Had a pretty satisfying deckbuilding moment recently. I'd been looking at my dragon deck and thinking that Herald of Dragons, while fun, wasn't really speeding me up all that much or letting me bank mana, and since it's health is so low it can't even block for me. So I went scrolling through the 1-3 cost units and spotted Dawnspeakers, which had a lot going for it:
It's a solid blocker for before I get my dragons out, so it has use even if it doesn't trigger.
The deck plans on having a few low-cost units out before the dragons, who are gonna end up blocking and dying to keep me alive long enough to get my dragons out. Dawnspeakers can extend this pre-dragon blocking a little bit, bridging a gap if I don't draw some of my lowest-cost dragons and have to stretch a round or two.
Once the dragons hit the table, the little creatures often end up sacrificed so I'm not risking losing dragons to combat tricks, or just dying as part of a wide attack to force the opponent to block little dudes as well as dragons, or let 1 or 2 points of damage through. Dawnspeaker blunts these losses by buffing my all-important dragons.
I'm using Dragon Chow, which dovetails beautifully with Dawnspeakers. Draw a card, trigger Fury, advance Shyvana toward leveling, and at the end of the turn get a board-wide buff.
When I subbed in Dawnspeakers and gave it a whirl, the first game out the gate went something like turn 1 Gift Givers, turn 2 Dragon Chow, turn 3 Dawnspeakers, turn 4 Shyvana. The deck pretty quickly snowballed from there: I eventually traded Gift Givers, but got a boardwide buff out of it.
What I really felt good about while updating the deck was recognizing that, despite being fairly different cards, both Herald and Dawnspeakers were filling the same role in my deck: smoothing out the point in the game where my early-game defense is starting to crumble, and the dragons have to start landing or I'm done. Felt like I had a pretty good grasp of how the card would perform once I slotted it in.
If there's a working dragon deck let me know, I'm looking for one. I love the fury mechanic.
I'm way down in Silver, so I have no idea if there's a version that's playable at a higher level, but here's what I've been using:
Champions
3x Shyvana
3x Aurelion Sol
Units
3x Dragon Chow
3x Gift Giver
3x Egghead Researcher
3x Dawnspeakers
3x Fused Firebrand
2x Inviolus Vox
Spells
3x Guiding Touch
3x Sunblessed Vigor
3x Dragon's Clutch
2x Prismatic Barrier
2x Strafing Strike
2x Astral Protection
2x Bastion
1x Molten Breath
Earlier versions had more dragons, but I kept getting choked up with a ton of them in my hand and no mana to play them. Eventually I realized I was better off getting them through other cards, either by drawing them (Dragon's Clutch directly, or Guiding Touch and Dragon Chow if I'm lucky), or just creating them in my hand (Egghead Researcher, Inviolus Vox). All of those cards except Vox also do something else in the deck to either help me reach the point where dragons can come down, or do better once I'm there. The rest of the spell mix is basically about keeping the dragons alive once they're out.
Molten Breath is very slow, and I would probably be better off dropping it for a third Strafing Strike, but I adore it so it stays. :P
Edit: Beaten by SeGaTai! Gonna compare/contrast my deck with that deck and see how wrong I am about card games.
I'm gonna have to wait a bit and build some resources back so I can make those two champs (I have one copy of AurSol and that's it), but based on how this has been going so far that's probably...next week?
It's more of a control deck and less dragons, which might be less fun. You typically end up stabilizing midgame with sunforger/fangs; and you can end up with card advantage off fangs/eclipse dragon.
I added a 2nd judgement and needed something to cut - went with -1 dragon's clutch but could try cutting something else instead.
Opponent has me dead to rights, they have an elusive 11/gazillion and I have one piddly duder who is not elusive. It's my turn, but they have lethal on the board. But I got a Guillotine! So I pump the fuck out of my little duder until he presents lethal, and attack.
Opponent blocks, gives me the GG.
Guillotine drops, killing his big fat elusive whatever. We both have empty boards, but he's gone deep and I have the double-draw landmark out. For the rest of the match, I just go as wide as I can and just keep him from killing me.
7 rounds after he gave me the GG, he draws too many cards and dies.
Opponent has me dead to rights, they have an elusive 11/gazillion and I have one piddly duder who is not elusive. It's my turn, but they have lethal on the board. But I got a Guillotine! So I pump the fuck out of my little duder until he presents lethal, and attack.
Opponent blocks, gives me the GG.
Guillotine drops, killing his big fat elusive whatever. We both have empty boards, but he's gone deep and I have the double-draw landmark out. For the rest of the match, I just go as wide as I can and just keep him from killing me.
7 rounds after he gave me the GG, he draws too many cards and dies.
I don't know why people think that emoting when your opponent has cards and/or mana is a good idea.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
Opponent has me dead to rights, they have an elusive 11/gazillion and I have one piddly duder who is not elusive. It's my turn, but they have lethal on the board. But I got a Guillotine! So I pump the fuck out of my little duder until he presents lethal, and attack.
Opponent blocks, gives me the GG.
Guillotine drops, killing his big fat elusive whatever. We both have empty boards, but he's gone deep and I have the double-draw landmark out. For the rest of the match, I just go as wide as I can and just keep him from killing me.
7 rounds after he gave me the GG, he draws too many cards and dies.
*edit* ooh, I happened to already have 3 Sols and I needed a new deck. (But god, I'm a Forever Targon player just like I was Forever Blue in MtG lol x_X )
I'm fine with it. It's a far cry from the alternative. And there's plenty of emotes that are fun and silly to use when fun and silly shit happens.
Like when your big 11/gazillion elusive dude goes in for lethal and I guillotine him and throw up the Katrina cupcake emote.
I have a had time feeling almost any emote sent my way as anything other than mocking me, which is 100% in my own head but makes me very grateful for the mute button. Pretty much only the Shen emote and sometimes Braum at the beginning of the match land as anything other than "you are an awful player and should feel bad about it." Which is kind of unfortunate, because as you say there are moments where Jackal Cackle or whatever is legit appropriate and not meant maliciously. I do try and not mute, because I imagine it feels bad to send friendly emotes and just get silence back, though all I really reply with is a Shen if the other side does it first.
I'm fine with it. It's a far cry from the alternative. And there's plenty of emotes that are fun and silly to use when fun and silly shit happens.
Like when your big 11/gazillion elusive dude goes in for lethal and I guillotine him and throw up the Katrina cupcake emote.
I have a had time feeling almost any emote sent my way as anything other than mocking me, which is 100% in my own head but makes me very grateful for the mute button. Pretty much only the Shen emote and sometimes Braum at the beginning of the match land as anything other than "you are an awful player and should feel bad about it." Which is kind of unfortunate, because as you say there are moments where Jackal Cackle or whatever is legit appropriate and not meant maliciously. I do try and not mute, because I imagine it feels bad to send friendly emotes and just get silence back, though all I really reply with is a Shen if the other side does it first.
It's not just in your head. That's just the way people use them most of the time. And of course, a lot of emotes are deliberately designed to mock or insult or gloat over the opponent. Because this is somehow something video game developers think is important for people to be able to do.
As someone who still dabbles with DOTA the fun part for me is trying to match up the champs to the original DOTA heroes they may have matched up to at one point in time, or at least were inspired by.
My understanding is that LoL really tried hard to just make their own shit entirely so I'm sure many or most of them have no DOTA 2 analogue, or that the analogue is a stretch.
As someone who still dabbles with DOTA the fun part for me is trying to match up the champs to the original DOTA heroes they may have matched up to at one point in time, or at least were inspired by.
My understanding is that LoL really tried hard to just make their own shit entirely so I'm sure many or most of them have no DOTA 2 analogue, or that the analogue is a stretch.
A lot of the earlier ones were, yeah, but anything in the past few years is more unique. They revamped a bunch of the lore over the years and actually did some worldbuilding.
That said, you can still see a lot of the influences as in, for example, Ashe.
Me elsewhere:
Steam, various fora: Ivellius
League of Legends: Doctor Ivellius
Twitch, probably another place or two I forget: LPIvellius
Knowing nothing about LoL means those names mean absolutely nothing to me. In fact, you could just make up names and I'd believe you.
My guesses then:
Ekko: Time Scientist. Will probably involve either recall and/or creating an ephemeral copy that absorbs nonlethal damage or spells for him.
Malphite: Rock Elemental. Will have tough, maybe some sort of aoe effect, hard to really say what they'll do with him.
Irelia: Mystical martial artist, basically uses The Force to manipulate a bunch of swords. Will definitely have quick attack. Could also have lifesteal, a stun mechanic, or a vulnerable mechanic (which is off-color for Ionia but thematically matches her Mark mechanic fairly well).
Pyke: An undead serial killer ex-whaler. Will absolutely have challenger and will probably have regeneration or reputation.
Zilean: Time Wizard: Probably going to partner well with Ekko and have some predict and countdown synergy. I'd put serious money on his flip effect being allowing you to flip your other champs.
Rek'Sai: Basically Diablos from Monster Hunter. Will probably be the first non-dragon with fury but it's hard to say what else, potentially regeneration.
As someone who still dabbles with DOTA the fun part for me is trying to match up the champs to the original DOTA heroes they may have matched up to at one point in time, or at least were inspired by.
My understanding is that LoL really tried hard to just make their own shit entirely so I'm sure many or most of them have no DOTA 2 analogue, or that the analogue is a stretch.
A lot of the earlier ones were, yeah, but anything in the past few years is more unique. They revamped a bunch of the lore over the years and actually did some worldbuilding.
That said, you can still see a lot of the influences as in, for example, Ashe.
Okay I was gonna say Ashe is Drow Ranger. And Sejuani is Luna. And...
Man there's something REALLY funny about beating Toss decks to Mill. Just going "Ah, I see you're a Toss deck. I'm Targon, time to stock up on cards that Obliterate so I can take out your champions, and then just do everything to survive until you mill yourself to death."
ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
edited April 2021
We had this discussion before but people take the emotes too seriously. If I use a Culling Strike on your dude, then you moonlight to buff them over the threshold, and then I frostbite you, yeah I'm gonna do the MF gun fingers emote. When you have a Deny for my Deny, I'm gonna do the Nocturne kaiba emote. If you're taking a long time to think during a critical moment and moving shit on and off the stack, I'm gonna sweating Ezreal you. And at the end, if you played a good game at the end I'm going to use Vlad to raise a cup.
There are definitely people who are just trying to troll the fuck out of you with it but really I'm just using it to communicate and have some fun like you would do with a real opponent sitting across the table from you. "Hey, good game." "Damn, you got me." "Aha! Well in response to your response, I will..."
Also I dunno how you could be annoyed often enough to ignore anyone. I'd say the vast majority of people emote not at all, and then the next biggest tranche of people emote only at beginning/end of game. That leaves a small percentage of fun people and trolls and it just doesn't happen that often.
Emotes are like reading text on the internet, there's little to no inflection as to your meaning. Like, if people were playing in person, 99% of the time the conversation would be of a good nature and nobody would get angry. But without context, a lot of emotes are taken as BM, especially if you're in a losing position.
If I'm studying a turn out and really concentrating, an Ezreal emote might bother me. Not because it's EZ, but it's a distraction. But generally speaking, I try not to let emotes bother me, but I do get annoyed at the early, obnoxious GG types. Depending on my bitterness, I might just end up roping them out, although even that's a rare occurrence.
In short, emotes do different things for different people. There's no good answer.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
Having played a lot of games at various FLGS's for 20+ years I'm gonna say that 99% is optimistic or so goddamn lucky you should be buying lotto tickets.
Like, it doesn't matter if it's Heroclix, Magic, Pokemon, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, Etcha-sketch wars, people are assholes. They're considerably bigger assholes when anonymity is involved, and their welcome at their FLGS isn't at stake.
I mean, it's also not 0%, right?
Also, Re: Early GG's: I dunno if it's different on PC, but on mobile it can be kinda hard to time a GG with you actually winning, and throwing up that GG a tad early is kinda the only way to do it. I've had a lot of games end with me scrambling to hit that emote button and it's just like, "NO THE EMOTE UI IS GONE FUCK YOU GAME OVER"
EDIT: That being said, as I've already displayed by previous comments, I do exact satisfaction when reversing an opponent's victory when they've signaled that they think they've got it.
By far the best is when they keep spamming a specific emote thinking they are destroying you, then right as you turn the table and win you send the same emote back at them once. That is often accompanied by them roping.
We had this discussion before but people take the emotes too seriously. If I use a Culling Strike on your dude, then you moonlight to buff them over the threshold, and then I frostbite you, yeah I'm gonna do the MF gun fingers emote. When you have a Deny for my Deny, I'm gonna do the Nocturne kaiba emote. If you're taking a long time to think during a critical moment and moving shit on and off the stack, I'm gonna sweating Ezreal you. And at the end, if you played a good game at the end I'm going to use Vlad to raise a cup.
There are definitely people who are just trying to troll the fuck out of you with it but really I'm just using it to communicate and have some fun like you would do with a real opponent sitting across the table from you. "Hey, good game." "Damn, you got me." "Aha! Well in response to your response, I will..."
Also I dunno how you could be annoyed often enough to ignore anyone. I'd say the vast majority of people emote not at all, and then the next biggest tranche of people emote only at beginning/end of game. That leaves a small percentage of fun people and trolls and it just doesn't happen that often.
There's a reason most other kinds of competitive games (like sports) generally don't let you do this kind of shit. Especially at the amateur level where there's not really monetary or entertainment incentives involved.
Like, what you are talking about is a long winded way of saying "Get over it, it's just words".
We had this discussion before but people take the emotes too seriously. If I use a Culling Strike on your dude, then you moonlight to buff them over the threshold, and then I frostbite you, yeah I'm gonna do the MF gun fingers emote. When you have a Deny for my Deny, I'm gonna do the Nocturne kaiba emote. If you're taking a long time to think during a critical moment and moving shit on and off the stack, I'm gonna sweating Ezreal you. And at the end, if you played a good game at the end I'm going to use Vlad to raise a cup.
There are definitely people who are just trying to troll the fuck out of you with it but really I'm just using it to communicate and have some fun like you would do with a real opponent sitting across the table from you. "Hey, good game." "Damn, you got me." "Aha! Well in response to your response, I will..."
Also I dunno how you could be annoyed often enough to ignore anyone. I'd say the vast majority of people emote not at all, and then the next biggest tranche of people emote only at beginning/end of game. That leaves a small percentage of fun people and trolls and it just doesn't happen that often.
There's a reason most other kinds of competitive games (like sports) generally don't let you do this kind of shit. Especially at the amateur level where there's not really monetary or entertainment incentives involved.
Like, what you are talking about is a long winded way of saying "Get over it, it's just words".
I'm not a sportsball watcher, but iirc you can get fined for showboating too much after a touchdown in American football.
"too much" maybe, but some celebration is certainly allowed
see also: goal celebrations in hockey
hell, the other year the Carolina Hurricanes did pre-planned full team celebrations after every home win. Some of the stuffy old suits called them "a bunch of jerks" for doing it, at which point they put that on a t-shirt and sold it
Posts
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
When I subbed in Dawnspeakers and gave it a whirl, the first game out the gate went something like turn 1 Gift Givers, turn 2 Dragon Chow, turn 3 Dawnspeakers, turn 4 Shyvana. The deck pretty quickly snowballed from there: I eventually traded Gift Givers, but got a boardwide buff out of it.
What I really felt good about while updating the deck was recognizing that, despite being fairly different cards, both Herald and Dawnspeakers were filling the same role in my deck: smoothing out the point in the game where my early-game defense is starting to crumble, and the dragons have to start landing or I'm done. Felt like I had a pretty good grasp of how the card would perform once I slotted it in.
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I'm way down in Silver, so I have no idea if there's a version that's playable at a higher level, but here's what I've been using:
Units
Spells
Earlier versions had more dragons, but I kept getting choked up with a ton of them in my hand and no mana to play them. Eventually I realized I was better off getting them through other cards, either by drawing them (Dragon's Clutch directly, or Guiding Touch and Dragon Chow if I'm lucky), or just creating them in my hand (Egghead Researcher, Inviolus Vox). All of those cards except Vox also do something else in the deck to either help me reach the point where dragons can come down, or do better once I'm there. The rest of the spell mix is basically about keeping the dragons alive once they're out.
Molten Breath is very slow, and I would probably be better off dropping it for a third Strafing Strike, but I adore it so it stays. :P
Edit: Beaten by SeGaTai! Gonna compare/contrast my deck with that deck and see how wrong I am about card games.
I'm gonna have to wait a bit and build some resources back so I can make those two champs (I have one copy of AurSol and that's it), but based on how this has been going so far that's probably...next week?
It's more of a control deck and less dragons, which might be less fun. You typically end up stabilizing midgame with sunforger/fangs; and you can end up with card advantage off fangs/eclipse dragon.
I added a 2nd judgement and needed something to cut - went with -1 dragon's clutch but could try cutting something else instead.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Opponent has me dead to rights, they have an elusive 11/gazillion and I have one piddly duder who is not elusive. It's my turn, but they have lethal on the board. But I got a Guillotine! So I pump the fuck out of my little duder until he presents lethal, and attack.
Opponent blocks, gives me the GG.
Guillotine drops, killing his big fat elusive whatever. We both have empty boards, but he's gone deep and I have the double-draw landmark out. For the rest of the match, I just go as wide as I can and just keep him from killing me.
7 rounds after he gave me the GG, he draws too many cards and dies.
I don't know why people think that emoting when your opponent has cards and/or mana is a good idea.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Frankly, the fact that you have to mute per-game instead of globally in the settings is itself annoying.
Like when your big 11/gazillion elusive dude goes in for lethal and I guillotine him and throw up the Katrina cupcake emote.
Oooh, a self-mill, those are rare!
*edit* ooh, I happened to already have 3 Sols and I needed a new deck. (But god, I'm a Forever Targon player just like I was Forever Blue in MtG lol x_X )
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
So my first test of this deck in Normal, I got both Sol and Shyvana out, and then flipped them both.
Yes. This is a good deck.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Sorry
Sorry
Sorry
Well Played
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
I have a had time feeling almost any emote sent my way as anything other than mocking me, which is 100% in my own head but makes me very grateful for the mute button. Pretty much only the Shen emote and sometimes Braum at the beginning of the match land as anything other than "you are an awful player and should feel bad about it." Which is kind of unfortunate, because as you say there are moments where Jackal Cackle or whatever is legit appropriate and not meant maliciously. I do try and not mute, because I imagine it feels bad to send friendly emotes and just get silence back, though all I really reply with is a Shen if the other side does it first.
It's not just in your head. That's just the way people use them most of the time. And of course, a lot of emotes are deliberately designed to mock or insult or gloat over the opponent. Because this is somehow something video game developers think is important for people to be able to do.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Champ spoilers:
Targon - Malphite
Ionia - Irelia
Bilgewater - Pyke
Shurima - Zilean
Shurima - Rek'Sai
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
My understanding is that LoL really tried hard to just make their own shit entirely so I'm sure many or most of them have no DOTA 2 analogue, or that the analogue is a stretch.
What, how is that champion with Targon? That's...really not the appropriate region, even if Ixtal doesn't have a huge library of champions. Odd.
A lot of the earlier ones were, yeah, but anything in the past few years is more unique. They revamped a bunch of the lore over the years and actually did some worldbuilding.
That said, you can still see a lot of the influences as in, for example, Ashe.
Steam, various fora: Ivellius
League of Legends: Doctor Ivellius
Twitch, probably another place or two I forget: LPIvellius
My guesses then:
Malphite: Rock Elemental. Will have tough, maybe some sort of aoe effect, hard to really say what they'll do with him.
Irelia: Mystical martial artist, basically uses The Force to manipulate a bunch of swords. Will definitely have quick attack. Could also have lifesteal, a stun mechanic, or a vulnerable mechanic (which is off-color for Ionia but thematically matches her Mark mechanic fairly well).
Pyke: An undead serial killer ex-whaler. Will absolutely have challenger and will probably have regeneration or reputation.
Zilean: Time Wizard: Probably going to partner well with Ekko and have some predict and countdown synergy. I'd put serious money on his flip effect being allowing you to flip your other champs.
Rek'Sai: Basically Diablos from Monster Hunter. Will probably be the first non-dragon with fury but it's hard to say what else, potentially regeneration.
Okay I was gonna say Ashe is Drow Ranger. And Sejuani is Luna. And...
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
There are definitely people who are just trying to troll the fuck out of you with it but really I'm just using it to communicate and have some fun like you would do with a real opponent sitting across the table from you. "Hey, good game." "Damn, you got me." "Aha! Well in response to your response, I will..."
Also I dunno how you could be annoyed often enough to ignore anyone. I'd say the vast majority of people emote not at all, and then the next biggest tranche of people emote only at beginning/end of game. That leaves a small percentage of fun people and trolls and it just doesn't happen that often.
If I'm studying a turn out and really concentrating, an Ezreal emote might bother me. Not because it's EZ, but it's a distraction. But generally speaking, I try not to let emotes bother me, but I do get annoyed at the early, obnoxious GG types. Depending on my bitterness, I might just end up roping them out, although even that's a rare occurrence.
In short, emotes do different things for different people. There's no good answer.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Like, it doesn't matter if it's Heroclix, Magic, Pokemon, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, Etcha-sketch wars, people are assholes. They're considerably bigger assholes when anonymity is involved, and their welcome at their FLGS isn't at stake.
I mean, it's also not 0%, right?
Also, Re: Early GG's: I dunno if it's different on PC, but on mobile it can be kinda hard to time a GG with you actually winning, and throwing up that GG a tad early is kinda the only way to do it. I've had a lot of games end with me scrambling to hit that emote button and it's just like, "NO THE EMOTE UI IS GONE FUCK YOU GAME OVER"
EDIT: That being said, as I've already displayed by previous comments, I do exact satisfaction when reversing an opponent's victory when they've signaled that they think they've got it.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
There's a reason most other kinds of competitive games (like sports) generally don't let you do this kind of shit. Especially at the amateur level where there's not really monetary or entertainment incentives involved.
Like, what you are talking about is a long winded way of saying "Get over it, it's just words".
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
"too much" maybe, but some celebration is certainly allowed
see also: goal celebrations in hockey
hell, the other year the Carolina Hurricanes did pre-planned full team celebrations after every home win. Some of the stuffy old suits called them "a bunch of jerks" for doing it, at which point they put that on a t-shirt and sold it