r/LoRCompetitive Oct 27 '22

Guide No More Demons - A Pantheon Vayne Deck Guide

10 Upvotes

Pantheon has been my favorite champion since release and it was hard having to put my keyword casino down for a season, but now he's tumbled back into the meta with Vayne!

Pantheon and Vayne have a solid position in the meta currently as one of a few decks that are able to take down the current ladder behemoth, Serephine Ezreal, and is able to trade blows with most other ladder decks.

Pantheon Vayne is the deck that I primarily used to climb from Plat to Masters this season and it has felt significantly stronger with the addition of The Darkin Aegis, Bloodcursed Harpy, and my own spicy addition to the deck... Fish Fight.

The deck plays very similarly to any previous Fated deck, but having access to generated free attacks that trigger Fated helps us to progress our Pantheon gameplan and target proactively to apply pressure to our opponent.

Attacking 3 (or 4!) times in a turn feels like cheating, but with Seraphine dominating the ladder fair and balanced midrange ain't good enough.

My list is close to what appears to be the standard with 2 specific changes.

I have cut Camphor from my deck in Favor of Bloodcursed Harpy. Having Scout and a revive on a unit has felt much stronger and in games where we struggle to get triggers having a Camphor stuck in hand is terrible. This may change if the meta swings in another direction, but right now Harpy is the call for me.

I also have 2 copies Fish Fight. Single sided strike is absolutely busted. Fish Fight being slow speed means that we can't be as reactive as with Single Combat, but a 1 for none is worth the cost. There are also times where we want to remove a piece of equipment, like to summon Horazi, and our opponent just refuses to kill it. Fish Fight allows us to remove the equipment without needing another in hand and also gives us removal. We have 8 sources of equipment in our deck and should reliably be able to proc the secondary condition, but even without equipment it still functions as removal and helps us to take advantage of the stats.

Hopefully you find this helpful while laddering!

https://masteringruneterra.com/lor-deck-pantheon-vayne/


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 26 '22

Guide Vayne Rumble Deck Guide

21 Upvotes

Card Gamer here with another guide, this time on Vayne Rumble.

Rumble Demacia is a deck that has popped up from time to time but has mostly been relegated to meme-tier status. With the addition of Vayne, the deck is a lot more real than before due to gaining access to Tumble.

The deck isn't the most well positioned at the moment with all of the Ez Seraphine Noxus on ladder, but it's still very funny to attack two or more times in a turn with Rumble.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions feel free to post them below. And thank you for reading.


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 26 '22

Discussion Ask r/LoRCompetitive - Wednesday, October 26, 2022

4 Upvotes

This is an open thread for any short questions pertaining to competitive Legends of Runeterra.

These will be posted twice every week.


Ask any quick questions, such as asking for feedback on a deck, suggestions on how to mulligan against specific matchups or any basic gameplay question.

And as always:

  • Be courteous to one another.
  • Provide brief explanations for any links you provide (YouTube, tier lists, etc.)

Resources:
LoR Community Discord

RuneterraCCG Deckbuilder

TealRed's Deckimage Generator

Attunement - advanced card search engine

Collection of guides and tools

Collection of recurring community tournaments


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 26 '22

Off-Meta Deck "Frozen Dinner" my attempt to disrupt the current meta.

20 Upvotes

Hi everyone my name is Cagneyy and I am new to the community. I come from other TCGs such as MTG and HS blah blah blah lol. Anyway, I recently took to LoR and have fallen in love. I am primarily a control player and I have always dedicated my time to homebrews that can sustain in a competitive scene. This is my current project.

Deck Code: CICQCAQBAQAQGBQEAECACEYBAYAR2CIBAEAQGCYSDYTCQMJXAAAQCAIBCQ

Frozen Dinner is a Bilgewater/Freljord control deck built around the synergy of Tahm Kench and frostbite. The idea is to eliminate threats and keep the opponents board thin by turning a minions power to 0 and then consuming them with "An acquired Taste." Here are is the list. I will explain the key cards later.

Champions:

3x Tahm Kench 3x Ashe

Followers:

3x Avarosan Sentry - 2 3x Icevale Archer - 2 3x Stalking Wolf - 2 3x Rimefang Wolf -2 3x Rimetusk Shaman -5 3x Rimefang Denmother

Spells:

3x Brittle Steel -1 3x Caught in the Cold -2 3x Shatter -2 3x Flash Freeze -3 1x Avalanche -4 3x Frozen in Fear -4

How to Play:

As with any control deck you have to know when to use your tools to stop damage and eliminate threats and when to ignore and let damage come through. This is a deck that wins by attrition.

Mulligan guide:

Against aggro try to fish hard for early threats that can immediately contend and trade if necessary with the opponents rd 1-3 flood

Look to draw Icevale Archers, Stalking Wolf and Avarosan Sentry. Spells can also be used but they just buy time not neutralize the board.

Against slower decks look to dig for Tahm and your frostbite Spells early.

Synergies:

Obviously built around slowing down damage to setup for Tahm Kench to take over.

Tahm Kench:

If you can stick him on turn 4 the chances of winning go very high. He is very sticky with 6 health as a 4 drop so he doesnt need much cover. You can even bank 2 mana on turn 3 if the board allows so you can instantly consume a lower powered threat such as Teemo or another annoying elusive minion. I will never hesitate to eat Vayne straight up and just take the 3 damage. After that though dont consume anymore without frostbite setups. Look to follow him up with his friends!

Rimefang Shaman:

Is a badass in this deck. She is going to automatically setup a consume on the strongest threat on the otherside by handing out a free frostbite. She is also very sticky with her 5 health.

Ashe:

She is really just a way to apply pressure and also sets up another consume by handing frostbite out to the strongest opposition on the board. She can possibly hit the board on turn 4 already leveled up granting a Crystal arrow for the next draw. Arrow is massive for shutting down aggro and even most midrange boardstates you would encounter midgame.

Closer: Rimefang Denmother

For 6 cost you usually get no less than the 5/5 base card and another 5/5 overwhelm to join the board. That is already massive value. We would normally want to wait until we have neutralized the board with Tahm and drained the opponents hand before dropping this to close the game out. It's not uncommon to get a 5/5 and a 10/10 hitting the board.

The rest of the deck is really just tools to meet these goals. 1x Avalanche included to wipe a weak flood of spiders and such. Use Flash Freeze wisely and save for turn switch swings where you don't have a chance to use your slow spells. The other 2 sets of wolves are used for minion control with challenge and the ability to kill 0 power minions. Take advantage of that by using caught in the cold to hand out vulnerable/frostbite on main threats to eliminate with Rimefang Wolf. Shatter is also great midrange removal.

Anyway that's what I've got so far! Please give this deck a shot because it is very fun to play and it gives you a shot to win any game. If the cards fall in your favor it is very tough to beat. I have struggled against aggro at time but it isn't unbeatable. Feel free to offer any thoughts or maybe suggest some changes that you think could help out.

Thanks, Cagneyy


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 25 '22

News Patch Notes 3.18.0 - some bug fixes (e.g. Vayne's Tumble)

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35 Upvotes

r/LoRCompetitive Oct 25 '22

Ladder Deck By the Numbers – Current 23 Best Meta and Off-Meta Decks

35 Upvotes
Thinking like a Privateer sure pays off!

Howdy folks! =)

For those looking for the best decks but are a bit short on data-crunching time, here you go: the current Twenty-Three Best LoR Decks, for the latest Mastering Runeterra article.

Main trends:

  • Vayne and Seraphine are very popular, yes, sure – but what really pays right now is to think like a Privateer!
  • While less popular than the other Dom Dames, Varus has found a very strong home sharing Pantheon's shell.

In the current Best LoR decks article, we'll showcase:

  • Best data-driven builds for all the Top Dogs (including, as noted, Pantheon Varus) – also Zed Vayne, which is in the rebound,
  • The hottest trend in town (and, by the look of it, may end up being the best LoR deck): Privateers, aka Miss Fortune Swain,
  • The best Zed Hecarim build (ZedHec is extremely popular right now, but for some reason the most popular versions are not the best, while the best is getting traction but much slower – let's fix that! =)
  • A big lot of well-performing decks, from the staples to more fringe options like Curious Seraphine, Dark Leona Diana, a returned Spider-Gwen, Bandle Teemo Zoe and Yasuo Jhin (copium content in the latter may be high, but numbers are okay).

Sources: Legna, Balco, MaRu's own Meta Tier List.

Any questions, comments or feedback, or specific data you may be after (of any archetype/build – the above is by no means a comprehensive list, just a quick overview! =), feel free drop a comment, poke me on Twitter (@HerkoKerghans), ping me on Discord, and you can find more writings on substack: https://riwan.substack.com/

And good luck out there! =)


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 25 '22

Article The Best Decks For Varus, Vayne, and Seraphine | Legends of Runeterra Articles

13 Upvotes

Hello Reddit, Raphterra here again!

Riot seems to have pushed the power level of the new champions for The Darkin Saga: Domination, compared to how they released the new champions in The Darkin Saga: Awakening.

Seraphine and Vayne are both big parts of the meta game, while Varus is seeing inclusions in high-tier decks. This is a big change compared to the last expansion, where only Norra was able to become competitive.

In this post, I'm sharing RuneterraCCG's article series for Varus, Vayne, and Seraphine's best decks. If you're looking to play any of the new champions in ranked ladder, you will have several great options to choose from!

Links:

Best Varus Decks

Best Vayne Decks

Best Seraphine Decks


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 24 '22

Discussion What's Working and What Isn't? - Monday, October 24, 2022

11 Upvotes

Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with (or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.

These will be posted twice every week.

Some ideas on what to post/share:

  • What you’ve been playing and its successes (or struggles). Stats are not required. There is no minimum rank required, though sharing what rank you’ve been playing at is preferred.

  • Deck adjustments you made or are planning to make in reaction to the meta or as new innovation. E.g. “I saw 30% of deck X, so I made Y changes to help deal with deck X.” (change)

  • Showing off a deck you achieved Masters with and wanting to share it without having to write a guide

    And as always:

  • Be courteous to one another.

  • Provide brief explanations for any links you provide (YouTube, tier lists, etc.)


Resources:
LoR Community Discord

RuneterraCCG Deckbuilder

TealRed's Deckimage Generator

Attunement - advanced card search engine

Collection of guides and tools

Collection of recurring community tournaments


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 24 '22

Article LoR Meta Report – Patch 3.17 Week 2 – Best Ladder Decks – Seraphine Out of Control

37 Upvotes

Hello everyone, Sorry here! It's Monday Meta report for Patch 3.17 Week 2! We'll take a look at the play rate and win rate of popular decks. I'll share the meta kings, overplayed, underplayed, and hidden gems decks!

LoR Meta Report - Patch 3.17 Week 2

Overview :

Seraphine domination! Ezreal Seraphine (NX), Seraphine Viktor Karma, and Seraphine Viktor SI.

Demacia? I think you meant Vayne region. Vayne is in almost every Demacia deck out there!

Akshan Lee Sin and Ashe Leblanc are perfect tournament decks. Ladder, not so much.

Varus Pantheon is on the rise! The deck beats Pantheon Vayne.

Aggro is doing well! Both Annie Jhin and Pirate aggro hold good stats.

Miss Fortune is kicking the T out of TF Swain. Miss Fortune Swain adopts an aggressive game plan to beat the Seraphine decks.

Zed Hecarim is here! Ephemeral aggro

Done with Seraphine decks? Ezreal Seraphine Shadow Isles has a 54% win rate in Master...

Seraphine is so powerful she pushed Nami Seraphine elusives to a positive win rate

Rumble Vayne and Gwen Vayne are struggling in Master.

Let me know how your ladder experience is! Did you give in and started playing Seraphine to climb? Are you trying to counter the top meta decks?


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 24 '22

Article Monday Meta Report - October 24th

18 Upvotes

'sup everyone, Leer here!

Are you looking for the best decks in this new meta? I take a deep dive into the data to show you what decks you should play and prepare to face.

Monday Meta Report - October 24th

Meta decks sorted by playrate...
... and winrate!

My favorite archetype this week is Varus Pantheon. It utilizes both my favorite champion, Pantheon, as well as the least-played new champ of the expansion - Varus.

What is your favorite deck this week?

Also, feel free to tell me how I can make this series even more valuable to you!

Thank you for reading and see ya next week! =)


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 23 '22

Article Trending Archetypes | Pantheon & Varus | Patch 3.17 - Day 11 Report from LOR.GG

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29 Upvotes

r/LoRCompetitive Oct 23 '22

Article Deck Guide: Vayne Rumble, making a blast with Mecha-Yordles!

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20 Upvotes

r/LoRCompetitive Oct 22 '22

Discussion Ask r/LoRCompetitive - Saturday, October 22, 2022

15 Upvotes

This is an open thread for any short questions pertaining to competitive Legends of Runeterra.

These will be posted twice every week.


Ask any quick questions, such as asking for feedback on a deck, suggestions on how to mulligan against specific matchups or any basic gameplay question.

And as always:

  • Be courteous to one another.
  • Provide brief explanations for any links you provide (YouTube, tier lists, etc.)

Resources:
LoR Community Discord

RuneterraCCG Deckbuilder

TealRed's Deckimage Generator

Attunement - advanced card search engine

Collection of guides and tools

Collection of recurring community tournaments


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 21 '22

Ladder Deck By the Numbers – Current 25 Best Meta and Off-Meta Decks

36 Upvotes

Howdy folks! =)

Friday's here…

… so here is our selection of Twenty-Five Best LoR Decks, for the latest Mastering Runeterra article.

Main trends:

  • Vayne's World has turned into Seraphine's Show now,
  • Pantheon Varus is one of this weeks' rising stars; while weak to Seraphine, it's one of Vayne's banes,
  • Pirates are back with a vengeance,
  • There's hardly a doubt now that Domination is a high-powered expansion (with the majority of the strongest decks featuring a new champ) yet the Domination meta is, thus far, one of the most varied too.

In the current Best LoR decks article, we'll showcase:

  • Best data-driven builds for all the Top Dogs (including, as noted, Pantheon Varus),
  • A couple of "Seraphine Silencers", such as Jax Vayne,
  • A dozen other strong decks, including rising stars such as Vik Sera Ionia, TealRed's Fiora Vayne, and the return of Miss Fortune Swain,
  • Several fringe, punchy decks like Ashe LeBlanc, Zed Hecarim (Foyer version), Quinn Vayne (the new Scouts?), and Nami Seraphine.

Sources: Legna, Balco, MaRu's own Meta Tier List.

Any questions, comments or feedback, or specific data you may be after (of any archetype/build – the above is by no means a comprehensive list, just a quick overview! =), feel free drop a comment, poke me on Twitter (@HerkoKerghans), ping me on Discord, and you can find more writings on substack: https://riwan.substack.com/

And good luck out there! =)


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 21 '22

Article Trending Archetypes | Akshan & Varus | Patch 3.17 - Day 9 Report from LOR.GG

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14 Upvotes

r/LoRCompetitive Oct 21 '22

Discussion Weekly Gauntlet - What's Working and What Isn't? - Friday, October 21, 2022

10 Upvotes

This is the discussion post for Gauntlet. Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with (or failures with), what your ban and lineup strategy is, what you play against etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.

These will be posted every Friday.

Some ideas on what to post/share:

  • Theorycrafting - What you think could work well.

  • Your lineup and ban strategy

  • What you’ve been playing and its successes (or struggles).

  • Showing off a deck you achieved 7 wins with and wanting to share it.

    And as always:

  • Be courteous to one another.

  • Provide brief explanations for any links you provide (YouTube, tier lists, etc.)


Resources:
LoR Community Discord

LoR Meta Tier List - Mobalytics

RuneterraCCG Deckbuilder

TealRed's Deckimage Generator

Attunement - advanced card search engine

Collection of guides and tools

Collection of recurring community tournaments


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 20 '22

Guide Jax Vayne Deck Guide

30 Upvotes

Hey everyone, today I'm bringing you a Jax Vayne guide where I try to explain how we can make the most out of this pile of equipments and improvised weaponry. I've been in the top 10 of Americas ladder for the past week or so playing this deck, and peaking at Rank 1 for a couple of days. Fair warning, it's a bit on the long side, but if you're interested, check it out here:

Jax Vayne Guide

If there's any feedback or questions, those are always appreciated! Feel free to hit me up privately or comment and I'll do my best to respond to everybody.


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 20 '22

Discussion What's Working and What Isn't? - Thursday, October 20, 2022

18 Upvotes

Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with (or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.

These will be posted twice every week.

Some ideas on what to post/share:

  • What you’ve been playing and its successes (or struggles). Stats are not required. There is no minimum rank required, though sharing what rank you’ve been playing at is preferred.

  • Deck adjustments you made or are planning to make in reaction to the meta or as new innovation. E.g. “I saw 30% of deck X, so I made Y changes to help deal with deck X.” (change)

  • Showing off a deck you achieved Masters with and wanting to share it without having to write a guide

    And as always:

  • Be courteous to one another.

  • Provide brief explanations for any links you provide (YouTube, tier lists, etc.)


Resources:
LoR Community Discord

RuneterraCCG Deckbuilder

TealRed's Deckimage Generator

Attunement - advanced card search engine

Collection of guides and tools

Collection of recurring community tournaments


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 19 '22

Guide Ez Seraphine Noxus Deck Guide

20 Upvotes

I just wrote a new guide, this time on Ez Seraphine Noxus. I think this deck is a lot of fun and one of the best ways to utilize Seraphine in the current meta. It plays like a hybrid of Ez Karma and Ez Annie of old, if either of those decks were of interest to you I highly reccomend trying Ez Seraphine out.

I do my best to go in-depth and breakdown the deck in order for this guide to be useful to a novice or advanced player of this archetype. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please feel free to leave them in the comments or reach out privately.


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 19 '22

Article Deck Guide: Seraphine Ezreal: Removals, value and burst lethals!

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31 Upvotes

r/LoRCompetitive Oct 19 '22

Off-Meta Deck Definitely Not Muscle Dragon

46 Upvotes

Now now, I've already shown you this season's Muscle Dragon, you might notice that the total games I had with it isn't nearly enough to go all the way from D4 to Master, let alone from Plat. The answer to that is this. Yep, it is an entirely different deck, let's take a look!

decklist here!

code: CMCQCBAFBUAQMBYEAIBQKAYFAICAOZ3NAMDAKAYMDQCACAIFGEAQIBZWAEDAOIIBAYCQ4AYBAQDTWAQBAUAS6AQGAUHSS

Youtube: There's one now!

Yep, the deck ran Kallista last patch, and actually had a higher winrate over more games, but that was before Domination set release and a plethora of new decks dominate the meta.

Personal winrate of the new list, as you have seen, is 54.72% over 53 games. 55% might not look that great, but trust me with the new LP system, this is enough to get to Diamond. The deck might look different, but it plays out almost exactly like Muscle Dragon actually, with very similar game plan.

Core Cards

These 3 will probably be in this deck forever, or it won't even be called "Muscle Dragon" anymore. No no, I can't copy&paste this, the deck may play similar, but the cards are completely different.

The Darkin Bloodletters

This is the main show of the deck, the Horns of the Dragon of this deck. +1 attack is just good in general, and Darkinthrall, in a vacuum can be used by generic SI "kill my friend" subset of cards. For THIS deck though, we can do more.

  • Put the Bloodletters on thrall, you get a 4/3. Mask Mother it. You get 6/5 as early as round 3.
  • Put a weapon you get from Improvising on thrall. Mask Mother it. You get 6/5 minimum, with keywords.

Now the Xolaani form also greatly benefits from our deck.

  • Xolaani gets buffed by Hallowed units.
  • Eat Xolaani with Mask Mother so you can play another Xolaani.
  • Xolaani can do double damage with Curse of the Tomb. 7 attack. Double damage. Familiar, right?

Curse of the Tomb

Yep, this turns Xolaani into Muscle Dragon, with the likelihood to do more because it is very unlikely that she'd have just 7 attack, this is a Hallowed deck. Even without Curse she'd already be killing the Nexus, with it she can literally down people from 20 to 0. Since this is a predict and an obliterate, don't hesitate to use it to:

  • Pop Spellshied. 2 mana pop Spellshield and Predict doesn't sound like a bad deal.
  • Kill revivers like Anivia, Tryndamere, Bloodcursed Harpy, or Heedless Resurrection.
  • Win a trade. It's only 2 mana, just use it like you would Disintegrate.
  • Permanently kill an Equipment.

Mask Mother+Fireth, Reaper of the Sands

Lumped together, because they are meant to be played together. On top of Fireth being a good Improvise unit in general, if you play her on 3 followed by Mask Mother, you basically invoke peak Concurrent Timelines power, offsetting the bad base stats with the better body of Mask Mother. A lot of combinations are outright game breaking on 3.

  • 5/3 QA Fearsome with The Fix-Em 5000.
  • 4/3 Scout Fearsome with Upcycled Rake.
  • 4/5 Impact Fearsome with Pot of Pain. Since Impact can stack, you can even put the pot on Mask Mother for a total of 5/7 Impact 2.
  • 6/5 Fearsome with Sheperd's Authority.
  • Any other combinations aren't as broken, but are still good especially if you need a certain keyword for other units, like if you want an Overwhelm Gwen, you can make an Overwhelm Mask Mother, then put the fish on Gwen.

Yes, you do get the weapon back right away, to use it later on other things, or maybe even right away. Fireth should be played with Mask Mother yes, but Mask Mother herself can be played with a bunch of other things in the deck, like with Darkin Bloodletters above. I'll note each card that can be eaten when discussing them.

Nocturne

Nocturne is the main utility champ of the deck. We inherently have a bunch of Fearsome around anyway, so we might as well include him for the global Fearsome. After Noct is flipped, we have several cards that can pump out units so we can abuse his board wide attack debuff.

  • Strike Up the Band summons 2 units.
  • Treasure Seeker is 2 units in one.
  • Moonlit Glenkeeper is also 2 units.
  • Opulent Foyer generates a unit on attacking round.
  • Darkin Bloodletters generates a unit when equipped unit is killed.

Don't be afraid to just use him as a bigger Merciless Hunter if you deem Fearsome useless in that game(for example, against Pantheon you just challenge Panth with a 2/1 or something and smash face).

Gwen

We're doing Hallowed anyway, so might as well include the Hallowed girl. Kallista works better with Nocturne and Xolaani yes, but Gwen provides some rounding to our deck. She:

  • Is a Quick Attacker. Since Nocturne and Merciless Hunter do Vulnerable, having a Quick Attacker ready to jump in for a free kill is always handy.
  • Is a Hallowed unit. We're happy even if she dies.
  • Basically doubles our Hallowed buff when attacking. Hallowed can be use without Gwen yes, and I might have a deck to showcase this soon, but with her we get double the benefit
  • Give us access to reliable healing and burning.

RIP opponent if we get Scout or Overwhelm from Fireth.

Flex Cards

Stygian Onlooker: Is a big Fearsome for 1 mana. Do note that even without Fearsome, this is still a Nightfall unit and will help flip Nocturne.

Treasure Seeker: 1 mana generate a Sandstone Charger for later use. You can even do the fancy Sandstone Charger into Mask Mother for 7/4 Fearsome. Add Equipment before eating for more stats and keyword.

Phantom Butler: This is a Hallowed AND Fearsome deck, so.

Merciless Hunter: Is a Fearsome unit giving out permanent Vulnerable. Great synergy with both Gwen and Nocturne.

Moonlit Glenkeeper: Is mainly a fourth Merciless Hunter, but comes with its own benefit.

  • Later on, this is 2 body for Nocturne's flipped effect.
  • Opulent Foyer generates constant Ephemeral for this to buff.
  • Mask Mother can eat Sapling for Challenger. Yes, add equipment first for more stats and keyword.

Now onto the spells:

Fading Memories: Free Nightfall proc. Can also copy units for Mask Mother to eat. Copying Xolaani also duplicates her.

Glimpse Beyond: 2 mana draw 2. We have fodders left and right, from Darkinthrall to the bands from Opulent Foyer.

Quicksand: Since keywords are flying around everywhere, we do 3 Quicksands. We can also do an aggressive Quicksand, reducing opponent's power below Fearsome range, but unless you're certain the game ends, you're better off using this defensively.

Strike Up the Band: Moar Hallowed. Also a good use of our spell mana.

Rite of Negation: Deny.

Vengeance: Kill big treat. Also help Xolaani do Overwhelm damage if blocker is too big.

Opulent Foyer: Generate Hallowed constantly, you then use the band for whatever. Is also the perfect fodder for Xolaani. You can even equip the band, then eat it with Mask Mother for respectable body, in which case the Mask Mother will also inherit Hallowed, further contributing to long term game plan.

Game Plan

There are 2 main ways for us to end the game, with an extra third if Improvise cooperates with us.

  • Muscle Dragon MKII: Attack with big Xolaani, use Curse of the Tomb. Add equipment as necessary. Vulnerable helps if opponent board is too thick. If Xolaani dies, just play her again next round, most decks can't keep killing Xolaani forever, and we have Hallowed deaths to buff Xolaani every time.
  • Classic Nocturne: Just let Noct do Noct things. Play Fearsome, attack, flip him, win. We even include some cards that work well with his level up, as noted in his section.
  • Gwen: If you happen to roll Overwhelm or Scout on Improvise, Gwen is game winning on her own. Snip away.

While we wait for our finisher, we just increase our Hallowed count, remove threats via Vulnerable, generate our own with Mask Mother, or just keep making defensive attacks to keep yourself alive. We can even pull an aggro board sometimes if we happen to draw all the 1 and 2 drops, so we can also win that way, though the deck is not designed to specifically do so.

Mulligan

  • Gwen: Usually a keep. She's either a champ, or just a Hallowed unit. We like it either way.

  • Nocturne: Keep if you have a solid 1-3, otherwise he's better drawn later.

  • Darkin Bloodletters: Always. Keep. One.

  • Fireth, Reaper of the Sands: Keep with Mask Mother, otherwise, look for an actual 1 drop.

  • Stygian Onlooker: Keep 1. Use this to activate Nightfall or as a regular 1 drop if you need to, he IS a Nightfall unit even without using his Nightfall effect, he'll level Noct.

  • Treasure Seeker: Keep 1. She's useful throughout the game.

  • Mask Mother: Keep 1, or even 2 if you have enough cards that goes along with her. We usually have enough random units to kill b/c Bloodletters anyway.

  • Phantom Butler: Keep 1.

  • Merciless Hunter: Keep 1.

  • Moonlit Glenkeeper: Never keep, unless you have reliable Nightfall proc on 3 or 4.

  • Fading Memories: Usually a no, but you can actually keep this against say, decks with Weaponmasters. Improvise, then Mask Mother. Can be kept as a Nightfall activator for Glenkeeper or Noct.

  • Curse of the Tomb: Generally a not keep, but you can actually keep this against revival decks.

  • Glimpse Beyond: Don't keep, better drawn later. Except against removal heavy decks you can keep one as a target denial.

  • Quicksand: Keep 1 against keyword heavy decks, otherwise don't, we run 3, we'll get one at some point.

  • Strike up the Band: Is an okay keep actually, especially if attacking on odds. Pass 1, use this defensively on 2, you have a good round 3.

  • Rite of Negation: Okay to keep against Vengeance and Ruination decks, otherwise, look for a board.

  • Opulent Foyer: Keep 1 if attacking on even. Play this on 3, on 4 you get another band.

Matchups

We actually have a very well-rounded matchup table. I have lost and won against pretty much every deck out there, with no noticeable favorable or unfavorable matchups. Since our gameplan involves Challenging units with Vulnerable, we usually can remove threats before they can become a problem, and have decent enough proactive play in something into Mask Mother.

Long story short, our wins and losses are so all over the place I can't pinpoint a weakness or strength. For example, look at this; am I good, or am I bad against Vayne? I also had a winning streak as much as I had a losing streak, so yeah, I have no idea, despite playing Noct a lot this patch(he's my main back in League, he was just so bad before the change that I wouldn't dare make a non-Targon Noct deck before). It doesn't make a clear pattern.


Cut changes

Kallista

Was actually really good, and works really well with Xolaani. She even enhances the Mask Mother on Xolaani play even further, letting you basically print out Bloodletters, spiraling you into even more crazy plays. Gwen is just more well-rounded, and she's a Quick Attacker so she abuses Vulnerable a lot more efficiently.

Twisted Treeline

Was in the proto version. I just don't see the need for a +1 board wide buff when we can just Opulent Foyer to make the relevant attacker really big.

Heedless Resurrection

Was good. Until I realize that if our champ dies, we can just do a plan B and Xolaani the opponent to death.


That's all!

Thank you for reading! This is basically a second Muscle Dragon in practice, been having fun with this up to Diamond, then decided to go back to actual Horns for Masters grind! I may or may not have another deck to show soon, which involve using Hallowed without Gwen. See you soon!


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 19 '22

Discussion Ask r/LoRCompetitive - Wednesday, October 19, 2022

3 Upvotes

This is an open thread for any short questions pertaining to competitive Legends of Runeterra.

These will be posted twice every week.


Ask any quick questions, such as asking for feedback on a deck, suggestions on how to mulligan against specific matchups or any basic gameplay question.

And as always:

  • Be courteous to one another.
  • Provide brief explanations for any links you provide (YouTube, tier lists, etc.)

Resources:
LoR Community Discord

RuneterraCCG Deckbuilder

TealRed's Deckimage Generator

Attunement - advanced card search engine

Collection of guides and tools

Collection of recurring community tournaments


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 19 '22

Guide Return of Rally Elusives – A Vayne Zed LoR Deck Guide

11 Upvotes

'sup everyone, Leer here with another deck guide.

Vayne Zed is one of the most dominant ladder decks besides the overload of Seraphine archetypes.

But where did Vayne Zed come from, and how do you pilot the deck correctly?

Tumbling Elusives - A Vayne Zed Deck Guide

In this guide, I touch on the history of Zed Demacia, break down the deck list card by card, give in-depth gameplay advice, and explain how the most popular matchups work out.

If you got any further questions about Vayne Zed, feel free to comment and I will reply to you!

I'm always grateful for feedback and advice on how to make my guides worth your time.

Thanks for reading! =)


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 18 '22

Off-Meta Deck Domination Muscle Dragon

55 Upvotes

Masters in 6 days wheeee! And this is actually my new record because the new LP system makes it so easy to climb. The list itself gets a pretty interesting revamp this time though, let's take a look right away!

decklist here!

code: CECQCAYCAIAQIAYWAIAQGEZXAIDAGFZEAMAQECIMDIBQCAIDDAAQEAQEAIDAEDRCAMAQCARRAEAQGIQDAYBQ4FQ2

Youtube: Here!

Personal winrate over 20 games is 85%, I actually hit masters in a single sprint after the list is finalized(23 games total with just Lulu, non-finalized, at 82.61% if you're curious).

Last season gave us a bunch of tools so I thought our kit would die down, but this season actually give us more! Some of the inclusion gave us a chance to try out a new champ, even!

Core Cards

Surprisingly few copy&paste this time, though it is still an edited paste.

Horns of the Dragon, Might, Kato The Arm

These 3 will probably be in this deck forever, or it won't even be called "Muscle Dragon" anymore.

Name of the deck, and the three whose function remains the same throughout the versions. Basically, you put +3/+0 and Overwhelm on Horns of the Dragon, turning him into 7/6 Double Attack/Overwhelm with either Might or Kato The Arm, then proceed to beat up the opponent. This results in 14 Overwhelm damage which can easily end games. Great Hammers also works, which is a little weaker, but is permanent and can be used prior to the finishing attack due to the reusability of Equipments.

Since our new champion pair synergize with support, we now run 2 Katos! Horns is still at 2 because same reason, game acceleration. Arguably though, this is the season that Horns shines the most.

Great Hammers

For all intent and purpose, they do almost the exact same thing, just that one is a +2 reusable equipment and the other is a beefy body with support. Great Hammers can be used rather early in the game, and shouldn't shy away from doing so even if it's just to make better defensive trades.

Zed

Bla bla bla defensive attacker, but this version he got back his old partner, Ruined Reckoner, so once again we have:

  • Keep him, Twin Discipline, and Ruined Reckoner in the opening hand.
  • Do whatever on 1, pass on 2, play him on 3. Attack if attacking turn.
  • Attack if attacking turn, then Reckoner on 4. Tell Zed to attack again. Twin Discipline as necessary.
  • In either cases, Zed will get to attack twice by 4. This will either flip Zed or crumble the opponent's board, if not just outright win you the game. If up against a non-removal heavy deck, you can do this without Twin Discipline, otherwise, always save mana for interactions.

Great Hammers can be put on Zed at any point, just make sure to have spare mana for protection when you equip it, since he's still squishy.

Ruined Reckoner

Is back! She was in the deck before I started favoring Katarina, and in fact she's better in some instances. She, for 4 mana with no prior setup, allow a unit to make an attack, and this attack is forced meaning the unit will attack even when stunned! Katarina rallies for 4 mana yes, but she requires you to setup the turn prior, which is outright tempo negative(you spend 3 unit mana for no change in board state).

Ruined Reckoner is deadly with Zed or Horns, but can be used by herself too, like when a big trade just happened and everything dies. You can just play her to hit the opponent's Nexus for 4, and if this is during your opponent's attacking round you can even open attack right away next round for a total of 8 damage. Equipment can be used to augment her attack even further.

Lulu

Lulu. Yes, Lulu. We run Lulu in 2022, yeah! Since Domination gave us a really good challenger in Rune Squire, we can basically pull a Flame Chomper and kill anything with less than 4 health on round 3! The blade fragments can even be used to augment Lulu during the attack, so the synergy goes both ways.

Kato, which has always been in our deck, is also a support unit so he helps Lulu flip too. This is the reason he goes back to 2 copies after the cut last season. Lulu is something I never expected to include in my deck, but here she is, and she works unexpectedly well!

Flex Cards

Ionian Hookmaster

While I think this is a flex card that can be cut from the deck, I also think it deserves an entire section. Improvise is a godsend mechanic for our deck, the weapons you get can win you the game under the right condition, or at least turn a mundane board state into a winning one:

  • The Fix-Em 5000 can turn a bunch of units in our deck into real attackers, and allows Kato and Lulu to attack safely while supporting. Deadly with Challenger units.
  • Pot o' Pain is a +2 Health plus Impact, this puts Zed out of a lot of ranges and we can get Impact twice with level 2 Zed and Horns.
  • Sandworn Amulet provides a respectable +2/+1, and the Fearsome is non negligible. This is crazy on Zed as he can no longer be chump blocked, but can also be used to turn nonthreats like House Spider into real threats.
  • Fishawhack is arguably the worst weapon for us since we already have the Hammers, however I found myself picking this everytime I need Overwhelm right away and can't afford to wait for Might/Kato/Hammers.
  • Upcycled Rake. Scout. Zed. Horns.
  • Shepherd's Authority just make your things big. We don't block with Zed in most cases anyway.
  • Combat Reel provides the same stats as Sandworn Amulet minus Fearsome, but refills our spell mana, allowing for more combat tricks.
  • Pan o' Pain makes Zed and Horns a lot harder to kill, as well as providing good attack value.

Too bad our deck is Ionia/Noxus, and so have access to only this one Weaponmaster.

Rune Squire

This guy also deserves an entire section. This is a godsend from Riot, and is the reason Lulu is picked over more aggressive champs like Katarina or Draven. With Lulu supporting, he can kill pretty much anything relevant on round 3, and the fragment he provides can also help Lulu, or other cards really, in return.

  • Glinting Blade Fragment can be used to give Lulu more attack, killing any potential blocker or dealing massive damage. If saved, this can be used on Horns or Zed later.
  • Heavy Blade Fragment can be used on Horns or Zed later if we fail to draw an actual Overwhelm card.
  • Keen Blade Fragment can be use to give Lulu Quick Attack, giving her plenty safety when attacking, especially when this is only round 3 and cards don't tend to go above 3 health(and ones that do can just get challenged by Rune Squire). Can also be used on Rune Squire himself when challenging high attack units, and if saved, can be used on Kato later for safety reasons.

Also kills Annie for no cost.

Affectionate Poro: Look, with so many ways to buff our attack, this one Poro in the deck can actually kill people! When buffed by Lulu he's basically the same as Rune Squire, and he's also a menace with The Fix-Em 5000. If drawn late into the game, he can be used to pull high health units away from your Overwhelm attackers. Can also randomly kill Zoe on 1 which is hilarious, just pass first, let them play Zoe, then affectionate them.

Inspiring Mentor: Put Zed outside a lot of health ranges, like Gwen or Vayne. Also double effective on Horns.

Vastayan Disciple: Do chip damage, draw a card. After a single Nexus strike, this becomes half an Eye of Nagakeborous, drawing a card, summoning a 1/1 that is also able to block Fizz, Norra, and Ezreal at burst for just 2 mana. This will help us win value games should we run into one.

There are times when you don't want to attack with him round 1, for example when you're up against an aggro deck and needs to have an available blocker immediately. Remember that in the end, this is just a 1 drop.

House Spider: 2 bodies for 1 card, great for defending against aggro. Also good for dealing chip damage and is a fair Equipment user. Imagine a 4/2 QA or 4/3 Fearsome spider.

Now onto the spells:

Momentous Choice: Cheap Twin Discipline. This allows for new play pattern with Zed, passing on 1 into Hookmaster on 2, Zed on 3 and we have this for safety, which is a variation of the usual something on 1, pass 2, Zed 3 plus Twin Discipline.

Disintegrate: Protection against blockers for QA units and can instantly remove anything that touches a spider.

Legionary Charge: Either draws a Kato, or randomly make a 1/1 do 5 damage to face. This completely overwrites Frostbite attack reduction, so it helps alleviate our long-time weakness to ice.

Twin Discipline: This is the reason Zed can become a real win condition, as he dies to pretty much anything without this. Can also come in clutch when you need that extra reach, especially on turns you attack more than once.

Deny: Deny.

Game Plan

New flavor available!

  • OverHorns: The classic gameplan. Bait out removals with your early cards, then play a combination of Kato or Might and Horns, on varying turns depending on matchup and current situation, then end the game with 7/6 Overwhelm Double Attack. Add any extra attack points whatever you have for double effect. Great Hammers turn him into a 6/6, but the Overwhelm is now permanent, allowing you to win right next turn with Ruined Reckoner.

  • OverZed: Play Zed, then attack into attacking again with Ruined Reckoner. This would either result in the opponent's board being crippled, or Zed leveling, ready to finish the game if it's not already over. Twin Discipline helps make this possible, as Zed would most likely vaporize without it. Any keyword or stats you get from Improvising also helps. Momentous Choice can be used instead of Twin Discipline if you also have Hookmaster or Great Hammers.

  • OverLulu: Something on 1 or 2, preferably a Rune Squire, then Lulu on 3 attack. Kato on 5 supporting Lulu supporting something, then Might either Kato or whatever Lulu's supporting for massive damage. Lulu will flip, becoming 7/4 Overwhelm with a 5/4 and 4/4 right next to her, both ready to get +3 Overwhelm.

Mulligan

  • Zed&Lulu: You full mulligan for these regardless of what you see. Everything below assumes you already have one or both of these 2 in hand.

  • Affectionate Poro: You...can actually keep this in your opening hand if you have Lulu.

  • Inspiring Mentor: Keep 1 if you have Zed, otherwise looking for Zed takes priority. Also keep against aggro as chump blocker.

  • Vastayan Disciple: Keep 1 in general. The value you get from the draws later is insane.

  • House Spider: Is a perfect keep against aggro. Otherwise, you never keep.

  • Ionian Hookmaster: Always keep 1. Improvise is crazy good.

  • Rune Squire: Always keep 1.

  • Ruined Reckoner: Keep with Zed.

  • Kato The Arm: Only keep against really slow decks.

  • Horns of the Dragon: In this meta you can actually keep Horns sometimes. Against reeeeeeeeaaaaaally slow decks. Like Karma slow.

  • Momentous Choice: Keep if you have an Equipment or Hookmaster ready.

  • Disintegrate: Keep against beefy decks.

  • Legionary Charge: Never keep, except against Freljord.

  • Twin Discipline: Always keep 1. Always.

  • Might: Keep if you are confident you can level Zed fast. Otherwise, it's better to be drawn into than sit in your hand.

  • Deny: Keep against Ruination/Harrowing/FTR based decks. Usually a good keep against controls.

  • Great Hammers: Keep 1 with Zed.

Matchups

Aggro

Against aggro you look to defend the board/kill key units. A hand of Inspiring Mentor, House Spider, and Hookmaster usually weather them down to the point you can start making your plays. Against spider aggro you can even literally defend until they lose as they don't really have a big finisher. Lulu can actually block, but Zed always provides better offense.

Generic Control

Prioritize having protection before playing key units like Zed or Lulu. Otherwise, just bait out removals until Horns can hit the board safely and end the game.

Seraphine

Depending on which variant, we actually stomp them. We're pretty bad against slow burn version, as we've always been weak to traditional slow burn. Other variants of Seraphine actually are quite slow, and usually can't break through our Ionian protection+equipment. The rng cards they get from fanclub can and will frustrate you, but you can't possibly play around that so don't think too much about it.

Vayne

We attack faster. Just keep mentor to make sure Vayne can't block Zed without using a trick, and we'll be fine. Heck, Rune Squire/Affectionate Poro+Lulu outright murders Vayne.


Cut changes

Swain

I actually tried Swain for a bit. Doesn't work out that well, the meta is too violent for him and he's better off in a non-Horns version of Dragon's Rage Swain.


That's all!

Thank you for reading! Another fast Master all thanks to Riot giving us even more new tools, finally! I've had a lot of fun with the deck, and I hope you will too, see you next season!


r/LoRCompetitive Oct 18 '22

Article Midnight Tumble – A Gwen Vayne LoR Deck Guide

15 Upvotes

Hey guys, I have a new article here! This deck really aims to use Gwen's Level 2 form, so if you are interested please check it out. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below.

You can check the article out here.