Test Driving: TealRed Dark
Hazy, Yondy, Yun and INA take TealRed's P&Z Darkness for a spin!
Alright, part two of this experiment; you can check Part One – the Prodigious Pile here.
If these was a movie, the pitch would be:
Four brave test-pilots (Hazy, YouuXun "Yun", INA and Yondalaimon) jump into Normals & Plat to take an untested, unrefined brew – that a top player shares on Twitter – for a spin.
And tell the tale afterwards, of course! =)
Caveats:
This is very much an ongoing experiment, as we tweak how we approach these articles – feedback most welcome!
This is in no way, shape or form (like: not even the slightest resemblance of anything even remotely close to) an attempt to criticize the test-piloted deck and/or its creator; it's very much a light-hearted, for-fun experiment, hopefully sharing a novel concept with our readers! =)
That being said…
Behold TealRed's Piltovan Darkness
This is the brew our brave pilots will take for a spin:
How did the deck feel?
"Getting the Darkness package outside of the usual region combination was nice," says Hazy. "Although, on the other hand, the lack of Darkness generators, and lack of healing, felt a bit off. In particular, I would have liked more Piercing Darknesses, and a few less copies of Withering Wail and Defective Swapbot."
"Agree with Swapbot," says INA. "While hilarious, it seems too specific. I'd cut Piltovan Tellstones down to a 2x – Glimpse and Mist's Call also seem like really weird three-ofs; and I felt we needed more healing: one more Withering Wail, . On the other hand, Ferros Financier is giga-cracked, especially with these colors; might be one of, if not the, best pairing, so much so that the only 6+ spell the deck runs is Vengeance."
"I felt that you have an answer to almost everything that exists in the game," says Yun, who tried the deck at over more than a dozen games at Plat+, "although it's not an easy deck: Your plays have to be perfect 1-2 rounds in advance (and that's being generous) if you want to have a solid win rate with the deck. I too think 3x Tellstones were too many – I'd go 2x at most, or just 1x Tellstone and 1x Aftershock, and I think I'd like an extra Withering Wail or Withering Mist since the deck feels like it's lacking healing."
"When Senna and Veigar are on the board", says Yondy, "and you have some spare mana to protect them/get them back it feels like no deck can stop you. Problem is, Senna and Veigar are rarely on the board. I too agree that 3x Piltovan Tellstones feel excessive, and the same reasoning applies to Defective Swapbot – it feels like a no-brainer inclusion in the current meta, because it targets Thralls, Viego Deserter, Yuumi Pantheon, and Bard decks, but it's an absolute burden in all other matchups. I'd cut one or even two Swapbot copies. And, yeah, since we have the Tellstones, it means we have an extra two or three Aftershocks, which in turn means that maindecking two is probably way too much. I'd probably swap one or two for a Piercing Darkness to help stabilize in the midgame and help target key enemy cards like Riven, Aphelios, or Jayce."
What do you think about the deck overall?
"The deck is good, is synergistic, has a good course of action, but is a little hard to grasp," says Hazy. "And it dies horribly against burn (did I mention I'd like more healing? =), but has great matchups against midrange decks."
"The skill ceiling is incredibly high," says Yuun. "You have to have a lot of card knowledge of both decks (and about the 6+ mana spell pool for SI/PnZ). I want to believe in this deck sooo much, but I feel like I'm just not skilled enough to run it at its full potential."
"Same feeling," says Yondy. "Either the deck is good and I'm too bad to play it properly, or the deck is really bad and the fact that TealRed made it work only speaks to their skills as a pilot. Since I'm curious as to which is which and I'm always partial to trying new concepts, I'll keep iterating on it until I've found a good formula or I've given up on it altogether. We'll see!"
Closing Words
We hope you've enjoyed this brief test-run. As noted above, it's in no way, shape or form an attempt of criticism to the brewer or the deck – just hopefully encouraging folks to give radically new decks a try! =)
If you have any feedback for future test-runs, please let us know…
… and if you take this deck for a spin, best of luck! =)
Built at Riwan — a Discord about whacky experiments!
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