They say to save the best for last. I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and today we are dropping some absolutely legendary final day reveals.

If you want power, precision, and synergy, then you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s check out our final day of Darkin Saga spoilers.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

Vayne

Holy infinitely rallying nonsense batman. If you thought that a leveled Katarina was a problem wait till you get a load of Demacia’s newest powerhouse.

Coming down on turn three with enough stats to clog the board and make her difficult to remove, Vayne immediately generates value and presents threats.

If you happen to successfully level her than the hits just start coming faster and faster. Her kit is extremely thematic as there is simply no escape from a powered-up Vayne.

She will hunt you down wherever you try to run attacking over and over again until you simply cannot defend any longer.

This card is going to be a nightmare to defend against for any control deck, and plenty of midrange piles will have problems as well.

I am confident in saying that we are witnessing the arrival of Demacia’s new premier champion, and possibly one of the defining cards of our new meta game.

Condemn

At six mana this card is practically unplayable. Its floor is a significantly worse concerted strike that sits in your hand and mocks you for including it in your deck. That said, the ceiling is absolutely bonkers.
Hate spike reminds us that one mana removal is pretty nuts even on a small scale. This card will be active a significant amount of the time in any deck that wants it. Vayne, Scout, or even an old-fashioned Rally will get it done. Deck space will be an issue, but this looks like a potential powerhouse removal tool for Demacia.

Fish Fight

Depending on the amount of equipment you can slot into your deck this card could be significantly worthwhile. Also, a nice way to get a premium equipment onto your intended target without having to sacrifice the unit it is currently attached to.

This also calls out to me as a solid way to turbo-level Kayne. A champion who desperately needed some worthwhile ways to accelerate his gameplan.

I don’t know if this will be enough, but it definitely pings my radar as something that is worth an attempt.

Steadfast Elkin

Tough in the early game is an absolutely brutal keyword to deal with.

This card can gain access to that effect and lock down the board as early as turn two or three, all while being a solid aggressive attacker. Aggressive Demacia is eating well today.

Zealous Ranger-Knight

War Chefs is turning in his grave. Two mana 2/3 is a premium early game stat line to lock down a board, and later in the game in an equipment heavy deck this can do a solid impression of a full board pump.

Seems like an immensely powerful inclusion in equipment based Demacia.

Widowed Huntress

A small challenger unit for four mana that jumps an equipment onto itself from your hand? The effect is cute, but the mana point feels like it is unlikely to be sufficiently powerful in any deck that particularly wants to play it.

Faithful Wolfdog

This effectively wants to be a one mana “pick up the dropped weapon and go fight with it” unit. Seems like solid support for a potential forge archetype, but probably not going to manage to make the cut in baseline Demacia midrange. Not unless we get significantly more equipment based.

Kind-Hearted Recruit

Brightsteel Formation got a baby brother and he is here to potentially wreak some havoc. My first thought here is to use these powerful new demacia equipment support cards to try to work with Jax. I don’t know if that will make the grade or not, but it’s an interesting idea at the least.

Bloodcursed Harpy

Six mana Demacia cards have some big shoes to fill. You have to contend with Cithria and Genevieve, two majorly powerful ladies. This card’s fortitude might give it a chance, but I’m not holding out any particular hope. Buffing your entire board and/or having access to challenger are really good effects.

Bonus Deck: Holy Tumble

Deck code: CECAKBQFBQGQ4EA4AIAQKFBRAECQADACAYAAWFIFAEDAKAYBAEAB2AIDAAFACBAAAIAQMAASAA

[See Holy Tumble deck details]

What’s better than attacking a bunch of time in a row? That’s right, attacking a bunch of times in a row and getting stronger every single time you do it. Hallowed seems like a natural fit for Vayne and, as we’ve already seen from Gwen/Katarina, that archetype loves extra attacks.

Vayne herself will rarely be the target of tumble here, but she can definitely carry the banner if she needs to. The main plan is to try to get in with Gwen as often as possible, draining your opponent’s life away with each swing. We do have a few solid backups though.

Eternal Dancers has always shown through as Gwen 2.0 if you’ve left your leading lady at home or she’s been taken out of play. Multiple attacks with this card will end a game in short order. Beyond that Rekindler is a powerhouse, bringing back whatever part of the engine our opponent was able to stop.

This deck just keeps on coming in and should be a nightmare to deal with for any sort of control player. Midrange battles may prove to be a little bit trickier as we don’t exactly defend ourselves the best, but Condemn can help out with that at least a touch.

All in all, this deck looks like a blast to play and I’m looking forward to giving it a whirl in the next few days as we get access to all these cool new cards. I’ll see you all out there on the ladder, tumbling away.

Stay tuned for more reveal articles! To build your own deck, head to our Deck Builder.

The post Domination Impressions: Vayne appeared first on Mobalytics.

Seasonals has concluded, but the Darkin Saga has yet to reach its peak.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and we’ve got some terrifying new tools to try out today.

Let’s check out what powers we’ve been gifted today by our Darkin Overlords.

To see the rest of the Domination reveals, head to our Spoiler page where they’ll be revealed each day until its official release.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

Legionary Charge

The combat trick side of this card feels ever so slightly underwhelming. That leads me to believe that we probably want to be putting it into our deck as a tutor effect. That said a two-mana tutor, assuming we build our deck to accommodate it, is quite a powerful effect.

While I’m not sure exactly how to best take advantage of this effect yet, there’s clearly some level of impressive potential here. And the dual purpose of being a potentially quite reasonable combat trick when you already have your tutor target is a huge upside.

Brutal Skirmish

Noxian single combat for one more mana is a huge deal. This is a region full of gigantically stated units and forcing bad trades for our opponent sounds great. Murdering the equipment they might have is just the icing on this delicious cake.

Use cases abound here, but there’s one that jumps right to the top of the list and demands to be at least tested. This will potentially level a Swain mid combat while making sure he crashes through to hit the enemy nexus. That, my friends, is what we call the biggest of oofs.

Rune Squire

This is exactly the kind of support that riven needed. A small body that helps reforge her powerful win condition while also impacting the board in a meaningful way. I love everything about this card and can’t wait to test with it.

Icathian Myths/Golden Spatula

Another split card that can either come down as a two mana 3/2, or show up as a four mana giant equipment. This reads as a potentially quite powerful inclusion for decks based around either Fiora or Akshan.

Taking your powerful attacking champion and suiting it up to unreasonable sizes while at the same time adding consistency to what generally wants to be a relatively unit light deck is a great thing for one card to do.

The Darkin Aegis/Joraal

I’m having a tough time evaluating this one, no pun intended. This is a huge mana investment in the early game to make an important unit relatively difficult, but not impossible, to kill. Later tough just won’t look all that impressive most of the time. That’s only one side of the coin though.

The other side is a brutal unit that basically forces your opponent to pre commit any combat spells they wanted to cast when you attacked them. That effect is absolutely huge into almost any kind of deck.

Control decks will have fits not knowing how you’re going to attack. Possibly even worse though enemy midrange decks will simply not be able to effectively fight with you over pump wars during combat. I think the limitation on this card is powerful enough to at least deserve some looking in to.

Bonus Deck: Swain Skirmish

Deck code: CECQGAQDAEDQSAQFBIY2MAIDAYFA6EIVAEAQGLQBAYBRWAQDAUFJQAOGAHKQCAQGAMHBMAA

[See Swain Skirmish deck details]

You’ll likely recognize the base deck here as something that did quite well during our last ladder season. The Noxian tools we’ve been given feel like they slant in here exceedingly well, displacing some of the cards I was always a little bit unhappy to be forced to put in my deck anyway.

Legionary Charge fixes any consistency issues you had by effectively allowing you to run five Leviathan. It also works great to turn a random portal unit or tiny value creator into a real threat whenever you already have your engines running, or simply want to push that extra bit of damage.

Brutal Skirmish will take care of any pesky equipment while putting in some serious work in leveling our boy, Swain. This is another area of weakness this deck always had and the new card should allow us to play on a significantly more aggressive bent more effectively.

All in all, I would not be surprised if there is some form of quite powerful midrange deck to play with here as the new season comes upon us. I’m definitely going to be looking to test the new Noxian single combat and tutor package in a few different archetypes as soon as they are available.

Stay tuned for more reveal articles! To build your own deck, head to our Deck Builder.

The post Domination Impressions: Day 6 Demacia and Noxus Variety Pack appeared first on Mobalytics.

The next Darkin has been released and it decided that being merely fearsome simply wasn’t terrifying enough.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and I’ve got some crazy new spoilers for you here on what looks to be a solid day of Darkin variety support cards.

To see the rest of the Domination reveals, head to our Spoiler page where they’ll be revealed each day until its official release.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

The Darkin Harpoon/Ibaaros

The first half of this card is interesting as it almost seems to be working at cross purposes to itself.

Fearsome is a very aggressive keyword whereas spending two mana to maybe draw a card next turn seems rather slow. That said I could see this in some kind of tempo Go Hard deck or potentially even true aggro if you could find enough one drops to spam out to make this worthwhile.

On the flip side though Ibaaros is an absolute monster. You all know that I am an Atrocity gamer and this just screams to be thrown at my opponent’s face. I’m not sure what an Atrocity/Ibaaros deck would look like, but you can bet that I’m going to try to find out.

Test of Spirit

This feels like Ye’ Been Warned and Shakedown had an ugly baby. I’m not going to lie this feels extremely awkward to but into a deck. Maaaaybe a more aggressive leaning Miss Fortune plan could justify it but I’m not really sure you would want this even then. More toys for Burble Fish though.

Skrappy’s Partzapalooza

As we’ve seen from husks in the past, a single random keyword might be one of the highest variance bonuses you can give to a unit. This strikes me as too unreliable to make Mecha-Yordles playable, but being discardable is definitely a point in its favor. Even at zero mana though I’m not sure this makes my decks.

Fracture

This one though I absolutely love. Freljord now has its own personal powerful and flexible way to answer problem equipment. A touch of burn, a smidge of plunder proc, casual board wipes for the more controlling among us, this card has it all and I’m looking forward to playing with it.

Warden of the Tribes

I’m not going to lie, this looks an awful lot like an un-deny-able Mind Meld attached to an overwhelm body if you decide you want to build a deck around it. Nine mana is an awful lot, but non-ruination decks are going to have a heck of a time being alive when this hits the board. Portal Warden anybody?

Twilit Protector

Another piece of solid support for the good old Celesbians deck. My heart wants to say that this will be enough to bring Leona/Diana into the playable range, but my head says solid two drop was not really what that deck was missing. Definitely a good excuse to try one of the top thematic decks in Runeterra out again though.

Bonus Deck: Norra of the Tribes

Deck code: CEBQGBQKB4IRKAIGBECACAIBD4CQCAIBBABAKCRRUYAQCBQKDQAQMAAGAUDACCYREITSQBIBAQAQUAIDAEBACBIKTAAQCAIBDMAQEAIC

Nora decks have never had a problem establishing board control and tempo. They enjoy drawing cards and spamming down a host of units to swarm all over their opponent. What they do occasionally have though, is trouble actually ending the game in their favor.

Somehow, I think that pumping your entire board to epic proportions is a solid way to address that particular issue. We’ve got six tribes already represented here (seven if you count Mr. Elnuk), and that’s likely to be enough to crush a board right there when Warden comes down on nine.

Never forget though that our game-ender reads “summoned,” not “played.” So, any hits we get off of all the portals we’ll be making can help out quite nicely. A full board pumped up to Mind Meld levels of silliness should crash right through our poor opponent’s defenses.

Aside from that we’ve also got Ornn at the top to make some crazy weapons, backed up by new friend Icevale Cultist to make sure he is a lethal threat whether he comes down leveled up or not.

Last but not least we’ve got some truly cheeky open attack we can create courtesy of any portals we hit combined with Wildclaw’s Ferocity. Dropping this on a random unlucky portal hit is fine, dropping it on a Combat Cook is just absolutely brutal.

Stay tuned for more reveal articles! To build your own deck, head to our Deck Builder.

The post Domination Impressions: Day 2 Variety Pack appeared first on Mobalytics.

We’re gearing up for the seasonal tournament with our first round of Darkin powerhouses. Sounds like the perfect time to roll out the next.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and we’re going from zero all the way to one hundred on our first spoiler day with some absolutely insane new cards.

Let’s check them out.

To see the rest of the Domination reveals, head to our Spoiler page where they’ll be revealed each day until its official release.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

Varus/The Darkin Bow/Chain of Corruption

I’ll admit that I am a little less high on this Origin after seeing the way that Kayn turned out.

Though a deck where you get to auto-draw both your champions on turn four does sound kind of cool. The problem is that deck would have truly horrific building restrictions, possibly to the point of unplayability.

If we look Varus on his own though perhaps with the help of someone like Akshan or Pantheon, then perhaps he has more potential. Charging up a fourteen-point overwhelm attack is a pretty solid way to end basically any game after all. And don’t get me started on what happens if you give this lad double strike.

Last but not least the Darkin champion spells are a big deal because you’ll see them significantly more often than any other champion spell.

Chain of Corruption is highly mana intensive, but can allow you to dictate an entire combat at burst speed.

This will lead to some nasty blowouts that I am definitely going to brew.

Blooming Cultist

Effectively a two mana 3/2 elusive that can’t be played until turn three or four is an interesting stat line to be sure. I suspect this will see play in cultist-based decks simply as a solid activator and a way to push lethal attacks with equipment later in the game.

I don’t know if the effect it has on its own will let it make leaps outside of that archetype, but I could potentially see a bandle elusive aggro deck wanting something like this.

It’s not quite decimate-fishy, but it’s doing its best impression. Fervor-Fern perhaps?

The Sudden Surge

This one on the other hand is absolutely nutso-busted and will be a meta-defining card in whatever deck can play it.

At four mana this can still be a brutal combat trick. When you set it down to two it will simply become impossible to play around and smash opponent’s board and life totals at will.

Buhru Cultist

Another card that will be an absolute staple in cultist decks. Early defense or pressure as needed combined with later in the game burn out potential is a top tier one drop.

The question then becomes if it is powerful enough to see play in other aggressive archetypes.

My gut says no, because most super low to the ground decks don’t really want to take the time off necessary to equip up their units.

But that said Ionian Hookmaster is a premium two drop, and a floor of a one mana 2/2 is quite solid. I would not be surprised to see these taking up the coveted one mana slot.

The Unending Wave

What? Just… what???? I know as a writer I’m contractually obligated not to be speechless but come on folks. This is a card that is clearly and brutally busted with both Twisted Fate and Nami. You know, two of the already most top tier champions we have in this game that dominate formats at the drop of a hat?

I mean, I love the Mordekaiser Artwork and I’m looking forward to seeing my boy crush some heads, but I’m getting Twisted Fate/Fizz flashbacks here. Hopefully I’m wrong and the fleeting clause will be enough to keep this monster in check, but I’m not betting on it.

Lunari Cultist

A two mana 1/3 that effectively makes two gems on summon is potentially a pretty premium package. As a long time Mountain Goat Afficionado this will compete heavily for that slot. I don’t know which we’ll end up running or if it will be a split, but this is definitely going to give the goat a run for its money.

The Expanse’s Protection

Um, I guess this is “You don’t get to play around tricks anymore,” the expansion? I’m not going to lie between this and The Sudden Surge my control player instincts are yelling at me to run and hide. If my opponent is holding up two mana both Mystic Shot and Vengeance are off the table? Send help.

Icevale Cultist

This says it’s a cultist, but it reads like the Ornn support that we’ve all been waiting for. I’m not sure if this will be enough to take the big seven drop into the competitive realm, but guaranteeing that he has overwhelm before needing to level is a pretty powerful step. Five mana 5/5 aint the worst thing either.

The Unforgiving Cold

Basically, just four mana Harsh Winds in most scenarios? There’ll obviously be some spots where you wish you could freeze a smaller unit *cough* Teemo *cough* but as a general rule this is another pretty power combat trick for the cultist archetypes.

Remember how I said playing Varus and Kayne together was going to be too restrictive? Well, the more I read through this spoiler the more I think that might have been just a touch on the “judging a book by its cover” side of things. This is quickly moving towards “we’re at least going to have to test this.”

Ambitious Cultist

As anyone who has played with Shen knows, a four mana 3/5 is a pretty solid way to shut down an early to mid-game board.

This will add a small but potentially powerful spell on top of that. Honestly feels like a high-power midrange value unit in any deck that wants that kind of thing, cultist or no.

The Violent Dischord

Powered down Mystic Shot here is clearly signaling that we are going to get some more love for Fun Smith style archetypes in the future. This isn’t much to look at on its own, but with a single boost it’ll shoot for four at fast speed. Pretty nasty.

Bonus Deck: Varus Strikes Twice

Deck code: CUEACBICA4AQMCRGAEDASIABAYBROAIGBQEQCBQHAUAQMBIGAIDAECBCAYAQCARRAEBQEGIBAYFBYAIGAISACBQJFAAQMBAHAEAQMBQ2

[See Varus Strikes Twice deck details]

You know what’s better than attacking your opponent for fourteen points of Overwhelm damage? That’s right, attacking for thirty. A fully charged up Varus flurrying his fists will simply lay waste to anything that stands between him and your opponent’s nexus absolutely imploding on itself.

Though to be fair this is under the assumption that the bow will keep its buff through the first half of double attack. We’ll have to see exactly how this interaction works before we confirm the otk as real, but even without it there’s some powerful midrange options here.

We do need quite a few targets to level Varus, but Momentous Choice and Lunari Cultist should be able to help us out with that. Backup dance Master Yi is here as our secondary win condition and to make our already inexpensive interaction that much more ridiculous.

And just in case drawing our main win condition for free wasn’t enough card advantage Sai’Nen has our back on the top end. This looks dreadfully unrefined from where I’m sitting right now, but the bones of something gruesomely powerful are here. The “to test” list for the new Darkin saga begins to form. Are you ready?

Stay tuned for more reveal articles! To build your own deck, head to our Deck Builder.

The post Domination Impressions: Varus appeared first on Mobalytics.

Turn the clock back a nerf or three and Pantheon was an absolute house of a card dominating an entire metagame.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and I’m here to let you know that while he can’t be an entire deck to himself anymore, with the right support this particular aspect of Targon can still shine.

To explore more new decks head to our community Deck Library.

Or, head to the Deck Builder to make your own creation.

Deck Code: CECQEBQHAQCQEBAHHOBACAQGBECAMAIDBEUACBIJAMCACBIJAUBQGCJDGNOACBIHCYBAIB4AAGBQCAICAQDV3CQB

[See Darkin Fate deck details]

Protect the Queen

And by right support, what I mean of course is “enough synergistic secondary win conditions to give anyone even attempting to play the control deck against us fits. It’s strange that a deck whose mana curve ends at four might be one of the strongest mid game decks there is right now, but that’s the power of the Darkins.

What lets this deck function is the fact that you are essentially running twelve champions. Pantheon can’t be enough on his own to consistently close games, but what he can be is another powerful tool in a completely overloaded arsenal of such weapons.

With the way this deck cycles equipment Akshan’s landmark levels are almost unbelievably fast. Creating a huge discount turn as early as six or seven and quite often by eight, all while applying other pressure is absolutely nuts. And if you already have all your pieces in play, simply spell shield up and slam away.

Xolani gets underestimated in basically every deck she enters. A single card that can create two mana 4|3’s, a six mana 7|7 Overwhelm, and trigger fated or Akshan for negligible mana cost? Darkin Bloodletters is one of the top stars of this deck and I will open keep it in many matchups.

Last but not least my true Targonian love is Horazi. In either form, she can combo with a Sparklefly to do some incredibly busted things. Wandering Shepherd will also allow some sick keyword transfers and in a pinch, even a random Absolver will allow the big darkin lady to close out games quite quickly.

Phase One: Looking Ahead

This is a deck that will highly reward those who can skillfully read the future of the game state and brutally punish any who neglects this most important aspect of play. From the start of the game, there are a couple of important questions you need to be asking yourself.

Number one, what turn am I realistically trying to level Pantheon? This becomes more or less important if the erstwhile aspect is actually in your hand, but just like Nami, you need to keep the level-up condition in mind from the word go. Otherwise, when you draw him later, he will sit there sad and unleveled.

Number two, what particular set of pieces and I trying to put together to make powerful units? Your deck has thirteen targets in it. Akshan, Pantheon, Saga Seeker, Vekauran Vagavond, and Sparklefly. Mountain goat can do in a pinch, but he’d rather be there to help out and block if he can manage.

You’ve got nine pieces of equipment to help those targets shine. Darkin Bloodletters, Darkin Lodestone, and Wandering Shepherd all create the boosts and consistent targeting you are looking for.

Depending on the matchup and your opening hand figuring out when and how to put those two together in the right way will be a big part of your game. How much pressure we need to apply versus how defensive we need to depend almost entirely on the speed at which your opponent wants to play the game.

This is a deck that counterintuitively wants to match the speed of its opponent. Against an aggressive player we want early blockers and to have Sparklefly carry. Against a later game deck we are happy to lean in hard on Akshan’s landmark and look for Pantheon and out Darkin friends backed by Rite of Negation to close.

Phase Two: Interaction

Other than blocking we only really have seven pieces of real interaction in this deck. There are of course a few more than that if you count champion spells, both Akshan and Pantheon provide meaningful board interaction when you double draw them, but seven is the number we have without any caveats.

Four pieces of unit removal and three ways to counter spells. What that means is that with most hands we need to jealously hoard the opportunities we’ll have to cast these spells. You have to ask each time you are tempted to use that counter to a spell or unit if this is the right time.

I’ve had games against control decks where I have spent the entire match threatening a Rite of Negation that I never cast and then won the game. Just because a large threat is going to die doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right time to save it.

Instead of auto-piloting those units or removal spells, think if stopping this unit or this piece of removal is what is going to put you in a potentially game-winning situation. If the answer is yes then fire away. If the answer is no, then think two or three more times before you pull the trigger.

Phase Three: Darkin Destruction

While this is a pantheon deck, I honestly win quite a few more games by simply casting my big Darkin units. Xolaani herself is a 7|7 Overwhelm, just two points off being a six mana castable Frozen Thrall. That’s some serious beat down power right there if you have any other kind of pressure at all.

Beyond that, Horazi with any kind of backup will turn literally any unit into a gigantic threat. Obviously Sparklefly is the dream, but sometimes all you need is a random board full of 7/7 units to crush through your opponent’s dreams. Spellshield is a very real keyword no matter where you put it.

What all this means is that going into turn six plus you need to be very conscious of how you equip your Darkin weapons. You don’t want to get stuck with them in play when the time comes to start slamming your endgame threats.

Make sure you can cycle through equipment to what you need to cast, or if you can’t, strongly consider not deploying your Darkins. Ensuring they will be there when you need them is often more important than an extra +1|+1.

Key Choices

This deck is extremely tight, so a lot of what folks will notice right off of the bat is what *isn’t* here. First, of all, Zenith Blade has simply been hurt too much to be a realistic plan. Committing a full three mana to that small a buff is simply not something we can justify any more.

Secondly, we’re only running two non-Pantheon-fated units. That’s simply because those aren’t the best targets for the buffs in this deck. Akshan’s landmark and Sparklefly both use the power that we can give far better than simply making something a touch bigger.

Last but certainly not least you’ll not the absence of Yuumi. While the original kitty equipment was quite strong in the Demacia version of this deck, we lack any rally effects. What that means is that we can’t turbo-level her and attack at a normal speed she is simply too slow for the metagame we live in.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (Tuesday-Thursday around 3PM PST and weekends for tournaments).

WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx Tuesday-Thursday

The post LoR Deck Guide: Darkin Fate appeared first on Mobalytics.

In this patch breakdown, we’ll discuss all the buffs/nerfs/adjustments from the latest balance changes.

We recommend following along with the official Riot patch notes if you’re looking for their explanations related to game design.

With just a week and a half till seasonals the meta is about to get turned fully on its head.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and you better start up those brewing engines because we’ve got a patch that is going to demand some new strategies be brough to the forefront.

Balance Changes

Leona

Coming down on five in her own deck we can reasonably assume this lady of light will always be leveled. That means we’ve been given a five mana 4/6 with challenger, barrier, and a stun effect for your opponent’s strongest unit.

I don’t know if that will be enough to catapult Leona to dominance but it is an absolutely huge tempo swing. One that might be enough to let some powerful midrange strategies shine.

Sun Guardian

A three mana 3/4 is nothing to sneeze at. And one that will continue to grow is pretty nice. With no keyword this will never be anything but a brick wall, but if a wall is what you need Badgerbear 2.0 is here to deliver.

Solari Stellacorn

This looks like a bit of an innocuous effect at first glance. However, I want to keep in mind the power of adding health to challenger units. Four mana is a lot to ask for this effect, but stellacorn is now at least worth taking a look at in the right kind of archetype.

Morning Light

This is actually quite the scary turn five play with Leona if you have banked mana. You can still buff your board while stunning three potential blockers from your opponent. Anyone planning to combat your aggression with units is going to have some serious issues.

Sunburst

I was already occasionally willing to play these alongside vengeance. Taking it down to five mana gives this card a niche of its own and I am excited to see all the different possibilities that will be unlocked.

Nocturne

The lord of the night is finally also the lord of fear. This will unlock huge amounts of deckbuilding potential for this powerful tempo four drop. Who knows where he’ll land but it is great to see him unhooked from an otherwise quite linear and defining archetype.

The Twisted Treeline/Vilemaw

I enjoy this kind of buff. The kind that allows things to be more powerful thematically while at the same time unchaining them from specific decks.

That said this still starts actually attacking extremely late in a deck that wants to be quite aggressive. I’m on the skeptical side of this one.

Hate Spike/Kennen

I put these two together because they are effectively reverts of recent buffs.

Both of these cards were proven to be extremely powerful after the nudge they were given. Unfortunately, this may mean they regress into unplayability, but only time will tell where they land.

Concurrent Timelines

The difference between one mana and two is absolutely huge. More even than just the tempo it saps from the deck that wants to play it, this powerful effect now has significant counterplay in Nopeify. This might not kill the deck entirely, but I suspect it will take it out of tier one contention.

Targon’s Peak

Alas, peak game play has been delayed another turn. That said this card was almost always coming down early thanks to the region it tended to be paired with so it’s more like they’re setting it back to the turn it was meant to be on all along.

The god draws of this deck will still do crazy things, but the average has been touched up just a bit to take the sting off of trying to play against it. I think that this will be a welcome nerf for many. Let the meme decks stay meme decks.

Viego

Oof. Possibly one of the hardest ways to nerf a card is to up its mana cost. Going from five to six is a serious hit.

Along with multiple other rough moments for his favorite decks Runeterra’s favorite misty lad may be bound for the outskirts of the metagame once more.

Sai’Nen Thousand Tailed

This nerf will hit the defensive capabilities of this card while not particularly effecting its planned place in the decks that love it. This is a well-deserved hit but not one that I think takes the fox out of playability.

The Harrowing

Bringing this powerful slow spell back to its original mana cost makes some amount of sense when you are buffing the deck that uses it best. Fearsome aggro was a powerful force, so we’ll see if it still enjoys this card at the ten mana mark.

Rite of Calling

The difference between zero mana and one is catastrophic. There might still be decks that want to use this card, but they will be few and far between. Single champion Shurima decks are definitely going to feel the sting of this one.

Riptide Sermon

This will take what was arguably the best card in the game and tell it to slow down a minute. You still basically get a three point tri-beam for six mana so I could see it making some decks. It just won’t be the auto three of in every bilgewater deck it had become.

Decimate

Jayce players rejoice. The time for six mana eight damage directly to face has come! In all seriousness this will sadden a great many burn decks, but perhaps that means we can get some additional power for our aggro lovers in other exciting places now?

Tahm Kench

I think this officially un-benches Mr. Kench here. Sir Thomas Kenchium has decided that Runeterra moves too quickly to wait a turn and will begin devouring the instant he hits play.

This is going to lead to some crazy tadpole mirrors, let me tell you.

Fiora

Any time a card says “Win the game,” I get scared. That said the pushing of this powerful lady to four mana means that you can’t really build a deck with her as the only card anymore which I approve of.

We’ll have to see if her new powerful stat line can carry the deserved mana cost increase it brought with it.

Master Yi

While this is an absolutely huge buff I don’t know if it solved the fundamental problem that Yi had. Namely that he was quite effective on turn three and basically useless later in the game.

We’ll have to see if the ceiling being raised so high makes up for the continued depth of the floor, but I remain skeptical.

Ornn

If there is a deck that can make Ornn come down leveled up consistently then I could see some cool things happening here. That said a seven mana card with no protection and no instant effect is not something I am particularly thrilled to play in a metagame filled with Ionian bounce triggers.

Swain

Holy overwhelming game ender batman. The level one buff is cute but the level two buff is absolutely mind blowingly powerful.

If you can consistently drop this leveled on turn five or six Swain will now single handedly end games. Noxus is on the rise and its general is ready for war.

Illaoi

It’s nice to see this powerful lady get her point of health back.

That said I doubt this will be enough with all the other hits that her archetype has taken. I think unfortunately our lady of tentacles will remain sidelined.

Iula

Grant is a huge upgrade to this card. I may just be a degenerate but my first thought here isn’t “Yay pantheon buffs.” My first thought is “Huh, now I get to spellshield my Zoe un-interactably on turn three.” Good times.

The Paper Tree

Erm, I guess this is technically an upgrade. Kind of giving half a forge each time a unit that is equipped manages to attack though doesn’t quite seem like it’s good enough? Maybe this will do something cool with Bandle City Jax but I am not exactly holding my breath.

Shrieking Spinner

This will turn spiderlings into must-block threats and any fearsome spider into a terrifying damage dealer. I don’t know if the decks that want it can justify slowing down on turn four to spend all their mana on a slow threat like this, but it is now definitely worthy of consideration.

Ritual of Renewal

I’ve got to admit I’m still not really sold on this card. A four mana do nothing is better than a seven mana do nothing for sure, but it’s still not really something I’d like to main deck. Karma buff maybe?

Leviathan

Remember earlier with Viego where I said mana was one of the hardest points on a card you could hit? Yeah. Along with the swain buff this warship has me quaking in my boots and trying to figure out the best Noxus tempo deck I can find.

Magical Journey/Realm’s Caretaker

I’ve lumped these together because I don’t really think the buffs here get them into the realm of playability.

Maybe if you can guarantee your chime hits Nora? But other than that, I’m not really seeing the power here.

Grumpy Rockbear

While an extra point of health is obviously nice this is still a random stat stick without any keywords that comes down too late in the game to really be worth it. I understand what Mr. Rcokbear is grumpy about and I don’t think this buff is going to help with his mood.

Mammoth Shaman

This card’s gargantuan stats were not really the issue here.

Being six mana and not doing anything the moment you hit the board is a rough place to be. I’m going to be on the doubting side of this particular shaman.

Windsinger

Elusive is an absolutely huge keyword to put on any unit. And 3/3 is a respectable set of stats for an Elusive unit to have. Six is still quite a lot of mana, but this could potentially turn into a powerful one of in some specific decks.

Funsmith

Again, the thing that has been adjusted was not really what the card needed. It’s nice that when this card is forced into combat it can actually do anything now, but she still doesn’t want to be there. I don’t think this will take Funsmith into top tier viability any time soon.

Bonus Deck: BloodMoon

Deck Code: CEBQIAYJC5EWBWIBAMBAGAIHBEAQMAYXAMBAGCKWLQBACAZOG4AQEAYIAMBQGCITEMZQEBIJBUHACBADAI

You know what powerful champion loves playing a value/tempo game and does a bunch of damage to help with Swayne’s level up? That’s right, moon boy is here to help our new Noxian overlords realize their reign of terror. Even better Sunburst also just got a powerful tune-up.

Six damage is half of Swayne’s level up condition all on its own. And removing almost anything for the now quite reasonable price of five mana is nothing to shake a crow at.

Beyond that we’re just running a suite of powerful units and solid removal spells. Midrange find your own win condition decks have long been some of my favorites and I will definitely be trying to make this one work come patch day.

Thanks for reading! For more expert impressions, check out our other LoR guides.

The post Legends of Runeterra Patch Notes Breakdown (Patch 3.13.0) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Anyone who knows me knows that while I might play basically anything I can get my hands on these days, my first real love in Runeterra is Targon/Shadow Isles midrange.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and for the first time in a couple of seasons, this combination of regions is actually looking to have some real power behind it again.

How could I not do a write up on it?

Let’s dive in, starting with our list and deck code for you to try.

Deck Code: CECAKAYJBEUESVWZAEAQMBIGAMDASBAGFUAQCBIBAMBQGCJDFUZQCBQJEEAQCBIZAA

Protect the Queen

This is the deck that I pushed through to masters with this season so I actually have some quite real level of confidence in its game plan. What specifically is that game plan you might ask? Well, we have so many different win conditions it varies from game to game, but the central theme remains the same.

We’re going to want to select our unit, or units, that we are investing our resources in, get some solid equipment on them, and then use their power to either win the game outright or at least grab huge amounts of tempo. Plenty of games will end with an Atrocity pointed at the face, but it’s how you get there that ends up mattering.

Either of your champions’ leveling is always going to be a solid game plan. There aren’t many decks out there that survive long against a board full of Elusive units or a constant barrage of gunfire. Beyond that, though you’ve got six life steal units you can pump up, and at the top end is our piece de resistance.

The card that makes this deck possible is Horazi. A piece of solid equipment in the early game and an absolute beating later. She can even come down on turn seven courtesy of Moonsilver, which will hold onto its cost de-buff though uses of your Darkin Lodestone.

Phase One: Making the Plan

Your game with this deck starts before your first turn. While mulligans are of course key for any deck in Legends of Runeterra, this is never truer than in an archetype with as diverse an array of potential win conditions as this one.

While your champions are basically always solid keeps, what else wants to stay in your hand varies wildly depending on the matchup and what your game plan needs to be.

Against a grindy control deck for instance, I might open keep Celestial Trifecta, even with potential plans to cast it on turn three.

Keeper of the Box and Sparklefly are your all-stars when it comes to more aggressive matchups. Looking to suit those up is your primary win condition. Don’t be afraid to block with an early Zoe or sometimes even Aphelios in these matchups.

You out scale hard and if your opponent cannot answer an evasive life stealing threat then a win is not going to come there way. Even worse if you happen to spike a Draconic Bands onto it. Suddenly they can’t even attack without feeding your giant Sparklefly and making their situation even worse.

Phase Two: Control Cosplay

While we’re definitely not a hard-core control deck, we also don’t tend to actually win the game until turns seven to nine or so. That means that your mid game plan needs to involve a significant amount of interaction with your opponent’s game plan to ensure you get there.

There are a couple of ways to handle that. The most obvious is Vengeance. Against any single tall threat, you can simply knock them out of the sky. Aphelios can also help out here quite a bit by cycling through Gravitum and Calibrum to keep your opponent’s board in check.

I will point out two other important paths to keep in mind though. First are the small celestials you can generate through Space Sketcher and Zoe. Because of how hugely over the top you go of most strategies, you can often afford to lose some mana tempo for a double stun to keep you alive.

Last but far from least are your six life steal threats. Sometimes you can simply let your opponent do most of what they are attempting. As long as you can keep your life total coming back enough to hold on for Horazi or Celestial Trifecta then that may simply be good enough.

Phase Three: The Kitchen Sink

This deck has such a variety of ways to actually close out a game it is almost disgusting. Sometimes you’ll simply get there with a cadre of elusive units kept alive with equipment. Tricksters are often the front-runner of this plan, but sometimes Zoe and Sparklefly can get it done all on their own.

A leveled Zoe will let your entire board waltz by your opponent, which is always a nice sight. I think the most common victory condition though is Horazi.

Give any number of broken equipment, an Infernum from Aphelios, or even just a random Elusive ally to buff up, and the game will close quite quickly.

Last but definitely not least is the card this deck is named after, Atrocity. When combined with Celestial Trifecta this will often be the one-two punch to any late-game situation. Summon a ten-power Elusive unit, bonk them with it once, and through it at their face to close the game out lickety-split.

The real trick with a deck like this is figuring out what you need to protect, what you need to commit to, and what you can let go to keep you safe along the way. My biggest piece of advice is to always be asking yourself “How and when am I winning this game,” and let that answer guide you as best as possible.

Key Choices

The first thing I usually get asked when people see this deck is “Where are the vile feasts and what are those random Soraka/Tahm Kench tools doing in our midrange Targon/Shadow Isles Deck?” It’s funny because I actually started with Vile Feast in this deck.

What I found though is that card is primarily an anti-aggro tool, and it wasn’t actually how I was winning most of my aggro matchups. No, basically every aggro game, was won by making a large life steal unit and then keeping it alive.

To that end, especially against the more midrangey pirate lists that have been plaguing ladder, it turned out that Guiding Touch and the slightly larger Astral Protection were the final pieces of the puzzle. Healing to keep you and your important units alive against pesky burn spells, tentacular or otherwise.

You might never get to physically see it, but imagining the look on your opponent’s face when they commit their six mana kill spell only for your giant life steal unit to miraculously heal to full is a wonderful time. This deck may be some of the most fun I have had playing Runeterra ever, and I wish you the best of it.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (Tuesday-Thursday around 3PM PST and weekends for tournaments).

WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx Tuesday-Thursday

The post LoR Deck Guide: Darkin City appeared first on Mobalytics.

The Darkin Saga is making its premier debut and I’ve got to admit that conversely, it’s making me feel quite a bit lighter about this new metagame.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and I’m here with your launch week deck drop for what to play as the new expansion goes live.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

To explore more new decks head to our community Deck Library. Or, head to the Deck Builder to make your own creation.

1. Ornn Line

Deck code: CEEACBAEBIAQCBBNAIDACCYMAECQIGABAYDB2AIFBKMACAIGAADACAYBAYCQEBABBIGACAIEGQAQGBALAEAQCMQBAMAQGAIBAECBW

[See Ornn Line deck details]

The combination of Trundle and Concurrent Timelines has been hovering around the fringes of tier one for quite a while now. It will occasionally break into the competitive meta for a tournament or a week or two of ladder before fading back into the aether that spawned it.

One of its defining issues though has always been that it rather lacked a second champion. Sure, there were plenty of randomly solid Piltover and Zaun midrange champs you could jam in, but none of them really seemed to fit with the theme of the deck.

Enter Ornn, another extremely solidly built finisher whose backup followers synergize incredibly well with timelines. Improvise is a lovely new mechanic that will go incredibly well in this deck, giving it that extra push to close games it often seemed to need.

We already had the powerful hard hitting midrange shell. We had just a touch of unfairness with either the free eight mana unit that Trundle could give us, or the Buried in Ice plus It That Stares one-sided board sweep. But it never quite felt like it was on the same level as other tier-one decks.

Now we’ve got a seven mana unit that will absolutely demand an answer as it hits the field. And when it is answered will turn any random stat-stick into a new threat. Not to mention the high roll possibility of giving our Trundle Scout. Need I say more?

2. Cult of Zoe

Deck code: CEDQEBQHAUUAEBQCDERAGAYJBERSQAIGAUDAEBQJAQDACBQDEIAQMDAFAIAQMCJBAEDAACQA

[See Cult of Zoe deck details]

It’s been proven time and time again that reliable stat buffs and protection for elusive power house units are a great way to win games. Zoe and Sparklefly will be the standout targets in this deck. They’re ready to carry any of our myriad of boosters to a swift victory.

That said, the reason I think this deck has potential to be so powerful Is how multi-dimensional it is. Kayn will jump straight into your hand in the mid-game to create another must answer threat for your opponent. Once he flips, he’ll be almost impossible to race down.

Then, in case that’s not enough, Heedless Resurrection is here to make sure that even if Kayn can be answered, staying dead is not in his day planner. But even that isn’t my favorite thing about this deck.

No, above all else I am a lover of versatility. The Darkin Lodestone is my call to be the most powerful card from this new expansion. Providing huge threat when on board with a Zoe or a Sparklefly, late in the game it will simply morph into a giant spell shielded beat-stick to end with. What more can you ask of something that costs a mere two spell mana?

3. Darkin Viego

Deck code: CECAGBAHGY5XSAIGA4CQEAIFFAYQEBAFGY3QIAQGAUBQOAQEA4AWOAQEAUBTKAIBAUAQEAIEA5WQCAIFDE

[See Darkin Viego deck details]

This deck was already quite powerful and has a few spicy new tools that are going to turbocharge it even more. Forsaken Baccai will add another layer of consistency and solid early game to a deck that was already on solid footing in both of those areas.

Fireth, Reaper of the Sands should be a solid inclusion no matter what state of the game you are in. She provides an easy Viego trigger, a potentially dangerous threat with her Improvise mechanic, and something small to sacrifice to a random Rite of Calling or Glimpse Beyond if that’s what you need.

Last but definitely not least is The Darkin Halberd. A backup late game win condition attached to a solid way to take control of the board and level our Viego? Sign me up for two.

4. Jax Attacks

Deck code: CUDQCBQGDMAQMAAGAEDASBABAYBROAIGBQEACBQFD4BAMAILBQDACAIBGIAQGAICAECACCQBAYFC6AIGAAMAGBQBAQCRMAA

[See Jax Attacks deck details]

Two new champions that go together quite well are Ornn and Jax. I have an inkling that they might end up getting better homes outside each other’s company, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least attempt to pair them together along the way.

This deck will generate an obscene amount of value for low mana points while flooding the board with stats and working towards its mid game win conditions. Either of your champions leveling can close a game quite quickly, and even if they’re missing a large forged weapon gets it done.

The thing that makes this deck scary though is that it can do all that while having enough combat trick power to rival old school Fiora/Shen decks. If anyone remembers the absolute nightmare it was to try to face those foes in combat, you’ll understand some of what Jax/Ornn brings to the table.

Sharesies and Troll chant will make any attack scary enough, throwing equipment around everywhere and turning almost any trade favorable. But the real issue is that if there’s even one mana lying around, we’ve still got five ways to mess with our opponent.

Last but not least we have six ways to drop in burst speed units. Imagine if our opponent tries to remove one of our threats. We shrug, play Blades of the Fallen, then Parts Made Whole on our action, and attack. Control players beware I tell you.

5. Monkey Portal

Deck code: CQCQCBIKUYAQCBQKB4BAGBQOCQBAMBQ6FEDAEBQ2EEVS2NZ2AIAQEBQUAECAMEAA

[See Monkey Portal deck details]

So, I asked myself the question, “Self, how do I level Norra Quickly?” And I answered, well, spam Powder Monkeys of course. The best part here is that the champion this deck already definitely wanted loves to draw cards, and that’s the other thing a Norra deck is really going to need.

If Norra is helpfully setting up portals for us (And getting those pings in to trigger plunder at the same time of course) then we’ll need a way to reliably get them into play. Pick a Card and Eye of Nagakabouros are the perfect pair to assist in that plan.

The other bonus is that this deck’s big weakness has always been the part of the game where it rather runs out of steam and hasn’t found quite enough pandemonium to close things out. Having quite a reasonable chance to level either of our champions and let them carry us over the finish line gives a solid backup plan this archetype needed.

6. Prepare the Rush

Deck code: CECAGAIBAMGDIAIGAIAQCBABBYBAGAIGCYBQEAYBBIJQGAIBCQTTEAQBAIBDCBIBAQAQUAIBAI4QCAQCAUAQCAJKAEBACAQ

[See Prepare the Rush deck details]

I’m not all that sold on Master Yi himself, but the support package that came with him has some gems for sure. Chief among them I think is Disciple of Doran. I absolutely love this card design and will be looking for whatever way I can to make it powerful, starting with this deck.

Disciple of Doran heavily rewards thinking out the game as many turns in advance as possible. The preparation effectively lets you bank an additional spell mana for future use, while also dropping down a sturdy early game body to protect against the aggression you’re sure to need to deal with.

Ionia FTR has always had a bit of a shaky early game, and I think this is just the addition to stabilize it. I don’t want to sound the alarm just yet but I would not be surprised if this deck turns out to be one of the premier control decks of the new format that is shaping up.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (Tuesday-Thursday around 3PM PST and weekends for tournaments).

WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx Tuesday-Thursday

The post 6 LoR Awakening Decks You Should Try appeared first on Mobalytics.

We’ve seen quite a few powerful engines this spoiler season but not much yet from the cold and spooky side.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and today we’ve got some love for enjoyers of slightly darker things. Let’s check out what lurks behind the spoiler curtain.

To see the rest of the Awakening reveals, head to our Spoiler page where they’ll be revealed each day until its official release.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

Bone Club

I absolutely love how thematic this card is. Freljord just spends all its mana to make one unit incredibly large and then bashes through whatever defenses our poor opponent can set up. Unfortunately, five is an awful lot of mana to invest on this kind of effect.

Unless we’re setting up some kind of crazy One Turn Kill I think this particular equipment will end up simply being too tempo negative to see widespread use. Our opponent’s will be able to punish us hard with removal, or just take the big hit and go wide around.

As cool as this is, and as much as it echoes one of my favorite Runeterra cards of all time in Battlefury, it looks very difficult to find this one a home. Doesn’t mean I won’t try, just that I don’t particularly expect to succeed.

Gift of the Hearthblood

Another crazy cool effect that wants us to spend five mana on it. Warning bells immediately go off but there are a couple of key differences here. First, four points of healing is an awful lot. That will make up for quite a bit of the tempo we sink into this spell.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, while we lose tempo, we are not particularly vulnerable to large removal spells here. This buff will stick around for the entire rest of the game whether our first drawn buffed unit is good enough or not, this gift just keeps on giving.

Keeper of the Box

Efficiently stated fearsome beaters are traditionally quite powerful. This one gives up a point of power from its spider brethren for the ability to get life steal likely starting around turn three to four.

While that’s not exactly optimal for aggression, fearsome decks have been looking for more early drops for a long time, so I would not be surprised if this sees play. On the flip side this is clearly an amazing card if there is a midrange deck to support its playstyle.

Evasive beater that loves getting suited up and makes racing almost impossible for your opponent? Sign me up for three so that I can focus my energy on non-aggro matchups. This is tiny easier to activate radiant guardian, don’t sleep on it.

The Darkin Halberd / Taarosh

Ok, I really need to stop gushing about this, but I can’t help it. I love, love, *LOVE*, these early power boost plus late game alternate win condition cards. They just add such a crazy amount of consistency to high decision point midrange decks which are my absolute favorite archetype.

This one is no exception. It boosts your board, trigger slay procs nicely, lets units die that want to get last breath running, and if we hit turn ten by chance comes back around to be a game ending bomb. This might have just jumped to the top of my to-test list for day one of the new expansion.

Malefic Spear

We were talking earlier about tools for fearsome aggro decks and this one is just *nasty*. There has always been an issue with those decks where you end up with one to two non-fearsome units that just give your opponent’s free blocks you are trying so hard to prevent.

Not anymore. For the low cost of potentially only one mana, now the random spiderling you have lying around is suddenly a real must answer threat again. This feels like a solid two of in basically any fearsome aggro or midrange list and I am excited to burn some faces with it.

Quietus

This is an absolute blessing for any control player out there that was going “How do I deal with any of this nonsense when it will just keep coming back turn after turn?” A versatile early game removal spell backed up by the ability to absolutely merc late-game equipment-reliant decks is a huge deal.

I was kind of despairing of being able to play shadow isles control at all in the coming season, but the existence of this important tool has picked me right up by my bootstraps. Slotting two of these into any control shell I start with to make sure I am prepared for the swarms of weapons come day one.

Stay tuned for more reveal articles! To build your own deck, head to our Deck Builder.

The post Awakening Impressions: Freljord and Shadow Isles Pack appeared first on Mobalytics.

Today’s reveal has gone hard on the idea that if you find yourself weaponless that is more from a lack of imagination than a lack of pointy objects lying around.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and we’ve got all the improvised weapons you could ever want to jam with in your own personal bar room brawl.

Keep in mind as we go through these that none of them have a rarity icon. That means that this powerful new equipment will be generatable only and not capable of being slotted into the main deck.

This will gatekeep their abilities somewhat based on how we get access to them. However, as long as there are reliable and relatively low resource costing ways to pull these into our hand then they will get to see quite a bit of play and figuring out cool ways to use them will be a big deal.

To see the rest of the Awakening reveals, head to our Spoiler page where they’ll be revealed each day until its official release.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

The Fix-em 5000

Quick attack is a powerful modifier to add to any card that wants to be tempo oriented or gets value from striking. Think of the difference between where Leblanc is now with this powerful keyword and how useless she would be if it were taken away.

You’ll be looking to pick up this improvisation when you have a challenger unit or something on the order of Rivershaper and Ruin Runner in play. Anyone that loved benefiting from Young Witch will enjoy this now non-pingable addition to that particular family of card type.

Pot O’ Pain

Next on our list is rather inherently less exciting. Impact is not a particularly transformative keyword here. I suspect this card will be chosen more often when you miss what you actually want and settle for some random stats to help win the board for your team.

On the other hand, this existing in the improvise pool is a big deal. Every single point of damage counts and the difference between access to a tiny bit of burn and access to no burn can drastically affect how an opponent has to play the entire game against your archetype.

Sandworn Amulet

Speaking of transformative this one is a doozy. In the right situations Fearsome is the next best thing to Elusive. This will be highly meta and matchup specific, but when it hits it will push an absolutely ludicrous amount of damage on an unprepared opponent.

Fishawack

Having the ability to slap overwhelm on a powerful unit for the low cost of two mana is a pretty powerful thing to add to this archetype. Fishawack will probably be your default game ender when boards stall out and you need to find a brute force solution.

It’s low on both stats and interaction though, so I suspect it will get taken slightly less often than the high power of the overwhelm keyword would default us to thinking. Again, like Pot O’ Pain, this game ending potential will force your opponent to play more conservatively around their life total, which this archetype will love.

Upcycled Rake

Why? Just, just why? Didn’t we learn that being able to give things scout is really, really, unreasonably, game breakingly good? Didn’t we learn that from Pantheon, and then Viktor, and then Kai’Sa, not to mention The Arsenal and Void Abomination? No? Alright.

Yeah, this one is almost inevitably going to cause problems. Any time you allow a multiplicative effect like scout, double attack, or Lee Sin, into a game that is additive by default, it’s going to be crazy powerful. Look for this to dominate if there is any way at all to get access to it consistently.

Shepherd’s Authority

And here we have the runt of the litter, which is amusing because it’s the biggest on the list. I guess if you already have a large Overwhelm or Elusive unit it can be nice, maybe? But just spamming a bunch of stats and deciding not to block does not seem to be on the power level of the other options we’ve been given.

Combat Reel

This one I love though. I suspect combat reel will be a pick you are happy to go for when you aren’t sure exactly what you need, or when it is proving a touch hard to track down. Win the board, refill mana, set up any other synergies you’re looking for. This card is a master of no trades, but as a jack of them all it does just fine.

Pan O’ Pain

You’ll take this option extremely rarely, but when you do it will be huge. There are some matchups where the ability to randomly ignore pings will just completely flip them on their head.

Having the ability to just completely give Noxus or early game Freljord/Shadow Isles control the finger is quite powerful. This pick will get slept on, but its existence will do more for the power level of the Improvise archetype than people will give it credit for.

Fireth, Reaper of the Sands

So, for the low cost of one mana, we get one of these powerful effects and a body to sacrifice? Sold. Sold instantly and sealed so there are no take-backs. This is an unassuming little friend who I suspect will engender cries of rage within a week of release. Looking forward to brewing with it.

Ionian Hookmaster

This is our second low cost opportunity to get our improvisation on. That said, two mana is a lot more than one, and spending your turn two not doing anything is a really good way to fall behind on tempo. That’s a dangerous thing to do in a game that is as fast as Runeterras has become lately.

I do think however that the price will likely be worth the payoff in this case. The available options here including giving whatever unit you want Scout of all things for the rest of the game probably make this card playable in the right archetype.

Stay tuned for more reveal articles! To build your own deck, head to our Deck Builder.

The post Awakening Impressions: Improvise appeared first on Mobalytics.