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Poodlestrike

Smooth vs. Crunchy
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
13,489
Is the generate random cards region locked? Would the round end of the Noxus landmark occur after temporary effects dissipate? Imagine double dipping with Fiora.
I have so many questions.
The all-in-one for the new reveals:
k7veg3iophs51.png


I don't think any of the other random card gen cards have been region locked, so I don't think this will be either.

Not sure about the landmark, I think all the round end effects happen at once so I think any temp stats would vanish off Fiora when it applies but I'm not certain.

Also, calling my shot now - Galio will be a Landmark that levels up into a Champion.
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
So we still have Ionia and Demacia landmarks left right?

The teaser did not feature those 2 regions, it was only 6 landmarks. They might save it for next expansion.
 

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
Underwhelming cards but we'll see what Shyvanna brings to the table. I assumed they'd save the Dragon archetype until the last part of expansion, I wonder what's left for Targon to mix with?

And the new event is uhhh k pop inspired?
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
Dragon decks is already a thing, sort of. With a few more cards and a champion based around it, the deck could really take off as a premiere midrange deck with powerful late game.

I was tinkering with a Dragon + Lucian deck with Rally effects. Basically play standard midrange game plan early to mid game, then use Mindsplitter to lock their board and double attack next turn to close the game out. Shyvanna being a 4 mana champ is really going to smooth out the curve.

Dragon Clutch is an interesting card. In my Targon + Freljord Ramp Asol deck, Dragon Clutch is kinda busted because it basically tutors Mindsplitter and Asol... same for my Yasuo Dragons deck. In a dedicated dragon deck, Dragon Clutch is actually less powerful though still very good and you might actually use the secondary option as well for tempo/pushing damage.
 

Toxi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
17,546
What a horrifically boring card. A 4 mana 4/5 on the attack is efficient I guess.

Also, Kadregrin is almost comically bad.
 
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Sande

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,975
These showcases keep baffling me. They're almost always really unflattering. Just durdly and the showcased card tends to have little to no impact on the win. Like here with Shyvana they're just mashing multiple times with a wide board into an opponent who is playing nothing for some reason, with Shyvana herself having basically nothing to do with any of it.
 

Poodlestrike

Smooth vs. Crunchy
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
13,489
Shyv is pretty obviously strictly a Dragon Tribal thing - being a dragon is a big part of her value proposition, since it means she benefits from the tribal synergies.

Probably more of a Timmy/Johnny card than anything strictly competitive.
 
OP
OP
jon bones

jon bones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,987
NYC
Landmarks feel like a good addition. Slowly introducing new permanent types like that help flesh out the game IMO.

I'll probably dive back in this Wednesday for Soraka - healing decks are my jam.
 

Toxi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
17,546
Shyv is pretty obviously strictly a Dragon Tribal thing - being a dragon is a big part of her value proposition, since it means she benefits from the tribal synergies.

Probably more of a Timmy/Johnny card than anything strictly competitive.
It's not even a great Timmy card. The front half is just boring efficiency with quite possibly the most unexciting ability imaginable.

It flabbergasts me how poorly Dragons as an archetype were executed compared to Sea Monsters.
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
So they are definitely pushing a Dragon Rally type deck. Shyvanna gets a lot of boost from multiple attacks. Could see her in a Lucian type deck. Being able to get that fleeting strike card every attack is pretty good for eliminating chumpers. Shyvanna has a weak lvl1 but an excellent level up, being able to generate Single Combat like spells is no joke.

I mean yeah it's a "boring" deck but it fits the rally, midrange deck that they have been trying to produce. The Eclipse Dragon is pretty cool, it can allow just about any region combination with Targon to ramp out Sol by turn 8. I don't think you play it in the same deck as Shyvana, Asol and her are doing two very different things archetype wise.
 

Toxi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
17,546
I'm wondering how the balance playtesters decided this should cost the same as Ledros.

kadregrin.png


Reminds me so much of Tuskraider, and for all the wrong reasons.
 

Poodlestrike

Smooth vs. Crunchy
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
13,489
It's not even a great Timmy card. The front half is just boring efficiency with quite possibly the most unexciting ability imaginable.

It flabbergasts me how poorly Dragons as an archetype were executed compared to Sea Monsters.
Timmy probably likes the leveled-up version. Big dragon, gives them more opportunities to have cards fight.

I think there'll probably be some solid dragon midrange decks running her, but she probably won't ever be a centerpiece. Just an efficient card. Not super interesting on its own merits.
 

Hassansan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,122
Even before they revealed Shyvana, whenever me and my friends created an imagined custom card that fits her, we always struggled to make her as an interesting card, her LoL kit without the dragon part is just so basic, the thing we all agreed upon back then was the fact that she should be the face of dragon tribal because that's the only thing going for her.

They could've memed tho, and made the card being based on AP Shyvana, this is the only Shyvana that exist to me as an ARAM player 🤭.
 

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
The problem with all these cards is that Demacia already has better rally, challenger granting, unit fighting spells and buffing 4 drops

Eclipse Dragon on the other hand... ramp and card draw versatility...
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612

Most of these changes feel like they are a couple of weeks too old. Genevieve change made sense when Scouts was a tier 1 deck, now it isn't. Same for the Living Legends nerf and I would argue that even that wasn't really needed after they already nerfed Asol.

Solid changes on Hush and Bastion, Bastion change is going to bring down Lee Sin considerably and probably would force the deck to cut Zed as well (some lists already have). Hush is a sidegrade change, better in some cases worse in others but it opens the field up for wide elusive board decks. I still expect Lee Sin and Nox/Bilgewater to be very strong until the next patch when they have promised to nerf Lee Sin.
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
Living legends needed to be changed. It was always better than the other celestials.
It's a 10 mana spell, of course it should be better than the others. I do think that it's only really busted when Asol is leveled up. For that purpose it is still largely the same, if you get leveled up Asol + Living Legend you will still win the game... this just hurts LL potential as a regular play card (still good of course).

Did we get any new cards today or was that the entire set yesterday? Man 40 cards feels kinda anemic.
 
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Hassansan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,122
There's a big shitstom on Reddit (nothing new lol) about LOR devs handling of alt universes when it comes to the new KD/A cards,

I am tbh on the fence about it, I would've preferred it if any alt universe shenanigans be cosmetic stuff on existing cards, but am also not phased by them being their own cards.
 

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
Yeah I'm iffy on the changes, Swim touched on it but the two week delay on these updates is hurting. Mogwai posted a big thing about he's been very unhappy with the meta too. I like pirate aggro so the game's been fine for me but yeah if you don't like one of the archetypes right now it's oppressive.

also big who fucking cares on K/DA, fuck the lore. LoR's a spinoff of a clone of a mod of a game. nothing is precious about it. also looking around I guess it's confirmed the K/DA event gives new cards which I didn't realize but again, whatever.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,960
also big who fucking cares on K/DA, fuck the lore. LoR's a spinoff of a clone of a mod of a game. nothing is precious about it. also looking around I guess it's confirmed the K/DA event gives new cards which I didn't realize but again, whatever.

Reducing LoL lore to a clone of the mod is a really bad comment. Riot has obviously spent a ton of money building the lore, and every single character has been rewritten to find its own place inside the world. They are building the MMO, show and 2 single-player games all focusing on the "clone of the mod" world building.

I think a lot of people care about the lore/artworks. LoR gets like one event every 3 months... Slotting the kpop skins instead of doing anything lore related does hurt the people who wanted more thematic and lore-based, and I think the outrage is justified.

I don't mind kpop skins getting their own events, but it shouldn't be done at the expense of other events. Debut them as an extra event, people are going to be much more accepting of such practices. LoR's BP Season is equivalent of other games downtime between seasons, 3 weeks out of 3 months, where other games have 2 weeks downtime between 3 month-long seasons.

LoR has always been kind of on the backburner for me, treating it as an early-access, future investment instead... but now I have Genshin and two huge open-world games next month, so it is no problem to pause LoR, I have so many resources that I can easily justify just not playing it during the droughts.
 

Hassansan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,122
Didn't LoL just make a new hero that is basically a pop idol (Seraphine)?

And a lot of people dislike her for that design, that being said, she has some interesting lore implications : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4

tl;dr She's a psycho, an example of performative activism, using a dead race of Scorpion people bodies to power her stuff while singing about unity in a messed place like Piltover and Zaun .
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
That sounds messed up and also hilarious.

Anyway new decks time!

unknown.png


This is my take on Rally Dragons. Play efficient minions on curve with solid combat tricks and combining with the Lucian package to get multiple attacks per turn which is particularly strong with Shyvana. Dragon's Clutch to guarantee getting dragons in mid/late game. Mindsplitter as the closer out late game. Whiteflame is the most questionable, I wasn't sure on the ratio of Dragons needed in the deck. I would cut this for Crystal Ibyx as that card looks pretty good for a deck like this. This is a more aggressive list than what most people will end up making but this looks cool to me at least.
 

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
To be honest there's no decks that are really screaming out for me to theorycraft. Dragons are a little slow for my kind of Demacia. I'll probably just stick to Pirate aggro for the first week of the expansion, like I always do. That and Lee Sin will get hit in the next patch.

It's a shame that landmarks are looking like a bust because I'd love a Soraka alt win con deck but I don't see it being too great. I don't think people will run dedicated Landmark hate, but considering you can Invoke them... eh. Maybe I'm wrong but it looks like they were a little conservative with their power, especially for something that does take up a board space.
 

Won

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,425
Since I tuned out a bit with the expansion it seems I missed a bit of drama with the k-pop thing. I don't like it at all, but I thought that's just the cloud yelling old me and the LoL kids would be all over it.

New cards are ehh. Super bothered by the fact the all the landmarks are round start/end effects. That has been the cause of quite a bit of confusion before, no need to pile even more on top of that.
 

LightBang

Member
Mar 16, 2018
1,422
I'm going to be trying a discard deck with the new PZ landmark. Some sort of heal strategy, probably with Bilgewater.

Might go for Masters with tournaments on the horizon.
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
Yeah I might try hard a bit more this season than usual.

Anyone know how Vaults of Helia work if your deck doesn't have a card that isn't exactly 1 mana more? Like what if you kill a 6 mana card but you don't have a 7 mana card in deck but you do have a 8 mana card and a 6 mana card?

Does it downgrade or upgrade? Or does it just do nothing aside from killing your card?
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,960
Nope, fuck this shit. Soraka is extremely dull and overpowered champion in Expeditions.

It is worse than a 1/5 Braum. Completely stalls the game, and chips at your units. Plus, she has the draw-engine which kind of gives her the power to both stall the game from turn-3, and just double-draw every turn from 6-7th.
 

Lumination

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,447
Been farming all day with Ashe. Culling Strike kills literally every champ in this expansion. Scorched Earth tech ensures I don't lose to landmarks either. Feels gud man.

Edit: Poodlestrike should this be moved back to main gaming due to new release?
 
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Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
Been farming all day with Ashe. Culling Strike kills literally every champ in this set. Scorched Earth tech ensures I don't use to landmarks either. Feels gud man.
Yeah I plan on climbing with Ashe Nox as well lol. Good against Lee Sin, great against Dragons, fine against Pirates and good enough against Warmothers decks too.

Also on another note, I have been saving up my rewards for this expansion and I am pleased to announce that the rewards in fact are rolled when you open them. I had 3 champion capsules saved up and 3 epic cards, and when I opened them I got all the new cards! I will be saving up my rewards for this expansion as well as I have crafted all the new Champs with the available wild cards and shards. Too bad the new landmarks are all Epic, I only had enough left to craft Vaults of Helia and Star Spring.
 

Poodlestrike

Smooth vs. Crunchy
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
13,489
Been farming all day with Ashe. Culling Strike kills literally every champ in this expansion. Scorched Earth tech ensures I don't use to landmarks either. Feels gud man.

Edit: Poodlestrike should this be moved back to main gaming due to new release?
I'm thinking we'll probably move it back for the new set releases. That's how the MTG thread works, more or less.
 

Lumination

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,447
re: KD/A stuff. Maybe I'm desensitized from skins in LoL, but I really don't mind. To me, they're 5 free cards that can add a unique flavor that we haven't yet explored, and this game has been so good about realizing the flavor of the cards.

I'm thinking we'll probably move it back for the new set releases. That's how the MTG thread works, more or less.
Ah gotcha 👍
 

Poodlestrike

Smooth vs. Crunchy
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
13,489
K/DA... I think I'll need to see the particulars.

This came up a little while back, but they need more cards from somewhere. They're making new champ cards faster than Riot is making new champs, after all, but they're not making them faster than they're making new skins. So just from a content production standpoint, it makes more sense to make skins into champ cards rather than into alt art for champs.

Furthermore, a lot of skinlines will seriously change a champion's themes, so it makes sense to give that some mechanical recognition. Sometimes those shifts are cohesive enough between champs, and the universe the skins pull from are big enough, I almost think you could make them a region. Pulsefire, Project, Odyssey, and Program are big obvious ones. MTG has the existing planewalker lore to justify why all these different settings are in one game, they could do something with that here, or just handwave it. But would I love a High Noon set? Hell yes. So whatever that takes.

K/DA... I don't think you could do a K/DA region, lol. But maybe a musician-verse if they were willing to get a little comical with it. K/DA, True Damage, and Pentakill is actually a pretty solid roster. But again, it'd have to be a comedy region, because what do you do with the followers other than groupies and roadies and shit, so maybe not.

For these, it'll be weird for now. But they could establish a precedence here for event cards. Breaking new ground, it's kinda exciting.
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
Just played a bunch of Kench Soraka games.

It's going to take a bunch of refinement and play to really make the most out of this deck. It really feels like you need all of Soraka, Kench and the Spring to win games. I manage to win 3 games out of 7 but I was still learning and tinkering with the deck. This deck can be built in numerous ways.

It was better than I expected but still fairly easily countered. Soraka's champion card is essential to winning. Also the win effect is round end, not round start... that almost cost me a game! So even if you are at 22+ healing, you need to survive that turn to get the win. I have gotten win as early as turn 7.

I like Monkey Idol more than the Lizard card. Mostly because it gives you consistent chump blockers every turn. Lizard is more aggressive but you are almost always either going to win through value, Kench controlling their minions + Soraka healing him up or Spring win condition.

Its also very hard to play properly.
 
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ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
I like how subtle it is, some of the board music is a little too over the top (Jinx...) to the point where I wouldn't want to listen to it every match

 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
There's apparently an OTK deck with Soraka Targon heal package plus Crimson + Draven package using Stargazer (forgot the name, its the follower that grants another unit Elusive if its healed). Uses Bookie Arena and Draven axes to cycle through deck.
 

Dahbomb

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,612
Ok this Tahm Kench/Soraka deck might be low key pretty damn good.

Shakedown is a must 3 of and other Vulnerable effects. So is Hunting Fleet.