This Week in Runeterra...
A quick overview of comings and goings these last few days in Legends of Runeterra.
Constructed
Five days into the new Season, it looks like Kennen Ezreal is no fluke, and that Yordle Explorer & Yordle Captain—while not as broken as some folks feared—are very much real cards.
You can find an in-depth data dive in Leer’s Meta Report, including matchups for each of the Top Dogs and some predictions of how the meta will shape up.
If you want the quick run-down of how to jump into the fray making sure you don’t bring a pocket knife to a swordfight:
In the last three days, Rally Yordles has clawed its way to the top as the most powerful deck both in winrate and playrate, mostly due to being favored against…
… Ezreal Kennen, only a couple of tenths of percentage points below on both metrics…
… with Plunder trailing a bit lower.
Interestingly, the Noxus variant of Ziggs Poppy seems to have lost much of its edge (although it still has claws and teeth, mind you!), while a couple of Pantheon brews, like Zoe Pantheon are gaining traction. And Teemo Swain, with the Grand General’s capacity to keep the furry Scout in check, is another of the old decks that still pack a punch.
Perhaps the best bit of news of the last three days, though, is that all of the top decks have fallen below the 55% winrate mark (and only Rally Yordle is slightly above 54%)—as players learn what & how to pilot to keep the Top Dogs in check, numbers seem to have fallen into the “okay” range as far as winrate is concerned.
With a bit of luck, Jericho at The Pilgrims Road pub will have more details by tomorrow! =)
On Ladder Anxiety
If you’re nervous about facing about jumping into Ranked, you’re not alone — even among top players. Angus Lam wrote a full scholarly essay on the topic, and here are Top 200 Wamuu’s thoughts on the subject (including how he could’t play the game for a few days after a really bad streak).
Tournaments
Two weeks after becoming the Seasonal Champion for the Americas’ shard, HDR BlackBoss took the first spot in the first Qualifier for Mastering Runeterra’s $5k Championship, beating 5x Seasonal Top 32 WhatAmI in the finals.
If you’re after ideas for Tournament/Gauntlet lineups, here are the Top 8 decks for this first Qualifier.
The second Qualifier will take place next Sunday 16 — each Qualifier caps at 512 players, and they’re open to players from anywhere in the world as long as you have an Americas shard LoR account to play (no cross-shard functionality, sadly!)
Expeditions card ratings
Conan & arthurmauk go over their Expedition ratings, for the new Magic Misadventure cards (with the frustrating caveat that Jayce and his followers & spells remain unseen in drafting) on the 50 Shades of Draft podcast, also including Myzrael’s and yours truly’s ratings.
In other news…
… The Twin Sunz Podcast interviews Riot’s Alexz Lee (aka DeadboltDoris), Lead Designer of Magic Misadventures, to discuss the newest expansion: they go through all the new Champs, talk about Yordler Explorer (among several other cards, of course!) and the changes to Young Witch and Poppy, and even touch on why Kled was not the Bandle City/Noxus champion,
… folks are lining up to ask for nerfs to Kennezreal — including current reigning World Champ Alanzq (in this case, requesting for God-Willow Seedling to only work for followers),
… looks like Riot is quite fond of Lanup’s resins lamps! =)
Blossoming Blade, by Soltaire
Oh, my little blossom- would that you had never learned of blade and blood. For you, did the sun rise. For you, did the rains fall. And so shall I fell those who took from you your birthright. Return now, to the earth that I will return to you and dance as do the stars- forever and ever and ever my love
Hope you found these links interesting…
… see you tomorrow at The Pilgrims Road pub! 🍻
Sol & Herko