Gatalyst is one of the newer cards in Legends of Runeterra that hasn’t seen much experimentation, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t fun decks to be played with it! This includes Jhin!

Jhin has unique deck building due to being a Runeterra champion which allows you to play a variety of cards that have skills on them. Many of these skills do direct damage to the Nexus itself including Jhin himself. Gatalyst capitalizes well off this.

There are multiple ways to play this deck, including a slower version of the deck with Funsmith. Funsmith will have a buff soon, so that might make her even better in this deck in the future.

This deck primarily focuses on burning out your opponent quickly and efficiently, so if that’s a playstyle you enjoy this deck might be for you!

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

Deck Code: CEEQCAQGHQAQCAZIAMAQICBUGYAQGBAFAECQCBQBAMCQMAIGAQQQCBQDB4AQMDACAEBACBA7E4BQCAQDAQAQMAYNAEAQIDI

[See Gatalyst Jhin deck details]

Deck Overview

This deck is an aggro combo Jhin deck that capitalizes on the frequency of skills that do damage. It is one of the few Jhin decks that use Manasoul Student as this card is a slower tempo card, but in this deck, it is able to get the value from it as with Gatalyst it deals 2 damage to Nexus rather than 1.

On top of this, the plethora of skills make it easy to get Jhin to snipe the Nexus and in some games even level and finish off the game by attacking for 4 plus direct damage.

This deck relies on being incredibly efficient with your resources and not to miss out on any damage as it can make the difference between beating your opponent or not.

To see just how fast and efficient this deck can be, check out my video playing it:

Game Plan

As I mentioned earlier, it’s important that you are efficient with all your damage in this deck as it can easily make a difference between winning and losing. Throughout the entire game, you need to be keeping track of your mana and spell mana as you don’t want to play a Ballistic Bot when you aren’t able to have one mana to spend on the Ignition.

You also have to be extremely careful with what you put your Gatalyst on. You will want to do this when you can ensure that you are able to get the damage down. You aren’t able to protect your Gatalyst with this deck so the big thing is to play it on either units that are bench sitters such as Manasoul Student and Ballistic Bot or are lower value.

You want to try your best to get the most damage from Gatalyst possible and whenever your opponent does deal with it, it isn’t too hard on you. Using Gatalyst at the correct time can easily make or break your games and this changes drastically depending on what deck you are playing against.

Generally, you don’t want to play Jhin on the board unless you are completely running out of resources or that your Jhin is leveled up and you can get an attack in with him. Of course, there are cases where you don’t have another option and have to play Jhin before these cases, but that is not ideal.

Mulligan Strategy

The good news about this deck is that the deck plays very linearly which means you don’t care about your opponent’s deck when it comes to mulligan. Your game plan is the same – to burn out your opponent.

This means your mulligan is the same almost every game.

Of course, Jhin is the star of the show so you always want to mulligan for him. You miss out on so much damage without him that I’d argue you are supposed to hard mulligan and find him. You don’t want two though, so if you have 2 in your starting hand make sure to pitch the extra!

The other cards you are looking for are Crackshot Corsair, Legion Saboteur, Boomcrew Rookie and sometimes Teemo as he does a great job of activating Crackshot Corsair and getting chip damage in against the opponent. Tusk Speaker is also okay to start with, but I generally wouldn’t keep this in my starting hand when given the option.

Against slower decks, I am more likely to keep Ballistic Bot or Manasoul Student, but you can’t really go wrong mulliganing for Jhin plus early drops that have skills on them.

Match-Ups

I had the best luck against midrange decks that couldn’t handle the damage to my deck output. Surprisingly, I even did decently against Ionia and Shadow Isles and I expected their natural healing and disruption to cause issues for me, but generally, that wasn’t the case.

I’d assume this deck has a harder time against slower, value-based control decks such as Targon that can continuously heal and keep units on the board.

Tech Choices

Funsmith: If you want to make the deck a bit slower but better against slow, value-based control decks than this would be the card for you to add!

Progress Day: I’ve seen some versions of this deck run Progress Day due to running out of cards. This is a way to help with that.

Additional Spellslinger: This is to slow down your opponent a bit more if you are playing against opponents that have tall threats rather than wide threats.

Conclusion

Generally, this deck is a for fun deck that I wouldn’t recommend for ranked and isn’t optimized for it, but due to it being a Jhin deck a lot of it builds itself. There are only a limited number of tech choices in this deck for that reason.

I hope you have a fun time with this deck if you try it out as I know several have already! Good luck!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse

The post LoR Deck Guide Gatalyst Jhin appeared first on Mobalytics.

Back Alley Bar was a new landmark introduced in the latest expansion: The Darkin Saga Awakening and it gives players even more ways to play value, almost singleton-like decks.

Due to benefitting from playing new cards – this makes playing a card for the first time during the game more valuable as well as playing new, created cards. To get the value needed out of this landmark for it to be worth playing, it is best to not play a deck full of 3 copies unless they are generating new cards you can capitalize off Deck Alley Bar’s passive.

On top of this, a leveled-up Viktor can further reduce created cards, so in some cases, your cards will be reduced by 2 cost instead of 1.

There are currently two cards that love decks that play multiple different cards and thankfully both of these cards are in the same region – Piltover and Zaun!

These cards are Subpurrisible which is a strong Elusive cards once you have played 10 unique cards. Purrsuit of Perfection is the other card which creates a 30|30 Overwhelm after you have played 20 unique cards. It is a way to end games if you aren’t able to outvalue your opponent through Zoe, Aphelios, Viktor, and your created cards.

Code: CECACAYJBEAQCBACAEBAIAICAYCCAKACAIBQSVGZAEAQCBBBBABAGBADCIBACBA3GQBQIBACA4IAGBIEBQMBSBIDBERSUM2JLQAQMBBLAEBAICQCAYEQILI

[See Purrsuit 1 Ofs deck details]

Here is my current Back Alley Bar list, but there are so many ways to play this deck, so be sure to try things out!

Deck Overview

This deck has 3 unique champions, 3 Back Alley Bar Landmarks, 15 followers (11 which are unique), and 16 spells (12 which are unique). If you take a closer look at these card choices, you will notice that almost every card creates another card to further the unique card count.

For example, Lunari Duskbringer creates Duskpetal Dust which can be used with Aphelios or Pale Cascade while adding to the unique card count. Mountain Goat can create a Gem that adds to the count as well. Multiple spells also create cards or offer you a way to draw more cards from your deck.

Regardless of what hand you draw, you will almost always have the option to create or draw more cards to work toward Subpurrsible or Purrsuit of Perfection. They are also cheap which makes it easier to cycle Aphelios’ Weapons and level up Zoe or Viktor.

This deck can often level up Zoe quite easily as the cards are fairly cheap as well as Sputtering Songspinner is essentially a hack for this deck as it counts for 4 unique cards for Zoe while giving 3 cards toward Viktor’s level-up condition.

This card gives so much value to the deck and is easy for players to overlook!

If you want to see this deck in action be sure to check out my video playing the deck!

Game Plan

This deck can generate an incredible amount of value while having a lot of flexibility especially when it comes to defensive options. Due to the amount of flexibility your deck has, the key thing to figure out at the start of the game is what your opponent’s game plan is and what your best plan to react to that is.

This deck rarely starts off being the aggressor due to the amount of value it generates – it generally looks to respond to your opponent and either outvalue them or put pressure with Elusives, a leveled champion, or Purrsuit of Perfection to finish games.

Generally, you can’t go wrong with keeping Zoe in your starting hand. She generates value as a 1 drop Elusive and her threat of leveling up and inevitably winning the game is always good to get going.

You don’t have many ways of protecting Zoe, so holding her in your hand often doesn’t do much since the extra mana doesn’t allow you to protect her anyways. Keeping other low-cost units can also help progress your win conditions.

In a lot of cases, the Back Alley Bar Landmark will allow you to get plenty of value and outvalue your opponent later in the game. As well as all of your champions can get level-up progress from cards that are reduced by this landmark.

Your champions and the Purr cards are your bread and butter, but this landmark can accelerate champion level-ups as well as allows you to put more pressure on your opponent later in the game.

Mulligan Strategy

Your mulligan strategy will vary drastically depending on which type of deck you are playing against.

For example, against another value-oriented or hard-control deck, you will want to consider keeping Back Alley Bar, Viktor, Sputtering Songspinner, Ferros Financer, and Subpurrsible.

Cards that give you more value than their value. Despite being a value card, you don’t want to keep Purrsuit of Perfection in hand because it requires you to play 20 other unique cards first. Having a Purrsuit of Perfection stuck in your starting hand isn’t where you want to be.

Against aggressive decks, you will want to keep your low-cost cards in your starting hand so you are able to trade and keep up responses to their aggression. Generally, you will want to pitch most of your high-cost and value cards. In a lot of ways, your mulligan is almost the exact opposite of mulliganing for playing against a control deck.

In almost any match, you are good with keeping Zoe in your starting hand as she is a low-cost value card that demands attention or she will win the game.

Match-Ups

There isn’t much to say about these, but against value-oriented decks, you will want to focus more on Viktor and Zoe. Aphelios can be okay as his guns work toward your unique card count and are incredibly flexible.

I found myself using Gravitum to delay my opponent as well as Severum to heal up. These are the weapons you tend to use against aggressive decks as well, but Calibrum removing a follower or Crescendum adding another blocker might also be more worthwhile as well.

Against aggressive decks, you are focused less on your champions and are more focused on staying alive and stabilizing. Generally, you’re not stabilizing with your champions unless it is an Aphelios Severum healing you up a large amount.

You also don’t typically win with your Purr cards as they are more clunky due to their cost and require playing multiple unique cards beforehand.

Tech Choices

This deck has so many choices that I don’t even know I’d label them as tech choices, but in general just choices for the deck. There are plenty of examples of cards this deck could use!

Shifting the champion ratio: For example, you can be less Zoe-focused and become more Viktor focused especially if you want a bit more consistent value as well as another more consistent way to end the game. For example 1 Zoe, 2 Aphelios, and 3 Viktors.

Spacey Sketcher: Another card that creates more cards and allows you to have flexible response to your opponent’s cards.

Zaunite Urchin: A strong, cheap cycle option that can get rid of useless created cards that you don’t plan to use or in cases where you double draw Purrsuit of Perfection when you don’t need them.

Ballistic Bot: A value oriented card that can pick away at your opponent while activating augment and adding an extra stack to unique cards and created cards for your deck’s win conditions.

Piltovan Castaway: Another weapon generator option that creates addition card that can be used throughout the game or discarded.

Sump Fumes: Additional removal that can be useful against most decks.

Get Excited: A little extra reach or removal. Overall just a good card.

Thanks for taking a look at this deck as it allows you to consistently play Purrsuit of Perfection. The amount of created cards as well as the number of one of’s in this deck helps make it feel unique each game and makes it more replayable. I hope you have as much fun with it as I have!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse

The post LoR Deck Guide: Back Alley Bar Purrsuit of Perfection One Ofs appeared first on Mobalytics.

Hey everyone, it’s Silverfuse here with today’s reveals.

We got more dual-region cards that hint at Jax being the next champion!

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.

Parts Made Whole

We start off with a dual Bilgewater and Piltover and Zaun card: Parts Made Whole.

This is a discard 1 to draw 2 which we have seen frequently in Piltover and Zaun. Bilgewater has plenty of draw 2s, but typically doesn’t require a discard.
This also says that if you discard equipment you get a token – Icathian Mirage which is a 2 mana 3|2 with no text from Shurima.

So this card when discarding a weapon can be a solid way to cycle through your deck while summoning a token at burst speed that can block or attack.

It’s also good to note here that it is a dual region card with the Weaponmaster text which hints that Weaponmaster cards will be able to be played together.

Blades of the Fallen

Blades of the Fallen is a burst speed spell that gives an ally “Last Breath: Summon an Icathain Mirage with my equipment” this round.

This is a spell meant to be played on a unit that is about to die. It’s more ideal to use this on units that have expensive equipment. Rather than playing expensive equipment for the full mana price, you can use this to pay only 1 mana for it. However, it is at the cost that it goes on an Icathian Mirage when maybe you want it on a more valuable unit.

It’s hard to say exactly how this card will perform and where it will fit until we know what Jax and other equipment will do. The potential for a combo is there, but who can say if there will be one?

Piltovan Castaway

Piltovan Castaway is another Bilgewater with Piltover and Zaun dual region card! This one has attune and when it summons he improvises! As a 3 mana 2|1 that can then equip a weapon of your choice, he seems like he will make his way into equipment and weapon type decks.

Wandering Shepherd

Wandering Shepherd is a Targon and Bandle City dual region card that also allows Improvise. However, you first get the choice to improvise an ally and if you choose not to then he improvises himself. At a 3 mana 2|2 allowing yourself to improvise another unit right away without first requiring the equipment holder to die and then use the weapon on a new unit. This saves a lot of mana as well as a turn priority.

Catch!

The final card revealed today is: Catch!

Catch is a Demacia and Freljord dual region card that gives an ally +1|+1 this round or equip it with an equipment in hand that costs 2 or less. This is a combat trick similar to Radiant Strike. This is another way to cheat out a more expensive weapon for less mana assuming that your unit holding the original weapon has died and returned the weapon to your hand. It’s also nice that if you don’t have a weapon at worst you have a usable combat trick.

With these reveals I’m wondering if Jax or a future champion will hold a pretty powerful weapon that you can move with cards like Blades of the Fallen and Catch! It’s hard to say for sure as we don’t know what Jax will do yet.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow to see Jax spoiler!

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

The post Awakening Impressions: Jax Support appeared first on Mobalytics.

Silverfuse here to talk about today’s new champion reveal: Master Yi!

Master Yi has is one of the original champions in League of Legends and a long time favorite.

In League of Legends, he is a hyper carry that late game can often 1 vs 5 an entire team and it looks like that’s the plan for him in Legends of Runeterra as well!

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.

Master Yi

Master Yi is an Ionian champion that relies on playing spells to gain power to all Master Yis by 2. Master Yi helps you out a bit by lowering the cost of a spell at the start of each round. It’s no surprise that he levels when he has dealt 12 damage.

His leveled up version is similar except when he attacks he now immediately strikes the weakest enemy.

It’s important to note that this is not a skill, so this will happen at “burst” speed when you attack. This is one of the very few ways to interact with an opponent’s units at burst speed.

Master Yi gains a lot of power, but he needs a way to capitalize off of it. There are a couple ways he can do this. Giving him elusive or overwhelm might be the way to capitalize on his increasing attack.

This makes Riven a potential pairing with him. PNZ having access to granting elusive as well as Viktor being a spell generator for flow could be a reason to run him in PNZ.

Wuju Style/Master Yi’s Wuju Style

Yi also has some strong support cards and a champion spell that directly helps his level up condition as well as activate Flow.

Wuju Style is a strong and flexible combat trick that almost any Ionian deck would be happy to play if it is an Eye of the Dragon or Lee Sin type deck.

Even in aggressive decks, this could likely find a home in elusives. Karma decks also love this spell. Strong and flexible is the best of both worlds!

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

The post Awakening Impressions: Master Yi appeared first on Mobalytics.

Kai’Sa is a Void monster on the ladder, but how is she in Path of Champions? She can be a bit tricky as in ladder decks she heavily relies on decks packed with keywords so she can flip quickly and start executing the enemy with her number of keywords and stats – not to mention Supercharge helping close out games quickly.

In your base path of champion deck, you don’t have the same options for quickly evolving Kai’Sa which makes your decisions in drafting cards for Kai’Sa’s Path of Champions runs more critical than other champions in Path of Champions.

In this guide, I will be going over what you should think about when making decisions about what to buy from shops, what powers to choose from, as well as general tips to help you have stronger and more fun Kai’Sa runs!

For more tips and tricks, check out our other Path of Champions guides.

In this article we will go over:

• General Gameplan
• Champion Relics
• Support Champion
• Pick a Path – Shops and Champion Item Chests
• Passive Powers
• Rerolls
• Additional Tips

General Gameplan

As mentioned earlier, Kai’Sa is all about keywords and getting enough keywords to Evolve and throw out a ton of Icathian Missiles through the use of Second Skin sharing all positive keywords with Kai’Sa.

Some keywords are already in your decks such as Spellshield, Overwhelm, and Quick Attack. Although Payday can hit Tough or Challenger – it isn’t very reliable so I don’t think of my deck as having these keywords.

The same goes for Voidling as they are randomly generated keywords that aren’t always reliable.

Due to Kai’Sa having Quick attack on her naturally – Quick Attack is a keyword that you never draft a card because you want that keyword.

Not all wanted keywords are created equal though. A unit that gives you Elusive or Scout are premium as these keywords allow you to end games or put a lot more pressure with Kaisa.

Lifesteal is also amazing and for me personally is my most favored keyword as keeping high HP into each round and not requiring a healer allows you to cut weak cards in your deck as well as allows the possibility of getting S rank for your run. (Once you use a healer, you can only get an A rank at best).

Due to Kai’Sa natural Quick Attack – Challenger feels quite good on her as well so that tends to be my 4th most prioritized keyword due to being able to make favorable trades and keep my Kai’Sa safe while still attacking.

For this reward, despite Mountain Goat is a very strong 2 drop option – Shadow Assassin is a snap pick as it allows me to more easily give Kai’Sa elusive plus a draw isn’t a bad thing either.

Choosing a Champion Relic (1st Slot Common)

As we said earlier, naturally our deck doesn’t have as many keywords as we’d like. Hopefully, relics are able to help this out a bit. If you have the option to play a relic that has a keyword it can greatly help your Kai’Sa level up.

I had the option between Regeneration and Challenger. I picked Regeneration as that one is harder to come by naturally and it makes my Kai’Sa more resilient overall. Challenger is certainly a defendable choice as well though.

If you don’t have the option of an additional keyword – consider giving Kai’Sa more stats to keep her alive easier and allow her to close out games.

Support Champion

There is no surprise what I’m going to tell you here – pick champions with keywords. Kai’Sa is the star in the show in your deck and all your decisions revolve around her. This includes the champion you decide to play her with.

Quinn is a solid option as the gives Challenger and Scout which are two fantastic keywords on Kai’Sa. Another strong champion would be Zoe as she has the Elusive keywords and on top of that, her Supercool Starcharts are able to create units that have additional keywords such as The Serpent and The Charger that give challenger and Overwhelm respectively.

My personal favorite is Viktor as he is already part of a meta Kai’Sa deck and with him, I always get to level up Kai’Sa even if my deck is a bit awkward.

In this case, Viktor is always the pick as he has an unlimited number of keywords he can give to Kai’Sa.

Pick a Path – Shops and Champion Item Chests

Layering keywords on Kai’Sa is important, and in order to do that – that means we want to interact with as many shops and Champion Item Chests as possible. This means that we will want to be mindful when deciding which path to choose in our runs.

For example, if we have the option to head in the direction of a Champion Item Chest over a Spell Chest. This is because we hope to give Kai’Sa an additional keyword or stats as we want anything we can get to buff her up more.

Although I didn’t get an option for an additional keyword I have two decent options. I can either buff Kai’Sa by 2 health or give myself a draw option. It is important to note that which champion you choose you get an extra copy of it.

Getting an extra copy of Kai’Sa is nice. In this case, I already had 3 Kai’Sas and had buffed her once already. I liked the idea of adding draw to Viktor as there were cases where I found Viktor but I hadn’t found Kai’Sa. With this, selection the hope was the draw would help me get closer to Kai’Sa in some instances.

However, if I was given the option to add a simple keyword such as Fearsome to Kai’Sa I would choose that every time as the Evolve progress is too important to pass up.

In shops, you will want to draft cards with keywords you don’t already have to benefit Kai’Sa. However, you also want to take cards that are generally strong as well – don’t pass them up just because they don’t have a keyword. However, be careful not to buy too many cards like this as they will dilute your deck and may halt your Kai’Sa level-up progress.

In this shop, I took Sonic wave as it always gives me Challenger but also because Poro Snax may summon a Poro which has a keyword that I don’t have already.

At a minimum, I add one new keyword to my Evolve keyword, but with the Poro Snax attachment in some cases, I might add two keywords to the count! Be on the lookout for Poro Snax attachment in general as it can add keywords and can help stabilize your board by chump blocking your opponent. Free blockers are always good!

Although this isn’t specific to Kai’Sa we also want to pick a path that interacts with high-value characters such as Smooth Soloist who would give you the option of adding an additional hero power. It is important to note though that Epic powers cost 400 gold.

Generally, you will want the Epic hero power as they are extremely high value. Evolution, Sharing is Caring, and Manaflow are all exceptional and will make your run all that much easier.

If you can’t afford an epic power, it is still worth it to get one of the rare of common powers as they impact your board every game which makes you stronger each round you play compared to a single card that you may or may not draw.

Smooth Soloist offers additional powers for a price, but she is always worth interacting with assuming you have the minimum of 200 gold to pick up a power.

In this spot, Evolution is absolutely bonkers as it gives so many stats to Kai’Sa as well as several of her followers.

Passive Powers

Now that we are here, we might as well talk about passive powers. What is good and worth taking and what should you avoid?

Generally, most Epic hero powers are a snap pick as they are overturned compared to the Rare powers.

However, there are solid options even in the commons as some of them give keywords. One of my personal favorites is Crush. Crush gives Overwhelm to all units.

This helps level up my Kai’Sa and also capitalizes off of Evolve giving additional stats. On top of this, when Kai’Sa levels up and throws out her Icathian Missiles she chips away at all the blockers and the Overwhelm allows the other units to capitalize off of Kai’Sa’s Icathian Rain better.

I also don’t mind Dragon’s Rage or Duelist as they give Fury and Challenger respectively which helps level up Kai’Sa easier.

The best Rare power by far is Welcome Gifts which is when you summon an ally, and grant it a random keyword. No surprise why this is a strong power!

Rerolls

This brings me to rerolls as you get 2 free ones each game. Personally, I don’t like rerolling my initial powers as generally unless you high roll getting an epic option – the rares and even common powers are pretty comparable to each other.

Generally, I have found using reroll tokens on shops to be decent as I get to reroll 6 options in order to find the keywords I am looking for.

I also don’t mind using it for some encounters such as Smooth Soloist as the pool for Epics is limited and you always reroll into Common, Rare, and Epic when you interact with her. Being able to reroll an Epic power is high value.

There is an argument for rerolling your secondary champion if none of them have keywords to help Kai’Sa or they aren’t a generally good champion that you can play. I think this is unlikely, but it is possible for there to be niche scenarios where a reroll might be necessary.

As well as after combat rewards – if all 3 options are literally untakable then you will want to reroll. Although you get to reroll 6 cards at shops – after combat you are required to take a card. At a shop, if there is nothing good then you can just skip the shop and move on. You really don’t want to be stuck with a dead card in your deck.

Here all 3 of these powers are okay. Sharing is Caring is a snap pick for me as you are building your deck around solid keywords.

Domination isn’t bad normally either just because once you have evolved your units, they are overstated and can gain value from attacking extra.

Flexible Gameplan is lower on my list but it is pickable as drawing and avoiding clunky hands are still valuable. You would never reroll this because there are so many other spots where a reroll will be more valuable. You are also not guaranteed to reroll into another Epic power.

Additional Tips

When playing with Voidling especially early in your run it is critical for you to play Voidling only when it has a keyword that your deck doesn’t already contain.

Generally, Lifesteal is the best hit but any keyword not already in your deck is playable. It is the only way you can ensure you have a chance of leveling up Kai’Sa at the start of your run as Payday is inconsistent.

This also means that once you have a life steal unit – you don’t want to trade it or lose it before being able to play Kai’Sa and using Second Skin to give Kai’Sa lifesteal as well.

Obviously, if you die if you don’t trade then you have to make the trade, but always be thinking about how you can share your valuable keywords with Kai’Sa as usually Kai’Sa is easy to protect and is able to close out the game for you. Being able to heal up to full health before winning is quite helpful for the next round.

If you are looking for the S rank – the time it takes you to finish a run doesn’t seem to matter as much as it did before. This means that it can be worthwhile being patient to find a Lifesteal unit and heal back to full health because it makes your future fights easier as well as makes it so you don’t have to take health at healers.

Once you do this, you can only get an A rank at best. On top of this, cutting a dead card at the healer is impactful. Make sure that if you are cutting a card before the final boss – if you don’t have a cuttable card offered in the first group of cards, make sure to use any remaining rerolls to try and find one of your weaker cards to cut.

Hopefully, you found this guide helpful and it made you think about your Kai’Sa Path of Champion runs in a little more informed way!

Thanks for reading,
Silverfuse

If you enjoyed this guide, check out our past and future Path of Champions guides.

The post Path of Champions Guide: Kai’Sa appeared first on Mobalytics.

One of my favorite things to do with new cards is to make a new one-turn kills! This deck features Protective Broodfather! This dragon draws a card and if it is a dragon, then it summons it attacking.

The secret to this deck is to shuffle multiple Protective Broodfathers into the deck with Counterfeit Copies which makes it continuously summon itself until it fills the full board with six 7|7 attacking dragons!

If one attack with a bunch of dragons isn’t good enough then in some instances Field Promotion can give the original Protective Broodfather the ability to start a scout attack and allow for two attacks with your dragon army!

This massive army of dragons is the best way to own the board and one of the better board-based one-turn kills!

Deck Code: CECQEAIEFY2ACBAEA4BACABBF4BAKBAVDIAQMABEAQBAIAADBQAQKAAVAEAQIHYBAUCBWAYCAMCA2EQDAECACGZZAECQIEY

[See Broodfather OTK deck details]

Deck Overview

This deck runs 34 spells, 3 landmarks, and 3 dragons. This is done by design for the one-turn kill. If there is another unit, then Protective Broodfather might draw that instead of another Protective Broodfather which would break the chain of the Protective Broodfathers.

Drawing a card that breaks the chain would stop the one-turn kill and would make this way of building the deck not make much sense since oftentimes there wouldn’t be a one-turn kill to end games anymore. This is why it is critically important to run 3 Protective Broodfathers as the only units in the deck.

The Forge of Tomorrow is the only landmark because it works so well with the deck. You can summon a unit on turn 3 as well as regain some additional spell mana later in the game.

It is one of the most important cards in the deck as it gets a lot of value and adds a lot of consistency to the deck’s early game.

Game Plan

This deck is loaded with plenty of defensive spells, combo pieces, and ways to find your combo pieces. The deck wants to keep as healthy as possible until turn 8 or in some cases 9 where you can perform a one-turn kill. Even if you don’t have the attack token on turn 8, you can still perform an OTK with Cataclysm as it counts as an attack.

Early in the game you are looking to bank mana and find ways to summon a unit to work with for blocking. This is usually done with one of five cards: Succession, Might of Vanguard, The Forge of Tomorrow, Assembly Line, or Remembrance. This helps save more health early in the game.

Remembrance or Assembly Line can be played on turn 3 if you pass your first two turns. You can also use Scrapdash Assembly or Poro Cannon to save some health but it isn’t ideal in most cases. Poro Cannon is only necessary against elusive decks. Once you have a unit that can eat a couple of opposing units, you can find your combo pieces with cards such as Time Trick, Rummage, and Most Wanted.

On top of this, you then have a variety of defensive spells to help you live for turn 8 or 9 including cards such as Shock Blast, Statikk Shock, Mystic Shot, or Thermogenic Beam.

There are some interesting choices in the deck such as Iterative Improvement. Iterative Improvement is there copy early game units for better defense or in some cases if you play Protective Broodfather and it gets removed, you can play Iterative Improvement to copy it and still get another shot at your combo without drawing additional dragons.

Field Promotion is used to give your Protective Broodfather Scout which can allow for all of your Dragons to get additional attacks. In some cases, it can take the place of Counterfeit copies as being able to attack with 3 Protective Broodfathers to attack twice and can be quite devastating to the opponent and potentially be a one turn kill with just 3 dragons in some cases.

Mulligan Strategy

Early game, it is best to look for ways to create units ideally the 3 or 6 cost unit creators: Succession, Forge of Tomorrow, or Remembrance are the best. After that, Might of Vanguard and Assembly Line can be okay as well.

Because unit creation is overall quite plentiful in the deck, I prefer to mulligan for my combo pieces. In general, I like to try and find one dragon and one Counterfeit Copies.

Against control decks, I prefer to find my combo pieces more so than my early game defensive tools. Against faster decks I like to find my early game control since I know I can then live long enough for my combo and while controlling the board I can often find my combo pieces regardless.

Matchups

This deck does very well against slower control decks that aren’t rich in removal. Even then, many players won’t know that your Protective Broodfather has to be removed before your attack because they don’t know that your deck is filled with only Dragons.

It can also do well against decks that are aggressive especially if they aren’t a burn variant due to this deck having multiple ways of controlling the aggressiveness of its opponent.

This deck does the worst against decks that have a lot of removal and players who know that they have to remove the dragon right away.

Tech Choices

Rocket Barrage: If you are playing against a lot of decks that go wide and need some additional removal for them, then this is the card for you!

Piltover Peacemaker: This card helps a bit more with removal, especially against opponents that use a lot of low-health units.

Piltover Tellstones: This is a good choice if you keep playing against slower decks and want the option to draw numerous cards, transmogulate a unit that can be spooky, or use Aftershock to remove a unit or Landmark.

Aftershock: Speaking of Aftershock, this can be a good card for the removal of units of Landmarks if you are seeing a lot of them in your games.

Mobilize: If you want to go full meme, then you can try and get the combo earlier by lowering the cost of your Protective Broodfather to get the combo earlier. I don’t recommend it, but you can do it.

Thanks for reading my article on Protective Broodfather OTK!

This is a fun deck that is mostly meant to be enjoyed in normal games although I know some players have taken it to the ladder and had some success with it as well.

Happy playing!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse

The post LoR Deck Guide: Broodfather OTK appeared first on Mobalytics.

The latest version of Path of Champions features 12 champions in which you can explore Runeterra and face different AI opponents.

It allows you to play at your pace with no rope and it is completely free! It has been the mode of choice for a variety of players. However, it can be a bit intimidating starting it in the first place.

In this article, I’m going to cover the basics of unlocking additional champions, leveling them up, picking Relics for your champions, as well as some basic tips that will help you win more games!

Star Powers

At the start, you jump straight into Jinx’s campaign against Ezreal. Upon completing this map you will receive champion experience points and additional Jinx Fragments. The fragments are useful for leveling up your champion’s “Star Power” to its next star rank. Each star gives you an additional passive power that will make your run easier.

For example, at one star Jinx gives you the power to which gives “What’s the Worst That Could Happen?” When you play o discard a card, deal 1 to the enemy Nexus. At two stars, she gets “Wreak Havoc” +1 Starting Mana. When you level up a champion, create a Super Mega Death Rocket! In hand.

The jump to two stars is really important as an additional mana is the same as an Epic Hero Power: Mana Flow. Starting with an additional epic power at the start of each campaign is super helpful!

Unlocking New Champions

Once you finish the first campaign with Jinx, you will get additional missions which will help you unlock additional champions. These let you know exactly what champion fragments you will get, but you will also get random champion fragments by completing different campaigns.

Currently, mine looks like this. There are some issues with the current fragment acquisition as you can see I haven’t been able to unlock some champions despite hours of play. However, if you are frustrated with this, this is something that is planned to be updated in the future so that you aren’t locked out of some of the champions.

I still have more ways to earn more fragments, so my progress isn’t completely halted as I have plenty of content left to play, but it does mean that if I want to play Illaoi for instance – I’m not sure when I will be able to do that.

Champion Experience

Leveling up your champion through champion experience is important and will make your runs easier. The champion experience gives you a higher champion level which unlocks deck upgrades. By looking at the Champion Level tab, you can see what your current upgrades are and what the future ones will be for each level. A stronger deck is incredibly helpful along with Star Powers – especially Star Power 2 as mentioned earlier.

Example of Bard’s deck upgrades per champion level.

Relic Slots

The other important thing that champion level up gives you is access to more Relic Slots, including rare relics. Relics can be chosen individually for each champion. They can range from giving your champion additional stats, keywords, or other things that can help you within your runs such as additional rerolls.

Some basic tips are champions who are required to attack with high health such as bard can benefit from Relics that give Regeneration or Challenger.

• High attack champions benefit from Quick Attack, Overwhelm, Summon Strike the enemy nexus.
• Champions that have a lot of value over time that you don’t want removed such as Lux can benefit from gaining Spellshield from a relic.
• Champions that already have solid keywords tend to like additional stats. For example, using a Rageblade that grants +1|+1 with Yasuo and giving him Spellshield can more effectively make him grow and be a tough champion to deal with.

It’s also important to note that although you can’t start with it, whenever you have the option to put Nomad’s Medallion and make your champion cost less – it is generally a good idea. For example, playing a 3-cost Lux instead of a 5-cost Lux is game-changing! So keep an eye out for attachments that allow your champions to get on the board earlier!

Bard with 1 cost reduction which allowed him and a gem that refilled the mana I used for him. This allowed me to gain tempo early in the game with him. I have since changed him to a regeneration card, but Spellsheild can be fine for him as well, especially if you are leveling him quickly.

This was Lux vs Nautilus which is a 2-star boss. Spellshield is what helped me win against a lot of decks as they couldn’t remove my Lux and I also got a bit lucky by getting the epic attachment that doubles health and attack!

If you see this in your shops, I highly recommend it as long as the champion you are putting it on is more than 1 health or attack. It is not as useful on a Teemo or Zoe compared to champions with higher health.

Champion Advice (Easiest to Hardest Champs)

For the champions I currently have unlocked, I have found the more Miss Fortune, Darius, and Jinx to be the easiest. With all these champions, you want to draft attachments that either

1. Reduce the cost of your units and champions. This allows you to swarm the board more effectively and kill your opponent faster.
2. Adding big stats to your low-cost units allows you to attack with them multiple times and trade more effectively.

Of course, going with point 1 finding ways to give yourself more mana at the start such as getting Mana Flow as your hero passive power is incredibly helpful. I have personally found Passive Powers such as Raiding Party to be helpful as well to give my low-cost units more stats.

When drafting for these more aggressive decks, you don’t have to worry about drafting healing cards as much due to the speed you win against your opponent. However, drafting a bit of health regain is never a bad idea in these runs.

Following that I would say Lux then Yasuo are the next easiest champs to play. Lux fits my personal play style well as well as because she is part of your missions, you are able to get her to Star Power 2 pretty easily. Once you have Star Power 2, she becomes a lot easier to play as most of my games were closed out by using the 0-cost Golden Aegis.

A general tip for her is to watch out for reducing the cost of your spells – especially the 6 cost ones. You don’t want to have to play two 5-cost spells to level up a single Lux and this also means you will get less 0-cost Golden Aegis. Lux is the exception to the rule that generally cost reduction is an instant draft.

For Lux’s Passive Powers I like to pick things that help delay my early game. This is generally in the form of summoning units at the start of round 1 or in this case Hold It allows me to delay the early game easier and what I’d pick out of these three power options.

Yasuo hailing from Ionia is a bit more defensive. You spend a lot of time stunning your opponent’s units which will cause slower games as a whole. For this reason, drafting cards that can heal you on your adventure is a lot more important on Yasuo than on other champions as there will be some cases where you will have to take hits from your opponent just because you have limited access to cards in the early game.

Also, if you are ever given access to Passive Powers that allow you to Stun your opponent, take them to faster level your Yasuo as well as help you survive the early game easier!

Bard is the next hardest champion primarily because you don’t have many ways of interacting with your opponent’s cards when you play Bard. On top of this, a lot of your games you will be trying to roll Lifesteal in order to heal yourself up for the next match.

This can make some games be super prolonged as you take a beating early in the game and are looking to heal up. Currently, I haven’t been able to make Bard Star Power 2 yet due to not having enough Fragments, but I have still been able to defeat all two star bosses. I have given the 2.5 star bosses a shot a couple times but without the extra mana from Star Power 2, it is quite difficult.

When it comes to Bard’s Passive Power picks, I like to draft things that give your units additional stats so Bard can level up easier. For example, out of these 3 options, I would pick Battlefield Training because the additional stats will help my Bard level up faster!

With Bard, I try to draft additional draw as well as cost reduction. The draw is more important with him as drawing additional Chimes is very helpful! His Star Power also giving buffed cards keywords is super helpful!

An important thing with Bard that isn’t the case for other champions, you want to get Champion Items as much as possible because by putting an additional Bard in your deck, this also means you get an additional Chime shuffled into your deck each round! Further helping your Chime gameplan!

The hardest champion by far was Jhin. It’s not even close, so if you are really looking for a challenge, Jhin is the way to go. His early champion levels giving you 30 Nexus Health, Manasoul Student having a 2 extra health, and Boomcrew Rookie having 2 extra attack helps a lot!

I also found Raiding Party giving +1|+1 to the top unit for each Nexus damage to be incredibly helpful as Jhin and Manasoul Student are always pinging the enemy Nexus. When possible, I’d draft stuns with Jhin as they would delay my opponent, allow Jhin to get more value, as well as when Jhin is on board allow Jhin to kill opposing units. If you can’t get a hold of stuns, low cost skills are the next best things.

Finding healing on Jhin is also a lot more important as your games aren’t as fast as the traditional aggro decks like Jinx and Miss Fortune, so you will take some damage until you are able to finish off your opponent.

Starting deck of Jhin at level 9. Multiple attachments make it easier to win games with Jhin.

Path of Champions is a fun game mode that I have sunk many hours into. At first, it was a bit confusing so I am hoping this article along with some general tips helps to be able to jump into it a bit easier!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse

The post Path of Champions 2.0 Tips and Tricks (Major Update) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Early into the season, multiple players used Annie Ezreal to hit Masters Rank early in the season.

Including BruisedbyGod who achieved rank 1 with Annie Ezreal. Multiple high-profile players have also picked up the deck due to its flexibility and solid match-up tables.

The deck isn’t one that will tolerate many misplays so the margins for getting ahead can be a bit thin at times. This deck takes time to master, but don’t let that detour you from trying it!

This is a solid deck for ladder as well as tournament play. It’s also quite fun because Tybaulk allows you to do some big damage in the deck – especially if you play more than one!

Code: CECQGBQDBQHBYAYBAMVS4NYBAIBQSAIFAQMAGAIED4SDIAQBAYBQ2AIFAQGAGAIGAQVQCBADAIAQCAZT

[See Annie Ezreal deck details]

Deck Plan

This deck controls the board early and looks to end the game with either Tybaulk, Ezreal, or Captain Farron. Tybaulk’s ability that gives all units +1 attack makes your Ezreal and House Spider feel so much stronger. As well as all of your spells doing an extra point of damage adds up quickly for you to end the game.

This deck can achieve its end game with the variety of defensive tools at its disposal and plenty of draw to keep up your resources even when you use 2 cards to remove a single card.

In this deck, Ravenbloom Conservatory and Ezreal level quite quickly because of all the removal tools you have access to such as Blade’s Edge which sometimes gets paired with Disintegrate, Mystic Shot, and Statik Shock. House Spider helps a lot with the early game as it can help deal damage to activate disintegrate.

Of course, you also have access to Flock which can be activated by Blade’s Edge, Sentry, and Spell Slinger, as well as damage from other units such as House Spider.

Early game generally depends on low-cost removal and early units. The good news is – that is most of your deck! Ideally, you have Annie on turn 1 and can start leveling her up. Along with House Spider which gives you a wider board and makes it easier for you to play defensively and own the board while you work on leveling up Annie and Ezreal as well as Ravenbloom Conservatory.

Once Annie is leveled, you can use Tibbers to slow them down as well as have a few extra resources to delay your opponent until you can safely Tybaulk to buff your units and spells. As well as find a time to safely play Ezreal and use his burn ability to finish off your opponent with Tybaulk’s extra damage.

However, if Ezreal isn’t able to finish the game, then Captain Farron’s double Decimate should do the trick most of the time! Especially if you have already played a single Tybaulk, one Decimate does 5 damage!

Mulligan

When not against aggressive decks, generally, you are looking for Conservatory, Annie, and House Spider in most matchups. Annie is able to push a bit of damage early as well as is able to start seeing spells that help her level up quicker.

Conservatory is one of your win conditions that you don’t necessarily need to play on turn 1, but it is good to get it going earlier in the game rather than later because of the strength Tybaulk gives your deck.

House Spider is flexible and can help your deck aggressively get some chip damage in or will help you play defensively against faster opponents. Their flexibility makes it hard for you to go wrong. However, finding Annie is more important than finding House Spider.

Against aggressive decks, you will want to consider keeping Blade’s Edge, House Spider, Ferros, and other efficient removal tools. Annie isn’t nearly as useful because she is unable to block and you won’t be able to outburn your aggressive opponent.

Conservatory is also often too slow for you to play since you will have to play very efficiently to be able to make sure you don’t die to your opponent’s burn deck.

In this hand, you’d keep Annie, Conservatory, and House Spider. Ezreal is not kept as he is not typically useful until he is already leveled. You’d hope to find more spells to start leveling up your Annie.

Match-Ups

Your two toughest matchups are Aphelios Fizz Faes and Feel the Rush / She Who Wanders Freljord/Shadow Isles Ramp decks.

Aphelios Fizz Faes

For Aphelios Fizz Faes, your deck heavily relies on removal spells. Fizz is fantastic are canceling your removal spells. Since Fizz can carry strong attach units and push a lot of damage, this can often make it hard for you to interact with their damage.

One of the possible ways to do this is to try to find a way to deal at least 1 damage to Fizz (assuming he isn’t at one HP at this point) and try to finish off Fizz with Tibbers by hitting a different unit and allowing the 2 damage to go through to and finish off Fizz.

However, this is still a rarity overall. It is important that if your opponent does tap out of mana or goes very low on mana which could make it hard for them to defend their Fizz, you have to take advantage of this. Make sure when trying to remove Fizz, that you do one spell at a time so that you don’t get multiple spells canceled.

Feel the Rush / She Who Wanders

For Feel the Rush / She Who Wanders, most of your deck is going to be wiped by the time they ramp to 10 mana. This means that you generally either have to go more of a beat-down plan with some of your early game units and hope they don’t have Blighted Ravine or Avalanche.

Of you have to hope that Captain Farron and your removal are able to delay enough for you to win the game with burn from Farron and potentially a later drawn Ezreal.

Another hard match-up, but isn’t as hard as the other two can be Taliyah/Lissandra Thralls as they can beat you down quickly once they Spawn the Thralls and you have a limited amount of removal. Some players have teched in Scorched Earth for this reason, but it is also good to keep in mind that most Thralls decks run Rite of Negation.

After these tough matchups, most others are yours to win with some solid play.

Tech Choices

Aloof Travelers: To discard your opponent’s key units such as an attached unit

Scorched Earth: If you are seeing a lot of Taliyah Lissandra Thralls

Thermogenic Beam: Another way to remove your opponent’s units

Progress Day: For if you are playing against a lot of very slow decks

This deck has performed quite well on Ladder and has been seen in high ranks. It can certainly be hard to master, so I hope you enjoy it and learn something new!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse

The post LoR Deck Guide: Annie Ezreal  appeared first on Mobalytics.

WIth the introduction of Bard, the ability to make your Nexus health go past the 20 health cap might be easier than ever! Gorlith the Unscalable swaps his health with your Nexus. He starts off at 10 health, but with Bard you can easily make this card able to fully heal your Nexus as well as turn your health into a new maximum.

This is achieved by Bard’s Chimes buffing Gorlith as he sits in hand waiting for his turn to strike. On top of this, once Bard is leveled his additional buffs can hit Gorlith and are valuable on him due to his text:

“I can’t be blocked by enemies with less health than me.”

Due to being a Formidable unit, a 20 health Gorlith can not only be blocked by units with less than 20 health, but this can also allow you to close out games with a 20 health Gorlith one turn killing your opponent as I did in the video below.

This deck is incredibly fun to play and while not a competitive deck, it will surely bring you some joy as your heal your Nexus for more than 20 health and smack your opponent with a giant Gorlith.

Deck Code: CEDQEBQKDIPQCBAABYAQCAAJAIDASHJPAECQADABAYGACAIDAAFQKAIGAAVAEAYAAYHACAIADIAQEAABAECQAAYBAEAQABY

[See Gorlith Bard deck details]

The Deck’s Plan

This deck is looking to load up Chimes on one card in particular, Gorlith the Unscalable. The reason for this is that Gorlith swaps his health with your Nexus’ health. This means that if Gorlith has over 20 health, then your Nexus can now be at more than 20 health which can be quite funny! If you decide to run cards such as Radiant Guardian in your deck, you can continue to take advantage of your new maximum health as well!

This deck has a lot of ways to gain tempo to get to the point where Gorlith is the only unit in your hand which will give you the best chances of Chimes buffing Gorlith and not other units in hand.

It takes advantage of strong Demacian cards such as Petricite Broadwing, Brightsteel Protector, and Screeching Dragon to maintain strong board control. On top of that, these strong stats work well with Demacia’s core cards such as Single Combat and Concerted Strike. At base, these cards work extremely well but they work even better when you randomly get extra stats from Chimes.

This deck is looking to make Gorlith as big as possible, so it runs most of the Chime cards including Byrd, Esmus, Mystic Vortex, and Maduli. Although these can all help increase your Chime count, there is an important combo that makes it even better. By playing Demacian Tellstones, you can get Detain. The strategy is to Detain your Maduli onto your own unit and kill that unit so that Maduli gets set free.

Maduli is a summon effect, so this means that Maduli will double all the Chimes in your deck an additional time! This makes it so Maduli can go off multiple times in this game and help increase the chances of you drawing Chimes and making a giant Gorlith!

Although Gorlith is your main target for Chimes, Chimes hitting other units to help support and stabilize your early and mid game is fine as well! So, don’t be too upset if you end up missing some Chimes on Gorlith.

Mulligan

• Each game you will want to look for Byrd as he is the best at helping your gain tempo early in the game.
• After that, you will want to look for Esmus for similar reasons to Byrd.
• As well as keeping Dragon Chow if you also have Shyvana in hand. However, if you don’t have Shyvana and only Dragon Chow, be sure to pitch Dragon Chow as he is only useful when there is another dragon in your hand.
• If you are against a slower deck, you can afford to keep slow cards such as Maduli and even Mystic Vortex in your starting hand. However, if you are against a faster deck, make sure to get rid of these and look for lower-cost units that can help you protect yourself in the early game.

In this hand, you would keep Byrd and Esmus. You would get rid of Dragon Chow since there isn’t a dragon in your starting hand. You also get rid of Bard as he is too slow to play until he is leveled. However, if this Bard was a Shyvana instead – you would keep the entire hand of Byrd, Dragon Chow, Shyvana, and Esmus and you’d have a very strong start.

Tech Choices

Silverwing Vanguard: This card clones itself so it is a great target for buffs

Radiant Guardian: A solid defensive option if you need to live a bit longer as well as it holds buffs extremely well!

Cosmic Binding: More chimes as well as being able to stop Overwhelm units more effectively.

Fleetfeather Tracker: I originally had this in my deck due to its fantastic early game and synergy with Brightsteel Protector. It is still a fine addition to the deck.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse

The post LoR Deck Guide: Bard Gorlith (Mega Nexus Health!) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Hey everyone, Silverfuse here with a new, fun deck from this expansion! This one takes advantage of Tentacles being the Spawn ability helps level up Bard!

This means that Bard can level incredibly early and continue to buff the board as well as Illaoi.

An additional fact is that Bilgewater has plenty of draw for Bard’s Chimes.

An early Chime on a critical unit such as Illaoi herself can nearly win the game on the spot. Additionally, this deck uses Nagakabouros to end any games that Illaoi and her Tentacle can’t end on their own.

Deck Code: CEDACBQKDIAQEBQJAYDAMBQHB4OB4IYCAYER2LYBAMDAQAIGBQAQEAICAYTACBQGBMAA

[See Bard Illaoi deck details]

Goal of Deck

This deck takes advantage of Spawns counting toward Bard’s level-up condition of increasing total stats of allies in play or in hand.

Because Spawns go one at a time, each Spawn is 2 of 20 toward Bard’s level up condition. Once you have leveled up Bard, you can use him to Buff your Tentacle, Illaoi, and other units.

You have plenty of draw options in this deck such as Pool Shark, Eye of Nagakabouros, Zap Sprayfin, Fortune Croaker, and Mystic Vortex. These allow you to draw your Chimes more consistently.

Deck Play Pattern

An important thing to note is you want to avoid playing your draw early. This is because as the game progresses, Bard places more Chimes into your deck, and your odds of drawing Chimes increase as the game progresses.

For example, unless you are against a hyper-aggressive deck that you need a one drop to block with, you should never be playing Pool Shark on turn one. He is much more valuable later in the game for additional resources as well as Chimes.

The most important card to start off within the deck is Watchful Idol. Watchful Idol is what allows your Bard to level more quickly, but more importantly, it is what starts setting up for your Illaoi and Tentacle Smash turns.

You want to keep every Watchful Idol you have in your starting hand when it is available. Multiple Idols make a giant Tentacle fast and with an Illaoi or a Sea’s Voice you can end the game on turn 4 as I did in this video:

The earlier you can get a strong tentacle, the better off your attacks with Illaoi will be and you can apply more pressure in the game. Additionally, a larger tentacle means more effective use of Tentacle Smash which is your main removal in this deck.

Ideally, whenever you use Tentacle Smash, you want to remove your opponent’s unit without killing your own Tentacle. Restarting your tentacle progress can be really tough and can quickly become an uphill battle. As well as, it is best to have Illaoi in play when you play Tentacle Smash to help her level up; however if she isn’t in play and you feel the need to play Tentacle Smash it is still fine to play!

If you don’t have a turn one Watchful Idol, the game will certainly be harder than if you did start with Watchful Idol on one. The next best option you have is Byrd, The Bellringer for turn 1. He shuffles a Chime on the top card of your deck and hopefully allows you to gain some tempo this way.

After this, if you played Watchful Idol on turn 1, you will generally be playing more Spawn cards and looking to set up a strong Tentacle Smash or Illaoi turn. The Sea’s Voice on turn 3 can be very impactful as well.

If you played Byrd on turn 1 and didn’t find a Watchful Idol for the early turns, then you will likely be focusing on the chime game plan a bit more heavily such as playing Esmus, Breath of the World, and Mystic Vortex.

Mystic Vortex will likely only be played in games vs slower midrange and control decks where your deck will need additional value to win. In this game plan, you will be focusing more on shuffling Chimes into your deck and taking advantage of Bilgewater’s draw cards to buff your units! You can also use leveled up Bard for additional value!

Mulligan

The mulligan is generally the same for most decks. You want to find Watchful Idol as soon as possible. This card is the main enabler of your deck.
After that, Tentacle Smash if your main priority. Tentacle Smash is a solid removal tool for just about any deck.

Other good cards to keep in your starting hand are The Sea’s Voice or Byrd.

You will always want to mulligan Bard away as he isn’t useful for you until he is leveled. You have many stronger options to look for instead.

As far as Illaoi goes, if you have a strong Watchful Idol Tentacle start then you will want to keep her in your starting hand. If you don’t have a good way to set up Tentacles before turn 4, then you will want to toss Illaoi and dig for more early game presence.

In this hand, I would keep everything but Bard. My early game is very strong with this start and Bard doesn’t do anything to help it out. I would love to mulligan Bard and find an Illaoi instead to capitalize off of my tentacle cards.

Match-Ups

It’s a bit too early to tell the matchups as the deck has only been around for a couple days. If I had to guess, this deck can have a tough time against Jhin/Annie Burn Aggro as it doesn’t have a great way to heal or stabilize as well as stuns can be tough for these cards. Noxus Stuns in general can be tough for this deck to handle since it generally wins through attacking and pushing Overwhelm damage.

Decks that stop Overwhelm such as Shurima’s Quicksand can also be tricky for this deck to overcome as well. In those games, you will likely have to focus more on getting Chime Value rather than winning with Illaoi and a giant, Overwhelm tentacle.

Those are the decks it struggles with the most, but after that, you should have a pretty fair shot at most other decks.

Tech Choices

Make It Rain: For against wide aggressive decks. This may help slow them down a bit. You can cut Mystic Vortex and an extra Nagakabouros for this.

Cosmic Binding: A Stun is very useful in this deck to slow down other Overwhelm archetypes that you are against

Hired Gun: A strong option to slow down the game a bit and force trades in your favor

Pick a Card: If you are looking for more draw this might be the card for you!

Closing Thoughts

This deck is certainly a tier one deck, but it is solid enough to have a lot of great games with it! It is fun to play two of the new champs together where they have some synergies that work well together. Hope you have fun and enjoy the new expansion!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse

The post LoR Deck Guide: Bard Illaoi Mega Tentacle appeared first on Mobalytics.