings. Jarvan is a lot of fun!
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
So much XP!
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Best pull today was Kadgradin the Infernal but I did get a Fiora in an expansion pack earlier this week.
A bit salty that we have 3 Goth Champions but no new Daybreak Champs were introduced when going to the region that worships a SUN DISC.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
While true, if you can afford that, you really don't need to game the system.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Listen, all these rich oligarchs don't wake up and say "You know what? I can pay a regular amount of taxes. Let's stop with the loopholes!" When you're on top you gotta use every advantage possible to stay on top! I would expect a StarCraft II veteran to be familiar with "When you're ahead, you get more ahead."
Plus card game players live and die by card advantage. This is actual card advantage! It's a 0 for 1!
I mean sure, but playing LoR is like starting a game with the title "BGH NR20". You're going to have all the cardz in just a few months. This ain't HS where every drop of gold and dust has to be maximized. :P
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
the only thing it needs is a question mark emote. the flag one isn't useful. otherwise communicating entirely through emotes is very novel
I also want to make a discard deck now, already having the 3 jinxes needed
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
It's also a good idea to keep a second champion in hand, so that if your deck gets obliterated you can try to keep "add one copy of this champion to your deck" each turn to last a few more turns.
something i've critiqued the game before, and which Targon set was particularly egregious with, is that the game can devolve really easily into "packages" of cards. you don't look at leona and think "hmm look at the way this synergizes with the sets before and existing decks", you look at leona and go "well i guess i just put her in a deck with all the new Daybreak cards they made"
you take two packages, squish 'em together, sprinkle the generically good cards for your factions, and there you go
but this set has a much cleaner, more elegant design that both looks backwards and forwards. sure, characters like leblanc and sivir CAN be put in a dedicated Reputation deck, they'll level faster, but they can also just be aggressive dudes in a regular aggressive deck. none of the Ascended champions need to be put into a Sun Disc deck. the closest is probably lissandra who is very tightly tied to a theme from a previous set, but it's giving that theme a new toy and playstyle in a way that mechanics like Daybreak or Deep are not
if this is a sign of card design to come i'm much more optimistic about the design space long term
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
and so I don't double post I had a guy do the shen "I won" thing, except he forgot that +3 buff goes away when your hecarim dies and he didn't actually kill me and lost
Everything about this set's design is better and I feel like many of the Targon expansion champions will end up getting a design rework. At the very least Taric, Lulu, and the support mechanic (not introduced there but a major component of Targon) need an overhaul, or maybe support just doesn't need to be on a champ.
I've already played a game with IT Department in it. Don't need that shit but actually playable to exist.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
His scaling method can lead to lame feeling games where they can't close but you're unlikely to recover from Nasus and the game just takes six turns longer to finish.
CECAIAIFBMTDAMIDAQDRUHCSAMBQKAYEAYAQEBIEAIAQCBJPAECAOAYDAECAO6IBAICQMAIBAUVQ
https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/c0vs9k4rkdc59kvi73og
Even better, it's super cheap to craft at 12k Shards. It's entirely Commons/Rares with only 2 copies of Azir. Give it a try!
My highlight from it today was having a Doombeast and Phantom Prankster on board, and Azir and Rite of Calling in hand. I crunched the numbers, and found that I could play Azir, then play Rite of Calling (destroying a the mana gem), and then have exactly 9 mana the next turn (7 normal + 2 spell) to burst speed 3 Sand Soldiers. That meant my attack would be 6 units wide and more than enough damage for his single dragon to block. So fun!
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
SHADOWLANDS
BILGEWATER
SHADOWLANDS AND BILGEWATER
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Wait, what? Mastery 5?! Isn't that tons of grinding wins to get to that point? I want to say it was 18,000 points, which would be ~129 wins w/3 Champs in the deck (140 points).
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
I did change the deck a bit so it's actually like a cross between the ren/sej overwhelm and the sivir decks. Ruin runners are just so much better than screeching dragons. I cut the egg researchers for the 3/2 lord that gets barrier. Added a couples golden aegis. So now it's basically a midrange aggro deck that everyone throws their hand at fiora, but really ruin runner and shyvana push damage and close the game. I win less often with fiora alt win con, but in general I've been winning more. Been yoyoing around diamond 3.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Golden Aegis is a much better fit for the deck than Relentless Pursuit was, and there's a lot of Liss Trundle which seems like an excellent matchup between the beefy units and counterspells.
Aggro gets a lot of hate from what I'll describe as casually competitive people. They've moved on from the newbie phase and like to play games at a high level, in Magic these would be the people who make the cut at FNM but can't reliably win, or will never/don't want to play or do well at a larger event. They know just enough to be dangerous.
Aggro decks actually take a lot of knowledge and I think it may be one of the better tests of player skill in a given game. Individual card choice matters SO MUCH in aggro, making a couple tweaks based on the meta you expect to face makes a big deal. It further tests your meta knowledge because you need to know what your opponent is capable of and likely to do given what's happened and what they have open. A classic decision in Runeterra from a couple metas ago is turn one, with the attack token and given multiple one drops what do you play? The options can be Legion Saboteur, the 2/1 fearsome spider, Legion Rearguard. The level of this is "what one mana plays do they have open?" Can they thermobeam? Can they play a blocker and if so what can it trade with? The second level starts actually considering the matchup odds. Am I disadvantaged here, and if so do I need to get a little lucky, and then what's the play with the most upside? What are the odds of being lucky and how bad would it be if I'm not lucky and I get blown out?
That doesn't get into all the scenarios of whether it's better to clear blockers or go face with your damage removal and then playing to your outs two, three turns in advance. It takes a lot of skill to say "Okay I'm ahead right now but he's stabilizing and now I have to play as though I get a decimate in my next two draws even though it's unlikely, it's my highest win percentage" or "I have to risk not blocking and getting low on health because I may need a body to Demolitionist or Noxian Fervor." You need to constantly be weighing tempo and card advantage, sometimes it's better to go down cards because your opponent will be dead before the advantage matters! Other times you'll lose making that decision because you misjudged how long the game would go. I think it's a lot more skill testing than having to just "well I'll play all my healing cards and stall until the end game because if I can survive long enough to get off a Ledros/Atrocity my win% is 95%"
CMBQEAIADUWQGAYAAYFQ4AYEA4GRUXIEAEBAAAIBAQAAGAQBAAERUAYEA4ICMTACAECAAAQBAQDWY. This is the last list that clung to dragons.
CMCACBAAAEBACAA5FUBAGAALBYBQIBY2G5OQIAICAAAQEAIABENAEBAAAIBQGBAHBUTC2AA. This is what I've been playing recently.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
I just think they're right in the window where they can decry it as being too straight forward and nooby of a strategy and also know enough about the game to be kind of condescending towards it. Aggressive strategies tend to be conflated with Timmy type ideas which a lot of new players fall into. "Big dragon go rar." "Look at all my dudes swing yay!" It doesn't require a lot of complicated rules knowledge to pull off, it just requires a lot of the other skills. It really gets under the skin of the Johnny (especially Johnny/Spike) types who want to win but they have to do it with flair or style or their own spin or it doesn't count.
This was an interesting post to read after my last couple days of playing. I was wobbling between an aggressive Demacia Elites deck and a Karma/Lux deck, and noticed that I was thinking harder with the former than the latter. I didn't expect that, since Karma/Lux is a combo deck that needs to do a lot of dancing to stay alive long enough to charge the lazor, but I kind of get where it was coming from now. Trying to figure out which units to use Tattered Banner on, or whether to save mana for Jarvan to leap out of my hand or if I'm better off widening my board, pondering if they're likely to have a damage spell to break Jarvan's Barrier: it's all a lot to track. Lot of fun, though.
Like you can reliably kill someone turn 4 or 5 depending on attack token, and that was last season. Aggro is so much faster and beefier now.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595