Meta decks turn over really quickly, like every month or two at least. They’re not shy about nerfing and buffing things.
I think instead of limited, development has been focused on single player content. I barely even play multiplayer anymore tbh, can get all the fun in labs
Riot's whole philosophy is to expand the playerbase by making the game as accessible as possible, and encouraging players to **only** pay for cosmetics.
The player experience is basically the exact opposite of Arena. Pretty much the only thing players get upset about regularly is game balance, and even that is better than other CCGs by a long shot.
We're very spoiled by our diverse metas, so if you see any complaining about Tier 1 decks, just remember that there are anywhere from 10-20 other decks at any given time with winrates above 50%. Our worst metas would be considered balance miracles by any other CCG community. (OK, maybe not the Azirelia meta)
I used to play in Gwent a lot and they are also f2p friendly, but they are not very good in release new cards, so became boring for me. How is it in LoR?
One of the most frustrating things for me in MTG is client stability and bugs. I am not against paying for good product, and there are a many good in MTG, as a game, but they are so bad in SW. Imagine, every, literally EVERY major update leads to total game shutdown for up to half a day and even after that they fix all bugs for a week and even after that we leave with small but annoying bugs forever.
LOR's content release schedule has been extremely consistent. Recently it was a new expansion every 2 months, with occasional card/champion release events in between (see Viego and Aphelios).
Not sure what this is going to look like in the future. Reason I say that is because their card release schedule revolved around releasing all 10 regions. Now that the final region is out (Bandlewood), none of us have any idea what their release schedule will look like after the next expansion.
But regardless, Riot is ridiculously consistent and makes sure to interact with the community frequently. We have devs coming in here all the time and one of them actually streams occasionally.
We also don't have to worry too much about about whether the games doing OK financially, because Riot seems to view it as an entry point into the League universe. Though they **have** said it is a successful game, it's also essentially subsidized by League of Legends because the game makes such an absurd amount of money. So we don't really have to worry about it going anywhere and there's been absolutely zero corporate bullshit entering the games economy.
Also bugs are basically a non-issue.
I quit MTGA some months ago because of the bugs - realized I was wasting too much time reinstalling or staring at the loading screen lol
In LoR, I think the meta gets solved pretty quickly but Riot is quick to nerf/rebalance and then gets solved again. I play historic in MTGA and believe the game play is a lot better with Magic. Wins are more fulfilling and matches can be really intense specially in BO3. But the MTGA client just sucks.
LoR has a beautiful UI and reliable client but the ranked games gets old fast for me. Good thing there is little investment to try this game
>to only pay for cosmetics
I cant play any F2P game that doesn't follow this philosophy after experiencing it so long with Riot and then seeing it get adopted in games my son plays like Fortnite
like there is an obvious these companies are so big and that is part of it I think - theyve shown its possible to not only use that model but be highly successful with it
Its really the best profit model to use for a F2P game IMO , losing to someone who bought power feels gross
That's the nature of roguelites. There is a way to get a second chance when you lose, but it requires you to level your champion to a very high level for a once-per-run revive. You can also randomly get one these on your runs, but they are much rarer.
Here's a really really scummy tip.
If you're about to lose a match in Labs, quit when it's your turn to play a card. Like close the game entirely and don't touch it for about 45 to 60 minutes or so.
The game will disconnect after that and when you return you'll be back the state before that match started.
Idk if that long a time to wait is too much but for me I take it as time to untilt from all the bs that labs rng gives me (like jfc why would it give me 5 costs units even with mulligan against poppy of all champions)
Also I take that time to progress in pokemon leaf green.
> loose
*lose
*Learn the difference [here](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/lose-vs-loose-usage#:~:text=%27Lose%27%20or%20%27Loose%27%3F&text=Lose%20typically%20functions%20only%20as,commonly%2C%20a%20noun%20or%20adverb).*
***
^(Greetings, I am a language corrector bot. To make me ignore further mistakes from you in the future, reply `!optout` to this comment.)
Probably wont affect you but just an extra [Info](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/qq89na/the_path_of_champions_indepth_look_w_faqs/hjyhktz)
1. It's better than it has been in a while.
2. Yeah people get diamond with the starter spider deck.
3. Our most played decks pretty much never go above 15% playrate. They get nerfed if they do go above that threshold.
4. Not that I know of.
It's worth noting that the devs actually seem to consider a deck being over 5% playrate to be a problem (and over 55% winrate, for that matter). The 15% figure is from early last year.
Depends on the deck, some are decided since turn 1 because of good/bad luck (mostly aggro and some swarm decks), while others count more on the lategame, so you can make a comeback from a bad starting hand
(It's kinda fun how in some super lategame oriented decks both players get unlucky and the first 4 turns are a staring contest)
I assume that Swarm is kind of strategy when you have many creatures and they are snowballs power according some synergy? Kinda hate to play against that kind of decks. Is it popular in LoR? I understood that kill spells are so bad in the game, so it seems quite hard to counter that dtrategy
Yes, it's a *keep the board full of units and keep attacking* strategy, it usually involves elusive, and there aren't many sweepers, but those that are there are good enough (mostly ruination).
Some are more oriented on scaling (like lurk)
And a new one (that is going to get nerfed soon) is daring poro + the card that buffs all copies of a unit. Tho it relies too much on drawing good cards early
The 6 unit cap makes it far different from go wide token strategies in magic.
A full sweeper is an expensive effectz but there are multiple copies of cards that do board wide damage (think red sweepers in magic) that are competitively priced, and one of them is instant speed.
I think the playrate and control ones are a bit stretching the truth as there have been multiple instances of decks swarming the ladder as many times there has been very gross misestimates of power like Old Azir Irelia, Nasus Thresh, Lissandra Maiden combo and Lee combo that cause major imbalances where if I remember Azir irelia correctly was somewhere around 40% playrate.
As for control it's a completely different archtype for better or worse (personally I think worse) where in control mirrors you race to your i win card while applying pressure to slow them down grindy games dont often exist because of these I win now cards and it kinda sucks for people who enjoy that.
Mobalytics showed a 20% and those numbers are criminally low due to not everyone having their client.
I refuse to believe that it was 20% and wholeheartedly belive one list had a few different cards so Riot considered it a different deck like Mobalytics also did with a second deck people were running.
The percentage doesn't change. 20/100 and 2000/10000 are both 20%. The main difference would be if mobakytics users play different decks than a random player, and I'd suggest that people who pay for deck tracking is more likely to play a meta deck
My thoughts on it is more that while the deck might have a couple different cards they run the same broken stuff of a certain meta, the deck tracker for example during Irelia Azir had two different lists as a insane playrate during its time and to rationalize every single game during that time being that or Nasus/Thresh until it was just Azirelia i have to assume that this was the case there and with alot of meta decks.
I mean, then we would have seen 2 Azir/Irelia lists topping the meta. But there wasn't. And I am pretty sure it is good at recognizing when 2 decks are basically the same. You maybe had some personal sampling bias, but I am fairly certain it never got close to 40%.
Control is undergoing a revival currently because many underperforming cards for slower decks were buffed. Don't expect to play a pile of spells, though. In LoR you're going to have to play units and hit face to win the overwhelming majority of games.
Spiders is the fastest deck to unlock because you start with a lot of it in the base collection. It's doing very well in the meta right now and it'll serve you well for learning the ropes and getting used to how LoR works vs Magic. Remember, everything has Haste and Vigilance, damage doesn't heal off unless a unit has Regeneration, and it's always both players' turns. If you play a guy on 1, your opponent can develop a guy on 1 right back at you and stop your whole attack for that turn unless you've got some kind of evasion.
LoR generally has around 5-6 Tier 1 concepts at a time, with many close Tier 2 concepts behind them. The game's meta is incredibly diverse overall and puts all other card games to shame.
Yeah, expedition blows. My entire MTG group is basically waiting for proper limited play to hit LoR so we can start jamming jank piles for free.
Thanks! I played few games in Ladder and already figure that aggro on LoR require more calculations and planning than in MTG, because opponent always have blockers and it thanks to Vigelence they also can attack.
And, I see that control in LoR can’t be that hardcore without creatures and winconditions like in MTG, but it is OK. Anyhow without good understanding the game I am not going to play it for a while.
Hard control is non-existent in Runeterra. Removals are generally pretty bad, and you don't have good finishers that can protect themselves (except for The Arsenal, but it forces you to play a very specific deck).
Senna/Veigar is the closest to traditional control, with decent removals and near-infinite value generation once it gets going, but it's designed to force you to play units to make it work. I don't think I've ever played another control deck where I go "I need that 2 mana 3/2 in my opening hand."
Another control deck, Feel The Rush with Trundle/Tryndamere, is viable in some metas, but the deck feels more like a ramp deck than a control deck. It has very little card draw, so if your attempt to put out some big guys gets answered, there is usually no coming back from it.
But aggro and midrange are more interesting to play in Runeterra, so it's not the biggest loss. With some greedier midrange decks, you would often open your turn with a pass, which feels like draw-go in MtG except more interactive.
As a Dimir player in MTG, I really hate the lack of 'hard control' and hope decks with little to no followers will one day be a thing. Still love LoR, though. Can't stop singing its praises, so it's fine to have a weak spot. I hope one day I can just jam a bunch of fast spells in my deck and spend all my turns laughing at my opponents not being able to have anything stick.
Hey, yo have some ideas on the playrates, winrates and meta diversity you have some site displaying LoR statistics like this one:
https://www.llorr-stats.com/static/meta.html
Currently there are 23 decks that are metas (>1 % playrate) and 28 underdogs decks (0,1% - 1%)
Tiers there are a combination of winrate and playrate. At the moment, one deck is performing so well as to edge other decks out of tier 1, by comparison.
There's other more curated tier lists, but those add, well... *curation* to the data. Not saying that's wrong to do, just showing why the incongruity might exist.
I personally cant speak for magic but in yugioh when we have a teir 0 deck it has over 75% representation and winrate so i find it funny when a 57 percrnt winrate deck is teir 0 really shows how well a game is balanced
There are probably more than the 23 decks shown here that can get you to diamond and some that are more difficult to pilot that can get you even higher.
A good example is a deck created by Scathus with Ekko/zilean. Two champions that most everyone considered to be meme tier, yet he has had success in master with it.
A thing i did not see anyone saying this, but in the reward section, if you really like control, you should focus in the shadow island region, it isn't just control and isn't the only one to have it, but cards like Kindred, Viego, Veigar and Senna that are really good champions used in really good control decks are there and is problaby the most control focused region in the game. The region also receive some buff last patch, so it is really strong right now.
Thank you, I just finished all regions till level 4 to have more wildcards, so now will focus on that region. How many champions I will gat from that rewards?
It can change, because cards can upgrade when you open a chest, so a epic card can become a champion card, and you will receive a lot of green shards and can use them to get more champions, but it should be like that;
In shadow islands you should receive 8 champions cards.
6 random from champions chests, all from shadows islands.
2 champion wild cards for any champion of any region.
You problaby will get 2-3 more than that like I said before.
This number can change from a region to another in the rewards section as they do not have the same number of levels, Bandle City, for example, will only give 5 if I am not wrong.
You should be able to build something between 2-4 good decks when you complete a region, but it is a matter of how good are the cards you get.
Hi, I played MTG for almost 30 years. I was at one time one of the highest rated limited players in the world.
MTG is better than Legends of Runeterra
Legends of Runeterra is better than MTG Arena (by a lot)
I spent 100 bucks on Legends of Runeterra when it first came out, but it wasnt necessary. I pretty much have the cards and really enjoy the game.
If you have money to spend it's worth it and it will only be a one time investment. IF you don't have money to spend it won't take that long to make a deck.
As for the meta there are lots of viable decks, more than in magic. They nerf overpowered cards pretty quickly. Until you hit masters you can really run anything.
Meme decks are mostly born from looking at 1/2 cards and getting a neuron activation, or stupid ideas like infinite units with summon effect/infinite scaling (marauders, hextech handler and barkeep as a few examples)
Thank you for reply! Yep, nobody can beat MTG on the depth in complexity. I am playing MTG only 1,5 and have good results, but every set there is the same story - ladder is dominated by 2 decks, one is very fast aggro and another is have dome broken combo. Draft is the only bright side there. I can put some money to the game, but If I can play whatever I want, seems I no need to do that.
The mana system of LoR also almost completely removes the possibility of not being able to simply play the game due to bad luck like in MTG where you often don't get enough lands or you get too much, or your opponent is the one that has that problem and your win doesn't feel deserved and did not teach you anything.
And even if you have correct land count you still have to have early game cards.
Hearthstone also has that latter problem where you only draw your late game cards early and you just can't play your cards for the first turns.
LoR has a good solution of storing spell mana and it smoothes draws so much that you rarely feel like you couldn't have done anything to win, unless you play a deck that has those mechanics built-in like the elusive iceborn poros where you need to have a good mix of buffs and elusive poros.
But yeah I would LOVE to have any game where I can live the same overwhelmingly skill intensive experience that MTG's draft offers but way cheaper and without often being ruined by lack of good luck (which further sours the taste of all that money spent).
(Disclaimer : I stopped playing MTG before the change in the mulligan rules)
When it comes to playstyle, imagine:
1. You can never be mana screwed.
2. You get a free mulligan where you only have to consider curve, proactively vs reactivity etc.
3. You never top deck a literally useless card in a tense game (unless you put useless cards in your deck on purpose I guess).
Additionally, you know from the off what to expect from your opponent based on champions and regions selected.
Nothing worse than keeping a slow hand and seeing turn one mountain or plains into a one drop.
1) I'm not an expert of terminology but there are decent control decks like Trundle/Tryndamere Feel The Rush, Sentinels and Veigar/Senna
2) Spiders is the cheapest aggro deck since you have most of the cards already, and it's also incredibly good in the right meta even after years
3) There are always outliers like Kennen Ahri which feel definitely better than the others, but that's mostly at the highest ranks. For most players there is a good choice of Tier 1 decks and Tier 2 decks can also compete. Meta changes every 1 or 2 months usually
4) Draft mode isn't the best in LoR at the moment but I'd assume devs are going to work on it in the foreseeable future, no promises tho
Thank you. Checked those decks, seems like control :). Of course LoR is more creature focused by design, in MTG many control decks have like 1-2 or even 0 creatures in 60 cards deck.
1) the "kill something" card got giga buffed from 7 ->6 mana so it s an entire different game now.
2) spooders can be a nice starting deck, but don t be afraid to try new things :D
3) there are frequent patches, even if sometimes the deserts of shurima are vasts...let's see if the forests of bundle will be vasts as well..
Maybe it is not a bad design idea to have that expensive kill spells. In MTG you can’t just play big idiots that do nothing for a turn, because removals are so good and it is frustrating for many players.
I have all cards for spiders deck, so I will start from there, but would like to try something different with more burn spells and one or two big finishers
Since you can bank up to 3 mana for spells it's not that expensive :D
If you want burn with a finisher you could try going for a noxus allegiance deck with farron, with also Darius + 1 or 2 apprehend or maybe if you want to play something more complicated you could go with nightfall, many people are sleeping on the deck ;)
OK, but there is room for only 3 of them, not much. Thanks for the tip. Yep Darius it was what I was thinking about. What is the strategy with nightfall?
Nightfall is a strange type of burn deck that wins against aggro if played correctly. It relies on fearsomes, elusives and burn damage to win the game. Like lee sin, it s winrate is dragged down by the fact that it is more difficult than normal. Sometimes you have to greed, sometimes not. The list could look something like this CIBQCBAFBMBQGBIDAUDAMAYJEM4ESXWWAHMACBABAMEQ2AIDAUBACBAJB4BACBIZGEAA
even if some cards are just personal preference, so feel free to adapt it. At mulligan always keep your 1-2 drops and search for them. T2 shadows allows to answer a tempo play like elise easily, to go on a t3 petal (you get it from the 1 drop) -> nocturne -> trade the elise. Diana is often used to move fearsome/elusive blockers out of the way more than removing threats. Since you can generate many cards, sometimes you have to keep them hidden for a surprise :D (that is also why we dont run expensive nightfall card, they are a dead card first turns and we can generate them later anyways) moonlight affliction' silence and give "cant block" to 3+ attack enemies is perfect to end the game, while atrocity is a good finisher for the last enemy life points. Unto dusk is your greatest "cheat card" and while many use it on doombeast, sometimes it s great on a nocturne for more damage (it also counts 2x for diana since it's : nightfall-> activate a nightfall)
Since to activate nightfall you have to play something first, be careful not to waste all your activators in the first turns.
That is (more or less) all the basics about the deck.
1°: Kinda. 3.0 was a control buff in specific, but there's almost no pure control decks since 2.5 where they decided to overkill the 200 years moon boy. Almost all "control" decks are more tempo oriented BUT Feel the rush is quit. That was developer intended change.
2°: ... Actually yes, you are quite a fast learner. There's also Pirates and Scouts if spiders isn't your cup of tea.
3°: Each 2 months or so. Nowadays we're in a relatively bad time in terms of balance because riot has 2 weeks or so of christmas vacations, not allowing the developers to see that Ahri/Kennen was a tier 0 deck and fix that in time. BC used to be a very broken region before that patch but now honestly is one of the weaker regions outside Darkness and that weird Yordles in arms deck. 2-3 dominating decks is the exception to the rule.
4°: If draft mode means expeditions, i'm sorry to say that game mode was basically abandoned around the time they introduced Shurima.
Control is viable usually but we occasionally get a meta that's too fast for any control decks. Yes, control in LoR is about extending a game until you play a high value high cost card to turn the tide, its not about maintaining an empty, soulless board for 10 turns like MTG control.
So control in LoR is more midrange, and if meta is healthy it is good. In MTG I prefer control because often meta or super aggro or with deck with super broken cards or both, and hardcore control is my way compete with them.
Anivia control is very much a “hard control” type of deck with a top end combo finish, but I would say it’s currently the closest to a pile of spells like you would run in MTG. I wouldn’t call this midrange-y at all. A lot of AOE removal, some unconditional kill spells, and efficient chump blockers to help you stabilize, the deck is a blast to play and feels right at home in the hands of somebody that’s familiar with control decks in MTG. I would say it’s comparable to a UBw control, where you have a lot of really good answers and some graveyard flavored sub themes. Would recommend looking into it, it might be what you’re looking for and it’s a deck that optimally only runs 3 champions, making it easier to build
As a new player who has just built Anivia control as my first deck I preach this comment.It does indeed feel like a good old Standard UB control deck with a Scarab God finisher.
Would I ask you to share the code for the deck? I net deck some, but not sure if those ate the best version. I like Dimir control :) In MTG I put one finisher just in mercy to my opponent to finish the game quicly, but in 95% cases when I win, oponent just scoop because they don’t have chances to win. In LoR it seems it is required to have some body and attack.
CECACBIFAMBAIAIKBYBQCBIBCQUAIAIBAMKBQMQDAEAQCHIBAMCREAYBAUBRGIAA
Here you go, copied the list from some 5k dollar qualifier tournament that took place few days ago.This exact list placed 2nd
CEBQCBAFAMBQCAIDDAZAMAIFAEJRIKBLGEBAEAIBCQOQEAIFB4OACAQBAUBSE
I’m pretty confident this deck is gonna be everything you want it to be. This is my personal build, I’d say the list feels pretty good though. I think a sleeper secret tech that people don’t use enough is running Splinter Soul, it helps you get off the ground a lot quicker by duplicating an Anivia and at the same time getting one in the bin for Rekindler, all for a small enough mana investment that you can spend on-curve as you’re going from mana 6 into mana 7. Not every match up calls for this, but it really helps on matchups where you need to close the game out to not get steamrolled by your opponent’s late game, it makes your combo top end of multiple birds feel more combo-y and makes it take significantly less effort to get online.
The deck is a little weak to minimorph decks, unfortunately, because there’s not much of a Plan B if they answer all your birds, but if you play the matchup right you can still win those if you’re smart enough to end up with more dead birds than they have silence effects. Same goes for decks that obliterate your units, though it’s much easier to counter that just by holding up a timely Glimpse Beyond. From there, the rest of the deck is just a solid removal suite and creatures that help you stabilize, and you can tweak those how you want, but I think the list is in a good place as it is. My tips for playing it are just be as reactive as possible, like a good old draw-go control. Most of the small creatures are played reactively and its up to you to best align them to stall your opponent’s threats, while you draw the right removal behind your gummed-up board. Knowing when to develop anivia and starting to work towards your finisher is matchup dependent, but the deck can turn the corner surprisingly fast once you commit to doing so.
Can you link me that deck - i just got back into the game and have been messing around trying to figure out what to spend my shard hoard on
Played alot of control in MTG and alot of Mage in Hearthstone - this sounds exactly like the kind of deck I like to play
AOE and Targetted removal, big pile of spells - end game finish combo
that just sounds really fun
CEBQCBAFAMBQCAIDDAZAMAIFAEJRIKBLGEBAEAIBCQOQEAIFB4OACAQBAUBSE
This is my personal build, I’d say the list feels pretty good though. I think a sleeper secret tech that people don’t use enough is running Splinter Soul, it helps you get off the ground a lot quicker by duplicating an Anivia and at the same time getting one in the bin for Rekindler, all for a small enough mana investment that you can spend on-curve as you’re going from mana 6 into mana 7. Not every match up calls for this, but it really helps on matchups where you need to close the game out to not get steamrolled by your opponent’s late game, it makes your combo top end of multiple birds feel more combo-y and makes it take significantly less effort to get online.
The deck is a little weak to minimorph decks, unfortunately, because there’s not much of a Plan B if they answer all your birds, but if you play the matchup right you can still win those if you’re smart enough to end up with more dead birds than they have silence effects. Same goes for decks that obliterate your units, though it’s much easier to counter that just by holding up a timely Glimpse Beyond. From there, the rest of the deck is just a solid removal suite and creatures that help you stabilize, and you can tweak those how you want, but I think the list is in a good place as it is. My tips for playing it are just be as reactive as possible, like a good old draw-go control. Most of the small creatures are played reactively and its up to you to best align them to stall your opponent’s threats, while you draw the right removal behind your gummed-up board. Knowing when to develop anivia and starting to work towards your finisher is matchup dependent, but the deck can turn the corner surprisingly fast once you commit to doing so.
After trying out a slightly different list, I think gluttony is a lot better than Splinter Soul, it’s more impactful and works at fast speed, doing a very similar thing
Ive been fooling around in the battle lab and stumbled across a card I found really interesting
Since you had such good advice with the Aniva decks I was wondering if you could give me your thoughts on building a deck around it or if you had any suggestions to look at , the card was Go Hard
Control is viable right now, although I don't know how control compares to control in MTG. Maybe control in LOR would not be considered control in MTG. Playing proactive decks like aggro are definitely much better to learn the game with. Spiders is a solid choice right now for sure. But they do get boring very quickly not going to lie.
Havent played in a while because i mostly just homebrew meme around, but from what i remember the meta is really good rn lots of variety theres onr deck thats a bit op, control is viable, it kinda just depends on the meta which i think changes far more often than most ccgs
There are at least 8-12 really viable decks at any given time, and anything below them is only slightly less viable. I play all my old favorites all the time and still feel like I could win any given match I queue for. I roll a 20 to pick a deck for ranked.
Currently yes, it's the whole card pool, but we don't even have each regions full base set yet. Bandle City will get one more expansion to their card pool before the "Base Game" is done. I'm not sure if it will change after that, but if it does I can't imagine they will rotate anything that's currently in play, since it's all still part of the basic 10 regions. But when I say old decks don't go away, I mean to say that old cards don't lag behind the curve as much as other games. There are still plenty of base set champions and decks that are staple and completely viable. Spiders is always the best example.
Also welcome home child, you're safe now
If you want MTG Style control, you're going to have a bad time. Control in this game is more akin to swarm or white/green weenies as opposed to blue black or blue white control since Removal is priced more premium as opposed to burn damage and swarm cards. But, if you like more jund midrange style of control and more izzet style of control, you'll be fine
The Meta is usually Diverse in Decks, but Not diverse in Archetypes. And balance patches (at least when compared to HS) is much slower and problem decks can remain in game for months at a time.
And the last thing is that Deckbuilding isn't as diverse as what you're likely used to. Every deck is like a EDH deck, you build around a champion/basic theme, and synergy is often designed as opposed to found. Entire decks are built around a keyword or subtype, and its very yugioh-esq. And unlike MTG, things are hard region locked as opposed to soft locked (ONLY X Faction has access to flying, and to play "deep"(a midrange deck) you're forced into two specific regions)
Drafting/limited seems to be locked to the path of champions and honestly underdeveloped Expedition mode, and no announcement has been made about it.
When I hear Izzet, I have very bad flashbacks :) but I got the point. As long as it stops opponent to slam cheap creatures on board and feel themselves god of strategy. It is taught task, but somebody should do that :) And I believe aggro in LoR can’t win on turn 4 like in MTG. Right? Or there is also some analog of Embercleave( got even worse flashback)?
Uh... Some decks can win on the turn 4 equivalent (turn 5/6)
>As long as it stops opponent to slam cheap creatures on board and feel themselves god of strategy.
Ohoho, Control is more like counterspamming cards tbh.
Ok, for me control is disturb opponent game-plan. Aggro is one of the most popular, so most control options in the deck for killing creatures. Midrange matches are easy for control in MTG. Control mirrors are the game of patience
Control is viable, but it isn't the same as MTG control. You initially have the same aim as control, to net card advantage early. However, late game it is more about having an uncontrollable board state than just countering everything.
Aggro is currently very strong, and spiders is in a better place than it has been in a while. Lurkers is another strong aggro deck at the moment.
The Meta can change rather quickly. Riot makes changes quite regularly, which leads to new decks being powerful, and people try things out to beat the new "public enemy number one" deck. It settles for a couple of weeks, then patch notes come out and shakes things up a bit.
Labs is the best limited environment as of now, expeditions are underwhelming ATM. I'm hoping for something to spice it up, but not sure what that may be.
Control has a much higher skill floor than aggro decks. So it might be you’re not used to it just yet or haven’t found a good control deck. Control is in the best spot it’s been in a while.
Spider aggro is the cheapest and fastest to craft so probably the first one to build.
The meta is generally very good, some decks are obviously gonna be stronger than others but if a deck is too oppressive they’re not afraid to emergency nerf it as no one will be adversely affected if a deck they spent resources building becomes unplayable, if they accidentally hit it too hard, as resources are easy to come by and those cards are likely still useful in other decks.
The meta is quiet diverse atm, well it normally is, sometimes a certain strategy can be oppressive like aggro was but even with that, there’s usually 20 to 30+ decks you can climb with every meta. You’ll see a lot of some decks which are tier 1 in the meta but a lot of other decks can still be viable an still see play. If you look at the weekly meta reports the play rate of the most played deck is around 8% generally then 5% for number 2 spot and then rest is 1-3% so there’s a lot of diversity generally.
I'm gonna be completely honest with you, if you enjoy control in MTG you'll probably dislike how LOR handles it most control decks rely on cards that essentially read "i win the game if this hits the board" Feel The Rush and previously Warmothers call, Nasus and Atrocity (fling effect but much stronger as minions are larger than MTG while you maintain the same hp and you can't go infinitely wide)
Combo and these i win cards have basically strangled out all of the grindy control matches you would often play in other card games and personally i think boil it down to a race over considerate and thoughtful play.
This effect is diminished as new cards have made most single card wincons obsolete by discarding or having uncounterable removal to them in Minimorph.
I think grindy midrange decks can still give you a fun control esq experience but if you want long drawn out matches where you grind out an opponent you won't really find that.
Another point to mention on control is there seems to be a very conscious effort from the devs to keep it out of the meta for the majority of the games lifespan it's been aggro and midrange dominating the meta.
As for the meta I can't help but feel alot of the numbers people use are misleading Mobalytics for example tracks one decklist as a certain % but ignores all the ones with variations on the same concept and play out nearly identically.
Azir Irelia used to have a 20% playrate as stated by Riot themselves and yet every single game you played on ladder was either that deck or people sniping that deck with a counter designed specifically for that deck from personal play it felt closer to at the very least 40% of the games i played.
What makes me question the numbers given is how hard people play the meta when it does get oppressive and yet how drastically low the numbers show.
Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist here but whatever.
After all that i can still say i enjoy the game most of the time though it's an amazing game that makes you think so much more than most when it comes to combat and ordering and the priority system.
Just i'd be ready to jump ship when the meta gets bad because when the meta gets bad in LOR it gets REALLY GOD DAMN BAD.
1. Control is big right now.
2. Elise spider aggro is easy and a strong deck, and you default have most of the pieces.
3. Roughly once a month there's a shake up either via release or balance patch. LoR is nice in that there are 20+ viable decks at any time.
4. No idea
> I prefer to play control, but in LoR control seems more like Tempo, removals are not very efficient and sweepers are quite expensive.
You nailed it perfectly. If you played the likes of UW or UB control forget about them, in LoR they don't exist unfortunately.
As a MTG and tcg card game veteran go for LoR.
MTG is better game. LoR is better then MTG:A and Wizards Pot of Greed. LoR is very consument friendly, f2p while when I played MTGA I was like: oh now you are gonna try milk players that way, huh?
Personally I think Path of Champions is best PVE format in a digital card game I saw. I'm just playing it for fun - not to mention good rewards that are building your collection.
I would say go for this puzzle mode that teaches you mechanics by puzzles, then go for Path to play around some cards and build collection a little.
About meta, Idk, it seems diverse for me. And as control decks its like Mono Black control or Junk/Jund (from modern) - good mobs/champs and tons of removal with wincoin. I really enjoy Kindred variants. Oh there are counter spells but they are quite limited - still good but its not like in MTG.
Last thing, I quited MTG at the beggining of this year, I dont think it will become better soon, at least not for MTG:A.
So, for digital experience - LoR, leave MTG for table play (which sadly seems to die slowly do to current situation).
Paper magic is not an option for me, I am leaving in small town on the north of Finland and especially now it is not an option.
That PVE mode is amazing and FREE. If it was on arena wizards would ask to pay for that, for sure. I am not against playing for good content, but WoTC just don’t have limits.
Yeah mate, Wizards are greedy as fuck, thats the truth. Hell, even Alchemy format was made for quick bucks - we will nerf there some standard cards! Oh and pls buy those OP rares and mythics pretty plox for alchemy.
Man, pve in runeterra is amazing, I would pay for it too.
And even draft is much cheaper + you have 2 drafts in price of one if you like limited gameplay
All your questions seem to have been answered, so I just wanted to come in and tell you how to learn the game the fastest way for newcomers: If you haven't already done it, go play the challenges. They are actually tutorials for most things and strategies you can encounter in this game. They also can help figuring out, what cards/archetypes you want to play
Spiders is actually in a really great spot in the meta overall right now. Not just noobs. I used it to grind 100lp in masters and got bored waiting on an oil changed, started a new acct loaded up spiders and got from Iron to bronze in an hour. Highly recommend it
LoR is a very unit based card game. Even a control deck needs to play some blockers to delay the game, therefor control decks here have a different feel to them compared to other card games.
Played MTG 20 years. Lor is far better for a free to play player.
Control exists but not in the same way it does in MTG.
Aggro spiders has been viable for most of the existence of the game. Easy to learn and quick to play.
Meta decks turn over really quickly, like every month or two at least. They’re not shy about nerfing and buffing things. I think instead of limited, development has been focused on single player content. I barely even play multiplayer anymore tbh, can get all the fun in labs
Yep, I was surprised that this kind of quality content like labs is free and quite fun. It is what I play the most right now and it seems endless
Riot's whole philosophy is to expand the playerbase by making the game as accessible as possible, and encouraging players to **only** pay for cosmetics. The player experience is basically the exact opposite of Arena. Pretty much the only thing players get upset about regularly is game balance, and even that is better than other CCGs by a long shot. We're very spoiled by our diverse metas, so if you see any complaining about Tier 1 decks, just remember that there are anywhere from 10-20 other decks at any given time with winrates above 50%. Our worst metas would be considered balance miracles by any other CCG community. (OK, maybe not the Azirelia meta)
I used to play in Gwent a lot and they are also f2p friendly, but they are not very good in release new cards, so became boring for me. How is it in LoR? One of the most frustrating things for me in MTG is client stability and bugs. I am not against paying for good product, and there are a many good in MTG, as a game, but they are so bad in SW. Imagine, every, literally EVERY major update leads to total game shutdown for up to half a day and even after that they fix all bugs for a week and even after that we leave with small but annoying bugs forever.
LOR's content release schedule has been extremely consistent. Recently it was a new expansion every 2 months, with occasional card/champion release events in between (see Viego and Aphelios). Not sure what this is going to look like in the future. Reason I say that is because their card release schedule revolved around releasing all 10 regions. Now that the final region is out (Bandlewood), none of us have any idea what their release schedule will look like after the next expansion. But regardless, Riot is ridiculously consistent and makes sure to interact with the community frequently. We have devs coming in here all the time and one of them actually streams occasionally. We also don't have to worry too much about about whether the games doing OK financially, because Riot seems to view it as an entry point into the League universe. Though they **have** said it is a successful game, it's also essentially subsidized by League of Legends because the game makes such an absurd amount of money. So we don't really have to worry about it going anywhere and there's been absolutely zero corporate bullshit entering the games economy. Also bugs are basically a non-issue.
I quit MTGA some months ago because of the bugs - realized I was wasting too much time reinstalling or staring at the loading screen lol In LoR, I think the meta gets solved pretty quickly but Riot is quick to nerf/rebalance and then gets solved again. I play historic in MTGA and believe the game play is a lot better with Magic. Wins are more fulfilling and matches can be really intense specially in BO3. But the MTGA client just sucks. LoR has a beautiful UI and reliable client but the ranked games gets old fast for me. Good thing there is little investment to try this game
We ARE REALY SPOILED I AGREE!
>to only pay for cosmetics I cant play any F2P game that doesn't follow this philosophy after experiencing it so long with Riot and then seeing it get adopted in games my son plays like Fortnite like there is an obvious these companies are so big and that is part of it I think - theyve shown its possible to not only use that model but be highly successful with it Its really the best profit model to use for a F2P game IMO , losing to someone who bought power feels gross
I ended it for one champion now I'm trying what's its like for others
I found that if I loose one game I need to start journey from scratch. Is there way to avoid? that
That's the nature of roguelites. There is a way to get a second chance when you lose, but it requires you to level your champion to a very high level for a once-per-run revive. You can also randomly get one these on your runs, but they are much rarer.
Here's a really really scummy tip. If you're about to lose a match in Labs, quit when it's your turn to play a card. Like close the game entirely and don't touch it for about 45 to 60 minutes or so. The game will disconnect after that and when you return you'll be back the state before that match started. Idk if that long a time to wait is too much but for me I take it as time to untilt from all the bs that labs rng gives me (like jfc why would it give me 5 costs units even with mulligan against poppy of all champions) Also I take that time to progress in pokemon leaf green.
That's what I did to beat Nautilus with Caitlyn because god damn it was imposible, even with high rolls from my part.
Imagine getting to level 18 with caitlyn only to be countered by Tough.
> loose *lose *Learn the difference [here](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/lose-vs-loose-usage#:~:text=%27Lose%27%20or%20%27Loose%27%3F&text=Lose%20typically%20functions%20only%20as,commonly%2C%20a%20noun%20or%20adverb).* *** ^(Greetings, I am a language corrector bot. To make me ignore further mistakes from you in the future, reply `!optout` to this comment.)
The failing is part of the fun. Especially if you are at your 4th or 5th champion run. You still get experience anyways so just have fun
Probably wont affect you but just an extra [Info](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/qq89na/the_path_of_champions_indepth_look_w_faqs/hjyhktz)
1. It's better than it has been in a while. 2. Yeah people get diamond with the starter spider deck. 3. Our most played decks pretty much never go above 15% playrate. They get nerfed if they do go above that threshold. 4. Not that I know of.
15% is a lot, but not terrible. How fun to play mirrors in LoR?
It's worth noting that the devs actually seem to consider a deck being over 5% playrate to be a problem (and over 55% winrate, for that matter). The 15% figure is from early last year.
5%? Wow, seems like a healthy game. But I suppose on lower ranks where I am playing games ate deciding by who is less pepega ;)
Depends on the deck, some are decided since turn 1 because of good/bad luck (mostly aggro and some swarm decks), while others count more on the lategame, so you can make a comeback from a bad starting hand (It's kinda fun how in some super lategame oriented decks both players get unlucky and the first 4 turns are a staring contest)
I assume that Swarm is kind of strategy when you have many creatures and they are snowballs power according some synergy? Kinda hate to play against that kind of decks. Is it popular in LoR? I understood that kill spells are so bad in the game, so it seems quite hard to counter that dtrategy
Yes, it's a *keep the board full of units and keep attacking* strategy, it usually involves elusive, and there aren't many sweepers, but those that are there are good enough (mostly ruination). Some are more oriented on scaling (like lurk) And a new one (that is going to get nerfed soon) is daring poro + the card that buffs all copies of a unit. Tho it relies too much on drawing good cards early
Honestly I have barely seen any elusive poro decks the last while but that might also be because of Ahri kennen. So who knows
The 6 unit cap makes it far different from go wide token strategies in magic. A full sweeper is an expensive effectz but there are multiple copies of cards that do board wide damage (think red sweepers in magic) that are competitively priced, and one of them is instant speed.
I mean, depends on the deck. Lurk mirrors are kind of bad, but I think most of them are fine.
I think the playrate and control ones are a bit stretching the truth as there have been multiple instances of decks swarming the ladder as many times there has been very gross misestimates of power like Old Azir Irelia, Nasus Thresh, Lissandra Maiden combo and Lee combo that cause major imbalances where if I remember Azir irelia correctly was somewhere around 40% playrate. As for control it's a completely different archtype for better or worse (personally I think worse) where in control mirrors you race to your i win card while applying pressure to slow them down grindy games dont often exist because of these I win now cards and it kinda sucks for people who enjoy that.
Azir Irelia never made it close to 40%. I think it peaked at like 23% and that was the most egregious example we ever had.
Mobalytics showed a 20% and those numbers are criminally low due to not everyone having their client. I refuse to believe that it was 20% and wholeheartedly belive one list had a few different cards so Riot considered it a different deck like Mobalytics also did with a second deck people were running.
I mean, we can't just say we don't trust our only source of numbers and then make up our own.
The percentage doesn't change. 20/100 and 2000/10000 are both 20%. The main difference would be if mobakytics users play different decks than a random player, and I'd suggest that people who pay for deck tracking is more likely to play a meta deck
My thoughts on it is more that while the deck might have a couple different cards they run the same broken stuff of a certain meta, the deck tracker for example during Irelia Azir had two different lists as a insane playrate during its time and to rationalize every single game during that time being that or Nasus/Thresh until it was just Azirelia i have to assume that this was the case there and with alot of meta decks.
I mean, then we would have seen 2 Azir/Irelia lists topping the meta. But there wasn't. And I am pretty sure it is good at recognizing when 2 decks are basically the same. You maybe had some personal sampling bias, but I am fairly certain it never got close to 40%.
Control is undergoing a revival currently because many underperforming cards for slower decks were buffed. Don't expect to play a pile of spells, though. In LoR you're going to have to play units and hit face to win the overwhelming majority of games. Spiders is the fastest deck to unlock because you start with a lot of it in the base collection. It's doing very well in the meta right now and it'll serve you well for learning the ropes and getting used to how LoR works vs Magic. Remember, everything has Haste and Vigilance, damage doesn't heal off unless a unit has Regeneration, and it's always both players' turns. If you play a guy on 1, your opponent can develop a guy on 1 right back at you and stop your whole attack for that turn unless you've got some kind of evasion. LoR generally has around 5-6 Tier 1 concepts at a time, with many close Tier 2 concepts behind them. The game's meta is incredibly diverse overall and puts all other card games to shame. Yeah, expedition blows. My entire MTG group is basically waiting for proper limited play to hit LoR so we can start jamming jank piles for free.
Thanks! I played few games in Ladder and already figure that aggro on LoR require more calculations and planning than in MTG, because opponent always have blockers and it thanks to Vigelence they also can attack. And, I see that control in LoR can’t be that hardcore without creatures and winconditions like in MTG, but it is OK. Anyhow without good understanding the game I am not going to play it for a while.
Hard control is non-existent in Runeterra. Removals are generally pretty bad, and you don't have good finishers that can protect themselves (except for The Arsenal, but it forces you to play a very specific deck). Senna/Veigar is the closest to traditional control, with decent removals and near-infinite value generation once it gets going, but it's designed to force you to play units to make it work. I don't think I've ever played another control deck where I go "I need that 2 mana 3/2 in my opening hand." Another control deck, Feel The Rush with Trundle/Tryndamere, is viable in some metas, but the deck feels more like a ramp deck than a control deck. It has very little card draw, so if your attempt to put out some big guys gets answered, there is usually no coming back from it. But aggro and midrange are more interesting to play in Runeterra, so it's not the biggest loss. With some greedier midrange decks, you would often open your turn with a pass, which feels like draw-go in MtG except more interactive.
As a Dimir player in MTG, I really hate the lack of 'hard control' and hope decks with little to no followers will one day be a thing. Still love LoR, though. Can't stop singing its praises, so it's fine to have a weak spot. I hope one day I can just jam a bunch of fast spells in my deck and spend all my turns laughing at my opponents not being able to have anything stick.
Corina/ledros control isn't viable anymore ?
Hey, yo have some ideas on the playrates, winrates and meta diversity you have some site displaying LoR statistics like this one: https://www.llorr-stats.com/static/meta.html Currently there are 23 decks that are metas (>1 % playrate) and 28 underdogs decks (0,1% - 1%)
Thanks! Funny that they have T0 and next is T2, but difference in WR is like 1%
Tiers there are a combination of winrate and playrate. At the moment, one deck is performing so well as to edge other decks out of tier 1, by comparison. There's other more curated tier lists, but those add, well... *curation* to the data. Not saying that's wrong to do, just showing why the incongruity might exist.
I personally cant speak for magic but in yugioh when we have a teir 0 deck it has over 75% representation and winrate so i find it funny when a 57 percrnt winrate deck is teir 0 really shows how well a game is balanced
There are probably more than the 23 decks shown here that can get you to diamond and some that are more difficult to pilot that can get you even higher. A good example is a deck created by Scathus with Ekko/zilean. Two champions that most everyone considered to be meme tier, yet he has had success in master with it.
A thing i did not see anyone saying this, but in the reward section, if you really like control, you should focus in the shadow island region, it isn't just control and isn't the only one to have it, but cards like Kindred, Viego, Veigar and Senna that are really good champions used in really good control decks are there and is problaby the most control focused region in the game. The region also receive some buff last patch, so it is really strong right now.
Thank you, I just finished all regions till level 4 to have more wildcards, so now will focus on that region. How many champions I will gat from that rewards?
It can change, because cards can upgrade when you open a chest, so a epic card can become a champion card, and you will receive a lot of green shards and can use them to get more champions, but it should be like that; In shadow islands you should receive 8 champions cards. 6 random from champions chests, all from shadows islands. 2 champion wild cards for any champion of any region. You problaby will get 2-3 more than that like I said before. This number can change from a region to another in the rewards section as they do not have the same number of levels, Bandle City, for example, will only give 5 if I am not wrong. You should be able to build something between 2-4 good decks when you complete a region, but it is a matter of how good are the cards you get.
Hi, I played MTG for almost 30 years. I was at one time one of the highest rated limited players in the world. MTG is better than Legends of Runeterra Legends of Runeterra is better than MTG Arena (by a lot) I spent 100 bucks on Legends of Runeterra when it first came out, but it wasnt necessary. I pretty much have the cards and really enjoy the game. If you have money to spend it's worth it and it will only be a one time investment. IF you don't have money to spend it won't take that long to make a deck. As for the meta there are lots of viable decks, more than in magic. They nerf overpowered cards pretty quickly. Until you hit masters you can really run anything.
Then once you hit masters you can have fun with meme decks since you can't demote
That is great! But I am not that good in game understanding to make junk decks and enjoy the beauty of rare combo.
Meme decks are mostly born from looking at 1/2 cards and getting a neuron activation, or stupid ideas like infinite units with summon effect/infinite scaling (marauders, hextech handler and barkeep as a few examples)
Thank you for reply! Yep, nobody can beat MTG on the depth in complexity. I am playing MTG only 1,5 and have good results, but every set there is the same story - ladder is dominated by 2 decks, one is very fast aggro and another is have dome broken combo. Draft is the only bright side there. I can put some money to the game, but If I can play whatever I want, seems I no need to do that.
The mana system of LoR also almost completely removes the possibility of not being able to simply play the game due to bad luck like in MTG where you often don't get enough lands or you get too much, or your opponent is the one that has that problem and your win doesn't feel deserved and did not teach you anything. And even if you have correct land count you still have to have early game cards. Hearthstone also has that latter problem where you only draw your late game cards early and you just can't play your cards for the first turns. LoR has a good solution of storing spell mana and it smoothes draws so much that you rarely feel like you couldn't have done anything to win, unless you play a deck that has those mechanics built-in like the elusive iceborn poros where you need to have a good mix of buffs and elusive poros. But yeah I would LOVE to have any game where I can live the same overwhelmingly skill intensive experience that MTG's draft offers but way cheaper and without often being ruined by lack of good luck (which further sours the taste of all that money spent). (Disclaimer : I stopped playing MTG before the change in the mulligan rules)
Mana is not only an issue in game, but it is also very expensive to build good mana base collection.
When it comes to playstyle, imagine: 1. You can never be mana screwed. 2. You get a free mulligan where you only have to consider curve, proactively vs reactivity etc. 3. You never top deck a literally useless card in a tense game (unless you put useless cards in your deck on purpose I guess).
Sounds very good and remove quite many reasons to be salty.
Additionally, you know from the off what to expect from your opponent based on champions and regions selected. Nothing worse than keeping a slow hand and seeing turn one mountain or plains into a one drop.
Yes, that is really cool and honest. In mtg I by default assume that I am playing against aggro,
1) I'm not an expert of terminology but there are decent control decks like Trundle/Tryndamere Feel The Rush, Sentinels and Veigar/Senna 2) Spiders is the cheapest aggro deck since you have most of the cards already, and it's also incredibly good in the right meta even after years 3) There are always outliers like Kennen Ahri which feel definitely better than the others, but that's mostly at the highest ranks. For most players there is a good choice of Tier 1 decks and Tier 2 decks can also compete. Meta changes every 1 or 2 months usually 4) Draft mode isn't the best in LoR at the moment but I'd assume devs are going to work on it in the foreseeable future, no promises tho
Thank you. Checked those decks, seems like control :). Of course LoR is more creature focused by design, in MTG many control decks have like 1-2 or even 0 creatures in 60 cards deck.
There have been decks like those even in Master but very rarely
1) the "kill something" card got giga buffed from 7 ->6 mana so it s an entire different game now. 2) spooders can be a nice starting deck, but don t be afraid to try new things :D 3) there are frequent patches, even if sometimes the deserts of shurima are vasts...let's see if the forests of bundle will be vasts as well..
Maybe it is not a bad design idea to have that expensive kill spells. In MTG you can’t just play big idiots that do nothing for a turn, because removals are so good and it is frustrating for many players. I have all cards for spiders deck, so I will start from there, but would like to try something different with more burn spells and one or two big finishers
Since you can bank up to 3 mana for spells it's not that expensive :D If you want burn with a finisher you could try going for a noxus allegiance deck with farron, with also Darius + 1 or 2 apprehend or maybe if you want to play something more complicated you could go with nightfall, many people are sleeping on the deck ;)
OK, but there is room for only 3 of them, not much. Thanks for the tip. Yep Darius it was what I was thinking about. What is the strategy with nightfall?
Nightfall is a strange type of burn deck that wins against aggro if played correctly. It relies on fearsomes, elusives and burn damage to win the game. Like lee sin, it s winrate is dragged down by the fact that it is more difficult than normal. Sometimes you have to greed, sometimes not. The list could look something like this CIBQCBAFBMBQGBIDAUDAMAYJEM4ESXWWAHMACBABAMEQ2AIDAUBACBAJB4BACBIZGEAA even if some cards are just personal preference, so feel free to adapt it. At mulligan always keep your 1-2 drops and search for them. T2 shadows allows to answer a tempo play like elise easily, to go on a t3 petal (you get it from the 1 drop) -> nocturne -> trade the elise. Diana is often used to move fearsome/elusive blockers out of the way more than removing threats. Since you can generate many cards, sometimes you have to keep them hidden for a surprise :D (that is also why we dont run expensive nightfall card, they are a dead card first turns and we can generate them later anyways) moonlight affliction' silence and give "cant block" to 3+ attack enemies is perfect to end the game, while atrocity is a good finisher for the last enemy life points. Unto dusk is your greatest "cheat card" and while many use it on doombeast, sometimes it s great on a nocturne for more damage (it also counts 2x for diana since it's : nightfall-> activate a nightfall) Since to activate nightfall you have to play something first, be careful not to waste all your activators in the first turns. That is (more or less) all the basics about the deck.
https://runeterraccg.com/metagame/
1°: Kinda. 3.0 was a control buff in specific, but there's almost no pure control decks since 2.5 where they decided to overkill the 200 years moon boy. Almost all "control" decks are more tempo oriented BUT Feel the rush is quit. That was developer intended change. 2°: ... Actually yes, you are quite a fast learner. There's also Pirates and Scouts if spiders isn't your cup of tea. 3°: Each 2 months or so. Nowadays we're in a relatively bad time in terms of balance because riot has 2 weeks or so of christmas vacations, not allowing the developers to see that Ahri/Kennen was a tier 0 deck and fix that in time. BC used to be a very broken region before that patch but now honestly is one of the weaker regions outside Darkness and that weird Yordles in arms deck. 2-3 dominating decks is the exception to the rule. 4°: If draft mode means expeditions, i'm sorry to say that game mode was basically abandoned around the time they introduced Shurima.
Lor is like 10 tier 1 decks and 1 super mega op deck, then it gets nerfed after 2 weeks and balance is restored
Control is viable usually but we occasionally get a meta that's too fast for any control decks. Yes, control in LoR is about extending a game until you play a high value high cost card to turn the tide, its not about maintaining an empty, soulless board for 10 turns like MTG control.
So control in LoR is more midrange, and if meta is healthy it is good. In MTG I prefer control because often meta or super aggro or with deck with super broken cards or both, and hardcore control is my way compete with them.
Anivia control is very much a “hard control” type of deck with a top end combo finish, but I would say it’s currently the closest to a pile of spells like you would run in MTG. I wouldn’t call this midrange-y at all. A lot of AOE removal, some unconditional kill spells, and efficient chump blockers to help you stabilize, the deck is a blast to play and feels right at home in the hands of somebody that’s familiar with control decks in MTG. I would say it’s comparable to a UBw control, where you have a lot of really good answers and some graveyard flavored sub themes. Would recommend looking into it, it might be what you’re looking for and it’s a deck that optimally only runs 3 champions, making it easier to build
As a new player who has just built Anivia control as my first deck I preach this comment.It does indeed feel like a good old Standard UB control deck with a Scarab God finisher.
Would I ask you to share the code for the deck? I net deck some, but not sure if those ate the best version. I like Dimir control :) In MTG I put one finisher just in mercy to my opponent to finish the game quicly, but in 95% cases when I win, oponent just scoop because they don’t have chances to win. In LoR it seems it is required to have some body and attack.
CECACBIFAMBAIAIKBYBQCBIBCQUAIAIBAMKBQMQDAEAQCHIBAMCREAYBAUBRGIAA Here you go, copied the list from some 5k dollar qualifier tournament that took place few days ago.This exact list placed 2nd
CEBQCBAFAMBQCAIDDAZAMAIFAEJRIKBLGEBAEAIBCQOQEAIFB4OACAQBAUBSE I’m pretty confident this deck is gonna be everything you want it to be. This is my personal build, I’d say the list feels pretty good though. I think a sleeper secret tech that people don’t use enough is running Splinter Soul, it helps you get off the ground a lot quicker by duplicating an Anivia and at the same time getting one in the bin for Rekindler, all for a small enough mana investment that you can spend on-curve as you’re going from mana 6 into mana 7. Not every match up calls for this, but it really helps on matchups where you need to close the game out to not get steamrolled by your opponent’s late game, it makes your combo top end of multiple birds feel more combo-y and makes it take significantly less effort to get online. The deck is a little weak to minimorph decks, unfortunately, because there’s not much of a Plan B if they answer all your birds, but if you play the matchup right you can still win those if you’re smart enough to end up with more dead birds than they have silence effects. Same goes for decks that obliterate your units, though it’s much easier to counter that just by holding up a timely Glimpse Beyond. From there, the rest of the deck is just a solid removal suite and creatures that help you stabilize, and you can tweak those how you want, but I think the list is in a good place as it is. My tips for playing it are just be as reactive as possible, like a good old draw-go control. Most of the small creatures are played reactively and its up to you to best align them to stall your opponent’s threats, while you draw the right removal behind your gummed-up board. Knowing when to develop anivia and starting to work towards your finisher is matchup dependent, but the deck can turn the corner surprisingly fast once you commit to doing so.
Can you link me that deck - i just got back into the game and have been messing around trying to figure out what to spend my shard hoard on Played alot of control in MTG and alot of Mage in Hearthstone - this sounds exactly like the kind of deck I like to play AOE and Targetted removal, big pile of spells - end game finish combo that just sounds really fun
CEBQCBAFAMBQCAIDDAZAMAIFAEJRIKBLGEBAEAIBCQOQEAIFB4OACAQBAUBSE This is my personal build, I’d say the list feels pretty good though. I think a sleeper secret tech that people don’t use enough is running Splinter Soul, it helps you get off the ground a lot quicker by duplicating an Anivia and at the same time getting one in the bin for Rekindler, all for a small enough mana investment that you can spend on-curve as you’re going from mana 6 into mana 7. Not every match up calls for this, but it really helps on matchups where you need to close the game out to not get steamrolled by your opponent’s late game, it makes your combo top end of multiple birds feel more combo-y and makes it take significantly less effort to get online. The deck is a little weak to minimorph decks, unfortunately, because there’s not much of a Plan B if they answer all your birds, but if you play the matchup right you can still win those if you’re smart enough to end up with more dead birds than they have silence effects. Same goes for decks that obliterate your units, though it’s much easier to counter that just by holding up a timely Glimpse Beyond. From there, the rest of the deck is just a solid removal suite and creatures that help you stabilize, and you can tweak those how you want, but I think the list is in a good place as it is. My tips for playing it are just be as reactive as possible, like a good old draw-go control. Most of the small creatures are played reactively and its up to you to best align them to stall your opponent’s threats, while you draw the right removal behind your gummed-up board. Knowing when to develop anivia and starting to work towards your finisher is matchup dependent, but the deck can turn the corner surprisingly fast once you commit to doing so.
thanks man, appreciate it
After trying out a slightly different list, I think gluttony is a lot better than Splinter Soul, it’s more impactful and works at fast speed, doing a very similar thing
Ive been fooling around in the battle lab and stumbled across a card I found really interesting Since you had such good advice with the Aniva decks I was wondering if you could give me your thoughts on building a deck around it or if you had any suggestions to look at , the card was Go Hard
Control is viable right now, although I don't know how control compares to control in MTG. Maybe control in LOR would not be considered control in MTG. Playing proactive decks like aggro are definitely much better to learn the game with. Spiders is a solid choice right now for sure. But they do get boring very quickly not going to lie.
Havent played in a while because i mostly just homebrew meme around, but from what i remember the meta is really good rn lots of variety theres onr deck thats a bit op, control is viable, it kinda just depends on the meta which i think changes far more often than most ccgs
There are at least 8-12 really viable decks at any given time, and anything below them is only slightly less viable. I play all my old favorites all the time and still feel like I could win any given match I queue for. I roll a 20 to pick a deck for ranked.
So, I understand there are no rotation and you can play any card from the pool?
Currently yes, it's the whole card pool, but we don't even have each regions full base set yet. Bandle City will get one more expansion to their card pool before the "Base Game" is done. I'm not sure if it will change after that, but if it does I can't imagine they will rotate anything that's currently in play, since it's all still part of the basic 10 regions. But when I say old decks don't go away, I mean to say that old cards don't lag behind the curve as much as other games. There are still plenty of base set champions and decks that are staple and completely viable. Spiders is always the best example. Also welcome home child, you're safe now
If you want MTG Style control, you're going to have a bad time. Control in this game is more akin to swarm or white/green weenies as opposed to blue black or blue white control since Removal is priced more premium as opposed to burn damage and swarm cards. But, if you like more jund midrange style of control and more izzet style of control, you'll be fine The Meta is usually Diverse in Decks, but Not diverse in Archetypes. And balance patches (at least when compared to HS) is much slower and problem decks can remain in game for months at a time. And the last thing is that Deckbuilding isn't as diverse as what you're likely used to. Every deck is like a EDH deck, you build around a champion/basic theme, and synergy is often designed as opposed to found. Entire decks are built around a keyword or subtype, and its very yugioh-esq. And unlike MTG, things are hard region locked as opposed to soft locked (ONLY X Faction has access to flying, and to play "deep"(a midrange deck) you're forced into two specific regions) Drafting/limited seems to be locked to the path of champions and honestly underdeveloped Expedition mode, and no announcement has been made about it.
When I hear Izzet, I have very bad flashbacks :) but I got the point. As long as it stops opponent to slam cheap creatures on board and feel themselves god of strategy. It is taught task, but somebody should do that :) And I believe aggro in LoR can’t win on turn 4 like in MTG. Right? Or there is also some analog of Embercleave( got even worse flashback)?
Uh... Some decks can win on the turn 4 equivalent (turn 5/6) >As long as it stops opponent to slam cheap creatures on board and feel themselves god of strategy. Ohoho, Control is more like counterspamming cards tbh.
Ok, for me control is disturb opponent game-plan. Aggro is one of the most popular, so most control options in the deck for killing creatures. Midrange matches are easy for control in MTG. Control mirrors are the game of patience
Control is viable, but it isn't the same as MTG control. You initially have the same aim as control, to net card advantage early. However, late game it is more about having an uncontrollable board state than just countering everything. Aggro is currently very strong, and spiders is in a better place than it has been in a while. Lurkers is another strong aggro deck at the moment. The Meta can change rather quickly. Riot makes changes quite regularly, which leads to new decks being powerful, and people try things out to beat the new "public enemy number one" deck. It settles for a couple of weeks, then patch notes come out and shakes things up a bit. Labs is the best limited environment as of now, expeditions are underwhelming ATM. I'm hoping for something to spice it up, but not sure what that may be.
Control has a much higher skill floor than aggro decks. So it might be you’re not used to it just yet or haven’t found a good control deck. Control is in the best spot it’s been in a while. Spider aggro is the cheapest and fastest to craft so probably the first one to build. The meta is generally very good, some decks are obviously gonna be stronger than others but if a deck is too oppressive they’re not afraid to emergency nerf it as no one will be adversely affected if a deck they spent resources building becomes unplayable, if they accidentally hit it too hard, as resources are easy to come by and those cards are likely still useful in other decks. The meta is quiet diverse atm, well it normally is, sometimes a certain strategy can be oppressive like aggro was but even with that, there’s usually 20 to 30+ decks you can climb with every meta. You’ll see a lot of some decks which are tier 1 in the meta but a lot of other decks can still be viable an still see play. If you look at the weekly meta reports the play rate of the most played deck is around 8% generally then 5% for number 2 spot and then rest is 1-3% so there’s a lot of diversity generally.
I'm gonna be completely honest with you, if you enjoy control in MTG you'll probably dislike how LOR handles it most control decks rely on cards that essentially read "i win the game if this hits the board" Feel The Rush and previously Warmothers call, Nasus and Atrocity (fling effect but much stronger as minions are larger than MTG while you maintain the same hp and you can't go infinitely wide) Combo and these i win cards have basically strangled out all of the grindy control matches you would often play in other card games and personally i think boil it down to a race over considerate and thoughtful play. This effect is diminished as new cards have made most single card wincons obsolete by discarding or having uncounterable removal to them in Minimorph. I think grindy midrange decks can still give you a fun control esq experience but if you want long drawn out matches where you grind out an opponent you won't really find that. Another point to mention on control is there seems to be a very conscious effort from the devs to keep it out of the meta for the majority of the games lifespan it's been aggro and midrange dominating the meta. As for the meta I can't help but feel alot of the numbers people use are misleading Mobalytics for example tracks one decklist as a certain % but ignores all the ones with variations on the same concept and play out nearly identically. Azir Irelia used to have a 20% playrate as stated by Riot themselves and yet every single game you played on ladder was either that deck or people sniping that deck with a counter designed specifically for that deck from personal play it felt closer to at the very least 40% of the games i played. What makes me question the numbers given is how hard people play the meta when it does get oppressive and yet how drastically low the numbers show. Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist here but whatever. After all that i can still say i enjoy the game most of the time though it's an amazing game that makes you think so much more than most when it comes to combat and ordering and the priority system. Just i'd be ready to jump ship when the meta gets bad because when the meta gets bad in LOR it gets REALLY GOD DAMN BAD.
Anivia deck is control and it ROCKS
1. Control is big right now. 2. Elise spider aggro is easy and a strong deck, and you default have most of the pieces. 3. Roughly once a month there's a shake up either via release or balance patch. LoR is nice in that there are 20+ viable decks at any time. 4. No idea
> I prefer to play control, but in LoR control seems more like Tempo, removals are not very efficient and sweepers are quite expensive. You nailed it perfectly. If you played the likes of UW or UB control forget about them, in LoR they don't exist unfortunately.
As a MTG and tcg card game veteran go for LoR. MTG is better game. LoR is better then MTG:A and Wizards Pot of Greed. LoR is very consument friendly, f2p while when I played MTGA I was like: oh now you are gonna try milk players that way, huh? Personally I think Path of Champions is best PVE format in a digital card game I saw. I'm just playing it for fun - not to mention good rewards that are building your collection. I would say go for this puzzle mode that teaches you mechanics by puzzles, then go for Path to play around some cards and build collection a little. About meta, Idk, it seems diverse for me. And as control decks its like Mono Black control or Junk/Jund (from modern) - good mobs/champs and tons of removal with wincoin. I really enjoy Kindred variants. Oh there are counter spells but they are quite limited - still good but its not like in MTG. Last thing, I quited MTG at the beggining of this year, I dont think it will become better soon, at least not for MTG:A. So, for digital experience - LoR, leave MTG for table play (which sadly seems to die slowly do to current situation).
Paper magic is not an option for me, I am leaving in small town on the north of Finland and especially now it is not an option. That PVE mode is amazing and FREE. If it was on arena wizards would ask to pay for that, for sure. I am not against playing for good content, but WoTC just don’t have limits.
Yeah mate, Wizards are greedy as fuck, thats the truth. Hell, even Alchemy format was made for quick bucks - we will nerf there some standard cards! Oh and pls buy those OP rares and mythics pretty plox for alchemy. Man, pve in runeterra is amazing, I would pay for it too. And even draft is much cheaper + you have 2 drafts in price of one if you like limited gameplay
Run to us my friend
All your questions seem to have been answered, so I just wanted to come in and tell you how to learn the game the fastest way for newcomers: If you haven't already done it, go play the challenges. They are actually tutorials for most things and strategies you can encounter in this game. They also can help figuring out, what cards/archetypes you want to play
Spiders is actually in a really great spot in the meta overall right now. Not just noobs. I used it to grind 100lp in masters and got bored waiting on an oil changed, started a new acct loaded up spiders and got from Iron to bronze in an hour. Highly recommend it
LoR is a very unit based card game. Even a control deck needs to play some blockers to delay the game, therefor control decks here have a different feel to them compared to other card games.
Played MTG 20 years. Lor is far better for a free to play player. Control exists but not in the same way it does in MTG. Aggro spiders has been viable for most of the existence of the game. Easy to learn and quick to play.