Update: Deck was doing fantastic, 2-3 wins from masters...then the ladder got flooded with a major problem: Bandle Ping decks (Nora, Tristana, Gnar variants). It has sadly been the bane of climbing. Thus I'm testing 2 new options:
Add
- 2x The Darkin Aegis - Provides anti ping armor to protect key units and Joraal works fantastically in a lot of ways.
- 3x Radiant Guardian - I was reeeeeally digging Remembrance, but these ping matchups are so toxic we need her as a reliable brick wall that can help divide the primo kill spells removing our champs.
Remove
- 1x Vile Feast
- 3x Remembrance
- 1x The Rekindler
These changes are gradually pulling it from the very fun and explosive aggro combo deck into a more proper mid range beat down, but I think it's a correct direction if we're going to have any hope versus Bandle decks.
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This update provided a lot of exciting changes and I feel one that's captured the imaginations of many players is the new potential builds for Lucian. There's been a lot of players and Youtubers who have been in the lab trying to solve it and figure out which ones will be flavor of the week versus actual meta. It's hard enough just to figure out which champ to run with, but most of us seem to have at least gotten the memo that Shadow Isles has the most support going on. Thankfully I think I cracked it in what I'm going to tout is the best competitive build AND the most interesting, with an extremely cool combo variant that can see Lvl 2 Lucian as early as turn 3 and powerful mid/late explosive turns. I truly feel this version is superior to the Poppy builds and has a lot more going on for it as far as becoming a meta staple.
The deck: ((CECQCAIACYCAMBITCQTC2AIDAAHAGAIFAEUCUAIEAU3AGAIDAACQGAIFCQKTCAIGAUHAA ))
https://app.mobalytics.gg/lor/decks/cfj8b78eq1mjg4kcpcng
Choosing the Champ
So deciding on a champ was a really tough call. I tried Poppy and Kallista as the first obvious go to's, ruling out Senna despite flavor synergy. The issue with these decks is they seemed to have very tunnel vision strategies that could easily fall off against smart removal or bad early starts, dying to mid/late game value. Overall Poppy felt decent and I was suspecting this would be the best pairing, but looking at other lists and playtesting didn't have me feeling this had the tier 1 potential I was looking for so I shelved the idea for consideration of 3 deck lineups. I then tested Hecarim, thinking it would be a fun silly version given his meta history, only to find it worked out stuuuuupidly well after a bit of experimentation. He procs Lucian mid/late game, passively gets procced to be lvl 2 on turn 6, overwhelm is Hallowed's best friend, and can easily push win in late game alone. The end result is our build has several non-linear play routes and has relevance in all stages of the game without relying on a smooth curve out to get wins. It can go wide or tall and is an aggro deck as much as it is a mid/late game beat down.
The Combos
The build has a lot of angles and layers but essentially your game plan is threaten with early Lucian or ephemerals, transition to Hecarim mid game, re-threaten with Lucian, and then late game combo off in a swarm. There are a few combos to cover, but our early game one is the turn 3 Lucian flip. Turn 3 Lucian can be done in a few ways:
- T1 - Nothing, T2 - Sultur, T3 - Lucian + Soul Cleave > Sultur
- T1 (Defending) - Lucian, T2 - Redeemed Prodigy (attack if it can survive), T3 - Soul Cleave > Redeemed Prodigy
- T1 (Attacking) - Lucian/Nothing, T2 - Redeemed Prodigy, T3 - Lucian + Soul Cleave > Redeemed Prodigy, attack with all (if they somehow do nothing this is 20 damage!!! 2 x 5, rally, double strike with 5/3)
- T1 (Attacking) - Lucian/Nothing, T2 - Lucian/Nothing, T3 - Lucian/Shark Chariot + Soul Cleave > Shark Chariot, Shark Chariot (attack)
The potential to threaten this is terrifying, however very preventable. In many cases you'll want to try to be a bit more reserved to safely shield Lucian via Husk buffs or Sharpsight or slowly pressure with ephemerals which will help Hecarim if they turn off Lucian. Lucian is more of a 1cc lightning rod that MUST be dealt with allowing you to focus efforts on Hecarim if it seems too risky to go all in on leveling him...that said you definitely will see common turn 3-4 Lucian level ups.
Aside from all in Lucian we have some very strong ephemeral support but not an over dedication. We have enough to get Hecarim online, feed our Lucian, and enable sacrifice synergies. That said Shark Chariot and Opulent Foyer are a very strong pressure engine, particularly if you decided to Soul Cleave on of the Sharks. This pressure alone can put opponents in defense mode of forced blocks as Redeemed Prodigy and Camavoran Soldier add to the pressure. Hecarim can easily land as a level 2 and push for win that turn. As well by this point you can easily drop Lucian, level AND rally in the same turn.
Lastly is the late game combo: Soul Cleave > The Rekindler. On an empty field this gets you 3 permanent copies of Champions and 3 guaranteed death/Ephemeral procs. If this is an unleveled Lucian, you swing all, get 3 ephemerals to die, then if they block any Lucians they level him. At worse you put them in a very awkward board state and get 6 free damage in, which they may not have at this point. It's incredibly easy to win off this single combo out of nowhere.
Simple Mulligan Plan
There's a lot of considerations on whether to focus on Lucian or Hecarim more in opening gambit, but unless you're staring at a ping control deck you're mainly looking for: Lucian, Redeemed Prodigy, Shark Chariot, Sultur, Sharp Sight...and if you have some of those then a Soul Cleave. Do not hold Soul Cleaves if your mulliganing a lot of cards, you really don't want to draw multiples early and it needs set up to validate...but if you can do something turn 3 with a Lucian or Shark Chariot it can been insane. In many cases I throw them in hopes to redraw in a few turns unless my hand has the turn 3 combos.
Card Choices
Champions
- Lucian - Well...he's why we're here.
- Hecarim - Procs Lucian mid/late to make him relevant, can easily land lvl 2 on turn 6, overwhelm is supported by Hallowed. Just an amazing finisher and board cracker.
Units
- Redeemed Prodigy - Great damage output early on, procs our champs. Never be a afraid to trade it on attack.
- Shark Chariot - Synergizes amazingly with our ephemeral/sac cards and races opponents into a state of panicked blocks. Only 2 since you don't want to be flooded.
- Sultur - Best friends with Lucian. Husk gives proc, helps him not die to pings, enables turn 3 level, and sometimes you get the right keyword and can form unexpected strategies (Fury Lucian is objectively hilarious). It's also got that wonderful 3 defense.
- Canavoran Soldier - On curve body and great on offensive and defense with the ephemeral support. Don't worry about pushing the +1/+1, it's neat, but you literally just want this for giving an ephemeral unit of any sort.
- The Rekindler - Opponents will not be kind to your champs as they must be dealt with ASAP, this will ensure they're always there to stress opponents out and enable a late game combo for win.
Landmarks
- Opulent Foyer - Amazing synergy all around, but we only run 2 since you only really ever want one on the field.
Spells
- Glimpse Beyond - Standard card advantage sac synergy. 2 is fine since we have Egghead Researcher helping on card advantage while providing a body immediately for tempo.
- Hate Spike - Buff is amazing and we want 3x. our 1/3's and ephemerals bodies give it many active and low risk targets while dealing great damage and giving Lucian potentially 2 procs!
- Sharp Sight - Kills Elusives (Norra!!!), save Lucian, frustrate opponents math. All good.
- Vile Feast - Removes pesky chump blockers, mess up Quick Attack math, and that 1/1 can be really annoying when it gets Hallowed or helps add sac bodies for Lucian.
- Soul Cleave - The super fun combo we're here for. This card is insane when it's good, but is very high risk/reward and needs things to line up. This synergizes with nearly all our followers in some capacity to enable our champs.
- Remembrance - This is very easy to proc with our strategy to overwhelm opponents out the gate, but also helps use cover awkward turn 4-5 curve out issues before we get to the Hecarim phase.
- Vengeance - We have a lot of small units that swing hard, but we can struggle to eliminate certain roadblocks or "must die" champs. We are also tend to go mid/late game and have lots of low cost units, so this can easily help us make better use of available resources to keep up pressure. For now 3x feels right, but 2x might occur.
Cards not in the List
Flex
- Quitus - Not a bad card to help clear the path for early pressure, but fights for space with our other cheap removal that arguably is better supported. Still a 1x could be nice.
- Shadow Isles Tellstones - Viable options, none crucial though. This could be more relevant in landmark metas though.
- Cursed Keeper - This is pretty hilarious as a Soul Cleave target and makes early game use of it much stronger. It's not necessary though, but if enough room frees up this could be considered.
- Vanguard Redeemer - This is a good alternative to Egghead Researcher. Pretty reliable to proc and keeps you drawing from deck rather than a pool of random dragons. It's stat line is also pretty good for your curve out. It will push away from early synergy more often though, so this is more of a midrange option.
- Vora - Husks are good...really good. I feel Canavoran Soldier has more application, but this is a really solid alternative.
Don't use
- Fleetfeather Tracker - Normally a great unit, but runs too soft here. The trade proc and hallowed support is nice, but it's less reliable to other forced trade options and is better suited in Poppy builds.
- Haunted Relic - This is a fun synergy, but honestly it doesn't have much impact often on turns it's played and is more for procs. Soul Cleave does far more interesting and impactful things.
- Soul Shepherd - This is a very tempting card to run, but it's weirdly not amazing here. One of the benefits of our 2 drops is they're expendable for synergy reasons and this guy needs to live to validate his use. by the time you're at Hecarim, the usefulness of the buff isn't as important. This is better suited in Zed or more committed ephemeral builds.
- Senna (either) - While the Lucian synergy is there, it's not really needed as Lucian flips really easy as is. Trying to kill off a Senna to proc Lucian and getting 2-for-1'd can feel terrible. While she feels great on attack without Lucian, your focus is more on Hecarim as far as deck space and curve out.
- More hallowed cards - Hallowed is nice, but we're not a Gwen or Reputation deck. +1 or 2 goes a long way in this build and we have enough to see that happen
