Legends of Runeterra
 

yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

This game is rad and should only get better. It took almost 6 years for anybody to top Hearthstone, but I think Riot did it

There are currently 6 factions: Demacia, Freljord, Ionia, Shadow Isles, Noxus, and Piltover&Zaun. It is confirmed that more factions are coming, I wouldn't be shocked if we eventually have 9 or 10. League fans know that there are several left to represent, like Bilgewater or the Void.

The game also features a very interesting monetization model. You literally cannot buy a full collection right out of the gate even if you want to give Riot a billion dollars. The shop refreshes weekly and you can only do 3 draft runs per week for rewards (and then unlimited free play afterward). XP is limited per day so you can't grind endlessly that way either. This means that even the top players are utilizing pretty much the same sized collection as everyone else. Climbing the ladder in this game comes down to pure skill, meta knowledge, and of course some good luck here and there from draws or matchups.

Some examples of decks that are powerful currently:

https://i.imgur.com/9in3jpl.png

You'll find in general that Ionia is currently the best class. Having access to the best collection of Elusive minions and a number of ways to support them, you will often be able to win games by simply attacking with unblockable units. Deny is one of the most powerful tempo tools in the game, allowing you to maintain your powerful board by countering any removal tools your opponent may try to cast. Freljord is an excellent pairing with Ionia because it gives you access to Omen Hawk, which is a fantastic 1 drop that buffs your Elusive units out of common removal range and if you can follow that up with Novori Conscriptor on turn 2...yikes. Getting your Elusive minions to 4 health is often game-winning, because the common removal in the game like Black Spear from Shadow Isles or Mystic Shot from P&Z simply cannot do 4 damage. Braum is a powerful champion for this playstyle because he can control the board effectively, using Challenger to effectively take out any Elusive blockers the opponent might have. He's also just plain strong standalone, and if you happen to land a buff like Take Heart on him you will often be able to suffocate the opponent's resources all game long.

https://i.imgur.com/Q3guNfa.png

This is my personal favorite deck out there right now. Hecarim was one of my favorite League champions and he's a seriously strong card in this game as well. This deck seeks to utilize the excellent suite of early game board presence and removal available to Shadow Isles alongside just a handful of relevant support cards from Ionia. Deny is here again because, well, it's overpowered. Death Mark is an insane card for this list, letting you transfer Ephemeral from a friendly unit to an enemy which effectively serves as hard removal. The combo is especially insane with Darkwater Scourge, which leaves you with a 5/5 Lifesteal which can be very important at keeping you alive long enough to close the game with Hecarim. Rhasa tops the curve as probably the strongest 7+ mana unit in the game, he's just absurd.

https://i.imgur.com/7DX5NAa.png

And of course the spider deck. There are other faction combinations you can run with this but I think going all-in on pure aggression with Noxus is the best way to go. There's not much to talk about with this one. Vomit spiders on the board and try to kill the opponent. Darius is an awesome curve-topper, if you can play him as a 10/5 with Overwhelm it's very difficult for the opponent to stop that without dying. This deck is very good but not as fun to play as the other two I posted imo

What kinds of decks are you guys playing? Are you enjoying Expeditions? Can't wait to see how this game develops over time.

This is close to the deck I'm using, although I've started tweaking it and experimenting to try and get a little more comfortable with deck building

https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bod309elniseap7ua1ag

I've been playing mostly ranked since my first couple expedition runs didn't go too well. I think it was somewhere on reddit that I saw someone suggest leveling each faction up to 4 for the most efficient card unlocks early on so I've been doing that. Just P&Z left to do.

Just had the craziest finish I've ever experienced. I'm controlling the game for the early period thanks to some early Take Heart draws (+3/+3), until my opponent comes back into the game after I'm forced to use a recall on my stacked Crimson Awakener that was sitting at like 13 power.

Anyway, fast forward to the end of the game. Opponent has a full field of cards versus me with just my Crimson Awakener. No cards in my hand and one turn to pull off the impossible. His nexus is at 4, mine is at 1. What do I draw? Yusari. 4 power elusive unit that he is unable to stop.

Can't act like the win was anything but crazy luck but holy **** was it intense.

Looks like a good start to me

and yeah getting every faction levelled up in 4s is the way to go. Once they're all to level 4 you want to get everyone to level 8, since at that level you get a champion capsule which is juicy stuff

And that, my friend, is why I've loved card games my entire life

Other than monetization what do you think makes this game better than HS or MtG?

The one thing that is annoying to me is the lack of a match history section in this game. I would really like the ability to see wins versus loses and ideally even be able to download replays so I can watch back the games that I choke and throw away at the end.

Agreed, there's so much love and care added to so many details. The animations for champion level ups in particular and just absolutely badass. And I love that you can view the full art for every card, this game is almost like an art gallery on top of an excellent card game

This would be a great feature. I also want a profile page that shows total wins and maybe neat details like most-used faction and stuff like that. I'm absolutely positive that Riot intends to improve the UI and add these kinds of QoL stuff.

Great question. There are a few mechanics in particular that just really make the game feel fluid and like a natural evolution of what Hearthstone started:

My favorite mechanic in the game is called "spell mana". You have a maximum of 3 spell mana. At the end of any turn, any unused regular mana gets converted into spell mana. When you cast a spell it uses the pool of spell mana first, and units can only be summoned using regular mana. Basically this creates some fascinating decision making where you often wonder whether you should cast that extra minion or wait and gather some spell mana, and it also helps bad draws so much. If you don't draw a 1 drop you still gain a resource on turn 1 in the form of a spell mana. It's absolutely brilliant. And then there's the cool gameplay where you can intentionally not play minions early so that you can drop a big spell off-curve. If you have a 6 mana spell, you can technically cast it turn 3 by passing turns 1 and 2 which would leave you with 3 regular mana and 3 spell mana on turn 3. It's one of the coolest mechanics in card game history as far as I'm concerned.

There's also the fact that there is MTG-style blocking in this game, but it's much less complicated. No 2-units-blocking-1-thing crap, it's just excellently streamlined. This gives a lot more agency to the player than Hearthstone does, where all attacks are determined by the attacker. I just inherently find that to be a great system.

Finally there's the Champions, which give the game so much life and such a dynamic feel. Each Champion can "level up" during a game through a particular condition that relates to what the champions aims to do. They're just awesome and fun as hell, especially if you've played League and recognize the characters you're using.

I haven't played League in several years but I still remember the characters of course and its been a blast to use my favorite champions, like Hecarim or Lucian, as cards. I really love Riot's direction in general lately, so another reason I'm loving Runeterra is because I know the company making it is going to do a great job whereas I'm not so sure Blizzard has the right goals in mind anymore.

A bit off topic but Riot has a top down rpg and an FPS game on the way and I'm stoked to see their takes on both genres. I think we can all agree historically balance has been Riots biggest struggle, but they're consistently knocking it out of the park with everything else.

Not sure if you guys touched it but TFT was a really good take on the auto chess genre too.

I made it to Gold 1 last season but got kinda bored of it, it's fun but the meta feels too rigid to the point you almost have to go with whatever comp/items are currently the most broken.

I think there’s even more than that, like a traditional turn based JRPG starring Thresh or something, and a 2D fighting game for **** sakes which sounds incredible

I think TFT is the best auto chess game but the genre in general doesnt do much for me.